Ugh…another snow day.  This year has been harsh in terms of weather.  First we had Sandy- two weeks of no power and no school.  Now the never ending snow.  Don’t get me wrong- more snow means more skiing, and as a newbie, I need all the practice I can get.  BUT, before I skied, the hubby and kids would head off to the slopes and I would curl up with a good book and my chocolate Lab on my lap-that’s pretty much gone!  Oh well, good with the bad and all that.  Hope everyone here in the Northeast enjoys the snow!  

I have joined the 100 Books in a Year hosted by Book Chick City!  I am so looking forward to this!

The Rules are simple- you have to read 100 books from Jan.1-Dec.31 of 2012.  You can read any genre, but only fiction counts toward the challenge.

So far, here is where I am at as of March 7th-

January

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

2.Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

3. Reversal by Michael Connelly

4. The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

5. The Bookseller by Mark Pryor

6. The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

February

7. The Husband List by Janet Evanovich

8. An Ex to Grind by Jane Heller

9. When in Doubt Add Butter by Beth Harbison

10. The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

11. Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner

12.  The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman

13. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

March

14. The History of Us by Leah Stewart

15. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

by Chris Bohjalian

published by Random House

2012

Summary

Over the course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwivesbrought us to an isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter’s night and a home birth gone tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring Twenties on Long Island—and a young social worker’s descent into madness. And Skeletons at the Feast chronicled the last six months of World War Two in Poland and Germany with nail-biting authenticity. As The Washington Post Book World has noted, Bohjalian writes “the sorts of books people stay awake all night to finish.”

In his fifteenth book, The Sandcastle Girls, he brings us on a very different kind of journey. This spellbinding tale travels between Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 and Bronxville, New York, in 2012—a sweeping historical love story steeped in the author’s Armenian heritage, making it his most personal novel to date.

When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents’ ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed the “Ottoman Annex,” Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura’s grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family’s history that reveals love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.

(from Goodreads)

My Review

This story taught me something that as a student and teacher of history, I had very little knowledge of- the Armenian genocide.  I was amazed by the depth of information and description the author brought forward in this novel.  I have been a fan of Chris Bohjalian since I first read Midwives.  He is a wonderful writer and I alsway look forward to his next novel.  I think this might be his best.  It is not a feel good story- but it is powerful and leaves a lasting impression.

“When it seems you have nothing at all to live for, death is not especially frightening.”
― Chris Bohjalian, The Sandcastle Girls

This is a powerful historical novel about the Armenian Genocide.  It takes place in two time periods- 1915 and the present.  During 1915, we learn the story of Elizabeth Endicott, who has traveled from America to Aleppo with her father to administer humanitarian aid on behalf of the Friends of Armenia.   There she meets and befriends Armen Petrosian, an Armenia who has lost his entire family, and is planning on fighting with the British forces against the Germans.  The two fall in love and exchange of the genocide from both of their perspectives.

The Sandcastle Girls is  excellent depiction of this tragedy.  Immediately after I finished, I went onto my computer to learn as much as I could about this event.  I am thinking of reading it again, after I learn more.

This is an article published first in the newspaper, New York Times on December 15, 1915. It is on the Armenian Genocide. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The History of US

by Leah Stewart

Published by Touchstone

2013

Summary

In The History of Us, the newest novel by the celebrated author of The Myth of You and Me, three grown siblings return to their childhood home and face a family secret that forces them to reexamine their relationships to each other—and to the aunt who took them in as children.

Eloise Hempel is on her way to teach a class at Harvard when she receives devastating news. Her sister and her husband have been killed in a tragic accident, and Eloise must return home to Cincinnati to take her sister’s three children, Theodora, Josh, and Claire, out of the hands of her own incapable mother. She moves back into her mother’s ancient house and, after her mother leaves, pours her own money into its upkeep.

Nearly two decades later, Eloise is still in that house, still thinking about what she left behind. With Claire leaving for New York City for a promising ballet career, Eloise has plans to finally embark on a life that’s hers alone. But when her mother makes a competition out of who inherits the house, and Claire reveals a life-changing secret, their makeshift family begins to fall apart.

A “perceptive writer with a keen grasp of contemporary culture and domestic life” (Booklist), Leah Stewart creates a deeply moving story of love, loss, sibling relationships, and the paths not taken.

(from Goodreads)

My Review

I enjoyed Leah Stewart’s previous novel The Myth of You and I very much and looked forward to reading her new novel.  I got into the story quickly, but unfortunately started to dislike the main characters half way through the book, in spite of the very fine writing.  Eloise gives up everything- her teaching career at Harvard, her new found life and freedom in Boston, to take care of her deceased sister’s three young children, when her mother does not want the responsibility.  Along with moving to Cincinnati, she also moves into her childhood home, a vast “mansion”.  Seventeen years later, when the youngest child moves out, Eloise wants her mother to sign over the house to her so she can sell it and move on with her life.  The problem is the two older children have moved back home, and are in no hurry to go anywhere.  The oldest,Theo, fights with Eloise, going behind her back to the distant grandmother, and asks for the house herself, despite the glaringly obvious fact that there is no way she can possible afford to pay for the whole thing since she cannot even pay rent, having no job, nor much desire to get one.  The character of Theo was the one I had the hardest time with.  She seemed so self centered, not once did I get the sense that she had been the responsible, reliable eldest child.  I did enjoy the other characters, and the writing as I said was very good.  Maybe the idea of grown children returning home indefinitely scares me a bit, having two teens at home.  A good book, but not a favorite.