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
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