FEATURE by Anne Batty


Winter Reading t


here’s something about winter and a good book that go together. And as trees lose their leaves and the air


turns chilly - signaling winter is just around the corner - there’s nothing quite like curl- ing up before a glowing fire with a good read.


Whatever your pleasure, mystery, biog-


raphy, history, culture, memoirs, fiction or non, interesting authors and good books abound. Perhaps one of the following might be the one you just can’t put down


the Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik Upon the death of her father, Jasmin


Darznik discovers a photograph of her mother in a wed-


ding veil standing next to a man she has never seen before. Refusing to talk about the photograph, her mother eventu- ally sends Jasmin the first of ten tapes that bring to life the hidden story of her fam- ily’s true origins


in Iran … a pre-arranged, abusive marriage and a child left behind in an effort to escape that life. When the final tape reveals a sib- ling still living and residing in Iran, Jasmin returns to meet the sister she has never known. This illuminating memoir tells the author’s personal story honestly and unflinchingly, exploring faith and family, love and alienation, censure and forgiveness, all the while reveal- ing the complexity of the lives many women are forced to live in Iran.


the Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson A deeply personal tale, this book gives


a glimpse into the lives of the people who participated in The Great African-American Migration from the south to northern and western American cities. This little-known part of 20th century American history is re- vealed through the lives of three migrant families, who leaving the familiar to start new lives traveled from Mississippi to Chicago, Florida to New York and Louisiana to California. In the process of this re-settling they changed their new cities with southern food, faith and culture,


and improved them with disci- pline, drive and hard work. This epic saga, written by Pulitzer


Prize winning author Wilkerson, is a riveting account of an “unrec- ognized immigration” within our own land. Destined to become a classic, this is a narrative that history lovers won’t want to miss.


Plum Wine by Angela Davis Gardner Barbara Jefferson, a young


American teaching at a Tokyo university, receives an extraordi- nary gift when her surrogate mother, Michi, dies. It is a tansu chest (a Japanese chest hand- crafted and made of finest wood) filled with bottles of homemade plum wine, wrapped in sheets of rice paper, and covered with ele- gant calligraphy … one bottle for each of the last 20 years of Michi’s life. This gift sets Barbara on a life-changing quest that in-


volves meeting a translator, Seiji Okada. As Barbara and Seiji translate the plum wine papers they form an intimate bond, and Barbara soon discovers a hidden world of hibakusha (Hiroshima and Nagasaki sur- vivors) that includes the truth about Michi’s past, and the revelation of Seiji’s heartbreaking secret. A story that begins in the early 20th Century and continues through World War II and its aftermath, Plum Wine examines human relationships, cultural differences and the irreparable consequences of war.


the Paris Wife by Paula McClain


Ernest Hemingway


wrote that he “would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.” The Hadley he speaks of was Hadley Richardson, a 28-year-old woman that had almost given up on love and mar- riage before she met Hem- ingway. A whirlwind courtship, wedding, and a life that whisked the cou- ple off to Paris, soon changed all that. In the be-


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