While I've been too busy to post lately, it hasn't stopped me from reading. So here's some brief reviews of the books I've read over the past few weeks.
The Summer Guests by Mary Alice Monroe
This was recommended as a good beach read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other escape reading that I do. The premise was that when a hurricane hit southern Florida and South Carolina several guests made their way to a horse farm in North Carolina. That was the start of the problem for me - there was way too much discussion of horses and riding and horse competitions...I suppose if you're interested in horses or even better riding competitions you would get more out of that part than I did.
Besides the horse racing there were the expected relationship stories. We learned about the owners of the horse farm, Grace and Charles. Charles was a famous rider until he was injured and is now afraid to get on a horse. His wife Grace is equally nervous about him riding again which leads to some tension. Their daughter Moira shows up with a truck full of rescue dogs. Grace's friend Gerda who is a horse breeder shows up with her daughter Elise who is also friends with Moira. There is a lot of tension between mother and daughter as Gerda is pushing Elise to follow the Olympic dream she was forced to give up when injured. The weirdest part of the book is when Gerda meets a horse that she believes is the reincarnation of the horse she had to put down following that injury. A famous equestrian shows up as the boyfriend of one of Grace's friends, Hannah. But he dumps her for someone else at the house. Finally Cara who has an island home on the outer banks eventually shows up after trying to protect her house from the storm.
Most of the visitors don't know each other before they arrive - they only have the hosts in common. So relationships develop - both new ones and existing ones. They are interesting enough but for me did not make up for all the horse talk. I wouldn't recommend this unless you're into horse.
Searching fo Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
Although a bit of a mystery, which is not a genre I usually gravitate towards, the interesting family dynamic made this book worth it to me.
It starts with Sylvie, the beautiful and successful elder daughter of the Lee family, flying from the US to the Netherlands for one last visit with her dying grandmother. Then she disappears. Her younger sister Amy is devastated and wants to look for her, but has to first find out more of the time before she was born. She is too young to remember how her immigrant parents were too poor to care for Sylvie and sent her to be raised by her grandmother in the Netherlands. Her grandmother was living with other relatives at the time and while Sylvie is doted on by the husband, the wife treats her quite inconsistently.
Then in alternating chapters we learn of Sylvie's return to the Netherlands - the rekindling of relationships with her grandmother and the son of the people she grew up with (and with whom she was friends at the time) - and Amy's trip to stay with these same people to try to solve the story behind her sister's disappearance.
The truth was not immediately obvious which made me want to keep reading. In addition the characters were nuanced and sympathetic (even the woman who treated Sylvie poorly had a sympathetic story). This also shed light on the difficult choices immigrants need to make in order to provide the lives they want for their children.
I definitely recommend this book.
From Scratch: a Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Home by Tembi Locke
This was a fantastic memoir. Tembi was an exchange student in Florence when she ran into Saro and it was love at first sight. Saro was a chef from Sicily several years older than Tembi and his family disapproved of his relationship with a younger, Black, American actress - to the extent that his parents refuse to attend their wedding (though an aunt and uncle defy his father and represent the family).
Tembi and Saro relocate to Los Angeles where they both have successful careers, make many friends and adopt a baby girl. Saro is also welcomed into Tembi's large and boisterous family.
Unfortunately when their daughter is only 6 or 7 Saro is diagnosed with terminal cancer and most of the book is written through the lens of Tembi's extraordinary grief during his illness and following his death. The small bit of good that comes out of his diagnosis is that Saro's parents and sister finally travel to LA to visit. There they are overwhelmed with the love he shares with Tembi's family and their anger starts to crumble.
The summer following Saro's death, Tembi and her daughter travel to Sicily to stay with his now widowed mother and to spread his ashes on the island in accordance with Saro's wishes. Day by day and eventually summer by summer Tembi bonds with her mother-in-law, at the start over their shared loss, but eventually the bond becomes broader.
While Tembi's story is sad, it also shows her strength and resilience as well as her ability to forgive. While the human story is enough, the descriptions of Sicily - its physical beauty and its people - are also enthralling.
The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning
This is in some ways a typical Holocaust novel, but it does have a twist. The narrative switches back in forth in time - from the World War II era to the present day. In the present day, Alexandra is shocked to hear her grandmother beg her grandfather's forgiveness while he's on his deathbed in her Australian home. For her perspective they've always had a perfect marriage. Since her job in London is offering her a temporary post in Shanghai (and she has just broken up with her boyfriend there) she decides to accept the opportunity so she can delve into her grandparents' past. All she knows is they spent some time during the War in Shanghai and later adopted a Chinese baby (her now deceased mother).
With Alexandra we learn that Remy and her parents fled to Shanghai from Austria after one of her brothers was shot on Kristallnacht and the other was taken into custody. There her mother falls into a severe depression and her father, a doctor, works tirelessly with the city's poor population which is struggling under the Japanese occupation. They befriend the Chinese family who live across the hall from them. The father practices traditional Chinese medicine and is able to help Remy's mother. Remy becomes best friends with the daughter and idolizes the older son. Remy also befriends a girl on the boat from Austria who becomes orphaned when her mother dies in childbirth on the ship. The family would like to take her in but she is forced to live in rather squalid conditions under the guardianship of her disinterested uncle. We do know fairly early on that this girl ends up in Australia - still friends with Remy.
