Nine Novels I’ve Added to my TBR and Forgotten Why

Are you the person who told me about one of these novels? Have you read any of these? Please remind me of why I should read these novels.  Or not.

No One is Here Except All of Us: A Novel by Ramona Ausubel

In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Danger is imminent in every direction, yet the territory of imagination and belief is limitless. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. Destiny is unwritten. Time and history are forgotten. Jobs, husbands, a child, are reassigned. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, eventually overtaking it.

All I Have in This World: A Novel by Michael Parker

Two strangers meet over the hood of a used car in Texas: Marcus, who is fleeing both his financial and personal failures; and Maria, who after years of dodging her mistakes has returned to her hometown to make amends. One looking forward, the other looking back, they face off over the car they both want and think they need: a low-slung sky-blue 1984 Buick Electra. The car, too, has seen its share of failures. After knowing each other for less than an hour, Marcus and Maria decide to buy the Buick together. As this surprising novel follows the rocky paths of the Electra and its owners--both past and present--these two strangers form an unexpected and ultimately resilient alliance.

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden

Set in England, this is a novel about a successful career woman in her forties who renounces the world to enter Brede monastery, a cloistered order of English Benedictine nuns and what happens to her thereafter.

The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (and Their Muses) by Terri-Lynn Defino

A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change the lives of the people around them. 

My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by Ibi Zoboi

In the summer of 1984, twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace of Huntsville, Alabama, visits her father in Harlem, where her fascination with outer space and science fiction interfere with her finding acceptance.

Cilka's Journey: A Novel by Heather Morris

Her beauty saved her — and condemned her. Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival. When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was sent to Auschwitz when she was still a child? In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions. Confronting death and terror daily, Cilka discovers a strength she never knew she had. And when she begins to tentatively form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love. From child to woman, from woman to healer, Cilka's journey illuminates the resilience of the human spirit—and the will we have to survive.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson

Cussy Mary Carter is the last of her kind, her skin the color of a blue damselfly in these dusty hills. But that doesn't mean she's got nothing to offer. As a member of the Pack Horse Library Project, Cussy delivers books to the hill folk of Troublesome, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times. But not everyone is so keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and the hardscrabble Kentuckians are quick to blame a Blue for any trouble in their small town. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman's determination to bring a little bit of hope to the darkly hollers.

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngston

A professor in Denmark and a grandmother in England begin a correspondence, and a friendship, that develops into something extraordinary.

Rules for Visiting: A Novel by Jessica Francis Kane

At forty, May Attaway is more at home with plants than people. Over the years, she's turned inward, finding pleasure in language, her work as a gardener, and keeping her neighbors at arm's length while keenly observing them. But when she is unexpectedly granted some leave from her job, May is inspired to reconnect with four once close friends. She knows they will never have a proper reunion, so she goes, one-by-one, to each of them. A student of the classics, May considers her journey a female Odyssey. What might the world have had if, instead of waiting, Penelope had set out on an adventure of her own? Rules For Visiting is a woman's exploration of friendship in the digital age. Deeply alert to the nobility and the ridiculousness of ordinary people, May savors the pleasures along the way--afternoon ice cream with a long-lost friend, surprise postcards from an unexpected crush, and a moving encounter with ancient beauty. Though she gets a taste of viral online fame, May chooses to bypass her friends' perfectly cultivated online lives to instead meet them in their messy analog ones. Ultimately, May learns that a best friend is someone who knows your story--and she inspires us all to master the art of visiting.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about any of these.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.

Looking for Light in a Dark World...What's Keeping You Going?

I'm looking for light, and I'm trying to find ways to take positive actions. In dark times, I look for hope, for love, for creativity. 

My son shared the hope he felt when he saw the large number of young people protesting in the streets of Chicago. He felt hope when he saw many volunteering to clean up after looters broke into the businesses below his apartment in downtown Chicago. I feel hope when I see my daughter-in-law going to work as a reporter each day, despite the coronavirus, and trying her best to talk to knowledgable people and share factual and objective information about the things going on around us. 

