I’ve been AWOL from the blog lately, but I have a good excuse! I’ve been rehabbing from surgery on my shoulder to repair a torn rotator cuff and biceps tendon. I had visions of blogging frequently during my recovery, but those visions quickly dissolved when I realized how difficult it was to type with one hand.
About the only good thing I can say about the process is that it allowed me a lot of time to read. That means it’s time for another edition of What’s on My Bookshelf? (Aside from Tiny the Cat, who isn’t so Tiny anymore.)
I strongly recommend Tomlinson Hill, by Chris Tomlinson. Chris, who grew up in Dallas, has written an amazing work about the white and black branches of the Tomlinson family in Texas and coming to terms with his family’s slave-owning past. It’s particularly timely now as people talk about re-examining the history of the Confederacy.
I’ve long been a Kate Atkinson fan, so I was eager to read A God in Ruins, her followup to Life After Life. And. Well. Without going down the spoiler path, I’ll simply say that I didn’t enjoy this one as much.
Isn’t it fun to discover a new author? I’m not sure how I missed Taylor Stevens when she hit the scene, but I’m onto her now! I started with The Informationist and read my way through all the Vanessa Michael Munroe novels. I reviewed the newest one, The Mask, for The Dallas Morning News, a review you can find here.
A book I love-love-loved was My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young, which had been sitting unread in my Oyster account for a couple months. I’ve read a lot of World War II books lately (Not in Time research), so it was interesting to read something about World War I. My great-grandfather Charlie James served in World War I. What must he have seen as a young man plucked out of rural Illinois and sent to the trenches in France?
Speaking of France, if you’re interested in art history, you’ll probably enjoy Sue Roe’s In Montmartre, which focuses on the birth of the modern art movement in Paris. I reviewed this one for The Morning News, and you can find my review here.
Another book I reviewed recently for The Morning News was The Mapmaker’s Children, by Sarah McCoy. I loved so much about this book, and yet… Well, you can read my thoughts here.
So, what’s new on your bookshelf?