June Mini-Reviews: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, and The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

 

 The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

Houghton Mifflin 2007

245 pages

Blackstone Audio, 2007

narrated by Anne Flosnik

7 hours and 18 minutes

Maggie O'Farrell was on my 2022 list of Must-Try Authors and this was the perfect place to start - a book that has it all! A propelling plot, fully-developed characters, and beautiful writing made this reading experience a real pleasure. Family secrets, a Victorian insane asylum, and a setting in Scotland further added to the appeal.

I started out reading this book on my kindle, but added in the audio when I discovered that it's currently free in the audible plus catalog. I listened on my walks and read in every spare minute at home. The perfect ending packs a punch! Now I'm ready for more Maggie O'Farrell. Do you have a favorite to recommend?

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

W. W. Norton Company, 2016

(originally published in 1966)

176 pages

Wide Sargasso Sea  has been on my wish list and my Classics Club list for years. The novel is, of course, an imagining of Bertha Rochester's life before she became the "madwoman in the attic" in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. It offers the reader an opportunity to look at Brontë’s story from a different perspective. Since I reread Jane Eyre last summer, it made sense to pick up Rhys's novel while  the details are still fairly fresh in my mind.

The writing in Wide Sargasso Sea  is as lush and atmospheric as its Caribbean setting and is what I most appreciated about the novel. The story shifts viewpoints between Antoinette (as we learn Bertha prefers to be called) and a young Englishman we assume to be Rochester. Both are sympathetically portrayed, especially Antionette, but I found the storyline to be slow and a bit confusing at times. 

Pick this up if you love beautiful writing and are curious to learn how the "madwoman" may have come to inhabit Mr. Rochester's attic.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

St. Martin's Press, 2021

464 pages

audio edition narrated by Julia Whelan

Mcmillan Audio, 2021

15 hours and 2 minutes

This novel of the Dust Bowl novel is the July selection for a library book group  I plan to join next week.  It's about Elsa Martinelli, a farmer's wife in Texas who, after being abandoned by her husband, takes her two children and leaves to find work/a better life in California. 

This story is laden with misery... misery on the farm in Texas as the land gradually dies, misery on the journey west and in the filthy, disease-ridden migrant camps of California, and finally, the misery of surviving at the mercy of big cotton growers. Since this is a  Kirstin Hannah novel, the pages turn quickly... but the misery is unrelenting! 

I'm sure, for the most part, this is an accurate representation the time, but to me it bordered on being emotionally manipulative. So while I compulsively tore through The Four Winds, it mostly made me want to reread John Steinbeck's classic novel, The Grapes of Wrath. I need to be reminded how a master handles the same subject. I'm also planning to watch The Dust Bowl, Ken Burns PBS documentary.

Book Brief: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

 Lessons in Chemistry 

by Bonnie Garmus

 Doubleday Books, 2022

400 pages

audio edition  narrated by Miranda Raison

Random House Audio, 2022

11 hours and 55 minutes

source: library ebook, audible audio

Goodreads summary:

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with--of all things--her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking ("combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride") proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry  is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

My thoughts:

This is the  buzzy book of the season and with good reason! Elizabeth Zott is one of the most memorable characters I've come across in a very long time, and the supporting cast of characters (including the dog Six-thirty) is superb. 

However, 

...this was not the book I was expecting. The cover implies light and breezy, while the blurb describes the novel as  "laugh-out-loud funny."  I experienced something much more substantial and serious. Garmis offers some pretty grim social commentary on the status of women during the 1960s, which somehow feels even heavier in light of last Friday's Supreme Court ruling.

Lessons in Chemistry  is still a wonderful read. (Trigger warning for a sexual assault scene early in the novel.)  But I do recommend you read, rather than listen. The repeated mispronunciation of Jack LaLanne's name was annoying, but the mispronunciation of multiple chemical names/terms drove me to distraction. I had to give up on the audio and switch to print.

If you're looking for a summer read that's a bit more serious and will easily lend itself to discussion, I recommend Lessons in Chemistry.

My rating:

Book Brief: The Absolutist by John Boyne

 

The Absolutist by John Boyne

Doubleday, 2011

309 pages

Motivation for reading:

John Boyne has been on my radar for years, but Les's recent review convinced me the time had come to try one of his novels.

