Hey all, a lot of books this month, but over half were kids/young adult. It was not the best reading month. There were several books which were just duds for me. I'll say that some of that could have been mitigated by better book descriptions. It's frustrating to read a book that you think is one thing to find out that it's something else. Overall I'd say that I enjoyed the kids books more than the adult ones this month, but here is the full rundown:
Red Stars - Davide Morosinotto - juvenile historical fiction - five stars - This is one that both Ellie and I read and loved. It's about two twins, Nadya and Victor, who are separated during the siege of Leningrad. Much like in other cities in Europe, kids were sent outside the city as the enemy advanced. this is when the kids were separated, and throughout the book they are working their way back to one another. The story is written as a diary in two perspectives and both of the kids record the events in journals they received as they were being sent off from home. The journals are being reviewed by a Soviet military officer to determine if the kids should be tried with any crimes. The pages actually look like pages of the journals, with different fonts so you can clearly see who is speaking, and the Soviet officer adds different notes/notations in the margins as he reviews the case. I loved the format, and the way in which the story was told, It's a wonderful view/perspective of what the kids experienced, and though I have read a lot of WWII stories, not many of them tell Russian stories/experiences, so that was another thing that I really enjoyed. I also thought it was interesting that this author has published 40+ books, but he's Italian and this is the first that has been translated into English. Hoping that more will be in the future because I really enjoyed this one!
Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team - Elise Hooper - historical fiction - three stars - This one really fell flat for me. After reading the description, I was excited to hear about these first female track and field athletes, 1928 was the first year that women were allowed to compete in track and field. I found the first part of the book fascinating as it described Betty Robinson's experience breaking barriers and winning. The most interesting part to me was how the women were treated, up until that point there was no way for them to train, no collegiate programs for women. In some cases, they had to pursue legal action to get permission for women to train with the boys in high school. It was also interesting to me how young the competitors were. Robinson was only 16 when she competed (and won gold) in her first Olympics. Also interesting, General Douglas MacArthur was in charge of the Olympic team at that time. After that first Olympics, Robinson, and others, had to fight for women to remain. Many thought that it was wrong to have them there, that fierce competition brought out poor characteristics in the women who competed, etc. Thankfully those folks did not prevail. The first part of the book was my favorite, the second part less so. I feel like there just wasn't enough historical information to base the rest of the book on. Hooper provides stories for other women who competed in the following games, but none is particularly well fleshed out. There's scant information about them, and what there is for Helen Stephens in particular is a little edgy, and while the author tries to tie it all together it feels forced, and choppy and doesn't really contribute well to character development. I was also disappointed that the book, especially the latter half, was more focused on the personal lives of the girls, their relationships and families as opposed to the actual sport. I would have liked to hear more about their running and training. There were definitely some interesting parts in this book, but overall it fell flat for me.
All the Broken Pieces - Ann E. Burg - juvenile fiction - five stars - Ellie and I really enjoyed the previous book we read from Burg, Flooded, so I checked out a couple of her others, and we haven't been disappointed. Burg writes in verse, but she's so effective with it. You get a very intimate view of the thoughts and feelings of the narrator, and I don't feel like I am missing any details. This is the story of Matt Pin, a child airlifted out of Vietnam. His father, not part of the story, was American military, and he's been adopted by a American family. Matt struggles with his memories of his former mother/brother and the war in general as he tries to adapt to life in the U.S. and the racism he experiences at school. He's blessed with a pretty amazing adopted family as well as other adults who were in the war who help him deal with his issues. It's a really wonderful story of hope and healing.
The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah - historical fiction - five stars - Such a good book. I love Hannah's writing, and this one did not disappoint. It's the story of the Elsa Martinelli, who lives in Texas during the Dust Bowl. Their farm is dying and while she loves her home and the family she has married into, she decides that they simply can't survive there and sets out for California with her kids. Of course thousands of others are headed to California also, eking out an existence there is difficult as well. Hannah does a great job with character development, you really identify with and like the characters. This is story full of sadness and loss, but also hope and survival. Must read.
The Tiger Rising - Kate DiCamillo - juvenile fiction - three stars - This is one Carina had me read, and while I normally love DiCamillo, this one was just not great for me. It's about Rob Horton, a boy who recently lost his mother and relocated to Florida. He's not a popular kid, has some weird rash on his legs, and gets bullied a lot. His dad works as a maintenance man at a motel. One day he discovers a tiger in a cage. That same day, there's a new girl in school, Sistine Bailey. Sistine is like no other kid he's ever met, a free spirit and just as odd to the kids in his school as he is. Sistine's parents are getting divorced and she just moved to the area, but she's waiting for her dad to come and rescue her. These two misfits form a friendship, and he shares his secret about the tiger with her. This story was just a little weird and dicombobulated for me. I don't know why they even needed a tiger in the story, I feel like it would have been just as good without. The ending was only so so. I would probably skip this one.
28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto - David Safier - juvenile historical fiction - five stars - This is another that Ellie and I both read and loved. Mira lives in the Warsaw ghetto and helps the family survive by smuggling things in from the outside. She's a freelance black marketeer. Her goal is to keep her mother and sister alive and healthy. They don't speak much to her brother who is part of the ghetto police. The book provides a very stark look at the choices people make to survive, from her brother, to her friend who works in a brothel, to those who work in the resistance, to her father who committed suicide. The events take place just before and during liquidation of the ghetto. I thought this was really well done, very difficult circumstances and choices, but written in a way that I was comfortable having Ellie read it. There is a lot of sad and bad in this book, but also hope. Great book.
Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World - Amy Stanley - biography - three stars - So when I borrowed this book from the library, for some reason I thought it was going to be historical fiction, but it wasn't. That really wasn't a deal breaker for me, but this book was pretty boring. It was a slog. There was interesting stuff in there, which in and of itself is kind of amazing. Stanley was able to piece together the basic bones of Tsuneno, the rebellions daughter of a Buddhist priest, because of how thorough the Japanese were at keeping records and corresponding with one another. Her life story is pretty remarkable, married and divorced several times before she ditches her family to go to Edo where she marries someone of her choosing. This book should be fascinating and interesting based on the woman it's about, but it's just boring. I had a hard time plowing through it, there was a lot of historical background, some tangents, it was just hard to get through. Add to that the fact that Tsuneno just isn't particularly likable. While the book seems to tout her as courageous for breaking social norms, she just seems whiny and kind of dumb. I definitely learned things from this book, but it was a slog.
The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett - fiction - five stars - A really interesting story about twins Stella and Desiree who grow up in Mallard, Louisiana, a town that is 'colored' but where everyone is very light skinned. They prize their lightness and actually become pretty racist about those who are dark. The Vignes twins grow up in the town, and then one day run off and disappear. Years later, Desiree returns with a very dark baby in tow. In the in between she has lost Stella, married, and has left her husband. Meanwhile we find out that Stella crossed over and has been living as a white woman, has married and has a child, and masquerades as a pretty racist white woman because she is afraid to be around African Americans, thinking they will see through her. Years later, Desiree's daughter goes off to college and inadvertently discovers Stella, befriending her daughter. A really interesting look at the choices people make and how they live with them.
Leave the World Behind - Rumaan Alam - fiction - two stars - This book was so disappointing, not at all what I expected based on the description. It's billed as a thriller. A family rents an isolated vacation home outside New York City, in the middle of the night a couple shows up, says it's their home, there's been a blackout in the city, and wants to stay. Can they trust each other. Sounds like a pretty interesting premise, makes you think that there's something nefarious with the couple right? This book takes so long to get to the part where they show up, and then it's just a lot of weird and awkward as they accommodate one another, there are random tangents with kids wandering off, husband getting lost driving, the book really never comes to a climax, just kind of peters out in a very unsatisfying way. Skip it.
The Twelve (The Twelve, #1) - Cindy Lin - juvenile fiction - five stars - This is one of Carina's books which she really enjoyed and said I had to read. It's about a very special island somewhere in Asia where some of the citizens have special powers. They are hidden from the outside world, and live in harmony protected by The Twelve, based on the animals of the zodiac who are the masters of their special powers, for example, those born in the year of the wood rabbit may have the ability to jump very far and very fast. The island's magic has been broken though. The Dragonlord betrayed the Twelve, hunted them down and killed many of them as well as those with powers. Those with powers now have to hide them to survive. In the midst of this, Usagi and her sister Uma, whose parents were hunted down and killed by the Dragonlord, are struggling to survive and stay hidden. Uma also has powers, and ends up being captured by the Dragonlord. Usagi has to flee, but only in order to build up her powers in the hopes of rescuing her sister. I really enjoyed this one also. I enjoyed the characters and how they tied in Asian culture, and it was just a good story.
The Lost and Found Bookshop - Susan Wiggs - fiction - three stars - I feel like I read a lot of bookstore themed books, and I tend to like them, but I may be feeling some bookstore story fatigue. This was just OK, it seemed kind of predictable. Natalie Harper has just received a major promotion at work, when she receives devastating news. Her mother and boyfriend have died in a plane crash as they were coming to celebrate her promotion, found on her boyfriend at the time is an engagement ring. Natalie feels responsible for their deaths and guilt as she was getting ready to break up with her boyfriend. Her mother owned a bookstore in San Francisco that is deep financial trouble, her family actually owns the building as well which need a great deal of repair. Natalie has to sort out what to do about the bookstore as well as her aging grandfather who is in the early stages of dementia. Typical of these bookstore books, there's a love interest - the handyman Natalie hires to do repairs on the store. As he's working he keeps finding historical artifacts which point to the history of the building, which has been in Natalie's family for many years. The book is OK, but as I mentioned it follows a pretty predictable format.
Masterminds (Masterminds, #1) - Gordon Korman - juvenile fiction - five stars - This series has six thumbs up from all the Prantner girls. We've been enjoying Korman's books, so I borrowed this one and the girls absolutely flew through it and then demanded I go back and get the rest of the books in the series. It's about a group of kids who live in a 'perfect' town in New Mexico called Serenity. Eli Frieden has never left the town, but his best friend Randy convinces him to ride his bike just outside town to check out something he saw on a camping trip with his dad. They never make it out of town though, Eli gets violently ill, and then a helicopter shows up and he's taken to the hospital. The fallout of this incident is that Randy is shipped off to a boarding school, but not before he leaves Eli a mysterious message that something isn't right with the town. Eli investigates with some of the other kids and discovers something pretty shocking. This was so good....as you'll see below, I ended up reading the whole series this month along with the girls.
War Horse (War Horse, #1) - Michael Morpurgo - juvenile historical fiction - five stars - I borrowed this one for Carina since she is really into animal books, and she really enjoyed it and said I had to read it too. It's about Joey a beautiful horse belonging to Albert, the son of a farmer. The farmer is short on funds and sells Joey to the army without Albert's consent. Albert and Joey are heartbroken. Joey goes off to war, he has a difficult time of it, at one point taken captive by the enemy, but he survives. A really sweet story, great read for kids and adults.
Masterminds: Criminal Destiny (Masterminds #2) - Gordon Korman - juvenile fiction - five stars - The second book in the Masterminds series picks up right where the first left off. The kids have escaped Serenity, but the folks from Project Osiris are searching for them. They try and find answers from Tamara Dunleavy, but eventually head back to Serenity to see if they can find answers there, only to find it abandoned. Their search then takes them to a high security prison, a betrayal, and then separation from one another.
Payback (Masterminds, #3) - Gordon Korman - juvenile fiction - five stars - The final book in the series, the kids are separated into pairs now, but still trying to find help and bring down Project Osiris. They are eventually reunited and put their plan into action. I've tried to keep the details pretty scant in my descriptions of the second and third book in the series because I don't want to spoil it for folks, but as I mentioned before, this was a really fun series that all of us liked and I highly recommend.
Surviving Savannah - Patti Callahan - historical fiction - four stars - So I'll preface this by saying that I am also getting kind of tired of the historical fiction tool where they bounce back and forth between the present and the past while they unravel a mystery. That whole thing tends to get very predictable as well, particularly in the present-day scenarios. This book definitely does that, and honestly I would have been just as happy to read a book just with the historical pieces and without the current day story. I'm giving this four stars as a balanced rating - the historical part was five stars and the present day three. It's about the steamship Pulaski, dubbed "the Titanic of the South" which sank in 1938 off the cost of North Carolina. The majority of the passengers were wealthy South Carolinians heading north for the summer. The ship sank in 45 minutes with only 59 survivors. Everly Winthrop is a present day history professor in Savannah who is asked to curate a museum collection about the Pulaski when it's wreck is discovered in 2018. She's dealing with a personal loss as well as a love interest which as I mentioned, I found kind of trite. What I really enjoyed was the story of Lilly Forsyth and Augusta Longstreet. Cousins who were both on the ship along with many other family members. Only a few survived. Their story was so much more compelling. I also loved the learning about the Pulaski itself.
Valentine - Elizabeth Wetmore - fiction - five stars - This was a hard read, but a good one. It's 1976 and tells the story of the aftermath of the brutal rape of Gloria Martinez outside of Odessa, Texas. It follows the story of a number of women who live in Odessa, how they react to the incident as well as how they react to the reactions of others in the town, who make excuses for an justify the incident. It digs further into the rights and roles of women in what we'd now consider a pretty oppressive society where women who are pregnant can't work, and women with kids need to have their husband's permission to work. I liked the characters and how very raw and honest they were. I also liked how Wetmore would give you a little snipped into the future of a character. Definitely worth the read.
The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets (Enola Holmes, #3) - Nancy Springer - juvenile detective - four stars - I really like this series, and this one wasn't as good as the first, but I think that's partly because I accidentally ordered the third book instead of the second from the library. Enola is a great character and I just love the premise of her as Sherlock's sister. She's clever and smart, and has a good heart. In this case she is trying to find/rescue Dr. Watson who has gone missing. I thought this case came together a bit conveniently, but it was still a good read.
What's Mine and Yours - Naima Coster - fiction - three stars - You know how I talked about bookstore book fatigue and fatigue from the whole historical/present day fiction mechanism? Well after I read this book, I really felt like I have books about dysfunctional families fatigue also. The story follows the lives of two families who are tangentially connected. In one family, the father dies a tragic death, in the other the father has substance abuse issues and is sent to jail. The mothers are left to pick up the pieces and find help wherever they can. Many years later, the children are brought together in a local effort to redistrict schools to provide more diversity/opportunity for kids in lower income areas. This drives the mothers into direct conflict with one another. The story bounces back and forth between present and past, so you can see how the family fared. It's pretty predictable, and none of the characters are particularly likable.
So kind of a mixed bag this month. I'll also say that looking at this list, a bunch of them are on the Read with Jenna list, and I'm realizing that those are very hit or miss with me I either love them or don't really care for them, so I'm kind of thinking I may just stop looking at her recommendations because the ones I love were definitely other lists too. I'm currently reading Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly which I'm very excited about because I loved her other books, and next up is either This Light Between Us or Missionaries. Would love to hear what you have been reading!
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