Stella Bain

I have always been a fan of Anita Shreve, and this novel did not disappoint. It's thoughtful, heartbreaking, profound, and, in a way, uplifting. And like all of Shreve's work, it's beautifully written.

In a field hospital in Marne, France, during WWI, a young woman awakes, injured, with no idea who she is. After a time she comes to believe that her name is Stella Bain, and that she is a nurse's aid and ambulance driver. It turns out she is also an adept artist. In the back of her mind is the idea that she must get to London, to the Admiralty - though she is American, not British. But she somehow makes her way to London, where she is taken in by the Bridges - he is a cranial surgeon, and he and his wife Lily care for Stella, and he tries to help her with her amnesia and distress.

We soon learn that Stella isn't Stella, and that she has left behind a very complicated life in America. Shreve deftly uses straight narration, flashbacks, and letters to get us from France to London to New Hampshire. Through it all she paints a portrait of a woman who is strong, kind, independent, and loving. It's a truly moving story.

Stella Bain

Maybe in Another Life

Okay, so the first few pages of this book all I could think was "chick-lit," and only the excellent reviews it received kept me reading past the first few pages. Boy am I glad I did! The story just sucked me in and I pretty much could not put the book down.

The novel follows the main character, Hannah, a woman in her late-20's who has sort of drifted from city to city, job to job, never finding what she is looking for. In the first chapter she is moving back to her hometown of Los Angeles, where she will stay with her BFF Gabby and Gabby's husband Mark until she finds a job and gets her life together. One night right after her arrival, Gabby arranges for a bunch of old friends to get together at a local bar, including Hannah's high school boyfriend Ethan. At the end of the evening, Hannah has to decide between staying out with Ethan, or going home with Gabby and Mark. And when she decides... this is where the story gets interesting.

The author, Taylor Jenkins Reed, presents us with alternating chapters outlining what happens if Hannah makes each of these decisions - so basically, two different realities. As time progresses, we see how one little, seemingly mundane, decision can change just about everything. It's a pretty deep, philosophical, even cosmic discussion, dressed up as an entertaining novel about a young woman making her way in the world. And I loved it!

Maybe in Another Life

A Price to Pay

I really enjoyed this novel, which uses a very interesting premise to tell the stories of three very different people. The author Alex Capus, starts at a train station in Zurich in 1924 where the paths of Emile Gillieron, Felix Bloch, and Laura d'Oriano cross - though they never meet - to take us on a journey through each of their rich and at times interwoven paths.

Emile is one of the greatest art forgers of his day, who works with a renowned archaeologist in Greece to recreate ancient artifacts. Felix is a gifted scientist who finds his way to New Mexico and works with Robert Oppenheimer. And Laura is a moderately talented singer with a gift for languages who eventually becomes a spy for the Allies. Capus chronicles their lives along the way, and in doing so paints a portrait of prewar and wartime Europe.

This isn't an epic, and it's a very nice read. I highly recommend it.

A Price to Pay

The Virgin's Daughter

This is now the second of Laura Anderson's books that I've read, and I really like them. She has a whole series in which she rewrites history, imagining what had happened if Henry VIII had a son that had lived, and focusing on him (William), his sister Elizabeth, and their close friends Dominic and Minuette. In this novel, William has been dead for several years so Elizabeth is queen, and she has born a princess, Anne, through her marriage to King Phillip of Spain.

Anne is now 18-years-old and her closest friends are the children of Dominic and Minuette, particularly the eerily wise Pippa. But this novel focuses more on Pippa's older sister Lucette, a very smart and beautiful young woman who may or may not be William's illegitimate daughter. Trying to quash a plot against the throne that may involve the LeClerc family - old friends of Dominic and Minuette, who are French Catholic - Elizabeth sends Lucette to France for a friendly visit, hoping she can bring down a spy. Lucette remembers the LeClerc boys from her childhood - Nicolas and Julien. But they are boys no longer, and she is no longer the 10-year-old girl who had a huge crush on the dashing Nicolas.

There lots of intrigue and a very thorough and well-researched re-imagining of history. If you like Philippa Gregory you will like Laura Anderson. I highly recommend it.

The Virgin's Daughter