Monthly Book Review: March 2022

It's my birthday month and it kicked off with a wonderful weekend of family, friends and food. I am really looking forward to a dedicated weekend with my BFF (first time in four years!) and fingers crossed our rescheduled family trip to Europe (Germany/Austria). This trip was canceled a week before we were scheduled to leave in 2020 due to COVID (borders shut down and all), but we're cautiously optimistic that it's going to happen this time - though I won't allow myself to get fully excited until we're officially through customs at our first destination. I know we'll have to show our vaccination cards constantly so have plastic sleeves for those. but it'ss super confusing about what's required for testing. Do we have to test to get on the plane or only for entry, if so how many hours in advance, is it x hours before departure or arrival, will we need to test again between countries, etc.? Looking forward to a couple of books with dedicated reading time during long flights as well. This month's reads were excellent.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles - this is a must read if you loved A Gentleman in Moscow (which I did!). Towles writing you on the journey (literally in this case) of Emmett and Billy Watson from Nebraska. There are several other main characters germane to the story and I love how Towles weaves the between each characters version of the same events to connect all the dots. This is one of those stories where you don't want to give too much away because the journey is just as good as the destination. Great ending - left me wanting so much more. 

Address Unknown by Katherine Kressman Taylor was originally published in 1938 and unfortunately is just as relevant today as it was 84 years ago. A short story of two business partners originally from Germany with one of the partners returning to Germany and telling of the goings on there and the impressions abroad for a brief period between the two world wars. Of course Germany was left stinging after WWI which gave rise to the politics of the third Reich. The story is told through letters between the two partners. How each interprets their reality is a stark reminder of how fragile humanity and peace really is.

I made a couple of attempts to get into The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson but just couldn't do it. A healthy dose of honesty and self-awareness caused me to return the audiobook (one of the features I love about Audible). I'm already a third of the way through Our Woman in Moscow so hoping that I get at least three books in this month. Bon Voyage!

TBR List

• Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams
• A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy
• The Good House by Ann Leary
• This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
• Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz
• Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Monthly Book Review: February 2022

Ok, I've been putting this off. February's books were surprising and not in a good way. I don't recall where I picked up recommendations for either of these and I'll admit neither will in my top 5 for the year and will likely be at the very bottom. 

I saw a warning that Verity by Colleen Hoover was disturbing, but didn't dig deeper because I like to be as unbiased as possible. The title character is a famous novelist who has become incapacitated. Her publisher and husband seek a ghostwriter to finish her successful series. Lowen, who is close to penniless and homeless, meets Verity's husband in a very unusual way and is made an offer she cannot refuse. Lowen goes to Verity's home to conduct research and finds a manuscript of Verity's - her own personal story of twists and plots. There were several cringeworthy moments where I physically recoiled in response to what I was hearing. This book was psychological manipulation and leaves you wondering what is truth vs. fiction.

I assumed The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle would be a chick lit book, but I wasn't prepared for the sex. Now I'm no prude, but it seemed rather gratuitous. Two royals, ala Harry and Meghan, abandon royal life for the peace and tranquility of a small Canadian town. Piper Evans and her mother happen to live in the cottage next door. Piper is a school teacher about to start her summer vacation when a run-in with the royals' lead protection officer leads to a predictable will they/won't them storyline. 

TBR List

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy
• The Good House by Ann Leary
• This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
• Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

Monthly Book Review: January 2022

•The beautiful one
•The golden couple 
•The volatile one
•The new parents 
•The quiet one 
•The city boy
•The outsider

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley is a proper whodunnit. Friends from university and a couple significant others on their annual holiday. There is also the staff at the remote Scottish highlands getaway and a couple from Iceland. Which one of them is a murderer? It’s a slow burn … Foley navigates each of the character’s pasts and their relationships with one another. Who is presenting themselves as someone other than who they are? Or better yet, who isn’t? The tension is dialed up by alternating chapters between the days leading up to the murder and the day of. Solid A.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes staying alive is the only form of resistance you have.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris is the companion book to The Tatooist of Auschwitz (read January 2021). The heartbreaking story of a woman freed from Auschwitz-Birkenau only to end up in a Siberian gulag, accused of being a Nazi sympathizer for impossible choices. Beautiful Cilka Klein is fated to be in situations that draw unwanted attention … some to her benefit and others most definitely not. Morris deftly weaves Cilka’s past - as a girl, in the concentration camp - with current circumstances to create a layered, complex character. I especially loved the family-of-choice amongst the women prisoners. Solid A.

TBR List

• Verity by Colleen Hoover
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy
• The Good House by Ann Leary
• The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle
• This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
• Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams
• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Monthly Book Review: December 2021 + Year in Review

It was a busy year with work and on the home front. I started baking sourdough bread earlier this year and I now religiously bake two loaves each week (two different starters - Seymour and Harry). I've perfected a softer crust (adding ice cubes under parchment sling before lid on to create more steam), experimented with flours (bread, wheat and rye mix is my current fave) and searched methods of scoring for the perfect "ear" or interesting design.

