Summer!

Authors keep writing to me when I have complimented their book asking me to put a review on Amazon, Goodreads and similar websites. I don't like writing reviews as anyone who googles my name can discover what I have been reading lately. My reading varies from genre to genre, I am reading far more fiction than I used to, but I am a little nervous of people I no longer connect with or a future job interview being impacted by my taste in books.

Summer is now here, well at least it is warm enough for me to pack away my winter clothes and hang the summer ones on hangers. I have kept out a few warmer tops, hopefully I can also store those in a couple of weeks.

Last Sunday I finished reading 'Born for Life' by a New Zealand midwife and started reading 'Hope in a Ballet Shoe'.
 

 Orphaned by war, saved by ballet.

Growing up in war-torn Sierra Leone, Michaela DePrince witnesses atrocities that no child ever should. Her father is killed by rebels and her mother dies of famine. Sent to an orphanage, Michaela is mistreated and she sees the brutal murder of her favourite teacher.

But there is hope: the Harmattan wind blows a magazine through the orphanage gates. Michaela picks it up and sees a beautiful image of a young woman dancing. One day, she thinks, I want to be this happy.

And then Michaela and her best friend are adopted by an American couple and Michaela can take the dance lessons she's dreamed of since finding her picture.

Life in the States isn't without difficulties. Unfortunately, tragedy can find its way to Michaela in America, too, and her past can feel like it's haunting her. The world of ballet is a racist one, and Michaela has to fight for a place amongst the ballet elite, hearing the words "America's not ready for a black girl ballerina".

And yet...

Today, Michaela is an international ballet star, dancing for The Dutch National Ballet at the age of 19.

A heart-breaking, inspiring autobiography by a teenager who shows us that, beyond everything, there is always hope for a better future. (less)

ebook, 272 pages

Published December 30th 2014 by Faber & Faber

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I am a lover of ballet so this story has really touched my heartstrings. Written with passion and forgiveness, this young woman's journey from war torn Sierra Leone to the Dutch National Ballet is a lesson in what persistence can achieve. I admire her tenacity and drive to achieve what she had so longed for.

On my VRS I am reading:
 

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . . So begins this debut novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970s Ohio and the tragedy that will either be their undoing or their salvation. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn’s case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James’s case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.

When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart.

I have only just started reading this book but it is so interesting I keep rewinding my machine in case I have missed something by going to sleep before it turns off. It seems to be a very powerful novel and one I am really enjoying.