The chapters go on to reveal the truth about Remy's youth and Alexandra's parents and grandparents. The book also contains very vivid descriptions of Shanghai during the Japanese occupation and in the present. I quite enjoyed this one.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
This is the first book I can recall reading that takes place in civil war torn Syria. Nuri is a beekeeper and his wife, Afra, is an artist. They live a very comfortable life with their son and extended families in Aleppo. But when civil war strikes the unthinkable happens - they lose their son. The shock blinds Afra, but despite the difficulty of her travelling Nuri insists they flee their war torn homeland to join his cousin in the UK.
Nuri and Afra embark on a dangerous journey through Turkey, by boat to Greece and then by land through France and eventually the UK. They end up in a rooming house for immigrants in London while they go through the refugee claims process. There we see the difficult time refugees from many countries have in establishing themselves anew.
The story is interesting - and the insights into Nuri's psyche are fascinating - some of the turns took me by surprise but were very believable. Some of the other characters in the rooming house add colour to the narrative.
All in all I enjoyed this book too.
The Empress of Idaho by Todd Babiak
This is a fascinating novel that deals with an issue rarely touched upon in literature - the sexual exploitation of a teenaged boy by his much older female neighbour.
Adam lives with his mother in the poor part of town. His father left when he was a child and his older brother has left to play college football. Adam is 14 and about to become a starter on his high school's football team even though he's only a sophomore. He's also doing well in school, works a part time job at a gas station with his good friend Simon and is dating Phoebe, a girl from a wealthy established family. Everyone believes he has what it takes to go even further than his brother.
Adam's life is upended when his next door neighbour brings home a new wife, Beatrice. Beatrice becomes overly interested in Adam and finds ways to be alone with him and essentially sexually assault him. Adam is a teenaged boy - he's torn between his physical interest in Beatrice and the need to lie to everyone in his life. To make matters worse Beatrice sucks Adam's mother into a shady real estate deal - encouraging her to quit her steady job in order to get rich quick.
Over the course of the summer Beatrice's past starts to catch up with her and Adam, his mother, Beatrice's husband and others get caught in the complicated web.
The main story is interesting though disturbing. There are also side stories of note - in particular that of Simon who comes from a very wealthy but conservative African family. He is one of the few people of colour in the town and is "accused" of being gay causing his parents to kick him out of their home. The support Adam musters for Simon, despite being in such a troubled state of his own, shows a really nice aspect of teenaged friendship.
This is a great book but not one for those easily disturbed by stories of sexual exploitation.
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
This is an interesting story about a very privileged New York based banking family. It is also a multi generational story which switches back and forth from about 1935 to the present day (when the newest generation doesn't have quite the resources of their forebears).
In 1935 Kitty and Ogden Milton seem to have it all - money, looks, perfect children and enviable love for each other. But tragedy befalls them one day - and it hits Kitty particularly hard. In an effort to make her feel better Ogden buys her an island in Maine. That island comes to define multiple generations of the family. In fact, in present day the story revolves around one granddaughter, who is desperately trying to prevent her cousins from selling the island since they can no longer afford to keep it.
Much of the drama is revealed as this granddaughter, a historian, tries to figure out some of her family's secrets (some of which are revealed in the guest book). We learn of Ogden's possible business dealings with the Nazis, his hiring of a Jewish man, Len, who earns the respect of Ogden and one of his daughters but the scorn of everyone else. There is also a story about a decision Kitty makes during the war which haunts her throughout her lifetime. And there is a mysterious visit to the island by Len's friend, Reg, who is always the only black man in the room and is again at the island. All of these people end up playing an important part in the Milton family history.
I don't want to give too much of the story away as part of the fun is how it all weaves together very nicely. The book is well written, though perhaps a tad longer than it needs to be, and the story is interesting. The characters are also well rounded and relatable.
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
This book is at times laugh out loud funny and at times rather sad, but it is really just a very realistic and detailed character study. Queenie is a Jamaican British 25 year old living in London and trying to figure out her life. She has just broken up with her long term white boyfriend (they are actually on a break) and she makes some seriously bad decisions about men who she uses to fill the void.
Her job at a national newspaper is also in jeopardy as she spends too much time trying to sort out her personal life and makes yet another bad relationship decision there. Really her biggest problem is trusting the wrong people.
With time and the support of her family and friends we are left with the feeling that Queenie's self esteem will improve and she will learn how to rely on herself rather than men to measure her worth in the world.
I enjoyed the story and the added benefit of the reinforcement of the power of female friendships.
Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank
I saw this recommended somewhere, but all I will say about it is that it was so boring I gave up when I was about 1/4 of the way through. Maybe I was missing something that others saw, but I wasn't willing to give it any more time to figure that out.
The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
I really enjoyed this book - it sort of reminded me of Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine or The Kiss Quotient where the heroine fell somewhere on the autism spectrum and you got to see life and relationships through her eyes. In this book Susan lives a very orderly life and emotions don't fit into the equation. She has even been involved with a man for years where theirs is more of a business relationship - they go on dates, they have sex, but they have no emotions or long term goals.
Unfortunately careful planning is not always enough. First, Susan finds herself pregnant. Then her mother dies and leaves her unemployed brother with a life estate in her house that Susan had hoped to sell to be able to afford a bigger flat for when the baby is born.
So Susan must figure out how to fight the will - and along the way she needs help from her upstairs neighbour who becomes a friend and, even less likely, her brother's best friend. She also has to work out an arrangement with her baby's father that satisfies two parties who never wanted an emotional entanglement. And finally she learns some long buried secrets about her past. All of this is handled with surprising grace and humour by a person who is much more comfortable with well established routines.
