Monthly Book Review: Aug/Sep 2024

I took a month off from the blog to enjoy the end of summer to it's fullest, including an epic two-week road trip to Utah (three national parks!), Phoenix, AZ and Telluride, CO. I found time to read three good books.

Can you spot the Corgi?!

Homecoming by Kate Morton - I love Morton's books for their rich character development, interwoven stories, and ability to engross you in the story. A fog machine, lush greenery and songbirds are her vibe. Homecoming starts with a shocking discovery then fast forwards 60 years later to begin unfolding the mystery. Jess rushes home to Australia when her beloved grandmother who essentially raised her falls ill. Like "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane, an utterance leads Jess to uncover her family's connection to an infamous unsolved crime. Deeply held secrets, a sense of duty and devotion, and mother-daughter dynamics make for a captivating, layered tale. I was so sure I had it all figured out but was completely surprised for a satisfying end. I was also sincerely disappointed to learn that the idyllic Tambilla is a fictional town. 

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore was another mystery with a surprising end. A thirteen-year-old camper goes missing one morning in 1975. Creepily her brother also went missing and has never found fourteen years prior. It meandered at times and there's a strong haves/have-not's perspective - camp owners and their wealthy guests on the hill vs. camp workers and investigators - that I found distracting, but it was all part of Moore's foil to keep you guessing. Once again, I thought I had it all figured out only to find I was completely wrong. My favorite character was investigator Judyta - smart, dedicated and intuitive - if only the men around her would stop discounting and patronizing her.

I don't want to give too much away about The Wedding People by Alison Espach - it's quirky, tender and delves into the heart of depression with honesty and humor. My favorite of the three.

TBR List:

• Banyan Moon by Thao Thai 
• Beach Ready by Emily Henry
• The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Blue Love: Blue Valley High by MJ Fields 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• The Switch by Beth O'Leary
• Buy Yourself the F*cking Lillies by Tara Schuster
• Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
• Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola
• Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf, Matthew. Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Lins
• Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford

Monthly Book Review: July 2024

The Paris Summer Olympics are in full swing so not sure there will be much reading in August. Good thing I got two books in for August, and one was definitely a top 5 of the year.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride read like an Amor Towles novel. You know Amor from A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway (both top reads in past years). The characters are rich with painstaking back story for each, and everything is revealed like layers of an onion, releasing a tension you didn't know you were holding on to until the last word. In Heaven, the eponymous grocery store is located in the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, an area where Blacks and Jews live in tenuous harmony, chafing against the surrounding white majority who does little to mask their disdain. Through their shared experiences and Chona Ludlow's belief that everyone deserves to be loved, they band together to see justice done ... for themselves, their community and a young deaf boy. LOVE! 

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is my seventh Reid book. This story follows the Riva family over the course of 24 hours in August1983. The four Riva siblings are tied by blood and history. Their famous crooner father abandoned them and their loving, wronged mother never realized her own dreams as she was either the wronged wife of Mick Riva or the owner of her parent's coastal seafood restaurant. Each of the siblings is in the midst of their own personal struggles and it all comes to a head at the annual party of the season. Nina, the surfing supermodel, is the caretaker and glue of the family (oh and her husband is sleeping with tennis star Carrie Soto), Jay is a professional surfer who struggles to find love, Hud (short for Hudson) is a photographer with a secret, and Kit, the youngest, is starting to find her own identity in a family of big personalities. I liked the hour-by-hour cadence and deep back stories, but I wasn't as vested in the characters as those in Carrie Soto is Back or Daisy Jones & The Six. Still a solid summer read.

TBR List:

• Homecoming by Kate Morton
• Beach Ready by Emily Henry
• The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Blue Love: Blue Valley High by MJ Fields 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• The Switch by Beth O'Leary
• Buy Yourself the F*cking Lillies by Tara Schuster
• Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
• Banyan Moon by Thao Thai 
• Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola
• Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf, Matthew. Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Lins
• Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford

Monthly Book Review: June 2024

I needed light-hearted palette cleansers after the last couple of months. These two definitely fit the bill.

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland is billed as Dirty Dancing meets The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Two Jewish families started a resort in the Catskills sixty years ago and now after the death of one of the founders, the remaining owners as well as kids and grandkids reunite to determine whether to save the hotel open or sell. Family secrets are spilled, generations clash (grandma at goat yoga?) and love sparks. It's a great summer read.

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes is another good summer read. Laurie's beloved 93-year-old never married Aunt Dot has died, her home a refuge while growing up in a house full of four brothers, and she travels to her hometown in Maine to close out her estate. She reunites with her best friend and first love to go through all the photos and other memorabilia of Dot's life. In the process she finds a wood carved duck that she feels has a deeper story and hires an antique dealer to help move some of the more valuable items. What follows is a con, a reckoning, a lovely surprise and the considerations involved in defining a life on your own terms. Great characters and a delightful ending.

TBR List:

• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Blue Love: Blue Valley High by MJ Fields 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• Homecoming by Kate Morton
• Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf, Matthew. Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Lins
• Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford

Monthly Book Review: May 2024

Well, I jinxed myself by thinking I'd sneak in a third book for April when I should have saved it for May. Travel, home & garden projects, and youngest moving out all competed for my time.

