Monthly Book Review: December 2020 + Year in Review

What a forking year, right?! I'm curious how we'll look back in history on 2020. So. Much. Change. I started the year strong attending a playoff game for my husband's beloved Green Bay Packers (a gift from my daughter). I went shopping for wedding dresses for my daughter and it was so emotional to see her face when she found the perfect one (now hanging in my guestroom closet ready for Nov 2021 wedding). February brought fun get-togethers for the Super Bowl, Oscars, church, bowling league and a night of swing dancing. The Hubs and I did a fancy cooking class on Valentine's Day and that location has since closed permanently. We had plans for a trip to Germany and Austria with kids at the end of March which was thwarted only 10 days before it was to begin due to closed borders - here and Europe. We hope to take the same trip in 2021 if we're able to be vaccinated by mid-summer. I started working from home full-time and that was a transition. April brought the promise of Spring and a fur baby - we adopted a 9 yo corgi/terrier named Mya and she was my constant companion and center of our attention. April and May were spent in quarantine to our home, yard and outdoor dinners with a few friends and family. Things started to open a bit in June and I began exercising regularly - a habit that shut down after the gyms closed again early November. In July and August we spent time outdoors with family and friends and took a long a couple of day trips and a long weekend in Bayfield, WI. September brought our first Airstream camping experience (love!) and we continued to soak up time outdoors. My mom came for a visit - we hadn't seen her since September 2019. We took all the precautions and traveled to CA in October for Hubs' oldest son's wedding. We keep daydreaming of packing up the dog and traveling the country in our Airstream. November and December brought cold and increased virus positivity rates so another round of shutdowns - literally and in spirit. There were some "lasts". We lost Mya on Christmas Eve after a short illness due to kidney disease. This loss has been deep - that stubborn fluffy butt imprinted on my heart and reminded me that I am a nurturer. Our January WI trip included a visit with my BFF and that was the last time I saw her mom who was like a second mother to me. She had always been so loving, bright and full of hope, yet her light was fading and in early April she went home to God where I know she is still sprinkling her magic. I had a strong relationship with my ex-MIL and enjoyed having her along on the first dress shopping trip with my daughter. We took her to dinner afterward and that may have been the last time I saw her, at least full interaction. While she is still very much alive, dementia has taken a firm hold and she has been sequestered in her nursing home since March. In February I visited with 87 yo Dane KL in February and I hope that wasn't the last time. I love hearing her experiences from childhood with her brother in the resistance, finding the love of her life, moving to the U.S. and traveling the world. 

Lots of change. I am ready for the change to 2021. I know a flip of the calendar won't make the virus disappear or eliminate challenges that are a normal part of life, but it represents renewal and as an eternal optimist I am ready.

December Book Review

September by Rosamunde Pilcher made it on my list because I so enjoyed Winter Solstice by the same author. While not as good as WS, I enjoyed the character development and Scottish setting. It's 1988 and a party is being planned for September. Old friends and family will be together Some will attend because it is expected, others will go to make peace with their pasts. 

I started Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, but it's long - and a bit dry - so am taking my time.

2020 Book Review

I read 21 books plus a few podcasts and Audible exclusives - far below my expectations but this is a year if there ever was one to say 'it is what it is'. According to Audible, I listened to 35 titles - some started and not finished - with 212 hours on fiction and 41 hours nonfiction. Without further adieu, my top 5 favorite books for 2020: 

1. The Things We Cannot Say
2. The Gift of Forgiveness
3. Between the World and Me 
4. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
5. What Alice Forgot

Audible had a sale with lots of reads in my wish list for only $6 or $7 so I stocked up.

 

TBR List

• The Farm by Joanne Ramos
• Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• The Tatooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
• Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams 
• Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Monthly Book Review: November 2020

Ah, December. This is the time of year I go crazy with decking of halls, baking of cookies, wrapping of presents and caroling. And a never-ending pandemic with surging cases is not going to steal my joy. Not today Satan, not today!!!!

Two reads last month so already feeling pretty accomplished. 

Murder at Melrose Court by Karen Menuhin is a country murder story set in the 1920s. A delightful cast of characters with an ambience reminiscent of Downton Abbey. Heathcliff Lennox (awesome name!) has a mystery on his hands when a dead man shows up on his doorstep days before Christmas. And that is only the first. I don't recall how I found this one -  I recommend for a lighthearted holiday read. It's the first in a series, but I think this was a one and done for me.

Blindness by Jose Saramago was recommended by my SIL's book club. They use the title when a book garners a ranking higher than 10/10 so I was very intrigued. An entire population goes blind save for one person. Nothing like a pandemic to bring out the best and worst in people Sound familiar?! A group of people are forced together by circumstance. Initially the group is quarantined in a former mental institution, later they attempt to find their homes and find a dystopian society. When you can no longer use your eyes to "see" the world, what do you believe, who or what do you rely on? Will the best of humanity and faith survive? The writing is superb and the occasional voice over perspective intriguing. Definitely an interesting read given the current state of COVID with stay-at-home orders, quarantines, masks, polarized opinions, etc. Blindness was made into a movie with Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal - I'm definitely going to check it out even if the ratings are so-so.

 TBR List

• September by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Monthly Book Review: October 2020

Majesty by Katharine McGee is the follow-up to American Royals which I read back in January (ah, sweet sweet January, before all hell broke loose). It picks up exactly where the first book left off and while it lingered a little too long in the middle, I really liked where it ended. Very much a girl power read. A solid B.

The Stationary Shop by Marian Kamali is a beautiful story about lost love, family, politics and food. It spans from 1953 Tehran, Iran (28 Mordad coup) to 2013 Boston. Roya and Bahman fall in love in the stationary shop, but political winds and family secrets work against them. The audio version is wonderful. The food was such an integral part of the story and - I've already looked up several recipes for jeweled rice, khoresh and ghormeh sabzi. A solid A.

 TBR List

• Murder at Melrose Court by Karen Menuhin
• Blindness by Jose Saramago
• September by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Monthly Book Review: September 2020

Three books in one month and an early post - winning at life! At least for today 😉

I had high hopes for Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea because I loved The Japanese Lover. My review for Japanese Lover - LOVE!!! Great story, stupendous writing, wonderful character development. Read / listen now! 

Long Petal was my sister-in-law's September book club read. It was hard for me to get into and I did not like it as much as I had hoped. It is the chronicle of Victor Dalmau's life from a young boy in Spain to Chilean immigrant and beyond (the title is a reference to Chile). It read (audio version) almost like a documentary with actor portrays thrown in for emphasis. The history on the Spanish Civil War and Chile was very interesting and I loved Pablo Neruda's poetry. 7 out of 10.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley was a Reese pick and at one point while reading I thought 'I'm going to ignore her recommendations going forward'. But then ... WHAM! I was pleasantly surprised. The story bounces between the day before the wedding on an island off the Irish coast and the day of the big event with several characters' perspectives and backstories. Many mysteries are billed in the style of Agatha Christie and fall flat, but this delivered for me. 8 out of 10 because I figured some things out early on and it wrapped up a little too quickly at the end.

My sister-in-law recommended Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. A delightful memoir of Woodson's childhood and how she came to understand her Black identity. I wish I had the ability to recall the details from my childhood this well. 9 out of 10. My favorite excerpt from her "How to Listen" chapters - "Write down what I think I know. The knowing will come. Just keep Listening."

Another excerpt that really resonated with me was in the author's notes - "I am often asked if I had a hard life growing up. I think my life was very complicated and very rich. Looking back on it, I think my life was at once ordinary and amazing. I couldn't imagine any other life. I know that I was lucky enough to be born during a time when the world was changing like crazy and that I was part of that change. I know that I was and continue to be loved I couldn't ask for anything more."

 TBR List

• The Stationary Shop by Marian Kamali
• American Royals II: Majesty by Katharine McGee
• Blindness by Jose Saramago
• September by Rosamunde Pilcher

Monthly Book Review: August 2020

Does anyone else feel like August was simultaneously the longest and shortest month of this year? 

