Book review: A real odd couple
The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple By Ben Aitken (325 pages, memoir, 2022) This is a charming and funny book about being locked down with a complete stranger because of the coronavirus. October 21, 2020 – Ben Aitken is a young writer looking for a cheap room in London. He finds one in a nice neighborhood, for a great price. He thinks that there must be a catch, and there is. The catch is Winnie. Winnie...
Book review: A girl between two worlds
Child of the Jungle By Sabine Kuegler (260 pages, memoir, 2005) Born in Nepal to a German family, Sabine Kuegler lived a childhood most don’t even begin to experience. Her parents were linguists and missionaries who traveled the world studying the languages of remote civilizations. Kuegler spent the majority of her youth in the isolated and primeval rainforest of West Papua, Indonesia, living alongside the Fayu, an indigenous...
Book review: History at The Sandcastle
Lady Sunshine By Amy Mason Doan (376 pages, historical fiction, 2021) There is just something about reading in the summer; lounging in the sunshine or shade (or hibernating by the AC during a heatwave), and being transported to another time through a good book. I’ve been enjoying a lot of summery, dreamy “beach reads” lately, and one of my top picks is Lady Sunshine by Amy Mason Doan. The setting swings between 1979 and 1999 along the...
Book review: Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit
Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit By Lyanda Lynn Haupt (229 pages, nonfiction, 2021) In many ways, this book is spiritual kin to the works of Rachel Carson, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Henry David Thoreau. Naturalist Lyanda Lynn Haupt, a self-described “tree-hugging dirt worshiper,” has chosen to share her eco-based philosophy at just the right time. For those of us who are feeling run down, burned out, and...
Book review: Of Women and Salt
Of Women and Salt By Gabriela Garcia (204 pages, fiction, 2021) Gabriela Garcia’s sweeping debut novel, Of Women and Salt, demonstrates in a mere 204 pages how our past is inextricably linked to both our present and our future. The book spans four centuries and highlights the struggles of women from two different families. It is remarkable how Garcia masterfully connects the women in both families in such a short novel. The story...
