Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg. 4*

Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg. 4*

I loved The Story of Arthur Truluv, because it was hopeful and positive on the issues of aging, dying and loneliness. It was a simple and sweet book that made me love the characters enough to be thrilled to see a sequel. Night of Miracles picks up where Arthur left off with Lucille, the lovely neighbor who cooked, though never married and moved in with Arthur and his pregnant teen age “adopted” daughter Maddy to mother them both.

Now Maddy has grown up and her young daughter Nola have moved away and Maddy is engaged. Louise is giving her cooking classes but feeling her age every day. The book follows the story of what happens to Louise and Maddy, including a delightful haunting! While it is also hopeful and gives closure to the issues left open with Arthur everything is tied up almost too neatly.

That doesn’t take away from the feel-good easiness of this book, which was a joy with so much happening in the world and literature that fills our days. You may well cry with this book, but it won’t be from frustration or hopelessness.

I received this book from NetGalley.

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult 5*

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult 5*

 

We are used to novels by Jodi Picoult pulling their subject matter from headline news and making the issues of her characters pull us in with empathy and a need to understand. In A Spark of Light, she grabs hold of the issues of abortion, right to life, the rights of different parties to a birth and the rights of parents, grandparents, community members and even health professionals when the only health center that provides abortions in the State of Louisiana is attacked not only by right to life protestors, but a gunman who enters and opens fire. 

By using different characters, each with different and compelling purposes, Ms. Picoult is able to open up the issue so that no matter what your position going in, you will consider other sides.  Her skillful writing and wonderful characters will keep the pages turning until all you want is for everyone to be okay.  If you are looking for a book club selection that will raise tempers and emotions to the very highest, this one should be your selection. 

Be warned, though. The situations are intense and may trigger women who’ve been on any side of this debate, as well as health care professionals.  Be gentle with yourself when you read it.

The Girls of 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

The Girls of 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

5 stars

Anna is a dancer, married to Matthias, and together they are young and in love and happy.  Until the pressure of dance, injury and the ever-constant focus on thin ness, a loss of her position in a Parisian Ballet company, and a job offer for Matthias takes them from their home in Paris to St Louis, Missouri.  Her life dwindles without dance, and with Matthias working long hours.  Her eating dwindles too, until she is so sick she goes to 17 Swann Street, a rehabilitation house for eating disorders.  Told in first person narrative, with intermittent reposts from the recovery team, The Girls of 17 Swann Street is a heartbreaking, yet hopeful book. The girls who live in the house care for Anna, and cheer her on, even if they can’t do it for themselves.

The novel is so well written, the reader will cringe with each bite that Anna must take of the foods she’s eliminated one by one. The calorie goals seem huge, but Anna gains slowly. We learn of the terrifying effects self-starvation has on the body and the very human psychology that deludes those with eating disorders. 

Yet ultimately, this is a love story.  Of Anna and Matthias, of the girls for one another, but ultimately, one woman’s desire to reclaim life.  A compelling read.

I received this book from Net Galley with no strings, but I wanted to review it.