January's Reading List

One of my goals for the new year is read at least two books a month, alternative fiction and nonfiction. I really wanted that goal to be 4 books a month, but I occasionally let some reality in. Unless, of course, one of the nonfiction books could be a cookbook, then I would be there!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The author does a fantastic job of bringing complex characters to life through the voices and dialects in The Help.  Set during 1962 in Birmingham, Mississippi, The Help brings history to life through the telling of everyday struggles in the midst of a radically changing world.


Beneath These Mountains by Russell A Bankson

When I was home last, my step-dad pulled out a stack of books he has on the history of the settlement and development of Spokane and northern Idaho.  Beneath these Mountains was one of those loaners.  A work of nonfiction, many of the characters could be mistaken for the creation of someone's imagination!  Written in the late 1960s, Beneath these Mountains chronicles the characters and adventures of the individuals responsible for the great mining boom in the Coeur d'Alene mountains in the mid 1800s and early century.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

I read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet on the recommendation of a friend and loved it. I took it on my flight to DC with me, mostly because it was already overdue back to the library. I read about half on the flight out, and cried through most of it. I finished it staying up too late in the hotel.  If I had read it on the flight home, the flight crew would have been seriously concerned because I cried even more in the second half. The story is a beautifully written love story that takes place between a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl in Seattle just before and during the US internment of the Japanese.