What Are You Reading?

My morning ritual is quite simplistic: two cups of coffee while web browsing and sharing my finds with Oliver, my three-year old Cocker Spaniel who seems convinced he's human.  I've learned to savor these moments of solitude and serenity before my youngest son awakens with his own preconceived notion of how our day should proceed (a home-schooled teenager with Autism...need I say more?)  This morning as I was visiting NPR Books, I was quickly captivated by the following new release in Historical Fiction (and yes, with just one click it is now available on my Kindle waiting to be read...instant self-gratification at its best ).

Mary Coin By Marisa Silver
Release date: March 7, 2013
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
ISBN-10: 0399160701

About The Book:  

In her first novel since The God of War, the critically acclaimed author Marisa Silver takes Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” photograph as inspiration for a breathtaking reinvention—a story of two women, one famous and one forgotten, and of the remarkable legacy of their chance encounter.

In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of a road in Central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman documenting the migrant laborers who have taken to America’s farms in search of work. Little personal information is exchanged, and neither woman has any way of knowing that they have produced what will become the most iconic image of the Great Depression.

Three vibrant characters anchor the narrative of Mary Coin. Mary, the migrant mother herself, who emerges as a woman with deep reserves of courage and nerve, with private passions and carefully-guarded secrets. Vera Dare, the photographer wrestling with creative ambition who makes the choice to leave her children in order to pursue her work. And Walker Dodge, a present-day professor of cultural history, who discovers a family mystery embedded in the picture. In luminous, exquisitely rendered prose, Silver creates an extraordinary tale from a brief moment in history, and reminds us that although a great photograph can capture the essence of a moment, it only scratches the surface of a life.

 I'm quite anxious to read this one and moving it up on my list of "Books To Be Read"!  I'm currently finishing The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau and then onto  A Tale For The Time Being By Ruth Ozeki (another favorite author of mine which I'll discuss in detail later) What are you reading!  Which new books are you particularly excited about?