Source: ebook borrowed from the library

Publisher's summary (from goodreads):

It is September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War. 

But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France. The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery as well as confusion and unbearable pain. 

The Absolutist  is a masterful tale of passion, jealousy, heroism, and betrayal set in one of the most gruesome trenches of France during World War I. This novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats until its most extraordinary and unexpected conclusion, and will stay with them long after they've turned the last page.

My thoughts:

The stars aligned for a great reading experience last week. It started with Les's review, which appeared just as I was about to select my next book. Then, consulting goodreads, I found several other trusted blogging friends loved it, too. And finally, the ebook was available for immediate download from my library.

Choosing this book was a bit of a departure for me -  I do not read war books. Novels focused on life back home or women at Bletchley Park, for example, are fine, but I prefer not to go to the front. The Absolutist  took me right into the trenches. In addition to the actual fighting, descriptive details of lice infestation, unrelenting mud, and physical hardship made for tough reading at times... but it was all relevant, even necessary, to the story.

The writing itself was excellent and the character development superb. I loved getting to know Tristan and Will and also appreciated the way Boyne portrayed minor characters. The ending literally took my breath away.

I know many of you have read John Boyne and I will definitely seek out more of his work. Are they all this intense? What do you suggest I read next?

My rating:

Book Brief: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites
by Hannah Kent
336 pages
Little, Brown and Company, 2013
source: personal copy (ebook and audiobook)


This book has been languishing on my kindle for quite some time. Thanks to an audible daily deal, I recently snapped up the audio version (skillfully narrated by  Morven Christie) and began a read/listen combination.

Burial Rites  is based on the true story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last person to be executed in Iceland. She was convicted of the brutal 1828 murder of her former master, then sent to live on a remote farm while awaiting execution. As she forms a relationship with the family and a young minister, her story is gradually revealed.

Iceland itself is central to the story - the landscape, weather, light and darkness, and even its smells. Burial Rites  is a novel for the senses, and the audiobook adds to the overall experience. I loved the author's portrayal of the country and her characterization of Agnes. The gradual reveal of Agnes' story kept me reading... surprisingly skillful for a debut novelist. I have added Kent's second novel, The Good People, to my wish list.

My rating:

Book Brief: Belgravia by Julian Fellowes

Belgravia 
by Julian Fellowes
Grand Central Publishing, 2016
402 pages
source: purchased

Audio edition:
Hachette Audio, 2016
narrated by Juliet Stevenson
15 hours and 48 minutes
source: Borrowed from library

Publisher's Summary:
Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. Set in the 1840s, when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's new legendary ball, one family's life will change forever.

My thoughts:

"Show, don't tell." 

When it comes to writing, we're all familiar with that basic rule. Julian Fellowes not only breaks it with Belgravia, he totally ignores it. This novel is ALL telling... and yet, still immensely enjoyable.

Belgravia  is a rollicking good story filled with a big family secret, social class and position, upstairs/downstairs tension, and intrigue - so  Julian Fellowes! While there's nothing special in the writing, Juliet Stevenson's narration is perfection. I could practically see the miniseries as I listened. And I'm guessing that's exactly as Lord Fellowes intended.

I especially recommend this book as a follow-up to an intense, emotionally draining read. It was exactly what I needed after Germinal.

My rating:

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah has been the book for a long time. Surely everyone had read it, but I continued to resist. All the hype was a deterrent, but the plot summary didn't interest me either. Why read yet another WWII novel?

Last year the Ford Audiobook Club on Goodreads - now know simply as Audiobook Club, since Ford ended its sponsorship - provided many members with a free audio edition of The Nightingale. I received one of the complimentary copies (thank you, Ford!), listened to the first fifteen or twenty minutes (twice) and decided I still wasn't in the mood for a WWII novel. Also, I associated Kristin Hannah with lighter women's fiction, and wasn't interested in that either. Several months later, the ebook was featured as a kindle daily deal. Since I enjoy a good read/listen combination, taking advantage of that offer wasn't even a question.

But still I waited...

A few months later, The Nightingale  won the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for historical fiction. And then at the Audie Awards in May 2016, it won the fiction award.

The time had come.

