This week I am focused on books that take us out of ourselves and our current situation and tell stories about people who experienced difficult and trying  circumstances and yet persevered.

A Gentleman in Moscow  by Amor Towles is a remarkable story about a man who is trapped in the Metropole Hotel in Moscow during the revolution in 1922.  An unrepentant aristocrat, Count Rostov, is later sentenced to house arrest in the hotel and must contemplate what it means to be a man of purpose in his now reduced circumstances. This is a great read with charming and interesting characters and may even give us insights into how we can be purposeful in our own reduced circumstances.

The High Mountains of Portugal is Yann Martel’s second book after his best novel, The Life of Pi. In his new book we follow Tomas who finds an intriguing entry in an old journal describing an artifact that could change our understanding of history. So Tomas, in 1904 sets out on a quest, in new fangled contraption called the automobile to see if he can find the artifact in the journal entry. This reads sometimes like a fable or even a ghost story, but at its core it is an exploration of love and loss, faith and unbelief.

The Martian by Andy Weir will certainly snap you out of feeling sorry for yourself! What if you were one of the first astronauts to get to Mars and by some unfortunate series of mistakes you were abandoned there by the other members of your crew? What if you lost all ability to communicate with earth or the members of your crew on the space ship? What if you knew that the soonest they could come back for you is in one year or maybe eighteen months? Intrigued? You should be! This is a nail-biting un-put-downable- read!

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin is one of the most delightful books I have ever read! A.J. Fikry is is the owner of Island books, the only book store on Alice Island. He has recently lost his wife and then under bizarre circumstances loses his one of his most prized possession, a rare book. With that gone, his financial situation becomes even more dire and he is afraid he might lose his bookstore. One night while closing up his shop he finds a little girl with an Elmo doll sitting quietly in the  children’s section. The note pinned to the Elmo doll says: I want Maya to grow up in a place with books and among people who care about such kinds of things. I love her very much, but I can no longer take care of her. You will have to red it to find out what happens next and you will not be disappointed!

I hope one of these books intrigues you!

I will be back next week for another in this series. In the meantime, let me know what genre or theme of books you want me to explore next!