Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon by Sheila Weller
I read this book for the library reading challenge topic "A book about music". This served as an unauthorized biography of the three women as well as a more general story about the obstacles for women in the music industry.
The women were all born within several years of each other (King is the oldest, Simon the youngest). Their backgrounds were very different. King was born to working class Jewish parents in Brooklyn, Mitchell grew up in small towns in the Canadian prairies and Simon was the daughter of wealthy parents in New York City (her family founded Simon and Schuster publishing). Despite their vastly different upbringings, they all struggled with their relationships with a domineering mother. All of them broke into music at a fairly young age and all of them were connected to James Taylor in some way (King was friends with him, Mitchell dated him and he was the love of Simon's life).
The narrative alternated between the three women - each section covered a different era in their lives. The book was very long and at times I got bogged down in the details. There were many names dropped and it was hard to keep track of them - especially since there was a lot of overlap in who these women knew.
I learned a lot about the musicians' personal lives, professional successes and failures and struggles to succeed in a predominantly male business. I found it interesting that King started out as the most conventional of the three (young marriage and motherhood), but lives the most unusual life now.
I don't think I ever would have picked this book up if not for the reading challenge. I'm not sorry I read it, but I only recommend it if you have a particular interest in the topic. Otherwise it's a tad overwhelming.
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill
This was a rather strange novel; as are O'Neill's other works, but I quite enjoyed it. It starts with two babies being abandoned at an orphanage in Montreal in the winter of 1914. They are given the names Pierrot and Rose. Pierrot is a piano prodigy and Rose dances and performs comedy. To raise money, the orphanage sends the children to entertain in the homes of wealthy Montrealers. The more the children perform together the more they fall in love.
When they are teenagers they are separated (Pierrot is adopted and Rose is left behind). The nuns at the orphanage actively scheme to keep them apart for decades. Pierrot is first well off, but when his sponsor dies he is left with nothing and must fend for himself, mostly through playing the piano but also sometimes engaging in illegal activities. Rose is sent out as a governess for a wealthy family and eventually becomes the mistress of the man of the house who is an underworld boss.
After much sadness in both their lives, Pierrot and Rose finally reunite. They become a couple at long last and endeavour to put together a travelling clown show to make their fortune. They travel to New York and are met with some success, but also become dangerously entangled with organized crime.
I don't want to give away more than that, as I do recommend you read this book. Don't be put off by the rather odd subject matter.
The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
This is the true story of a teenaged Catholic girl, Stefania, in Poland. Just prior to World War II she moves from her family farm to work for a Jewish family. She ends up very much liking the family and falling in love with their son Izio.
Not long after, the family is forced into the ghetto. Stefania, who by then has custody of her 6 year old sister who was abandoned by their mother with an abusive neighbour, works tirelessly to help the Jewish family. She sneaks into the ghetto with money, food and other supplies. Eventually one of the sons, Max, escapes from the ghetto and Stefania and her sister agree to hide him. Twelve other Jews follow and Stefania and her sister manage to keep them hidden - even when she is forced to house nurses employed by the Nazis who constantly bring Nazi officers into the house to entertain them.
This is a remarkable story of how one resilient and brave teenager, and a smart young child, can make a difference in so many lives. I thought the most sad part of the afterward is that Stefania's family disowned her and her sister after the war because they helped Jews.
If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging by Jann Arden
I read this for the category of "a book about growing older". This is an autobiographical work but also a bit of a self help guide to growing older. Personally I enjoyed the autobiographical parts but got a bit bored with the life advice.
If you like self help books more than I do, you may enjoy this, but it wasn't my kind of book. It was fairly short and easy to read if that's any consolation.
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
Despite the positive reviews, I avoided this one for a while because I thought the mystical aspects might be too weird for my taste. However, although there was definitely a mystical component, the story was interesting enough for me to overcome my general lack of interest in the mystical.
At its core this is a story of three Nigerian women - Kambirinachi and her twin daughters Kehinde and Taiye. The daughters were very close as children but are estranged as adults and a lot of the narrative deals with delving into the past to explain the estrangement. However, in back and forth chapters we read about the pasts and present of all three women.
Kambirinachi came from a very small village, but moved to live with an aunt in a larger city, Lagos, where she received an education, worked and married. Kehinde and Taiye were raised in Lagos, but also spent time in London as children. As adults they spent time in Canada too - though in different places.
In the present they are back visiting their mother and working on repairing their relationship with each other and their mother. There are a lot of interesting sub-stories too - Kehinde works as an artist and has stable relationships with men but is fearful of starting a family due to her past trauma, Taiye is guilty about what happened to her sister and tries to cover her unhappiness with meaningless relationships with women and avoids commitment even when she meets a woman who is seemingly perfect for her. Kambirinachi believes all the bad that has happened to her and her family is a result of a non-human spirit that plagues her family.
The book is extremely well written - I enjoyed its lyrical language and the strong female characters. I recommend this one.
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
This is another Holocaust novel written from the perspective of a non-Jew. It is based on a true story of the American Library in Paris which remained open during the Nazi occupation and even tried to keep bringing books to its Jewish patrons once they were prohibited from coming to the library. It also dealt with the true story of those Parisians who collaborated with the Nazis or snitched on their neighbours and friends.
The narrative alternates between the past and present of Odile who is a young helper in the American Library. She seems to live a charmed life - she has a twin brother who she's close to, her family is reasonably well off as her father is a police officer, her best friend Margaret is the wife of an English diplomat and she falls in love with another police officer, Paul.
In the present day (1983) sections Odile is a widow living in Montana. She is very remote from the others in the town and her young neighbour, Lily, is trying to figure out her story. So we learn what happened to Odile during the war as she reveals the story to Lily. We hear of her contributions to the resistance, her efforts to help Jewish library patrons, and her falling out with Paul after she unwittingly betrays her friend Margaret.
Odile also tries to help Lily navigate adolescence by sharing the books that have guided her over time. The respect for books and libraries was one of the aspects that drew me into this story.
While this is in some ways just yet another Holocaust story, I did enjoy it.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
This is another work of historical fiction, but from a completely different era. It takes place in the 20s and 30s in the US.
Elsa is a young woman who is not treated with any love or kindness by her wealthy family - she suffered an illness as a child and they use it as an excuse to prohibit her from going to school, dating, etc. They expect her to live in isolation with them into old age.
However, one night Elsa meets the young and handsome Rafe Martinelli at a dance. She ends up pregnant and her family drops her off at his family's farm where he is forced to marry her. Though she has never worked a day in her life, she adjusts to life on the farm, eventually winning the love and respect of her in-laws.
However, when the depression hits the Texas dust bowl, Rafe abandons the family and Rose is left to struggle with her teenaged daughter and her young son. She must decide whether to stick it out on the farm or chase a better life in California.
Watching Elsa's struggle to make the right decisions, especially when met with her daughter's resistance, was fascinating. It was also heartbreaking to see how circumstances never seemed to get better no matter how hard she tried. While the ending was sad, there was also a glimmer of hope.
A bit like a soap opera, but I still enjoyed the characters, the narrative and the writing.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
I put off reading this one for quite a while because I wasn't sure I could take reading about a post-pandemic dystopian world while in the midst of our own pandemic. But, I decided I would try it for the category "A book set in the future".
I'm not sorry I read it, though it is still a bit disturbing to read a fictionalization of how badly a pandemic can go. I did like how the book went back and forth in time - from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic and how it eventually weaved together the seemingly unrelated characters - an actor who dies on stage on the night the pandemic hits Toronto, the paramedic who tries to save him, the actor's first and second wives, the actor's lifelong friend and a child actress who witnessed the actor's death. It was also interesting to see how the titular comic book, Station Eleven, fit into the narrative.
It was a bit disturbing to imagine a world when most people have died of a plague and the world as we know it has disappeared - no electricity, no gas, and obviously no cell phones, internet or television.