The Nightingale tells the story of the women's war...of "two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women."  (read the full summary here)

As expected, the narration was excellent; Polly Stone certainly deserved the Audie. But the first half of the novel was slow - it took me nearly a week to reach the 50% mark. At that point, things changed and I raced through the second half in less than twenty-four hours. So real, so emotional... I could not put it down. And since there are already so many reviews out there, I'll just leave it at that.

A couple of quotes:

Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over. 

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

Bottom line:
Despite a slow start, The Nightingale is historical fiction at its finest.

My rating:

Circling the Sun, West With the Night, and my book club

I was disappointed when my book club selected Circling the Sun by Paula McLain for our May discussion. I listened to McLain's earlier novel, The Paris Wife, in 2011 and thought it was a good book, but not a great one. Still, I resolved to give her latest a try. After a winter in Florida, I missed my book club and wasn't about to go to the meeting without having read the book.

Basically, the novel is a fictionalized biography of Beryl Markham, who is perhaps best known as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. She was also an accomplished horse trainer and lived in Africa for most of her life.

I opted for a read/listen combination, borrowing the book from the library and using an audible credit to download the audiobook narrated by Katharine McEwan. McEwan's narration is excellent and easily pulled me into the story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Markham's childhood in Africa, career as a horse trainer, friendship with Karen Blixen (Out of Africa author), and her many affairs.

Yet there was a good deal of frustration, too. Beryl Markham was a real person, so which parts were fact and which were products of the author's imagination? This is a problem I have with all fictionalized biographies... and why they usually end up sending me in search of the real thing.

In this case, the real thing is West With the Night by Beryl Markham. Again, I borrowed the book from the library and downloaded the audio version narrated by the late Anna Fields. It was a pleasure to hear Field's voice again, but I had a much harder time getting into this one.

Markham doesn't let the reader get as close as the fictional Beryl in Circling the Sun does. Her feelings seem to be wholly absent from the book. She obviously loves Africa and her work (horses and flying), but there is very little here about relationships. Her emotional self and personal life remain an enigma. When Denys Hatton-Finch dies in a plane crash, there is no hint of anything more than a working relationship between the two them. (Perhaps that was a fictional aspect of Circling the Sun?) Markham's mother and Karen Blixen are not even mentioned.

West With the Night does provide wonderful descriptions of Africa, as well as stories of Markham's work as a horse trainer and her experiences as a pilot. That is more than enough to make this an interesting memoir.

A couple of quotes:

"Africa is mystic; it is wild; it is a sweltering inferno; it is a photographer's paradise, a hunter's Valhalla, an escapist's Utopia. It is what you will, and it withstands all interpretations."  

"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself. You learn to watch other people, but you never watch yourself because you strive against loneliness. If you read a book, or shuffle a deck of cards, or care for a dog, you are avoiding yourself. The abhorrence of loneliness is as natural as wanting to live at all. If it were otherwise, men would never have bothered to make an alphabet, nor to have fashioned words out of what were only animal sounds, nor to have crossed continents -- each man to see what the other looked like."

My final thoughts:

I enjoyed the Circling the Sun and rated it 4 stars. West With the Night  was a very good memoir, but not what I was expecting. For that reason, I ended up giving it 3 stars.

I'm certain I would have liked West With the Night  more if I'd read it before the novel. That way, the novel could have filled in the blanks left by the memoir. Instead, the memoir failed to provide the answers I sought. However, since Markham's personal account is so vague, I now understand the motivation for writing a novel.

Book club meeting:

Six of us met for coffee on a Friday morning, and five had read the entire book. I thought this would have been a very popular selection but, surprisingly, I enjoyed it more than most of the others. I was also the only one compelled to seek out the memoir.

We spent some time bemoaning the current popularity of fictionalized biographies, discussing our frustrations with that type of novel, and wondering how much longer the trend will continue. We also shared our experiences with the author's previous book (not a book club selection, but one most of us had read) and compared it to Circling the Sun.

We spent a great deal of time talking about Markham herself and how she was a woman ahead of her time. Her life was certainly remarkable, but not especially shocking by today's standards. We also discussed life in Africa, both during Markham's time and today, and even took a little detour into the world of "Glamping" and safaris.

Next month we will discuss Nobody's Fool  by Richard Russo.

