Monthly Book Review: January 2023

Three books this month and a bonus because it turns out I read two in December and forgot to review one of them. Classic “better late than never”.

The Good Widow by Liz Fenton, Lisa Steinke - What if you found out your husband died in Hawaii, but you thought he was on a business trip in Kansas? And he wasn’t alone. I’d obsessively try to find out out what happened. Not sure I’d go with the other party’s significant other though. This drew me in right away and had a twist I didn’t see coming. Not top 10 worthy but a good read.

The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis - Based in NYC, it begins in the Gilded Age with a very young model for sculptures gracing buildings and mansions all over the city. The loss of her mother and a scandal leads Lillian to take refuge as a private secretary to the daughter of wealthy industrialist, Henry Clay Frick. Fast forward to 1966 where another model, Veronica, is stuck in the Frick mansion for a cold winter weekend with a young associate archivist. Veronica and Joshua follow a scavenger hunt laid out by Helen Frick 50 years prior. Here’s where it gets a bit sketchy for me - the scavenger hunt is somehow related to a diamond that went missing and Veronica is anxious to steal the diamond once found to secure a safe home for her impaired sister. Oh and there’s the mystery of Mr Frick’s death and Lillian’s potential involvement. Not as tidy as I would expect but a decent read.

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid was REALLY good and definitely lived up to the hype. This is the read to beat the rest of the year. Carrie is the hard-ass, retired greatest tennis player of all time. Her record is about to be beat. Can she make a comeback and stave off the next generation? I love her inner dialogue, the progressive timeline with training and matches, and the wonderful relationship with her father and coach Javier, also a former tennis great. This is my sixth Reid book - Daisy Jones & The Six is a hotly anticipated movie - and by far my favorite. I think Carrie would make for a hot must-see weekly streaming series.

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee - Solène is a thirty-nine year old mother taking her teenage daughter and friends to a boy band concert. What results is a steamy, complicated ride. “What if your teenager’s fantasy was your reality?” The audio book is read by the author and she has a very sultry voice. I hear this is being made into a movie with Anne Hathaway. 

TBR List

• The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki 
• Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore
• Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
• All Adults Here by Emma Straub
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz

Monthly Book Review: Nov/Dec 2022 + Year in Review

I went to create the December/year end post and discovered that I forgot to do a November post. Oops!

Only one book in November - We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, a true story about a Jewish family from Poland. Over 90% of Europe’s Jews were killed during WWII, but Lucky Ones chronicles the stories of the Kurc family who survived - parents Sol and Nechuma, their five children, Genek, Mila, Addy, Halina, their partners and Mila's young daughter, Felicia. I loved getting to know each one and what they had to do, where they had to go to survive and reunite - from Paris jazz clubs to Poland's ghettos, a Siberian gulag, and Rio de Janeiro. 

Only one book in December as well - A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell. This is the true story of American Virginia Hall who fiercely fought for France's independence via espionage and sabotage. It was a tough read - long and like listening to a Netflix documentary (albeit a good one), but I really wanted to know more about the woman who defied convention and the patriarchy (as well as a disability - she was an amputee) to become the most highly decorated female civilian of WWII.

Year in Review

I read/listened to 30 books in 2022 and here are my top 10:

• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
• The Last Think He Told Me by Laura Dave 
• Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
• Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge
• The Good House by Ann Leary
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
• The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
• Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
• One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
• Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson

Would love to know what you thought of any of these and if any recommendations for 2023.

Happy New Year!

Monthly Book Review: October 2022

We travel to Phoenix, Arizona at least three times a year to see kids & grandkids. You would think spending at least three hours on an airplane would be conducive to reading, but sleep is often the priority with early morning flights (looking at you 4am wake up alarm). So only one book this month, but it was a really good one. 

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle is a love letter from a grieving daughter to her mother set in Positano, Italy. The audio version is read by Lauren Graham (aka Lorelai Gilmore) which I loved. She definitely embodies One’s Katy Silver, but it is so much fun to hear her recite a love of coffee and a few other quintessential Gilmore Girl references. I felt transported to Positano and surrounding areas (e.g., Capri) … the salty air, blue water, steep hills, fragrance of lemon, taste of fresh watermelon all enriched the story and made me want to add this region to the Italy trip I am planning for 2023 or 2024. Katy Silver finds herself alone, leaving her husband behind, in Positano taking the trip she had planned with her mother and best friend, Carol, who has just died. She is immediately befriended by the family running the Hotel Poseidon and another guest. Soon after she meets another American “runaway” and finds they have a great deal in common. The present and past collide and a startling discovery forces Katy to reckon with how present she has truly been (or not) in her life up to this point. As well as what matters most. Serle’s storytelling is playful and heartwarming - I will definitely be looking at her other titles. Solid A. 

TBR List

• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
• Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore
• A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
• Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
• The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis
• The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
• The Good Widow by Liz Fenton, Lisa Steinke 
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz

Monthly Book Review: September 2022

The Secret Life of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw is scandalous and insightful. Each chapter features a distinct story, raw and vulnerable, from a black woman’s (or girl's) point of view. Some are sad ... a woman and her best friend rendezvous ever New Years Eve while the best friend laments not being married ... and others are mournful ... a grandmother reading her granddaughter's diary learning that the teenager has a crush on the pastor's wife. My favorite is a mistress’ rules for her suitors. 

