Very mixed bag this month. Seems like I either really liked something or really did not. Also I find it frustrating when books that should be really good - have a good idea - end up being duds, and that happened a couple of times this month. Here are the full recaps:
The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn - historical fiction - five stars - I really enjoyed this one. Definitely a quirky book following the life of Christabel who becomes orphaned when her father, the noble of an estate dies (her mother died in childbirth). Her stepmother ends up marrying her uncle, and she's raised in that family (although her stepmother wishes not) with her cousins Digby and Flossie as siblings, and the kids are as close as sibilings. The kids come of age prior to WWII growing up with a rather unconventional life, they have wonderful imaginations and end up putting on productions for the locals. Then comes WWII. Digby goes off to war, Christabel also offers her services and eventually both she and Digby work in the Resistance. Flossie remains at home trying to keep the estate afloat. I loved the relationship between the siblings, how the loved one another and took care of one another. The were surrounded by kind of a crazy cast of adults and really had to depend on one another for sanity. Not really what I expected when I picked it up, but very enjoyable.
Land of Milk and Honey - C. Pam Zhang - fiction - three stars - I really enjoyed Zhang's previous book How Much of These Hills Is Gold, so was excited to read her next one. I was very disappointed. While her previous book was historical fiction, this one is a dystopian story that just fell very flat for me. It had a lot of promise, I really liked the premise. World is dying, rich people buy a mountain that is still habitable, lots of science experiments on how to keep animals alive (who have mostly died elsewhere), grow crops (which have mostly died elsewhere), etc. These rich folks need a chef to cook for them, enter the narrator who takes the job. Then it gets super weird. The chef is supposed to pretend to be the wife of the head of the colony, she's asked to create super weird meals, including somehow resurrected mammoth meat which they basically want her to not really cook so they are basically eating it raw. The storyline basically fell apart, there were two many things going on that weren't fleshed out, the characters were all pretty awful, it really turned into kind of a hot mess, and the ending seemed like a cop out in every sense. This was really closer to two and a half stars for me, but I rounded up. So disappointing not just based on her first book, but based on the first half of this book.
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos - historical fiction - two stars - I recently read an article about Tito Puente and his impact. It mentioned this book - describing it as an authentic look at mambo culture. I was intrigued, so I borrowed it from the library. I really wished I hadn't. This is really more like one and a half stars rounded up. The story focuses on Cesar Castillo who is looking back on his life. The story would have been ok, but honestly neither he nor his brother was likable. They were basically sex-crazed. The whole book was just so full of descriptions of sex. It was such a turnoff, and I can't believe that this book won a Pulitzer prize. I really had a hard time finishing this. Do not recommend.
Sisters of Mokama: The Pioneering Women Who Brought Hope and Healing to India - Jyoti Thottam - non-fiction - four stars - I had been aiming to read one non-fiction book a month this year, but missed the last couple of months, partly because of all my book holds coming in and needing to get through them before they were due back to the library. This month I got back to it. This is the story of a group of nuns based in Kentucky who started a hospital in India. The book had a bit of a slow start as the author provided background on what brought the nuns to India in the first place as well as the background of their organization. The most interesting parts were once they got to India, how they built up with hospital and made do with what they had as well as how the staffed the hospital. The work they did was impressive, especially considering the fact that when they arrived in India it was basically to a very rudimentary building, poorly heated and without electricity or plumbing. Inspirational and very interesting.
The Refugee Ocean - Pauls Toutonghi - historical fiction - three stars - This one was another book that fell flat for me, more like two and a half stars rounded up. There are two dueling stories that are supposed to come together in the end, but honestly, the relationship was so tenuous and I thought the parallels forced and just not really parallels. One story follows the life of Marguerite (from the 1920s), a Lebanese Christian who is brought up to basically make a good match and save the family's tobacco business through marriage. She has other dreams though, she wishes to be a musician/composer. When her dream is dashed she basically runs away to marry a guy she's met 2-3 times from Cuba. The other story is about Naim a Lebanese Muslim in the 1940s who flees with his mother during the civil war after the rest of his family is killed and he loses portions of his hand. He too wanted to be a musician. He and his mother end up in a camp and eventually America. Again, these stories were too different to really be linked, either story on it's own would have been interesting and could have stood alone. Together it was just very dissonant.
Ever After (The Vanderbeekers, #7) - Karina Yan Glaser - juvenile fiction - five stars - This is a series that Ellie and I have read since the beginning. This is the final book in the series and one of my most favorite. In the midst of planning a wedding for Mr. B. and Aunt Penny, Laney gets sick, and it's a pretty devastating diagnosis. I loved how Glaser dealt with Laney's illness, it was great to see how each of the kids reacted to the situation as well as Laney herself. I loved that process wasn't easy and pat and there were ups and downs. This was a tearjerker, but despite the sadness and really wonderful end to the series.
Their Eyes Were Watching God- Zora Neale Hurston - historical fiction - two stars - Ellie is reading this in English class right now, and since I've never read it, I thought I would read along. We have commiserated about the fact that neither of us really likes this book. It's the story of Janie an African American woman in the 1930s. She reinvents herself numerous times through her life, leaving one husband, waiting a second out until he dies, and then marrying for love. The story itself would be OK, but it was a slog for me. There were so many discussions that just seemed to drag the book down and not advance the plot. Janie was not particularly likable as a heroine until, and the end of the book made me wonder what the point of it was. I could definitely have lived without reading this one.
Spy School Goes North - Stuart Gibbs - juvenile fiction - five stars - We love Stuart Gibbs and are always very aware of when he has new books coming out so we can be first, or at least very close to first on the waiting list for them. In this book, after their Spy School is exposed in the previous episode, a very select group of students is taken by Cyrus Hale to Alaska to continue training. While there, Cyrus is kidnapped, and it's up to the kids to rescue him and stop a plot by one of his old enemies. Mix in an encounter with Murray Hill and you have the. makings of another great adventure.
Saving Emma (Boady Sanden, #2) - Allen Eskens - fiction - five stars - As most of you know, I am a huge Eskens fan. I feel like he does such a good job with character development and plot. Eskens books feature a series of basic characters who are tangentially related and vary from book to book. This book features Boady Sanden an attorney, now law professor. A previous book had seen him involved in the death of his former partner who murdered his wife. Boady, who was the godfather of his partner's daughter, and his wife now have custody of Emma, but they are fending off the efforts of her wealthy aunt to gain custody. Meanwhile, Boady has a new client from The Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to free the wrongfully convicted. His new client, convicted of the murder of his former paster and friend, believes himself to be a prophet. These two compelling storylines are woven together expertly and really examine the meaning of family. Loved it.
Least favorite this month was Mambo Kings, and favorite was Saving Emma. I just started The Door to Door Bookstore and it's looking promising and I have a feeling this is going to be another one of those months where the holds all come in at once. Hoping that this coming month's reading is consistently better than this past month's! Please do share what you have been reading and enjoying!
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