Romilly grows up with her father, an artist, in a ramshackle house surrounded by a wild garden. She vaguely remembers a life before, when she was 4 and they lived in London with her mother, and also a different time when they lived an itinerant life. But her father won't answer questions about where her …
When Sherri moves to town with her 10 year old daughter Katie, she manages to upset the tight knit and cliquey group of mothers by befriending the grieving widow Rebecca, who has a daughter the same age, and a teenage daughter Alexa. Alexa is at somewhat of a loose end over the Summer, and babysits …
Jia Jia has been married for 4 years, in a relationship based on practical things like making a family rather than love. When her husband announces that they will go on a trip, Jia Jia goes to pack, only to walk into the bathroom to find her husband dead in the bath tub. He has …
Bell is a nanny in Stockholm who takes on too much from the family she works for. Their lives are all disrupted forever when she answers the phone one day to hear am odd message. Apparently, Hanna has a husband who has been in a coma for 7 years, and he just woke up. To …
Set in 1950's Tehran and bookended with parts set in modern day America, this is a beautiful love story set in a time of political upheaval. Roya is a teenage girl who loves to step into the paper and pencil shaving secented world of the stationery and bookstore near her school. There she meets Bahman, …
I was really intrigued to read this book when Penguin Random House sent me an email about it and asked if I'd like to be part of the Blog Tour. The Matchmaker's List is a novel by a Canadian author, and the events in the book happen in well known places around Toronto, which I …
When Lane Roanoke was 15 her mother killed herself, and she was taken to Kansas to live with her grandparents at their large country home. There she also met her cousin Allegra who told her that all Roanoke girls either run away or die. The home is beautiful, her grandfather is handsome and kind and …
When I was really small, my family lived in Victoria, my parents and me, and my older brother. My grandparents lived in Sydney, and because we lived so far away, they didn't see us much at that age. My grandmother, being the creative person that she was, used to write stories for my brother and …
Continue reading Christmas: Cassette Tapes, Storytime and My Grandmother
I picked this up because I really like books like Like Water For Chocolate, stories that have a hint of magic, but that are otherwise kind of about everyday life. (Magic realism is one of our favourite genres). Rose Edelstein is turning 9 when her mother makes her a beautiful lemon cake with chocolate icing. …
Continue reading The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Alice Blackwell is America's First Lady, wife of the US President. But first, she was Alice Lindgren, a normal American girl. She grew up in the suburbs, with her parents, an only child, and her grandmother, an outspoken woman who loved to read. She experienced tragedy early, and went on to become a librarian at …
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