Leaving Van Gogh by Carol Wallace

One of our recent lease books is entitled Leaving Van Gogh. A review can be found at the 5 Minutes for Books blog: http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/15731/leaving-van-gogh/

New Lease Book: The Wilder Life:

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure

Book Review at the Christian Science Monitor

New Book: The Photographs of Marion Post Wolcott

Image credit: By Marion Post Wolcott [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

What a great selection of photographs capturing primarily the Southern States (although there are a few stray photos from Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, and Vermont)! Wolcott was a photographer for the Farm Services Administration in the 1930s and 1940s, and these photographs were selected by the Library of Congress as part of the Fields of Vision series that showcases the work of individual photographers in that project. I loved the old painted signs on buildings, the glimpses into the home life of persons such as the photograph of a North Carolina woman in her kitchen, the old court docket book from Granville County, North Carolina, the painted advertisements on buildings such as the one in Natchez, Mississippi, the people hard at work, and the photos of children enjoying life. I could go on and on.

The Invisible Bridge - by Julie Orringer

This book has been on my "wish list" to read ever since we obtained it via our lease book program last year. It is longlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize for fiction. I decided it was time to read it.

Andras Levi, a Hungarian Jew, manages to secure a chance to study architecture in France. This book chronicles his time in France and his brother's chance to study medicine in Italy. Then they lose their student visas and must return home. The hardships suffered by them and by their families are chronicled in the book. I was a bit intimidated by the size of this book -- almost 600 pages, but I need not have worried. Orringer is a very skillful storyteller and kept my attention throughout the entire book. The characters are well drawn. The atrocities suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust are never easy to read, so be prepared to shed a few tears. I am impressed by the amount of research that the author must have done to write such a marvelous piece of historical fiction. 5 stars.

By the way, the library has three other Orange Prize nominees for this year on our Lease Book shelves: Room by Emma Donoghue, Great House by Nicole Krauss, and The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht.

My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy's love affair with books began with his mom's love for literature. A high school English teacher also had a profound influence on him in his early years. In this book, Pat Conroy shares his lifelong love affair with reading. He shares with his readers some of the books that influenced his life, some of the people that called attention to books, and to his encounters with others in the book business -- fellow authors and persons more involved in the publishing aspect. Anyone who aspires to be a writer needs to read this book. Persons studying Conroy's works will find a greater appreciation of them by knowing something of Conroy's life and the extent to which he employed his own life in his work. I've missed reading a few of the classics mentioned by the author as being influential in his own life, and his praise for them makes me want to read these. I've already downloaded a free copy of one of these works to my Kindle application. This is, perhaps, the highest form of praise that I can demonstrate. 4.5 stars.

This book can be found in our lease books.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Widower Major Ernest Pettigrew lives in the little village of Edgecombe St. Mary. He enjoys his friendship with the widowed Pakistani grocer Jasmina Ali who shares his love for literature. This is a wonderful novel that explores race and prejudice, social customs, inheritance, generation gap, religious differences, and much more. It's a wonderful read with characters you love as well as a few that anger you. Edgecombe St. Mary is an interesting village that most readers will feel they wish they could visit. This book did not disappoint. 4.5 stars.

This book is available on our Lease Books shelf. It has also been named one of the top books of 2010 by Amazon.com and others. Some have described this as an adult coming of age story.