Marti's March Pick

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 

    This was a wonderful novel. The setting is Alaska during the 1920s, where towns and people are spread out.  It is here that Jack and Mabel have moved to leave their sorrows behind and to start a new life.  The land is harsh and the winters are brutal.  Jack and Mabel are mourning the loss of their child and the knowledge that they will not have any more children.  It is a hard life, luckily their neighbors do help out. It is here that they first think they see the girl, not sure if she is real or a mirage. Mabel is drawn to an old Russian fairy tale about a snow child as an explanation. Jack feels that the girl has been abandoned.

     The writing brings you to the harsh land, the cold winters and the incredible obstacles Jack and Mabel face! The descriptions of the land and animals are realistic and leave you with strong visuals.  There are the intangibles of faith, hope, and miracles woven through out the story.

     “Life is always throwing us this way and that.  That’s where the adventure is. Not knowing where you’ll end up or how you’ll fare.”

Morgan's March Pick

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

The Burgess Boys is Strout's first novel since winning the Pulitzer for Olive Kitteridge. While I find Strout to be a talented writer I found Olive Kitteridge to be boring and overly esoteric. I was skeptical of reading another one of her books but I received The Burgess Boys as an advance reader's copy so I decided to give her a second chance. I am glad that I did because I was quite impressed with this book.

The book centers around a dysfunctional and somewhat tragic family made up of three siblings who have shared a troubled childhood in a small town in Maine. The sister has remained in Maine while the two brothers move to New York City. The three are reunited as the sister's son requires legal help from his two uncles (who are both lawyers). The story progresses as the legal action pending becomes the backdrop for family instability, internal individual conflict and discontent.

What I found most poignant about this book is that at first the character type of each sibling seems clear but as the book progressed I really began to question the assumptions I had made about each of the characters, especially regarding who I thought to be successful and who I considered a failure.

Beyond the three main characters the book is also marked by a series of secondary characters who all seem lost, who lack of sense of place or a sense of home. Each character was very human and I was surprised at how strongly I could relate to their individual stories, brief as they were. I also liked how Strout worked in some commentary on difficult social issues like intolerance, race and crime.  I was impressed at every turn of the page with the graceful way the story unfolded and while it is a difficult and sad portrait of a lonely family I would definitely recommend it.

Karrie's March Pick

Towers of Midnight
Book Thirteen of the Wheel of Time
-Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Since I started reading the Wheel of Time as a sophomore in High School I fell in love not only with Robert Jordan's story, but with his lovable characters - both evil and good. For anyone who loves fantasy this is the perfect pick. Jordan has created a world as in depth as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings where so many histories have been created that it's hard to believe it's not real. 

I know that "Thirteenth Book" sounds intimidating, but trust me this series is to die for! The story follows five friends who leave their home on a quest full of magic, danger, and love that brings them to places that they never would have dreamed existed. It is an intense story of honor, bravery, and the quest to find yourself that will keep you glued to the pages and fighting the urge to begin writing a screenplay for the big screen! 

Click on the above link  to read about the first book in the series!

Visit my "About Karrie" page to see more of my favorites!