tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36589953504030736752024-02-29T15:07:39.806-05:00SmallWorld ReadsSarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.comBlogger697125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-24870600001124319272024-02-29T15:06:00.005-05:002024-02-29T15:06:46.983-05:00February Reads<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">February reading/listening was mostly mediocre with a couple of standouts. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVjGrojlKLAUVBpQ3imTneAWiNmpPGcmQTPMK6ET58ipXJ1nGINnje2Nc4Z8w87m-_jdTYgCiD5rgnVUXhCZOB1ZX_Py4Qh5rQhSzgYkItUP20_vGbTNikDbSZrNcYG2Yp1g3VStwc1f0CoGkRnQhkyoaBDyG7E0GsXDBwMwy8N3RWbRY4yfIYFgI9OMu/s3264/books%20feb%202024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="1670" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVjGrojlKLAUVBpQ3imTneAWiNmpPGcmQTPMK6ET58ipXJ1nGINnje2Nc4Z8w87m-_jdTYgCiD5rgnVUXhCZOB1ZX_Py4Qh5rQhSzgYkItUP20_vGbTNikDbSZrNcYG2Yp1g3VStwc1f0CoGkRnQhkyoaBDyG7E0GsXDBwMwy8N3RWbRY4yfIYFgI9OMu/w205-h400/books%20feb%202024.jpg" width="205" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; white-space-collapse: preserve;">1) </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; white-space-collapse: preserve;">You Could Make This Place Beautiful </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; white-space-collapse: preserve;">by Maggie Smith. A gorgeous memoir by the amazing poet. The title comes from the last line of her most well known poem, "</span><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/89897/good-bones" style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; white-space-collapse: preserve;" target="_blank">Good Bones.</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; white-space-collapse: preserve;">" </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Anyway, this is her memoir of her unexpected, crushing divorce—the before, during, and after—told in snapshots in her lyrical voice. I loved it.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: georgia;">2) <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a><i>What Happened to Ruthie Ramirez?</i> by Claire Jimenez. (audio) Thirteen-year-old Ruthie disappeared without a trace after school one day, and a decade later, her sisters think they see her on a reality TV show. I loved listening to this story of this family’s loss and trauma, told through multiple voices of the Ramirez women: mother Dolores and her three daughters: Jessica, Nina, and Ruthie. This book is raw, sometimes funny, and both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Author Jiménez reads the audio version of this, and she was incredible.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Our Missing Hearts</i> by Celeste Ng was a re-read for me. This time I listened to it, and it was just as good the second time around. If you haven't read it, well, please do! It's a dystopian novel but it sure gets uncomfortably close to reality sometimes.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>The Last Green Valley </i>by Mark Sullivan and <i>Westering Women </i>by Sandra Dallas were both good historical fiction. Sullivan tells the amazing true story of a Ukrainian family in World War II who escaped the Soviets. Westering Women traces a group of 40 single women who ventured on the Overland Trail from Chicago to California in the 1850s in search of husbands amongst the gold miners. (*domestic abuse and SA warnings*)</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Everything else was a solid 3 out of 5 stars, which is my "pretty good but not really memorable" rating, except for <i>Pineapple Street</i>, which I wasted about 10 hours of my life listening to, and yet I kept listening because I truly believed that *something* would happen. In the end, the entire book was actually just an excruciating look into the lives of the extremely wealthy and privileged.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: georgia; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYcu2SRW2sO9oSCNEK7fR2Bzq-khtVM0XBAVFTHq58h0pEssSx6MAj-2nyrCcxeqtiFaRd4kayaH8FQAkYRY3jisvUVZCElVLIvl1flqAQNWkHJTTqfDlcPEHYBg184aJFeMTy8-AueNx54OC-UICRKTiUNmEQW7yIPUIR8rRGHIoZq4_hxb0goF1Qle15/s3264/audio%20feb%202024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2425" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYcu2SRW2sO9oSCNEK7fR2Bzq-khtVM0XBAVFTHq58h0pEssSx6MAj-2nyrCcxeqtiFaRd4kayaH8FQAkYRY3jisvUVZCElVLIvl1flqAQNWkHJTTqfDlcPEHYBg184aJFeMTy8-AueNx54OC-UICRKTiUNmEQW7yIPUIR8rRGHIoZq4_hxb0goF1Qle15/w298-h400/audio%20feb%202024.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Audiobooks<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-26709266452677315042024-02-27T15:10:00.002-05:002024-02-27T15:10:22.637-05:00Pineapple Street<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75518492-pineapple-street" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Pineapple Street" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1678300767l/75518492._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75518492-pineapple-street">Pineapple Street</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23436938.Jenny_Jackson">Jenny Jackson</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5405793486">2 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
One of the most inane books I’ve ever encountered. I kept waiting for something to happen, wondering if anything was ever going to happen or if the entire book is just an excruciating look into the lives of the extremely wealthy and privileged. I listened to the entire book… and wow. It actually was just an excruciating look into the lives of the extremely wealthy and privileged. It’s an entire novel with zero plot. It’s not even a character-driven novel, as the characters were boring, whiny, and completely unrelatable unless, perhaps, you belong to the world’s wealthiest 1%. <br /><br />I have this two stars rather than one because Jackson is a good writer. She has great dialogue and description… but this whole pointless novel felt like a chance for her to relate every witty conversation and anecdote she’s ever heard at the country club. If you move in her circles, you might get a kick out the stories, but for the rest of us peasants, it's just silliness. <br /><br />
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-78302944722528086872024-02-13T11:30:00.002-05:002024-02-13T11:30:30.560-05:00What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez?<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61399125-what-happened-to-ruthy-ramirez" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658245442l/61399125._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61399125-what-happened-to-ruthy-ramirez">What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14841419.Claire_Jim_nez">Claire Jiménez</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5211514653">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Fantastic debut novel (audio version)—I did not want to do anything except listen to the story of this family’s loss and trauma, told through multiple voices of the Ramirez women: mother Dolores and her three daughters: Jessica, Nina, and Ruthy. Thirteen-year-old Ruthy disappeared without a trace after school one day, and a decade later, her sisters think they see her on a reality TV show. The chapters alternate between the women as they filter through their memories of Ruthy, the losses the family suffered, and their individual stories. This book is raw, sometimes funny, and both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Author Jiménez reads the audio version of this, and she was incredible.<br /><br />
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-71696605208226700172024-02-10T11:09:00.003-05:002024-02-10T11:09:47.393-05:00The Dead Romantics<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58417825-the-dead-romantics" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Dead Romantics" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643732629l/58417825._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58417825-the-dead-romantics">The Dead Romantics</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4279769.Ashley_Poston">Ashley Poston</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5475740118">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Unapologetically sweet and sappy love story. I didn’t know this was a romance novel when I started (duh—the title might have alerted me), but I don’t regret reading it. I needed something corny, charming, and predictable in a good way.
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-76511667640342896042024-02-09T17:48:00.002-05:002024-02-09T17:48:26.800-05:00When No One Is Watching<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49398072-when-no-one-is-watching" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="When No One Is Watching" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585146341l/49398072._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49398072-when-no-one-is-watching">When No One Is Watching</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7790155.Alyssa_Cole">Alyssa Cole</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3620887458">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This thriller has definite Get Out vibes. Sydney Green’s Brooklyn neighborhood is “revitalizing” at an alarming rate—and Black neighbors are disappearing one by one, their homes’ new "owners" all white. Something’s going on, and Sydney’s determined to figure it out—with her only ally, a new white neighbor, Theo. Can she trust him or his part of the problem? As is common with thrillers, the ending was rushed and the last dramatic scene a little too dramatic, but overall I I enjoyed the audio version of this novel. Definitely thought provoking.
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-82557555661774250602024-02-05T15:44:00.002-05:002024-02-05T15:44:15.104-05:00Westering Women<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50490303-westering-women" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Westering Women" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579040004l/50490303._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50490303-westering-women">Westering Women</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/74078.Sandra_Dallas">Sandra Dallas</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6238145546">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I’ve been a fan of Sandra Dallas for years. Her historical fiction novels are fairly light, with good character development and facts smoothly woven in with the stories. In this one, a group of 40 single women venture Overland Trail from Chicago to California in the 1850s in search of husbands — and/or new lives— amongst the gold miners. Sounds weird, I know, but I enjoyed this glimpse into a unique westward journey. *domestic abuse and SA warnings* The reader was great on this audio version.
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-27831699593851717422024-02-04T08:26:00.003-05:002024-02-04T08:26:43.837-05:00The Leftover Woman<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49197962-the-leftover-woman" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Leftover Woman" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1679615064l/49197962._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49197962-the-leftover-woman">The Leftover Woman</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3246397.Jean_Kwok">Jean Kwok</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5800589093">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I loved <i>Girl in Translation</i> so much — I’ve had high hopes for Kwok’s most recent novel. This one was just OK. It just seemed so far-fetched at times. Too many coincidences, too many things happened, and too many side stories that didn’t contribute to the overall narrative. The story follows two women from different worlds: Jasmine and Rebecca. Jasmine came to the U.S. to find her daughter, who was, unbeknownst to her, forcibly adopted under China’s one-child policy. I would loved to have read more on Jasmine's experience. (How did she find where her daughter was? Did I miss that somewhere?) Rebecca, the adoptive mother, has a golden life for the most part, although she struggles to balance career, marriage, and motherhood. The chapters alternate between the two women’s stories, which, of course, ultimately intersect in a dramatic way. I had a lot of questions upon finishing the novel, a lot of whys and hows and huhs. Jasmine and Rebecca were well-developed characters, and I appreciate Kwok's exploration of their roles as Fiona's very different mothers.
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-21370910000045343482024-01-17T15:10:00.001-05:002024-01-17T15:10:44.085-05:00Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61273371-looking-for-jane" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Looking for Jane" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1673499607l/61273371._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61273371-looking-for-jane">Looking for Jane</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22021766.Heather_Marshall">Heather Marshall</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5976736995">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This novel had a promising start: I was caught up in the stories of three women across fifty years and their struggles with unexpected, unwanted, or desired pregnancies. Marshall did a good job examining various perspectives a hot-button issue and diving into some pretty horrifying history of homes for unwed mothers, but honestly the novel was about 50% longer than it needed to be. It just went on and on and on, weighed down with completely unnecessary descriptions (I do not care about the clutter in so-and-so’s apartment or what a character ate for breakfast) that added nothing to the story’s movement. The plot line was predictable and then the "shocker" was quite a far-fetched scenario. <br /><br />Also, I listened to this as an audiobook and did not enjoy the reader, so this may have greatly influenced my review of the novel. Toward the last quarter, I almost packed it in just because of the cringy reader and her emotional inflections. Perhaps it would be better if I’d read a print copy.
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-11329248019596639042024-01-15T09:28:00.000-05:002024-01-15T09:28:00.825-05:00North Woods by Daniel Mason<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71872930-north-woods" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="North Woods" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1684816182l/71872930._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71872930-north-woods">North Woods</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/31095.Daniel_Mason">Daniel Mason</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5976738627">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I closed this book with a great sigh of satisfaction and gratefulness, and also a good dose of melancholy. Reading Mason's North Woods and Richard Powers' <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40180098.The_Overstory" title="The Overstory by Richard Powers" rel="nofollow noopener">The Overstory</a> within a few months of each other, plus living by the Smokies and witnessing the ravaging effects of the hemlock woolly adelgid—well, one can't help but feel a great sense of loss while being awestruck by the natural world. <br /><br />This is an epic tale that covers centuries of lives in one house in the woods of Massachusetts. From lovers escaping a Puritan colony to twin sister spinsters to a naturalist searching for the scene of a painting, Mason draws these lives in exquisite detail, immersing the reader in each character's story. The characters are all connected in some small way and of course in a big way: through the woods, land, living creatures, the house. Home. And a few ghosts here and there. Sure, some stories were more compelling than others; a few I didn't even enjoy much. But the variety of lives, the quirkiness of the chapters, and the gorgeousness of Mason's writing kept me enchanted. <br /><br />Woven throughout: an apple orchard. I am fully aware that I, part of a family of apple growers/breeders, might love this book so much because of the apple orchard. Toward the end of the book is a quote that I swear comes directly from my father: <br /><blockquote> He had come to the land back when it was mostly woods, purchased a lot to raise an apple orchard, cultivated a variety he called the Wonder, probably never heard of it, most exquisite thing the world had even tasted. Made Braeburns taste like sheep dung in comparison, and don't get him started on the Red Delicious —My Red Arse would be a better name.</blockquote><br />My father is legendary for approaching shoppers in supermarkets who are ogling the Red Delicious and pointing them toward more palatable varieties.<br /><br />I listened to the first half of North Woods and read the second half. While I thoroughly enjoyed the audio version, I plan to go back and read the first half. There are gorgeous illustrations and important chapter divisions that were lost while listening. This is a dense book—one that requires concentration and time, but it is well worth it.<br /><br />
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-6901746820150063962024-01-10T09:22:00.003-05:002024-01-10T09:22:39.941-05:00Serena by Ron Rash<p> </p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34145704-serena" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Serena" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486406444l/34145704._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34145704-serena">Serena</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/24820.Ron_Rash">Ron Rash</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6133618834">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This is a haunting book of destruction, violence, and power. Sounds horrible, I know; but I think anyone who lives in/loves East Tennessee or Western NC and loves the Smokies will find this riveting. Fans of a gorgeous rendition of Macbeth will, too. And, well, if you just love a well-crafted story, here you go. <br /><br />The story centers on George and Serena Pemberton, lord and lady of a lumber empire in the late 1920s. Their only goal is to get rich by cutting down trees (so painful to read!), and no one can stand in their way. They are violently opposed to this harebrained idea of turning the mountains into a national park (who wants to look at trees and waterfalls, they ask?), and they are nearly completely united in being coldblooded and heartless. But the one obstacle they don’t agree upon is George’s illegitimate son, Jacob. The novel is told mostly through the lens of the Pembertons, but Jacob and his mother, Rachel, get several chapters. I often despise books that have utterly contemptible protagonists, but in this case, Rash made me love to hate Serena (AKA Lady Macbeth). <br /><br />Woven throughout the book are cameos of Horace Kephart, who fought to create the GSMNP; a Greek chorus of timber men; an oracle; and the creation of our beloved Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This isn’t a book that brings any sort of joy, except for the joy of an exquisitely written story. And also… knowing that the Pembertons lost, as I look at the Smokies from my front window right now.<br />
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Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-72008505090109831972023-04-05T16:56:00.001-04:002023-04-05T16:56:14.515-04:00January-March 2023<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I've finished 23 books so far this year. I've started listening to more audiobooks this year, and not only have I enjoyed them tremendously on my daily walks, but they are adding to my monthly totals, for sure. Here are comments on several of January's books.</span></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSc30lWMS9DFaGOZ1ka-wDQHUcMIxAqPI3uTklVxCG4UD7CIQ0O3qjIgwflntLaxvSWiQKZzwEuPvlmIYoH7DHfALbgMxS4avFAaawxCLYlrFxib5lwk_8ZaHnQ1GZ477RWxI5-pz63q17gtohLFEbEWfsNo4zTj08X6B1Ioqr60pAf61l-Di12v4cIA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="1024" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSc30lWMS9DFaGOZ1ka-wDQHUcMIxAqPI3uTklVxCG4UD7CIQ0O3qjIgwflntLaxvSWiQKZzwEuPvlmIYoH7DHfALbgMxS4avFAaawxCLYlrFxib5lwk_8ZaHnQ1GZ477RWxI5-pz63q17gtohLFEbEWfsNo4zTj08X6B1Ioqr60pAf61l-Di12v4cIA=w464-h264" width="464" /></span></a></p><br /><br /><i>The Perfect Girl </i>by Gilly Macmillan. 4 stars. This thriller not only kept me on the edge of my seat, but the last quarter was also satisfying —something I find to be rare in thrillers.<br /><br /><i>The Hate U Give</i> by Angie Thomas. 5 stars. This is an incredible novel about the fatal shooting of Kahlil, a Black teenager by a white police officer, told from the POV of Starr, the teenaged girl —the Witness—who was with Kahlil. Highly recommended novel about racism, injustice, balancing worlds, friendship, and finding your voice. Actress Bahni Turpin read this audio version, and she is phenomenal.<br /><br /><i>Intimacies</i> by Katie Kitamura. 3.5 stars. The narrator is an observer of intimacies and a passive participant in her own moments of intimacy. She watches small dramas play out without jumping in. As an interpreter at The Hague, she has to carefully translate details of horrific war crimes while remaining stoic. I liked this novel—the prose is lovely and concise—but it left me feeling somewhat cold, all the while hoping that the unnamed narrator finds the warmth she seeks.<br /><br /><i>The Housemaid</i> by Freida McFadden. 3 stars. Psychological thriller that’s perfect for in between heavy reads. A rich psychotic family, a hot Italian groundskeeper, and an ex con. What more could you want?<br /><br /><i>The Year of Magical Thinking</i> by Joan Didion (audio). 4 stars. Phew. So sad, so beautiful. Hard to listen to because it’s so sad.<br /><br /><i>The It Girl</i> by Ruth Ware. 4 stars. Good mystery!<br /><br /><i>Bittersweet</i> by Susan Cain. 3 stars. An interesting study of the importance of embracing loss and sorrow rather than putting on a brave face all the time. As someone who is completely comfortable with and aware of the bittersweetness of life (I mean, I write poetry!), I did not find this revelatory, but it was affirming, which is always a plus.<br /><br /><i>With</i> — finally finished. Unremarkable.<br /><br /><i>Klara and the Sun</i> by Kazuo Ishiguro. So good! A story of Klara, an artificial friend, and her girl, Josie. This one stayed with me for a long time, and I still think about it now and then.<br /><br /><i>Book Lovers</i> by Emily Henry. Very cute. I love Emily Henry.<br /><br /><i>Memphis</i> by Tara M. Stringfellow. Audio book. Outstanding. Some difficult parts but so excellent. Three generations of women growing up in Memphis. Four stars.<br /><br /><br /><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWFJGwmj74RCN_j7g7PKTu30RuV24lU69q-ZG4GX_1nETJvUgw1EEgKtk_0anHtY3xxWsDLVDJ0X5rU6TuvhdpB9iK_wfqAhlC3rUNtJpWoe5wO004hBDTV8YZdO18Dr2Ew5-PS6SzfA8Yw-sm4nEVB-JCiZB--NoTCbTx-IcAfsWvbM2cwZJ2Uiik8A" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="3264" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWFJGwmj74RCN_j7g7PKTu30RuV24lU69q-ZG4GX_1nETJvUgw1EEgKtk_0anHtY3xxWsDLVDJ0X5rU6TuvhdpB9iK_wfqAhlC3rUNtJpWoe5wO004hBDTV8YZdO18Dr2Ew5-PS6SzfA8Yw-sm4nEVB-JCiZB--NoTCbTx-IcAfsWvbM2cwZJ2Uiik8A=w524-h524" width="524" /></span></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">February and March were excellent reading months. I may never recover from <i>Demon Copperhead. </i>I can't imagine that anything else could possible take over its Number One spot in 2023!</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">A few comments...<br />1. Demon Copperhead YES YES YES. Five hundreds stars. Totally lives up to all the hype and more. I recommend watching the limited series Dopesick (8 mesmerizing episodes) on Hulu and then reading Kingsolver's novel. Wow.<br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Ugly Love is my first Colleen Hoover book, and may be my last. </span>I needed to know what the buzz is about Colleen Hoover. This was a very fast read. Most of the characters were pretty flat, the plot was fairly predictable, and it all tied up happily. I think Emily Henry and Taylor Jenkins Reid are infinitely better writers with much more original and interesting stories. </p><p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. The School for Good Mothers is an excellent book to pair <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>with Celeste Ng’s Our Missing Hearts. In this one, a newly single mom has a single bad afternoon that leads to her being arrested and sentenced to a year at mother-training school. So good. And scary.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. The Candy House: I really liked this Egan's novel; however, this is the kind of book that should be read in a few long sessions rather than over the course of a week or two, 15 minutes at a time, like I did. It’s also probably better read in hard copy rather than on an e-reader There are so many characters in this nonlinear book, and they are all connected in various ways. I would forget from night to night who a particular character is that was mentioned 80 pages beforehand, and I’m too lazy to flip back through my Kindle to find out who this person is. Really intriguing book but would have been greatly enhanced and appreciated if I’d read it in a few sittings.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5. Five Little Indians: A painful book. The topic is so important and the story needs to be told, but the prose was choppy and stilted. This seemed like a first draft and needed the help of a good editor. Again, this is an important story and worth reading on a humanitarian level, but I wanted the storytelling itself to be so much better.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. Other Birds: A sweet, happy book that I obviously needed after all the heavy reading. Lovely.</span></p><div style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjz_Lf0CsNJS9gSecH92D9GoGyBXNjJkA1dQ7Q_pRi7f-9RMNU9DJUM890ct5qyg_eFwAivzzUyaySn87nGvuYviDE_84oHoq3OvbsW4n4QmbwpC35f02lESlvQ32ETnhGsylV-NjxfH3jKOerJ5Mtt2MeR9LOtuLwKnBVW1S_7gOzylBoF_1cKGa8Ccw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="3193" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjz_Lf0CsNJS9gSecH92D9GoGyBXNjJkA1dQ7Q_pRi7f-9RMNU9DJUM890ct5qyg_eFwAivzzUyaySn87nGvuYviDE_84oHoq3OvbsW4n4QmbwpC35f02lESlvQ32ETnhGsylV-NjxfH3jKOerJ5Mtt2MeR9LOtuLwKnBVW1S_7gOzylBoF_1cKGa8Ccw=w392-h400" width="392" /></span></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7. Audiobooks: Clearly I was on a Lisa Jewell kick, and I don't regret the many miles walking with her mysteries. She's mesmerizing. Also listened to the classic Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse, which is of course, well, amazing and unforgettable. It's better to read in print so you can underline everything, but however you consume it, consume it.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And there we have January-March in books.<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What are you reading that I should add to my never-ending TBR list?<br /><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also please explain the Colleen Hoover craze. No judgment if she's your thing; I'm just trying to figure out why there is so much hype about her books!</span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div></div></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-17929315160312310282022-07-04T07:41:00.001-04:002022-07-04T07:42:54.059-04:00Books Read in June<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5OWZKkBY00nCwC_QV0i2myjCsCfuRwklMb7MPVDMZNGFZOf3NAFO17iQPU2iW8hpQmIw5Q_rIJXVMbr9EoQ8kLvVtTKQxlwkInzC5Fj5Tn0cC3puxlYikLlT0Ahkb0ThflGnSFBafNC9_ZUMbtkdz51z9Y4D9aS-S9uJe75JZJSSJtbHizWTxdV-3w/s3264/june%20reads.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="3264" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5OWZKkBY00nCwC_QV0i2myjCsCfuRwklMb7MPVDMZNGFZOf3NAFO17iQPU2iW8hpQmIw5Q_rIJXVMbr9EoQ8kLvVtTKQxlwkInzC5Fj5Tn0cC3puxlYikLlT0Ahkb0ThflGnSFBafNC9_ZUMbtkdz51z9Y4D9aS-S9uJe75JZJSSJtbHizWTxdV-3w/w400-h400/june%20reads.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">June was a spectacular reading month. All of these books were good, but <i>Invisible Child, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, </i>and <i>Wholehearted Faith</i> were books I absolutely lived in. They were troubling, enlightening, left me trembling sometimes, and always made me think and offered new perspectives. The other three were just good reads.</span></p><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Child-Poverty-Survival-American-ebook/dp/B08YN3LGW4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1F7O2M15NUSMW&keywords=invisible+child&qid=1656934462&sprefix=invisible+child%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City </a>by Andrea Elliot. Journalist and author Elliot followed Dasani and her family for 8 years, from the time Dasani was 11 years old until she became the first person in her entire family to graduate from high school. Dasani is the oldest of 8 children in a close-knit but poverty-stricken family. From her earliest years, her parents told the kids to always stay together; unfortunately, the broken system doesn’t work that way. Throughout the eight years, they go from shelter to shelter and into and out of foster care, while parents Chanel and Supreme, who battle drug addiction and despair, fight to maintain/regain custody. Dasani is accepted into a boarding school for low-income kids, and she then faces being torn between two worlds. This is such a heartbreaking story. Much like Evicted, it’s a story of inequality, poverty, and racism in America. Highly recommended.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Love-Songs-W-B-Bois-ebook/dp/B08F7RSXPD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JLDSYH7T3IWW&keywords=love+songs+of+web+dubois&qid=1656934495&s=books&sprefix=love+songs+of%2Cstripbooks%2C110&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois</a> by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. This is an astonishing novel in its breadth and depth. It's a story across multiple generations of a family that includes enslaved people, free Blacks, white enslavers, all part of Ailey Pearl Garfield's ancestral line. Woven throughout are snippets from W.E.B du Bois's reflections on Black American live in the South, including several from "The Lives of Black Folk." This is not an easy read. It unflinchingly explores class, race, sexual assault, addiction, ancestry, and education in a very big way, and I was mesmerized at every moment. I can hardly believe this is Jeffers' debut novel. Highly recommended. </div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wholehearted-Faith-Rachel-Held-Evans-ebook/dp/B08QJGJ238/ref=sr_1_1?crid=K0ASQMZFCDLF&keywords=whole+hearted+faith+rachel+evans&qid=1656934592&s=books&sprefix=whole+heart%2Cstripbooks%2C104&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Wholehearted Faith</a> by Rachel Held Evans and Jeff Chu. I love Rachel Held Evans and every single word she ever wrote. We've been reading through and discussing this is a book club for several months, and at the end, we all wept, knowing that these were her last words before she died tragically in 2019. I finished this book feeling hopeful, seen, and reassured. Here's a great review at the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/rachel-held-evans-wholehearted/2021/10/26/c50d7822-3015-11ec-93e2-dba2c2c11851_story.html?fbclid=IwAR1911nKWq2g3H1pdlQySP852tJBg7P0J0DIrKz0iIsLJu6nBMCrsaq1XLE" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Library-Novel-Matt-Haig-ebook/dp/B085BVSXS9/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EMLH2BHEOF0T&keywords=midnight+library&qid=1656934619&s=books&sprefix=midnigh%2Cstripbooks%2C108&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Midnight Library</a> by Matt Haig. I'm late coming to this one; it seems to have been on everyone's list last year. I love this kind of story—a bit “It’s a Wonderful Life” and a bit “The Road Not Taken.” The question is one we all ask ourselves at some point: what if I’d made a different decision, even a small one? How would my life had changed? Great for book club discussion.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Jane-Jessica-Anya-Blau-ebook/dp/B08FK7MVPF/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PFLTAZY2ZNOL&keywords=mary+jane&qid=1656934650&s=books&sprefix=mary+jane+%2Cstripbooks%2C106&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Mary Jane</a> by Jessica Blau. I love a good coming-of-age story, and I could really relate to the 14-year-old girl in this one. It’s 1975, and Mary Jane’s summer job is as a nanny to a little girl whose parents are much different than her own conservative, country-club ones. Joining them for the summer are a famous rock star, who is being treated for addiction, and his wife, a movie star. Needless to say, it’s an eye-opening summer for Mary Jane. I loved Mary Jane’s discovery that she is a whole person separate from her parents, that there is magic and freedom in finding out how other people see her. </div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Younger-Wife-Novel-Sally-Hepworth-ebook/dp/B092T8Z86W/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SSUPAPC7X5RW&keywords=the+younger+wife+sally+hepworth&qid=1656934677&s=books&sprefix=younger+wife%2Cstripbooks%2C103&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Younger Wife </a>by Sally Hepworth. A fun, fast read. Hepworth is great for when you need something in-between hefty books.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I love months like this when every book is fantastic! Those first three, though... phew! Those will definitely be on my Top 10 list for 2022.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: right;"><i>Linked up with <a href="https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">It's Monday! What are you reading?</a> </i></div></div>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-15833739463531362022-06-04T08:48:00.005-04:002022-06-04T08:48:47.776-04:00Books Read in May<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvM3nS0hzPuC2XYmBCQVoj0J6WfqPysyv2f7AZbluL3AzRlkAkj92bfjDBQLoF1oaooLT927IRha7FE6XVZRppuvO9eFwR__tUQCRffymQjI_6dLhdtY4VlmzIHhpvicQk14xp9IHCOiE-pMr2UXZu7x-FdPlfuQyHSNZOfcbaidEQWVsehR--ThOCQ/s3264/march%20reads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1595" data-original-width="3264" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvM3nS0hzPuC2XYmBCQVoj0J6WfqPysyv2f7AZbluL3AzRlkAkj92bfjDBQLoF1oaooLT927IRha7FE6XVZRppuvO9eFwR__tUQCRffymQjI_6dLhdtY4VlmzIHhpvicQk14xp9IHCOiE-pMr2UXZu7x-FdPlfuQyHSNZOfcbaidEQWVsehR--ThOCQ/w468-h228/march%20reads.jpg" width="468" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><h2 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Rock Paper Scissors</i> by Alice Feeney. </span></h2><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This was a fun psychological thriller. Lots of secrets and some fun plot twists with plenty of eye-rolling moments. Not a masterpiece but a good in-between read.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></p><h2 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The Woman They Could Not Silence</i> by Kate Moore. </span></h2><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Subtitled "One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear," this is the nonfiction story of a mother of six in the mid-1800s whose husband, a Presbyterian minister, decided she had way too many opinions. And so, because he could, he committed her to the asylum. After all, she had the audacity to challenge his religious and political beliefs; thus, she was clearly insane. The author uses the letters and journals of Elizabeth Packard in telling her incredible story of fighting not only for her freedom, but for justice for women incarcerated by their husbands across the U.S. This was an amazing story, both frustrating and inspiring, and the short afterword reminds us that “difficult” women continue to be silenced. Highly recommended!</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><h2 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The Reading List </i>by Sara Nisha Adams. </span></h2><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This will definitely be a contender for my favorite book of the year. A series of people in a community find a list: “In case you need this” with a series of book titles. The titles draw them to the library, where they all interact at some point, and as they read, they find healing and connection. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to curate my own reading list and stuff it in mailboxes, slide it into library books, and pin in on bulletin boards. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What would be on my reading list? What would be on yours? Great fodder for a book club discussion!</span></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></h3><p class="p1" style="font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-4308638024096426242022-05-06T14:12:00.000-04:002022-05-06T14:12:00.933-04:00Books Read in March and April<h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;">March Reads</span></h3><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwZ9iz4cUhofJz0ovRwinIeAcMzlcrZli6_QV2iI7fV80bfeGzUOvwjS_Pi1RfiMmT5RcokqeBV0jz6ZWZXEnatbd4yJ-L-vHDiopnWHYjlvHe-JJeQK-SVeCwWqBD_om_KYl5RBlh9_sQ2WttwWFX12ILr1Rc4cGdAzTYXkIyB5ZGiishRn77iFZSA/s3264/march%20reads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2347" height="527" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwZ9iz4cUhofJz0ovRwinIeAcMzlcrZli6_QV2iI7fV80bfeGzUOvwjS_Pi1RfiMmT5RcokqeBV0jz6ZWZXEnatbd4yJ-L-vHDiopnWHYjlvHe-JJeQK-SVeCwWqBD_om_KYl5RBlh9_sQ2WttwWFX12ILr1Rc4cGdAzTYXkIyB5ZGiishRn77iFZSA/w379-h527/march%20reads.jpg" width="379" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Beach Read</i> by Emily Henry: I think this might be classified as a romance novel and I don’t even care! I loved it. It was so sappy and sweet and sad and happy, and it was exactly what I needed. ON top of that, I have to say the writing was excellent. The characters will wonderfully rich, and the dialogue was amazing. I’m not sure why I don’t read this genre ALL THE TIME because it just made me happy and hopeful.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The Family Next Door</i> by Sally Hepworth: Loved this family drama about a neighborhood where everything looks perfect but most certainly is not. Each family has its secrets and suspicions, and things intensify when Isabelle, a single woman, moves into this neighborhood of families.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>This Tender Land</i> by William Kent Krueger: This is a familiar story in the mode of The Odyssey and Huck Finn: a boy and his friends, all outcasts, journey down the river in a canoe. It’s the Great Depression, and they are all orphans on the run from an abusive orphanage for Native American children. (I did find it problematic that the hero of the story has to be one of only two white children in the orphanage, but anyway.) The first half of the novel was engaging and well told; however, the second half leaned more and more toward too many coincidences, narrow escapes, and, well, too much going on. I think the author was trying to fit everything in and wrap everything up perfectly, and it just got out of hand. So, it was a pretty good read but nowhere near the caliber of Krueger’s Ordinary Grace, which was one of my favorites.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The Last Thing He Told Me</i> by Laura Dave. Hannah doesn’t even know Owen is missing yet when she gets a note scribbled on notebook paper that says simply “Protect her.” The obvious “her” is Bailey, Owen’s 16-year-old daughter. When a US Marshal and then the FBI show up looking for Owen, Hannah and Bailey realize they have to find out for themselves why Owen has disappeared. The novel swings back and forth from “before” times to the present, as Hannah and Bailey uncover Owen’s real past and figure out how they can best survive the future. This mystery was fast paced with plot twists revealed at just the right moments. I definitely recommend it.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Black Girls Must Die Exhausted</i> by Jayne Allen. Tabitha, a TV journalist in her early 30s,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>discovers that her biological clock is about to run out. If she wants babies, she’d better figure out how to have them fast. She’s suddenly overwhelmed with her future. She’s a Black woman who is up for a major promotion, in a white male-centered business; she’s trying to navigate fertility options as a single woman; she has strong, supportive friends who are also dealing with major life issues; she’s in a confusing relationship with Marc; and she’s trying to figure out who she is and where she comes from.