Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy provided by She Reads

From the publisher:

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?

As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past.

Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past.

Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.

When I found out the lovely ladies behind She Reads chose Orphan Train for our May read, I was beyond excited. I’d already been eyeing this title – ever since reading The Chaperone the concept of orphan trains has fascinated me, and I was looking forward to reading more about this interesting topic, something I’d never heard of before The Chaperone exposed me to the concept. So it goes without saying that my expectations for Orphan Train might have been a little on the high side.

Happily, this novel lived up to these too-high expectations! Orphan Train is my favorite kind of historical fiction – the kind that is built around a particular time in history, and teaches me something, but mostly is about the characters living inside the piece of history. And these characters were great. I particularly felt a connection with Molly, and truly I would have liked even more of her story to have been told in this novel. She was such a good person, deep down, who just needed an adult in her life to draw out her potential and show her what love looks like. It was such a pleasure to read as her character grew over the course of the novel and began to come into her own, inspired by the love she found in the few people around her who bothered to care.

And Vivian! The awful conditions she was forced to live with as a child astounded me, and how horrific that these adults who were charged to “take care of her” treated her in such vile, inhumane ways. It truly made me want to throw up. Or cry. Probably both. At the end of the book, when a few loose ends have finally been wrapped up for her, I wanted to sneak inside the pages and hug her like I would my own grandmother. What a sweet, but incredibly resilient and strong woman she was.

Christina Baker Kline’s writing is simple but incredibly effective. I found myself racing through the pages, desperate to get to the bottom of Vivian’s story and find out if Molly would, finally, find some peace within herself. I clung to these characters and, while I wanted to know how their stories ended, I didn’t want the book itself to end. I found so much to appreciate and enjoy about this book, I truly don’t feel that I’ve explained it well enough.

Orphan Train is a beautiful historical novel that I honestly could not put down. I loved these characters and if I have any complaints about the book, I would have liked it to be even longer. I could have easily spent another 100 pages curled up with this story, with these women, as I learned about them and from their lives. Once again, She Reads does a great job with choosing their monthly selection – this was an excellent choice. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to read it.

Come August, Come Freedom by Gigi Amateau

Come August, Come Freedom by Gigi Amateau
Published by Candlewick Press
Review copy received at SIBA

Gabriel is a young slave growing up in post-Revolutionary Richmond, Virginia. He has a loving mother and a close relationship with the young son of his master, so when he is sent to the city to learn the blacksmith trade, he is nervous but determined to be a successful smith like his father was. Gabriel learns a lot and grows up quite a bit in the years he’s away from the plantation, and when he comes back, he knows exactly what he has to do: become the driving force behind a slave rebellion.

Come August, Come Freedom is a beautiful novel for the young adult reader that is inspired by actual historical events. I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since SIBA but when I learned that Amateau’s going to be at the UCF Book Festival, I really got my butt into gear and finally picked it up. What I loved about this novel is its uniqueness for the YA genre, if you will. It seems like (at least to me, anyway) everything YA is either supernatural, dystopia, or romance. Very rarely to I see a straightforward historical fiction YA novel (if you know of more, especially more recently published ones, do let me know!). Not only is Come August, Come Freedom unique, but it is exceptionally well-written and told me a story about a figure in history I had never heard of before.

Gabriel is the kind of character the reader can sympathize with immediately. He was educated alongside his master’s son, so he is a rare literate slave, and he has a determination and fiery drive inside of him that causes the reader to root for him from the beginning. He knows that his life is inherently wrong, but it’s not until he gets to the “big city” does he realize that he can actually do something to change it.

This book is really heartbreaking to read, because the reader knows that this rebellion can’t possibly end well for Gabriel and the other slaves, but it’s impossible not to remain hopeful that it will. It’s even more difficult to read because Gabriel ends up falling in love and getting married just before carrying out the rebellion, so the hope that he’ll be successful and be a free man by the time the book is over is something I continued to hold onto until the very end. History isn’t usually pretty, though, and Amateau gives Gabriel’s life and fight the respect it deserves while being honest about what really happened. It’s a reality that is necessary to read about, difficult as it may be.