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer alternates between Noah, a former SOE operative (British secret service agent during WWII), and his daughter Charlotte in 1970 and two other female SOE agents in 1943-1945. Noah is on a mission to piece together the parts of the war his memory lost following an accident. His history intersects with Chloe and Fleur, a double agent and of course Nazi atrocities. Charlotte helps her father, and in the process connects with a man seeking his own history. The SOE women are examples of the bravery and heroism of so many whose stories were in the background until recently ... so many great books about the role women played in fighting against authoritarianism.

TBR List: 

• Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
• Flying Solo by Linda Holmes, 
• The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Blue Love: Blue Valley High by MJ Fields 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• Homecoming by Kate Morton
• Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf, Matthew. Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Lins
• Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford

Monthly Book Review: April 2024

Late to post once again but I snuck in a third book on a recent flight to/from Phoenix for grandparent time so decided to bump up my monthly average. 

I don't recall why I added Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout to my reading list, and I wondered several times at first if there was a point to it all. I'd call it a "compound" read. Lucy is a widowed writer whisked away by her ex-husband to the coast of Maine at the start of the COVID pandemic. William, Lucy's ex, is an ex-Marine and parasitologist so he sees the warning signs and potential impact early on. What follows is Lucy's very thoughtful, honest reflection on her life ... as a child living in poverty with a less than nurturing mother, as a sister, wife to two husbands, mother, and friend. I was struck by how often Lucy's evaluations echo my own inner mechanics, the way she examines current situations against life's learnings and perspective the way only hindsight can. One of my favorite excerpts is when Lucy recalls seeing ping-pong balls bouncing around randomly and thinks now "that is like people. My point is if we are lucky, we bounce into someone". I love that metaphor ... there are so many people I've been lucky enough to bounce into and others I've learned from that make me appreciate a future bounce all the more. Four years after the onset of the pandemic, it was a bit surreal to hear Lucy document the new rituals of her life as well as the horrors ... the deaths, knowing someone affected and it some cases gone as a result, meeting people only outside, distancing, wearing masks, etc. Solid A.

I added The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton to my list after seeing it on a Modern Mrs Darcy post in January about books to read before or after a cruise. We took a weeklong Caribbean cruise at the beginning of April, so it seemed appropriate to read this upon our return. Catherine and Elena are on a roundtrip cruise from New York to Havana in 1933 aboard the SS Morro Castle, albeit under very different circumstances and they both have secrets. Catherine is traveling with her never present fiancé and Catherine has a score to settle. When an accidental murder occurs, Catherine enlists the help of a suave passenger with secrets of his own. Cleeton does an excellent job of conveying the glamour of a luxury cruise juxtaposed with intrigue. betrayal and the haves vs. have-nots. A fun read with a twist. like a sparkly cocktail. And ... the Morro Castle was a real ship that caught fire and burned off the coast of New Jersey in 1933. Solid B.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue was my favorite read of the month. It is set in Ireland and details the co-dependent lives of new coworkers and fast best friends and roommates Rachel and James. Rachel is a student with a crush on one of her professors. What unfolds culminates in the "incident". The story is told with great detail, but not in a tedious way - meticulous deconstruction is necessary to understand why everyone behaves the way they do and the compromises they make along the way. Warning: abortion is a topic threaded throughout. A+

TBR List:

• The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer
• Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
• The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren
• Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Blue Love: Blue Valley High by MJ Fields 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• Homecoming by Kate Morton
• Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf, Matthew. Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Lins
• Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford

Monthly Book Review: March 2024

The last day of my least favorite month. And only two days until my birthday. I'm one of those weirdos who love their birthday. 

A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan jumps between the 1870 Siege of Paris and post-WWII 1946. Lisette grows up in the lap of luxury in 1870 where her mother all but ignores her and she feels more at home in the kitchen, comforted and tutored by the head cook. The trajectory of her life is forever changed one day when she does the marketing for an ailing kitchen maid. Micheline is Lisette's great granddaughter who is trying to make ends meet and raise her younger siblings following the disappearance of their mother. They both start a bakery. The story was very light on history and a bit predictable but good. I had to look up the word "privation" as it was used very liberally.

Privation: a state in which things that are essential for human well-being such as food and warmth are scarce or lacking.

TBR List:

• Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
• Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
• The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren
• The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton
• Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Blue Love: Blue Valley High by MJ Fields 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
• The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer
• The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
• Homecoming by Kate Morton
• Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf, Matthew. Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Lins
• Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford

Monthly Book Review: February 2024

I am over the moon that it's finally March! I am anxious to start seeds and dahlia/canna tubers over the next two weeks. This has been called the "lost winter" here in the Twin Cities - it was 60 degrees today and no snow in sight. Only one book for February - 18 hours. I will definitely be reading something shorter next.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee chronicles four generations of a Korean family in Japan. The story was rich (though extremely long), with themes of discrimination, perseverance and honor. The title of the book references a popular gambling game, similar to slot machines. It was very educationnal. I had no idea that Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and that Koreans living in Japan were treated as second class citizens. It was difficult to become a Japanese resident and Koreans had to register as "special permanent residents". They felt shame in abandoning their country and giving allegiance to their oppressors yet had no voting rights in South Korea.

TBR List:

• Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Life Worth Living by Miroslav Volf, Matthew. Croasmun, Ryan McAnnally-Lins
• Blue Love: Blue Valley High by MJ Fields 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
• The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
• The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer
• Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford