A Fatal Grace

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

Read August 2021 

I am sooooo hooked on this series!  Everyone gushing over it is correct.  It is so well written.  The characters are strong, the mystery is solid (although I did figure this one out pretty early), and I love, LOVE Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.  He stays with you!  Like a real person that you feel you know.  I'm trying to schedule out the books to enjoy a year or two of reading them, but I could totally just binge them all right now.  :)  

Book 2 finds Inspector Gamache called back to Three Pines to investigate the death of a lady no one in town really liked.  She was killed in front of the entire village during a curling tournament on the frozen lake, so everyone is a suspect.  Except for the per capita murder rate in Three Pines being so high (reminiscent of another favorite of mine, Cabot Cove!) I love everything about this quaint little town and its quirky inhabitants. 

Quotes from the book...

Clara saw good.  Which was itself pretty scary.  So much more comforting to see bad in others; gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior.  But good?  No, only really remarkable people see the good in others. 

She had been crying and Clara knew why.  At Christmas homes were full of the people there and the people not there.    

Living in the wreckage of her future sure took the joy out of the present.  The only comfort was that almost none of her fears had come true. 

This Tender Land

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Read August 2021 - Zoom Reading Circle

A wonderful book.  Kind of a mix of Huckleberry Finn and The Odyssey with some Dickensian elements thrown in for good measure.  :)  A story of a journey of 4 children, escaping evil and hardship and heading toward a brighter future (they hope).  They canoe down the Mississippi River intending to get to family in St. Louis.  They encounter many people along the way - some good and some not - and some a very strange mix.  What a fascinating story and journey.  It was also a good book to read after The Beekeeper of Aleppo - not quite as intense.  However, both books follow people on perilous journeys toward what they hope will be a better life.  I now want to read more books by William Kent Krueger. 

Quotes from the book...

I've always thought of her the way I think of a precious gem: the beauty isn't in the jewel itself, but in the way the light shines through it. 

Of all that we're asked to give others in this life, the most difficult to offer may be forgiveness. 

But I believe if you tell a story, it's like sending a nightingale into the air with the hope that its song will never be forgotten. 

From author William Kent Krueger's website - photos that inspired the story

https://williamkentkrueger.com/standalone/this-tender-land/#photos

Why do Native people disappear from textbooks after the 1890's? - Edweek article 

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-why-do-native-people-disappear-from-textbooks-after-the-1890s/2021/08

This Tender Land - book trailer

The Tragedy of Native American Boarding Schools - William Kent Krueger

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Read August 2021- Zoom Reading Circle

This was a powerful book.  I read it very quickly and yet it has stuck with me.  It was not an easy read and at first I disliked the main character, Nuri, because of his attitude toward his wife, Afra.  But as the book goes on and traces their journey, you gain an understanding of 'why'.  This book brought into focus the horrors of the Syrian war, highlighting the dire situation of refugees from Syria (and anywhere, really).  It is a well written story by a woman who has worked in the refugee camps in Athens and whose own parents were refugees.  This book just touched me deeply.  It made me feel for the characters and truly feel their pain - and their joy.  A moving, and ultimately hopeful, book.  I am very glad I read it. 

Quotes from the book...

In Syria there is a saying, "Inside the person you know, there is a person you don't know."

Oh Allah, keep me alive as long as is good for me, and when death is better for me, take me.  

But love was people's way out of the darkness.  I could see this clearly. 

The Beekeeper of Aleppo wins 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/16/835950317/the-beekeeper-of-aleppo-wins-2020-aspen-words-literary-prize

Aleppo before and after the battle - BBC News

In England, a buzzing business for Syrian refugee beekeeper

Documentary 'For Sama' finds love and loss amid Syrian war