book review
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Last year, biographies held my attention. I’m always eager to learn, but biographies are especially helpful when I find myself navigating the difficulties of life. Reading about other people’s lives and how they handled challenges and setbacks helps me feel less alone. This year was a tough one. The following books kept me company. Astrid
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The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay My rating: 4 of 5 stars Quietly devastating. That’s how I would sum up The Far Field. Vijay’s prose isn’t flowery or ornate. It tells the story simply, going back and forth in time as we follow the main character, as a child always close by her mother who
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If you’re a working Christian woman, you’ve probably felt the tension. I know I have. There’s a sense in many Christian circles that for women, work is just a temporary thing you do until you get married and start having babies.
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A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot My rating: 5 of 5 stars Miranda Richmond Mouillot was young, romantic, and naive when she set out to retrace her grandparents’ story, one she imagined to be like a fairy tale, full of love but with stars crossed that
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Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert My rating: 4 of 5 stars A refreshing read for the discouraged creative soul, Big Magic is essentially a long, written pep talk encouraging you to stop quivering in fear about your creative projects and go out and make stuff already, for no reason other than:
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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead My rating: 4 of 5 stars A nonlinear narrative composed of straightforward, at times lyrical, writing, The Underground Railroad tells the story of Cora, a slave girl whose escape of the plantation leads to conflict and loss and love and meditations on what it means to be free. Whitehead’s
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Fighting for Life by S. Josephine Baker My rating: 5 of 5 stars First of all, Sara Josephine Baker lived an incredible life. Second of all, she has a totally relatable way of sharing her story. Originally published in 1939, this autobiography tells firsthand the story of a woman doctor (at a time when that
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Before the Fall by Noah Hawley My rating: 5 of 5 stars A private plane crashes in the middle of a short flight from Martha’s Vineyard to New York City. Before the Fall tells the stories of the characters involved: the painter who survived, swimming the four-year-old child to safety; the flight attendant and the
Meredith Sell 