| A Cottage by the Sea |
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 This will be a favorite this year; my idea of a beach read. Born Sam Hill, with red eyes, this is the story Sam’s extraordinary life. He dealt with this obvious visual impairment for which he was bullied, but he was also nurtured by his family, supported by teachers, and loved by loyal friends who called him Sam Hell.
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 A heartfelt account of that September 11, 2001 day when human beings from all over the world landed at the Gander, Newfoundland airport on their way to the United States. In weaving together their lives with those of the locals, who opened up their homes, schools, shops, and their hearts, Defede tells a feel-good story that gives hope in the midst of tragedy.  This is second book that I’ve read in Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander mystery series. Wallander, a detective in a small town in Sweden, is brash, domineering, compassionate and loyal. He is complicated man respected and liked by his peers; I join them. This is a first for me: being engaged in a deep way with a male protagonist who, I need not say, is created and developed by a male author.  Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan
A novel based on the true story of Pino Lella during his time as a spy against the Nazis at the close of the war in Italy. I am in awe of his courage and resilience. He brings to mind that we human beings don’t always know if we are doing the right thing, but if we keep our moral compass set toward good, we will come out on the right side of right.  This book is composed of essays for the forty days of Lent, each focusing on the important theological issues that Christianity addresses. But these are topics that all people struggle with as they look for answers of ways to lead a life filled with compassion and love. Who isn’t grappling with forgiveness, death and dying, compunction, the body, childhood wounds, and more? It’s all there.  The End of the Pier, by Martha Grimes
A very satisfying couch read during these pandemic times. I wanna be like Maud, sipping vodka at the end of a pier in the comfy ‘living room’ that she set us every evening to watch what’s going on across the lake in the summer. Now I have to figure out if the book (1992) is part of a mystery series or a stand-alone.  The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
Compassion for the poverty and resilience for Native Americans past, present and future, wherever they live. This from Goodreads Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.  This is the sequel to The Widows, which almost made my top 12 list a few years ago. I like this one better, so maybe it will be winner. Each book however is a stand-alone. Set in Ohio in the 1929s, Lilly, the newly elected sheriff and her friend Hildy solve the murder of an old woman killed walking the railroad tracks in the Appalachian hills.  I loved the interplay between the mystical and the reality in this story, set in the Northwest over the 20th century, and before. Back and forth went the accounts of the generations trying to keep past promises and to save themselves from being overwhelm by family members. A dialectic between compassion and selfish, desperate desires.  Krueger considers himself a mystery writer, and for sure Ordinary Grace is a mystery. And yet it doesn’t belong in the mystery section, because it is so much more. It is about a family dealing with what life presents them, and isn’t that always full of mystery? If only I had the calmness and faith that Nathan, the dad, had to lead his family through difficult times! This book will definitely make my 2020 Top Ten. |
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