August Reading

I had a good month reading for August, except for one book, which was a DNF (did not finish). I hated doing that but I just couldn't do it!

1) The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray: This book kind of blew me away! It is a historical novel based on the true story of Belle da Costa Greene who hid her black identity and passed as white.  She became the personal librarian for J.P. Morgan and developed and managed his very impressive personal library. She became well-known in New York City as she curated his library to become one of the most important libraries in the world.

However, she spent her life hiding her true identity, Belle Marion Greener, daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black to graduate from Harvard. Her parents separated when she was young and her father was not around. Her mother encouraged her children to pass as white, as Portuguese Americans and worked hard to instill "whiteness" in them. Her mother wanted better for all her children and so she moved them from their predominately black neighborhood in Washington DC up to New York City. They changed their surname to "Greene". 

So Belle had to live with her secret and protect her secret all her life as she would travel and mix in society all over the world. 

The book was such a fascinating story and from what I have read about Belle it seemed quite true to the facts of her life.

The most interesting fact that I found was that it wasn't until after her death that biographers were researching her life and discovered her secret. She managed to keep her secret all of her life!

2) Daughters of Memory by Janis Arnold: This is an "older" book (published in 1991) that I came across while packing books up and decided to re-read it. It was a good book!

Two sisters grew up in a small Texas town. One sister, Claire Louise got out of that small town as quickly as she could, running off with her high school boyfriend. The other sister, Macy Rose, stayed home and became the "good sister". She graduated from college, got married, and had children just as was expected of her.  She lived in Houston, so was fairly close to the family farm. Meanwhile, ten years had passed with her family having absolutely no word from Claire Louise. 

Then one day, Claire Louise showed up at her childhood home with her two children. Soon it was evident that both their parents and their beloved grandmother were in failing health.  Claire Louise inserted herself into every aspect of the family, taking over all of her parents' lives. Macy Rose decided that Claire Louise would not take over their grandmother's life and at the risk of losing her own family, she became obsessed with saving her grandmother from Claire Louise.

The family dynamics in this book are so very interesting. Each chapter is narrated by one of the two sisters, back and forth. By the end, secrets have come out and it appears likely that the animosity between the sisters may be worked out!  Good book!

3) The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins: this is the book that I did not finish.  I read half of it and just didn't care anymore. If anyone has read the whole book, I would be interested in your opinions of it!

4) Radical Love by Zachary Levi: while my family was visiting us a couple of weeks ago, I noticed this book that my 18-year-old 

granddaughter was reading. She began telling me about the book and I realized that I had just recently seen Zackary Levi on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are! So she offered to let me read it when she finished it. It was a good read. He discussed his disturbing childhood and began some of the journey of looking past his parents to his ancestors and how who they were played into who his parents and grandparents were. He discussed his mental health journey and how he has progressed. The subtitle of the book is "Learning to Accept Yourself and Others"...perfect description of the book!

(Note: I had forgotten to put the picture of this book in the collage!)

5) Remarkably Bright Creatures by Selby Van Pelt: this book has been a top-seller for some time so I finally picked it up. It is described as a friendship with an octopus, so I really hadn't been interested in it.  However, it turned out to be a lovely story!

Tora Sullivan's son Erik had died mysteriously thirty years ago. Recently her husband had also died and she began working at the Aquarium in her small town. She worked there as a cleaning lady at night, and after a while, she became interested in the octopus who resided there.  He was a big one and was named Marcellus.

Marcellus, after getting to know Tora, Marcellus figured out what had happened to her son Erik. He just needed a way to prove it and be able to help her uncover his findings. 

There is so much else to this story....I thoroughly enjoyed it!

6) Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy: this was a good book, also and probably one that I will read again.  It is a story of twin sisters who grew up spending time alternately between their mother (a police officer) in Australia, and their father who lived isolated in Alaska.

