Dream When You're Feeling Blue is a novel by Elizabeth Berg (2007). From the dust jacket:"New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg takes us to Chicago at the time of World War II in this wonderful story about three sisters, their lively Irish family, and the men they love. As the novel opens, Kitty and Louise Heaney say good-bye to their boyfriends Julian and Michael, who are going to fight overseas. On the domestic front, meat is rationed, children participate in metal drives, and Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller play songs that offer hope and lift spirits. And now the Heaney sisters sit at their kitchen table every evening to write letters–Louise to her fiancé, Kitty to the man she wishes fervently would propose, and Tish to an ever-changing group of men she meets at USO dances. In the letters the sisters send and receive are intimate glimpses of life both on the battlefront and at home. For Kitty, a confident, headstrong young woman, the departure of her boyfriend and the lessons she learns about love, resilience, and war will bring a surprise and a secret, and will lead her to a radical action for those she loves. The lifelong consequences of the choices the Heaney sisters make are at the heart of this superb novel about the power of love and the enduring strength of family."
My Name Is Mary Sutter is a novel by Robin Oliveira (2010). From the dust jacket:"In this stunning historical novel, which opens on the eve of the Civil War, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, headstrong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine -- and eager to run away from recent heartbreak -- Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of William Stipp and James Blevens -- two surgeons who unwittingly fall in love with Mary's courage, will, and stubbornness in the face of suffering -- and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of the capital."
Sophomore Switch is a YA novel by Abby McDonald (2009). An American party girl and a studious British control freak are both eager to flee their own campuses. As Publishers Weekly said, "A global exchange program seems the perfect escape, but creates more problems than it solves." I'm more interested in what the author says on the back flap:"I wanted this book to explore what feminism can mean to a new generation of teenagers. Through their exploits, Tasha and Emily learn to make conscious decisions about their futures; they discover different sides to their personalities -- and feminist identities -- despite social pressures and expectations. Claiming that kind of autonomy is one of the most powerful things a young woman can do."
A Short History of Women is a novel by Kate Walbert (2009). It's the large-print edition, the only one in my library system. I like what Valerie Sayers of The Washington Post said about this book:"Walbert's books have all dealt ... with the lives of women, but this one is her most ambitious and impressive. The novel shuffles geographies and eras ... as if to reflect the non-linear progress of feminism. Walbert also utilizes compression and flashback to sweep through time, her style reminiscent of a host of innovative writers from Virginia Woolf to Muriel Spark to Pat Barker ... A Short History deals with complicated women living in complicated times, and if it is empathetic, it is also disturbing, as all moral conundrums are. It is a witty and assured testament to the women's movement and women writers, obscure and renowned."
The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories (1980) reproduces the journal Daphne du Maurier kept while planning her novel Rebecca. Chris at Chrisbookarama wrote about the book in such an interesting way that I immediately put it on hold at my library. I'm sharing the YouTube video that was on her blog, partly as a way of remembering all this information -- since I rather doubt I'll find time to read this book before the end of this very busy semester. 
This I Believe (2006) is an inspirational book based on the NPR series of the same name. Studs Terkel wrote the Foreword, and the book was edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman. I mentioned this book three weeks ago, when I found This I Believe II (2008) at my library.Confession time! I haven't completed ANY of the books I wrote about on September 1st. You do remember I said (at the top of this post) that one book had already been taken off the hold shelf -- it was The Rebecca Notebook -- which happens also to be the book I don't think I'll find time to read. Maybe I'll have to get ALL of the library books again later, when I have time to read again. This last book is mine and will definitely have to wait. I have, however, read more than half of Janisse Ray's Wild Card Quilt, a library book I told you about on September 8th -- besides textbooks, it's the only book I've been reading.
What books are newly arrived at your house?
I've enjoyed both Sophomore switch and Dream When You're Feeling Blue and I think you'll like both though they are so different! The NPR book looks good too, I enjoy those essays.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I'm reading the 2010 edition of New Stories from the South. Very well-written, most of them, but so far they are all terribly bleak. I do wish the editor this year (Amy Hempel) had chosen at least a few hopeful stories. Sure, life is sometimes bleak, but often redemption is possible and usually, hope exists.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this particular Elizabeth Berg book, but she has always been one of my favorites. Though I do tend to like her earlier stuff better. Range of Motion is one of my all-time favorite books.
Happy reading, Bonnie!
I read Wild Card Quilt. It reminded me of growing up in the rural South. Makes one wonder what life would have been like if I had not left home to go to college, got married, moved away, etc. Good read.
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