Winter Garden in Crazy Challenge Connection

Nov 23, 2011 Almeta rated it really liked it

Shelves: in-a-land-far-far-away, hissy-fic

This book was actually abandoned in our apartment complex library. (Something that is done by the residents, once they are finished with a book and wish to pass it on.) I seriously doubt that I would have made a decision to read it otherwise. It is quite a departure from my chosen reading genres.

And c'mon, its cover was just crying to fit a Winter challenge somewhere!

Still it was a very good book, and I am glad that I decided to read it. Just reminds me that I need to stretch my legs occasiona ...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Gina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: family, women-s-fiction, library, ww2, sisters, pacific-northwest, russian-culture, love-falling-in-love, 5-00-rating

Anya Whitson has always been a cold mother to her daughters Meridith and Nina but loved her husband Evan like nothing else. On his deathbed, he makes his daughter, Nina, promise to get her mother to tell the entire story of the fairy tale that she had always told them as children. This fairy tale is the only loving thing Anya ever did for her daughters and now she is asked to tell the real story to her daughters. A story that could cause them to crumble or to find the love that is hidden in her ...more

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Jan 13, 2017 Skandia rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, 2017

This was a hard book to rate. Certainly worth more than my initial three star rating I changed into four stars. The historical part was the part of novel I liked, the part in present - not that much.
Kristin Hannah has done enormous amount of research for this book and I value it highly. She must be the sole western fiction writer who has come very close to describing "the real thing" writing about Russia and WWII events and capturing the spirit of Russian people during that time. Yes, she came c ...more

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Jan 28, 2019 Elle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-star-reads

I loved this book so much! It's beautiful, frightening, heartbreaking, and fantastic. The narrative bounces back and forth from present day and 1930s-1940s Russia in a way that feels seamless and natural. I hadn't really refreshed my memory on the premise before I started reading and I'm glad I hadn't. The beauty of this novel came through so much better without me having any expectations whatsoever. This one is one that will definitely be a candidate for a reread. I didn't expect to love this b ...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Susan rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

Even halfway through this book, I was thinking of it as rather ho-hum, and was expecting to give it only 3 stars. I liked the characters, especially sisters Meredith and Nina, but it didn't feel like it was going anywhere. And the mother character seemed so extreme that it strained credulity.

Then suddenly it turned into so much more. I think the last part of the book is as powerful as anything I've read. It' not that it was shocking or surprising, but that the emotional impact simply kept buildi ...more

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Aug 16, 2013 Alex rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-stars, contemporary, fiction, kindle, historical, romance, authors-h, read-2013

Nearly turned into a five star book in the last 25% or so.

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Jun 08, 2012 mussolet rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-sorted, 2024-shelf-challenge, language-english, rating-5stars-fiction-nf

When reading my way around the world, I usually try to avoid books about a place that are written by an author from a totally different place. Every now and again however, I stumble upon a hidden gem that takes its obligations very seriously and aims for a realistic view of a different place or time. "Winter Garden" is such a book.

As usual, Kristin Hannah deals with a lot of different themes within one big story. There is the middle-aged woman looking for her true place in life. There is the wom When reading my way around the world, I usually try to avoid books about a place that are written by an author from a totally different place. Every now and again however, I stumble upon a hidden gem that takes its obligations very seriously and aims for a realistic view of a different place or time. "Winter Garden" is such a book.

As usual, Kristin Hannah deals with a lot of different themes within one big story. There is the middle-aged woman looking for her true place in life. There is the woman that needs to rediscover her sense of home. There are two very different sisters that need to find a way to each other again. There is the loss of a father.
And then there is the relationship between mother and daughter, the central piece of this novel.
How does that relationship define the daughter? What should a mother be like? How much of her and her experiences lives on in her child? How much do you want to know about your parents' past?

Kristin Hannah uses the story of a Russian immigrant to make her character observations, but this is not the important thing. Mother Anya tells her two girls about her childhood. She uses the form of a fairytale, and she hardly ever relies on cold hard facts, but instead she shows the underlying emotion, creating a connection with her daughters and a very emotional response in the reader. Even when Anya is telling her difficult story, she is communicating first and foremost to her daughters, and that communication is more important than the rather exotic topic of conversation.

There is something to be said about the writing of those memory scenes however.
I know that everyone forms their own places in their head, but for the first time, it felt like the Russia in my head while I was reading it. It is interesting that, with all the war writing out there, the first time this has happened to me was during a "Chick Lit"-read of an author who I'd previously only known writing about the beautiful state of Washington.

In the end the book was very moving, well-written and I learned something about Russia. What a great combination!

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Review can also be found at 238 books in 238 days. ...more

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Oct 17, 2017 Anne rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2017, randomizer-2017

It took me a while to start this book, but then I got invested in the story (and the story within the story). I had a book club edition which helped me to think about some of the specifics of the story, which was fun.

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