What to read at the WLU Bookstore
Whether you are planning a vacation or staying in this reading week – make sure to drop by to take a look at our February reading picks. Select titles will be on sale February 15-16 including a new collection of five-dollar bargain books.
The world we found: by Thrity Umrigar
Umrigar’s latest tells the stories of four women during their days at university in 1970s Bombay. The protagonist’s lives are characterized by intense friendships, fierce ambitions, and a determination to change the world. However, their lives have ended up radically different from their university dreams. One, dying in America, whose last wish is to see her three friends, two living in upper middle class Mumbai, and the fourth who has been long-estranged from their circle. Painful secrets, both past and present, threaten to prevent the reunion. This novel, both fascinating and disturbing proves that friendship can be thicker than blood.
The Flight of Gemma Hardy: by Margot Livesey
In this retelling of Jane Eyre the characters are imbued with a more modern sensibility — and this time around Mr. Rochester is not a reprehensible misogynist! Livesey’s Gemma remains true to the spirit of Austen and the dark settings of Scotland and the Orkney Islands are perfect backdrops for this classic tale. This is a perfect book to soak in at the beach.
All That I Am: by Anna Funder
Set in Germany and London before and after Hitler’s rise to power, this book is written from the perspective of one of the members of an underground resistance group in Germany fighting against the regime. A story of an intense attempt to inform the world of the coming horrors of Nazism is intertwined with a powerful look at the social life of pre-Hitler Germany, when ‘speakeasy’ bars, free love, and feminism were part of the culture. When the risk becomes too great for the resistors in Germany, they exile to London to continue their campaign. The cruelty and far-reaching arm of Hitler’s supporters and the courage of the resistors stays with you long after you finish this book.
Weird Sisters: by Eleanor Brown
The sisters in this funny and touching book are not ‘weird’ in the modern sense of the word; the title refers to the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Headed by a father who is a professor of Shakespeare and his loving wife, the Adreas family is certainly unusual. The three daughters grow up speaking in couplets, quoting Hamlet and reading constantly. When their mother develops breast cancer, all three sisters return to their Midwestern home to aid in her care – and end up caring for each other as well. This is a wonderful tribute to literature, the bonds of sisterhood and the importance of family.