“Recommended by…” is a monthly feature in which an awesome bookish person recommends a book that I just have to read. It’s posted in two parts. Part one is the intro to the recommender and the recommendation. Part two posts later in the month and recaps my thoughts on the book.
The Recommender:
Thanks so much to the wonderful Tara from Fiction Folio for April’s recommendation! I’m so thankful that I’ve been able to meet and become friends with Tara through blogging. She’s so fun to attend bookish events with and fangirl about the things we love!
Tara runs Fiction Folio, a young adult (and sometimes adult) book blog, and works at Entangled Publishing as a managing/assistant editor. She loves all types of books but contemporary and historical fiction are her favorites. When her nose isn’t in a book, Tara enjoys watching way too many shows on her DVR and trying new restaurants.
Where to find her online:
The Recommendation:
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they’ve known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin’s orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously–and at great risk–documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father’s prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
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I’m really glad Tara recommended this one! Way back in 2010 I attended my very first bookish event. I got an ARC of Between Shades of Gray and got to hear Ruta Sepetys speak about the book. It was amazing to hear what she went through to write the story. I knew I wanted to read it. Yet I still haven’t! I think I’ve been a little afraid. I know it’s going to be intense but I’m looking forward to learning more about an aspect of history I have little familiarity with. Also, I’m pretty sure Tara just wants to make me cry! 🙂
Tara
Eeekkk I can’t wait to hear your thoughts after you read!