The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Teenage sweethearts, Enza and Ciro meet in the Italian Alps but are quickly separated. Ciro is banished from his village after discovering a scandal with a local priest and travels to New York to apprentice with a shoemaker. Enza also leaves Italy for New York with her father to create a future for their financially challenged family. Unknowingly living within blocks of one another, both Ciro and Enza begin new lives apart until a chance meeting allows them to be together once again. Unfortunately, Ciro has already enlisted for WWI and unwillingly leaves Enza after their short lived reunion. While Ciro is off fighting battles, Enza dedicates herself to her work and becomes a renowned seamstress for the Metropolitan Opera House, poised to become an even bigger success. Then Ciro returns from the war, and both are resolved never to leave each other again.

With lush depictions of life in the Italian Alps to the cramped quarters of New York, Trigiani is adept at immersing the reader into the lives of her star-crossed protagonists. The romantic tension is a constant ebb as Ciro and Enza seem fated to be together but obstacles to their happiness arise keeping them apart. Fortunately, both characters are entirely likable and reading about their lives apart is still a joy. Historical fiction fans will savor this epic tale of love and loss as well as other books by Trigiani.

J. M. W. Turner by Peter Ackroyd

Mike Leigh's movie, Mr.Turner, premiered just last year. It's a film about the career of the great British Romanticist landscape painter, J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851). The critics praised it but many viewers were challenged by the central performance (Turner was gruff and lacking in social skills), the chronology of his life (did the story cover five years or twenty?), and the length of the movie (2 1/2 hours). It's a beautiful piece of filmmaking and it made me more curious about the artist. 

I knew of Turner's paintings but not much about his life, so I went to the library shelves and discovered Peter Ackroyd's J. M. W. Turner, the second biography in the author's Brief Lives series. It's all of 160 pages, but it tells the full story.  (Leigh tells us that his movie only focuses on the final twenty-five years of Turner's life.)

So, who was Turner? He was the son of a barber/wigmaker and, due to the mother's mental instability, the father who raised him. His talent for art was recognized early and at the age of fifteen his work was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art. By the time he was in his early twenties he had begun to focus on landscape and particularly maritime studies. He was as accomplished with watercolor as he was with oil. Fortunately, he had the support of some well-heeled patrons and he was a good businessman. Financial success gave him independence and that independence gave him the freedom to be more experimental. Turner's expressionist studies in light, color, and atmosphere were unmatched in his time and these works predate the Impressionists by decades.

If you are curious, the Ackroyd Brief Lives biography is a good place to start. The library has many additional books that reproduce his art including J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free (2014), the exhibition catalog for a show that has traveled from the Tate (London) to the Getty (Los Angeles) and is now on view at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco.

And then there is Mr.Turner, Mike Leigh's movie, also available for loan from the library.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

This graphic memoir follows Lucy Knisley as she grows up under the watchful epicurean eyes of her parents, one a chef and the other a food bon vivant. Understandably, Lucy becomes a foodie herself, connecting significant life moments to the food her family cooks. Instead of relegating food to the negative connotations of being unhealthy or gluttonous, Lucy shows us how food can be used in a positive manner, as a way to memorialize various occasions and as a way to savor the food that nourishes us. With many easy recipes illustrated at the end of each chapter, cooking novices will want to give them a try. Colorful soft-hued images throughout help energize Lucy's story and lend a mood of lightness and optimism even when portraying serious family topics.

Relish is a memoir for both teens and adults. Adults will reminisce about their own childhoods and the food they grew up eating, while teens will relate to Lucy's coming-of-age and the difficulties of staying connected with both parents after a divorce. If you enjoy this memoir, check out Knisley's other graphic memoirs.

Book of Ages by Jill Lepore & Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

The reading of two books began with one discovery. I had seen a title of a book lying on its side. Pulling it from a stack of books out of curiosity, the book was Book of Ages. It's the story of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, and the subtitle is The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin. In a family of seventeen children, he was the youngest son and she was the youngest daughter. As children, they were known as Benny and Jenny, and they would remain close throughout their long lives. From humble beginnings, the brother would go on to international fame and be among the founding fathers of the United States. Jane would marry at fifteen, be the mother of twelve, and spend a lifetime as a caretaker of her family. With no formal education, Jane learned to read and write and correspond with her famous brother. Their histories, their letters, and their deep affection for one another are the basis of this memorable study by Jill Lepore (The Secret History of Wonder Woman). So many women's lives in the past are footnotes in the biographies of others. Lepore share's Virginia Woolf's sense of gender inequality in asking:  what if William Shakespeare had a sister? What if she had a genius equal to his? What would have been her future? Fortunately, Lepore is able to reconstruct Jane Franklin Mecom's life story.  But we can only wonder what Jane's life might have been if given opportunities.

