In a beautiful, untamed wilderness in a small town in British Columbia, at the break of the spirited 1970s, Maggie and Jenny Dillon call an unfinished cabin home. Their quiet, kind-hearted father Patrick and their adventurous mother Irene manage a life at once unconventional, but full of love and contentment. Maggie, a child in the grip of constant worry, is at her father’s side with every possible moment. The pair’s greatest happiness is found in nature as Patrick teaches Maggie how to build shelters and survive off the land. But their world is shaken when tragedy strikes and Patrick is killed in an accident, leaving a ten year-old Maggie, her mother and sister to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Rules of Civility is the story of Katey Kontent, a spirited young woman endeavoring to live a full life in Manhattan during the fizzy Jazz Age. Through the pages of the book Katey takes us on an honest, somewhat deadpan tour of the whirlwind year that was 1938: from New Year's to New Year's and with little time for rest in between, we see her glide from a boarding house to the upper reaches of Manhattan's high society, with all of the loves and losses along the way. The city comes alive through the bold protagonist and the other characters illustrated, particularly her roommate and best friend, audacious Eve Ross, and the man who changes both of their lives, the enigmatic Tinker Grey. The connection between Katey and Tinker is instantaneous, but their story is as cryptic as real life.
Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo
In 2003 journalist Annia Ciezadlo accompanied her Lebanese husband, Mohamad, to Baghdad where he was sent to report for an American newspaper. They went first to Beirut where they met Mohamad's family, then back to New York where they were civilly married, and eventually on to Iraq: the honeymoon. Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love and War is Ciezadlo's spectacular account of her journey into a country at war, of the people she met along the way, and of the food that brought them all together. Early in the pages of the book Ciezadlo writes, "The truth is I was never all that interested in the Middle East". It’s a simple observation that draws you into her story with the understanding that you – and anyone else – is welcome in reading, that you have every right to venture into the pages. It also illustrates the honesty with which she approaches the topic, and all the smaller topics within the book. It’s her non-political approach that makes Day of Honey a reading experience everyone will likely be affected by; and she cultivates her ability to guide us through the topic by speaking languages that we all understand: family, friendship, and food.
Travels: Collected Writings, 1950-1993 by Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles (1910-1999) was famous as a composer and novelist (most notably for his very successful classic The Sheltering Sky), but he was also an expatriate with a vast appreciation for other cultures, scenes and societies. His unique perspective of life, his boldly honest examination of foreign cultures and his respectable appreciation for the natural landscapes of the world are all illustrated best and beautifully through his own words. I think, in some way, he knew that words would be the most accurate instrument with which to relay his feelings for the places he visited throughout his life; and so, he wrote.
He wrote often, and he wrote in passionate detail about every aspect of the world as seen through the wide-open eyes of a dedicated wanderer. In Travels, we are given the broadest look into his world through thirty-nine collected writings - from articles to essays and even book introductions - that tell, in his own words, of the experiences he had and the ideas he gathered throughout his vibrant traveling life.