The Way

Posted on March 10, 2026 by dianeledet
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I became aware of the author of this book while watching a PBS show about authors in the State of Washington. After watching his interview, I decided I needed to read his work! I’m grateful I decided to do so.

A Pilgrimage to Eternity: from Canterbury to Rome in search of a faith by Timothy Egan recounts his thousand mile pilgrimage along the Via Francigena after the death of his devout Irish Catholic mother. Egan’s journey began in Canterbury England and ended in Vatican City in Rome. Along the trail through several countries, he meets people from all over Europe who are making the same pilgrimage for one reason or another. His daughter and his wife accompany him during some of the journey, but he is alone for most of it. As he visits many holy sites, he reflects on his faith and the faith of many Saints who lived long before him.

I liked this book very much. Egan includes many fascinating historical details as well as a harsh, personal tragedy experienced by his brother, his classmates, and community in connection with a priest who was a sexual predator at their local Catholic parish years prior. This portion of the story was heartbreaking and difficult for me to read because I know it is an ugly, shameful truth.

The author includes many fascinating historical details about the towns he visits. It was illuminating. His descriptions of the some of the meals he enjoyed along the way made me really hungry! I enjoyed his writing style because through his eyes, I vicariously walked the pilgrimage with him.

I admire his decision to take this on pilgrimage at the age of 62 after the death of his mother. I’m very grateful he chose to share his experience with the world. I highly recommend this book!

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Letting Go

Posted on February 25, 2026 by dianeledet
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The title of The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Sayle (2022) intrigued me. The author has written quite a number of books! I’m surprised that I’ve never come across this work in the past.

This story which takes place in England, we are introduced to Jess, a thirty-something, unmarried woman whose mother recently passed away unexpectedly. Being an only child of a single mother, it is left to Jess to clear out her late mother’s house full of so many memories and things.  What we discover, is it’s not an easy thing to do. the story flicks back and forth in the life of the protagonist and I found them a little disconcerting. However, I like Sayle’s writing style. I think you did a fine job of writing in the voice of a female.

The story itself is engaging and as I read it, I thought, gosh what would my kids ever do with my many things after I’m gone? Jess does quite well in dispersing her mother’s possessions, with the exception of an old set of encyclopedias because they represent something to her personally and she just doesn’t want to let go of them. She remembers when her mom bought them many years prior and what a sacrifice it was at the time for her to purchase them. one thing leads to another and her inability to let the encyclopedias go change the course of her life and the course of other people’s lives around her.

It’s an interesting premise and the author plays it out well. You’ll need to read the novel in order to discover how Jess’s Museum of Ordinary People idea unfolds. I thought the book was a little choppy because of it jumping back and forth in time, but otherwise, I think it is clever and that my readers will enjoy it. I recommend it!

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No Mercy

Posted on February 23, 2026 by dianeledet
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As part of the winter reading challenge I’m participating in this year, which requires reading ten books from ten different countries, I read The Pearl That Broke its Shell (2014) by Nadia Hashimi, an author from Afghanistan. This is a long fictional novel which highlights the plight of women living in the male dominated society in Afghanistan.

It was difficult for me to read this story because there’s so much sorrow in it which is a woman living in the United States, I could not comprehend. I know there are different societal norms all over the globe, but reading about the female characters in this novel was heartbreaking to me. In it, women are denied the education that is given to males and they are forced into arranged marriages with men much older than themselves who often have multiple wives who mistreat each other. One of the main characters who had one half of her beautiful face was badly scarred when she was a child, eventually ending up as a guard in the King’s harem. So many of the sorrowful female characters in the story are treated like chattels being sold to the highest bidder. It made me angry. Bacha posh was a term I’d never heard before which refers in the novel to females dressing and acting as males in order to conceal themselves in public to protect themselves and to gain access to places where they would not normally be welcomed or where they would be harassed as a woman. I would not compare it to someone being transgender.

The story however is exceptionally well-written and even though it is very long, I was drawn into it. I’m grateful for the reading challenge because I otherwise never would have read a book on this subject matter. I learned more than I wanted to know.  If you think it can take it emotionally, I recommend it.

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Escape to the Country

Posted on February 20, 2026 by dianeledet
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Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (1981), is a historical fiction novel which takes place in the English countryside and London during World War Two. In it we meet a curmudgeon widower of 40 years, Mr Tom Oakley and Willie, an eight-year-old boy who has been billeted in Mr Tom’s countryside house after being evacuated from London for his safety. What ensures is one of the most tender, heart-wrenching, redemptive stories I’ve ever read.

