Poetry of Reading

Styron’s novel is quite different from most Holocaust novels in that it depicts the reflections of a non-Jewish survivor. Sophie is interesting for so many reasons, and there were so many layers to her as a person. Some of them conflicted with each other and Styron depicted contradicting attitudes. In essence, Sophie was so human.

Sensitive readers will find parts of Sophie’s Choice difficult, almost unbearable, to read. At the same time, it is a beautifully written, tragic, love story.

The story is centered around Polly, a woman in her thirties, who loses her job and her boyfriend. Her long-term boyfriend lost his business, so they bankrupted. He leaves her and goes back home to his mother, and Polly is left on her own, so she goes to the only place she can afford, Cornwall. Cornwall is such a different place. In that old cottage, Polly finds a friend, an injured puffin. Neil is not her pet, he is her only friend on the lonely nights. Not knowing what to do with herself, Polly starts to bake. She has always loved baking, but for her ex-boyfriend, it was just goofing around. Her fresh bread smells all around the cottage, so local fishermen soon become her friends. Especially Tarnie. Huckle also becomes a person close to her heart, but things with Chris, her ex, aren’t settled yet. Polly is new in the town, and the old lady who owns the local bakery isn’t happy with her baking for the fishermen. Polly has to find a way to win her heart and finally settle down and decide what she wants in life.

Polly is such an adorable character. She has a heart of gold and is always there to help. She is also very moral. I was so proud of her when she broke up the relationship as soon as she found out the guy was married.

The story for The Little Beach Street Bakery is so warm and sprinkled with flour and sugar. It’s not just a story about cooking, but also about being brave and taking things into your own hands again. It’s about making a life worth living. An enjoyable warm story that will melt your heart.

The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn is based on a fiction diary that is delivered to Elizabeth by Lady Mathilda Sommerville, who attended Anne Boleyn during her last moments at the Tower of London. A puzzled Elizabeth begins to read the diary where the mother she never knew suddenly begins speaking from beyond the grave. Robin Maxwell’s Anne Boleyn is a clever but helpless girl who is pressured into Henry’s life by her father’s unabated ambition. Henry’s incessant and extravagant wooing is described most passionately and powerfully. The diary is rich with well-known historical details, but hearing them in Anne’s own words tugs at the reader’s heart more than simple words on a page usually do. This novel was an incredibly emotional read. It takes a brilliant writer to arouse such emotion for a woman who died over four hundred years ago, yet the author pulled it off brilliantly. Although the words in the diary are entirely fiction, they can’t be far from what Anne Boleyn was thinking and feeling as England’s mighty King Henry VIII courted and then disgraced her. This book was beautifully written and makes one wonder how England’s greatest monarch, Elizabeth I, really felt about her Mother, Anne Boleyn. In The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Anne’s diary serves as a lesson to Elizabeth to never fully surrender to a man as Anne did to King Henry. Many biographers have speculated that Elizabeth’s decision to remain unwed was a result of her mother’s demise. I suppose we will never really know why Elizabeth remained single.

We all know the story of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I but this took a different turn with the fictional discovery of a personal diary written by Anne throughout her exciting lifetime. I felt that it stayed close enough to the facts while providing an interesting backup of the possible emotions and motivations behind the real story.

This book touched me in ways I can’t even begin to explain! The passion, the love, the choices, and the heartbreak left me utterly exhausted. Lucy and Gabe came alive for me at the skilled hands of the brilliant author.

The story of two people and their intertwined lives, ‘The Light We Lost’ captivated me from beginning to end. This is the kind of book you can read over and over again because the characters are simply so real. This story spans years and examines how the choices we make can change the course of our lives forever. Lucy and Gabe - first love and true love, even though time and circumstances keep them apart.

Beautiful book about love and loss. I think we can all point to our Gabe and if you’re lucky, you can point to your Darren. Makes me realize that even though it’s hard to let go, the best thing to do is to let the past be the past. Our lives go in directions you may never have thought they would go, but you can’t live in the past or in what could have been. Love and life are hard, and this book exposes that!