Dear Daughter

Author: Heather Armstrong

Publisher: Gallery

Books, 179 pages THE author is a full-time blogger and mother to two daughters. This book is a compilation of her letters to her first-born, Leta Elise, starting from when she was just eight weeks old.

For the next five years, the author wrote a letter every month, capturing the ups and downs of motherhood and chronicling the milestones of their lives together, from quiet snuggles to off-key singalongs, sniffles and sneezes, and daily miracles that come their way.

From the first time Leta holds a rattle to her first steps, her first curse word and her excitement over becoming a big sister, this book brings the reader through a heartfelt journey of the wonders of parenthood. The author blogs at dooce.com.

Moonlight On Linoleum

Author: Terry Helwig

Publisher: Howard Books, 282 pages

IN this debut memoir, the author shares how she had to grow up quickly to become a substitute mother to her sisters.

Their stepfather, Davy, proudly piled the family into a mobile home to enable them to move easily from one oil town to another while he made a living out in the oil fields.

Their mother, Carola Jean, was emotionally unstable and didn’t have much interest in the confines of home and motherhood. She often sought companionship in local watering holes, leaving the author, the eldest of six girls, in charge of her siblings.

In her struggle to keep the family afloat, the author forged an uncommon bond of sisterhood with her siblings, one that withstood the breaking up of their parents’ marriage and their mother’s accidental death. The author is now a counsellor and has a daughter of her own.

The Light Between Oceans

Author: M.L. Stedman

Publisher: Doubleday, 362 pages

SOMETIMES right and wrong looks the same, especially to good people. Life is peaceful on this remote island for lighthouse keeper Tom Sherbourne and his wife, Izzy. Of course, he can’t get the war memories out of his head and he has his own demons to battle. She, however, is content in everything but her failure to have a child.

When a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a baby wrapped lovingly in a woman’s cardigan, it seems that her prayers have been answered. But can they really expect that there will be no consequences when they follow their hearts?

A Servant Of Sarawak

Author: Peter Mooney

Publisher: Monsoon Books, 272 pages

BORN in Ireland, Peter Mooney decided to take up the position of Crown Counsel in Sarawak after he qualified as an advocate, the Scottish equivalent of a barrister.

When he first arrived in Sarawak in 1953, there was no radio or television. There were no major roads and few telephones. Contact with the world outside was via a ship from Singapore that came to Kuching once a week. During his time here, he met numerous colourful characters, from indigenous warriors with feathered headdresses to Lee Kuan Yew, Iban killers to slave owners.

This memoir includes intriguing local cases that serve to illustrate interesting points of law as well as capture the historically important details of Sarawak’s indigenous people and colonial life at that time.

Happy Accidents

Author: Jane Lynch

Publisher: Voice, 304 pages

ON American musical-comedy-drama television series Glee, Jane Lynch is Sue Sylvester, the cheerleading coach everybody loves to hate.

In The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), she plays the store manager who offers to deflower Steve Carell’s character, Andy. In this memoir, she reflects on her convoluted life and career path.

In her younger days, she struggled with anxiety, wondered about her sexuality, went for therapy, attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, moved back with her parents after living on her own for a bit – and then had a series of happy casting accidents that put her on the path to fame.

She has come a long way from that teenager in Illinois who dreamed of being an actress.

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