West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan: Pick or Pass?

West of Sunset
by Stewart O'Nan
Viking, 2015
305 pages
source: review copy from publisher via Netgalley

Regular readers of this blog know I am a huge fan of author Stewart O'Nan. I am in awe of his ability to turn ordinary people and the mundane events of daily life into novels filled with characters and situations that genuinely matter to me. O'Nan also has the distinction of being the only author I have ever pre-ordered.

His new novel, West of Sunset, is a bit of a departure. As you've probably heard, the novel is about F. Scott Fitzgerald, specifically the last three years of his life. He is a "has been" in literary circles, his health is failing, and Zelda is institutionalized. He moves to Hollywood to try his hand at screenwriting. There are no ordinary people or mundane events here. Instead, big time celebrities grace these pages - Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Bogie, Joan Crawford, George Oppenheimer, and the list goes on.

The novels starts off slowly. Very slowly. In fact, I considered abandoning it. HOWEVER, it is Stewart O'Nan and I did request a review copy, so I chose to continue and was eventually rewarded.

Should you read West of Sunset?  I do recommend this novel, but with reservations. Hopefully my "Pick or Pass" will help you make your decision.

Pick up West of Sunset  if:

• You are a die-hard fan of Stewart O'Nan and want to read everything he has ever written.
• You can't get enough of F. Scott Fitzgerald, his novels, or his life with Zelda.
• You generally enjoy fictionalized accounts of the lives of famous people.
• You appreciate a beautifully written, well-researched piece of fiction which provides insight into the life of its subject.

Pass on West of Sunset  if:

• You are curious about Stewart O'Nan and would like to try one of his novels. Do yourself a favor and pick up Last Night at the Lobster  instead.
• You don't have much interest in F. Scott Fitzgerald or Hollywood. This will surely bore you to death.
• Your primary interest in the Fitzgerald household is Zelda. She's a minor player here.
• You often wonder why, after so much research on the subject, an author chooses to write a novel instead of a biography.

What do you think? Will you pick or pass?

Not Exactly Euphoric

As they were leaving the Mumbanyo, someone threw something at them. It bobbed a few yards from the stern of the canoe. A pale brown thing.
'Another dead baby,' Fen said.
He had broken her glasses by then, so she didn't know if he was joking.

The opening lines of Euphoria by Lily King, among the oddest I've encountered, left me feeling slightly off-balance. Unfortunately, I was never able regain my equilibrium or fully connect with the novel.

Inspired by events in the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria tells the story of "three young, gifted anthropologists in the 1930s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives."

I listened to the book in December after it was offered as an audible daily deal. In addition to the price, there were three additional draws:
-  it had appeared on several year-end "Best of" lists
-  I have a vague interest in both anthropology and Margaret Mead
-  narrators Simon Vance and Xe Sands are among my favorites

While I found lots of interesting anthropological tidbits, the novel itself just didn't have much of an impact on me.

The high point was definitely the narration. Euphoria perfectly lends itself to a dual narrator production and the combination of Simon Vance with Xe Sands was inspired. Vance, narrating the larger portion as Englishman Andrew Bankson, easily slips in and out of an Aussie accent. Sands narration adds depth and understanding to the character of Nell Stone.

Not a favorite by any means, but I'm glad I listened.

My rating:

Euphoria
by Lily King
narrated by Simon Vance, Xe Sands
Blackstone Audio, 2014
6 hours and 53 minutes

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You
by Celeste Ng
narrated by Cassandra Campbell
Blackstone Audio, 2014
10 hours and 1minute
source: purchased

Summary (from goodreads):
Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . . So begins this debut novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970s Ohio and the tragedy that will either be their undoing or their salvation. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn’s case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James’s case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.

When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart.

My thoughts:

In a year rife with outstanding debut novels, Everything I Never Told You  stands out as one of the finest.

The sad lack of communication and understanding within the mixed-race Lee family is at the heart of this novel. Marilyn and James Lee, both misfits themselves, do not understand their children. They don't really understand each other either. The three children, Nath, Lydia, and Hannah, don't understand their parents enough to make sense of their actions, demands, and expectations. Lydia and Nath, though close, are too focused on their own lives and coping mechanisms to offer the other much support. And poor Hannah, the youngest, who sees and understands more than anyone realizes, is practically a nonentity to the rest of the family.

