After having given up on blogger I’ve found myself reinvigorated about blogging so I’m moving to a new platform and hopefully a continued zeal towards blogging. Here’s hoping I master a new platform! I am a reader of all things genre – mystery/thriller, speculative fiction, horror and occasionally romance, with the occasional foray into literary and women’s fiction. A lot of these titles will be young adult since that’s an area I need to keep up with in my day job.
After losing her husband, Rosie Lee could easily have become one of Singapore’s “tai tai,” an idle rich lady devoted to mah-jongg and luxury shopping. Instead, she threw herself into building a culinary empire from her restaurant, Aunty Lee’s Delights, where spicy Singaporean home cooking is graciously served to locals and tourists alike. But when a body is found in one of Singapore’s beautiful tourist havens, and when one of her wealthy guests fails to show at a dinner party, Aunty Lee knows that the two are likely connected.
Caution some spoilers ahead…..
Auntie Lee’s Delights very much, at least for me, hearkens back to a type of golden age mystery. We have the clever Aunty Lee, an older observant woman with her trust sidekick maid, along with a good cast of characters, each one who might have motive to have killed one of our victims. As the story develops our victim turns out to have had some unsavory habits including the modern-day equivalent of the poison pen letter- writing bad reviews of Aunty Lee’s restaurant along well as other letter writing endeavors. It did become clear to me after one incident who the murderer had to be, but it did not diminish my enjoyment of watching Aunty Lee put all the pieces together and then gently guide the detective to the correct answer. Unlike golden age mysteries it also inserts the moral dilemma of whether LGBTQ folk should be accepted or not and I am happy to say Aunty Lee’s opinion is on the acceptance side. Overall, this was a quick fun read. It will make the reader hungry and looking for some good food afterwards! I look forward to reading more from this author.
Nora Seed has decided to kill herself. Her parents are gone, her cat has died, she broke off her engagement, she has lost her job and she and her brother do not have a great relationship. As she hovers between life and death she finds herself in the Midnight Library, where, with the help of her school librarian, she has a chance to rethink her regrets. The books in the Midnight Library allow Nora to make different choices in her life and she “lives” that life to see if it is the correct “perfect” one.
First let us just stop and contemplate how much readerly catnip is involved in the premise of this books? A book can change our lives and a librarian can guide us? Is this not every reader’s dream? Find me the right books and all will be well. Have some of us not survived parts of our life by reading? Second, I’m sure everyone has had thoughts of “if I had done this instead of that my life would now be….”
I had such high expectations for the book based on the premise and, unfortunately, I ended up being disappointed. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I think it partially has to do with the fact that I never really got to know Nora pre depression despite the flashbacks to her youth. We are told she really enjoyed music for example but not really shown this. Nora comes across as being one note for her entire life, a sad, disappointed person but no one is like that in their entirety. I felt a disconnect to her and felt no real emotions towards her. I also felt that some of the things she learned were a bit simplistic and depression treated too lightly. Sometimes changing your mind set isn’t going to help, it is far more complex than – hey your boyfriend was a bit of a jerk, you dodged a bullet there type of thing… Considering the subject matter the overall feeling of the book was just a shallow Hallmark card – perfectly fine but forgettable.
What I’m reading now
I’ve just started Red Widow by Alma Katsu. Evidently she spent 30 years in intelligence and has decided to write a book with that theme. Soviet assests are dropping dead and her heroine needs to find out if there is a mole in the CIA. I love her horror so I have expectations for this one.
Hope you are all having a good reading week! PS any spelling errors are due directly to cat on lap.
I originally heard about Perfect Days from Rachel at the Shade of Orange. She is a huge horror aficionado and this title sounded intriguing. I would say it isn’t really horror. Suspense might be the closest descriptor for it. Teo is a medical student whose only “friend” is his anatomy corpse Gertrude. He admits very early on that he is a sociopath who has learned to mimic basic gestures. He goes to a party where he meets Clarice, a screenwriter. Clarice impulsively kisses him and Teo believes she is the one for him. After some initial stalking Teo decides to kidnap her and take her along the same route she describes in her screenplay. He keeps her drugged and handcuffed much of the time and things get increasingly wild. Teo becomes more and more deranged and some of the themes are very dark and disturbing but man, is this book a compulsive read and that ending… Oddly I found Teo sympathetic at times due mainly to the fact that we see his twisted perspective on events. We do get to watch a little bit of Clarice’s attempts to outwit him as well. While I would not recommend this to everyone due to some graphic scenes it will appeal to those individuals who read darker fare.
