The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer

This is a book that struck me with awe. I listened to it, and I don't usually listen to books this long because it's hard to keep my attention all the way through (it was 27 hours long), but The Invisible Bridge was really interesting, heart-breaking yet encouraging, and well written. Some of her descriptive language made me stop and say 'wow'--which is especially amazing because I have found I notice language a lot less when I'm listening than when I'm actually reading.

The book's narrator is a young Jewish man from Hungary, and it follows his family's story through the years leading up to and during World War II.

I can only find one other book by Orringer, and it's a collection of short stories, which I rarely read--but I was impressed enough with her writing that I might have to look into them.

The Invisible Bridge is definitely worth the time it takes to read.

The Red Necklace

This is a novel by Sally Gardner about the French Revolution. I listened to it in short bursts over the last month, so I didn't retain a lot of it. But it was good enough to keep listening to in spite of being so broken up. It's a bit of a mystery, some drama, history and a little romance thrown in. Listening to it was especially entertaining because all the dialogue was in French and English accents. This is a pitiful review, but suffice it to say that it was a good book.

A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece

I just finished this book, edited by Jane Jacobs. Hannah Breece taught in remote villages in the early 1900s in Alaska (okay, all of AK was remote then, and most of it still is now). She compiled her memoir from letters she wrote, so she left out a lot of details that would have been fascinating in a book but would have worried her family and friends at the time.



As a memoir, it's not very well put together, lacking a strong narrative flow, but the tidbits of information she shares are really interesting. She is quite determined to civilize the natives and keep alcohol out of Alaska, and some of her 'proper' ideas on things make for amusing reading when considered 100 years after the fact.



It's a good read with an enlightening look at early Alaska, and Breece's editor, her great-niece, did a great job of filling in as many blanks as she could.