First Lines Friday...

"The deadly virus stole unnoticed through the crowded cobblestone streets of Philadelphia on a  sunny September day, unseen and unheard amidst the jubilant chaos of the Liberty Loan parade and the patriotic marhes of John Philip Sousa."
                                     ....The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman


It would seem timely that this book came out now. The story brings us to the end of WWI, in 1918, as the Spanish flu, and the last modern day pandemic, broke out. Courtesy of Kensington Publishing, our book club is reading this as our August pick. Keep an eye out for my review, and what my book club thought of it. If you want to learn more about it, and read an excerpt, visit Kensington publishing. The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman will be released on August 4th!

First Lines...

Memory is a cruel thing. It lingers in dark trenches, whispering or withholding, waiting to creep into the no-man's-land of our dreams. It knows what we long to remember, and what we hope to forget. And it knows Hearsay and Imagination will cover any gaps. But I only knew what I had been told...

                ... The Echo of Twilight by Judith Kinghorn

WWI, Two women become unlikely confidants, a Secret... Historical fiction on my wishlist, published by Berkley Penguin and released Jan. 3rd, 2017!

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift... A Review

Can I even do justice to this book? Mothering Sunday: a Romance by Graham Swift is beautiful, quiet, passionate, sensual. Filled with heartache, longing, books and secrets. Oh yes, the secrets... Jane, the maid, the orphan, the clever girl, the lover of Paul, the boy who's won her heart, owns her body and is the son of the wealthy family in the estate next to her employers estate and has been having secret trysts for years, since she was 17 and he was 18, until the one day, Mothering Sunday, where Jane will have her last day with him, because he will be getting married to a girl of his own "station" in two weeks time.

This book is a romance, but it is so much more than that. It is a play on words, a fairy tale, a look at a wonderful character who by 1920's convention is a lowly maid,  but who after a brilliantly wonderful morning turns into the darkest day of her life, will open herself up to be the person she really is meant to be.

The book flows wonderfully from present day 1924 England to flashbacks of Jane's childhood, her beginnings as a maid, and her coming into her present situation. We also meet Jane as an old woman, reflecting back on her life and what her life has ultimately become... a life of secrets.

I don't really want to give away any spoilers here, but let me say that Graham Swift's storytelling is simple wonderful. And his prose is beautiful. He brings to life the period of time in England, where maids were the keeper of the house (and their secrets) and their station in life well defined. But Swift plays with convention here, as Jane is an equal in her relationship with the wealthy boy, and we see how she is so much more than the clothes she wears. Though she knows the part she is to play. And Swift plays with the reader too, because he hints at things and quietly tells us things so important we could miss them if we weren't hanging on every word that is painted effortlessly across the page. There is a subtleness in the way he reveals the earth shattering news that Mother Sunday brings, like being shot with a silencer. I am still recovering. But at a mere 177 pages, Mothering Sunday is a powerful, sensual read. A story so tightly woven that no more pages are needed to feel its impact. I loved this book. And have already gone back and reread passages that I wanted to hear again. 5 stars from this reader! An enjoyable read for anyone who enjoys literary fiction. A book not to rush through, but to leisurely enjoy.

I want to thank Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the opportunity to read Mothering Sunday prior to publication, and allowing me to share this with my Chick with Books readers!

P.S. Mothering Sunday refers to the Sunday in which all maids go to see their Mothers.  

Memoir Monday... Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda

When thinking of Lawrence of Arabia, visions of a man in flowing white robes in a desert landscape will usually come to mind. But what of the real man? Of his real accomplishments? Michael Korda's book, Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, has gotten high praise for illuminating this legendary man, T.E. Lawrence, a scholar and an archaeologist, who was sent to Cairo as a young man and helped unite the Arab tribes to defeat the Turks.

Michael Korda's Hero is the story of an epic life on a grand scale: a revealing, in-depth, and gripping biography of the extraordinary, mysterious, and dynamic Englishman whose daring exploits and romantic profile—including his blond, sun-burnished good looks and flowing white robes—made him an object of intense fascination, still famous the world over as "Lawrence of Arabia."... In illuminating Lawrence's achievements, Korda digs further than anyone before him to expose the flesh-and-blood man and his contradictory nature. Here was a born leader who was utterly fearless and seemingly impervious to pain, thirst, fatigue, and danger, yet who remained shy, sensitive, mod-est, and retiring; a hero who turned down every honor and decoration offered to him, and was racked by moral guilt and doubt; a scholar and an aesthete who was also a bold and ruthless warrior; a writer of genius—the author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, one of the greatest books ever written about war—who was the virtual inventor of modern insurgency and guerrilla warfare; a man who at the same time sought and fled the limelight, and who found in friendships, with everyone from Winston Churchill to George Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, from Nancy Astor to Noël Coward, a substitute for sexual feelings that he rigorously—even brutally and systematically—repressed in himself.

For history buffs, as well as people who enjoy biographies, Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, should satisfy. I myself am looking forward to diving into this one. Not only to really learn about T.E. Lawrence, but to understand the political atmosphere that existed in the Middle East during WW I.