15. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks I wanted to like this book. And I did, to a certain extent. Geraldine Brooks imagines the people that owned and protected the legendary Sarajevo Haggadah. A good book to read during Passover. The Sarajevo Haggadah is a real artifact that originated in Spain and found its way to Sarajevo in Bosnia, part of the former Yugoslavia. It is known for its daring illustrations, made in a time when Jews were as wary of likenesses as many Muslims are still today. The book follows the story of Hanna Heath, the book conservator assigned to the Sarajevo Haggadah (Hanna, like all of Brooks' characters, is fictional), interspersed with the tales of the people who, as I mentioned, owned or protected the Haggadah. I liked Hanna as a narrator, she had definite character. I also feel like I learned a lot about the art and field of book conservation, which interests me. The story centered a lot on her relationship with her mother, which is fine, but the mother...
Life, Books, and SFF