When I’m dealing with high pain levels that are enough to keep me from being fully functional but not enough to wipe out my cognitive abilities, I often turn to fiction for distraction from my pain. As with my movie selections, I prefer works that include a great deal of character development. The following are some of the best novels I’ve read lately.
Twin Souls by DelSheree Gladden is primarily a fantasy, but Gladden also draws on shamanic traditions including herbal medicine, Native American mythology, and animal guides to create a wonderful novel about love and mystical power. While the book initially seems to be just another teen romance, it eventually blossoms into a powerful story that sent me straight to purchase the next in the series. I found this book after having read the first book in Gladden’s enjoyable Aerling series; unlike that series, Twin Souls is well-edited making it easy and addictive to read.
Twin Souls by DelSheree Gladden is primarily a fantasy, but Gladden also draws on shamanic traditions including herbal medicine, Native American mythology, and animal guides to create a wonderful novel about love and mystical power. While the book initially seems to be just another teen romance, it eventually blossoms into a powerful story that sent me straight to purchase the next in the series. I found this book after having read the first book in Gladden’s enjoyable Aerling series; unlike that series, Twin Souls is well-edited making it easy and addictive to read.
A month after finishing The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard, I'm still periodically thinking about the characters and the conflicts in the novel. That's always a good sign when you can't get the book out of your mind because it has captivated you so much! The primary issues in the book stem from the age old debate around nature versus nurture in families of origin. While the "secret" of the book was obvious to me from the beginning, its slow revelation was enjoyable for the most part. The narrative switches between two different women, one of whom is being raised on a farm for a large portion of the novel and the other who purchases and runs a farm as an adult. Because the chapters are so short, it sometimes left me feeling like I was watching a ping pong game. Overall, though, it was a great novel that I enjoyed.
Russian Winter is a long work that also uses a split narrative that shifts between time periods making it feel like two separate novels integrated into one. The book is an addictive page turner, and while it’s already quite long, I didn’t want it to end. Author Daphne Kalotay's vivid descriptions of communist Russia and the life of professional ballerinas were entrancing for me even though I’m not a huge fan of ballet or tales of communist oppression. I also loved the research about historical jewels which one of the female characters undertakes as part of the novel's primary plot; this is the kind of project that historian in me also loves to do. Kalotay did a fabulous job of wrapping up the story of the characters and their interactions by the end of the work and completed it in a way that felt satisfying.
I was completely captivated from start to finish with Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman and think it is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Written in yet another split narrative primarily between the present time and the 1930s, both storylines of a grandmother and her granddaughter kept me enthralled. One of the narratives of this story also deals with the tales of a professional ballerina, but it is after the dancer’s career has ended. Like so many of the other books I’ve read recently, the story deals with the definition and perception of family. Freeman has a magically fluid prose that I thoroughly enjoyed, and while she wrapped up the story well by the end, I still wanted more. She is an author whose other works I will definitely read in the future.
© 2015 Green Heart Guidance
© 2015 Green Heart Guidance
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