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A lot happened in this book, but also sometimes, there was just a lot of repetition. The dialogue was fantastic, but sometimes there was just too much of it. Like, it didn’t move the plot forward; it was just regular dialogue like “Do you like cream in your coffee?” I liked the characters OK.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I’d read the next one in this series just to see how things turn out, but I’m not dying to read it.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Ready Player One</i> by Ernest Cline. I was totally not expecting to enjoy this, especially when I read something that compared it to both Willy Wonka and The Matrix. Willy Wonka I adore; The Matrix I do not. But this was a book club book, and I always read our book club books!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was shocked how much I loved this from the very first page. I mean, I was somehow immediately sucked in, and I wanted to read it every spare moment I had. The story takes place in 2044, mostly in OASIS, a virtual utopia. There’s a contest that’s been going on for 5 years. The creator of OASIS made a quest out of his inheritance. The gamer who finds the treasure wins his billions of dollars. I know basically nothing about gaming, and I think people who are true gamers hate this book. But I loved the author’s explanations, the quest itself, the revealing of the characters toward the end, and the 80s pop culture references. It was a fun twist on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I would probably like The Matrix if I could have understood it as well as I did this.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><h2 style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></h2><h1 style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">APRIL READS</h1><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6FatuWsJTHFtJNjf6qyOIVrofCwcOvFSWvA_WWwUkSM9gBERqm85yfkGZGroaymtZjmQllRVwWPLXmsLqNw0e6j9PJsBS-m-7jMpBnMvXzkatWudhqE7gIxVP7wQn7MnvfJz-qyGzb1NPUoA_6Z2jToYkF_vZTAxOUop18ISeXbcJ_zNzcAyq4-OsQ/s645/Image%205-3-22%20at%205.26%20PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="175" data-original-width="645" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6FatuWsJTHFtJNjf6qyOIVrofCwcOvFSWvA_WWwUkSM9gBERqm85yfkGZGroaymtZjmQllRVwWPLXmsLqNw0e6j9PJsBS-m-7jMpBnMvXzkatWudhqE7gIxVP7wQn7MnvfJz-qyGzb1NPUoA_6Z2jToYkF_vZTAxOUop18ISeXbcJ_zNzcAyq4-OsQ/w493-h134/Image%205-3-22%20at%205.26%20PM.jpeg" width="493" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Beautiful World, Where Are You?</i> by Sally Rooney. Why do people love this so much? I found it extraordinarily tedious. All the characters were annoying. Simon was the only one I liked, but even he was annoying. Except for one, they were all exceedingly self-focused, whiney, pretentious, and bratty. The one who wasn’t completely self-centered and whiney (Simon) was almost likable, but he he suffered from too much inaction. I wanted to tell all of them to stop thinking about themselves so much and go out and actually DO something. Very unpleasant people. (And speaking of pretentious, I found Rooney’s stylistic choice to not use quotation marks in her dialogue terribly pretentious.) I couldn’t wait to finish this novel, but I was invested enough that I did finish it. II think mostly I kept thinking that surely it must get better! As one reviewer said, “when i was diagnosed with covid i thought that being isolated to my bedroom for two weeks was the most boring thing in the world - Sally Rooney has now proven me wrong.” I think that sums it up.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Not a Happy Family</i> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">by Shari Lapena. A fast-paced but predictable thriller.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>When Ghosts Come Home</i> by Wiley Cash. <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Really liked this story about a small town coastal sheriff, a mysterious plane crash, a dead man, and the sheriff's daughter. Wiley Cash is one of my favorite contemporary Southern authors; his writing is lyrical and lovely to read. Highly recommended; it's sad but also hopeful.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>The People You Meet on Vacation</i> by Emily Henry: Very cute. It’s just a happy book with snappy dialogue and lots of funny, sweet moments. Definitely another vacation read by the author of Beach Read!</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Mother-in-Law</i> by Sally Hepworth. Another engaging mystery by Hepworth. I really like her writing and her explorations. Interesting and well developed characters.</span></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-89844182188475627782022-03-04T07:46:00.000-05:002022-03-04T07:46:15.463-05:00Books Read in February<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgGPWqqZb4pB4vHsb1GnFY3Zsvi6BOeFJ1qRXaASHIHO9C3Q8abOYKhdYJ713BWDH-TGLpYWU4Y3vqMcYDnFCeRlozz00vEmDJnlT2pVwhNzS7006T_neuLNKd6jOjAVFcYNPIySt2Tb8cV54FDoFPm4Gx_GBcLoy7JQhMFzcChQoMZdKa9NtH4kjQDQ=s2218" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1907" data-original-width="2218" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgGPWqqZb4pB4vHsb1GnFY3Zsvi6BOeFJ1qRXaASHIHO9C3Q8abOYKhdYJ713BWDH-TGLpYWU4Y3vqMcYDnFCeRlozz00vEmDJnlT2pVwhNzS7006T_neuLNKd6jOjAVFcYNPIySt2Tb8cV54FDoFPm4Gx_GBcLoy7JQhMFzcChQoMZdKa9NtH4kjQDQ=w400-h344" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>A Town called Solace </i>by Mary Lawson: Absolutely wonderful novel! I devoured this in a day. I want to live in this town of Solace, where everyone watches out for each other, where healing takes place.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A lovely, uplifting book but with so much realism. Pain of loss, joy of redemption — this one is beautifully told. Highlight recommended. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>The Good Sister</i> by Sally Hepworth. I adored this story of twin sisters, told from each of their perspectives in alternating chapters. Their childhood, told in bits and pieces through Rose’s journal, was traumatic, and a single event haunts them both.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Rose seems to feel the weight of responsibility for Fern, who has a sensory processing disorder and lives a perfectly satisfying life as a librarian. Meanwhile, Rose’s life is falling apart —she desperately wants a baby but has fertility issues, and also she and her husband are separated. Fern gets a great idea: she’ll get pregnant and give the baby to Rose. And the story takes off from there. Highly recommended.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>The Family Upstairs</i> by Lisa Jewell. Oh man, was this psychological thriller ever good! I just wanted to sit on the couch and read it all day. Libby inherits a mansion on her 25th birthday, bequeathed to her by her deceased biological parents. Thousands of miles away, Lucy’s phone reminds her that it’s “the baby’s birthday.” Chapter by chapter, Libby uncovers the story behind the mansion and the people who lived there.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Dragonfly </i>by Leila Meacham: I overloaded on WWII fiction a few years ago (some of it badly written) and haven’t read much since, but this was a book club pick and so I had to. No regrets! This was a totally engaging, well-written story of five civilian Americans, all in their early 20s, who were recruited as spies and sent to German-occupied Paris. I loved each of their stories, and their characters were beautifully crafted. I had a hard time putting this one down.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>In My Dreams I Hold a Knife </i>by Ashley Winstead. Another thriller, and a mesmerizing one at that, but in the end of gave it 3 out of 5 stars because too much happened. This is the story of a group of college friends who return for their 10-year reunion. Jessica vows to wow them all — and this part really bugged me. She was well liked in her group yet she was determined that she’d show them all how successful she’s become. That just didn’t fit with the rest of it. Anyway, one of their group was murdered during their senior year, and the murderer was never found. So, of course, the reunion serves as a device for hearing all their stories and revealing the murderer. There were just so many holes in this, but also too much going on. Some good scenes, some bad scenes. Meh.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>The Perfect Marriage </i>by Jeneva Rose: Gah. This thriller started well but it just got ridiculous. The dialogue was terrible, the plot predictable, and the characters wooden and annoying. Skip it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-69183372471743399272021-09-12T09:00:00.004-04:002021-09-12T09:00:17.137-04:00Books Read in August<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyY5uaXxAgB-vMwI6LRAlhNAfzxiaqTEKG-HDRgLsMkvzThF41mFAqBkk7j5NldF-0wswsfFPJHTEALZOUMbED1H9LwHRwBqwv3nsB3jWeU0LLIIeRYy4TWiwb1grlVRDFfTLrmg-Si5VS/s500/61II0mcMJLL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyY5uaXxAgB-vMwI6LRAlhNAfzxiaqTEKG-HDRgLsMkvzThF41mFAqBkk7j5NldF-0wswsfFPJHTEALZOUMbED1H9LwHRwBqwv3nsB3jWeU0LLIIeRYy4TWiwb1grlVRDFfTLrmg-Si5VS/s320/61II0mcMJLL.jpeg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Again-Mary-Beth-Keane-ebook/dp/B07MNJ62D6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7HKS2F8T1C8T&dchild=1&keywords=ask+again+yes+by+mary+beth+keane&qid=1629071467&sprefix=ask+again%2Caps%2C235&sr=8-1">Ask Again, Yes</a> by Mary Beth Keane</p><p>The story: The Gleesons and the Stanhopes are neighbors in the suburbs; both fathers are NYC cops. But the Gleesons have a full and boisterous house, while the Stanhope's home is quiet and full of tension. Something is wrong with Anne Stanhope. Everyone sees it, but her son Peter bears the bulk of his mother's strange behavior. Brian Stanhope, Peter's father, just ignores it. Peter and Kate Gleeson, the girl next door, are best friends from babyhood. As they grow into teenagers, Anne Stanhope focuses her hatred on Kate and ultimately Kate's family. An event forces the Stanhopes to move, and Kate and Peter mourn the loss of their friendship and blossoming love for years... until they meet again.</p><p>My reaction: This book was completely different than I expected, and my expectations were based entirely on the cover and the title. I thought it was going to be a fluffy beach read. SO NOT. Both the title and the cover do not match the content at all. This was an emotionally heavy book, brilliantly and beautiful written. It's full of compassion, tragedy, loss, celebration, redemption, and joy. The characters feel like people I know, so richly drawn, with love and tenderness, flaws and all. This felt like a sweeping family epic, extremely satisfying and bittersweet. Highly recommended.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi69L7s09-S-5pT74wupM7NUD7Hnlojfxph0TCV57MxaMLXYX2WEqgfhtV_wsS34jaZQX0NzLgK1UPP_8XmxWl3OhsKmGxa4E2HGAlkaA9hUz-5OtfoaeK-Q7JEFmV_mW3cl44ymeXSry7C/s500/51s6jYBhloL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi69L7s09-S-5pT74wupM7NUD7Hnlojfxph0TCV57MxaMLXYX2WEqgfhtV_wsS34jaZQX0NzLgK1UPP_8XmxWl3OhsKmGxa4E2HGAlkaA9hUz-5OtfoaeK-Q7JEFmV_mW3cl44ymeXSry7C/s320/51s6jYBhloL.jpeg" width="211" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Untamed-Glennon-Doyle-ebook/dp/B07VSZTKJ8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=untamed&qid=1629070907&sr=8-1">Untamed</a> by Glennon Doyle</p><p><b>The story:</b> This is Doyle's memoir of how she chose happiness over obligation -- how she made the choices (divorcing her husband) that would ultimately allow her to have true love with Abby Wambach. It's also a series of lectures on various topics, from parenting to marriage to technology to racism and religion. There's a lot here.</p><p><b>My reaction:</b> I loved a lot of what Glennon had to say. While she doesn't have earth-shattering insights, she does express some things quite well. For example, "Brave is not asking the crowd was is brave. Brave is deciding for oneself." And "Now when I sense danger, I believe the cold and leave. When I sense joy, I believe the warm and stay." Not new, but nicely said. However, so much of this book seemed pretentious, sometimes self-righteous, and often way too idealistic. She seems to have everything figured out, especially parenting. I just kinda want to give her a pat on the back and say, "Just wait, honey." Yes, I know that is condescending, but parenting is hard, and she makes it sound like she knows exactly what makes each of her kids tick. As the late and much beloved Nanci Griffith sang, "No one ever really knows the heart of anyone else." I think what I disliked most about this book is the long monologues when she appears to be remembering directing conversations from years past, when she gave advice to people. As a fellow creative nonfiction writer, I understand that we have to construct some dialogue; however, this went on and on for pages as if she actually really said all this. It felt inauthentic at times. I skipped over a lot, but I did enjoy this for the most part. Doyle is strong and brave, and I think she is enjoying a degree of selfishness now that she will relinquish in years to come. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9PwYTlN0GdYXNQ_YOPXY1G9yK8wWh_zIB5jTuwk-81vFUFFREQ8xAaIDZA_S_O47GtZ8HlwUUTwoh1yTBfLFW8AWlpl_dqMZSPhFQNHdKGlauZXYtqHCMTK2BTINNOaZmFbmQrfCsaEBW/s499/pluto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9PwYTlN0GdYXNQ_YOPXY1G9yK8wWh_zIB5jTuwk-81vFUFFREQ8xAaIDZA_S_O47GtZ8HlwUUTwoh1yTBfLFW8AWlpl_dqMZSPhFQNHdKGlauZXYtqHCMTK2BTINNOaZmFbmQrfCsaEBW/s320/pluto.jpg" width="201" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/St-Christopher-Pluto-Nancy-McKinley/dp/1949199266/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2S535O2VOCSFV&dchild=1&keywords=st+christopher+on+pluto&qid=1631450495&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">St. Christopher on Pluto </a>by Nancy McKinley</p><p><b>The story:</b> MK and Colleen are two women who went to Catholic school together as kids and then reconnect in their 40s. Colleen is brash and bossy, while MK just does whatever Colleen wants. The book is a collection of related stories, some with characters distantly related to MK or Colleen, some in the past and some in the present. Each story can stand on its own, but the place is the same: a dying industrial town in Pennsylvania.</p><p><b>My reaction: </b>There was a lot about this collection I loved. I loved the melancholy and memory intertwined with hope. I loved the way the author immersed us in the sad, dying town — one that surely we all recognize, whether we've driven through it or watched this happen to our own small hometowns. A few of the stories just absolutely stunned me in their beauty and compassion. What I did not love about the book is that the stories were strangely and confusingly connected. I wanted them to lead into each other more gracefully or perhaps be told chronologically. Ii couldn't see the purpose to them being so out of order. I found some of the characters hard to remember from story to story, yet it seemed essential that I remember their background information. If I had been reading an actual hard copy book, I would have paged back to find a character's first reference; however, I find that too arduous to do on a Kindle. Device problems, sure, but that's my reality. I also did not really get a grasp on MK, the narrator of many of the stories. I wanted to know her story more. What happened in the years between age 12 and midlife? There seemed to be another few stories that needed to be told: her daughter, her marriage. I just wanted more. But I did enjoy this modern-day Winesburg, Ohio. Definitely worth a read.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGfPOPXqarl5rpy_OZZlVg1GgT4fKRT0QEVgTUMh1WHz0PfQ-t8P7Rhyh7Wt8Y5H7tN-AIJs0LYsLblCV0PYaWoAQnti-fDOrjtIvGzYnx1rGbSofGBrGh3n-i3cqcDMiaUrBBUTkQG9iv/s500/5years.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGfPOPXqarl5rpy_OZZlVg1GgT4fKRT0QEVgTUMh1WHz0PfQ-t8P7Rhyh7Wt8Y5H7tN-AIJs0LYsLblCV0PYaWoAQnti-fDOrjtIvGzYnx1rGbSofGBrGh3n-i3cqcDMiaUrBBUTkQG9iv/s320/5years.jpeg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Five-Years-Novel-Rebecca-Serle-ebook/dp/B07TFB5VWB/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=in+five+years&qid=1631450863&s=books&sr=1-1">In Five Years </a>by Rebecca Serle</p><p><b>The story:</b> Everything is happening exactly as Dannie has planned. She's with the perfect man, she gets the promotion she's worked for her whole life, and the perfect man proposes in exactly the right way. And the she has a dream that seems way too real; the details are perfectly clear. It's five years in the future, and the man she's with is not her fiancé. She puts the dream out of her mind and continues on with her perfect life. She's too busy to plan a wedding, though. And then one day, five years later, she meets the man who was in her dream; he's her best friend's new boyfriend. And nothing turns out like she thought it would.</p><p><b>My reaction:</b> I loved this book. I thought it was going to be a lighthearted, fluffy read, but it was not. I usually balk at this kind of premise-- the "I saw my future in a dream" sequence -- but this worked for me. I'm not saying it was a technique that had to be used to tell the story, and if I think about it too much, it seems contrived and hokey. Maybe I should say: the story worked in spite of Dannie's vision/dream. Anyway, this is a sweet and sad book, and I loved it. </p><p><br /></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-38955578116473694722021-09-12T08:40:00.003-04:002021-09-12T08:40:51.298-04:00Books Read in June<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitou_NHKljm_3bucw5h7uTFvWX7nFjdzXqmRX5Hr2lykPWlMqv2YvwjE1bnBuTPCyC71z13xPZGpygw1ATIjxoJXlYVhH68IrpCDhZtbmetNLnnAh8ADehmpHUmfL2cJwg36ZMQC7ZH3oV/s499/passing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitou_NHKljm_3bucw5h7uTFvWX7nFjdzXqmRX5Hr2lykPWlMqv2YvwjE1bnBuTPCyC71z13xPZGpygw1ATIjxoJXlYVhH68IrpCDhZtbmetNLnnAh8ADehmpHUmfL2cJwg36ZMQC7ZH3oV/s320/passing.jpg" width="199" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Passing-Nella-Larsen/dp/0593437845/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2O63OK1T0IZP8&dchild=1&keywords=passing+nella+larsen&qid=1628340083&sprefix=passing%2Caps%2C196&sr=8-3"> Passing</a> by Nella Larsen</p><p>The story: While on vacation in Chicago, Irene runs into Clare, a friend from childhood. It takes a while for Irene, a light-skinned Black woman, to realize this is Clare, because Clare is passing as a white woman. Irene is extremely uncomfortable with Clare's secret -- especially when she meets Clare's racist husband. He thinks Irene is white, too. Clare's been happy the past couple of decades, but reconnecting with Irene stirs up a yearning in her to be part of the Black community. When Clare starts coming to Harlem and inserting herself in Irene's life, things get very rocky all around.</p><p>My reaction: I listened to this book on Spotify, and it was absolutely amazing. It was first published in 1929 and is just as relevant today as it was nearly 100 years ago. The characters are rich and complex, Larsen's prose is lovely, and the subject itself is fascinating to me. I was curious to see if a movie had ever been made based on the novel, and behold! This was actually a 2021 Sundance Film, and Netflix recently purchased it! This is a short novel and well worth the read. Highly recommended.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimy9rWQLYytdTbeWGA3Bb5ku5tGm6il1aBpyyzmR_WKtihXy4m3r2rjNQ4AalHntWzs96Y41_TEkwA9ZepIWWu_dVEAnAQzp5FGGnTKbaNAvgHR0NJmTjLKeBlZgDKGGkmgss5QsN_1nVw/s500/begin.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimy9rWQLYytdTbeWGA3Bb5ku5tGm6il1aBpyyzmR_WKtihXy4m3r2rjNQ4AalHntWzs96Y41_TEkwA9ZepIWWu_dVEAnAQzp5FGGnTKbaNAvgHR0NJmTjLKeBlZgDKGGkmgss5QsN_1nVw/s320/begin.jpeg" width="211" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Begin-End-Chris-Whitaker-ebook/dp/B0893TV1CT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RJCVZS0IFIXI&dchild=1&keywords=we+begin+at+the+end&qid=1628342264&sprefix=we+begin%2Caps%2C248&sr=8-1">We Begin at the End</a> by Chris Whitaker</p><p>The story: Thirteen-year-old Duchess is a self-proclaimed outlaw and the fierce protector of her little brother, Robin. She cleans up after her mother, Star, and makes sure Star doesn't overdose or choke on her own vomit. Star's life has not been easy. Her little sister died in a terrible accident when she was a child, and Star's high school boyfriend, Vincent, has been in prison for her murder since he was a teenager. Star is barely holding things together; Walk, the sheriff and Vincent's best friend, tries to keep both her and the kids alive. </p><p>My reaction: I loved the book. It's devastating and hopeful. The characters are so well drawn that I could read this as if I were watching a movie, and I would love to see a sequel to this with a grown-up Duchess. Highly recommended.