Recent Reads! Great Books!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. It was a crispy Fall weekend, I did a lot of baking, and reading, my two favorite things oh, and eating too.

These are a few of the books I have read in the past two weeks, I thought you might be interested in a few.

The Long Walk Home by Will North

This is the story of love, loss, hope, grief and every emotion in between. Alec Hudson, travels to London along with his ex-wife’s ashes and walks from Heathrow airport to North Wales to fulfill her dying wish to scatter her ashes on a mountain they had climber years before, which boarders the farm of Fiona Edwards.  From the moment he arrives at Fiona’s their lives are changed.

The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard

This books was good but a little depressing. It is the story of three friends, Marnie, Oliver and Ralph, who loved each other deeply and had a falling out. Twenty years later Marnie, who lives in London, gets a call from Oliver  to come to Scotland to spend the last remaining days of Ralph’s life with them.

Francesca’s Kitchen by Peter Pezzelli

This is the second book I have read by Peter Pezzelli, and I liked this as much as the other Home to Italy,  it is about Francesca, a widowed Italian that is an empty nester and looking for something to occupy her time. To fulfill her need for family and people to nourish she applies for a job as nanny to a single mom with two kids. This is a light hearted and light, entertaining read.

Jane Austin Ruined My Life by Beth Pattillo

Emma Grant seems to have it all, great teaching job, with a specialty in all things Jane Austen, a husband and plans for a family. Then her world falls apart, she finds her husband in bed with another woman, and she is accused of plagiarism. So she does what any woman would do in a situation like this, she packs her bags and heads off to England to track down the missing letters of Jane Austen. This is a light read and a bit of escapism with a little mystery and the sights of Jane Austen’s England thrown in for good measure.

The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys

 I loved this book! Gwen Davis is a Horticulturalists who leaves London during the Blitz for an estate in Devon where she is too lead a group of women who will grown food for the land army.  While attempting to coral these women who are away from home for the first time, Gwen experiences, friendship, love, loss and brings a forgotten garden back to life. This book stays with you after you read it, I do not know if it is because you get a glimpse of the war, and the toll it takes on a country, or because you watch a woman who has never know love or friendship, grow up and flower just like her garden.

A Gift from Brittany by Majorie Price: A Memoir of Love, and Loss in the French Countryside

An excellent read! Follow the story of a young American artist from Chicago, who leaves her life in America to go to France to follow her dream, at a time when this was just not the thing.  Midge meets and falls in love with a volatile French painter, Yves and soon after marries and has a child. While they search the countryside for a summer place, they come upon a little village, as well as, a collection of houses that is totally unsuitable for her dream. Yves thinks differently, and they spend years reviving this property while at the same time their marriage crumbles, and his support for her art deteriorates. Midge flees Paris with her young daughter and discovers in Brittany a friendship with an unlikely villager, the growth of her love for her daughter and a strength in herself that she thought was lost. A really beautiful story, I could not put it down.

I also recently discovered these beautiful classics fromPenguin, they are designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. What a wonderful addition to your collection. Gohereto check out Coralie’s design process.

 Have a great week!