Inti Flynn had spent her life studying and working with wolves. She and her team had arrived in Scotland to re-introduce wolves to the country. They ended up having fourteen wolves with them.  She also had brought her twin sister with her, hoping that perhaps she, the wolves, and the land can help her sister Aggie begin to recover from the trauma she had endured.

Needless to say, the Scottish people in the town were not supportive of wolves being released outside their town, especially those with farms. 

This is another book with very interesting dynamics going on between people. A very interesting story!

I Am So Behind (July reading)

 

 I apologize to those who follow me. We bought a new place in Illinois, and sold our condo in Alabama all within 2 weeks this month, so things have been crazy!

I did have some good reading in July! I can honestly say that I liked each of the above 5 books!

1) The Measure by Nikki Erlick: On one random day, every person 21 years and older in the entire world woke up to a small wooden box on their doorstep. Inside was a thread, either long or short. It turned out that the measure of the thread you received told you how long you had left to live. Would you decide to open your box? Do you want to know how long you will live? 

The book follows the stories of several different people as they struggle with the decision to know how long they have to live.  It is untimely, a quite moving book. The message I took from it was to live a life of meaning.

2) Wish You Were Here by Jodi Pocult: I hadn't read any of her books for several years, but this one intrigued me.  This was such an interesting story.

Diana, who had her whole life planned out, and Finn, her boyfriend who was a surgical resident at a hospital, were planning to travel to the Galapagos, where Diana was sure that Finn was going to propose to her.  Suddenly, the city was hit by a plague and Finn had to stay there to work.  He encouraged Diana to go on the trip by herself since the trip was non-refundable.  She reluctantly agreed to and that was when things got interesting.  As soon as she arrived, the island was shut down, including the hotel where she was to stay and everyone had to isolate themselves. There was barely any wifi, her luggage had been lost and she knew no one.

Diana slowly acclimated to where she was as she began to meet some people willing to help her. She ended up on the island for a long time, and eventually, Diana was able to get back to her home. But when she awoke, she wasn't where she thought she was going and.....

That's all I'm going to tell you! 

3) The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller: another fascinating book with a very interesting ending!

Elle, went to the paper palace, as it had been called, with her family one August and everything changed in her life in a moment. She had been going to this place every summer growing up and her oldest friend Jonas had been there also.  Now, coming there when Elle was 50 years old, happily married with 3 children, one night Elle and Jonas discreetly left the party happening inside and had sex for the first time ever with each other, while their spouses were still inside at the party. Now Elle was left with a decision....she had always been in love with Jonas and when she was younger had thought that they would have married. Now years later, the attraction was still there and she struggled with what to do.

This was a very simplified version of this story...there are many family dynamics at play in the story, along with some tragedy. It is a good book!

4) The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse: This novel is about the happenings in a long abandoned sanatorium that was developed into a very minimalist, rather exclusive, hotel up in the Swiss Alps. Elin Warner was a detective that was taking some needed time off. An invitation to her estranged brother Isaac's engagement party came to her and she decided that perhaps she could mend fences with her brother and reconnect with his fiance, Laure, who she had been childhood friends with.  However, when Elin arrived at the hotel the vibes were not good.  And the next morning, Laure was missing.

So, of course,  Elin was back in detective mode as other things kept occurring. This was a good mystery. I had not realized that it is the first of a series, so I am looking forward to reading more about Elin!

 5) A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler: I will say, right off the bat, that after I finished this book, my first thought was "This would make a great book for a book club!"

Valerie lived in a good neighborhood, raising her biracial son, Xavier, by herself.  Valerie was a college professor and soon Xavier was headed off to college. All was great until the Whitman's arrived.  They tore down the house next to Valerie's, including the beautiful old trees, and built a mansion-type showhouse. Valerie was a professor of forestry and ecology, so everything the Whitmans were doing to the property was hard for her to take.  And they also had a troubled teenage daughter to boot who, of course, got involved with Isaac. 

