The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton
The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes (2/5/2025)
Throughout history books have catapulted readers out of their daily lives and into a world that can be as immersive as it is thrilling. Books guide us, educate us and challenge us to become more empathetic human beings. As readers we search for that one book that can do all that and more. With The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes, Chanel Cleeton has given us just that.
As with Cleeton's other novels of Cuban history and diaspora, this book is well researched and informative. The story lines of the 3 central characters Margo, Eva and Pilar are propelled by The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes. The struggle to save the book sets Eva and Pilar on a path of resistance, while Margo must solve the mystery of the lost story. What sets this story apart from Cleeton's previous novels is the choice to make the book itself a central motif.
The women in this story Margo, Pilar and Eva are compelling and certainly carry the story along. But Cleeton adds an element of mystery with the race to find the Lost Book of Eva Fuentes that elevates the novel and makes for a most compelling read!
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
The House on Biscayne Bay (1/4/2024)
The House on Biscayne Bay gives fans of Chanel Cleeton another reason to appreciate her work. While paying homage to the Sunshine State and its history, the novel has all the trappings of a Gothic tale. The plot is teeming with suspense and maintains a level of tension and mystery that propels the story at a rapid pace.
The novel's setting is a Gothic style mansion replete with secret passages, exotic animals and a topiary maze. As the title informs us the mansion, Maribrisa, is located on the infamous Biscayne Bay home to gangsters and scoundrels. The novel toggles between the nineteen twenties and forties and tells the story of two families- Robert and Anna Barnes and the Acosta sisters, Carmen and Caroline. Each family has its secrets, and one has the sense that the characters are in constant danger and can trust no one. When murders do occur there's ample reason to suspect multiple characters.
Ms. Cleeton does not disappoint her readers. The novel is full of twists and turns that leave the readers guessing right up to the story's climax. Because the novel combines elements of historical fiction and gothic mystery it will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.
Banyan Moon: A Novel
by Thao Thai
Banyan Moon (5/8/2023)
In the opening Chapter of Banyan Moon, Thao Thai's outstanding debut novel, there is a scene that I kept coming back to again and again as I read the novel. The family, grandmother Minh, daughter Hu'o'ng and granddaughter Ann have taken a rare trip to the beach. Ann rests in the sand while her mother French braids her hair into "impossible knots" takes it apart and does it again and again. Like the braid the lives of these women are tangled into impossible knots twisted by resentments, secrets love and loyalty.
The story is told from alternating points of view and covers a tumultuous family history beginning in 1960's era Vietnam and traveling through the 1990's to the present day. At the center of the story sits Banyan house, a crumbling Gothic mansion that sits on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Its dilapidated rooms are a repository of grief and longing reflecting back the families struggles and yearnings. It's the perfect setting for this family saga.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Thankfully the author did not tie the ending up in a bright shiny bow, for that would not fit these characters. Rather we are left with hope as the characters look to the future. This novel is certainly one that I will recommend to friends and consider for my Book Club selection.
Scatterlings: A Novel
by Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe
Scatterlings (10/10/2022)
Scatterlings is at once beautiful and painful, insightful (and for those of us not familiar with the history of South Africa) educational. It is also a novel the blends historical and literary fiction. The novel takes the reader on a journey to explore what it means to belong.
The Immorality Act of 1927 is the framework around which the story unfolds. Bram a white man and Alisa, his Jamaican wife have their tenuous world upended when the Act is passed. They are the intersection of the story, trapped between the past and an unknown future and as often happens in those situations tragedy and displacement follow. As Alisa describes in Part IV of the novel, "It is such a brief history, one that starts in the middle of itself, as though a people's History can start without a proper beginning and place of origin." The search to understand what it means to be connected, to have a history drives the novel.
This novels explores big questions and it does so in a quiet, understated manner. Telling the story of Apartheid and the Immorality Act through a small lens only adds to its power. Myths and folktales are woven throughout the novel and further explore what it means to be a Scatterling, uprooted and searching for Phelamanga.
The New York Times in its Saturday (10-8-2022) Profile highlighted Paul Siguqa who owns the first fully black owned vineyard to Franschhoek South Africa. It is the same vineyard his mother labored in under Apartheid. Past and present have come together.
I'm excited to recommend this novel to my Book Club.
Natural History: Stories
by Andrea Barrett
Natural History (7/31/2022)
The six stories in Andrea Barrett's Natural History are similar to stepping stones in a Zen garden. In following Barrett's path we experience the interconnectedness of the natural world and the creatures who inhabit it.
Each of the stories in this work threads through Henrietta Atkins, science teacher, mentor and naturalist. Spanning the decades from the Civil War to the present day, the characters balance familial expectations and for some a desire to experience the larger world. Through beautifully detailed descriptions and with an eye to the human condition, Barrett explores the complexities of life as well as the ties that bind us to the physical world.
Of particular importance in each of the stories is the evolving role of women. The final story Natural History captures the nature of the female predicament, as women move from the margins to the mainstream of the scientific world.
I have not read the author's previous work, but easily followed the stories progression. There is a grace to Barrett's writing that will not be easily forgotten and I look forward to recommending Natural History to my Book Club.
Widowland: Widowland #1
by C. J. Carey
Widowland by C.J. Carey (5/9/2022)
Widowland is an engaging, page turner of a novel that crosses genres- feminist, historical, dystopian and challenges the reader to imagine what if… women were classified, literature was "corrected" and history could be re-written. Certainly these topics are not new, but they are timely and Carey's vividly imagined world will resonate with many readers.
The novel is set in a post World War II Great Britain that is bleak and unsettling. England did not fight Germany, but instead chose to form an Alliance with Nazis. It is this dystopian setting that provides the framework for the ideas the novel examines. The protagonist, Rose Ransome, is awakened by the literature she is tasked with correcting and finds herself asking "what if." She ultimately finds her answer among the discarded women of Widowland.
I do hope Widowland makes it to the screen. This smart, timely novel would make a terrific series.
Fencing with the King: A Novel
by Diana Abu-Jaber
Fencing with the King (12/8/2021)
Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jabar opens with a falconry exhibition that is part of the King of Jordan's 60th Birthday. The descriptions of the pageantry and culture of the country are part of the novel's appeal. The author winds past and present history, as well as politics, culture and family dynamics to form the fabric of the novel. The characters are not particularly well drawn, but the reader comes to understand them and the complicated family dynamics through the back story that weaves the novel together.
Certainly the country of Jordan, its desert geography, culture and secrets is a main character in the novel. So much so that it leaves the reader wanting more information. The inclusion of maps specific to Jordan and the greater levant as well as a more detailed history would have been helpful.
This novel will appeal to many, especially Book Clubs. It flows easily and provides the reader a glimpse into a country and culture that to this day remains mysterious and intriguing.
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