Historical fiction about the adult life of American painter Georgia O’Keeffe and her relationship with husband-photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Gorgeously written, the author reveals O'Keefe’s hopes and dreams, her disappointments and her joys. The book begins with her first meeting with her husband and brings us to her later years in Taos. As an art fan of O’Keefe, I loved this very intimate portait of the artist! “Tripp inhabits Georgia’s psyche so deeply that the reader can practically feel the paintbrush in hand as she creates her abstract paintings and New Mexico landscapes.” From USA Today review
Euphoria by Lily King
Historical fiction of three anthropologists studying tribes in New Guinea in the 1930s and how the three interact not only with the indigenous people but with each other. This atmospheric story, providing vivid details of tribes living along the Sepik River of the South Pacific is based loosely on the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead. With exotic settings, intriguing characters, a romantic triangle, this stimulating tale is ultimately one of self-discovery and self -destruction.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
In 1922, 33-year-old Count Alexander Rostov is ruled an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and sentenced to house arrest for life in the Metropol, a grand luxurious hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, a man of grace and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and while he had lived in grand style for four years at the hotel he must now live in an attic room while Russia faces revolutionary changes. His confinement actually provides him far richer relationships and adventures than in his previous and purposeless life.
The story is filled with a group of memorable characters each of whom impacts and changes the Count’s life and is filled with wonderful thought-provoking observations of life. This is a character-driven novel-one to savor slowly One of my all-time favorite books! While I don't usually reread books this one deserves a second reading to uncover all of its layers of richness.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
A memoir from a passionate paleobotanist, Jahren writes an engaging, elegant and humorous account of her childhood in Minnesota, how she grew to love trees and plants, her early experiences in laboratory work, her battle with anxiety and depression, and the longtime friendship with her quirky, beloved lab partner, Bill. Jahren intersperses stories about plants with stories about her own life in a way that makes for a surprisingly mesmerizing read. This will have you looking at trees in a different way and even if you have no passing interest in trees, there is a lot here to keep you entertained!
Barkskins by Annie Proulx
This is a sprawling saga of a novel that begins in 17th century Canada following the fortunes and misfortunes of two families over a period of three hundred years. But it is equally the story of our forests and how they were destroyed by greed and about the genocide of the Native Americans.
This is not so much a character-driven ficitonal work but an insightful. historical look into the ecological costs of progress-the destruction of forests and of Native Americans as their hunting lands are destroyed and their entire lifestyle. It gave me insights about how we have destroyed the very environment on which we depend for survival.
It is a profound book but but be prepared for a long patient read that it is 700 pages.