This was an easy and enjoyable read.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Friday, September 6, 2019
The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory
This is Guillory's third romantic comedy and it is just as enjoyable as the other two. Her writing is extremely entertaining - I love both the characters and the situations she creates. I also really like how, though the books aren't strictly speaking a series, they bring together the same characters. That being said, it is by no means necessary to read them in order (though it perhaps adds to the experience to do so).
In this book Maddie and Theo are both close friends of Alexa's and are asked to be in her wedding party where they will be forced to spend a lot of time together. The problem is that when they first met they took a fairly instant dislike to each other (in part because of some misread signals). Of course, since this is a romantic comedy, after a party at Alexa's they have a one night stand.
And after the one night stand they can't stop thinking about each other. So they make a deal to continue to hook up just until the wedding - and to not tell Alexa who they feel will become too invested in a relationship which they don't see lasting.
Not surprisingly they develop feelings for each other ... and have to work out how to deal with that. This was a fun book and I'm always a sucker for a happy ending.
In this book Maddie and Theo are both close friends of Alexa's and are asked to be in her wedding party where they will be forced to spend a lot of time together. The problem is that when they first met they took a fairly instant dislike to each other (in part because of some misread signals). Of course, since this is a romantic comedy, after a party at Alexa's they have a one night stand.
And after the one night stand they can't stop thinking about each other. So they make a deal to continue to hook up just until the wedding - and to not tell Alexa who they feel will become too invested in a relationship which they don't see lasting.
Not surprisingly they develop feelings for each other ... and have to work out how to deal with that. This was a fun book and I'm always a sucker for a happy ending.
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Mostly I found this book terribly sad - the characters had so many missed opportunities and miscommunications which made their lives more difficult and lonely than they should have been.
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. Marianne comes from a wealthy family, but is socially inept at school. Connell's mother works as a maid for Marianne's family, but he is outgoing and popular at school. As teenagers they become friends and eventually lovers, but they hide it from everyone. Connell is afraid he will be ostracized if the truth comes out so he even invites someone else to the school dance which causes a rift with Marianne.
Both Connell and Marianne move to Dublin for college and remain on again off again friends and lovers. Though they experiment with other partners they never really find happiness or the easy relationship they have with each other. But misunderstandings continue to tear them apart.
While I sympathized with both characters, I constantly felt like shaking them so they could just talk honestly with each other. However, I suspect in fact their inability to do so was quite realistic.
I recommend this book if you like studies in character and relationships - there is not really much action.
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. Marianne comes from a wealthy family, but is socially inept at school. Connell's mother works as a maid for Marianne's family, but he is outgoing and popular at school. As teenagers they become friends and eventually lovers, but they hide it from everyone. Connell is afraid he will be ostracized if the truth comes out so he even invites someone else to the school dance which causes a rift with Marianne.
Both Connell and Marianne move to Dublin for college and remain on again off again friends and lovers. Though they experiment with other partners they never really find happiness or the easy relationship they have with each other. But misunderstandings continue to tear them apart.
While I sympathized with both characters, I constantly felt like shaking them so they could just talk honestly with each other. However, I suspect in fact their inability to do so was quite realistic.
I recommend this book if you like studies in character and relationships - there is not really much action.
The Islanders by Meg Mitchell Moore
I read this book because reviews said it was for those who like books by Courtney Sullivan and Elin Hilderbrand - and both authors are ones I enjoy. This book didn't disappoint.
It deals with three strangers who are spending a summer on Block Island in Rhode Island. Joy and her daughter Maggie are full time residents, Lu and her young boys are there for the summer living at the expense of their wealthy in-laws who summer there every year, and Anthony Puckett has run away to the island after making a mistake that has derailed his successful writing career.
As it's a small island it is no surprise that the paths of these three strangers cross. And all three of them are harbouring secrets which eventually come out and impact their relationships with each other and those around them. I don't want to give away too much so I'll just say that the story develops well and the characters are both interesting and sympathetic while still being realistic.
It deals with three strangers who are spending a summer on Block Island in Rhode Island. Joy and her daughter Maggie are full time residents, Lu and her young boys are there for the summer living at the expense of their wealthy in-laws who summer there every year, and Anthony Puckett has run away to the island after making a mistake that has derailed his successful writing career.
As it's a small island it is no surprise that the paths of these three strangers cross. And all three of them are harbouring secrets which eventually come out and impact their relationships with each other and those around them. I don't want to give away too much so I'll just say that the story develops well and the characters are both interesting and sympathetic while still being realistic.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
The Winemaker's Wife by Kristin Harmel
All the sudden there seem to be a lot of books about France during World War II and this is another. This one is very recent - it even made reference to the spring fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.
I quite enjoyed this book - and while I had figured out some of the surprises at the end, there were just enough plot tricks to make me doubt whether my guesses were going to prove correct.
Like many historical fiction books, this one goes back and forth in time. In the present day we follow 41 year old Liv. She is still reeling from her divorce when her 99 year old grandmother shows up on her doorstep in New York and flies her to her home in Paris. There she promises she wants to reveal long buried family secrets - however, she is too emotional to do so in a systematic way. Instead she takes Liv to Reims in champagne country, and introduces her to a young lawyer, Julian, who together with her grandmother slowly reveals the past.
The historical scenes all take place in champagne country during World War II. There, a young somewhat immature woman, Ines, leaves the home of her best friend Edith to marry the owner of a vineyard, Michel. At the vineyard Michel and Ines are joined by the master winemaker, Theo, and his wife, Celine. While all of them feel threatened by the German invasion, it is Celine who stands to lose the most as she has a Jewish father.
