These three books—a couple new ones and another I’m finally getting around to reading—are what I shared this month on Good Day Alabama on WBRC Fox 6.
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson
By Ellen Baker
This page-turning novel blends historical elements with a coming-of-age story. In 1924, 4-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to return. She does not, and at age 7, Cecily is sold to a traveling circus to be the “little sister” of a glamorous bareback rider. The circus offers Cecily the family she’s always wanted, but when she’s 15 Cecily falls in love with a roustabout and their relationship puts them both in danger. Fast-forward to 2015 and Cecily is 94 with a loving family—her daughter, granddaughter and great-grandson—and a lifetime of secrets. Her great-grandson is doing a DNA project at school, so those secrets won’t be secret for long. This is a book about human kindness and cruelty, love and forgiveness, secrets and acceptance set in a circus, a tuberculous sanatorium and in a quiet Midwest town.
This Book Will Bury Me
by Ashley Winstead
This book, published just last month, is quite buzzy—and for good reason. It’s a chilling, creepy story of five amateur sleuths and their hunt for an elusive killer. It’s a hunt that will bring them worldwide attention and personal peril. Grief-stricken after the death of her father, 24-year-old Jane Sharp finds friendship and purpose (and an obsession with true crime) when she connects online with a group of armchair detectives. After solving a crime with them close to home, Jane and her friends set out to solve the shocking murders of three college girls—the Delphine murders. The more they look, the more everything doesn’t add up and soon they begin to suspect that the killer might be smarter and more prolific than they thought. The story picks up a year after the case, with Jane finally breaking her silence about the truth of what happened.
March
By Geraldine Brooks
This Pulitzer Prize-winning book of historical fiction has been out for a long time, but I’m just now getting to it. It is unforgettable. Brooks sets the story—a love story—against the backdrop of the Civil War. She also has as the protagonist the absent father, March, from Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women. March has left his beloved girls and wife to be a chaplain in the Union Army. His letters home don’t begin to share his experiences. These are experiences that will change his marriage and challenge his beliefs. These are experiences that will stay with the reader long after the book is finished.
I link to Amazon to show you exactly what book I’m talking about, but I love to shop locally at Church Street Coffee and Books, The Alabama Booksmith, Little Professor, and Thank You Books in Crestwood. And I visit my local library often in person and online!
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