Let us introduce you to our new monthly feature. Marie’s Monthly Minutes. Why minutes? Because it just takes a minute to recommend a few great books. What will you find in these posts? Just straight ahead fiction – no vampires, aliens, or other worlds here. Marie likes a lot of historical fiction, literary fiction and books great for book clubs. This month’s selections explore life in other countries:

A Thousand Splendid Suns ~ Khaled Hosseini:
“Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women.”

The Samurai’sGarden ~ Gail Tsukiyama:
“Seventeen-year-old Stephen leaves his home in Hong Kong just as the Japanese are poised to invade China. He is sent to Tarumi, a small village in Japan, to recuperate from tuberculosis. His developing friendship with three adults and a young woman his own age brings him to the beginnings of wisdom about love, honor, and loss.”

The Poisonwood Bible ~ Barbara Kingsolver

“This intense family drama is set in an Africa on the verge of independence and upheaval. In 1959, evangelical preacher Nathan Price moves his wife and four daughters from Georgia to a village in the Belgian Congo, later Zaire. Their dysfunction and cultural arrogance proves disastrous as the family is nearly destroyed by war, Nathan’s tyranny, and Africa itself.”