Ines feels belittled by her husband, Celine and Michel and as a result makes some very stupid, and ultimately dangerous, choices which haunt her. I don't want to give too much away - but the story involves both French resistance and collaboration, infidelity, jealousy...
As you might expect, the two stories eventually come together quite elegantly. If you like this kind of book, this one is well written, with multi-dimensional characters, and worth the read.
I quite enjoyed this book - and while I had figured out some of the surprises at the end, there were just enough plot tricks to make me doubt whether my guesses were going to prove correct.
Like many historical fiction books, this one goes back and forth in time. In the present day we follow 41 year old Liv. She is still reeling from her divorce when her 99 year old grandmother shows up on her doorstep in New York and flies her to her home in Paris. There she promises she wants to reveal long buried family secrets - however, she is too emotional to do so in a systematic way. Instead she takes Liv to Reims in champagne country, and introduces her to a young lawyer, Julian, who together with her grandmother slowly reveals the past.
The historical scenes all take place in champagne country during World War II. There, a young somewhat immature woman, Ines, leaves the home of her best friend Edith to marry the owner of a vineyard, Michel. At the vineyard Michel and Ines are joined by the master winemaker, Theo, and his wife, Celine. While all of them feel threatened by the German invasion, it is Celine who stands to lose the most as she has a Jewish father.
Ines feels belittled by her husband, Celine and Michel and as a result makes some very stupid, and ultimately dangerous, choices which haunt her. I don't want to give too much away - but the story involves both French resistance and collaboration, infidelity, jealousy...
As you might expect, the two stories eventually come together quite elegantly. If you like this kind of book, this one is well written, with multi-dimensional characters, and worth the read.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Mid-Summer Reading List
The library has been very cooperative in making books available for me this summer...
America's Reluctant Prince: the Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. by Steven Gillon
This was a very interesting biography of JFK Jr. that was published on the anniversary of his death in a small plane crash.
The author was very up to the task for two reasons. First, he is an accomplished historian, with a specialty in modern American history, so he really knows a lot about the eras he's writing about. Second, he was friends with JFK Jr. for many years - they first met when Gillon was his TA at Brown and continued to see each other regularly over the years, particularly to play squash. While Gillon readily admits he was in JFK's "outer circle" rather than a very close friend, he still was able to include many personal anecdotes which added to the narrative.
The book covered the entire span of JFK Jr.'s lifetime so there was a lot about his father's presidency and assassination - though from the lens of how it impacted his son. Neither of the parents came off looking perfect, though they were very humanized. Jackie, in particular, was often described as very controlling - of her children, the secret service charged with protecting her children, etc. We also learn of JFK Jr's positive relationship with Aristotle Onassis and how he was negatively impacted by his death as well as the deaths of his father and uncle.
It was also interesting to read about JFK Jr.'s relationship with other famous Kennedy's including his uncles Robert and Teddy as well as their children. While he was also quite friendly with some of the children of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, his closest relationship was with Anthony Radziwill, the son of Jackie's sister. In his last few months he was very upset by Anthony's decline due to cancer.
While I enjoyed the personal parts of the book, there was a lot of focus on JFK's efforts to build George Magazine, as well as the relationships he had through the magazine. While I understand the importance of this to telling the story of his life, to me it was less interesting.
Finally, I thought the author's insights into JFK's failing (potentially at least from the author's point of view) marriage and why he was a risk taker were very interesting and may partially explain why he was piloting a plane through the Martha's Vineyard fog when he was not certified to fly with instruments alone.
All in all a really interesting read.
Before we Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
This fiction novel is loosely based on historical events - where the director of a Memphis adoption agency stole poor children from their parents and sold them to wealthy families all over the US.
This book goes back and forth in time, and while you know that the stories will end up tied together, it is not so immediately obvious as to render the book too predictable.
In the past, Rill Foss is the oldest of five children living on a Mississippi shanty boat. While they are poor, they seem to be happy and for the most part their parents are doing their best. When their mother goes into labour with twins, and a local midwife is unable to deliver, the parents are forced to go to the hospital. Rill is left in charge and does her best to keep things together but eventually the children are seized by child welfare authorities. They are led to believe they will be taken to their parents but are quick to learn the awful truth.
The children are put in an orphanage where they are physically and mentally abused as well as put on display for potential adoptive parents. Rill works hard to keep her family together and in alternate chapters we learn what she is capable of - and what she is not.
The present day chapters deal with Avery Stafford. She is a young attorney from a wealthy family, engaged to be married to a long time family friend who is equally wealthy. She returns to her home in South Carolina to be groomed to take over her ill father's place in Congress. While there she visits a nursing home and is intrigued by photos which one of the resident has on display - of several women who remind her of her grandmother. She tries to get information about it from her grandmother - but she is suffering from dementia and only utters some words and names which make no sense. So Avery does some detective work of her own to figure out what's going on. And in finding out more about her past, she makes some decisions which also affect her future.
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
This book was just pure enjoyable fluff. Olive Torres, who has always considered herself the unlucky twin, is maid of honour at her twin sister's wedding. Because she is allergic to seafood she does not partake in the seafood buffet which gives everyone at the wedding severe food poisoning. The only other person who has not eaten the tainted food is her sworn enemy, the groom's older brother, Ethan.