After finishing Perfect Days, I dove into the equally bizarre story of Samantha. Samantha or as her friend Ava calls her, Smackie, is part of a small prestigious MFA program. She is one of five, the other four of her classmates are rich and very cliquey who disdain Samantha for her darker writings and Samantha is no fan of their twee nicknames for one another of bunny nor of their cutesy clothing. Eventually the group invites Samantha to a slut salon that she feels compelled to go to even though her friend Ava warns her not to. Samantha falls into their clutches and is basically brainwashed into becoming one of the cult. Live bunnies and exploring The Body commence and what follows is just bizarre. Think Frankenstein crossed with mean girls.
I think those individuals who have been through an MFA program might best appreciate some of the satire, but I also enjoyed the very dark fairytale vibes from this book. It’s truly one of the weirder things I read.
What I’m reading now
I’ve stuck my toe into The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and started listening to Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. I had no idea it was such a chonk! I may have to find places to drive to to get further along in this one.
This will be a bit of a fly by week in review. We had to empty out our garage to have pipes replaced and we’ve spent the past two weeks returning material but taking a good look first to see if we really need to keep it. I’ve got quite few books I’m waiting to give to the library book sale once they have them again. In the meanwhile I’m dusty and a little sore and not inclined to write a lot but I read some good books over the past two weeks.
What I finished reading
A friend and I buddy read Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Hamnet follows the lives of a playwright who is most likely Shakepeare and his wife and children. While we do hear a bit of the playwrights story the book truly belongs to his wife Agnes as we watch the initial courtship; her life as a mother and her grief once her son dies. I always approach literary fiction with caution for fear that the writing might be beautiful but the characters cold and unrelatable. This is very much not so in this case. I fell in love with Agnes and with Hamnet and the writing is indeed lush and gorgeous. Read this even if literary fiction isn’t your cup of tea.
Following along with the Shakespearian theme I listened to If we Were Villains. The story revolves around a tight knit group of seven actors who are completing their 4th year at a prestigious arts school. A tragedy befalls one of them and the tale opens with our lead, Oliver, at the end of a ten year jail term. The lead detective visits asking if Oliver will tell what actually happened. Oliver then leads us through the events of that year. All the drama of Shakespeare’s plays – obsession, jealousy, power struggles, love play out off the stage and the story becomes a tragedy worthy of the bard himself. I will say I absolutely hated the epilogue but I was obsessed with this book while I was reading it.
The final book I read worthy of mention is A. G. Slatter’s All the Murmuring Bones. At its heart is a dark fairytale wherein a family made a deal with the mer folk – for money and power the family will sacrifice a child once a generation. As the story opens the family is no longer doing well and there are not enough children to sacrifice. Our heroine Miren is the only child of an only child but her grandmother has plans to marry her to a cousin and have her bred “true” O’Malleys one of which will be sacrificed to increase the familys fortunes again. Miren wants nothing to do with this and manages to escape and goes in search of her parents. Eventually she finds the place where they should be but they’ve disappeared. It appears that Miren may have escaped one fate only to be ensnared in another. Full of supernatural creatures along with family fairy tales sprinkled throughout this was a fun gothic romp. I loved it and now want to pick up other works by this author.
What I’m reading now
I seem to have gone from a Shakespearean themed week to a “man those characters are f..ed up” week. I’m about two thirds of the way through Perfect Days by Raphael Montes and am also chugging away on Bunny by Monica Awad. I hope to finish by the weekend and have a review on them.