I read stories about people who were robbed of their possessions, demeaned, shunned, and sent to concentration camps, many to their deaths, and I read about one girl who survived the camps and set about rebuilding her life and who ultimately goes into a profession where she has helped many people who have had deeply traumatic situations in their own lives. I read about Frances Perkins who witnessed the devastating fire at the Triangle Waist Factory and found her life's work in making the lives of workers better with shorter workweeks, minimum wages, and the establishment of Social Security. I read stories of people who suffered the loss of loved ones, rape, and other terrible actions at the hands of others, and I listened as the people told how they came to forgive others over time for these terrible actions. 

Hope. Creativity. Love. These are the tools I want to use to fight the darkness of our day. 

What is giving you hope now? 

The Choice: Embrace the Possible: A Memoir by Dr. Edith Eva Eger

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Thanks to Frances Perkins: Fighter for Workers' Rights by Deborah Hopkinson

The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable by Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Devotions by Mary Oliver

50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons in Pencil and Paper

A Bad Birdwatcher's Companion by Simon Barnes

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter

When I am confused and upset, it is often to children's authors that I look. It's Jason Reynolds I went to this week. Here he and his fellow author Brendan Kiely share ideas on how to speak to kids about racism. There is something here for all of us, I think.

Mister Rogers always gives me hope, too.

                                        

Good Thing #1: We had an outdoor, 6-feet-away visit with my dad and his sweet wife, Rosa, this week. Three and a half hours to talk, and it still wasn't enough. But it was something.

Good Thing #2: We are going to visit with my son and his wife and our two grandkids this weekend. 

Good Thing #3: I made a list of quotes to remember when I start feeling bleak. Here are a couple of my favorites:

I thank you for your posts, your comments, your friendship.

What is keeping you going today?

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no requirements for linking up at Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is simply a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. Sunday Salon is a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.

Things We Miss: The Big Fall and Spring Antique Shows of Central Texas

I bet you have your favorite gatherings that you are missing right now. I do. One of them is the huge antique show that happens every spring and fall up in central Texas. We love to go up there with my sister and her husband and stay at my brother-in-law's grandma's old farmhouse for the weekend and hit the antique show with all its treasures.

The last time I went, last fall, I went with my friend, Lisa, for a couple of days. Lisa loves wine, and she gravitated right to these chairs.

I loved exploring this shop. I'd never visited it before. You can see that the term antique is a loose one.

One day we will go again.

Books that Give Off Summer Vibes

It's a difficult time right now for all of us. 

I'm a reader. Books are always a great source of solace for me.

Here are some of the books I hope to read this summer and later this fall.

Paris is Always a Good Idea. (Though perhaps it isn't such a good idea right now, but oh, well...) Paris. Romance. 

I'm fascinated with this one. Leonard and Hungry Paul. "In this charming and truly unique debut, popular Irish musician Ronan Hession tells the story of two single, thirty-something men who still live with their parents and who are . . . nice. They take care of their parents and play board games together. They like to read. They take satisfaction from their work. They are resolutely kind. And they realize that none of this is considered . . . normal." Releases in early August.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Releases in November, but listen to the plot: "In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold."

Novel Set My Heart to Five. "Jared works as a dentist in small-town Michigan. His life is totally normal, except for one thing. He is a bot engineered with human DNA to look and act like a real person. One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared feels a strange sensation around his eyes. Everyone knows that bots can’t feel emotions, but as the theater lights come on, Jared is almost certain he’s crying. Confused, he decides to watch more old movies to figure out what’s happening. The process leads to an emotional awakening that upends his existence. Jared, it turns out, can feel." Releases September 1.

New novel The Midnight Library. "Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?" Releases in late September.

New picture book I Wish. "Bestelling Dutch children's author Toon Tellegen matches 33 imaginative prose-poems prompted by the statement "I wish" with luminous, old-fashioned portraits by Ingrid Godon in this beautiful, unique volume perfect for thoughtful young readers."

New picture book Old Rock (is not boring). "Old Rock has been sitting in the same spot in the pine forest for as long as anyone can remember. Spotted Beetle, Tall Pine, and Hummingbird think just sitting there must be boring, but they are in for a wonderful surprise."

New picture book Things That Go Away. "There are many things that go away: leaves fall, tears dry, music lasts only for a few moments, and bubbles pop, vanishing without a trace. Everything in life passes, moves on, or transforms—except one thing that never fades."

I plan to continue drawing this summer, and I hope to do a little more watercolor. Hello, Watercolor looks fun. It releases in June.

I am always about baking. The Illustrated Step-by-Step Baking should be great.


Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.