As luck would have it they are forced to take the honeymoon of their siblings which is non-cancellable. Not terribly surprising things happen when they are forced to spend a week together in Hawaiian paradise - but many of the scenes (such as when the meet both Olive's boss and Ethan's ex) are very humorous.
Not at all great literature but fun if you're in the mood.
Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer
I usually try to read one Nantucket based Thayer book every summer and this one didn't disappoint. Her books are all fairly similar but well written with interesting characters.
This one details the lives of two island based friends - Keely and Isabelle. While they were inseparable growing up, they did come from different backgrounds. Keely was an only child of working class parents while Isabelle's father was a very successful lawyer so Isabelle lived a much more adventurous life. Both girls dreamed of being writers - and Keely also pined after Isabelle's older brother Sebastian.
As the girls grew, jealousies over careers and men interfered with their friendship. This tells the story of their time together, apart and slowly coming back together.
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Bali Kaur Jaswal
While I didn't enjoy this as much as Jaswal's prior novel, Erotic Tales for Punjabi Widows, which was more humorous, I did still enjoy the story.
In this book, the mother of three British born Punjabi girls leaves them a deathbed wish - travel to India together the following summer to make a pilgrimage which she describes for them, and scatter her ashes.
The three girls set out together despite all of their differences - the eldest is a straight laced school principal, the middle daughter is an out of work actress who is plagued by a recent Youtube scandal, and the youngest has just entered into an arranged marriage and is living in Australia with her husband and interfering mother in law.
As the sisters spend time together, they learn each other's secrets which pulls them closer together - surely accomplishing what their mother intended.
America's Reluctant Prince: the Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. by Steven Gillon
This was a very interesting biography of JFK Jr. that was published on the anniversary of his death in a small plane crash.
The author was very up to the task for two reasons. First, he is an accomplished historian, with a specialty in modern American history, so he really knows a lot about the eras he's writing about. Second, he was friends with JFK Jr. for many years - they first met when Gillon was his TA at Brown and continued to see each other regularly over the years, particularly to play squash. While Gillon readily admits he was in JFK's "outer circle" rather than a very close friend, he still was able to include many personal anecdotes which added to the narrative.
The book covered the entire span of JFK Jr.'s lifetime so there was a lot about his father's presidency and assassination - though from the lens of how it impacted his son. Neither of the parents came off looking perfect, though they were very humanized. Jackie, in particular, was often described as very controlling - of her children, the secret service charged with protecting her children, etc. We also learn of JFK Jr's positive relationship with Aristotle Onassis and how he was negatively impacted by his death as well as the deaths of his father and uncle.
It was also interesting to read about JFK Jr.'s relationship with other famous Kennedy's including his uncles Robert and Teddy as well as their children. While he was also quite friendly with some of the children of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Jean Kennedy Smith, his closest relationship was with Anthony Radziwill, the son of Jackie's sister. In his last few months he was very upset by Anthony's decline due to cancer.
While I enjoyed the personal parts of the book, there was a lot of focus on JFK's efforts to build George Magazine, as well as the relationships he had through the magazine. While I understand the importance of this to telling the story of his life, to me it was less interesting.
Finally, I thought the author's insights into JFK's failing (potentially at least from the author's point of view) marriage and why he was a risk taker were very interesting and may partially explain why he was piloting a plane through the Martha's Vineyard fog when he was not certified to fly with instruments alone.
All in all a really interesting read.
Before we Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
This fiction novel is loosely based on historical events - where the director of a Memphis adoption agency stole poor children from their parents and sold them to wealthy families all over the US.
This book goes back and forth in time, and while you know that the stories will end up tied together, it is not so immediately obvious as to render the book too predictable.
In the past, Rill Foss is the oldest of five children living on a Mississippi shanty boat. While they are poor, they seem to be happy and for the most part their parents are doing their best. When their mother goes into labour with twins, and a local midwife is unable to deliver, the parents are forced to go to the hospital. Rill is left in charge and does her best to keep things together but eventually the children are seized by child welfare authorities. They are led to believe they will be taken to their parents but are quick to learn the awful truth.
The children are put in an orphanage where they are physically and mentally abused as well as put on display for potential adoptive parents. Rill works hard to keep her family together and in alternate chapters we learn what she is capable of - and what she is not.
The present day chapters deal with Avery Stafford. She is a young attorney from a wealthy family, engaged to be married to a long time family friend who is equally wealthy. She returns to her home in South Carolina to be groomed to take over her ill father's place in Congress. While there she visits a nursing home and is intrigued by photos which one of the resident has on display - of several women who remind her of her grandmother. She tries to get information about it from her grandmother - but she is suffering from dementia and only utters some words and names which make no sense. So Avery does some detective work of her own to figure out what's going on. And in finding out more about her past, she makes some decisions which also affect her future.
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
This book was just pure enjoyable fluff. Olive Torres, who has always considered herself the unlucky twin, is maid of honour at her twin sister's wedding. Because she is allergic to seafood she does not partake in the seafood buffet which gives everyone at the wedding severe food poisoning. The only other person who has not eaten the tainted food is her sworn enemy, the groom's older brother, Ethan.
As luck would have it they are forced to take the honeymoon of their siblings which is non-cancellable. Not terribly surprising things happen when they are forced to spend a week together in Hawaiian paradise - but many of the scenes (such as when the meet both Olive's boss and Ethan's ex) are very humorous.
Not at all great literature but fun if you're in the mood.
Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer
I usually try to read one Nantucket based Thayer book every summer and this one didn't disappoint. Her books are all fairly similar but well written with interesting characters.