What Else I’ve been up to
When I’m not fighting off garage spiders I’ve been piecing a quilt I started three years ago. It is called a one block wonder (obw) and they were popular for a while. A friend of mine started doing a couple last month with panels and I became reenthused so I decided to finish mine off. Here it is about two thirds done.
Our story opens with 17 seventeen-year-old Fable diving for pyre, a sought after material that can be exchanged for coin. We quickly learn her back story. She is the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows. Four years ago her mother drowned and the next day her father abandoned her on a island with nothing to help her survive. The island is notorious for meting out swift and extreme justice and Fable has managed to survive. She is driven to get off the island and finding her father. Fable enlists the help of a a very reluctant young trader named West to get her off the island. In one of the more harrowing scenes Fable is being chased by another resident of the island who wants her monetary stash and who will kill her for it. She desperately has to plead with West who does not want her on board his ship. Once on board we find out more about West, his crew and the world they all inhabit.
I loved this book for so many reasons. First and foremost I’m so glad we do not have a heroine who is destined to save the kingdom, world or what have you. Fable is just a girl who has had a rough life but is persistent and resourceful. The women are treated as equals in this world and we see examples just not through Fable but also Willa, one of West’s crew mates.
I also really liked the world itself. There is a lot of ship action and since I know little about ships I found it fascinating. The ships are the kind with sails, not your stodgy ships with engines. Almost everything in this world runs on trade and barter and I hope we get to know more about it in the next book. I’d also like to know more about the crew. We got glimpses but I need to know more about how Paj and Auster met. The action throughout keep me interested. I know some readers thought there wasn’t enough happening on the page but what did happen kept me going.
I have to say I was so happy that I read this right before the sequel came out as I was shrieking at the end of the book. It has quite the cliff hanger. I do not think I could have waited a year.
Recommended if you like sea faring stories with inclusive characterizations.
A Murderous Relation is the fifth in The Veronica Speedwell series. For those of you unfamiliar with the series they are historical and take place in Britain in the late 19th century. Veronica is a butterfly hunter and seeker of scientific inquiry. Stoker is a natural historian and long time collaborator. The series do, I think, need to be read in order. Veronica Speedwell continues to be such a comfort read and this one did not disappoint.
For those of you who are familiar with Veronica in this outing she is reluctantly pulled into an investigation regarding the Prince of Wales who may have created a possible scandal by giving a piece of jewlry to a woman who runs a club to indulge individual’s sexual appetites. As a sort of background accompaniment to the main plot are the Jack the Ripper nurders.
I have to admit I thought Veronica’s investigations might have more to do with the Jack the ripper murders but they focus instead on retrieving the jewelry piece as well as her subsequent kidnapping so I was a little disappointed with the book initially.
However, Ms. Raybourn does her usual fine job in painting sympathetic characters from Madame Aurore the hostess of the club to some of the people living in poverty who help them. It may be a bit of a minor spoiler but Veronica and Stocker do meet one of the ripper’s victims and she is treated with a respect rarely seen in most written narratives of the victims. She also adds just enough history to make the story feel more real without bogging down the story with too much. Stoker and Veronica are, as always suburb, witty, quarrelsome and resourceful. Some of our supporting characters are sidelined- Poor lady Wellie is unconscious for most of the book but we meet Prince Eddy and Mr. Pennypacker so all’s well. For those of us who’ve been waiting quite some time we got the ending we needed and deserved. Let’s just say a happy dance was done
I would also be remiss in not mentioning Angele Masters fine narration. I’ve always admired her ability to make her men sound like men without its being forced and her performance here is without flaw.
What I’m reading this week
I’m about halfway through Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and this may well be this yeas favorite literary novel. I’ve also just started on audio If We Were Villians. I think I may need to also get a print copy of this due to all the Shakespeare quotes.
Something to think about
I rarely discuss anything that might be of a political bent on the blog but there were two shootings this week, one of which is in a town I know well, and I’ve begun to wonder if entertainment venues can be held accountable in some way.
It is a quandry for me as I recognize that a movie shouldn’t be blamed because someone saw it on the screen and then decided to imitate the act because we are all supposed to know it is fantasy, correct? Other countries seem to be able to view our exported hyper violence and not act on it and I do not understand why the U.S. in particular does have this problem.
