Monthly Book Review: May 2025

3 great books in one month - trying to get my reading mojo back! 

Beach Read by Emily Henry. Henry is one of the hottest chick lit writers along with Taylor Jenkins Reid. This was my second Henry read and I have four others in my wish list. Beach Read is about two authors who have a shared history and end up living next to each other in a small vacation town. Their friendship unfolds as they are dealing with writer's block and challenge each other to write a book in the other's genre - happily ever after for her and dark fiction for him. Witty, cute and fun. 

I devoured City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. Excellent! The fictional story of Vivian Morris, an independent, free-thinking rebel, from 1940 to early 2000's. It's told from Vivian's point of view as she writes a letter to "Angela" though we don't know who Angela is until near the end. Vivian experiences many exploits in New York City thanks to her Aunt Peg and the cast of characters at Peg's Lily Playhouse. She learns tough lessons and finds her place in the world with a chosen family. Great history of NYC and the liberation of women after WWII. Reader beware - Vivian takes full advantage of the changing times to explore her sexuality.

One excerpt was striking to me because it could be written word-for-word about my husband -

He became the most trusted confidante of my life. There was a clarity about [sic] .., a deep and unshakable integrity. It was soothing to be with a man who never boasted about himself ... and who did not impose himself on the world in anyway. If he ever had a fault or made a mistake, he would tell you before you could find out for yourself. And there was nothing I could ever tell him about myself that he would judge or criticize... Most of all though, he listened.

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall is beautifully tragic. The story bounces between three timelines: 1968, "before" and "the trial". You don't know who is on trial and the buildup is exquisite. Longing, loss, and regret - how one choice can change everything. I wish I could read it for the first time again (and I never say that!). Beautifully written with complex characters (plus fantastic narration by Blair Brown for audio version) - definitely a top pick for 2025. I hear Reese Witherspoon's company has picked it up for TV.

Monthly Book Review: April 2025

It's hard to summarize Challenger by Adam Higginbotham (Sharon Says So book club). It was intense, informative and thought provoking. Lots of engineering detail and history, but so necessary for context. I didn't find it dry or boring. Excellent narration. I know hindsight is 20/20, but over and over again, NASA had cautionary tales of what not to do, opportunities to maintain fail safes with too many acts of hubris and concern for optics. The only reason we know the full truth is because a couple of engineers at rocket contractor Morton Thiokol admitted that they advised NASA not to launch the fateful morning of January 28, 1986 because of poor performance of the O-ring seals in low temps. The temperature that morning was 36 degrees - 15 degrees cooler than any previous launch - and they told NASA they couldn't advise if below 50-something degrees. But NASA pushed them to prove it wasn't safe to launch for the first time - they had always focused on proving that it was safe to launch. Then the contractors reversed their advice - they caved to pressure and it cost lives. No one was ever the same - certainly not the families of the 7 lost astronauts. Unfortunately, in 2003 there was another disaster, owing much to the same flaws in management and politics. History always has a way of repeating itself.