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Ellen's Bookshelf
Some of what I've been reading lately ...
The Blessings of the Animals
Katrina Kittle's latest is a charming pageturner, the story of a veterinarian whose unexpected heartbreak leads to unexpected blessings.
How to be an American Housewife
I enjoyed this debut novel of a Japanese woman who married an American GI after WWII and did her best to make a life for herself, her husband, and her daughter despite continually difficult circumstances and a haunting secret from her past.
The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott
This charming debut novel imagines a love affair for a young Louisa May Alcott. With endearing protagonists and a well-drawn setting (1855 New Hampshire), this story of competing passions, societal expectations, and the universal experience of first love will appeal. (If you don't trust me, trust Oprah, who just selected this for her summer reading list.)
The Burying Place
Brian Freeman writes fantastic suspense novels set in my home territory of Duluth, Minnesota. In this one, the fifth in a series featuring detective Jonathan Stride, a psychotic killer roams the farmlands north of Duluth, lone women his prey; the same night as one is murdered, a baby goes missing from a posh lakeshore mansion. Like Freeman's previous books, this one is fabulous, and a page-turner right to the end.
Homer and Langley
E.L. Doctorow
This fascinating novel, based on the lives of Manhattan's Collyer brothers -- notorious hermits and collectors -- is beautifully written and haunting.
Amy and Isabelle
Elizabeth Strout
This novel was published in 1998, but I just read it now after loving Strout's Olive Kittredge so much. This one, the story of one eventful summer in the lives of a mother and daughter, is amazing -- I'm officially making Elizabeth Strout one of my favorite authors ever.
A Reliable Wife
A suspenseful and beautifully written novel of a man in 1907 Wisconsin who advertises for "a reliable wife," only to get far more than he bargained for...
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
Loved it!
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout
Oh, I loved this book. Feisty schoolteacher Olive Kitteridge rules a small Maine town in a series of linked stories which revolve around the themes of fear and hunger, of the wish to be understood and the near impossibility of it. This book won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize.
