I went through November's issue of Book Page and picked out four books that sound good. Below are the ones I chose.
At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen
In this thrilling new novel from the author of Water for
Elephants, Sara Gruen again demonstrates her talent for creating spellbinding
period pieces. At the Water’s Edge is a gripping and poignant love story about
a privileged young woman’s awakening as she experiences the devastation of
World War II in a tiny village in the Scottish Highlands.
After disgracing themselves at a high society New Year’s Eve
party in Philadelphia in 1944, Madeline Hyde and her husband, Ellis, are cut
off financially by his father, a former army colonel who is already ashamed of
his son’s inability to serve in the war. When Ellis and his best friend, Hank,
decide that the only way to regain the Colonel’s favor is to succeed where the
Colonel very publicly failed—by hunting down the famous Loch Ness
monster—Maddie reluctantly follows them across the Atlantic, leaving her
sheltered world behind.
The trio find themselves in a remote village in the Scottish
Highlands, where the locals have nothing but contempt for the privileged
interlopers. Maddie is left on her own at the isolated inn, where food is
rationed, fuel is scarce, and a knock from the postman can bring tragic news.
Yet she finds herself falling in love with the stark beauty and subtle magic of
the Scottish countryside. Gradually she comes to know the villagers, and the
friendships she forms with two young women open her up to a larger world than
she knew existed. Maddie begins to see that nothing is as it first appears: the
values she holds dear prove unsustainable, and monsters lurk where they are
least expected.
As she embraces a fuller sense of who she might be, Maddie
becomes aware not only of the dark forces around her, but of life’s beauty and
surprising possibilities. -Amazon Description
Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon
Simon Connolly’s successful wife has gone to her law office
each day, while he has stayed home to raise their children—Jake and Laney. He
has tried to do the best for the kids. For sunny, outgoing Laney, it’s been
easy. But Jake is different. He has always been on the quiet side, preferring
the company of his small group of friends to popularity and organized sports.
Now that his children are in high school, Simon should be able to relax, to
worry less. He’s never given that chance.
On a warm November day, he receives a text: There has been a
shooting at the high school.
Racing to the rendezvous point, Simon is forced to wait with
scores of other anxious parents as one by one, they are reunited with their
children. Their numbers dwindle, eventually leaving Simon alone. That is when
he learns that Jake is the only child missing.
As his worst nightmare unfolds, Simon’s thoughts race. Where
is Jake? What happened in those final moments? Jake could not have done this—or
could he? Did Simon miss the signs? As rumors begin to ricochet, amplified by
an invasive media and the fear swallowing their community, Simon must find
answers.
But there is only one way to understand what has happened .
. . he must find Jake. -Amazon Description
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a #1 New York Times
bestselling novel about two unforgettable American women.
Writing at
the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a
masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a
voice in the world.
Hetty
“Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns
for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy
Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she
is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits
imposed on women.
Kidd’s
sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given
ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their
remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life
of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex
relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of
love.
As the
stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow,
finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience
crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving
Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina,
as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.
Inspired by
the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out
the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented,
including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search
for something better.
This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks
with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women
whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader
unmoved. –Amazon Description
Liar
Temptress Soldier Spy by Karen Abbott
Karen
Abbott, the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and
“pioneer of sizzle history” (USA Today), tells the spellbinding true story of
four women who risked everything to become spies during the Civil War.
Karen
Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet little known aspects of the
Civil War: the stories of four courageous women—a socialite, a farmgirl, an
abolitionist, and a widow—who were spies.
After
shooting a Union soldier in her front hall with a pocket pistol, Belle Boyd
became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her charms to seduce
men on both sides. Emma Edmonds cut off her hair and assumed the identity of a
man to enlist as a Union private, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the Civil
War. The beautiful widow, Rose O’Neale Greenhow, engaged in affairs with
powerful Northern politicians to gather intelligence for the Confederacy, and
used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. Elizabeth Van
Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as
she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring, right under the noses of
suspicious rebel detectives.
Using a
wealth of primary source material and interviews with the spies’ descendants,
Abbott seamlessly weaves the adventures of these four heroines throughout the
tumultuous years of the war. With a cast of real-life characters including Walt
Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, detective Allan
Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoleon III, Liar,
Temptress, Soldier, Spy draws you into the war as these daring women lived it. -Amazon Description
These books are available for checkout through the Lake County Library System.
