Overall a pretty good reading month. It was a nice mix of books, although I again didn't get a classic in this month....the library holds are coming in so quickly! Here are the recaps:
Happiness Falls - Angie Kim - fiction - three stars - This one was a big disappointment. I think half of my problem with it was the way it was written. It's very stream of consciousness, and the narrator states at the beginning that she'll use footnotes in the text to get into more detail about things to make it less stream of consciousness. Honestly, this book could have used a lot more footnotes. The story is about the disappearance of a family's father. Their non-verbal son becomes the main suspect in his disappearance, and the family must work to both protect the son and try and figure out what happened to the father. It's an interesting premise, but with all the rambling, it just felt like it took too long to get there. In addition there was a weird mystical part that I didn't feel was necessary. Meh.
Medea - Eilish Quin - fiction - five stars - This mythical retelling was quite good. By all accounts Medea is an absolute villain in mythology. I thought it was very interesting how Quin twisted the myth a bit to make Medea more of a heroine. In addition, Quin changes the cast of the story to be one where rather Jason taking advantage of Medea, she takes advantage of him to escape her father. Excellent read.
Diva - Daisy Goodwin - biography - four stars - I knew who Maria Callas was, but virtually nothing else about her. Diva tells her story, it's focused on her relationship with Aristotle Onassis and her career. She had a long running affair with him while he was married to his first wife. After they divorced, Callas thought he would marry her, but he did not. Their relationship continued, although Onassis was not faithful to her. He eventually married Jackie Kennedy, although it seems he pretty quickly lost interest and came back to Callas, although the book ends before they resume their relationship. The book does touch on Callas' background, although it's mostly sketched out in discussions/flashbacks. I did think that the singing part of things was interesting though. I'm not really an opera fan, but the descriptions of the pieces she sang, the drama/acting, how she interacted with the audience, and the decline of her voice I enjoyed.
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-reum - fiction - four stars - This one was another three and a half stars rounded up book. The book was written in Korean and recently translated. It's the story of Yeoungju who after a crisis, opens a bookstore. She's somewhat adrift, but has a good heart and is working to find ways to make the store profitable. It attracts many interesting characters. I enjoyed the characters, their relationships, and the community they created. The writing was a bit slow and plodding for me, and there were so many random conversations about philosophy or whatever which did not move the plot along and I confess I skimmed. Decent book, could have used tightening up.
The Wild Robot Protects (The Wild Robot #3) - Peter Brown - juvenile fiction - four stars - We have been big fans of the Wild Robot series. This one was definitely still good, but for me not quite as good as the previous books. In this episode, there is a poison tide headed towards the island killing plans and wildlife along the way. When it arrives, the islands' inhabitants must adapt, but life has become precarious. Roz decides she must go to find the Ancient Shark who supposedly knows how to stop the tide. Her journey is long and she meets many different sea creatures along the way. Ultimately she finds the shark as well as the cause of the poison tide, and is able to stop it. I think that the relationships between Roz and the other animals on the island are what I loved most about the first two books. Because in this book Roz is on her own for the bulk of the book, I missed those relationships. I also felt like the ending was a little too unbelievable for me. Still a fun read though.
The American Daughters - Maurice Carolos Ruffin - historical fiction - four stars - This one was more like three and a half stars rounded up. It was going so well, and then the end happened. It tells the story of Ady, a slave girl. After the loss of her mother, Ady is somewhat adrift, but becomes involved in a group of spies called The Daughters trying to undo slavery from the inside. The book was quite compelling, but the ending was just too unrealistic all around. Add to that a weird postscript that was very Handmaiden's Tale like that it really ruined it for me.
Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz - József Debreczeni - memoir - five stars - I thought this was a pretty fascinating book. I hadn't really heard about the Cold Crematorium, basically a sick camp where towards the end of the war, rather than gas them, the Nazis sent prisoners to die a slow death. These were those who were too weak for work, they basically lay in bunks until they passed. This is where Debreczeni ends the war, but his narrative starts when he is initially deported and follows him through several camps. Debreczeni wrote this years ago, in Hungarian, but it was only recently translated into English. It's a very unflinching look at life, and I like how he describes those he is with - what/who they were formerly, and how they have changed since being in the camp. The book did leave me with several questions. There are people who are spoken about regularly in his story who all of a sudden disappear, you never find out exactly what happens to them, but I think this one is a must read for those who read a lot about WWII.
Mistress of Life and Death: The Dark Journey of Maria Mandl, Head Overseer of the Women's Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau - Susan J. Eischeid - biography - four stars - I've heard about Mandl owing to the fact that I read a fair amount of WWII historical fiction, so I knew about her role at Auschwitz. Eischeid does an excellent job telling her story. She's interviewed people all around the world, and is very balanced. Showing how Maria grew up in a supportive, loving home, in a family that did not support the Nazis, and had moments of compassion, but was later a manifestation of evil. While this wasn't edge of your seat reading, I thought it was very well researched and written, and I appreciated the very short chapters and bite sized pieces which made reading easy. After reading about Mandl in fiction, it was nice to hear her full story.
Favorites this month definitely Medea and Cold Creamatorium. Happiness Falls was a fail for me. As I mentioned before, I have a giant stack of hold books to get through. I'm currently working on Slow Noodles, which is excellent with The Underground Library up next (which I am pretty excited to read). What have you guys been reading?
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