The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie
Genre: Women’s Literature
Published: June 2009 by Berkley Trade
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
The book begins, “Sarah McConnell’s husband had been dead three months when she saw him in the grocery store.”
Reading the back cover of the new novel by Laura Brodie, I thought it would be a ghost story; but it’s actually much more. It’s also a romance, has an element of suspense and plot twists and turns, all made thoroughly enjoyable by Laura Bordie’s beautiful writing style. Her descriptions make the people and places come to life.
In the story, Sarah McConnell is at a turning point in her life. She is 39 years old and a recent widow when she begins to see her dead husband. Her friends dismiss it as grief, but the body was never found. Was he still alive? Was that really him? Sarah begins to see him more often, talk with him and discuss all the things they should have discussed during the years of their marriage. She begins to dwell on the many paths not taken for either of them, the children they never had, the career choices they made. But who is she talking to? Is he alive, is he a ghost or is she having a nervous breakdown?
This book kept me captivated until the very end. I found myself liking the character and empathizing with her, even though I would not have done some of the things she did.To say any more about the plot would spoil the story. I, for one, am looking forward to future novels from Ms. Brodie.
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Source: Public Library
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: January 12, 2010 by Random House
Rating: 3½ of 5 stars
Alice I Have Been is historical fiction of the life of Alice Liddell, the real life Alice in Wonderland. It is written in the first person with a Victorian style and follows Alice from the time she is a young girl through old age. As the book begins, Alice is selling her original manuscript and proclaims that she is “tired of being Alice in Wonderland”. With good reason we soon find out as she goes on to tell her story beginning with her childhood.
I liked the book and I really wanted to like it more, but I had a difficult time getting involved in it at first. It was partly the writing style, which took a little getting used to, but more Alice’s relationship with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who was much older than her. While portrayed as friendship, it seemed that through Alice’s eyes there was something more, something she wasn’t saying, and that was a bit creepy to me. And even more so her relationship with John Ruskin was a bit unsettling. Once we moved past Alice’s childhood, the story picked up for me.
Before reading this I did not know much about Alice, only that she was a real person. At the end of the book the author does explain what were actual facts and what was fictionalized. I didn’t do any research before I read the book because I didn’t want to spoil any surprises. And for me there were a few. All in all, Alice had a haunting and sometimes tragic life.
Overall, I liked it, and would recommend it to anyone who likes historical or Victorian novels.
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Source: Advance Reading Copy
Under My Apple Tree 