“There’s always room for improvement, you know—it’s the biggest room in the house. —Louise Heath Leber
Geez Louise, we have room for improvement right about now. It’s the only room in the house. I’m not sure what to say about it. My son is healing after a five-hour surgery, but I’m having trouble recuperating. And I haven’t read for days. But I did have the recent good fortune of chatting with my neighbor Heather who is the consummate high school English teacher. (A Miss Gibson kinda girl.) Our conversation naturally drifted to books. So I did what any zonked (as in tired) blogger would do: I asked her to recommend some of her favorite reads. If you’re searching for your next read and you’re interested in history, you can trust in these:
Heather just finished this book and couldn’t stop raving about it. NPR hailed LaPlante’s novel as one of the best books of 2012. From what I can see, this book celebrates a woman of great strength and even better perspective. One reviewer said, Marmee & Louisa “provides new [and compelling] evidence exposing [Abby’s] undeniable influence on her daughter … Fresh material gives flesh to the formerly invisible Abigail, revealing how she and her famous daughter mirrored one another … Thoroughly researched and moving.” If you love Alcott, you are bound to love this beauty.
This too is a book written years ago that remains fascinating. Rachel vacillated when assigning stars to Larson’s best seller: 4, maybe 4 and half? Here’s what I know: if Rachel and Heather both recommend it, it’s worth reading. If you’re curious as to what this book is about, amazon’s description goes like this: The Devil in the White City is a “true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.” I’m pretty sure I need to take a trip to the fair this summer.