Books Books Books

 

I have been finding it hard to find time to read, and when I do read then nothing gets done because the books usually suck me in and I can't put them down.  The first book listed is The Secret Life of Flora Lea, which takes place in England.  It starts at the beginning of WWII the two sisters in this book are relocated to the English countryside to avoid the bombs in London. Tragedy strikes and one of the sisters goes missing.  The story then forwards to the 1960s and the remaining sister has now moved on and is a book curator; however, she has not forgotten her sister.  She comes across a book that makes her wonder if her sister is still alive due to the book's storyline.  The storyline is very similar to a story she used to tell her sister as a child to help her fall asleep.  Is it possible her sister is still alive?

The second book The Dictionary of Lost Words while fictional was based on the true events surrounding the compilation of the Oxford Dictionary.  This by far was my favorite book. The book at times was a little crude, but at the same time fascinating because the book's subject is lost words that primarily pertained to women and their lives.  Many of these words were not included in the dictionary.  

The Tiffany Girls also another fictional book is based on the lives of the women who worked for the famous Tiffany glass artist Louis C. Tiffany.  The book begins in Paris but then quickly shifts to New York City.  The book explores the lives of working women and the life of an immigrant in the United States.  The author does borrow some of the names of true-life women and some of the timeline events that surrounded the artist's life: however, as I said the book is fictional.

Sisters of Belfast a fictional story is set in Northan Ireland during WWII a bomb hits Belfast and kills the two sisters without parents.  The girls are placed in the care of nuns and their life unfolds.  The premise of this book is based on the true life events of the Magdalena Laundries.  If you haven't heard about the Magdalena Laundries there were a number of them throughout Ireland.  They were homes for girls who were pregnant, orphaned, or in some cases had mental disabilities.  Many of the girls who lived in these homes suffered abuse at the hands of the nuns.  I have either watched movies or read articles on these true-life events.  As I am sitting here, I wonder if there are books from the nun's perspective.  While there is never an excuse for abuse it would still be interesting to see what role the catholic church played in what transpired, the local priest, and if any of the nuns have acknowledged their role in the treatment of those who lived with the nuns. 

The last book Hells Corner, which I am still in the process of reading is a fictional spy/secret service type book.  Purely entertainment, it is not based on true life events. The story is about an ex-secret service agent who is asked to come back to help the government one last time solve a case.  The agent having been burned by the agency is at first not so willing to help, but his duty to his country overrides, and he ends up helping despite the protest of his friends who are afraid that he will get hurt or burned in the process.  This is not my typical genre of reading, but occasionally I enjoy a good who-done-it type book. David Baldacci is a good writer and I have enjoyed other books he has written.

What are you currently reading?  Let me know!  I am compiling the books that I will be taking with me to Germany this summer.  I hope you have a great weekend.