This reading recap is SO late, but it has been a crazy month. Still, August was a great reading month with a strong emphasis on historical fiction. Here are the recaps:
The Road to Tender Hearts - fiction - Annie Hartnett - five stars - This was a really cute book. PJ Halliday is a somewhat lost old man gliding his awy through life. Ever since the death of his older daughter, he has been struggling, and can't cope with any difficult or sad news. He drinks too much, which led to him losing his job, although he won the lottery, so that doesn't actually matter. He remains on good terms with his ex-wife who still takes care of him to a large extent. When she and her boyfriend go on an extended vacation, he is at loose ends. Then he reads about the death of an old friend who married the 'one that got away' and decides to go visit her across the country in Arizona. At the same time, he becomes the guardian of his half-brother's grandchildren, so they end up coming along as well. The book is light, and funny, and sweet, a great palate cleanser.
A Far-Flung Life - fiction - M.L. Stedman - five stars - This was a really good book, but hard to read because bad things just kept happening to people. I really almost stopped reading at some point because it was so depressing, but I did want to know what happened to the characters. Stedman does a great job creating the characters, and you are rooting for them, but it really was hard to read. It's about all the misfortunes that befall the MacBride family who live in Western Australia raising sheep. Stedman does bring it all together in the end, you get clsure, but this one is not for the faint of heart.
The Foursome - historical fiction - Christina Baker Kline - five stars - Based on the true story of the Bunkers (1800s). Chang and Eng Bunker are conjoined Siamese twins who have been a sideshow throughout Europe and the US. They are now rich and wish to retire from this life. They buy a plantation and store in Willkes County, North Carolina, and wish to start a family as well. Sarah and Adelaide Yates are from a good family, but due to a scandal, are unwed. The book tells of how their relationship develops from courtship to marriage, to establishment of a large family. Really interesting read.
The Parisian Chapter - fiction - Janet Skeslien Charles - four stars - This was pretty good. I really enjoyed Charles' previous books in this series, so was excited to read this one. It's focused on Lily, the young neighbor of Odette from the first book, traveling to Paris after college to work. Her story is good, although not as compelling as the earlier books, more fiction than historical fiction. My biggest is that it has been a LONG time since I read The Paris Library, and didn't remember all the exact details or how it ends. This book really doesn't provide much of the backstory, so I felt like I was missing things. If it's been the same for you, you might want to re-read that one first.
The Dream Hotel - fiction - Laila Lalami - four stars - This was my audiobook for the month. Set sometime in the future, the government has now instituted a policy of detaining citizens based on crimes they might commit based on a complicated algorithm that takes into account data from many sources: social media, complaints from neighbors, interaction with federal agents, and dreams. Sara is returning to the US from a conference and is detained at LAX. She's sent to a detention center for a 90 day hold which turns into months as those running the detention centers can extend your time for the smallest infractions. This was a really interesting premise, and I really enjoyed it, except for Sara, who I just didn't really like as a character. If it weren't for that, this would five stars.
The Half Life - fiction - Rachel Beanland - four stars - This was another book that could have been great if I liked the protagonist at all. Eileen O'Malley has a whirlwhind romance with naval officer Paul Archer, marries him and heads with him to his next assignment in La Maddalena, Italy, where the Navy has a submarine base. I had no idea that the US had a sub base in Italy, so it was really fascinating to learn about that, and to hear about life for the military at La Maddalena at that time. Beanland does a great job capturing all this and weaving in events and concerns for both the U.S. and Italians during this time. She doesn't have the greatest husband, but Eileen is basically a selfish, immature human being. Five stars for the book, two stars for Eileen.
The Seekers of Deer Creek - fiction - Thao Thai - four stars - Sisters Vivi and Calla Nguyen have been following very different paths, but when Calla finds a curious note/picture in her fathers effects after his death, she enlists Vivi, an art conservator, to help her unravel the mystery, which relates to the current exhibition Vivi is working on involving a painting by Vietnamese artist K.P. Ly. The sisters set off on an around the world hunt for how Ly connects to their father, and rediscover family they did not know they had. The sisters bothered me some, but not nearly as much as some of the other characters I've encountered this month.
The Brunswick - historical fiction - Callie Murray - four stars - The story of Cora, whose father built a grand hotel in a small town in Georgia which has struggled since the Depression. Her mother left years ago to return to France, and Cora, struggling to make ends meet, has turned the hotel into a general store. There are a several storylines: her burgeoning romance with Thomas, whose father recently moved to the area from Chicago after purchasing the town's pharmacy; Cora's decision to take in Jewish refugee children (it's 1939) fleeing Vienna; and the story of Charlotte, one of those children. This was a pretty quick read, and I enjoyed the characters, although I thought they could be fleshed out a bit more. There was also a thread about Thomas in Germany (he goes to help with the transport), that I thought was a bit of a distrction and the book didn't really need. The resolution of that thread was also somewhat hart to believe. In any case, I did like the book, and hope the author will be writing more.
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck - non-fiction - Sophie Elmhirst - three stars - The story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey whose boat was destroyed by a surfacing whale when they were on sailing to New Zealand in 1973. They spent 117 drifting on their lifeboat until they were rescued. This one was OK. I thought the story itself was fascinating, what they did to survive, how they kept themselves busy, etc. The writing was a bit dry though, and the couple themselves were only somewhat sympathetic, so it took longer to get through than it should have.
Favorite this month was probably A Far Flung Life which was so good, but also so hard to read. Least favorite was A Marriage at Sea. Would love to know what you guys have been reading.
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