These are the books that I read in July. It happened that I read seven books that month!
1) I loved Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. The story is based on a real woman, Martha Ballard, a midwife in Maine, who kept a detailed diary of all that happened in the small community where she lived. The story takes place in 1789 when a man was found frozen in the ice, and she was asked to figure out the cause of death. She knew the secrets of the community and though the new physician in town declared the death an accident, Martha knew better. It is a wonderful story of a woman who stood up for what she believed and did not back down in the face of controversy.
2) One of the other books I loved was The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner. She is one of my newly found favorite authors of historical fiction. This story was about Sophie Whalen, a rather recent immigrant from Ireland who came to New York City. Sophie was looking for the promised land in her new country. Instead, she ended up in a tenement in the city. She decided to take an offer from a man she had never met to be his mail-order bride and moved to San Francisco to be wed. There she was met by Martin, a very handsome man who was polite to her, but appeared to not be eager to be a real husband to her. Martin had a five-year-old daughter who no longer spoke. She and Sophie bonded quickly, and Sophie occupied her days with her.
One day a pregnant woman arrived on Sophie's doorstep and everything Sophie knew about Martin and her life with him changed. And there was another woman involved. Then the earthquake hit San Francisco and life drastically changed for the three women. It was a good story!
3) The God of the Woods by Liz Moore was a great mystery story! This story takes place in two different timelines. In the summer of 1975, a young teenager disappeared. Barbara was the daughter of the camp owners and her brother had disappeared from the camp in 1961 and was never found. It is a really good mystery!
Keeper of Happy Endings and The Dictionary of Lost Words were interesting historical fiction, and quick reads.
The Southern Man by Greg Iles was a bit disappointing to me, although by the second half, I did become more invested in it. His books are huge anyway, but I always love them. With this book, I felt like his editor didn't do their job! It just took way too long to really get to the meat of the story.
And, lastly, You Can Drop It by Ilana Muhlstein is a book encouraging people to drink more water and eat more vegetables. Nothing new there. Although, I have to admit, I have greatly increased my water and vegetable intake. Now if I could just change what else I eat!
