Winter Garden

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

According to my Goodreads account, I've read over 60 novels this year. However, I'm rather disappointed in myself as of late because I've put reading aside in favor of technology (er, video games). What is the world coming to when a librarian does that? As my pre-New Year's Resolution, I promise to keep up with my blog as opposed to spending time with anything beginning with the word "Nintendo." If James Patterson can watch and then blog about movies on a regular basis while essentially writing a book a month, I can keep up with this. Besides, I got a Kindle Fire a couple of weeks ago, so (yay) technology can still be a part of my life. 

Anyway, back to my current novel. Winter Garden started out a bit slow for me, but halfway through it, I was hooked. A blend of contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and fairy tales, this book takes readers on two sisters' journey to find their mother's love. Anya Whitson, mother of Meredith and Nina, has always rejected her daughters' attempts to reach out to her; it has happened so often in their lives, that they have stopped trying. However, after the death of her husband and much prodding from Nina, Anya begins to express herself through a powerful fairy tale she has not told her daughters since they were children. 

The fairy tale takes readers to Russia in the 1940s during the siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Vera, an optimistic, dreamy girl in a time when dreams were questioned and crushed, is forced to grow up once her father has been taken by the Black Knight. She finds herself in love with a prince, and she takes many risks in order to raise a family with him. Anya tells the story throughout the book, stopping when she can no longer go on. As the story becomes far more detailed and specific than Meredith and Nina have ever heard it, the two begin to wonder if there is more to the tale than just fantasy. 

So should you pick it up? Yes. I like to read Hannah's books because they always center around a female protagonist who has some sort of realistic struggle (in many of her novels, it's family-related). I like her books, but it's--how to put this?--easy reading. Maybe a better way to put it is they are 'light' reads. Winter Garden has some very hard parts to read. Hannah has created characters that readers can feel genuine sympathy towards, especially when one considers that it's based on something that really happened. I've also always been a sucker for historical fiction (does anyone remember when I spent the entire summer of 2007 reading novels and biographies about Tudor England and nothing else??), and once the WWII Russia part of the story kicked in, I devoured the book.  And, hey, it's winter time. The title says you should read it right now.

Target age range: Adult