I really appreciated Come August, Come Freedom on so many levels. Amateau is a talented writer and she illuminates this painful part of history for teens and middle graders with clarity, beautiful writing, and respect for that age group and what they should know about slavery. This stuff really happened, and while Amateau doesn’t shy away from the reality of the situation, she puts it out there in an age-appropriate manner – something I imagine must be difficult to do. Also she took a little-known figure in history, Gabriel, and turned him into a complex character with a mom, dad, brothers, and eventually a wife. She created a wonderful novel with so much going for it, and I am very glad I was given the opportunity to read this one. Highly recommended.

Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield

Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield
Published by MIRA, an imprint of Harlequin
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Lucy Takeda is fourteen years old when, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she and her mother are forced to leave their home, friends, and possessions and taken to the Manzanar prison camp. Separated from the one family member they have there, Lucy’s aunt, she and her mother are forced to make a new “life” in awful, unthinkable conditions. Thirty years later, Lucy’s daughter, Patty, learns of a local man who has been killed in his own home, and discovers that the police have narrowed in on her mother as a possible suspect. Patty’s concern for her mother leads her to doing some research on the man who was killed, and she discovers a connection to the prison camp she knows her mother lived in as a child but never, ever talks about. As the murder investigation continues, Lucy finally begins to open up to Patty about the horrors she suffered as a child, and Patty learns more about the horrific decisions Lucy’s mother, Miyako, was forced to make while at Manzanar.

Garden of Stones is an incredibly moving novel that will be an emotional read for even the most heartless of readers. This story of atrocities committed at a Japanese-American internment camp is incredibly difficult to read, but at the same time it’s an important read. As Americans, it’s crucial that we understand our history and the choices that we made as a country in the past so that we can make sure never to repeat them. And in Garden of Stones, Littlefield brings these atrocities to life in a way that makes the truth of what happened to Japanese-Americans during World War Two as real as possible.

Littlefield’s characters practically jump off the page in this novel, they are that authentic. I was heartbroken, breathless, and almost in tears as I read about how Lucy and her mother Miyako had to suffer the most horrific of conditions simply because they were of Japanese descent. I felt so deeply for these characters and for what they were going through, and as the book tips towards a shocking climax, I couldn’t put it down and leave these characters. I had to stick with them and find out how everything would turn out for them.

The interesting thing about Garden of Stones is that it’s apparent from the very onset that there are many secrets that Lucy is keeping from her daughter, and the reader can guess at them throughout the novel, but nothing prepares the reader for the shocking truth. The story is told in alternating chapters between past and present, so Lucy’s past is revealed at an incredibly slow pace, and this just adds to the feeling of tension and build-up in the novel.

There’s so many great things about Garden of Stones, I’ve barely skimmed the surface with this review. It’s a historical fiction novel about a dark time in American history. It’s a story with great characters that have to make difficult choices while facing impossible situations. It has a thriller feeling to it because there’s so much mystery surrounding what happened at the camp to Lucy and her mother. It’s good on so many levels, and I highly recommend reading it.

Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey
Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House
Review copy provided by the publisher

Before Marie Antoinette became THE Marie Antoinette she was a ten-year-old Austrian girl by the name of Maria Antonia, who was raised by an empress with serious political ambitions. Antonia learns at a young age that she will be married off to the dauphin of France, Louis XVI, and it is her job to make sure that not only her betrothed falls in love with her, but the entire country of France does as well.

Why did I put off reading this book for so long? Everyone told me that Becoming Marie Antoinette was captivating, well-written historical fiction, and now I see that they were right! I fell in love with the young Marie Antoinette while reading her story, and I couldn’t put this book down. It was so lovely!

The main reason I was so enthralled with this book was the character of Antonia, or Marie Antoinette, herself. The novel starts when she is a very young child, so the reader gets an inside look at what it might be like to have so much incredible pressure placed on such a young girl’s shoulders. Grey wrote her to be an incredibly mature young woman, but at the same time she was innocent of so much about life and it showed in many of her actions and decisions. She was a picture of grace when she arrived in France, but there was still so much she didn’t understand about her new surroundings and the power that came with her new place in the world.

Grey does a good job balancing the political events of the time with the personal stuff that’s going on with Marie Antoinette and her loved ones near and far. I felt like I was pulled into her life, but also that I was getting a mini-history lesson at the same time. Perfect historical fiction, in my opinion.

I liked this one so much that I went out and purchased the second in the series immediately upon finishing it! And to be honest, I don’t buy a lot of books (I’m a library girl). So that should tell you something.