Almost two years into a pandemic. No one would have thought it would last this long (ok someone probably did), but I think we're pivoting to figure out how to live WITH this virus. Hubby and I were vaxed in March/April, yet we still got COVID in September. It was surprisingly easy to get and though we only had a mild case (I lost my sense of taste and smell, hubby had more of a flu), we're not anxious to repeat as we don't know the long-term effects. I'm still dealing with shoulder joint pain, though 95% better than when it first started, that has no other explanation than COVID side effect.

In the spirit of living, we took a few trips in a variety of modes. We were in Arizona twice - my husband's adult sons have settled there with their families and we were blessed with two granddaughters this year. There were also side trips to Flagstaff and Vegas. We went camping twice - a long weekend two hours away in an Airstream and a week-long trip to WI/UP Michigan in a TAB (hello COVID). And we made it back to our home away from home in Puerto Vallarta Mexico for a week.

I started the only book I read in December while in Mexico - The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. A hundred years ago Ada and Mathilda form an uneasy and unlikely friendship out of circumstance and convenience in Mississippi. Ada is a lost soul who dreams of belonging - hard to do with an abusive father and an unexpected pregnancy. Matilda dreams of making a new life in the North with the promise of greater opportunity and independence; however, her knowledge of secrets and the killing Ada's father puts a hamper on those plans. The two teens face bias, racism and poverty, luck, kindness and mutual perseverance.

Following are my top 5 of the 21 books I read this year - they either stayed with me, giving mind something to continue chewing on, or simply delighted. How interesting that they're in the order I read them. 

1. Anxious People* by Fredrik Backman (February)
2. The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal (June)
3. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult (July)
4. Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst (August)
5. The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi (November)

*Anxious People will debut as a Swedish Netflix series on Dec. 29th.

Monthly Book Review: November 2021

I started this while lying poolside in Puerto Vallarta (average 85 degrees) so I could feel good about posting by end of November. Then I decided to give in to feeling relaxed and blessed so let go. We're back home, I'm not even close to digging out of work emails and the daily temp has been 10-20 degrees. And we're getting 6" of snow tomorrow. Reality is a harsh beast. 

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi will likely be in my top 5 for the year. Lakshmi is an ambitious henna artist in 1950's Jaipur, India. Meeting the sister she never knew changes the trajectory of her life in ways she never would have imagined. This is a story of self discovery, redemption and the power of familial bonds. The storytelling is evocative - my mouth watered for the sweet and spicy treats Lakshmi prepares for her "ladies" and I longed to smell the heady aromas of the oils used as subliminal treatments in her henna. Lakshmi is part artist, part healer, part psychologist and stuck in the prescriptive castes of Indian society. I know very little of India, so have no idea of the accuracy, but it was a wonderful introduction and escape intp another culture. This is the first in a series of Joshi's books so I will definitely add the others to my Audible wish list.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal was a disappointment. I loved Stradal's The Lager Queen of Minnesota, but this fell flat for me. The story follows Eva Thorvald from her father's childhood, to her unique culinary tastes as a teen growing hot peppers for a local restaurant, to rising fame as a unique chef. I loved how down to earth Eva was compared to other food snobs, and that she always stayed true to herself. I also loved the references to regional food with cult-like fame such as lutefisk and bars. Ultimately, I didn't feel connected - there were so many characters focused on with painstaking detail who were only bit players. This was Stradal's debut novel and considering how much I liked the later Lager Queen, I'm definitely willing to try another.

TBR List

• The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
• The Good House by Ann Leary
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
• How to Have Impossible Conversations by Boghossian/Lindsay

Monthly Book Review: October 2021

This will be uber brief. Work was busy, busy, busy this month and we took a trip to Phoenix/Las Vegas for family time and a little adventure. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke is marketed as a thriller, but I would call it a heartbreaking love story. Bluebird follows black Texas Ranger Darren Matthews as he investigates two murders (one black, the other white) in a small Texas town steeped in racism and secrets. Darren finds himself battling disdain and inner demons in his quest for justice. Solid B+ 

TBR List

• The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
• Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
• The Good House by Ann Leary
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
• How to Have Impossible Conversations by Boghossian/Lindsay

Monthly Book Review: September 2021

Only one book last month - we went on a camping trip to WI and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and came home with COVID so one 14-hour book was all I could muster. I honestly thought I’d written this days ago. Once again, I’m reminded of how aptly named this blog is. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See is a wonderful story of history, tradition and sacrifice. It follows Li-yan, a young girl belonging to an ethnic minority tribe, the Akha, in the hills of Yunnan province, China. Her family picks tea leaves for a modest living and they expect Li-yan to eventually become a healer like her mother, but Li-yan dreams of attending university. Circumstances thwart that dream and Li-yan has a baby whom she must give up for adoption and due to tradition means she cannot return to her village. The story alternates between Li-yan, her daughter’s adoptive family in the U.S., and eventually her daughter, Haley. Haley’s thoughts on being a Chinese adoptee of white parents is nuanced and profound. I found myself rooting for Li-yan as she experiences the ups and downs of straddling the worlds of new China and the traditions of her roots. The history of tea was very interesting tea - I’ve ordered two kinds of pu-erh, the fermented tea made in Yunnan, to see if the health and beauty benefits are for real.

TBR List

• Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
• Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
• The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
• The Good House by Ann Leary
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
• How to Have Impossible Conversations by Boghossian/Lindsay