Good Reads

Snow, sleet, freezing rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain ... a good day to huddle indoors with a good book and a bowl of homemade soup.

Tonight we have our monthly book club meeting -- always fun, where wine is sipped and sometimes we even discuss the book of the moment!  Speaking of reading, here are four books that I have thoroughly enjoyed over the last several weeks.  The Great Halifax Explosion by John U. Bacon was a Christmas gift from justbe.  It's a real page turner which documents the cataclysmic events which occurred in Halifax harbour on the morning of December 6, 1917 when a Norwegian supply boat collided with a French freighter laden with six million pounds of high explosives.  City of Thieves by David Benioff is a beautifully written (and often wrenching) novel set in World War II Russia during the Siege of Leningrad.  The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild was recommended to me by chantler63 when I visited with her in England last October.  It's a biography of the fascinating and unconventional life of Pannonica ("Nica") Rothschild -- an heiress, aviatrix, fighter with the Free French Army during World War II, and the lover of renowned jazz musician Thelonious Monk.  She certainly led quite a colourful life!  Last but not least, A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles is an absolutely enchanting novel which follows the adventures of "Former Person" Count Alexander Rostov, who has been sentenced to house arrest for life in Moscow's Metropol Hotel.  Beautifully written, whimsical, charming ... as the book jacket states, "He can't leave.  You won't want to."