The novel opens with the stark statement that Lydia is dead. From there, it moves backward and forward through time, forcing the reader to pay close attention, but rewarding the effort with a gradual revelation of character, motivation, and, ultimately, circumstances surrounding Lydia's death.

Set in Ohio in the 70's, I loved the cultural references - the television shows, the fashions, and the ubiquitous Farrah Fawcett hair. But be forewarned, this is a sad book. Perhaps it wasn't the best listening choice for wrapping Christmas presents or my bouts of pre-holiday insomnia, but it is still brilliant. Book clubs will have a field day discussing these characters.

Everything I Never Told You  should be required reading for anyone with children. As you ask yourself how the Lees got it all so spectacularly wrong, you will be inspired to pay closer attention to your own family. You will be forced to re-examine the hopes and dreams you hold for your children, as well as your underlying motivation.

A note on the audio production: 
I chose to listen to this book because it is narrated by Cassandra Campbell. As always, she delivers an amazing performance. For me, an outstanding narrator can sometimes carry an average novel and it is often hard to judge how I might react to the book in print. However, I am certain I would have loved Everything I Never Told You  in any format.

Bottom line: 
Do not miss this book!

My rating:

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal

Dollbaby
by Laura Lane McNeal
narrated by January Lavoy
Penguin Audio, 2014
11 hours and 12 minutes
source: purchased

Publisher's Summary:

A big-hearted coming-of-age debut set in civil rights-era New Orleans - a novel of Southern eccentricity and secrets.

When Ibby Bell's father dies unexpectedly in the summer of 1964, her mother unceremoniously deposits Ibby with her eccentric grandmother Fannie and throws in her father's urn for good measure. Fannie's New Orleans house is like no place Ibby has ever been - and Fannie, who has a tendency to end up in the local asylum - is like no one she has ever met. Fortunately, Fannie's black cook, Queenie, and her smart-mouthed daughter, Dollbaby, take it upon themselves to initiate Ibby into the ways of the South, both its grand traditions and its darkest secrets.

For Fannie's own family history is fraught with tragedy, hidden behind the closed rooms in her ornate Uptown mansion. It will take Ibby's arrival to begin to unlock the mysteries there. And it will take Queenie and Dollbaby's hard-won wisdom to show Ibby that family can sometimes be found in the least expected places.

For fans of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and The Help, Dollbaby  brings to life the charm and unrest of 1960s New Orleans through the eyes of a young girl learning to understand race for the first time.

By turns uplifting and funny, poignant and full of verve, Dollbaby  is an audiobook listeners will take to their hearts.

My thoughts:

Have you ever read a novel and enjoyed the characters so much you hated to say goodbye? That's exactly how I felt about Ibby (Liberty), Fannie, Queenie, and Dollbaby. Every moment I spent with them was a treat.

Set in 1960's New Orleans, Dollbaby  is brimming with southern charm and atmosphere, but also reflects the racial tension of that time period. It's a coming-of-age story filled with joy, sadness, love, self-discovery, and, of course, family secrets.

And I loved it.

Dollbaby  is an impressive debut novel. I'll be reading whatever McNeal writes next.

About the audio production:
Listening to Dollbaby  was a near perfect audiobook experience. January Lavoy delivers an outstanding performance and is my top narrator discovery of the year. Whether you are an audiobook evangelist or considering your first listen, Dollbaby gets my highest recommendation.

My rating:

Bottom line:
Dollbaby is my favorite audiobook fiction of 2014.  Read or listen, just don't miss this one!

The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes

The Ship of Brides
by Jojo Moyes
Penguin Books, 2014
originally published in 2005
496 pages
source: Netgalley (via publisher for review consideration)

Summary (from goodreads):

The year is 1946, and all over the world, young women are crossing the seas in the thousands en route to the men they married in wartime - and an unknown future. In Sydney, Australia, four women join 650 other brides on an extraordinary voyage to England, aboard the HMS Victoria, which also carries not just arms and aircraft but 1,000 naval officers and men. Rules of honour, duty, and separation are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier's captain down to the lowliest young stoker. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined in ways the Navy could never have imagined.