This book raises so many questions, about friendship, love, neighbors, and race. It was a very heart-rendering read, but a very good read.

My Reads in June

 I am vacationing and visiting our kids and grandkids this month, so this will be brief! I actually finished four of the above-pictured books. I read 186 pages of  A Single Thread and gave up! I just never got into the characters or the story and had other books I wanted to read!

I really liked The Yellow Wife and Grace.  And I read two more of the Cork O'Connor series.

I hope your summer reading is going well and you are finding great reads!

What I Read in May

 

I read six books in May, all fiction, with three of them by Irish authors. That seems to be a theme for me in 2022! 

1) The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry.  This was the second in the McNulty family trilogy and I would say it was the second-best of the three.  It is the story of Jack McNulty who was writing his life story as he sat in his small home in Accra, Ghana. His life was a sad story: his commission in the British Army in WWII was not permanent, he traveled the world as a soldier, then was an engineer.  His marriage failed in the end. He was a man who did not have much positive to say about how his life had been. 

2) Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams. Another Irish author and story. This book is about two people who had lived rather tragic childhoods.  

When Nicholas was twelve, his father heard from God that he was to become a full-time painter, so he quit his job to paint...the father sold the car, sold most of their furnishings and the family struggled to survive. Nicholas was made fun of at school.

When Isabel (who lived on an island off the opposite coast where Nicholas lived) was eleven, she and her younger brother went out for the afternoon.  Her brother, Sean, was a musical prodigy and was pretending to play the fiddle while Isabel danced.  Suddenly the music stopped and when Isabel turned around she saw Sean having a seizure.  He had lost all speech and movement. Isabel blamed herself.

Go forward years later, and Isabel and Nicholas met on her wedding day.  Isabel was marrying someone that she did not love.  Nicholas was trying to locate his father's last surviving painting, which Isabel's father had won years ago. So it was that Nicholas was at Isabel's home, and so it was that Sean began to speak, sing and move.  After a while, he was well enough to go with Nicholas to see Isabel on the mainland. And that is when Nicholas and Isabel fell in love with each other.

The "four letters of love"? Nicholas wrote them to Isabel. What became of them? What became of Isabel and Nicholas? You will have to read the book!

3) When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain. This book is a mystery, not the usual writing of Ms. McLain. I hope that she continues to write mysteries!  It was very good.  It is about a detective from San Francisco who specializes in missing persons. She needed a break, both personally and professionally, so she took some time off and went up to a cabin in Medicino. Right away, she learned of a missing girl, then more missing girls, until a pattern became clear and she and the local sheriff began working together.

It is quite a good story!

4) The Deep Dark Descending by Allen Eskens.  I have long been a fan of Mr. Eskins writing.  This is a mystery about a homicide detective whose wife had been killed in a hit and run years before. Suddenly, he learned that her death was actually a murder. Now he is faced with choosing to be a revengeful man or a law-abiding police officer. This is a very good read!

5) A Thousand Voices by Lisa Wingate. I enjoyed this book! It is the story of lovely, talented twenty-year-old Dell Jordan who had just returned from a year abroad with a traveling symphony. Her foster parents who have raised her since she was thirteen, wanted her to go to Julliard, but Dell was not sure that is still what she wants.  What she wanted most was to learn more about her Native American father.  All she had to go on was his name on her birth certificate and a place in Oklahoma that her birth mother had mentioned to her years ago. She went to the area and began to investigate who and where her father was.

6) History of the Rain by Niall Williams. Yes, it is also by an Irish writer and takes place in Ireland. This is a very slow reading- book. I couldn't quit reading it, but it was a bit of a chore.  However, for once, I was rewarded with an ending I liked that made the whole book worth it!

Ruthie Swain was home from college after having collapsed. No one knew what was wrong.  Her bedroom was up on the third floor, full of her dead father's books. She decided to try to find/know her father through his books.  Along the way, she uncovered her family history in Ireland, and found that, just maybe, she is going to be fine! 

April Reading

April has come and gone! I had some good reading last month! I even got a non-fiction book in the mix! 

1) The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris: This book has so many layers. It takes place right after the Civil War ended. Two brothers who had been slaves, but were now free, were hired to help work the farm in Georgia owned by a couple who were grieving the loss of their only son, who had been reported to have been killed in the War. The brothers' goal was to save enough money to head north in search of their mother who had been sold away years before.

During this time, there is also a story of two Confederate soldiers who were in a relationship with each other and were discovered one day in the woods. The ramifications were immense throughout the town.

The author did a splendid job tying the two stories together. I couldn't put the book down, it was that good. And, get this, it's a debut novel! I highly recommend it.

2) The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon: I struggled to try and like this book.  I finished it and was deeply unsatisfied.  I kept waiting for it to get better and I was disappointed. The premise was intriguing to me: Jax received 9 missed calls from her older sister who was found dead in the pool of their grandmother's estate. The older sister had fairly recently moved there and was trying to uncover the history of the property. In 1929, the property had once held a famous, modern hotel with a natural spring. There were mysteries and secrets connected to the property and the springs. 

I hated the ending.

3) On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry: Another book by this author. It was similar to The Secret Scripture in that it was narrated by a ninety-five-year-old lady reviewing her past.  Lilie Bere was devasted by the loss of her grandson, Billy. She tells her story beginning in her life in Ireland, being forced to leave and come to the United States. It is a rather sad life that she lives.

The story spans seventy decades and Lily's life was spent in fear, betrayal, loss, grief, and love. Billy had been the saving grace for her world. It was a good story and I liked it well enough!

4) Emotional Inheritance by Galit Atlas PhD: the subtitle is "A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma". This book made me miss being a therapist.  Her style seemed reminiscent of mine, where I would try to help clients examine family secrets, dynamics, etc. to help them understand how the past of their ancestors (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc) affect their own lives, in many different ways. In that way, clients can begin to make changes for themselves as they begin to understand what had led them to where they were. This book shared stories of Dr. Atlas's work with clients and how they were able to change.  It was quite good and very interesting!

5) Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland: I had read about this book for ages and finally picked it up on clearance one day. I'm so glad that I did! 

The story takes place in 1934 in Atlantic City.  Esther and Joseph Adler had two daughters, Fannie and Florence. Fannie was pregnant and on bed rest in the hospital so her daughter Gussie was living in the apartment with the family, along with a young girl that Joseph had insisted on bringing over from Nazi Germany as the war began to progress. Florence had always been a prizewinning swimmer and had been practicing to swim the English Channel. Until one day tragedy struck and everything changed for the family.

This is another story where family decisions are affected by family secrets and it's not always clear what is the right thing to do.

There are many layers of relationships going on in this book, also, and the author does an excellent job bringing them all together. I liked the ending of the book very much. I think that the family will be ok.

My favorite books for April: Florence Adler Swims Forever, and The Sweetness of Water.

My Reading for March

 

March was a surprisingly good reading month for me, especially since we had guests throughout the month (it was so much fun!)! A couple of books really surprised me with how much I loved them!

1) Falling to Earth by Kate Southwood: a surprisingly good novel! This is the story of Paul Graves and his family after surviving a tornado in their small town.  The story takes place in 1925 in Marah, Illinois. Paul's house, family, and lumber business were all untouched by the tornado. Everyone else in the town was affected by losses from the tornado, including deaths. The story tells of the year after the tornado and the emotions that Paul (and his family) goes through as being an untouched survivor.  It is a story of gratitude, guilt, confusion sadness, and love. I found this to be a slow-going story in terms of life. That does not really make sense, but there is no big plot, etc.  It's just a nice easy-going, but a hard read, in that I found it very interesting that I kept talking to my husband about the book. I rarely do that and I realized how much the story was affecting me.

