September Reads ~

The Book of Two Ways - Jodi Picoult.  I really liked this book.  It made me think about how we get to where and who we are.  How way leads on to way.  I have loved being a nurse and nurse practitioner.  Spending my life taking care of children still seems what I was simply meant to do. But, had I not gotten the scholarship to my community college, had the recruiter from a hospital in Chattanooga not come down just as I was graduating, planning for a job in Pensacola - where would I be now?  Who would I have become?  If I hadn't been a nurse, I would love to have been an archeologist or journalist.  Since first reading about the digs and tells in Agatha Christie's Come, Tell Me How You Live ever so many years ago, seeing ancient sites in Athens, incredible pieces in the British Museum - goodness!  I still long to travel to Syria. Istanbul. Egypt.  Picoult's tale brings such thoughts to mind in the midst of a love story.  Enjoy.

The Paris Wife - Paula McLain.  The story of Hemingway's life in Paris in the 20's, told by his first wife, Hadley, herself.  While McLain's work is categorized as historical fiction, having recently watched the Ken Burn's series on Hemingway and the film, Hemingway and Gellhorn - it rang true.  

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44 Scotland St. - Alexander McCall Smith

Espresso Tales - Alexander McCall Smith

Love Over Scotland - Alexander McCall Smith

The World According to Bertie -Alexander McCall Smith

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones - Alexander McCall Smith

The Importance of Being Seven - Alexander McCall Smith

Bertie Plays the Blues - Alexander McCall Smith

Sunshine on Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith

Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers - Alexander McCall Smith

The Revolving Door of Life - Alexander McCall Smith

The Bertie Project - Alexander McCall Smith

A Time of Love and Tartan - Alexander McCall Smith

The Peppermint Tea Chronicles - Alexander McCall Smith

A Promise of Ankles - Alexander McCall Smith

After some heavy reads, anything by Alexander McCall Smith is a lovely break. His stories are populated by very real characters, and you won't like all of them!  But somehow, the very realness of people getting on despite whatever comes their way at work, at home, in politics - is incredibly comforting.  While the Isabel Dalhousie series remains my favorite thus far, I do love Bertie!!  In both of these collections, you can count on Mr. Smith to include art, Scottish history, music, gardens, a real feeling for Scotland generally and Edinburgh in particular.  I really must visit Scotland someday!

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The Man with the Silver Saab - Alexander McCall Smith.  Then there is Ulf Varg a detective in Sweden.  The focus of his work does not however, involve horror and vicious murder.  Rather, as head of the Department of Sensitive Crimes, he and his team deal with what might be considered less important injustices and the vagaries of human nature.  In this latest and third publication of his series, he remains the perfectly wrought understated man, who chooses kindness in his detective work and personal life whenever he can.  Another lovely series by this incredible author.  

To me the sign of a really good read is when you continue to think of the characters once the final page has turned.  That is true of me and these stories.   Happy reading.  ~ les