#4 What to Read

Ruta Sepetys knows how to write page-turning historical fiction

First of all, hello new subscribers! I’m grateful you are here. Now picture me incredibly giddy if you’ve become a paid subscriber. Imagine me getting that email - I have patrons, what? It’s incredibly validating. I’ve never made a full-time living as a writer, but that is my goal - and YOU are helping me see that it’s possible. THANK YOU.

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Now, WHAT TO READ NEXT…

I finished just one book this month, but it was an outstanding one.

Author Ruta Septys is such a good storyteller. Last summer I had the opportunity to listen to her speak about her family’s escape from Lithuania - with no notes - and, along with the rest of the audience, was mesmerized. She’s also a very kind human.

Ruta writes Young Adult Historical Fiction, and they are all good, but I MUST BETRAY YOU was especially gripping and has become my new favorite of hers.

The setting: 1989, Romania.

When I was 14, the only thing I knew about Romania was the famous Olympic gymnast, Nadia Comaneci.

But in 1989, something else was happening.

The world did not know what the communist tyrannical dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu was doing to his fellow Romanians.

“Had the world forgotten us? Or had Ceausescu ingeniously built a fence of national communism that was impenetrable from the outside as well as the inside?

He had stolen us from ourselves, for himself. He had broken the soul of Romania and parched a beautiful country into an apocalyptic landscape of the lost.”

💫Historical fiction at its best

💫For teens and adults

💫Brilliant, compulsively readable, and a hugely important story

I hope you’ll pick this one up.

If this sounds good, let me recommend a few other historical fiction favorites: The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (my favorite Amy Tan book), or be wowed by the matriarchs in The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, and of course the classic Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (apparently I really like Asian historical fiction). And if you’re a fan of middle grade historical fiction, I highly recommend The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus (also a very kind human. Must be a writer thing?)

What are your favorites? Leave a comment:

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Your Letters:

I received four letters this month. Thank you! They always make me happy, even when they’re a little sad.

Here’s one from S:

Dear Amy,

How are you doing? I like your book The McNifficents and I’m almost done reading it. I don’t go swimming to much because the pool water keeps turning green…I’m also really scared to go back to school. I’m starting 6th grade and that’s middle school in Phoenix…also we’re getting a new dog that looks exactly like *Sally. It’s going to replace her and no one cares. I just want *Sally more than anything in the world…I hope your doing better than I am.

Sincerely, S

p.s. I hope Tenny is all right.

*name change

I’m going to write S back (she’s going to do GREAT at middle school) and will have to tell her that we had to say good-bye to our sweet Tenny boy last week, too (yes, the Lord Tennyson that inspired our McNifficent book).

Another postcard from North Platte, Nebraska made me laugh out loud:

Amy, I have no idea how you survived living in Nebraska. We just drove through…and there is entirely too much corn.

Ha. I grew up in Nebraska, and WELL REMEMBER the August humidity…and the corn. Alas, I will always have a fondness for my fellow cornhuskers.

Letters from near and far (thank you for the Lord Tennyson condolences)

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and lastly, my darlings:

FOR YOU: A 3-book-classroom/library-giveaway of The McNifficents!

A Poem: I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store (thank you

5AM StoryTalk

) because yesterday, August 28th, marks the day Emmett Till was killed in 1955.

School Visits: Now booking school visits for fall - hit reply and let’s make a plan

Peterborough, NH: If you’re near Peterborough, New Hampshire on September 9th at 11, I’ll be speaking at the library and signing books. Would love to see you.

Pep Talk: You’re not for everyone. and that’s okay (thank you

Maggie Smith

)

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