On the other hand I think women in particular have been portrayed in a certain way for so long that it has been ingrained in the culture. Asian women in particular have been hyper sexualized as the ideal fantasy partner but media, including books, also portray women as victims over and over again. I don’t think romantic suspense could exist without the women being in jeopardy. Have we reached a sort of norm in terms of consuming violence towards women? Think of the shows that trade on violence year after year – Criminal Minds comes to mind but in some ways so does Law and Order SVU.
I do think the publishing world has begun to turn the page in terms of depicting how a woman looks physically especially in the young adult and romance areas. While we still get plenty of slender white women in YA but we are beginning to see women of different sizes as being normal and romancelandia is also taking up the mantle. Here is hoping that as more women on the page begin to resemble wives, mothers, lovers that it may have an impact overall.
On a final note I see I still have not mastered wordpress and am not loving the odd mix f italiced versus plain text, sigh. Bear with me.
This will most probably be short and sweet as I have finished reading nothing this week but I have discovered that another genre I loved when I was younger has lost it’s luster for me. I have six or seven books by Karen Rose on my shelf. Someone must have recommended her to me as being a good writer of romantic suspense. I’m 90% into one of her titles “You Belong to Me’. As always in these types of books there is a killer gunning for our heroine and a hunk standing between her and death. I’ve doggedly read it but it isn’t anything I cannot wait to get home to finish reading. I’m wondering if the last few years of heroines able to care for themselves has soured romantic suspense for me or if it is my continuing inability to suspend disbelief. In any case once the library resumes its book sales I’ll be donating my copies for someone else to enjoy.
In other bookish news I decided to help out a used bookstore that was running a campaign of get 6 books for 30 bucks. I told them my preferred genres along with who not to send and I got my package the other day. When I opened the package it was almost like stepping into my hometown’s used bookstore as most of the titles were from the 80s; yellowed and with that very distinct “Sitting on the shelves forever smell.”. I’ve read most of the titles already so they too will be going to the book sale but there were a couple of titles I’ll take a look at. One of them is a medical mystery with, gasp, only 200 some odd pages. To think this was a novel back in the day 😊 I’m hoping it will be kinda fun.
What I’m Reading this week
The aforementioned You Belong to Me as well as Fable by Adrienne Young. I’m enjoying the setting of that one. I’m also listening to A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn. You cannot go wrong with Stoker and Veronica.
What I’m watching now
I’ve given the new show Debris two weeks of viewing and I’ll keep watching it. Both the main characters are a little too dour and I keep hoping a Walter type from Fringe will crop up. Resident Alien continues to grow and can give me the giggles. Anybody else watching these? Opinons? Other new science fictional shows I’m missing on non pay channels?
I’ve been somewhat distracted, some may even say obsessed with a full coverage cross stitch pattern I’m working on. Now that I’m past the background stage and am starting to see actual objects I’ve been very remiss in regards to my book piles. I only finished two books in two weeks and both are throwback YA fantasies.
Kiss of Deception was the first of these. I’ve had this on the pile for years as so many years and when it first came out people were absolutely in love with it.
The book opens with our protagonist Lia fleeing on her wedding day. She was slated to marry a prince from a neighboring kingdom to strengthens alliances between the two nations. Assuming the prince would be quite a bit older she chooses to throw over her birthright. She flees with a companion to a small seaside town where she remakes herself into a tavern maid. Unbeknownest to her two men are tracking her. One is the prince who is not an elderly old soul, but then, the reader already knew this as the prince had to be a possible love interest. The second man tracking her is an assassin from a third country. If Lia dies and the tow nations remain apart then his nation can make forays into both countries.
A great deal of the book revolves around Lia and the two men as they interact in her adoptive hometown. The reader is set up to root for their favorite love interest for Lia. There is some excitement with a failed murder attempt towards Lia as well as some family drama to keep things going. Eventually Lia discovers that exactly which man is the assassin chooses to kidnap her and take her to his leader instead of killing her. Lia supposedly has a gift that might make her useful.
