Cheryl Truman on books

From Holly Bandoroff:

I, too, have been in a reading drought this fall, so much so that I just finished re-reading both Pillars of the Earth and World Without End ( how desperate is that?)

I have read a few wonderful books this year that you might consider.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (actually classified as a young adult book) This is a poignant tale about a young girl searching for love and normalcy in a foster family in Germany during WWII. It is cleverly narrated by Death.

The City of Thieves by David Benioff. A fabulous story of two mis-matched young men thrown together in search of 12 fresh eggs for a general’s daughter’s wedding during the siege of Leningrad. I loved this book!

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. A harrowing thriller about a serial killer of children in Stalinist Russia. The state refuses to admit there is a pattern to the crimes because of their company line that no one in their perfect society would be unhappy enough to commit these atrocities.

I also read a series of 3 historical fiction novels by Diana Norman. She is the real woman behind the nom de plume Arianna Franklin (The Mistress of the Art of Death). These novels followed a strong willed, and capable young woman during and after the American Revolution. (A Catch of Consequence, Chasing Liberty and Sparks Fly Upward)

Good luck finding that perfect winter read! If you have any suggestions….. I’m always looking for my next book!

From Cheryl:

Pillars of the Earth was the last book I remember as being truly transporting — transporting in the sense that you could be sitting on a couch full of dog and cat hair, dirty dishes lining the kitchen counter, tottering piles of laundry piled at random intervals through the house, and absolutely not care, because you were on board with that fictional cathedral and those neighborhood political dramas, and whether your favorite characters might starve (which so rarely comes up, these days). A friend recently observed that while reading The Pillars of the Earth, her husband cared for little else.

Sadly, I never got to the third chapter of World Without End. Perhaps it’s time to give that book another chance.