So much to read and so little time! Let the wind howl outside and be warm inside with your favorite beverage and a good read. Is there any pleasure quite comparable to a good book, a fireside and daylight to read?
• John Grisham’s release last year was “The Judge’s List” which revolved around a psychotic judge killing those he thought had harmed him. It was riveting prose and a story unfolding with tension and terror. A fast read.
• Stephanie Storey wrote “Oil and Marble” about painter Leonardo daVinci and mason Michelangelo and their emotional battles. A good story told well.
• “Raphael, Painter of Rome” was another book written by Stephanie Storey and it is another period piece well researched and written.
• Sarah M. Eden wrote an amusing romp of London, 1865 in “The Gentleman and the Thief.” Hollis Darby meets Ana Newport and eventually they share their secrets and fall in love.
• And her companion one with the same characters “The Lady and the Highwayman” was also a fun read for a cold December day. Elizabeth Black and Fletcher Walker, although very different, chase about London 1865 trying to save street children and romance is sure to follow between them.
• “Daughters of War” is written by Dinah Jefferies and takes place in France in 1944 amid the horrors of Nazi cruelty. Three sisters live together and show courage and passion and share family secrets beneath the dark shadows of war.
• A Must Read! Three Jewish sisters are transported to Auschwitz and suffer the horrors of the camp before escaping and make new lives with redemption. A triumphant story of grit and determination and love and family and forgiveness. Author is Heather Morris.
• Versailles, A Biography of a Palace, written by Tony Spawforth, is an intimate look into the building and rebuilding of Versailles and the people who lived there. Intriguing.
• “The Paris Wife” is the bittersweet story of E. Hemmingway’s first wife and the sights and sounds of Paris. Author Paula McLain later wrote “Circling the Sun” about Beryl Markham’s life in Africa and her loves and losses. Riveting prose and adventures of a woman who learned the exhilaration of freedom and its cost as well as the tenacity of her spirit.
• A sweet ride is “Until We Reach Home” by Lynn Austin. Three sisters emigrate from Sweden, travel through Ellis Island before it burned, and find Chicago is much different than their farm in Sweden. A delight!
• Here are some extra titles, bonus, to enjoy this coming year: The Chanel Sister by Judithe Little is extraordinary story of Coco Chanel and her sisters leaving an orphanage and becoming world-famous. Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund. The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies.