Hi all! Here's the reading recap for this month. A lot of books this month, several are juvenile fiction, and in generally just an OK month with only a couple of standouts. My favorites were
Brown Girl Dreaming and
A Long Petal of the Sea. Here's the rundown:
Africaville - Jeffry Colvin - historical fiction - three stars - This book wasn't quite what I expected. I picked it up because it was described as a book about an African community outside of Halifax. We actually honeymooned in Nova Scotia and we took the girls there on vacation a few years ago and just love the area. I feel like the Africaville community piece was a minor player in the story. It's a generational story, with Kath Ella the initial protaganist growing up in Africaville, but then leaving to go to Montreal for school. She ends up getting pregnant by a boy who grew up there, but was from Alabama originally. The book traces the lives of her son and grandson who eventually rediscovers his roots in Africaville, but even more so in Alabama. In general the story seemed pretty scattered, and there were pieces in there that really didn't seem to move the story along. I think the book jacket actually said that the author wrote it over many many years and it showed. Just OK.
Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson - memoir - five stars - I really loved this book. It's the author's memoir, but written in verse, and although it's classified as a book for ages 10+, I thought it was as good a memoir as I've read for adults. Through her poems/snippets she traces her history from Ohio where she was born, to South Carolina, where they moved after her mother left her father, to New York. You can see her as she struggles with those changes and understanding what home and family mean as well as how she became a writer, and how she begins to understand the world around her and the struggle for civil rights. A must read.
Oona Out of Order - Margarita Montimore - fiction - four stars - This was one of those books that was a disappointment for me. I felt like there was all this buzz for it and was excited to read it, but ended up feeling let down. For starters the premise of this one kind of seemed ripped off of The Time Traveler's Wife. Yes, there are definitely differences, but still. The premise is that Oona Lockhart for some reason time leaps each year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. The first time is the year she is 18, when she wakes up she's 50. The only people who know are her mother and later on Kenzie, her assistant. Each year that Oona leaves a note to herself to provide some context for the jump and give some helpful hints. It was an OK story, but the problem is I just didn't like Oona that much. There were some interesting twists, but overall I kept reading because I thought she would redeem herself eventually and I never really felt like she did.
A Bookshop in Berlin - Francoise Frenkel - memoir - four stars - This book is like a little time capsule. It was published in 1945 and rediscovered and republished in almost sixty years later. It's a first hand account of a Jewish woman's survival during WWII. Francoise, from Poland, had opened a French bookstore in Berlin in 1921. She does well there, but ends up having to flee to Paris in 1938, thankfully the French community helps her to flee Berlin, and provides some safety for her at the beginning of the war in Paris. Eventually though, she has to hide, she does so with the help of many friends and acquaintances who help her as she moves from safe house to safe house as she waits to gain entry to Switzerland. After numerous attempts, she is finally able to make it there. It was a little bit dry, it was interesting to me how matter-of-factly this was written, almost devoid of emotion, but a really fascinating account of her experience.
Dear Evelyn - Kathy Page - historical fiction - three stars - This was was definitely a disappointment. It's the story of Harry Miles and his wife Evelyn. He is the sweetest man who meets the woman of his dreams, he adores her and does everything to make her happy. Evelyn on the other hand, although she tries, is basically a control freak, and as Harry enables her to become more so, she gets worse and worse. The woman is basically a horrible human being by the end of the book, and Harry remains the sweetest man. This was probably only two and half stars for me, but I rounded up.
The Majesties - Tiffany Tsao - fiction - three stars - This seemed like it would be a really good book. It hooked you in at the beginning, and I was especially intrigued because it's about a Chinese Indonesian family and my mom is Chinese and was born in Indonesia. Anyway, the story is narrated by Gwendolyn, one of the daughters of a wealthy Indonesian family. She's in a coma, but can hear what is going on around her and realizes that her sister Estella poisoned their entire family (about 300) at the birthday dinner of their grandfather, and she is the sole survivor. She thinks back over the past to try and sort out how this event came to be. For me, the story didn't live up to the premise of the book opening. I never found the personalities particularly compelling or likable, just OK.