My thoughts:

Jojo Moyes has done it again! Actually, she did it about ten years ago, but The Ship of Brides  has recently become available to US readers in digital format, with the paperback release scheduled for later this fall.

Since December, I have read four of  Jojo Moyes' novels and am struck by how different they are. Some authors seem to hit upon a formula or theme and rework it again and again, while each of Moyes' novels seems fresh and new. Me Before You  is a contemporary story told from alternating viewpoints, The Girl You Left Behind  features dual story lines, past and present, which ultimately converge, and Honeymoon in Paris is a novella and prequel to The Girl You Left Behind.

The Ship of Brides is basically historical fiction with a present-day beginning and end. After WWII, hundreds of young Australian brides board a navy ship which will carry them to England to be reunited with their new husbands. I love it when some small kernel of history provides fodder for a novel, and the post-war time period is a favorite. The combination of brides, crew, close quarters, and a long journey certainly makes for some interesting reading.

Moyes gives us a wide variety of characters whose dialog and interactions always ring true. However, the number of characters made the beginning of the novel slow-going for me. I read the first several chapters in small, short bursts over the course of nearly a week and initially had a hard time keeping the characters straight. Perhaps that would not have been the case if I'd read the first few chapters in one sitting. That being said, I tore through the last half of The Ship of Brides  in under 24 hours - simply couldn't put it down!

As Jojo Moyes continues to work on new novels, US readers can now wander through her backlist. I, for one, look forward to the journey.

Bottom line: Fans of Jojo Moyes won't want to miss The Ship of Brides.

My rating:

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd
narrated by Jenna Lamia, Adepero Oduye, Sue Monk Kidd
Penguin Audio, 2014
13 hours and 46 minutes
source: purchased

Publisher's Summary:
Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

My Thoughts:

It's always a good thing when a novel sends me back to my history books. I had heard that the Grimke sisters in The Invention of Wings were real people, but that fact slipped my mind until I was almost halfway through the book. Once it finally clicked, I became even more impressed with both the novel and the research behind it.

The Invention of Wings makes early nineteenth century Charleston come alive - I could practically feel its pulse. Sarah Grimke is our window into its slave-owning, high-society circles. At the beginning of the novel she receives a slave, complete with a lavender bow tied around her neck, as an eleventh birthday present. Hetty, that slave, also known as Handful, represents the opposite end of the spectrum. Their stories, perfectly balanced and told in alternating voices, give structure to the novel. They eventually collide with the abolition movement and the birth of the struggle for women's rights.

I especially loved the scene featuring locally-famous abolitionist Gerritt Smith set in Peterboro, NY (just minutes from my home). My proximity to Seneca Falls also makes Lucretia Mott and others involved in the women's rights movement seem like local heroes. It's always a thrill for me when they pop up in novels. Other elements I enjoyed were the Quakers and quilting - particularly the "story quilt" as a means for illiterate slaves to share their lives with future generations.

The authors note at the end was much appreciated, and especially enjoyable on audio as it is her own voice. Kidd explains in great detail which parts of the novel are factual and what is imagined. She explains how the novel was born and offers suggestions for further reading.

A note on the audio production:

The beginning of the The Invention of Wings marked a strange audio first for me. Most of you know I love audiobooks and find many narrator's voices to be immediately recognizable, yet I have never "heard" a character from another novel before. This time I was initially puzzled to hear Skeeter from The Help (an all-time favorite audio) and wondered what she was doing here. It took several minutes for me to erase Skeeter and begin to hear Sarah Grimke.

Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye are both outstanding as they give voice to Sarah and Hetty. Lamia, of course, is an old favorite from The Help, but Oduye is a new and promising voice. Listening to these two very talented women added another dimension to the story.

Bottom line:  I highly recommend listening to this novel. It is easily one of my favorite audiobooks of the year.

My rating:

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
by Ariel Lawhon
Doubleday, 2014
320 pages
source: borrowed from the library

Summary (from goodreads):
A tantalizing reimagining of a scandalous mystery that rocked the nation in 1930-Justice Joseph Crater's infamous disappearance-as seen through the eyes of the three women who knew him best.

