Year of wonders – Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks’s Year of Wonders describes the 17th-century plague that is carried from London to a small Derbyshire village by an itinerant tailor. As villagers begin, one by one, to die, the rest face a choice: do they flee their village in hope of outrunning the plague or do they stay? The lord of the manor and his family pack up and leave. The rector, Michael Mompellion, argues forcefully that the villagers should stay put, isolate themselves from neighboring towns and villages, and prevent the contagion from spreading. His oratory wins the day and the village turns in on itself. Cocooned from the outside world and ravaged by the disease, its inhabitants struggle to retain their humanity in the face of the disaster. The narrator, the young widow Anna Frith, is one of the few who succeeds. With Mompellion and his wife, Elinor, she tends to the dying and battles to prevent her fellow villagers from descending into drink, violence, and superstition. All is complicated by the intense, inexpressible feelings she develops for both the rector and his wife.

Amazon
Penguin

Baby blue – Julia Green

Baby Blue” picks up Mia’s story (begun in “Blue Moon”) just after the birth of her baby. Mia is sixteen now, and still living with Dad, although this relationship becomes increasingly under strain. Not only is Mia having to work out the complicated emotional and practical implications of being a mother when she herself is still a child, with huge emotional needs of her own, she is also having to negotiate new relationships with the adults and young people around her.

Goodreads

The Maddie diaries: a memoir – Maddie Ziegler

Maddie Ziegler had hoped to become a star—she just didn’t know how soon that day would come. At just eight years old, she was cast on Lifetime’s hit reality show Dance Moms and quickly won the hearts of fans everywhere with her natural talent and determination. Soon, she was catching eyes all over—including those of pop superstar Sia, who handpicked her to star in the incredibly popular music video “Chandelier.” The rest, as they say, was history.

Good Reads

Amazon

Serendipity (movie)

Cast away (movie)