I'm about to get my Book Blogger card revoked. There hasn't been any mention of books on here for ages. My reading time has been severely curtailed by crafting, sewing, and painting. And, if I were to be totally honest, staring at that ridiculous cell phone screen. But that doesn't mean I've given up reading all together. Here are five that have gotten a thumbs up from me recently.
First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen
It's next to impossible for Sarah to get anything but rave reviews from me. I have loved every book she's written, and this sequel to her first book, Garden Spells, continues the streak.
The Waverly sisters learned two lessons it took me a lot longer to get: 1. Do what calls you - or, better put, love what you love without explanation or apology. 2. Sometimes you have to let go of your plans in order to receive something better. And they learn them with so much more flair and magic!
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
This book was recommended by a total stranger in a bookstore in Florida. We were vacationing and I stopped to look for a book on local history. Of course I couldn't pass up the bestseller display while I was there. A fellow reader saw me looking at this book and said that she had 1 chapter to go and couldn't wait to get back to her hotel to finish. I figured any book that would tempt her to bypass sightseeing must be worth the read.
It took a bit for me to get into this one, but once I did, I was hooked. It keeps your head spinning to the end. With narration from several characters, you're never quite sure where the truth lies among their varying viewpoints. Highly recommended for fans of Gone Girl.
Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon
Ah, bliss! To return to a familiar place with favorite characters - especially after a long absence - is reading perfection. I have read this entire series several times and they always hold something fresh. I want to grow up to be Cynthia!
Ms. Karon's return to Mitford is seamless - like I was there yesterday. And she managed to leave the door open for at least one more visit. As corny as it sounds, reading this made me feel that I was somewhere safe with somebody good.
The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlaine
Riley MacPherson has spent her entire life believing that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. Now, over twenty years later, she finds evidence to the contrary. Lisa is alive. Alive and living under a new identity. But why exactly was she on the run all those years ago, and what secrets are being kept now? As Riley works to uncover the truth, her discoveries will put into question everything she thought she knew about her family.
Another top recommendation that makes you wonder if you can believe anything you read.
Beach Town by Mary Kay Andrews
Romance mixed with history and enough plot turns to keep it from being predictable. A fun, light read.
That sounds like a lukewarm review, but I have the book 4 stars. Sometimes a book doesn't have to be heart-pounding or thought-provoking. Sometimes it's enough to just be fun.
At the beginning of the summer, I was having visions of sunny afternoons spent reading on the porch swing, and relaxing get-away weekends of camping, fishing and reading. So, I purchased seven books with which to fill those long, lazy hours. Yea . . . not so much!
We have only found time for one camping trip so far, and the addition of a full-time job pretty much ended the afternoon plans. So here it is, nearly Labor Day, and only 2 1/2 books marked off my list.
Book #1 was Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman (review here). Excellent start!
Book #2 was Ladies' Night by Mary Kay Andrews
While this book doesn't rate quite as high as #1, it was still a good summer read. There were times that the heroine's legal troubles seemed a bit contrived, and the ending was predictable . . . after that it sounds a little silly to say how much I enjoyed it -- but I did.
Book #3 is The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. Dave and I are reading this one together and both enjoying it so far.
On the up side, driving to work every day allows more time for listening to audio books, so I've "read" three this summer:
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly - I assumed it would be good because Connelly wrote wrote it. I was not disappointed.
The Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright -
The shepherd, an elderly, mysterious, learned man, escapes the buzzing restlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollow in the Ozark hills. There he encounters Jim Lane, Grant Matthews, Sammy, Young Matt, and other residents of the village, and gradually learns to find a peace about the losses he has borne and has yet to bear. Through the shepherd and those around him, Wright assembles here a gentle and utterly masterful commentary on strength and weakness, failure and success, tranquility and turmoil, and punishment and absolution. This tale of life in the Ozarks continues to draw thousands of devotees to outdoor performances in Branson, Missouri, where visitors can also see the cabin where the real Old Matt and Aunt Mollie lived.
No need to review a classic. Beautiful story and now I've added visiting the site in Branson to my Bucket List.
And my favorite, Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah. Amazing story! As in Ladies' Night, there were moments that I felt the hardships were contrived to create more drama, but over all a unique and engrossing story. Highly recommended!
I'm obviously not going to make it through my summer reading list before summer ends, but there's nothing wrong with a "Summer read" in the Fall.
I've spent my summer-reading-hours on the beach - figuratively, since we live over 1200 miles from the Atlantic coast where these three books take place. I expected the congruity of location to make for three similar stories, and in a way they were. They each centered around the characters' relationships rather than a complicated plot. But that's where the similarities end.
Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews
Ellis, Julia, and Dorie - Best friends since grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. A month in North Carolina's outer banks is just what each of them needs. Maryn Shackleford is a stranger, and a woman on the run. Four people questioning everything they ever thought they knew about life. (from book jacket)
Summer Rental was the lightest of the three books. I enjoyed the interaction between the three friends. They knew each other so well that they could speak bluntly and even argue, but they always came back together. Each of them faced a life-choice, which made for three separate interesting stories, but the main focus was their bond and how they joined together to help an outsider. Romance, mystery, and chick lit - great reading choice if you happen to be on a beach or just wish you were. I give it 4 stars out of 5.
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
This was the most complex of my beach reads.
In her highly anticipated second novel, Sullivan introduces four unforgettable women who have nothing in common but the fact that, like it or not, they’re family. Their beachfront property sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast. At the cottage, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface. As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears. By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other. (from book jacket)
I have a long-time fascination with the state of Maine. To vacation in a beachfront house there is near the top of my "bucket list", so this book had a head-start on being my favorite of the beach books. At first I thought the large family was going to be too much to keep track of - to the point that I drew a sticky-note family tree to keep inside the front cover for easy reference. But as the story progressed, the focus narrowed to four women: Alice, the matriarch; her daughter, Kathleen, and daughter-in-law, Ann Marie; and Kathleen's daughter Maggie. Like the first book, each of them had their own crises or ghosts to face, but the story was really about the family connections and stereotypes. Alice's commitment to her faith and the Church, mixed with the more intricate look at relationships, made this a deeper read - save it for a rainy, indoor day.
I'm giving this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. The missing half-star is due, partially, to points where I thought the story drug and, partially, to improper use of "bring" and "take" (you know that's one of my pet-peeves) and this sentence: "Once in a blue moon, one of them made it to the mayor's office or city hall. Those ones were remembered the longest, them and the criminals." Those ones? Did one of the Sopranos edit this book?
On the plus side, it added a few entries to my "fav quotes" book:
"...Daniel's belief in the importance of generations, of one person understanding life through the experiences of all the people who came before."
"He had been smart enough not to have children, so he could never know the peculiar sensation of caring terribly, insanely for a person over whom you had no control; a person who was your responsibility, yet no longer had to answer to you."
"The Church was the only constant companion of Alice's life, the only thing that made sense, always."
"Arlo held Kathleen's hand and she squeezed hard, imaging all the ways that motherhood could change a person, ways that you could simply never imagine for yourself until you were stuck right there in the middle of it."
"Until recently she thought she had done well. But, the uncertainty of raising three children could wear on her, even now - especially now. When she thought about that unpleasant business with Little Daniel and his last job, when she thought about Fiona, she wondered if she was somehow to blame for all of it. Where were her children at this moment? Were they wearing seat belts? Did they still believe in God? Did they understand not only how to keep house but why? Had she done enough? Could a mother ever do enough?"
Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank
With its glistening beaches, laid back Southern charm, and enticing Gullah tradition, Folly Beach has long been one of South Carolina’s most historic and romantic spots. It is the land of Cate Cooper’s childhood, the place where all the ghosts of her past roam freely. Cate never thought she’d return to the beach house named for this lovely strip of coast. But circumstances have changed, thanks to her newly dead husband, whose financial—and emotional—perfidy has left Cate homeless and broke. And for Cate, Folly holds the promise of unexpected fulfillment . . . of the woman she’s always wanted—and is finally ready—to become. (from book jacket)
The third of my beach reads was a disappointment. The story of Cate - left homeless and "broke" (well, not totally broke by my standards, but destitute compared to what she had before) after her husband's suicide - starts with a bang, followed by 250 pages of fizzle. In the first few chapters the problems stack like cord-wood , but they are all solved easily and without much effort. It gave me visions of the birds and mice helping Cinderella make her ball-gown while they all whistle a cheerful tune.
Warning - Spoilers: Homeless? - find an aunt with multiple rental homes. Jobless? - take a week or two to write a play (your first attempt at writing) that is immediately put into production. Widow? - meet tall, dark and handsome man on your first day in town. New man is inconveniently married to woman in mental hospital? - wife has sudden onset of stage-4 cancer. Facing a lawsuit from husband's mistress? - one letter will make her re-think her ways! Daughter a struggling actress? - give her the lead in your new play and she immediately gets an offer to co-star in a movie with Julia Roberts.
Mixed within this fairy tale is a history lesson on DuBose Hayward, author of the novel Porgy; his wife, Dorothy; George Gershwin, and the summer they spent on Folly Island writing the music for Porgy and Bess, the musical adaptation of the novel. Unfortunately, the history lesson turns into a feminist, man-bashing lecture on Dorothy's role as the true genius behind the scenes.
I finished the book because it was the third of my summer reads and I wanted to be able to compare all three, and because of the popularity of the author - I was sure there would be a twist at the end to redeem the plodding middle section. But all I found was a story with no tension, random plot points (what was the whole criminally insane wife thing about?) and dialogue that was, at times, indecipherable. I'm giving this book 3 stars, only because I figure there must be redeeming qualities to Ms. Frank's other works and even New York Times bestselling authors can have an "off" book. And because the premise is good - even if it's poorly delivered.
