Each week we assemble a collection – a bouquet, if you will – of books you can read for yourself, or use to build into a display in your library. As always, the books we link to have info from Amazon.com. If you click a link and then buy anything at all from Amazon, we get a small percent of their profits from your sale. Thanks!! We really appreciate the assistance!
While we social distance and work to stay healthy, it can be good to try a new hobby, and photography is fun on so many levels! So this week we share suggestions for books featuring photography or photographer characters!
Julia and the Art of Practical Travel by Lesley M. M. Blume
“When her grandmother dies and the once-majestic family estate is sold, eleven-year-old Julia Lancaster and her aunt Constance must take to the road to find Julia’s long-lost mother. They bring with them only the most practical travel things—silver candlestick holders, a few Oriental carpets, some steamer trunks, and Julia’s beloved Brownie camera, which she will use to document their journey across 1960s America. On the road, Julia and her aunt meet a cast of peculiar characters, including guitar-strumming hippies in Greenwich Village, a legendary voodoo queen in New Orleans, the honorable proprietor of the World’s End Cattle Ranch in Texas, and the colorful sheriff of Gold Point, Nevada (population: 1), who also happens to be the town’s mayor, fire chief, and reverend. But will they find Julia’s mother and a place to call home?”
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
“A unique and sweeping debut novel of an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War, as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men. On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen’s infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh’s secret keeper, boss and truest friend.”
The Haunting of Windwood Farm by Rebecca Patrick-Howard
“The old, spooky farm house looked as though everyone just got up one day and walked away, leaving their belongings behind. Locals called it the “devil’s house” but artist Taryn Magill has never met an old, abandoned house she didn’t like. In fact, she’s made a career of painting them. She might have bitten off more than she can chew with her new job, however. Everyone is afraid of the house and can’t wait to see it torn down and, as it turns out, their fears may not be unfounded. Whose cries echo throughout the rooms? What force is SO powerful that it won’t even allow the upstairs bedroom to be touched? What, if anything, does the 93-year-old vanishing of the boy next door have to do with the house’s mysteries? Taryn might have the answers soon, for now she doesn’t have to imagine the past–she can see it through her camera! Can Taryn escape with her sanity AND solve the mystery of Windwood Farm before the house is demolished? And will she even live through this job? Because now someone is trying to kill her! Using her camera and her wits, she’ll try to find the answers and get out before it’s too late!”
Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers
“When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he seemed to find inspiration in everything he saw? And, most important, why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world? When she meets Culler Evans, a former student of her father’s and a photographer himself, an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Culler seems to know more about her father than she does and could possibly hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death. But Eddie’s vulnerability has weakened her and Culler Evans is getting too close. Her need for the truth keeps her hanging on…but are some questions better left unanswered?”
The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
“Life changes in an instant. On a foggy beach. In the seconds when Abby Mason—photographer, fiancée soon-to-be-stepmother—looks into her camera and commits her greatest error. Heartbreaking, uplifting, and beautifully told, here is the riveting tale of a family torn apart, of the search for the truth behind a child’s disappearance, and of one woman’s unwavering faith in the redemptive power of love—all made startlingly fresh through Michelle Richmond’s incandescent sensitivity and extraordinary insight.”