Becoming Marie Antoinette was a fabulous contribution to the world of historical fiction and I’m so excited to see what Grey has coming up next for me. I absolutely recommend this one!

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory
Published by Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster
Review copy received from the publisher

From the publisher:

Descended from Melusina, the river goddess, Jacquetta always has had the gift of second sight. As a child visiting her uncle, she met his prisoner, Joan of Arc, and saw her own power reflected in the young woman accused of witchcraft. They share the mystery of the tarot card of the wheel of fortune before Joan is taken to a horrific death at the hands of the English rulers of France. Jacquetta understands the danger for a woman who dares to dream.

Jacquetta is married to the Duke of Bedford, English regent of France, and he introduces her to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the duke’s squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the duke’s death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen.

The Woodvilles soon achieve a place at the very heart of the Lancaster court, though Jacquetta can sense the growing threat from the people of England and the danger of royal rivals. Not even their courage and loyalty can keep the House of Lancaster on the throne. Henry the king slides into a mysterious sleep; Margaret the queen turns to untrustworthy favorites for help; and Richard, Duke of York, threatens to overturn the whole kingdom for his rival dynasty.

Jacquetta fights for her king, her queen, and for her daughter Elizabeth for whom Jacquetta can sense an extraordinary and unexpected future: a change of fortune, the throne of England, and the white rose of York.

So, I’m not super into history, nor did I really study it in college (psychology major = one history class in four years), but I usually enjoy historical fiction when I get my hands on it. Gregory is on of my favorites because (while I know she takes some liberties with her stories) the books are easy to read, entertaining, and she makes the characters and the time period come to life. Her books do get a bit repetitive but when I space a lot of time between them, they work for me.

Such was the case with The Lady of the Rivers. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I feel that I have a bit more insight into this period in history than I had before picking up the book. I’m pretty fuzzy on the specific details of The Cousins’ War, but Gregory does a good job of giving details and filling in background information without the reader feeling overwhelmed. It also helps to have read the first two books in this series (which I have).

I did like Jacquetta and rooted for her throughout the novel, but I did find her to be incredibly selfish, in looking out for her own and her family’s interests first and foremost. Although, I think in this period of history, everyone seemed to be out for themselves. I did admire her loyalty to the queen, and I liked the fact that she was honest with her when it seemed that most other people were just telling the queen what she wanted to hear, rather than what she needed to hear.

I definitely liked The Lady of the Rivers and plan to read the fourth book in this series soon.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Published by Hyperion Books

From the publisher:

Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it’s barely begun.When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

There has been SO MUCH hype about this book. I was almost afraid to read it because what if I didn’t like it? I have to tell you, for the first 80% of the book I don’t know that I did like it. I kept wondering what was going to make me fall in love with this novel, what could possibly happen at the end of the book that would make me change my mind about the “meh” feeling I had for most of it?

Well IT happened. And I see why everyone loves Code Name Verity so much. For me, it won’t go down as an all-time favorite but I highly appreciate what the author did with this novel. And when I finished it, I had the immediate urge to start from the first page and read it all over again. That, to me, is the mark of a good book.

I loved how the book explored a friendship, a truly honest, souls-bared friendship between two women. I loved how much these girls loved each other, perhaps more than some spouses love one another. I loved how the novel showed women actually being involved in war, actively participating as soldiers, because most war novels don’t even broach the subject of women at war.

So, I get it. I didn’t exactly fall hopelessly in love with Code Name Verity like many others did, but there was a point at which my mind was blown. Patience is the key with this one, though. You have to wait a long time to get to that point and if you aren’t paying attention throughout the whole story you can miss things. Recommended.

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
Published by Simon & Schuster
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

From the publisher:

You are about to read an extraordinary story. It will take you to the very depths of despair and show you unspeakable horrors. It will reveal a gorgeously rich culture struggling to survive through a furtive bow, a hidden ankle bracelet, fragments of remembered poetry. It will ensure that the world never forgets the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, when an estimated two million people lost their lives. It will give you hope, and it will confirm the power of storytelling to lift us up and help us not only survive but transcend suffering, cruelty, and loss.

For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours, bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as the Khmer Rouge attempts to strip the population of every shred of individual identity, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of her childhood— the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author’s extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.

