Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

It feels good to be back into the reading scene again! My normal routine of sitting in a cozy spot with a hot beverage and a good book had been taken over by nights of reading professional books, grading assessments, organizing a classroom and curriculum binders, and settling into the routines of the first weeks of school. It's been crazy! Oh, how I miss my books and having that free time to myself. But I love my job and wouldn't change it for the world. My students are wonderful! I just love them and know that it's going to be a great year for all of us! And now that we have all hit the ground running at a steady pace, I can get back into a normal routine for myself at home ~ mainly my passion for reading!

I picked up Hillary Jordan's Mudbound a while ago at Borders when they were having their going-out-of-business sales. My friend Pam had recommended it to me. Pam is awesome! She reads everything and always fills me in on the best books, and this was no exception. Mudbound is a fabulous, intense, emotional read. Only a few other books have ever brought me to tears, and this is now one of them.

Set in rural Mississippi during World War II, Mudbound is a shocking and honest look into the world of hate and racial discrimination. Told from the perspective of several narrators, both black and white, Jordan allows her readers to develop deep, personal, sympathetic connections with her some of her characters and a deep, emotional disgust for others. It's a tale of two families and how their lives have been torn apart from the same tragedy and their own unique way of dealing with the tragedy. What a great novel to get me back into routine! It just enveloped me and evoked so many emotions and is a true example of why I love literature.

13 Rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro

I fell in love with this book before I even read the first word.  The black and white photograph on the front cover sparks an instant sense of mystery. There is something about her shabby, unkempt hair that makes me wonder ~ Who is this woman? and Why is her appearance shaggy and unkempt, or is this just the style of the time?

Colored photographs of artifacts, again, items telling of the time and history of the world, greet the reader every few pages and was the second thing about his novel that caught my eye.  These items are the personal affects of a woman named Louise Brunet, and they open the reader to a world of mystery and wonder about their initial owner.  Letters, postcards, photographs, gloves, pen holders made from German bullets are a few of the artificats whose own stories are pieced together revealing the life behind the mysterious woman on the front cover, Louise Brunet.