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclDJ8CMWt8A5oZBL0QAFZ6Kxumd4E4Zjph5WN18T3PwhMDChSqRxd3_8dicSSpc8XNWQ1MC8Xhgp3s4jm_e4YkwLi-T9clIAy0fwSsONwE88Vi05_gP76RxU0_YPKXMlN6kVAiHm8Mn0e/s500/sana.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclDJ8CMWt8A5oZBL0QAFZ6Kxumd4E4Zjph5WN18T3PwhMDChSqRxd3_8dicSSpc8XNWQ1MC8Xhgp3s4jm_e4YkwLi-T9clIAy0fwSsONwE88Vi05_gP76RxU0_YPKXMlN6kVAiHm8Mn0e/s320/sana.jpeg" width="212" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sanatorium-Novel-Sarah-Pearse-ebook/dp/B08D8K4Y1N/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3HODDM1YDTXA2&dchild=1&keywords=the+sanatorium&qid=1628946039&sprefix=the+sana%2Caps%2C204&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Sanatorium</a> by Sarah Pearse</p><p>The story: High up in the Swiss Alps, a luxury hotel opens its doors to its first guests. The hotel was once a sanatorium, and it's filled with relics of the past — intentionally decorated with medical paraphernalia, treatment devices, and more. Elin and her boyfriend are among the hotel's first guests; her brother, Isaac, and his fianceé, both part of the staff, are throwing an engagement party. Elin is a detective, recently put on leave after an accident which left her with PTSD. Oh, and Elin and Isaac lost their brother when they were small children, and Elin thinks Isaac killed him. Oh, and there is a huge snowstorm, and bodies start showing up. And no one can get out because snow. And more bodies and more snow...</p><p>My reaction: What just happened? What? This book had tremendous potential. I was so ready to get swept up in a hotel worthy of <i>The Shining</i>. But nope. This book was its own blizzard, swirling and blurry and buried in confusion. Too much happened, the characters were flat, the plot was riddled with holes, and the ending was utterly deflating. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1-xLEr6-dm3r_Dum2OD6Q0H3K5X53tjjWTvGk4kQcCsneSJ4VDMNM0_RzVSvpCu6AynzdnaP9TKdDBdGg3HvYD439EfsjhJP6d5v2JHkwKZr5AP89dDPnmYQbHQ83_b4le5y8p84xSVE/s500/black.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1-xLEr6-dm3r_Dum2OD6Q0H3K5X53tjjWTvGk4kQcCsneSJ4VDMNM0_RzVSvpCu6AynzdnaP9TKdDBdGg3HvYD439EfsjhJP6d5v2JHkwKZr5AP89dDPnmYQbHQ83_b4le5y8p84xSVE/s320/black.jpeg" width="211" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Other-Black-Girl-Novel-ebook/dp/B08LDW1HKZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+other+black+girl&qid=1628947074&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Other Black Girl</a> by Zakiya Dalilia Harris </p><p>The story: Nella is an editorial assistant in her mid-20s in a prestigious publishing company, and she is the only Black employee at her particular level. She is initially thrilled when another Black assistant is hired. Hazel is friendly and so likable... until she is too likable. She immediately charms all the higher-ups, and Nella feels threatened and undervalued. All the changes she'd been trying to make, all the workplace diversity she's encouraged -- Hazel comes in and seems to instantly sway the editors, all while seeming to bow to them. Who IS Hazel? </p><p>My reaction: This book is marketed as <i>The Devil Wears Prada</i> mixed with <i>Get Out</i>. OK. I can see that somewhat. I really appreciated look at what it might be like to be the only Black woman in a totally white office. The descriptions of micro-aggressions and code-switching were fantastic. I liked Nella a lot, but I also got super irritated with her. I wanted her to stand up to Hazel. I wanted her to stand up for herself more, to call Hazel out, to tell people what was going on. I wanted Kendra to save her. I didn't always understand everything that was going on with OBGs and the resistance. The could have been my own fault as a distracted reader, or it could have been the author's failure to provide clarity. I didn't love this book but I am glad I read it.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-71726847519950092922021-06-12T11:34:00.003-04:002021-06-14T08:07:43.118-04:00Books Read in May<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCIkdAQhOjuzq_ay_o0opYPYLHVZh77y_K-KY_4E0IGOTp7aWHX1_t4zi8xhXZFS9H-zH-X4oKk75FleebOleUAJzuCrSPOCR43pJHNkzdALKdp9JslY3LYrl0hZ0AoeE70IrhqdZjJ9yg/s499/514QC3FwAdL._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCIkdAQhOjuzq_ay_o0opYPYLHVZh77y_K-KY_4E0IGOTp7aWHX1_t4zi8xhXZFS9H-zH-X4oKk75FleebOleUAJzuCrSPOCR43pJHNkzdALKdp9JslY3LYrl0hZ0AoeE70IrhqdZjJ9yg/s320/514QC3FwAdL._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Book-Lost-Names-Kristin-Harmel/dp/1982131896/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=book+of+lost+names&qid=1620740999&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Book of Lost Names</a> by Kristen Harmel</p><p><b>The story:</b> Eva Traube and her mother escaped from Paris in 1942 to a small village in France. They have two goals as Polish Jews: to survive and to find Eva's father, who was taken by Nazis. But Eva is unwillingly, at first, pulled into the Resistance because of her excellent forgery skills. She spend the next several years hiding in plain sight, forging thousands of documents for Jewish people fleeing for their lives. She's especially disturbed by the children, who have to take on new names. How will they remember who they really are when the war is over? She and another forger, Remy, come up with a code and record their names in a book. Sixty years later, this book resurfaces and Eva, now an elderly librarian living in NYC, heads back to Paris to claim it. As she does so, she remembers her years as a resistance worker and her love for Remy. </p><p><b>My reaction</b>: The story itself was intriguing and inspiring, but the writing was stiff and the dialogue was so atrocious I could barely read this at times. I mean, bad. And the characterization: dreadful. Eva's mother was ridiculous. No mother goes from being a daughter's best friend to being a harpy who finds her daughter despicable, even in the midst of war. In fact, in such a traumatic time, one would expect the mother to be even kinder and stronger. The way Harmel chose to portray that whole relationship made no sense. And again — that terribly stilted dialogue just made me want to rip pages. This should have been a fantastic story, but the characters felt flat, rushed, and annoying. </p><p> The author missed an opportunity here to really focus in on the children themselves and the idea of being erased, as an individual and as a nation. My advice: you might read this to get a further picture of the Resistance, but go into this knowing it has serious problems.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXe1ZQ1sy6Uy8bLWG2eUASfroYTIkut22ha9KqN5DR0Mq0a4LhrGOaAtknXpaoh49t1ul6sKYVWMe9VbNObUS5r7cbWMtt5Kx6lxJfOSf0kMiyqiRpQgkHHQDBiql88ULvGdkdVJFXPhBW/s499/41VHyX7o%252BLL._SX320_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="322" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXe1ZQ1sy6Uy8bLWG2eUASfroYTIkut22ha9KqN5DR0Mq0a4LhrGOaAtknXpaoh49t1ul6sKYVWMe9VbNObUS5r7cbWMtt5Kx6lxJfOSf0kMiyqiRpQgkHHQDBiql88ULvGdkdVJFXPhBW/s320/41VHyX7o%252BLL._SX320_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2iKwRUIAycEHcgZjYTPq66">The Awakening</a> by Kate Chopin (audio version)</p><p><b>The story:</b> Edna Pontellier is a young wife and mother in the late 1800s who begins to awaken to her real self in her late 20s. She'd just floated through life until this point, but one summer she begins to really feel things, to see the world and her limited place in it. As she becomes increasingly aware of her own wants and needs, so also sees that her own views on womanhood are unorthodox and unacceptable in polite society. She is trapped in her upper middle-class life, utterly alone and despondent as she realizes that the rest of her life will be the same year after year. </p><p><b>My reaction:</b> It's probably been 30 years since I last read this novella, considered one of the earliest feminist works. Man, this is one of those novels that should be read each decade in one's life, as it has an utterly different effect on me now than it did in my early 20s. I have so much more understanding of the historical struggle of women now. I think when I read this in my 20s, I was strong and independent and didn't really fully grasp just how utterly stuck women were (and, of course, many women still are today). I loved this audio version, read by Hilary Swank on Spotify. (Classic Audiobooks on Spotify are fantastic, by the way!) Highly recommended.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzCApLnZds4kcznu9A4E9pnwd2g4KrNWK1XEMixOppAq1bV0Q62elXuCiLxgkQv4c5ycgridpF4yN2Yxz6lMSqNVonNYWzATNa1ZkT_ovGiFV2UGoJnCYIs9nH9XAwO_2r4907XufiuKR/s499/51X6MekZZIL._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzCApLnZds4kcznu9A4E9pnwd2g4KrNWK1XEMixOppAq1bV0Q62elXuCiLxgkQv4c5ycgridpF4yN2Yxz6lMSqNVonNYWzATNa1ZkT_ovGiFV2UGoJnCYIs9nH9XAwO_2r4907XufiuKR/s320/51X6MekZZIL._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Me-White-Supremacy-Combat-Ancestor/dp/1728209803/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1623249435&sr=8-1-spons">Me and White Supremacy</a> by Layla F. Saad</p><p>Subtitled "Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor," this book is a step-by-step guide to examining the reader's own relationship with racism through historical and cultural contexts. Each short chapter focuses on a specific topic, such as white privilege, color blindness, racist stereotypes, and optical allyship, and prompts the reader to consider how each has shown up in their lives. Each chapter includes definitions, explanations, anecdotes, and examples, as well as a list of reflection questions, such as "What emotional outbursts have you had during racial interactions? Or how
have you shut down, walked away, deleted everything and pretended nothing
happened and hoped no one would notice?" and "How do you and have you stayed silent when it comes to race and racism?"</p><p><b>My reaction:</b> Randy and I actually took an entire year to work through this 28-day book. We picked it up last year at the recommendation of a friend, and we read it only during longish car trips (almost always on our way to a hike). On a few occasions, one or more of our young adult (20s) children were with us as we read and discussed, which was awesome. Each chapter was incredibly thought-provoking and informative, and the reflection questions were intense. We had a year's worth of fantastic and often uncomfortable discussions. I can't imagine going through this book in just a month. Spreading this out over a year gave us time to really absorb and chew on the text, helping us become even more aware of subtle racism and our own part in it. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is open to doing the hard work of examining their own white supremacy and their relationship with racism and working toward doing better. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxvZQFLVgGMVGuk_I9o3LuHJmZyWTdn0XISw0KSBuucaSR5_7m5_0nDbaJ17pQaEHBNlGNQVRISXWVjYX-YUPhB9j7PG53iS8_w9godKoKg6h5xVgh2V-vUVfqSZsbVid9Khq1YJDQp9-y/s500/51hwe011M%252BL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxvZQFLVgGMVGuk_I9o3LuHJmZyWTdn0XISw0KSBuucaSR5_7m5_0nDbaJ17pQaEHBNlGNQVRISXWVjYX-YUPhB9j7PG53iS8_w9godKoKg6h5xVgh2V-vUVfqSZsbVid9Khq1YJDQp9-y/s320/51hwe011M%252BL.jpeg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/American-Dirt-Novel-Jeanine-Cummins-ebook/dp/B07QQLCZY1/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=american+dirt&qid=1623251279&sr=8-1">American Dirt </a>by Jeanine Cummins</p><p><b>The story:</b> Lydia and her family live in Acapulco. She owns a bookstore, her husband is a journalist, and together they have a son, Luca, who is eight. She has a close-knit extended family, until one afternoon when a local drug cartel comes in and kills them all except Lydia and Luca. Lydia knows that in order to save her son, they have to leave Mexico and the far-reaching fingers of Javier, the cartel's leader. The book chronicles Lydia and Luca's journey to the United States as they join other migrants from Central and South America.</p><p><b>My reaction:</b> I have to say I could not put this novel down, utterly drawn into Lydia's journey and experiences. That said, I am aware that this book comes with a lot of controversy. Cummins is not a migrant (nor is she Mexican American); this is not <i>her</i> experience. Critics maintain that these stories should be told by authentic voices (#ownvoices), that Chicana and Mexicana writers should be getting their works published widely. Instead, they continue to be passed over and marginalized in and by the publishing and reading world. Mexica readers note that Cummins gets so much wrong in this novel. I respect and appreciate those critiques. Because I do not know the Spanish language, I was not aware of the many mistakes in her usage. I can only imagine how painful and offensive this was to Spanish speakers. She also makes, as I understand it, terrible cultural blunders and perpetuates stereotypes. (Those are just a few of the problems.) As a result of reading reviews of this novel, I have garnered a reading list of books to read by Latinx writers. Some of the books I've added are on this list of <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/17-great-books-on-the-border-to-read-instead-of-american-dirt/">17 Great Books to Read Instead of American Dirt</a> and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/01/30/latin-american-books-read-instead-american-dirt/2858935001/">8 Books by Latin American Authors to Read Instead of American Dirt</a>.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoYJC8vypSPAjm0u3ScW9RMaMoaU0HlKbx4hPMrc908GQaZTtdetcG-tMNfX9YEMshn_9JDm48_Z28tEb9mTP-4NkuMC_cjqGG1go60swME_SkSwIx_YKO6mroal-xFYU3tI_NzykNzdb9/s500/41w3oONhm-L.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoYJC8vypSPAjm0u3ScW9RMaMoaU0HlKbx4hPMrc908GQaZTtdetcG-tMNfX9YEMshn_9JDm48_Z28tEb9mTP-4NkuMC_cjqGG1go60swME_SkSwIx_YKO6mroal-xFYU3tI_NzykNzdb9/s320/41w3oONhm-L.jpeg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Library-Janet-Skeslien-Charles-ebook/dp/B07Z45K1Q8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+paris+library&qid=1622746997&sr=8-1">The Paris Library</a> by Janet Skeslien Charles</p><p><b>The story</b>: This is the story, based on true events and with some characters' real names/jobs, of the American Library in Paris during World War II. The main character is Odile, a young librarian, and the cast of characters that she encounters are many (too many): coworkers, subscribers, soldiers, and more. Odile is immature (or maybe just flat), selfish, and impulsive; but the story itself, of how the library stayed open and also delivered books to soldiers and Jewish patrons, is interesting. Interwoven with the historical story is a modern-day(ish) story that takes place in Montana in the 1980s. In this story, young Lily forms a special friendship with Odile, the French recluse living next door. </p><p><b>My reaction:</b> The true story of the American Library in Paris is fascinating, and I kept reading this book because I wanted to hear Odile's story. But...the writing was just not good, honestly. The plot was interesting and kept me reading, but it was a struggle. The writing was trite, jumpy, heavy in the wrong places and then light in the wrong places. Shallow. The dual stories —one historical, one present day — format just does not work for me in general. Like most people, I almost always love the historical portion but am bored/annoyed with the modern day story. This technique feels contrived and unnecessary. The dialogue was stiff and completely unbelievable, and the story itself was... jumpy. Scenes jumped around, characters were undeveloped, emotions were flat and did nothing to stir my soul. The whole feeling was being rushed and trying to get in as much as possible. Characters jumped from place to place, and I often had to look back to see if I'd missed something. This felt almost the opposite of the writer's mantra to "show, don't tell." Way too much telling, and the showing part —the dialogue and action —was unsatisfying. I found myself cringing, saying, "Huh?" and rolling my eyes way too much. So... I give this a 2.5/5 rating for the historical significance and because I guess I cared enough about Odile that I wanted to know why she ended up in Montana with a husband named... wait for it... Buck. Because what rancher wouldn't be named Buck?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwKVKQPml0NaQ-E_PnwmiNb-pWEsC0yiccV8Z4v4e_X3H4W09_8jhvEc5aMGWpbbL09Ta2y7ss2D1AYUXSciIcvlhXYgvKA6I6k3DuY508rdymsTOJxPWWshtG86pFYTmLsGNZABObaLn/s500/412m7VSPfRL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwKVKQPml0NaQ-E_PnwmiNb-pWEsC0yiccV8Z4v4e_X3H4W09_8jhvEc5aMGWpbbL09Ta2y7ss2D1AYUXSciIcvlhXYgvKA6I6k3DuY508rdymsTOJxPWWshtG86pFYTmLsGNZABObaLn/s320/412m7VSPfRL.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Push-Novel-Ashley-Audrain-ebook/dp/B087BL9MML/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+push&qid=1622744445&sr=8-1">The Push</a> by Ashley Audrain</p><p><b>The story: </b>Blythe and Fox are blissfully happy, and Fox is ready to start a family. Blythe's childhood was rough—she was neglected, abused, and abandoned— and she's convinced she'll be a terrible mother. When their daughter is born. Blythe just cannot connect with her. She feels none of the warm fuzzies that motherhood is supposed to bring, and she's convinced there is something off about their daughter. She scream when Blythe holds her and she bites kids at daycare, but she's an angel for Fox. And then Sam is born, and Blythe falls madly in love with her son, understanding, finally, the magic of motherhood. But Violet decides she doesn't like Sam, and Blythe's world explodes. </p><p><b>My reaction:</b> I loved this book. It's a psychological thriller at one level, but it's also an exploration of motherhood, parenting, and marriage. Can a kid really be a bad seed? Is there a "bad mom" gene? How can you trust your instincts if everyone tells you you're wrong? This was definitely not a feel-good read; in fact, it was disturbing, disquieting, and sad. But it was so well written and positively gripping in the way the story is revealed. Blythe was such a vulnerable, richly drawn character; readers can't help but root for her, even as we question her. Warning: this novel deals with difficult topics of abuse and death of a child, so be ready for some heavy emotions. If you can handle that, then I highly recommend this! I couldn't put this one down.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeB6vRO-hAl3cJMuUtrpO0_nhKosMafUlh-63nTzxLL_rhdR1Sui_o46-b7VjiLqB8ofHFDRMcRFyScAgi40Y0msa_U-1LFK_-8pqX-bQcvfQ2Ec_ODO403ocizUYwjkIlapYREC7cqHu7/s500/413ti200dVL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeB6vRO-hAl3cJMuUtrpO0_nhKosMafUlh-63nTzxLL_rhdR1Sui_o46-b7VjiLqB8ofHFDRMcRFyScAgi40Y0msa_U-1LFK_-8pqX-bQcvfQ2Ec_ODO403ocizUYwjkIlapYREC7cqHu7/s320/413ti200dVL.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Neighbors-Novel-Sarah-Langan-ebook/dp/B08BZWFR4C/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2PZCFV5EBYEWE&dchild=1&keywords=good+neighbors+sarah+langan&qid=1622745644&sprefix=good+neighbor%2Caps%2C194&sr=8-1">Good Neighbors</a> by Sarah Langan</p><p><b>The story:</b> Maple Street is the perfect place to live, if you're the right kind of person. The Wildes are not the right kind of people, and the perfect people of Maple Street let them know it. Arlo is a former addict and rock star, Gertie shows way too much cleavage, and nine-year-old Larry is just weird. Julia, age 12, fits in for a while, until Shelly, daughter of the queen bee Rhea, turns on her. Right about that time, a sinkhole forms in the neighborhood, and everyone starts to go crazy. Accusations fly, and then someone gets sucked into the sinkhole. Who is to blame? Rhea points her finger at the Wildes, and a witch hunt ensues. In the midst of the witch hunt, secrets come to light and Rhea falls apart. </p><p><b>My reaction:</b> I have a love/hate relationship with this particular theme: the hierarchy of suburbia, the idea of moving up the social ladder by means of moving into a "good" neighborhood. I find it fascinating but also so disturbing and so sad. Obviously, this was a main exploration in this novel. What do the Wildes have to do to be accepted into the Maple Street crowd? Why does one person get all the power? How can you fight against a system that's already made up its mind? This is a dark, complex, and disturbing book. I finished it with no clear sense of a recommendation. Did I like it? Not really... and yes. The writing was excellent, and the story itself was completely engaging. But it's so unnerving, so depressing. Why are people so terrible? So easily swayed, so weak, so thoughtless and desperate? This is an excellent illustration of mob mentality, group think, gossip, and social mobility, but it's just so dark, and, well, as murky as that sinkhole. Reminds me a bit of <i>The Stepford Wives</i>, with a dose of Stephen King and Shirley Jackson. If that's your thing, read it!</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: right;"><i>Linked up with <a href="https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2021/06/sunday-post-476.html">Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reader</a> and </i></p><p style="text-align: right;"> <a href="https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/"><i>It's Monday! What are you reading? on Book Date</i></a></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-32819400123473614542021-05-04T10:47:00.002-04:002021-05-04T10:47:07.421-04:00Books Read in April <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiI5rDZPc-oVezavbOrDUqmFpiCWDeUKbDjRpphPjIBTzXOimx2T8eawP-NPUUnwiDTZSaWccm1yVPRov1nVD8NHG3nKcsPUTvXOZnXIWRtrcOBvQjE-dM_vfigrVlTGhKha4IQSQmtNy/s500/41JRDIPiV0L.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiI5rDZPc-oVezavbOrDUqmFpiCWDeUKbDjRpphPjIBTzXOimx2T8eawP-NPUUnwiDTZSaWccm1yVPRov1nVD8NHG3nKcsPUTvXOZnXIWRtrcOBvQjE-dM_vfigrVlTGhKha4IQSQmtNy/s320/41JRDIPiV0L.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wife-Upstairs-psychological-thriller-guessing-ebook/dp/B085BWPVFC/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=13TLKPW64C0QV&dchild=1&keywords=the+wife+upstairs+freida+mcfadden&qid=1618934811&sprefix=the+wife+ups%2Caps%2C190&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTktBWFZZWEpRWVpRJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODUyNzg4REo0OEs1WkpSR1I1JmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTEwMjg0ODJKT0s4TzhUWUVDSFEmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl" target="_blank">The Wife Upstairs</a> by Freida McFadden</p><p><b>The story: </b>Sylvia needs a job, and Adam has one. Adam watched her give the Heimlich maneuver to a choking restaurant patron, and he thinks she can handle his wife, Victoria, who has been in a serious accident. Victoria, once a strong, capable professional, can't walk or speak, and Adam, a novelist, just needs someone to keep her company in their big house out in the middle of nowhere. But Victoria clearly has something to say, if only she can make Sylvia understand. And then Victoria somehow communicates to Sylvia that she has a hidden diary that will tell ALL. Sylvia, however, has fallen for Adam, and just can't believe that Victoria's diary is for real. Who to believe? </p><p><b>My reaction:</b> Oops! I bought this book for my daughter for Christmas, thinking it was, well, <i>The Wife Upstairs</i>, which it was. Except I really meant to get her <i>The Wife Upstairs </i>by Rachel Hawkins, which <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2021/04/books-read-in-march.html">I read last month</a>. Silly me! I had the title in my head but not the author, so here we are. I was totally sucked into this book, all the while thinking, "This is SO dumb." If you haven't read Gillian Flynn's <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2014/11/book-review-gone-girl.html">Gone Girl</a>, go read that instead. It's the same basic story, sorta, but <b>infinitely</b> better written and engrossing. My recommendation: skip this unless you need a very cheap thrill.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRVVErn9rd1NjKEOsQNim_-yXJVvVlbi0bq25oer8j5OnkTXGNSllZ9x6o5E8tHuhq-xnUH9M-bSjBdAaMrscn5D99HQ0vPCZqn_SC-YeEHhOwJbKx_Nikl4oSr8XuLxsmQRlUNmsljCI-/s499/41jW4XdU-pL._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRVVErn9rd1NjKEOsQNim_-yXJVvVlbi0bq25oer8j5OnkTXGNSllZ9x6o5E8tHuhq-xnUH9M-bSjBdAaMrscn5D99HQ0vPCZqn_SC-YeEHhOwJbKx_Nikl4oSr8XuLxsmQRlUNmsljCI-/s320/41jW4XdU-pL._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kindest-Lie-Novel-Nancy-Johnson/dp/0063005638/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+kindest+lie&qid=1620133351&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Kindest Lie</a> by Nancy Johnson</p><p><b>The story:</b> The story opens on a wonderful night: Barack Obama has just won the presidency. Ruth and Xavier, a Black couple, are elated, and Xavier feels this is the right time to start a family. But Ruth has a very big secret. As a teenager, she gave up her baby for adoption. She didn't have a choice in the matter; her grandmother insisted that Ruth give them baby up and took care of all the arrangements. No one except her grandmother and brother even knew she'd been pregnant. Ruth then went to Yale, became an engineer, married Xavier, and put her past behind her. But before she begins a family, she needs to know more about her son... and she really needs to tell her husband about him. She heads back to her small town in Indiana and searches for clues. While she's there, she puts together pieces of her past and meets a little white boy named Midnight who desperately wants a family... and ultimately leads Ruth to her son. </p><p><b>My reaction:</b> I loved this book. The title is perfect, as I questioned, as Ruth did, the nature of lies. Were the lies in the book kind or selfish? Hurtful or beneficial? Is there a right time for telling the truth? This is a multilayered book, incorporating themes of racism, adoption, class, family, and the ripple effect of decisions and lies. I heard an <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/03/993012219/former-pregnant-girl-builds-support-to-help-other-teen-moms">interview on Fresh Air with Nicole Lynn Lewis,</a> whose memoir <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pregnant-Girl-Motherhood-Creating-Families/dp/0807056030/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=pregnant+girl&qid=1620134681&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Pregnant Girl: A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families</a> would be a compelling partner to this novel. How might Ruth's life—as well as so many other characters' lives— had been different had she kept her son? Johnson's debut novel is highly recommended! It is well written, engaging, and thought-provoking.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj551_WCpIdC4Z5FrMAC4RaLbNHRCHYSeSWiftBKBdRJm0mggJhzAl9VZEBCsiNxzY95ZrBD24z0Q1V3I1gtlCiwnRvlICHT9z91YirADHe9EksaZCJ3OTdOgEI6uUHUkb3LZE4pbO7FI9V/s500/517Uo39uqmL.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj551_WCpIdC4Z5FrMAC4RaLbNHRCHYSeSWiftBKBdRJm0mggJhzAl9VZEBCsiNxzY95ZrBD24z0Q1V3I1gtlCiwnRvlICHT9z91YirADHe9EksaZCJ3OTdOgEI6uUHUkb3LZE4pbO7FI9V/s320/517Uo39uqmL.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Brackenhill-Kate-Moretti-ebook/dp/B082NN6JFN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2URCW2FQSU6JD&dchild=1&keywords=the+girls+of+brackenhill&qid=1620134786&sprefix=the+girls+of+bracken%2Caps%2C208&sr=8-1">The Girls of Brackenhill </a>by Kate Moretti</p><p>The story: When Hannah's Aunt Fae dies in a car accident, she and her fiancé return to Brackenhill, where Hannah spent her summers as a child and teenager. Hannah hasn't told Huck much about her past (seems to be a theme in this month's reading!), so he is shocked to find that Brackenhill is actually a castle. As soon as Hannah steps into the castle, she is reminded of just how much she loved this place as a child. It was her comfort, her happy place. Her own life back with her mother and stepfather was terrible and terrifying, but here in Brackenhill, she had been carefree and cared for. Aunt Fae and Uncle Stuart truly loved her and her sister, Julia. But on that last summer, Julia disappears. There's no body, no sign of foul play —she's just gone. Hannah has been convinced all these years that Julia ran away, and now she is determined to figure out what really happened.</p><p>My reaction: I was both wrapped up in this book and annoyed with it. I think it could have used one more revision, honestly, to knock out some of the repetition and sharpen the focus. As so often happens, this novel was intriguing for a good two-thirds of the way through, and then the ending just fell apart. It's the kind of novel you finish and think, "Huh? Did I like this?" For one thing, Brackenhill Castle itself is confusing. Hannah has wonderful, warm feelings about the castle, but it's frankly portrayed as an evil character. Moretti sets up an atmosphere of haunting, complete with a sinister basement. (DON'T EVER GO IN THE BASEMENT!) And yet Hannah loves this place. It was confusing. Is she comforted or terrified? Is the castle good or evil? Or is the answer supposed to be just, "yes!" There were a lot of extra characters in the novel who just seemed a distraction, and we're never really sure what happened in the end. I give it a three out of five stars for a middle-of-the-road read. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixiaNggDs1nyXackAnU8dhunHerVLz2ELwDryymI_BpU4jMX7vhcRGYgJQ3wjRkoM6SZwfMn-JIdDYSLr-4GX09pZdIxXX6AvXoDfGEaO_AuK9s3jdX56CxFCf-74wmN2M_bnJTAzep8_g/s499/51h8W8qkS2L._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixiaNggDs1nyXackAnU8dhunHerVLz2ELwDryymI_BpU4jMX7vhcRGYgJQ3wjRkoM6SZwfMn-JIdDYSLr-4GX09pZdIxXX6AvXoDfGEaO_AuK9s3jdX56CxFCf-74wmN2M_bnJTAzep8_g/s320/51h8W8qkS2L._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Indigenous-Peoples-History-ReVisioning-American/dp/0807057835/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2GCNV9Z0W0550&dchild=1&keywords=indigenous+peoples+history+of+the+united+states&qid=1620137830&sprefix=indig%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States</a> by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz</p><p>The story: The title pretty much says it all. This is the historical perspective that never gets told. The one that is ignored, pushed aside, and buried. As Dunbar-Ortiz writes:</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">US history, as well as inherited Indigenous trauma, cannot be understood without dealing with the genocide that the United States committed against Indigenous peoples.</span></span></p></blockquote><p>This book tackles just that: the U.S. crimes against Indigenous peoples. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, is quoted at the beginning of one chapter as saying: </p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Our nation was born in genocide.… We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. </span></span></p></blockquote><p>Dunbar-Ortiz traces the history of the US in its interactions with the Indigenous people. Or rather, its destruction of the Indigenous people. So much more than utter disregard, but a purposeful annihilation of millions of people. </p><p>My reaction: I wrote back in<a href="Our nation was born in genocide.… We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. —Martin Luther King Jr." target="_blank"> January that Isabel Wilkerson's Caste</a> is a book every American should read, and I will make that plea again for this one. We should also be talking about this and teaching this to our children and in our schools. It's a hard truth, an ugly truth — but we have to acknowledge that the U.S. was created by people with no regard for lives other than white European ones. I read this as part of a special book discussion group, hosted by a friend whose life as been deeply affected by her family's Cherokee roots. As part of our group, she read to us from her memoir-in-progress. The particular passages she read included visits to see her grandmother in Cherokee, NC, on the reservation and in the town itself. It was a wonderful companion to the book — her one small story of how poverty and loss of land affected just one family. Her story is told by thousands of Indigenous people through the generations. </p><p>Like <i>Caste</i>, the book ends with a call to action and a challenge<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 16.83px;">:</span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">That process rightfully starts by honoring the treaties the United States made with Indigenous nations, by restoring all sacred sites, starting with the Black Hills and including most federally held parks and land and all stolen sacred items and body parts, and by payment of sufficient reparations for the reconstruction and expansion of Native nations. In the process, the continent will be radically reconfigured, physically and psychologically. For the future to be realized, it will require extensive educational programs and the full support and active participation of the descendants of settlers, enslaved Africans, and colonized Mexicans, as well as immigrant populations.</span></span></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Like<span> </span><i>Caste</i>, everyone should read it.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">My other most recent reviews are on my <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2021/04/books-read-in-march.html">Books Read in March </a>post.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: right; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>Linked up with <a href="https://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/2021/05/my-ten-most-recent-5-star-reads/">Top Ten Tuesday </a>at the Artsy Reader Girl.</i></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: right; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i> </i></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-30437459843782393672021-04-16T14:24:00.005-04:002021-04-19T14:11:49.694-04:00Books Read in March<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGzWEJO1EPWWNynmsApnaLE4JtoQALfyD-YJcsPZM_qBP5EqKitRetm-4WBBDkzd7Dd6hRMT3U4o-O4jOYTEqHFZ7B3b0-z_EdvgxQmerVDnR7rcgBGIlFta0NqdvtiCGgvQzr7rSdpVXf/s499/51sig3Nmy3L._SX330_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="332" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGzWEJO1EPWWNynmsApnaLE4JtoQALfyD-YJcsPZM_qBP5EqKitRetm-4WBBDkzd7Dd6hRMT3U4o-O4jOYTEqHFZ7B3b0-z_EdvgxQmerVDnR7rcgBGIlFta0NqdvtiCGgvQzr7rSdpVXf/s320/51sig3Nmy3L._SX330_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-People-Novel-Fredrik-Backman/dp/1501160834/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6CECM794PYWL&dchild=1&keywords=anxious+people+fredrik+backman&qid=1615072260&sprefix=anxious%2Caps%2C208&sr=8-1"> Anxious People</a> by Fredrik Backman.<p></p><p>"<b style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>…We all have this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine. When this day is over and the night takes us, allow yourself a deep breath. because we made it through another day."</i></b></p><p>The story: A bank robber. A man who jumps off a bridge and the girl who doesn't. A real estate agent, a couple of cops, and a few people in and out of love. Mothers and fathers. Lovers and lost loves. This beautiful, tender novel features a cast of characters who are accidentally held hostage and who hold themselves hostage with secrets too painful to share. Their anxiety is palpable... but sometimes, when you share just a little bit, the anxiety can be relieved, and hope can be restored —if everyone works together. </p><p>My reaction: Fredrik Backman does it again. HOW DOES HE DO IT? Once again, Backman took me by surprise, made me fall in love with characters, and got me all choked up. This novel took me a little bit to get into but once I did, well, I never wanted it to end. His rhythm and pace, as well as the connectedness of the stories, reminds me so much of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, which is one of my all-time favorite books. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhni76zKd6xI5MjwvtIizw9ZPNVLADinP3V08HFrCfuKumAr2L9PWo9fvAZ_ubaYZHc5OJ1vg8cOBdt17Y45fqjMBIYGcfyKbIq4KmEcHMKoy4WZZlFl_zXeqi73RQNotU_7JP3294ALwq4/s499/51-EQDRnF1L._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhni76zKd6xI5MjwvtIizw9ZPNVLADinP3V08HFrCfuKumAr2L9PWo9fvAZ_ubaYZHc5OJ1vg8cOBdt17Y45fqjMBIYGcfyKbIq4KmEcHMKoy4WZZlFl_zXeqi73RQNotU_7JP3294ALwq4/s320/51-EQDRnF1L._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Fifth-Avenue-Novel/dp/1524744611/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DTHWKZDGGIF1&dchild=1&keywords=lions+of+fifth+avenue+fiona+davis&qid=1615823925&sprefix=lions+%2Caps%2C210&sr=8-1">The Lions of Fifth Avenue </a>by Fiona Davis</p><p>The story: Laura Lyons and her family live in the NYC Public Library, where her husband is the superintendent. They seem to have a wonderful marriage, and then Laura decides she simply must pursue her journalism degree; her husband suggests she wait a year until their finances are better. Suddenly, she sees him in a new light. He's holding her back, and she pursues the degree anyway. She meets a whole new crowd as a result of journalism school, and her life changes. In the meantime, books are missing from the special collections at the library, and her husband is blamed for the thefts. The second story alternates chapters with this one. Sadie works at the library</p><p>My reaction: I love the setting of this novel. Imagine living inside the NYC Public Library! Fans of <i>From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler </i>know what I'm talking about. This novel has a lot of the same issues I complained about in last month's book club novel also by Fiona Davis, The Dollhouse. It's jumbled. We're here and then we're there and <i>squirrel</i>! Way too much isn't explained. The dual stories are better connected in this one, for sure. Davis starts strong, but ultimately way too much happens, the characters are poorly drawn, the action is outrageous (way too many coincidences, for one), and her messages seem didactic and yet confusing and contradictory. I did enjoy the peeks into early 20th century feminism as well as the book trade, but otherwise... too much eye rolling and "what just happeneds??" going on in my head. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNE2s7MzVSnlVH_vzVC6GTxq2rasnkYVGPm7IrCWkIzZdKWo4xmoaOsMiEUJt7wpCpplfS1lrfhCfYrDZJfrFT-1FRgDMPb883PwduMHB0vXIDVJO_nPqK3V_vZwyqqsJgJG5QC4JIs82M/s392/The_Reckoning_%2528Grisham_novel%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="257" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNE2s7MzVSnlVH_vzVC6GTxq2rasnkYVGPm7IrCWkIzZdKWo4xmoaOsMiEUJt7wpCpplfS1lrfhCfYrDZJfrFT-1FRgDMPb883PwduMHB0vXIDVJO_nPqK3V_vZwyqqsJgJG5QC4JIs82M/s320/The_Reckoning_%2528Grisham_novel%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reckoning-Novel-John-Grisham/dp/1984819585/ref=sr_1_1?crid=24FPNVQXCZQCW&dchild=1&keywords=the+reckoning+john+grisham&qid=1615823702&sprefix=the+reck%2Caps%2C208&sr=8-1">The Reckoning </a>by John Grisham (audiobook)</p><p>The story: Small town Clanton, Mississippi's local war hero and respected resident Pete Banning kills the pastor. And 18 hours later, we find out why. In the 16 hours between the killing and the big reveal, we get the complete story of Pete Banning, including an entire extremely detailed section on his wartime experience in the Philippines, his courtship and marriage; plus every detail of his son Joel's life (loved his meeting with Faulkner), a little on his daughter, and lots on his wife. </p><p>My reaction: I have John Grisham issues. <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-review-appeal.html">I've written about this before</a>, and yet I keep going back to him. This time, we listened to this as an audiobook all the way to Florida and back and then a few more hours even. 18 hours of a story that could easily have been half that long. I mean, Grisham is a great storyteller. He is terrific at building and maintaining suspense. We cared about these characters. We were sucked in, waiting for the great reveal. Which was... a big thud. A big <i>Are you freaking kidding me?