Here’s the thing about In the Shadow of the Banyan: it is not an easy read. Not by a long shot. I’m not talking about the writing, or the language, or the style or any of those little things, but rather the subject matter is heartbreaking, devastating, and utterly mind-boggling to tell you the truth. The story of the Khmer Rouge, told through the eyes of a child, nearly broke me. But it is a story that needs to be shared, because many people (myself included) don’t know much about this period of history and we MUST know these things. We must.

But let’s talk about the aspects of this novel that kept me turning pages – Raami herself, the gorgeous writing, the fact that I was hoping and praying that this family would make it through these horrific conditions with some semblance of their family still together – and because of all these things, it makes the subject matter just a tiny bit more palatable.

From what I understand, Ratner herself experienced these atrocities first-hand when she was a child in Cambodia, so basically the character of Raami is a slightly older version of the author as a child. Not only does that fact make everything in this book more credible, but it makes these horrible events hit even closer to home because reading it you KNOW there is real pain and suffering behind the author’s words. It is horrible to think about but at the same time, I couldn’t help being grateful to Ratner that she had the courage to share her own experiences in such a way that became this beautiful novel.

I highly recommend In the Shadow of the Banyan. Not because you will enjoy the read necessarily, but because you will learn from it. And your heart will be forever changed by the experience of reading it.

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Published by Amy Einhorn Books, an imprint of Penguin

Timothy Wilde makes his living tending bar in New York City in 1845. But when a fire devastates much of Manhattan, including his home and job, Timothy’s brother gives him an offer he can’t refuse – to be one of the first police officers ever in the brand-new NYPD. One night, during his routine evening rounds, Timothy runs – literally – into a ten-year-old girl covered in blood. The little girl tells him that she is from the local brothel, and has escaped because there is a killer on the loose, targeting children, and that in fact there are dozens of bodies buried nearby. While Timothy doesn’t know whether to believe her or not, he sets forth on investigating her claims, and what he learns is that her stories are intricately tied to the details of his own life, and by investigating this his life will never be the same.

I wasn’t incredibly interested in reading The Gods of Gotham based on the description of it. Don’t ask me why, but for whatever reason it wasn’t speaking to me. Then my work book club chose it as our July read, and thank goodness we did because I absolutely loved this book! Everything about it was fantastic and I could not put it down. I don’t even know how to properly explain everything that I loved about it, but here goes an effort on my part to do just that.

First we have the characters. Obviously Timothy was the star of the show and I did really like him, but everyone in this novel was just so well-drawn and realistic it was hard for me to believe they weren’t actual historical figures. Valentine, Timothy’s older brother, is on the surface difficult to like but as the novel goes on we find there may be more to him than meets the eye. Silkie Marsh, the woman who runs the brothel that the little girl, Bird Daly, ran away from, is the character that the reader loves to hate – based on every piece of information given about the brothel and about Silkie herself, she is a completely despicable person, but even she can be seen in a slightly different light by the end of the book. And Mercy Underhill, Timothy’s crush and the reverend’s daughter, is a character that on the surface seems perfectly likable but I felt while reading that something was just off about her. She was elusive and so perfect in Timothy’s eyes as to cause me to think that she wasn’t so perfect after all. All of these characters, as well as many of the more minor ones, were so well-crafted, so realistic, as to make me immerse myself completely in their story – I felt that I was reading about real people, truly.

Next we have the writing. Oh my goodness does Faye know how to put a sentence together. The prose is perfect, drawing me into the story while also allowing me a few extra seconds to pause and enjoy her beautiful writing. It’s compelling and interesting while not being too flashy – perfect. The use of flash, an Irish dialect, was difficult for me to appreciate at first, but once I got into the rhythm of the novel it just added to the overall atmosphere of the novel.

And then we come to the actual plot, the mystery if you will. It wasn’t a traditional mystery, of course, but there was a huge question running throughout the book that needed answering, and let’s just say the answer to that question shocked me. Faye kept me on my toes throughout the entire book, and just when I thought I knew or understood something, she would shake things up and make me question what I had been thinking.

So can you tell I loved The Gods of Gotham? I did, so much. It was even more of a treat for me because I wasn’t expecting to like it, and wouldn’t have read the book if not for my book club. Don’t you love when that happens? Anyway, read this one! I highly recommend it for fans of mysteries, literary fiction, books with great characters, etc. … basically everyone!

