#TBT... What was I reading back in 2014?

It's fun to look back and see what books you've read a long time ago. Almost like reading a book you loved for the first time again, reflecting back to a book read a long time ago also sends us back to another time in our lives. What was going on in our lives when we were reading that book? 

February 7th, 2014. The book was Under The Wide And Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, about Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Van De Grift Osbourne, and I loved it! Here is the original review of Under The Wide and Starry Sky. The book I was reading back in 2014!

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Friday, February 7, 2014

Under The Wide And Starry Sky with Robert Louis Stevenson and Author Nancy Horan… A Review 

I am in love. Not with Under The Wide And Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, but with Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Osbourne. But if not for Nancy Horan's book, I would not have known Louis Stevenson or his feisty American wife, Fanny, so I must admit that I did love Under The Wide And Starry Sky too. How to put into words how good this book is… Just like one of Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure books, Under The Wide And Starry Sky took me to far away places, let me live and breath the South Pacific, and let me peek into the door of the souls of Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny, two passionate individuals who did not want an ordinary life. This book was everything I had anticipated and so much more. It was an amazing love story, an adventure story, a story filled with passion, an artistic journey, a travel journal, a story filled with pain and tragedy, jealousy and unending love. It is one of the few books that I devoured the postscript, afterward and acknowledgements as well as the book itself. The research for this book, along with the keen writing abilities of Nancy Horan, makes this book so beautiful, so full of life. These are not 2 dimensional characters on the page, but living, breathing people, sharing their lives with the reader.

Under The Wide and Starry Sky is the love story between Robert Louis Stevenson, the author who gave us such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Fanny Van De Grift Osbourne, who flees the United States and her first husband to find artistic fulfillment in Belgium. The story develops in such a way that we experience both Louis and Fanny as individuals first. Fanny, full of artistic passion, running away from her philandering husband in America, young children in tow, first to Belgium and then to France. Tragedy follows Fanny to Europe, where she finally settles into a quiet life in France to recuperate. That quiet life erupts as the boarding house she settles in explodes with a colony of artists. This is where she meets the gregarious & passionate man named Robert Louis who falls madly in love with Fanny and wants desperately to be with her. Even though Fanny is 10 years his senior, Fanny succumbs to Louis' passionate, vivacious personality, but is that enough to sustain her and her young children? Torn between practicality and passion, the love story unfolds before your eyes in such an honest heartfelt way, that you are drawn in immediately to their lives and the passion between them. It is a passionate love story that will span decades and continents, and have you blindly turning those pages as you walk through the chapters of their lives.

Nancy Horan has done such a wonderful job of researching the lives of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny. And it's because of the wealth of correspondence, relationships and recorded adventures that this is possible. But making sense of it all, and shaping the story, their story, in such a way as to truly let the reader experience their lives is a remarkable talent. We are lucky that Nancy Horan possesses that talent, because the result is Under The Wide And Starry Sky, a love story, painted with the artists eye for beauty, that may have been lost in the pages of a dull biography just filled with places and dates in the hands of a lesser talent.

The Low Down… I was so wrapped up in the romance between Louis and Fanny. There were so many complications with Fanny being married for one, but also overcoming the prejudice of her being 10 years older. It was such an honest portrayal of a couple who loved each other through the test of time. But I also discovered a lot more about Robert Louis Stevenson than I had known before. I didn't realize he was a lawyer by education, or that he was so sickly throughout his childhood and adulthood. I never realized how much of an adventurer he really was, he really saw the world he wrote about. And the author really gives you the feel for an artist passionate about his art. I would say if you enjoy love stories, historical fiction, and if you are a reader and want to learn more about Robert Louis Stevenson's life, read this book! I learned so much. Though this is a work of fiction, there is so much truth behind the words. You will not be disappointed. Wonderful writing, and equally wonderful story.

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Do You Remember What Book You Were Reading in 2014?

Nancy Horan is a fantastic writer, who went on to write another great book called Loving Frank, about the love affair of Mamah Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright. OMG, that book was also fantastic! And Nancy Horan came out with a NEW book this year called The House of Lincoln "which tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. president to the Great Emancipator through the eyes of a young asylum-seeker, fourteen-year-old Ana Ferreira, who arrives in Lincoln's home of Springfield from Madeira, Portugal." And the publishers, Sourcebooks Landmark, sent an eBook to my Kindle so that I could review it! I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into another Nancy Horan book! Look for my review coming soon...

The Sunday Salon and... Authors we Love to Read and Soon To Be Published NEW BOOKS!

 

It's Sunday in South Carolina... actually it's Sunday everywhere, but now that I call the South home, it seems to be different. The winters are milder here (as apposed to those Connecticut winters... legendary) and I look forward to drinking that first cup of coffee while looking out over the distant mountains. I also look forward to reading new books by my favorite authors! And that's what we're talking about this week! Some of my favorite authors have book releases in the coming months and here they are...

