This was a good way to start off the year. A good mix of books of all different genres. Nothing that I hated, I really did enjoy all of them. Favorites this month were The Stolen Hours and Cloud Cuckoo Land. Here is the rundown of what I read:
The Next Great Jane - K.L. Going - juvenile fiction - four stars - This was one of Carina's books that she passed on to me. It's about Jane, an aspiring author, who lives with her dad, a marine biologist, in a tiny coastal town in Maine. She loves her life, but then this annoying boy moves to town, and her mother (who left long ago to pursue an acting career) shows up unexpectedly with a fiance, and everything is upside down and wrong. It was a cute book, I liked the characters and the fact that Carina read it twice means it definitely resonated with her too.
The Lonely War - Nazila Fathi - memoir - five stars - I thought this was a really interesting look at Iran. Fathi grew up in pre-revolution Iran, and can describe life before and after, and the differences/frustrations. She became a journalist, a somewhat hazardous occupation in Iran and even more so because of her gender, and she did actually have to flee the country later on because of her work. I thought it was a really honest look at the situation there, and appreciated the insights that Fathi provided. I really hadn't read a ton about Iran, but am thinking I need to do some more reading on the topic. Highly recommend.
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr - fiction - five stars - I absolutely loved Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, so was really excited to read this book. Often I feel like that sets me up to be disappointed by the next book, but not in this case. This was a really interesting book because I could have characterized it as science fiction or historical fiction. Doerr weaves together three story lines: present day following the life of Seymour, how has sensory and social issues; Anna and Omeir two individuals drawn together around the fall of Constantinople; and Constance, living in the future on a spaceship headed for a distant planet. The stories are tied together by Cloud Cuckoo Land, an ancient story of a man named Aetheon. This one took me a while to get into as there was a fair amount of set up for the three different story lines, but once that was done, I was hooked. I found the characters compelling, and I liked how the threads came together in the end as it was very unclear how that would happen until later in the book. Really interesting and thought provoking. I still find myself puzzling a little over some of the elements even now, which is not a bad thing.
Tears of Amber - Sofia Segovia - historical fiction - five stars - Another fantastic historical fiction book. I love that we live in a day and age where translating books from one language to another is more commonplace. There are so many wonderful stories that are now available to us, and this is one of them. I thought it was really interesting to read it just after Cloud Cuckoo Land as there were definitely some parallels. It follows the story of two families living in East Prussia during WWII. The book covers their struggles during the war and as they flee the advancing Russian army. It was a compelling story that didn't sugarcoat things, plenty of bad/loss along with good. I loved the characters and am definitely looking forward to reading more from this author!
Matrix - Lauren Groff - historical fiction - four stars - This is the second nun focused book I've read in the last six or so months. Compared to The Rebel Nun, I liked that one better than this one, but this was still pretty good. It follows the story of Marie, who is sort of a ward of Eleanor of Aquitaine in that she is the illegitimate child (from rape) of the ruling family. Falling out of favor, Eleanor sends her to a nunnery, one that is not doing particularly well, they are dealing with an epidemic and not particularly solvent. Marie turns things around, growing the convent into a large, self-sustaining entity which becomes quite powerful in their community as well. I thought it was a really interesting look at the machinations of how nuns were connected with the courts, how they functioned in their communities, etc. Some of the story seemed far-fetched and overly feminist, but it was pretty good overall.
The Stolen Hours (Joe Talbert, #3) - Allen Eskens - fiction - five stars - Eskens books never disappoint. I read this one in just a little over a day as I was hooked. Eskens describes his books as 'character arcs' rather than a series. This book focuses on Lila Nash who was one of the main characters in Eskens first book, The Life We Bury. Lila is now out of law school and working for the Hennepin County Attorney as a prosecutor. She becomes involved with the case of a woman pulled out of the Mississippi River barely alive. This puts her on the trail of a serial killer, but also brings her to a connection with the past. Eskens does such a good job with his characters, you really come to love them, and there are always some unexpected twists. Highly recommend this one, and really everything he has written.
Wish You Were Here - Jodi Picoult - fiction - four stars - This book had me torn. It's probably closer to a three and a half rounded up. It's about Diana O'Toole who is about to go on vacation in the Galapagos with her boyfriend, who is mostly likely going to propose on the trip. Enter COVID and the fact that her boyfriend works in the hospital. It's March and things are starting to heat up on the pandemic front. He can't go on vacation, but tells her to go, so she does. As soon as she arrives, the world shuts down and she's stuck there indefinitely. She is befriended and makes friends with the locals and starts to reevaluate her life. Without giving things away, let's just say that this describes the first half of the book. Then there is a huge plot twist and the second half is very different. I was not expecting the plot twist and honestly wasn't a huge fan. I liked the story before, and had a hard time adjusting to it after. So first part of the book is a four, second part is a three. It was interesting, but I guess I just didn't really buy the twist/change.
The Leper Spy: The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II - Ben Montgomery - biography - four stars - I thought this was a fascinating story. It is about the life of Joey Guerrero, a Filipino woman who was able to move about Manila easily during WWII because of her disease. She worked for the Resistance, notably mapping out Japanese defensive positions which allowed the Allies to quickly destroy defensive systems when the invaded to retake the country. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom for her efforts. Joey's life up and through WWII take up about a half of the book. The remainder of the book deals with her life after. Once things got back to normal, she was exiled to a leper colony in the Philippines. Because of her service to the country and also because of the many people she met during the war, she was able to come to the U.S. for treatment at the Carville Leprosarium in Louisiana. Joey and many others, worked hard to educate the public and remove the stigma of leprosy in the U.S. and elsewhere. In large part it is because Joey later purposefully fell out of the public eye, but my criticism about the book is that it kind of ends with a whimper and falls off. I wish there was more about her later life. To me the book felt a little unfinished. Despite that, Joey was an amazing woman, and this is definitely worth reading.
Would love to hear what you have been reading and what you think of it! Right now I'm in the middle of The Prince of the Skies which is based on the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupery who wrote The Little Prince, which ironically I have not read. Next up is Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran. I have noticed that lately I have been gravitating towards more nonfiction. Who knows if that's just my current mood, or if it's something that will carry through the year. Maybe now that we're getting towards the end of the pandemic (hopefully) I'm ready to read slightly meatier books. Anyway, at least for the next month or so you're likely to see a bit more of that in the mix.
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