Soon after Willie arrives with little more than the rags on his back, Mr Tom discovers the emaciated little boy put in his charge has a very dark reality because of the way his birth mother, a religious zealot, has abused the child. As time goes by, the lives of Mr Tom and Willie are transformed for the better up until Willie’s mother arrives unexpectedly and ferrets him back to London. Mr Tom has come to love the child and after not hearing any word from him for a good length of time, even though he sent the boy with self-addressed stamped envelopes, Mr Tom takes it upon himself to journey to London in search of Willie because he fears for his safety based on what he has learned about him over time. Mr Tom loves Willie.

The story is very dark in many ways because it deals with child neglect and abuse. I do however, think it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read and one, I know I will never forget. I highly recommend it.

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Dead End

Posted on February 17, 2026 by dianeledet
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Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe is an extraordinary autobiographical story about an adolescent girl named Felicia, aka Fe Fe who lives in the soon-to-be demolished public housing project called the Robert Taylor Homes on the South side of Chicago with her older brother and their single mother. The story takes place in 1999 when the destruction of the buildings began and ends many years later after Felicia, her family and other occupants of the buildings have found new places to live and gone their separate ways.

Based on the fact that I was born and raised in one of the north suburbs of Chicago, and worked for a few companies in downtown Chicago when I was in my twenties, I am familiar with these buildings. They were subsidized housing high-rises and unfortunately, not a safe place to live or be anywhere near. As you read this deeply moving story about the everyday lives of Felicia and her family, friends and neighbors, the author brings home the day-to-day despair and difficulties encountered by its inhabitants because of gangs, drug pushers and users, all around chaos, due to the high concentration of people living in abject poverty.

At one of the companies I worked for downtown many years ago, there were two African American women who worked as key punch operators in the computer department. Their names were Virgie and Estelle. To this day I remember them talking about how they spent New Year’s Eve night crouching on the hallway floors in their apartments because so many guns were going off nearby that caused them to stay on the floor in order to be safe from being shot. As a middle class, young white woman, I couldn’t fathom it at the time. I was fortunate to live in a safe neighborhood which was vastly different from the neighborhoods they lived in. Both of the women were decent god-fearing people and I couldn’t imagine what their realities were.

In this book, the author powerfully drives home exactly what the reality was for her, her family, and others she came in contact with because she lived it. It wasn’t easy to stay on the straight and narrow path because of outside influences. Fortunately the author survived and lived to write her story.

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read and I know I will never forget it nor its message. I would say more about it, but I think it’s best for you to read Wolfe’s words as she wrote them. Highly recommended!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_Homes

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Contentment

Posted on February 16, 2026 by dianeledet
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I chose to read this touching novel, Convenience Store Woman (2018) by Japanese author Sayaka Murata, in order to meet the criteria for the winter reading challenge I am participating in which requires reading 10 different authors from 10 different countries. I am grateful for this challenge because otherwise I never would have read this particular author.

In this lovely story we meet 36-year-old Keiko Furukura  who has been employed part-time since she was 18 years old at the Smile Mart convenience store. Unlike many of her co-workers, Keiko takes her job very seriously, in fact it is her entire world. She is a simple girl without aspirations to work her way up the work ladder and neither does she ever focus on romance or marriage. Unlike her contemporaries,  her part-time job is her life and doing it to the best of her abilities is her priority.

Eventually, she succumbs to peer pressure and makes some decisions contrary to her nature which she would not otherwise have made in order to please her family and friends whose life paths are different than her own. She is content with her life until she allows others to steer her course.

Told in the first person, the reader is fortunate to walk in the protagonist’s shoes. She is unlike many other people in society who are success driven and focused on keeping-up with the people next door. Keiko is simple and most likely autistic to some extent. One can’t help but love her for her innocence.

There is much to be learned from this novel and I highly recommend it!

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Tangled Web

Posted on February 12, 2026 by dianeledet
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As the catchy title, The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon (2014) hints, this historical fiction novel involves three women who are connected and have knowledge of the disappearance of New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater who mysteriously vanished in the 1930s in New York. This is one of the authors earlier novels and having read  The Frozen River which I loved, it’s evident to me, her writing has improved over the years. 