This one details the lives of two island based friends - Keely and Isabelle. While they were inseparable growing up, they did come from different backgrounds. Keely was an only child of working class parents while Isabelle's father was a very successful lawyer so Isabelle lived a much more adventurous life. Both girls dreamed of being writers - and Keely also pined after Isabelle's older brother Sebastian.
As the girls grew, jealousies over careers and men interfered with their friendship. This tells the story of their time together, apart and slowly coming back together.
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Bali Kaur Jaswal
While I didn't enjoy this as much as Jaswal's prior novel, Erotic Tales for Punjabi Widows, which was more humorous, I did still enjoy the story.
In this book, the mother of three British born Punjabi girls leaves them a deathbed wish - travel to India together the following summer to make a pilgrimage which she describes for them, and scatter her ashes.
The three girls set out together despite all of their differences - the eldest is a straight laced school principal, the middle daughter is an out of work actress who is plagued by a recent Youtube scandal, and the youngest has just entered into an arranged marriage and is living in Australia with her husband and interfering mother in law.
As the sisters spend time together, they learn each other's secrets which pulls them closer together - surely accomplishing what their mother intended.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
My Summer Reading List (so far...)
Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand
Every summer I try to read Hilderbrand's new release and this year was no exception. I certainly enjoyed this one, and it was somewhat more complex than some of her books, but I don't think it was the best. I found some of her efforts to include current events from that summer were a bit forced (e.g. the character based in Martha's Vineyard just happens to work at the hotel where Ted Kennedy stays that fateful summer and meets the woman who eventually dies when his car plunges into the water).
The story revolves around one family who has always spent the summer at their grandmother's home on Nantucket. This year is different - only 13 year old Jessie and her mother make the trip. Her older brother has been drafted and is serving in Vietnam, her oldest sister is pregnant with twins and staying in Boston with her husband and the other sister, the family rebel, has decided to summer on Martha's Vineyard instead. Jessie's dad (and step dad of all the other siblings) stays at home to work and only comes out on the odd weekend.
Jessie thinks her time will be boring but she discovers a boy a few years older than her, the son of the family's caretaker, is living in a small house on the property. She develops a crush on him and spends time with him when not forced to take tennis lessons at her grandmother's club. She has brushes with anti-semitism and sexual harassment while at the tennis club which are life lessons for her.
Eventually her eldest sister believes her husband is having an affair, gets caught kissing his brother and is kicked out of her home so ends up on the island where she eats and mopes. This sister's husband conveniently works as a scientist for NASA and is involved in the moon landing so that world event can be woven into the narrative.
The sister in Martha's Vineyard is disillusioned by the Kennedy event and the reactions to her having a black boyfriend so she makes her way to Nantucket too. And Jessie's dad shows up once convinced his wife is not drinking excessively as she worries about her son. Only the brother in Vietnam doesn't arrive.
The biggest revelation for Jessie are secrets from her family's past and present which she discovers both through careful observation and her mother's stories. I won't ruin those for you though I did figure them out faster than Jessie did.
An easy summer read if not great literature.
Here's Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane
This was a fun romantic comedy. Anna Alessi is a thirty something history professor whose life is quite satisfactory, except that she is looking for love. She tries online dating and seems to only attract weirdos. She is also still traumatized from the bullying she suffered in high school when she was many pounds heavier, still used her original more ethnic name and really didn't fit in.
When a high school reunion is scheduled Anna's friend convinces her she should go to put her high school demons behind her. While there she encounters the main perpetrator of her high school humiliation, James, who is still as good looking as he always was and has no idea who she is.
Then, coincidentally shortly after James shows up at her workplace to work on a project. Against her better judgment she slowly becomes his friend - without revealing who she is. The resulting encounters are both funny and at times sad. There are also side stories about her relationships with James' friend from high school - a serial womanizer who tries his luck with Anna - and another professor who seems harmless but has some troubling quirks as well. Moreover James is working through his failed marriage.
Quite entertaining though mindless reading. Perfect for summer.
One Day in December by Josie Silver
This is yet another one of my summer romance genre reads. Laurie is on a bus one day in December when she makes eye contact with a man at a bus stop and instantly falls in love. She tries unsuccessfully to find him, and when she has all but given up he appears at her doorstep. As the boyfriend of her best friend and roommate, Sarah. Laurie never admits to Sarah that Jack (the boyfriend) is also the man from the bus as Sarah is very serious about him.
The book covers the next ten years of their lives - Sarah and Jack stay together, Laurie marries someone else, never sure if Jack remembers who she really is, and Laurie and Jack have repeated awkward encounters.
It's not a very believable story, but it is entertaining.
99 Percent Mineby Sally Thorne
Darcy Barrett has only really loved one man, Tom Valeska, who was a childhood neighbour and her twin brother Jamie's best friend. Because of the relationship with her brother, Darcy has never acted on her feelings for Tom and has spent many years travelling from place to place and avoiding any sort of commitment.
When Darcy's grandmother dies and leaves her old cottage to the twins, they agree it must be renovated and sold - and Tom is the only man for the job. Since Jamie is employed and Darcy is not she stays in the cottage to oversee the renovations and of course sparks fly with Tom. Tom also tries to lead Darcy back to her true path as a photographer.
The relationship and the narrative are fairly predictable, but still interesting. I didn't like it as much as The Hating Game (review below).