I chose Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson for two reasons - my favorite genre, WWII fiction, and author of one of my favorite books, The Gown. Set in 1940's Italy, Nina and Nico, never having met before, must leave their lives for the countryside with Nico's family in order to keep Nina safe. Their lives are soon consumed by farm chores (Nina is a city girl), small town judgment, and Nazi persecution. The bonds Nina forges with Nico's family and Nico's insistence on helping others are a heartening balance against the terrors they all face.

TBR List

• Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore
• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
• A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
• One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
• Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
• The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis
• The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
• The Good Widow by Liz Fenton, Lisa Steinke 
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz

Monthly Book Review: August 2022

Oh September - you are still summer but everyone is already promoting their orange/brown outfits and pumpkin spice drinks. Settle down and give me dahlias, sunflowers and a pumpkin patch. Happy Labor Day!

Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer - I loved Rimmer's The Things We Cannot Say (read February 2020). Like Things, Truths tackles tough subjects with agility - postpartum depression, dementia, women's rights (or lack thereof in the 50s) - and great character development. Beth Walsh is a new mom struggling with the baby blues, the decline of her father's health and her siblings. Her own mother died young and Beth doesn't have many memories of her, but she begins to learn missing pieces she never knew while cleaning out her father's home. What does she really know? What does her father remember? The man described in the letters doesn't sound like the man she knows as her father at all. I loved this, but you have to have faith, slugging through all the details in the beginning to get the reward. B+

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow reminded me a bit of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (read June 2019 and still one of my absolute favorite books), though didn't quite rise to meet it. January is a person, a ward of a very wealthy collector, Mr. Locke, while her own father is globetrotting collecting valuable artifacts. One day she finds a story book in her room about two young people who find each other against all odds and about doors to fantastical worlds. The books entices her, pushing her to learn more. One day she also learns that she has the ability to open these doors and that others want to use her talents for their own purposes. That's when her adventure really begins. January is VERY long and takes a few turns I didn't find necessary, but I enjoyed the journey. B

The Last Think He Told Me by Laura Dave will definitely be in my list of top reads at the end of the year. Imagine you're an independent woman, successful in your niche line of work, woodturning, and you fall in love with a smart, loving single father. You move across the country and set up residence on a floating home with this man and his daughter, a girl who barely tolerates you no matter how hard you try. Then you wake up one day and your husband is gone. Without a trace. You receive a note, "Protect her". This can only mean his daughter, the one who thinks you are beyond annoying. His company's CEO is arrested for fraud, but you don't think that's why he's disappeared. You start searching for answers and find so much more than you imagined. A story of love, faith and working with what you've got. A++. Reese Witherspoon's production company is making this into a limited series for Apple with Jennifer Garner. Will subscribe just for this (and Ted Lasso, duh).

TBR List

• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
• The Secret Life of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
• Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore
• Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson
• A Woman of Nor Importance by Sonia Purnell
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz

Monthly Book Review: July 2022

Happy summer - savoring every moment and thrilled there's officially two months more.

One True Loves is my fifth read by Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, Maybe in Another Life, Evidence of the Affair). In One, Emma has lost the love of her life, improbable high school sweetheart, presumed dead when his helicopter goes missing over the Pacific. She tries to move on, redefining her vision for the future in work and love when her husband calls. What will she choose - the perfect past or promising future? I appreciate how each of Reid's books are truly unique and though somewhat predictable this was a light summer read.

The Mountain and the Sea by Kwame Dawes is a novella about Esther, a Jamaican woman grieving her husband and preparing for a hurricane, who discovers a naked man with amnesia in the road. Something stirs her to care for him as she prepares for the storm. A sweet story of rediscovering yourself when you list expect it and there are zero expectations. 

The Paris Apartment is my third read by Lucy Foley (The Guest List, The Hunting Party) and I am hooked! Jess is escaping the UK to visit her journalist brother, Ben, in Paris. Jess arrives to find the apartment empty and Ben nowhere in sight. She tries to piece things together by talking to each of the apartment building's tenants. But each seems to have their own agenda and something is definitely off. Who are they and what do they know? Foley expertly weaves backstories with "current" events to create suspense and drama. Can't wait for her next one!

TBR List

• Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• The Secret Life of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz

Monthly Book Review: June 2022

I can't imagine that Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge won't be in my top 5 of the year. Barry, a New York banker, and Sophie, a French architect, are deserted on a tiny uninhabited island following a twist of fate. They could not be more different, but they must rely on each other to survive. I love how the author weaves in back stories. Basically 'Castaway' for two.

I almost stopped reading The No-Show by Beth O'Leary. Something made me stick with it though and I'm glad I did. Joseph Carter stands up three women on Valentine's Day. Jane is escaping something by immersing herself in books and work at a charity thrift shop. Miranda is a tree surgeon and Siobhan is a life coach. Each of them think he's too good to be true and they may be right. 

TBR List

• One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
• Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel
• The Mountain and the Sea by Kwame Dawes
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz