Tuesday's Book Review(s)

I think this has been the era of books that twine modern day story with history. I recently read three books that included this element. They all follow stories from present day as well as others from history. I loved all three. I was truly pleased at how easy they were to keep the different character's stories separate. I think that sometimes the time jump can get pretty confusing, but none of these books were hard to follow.


The Forgotten Garden follows a young girl as she is abandoned on a ship in England headed for Australia. She is taken in by a family in Australia, but the little girl won't tell them who she is or where she is from. When Nell is 21 her father tells her for the first time what happened to her as a young child. The story follows her quest to find her family, her niece, and her long lost relatives.


Roses takes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town's founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been--not just for themselves but for their children, and children's children. (Excerpt taken from good reads.) This book tells the stories of 3 generations of Texans.


Sarah's Key starts with the little known Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup in Paris in 1942. Parisian soldiers rounded up all the Jews in Paris in the middle of the night and placed them in a large arena for days before shipping them off to a French camp. There the men and women were separated from the children, then shipped off to Auschwitz in Germany. The Germans only wanted the adults, but the children were later sent to the camps as well. Sarah's family is rounded up, but not before she locks her 4-year-old brother in a secret cupboard thinking that she would be back in a few hours to free him. Her story is twined with 2002 Julia's story who is asked to write a 60th anniversary piece on the little known day in France. She stumbles upon this family secret that connects her to Sarah and is compelled to find out more about Sarah's story. The findings make her reevaluate her own life.