</i> Ugh. So much wrong with the big reveal. I won't say what it was, but it was not only disappointing but terribly trite. It was just an old, old story that needs to stop being told. Randy and I felt like Grisham really wanted to tell the story of the Bataan death march, which is the whole middle section of the book. It was interesting, for sure, but it was absolutely not necessary. Grisham is so good at nonfiction; in my <a href="https://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2007/06/book-review-innocent-man.html">2007 review of An Innocent Man </a>I wrote that "<span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;">Grisham needs to pursue writing nonfiction a little more often," and I'm sticking with that. Why not write an actual account of one of the survivors of Bataan, rather than squeezing this in with this novel? Anyway, I felt ripped off at the end of this novel, as well as annoyed throughout for many reasons, but particularly for Grisham's stereotypical, rude treatment of Black characters. (He actually uses the term "colored." For real. But there's so much more.) Also, for the last few hours, we were rolling out eyes at all the completely extraneous details and shouting "GET ON WITH IT, JOHN!" My recommendation: skip it.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVrGNPvcqQ3pWqB-f1BV3Lk5buwN8dS0fnxGvmT9KHL795cpcti6njV9oDRJ4SUjLGwabcoMok336mXkXy2CsGk3zA3qUl0vC6r-wRM9ysLH0EPk-USChkRmxLHs2iGJCAkHFMxQpfo7h_/s500/41SYG2uyEvL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVrGNPvcqQ3pWqB-f1BV3Lk5buwN8dS0fnxGvmT9KHL795cpcti6njV9oDRJ4SUjLGwabcoMok336mXkXy2CsGk3zA3qUl0vC6r-wRM9ysLH0EPk-USChkRmxLHs2iGJCAkHFMxQpfo7h_/s320/41SYG2uyEvL.jpeg" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Survivors-Novel-Jane-Harper-ebook/dp/B087ZY8NXX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZI9I39OKX7CX&dchild=1&keywords=the+survivors+jane+harper&qid=1616938569&sprefix=the+surviv%2Caps%2C206&sr=8-1">The Survivors</a> by Jane Harper</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>The story: </b>After a decade away, Kieran returns home to his tiny coastal village in Tasmania to help his parents. His father is struggling with dementia, and it's time for them to pack up and move into assisted living. Kieran left for a good reason: the summer after he graduated from high school, a huge storm struck and lives were lost —because of him. When he heads into the local cafe with his wife and newborn daughter, he can feel all eyes upon him, accusing him. And then tragedy strikes again, and as the townspeople and official investigate this new murder, all kinds of secrets surface.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>My reaction:</b> I absolutely loved this book. This is my introduction to Jane Harper, and I will definitely be reading more. Reviewers seem to like this one a bit less than her others, so I'm super excited to read <i>The Dry, Force of Nature, </i>and<i> The Lost Man,</i> too. Harper is a wonderful writer. Her characters are richly drawn, her dialogue spot on, and the mysteries about what really happened were revealed slowly and satisfyingly. I love the long ending. So many books I've read lately reduce the ending to a quick wrap-up, as if the writer herself got tired of the book and declared, "I'm done." Not so with The Survivors. This is everything I love in a book: a long story with plenty of backstory, a setting that acts as another character, a true mystery, excellent writing, strong and likable characters, and just the right amount of tension. Highly recommended. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCzuSgkSLmraVxEaVmjB57xNVOm0kB5x79q8GAfAzuU0errWxI-wh2yISj35YuswbPzeZlkN0GksVdnVhyphenhyphenaT2dntzJRRVOmP1cc5vYvZXNKm7zptUX7vWm0cLTGaCgFSl8xlj4KnSFPwl8/s499/41rzBx%252BUt6L._SX323_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="325" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCzuSgkSLmraVxEaVmjB57xNVOm0kB5x79q8GAfAzuU0errWxI-wh2yISj35YuswbPzeZlkN0GksVdnVhyphenhyphenaT2dntzJRRVOmP1cc5vYvZXNKm7zptUX7vWm0cLTGaCgFSl8xlj4KnSFPwl8/s320/41rzBx%252BUt6L._SX323_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Free-Full-Fire-Glorious/dp/071808814X/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=hatmaker&qid=1618145175&sr=8-3" target="_blank">Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire</a> by Jen Hatmaker</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;">The story: Subtitled "The Guide to Being Glorious You," this is a "embrace who you are," "you can do it" and "we're all in this together" book. It's divided into five self-reflective categories: who I am, what I need, what I want, what I believe, and how I connect. The chapters within those categories explore strategies, offer stories, and provide encouragement for navigating who we are and feeling exuberant (or at least okay) with that. This is listed as "Christian Women's Issues," but the theology is light-handed but extremely refreshing. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;">My reaction: We chose this book for our small group (six women) over the past year -- pandemic year. At first, we were all super excited and found relief and connection in this book. We loved the dismantling of what it means to be a "Christian woman." We loved knowing we aren't alone in our questions and searching. Ten months later, we were all thrilled to be done with it. I don't think that's a reflection on the book or Jen Hatmaker. I think we transitioned, as the rest of the world has, from exploring ourselves to being sick of exploring ourselves! Toward the last third of the book, sick of Zoom and longing for normalcy, we became annoyed with Jen's cheerleading and capital letters and LET'S GO GIRL rah-rahs. Somehow, at the end of a year of isolation, perhaps it's been difficult for us to connect with who we were pre-pandemic. Our values have shifted. Our inner eye is tired. I also think this book would be much more appreciated by women in their 30s-40s, and we are all in our mid-40s and 50s. Also, I don't recommend spreading this out over nearly a year! This could be a quick read but a kind and thoughtful one, if read at the right time in one's life.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-nC38ArrEz4CBxkBjNm34CJZDPnKR2UMsK4rSHsDLK3SYRC1iDvfxOSVmngZjD7pU3DMr4Qt4c6ebJUdv6pNtmg30beBLtFYmNXiEvkoWlKJNuXdf0teXqk-6Y_t14bBUmYm63GW1A5GC/s500/41DPq03IAOL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-nC38ArrEz4CBxkBjNm34CJZDPnKR2UMsK4rSHsDLK3SYRC1iDvfxOSVmngZjD7pU3DMr4Qt4c6ebJUdv6pNtmg30beBLtFYmNXiEvkoWlKJNuXdf0teXqk-6Y_t14bBUmYm63GW1A5GC/s320/41DPq03IAOL.jpeg" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/When-We-Believed-Mermaids-Novel-ebook/dp/B07MV8SWZF">When We Believed in Mermaids</a> by Barbara O'Neal</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>The story:</b> Sisters Josie and Kit has a terrible and wonderful childhood. Their parents, free-spirited restaurant owners, were so obsessed with their own lives that they completely neglected their daughters, who ran wild on the California beaches. Fortunately, they have Dylan, an informally adopted older brother, to keep them straight, help them with their homework, teach them to surf, and basically care for them as if he were their parent. And then tragedy strikes when an earthquake completely shakes up their lives. Nothing is ever the same after the earthquake. The sisters drift apart, and Josie dies in a terrorist attack on a train Or does she? One day Kit and her mother see a face on a screen that looks exactly like Josie, and the search begins. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>My reaction:</b> I absolutely loved this book. O'Neal does a masterful job of revealing the story bit by bit through flashbacks interwoven with the current day story of Kit and Josie. Each character is carefully, lovingly developed. I was rooting for both sisters -- I wanted Kit to find Josie, and yet I wanted Josie to be able to keep the beautiful new life she'd made for herself. Honestly, I was just utterly wrapped up in the entire story and was so sad when it was over. Some of the issues in the book are hard, but it is well worth the emotional investment. Highly recommended.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNnEewM0aNxk05SBvHqacDnx4wDZTt7ZX1OPcaoGkNdzI2gkzNS2OHl6tUVZivtNPV6I8mmfXzjy2Ry836MEZhlV9-lR7QDLXaKeEnpRFdXW3fCt3u1Hl_Aoc-Yi-bAEoGHCVe_tzDGEt/s500/51Y6e2sT1rL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNnEewM0aNxk05SBvHqacDnx4wDZTt7ZX1OPcaoGkNdzI2gkzNS2OHl6tUVZivtNPV6I8mmfXzjy2Ry836MEZhlV9-lR7QDLXaKeEnpRFdXW3fCt3u1Hl_Aoc-Yi-bAEoGHCVe_tzDGEt/s320/51Y6e2sT1rL.jpeg" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wife-Upstairs-Novel-Rachel-Hawkins-ebook/dp/B08BKLVZRJ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+wife+upstairs&qid=1618338060&s=digital-text&sr=1-1">The Wife Upstairs </a>by Rachel Hawkins</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>The story:</b> The is a modern-day retelling of <i>Jane Eyre</i>. Jane falls in love with Eddie. Eddie has a secret wife, well, upstairs. And so the story goes.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>My reaction:</b> Honestly, I tend to steer clear of retellings of classic stories. <i>Jane Eyre</i> is one of my favorite novels ever, so I probably would not have picked this up had I realized what it was about. But... I liked it! As a true Jane Eyre fan, I appreciate all the characters being included: the insipid St. John Rivers shows up as John Rivers, Jane's sniveling, sneaky roommate. Rochester's daughter, Adele, is Eddie's dog in this version; Jane is the dog walker. In fact, she's the dog walker for all of <i>Thornfield</i> Estates, the ritzy subdivision. I thought Hawkins' reimagining was fun, and there are a few twists that made me smile. I would actually recommend this for fans of <i>Jane Eyre</i>, if you're up for a playful adaptation. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaxdfXftVTtlGYIovWbb6ZQuL3UfvpnoBahxnNDPkDZyF6NgwLuOMOn9uhaIU3xgeqwIOJcDTqSBu5ZbIU5y-Yg5brJqU8XjvVTosNvxlgqFXNv1nIzphOOUmemvhQb3SU8WkBDnbH45gc/s500/61rKeJrfnmL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaxdfXftVTtlGYIovWbb6ZQuL3UfvpnoBahxnNDPkDZyF6NgwLuOMOn9uhaIU3xgeqwIOJcDTqSBu5ZbIU5y-Yg5brJqU8XjvVTosNvxlgqFXNv1nIzphOOUmemvhQb3SU8WkBDnbH45gc/s320/61rKeJrfnmL.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Love-Life-and-Elephants-audiobook/dp/B0081FY93K/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1618338729&sr=8-1">Love, Life, and Elephants</a> by Daphne Sheldrick</span></p><p><span style="color: #353535; font-family: Lato;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>The story:</b> This is Daphne Sheldrick's lovely memoir of growing up in Kenya, from her early childhood to her many years as the warden's wife of Tsavo Park, a wildlife refuge. Sheldrick was a mother to hundreds of animal orphans, from a weaver bird to a mongoose to rhinos and, most famously, as an elephant keeper. She is the first person to ever successfully raise an orphaned baby elephant to adulthood. Woven in with her animal tales are her people tales -- her loves, her losses, and her friendships. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #353535; font-family: Lato;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16.83px;"><b>My reaction:</b> This is a book I would probably never have read on my own— and that's why book club is so wonderful! I absolutely loved this sweet memoir. I listed to this one, and Virginia McKenna is an absolutely delightful narrator. I was utterly wrapped up in Daphne's life, rooting for the animals, rooting for her. You can't help but fall in love with each animal and with Tsavo Park and, of course, with Daphne. She had an incredible life and shares that with her readers so beautifully. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;">I learned so much about all kinds of African animals! </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;">I don't know that I would have enjoyed the book quite as much if I'd read it; I think McKenna's narration feels as if Daphne herself is telling the tale. Highly recommended! </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy-_VBAstsGBwLQNe5_wSUQgjncHQQ0aJBbEssCFy1c5FJVgXUrIcwy3ANKfarCho7BAiv7cmC_N_xtJf27b2_Fg1Wg5T-OUAELVIlsHYeBC1TnAkSLYBpbGQ2bWf5OwzR-ixyBnNTKYGx/s500/41nRXBqUQpL.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy-_VBAstsGBwLQNe5_wSUQgjncHQQ0aJBbEssCFy1c5FJVgXUrIcwy3ANKfarCho7BAiv7cmC_N_xtJf27b2_Fg1Wg5T-OUAELVIlsHYeBC1TnAkSLYBpbGQ2bWf5OwzR-ixyBnNTKYGx/s320/41nRXBqUQpL.jpeg" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #353535; font-family: Lato; font-size: 16.83px;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Novel-Abigail-Dean-ebook/dp/B08H18WHX5/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=girl+a&qid=1618596221&sr=8-1">Girl A </a>by Abigail Dean</span></p><p><b>The story:</b> Lex is the girl who escaped the House of Horrors. Once identified by the press and police only as Girl A, she's now a successful attorney, trying to live a normal life. But her past haunts her; how could it not? She and her brothers and sisters grew up in utter poverty, starved, neglected, isolated, and, ultimately, held captive by their parents. She wants only to forget it all, but when her mother dies in prison, Lex is appointed executor of the estate. She has to go back and face her story, her childhood home, and her fellow captives: her six siblings. Each of their stories — during and after their childhood — is different. Each has coped in a different way, and their bonds to each other are tenuous and complicated.</p><p><b>My reaction:</b> I absolutely loved Dean's debut novel. It was emotionally tough to read at times (OK, most of the time) because the subject matter is unthinkable, but it's utterly engaging and so well written. Abigail Dean handles the story with grace, allowing these fictional siblings their dignity and giving the reader enough detail to let us see the horror but without going into extraneous, over-the-top description. This is somewhat along the lines of Educated, Tara Westover's memoir. Although this is a work of fiction, we all know that horrors like this do occur. Highly recommended.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: right;"><i>Linked up with <a href="https://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/">The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz </a>and <a href="https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/2021/04/19/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-267/" target="_blank">It's Monday! What are you reading? at Book Date</a></i></p><p style="text-align: right;"><br /></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-32073414994564280722021-03-16T08:52:00.004-04:002021-03-16T09:09:23.553-04:00Next Up: Books on my Spring TBR List<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">What's next on my reading list is mostly based on what becomes available on my e-READS library holds, as well as squeezing in my book club's monthly choice. There are also a couple books I'm working through slowly, a chapter every couple of weeks.</span></p><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Currently Reading</span></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaN-mHSzvuF4nXH3dnSITbqiADO2Eh8ni55cQ_teN4Mc93reGbRYN365XBByatTuMje62Ced37TB20twNiy6f23dZH6_ujHC5fkeOOoYe4rAcr8GaBhaxhcvdeRb1CMDysKxjm8__msP7j/s500/51pcmD%252BvWhL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="342" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaN-mHSzvuF4nXH3dnSITbqiADO2Eh8ni55cQ_teN4Mc93reGbRYN365XBByatTuMje62Ced37TB20twNiy6f23dZH6_ujHC5fkeOOoYe4rAcr8GaBhaxhcvdeRb1CMDysKxjm8__msP7j/s320/51pcmD%252BvWhL.jpg" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Next up (library e-reads):</span></b></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvsKZZJ_vI-8pfMnfLxkgTyrP4t_ryDnfoLHarAxcNk-qw0eGbF6negwLr-zdDJyHv1SrvmTn2_EAr1ULYPvhIb2a6LNoZJV-c2M65VP-c5PrtZrM0jYpZ7qLe8t44-VwHWGNrlihDfda/s499/41SYG2uyEvL._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvsKZZJ_vI-8pfMnfLxkgTyrP4t_ryDnfoLHarAxcNk-qw0eGbF6negwLr-zdDJyHv1SrvmTn2_EAr1ULYPvhIb2a6LNoZJV-c2M65VP-c5PrtZrM0jYpZ7qLe8t44-VwHWGNrlihDfda/s320/41SYG2uyEvL._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">For Book Clubs:</span></b></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmdenfUd8PikhRjw97O5XoLjGNBnUaLH8ofG8EKEA5AsK5fHrmMmI6LwV_vsBIvcPuCXx2_vKiu4_3XvFnqrus0WzH1LqTeujfJiNRrB-lyLI7r4LAcQRDuOhkWc7LU1QXgTbVdQ8VjYe/s680/%257B1438B6FC-A47A-48E0-BB88-455753BA291D%257DImg100.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmdenfUd8PikhRjw97O5XoLjGNBnUaLH8ofG8EKEA5AsK5fHrmMmI6LwV_vsBIvcPuCXx2_vKiu4_3XvFnqrus0WzH1LqTeujfJiNRrB-lyLI7r4LAcQRDuOhkWc7LU1QXgTbVdQ8VjYe/s320/%257B1438B6FC-A47A-48E0-BB88-455753BA291D%257DImg100.jpg" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">(I'm listening to <i>Love, Life, and Elephants</i>)</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjePXJdAh1fn6cpApLi49wye5ie59wMyiLbAdMx7-DlCjvz2g2NLWkNy9cRr_W_MYaCvMrbaaU17uMssHI46io0zOTBerpTA1NzNU5-XOlRp7URurY4fUbRdHDGhwhBRFw3ZCkXl2D3A19h/s499/51h8W8qkS2L._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjePXJdAh1fn6cpApLi49wye5ie59wMyiLbAdMx7-DlCjvz2g2NLWkNy9cRr_W_MYaCvMrbaaU17uMssHI46io0zOTBerpTA1NzNU5-XOlRp7URurY4fUbRdHDGhwhBRFw3ZCkXl2D3A19h/s320/51h8W8qkS2L._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div>This is for a discussion group initiated by a college friend of mine with a group of women I don't know (i.e., not either of my regular book clubs). My friend, whose parents grew up in and around Cherokee, NC (including on the reservation), will also be reading a few excerpts from her memoir-in-progress.<br /><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Coming soon on my library wait list for e-reads:</span></b></h2><p><i>The Color of Law</i> by Richard Rothstein (wait time: 2 weeks)*</p><p><i>What My Mother and I Don't Talk About </i>by Michele Filgate (wait time: 2 weeks)*</p><p><i>The Kindest Lie </i>by Nancy Johnson (wait time: 2 weeks)*</p><p><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span> </span>{*YIKES! Three books coming at the same time -- my usual predicament!}</span></i></p><p><i>Girl A</i> by Abigail Deen (wait time: 6 weeks)</p><p><i>Four Hundred Souls </i>by Ibram X. Kendi (wait time: 10 weeks)</p><p><i>The Paris Library</i> by Janet S. Charles (wait time: 14 weeks)</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Physical Books on my Shelf</span></b></h2><p>I prefer to read on my Kindle because I have terrible eyesight! But I do have dozens of actual books that are waiting to be read. These are at the top of my gigantic stack:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUny3qoqctUhOQrJZp3PjBZ8YhHeqE5j5KLKJWRHFMunVW7M1iIco-CV3NRs22qW4vdkbqXEvn3KChSR1fonulLjZpTrshJmbALIIhnlPBOWXDS_E1q9TZ2HyYYPhfyTq4gKM5Npit-hRd/s3134/IMG_0596.HEIC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3134" data-original-width="2992" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUny3qoqctUhOQrJZp3PjBZ8YhHeqE5j5KLKJWRHFMunVW7M1iIco-CV3NRs22qW4vdkbqXEvn3KChSR1fonulLjZpTrshJmbALIIhnlPBOWXDS_E1q9TZ2HyYYPhfyTq4gKM5Npit-hRd/w381-h400/IMG_0596.HEIC" width="381" /></a></div><br /><p><i>My Dear Hamilton</i> by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie: This is for July book club, but it's over 600 pages, so I should start it in June!</p><p><i>The Wife Upstairs</i> by Frieda McFadden: Borrowed this one from my daughter.</p><p><i>Kindred</i> by Octavia Butler: My younger son read this in his freshman English class last year, and I keep seeing references to it. Definitely looking forward to this one.</p><p><i>Pylon</i> by William Faulkner: My older son, who somehow has ALL my Faulkner books, gave me this one for my birthday. It's one of only a couple of Faulkner's novels that I haven't read.</p><p><br /></p><p>Twelve books for spring seems like just the right goal... but I find that surprises always come along!</p><p style="text-align: right;"><i>Linked up with <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/2021/03/top-ten-books-on-my-spring-2021-to-read-list/" target="_blank">Top 10 Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl</a></i></p><p style="text-align: right;"><br /></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-63759975851992430662021-03-01T12:38:00.000-05:002021-03-01T12:38:03.706-05:00Books Read in February <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaa_SHhwBJAeWq5buUN4R-_t_h0dqmuORGInOvflpJwIqpZ5bEo5YrnuBeGFcpVCcAwUzKp42GnUnBXfsroeYHt2_wvezl5XCO11CRq-Ueo0Go2Z5XlzhtSIszwwbHLpATXYxzjBHxTTs/s500/511rJ5qu7tL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaa_SHhwBJAeWq5buUN4R-_t_h0dqmuORGInOvflpJwIqpZ5bEo5YrnuBeGFcpVCcAwUzKp42GnUnBXfsroeYHt2_wvezl5XCO11CRq-Ueo0Go2Z5XlzhtSIszwwbHLpATXYxzjBHxTTs/s320/511rJ5qu7tL.