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio
Review copy provided by the publicist

The Dovekeepers, a work of fiction based in history, follows the Jews that held out for months against the Roman armies on the mountain of Masada nearly two thousand years ago. Hoffman delivers to the reader four very different but equally powerful and inspiring women. Yael carries the burden of her mother’s death, as she died giving birth to Yael and her assassin father has never forgiven her for this crime. Revka, a baker’s wife, lives with her grandsons after watching the Romans kill her daughter and son-in-law. Aziza has been raised to be a warrior, disguises herself as a boy, until the day she meets and falls for a fellow soldier. And Shirah, called a witch by many, has knowledge of ancient magic and medicine, knowledge that serves her well at Masada.

The Dovekeepers is an incredibly difficult book for me to review because I’m having a lot of trouble articulating what I truly thought about the novel and how it made me feel. First, let me get this out of the way – there is no question that this book is expertly researched, incredibly well-written, and beautifully crafted. The research that Hoffman must have done in order to put this thing together had to be a huge undertaking. And the writing in this novel is absolutely gorgeous. Hoffman certainly knows how to put words together, to create passages that one wants to keep rereading and going back to over and over again, and she did that with such expertise in The Dovekeepers.

This book is not, however, an easy read. There are a lot of characters to keep track of (with unfamiliar names), much history to put together, and the events in the novel are complicated and very detailed. I chose to listen to this book and while I thought the audio was brilliantly done, for me personally I’m not sure that was the right choice. When I listen to an audiobook, it is usually short spurts of time so it takes a while to get through one – something that becomes a real problem with an audio of this length (16 discs). I would find myself forgetting characters or key plot points because it took me FOREVER to get through the entire audiobook. And because of the complexity of the story, when I would get off track or forget important details, I would become frustrated and not enjoy the story as much as I could have.

I believe I will reread this book at some point in print. If you can listen to The Dovekeepers for long stretches of time, I think the audio would be a great choice because the four narrators are excellent and the story does lend itself well to audio. For me personally, though, the audio didn’t work for my lifestyle and I will want to read the print to fully appreciate Hoffman’s beautiful writing and this intricate story.

See what I mean about not being able to properly review this one? I’m totally not doing it justice, I know. Yes I would recommend it. Read The Dovekeepers and tell me what you think.

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas
Published by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of Macmillan
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

True Sisters, a novel based on actual historical events, revolves around four women as they navigate through the most desperate, difficult, life-threatening situation one can imagine. In 1856, a group of Mormon converts were encouraged by Brigham Young himself to journey with hand carts from Iowa City to Salt Lake City, Utah in search of the promised land. The Martin Handcart Company contains four women whose lives will be changed irrevocably by this 1300 mile walk. Nannie has just suffered being abandoned by her fiance on their wedding day and is traveling to Salt Lake with her sister and brother-in-law, Louisa is married to one of the most important church leaders and believes he communicates directly with God, Jessie is traveling with her brothers and dreaming of a bright future for their family, and Anne is a non-believer but was forced to accompany her Mormon husband to Salt Lake after he sold everything they owned and gave all the money to the church.

Would you believe True Sisters was my first experience reading Sandra Dallas? I know she’s written a ton of novels but for some reason I just hadn’t gotten to her yet. I think it was good that I didn’t have any expectations going into this book, because it was a very good read for me.

I was captivated with this novel from the first page, mainly because of how well I connected to each of the four main characters. Each woman comes from a different background and perspective on their current situation, but not one is more sympathetic than the rest. Rather, the four women together make a complete picture of what the real people who made this journey over a hundred and fifty years ago may have been like. By the end of the novel, Dallas had taken me on a journey to get to know four fully realized women and I felt tied to each one of them in a different way. It was truly satisfying to see their personalities grow and change over the course of the novel as they were forced to grow up and become more independent in many ways.

There’s no way around the fact that the events in True Sisters are truly devastating. These people suffered for their faith. Historical accounts tell us that something like a third of the people who started the journey to Salt Lake City did not make it there. It is clear that Dallas did her research in preparing for this novel as her attention to detail is meticulous – while the specifics of these characters and their choices are entirely fiction. I was on the verge of tears multiple times while reading this book because there are just so many things that happen that are SO sad! But Dallas managed to bring some measure of hope throughout the novel as well, which is what made me compulsively keep reading – I just KNEW things had to turn around for these people and I anxiously waited for Dallas to show me how that was possible.

I really, really liked this one. I’ll definitely be reading more by Sandra Dallas. For those of you more familiar with her work, which novel should I read next?