It's Monday! What are you reading?

Come join us! This is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
For the month of January, my bookclub was assigned "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë. Believe it or not, I had never read this classic. It took me awhile to plow through the 600+ pages of this book written in the language of Victorian times. My initial rating of three out of four stars was guarded. But as the weeks have passed I realized that it really wasn't a fair rating. I needed to appreciate the age of the author at the time of the writing, the language of the era, and the author's background and what she brought to the story. Since I have read the book,  I have watched three or four movies based on the book. I have grown to love the story and will definitely read it again sometime in the future.

I had to give you a little background before I told you about this week's book. It happens to be the February selection for my bookclub. It is called, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" by Margot Livesey. This book was specifically chosen to be read following Jane Eyre because it is an updated version of the book. The story takes place in 1950 Scotland, Orkney Island and also Iceland. The story goes along the same line as Jane Eyre in the beginning because Gemma is orphaned when her parents died. Her uncle takes her in to live with his family. But after he dies and her aunt is left to raise her, there is no love lost between Gemma, her aunt, or her cousins.Gemma is sent away to a boarding school. She does grow up at the school and eventually leaves to become a governess of a child on Orkney Island. The plot follows along somewhat like Jane Eyre, but not exactly. Both books have strong heroines, (Yes!) who pursue their dreams; not only their hearts. I love reading about new places and learning about new things. This was a faster read than Jane Eyre not only because it was about 200 pages shorter, but also because it was written in more modern English. 

The author, Margot Livesey, related to Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, and her protagonist Gemma Harding, as they all had a somewhat hard home life,  and went away to a boarding school. 

I would especially recommend this book if you are a fan of Jane Eyre, but this book can well stand on it's own.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This is a new meme I am joining in on today. It is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

I just finished a wonderful book called, "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats"  by Jan-Philipp Sendker

This is the description from Amazon:

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present.  When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.

My thoughts:

A friend of mine told me that she had to read this book for her book club.  I'm always curious as to what other clubs are reading. She said that she was having a hard time getting a copy of this book (from a library). This indicated to me that the book must be really popular. I had no idea what the book was about, but  ordered it from my library just out of curiosity. I began reading it Saturday night, and could not put the book down. This book is so moving, inspirational, and will stay with me for a long, long time. I highly recommend it.

Here is a short video from the author about his writing and the book itself.