Had I read this book when it first came out I suspect I would have been far more enthused. However, I’ve read so many love triangle YA fantasies that I didn’t feel particularly vested in reading this one at a more than moderate pace. I may still pick up the second book just to see where things go.
The second book I finished was a series ender and I really enjoyed it. I have to confess that it had been awhile since reading the first two in the series so I may have missed a few key elements. Regardless this one is fairly action packed. Howell and Blackwood have retreated to his estate with their band of fellow sorcerers. They have some measure of safety there while they try to find a solution to the increased dominance of the ancients. Before going out to do battle though Henrietta and Blackwood are to be married. The marriage does not take place but Henrietta finds an ancient circle of stones which may be the answer to sending the ancients back to the world they came from. However a murder then transpires and divides Henrietta and Blackwood. Henrietta also realizes that fleeing to Sorrow-fell is a trap. She attempts to persuade Blackwood and co. to leave. Only half of them listen to her, she leaves with them and sorrow-fell burns. Henrietta continues to advocate her plan for reuniting sorcerers, magicians, and witches. Quite a few battles ensue, emotions are engaged and overall a very satisfying conclusion is reached.
I’ve always enjoyed the worldbuilding in this series and enjoyed one last storyline with these characters. I would have liked to spend a little more time with Wolff and Lambe on the page as well as Micklewhite but this is a minor quibble. While some of the storyline did not go the way I wanted I felt the conclusion to Rook and Henrietta’s relationship was very well done. There was only one section of the book that had me rolling my eyes a bit and that was at the last battle scene. We all knew what was going to happen by including one of the characters at the scene except Henrietta evidently. I do look forward to reading Ms. Cluess’ new series as she does an excellent job with her characters and her worlds.
I’m a bit at sixes and sevens at what to pick up next so this week may involve the sampling of chapters before I make a final pick. I’m kind of in the mood for a mystery but am coming up short. Hopefully I pick something soon as the Goodreads challenge informs me I am woefully behind at meeting my goal.
This past week was fabulous in terms of reading. I loved everything. Let’s get right into the books shall we?
Ashley and her friends have decided to camp and party in the woods of Tennessee. Things become a little tense when Ashley nd her friends realize that the boys in their party have invited extra guests including the ex girlfriend of Ashley’s boyfriend. A few hours of drinking commence and Ashley decides to go looking for her boyfriend. She finds him in flagrante with the ex girlfriend. Drunk and hurt she breaks his nose and then runs into the woods in the dark where she promptly falls and injures one of her feet. She decides to wait until morning sure her friends will come looking for her and she is not going to call for help out of a misplaced sense of pride. They don’t come looking and this is where the story really picks up. She has to figure out where she is and hike out with a badly damaged foot. Ashley does have survival skills thanks to a boy named Davey Beet but her foot is becoming more and more infected and she isn’t finding anything resembling civilization. As she continues her search the story becomes more and more tense and we learn more about her life story. Survival is a key theme here both in her immediate need to find help as well as her day to day life of poverty with her father. A finger biting page turner with a few squicky moments (That foot had to be dealt with) and I rooted for Ashley throughout the book.
Is it wrong of me to thoroughly love a book in which thousands are killed by an angry demi goddess or two? I hope not because I had a blast reading this book. Set in a future South Africa the story follows several sets of characters: Muzi and Elkin who reveal their true feelings for one another after taking a hallucinogen which turns them into a crab and dolphin respectively; Noumvela and Sydney daughters of an ancient god; Felicity a drag queen who is also a politician and Riya a singer; and oh yeah an AI made sentient with Noumvela’s prompting. It is difficult to explain the plot but Sydney wants that old time feeling of being worshipped again but she likes the old school “be terrified of me” worship so she can sustain herself with peoples fear and agony. She realizes the hallucinogen Muzi and Elkin took will help people realize their inner gods making their fear more powerful and thus creating a richer feast for her to feed from. What follows is a very complicated intermingling of characters and action as Sydney paints the town red in her lust for power. Each of the characters have their own interesting story and it is entertaining to spend time with each of them. My advice, go into this one with inner logic brain turned off and just enjoy the ride. Also ignore the cover – it’s misleading and I tend to think of the AIs as minion sized.