The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan... a sweeping historical novel, which tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. president to the Great Emancipator through the eyes of a young asylum-seeker who arrives in Lincoln's home of Springfield from Madeira, Portugal. 

Showing intelligence beyond society's expectations, fourteen-year-old Ana Ferreira lands a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hostess duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana bears witness to the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife, Mary. Along with her African American friend Cal, Ana encounters the presence of the underground railroad in town and experiences personally how slavery is tearing apart her adopted country. Culminating in an eyewitness account of the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908, The House of Lincoln takes readers on a journey through the historic changes that reshaped America and that continue to reverberate today.

Nancy Horan is one of those authors that I will pick up to read at the mere mention of her name. Her books are amazing! She creates stories that are so interesting and inviting that you find yourself lost in the pages with no sense of time or place other than where you are in the book. This is partly due to her thorough research of the historical facts, but the way she puts it all together is what makes such a beautiful story. Of course I'm referring to her 2 previous books, Loving Frank, about the love story of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright, and Under The Wide and Starry Sky, about the love story of Fanny Can de Grift Osbourne and Robert Louise Stevenson. I've never thought of Lincoln as being in any way a romantic tale, but I'm willing to let go of any of my preconceived ideas about a story of Abraham Lincoln and dive head first into Ms. Horan's novel. The House of Lincoln has a release day of June 6, 2023 by Sourcebooks Landmark . On by TBR list....

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin...Founded by the mysterious genius known as the Designer, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from
the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera’s lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.  Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process—and, when necessary, enforcing it. But all is not well with Proctor. For one thing, he’s been dreaming—which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera. For another, his monitor percentage has begun to drop alarmingly fast. And then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry.

Meanwhile, something is stirring. The Support Staff, ordinary men and women who provide the labor to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. Unrest is building, and there are rumors spreading of a resistance group—known as “Arrivalists”—who may be fomenting revolution.  Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, entangled with a much bigger cause than he realized—and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.

Justin Cronin is best known for his Vampire trilogy starting with The Passage and ending with City of Mirrors. It hit the publishing world by storm and we've been waiting ever since for more... and now we have it! A paradise until it isn't. I've seen this type of story before in The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, a dystopian novel where men and women hit a certain age go to live in a man-made shangri-la, that isn't quite all that it seems (and if you haven't read it, you should. Warning though, if you are over the age of 50 it might give you nightmares) But Justin Cronin writes such big beautiful books that I know this story will be something we just aren't expecting and nothing like anything we've read before. His writing just sucks you in too. Courtesy of Random House Publishing Group Ballantine, I am reading an e-galley of The Ferryman right now and I am hooked! The release date for The Ferryman is May 2, 2023!

Where are The Children Now? by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke... Of the fifty-six bestsellers the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark published in her lifetime, Where Are the Children? was her biggest, selling millions of copies and forever transforming the genre of suspense fiction. In that story, a young California mother named Nancy Harmon was convicted of murdering her two children. Though released on a technicality, she was abandoned by her husband and became such a pariah in the media that she was forced to move across the country to Cape Cod, change her identity and appearance, and start a new life. Years later her two children from a second marriage, Mike and Melissa, would go missing, and Nancy yet again became the prime suspect—but this time, Nancy was able to confront the secrets buried in her past and rescue her kids from a dangerous predator.                                                                                                                                                                                                               Now, more than four decades since readers first met Nancy and her children, comes the thrilling sequel to the groundbreaking book that set the stage for future generations of psychological suspense novels. A lawyer turned successful podcaster, Melissa has recently married a man whose first wife died tragically, leaving him and their young daughter, Riley, behind. While Melissa and her brother, Mike, help their mom, Nancy, relocate from Cape Cod to the equally idyllic Hamptons, Melissa’s new stepdaughter goes missing. Drawing on the experience of their own abduction, Melissa and Mike race to find Riley to save her from the trauma they still struggle with—or worse.

My Mother has always loved Mystery books and of course she passed that love down to me. My early reading was always mysteries. Mary Higgins Clark is part of my reading life. I always read whatever new book she came out with. I had the honor of actually meeting her at my local Borders when she came there for a book signing for Dashing Through the Snow, a Christmas book she wrote with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark in 2008. She was so elegant and so very nice too. Where Are The Children was the first book I read of hers. It was such a page turner! Written in 1975, we are now going to revisit the characters in Where Are The Children Now by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke. I'm curious as to the collaboration for this novel... Alafair Burke is a really good crime writer in her own right and has collaborated with Mary Higgins Clarke in 7 of her Under Suspicion Series books. But Ms. Clark passed away in 2020, so was this something they were working on prior to her passing? Something Alafair Burke wrote with the approval of the estate of Mary Higgins Clarke? I messaged Alafair Burke on FB to see if she had the time to answering some questions for Chick with Books, I hope she does and if so, I'll share it with y'all here. But in the meantime, I'm definitely going to put this on my TBR list! Where are The Children Now will be released April 18th 2023! Published by Simon & Schuster.

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand... Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’s perfect life—her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline—grow deeper. So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”—one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife—she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie. The husband of Hollis’s childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis’s best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann’s career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client’s mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis’s friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there’s Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it hap- pens, has many secrets.

I always think of Elin Hilderbrand as my summer reading fun. Although she has written a series of "winter" books, I always think of those beachy reads first. And I'm looking forward to picking this one up. Her writing is wonderful and breezy and something to relax with... on the beach or at least in the sun.  

The Five-Star Weekend with be released June 13th by Little Brown & Company

Who are some of your favorite authors? 

Do you look forward to new books published by authors you enjoy?

I just love hearing about new books coming out. It's always exciting to learn about a new book by a favorite author too. But I like discovering new authors too. Today is all about our favorite authors with new books, but next week we'll look at debut novels we just can't put down!

Happy Reading... Suzanne

Under The Wide And Starry Sky with Robert Louis Stevenson and Author Nancy Horan… A Review

I am in love. Not with Under The Wide And Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, but with Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Osbourne. But if not for Nancy Horan's book, I would not have known Louis Stevenson or his feisty American wife, Fanny, so I must admit that I did love Under The Wide And Starry Sky too.

How to put into words how good this book is… Just like one of Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure books, Under The Wide And Starry Sky took me to far away places, let me live and breath the South Pacific, and let me peek into the door of the souls of Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny, two passionate individuals who did not want an ordinary life. This book was everything I had anticipated and so much more. It was an amazing love story, an adventure story, a story filled with passion, an artistic journey, a travel journal, a story filled with pain and tragedy, jealousy and unending love. It is one of the few books that I devoured the postscript, afterward and acknowledgements as well as the book itself. The research for this book, along with the keen writing abilities of Nancy Horan, makes this book so beautiful, so full of life. These are not 2 dimensional characters on the page, but living, breathing people, sharing their lives with the reader.

Under The Wide and Starry Sky is the love story between Robert Louis Stevenson, the author who gave us such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Fanny Van De Grift Osbourne, who flees the United States and her first husband to find artistic fulfillment in Belgium. The story develops in such a way that we experience both Louis and Fanny as individuals first. Fanny, full of artistic passion, running away from her philandering husband in America, young children in tow, first to Belgium and then to France. Tragedy follows Fanny to Europe, where she finally settles into a quiet life in France to recuperate. That quiet life erupts as the boarding house she settles in explodes with a colony of artists. This is where she meets the gregarious & passionate man named Robert Louis who falls madly in love with Fanny and wants desperately to be with her. Even though Fanny is 10 years his senior, Fanny succumbs to Louis' passionate, vivacious personality, but is that enough to sustain her and her young children? Torn between practicality and passion, the love story unfolds before your eyes in such an honest heartfelt way, that you are drawn in immediately to their lives and the passion between them. It is a passionate love story that will span decades and continents, and have you blindly turning those pages as you walk through the chapters of their lives.

Nancy Horan has done such a wonderful job of researching the lives of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny. And it's because of the wealth of correspondence, relationships and recorded adventures that this is possible. But making sense of it all, and shaping the story, their story, in such a way as to truly let the reader experience their lives is a remarkable talent. We are lucky that Nancy Horan possesses that talent, because the result is Under The Wide And Starry Sky, a love story, painted with the artists eye for beauty, that may have been lost in the pages of a dull biography just filled with places and dates in the hands of a lesser talent.

The Low Down… I was so wrapped up in the romance between Louis and Fanny. There were so many complications with Fanny being married for one, but also overcoming the prejudice of her being 10 years older. It was such an honest portrayal of a couple who loved each other through the test of time. But I also discovered a lot more about Robert Louis Stevenson than I had known before. I didn't realize he was a lawyer by education, or that he was so sickly throughout his childhood and adulthood. I never realized how much of an adventurer he really was, he really saw the world he wrote about. And the author really gives you the feel for an artist passionate about his art. I would say if you enjoy love stories, historical fiction, and if you are a reader and want to learn more about Robert Louis Stevenson's life, read this book! I learned so much. Though this is a work of fiction, there is so much truth behind the words. You will not be disappointed. Wonderful writing, and equally wonderful story.

The Sunday Salon and The 3 Books You Have to Read NOW Before the Movie Comes Out

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! The day of the week where readers from all over the world congregate in the virtual library and talk books. So, grab yourself of cup of Joe, pull up a comfy chair and let's talk!

