The three books I can't recommend enough

      Seeing as how I have assembled this summer's reading list, I thought I would comment on some other books, namely the three books I absolutely recommend. There are numerous books I love and enjoy and encourage people to check out, but hands-down the three that I will forever recommend to people are Jane Eyre, Ahab's Wife, and The Dovekeepers. Why? Well, to begin with, they are beautiful stories. They are written by master storytellers (Charlotte Bronte, Sena Jeter Naslund, and Alice Hoffman) who not only know how to write (or knew how to write) but know how to pull their readers in, immersing them in another place and time. Readers explore the mystery of Thornfield Hall, walk the wharves of Nantucket, and survey the desert of Israel. They feel the characters' emotions, understand Jane's determination and anguish, Una's devotion and strength of spirit, and experience faith, hope, despair, and triumph alongside Yael, Revka, Aziza, and Shirah on the mountaintop of Masada. These women become real, in the truest sense.
     All of these stories are works of fiction, but they do possess a trace of true events. Jane Eyre's experiences at Lowood School mirror Bronte's own school life at the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge, Lancashire. Una Spenser is the survivor of a whaleship attacked and sunk by a sperm whale, based on the accounts of the sinking of the whaleship Essex. The Dovekeepers is written during the siege of Masada, the last Jewish stronghold in Israel before Rome finally conquered that proud country. These factual elements give each of these stories credibility. All of these events really happened; the authors just graced each of them with their thoughts and imaginings.
     As well, each of these stories is about strong-minded, strong-willed women determined to follow the path they know to be right. I'm not going to digress into politics, but in light of current events it's refreshing and encouraging to have a heroine to look up to.
     I am not really doing any of the books the justice they deserve, but I will tell you that I do not know how many times I have read each of these books. I do not exaggerate when I say it is well over a dozen. These are books I return to again and again. I sit down and read them cover to cover; I open them at random and read a passage or two. They never get old. If you pick up any of these, I hope they give you as much joy as they give me.

A classic coming of age story, “Jane Eyre” is the tale of its title character, a poor orphaned girl who comes to live with her aunt at Gateshead Hall. While there she endures great emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her aunt and cousins. Jane subsequently ships off to Lowood, a Christian boarding school for poor and orphaned girls. The conditions at the school are quite brutal. The students are subjected to cold lodgings, poor food, inadequate clothing, and the harsh rule of the administrator, Mr. Brocklehurst. The maltreatment of the students is eventually discovered and after some changes life becomes more bearable. She eventually finishes her coursework and spends a period of time as a teacher at the school. After leaving Lowood she gains a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall working for Edward Rochester, a man whom she will eventually fall in love with. “Jane Eyre” is the story of one woman’s struggle to overcome adversity. The novel was revolutionary in its day for its examination of the internal conflict of its protagonist and for the way in which it addressed the themes of class, sexuality, and religion in the mid 19th century.

Ahab's Wife is a remarkable epic spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick, it is the story of Una, exiled as a child to live in a lighthouse, removed from the physical and emotional abuse of a religion-mad father. It is the romantic adventure of a young woman setting sail in a cabin boy's disguise to encounter darkness, wonder, and catastrophe; the story of a devoted wife who witnesses her husband's destruction by obsession and madness. Ultimately it is the powerful and moving story of a woman's triumph over tragedy and loss through her courage, creativity, and intelligence.  

In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman's novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker's wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets - about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.