I knew of Anjali Enjeti as co-founder of the Georgia chapter of They See Blue, an organization to encourage progressive South Asian Americans to be politically engaged. Like many others, I was eager to see two Democratic senators elected from Georgia, and I was part of a letter-writing campaign from Ohio to Georgians.  I was therefore very interested to learn that Anjali Enjeti is also an author! The Parted Earth, published in May 2021, takes place in 1947 in India as well as in present-day Georgia, with scenes in London as well. When the British colonial rulers were finally pushed out of ..read more

I saw the movie based on this book in the early 1990s, when it first came out, and loved it. But for some reason I did not read the book until recently. Like Water for Chocolate was originally published in Spanish in 1989. The title is a Spanish saying that refers to the boiling water used for making hot chocolate. If someone is “like water for chocolate,” their emotions are boiling over—an apt title because this book is about characters boiling over with lust and love, and the main character is an accomplished cook whose dishes sometimes provoke magical, unintended consequences. While the loc ..read more

First published in an English translation in 2013, this novel by a prize-winning Chinese author covers 90 years in the life of an Evenki woman (a nomadic people living in the mountainous forests of China and Russia). The unnamed narrator tells the story as an old woman whose way of life has almost disappeared. Each of the four sections of the book (Dawn, Mid-Day, Dusk, and The Last Quarter of the Moon) begins with an italicized section that takes place in the present, on the day that most of her clan have left the nomadic life to settle in a nearby town. Only she and her adult grandson remain ..read more

Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the acclaimed author of six novels, the first of which is Tumbling, first published in 1996. The story, which takes place in Philadelphia in the 1940s and 1950s, focuses on Noon, her husband Herbie, and their two adopted children. But their lives are so intertwined with other community members that the novel is really about the entire neighborhood of African-Americans. There are so many things I like about this novel, from the engaging story lines to the vibrant descriptions to the energetic dialogue, but perhaps my favorite are the distinctive, well-developed chara ..read more

With Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See has allowed us a window into the secluded world of women’s rooms in rural China in the 1800s. The central characters of this heart-felt and ultimately heart-wrenching tale are Lily, the daughter of a farmer; and her laotong (lifelong emotional partner), Snow Flower. The two communicate using special writing unique to women, called nu shu. Their friendship deepens throughout their childhood and adolescence, but before Snow Flower’s marriage, Lily discovers something shocking about Snow Flower’s circumstances that causes her to mistrust her friend. N ..read more

After I read Circling the Sun by Paula McLain, a historical novel based on the life of aviator Beryl Markham, I was curious about how it compared with Markham’s memoir, West with the Night, which Ernest Hemingway called “a bloody wonderful book.” West with the Night was first published in 1942, six years after Markham made her historic solo flight from east to west across the Atlantic. It is told in 24 essays which are not always in chronological order, but are instead grouped by subject. The first group of four essays covers just a few days of air flights to rescue dying people in the African ..read more

Told as a series of anecdotes from a Jewish grandmother, Addie Baum, to her granddaughter Ava, The Boston Girl is a coming-of-age story set in the early 1900s. Addie’s parents have fled an unnamed country in Europe, and Addie is the first child born in the United States. Her father and sister work in a sweatshop, and the family lives in a tenement. Addie’s parents expect her to leave school after 8th grade and start working. Central to the story is the Rockport Lodge, which served as a sort of summer camp or retreat for teenage girls whose parents were poor immigrants. There, Addie makes lifel ..read more

On the surface, The Court Dancer is a beautiful novel about a young woman, Jin, and her relationship with a Frenchman. Yet it is also so much more. It is about how the West views non-western peoples, and vice versa. It is about how a woman in a very traditional country transcends her circumscribed role. It is about the contrast between fascination with the exotic, and true love. It is about loyalty and self-determination. The novel takes place in the late 1800s, at a time when Korea was controlled by China but still had its own king. Korea was just beginning to be open to interacting with othe ..read more

Girl with a Pearl Earring was inspired by the famous 17th century Vermeer painting of the same name. The novel takes place in the Dutch town of Delft. According to Tracy Chevalier’s web site, one day as she looked at the poster of the painting that hung in her bedroom, she thought to herself, “I wonder what Vermeer did to her to make her look like that. Now there’s a story worth writing.” From that thought, Chevalier created the character of Griet, a maid who works in the Vermeer household. Actually, she works in the household of Maria Thins, Vermeer’s mother-in-law and owner of the house. In ..read more

I was looking forward to reading The Widows because it takes place in Ohio (my home state) and it involves Appalachian culture (which I’m interested in). And once I started to read it, I couldn’t put it down. One of the main characters in The Widows, Lily Ross, was inspired by the first female sheriff in Ohio (Maude Collins, pictured above, from the Vinton County web site). When Lily’s husband, the sheriff, is murdered in chapter 1, she is asked to take over for him until the special election can be held. The men who ask her do not expect her to begin investigating her husband’s death, thereby ..read more