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9/15/2019 0 Comments

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

How I Found: With a small painting of Albert Camus’, “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer” a friend gave me this book when there were no other words to give, and this book, like life does, left me speechless. Beginning with Salma, this story of family crosses borders and generations, providing not a bleak, but a rich illustration of what being forced to flee home really means.
Why You Might Read: This book is achingly beautiful. It is a work of art. It is a reminding that when you ask the question, “What is life?” You get, “A series of yeses and noes, photographs you shove in a drawer somewhere, loves you think will save you but cannot. Continuing to move, enduring, not stopping even when there is pain,” as an answer. An answer that means both winter and summer will come, and there will not be words enough to find our way out; only words left to guide those who follow.

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9/1/2019 0 Comments

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

How I Found: A favorite author is like a shelter, a place one can go when all else seems untethered. Back with Kingsolver, I found more than one voice in that place to speak to me. With one dilapidated setting in two time periods Willa and Mary were like family not to each other but to me.
Why You Might Read: While Willa is entirely fictional with a nod to the author of My Antonia, Mary Treat was a scientist who corresponded with the likes of Charles Darwin and Asa Gray as she pursued her own scientific inquiries. As Willa learns more about Mary in an effort to save her crumbling home, she too finds a friend whilst taking care of her family: a daughter, a son, his son, her husband, and his father. With so much to hold on to it’s no wonder, “anxiety was Willa’s steady state....a mother can be only as happy as her unhappiest child; Willa believed in worry to keep people from flying out of orbit.” And this, among so many other reasons, is why Kingsolver made me feel right at home.

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9/1/2019 0 Comments

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

How I Found: Pinterest is full of recommendations for reads, and I love posts that group by genre like Historical Fiction which is where I uncovered Kidd’s newest novel in which I discovered the Grimke sisters. These women were both abolitionists and a part of the suffrage movement, but I had never heard of them. It was like once again reading Sojourner Truth’s “And Ain’t I a Woman,” and realizing as Eavan Boland wrote, “It’s a Woman’s World.”
Why You Might Read: If you too find yourself flabbergasted that these powerful figures still remain hidden, help share their story. Kidd expertly stitches the story of Sarah and the slave, Handful, who was gifted to her into a vibrant patchwork where both girls remember, “The world had been such a beckoning place once,” yet both are forced to surrender to the horrors of their society. This book serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go.

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9/1/2019 0 Comments

Wildwood by Colin Meloy with Illustrations by Carson Ellis

How I Found: In the lovely bookstore Auntie’s in downtown Spokane while waiting for my daughter to choose a new book, I was intrigued by the texture of this book in the adolescent section. Upon further inspection I discovered that twelve-year-old Prue’s adventure takes place in and around Portland, Oregon. Prue finds herself in the Wildwood in the heart of the city around the Pittock Mansion, but it’s not what she or you might expect.
Why You Might Read: If it’s been awhile since you’ve been whisked away with talking animals, it’s time to get back to your roots. In the Wildwood you might just as easily be captured by coyotes as bandits, but fear most the dowager governess or you may be sacrificed for her dark revenge. Regardless, rediscover with child-like awe, “We are the inheritors of a wonderful world, a beautiful world, full of life and mystery, goodness and pain. But likewise are we children of an indifferent universe. We break our own hearts imposing our moral order on what is, by nature, a wide web of chaos.” And, instead of fighting against it, let it come and enjoy the journey.

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S.M.(M).L

I am a reader who was brought to the world of books by being read to as a child, a wonderful librarian, scores of dedicated teachers, and the friends who still talk to me about books. This page is dedicated to all readers as a way to help you find books for you and yours as they were found by me. Let their pages turn your life into a world of magic, reality, and possibility.

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Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Wildwood by Colin Meloy with Illustrations by Carson Ellis

S.M.(M).L

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