Blast From the Past: December 2010

 It's time to look back at my reading from December 2010. There was some great reading a decade ago.  I can only hope to be so lucky this year. 

1.  I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg -Flagg is the perfect antidote for anyone who needs a feel-good book. This book is full of lively and memorable characters as well as some quirky ones.  Maggie's perfect life is derailed until she comes up with a plan to help solve all her problems.  As always, Flagg is able to tell a story with humor - and still convey an important message to readers.  

2.  The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez- this is middle grade historical fiction based on events in the lives of the author's parents. I had never heard of Operation Pedro Pan, and this story piqued my interest.  Lucia is a fourteen year old girl who is sent from Cuba to Grand Island, Nebraska, to live with a host family who adopts her until her parents are able to leave the country and they can reunite. Set in 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucia watches soldiers come to her town, freedoms stripped away, and people disappear.  This story is both heartbreaking and hopeful.

3. Palace Beautiful by Sarah Deford Williams - this middle grade novel moves seamlessly between the present and the past as two girls discover a diary in the attic of the new home that Sadie and her family have just moved into.  She and her new friend/neighbor are totally enthralled with Helen's story which takes place during the flu epidemic of 1918. When Helen's diary ends abruptly the girls are intent on finding out what happened to her.

4.  Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin - Boyhood best friends Larry and Silas must confront their pasts when a young woman goes missing. This stirs up memories of their youth when Larry took a girl on a date and she was never seen again.  Years have passed and Silas is the one investigating this disappearance which causes them to confront what they've long tried to ignore.  Set in the 1970s in rural Mississippi, this is a book I still recall a decade later.

Have you read any of these books? What were you reading back in December of 2010?  What about last year at this time?