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Lucy and Joshua are both assistants at a publishing firm and are forced to work in the same office, but unfortunately they hate each other - or so they think. They also seem to be polar opposites - Joshua is uptight, organized and meticulous, but maintains his distance from other employees (he even wears his shirts in a regular rotation). Lucy is quirky, sparkly, popular with her colleagues and very agreeable to their demands.
At a work event Lucy becomes very sick and Joshua is forced to take her home and nurses her back to health - even inviting his doctor brother to make a house call. There she overhears the pressure on Joshua to attend his brother's wedding which he clearly does not want to do. So she agrees to go as his date. There the truth of their feelings for each other finally emerges and the book ends as one might expect.
The Summer of Sunshine and Margot by Susan Mallery
Sunshine and Margot are fraternal twins who come from a long line of women who are unlucky in love. Margot is an etiquette coach who is hired to coach an aging movie star, Bianca, who has a history of over the top behaviour, on proper manners for the wife of a diplomat as she is engaged to marry one. For reasons that are not really obvious, though are convenient, she must move into Bianca's house to do the training. There she spends more and more time with Bianca's academic, serious, and intensely private son - with predictable results.
Sunshine has never really found her calling and is working as a live in nanny for a widower and his 8 year old son while she goes to college at the relatively advanced age of 30. Again the development of her relationship with her employer is not surprising.
I liked the characters in this book and it was an easy fun read but something you can definitely miss unless you're in the mood for fluff.
My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding by Wendy Wax
The easy reading books have been coming from the library fast and furiously this summer and this is another one of them - although the focus on this book is more on familial relationships and platonic friendship than romance.
Kendra was a teenage mother who moved to the Outer Banks with her newborn after she left her fiancé at the alter and her father wanted to take the baby away and give her up for adoption. There Kendra raised her daughter, posing as a widow. Fast forward many years and her daughter, Lauren, is a successful author who is engaged to be married. She returns to town from New York to scout out potential wedding venues and to see "the dress" - a family wedding dress that has passed to various members for their weddings.
Lauren is somewhat reluctant to return as she must contend with Bree, her former best friend. The two had a falling out when Bree refused to go to New York after college, as she had promised, and instead stayed home and married Lauren's ex-boyfriend. Bree is angry as she feels the book that made Lauren's career is based on an idea that the two had developed together.
Laughter and tears ensue when the two former best friends are reunited, Bree's marriage is suffering as is Lauren's career and Lauren's supposedly dead father shows up on her doorstep.
An entertaining read - I enjoyed the characters and it was nice to see romance on the back burner for a change.
The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess
This was a short and fairly interesting book. It primarily takes place in the summer of 1987 when Eve Rosen, an aspiring writer, quits her job as a low level assistant at a publishing company. Instead she joins her family in their Cape Cod home. There she has always mingled with her parents' professional friends but this year she somehow scores an invitation to a party at the home of two local authors where she mingles with more artsy folk.
She has a brief dalliance with their son but is then hired to work for the father. Star struck by working for this somewhat has been writer a personal relationship develops between them. But at an annual end of summer book party, where everyone dresses as the character from a book, Eve discovers that her secrets are not the biggest ones plaguing this family.
All of the characters in this book are quite interesting - especially Eve, her employer and his wife, and another author who is about to make it big based on a book with a somewhat questionable origin. Eve has to figure out how to deal with all of the secrets and what it will take to make her really fit in with this artistic crowd by writing a book of her own.
Every summer I try to read Hilderbrand's new release and this year was no exception. I certainly enjoyed this one, and it was somewhat more complex than some of her books, but I don't think it was the best. I found some of her efforts to include current events from that summer were a bit forced (e.g. the character based in Martha's Vineyard just happens to work at the hotel where Ted Kennedy stays that fateful summer and meets the woman who eventually dies when his car plunges into the water).
The story revolves around one family who has always spent the summer at their grandmother's home on Nantucket. This year is different - only 13 year old Jessie and her mother make the trip. Her older brother has been drafted and is serving in Vietnam, her oldest sister is pregnant with twins and staying in Boston with her husband and the other sister, the family rebel, has decided to summer on Martha's Vineyard instead. Jessie's dad (and step dad of all the other siblings) stays at home to work and only comes out on the odd weekend.
Jessie thinks her time will be boring but she discovers a boy a few years older than her, the son of the family's caretaker, is living in a small house on the property. She develops a crush on him and spends time with him when not forced to take tennis lessons at her grandmother's club. She has brushes with anti-semitism and sexual harassment while at the tennis club which are life lessons for her.
Eventually her eldest sister believes her husband is having an affair, gets caught kissing his brother and is kicked out of her home so ends up on the island where she eats and mopes. This sister's husband conveniently works as a scientist for NASA and is involved in the moon landing so that world event can be woven into the narrative.
The sister in Martha's Vineyard is disillusioned by the Kennedy event and the reactions to her having a black boyfriend so she makes her way to Nantucket too. And Jessie's dad shows up once convinced his wife is not drinking excessively as she worries about her son. Only the brother in Vietnam doesn't arrive.
The biggest revelation for Jessie are secrets from her family's past and present which she discovers both through careful observation and her mother's stories. I won't ruin those for you though I did figure them out faster than Jessie did.
An easy summer read if not great literature.
Here's Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane
This was a fun romantic comedy. Anna Alessi is a thirty something history professor whose life is quite satisfactory, except that she is looking for love. She tries online dating and seems to only attract weirdos. She is also still traumatized from the bullying she suffered in high school when she was many pounds heavier, still used her original more ethnic name and really didn't fit in.
When a high school reunion is scheduled Anna's friend convinces her she should go to put her high school demons behind her. While there she encounters the main perpetrator of her high school humiliation, James, who is still as good looking as he always was and has no idea who she is.
Then, coincidentally shortly after James shows up at her workplace to work on a project. Against her better judgment she slowly becomes his friend - without revealing who she is. The resulting encounters are both funny and at times sad. There are also side stories about her relationships with James' friend from high school - a serial womanizer who tries his luck with Anna - and another professor who seems harmless but has some troubling quirks as well. Moreover James is working through his failed marriage.
Quite entertaining though mindless reading. Perfect for summer.
One Day in December by Josie Silver
This is yet another one of my summer romance genre reads. Laurie is on a bus one day in December when she makes eye contact with a man at a bus stop and instantly falls in love. She tries unsuccessfully to find him, and when she has all but given up he appears at her doorstep. As the boyfriend of her best friend and roommate, Sarah. Laurie never admits to Sarah that Jack (the boyfriend) is also the man from the bus as Sarah is very serious about him.
The book covers the next ten years of their lives - Sarah and Jack stay together, Laurie marries someone else, never sure if Jack remembers who she really is, and Laurie and Jack have repeated awkward encounters.
It's not a very believable story, but it is entertaining.
99 Percent Mineby Sally Thorne
Darcy Barrett has only really loved one man, Tom Valeska, who was a childhood neighbour and her twin brother Jamie's best friend. Because of the relationship with her brother, Darcy has never acted on her feelings for Tom and has spent many years travelling from place to place and avoiding any sort of commitment.
When Darcy's grandmother dies and leaves her old cottage to the twins, they agree it must be renovated and sold - and Tom is the only man for the job. Since Jamie is employed and Darcy is not she stays in the cottage to oversee the renovations and of course sparks fly with Tom. Tom also tries to lead Darcy back to her true path as a photographer.
The relationship and the narrative are fairly predictable, but still interesting. I didn't like it as much as The Hating Game (review below).
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Lucy and Joshua are both assistants at a publishing firm and are forced to work in the same office, but unfortunately they hate each other - or so they think. They also seem to be polar opposites - Joshua is uptight, organized and meticulous, but maintains his distance from other employees (he even wears his shirts in a regular rotation). Lucy is quirky, sparkly, popular with her colleagues and very agreeable to their demands.
At a work event Lucy becomes very sick and Joshua is forced to take her home and nurses her back to health - even inviting his doctor brother to make a house call. There she overhears the pressure on Joshua to attend his brother's wedding which he clearly does not want to do. So she agrees to go as his date. There the truth of their feelings for each other finally emerges and the book ends as one might expect.
The Summer of Sunshine and Margot by Susan Mallery
Sunshine and Margot are fraternal twins who come from a long line of women who are unlucky in love. Margot is an etiquette coach who is hired to coach an aging movie star, Bianca, who has a history of over the top behaviour, on proper manners for the wife of a diplomat as she is engaged to marry one. For reasons that are not really obvious, though are convenient, she must move into Bianca's house to do the training. There she spends more and more time with Bianca's academic, serious, and intensely private son - with predictable results.
Sunshine has never really found her calling and is working as a live in nanny for a widower and his 8 year old son while she goes to college at the relatively advanced age of 30. Again the development of her relationship with her employer is not surprising.
I liked the characters in this book and it was an easy fun read but something you can definitely miss unless you're in the mood for fluff.
My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding by Wendy Wax
The easy reading books have been coming from the library fast and furiously this summer and this is another one of them - although the focus on this book is more on familial relationships and platonic friendship than romance.
Kendra was a teenage mother who moved to the Outer Banks with her newborn after she left her fiancé at the alter and her father wanted to take the baby away and give her up for adoption. There Kendra raised her daughter, posing as a widow. Fast forward many years and her daughter, Lauren, is a successful author who is engaged to be married. She returns to town from New York to scout out potential wedding venues and to see "the dress" - a family wedding dress that has passed to various members for their weddings.
Lauren is somewhat reluctant to return as she must contend with Bree, her former best friend. The two had a falling out when Bree refused to go to New York after college, as she had promised, and instead stayed home and married Lauren's ex-boyfriend. Bree is angry as she feels the book that made Lauren's career is based on an idea that the two had developed together.
Laughter and tears ensue when the two former best friends are reunited, Bree's marriage is suffering as is Lauren's career and Lauren's supposedly dead father shows up on her doorstep.
An entertaining read - I enjoyed the characters and it was nice to see romance on the back burner for a change.
The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess
This was a short and fairly interesting book. It primarily takes place in the summer of 1987 when Eve Rosen, an aspiring writer, quits her job as a low level assistant at a publishing company. Instead she joins her family in their Cape Cod home. There she has always mingled with her parents' professional friends but this year she somehow scores an invitation to a party at the home of two local authors where she mingles with more artsy folk.
She has a brief dalliance with their son but is then hired to work for the father. Star struck by working for this somewhat has been writer a personal relationship develops between them. But at an annual end of summer book party, where everyone dresses as the character from a book, Eve discovers that her secrets are not the biggest ones plaguing this family.
All of the characters in this book are quite interesting - especially Eve, her employer and his wife, and another author who is about to make it big based on a book with a somewhat questionable origin. Eve has to figure out how to deal with all of the secrets and what it will take to make her really fit in with this artistic crowd by writing a book of her own.
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