Beatrice is a human girl who lives with her adoptive grandfather a pig wizard. One day she is out picking ingredients for one of her grandfather’s spells. While out and about she runs into Cad, A Galdurian, part of a people thought to be long gone. Cad needs the pig wizard’s help so that he can find the rest of his people. When be and Cad return to her home they find her grandfather missing. They set out to try and find him along the way. What follows is a quest filled with various dangers; the cementing of a new friendship; and Bea’s slowly awakening ability t face her anxieties. The artwork if gorgeous and detailed. Highly recommended not just for your elementary school kiddo but also their parents.
What I’m reading now
I’m almost done with Kiss of Deception, many people have raved about this one so I’ll see how it ends. I’ve also, at long last started A Shadow Fierce and Falling. I do love a book with Lovecraftian type monsters.
What I’m watching
I loved Silence of Lambs so I had to watch the new show Clarice. So far I’m really enjoying it and think the actress playing Clarice is quite good. In other miscellaneous news I think I’m figuring out WordPress new block editor. I hope they don’t change format again by the time I feel comfortable.
What I finished reading
I am not a habitual reader of historical fiction but I recently finished They Went Left The book opens opens with Zofia Lederman being released from a hospital which treats concentration camp survivors with psychological issues. Zofia is allowed to leave because a Russian soldier has stated he will care for her. She knows most of her family is dead but has hopes that her brother might still be alive. When they were separated Zofia ameks the vow to meet him back at their old apartment. It quickly become clear though that things have changed radically and when Zofia learns that its possible her brother was sent to a refugee camp she goes there. The bulk of the story takes place in the camp and we learn the stories of some of the other survivors. Zofia eventually becomes involved with a man named Josef. From here I cannot say much more without spoilers. Sm. Hesse wanted to show a part of the war which is seldom covered – the direct aftermath.
I appreciated Zofia’s journey both literal and metaphycial as she tries to put her life into some semblance of order as she searches for her brother. However, I felt that some of the aspects of the story were either not explored enough or abbreviated. Ms. Hesse mentions that much of what she portrays in the book actually occurred but when she relates these stories they seem a little too brief so that the reader doesn’t truly grasp some of the horrors of the concentration camps. As an older reader I was less surprised by the ending but I did like the hopefulness of it in the end.
What I’m reading now
I’m about halfway through Prey of Gods and very much enjoying it. It reminds me in a way of American Gods but it also has its very unique flavor. There are a ton of fun characters and I’m expecting lots of fireworks. I’ve also been listening to Dead Mountain a non fiction novel about the Daetlov incident.
Other things of interest
We’ve been watching The Watch base don Terry Pratchett and I’ve gotta say that it has grown on me. I’m still not sure how I feel about Vetinari being a woman but the actors playing Cheery and Sam Vimes are genius. I hope this is a series that will continue. Highly recommended.
What I finished reading
Everyone in Fairview knows the story.
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.
But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?
I love the way the story is told. We have third person narration but also segments from Pip’s project journal, newspaper clippings etc. It’s a fun way to add detail to the story.
Fairly early on Pip teams up with Ravi, Sal’s brother to help with her investigation but Pip is the primary investigator. As her investigations continue more suspects as well as more hidden undercurrents to the town crop up. The focus is always on the mystery and, for a refreshing change, there is little teenage angst. Pip has a healthy family relationship and drama free friendships. While some of the tropes in the story were predictable, eg. Pip gets threatening notes some of the twists were truly unexpected. Pip and Ravi are the most strongly drawn characters as the book is strongly plot as opposed to character driven. Overall Ms. Jackson does an excellent job unveiling the suspects and keeping the mystery going. Enjoy this fast paced book under the sun with lemonade and your own sleuthing notebook at hand. A very enjoyable read.