This is an interesting story, and although I’ve read a number of books about New York during the era, I’ve never heard this one before. It seems like the judge was quite a character. In the past nearly 100 years since his disappearance, many people have tried unsuccessfully to solve the case. I didn’t get the impression the author was trying to solve it but rather to conjecture what went on behind the scenes. I think she did it well. I have one small criticism which is the repetitive use of people using cigarette lighters. What was that about? If you enjoy historical fiction, I think this is one which will capture your attention. Recommended.

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Refuge

Posted on February 5, 2026 by dianeledet
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Many thanks to my Goodreads friend Carol for bringing this wonderful historical fiction book to my attention. The Girl From the Train by South African author Irma Joubert is a gripping story about a six-year-old German Jewish girl named Greti Schmidt. In this novel we encounter her, her older sister, her mother and grandmother on a train bound for Auschwitz. Quite by accident, Polish resistance fighters blow up a bridge just prior to the train crossing it. Fortunately, Greti and her sister were able to escape the train before it crossed the bridge. Because of this, they are the only two who survive the train crash, but Greti s sister is very ill and after they are taken in by a stranger, she dies leaving Greti completely alone in Poland.

Guilt-ridden Jakób Kowalski, is the Polish resistance fighter who blew up the bridge. He takes Greti into his parent’s home where’s she resides for a number of years until it becomes difficult for them to accommodate her needs. Greti is an extremely intelligent young girl who loves to read. Is this story as the years unfold, Jakób makes what he believes to be the best decision for her sake by applying to a  Protestant religious organization’s effort to have World War II refugees shipped to South Africa where they will be adopted.

Young Greti is adopted, but is forced to keep her past secret because of religious differences and also the fact that she is German because of prejudices in South Africa after World War II. The narrative also follows Jakób who remains in Poland fighting for the resistance.

I was completely engrossed in this lengthy story, especially because it was written by a South African author and also because it’s a piece of World War II history I was unaware of. It is well written and heartfelt. I recommend it!

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Human Kindness

Posted on February 1, 2026 by dianeledet
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After waiting in a queue for a very long time, I finally read the very popular novel, Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (2023). I imagine many of my followers have already read this amazing story, but for those of you who have not, I will share my thoughts on it.

The story takes place in Golden, a small town in Georgia where a man named Theo arrives and his acts of generosity change the complexion of many lives of the people who live there. Theo’s true identity is kept secret and this novel takes a very long time to reveal the truth about him and his life prior to arriving in town. There’s an independently owned coffee shop where a local artist is allowed to display his portraits of the inhabitants of the town. Theo notices none of them are sold and decides he wants to buy them and gifts the portraits one by one to the people who are the subjects of them. Cumulatively, the purchase of the portraits is a significant amount of money even though they are very reasonably priced.

The main characters in this story are well defined and believable and the writing is superb. I don’t want to reveal too much more about this story in the event you’ve not read it yet. What I do want to say is this novel is Golden. It will remain with me for a very long time because it touched my heart. Highly recommended!!

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Perspective

Posted on February 1, 2026 by dianeledet
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No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister (2023) is an interesting novel in which the author demonstrates the adage that no two people read the same book. As a reader, we first meet the author of a book about a man named Theo which was ironic to me because I recently read Theo of Golden. There’s no connection between the stories. The author of Theo in this novel is named Alice and we learn about her, and with her novel as the thread, the lives of several people who read Theo, which becomes best seller, and the impact it makes on their lives. I like the concept of that. Small tidbits of Alice’s novel Theo are included but we’re never given insight into that story which is being passed in one way or another to a number of people from different walks of life.

I like the concept of this book, but as I was reading it, never thought of it in the light of which it was written by Erica until I listened briefly to the lengthy epilogue interview. I did enjoy the author’s style of writing. This is the second of her novels I have read. I was greatly disappointed in the end of the novel. Because I listened to the audiobook, I hit rewind a few times thinking I must have missed something because in my opinion, it was so good up until the very end.

One thing I would like to share, as a person who writes book reviews, is that there have been times when I really loved or disliked a book when others have come away with a completely opposite opinion of it. That’s okay with me! We are all different and bring a variety of thoughts and emotions to whatever we read.  We all have a right to our own opinions and I respect that. As I wrote earlier I wish the ending had been different, but the writing is good and I subsequently recommend this novel. I’d love to hear your impressions of it!

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