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Woman-99-Novel-Greer-Macallister-ebook/dp/B07HJSBZJC/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=woman+99&qid=1613068396&sr=8-1"> Woman 99</a> by Greer Mcallister</p><p><b>The story:</b> It's the mid 1800s, and Charlotte's beloved older sister, Phoebe, suffers from what appears to be bipolar disorder. Her parents commit Phoebe, who they consider to be an embarrassment to the family, to an insane asylum. Charlotte absolutely cannot let Phoebe rot away there, and she hatches her own insane plan: she'll get herself committed to the asylum so that she can bring Phoebe home. By appearing to be suicidal, Charlotte gets sent to the asylum. She is shocked and horrified to discover that many of the women have been committed merely because they were somehow not "proper" women: they suffered from postpartum, loved the "wrong" person, or perhaps their husbands were just tired of them. She learns their stories while searching for Phoebe, and she also considers her own life and pending wedding.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKx4e2GGWLTI74zxF8Nqvyhnit0pmVrxpPaNOvHSd-hm1I4cbj4MNFJTUIndqd3gQ8MGbTL0rT5GcGh4nMu2KW_B73RsMxlXIMt7mQ1wtHRA1-36mlkCFLt4Qmtgz7cP-JF2sHt61PyfK/s1280/willardpsych82.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKx4e2GGWLTI74zxF8Nqvyhnit0pmVrxpPaNOvHSd-hm1I4cbj4MNFJTUIndqd3gQ8MGbTL0rT5GcGh4nMu2KW_B73RsMxlXIMt7mQ1wtHRA1-36mlkCFLt4Qmtgz7cP-JF2sHt61PyfK/s320/willardpsych82.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Willard</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>My reaction:</b> I've always been both drawn to and terrified of books about asylums. The tension is real! I grew up on Seneca Lake, roughly across and down some from <a href="https://exploringupstate.com/willard-asylum-ovid-ny/">The Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane</a>, and <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/willard-asylum">Willard</a>, as we called it, loomed largely in our young imaginations. I used to terrify myself by imagining that an escaped inmate would row a boat across the lake and land on our beach. Anyway... it's always been a strange fascination of mine. The thought of Charlotte willingly entering an asylum was both fascinating and unbelievable to me. I enjoyed very much the descriptions of the various wards, each focused on a different "ailment": love, silence, oversexualization, melancholy, etc. And I loved that Charlotte quickly recognizes that so many of the women in the asylum are there simply because they are inconvenient in some way. This is basically storage for women who dare to buck the system. There were definitely times that the book was too repetitive and drawn out, and some scenes seemed quite implausible; however, I found the book ultimately satisfying. For a book about an asylum, it was not graphic nor horribly disturbing. Recommended! <p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcxVQgN9ue6udEMnzWKdPuh0Wyk7XD8qWY4FjPxvN5JQvmMarvhOliT87OQG4ar6eX7_6HlHAFgDMj_c4e0ijYpZGtZsXSqPeV6Cl_krkZkIhr1a5Lek_BM2MUf-iBJioT4dFRb49Gs3Lm/s499/515Jg9lLYaL._SX330_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="332" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcxVQgN9ue6udEMnzWKdPuh0Wyk7XD8qWY4FjPxvN5JQvmMarvhOliT87OQG4ar6eX7_6HlHAFgDMj_c4e0ijYpZGtZsXSqPeV6Cl_krkZkIhr1a5Lek_BM2MUf-iBJioT4dFRb49Gs3Lm/s320/515Jg9lLYaL._SX330_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dutch-House-Novel-Ann-Patchett/dp/0062963686/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+dutch+house&qid=1613068862&sr=8-1"><br /></a></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dutch-House-Novel-Ann-Patchett/dp/0062963686/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+dutch+house&qid=1613068862&sr=8-1">The Dutch House </a>by Ann Patchett</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The story</b>: This is a marvelous story of a brother, a sister, and their rightful inheritance, the Dutch House, a grand house purchased by their father and ripped out from under them at his unexpected death. For the rest of their lives, Danny and Maeve try to figure out what went wrong and how to get it all back. They move forward with their lives when they are apart, but each time Danny and Maeve get together, they pick apart every detail of the events that led up to their father's death. Other people in their lives fill in details now and then, and as they leave middle age, the siblings finally have some closure as questions are answered.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>My reaction:</b> Ann Patchett is just the real deal. What a storyteller! Everything about this works together. There are no loose ends, no wondering for me. The characters, including the house itself, are all richly drawn. It's somewhat of a Hansel and Gretel tale, with an evil stepmother, a kind but distant father, and that irresistible gingerbread house that draws them back again and again. I love Ann Patchett, and I love this book.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17YwOJ1oNf4gS1-ltl5Zzj3OX5FetTFaP5eKW8uj2F4cK8WoxPZdOt7GjXh6GOANF7loFa8nT32Ht0_wM_oC183P7fLidgN9sV3i2HYTKK3eAFfXJPfb8EJ1V-jEGdQbPKMjEE3Mmx7aD/s500/51xbbNWBwCL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17YwOJ1oNf4gS1-ltl5Zzj3OX5FetTFaP5eKW8uj2F4cK8WoxPZdOt7GjXh6GOANF7loFa8nT32Ht0_wM_oC183P7fLidgN9sV3i2HYTKK3eAFfXJPfb8EJ1V-jEGdQbPKMjEE3Mmx7aD/s320/51xbbNWBwCL.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-Alice-Fell-Taylor-Blakemore-ebook/dp/B0874463D9/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=after+alice+fell+book&qid=1613430324&sr=8-1">After Alice Fell</a> by Kim Taylor Blakemore</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The story:</b> It's just after the Civil War, and Marion has spent the past year as a battlefield nurse. While she was gone, her beloved sister, Alice, was committed to an asylum by their brother and his wife. And then Alice fell off the roof of the asylum and died. Everyone assures her that Alice committed suicide, but Marion knows she would never do that. So how did Alice get to the roof, and who pushed her? <i>Let it go,</i> her brother and his wife tell her, but she cannot rest until she finds out how Alice fell.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>My reaction:</b> Eh. Well, first I have to say how weird it is that I read yet another book this month set partially in an asylum in the mid-1800s. Between this and <i>Woman 99,</i> the latter is far more interesting. This one had so many missing pieces. It was terribly disjointed, and at times I felt as if I were in an institution. None of the character, except the dead Alice and the nephew, were particularly likable, and I like books with likable characters. I'd give it a solid 3.5. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNNr7HOrvUzldzidgSvWOgIoat-1plZI0eE_pfiLFl6A4f6kSkCgEFLdtj_vuhQMn0pF5qwBiH0nMqCzvJs_n2f4YF6hffTocX_sNIH6DdKNkiFxbUirg3L3B5zmz9ixh2w59org7EjxCJ/s499/51H7YynECuL._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNNr7HOrvUzldzidgSvWOgIoat-1plZI0eE_pfiLFl6A4f6kSkCgEFLdtj_vuhQMn0pF5qwBiH0nMqCzvJs_n2f4YF6hffTocX_sNIH6DdKNkiFxbUirg3L3B5zmz9ixh2w59org7EjxCJ/s320/51H7YynECuL._SX331_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Here-Beautiful-Mira-Lee/dp/0735221979/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38MOJ05E183TN&dchild=1&keywords=everything+here+is+beautiful&qid=1614368266&sprefix=everything+here+is%2Caps%2C301&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Everything Here Is Beautiful </a>by Mira T. Lee</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The story:</b> Lucia and Miranda are Chinese-American sisters, fiercely loyal to each other. Miranda, as the elder sister, is protective and motherly toward Lucia, who is carefree and impulsive, a girl who thoroughly enjoys each moment of life. Both sisters are independent and brilliant, but as Lucia heads into her 20s, she develops a mental illness. Only Miranda knows about it for awhile, until Lucia marries Yonah. Within the first year of their marriage, the "serpents" begin tormenting Lucia. The voices in her head drag her down, and Miranda is there to rescue her. Their relationship suffers, as Miranda becomes more and more insistent that Lucia take her medicine, and Lucia resists. Lucia spends the next decade or so in and out of hospitals, in and out of relationships, and in and out of motherhood. Miranda is walks the tightrope of caring too much and letting go.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>My reaction: </b>What are the chances that I would read yet a third book centering on two sisters, one of each pair with a mental illness, in the span of a month? This was totally not on purpose; I just grabbed the books when they became available on the library's electronic reading system. This is my favorite one by far. This book is so beautifully written. Each of the characters — Lucia, Yonah, Manuel, Esperanza, and Miranda — is richly brought to life. We are especially submerged in Lucia's world— from vibrant and then impoverished neighborhoods in NYC to rural Ecuador. Lee's perspective on various immigrant experiences in the U.S. was powerful and so lovingly written. I especially appreciated the section on Lucia and Manuel, an Ecuadorian immigrant who is constantly afraid of being deported. Lee paints all her characters with such tenderness and such vivacity. Miranda and Lucia are a classic pair: the Martha and Mary, the steady worker and the prodigal daughter, one responsible and one reckless; but both fight demons in their own way. Highly recommended. These characters will stay with me for a long time.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPuvbrH1dV4JvbSyCwqL6IhHM17EgvjFmLosVVsF_PQE2NuUrPsPugFeSEydSkXKE95jCaTLBUK8g6axUQhyphenhyphensh5P88rRdEAxhXpLioz3XTTUG65VpKzGDwjUCzwj0KiXITU3REIKXCc-wk/s499/41UY3xTBq3L._SX322_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPuvbrH1dV4JvbSyCwqL6IhHM17EgvjFmLosVVsF_PQE2NuUrPsPugFeSEydSkXKE95jCaTLBUK8g6axUQhyphenhyphensh5P88rRdEAxhXpLioz3XTTUG65VpKzGDwjUCzwj0KiXITU3REIKXCc-wk/s320/41UY3xTBq3L._SX322_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Homegoing-Yaa-Gyasi/dp/1101971061/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3JCRV0Y5HPHMI&dchild=1&keywords=homegoing+by+yaa+gyasi&qid=1614368484&sprefix=homegoing%2Caps%2C202&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Homegoing</a> by Yaa Gyasi</div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>The story:</b> This is a sweeping story of a family through many generations and across continents, beginning with <span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">the half sisters, Effia and Esi, who are born into different villages in Ghana in the 1700s. One sister is sold into slavery; the other is taken as an Englishman's Ghanian wife. (He has another back in England.) From there, the novel proceeds through subsequent generations of each sister's line, telling a different family member's story up until present day. One line goes through Ghanian warfare, the slave trade, and colonization; the other sister's descendants are enslaved people on Southern plantations, convicts in the coal mines, part of the Great Migration, and all the way to today. Ultimately, the two lines meet again in a powerful, hopeful conclusion.</span></span></p><div><br /></div><div><b>My reaction:</b> Brilliant. Heartbreaking. Beautiful. Eye-opening. This is a tremendous undertaking on the part of Gyasi (this is her debut novel), and she absolutely succeeded. Each character's story is told with such love and devotion; it's as if she freed dozens of voices to speak and say, "I am here. I lived, and I loved, and I have a story you need to hear." I wish I had read this in an actual hard copy book rather than on my Kindle because Gyasi includes a wonderful family tree at the beginning that I should have returned to again and again, to keep all the characters straight. I am too lazy to do this on my Kindle. That is a small, reader's issue that has nothing to do with the actual novel itself, which is astonishing. Read it. Pay attention. And then tell someone else to read it. Truly incredible.</div><div><br /></div><div>And that's it for February! I've started March with Fredrik Backman's <i>Anxious People.</i> So far, so good!</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Linked up with <a href="https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-march-1st/">It's Monday! What are you reading?</a> at Book Date.</i></div>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-59094109712715633582021-02-02T15:18:00.002-05:002021-02-02T15:30:46.161-05:00Top 10 Tuesday: TBR Books Written Before I was Born<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d;">This is surprisingly challenging.. and I feel really old. I perused my Goodreads TBR list and found these books on my to-read published before I was born (1966). It's a pretty short list! In college and graduate school, I focused mainly on 20th century lit, so I don't have much of that on my TBR list. That doesn't mean I've read <i>everything</i> in the 20th century, of course, but I have read a LOT! And again, as an English major, I've read a heck of a lot of classics. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d;">I could definitely add some re-reads of classics or some first-time reads, but here we go:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PDim8sx-535KM_cBsmJqsr3MMgXB0kYzwoARsSia-JwFWfK2eDoaQurs02J8QZJG-ThkS4eJ3jN_OBUJvXCeV3bMTD3-LgBhW5Qpkhdnsm9fLrrWRA3BDx-Gf2_0jVjcEPOEtEU5Z0s-/s499/412sk9F6jfL._SX384_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="386" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PDim8sx-535KM_cBsmJqsr3MMgXB0kYzwoARsSia-JwFWfK2eDoaQurs02J8QZJG-ThkS4eJ3jN_OBUJvXCeV3bMTD3-LgBhW5Qpkhdnsm9fLrrWRA3BDx-Gf2_0jVjcEPOEtEU5Z0s-/s320/412sk9F6jfL._SX384_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d;"><br /></span><p></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shirley-Charlotte-Bronte/dp/135902574X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1612296447&sr=8-1-spons">Shirley</a> by Charlotte Brontë. Published in 1849. This is probably the only novel by any of the sisters that I haven't read yet. A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter. First published in 1901. This is a YA novel about a young girl growing up in the early 20th century.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAjyvgwKBMr6qoN2r1goNGOJU8CdWC0BGfAlRQ2FKpLPzR6fV3pYdPHp5z-ykBxcmFvl7RNtQvcE6YteLBpKr0HhFn8GHqC0QQjQqmTvzXVf7ZQQlcmLuVM-FxCLOThnNlXxJVcT9HCbB/s499/41d6x%252BWibpL._SX308_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivAjyvgwKBMr6qoN2r1goNGOJU8CdWC0BGfAlRQ2FKpLPzR6fV3pYdPHp5z-ykBxcmFvl7RNtQvcE6YteLBpKr0HhFn8GHqC0QQjQqmTvzXVf7ZQQlcmLuVM-FxCLOThnNlXxJVcT9HCbB/s320/41d6x%252BWibpL._SX308_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/North-Collins-Classics-Elizabeth-Gaskell/dp/0007902255/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1612296550&sr=8-1-spons">North and South</a> by Elizabeth Gaskell. Published in 1855. A young woman has to move from her comfortable, middle class home to a millworking town in the north of England.</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Years-Grace-Margaret-Ayer-Barnes-dp-087797179X/dp/087797179X/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1612296718">Years of Grace</a> by Margaret Ayers. This book won the Pulitzer in 1931. It was referenced in another novel that I can't remember now, and I immediately added it to my list. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-UgL77c6sx4xrRj2aqzgptop6TVqOEh_feok41LN2_aALgyRRmvr5HpX7q6mXc5apZbtrT_zt3Y6Qrs-EYRaNQLlK7SjONkdUL-TrxENt0xtlbymJejs-lrmriuxW0HEyO0NrqbObkaR/s500/51Mr2B7zM2L.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="314" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-UgL77c6sx4xrRj2aqzgptop6TVqOEh_feok41LN2_aALgyRRmvr5HpX7q6mXc5apZbtrT_zt3Y6Qrs-EYRaNQLlK7SjONkdUL-TrxENt0xtlbymJejs-lrmriuxW0HEyO0NrqbObkaR/s320/51Mr2B7zM2L.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sons-Pearl-S-Buck-ebook/dp/B085Q679KY/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sons+by+buck&qid=1612296770&s=books&sr=1-1">Sons</a></i> and also <i>A House Divided</i> by Pearl Buck. Published in 1932 and 1935, these are sequels to The Good Earth.</p><p><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/They-Came-Swallows-Vintage-International-ebook/dp/B002PYFVW6/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=they+came+like+swallows&qid=1612296837&s=books&sr=1-1">They Came Like Swallows </a></i>by William Maxwell. Published in 1937. <span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">It tells of an American family overtaken by the epidemic of the Spanish influenza of 1918.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"> Seems appropriate for now!</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDIo_1ImbzadatcOzKD_DkUFpOhd9Qiogh8fh5a18SmAKpEbVKCasoj77IdZxgljQ1UM2klVR5dq2imEHb-GeJNRgLzsd1P-voWCIpYjL8WNyCQE7qIQN4LlAkvoQlGLJkkXS4C7sCT6vc/s500/41ScPtga3QL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDIo_1ImbzadatcOzKD_DkUFpOhd9Qiogh8fh5a18SmAKpEbVKCasoj77IdZxgljQ1UM2klVR5dq2imEHb-GeJNRgLzsd1P-voWCIpYjL8WNyCQE7qIQN4LlAkvoQlGLJkkXS4C7sCT6vc/s320/41ScPtga3QL.jpg" /></a></div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stoner-York-Review-Books-Classics-ebook/dp/B003K15IF8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=stoner&qid=1612296871&s=books&sr=1-1">Stoner</a> by John Williams. Published in 1965. This is the story of an ordinary man who falls in love with literature, choosing a life of academia over farming. Apparently this novel has quite a cult following.<p></p><p>Obviously, I lean much more toward contemporary literature these days! Perhaps I had my fill of reading and teaching classics through the decades. So many books to discover!</p><p> </p><p style="text-align: right;">Linked up with <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/2021/02/top-ten-books-on-my-tbr-that-were-written-before-i-was-born/" target="_blank">Top Ten Tuesday</a> at That Artsy Reader Girl</p><p style="text-align: right;"><br /></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-8497013241525475682021-02-01T18:08:00.005-05:002021-02-01T18:13:28.710-05:00Books Read in January<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Louding-Voice-Novel/dp/1524746029/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1609852444&sr=8-1" target="_blank"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VizqfUeaI_Y8sY-H206kBL_ytL8G44ohGok14owsA-iWFvxYNTR1AMs7uBV9U_xqmUQQVP3Vr3SIdvyLX8MouMit0bDtCayvD36RgP7uCvckinXqtvEJRlAKMpeK4Nvrjf6JFCljD6Xh/s499/louding.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VizqfUeaI_Y8sY-H206kBL_ytL8G44ohGok14owsA-iWFvxYNTR1AMs7uBV9U_xqmUQQVP3Vr3SIdvyLX8MouMit0bDtCayvD36RgP7uCvckinXqtvEJRlAKMpeK4Nvrjf6JFCljD6Xh/s320/louding.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Louding-Voice-Novel-ebook/dp/B07SCTZ4RQ/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3OO9JH512JNOV&dchild=1&keywords=the+girl+with+the+louding+voice+by+abi+dare&qid=1610995167&sprefix=the+girl+%2Caps%2C205&sr=8-5">The Girl with the Louding Voice</a> by Abi Daré</span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">T</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">he story: Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who wants two things: her mother, who was her greatest advocate, and an education. She can't get her mother back—she has passed away—but she is determined to get an education. This, her mother told her, is how she gets a "louding voice"—how she can speak for herself and determine her own path. Adunni lives in a traditional village in Nigeria, under traditional tribal laws. When her father pulls her out of school and trades her to an old man as his third wife, her dream of an education looks impossible. She faces daily abuse, drudgery, and fear, and then tragedy strikes. She makes a bold decision that saves her life and ultimately leads her to a new one. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">My reaction: This was a perfect book with which to begin a new year. Adunni is the most wonderfully courageous young woman. She is compassionate, gutsy, curious, intelligent, and determined. The story is told through her voice, which makes this even more compelling, inviting the reader right into her world. In her words: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">“I want to enter a room, and people will hear me even before I open my mouth to be speaking. I want to live in this life and help many people so that when I grow old and die, I will still be living through the people I am helping.” I loved the wide array of women introduced in this novel, each with a different voice and a different experience. Some of their voices are muffled, some completely shut, some shouting, but each one cries out in some way for understanding. Highly recommended!