Beth Solka

Writing a blog posting for a book that you love is as hard as describing a person whom you love. Sometimes everything that you write about a wonderful book doesn’t sound good enough. Writing about Unsaid by Neil Abramson has been one of the hardest blog postings I have ever written. That is how much I loved this book.

Neil Abramson’s debut novel is about love's power to heal grief. Dr. Helena Colden, a 37-year-old country veterinarian, dies of cancer and leaves her husband David with a menagerie of rescued animals. She can see him struggling from the other side. Helena is helplessly watching him trying to cope with his grief, as well as take care of the emotionally and physically damaged animals that he cannot relate to. David is a lawyer in New York City, so his commute and his work day are exhausting. However, he still has to deal with the demands of the dogs, cats, horses, and pig that need his care, too. These animals are also missing Helena's gentle love, and now they are left with David who doesn't understand them.

Nina Sankovitch is an avid reader as is her whole family.  They have turned to books for generations for joy and comfort.  When her sister Ann-Marie dies from cancer, Nina goes into a depression until she decides to take steps to get her life back in order by giving up her job as a lawyer and reading a book a day for a year.  This memoir is the progression that she makes from grief to joy over the course of the year.  Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is so eloquent, so beautifully written that it has become one of my favorite books. Nina shares so much wisdom that it is the kind of book that you would like to keep to read over and over again.  There were many times that I wanted to stop reading long enough to yell out, “Yes, Nina!!  You are so wonderful!” 

I picked up I Never Promised you a Goodie Bag, by Jennifer Gilbert, thinking that it would be full of hilarious mishaps that occurred at weddings and events that the Save the Date’s CEO had experienced. However, I soon found that it was something more. It is the memoir of a young woman who started out life being fiercely independent, the daughter of wealthy parents who had an import business and were frequently overseas. Jennifer traveled all over without a care in the world until at 22 years old she was attacked in the hallway of her best friends’ apartment. Her friends were too frightened or too selfish to come out, even though Jennifer was screaming for help. The girls in the apartment did call some boyfriends and they came over with baseball bats and drove the attacker away.  

One of my customers recently called to tell me that she really enjoyed Hinds’ Feet on High Places.  This is an inspirational novel that has been described as Christian fiction at its best.  It got its name because the girl in the novel wants to be like the deer in her mountains that have special feet that allow them to leap and play high up.  She, too, wants to be free of fear and strives to be a courageous person who can overcome her limitations with the help of her God.  She wants to rework herself into a better and more spiritual person.

My son and I were discussing books the other day, and he asked me, “Would you recommend a book in a blog that you didn’t completely love?”  I thought for a minute and said, “No”.  He asked why not, and I replied, “What if someone noticed the blog who didn’t love books?  What if they just wanted to try reading a book for the first time in a long while?  I couldn’t recommend a book that I thought maybe they would like or maybe not.  I have to feel strongly about the book. I want people to love books as much as I do.”

Nocturnal, by Scott Sigler, is a detective novel that involves the supernatural.  So if you love both genres as I do, this is a glorious combination.  The characters are so well-developed that several reviewers described this novel as Sigler’s attempt to write like Stephen King.  I don't know if that is true, but I just think that Sigler has always been known as a fast-paced horror writer. In Nocturnal he adds more character and depth to the plot. 

A customer recently called me to tell me that he loved The President’s House, by Margaret Truman, so when I gave a talk in Northern Virginia a few days later, I passed on the recommendation to the group. The next customer who read it just called to tell me that he is really enjoying this book, too. Several of the book reviews said that it is a fun and interesting look at the White House written by a woman who has a deep love for this national icon because she was lucky enough to grow up there. 

A patron called me this week to say that he loved Crashers, by Dana Haynes, so much that he didn’t even want to stop the audio book to go to sleep at night!  That is an excellent endorsement!  He wanted more books by this author, and we found out that this was the debut novel of Dana Haynes.

It is about an airliner that crashes outside of Portland, Oregon, and a team of experts assembled to investigate the cause of the crash. Some of the members of the team are: Kiki Duvall, a “sonar witch”--a recorder specialist who can hear things that other people cannot; John Roby, a former cop and bomb expert; Walter Mulroney who can build any plane given the right number of bolts; engineer Peter Kim, pilot  and former F.B.I. agent Isaiah Grey; pathologist Tommy Tomzak; and the leader,  Susan Tanaka who is an intergovernmental liason.  They soon discover that this plane crash was no accident--it was a trial run. 

I loved my Southern Mama and my Southern Grandma, so when I found Suck in Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On! I knew that I would love it, too.  It is chock full of wisdom from mothers across the South--plus a running commentary by the author which is hysterical!

There are such wonderful pearls of wisdom as:

"My mom’s advice on raising children:  ‘If it washes off or grows out, it doesn’t hurt anyone.  Don’t worry about it!’”

“Mama said, ‘Just because it fits doesn’t mean you oughta wear it.’”

“My mama told me ladies never answered the door barefoot!”

“My grandmother advised me to marry a man my age or a little younger, ‘because they don’t improve with age.’  I now know what she meant.’”

Many of you may not know that the National Library Service has been keeping the full libraries of Guitar by Ear and Piano by Ear lessons available for its clients to check out. The most recent order of 117 titles will mean they have well over 900 “by ear” titles ready for loan to their patrons.

Every once in a while a patron will call me to tell me how much they enjoyed a book.  Now I have a blog to share these sentiments with you.  The Jefferson Key (DB 73400) by Steve Berry is a book that received a glowing endorsement from a patron. 

Steve Berry has written a series of books using the character of Cotton Malone, a former Justice Department operative, who gets caught up in historical mysteries. In the newest book of the series, four presidents have been assassinated.  Were the assassinations unrelated or were the presidents all murdered for the same reason?  After saving the current president from an assassination plot, Cotton Malone realizes that he has angered a secret society.  The hunt for  that society leads him on a fast-paced chase that is highly thrilling.

Berry always does incredible research for his novels and even lets the reader know what is fiction and nonfiction at the end of the book. If you are looking for a good conspiracy theory, this might be it!