This is my first ever Netgalley book and I apologize for being tardy with my review. The setting is Poland 1944 in and around the city Lwow/Lviv. The story is told in third party narration and is split between two young men -Tolya and Solovey as they negotiate their way through a city that is being fought over by Polish resistance fighters, The UPA, and the NVKD. If those initials were foreign to you they were to me as well. Ms. McCrina does an admirable job of trying to convey a very complicated history between the Ukraine, Poland and Russia.
Those individuals who like plenty of action will not be disappointed. Both our characters are frequently in danger and have to navigate their way through some tight situations. There are plenty of close escapes, who can be trusted moments but also quiet moments to punctuate the chaos.
The true pull of the story for me though was the richly drawn characters of both Tolya and Solovey. It is heartbreaking at times to read about Tolya’s despair at fitting in neither with Poland or Ukraine due to circumstances of birth he has no control over. Equally heartbreaking is the relationship between Solovey and his brother Myklov. Other supporting characters are also interesting and add depth. This is a book that I thought about even while I was not reading it. I’d love to learn more about that area and fortunately, the author gives us some additional sources to peruse.
I do have one quibble with the book and, without being spoilery, and that is the ending – Ms. McCrina, how could you?
This is a book that I think may appeal to a select group of teens really interested in World War II materials but this is one that may have cross over appeal for those adults interested in a different aspect of World War II.
This book comes out on August 25th so keep your eyes peeled.
What I’m reading now…
I’ve just started Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver and that one may take me a while so there may be another gap in postings.
I only managed to read 2 1/2 books during May and I was not enthused with two of them. The third I am almost finished with and it’s a fun read. Sadly, and with apologies too Grady Hendrix, I started the Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires but have had to put it aside. I loved the early part of the book . There are so much wry wink wink references into it I knew that I was going to like this book. Unfortunately, I have been having some rather graphic nightmares so for the time being I have put this book to the side but am anxious to get back to it once things become slightly more normal.
I had been doing quite well with my reading during the first part of the COVID-19 lockdown. Unfortunately, at the tail end of April COVID-19 stress finally got to me. In essence I quit reading. However, there is one book I read at the end of April that has still stuck with me and I’m going to give a quick review of it below.
I rarely read literary fiction so I’m not quite sure why I picked this title up, but I am so glad I did. It may well be the best book I have ever read. Valentine is a book about women living in the roughneck reality that was Odessa in the 1970s. The book opens with a particularly harrowing scene of a young girl (Gloria/Glory) sitting in the dust. She had been brutally raped, and she knows she has to leave before her rapist wakes up and kills her. The reader watches, nails bitten down to the quick, as she makes her way to a solitary farmhouse where a pregnant woman Mary Rose lets her inside.
Each chapter then follows women affected by Glory’s rape There is Mary Rose whose marriage becomes increasingly fraught as a result of her actions. There is Corrine who say Gloria get into her rapists’ truck and Debra Ann who lives in and is sometimes looked after by Corrine. Other women also drift in and out to tell a story.
Each individual is a tough scrappy survivor and each story highlights the reality of being, in essence, a second-class citizen, or in the case of Glory, someone who isn’t even accorded that much respect. All of them have flaws but their stories are so engaging I couldn’t put the book down. I felt particularly for Deborah Ann and Corrine but even a month after reading this I still hear all their voices.
Oddessa is in and of itself very much a character in the book. Most of the time ugly and disreputable but at times also beautiful especially when seen through Mary Roses eyes. While Ms. Wetmore has written short fiction pieces in the past this novel is so gorgeous it is difficult to believe it is her first.
Highly recommended but with a caveat – this book deals with some hard issues and sensitive readers may find it too difficult to read.
In other parts of my life I’ve been making a lot of masks and returned to a pastime I haven’t engaged in for years. I’ve begun cross stitching again. Let me tell you this is not the cross stitch of my childhood. The patterns are much more sophisticated and the materials needed are much more expensive. Once I go back to work I hope to keep this up. This is one of the positive aspects of COVID-19, the ability to do things we normally don’t get to do during the busy work week.
I hope you all are still reading. If so let me know what got you through COVID-19.
Eclectic reads for an Eclectic Frump 