The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease

This is a sequel to The Illuminator - helps to read that one first but I think this one could stand alone as well.

If you like Ken Follett and the whole Pillars of the Earth series, or just historical fiction in general, you will LOVE these books.  Beautifully written, very descriptive of the times (1400's England and Prague), a love story for the ages - several in fact, and the illegal selling of English translations of The Bible.  GASP!  The powers that be in the church do not like the idea of the common man being able to interpret The Word, so harsh punishment and agonizing death are the penalty for such actions.  Still, Anna, whose bookseller grandfather whisks her from England in order to safely continue to copy the English books, carries on this dangerous family tradition.  When she is forced to return to England as a young adult, she meets Brother Gabriel, who is having a crisis of faith but has been sent to weed out these criminals.

Ok, so pretty predictable, but oh so fascinating.  And it is definitely not a traditional man meets girl story - there is so much detail here and plotting and disguising and FAITH.  How ironic would it be if the girl is more faithful than the priest?  What IS faith?  How far would you go for it?    Helpers and distractors abound, and a helpful hand from Anna's past becomes key to her future and her definition of self. 

Great historical fiction and very well done!!!!  There is a third book set during Henry VIII's reign - putting that one on my list!!! (The Heretic's Wife)

The Last Anniversary by Lianne Moriarty

I listened to this one on Audible.  I always then wonder how I would have reacted to this story had I read it on paper.  I don't use Audible much, but had purchased this book a while back and really like this author.

At first, I was not sure I would get through it.  The pace was SO SLOW.  The main character was SO ANNOYING.  And there was a lot of flashbacking that seemed to go on and on and on.  AND, it wasn't until about 2/3 of the way through that I understood the title.  Annoying.

Other than that, this was FANTASTIC!!!  So many fabulous characters, and the narrator gave great voices to each, usually very distinctively.  Like all of Moriarty's books, this is set in Australia, so this American loved the accents.  Also like Moriarty's other stories, this one has a central mystery, a family (or two) with varied characters, and a WHOLLOP of an ending I did not see coming.  I solved the mystery pretty quickly - both of them actually - but a third lesser mystery came back and smacked me up right at the end, which of course I loved.  Loved loved loved this ending.  Not so much because it was all tied up in a big bow - but just because it was REAL.  It was creative where all the people end up.  Not what I expected.  C'est la vie, much??

While I think we all know Sophie is our main character here, I really liked the portrayal of Grace in this story.  I also loved how frustrating Veronica was - she had some really great and acerbic lines.  I rolled my eyes several times at her!  I also laughed out loud a few times too.  Aunt Connie seemed quite the matriarch - everyone on Scribbly Gum Island was afraid of her I think - and her sister Aunt Rose was the quiet little mouse.  Margie's struggle was real and her story a bit vague, until it wasn't.  HAHA!  And Laura was just absent until the climatic and necessary place that might well have redeemed her as a mother.  Maybe.

So are you getting that this is like an Amazon Island?  All women?  It is not, but they are the focus, they are the drive, they are the heart.  The husbands and sons and former boyfriends and potential boyfriends are sidelines at best.  Necessary, but not central.  Huh.

There are many storylines going on at once here that all come to a head around the same time.  Sophie inherits a house on the island from her ex-boyfriend's great aunt and moves out to this small island dominated by this one family.  She is still single and almost 40 and is desperate to marry and have a baby.  She is pretty and cheerful cultured and the light of the party.  While most of the family welcomes her, Veronica is upset that she got Aunt Connie's house and she is not even family - she dumped poor Thomas!  She is always angry about something, and mostly about the family mystery - whatever happened to Veronica's great-grandparents, who disappeared leaving a baby (her grandmother) behind?  Her grandmother Enigma - so named by Connie and Rose, who found the poor babe in the house they rented to her parents Alice and Jack Munro, due to the mystery of her parents - loves being known as the Munro baby (I might be spelling all these names wrong - another thing that I don't like about audio books, but oh well, I got 30+ hours of an Australian accent so......).  Enigma's other granddaughter Grace has just had a baby and is not sure what to do with it.   Add in those pesky husbands and ex-boyfriends and the sexy gardener and you've got yourself a soap opera stew!!!

Fun read, great to listen to.  It definitely picks up maybe about halfway through and then I was walking around my house in circles with my headphones on all Sunday afternoon because I couldn't take them out. 

Just doesn't sound the same as I couldn't put it down, but that is what I mean.  I could not WAIT to see (hear?) what was going to happen and what DID happen to Jack and Alice and WILL Sophie ever for the love of God land a man and have a baby and will Veronica just shut UP!  Safe to say I will read anything by Moriarty - she is GOOD.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

"To be allowed, no, invited, into the private lives of strangers, and to share their joys and fears, was a chance to exchange the Southern bitter wormwood for a cup of mead with Beowulf or a hot cup of tea and milk with Oliver Twist."

"To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision."

Need I say more??

What a beautiful, heartbreaking story of growing up.  Of growing up hard, poor, black, female.  I can't believe I have never read Maya Angelou.  Thank you to my niece for giving me the entire set of Angelou's memoir.  This was just book one and takes us through the first 16 years of Angelou's life.  And what experiences she has - joyous, traumatizing, shocking and eye-opening. I did love learning why she is called Maya, and what her given name is.   I can't wait to see what happens next.  And what sentences I will mark and quote in the remaining volumes!!!!