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