</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsX3vJH0MhBmz9vz-6EQ4C5WDx4tzoiMySs7RZ-0lYLE_5Idhyy37NHnzsY_Fu05tpENMLERTAsZ2KAMKNj5k4xGAONIjt4AW3299EV4uEXb9eVfN4Y6lZNG3Y6ZK6wTl2shGr4BRrdaCs/s499/caste.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsX3vJH0MhBmz9vz-6EQ4C5WDx4tzoiMySs7RZ-0lYLE_5Idhyy37NHnzsY_Fu05tpENMLERTAsZ2KAMKNj5k4xGAONIjt4AW3299EV4uEXb9eVfN4Y6lZNG3Y6ZK6wTl2shGr4BRrdaCs/s320/caste.jpg" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><p style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Caste-Origins-Discontents-Isabel-Wilkerson/dp/0593230256/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=caste&qid=1610995077&sr=8-2" target="_blank">Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents </a>by Isabel Wilkerson</span></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">The story: Isabel Wilkerson explores the characteristics of caste systems, the way human beings are ranked, and shows how the United States is rooted in a brutal caste system that puts Black Americans firmly at the bottom of the ladder. She compares and contrasts the U.S. caste system with that of Nazi Germany and India. As she writes, </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">Throughout human history, three caste systems have stood out. The tragically accelerated, chilling, and officially vanquished caste system of Nazi Germany. The lingering, millennia-long caste system of India. And the shape-shifting, unspoken, race-based caste pyramid in the United States. Each version relied on stigmatizing those deemed inferior to justify the dehumanization necessary to keep the lowest-ranked people at the bottom and to rationalize the protocols of enforcement. A caste system endures because it is often justified as divine will, originating from sacred text or the presumed laws of nature, reinforced throughout the culture and passed down through the generations." </span></blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">My reaction: I think every single American should read this book. We need to be talking about this, teaching this in our schools, and working toward demolishing the American caste system. As Wilkerson writes (italics mine), </span></p><p><span id="freeText8032443473494036740" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"></span></p><blockquote><span id="freeText8032443473494036740" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">Americans are loath to talk about enslavement in part because what little we know about it goes against our perception of our country as a just and enlightened nation, a beacon of democracy for the world. Slavery is commonly dismissed as a “sad, dark chapter” in the country’s history. It is as if the greater the distance we can create between slavery and ourselves, the better to stave off the guilt or shame it induces. But in the same way that individuals cannot move forward, become whole and healthy, unless they examine the domestic violence they witnessed as children or the alcoholism that runs in their family, <i>the country cannot become whole until it confronts what was not a chapter in its history, but the basis of its economic and social order. </i>For a quarter millennium, slavery was the country.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"> </span></blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="background-color: white;">Wilkerson uses stories about real people —including her own experiences— to show how insidious and pervasive the caste system is in America -- how it seeps into every aspect of our lives. I highlighted about a billion passages in this book. I had to put it down sometimes and just mull over what I'd read. Wilkerson is a wonderful writer, using just the right balance of personal experiences, analysis, and research, both historical and scientific. (At one point I shouted to my husband, who has a PhD in genetics, that I was reading about <a href="https://www.tasciences.com/what-is-a-telomere.html">telomere length</a> and understanding perfectly!) This book is a lesson, a reprimand, a call to action, a plea, and a challenge</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">"Each time a person reaches across caste and makes a connection, it helps to break the back of caste. Multiplied by millions in a given day, it becomes the flap of a butterfly wing that shifts the air and builds to a hurricane across an ocean."</span></i></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nMmP6m3jJTqSPkr5s99wcsAXxnqjPO8tifp_o8n74S3iLfYoInBANJUdguYFohvb-qfP5k1Bi5UyHJYUM0c9SE-w7_HW7P-IkJJJkDJ5eH8GwvizIlZoT4Hvj5h2CDQm0W4qV8vLhqMt/s499/51Vv2QeBoPL._SX332_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="334" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nMmP6m3jJTqSPkr5s99wcsAXxnqjPO8tifp_o8n74S3iLfYoInBANJUdguYFohvb-qfP5k1Bi5UyHJYUM0c9SE-w7_HW7P-IkJJJkDJ5eH8GwvizIlZoT4Hvj5h2CDQm0W4qV8vLhqMt/s320/51Vv2QeBoPL._SX332_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bookshop-Yesterdays-Amy-Meyerson/dp/0778369080/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TPERQNVCR40V&dchild=1&keywords=bookshop+of+yesterdays&qid=1611414232&sprefix=bookshop+of+yest%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1">The Bookshop of Yesterdays</a> by Amy Meyerson. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b>The story: </b>Miranda's favorite uncle dies and leaves her his independent bookstore. Well, that's the simple way to explain the book. But Miranda, now in her late 20s, hasn't seen her uncle since she was 12-years-old, when he disappeared from her life without explanation. Her mother, his sister, won't talk about Uncle Billy. Her father just says, "Ask your mother." And the bookstore is on the opposite coast, far away from Miranda's current life as a high school history teacher. When Miranda returns for his funeral, she realizes his inheritance comes with a scavenger hunt. In order to solve the mystery of why Billy disappeared from her life, she has to follow the clues and put the whole story together: </span><i>“Like Prospero, Billy wanted to tell me of his betrayal, the event that had exiled him from our family." </i>And so the search begins, taking Miranda from person to person, event to event.</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b>My reaction:</b> Boy, did I ever need this one after reading </span><i style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">Caste</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">! This is lighthearted (mostly), warm, happy (mostly), quick read. This is a book lover's book, for sure. I love all the titles listed throughout, the literary references, the celebration of reading. And what a DREAM: to inherit a whole bookstore! Meyerson does a fantastic job immersing us in the world of bookstores—I could smell the books, feel the covers, and take comfort in the shelves. Miranda herself was a little annoying now and then, but certainly not enough to keep me from highly recommending this.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">My biggest gripe: the title. I cannot remember this for the life of me! Shakespeare's <i>The Tempest </i>was such a prevalent theme throughout the book—Prospero Books and the name Miranda, just for starters. Why not use Prospero in the title? (Or maybe the title IS a reference from <i>The Tempest</i>, and I'm not getting it! "Dreamers of tomorrow and yesterday," perhaps...) I keep getting this title mixed up with others I've read recently: <i>The Little Paris Bookshop, The Library of Lost and Found, The Book of Lost Friends.</i>.. I know—it's a petty complaint and should not stop anyone from reading this lovely book!</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU78n0r0j7ES9-OGYGhWtrrsSNU7v7Vqe6yw0TV2WYl8eKWsmqp8owyD2RuyVkAUqrqPtzsy_V4F3JQX5ZlN-R15sJGtbbjq3AnvIQaZUFPm_ptpvomP9KLqqgrQHdP_9KCOpRXRmF2aSQ/s499/41Do3mLZqOL._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU78n0r0j7ES9-OGYGhWtrrsSNU7v7Vqe6yw0TV2WYl8eKWsmqp8owyD2RuyVkAUqrqPtzsy_V4F3JQX5ZlN-R15sJGtbbjq3AnvIQaZUFPm_ptpvomP9KLqqgrQHdP_9KCOpRXRmF2aSQ/s320/41Do3mLZqOL._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Vanessa-Kate-Elizabeth-Russell/dp/006294150X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3HV981RP8YE3R&dchild=1&keywords=my+dark+vanessa&qid=1611415884&sprefix=my+dark+vane%2Caps%2C190&sr=8-1">My Dark Vanessa</a> by Kate Elizabeth Russell</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b>The story: </b>Vanessa is an outcast at her boarding school. She's lonely, friendless, isolated, and 15. She's the perfect prey for a predator like her 40-something English teacher, Mr. Strane. He singles her out and grooms her carefully, telling her that she's just like him, that he's madly in love with her, that she's brilliant. He knows all the right things to say, knows exactly how to manipulate Vanessa. Over 15 years later, he still knows all the right things to say: he knows how to convince her to keep their story quiet when another young woman, and then another and another come public with accusations of being abused by Strane. "They're lying," he tells Vanessa, and she believes him. He has been telling her since she was 15 that she's special, after all. The book alternates between 15-year-old Vanessa and Vanessa in her early 30s, when the accusations are flying about Strane. It's the #metoo movement, and Vanessa claims she is NOT a victim: that she made all her own choices, willingly. How long will she keep protecting her abuser?</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b>My reaction:</b> Haunting. Disturbing. Unsettling. Brilliant and brave. My heart absolutely broke for Vanessa, over and over again. This book is full of triggers, so beware. It is a difficult, gut-wrenching journey. To read how a 15-year-old is brainwashed, manipulated, and degraded by an authority figure is just so heartbreaking and maddening. I was angry at her parents for treating her like a leper, for the school for not pursuing the initial report of abuse, and of course for Strane for being a despicable pedophile. But I was never angry with Vanessa, who was so deeply twisted by Strane that she could not see the truth of their "relationship." This book is not for everyone, for sure. It is raw, graphic, and so disturbing, but Russell does an incredible job of inviting the reader to explore the complexities of abuse, the thread between abuser and the abused, the voiced and the voiceless. Highly recommended but know ahead of time: this is hard stuff.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7raFqglC3xU26XOwN3vIBSrayxdu0982gW3aRyXgFqNy98TSBALpBHVFgvXFlSmfsd2aA_fQq6t1ljvdX2B9cdmucnQbtRorEgMjEI8T-hUly5N4p9325xk1R1Ku1bpD0iXiyN0b1_WsT/s499/51TCW6ozeAL._SX320_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="322" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7raFqglC3xU26XOwN3vIBSrayxdu0982gW3aRyXgFqNy98TSBALpBHVFgvXFlSmfsd2aA_fQq6t1ljvdX2B9cdmucnQbtRorEgMjEI8T-hUly5N4p9325xk1R1Ku1bpD0iXiyN0b1_WsT/s320/51TCW6ozeAL._SX320_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dollhouse-Novel-Fiona-Davis/dp/1101985011/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1612220642&sr=8-2" target="_blank">The Dollhouse</a> by Fiona Davis.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b>The story:</b> Rose is a 30-ish journalist who has recently moved into the once glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, now luxury condos, with her partner. She becomes intrigued by the older women who live on the fourth floor of the hotel—women who are long-term tenants, now living in rent-controlled apartments. She learns that one woman fell to her death in the 1950s, another has a terrible scar on her face from some kind of altercation. Rose pitches the story to her editor and starts interviewing these women. From there, the book alternates between Rose's present day story and the story of Darby, one of the Barbizon women in the 1950s. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><b>My reaction. </b>The first half of the book was great... and then it fell apart. Darby's story just took too many unrealistic turns, and Rose's story never reached much development after the first half. I mean, she thinks she is about to get engaged, and then her boyfriend leaves her for his ex-wife. Exit long time almost fiancé, enter new guy. She's over her ex really fast. And there were a lot of references to what "really" happened at her previous job, but it just seemed extraneous and distracting. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">Darby's 1952 story could have been so much more interesting had it been given more attention. The characters there held promise. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;">It was as if too many stories were happening at once, and none of them made it to a satisfying conclusion. Honestly, the book just went on way too long, and the climax was like a balloon that slowly and limply deflates. </span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather;"><i>Linked up with <a href="https://thebookdate.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-259/" target="_blank">It's Monday! What Are You Reading?</a></i></span></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3658995350403073675.post-56813736104001571432021-01-26T13:57:00.001-05:002021-01-26T13:57:10.414-05:00Revisited Authors I Read in 2020 <p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">The prompt for this week's Top Ten Tuesday is "New-to-Me Authors I read in 2020," but I'm going with authors I revisited in 2020—the other list would be much too long!</span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Here is <a href="https://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2021/01/books-read-in-2020.html">everything I read in 2020</a>. The authors below are repeat authors; the rest on the list were new-to-me!</span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkQ5pQU2xNWvzk5yF96J9RXYyxAAi-rYUanNPQeHhCoqWO3OnWn9Fs_Ra5CJqsyJPUNBTxqdTsjy1zTKlKxY_IIn5t2eF1kMx-FUHWt4C4vDHU6Sftk6JzkZP6wAMmV-RAGHF7gdBqvyZ4/s499/51fcDYBoPcL._SX328_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkQ5pQU2xNWvzk5yF96J9RXYyxAAi-rYUanNPQeHhCoqWO3OnWn9Fs_Ra5CJqsyJPUNBTxqdTsjy1zTKlKxY_IIn5t2eF1kMx-FUHWt4C4vDHU6Sftk6JzkZP6wAMmV-RAGHF7gdBqvyZ4/s320/51fcDYBoPcL._SX328_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Exiles-Novel-Christina-Baker-Kline/dp/0062356348/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=exiles&qid=1611517431&s=books&sr=1-1">The Exiles </a>by Christina Baker Kline: I've also read <a href="https://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2014/09/book-reviews-sweet-water-and-desire.html">Sweet Water, Desire Lines</a>, <a href="https://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2017/08/books-read-in-may-and-june.html">A Piece of the World</a>, <a href="http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2014/12/book-review-way-life-should-be.html">The Way Life Should Be,</a> and, of course, <i>Orphan Train</i>. I was surprised to peruse my blog and see how many books of Kline's I have read and enjoyed!</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><i>Persuasion</i> by Jane Austen: A re-read for book club. I've also read Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNzgl7xZebhHMT_wk1Z8tFvtnixmrT5hZD4p90ysT8jpDykIuCKNaBjcP3VnxR1Wo49AMhHuQSOhf1TI6gU_hwD1cW7TfgaricNbRgioagMECoWdoAfJn_drz6rX-iUiffAZUAx4AP9r1/s346/512yvkT7UmL._SY346_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="230" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNzgl7xZebhHMT_wk1Z8tFvtnixmrT5hZD4p90ysT8jpDykIuCKNaBjcP3VnxR1Wo49AMhHuQSOhf1TI6gU_hwD1cW7TfgaricNbRgioagMECoWdoAfJn_drz6rX-iUiffAZUAx4AP9r1/s320/512yvkT7UmL._SY346_.jpg" /></a></div><i><p><i><br /></i></p>The Bean Trees</i><span style="background-color: white;"> by Barbara Kingsolver: Re-read for another book club. I've read lots of Kingsolver: </span><a href="https://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-review-lacuna.html">The Lacuna,</a><span style="background-color: white;"> <i>The Poisonwood Bible </i>(three times), <i>Pigs in Heaven, Prodigal Summer, Animal Dreams</i>. There are several I have yet to read and need to add to my TBR list.</span><p></p><p>The Secrets of Love Story Bridge by Phaedra Patrick. I'd previously read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Curious-Charms-Arthur-Pepper/dp/0778319806/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=phaedra+patrick&qid=1611516123&sr=8-3">The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper</a> and loved it. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Library-Lost-Found-Novel/dp/0778309827/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=phaedra+patrick&qid=1611516123&sr=8-4">The Library of Lost and Found </a>is on my library wait list.</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Book-Lost-Friends-Novel/dp/1984819887/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=lisa+wingate&qid=1611516274&sr=8-2">The Book of Lost Friends</a> by Lisa Wingate. I've also read Before We Were Yours.</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Upstream-Selected-Essays-Mary-Oliver/dp/0143130080/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=mary+oliver&qid=1611516372&sr=8-4">Upstream: Selected Essays</a> by Mary Oliver. I've read many collections of Oliver's poems, including <i>Devotions, A Thousand Mornings, Why I Wake Early, </i>and<i> New and Selected Poems.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkRrvQuwNUPIgXZjfPe8LTVcjLbWQVaOhepTco93MGitAg2T_bPnDMIJj2LLbjxEXRrIsAIEH6wZ3yQ4qQ0i04WMGcR08D3wuTWo6iTF5sCAz_j5ql5VRATn4oRp1SZg5LnTfpHpc9nGt/s499/41wa0yww9iL._SX301_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="303" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkRrvQuwNUPIgXZjfPe8LTVcjLbWQVaOhepTco93MGitAg2T_bPnDMIJj2LLbjxEXRrIsAIEH6wZ3yQ4qQ0i04WMGcR08D3wuTWo6iTF5sCAz_j5ql5VRATn4oRp1SZg5LnTfpHpc9nGt/s320/41wa0yww9iL._SX301_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></div><i><br /></i><p></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Redhead-Side-Road-Anne-Tyler/dp/0525658416/ref=sr_1_1?crid=E7MSV098Q7AJ&dchild=1&keywords=redhead+by+the+side+of+the+road+anne+tyler&qid=1611516481&sprefix=redhead+by+the+%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-1">Redhead by the Side of the Road</a> by Anne Tyler. I'm not sure there is anything by Anne Tyler I haven't read, beginning with The Accidental Tourist when I was 22, right after graduating from college. I've devoured every one of her books since then.</p><p><a href="https://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-review-things-fall-apart.html">Things Fall Apart</a> by Chinua Achebe. Multiple re-read.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZCdf4lnshDymTa8wNy5Rmr-49OdgBrRj9zPjyWI7Pj_Ui4Ddtigp4w29OgKw1r7mqyl6adlQ0LwNllqNsIhII5CKuaDgubopbU9Whba8jZHJ6GyTKB6ps_Q99vlMpvprvp_eRDvQWoC9U/s500/51i3gGKwenL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZCdf4lnshDymTa8wNy5Rmr-49OdgBrRj9zPjyWI7Pj_Ui4Ddtigp4w29OgKw1r7mqyl6adlQ0LwNllqNsIhII5CKuaDgubopbU9Whba8jZHJ6GyTKB6ps_Q99vlMpvprvp_eRDvQWoC9U/s320/51i3gGKwenL.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/When-Lights-Out-Mary-Kubica-ebook/dp/B076PNB3MB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2NG64OYAZXTM0&dchild=1&keywords=when+the+lights+go+out+by+mary+kubica&qid=1611517931&s=digital-text&sprefix=when+the+lights%2Cdigital-text%2C199&sr=1-1">When the Lights Go Out</a> by Mary Kubica. I've also read <i>The Good Girl</i> and <i>Every Last Lie</i>.</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/You-Were-Always-Mine-Novel-ebook/dp/B07CMMGSSV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2TSGTG2ZGVJSS&dchild=1&keywords=you+were+always+mine&qid=1611518005&s=digital-text&sprefix=you+were+always%2Cdigital-text%2C183&sr=1-1">You Were Always Mine</a> by Nicole Baart. I read her <i>Little Broken Things</i> in 2019.</p><p style="text-align: right;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: right;">Linked up with <a href="http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/2021/01/top-ten-new-to-me-authors-i-discovered-in-2020/" target="_blank">Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl</a></p><p><br /></p>Sarah at SmallWorldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15306137253094526922noreply@blogger.com6