I started How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi as it is on my to-be-read list as well as my new book club’s read for the month. Maybe it’s because I’m still processing Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi  Coates from June (it’s that good and powerful) or that I wanted to completely escape, I just couldn’t get into it. So I decided to give myself grace (the same grace I invoke when indulging in a cookie or two because I went to Pilates that morning) and got lost in Kate Morton‘s The Forgotten Garden. I love Kate. She creates ethereal stories that expertly intertwine characters from different times. Nell found herself on a ship to Australia as a young child and ended up living a charmed life until her “father” reveals the truth as she’s about to be married. Nell seeks her truth, but fate intervenes. Nells granddaughter Cassandra picks up where Nell left on years later only to find her own truth in the process. 

 

TBR List:

• A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende 
• The Guest List by Lucy Foley
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Monthly Book Review: July 2020

Two un-put-down-able books this month!

The Gown by Jennifer Robson is a fictional story about the women making Princess Elizabeth's (now QEII) wedding gown post-WWII. This has been in my queue for months, but it was rather timely when Princess Beatrice used one of her grandmother's Norman Hartnell dresses for her own wedding gown. I love girl power stories and this was sweet with a little bit of dastardly thrown in.

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. I don't recall where I got this recommendation, but I will be seeking out more Pilcher books in the future. This started out slowly meandering and I was about to get annoyed when I felt myself sucked in by the delightful characters. Elfreida is an older single woman befriended by Gloria and Oscar after moving to the countryside. Elfreida's niece, Carrie has just returned to England following the bitter end of a love affair. She is Elfreida's niece or cousin. Lucy is Carrie's teenage niece who is positively devoid of angst if not for her own selfish mother. Sam is trying to put the pieces of his life together following a failed marriage. Fate brings them together in a grown-up Hallmark story that I'd love to see play out on screen.

Queue:

• How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Monthly Book Review: June 2020

I honestly thought I'd be further along with my to-do list at four months into this pandemic. I should have read more, exercised more, organized more, been further along in German and/or Spanish, painted the front door, etc. Instead I have been caught up in current cultural moments - the impending election, COVID-19 run amuck, bizarre political climate, Black Lives Matter - and gardening.

I thought about backdating this post to early June, but decided I'm just too old to feel the need to fib my way through anything here. It's July 20th. There, I admit it. I read two books in June, just procrastinated about reviewing them and July 3rd good intentions turned into a better-get-on-it task two and a half weeks later. The bar is low for July people.

Before cracking a book from my downloaded queue I added Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates as it was on several IG/FB/blog antiracist reading lists. It is read by the author - who has a wonderful speaking voice - and I was grateful for the correct pronuunciation of his first name -- Ta-na-ha-she. This is an open letter to his son chronicling his own experience as a Black man growing up on the streets of Baltimore and attending Howard University, as well as hopes for the future - and not sappy dreams, but practical realities, warnings. I'm still processing - this is heavy and there's a lot to unpack for a middle class White woman. It's completely other for me - knowing that this is someone else's reality, so foreign to me yet so much of our collective Amercian experience, is very sobering. Ta-Nehisi is a beautiful writer. Two of my favorite excerpts:

I came to see the streets and the schools as arms of the same beast. One enjoyed the offical power of the state, while the other enjoyed its implicit sanction. But fear and violence were the weaponry of both. Fail in the streets and the crews would catch you sllipping and take your body. Fail in the schools and you would be suspended and sent back to those same streets where they would take your body. And I began to see these two arms in relation. Those who fail in the schools justify their destruction in the streets, the society could say he should have stayed in school and then wash its hands of him. It does not matter that the intentions of individual educators were noble. Forget about intentions. What any institution or its agents intend for you is secondary. Our world is physical. Learn to play defense, ignore the head and keep your eyes on the body. Very few Americans will directly proclaim that they are in favor of Black people being left to the streets. But a very large number of Americans would do all they can to preserve the dream. No one directly procalimed that schools were designed to sancitfy failure and destruction. But a great number of eductators spoke of personal responsibility in a country authored and sustained by criminal irresponsibility. The point of this language of intention and personal responsibility is broad exoneration. Mistakes were made. Bodies were broken. People were enslaved. We meant well. We tried our best. Good intention is a hall pass through history, a sleeping pill that insures the dream. 

One must be without error out here [sic] But you are human and you will make mistakes. You will misjudge. You will yell. You will drink too much. You will hang out with people who shouldn't. Not all of us can always be Jackie Robinson, not even Jackie Robinson was always Jackie Robinson. But the price of error is higher for you than it is for your countryman and so that America might justify itself, the story of a black body's destruction must always begin with his or her error. Real or imagined. [sic] A society almost necessarily begins every success story with a chapter that most advtanges itself and in America these preciptating chapters are almost always rendered as a singular action of exceptional individuals. It only takes one person to make a change you are often told. This is also a myth. Perhaps one person can make a change, but not the kind of change that would raise your body to equality with your countryman. The fact of history is that Black people have not, probably no people have ever, liberated themselves strictly through their own efforts. In every great change in the lives of African Americans we see the hand of events that were beyond our individual control. Events that were not unalloyed goods. You cannot disconnect our emancipation in the northern colonies from the blood spilled in the Revolutionary War any more than you can disconnect our emancipation from slavery in the south from the [sic] houses in the Civil War. Any more than you disconnect our emancipation from Jim Crow from the genocides of the second World War. History is not solely in our hands and still you are called to struggle, not because it assures you victory, but because it assures you an honorable and sane life. 

I'm committed to reading a book by a Black author or about Black / People of Color experiences at least every other month. I recently joined my sister-in-law's book club and we are reading How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram Kendi for August.

Speaking of book club, the June book was Daisy Jones and the Six which I read last summer. We gave it a 7 out of 11 which is on par with my B-. For this reason alone I am hesitant to choose a Reese Witherspoon book club choice in the future.

The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter is a gritty crime novel in the author's Will Trent series. I read a Slaughter book two years ago, but don't recall if Trent was a character. A cop with a dicey past, a fancy nightclub under construction, a couple of famous basketball players, a rape charge, a dead cop and a crime scene with a lot of blood. It was a good distraction but not good enough for me to want to read more in the series.

Queue:

• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
  The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Monthly Book Review: May 2020

I liked Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng so much (Aug 2019) that I decided to read Everything I Never Told You by the same author and written three years earlier. Everything handles race, coming of age and mid-century societal norms. Ng is adept at describing the nuances of relationships and letting the reader draw conclusions to ethical dilemmas. I didn't find this as good as Fires but still enjoyable. 

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. What if you suffered amnesia and couldn't recall the last 10 years of your life? You don't recall the birth of your children, the petty things that wore on relationships or how you subtly changed from a carefree person deeply in love with your husband to an unhappy, inpatient woman obsessed with routines. Moriarty is an expert storyteller, especially with capturing the inner dialogue we all have. I'm a big fan of her books and this did not disappoint. 

The Gift of Forgiveness by Katherine Schwarzenegger is a compilation of personal stories of those who have both given and received forgiveness. The stories range from Elizabeth Smart who was abducted as a teen and raped almost daily for nine months, a man who lost his wife and child in a car accident, a man who would do anything to be worthy of his wife's forgiveness following an affair, a man abused by his Catholic priest, the mother of one of the Columbine high school massacre shooters, the mother of one of the children killed in the Sandy Hook elementary shooting, to a woman who hid in a neighbor's home for 100 days while her family was murdered during the Rwandan genocide. Key takeaways about forgiveness:

• It is a choice, for some it must be practiced consistently, for others it is given easily
• It is personal - every journey to forgiveness, way in which it is experienced is unique
• It is a gift you give yourself to free yourself from others' power over you

To Be Read queue:

• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

Monthly Book Review: April 2020 + Quarantine Life

I had a separate deep thoughts post all ready to go but it's lost. I blame my husband's touchscreen laptop that defies me at every turn. I hit 'save' like a hundred times and it still popped up with the first two sentences from first draft a week old when I went to do final edits. Blurg!!!

I'm in my seventh week of working from home and the days ebb and flow - sometimes there are huge holes in the day and then I'm working into the evening hours to catch up on the flurry of emails and decisions for action the next day. Other days my butt is parked in a chair in the same position for hours while on conference calls or prepping documentation. Working in the health insurance industry provides a unique vantage point. I see daily care delivery emails that balance grim reality with positive we're-all-in-this-together messaging. I chair meetings where we discuss experience - employees who fear losing coverage and patients who fear whatever ills they feel could be the dreaded virus. It's very sobering. I am very grateful to have the love of family and friends, a home where I feel safe, and a job where I can work from home.

Without a commute, I find myself lacking as much opportunity to "read". With terms such as unprecedented, pandemic, social distancing, furlough and lockdown part of our everyday vernacular I found it hard to find something to get into. So I chose the shortest of all the books in my queue, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. #lazy

The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller, a good whodunnit with a rich plot. It reminds me of a certain Shyamalan movie. Alicia is an artist in an asylum for the criminally insane following the murder of her husband. Theo is a psychotherapist intent on “helping“ her. Why? What’s in it for Theo? Why won’t Alicia speak? 

Queued up next:

• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng 
• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Monthly Book Review: March 2020

March started so full of hope … for Spring, for a European family vacation, for all the simple things of life. COVID-19 has robbed of us any security and certainty we might have felt a month ago. I only read one book for the month as my work from home life was consumed by all COVID-19 all the time on conference calls and video meetings, so the last thing I wanted to do was listen to anyone squawk at me. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell is full of hilarious cultural bumbles resulting from a couple's move from London to Denmark. The move is a result of the author's husband taking a job at the headquarters for Lego (he is referred to as "Legoman" throughout). They decide to give it a go for at least a year. As a freelance writer, the author gives herself the assignment of uncovering why Danes rank so high on the world happiness scale. In addition to entertaining personal experience, she collects data and interviews subject matter experts regarding every aspect of "living Danishly" so there's a fair amount of statistics. She adds her own research by asking every Dane she encounters how happy they are on a scale of 1-10. Each month has it's own chapter which ends with "things I learned this month". My favorite anecdote was learning that her washing machine flashing "slut" was not personal shaming, but rather letting her know that the wash had finished.

Queued up next:

• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng 

Monthly Book Review: February 2020

Two completely different reads this month, equally awesome.

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer is a gut wrenching story of survival, sacrifice and redemption. The story alternates between present day America and WWII-era Poland - dual timelines with Alice and Alina as protagonists. Alice is a daughter, wife, mother and granddaughter who's present life is consumed by being a fierce advocate for her autistic son and her dying mother-figure grandmother whom she lovingly calls "Babcia" (grandmother in Polish). I especially loved the internal dialogue both Alina and Alice have - real and honest. A+

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb is a therapist’s account of some of her patients as well as her own therapy experiences. Lori is an adept storyteller - no doubt related to her journalism and television background. The patient experiences are extremely relatable - we all have issues we're grappling with which are variations on a theme (fear of death, abandonment, regret, etc.). Lori relays sessiosn with Julie, a young newlywed with terminal cancer; Rita, a mature woman who longs for love yet pushes everyone away due to self loathing; John, a successful Hollywood writer tormented by the probability he caused the death of his young son. I'm a bit of a self-help geek so appreciated Lori's account of many psychology principles and their roots. A+

Queue:

The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
The Gown by Jennifer Robson
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

Monthly Book Review: January 2020

American Royals by Katherine McGee imagines what America would be like if George Washington had agreed to be king instead of president. This story chronicles the three children of America’s present day king. Beatrice is the first female heir and her entire life is scheduled and monitored. She’s a gilded bird in a cage. She has to marry someone suitable and not likely for love. Samantha (Sam) is the spare who knows nothing and acts accordingly. She and her twin brother Jefferson (Jeff) globetrot and party like rockstars with no aim or purpose. Neither of them can love who they want, but for different reasons than Bea. There are two other characters - Sam’s best friend Nina and Jeff’s former girlfriend Daphne - that add dimension. What starts out as a rom-com becomes a likely realistic perspective on the sacrifice monarchs make (or should ;) for their country. This did not end at all as I expected. I was unhappy about that at first, but upon reflection it seems more plausible than what I imagined. 

Queue:

• The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
• The Year of Living Danishly by Hellen Russell
• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
• The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher