Milford Public Library

Set in the post-Civil War era, former Army Captain Jefferson Kidd makes his living reading to residents of various towns from the newspapers. During one of his readings, he is asked to bring a 10 year-old girl named Johanna, captive for four years among the Kiowa, to her aunt and uncle. She's the only survivor in her family from an Indian raid and because she was so young at the time of the kidnapping, she sees herself as a Kiowa and is very reluctant to allow the Captain to take her away.

Nonetheless, when Kidd does accept the responsibility to take her back to her aunt and uncle, the novel takes us on a 400-mile journey across Texas to get her home. The story is both about the physical voyage as well as the internal journey as they bond with each other. I highly recommend the book. The writing is really superb and the author captures the Wild West era perfectly. Most importantly, it is the relationship between the two characters that was unforgettable. Heartbreaking, tender, inspirational-the novel will stay with you a long time.

An eye-opener of a book, an important and enlightening book to read for people like myself who did not totally grasp what is happening with the refugee crisis. Written by Patrick Kingsley, the migration correspondent for the London Guardian, the book reads like adventure fiction with people smugglers, deadly treks through the Saharan Desert, and dinghies overly packed with refugees floating through the seas to their deaths-except it is all true. 

Kingsley’s eyewitness reporting shows how deplorable their current conditions are and why they must leave their countries in the Middle East and Africa and equally how horrendous is the journey to find a future in European countries. There is a story of one specific refugee whom Kingsley often accompanies as he flees his native Syria which kept me wondering and hoping that he would make his destination out of such unimaginable adversity. This is an easy to understand and compelling book. What surprised me was how well educated many of the people are and how similar their lives are to ours except they live without any hope for themselves and families in their home countries wrecked by political chaos. A very humane and compassionate writing of a catastrophic crisis that does not appear to be abating.

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

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.