Belly Up (FunJungle, #1) - Stuart Gibbs - juvenile fiction - five stars - Our family loves Stuart Gibbs. The girls and I have all read the entire Spy School series as well as many of this other books. Ellie read the FunJungle series a while back and suggested it for Carina. Carina loved it, and I figured I would read the books along with her this go round. The series is about a boy named Teddy Fitzroy who lives at FunJungle, a Sea World style park/zoo (although no rides, just really glitzy/well done animal exhibits). His parents both work for this zoo, his mother is a trainer while his father is a photographer. In this book Henry the Hippo, he zoo's mascot dies. Teddy suspects foul play and sets out to figure out who the killer is, putting himself in danger in the process. He's helped along in his investigation by Summer McCracken, the daughter of the park's owner, JJ. It's a great kids book, the characters are likable and funny, and the pacing is just right.
A Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende - historical fiction - five stars - I really enjoy Allende's books, and this was another winner for me. When Franco takes over Spain following the civil war, Victor Dalmau, an army medic/doctor, and Roser, the pregnant fiance of his brother who is killed in the war must flee. They are able to secure a spot on the SS Winnipeg, a ship sponsored by poet Pablo Neruda, which takes them to Chile. In order to do so, they must marry. The book tells the story of how they survived the war as well as the aftermath when they had to flee and live in refugee camps, how they are welcomed into Chile and how that becomes their home. And, how they are affected by the later political unrest in Chile. I loved this one, I learned a lot about the history of both Spain and Chile, and I really loved the characters. Highly recommend.
The Secrets We Kept - Lara Prescott - historical fiction - four stars - This was another of those highly touted books that I felt kind of let down by. This is probably more of a three and a half that I rounded up. The story itself is really quite interesting, about how the CIA smuggled Doctor Zhivago out of the Soviet Union and published and then smuggled it back in to help win the hearts and minds of the Soviets. I loved the parts of how they got it out and how they used the World's Fair and other events as covers to distribute copies to Russians to take back behind the Iron Curtain. Much of the tradecraft stuff was interesting too. Where it fell down for me a little was how things tied together. There were just a lot of pieces that were interesting, but didn't seem necessary to the story itself. It either needed more connecting or more cutting, but it was somewhere in between. In many ways it almost felt like two different books to me, one about the CIA typing pool and those characters and how some were used for more operational tasks, and another about Boris Pasternak's mistress who went to the Gulag for him. Although that part was interesting, I wasn't particularly fond of her, so maybe that's part of my issue with the book. Anyway, it was an interesting read, but fell short of expectations.
The Love Story of Missy Carmichael - Beth Morrey - fiction - four stars - This is a sweet story of a lonely older lady, her husband is gone and she's estranged from her daughter, and her son and beloved grandson have moved to Australia. She is feeling quite alone and down when she is befriended by two women in her neighborhood. Her life starts to be a little brighter and then she's convinced by one to temporarily take in a dog, and her life is even brighter and wider. She becomes part of a larger community and those interactions help her to reach out to her children and rebuild some bridges. A sweet feel good read. Not as good as Ove, Truluv, or the Lido, but still good.
Hotel on Shadow Lake - Daniela Tully - historical fiction - four stars - This story jumps between that of Martha Weisberg, in Germany during WWII, and her granddaughter Maya, many years later. The story starts with Martha's, her twin brother Wolfgang. Wolfgang has become fanatically involved with the Nazi party while Martha dislikes what she sees. Many years later, Maya is shocked to learn that her grandmother's body has been found, twenty seven years after she disappeared while Maya was studying in the U.S. In fact, her body was recovered very close to where Maya was. Maya is driven to find out why she was there, was it to see Maya? Overall, I enjoyed the book, although there were some things that just seemed not to fit, that didn't move the story along and should probably have been edited out, but still a pretty good if not somewhat predictable story.
Poached (FunJungle #2) - Stuart Gibbs - juvenile fiction - five stars - Book two of the FunJungle series. In this book, Teddy is facing problems at home and at school. At school he's being tormented by a bully and and at home (FunJungle), he's suspected of kidnapping the zoo's newest attraction, Kazoo the Koala. Unfortunately there's evidence that he is the culprit, and he's working against the clock to prove his innocence before he is arrested. Summer is away at boarding school, so can only help him a little, but he's got his parents helping this time. Lots of new characters were introduced this time, who I'm guessing will pop up in future books. We just got the third book in from the library too!
I had a ton of library hold books come in, so now I'm scrambling to get through them before they're due! Right now I'm over halfway through The Splendid and the Vile which I am really enjoying, next up I'll either tackle
American Dirt or the
Glittering Hour, haven't quite decided which yet. Please share what you've been reading!
