Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

This month I managed to read more books than I can fit in the collage (by just one.)  The fact that it was March Break and the weather wasn't great meant that I was able to get in one good week of reading and push my monthly total higher.  Here is what I read this month: The Midnight Rose - Lucinda Riley ***** Unfinished - Steven K. Scott ***** The Replacement Wife - Tiffany L. Warren **** The Guestbook - Holly Martin **** Fortune and Fame - ReShonda Tate Billingsley and Victoria Christopher Murray **** For Today I Am a Boy - Kim Fu **** All Our Names - Dinaw Mengestu **** Boy Snow Bird - Helen Oyeyemi *** The Divorce Papers - Susan Rieger *** A Heart's Rebellion - Ruth Axtell *** Challenges TBR Pile Challenge (0), Diversity on the Shelf (6), Classics Club (0), Canadian Book Challenge (1) A Look Ahead Here are the April releases I'm looking forward to reading

Here are some literary quizzes I came across on the internet this week *Which literary heroine are you? *How well do you know Irish literature ? *Test your knowledge of literature written in prison . *How many of the greatest books by women have you read? *What is Literature Jeopardy Alex?

Eleven-year-old Anahita Chavan finds her life is about to change when she befriends Princess Indira, the daughter of Indian royalty.  Her own family is noble but impoverished and her friendship with Indira opens a new world to her as she becomes the princess’ companion.  But it is when the two girls leave India and head to England for school that Anahita’s life really takes a turn. It is there that she meets Donald Astbury, a reluctant heir to a declining fortune, and his mother who will do everything she can to keep control over the estate.  Donald and Anahita fall passionately in love and following the end of World War 1, they make plans to spend their lives together, no matter what society thinks.  But unfortunately, it is not meant to be. Rebecca Bradley, a young American film star, has arrived in England to star in a period film as a 1920’s debutante.  Thrilled to be away from the paparazzi, she settles into Astbury Hall, a now crumbling manor in...

Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl loves her job as a criminal law associate at a New England firm.  All of her clients are behind bars and it means very little personal contact, which for her is perfect.   But one weekend, all of the big partners are away and Sophie must do an intake interview for a woman looking for a divorce lawyer.  Sophie agrees to the interview but doesn’t expect that the client will end up requesting her to take on the case.  Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim was served divorce papers from her husband while dining at a popular restaurant.  A Mayflower descendent, she is shocked to find out that her marriage of eighteen years is over.  Even more, she is shocked that her husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, is out for blood.  He wants custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane and to leave Mia with very little while he starts fresh with one of his colleagues. Told only through personal corr...

Welcome to Willow Cottage - throw open the shutters, let in the sea breeze and make yourself completely at home.  Oh, and please do leave a comment in the Guestbook! Annie Butterworth is the landlady of Willow Cottage, a beautiful cottage in the English countryside with a colourful array of guests.  Every guest is encouraged to write their thoughts in the guestbook and do they ever!  Love, loss, happiness, sadness, guilt, affairs, births, and surprises, it’s all in there.  Even Annie’s life gets caught up in the book. As a young widow, Annie herself is going through some changes.  And the appearance of her brother-in-law, celebrity crime writer Oliver Black isn’t helping.  As the guests of Willow Cottage go about their seaside vacations, Annie and Oliver must figure out how to move on in their lives, and most importantly, if they will do so together. The Guestbook by Holly Martin is a lovely, sweet, and unique book.  Written in the form...

Peter Huang is the prized boy in a traditional Chinese family living in small-town Ontario.  Named Juan Chuan, meaning powerful king, he is the only son in the middle of three girls.  His immigrant father was thrilled to have his one boy to carry on his legacy.  But Peter is carrying a difficult secret, one that he believes will shatter his parents.  Peter is certain that he was born in the wrong body and is really a girl. Peter and his sisters Adele, Helen, and Bonnie all long to break free from the confines of their home and small town to live as who they truly are.  As Peter’s journey takes him to Montreal, he is free to explore who he is though the shadow of his father is difficult to shake. For Today I Am A Boy is a coming-of-age book that is sensitive, beautiful, and honest.  The debut novel by Kim Fu, it is a story of what happens when culture and identity clash, and the burdens that we carry with us. There are two issues at play in t...

Goglu is a French Canadian girl who lives with her alcoholic mother and resentful stepfather.  All her life she has been a child surrounded by grownups.  Goglu keeps to herself, her life full of sadness and dreams of breaking free from the troubled lifestyle of her mother.   But as she grows older she escapes into a life of punk rock and drugs.  She tries to start fresh with her biological father on the other side of the country but she just cannot escape the turmoil. Susceptible by Geneviève Castrée is a coming of age memoir that speaks to what happens to children when the adults that are entrusted with their well-being aren’t up for the task.  This graphic novel is beautifully drawn and heartbreakingly wonderful.  It is painful, touching, hopeful, and mesmerizing. I had not heard of Castrée until I read CBC Books' 10 Canadian Women You Need to Read .  She has been drawing all of her life though has never studied art formally, and at 32 ye...