It's Monday! What Are You Reading is hosted by Book Journey, a weekly meme.
Last week I read:
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and Best Staged Plans
Both read and posted on my blog this past week.
This week I am reading:
Jerusalem Maiden
By Talia Carner
Esther Kaminsky knows that her duty is to marry young and produce many sons to help hasten the Messiah's arrival; that is what is expected of young
ultra-orthodox women in Jerusalem at the end of the Ottoman empire's rule.
But when her French teacher catches Esther' extrodinary doodling and gives her colored pencils and art lessons, Esther wonders of G-d has a special destiny for her. Maybe she is meant to be a artist, not a mother. Maybe she meant to travel to Paris, not stay in Jerusalem. However when tragedy strikes her family, Esther takes it as his warning. Sacrificing her yearning to paint, she devotes herself instead to following G-ds path. In the coming years, Esther struggles finding both comfort and repression in G-d's decrees. Trusting the rituals of faith while supressing her desires until a surprising opportunity forces itself into her prerordained path.
By Diane Spechler
After her father's death 26 year old Gray Lachmann findes herself compulsively eating. Desperate to stop bingeing, she abandons her life in NYC for a job at a southern weight-loss camp. There caught among the warring egos of her devious co couselors, Sheena; the self aggrandizing camp director; Lewis, his attractive assistant. Bennett; and throng of combative teenage campers she is confronted by a camptivating mystery; her teenage half sister, Eden , whom Gray never knew existed. Now, while unraveling her father's lies, Gray must tackle her owne self-deceptions and take control of her body and her life.
The Beach Tree
Karen White
Julie first knew loss at the age of 12, when her younger sister disappeared from their backyard never to be found. At her once close knit family grew apart, Julie's mother obsessively searched for the young girl, and when her mother died, Julie took up the search. Even as she went on with life, discovering a love for art that she attributes to her painter great grand father, she never let go of the hope that she might find her sister.
Then while working at an auction house in NY, Julie meets Monica Guidry. A struggling artist and single mother who reminds Julie so much of her sister that she can't help feeling drawn to her and even a bit protective. Monica paints a vivid picture of her southern family throught stories, but never says why or how she lost contact with them. And she has another secret a heart condition that will soon take her life.
Feeling as if she's lost her sister a second time, Julie inherits from Monica a valuable portrait-as well as custody of her young son. taking him to Bilouxi, Mississippi, to meet the faimily he's never known, Jukie discovers a connection of her own. The portrait, which depicts a prominent Guldry family member, was done by her great grandfather and unlocks a surprising family history.
Can't wait to dive right in. What are you reading? or expecting to read this week?
I would love to know.