Also on a shelf, my own, was a copy of Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin:  An American Life. So, my reading went from Jenny to Benny. The Isaacson biography is much acclaimed and with good reason. How often Franklin is portrayed as the jester, the kite-flyer, "Cher Papa" with the ladies, the man with a ready quip from Poor Richard's Almanack. He is an easy subject for caricature. But his was a long, incredibly productive life. The sweep of that journey - as printer, scientist, inventor, political theorist, author, statesman, diplomat - reminds us that Franklin had no equal in his own time or since. Among the founding fathers, his humble start in life and his unwavering belief in democracy and tolerance helped define the country. His was a vision of  a country that would avail opportunities for all, a country where all were to be equal. Benjamin Franklin stands alone as the only person to have signed all four of the documents which helped create the United States, from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution. Walter Isaacson's book is a reminder of a unique and highly accomplished life, a life that was absolutely vital in the early years of our country. It also happens to be an enjoyable and satisfying read.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

Have you ever wanted to read Jane Eyre but could not wade through the nineteenth century prose? The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a retelling of the classic tale of Jane Eyre but is set in 1950's and 60's Scotland and is written with contemporary dialogue. Like Jane, Gemma is orphaned and sent to live with relatives at Yew House, but once her uncle dies, Gemma becomes an unwelcome addition to her surrogate family. She then obtains a scholarship to go to a miserly sort of school. After the school is closed due to financial difficulties, she travels to the Orkney Islands to become the nanny and governess of a niece for a wealthy Londoner, Mr. Sinclair. Sound familiar? There is no mad wife hidden in the attic with this version, but Mr. Sinclair still has skeletons to spare in his closet.

Still want to experience the classic Jane Eyre without cracking a book? Check out the feature film version with Mia Wasikowska, or try the spectacular mini-series featuring Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson.

A Killing in the Hills and Bitter River by Julia Keller

In A Killing in the Hills, the rural West Virginian town of Acker's Gap is stunned when three seniors gathered together for coffee are summarily gunned down. The town's prosecuting attorney, Bell Elkins, is determined to get to the bottom of the shooting and restore the quiet to her small town. Unfortunately, her teenage daughter, Carla, witnessed the killing and decides to solve the mystery too, without realizing the danger involved. Murder continues in Bitter River, when a pregnant teen is found dead in a river but not from drowning. Bell has her hands full solving the girl's death while puzzling out why her close friend, the town sheriff, is so distracted and remote, and why an old acquaintance from her city life in D.C. has suddenly resurfaced in her small town.

Keller keeps the suspense building throughout her Bell Elkins mystery series but doesn't sacrifice the detailed descriptions and atmospheric setting of rural Appalachia. This is a wonderful new series that will appeal to most mystery fans, especially those who enjoy realistic characters dealing with a lot of family drama. For newcomers to the series, be sure to delve into the rest of the Bell Elkins series, and for established fans, the fourth installment, Last Ragged Breath, will be out in August.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Growing up, Cath and her twin sister, Wren, have immersed themselves in the world of Simon Snow (think Harry Potter), and both have written wildly popular fan fiction with tons of followers. Their fandom was a distraction and comfort when their mom left home, but now it is Cath and Wren who are leaving home for college. Wren has decided to make a clean break by choosing not to live with Cath, even though they will be attending the same school. Cath is left adrift and alone, trying to navigate an adult world in a new place, trying to finish her fan fiction series and keep up with her overwhelming class load, and trying to make sure her fragile father won't fall apart without her.

Rowell relays the excitement and scariness of leaving home for the first time and creates wonderful characters who strive to stay true to themselves despite pressure from friends, family, and teachers. If you like this book, love fan fiction, just want to get your geek on or know someone who does, also check out The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs.