In My Hands Today…

The High Mountains of Portugal – Yann Martel

In Lisbon in 1904, a young man named Tomás discovers an old journal. It hints at the existence of an extraordinary artifact that—if he can find it—would redefine history. Traveling in one of Europe’s earliest automobiles, he sets out in search of this strange treasure.

Thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist devoted to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie finds himself at the center of a mystery of his own and drawn into the consequences of Tomás’s quest.

Fifty years on, a Canadian senator takes refuge in his ancestral village in northern Portugal, grieving the loss of his beloved wife. But he arrives with an unusual companion: a chimpanzee. And there the century-old quest will come to an unexpected conclusion.

The High Mountains of Portugal—part quest, part ghost story, part contemporary fable—offers a haunting exploration of great love and great loss. Filled with tenderness, humor, and endless surprise, it takes the reader on a road trip through Portugal in the last century—and through the human soul.

In My Hands Today…

Switcheroo – Olivia Goldsmith

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At forty, Sylvie Schiffer has everything: a gorgeous house, two perfect children, a successful husband with a lucrative business. Everything but what she wants most: passion and romance.

With the twins off to college, Sylvie thinks her marriage is about to bloom, until she discovers that her husband, Bob, is already seeding the garden–with a woman named Marla!

When Sylvie confronts Marla, she gets the shock–and inspiration—of her life. Except for ten years and fifteen pounds, she and Marla could be twins. But all is not bliss even for Marla.

Though she has the best of love–romantic presents, hot sex, candlelit dinners–she lacks the one thing she wants most: a husband of her own. Going beyond revenge, Sylvie hatches a brilliant, hilarious, and daringly outrageous scheme that just might fulfill both their wildest dreams…or leave them with nothing but two broken hearts.

In My Hands Today…

Rain Tree – Mahita Vas

Singapore, on the cusp of Independence.

In the midst of fear and uncertainty, a spirited young woman must choose between an education and her baby. When Ani is forcibly married, her dreams of becoming a teacher are shattered. Employed as a servant at Rain Tree, a colonial home, she indulges in English novels in her spare time.

When Ani is widowed soon after, she befriends her Chinese colleagues who shield her from her bigoted mistress. Ani learns that her husband has left her a horrifying debt, one she must keep secret to safeguard her job and dignity. Falling in love with a house guest brings temporary respite. And ramifications — Ani bears his child after he returns to England.

To keep her baby, Ani must leave the security of Rain Tree. With chronic unemployment, a housing shortage and impending Independence, Ani realises that without an education, life will be unbearable. With an illegitimate baby, life will be impossible. To alter her destiny, sacrifices must be made. But at what price? Rain Tree weaves a story of loyalty and hope with lessons on love unlike what Ani has learnt from English novels.

In My Hands Today…

Death by Perfume – You Jin, translated by Jeremy Tiang

In the late 1970s, a young Singaporean writer arrives in Jeddah with an infant son. She encounters a strange and often hostile environment with curiosity, empathy and good humour.

In this collection of linked stories, the narrator confronts a bored expat wife with dangerously extravagant tastes, a divorced engineer with the face of a camel, and a desperate security guard who only finds solace in downing bottles of perfume. Beguiling, plaintive and profoundly insightful, You Jin’s fiction is a beautiful evocation of Saudi society.

In My Hands Today…

The Sunshine Sisters – Jane Green

Ronni Sunshine left London for Hollywood to become a beautiful, charismatic star of the silver screen. But at home, she was a narcissistic, disinterested mother who alienated her three daughters.

As soon as possible, tomboy Nell fled her mother’s overbearing presence to work on a farm and find her own way in the world as a single mother. The target of her mother s criticism, Meredith never felt good enough, thin enough, pretty enough. Her life took her to London and into the arms of a man whom she may not even love. And Lizzy, the youngest, more like Ronni than any of them, seemed to have it easy, using her drive and ambition to build a culinary career to rival her mother’s fame, while her marriage crumbled around her.

But now the Sunshine Girls are together again, called home by Ronni, who has learned that she has a serious disease and needs her daughters to fulfill her final wishes. And though Nell, Meredith, and Lizzy are all going through crises of their own, their mother s illness draws them together to confront old jealousies and secret fears and they discover that blood might be thicker than water after all.