This week is about those books that are coming our way as movies. It's always been my feeling that I want to read the book first before seeing the movie. I don't like to form any preconceived ideas in my head about the people in the book or know what's going to happen ahead of time. Of course sometimes the movie changes the book in unpredictable ways, and if you've read the book, you know what "really" should have happened. Of course, in some cases, some people find the movie better than the book. I don't think I've ever experienced that before, but I have experienced ending of books changing, like Jurassic Park, which was an amazing book. The ending in the theater made my jaw drop open. The Reader had a twist at the end of the movie not in the book, which I think made the book better. And I couldn't read The Firm after seeing the movie because not only did I know what was going to happen, but it seemed that the dialog was straight out of the book, word for word.

There are quite a few movies coming out this year that are from books. We already have The Book Thief, Labor Day, Enders Game and Catching Fire , BUT here are 3 books you need to read now so you can enjoy the movie…

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin… Set in New York at the beginning and the end of the twentieth century, Winter´s Tale unfolds with such great narrative force and beauty that a reader can feel that its world is more real than his own. Standing alone on the page before the book begins are the words, I have been to another world, and come back. Listen to me. In that world, both winter and the city of New York (old and new) have the strength and character of protagonists, and the protagonists themselves move as if in a vivid dream. Though immensely complicated, the story is centered upon Peter Lake, a turn-of-the-century Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young heiress whom he encounters in robbing her house, and who eventually will die young and in his arms. His love for her, and a gift of grace, will allow him after the most extraordinary and painful explorations and discoveries to stop time and bring back the dead. To follow him, his predecessors, his inheritors, and his companions is to experience one of the great stories of American literature.

I actually have this book lost somewhere in a TBR pile stored in a moving box. Amazon reminded me that I "bought a copy of this already in 2006", but I saw the trailer for this and fell in love. I recalled the cover to be a beautiful whispy photograph of light streaming through windows in what appears to be an old Grand Central Station. Why didn't I read this book?! Now I'm going to have to because I really would like to see the movie and I hate reading the book after seeing the movie. It just ruins it for me. I like to imagine it all in my head without someone assigning an actor or actress, and I like to know the "real" story and not just the one needed to make a movie, which is sometimes altered in mysterious ways. Time travel, romance and lost love all add up to what seems to be a wonderful historical time travel romance. Historical because I believe it will be a great depiction of New York City in a by gone era.

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin dates back to 1983, and the movie is coming to theaters this February 14th for Valentine's Day, starring Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly… There is  just enough time to read it before then! *P.S. Here's the link to the movie trailer… and "The Book".

The Fault In Our Stars by John Greene… Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

OK, here is your typical tragic teenage love story, except it isn't typical. It's gotten fabulous 5 stars reviews and John Green, the author, has been on the radar for writing wonderful books for some time. This has been on my reading list for a while, but I'll have to move it up before June, when the movie will be coming to theaters. I liked the trailer for this one too… Here it is: The Trailer and a link to "The book".

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn… On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer? 
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn't do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

Gone Girl had been on numerous "best" lists in 2012. I have to admit, I just never got around to reading it or putting it on my TBR list. It seemed like the typical "Dead Wife, Husband Did It" kind of novel. But, I may have to give this one a try. Gilliam Flynn, the author, has quite a few books behind her, all with good reviews, and the writing may overcome what I first assumed was just the "typical wife dead, who-dun-it." Anyone read this yet? What did you think?! This movie will be released in October of this year and stars Ben Affleck.

Other books to movies this year… The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper, The Hundred Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, just to name a few.

What are you looking forward to seeing in the movies? Any book you think should be a movie and isn't slated for the big screen yet? What are your favorite adaptations?

Here is a link to more books to movies that may interest you courtesy of Goodreads.

Weekly Recap…
I shared two book reviews this week. First was my review of RELISH by Lucy Knisley. What do you get when you mix a graphic novel with food? Relish of course! Click on the title to read my review of this fun memoir.

Second review this week was for Are You My Boyfriend by C.B. Bryza, a take off of the Dr. Suess classic, Are You My Mother and with the same great artwork to go along with it! It's a book for adults, not because of the language, but because of the wry humor of finding the perfect man. There's a good moral to the story too that wraps it all up in the end. A perfect Valentine's Day gift book. Read my review by clicking on the title above.

And what am I reading right now?! Well, I am reading Under The Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan and am LOVING it!!! It is the story of the passionate romance between Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny. It's historical fiction and no one does this type of romance better than Nancy Horan. I read her previous book, Loving Frank and fell in love with her writing then. Expect a review soon….

Hope your reading week was good! What have you been cracking the spine on? Share all those great reads right here so we can all grab a copy!

Happy reading… Suzanne