Bookish Nostalgia - April 2016

Yes, yes, we are doing Bookish Nostalgia for April on the very first day of the month!!  So, Happy April and no, I have no April Fool's Day tricks for you.  Honestly, I've never really liked those that much.  Always just seems like a chance to be mean with impunity.  How do you feel about it?  Although I do remember my mother telling me that she and my father had their first date as teens on April 1st.  She said she thought that he was just teasing her.  Not so much though as they were married for 62 years!  Let's see what I've read in April over the years:

 
April 1996 - Montana Sky by Nora Roberts - I have read a lot of Nora Roberts' books over the years, but I must admit that I am much more a fan of her trilogies than her stand alone novels.  Or I really, really like her J. D. Robb persona.  However, Montana Sky might have been the first of her books that I read.  It's set in - wait for it - Montana, and is the story of a rancher named Jack Mercy who dies and leaves his vast holdings to his 3 daughters.  Each daughter was the product of one of Jack's marriages and his will gives specifics for sharing in the inheritance - like coming to live on the ranch for a year.  In the course of the year, they get to know each other and also are placed in danger.  Someone doesn't want the Mercy sisters to have that ranch.  Of course, there's romance - it's Nora Roberts after all - and the mystery is a pretty good one.  This book was made into a TV movie that was decent as I recall.

April 2001 - The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - I bet I'm not the only one who has read Anita Diamant's story of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob of Israel.  It was very popular with readers for quite some time.  Yes, this is the Jacob of the Bible and Dinah was the only daughter mentioned in the Biblical story.  Of course, there were 12 sons as well.  The red tent referred to the place that the women retreated to when they were considered 'unclean' - during births, monthly cycles, that sort of thing.  Dinah comes to know more about her mother and her father's other wives as the women share their stories and their religious practices.  An interesting fictional look at the culture of Biblical times.  I was fascinated.

 
April 2006 - Our Lady of Pain by Marion Chesney - If you've ever read any of M. C. Beaton's mystery series - Hamish Macbeth or Agatha Raisin - you probably don't realize that her 'real' name is Marion Chesney and that she wrote a short series set in Edwardian times.  I read that 4-book series and really enjoyed it a lot.  It was quite funny, as I recall.  It told about Lady Rose Summer, a debutante of the time, who kept getting into 'situations' and not doing as her father would wish.  Also starring Captain Harry Cathcart, a sort of 'fixer' for wealthy gentlemen.  Their paths cross and obviously, they clash.  With romantic implications.  Anyway, Our Lady of Pain was the last book in the series.  I really don't remember much about it except that Lady Rose has become engaged to Harry, but it's really just to keep her father from making her marry someone else of his choosing.  Harry squires another woman around London and then the woman ends up dead, with Rose standing over the body.  I can see that I need to go back and reread this short series.  If you like Daisy Dalrymple, you might like Rose Summers.

April 2011 - Night Road by Kristin Hannah - I remember Night Road as being a really emotional book.  Lexi is a teenage girl that has been raised mostly in foster care because of her drug-addicted mother.  She comes to Seattle to stay with a great-aunt and slowly tries to fit in to the local high school.  On her first day, she meets Mia, quiet and shy, and the two girls become very close.  Mia has a twin brother, Zach, who is much more outgoing, but who also becomes friends with Lexi.  Their mother, Jude, is so pleased that Mia has a friend, she includes Lexi into their lives.  And then the dynamic changes.  I won't say any more, but I just remember this being a book that I couldn't put down.  Teenagers bring all kinds of drama to many stories don't they?  I know many have read Kristin Hannah's recent book The Nightingale and really loved it.  Well, this is an earlier work, but I think it shows her talent for keeping the reader interested.  It certainly did me.

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That's it for the April offerings.  Maybe you've read one of these.  Maybe this will make you investigate to see if you want to read one.  I hope so.  See you next month for May's Bookish Nostalgia.  No foolin'!