Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Meg's Picks: October 2017, part 2

New work from old favorites, and new books from favorites-to-be!

In the Midst of Winter, by Isabelle Allende. Allende (The House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune, The Japanese Lover, etc.) never fails to surprise her readers. In her latest, two NYU professors and a Guatemalan nanny find themselves with a body to dispose of in the midst of a Brooklyn blizzard. Isn't this how all love stories begin? The story of these three very different people moves from Brooklyn to Guatemala, to Chile and Brazil, from the present to the 1970s and back. Given Allende's keen insight into the human heart, this is sure to be a favorite.

Last Christmas in Paris, by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb. It's August 1914 and everyone's saying that this war will be over by Christmas. Evie Elliott watches her brother Will and his best friend Thomas go off to war, then anticipates their plans to spend the holidays in Paris together once the unpleasantness is over. And yet, nothing goes as planned. Evie and Thomas correspond during their separation, experiencing very different sides of the war. Evie grows frustrated with her expected roles as a young lady, wishing to be more involved in helping the war effort. Meanwhile Thomas faces not only the ugly realities of war but also an attack on his father's newspaper business back home due to War Office regulations regarding the press. And years later, Thomas must put his past to rest, only to find one last surprise waiting for him. I'm recommending this for book clubs as well as fans of historical fiction like Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Mary Ann Shaffer's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Without Merit, by Colleen Hoover. The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, cancer-survivor mom residing in the basement, dad and mom's former nurse living upstairs. The eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. The youngest, a half-brother, isn't allowed to do or eat anything fun. And then? Then there's Merit, who collects trophies she hasn't won and secrets her family forces her to keep. When she falls in love with a boy she cannot have, Merit re-examines her life, only to find it full of lies she can no longer handle. Compelled to tell the truth before making her exit once and for all, Merit must finally come to grips with her reality, including the consequences of telling the ugly truth. Hoover (It Ends With Us, 2016) is absolutely one to watch.

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