2) Lost Boy Found by Kirsten Alexander: This was a fascinating story based on a true story. In 1913, young brothers went off into the woods in a small Louisiana town and came back without their four-year-old brother.  They thought that he had already returned home, but he hadn't. After two years of vigorous searching, the boy was found in the company of a tramp. Soon, people were divided...was he really the missing boy, or was the tramp's story true that this boy was the son of a young woman who had asked him to keep her son for a month? The tramp was arrested and put on trial.  Both mothers fought for the boy. The ending is shocking and incredibly sad. I want to read about the real case to see if the book followed true

3) The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani: I quite liked this book, probably because it was one of learning of gone ancestors' lives.  Jaya was a journalist in New York when she learned that her grandfather was gravely ill in India.  He wanted to talk to Jaya's mother who he had been estranged from for years, but the mother refused to go.  Jaya was recovering from her third miscarriage and her marriage was crumbling.  She decided that she would go to India to learn about her mother's life there and meet her grandfather.  Sadly, the grandfather died before Jaya arrived, but her grandmother's long-time servant, Ravi, met her at the home and agreed to share the story of her grandmother's life in British occupied India. As Jaya learns about her grandmother's life and her secrets, she began to experience her own resilience and strength.  She also began to understand her mother's life in India and why she had treated her as she had. I found it to be a good story about women-grandmother, mother, daughter. 

 

4)  Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry: This is an older book, written in 2008, and as it turned out, it is the second book in a trilogy about the McNulty family from County Sligo, Ireland. This book is the story of Roseanne Clear McNulty and it begins when she is about to turn one hundred years old.  She had been in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital for the past seventy years. The hospital was about to be torn down and a new one built.  The head of the hospital was to decide who should go to the new one and who would be able to exist on their own. He had not really interacted with Roseanne over the years but had to at least interview her to make a decision on where she might be placed.  As he began to spend more time talking to her, she shared her story with him about her past before she had been placed in the Hospital. The doctor became enamored with her story and began to do some research to discover more about her. This was such an intriguing story and the ending was absolutely stunning!  I've never been as surprised by an ending (twice) to a book as I was with this one.

5) The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin: A nice easy-to-read book about a young lady in 1939 England. Grace Bennett had been orphaned and left to live with an uncle who did not seem to care for her at all.  When she and her best friend were invited to come live in London with her mother's best friend, it was a dream come true for both of the girls. Grace got a temporary job at a bookstore and soon began to enjoy her work there.  She had never been a reader, so in order to better serve the customers, she began reading, taking recommendations from a handsome young man who frequented the shop. You can probably see where this is going.

6) And lastly, I read The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry. This book is the first of the McNulty trilogy. I had a bit of a hard time getting through it.  I didn't find it all that intriguing, but rather a sad story. But I have ordered the third book in the trilogy, so I am not giving up on the McNulty family! Eneas was kind of the black sheep of the family, never quite finding himself and not able to return home after an incident there. He kind of wandered the earth, not really knowing what exactly he was looking for. 

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

 

Yep, I read one book in February.  It was a very long book, okay? And I was very busy! I loved the book!  It is the most recent book of the Outlander series. 

The story takes place as the Revolutionary War crept closer to Fraser Ridge in North Carolina, where Jamie and Claire Fraser had begun a colony.  The Fraser's daughter Brianna and her family have also made it there traveling from the 20th century. Tensions were high as loyalties were divided. 

Meanwhile, Jamie's son William was struggling with his newfound identity.  I had thought that this was going to be the last book in the series, but it ended with a cliff-hanger and I think that there must be another book in the making. 

I wish that the Outlander books were published as 2 or 3 books.  They are so long and heavy (if you are reading a hardcover as I was). I usually read half of one of the Outlander books, then read another book or two, then return to it.  This one was so good that I just couldn't put it down!

I have already finished two books this month, so I will definitely have more to review for March!