Ann F's Book Suggestions for our September Book

Following are the book selections for our September meeting.  Ann F.

 Chasing China; A Daughter's Quest for Truth by Kay Bratt

Mia is a confused soul. After being adopted as a toddler, she's led a life of comfort surrounded by loving parents and a pack of protective brothers. Now she's in college with only a few years until obtaining a degree that will allow her to use her past to help others. Then why all of a sudden does she feel so unsettled? It all boils down to the reality that she was found wandering alone in a Chinese train station so long ago. Deciding she must face her past to embrace her future, Mia takes a journey to the mysterious land of her birth on a mission to find answers. As she follows the invisible red thread back through her motherland, she finds herself enamored by the history and culture of her heritage--strengthening her resolve to get to the truth, even as
Chinese officials struggle to keep it buried. With her unwavering spirit of determination, Mia will battle the forces stacked against her and face mystery, danger, a dash of romance, and finally a conclusion that will change her life.  

 

Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely

 

When 30-year-old archaeologist Alex Voormann’s bright, ambitious wife, Isabel, is killed in a bicycle accident, he is faced with a momentous decision. She had filled out a donor card, and the hospital staff are requesting his permission to take her heart for a woman who would die without a transplant. Even a full year after he signed off on the procedure, Alex is still conflicted about the decision, so when Janet Corcoran, the mother of two whose life Isabel saved, contacts him, he becomes angry. Her gratefulness reminds him all over again of his grievous loss, and he can’t help but feel resentful that her good fortune came at his expense; meanwhile, his mother-in-law has a totally different reaction, believing that her daughter’s generous spirit lives on in Janet. Author Lovely patiently and tenderly details all of the emotions of his principal characters as they deal with grief, loss, and survivor’s guilt. A sensitive debut novel that assiduously avoids the sentimental while facing up to the difficulties of finding one’s way back to emotional and physical health.

 

Come Back to Me by Melissa Foster

 

Tess Johnson has it all: her handsome photographer husband Beau, a thriving business, and a newly discovered pregnancy. When Beau accepts an overseas photography assignment, Tess decides to wait to reveal her secret--only she's never given the chance. Beau's helicopter crashes in the desert.

Tess struggles with the news of Beau's death and tries to put her life back together. Alone and dealing with a pregnancy that only reminds her of what she has lost, Tess is adrift in a world of failed plans and fallen expectations. When a new client appears offering more than just a new project, Tess must confront the circumstances of her life head on.
Meanwhile, two Iraqi women who are fleeing honor killings find Beau barely alive in the middle of the desert, his body ravaged by the crash. Suha, a doctor, and Samira, a widow and mother of three young children, nurse him back to health in a makeshift tent. Beau bonds with the women and children, and together, with the help of an underground organization, they continue their dangerous escape. What happens next is a test of loyalties, strength, and love.

 

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

 

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris. As Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history and pours himself into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises, Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Eventually they find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
 A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.