They say behind every great man, there's a woman. In this case, there are three. Stella Crater, the judge's wife, is the picture of propriety draped in long pearls and the latest Chanel. Ritzi, a leggy showgirl with Broadway aspirations, thinks moonlighting in the judge's bed is the quickest way off the chorus line. Maria Simon, the dutiful maid, has the judge to thank for her husband's recent promotion to detective in the NYPD. Meanwhile, Crater is equally indebted to Tammany Hall leaders and the city's most notorious gangster, Owney "The Killer" Madden.

On a sultry summer night, as rumors circulate about the judge's involvement in wide-scale political corruption, the Honorable Joseph Crater steps into a cab and disappears without a trace. Or does he?

My thoughts:

My sister recently asked for a vacation book recommendation... something absorbing and face-paced that would keep her turning the pages, but no fluff. She's also a nonfiction fan and, since it's based on a true story, I figured The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress might be the perfect choice. It was. She loved it.

I knew she would. I'd read it in Florida just a month earlier and had been telling everyone else to read it, too - family, friends, my book club, even the bunco group I occasionally attend.

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress is a wonderful piece of storytelling based on the disappearance of  New York City Judge Joseph Crater in 1930. As you might imagine, there is no shortage of gangsters, showgirls, or political corruption in this tale. The only thing that slowed my reading was getting lost on google. I couldn't resist looking up the people and places mentioned!

I also appreciated the very detailed author's note at the end. Lawhon clearly separates fact from fiction. Some characters are real, others are imagined, and a few are amalgamations of various key players. The actual case remains unsolved.

Highly recommended. Add it to your summer reading list now!

My rating:

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

The Girl You Left Behind
by Jojo Moyes
Pamela Dorman Books, 2013
385 pages
source : purchased e-book (I love amazon's kindle daily deals!)

Summary (from goodreads):
In 1916, French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life - in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting's dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened...

In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most - whatever the cost.

My thoughts:
I rarely read two books by the same author in such quick succession, but this is my second Jojo Moyes novel in as many months… and I enjoyed it even more than Me Before You.

The Girl You Left Behind  utilizes a device that has become increasingly popular in recent years. It alternates between a story set in the past and one in the present. The German occupation of France during WWI serves as the historical backdrop, a lost love is central to both plot lines, and a painting connects the two.

I am not normally drawn to fiction featuring either art or war, but that didn't seem to matter here because Moyes' storytelling is simply captivating. I was hooked by the first chapter and once I reached the midpoint, I could not put the book down.

Moyes has a new novel coming this summer, but in the meantime I plan to work my way through her backlist.

My rating:

Bottom line:
Very different from and, in my opinion, even better than Me Before You... The Girl You Left Behind is a must read!

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (audio)

The Last Runaway
by Tracy Chevalier
Narrated by Kate Reading
Penguin Audio, 2013
9 hours and 51 minutes
source: review copy provided by publisher

Publisher's Summary:

In New York Times best-selling author Tracy Chevalier’s newest historical saga, she introduces Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker who moves to Ohio in 1850, only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land. Sick from the moment she leaves England, and fleeing personal disappointment, she is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape.

Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and unsentimental, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality.

However, drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, Honor befriends two surprising women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs.

A powerful journey brimming with color and drama, The Last Runaway is Tracy Chevalier’s vivid engagement with an iconic part of American history.


My thoughts:

The Last Runaway  offers its reader a glimpse into 1850's Quaker life, the workings of the Underground Railroad, and one young English woman's perspective on the strangeness of life in America. The story is told with no-frills language in a very straight-forward manner, and the inclusion of Honor's letters to family and friends back home in England provides a better understanding of her character.

"I feel very confused now. I am in a part of the country where there is much movement, and yet I do not know where to move myself. And America is such a peculiar country. It is young and untested, its foundations uncertain." 

Quilting is also prominently featured in the narrative. There is a good deal of discussion about patterns, styles, and technique which may seem tedious to the reader with no prior knowledge or interest in the subject. However, it was a plus for me.

Finally, after a string of books with ambiguous endings, the tidy resolution of this story proved very satisfying.

A note on the audio production:

Kate Reading's list of audio credits is extensive, but this was my first experience with her narration.  Her adopted tone and manner were perfectly suited to Quaker speech and enhanced my overall enjoyment of the book. 

Read or listen?

Listen, definitely.

My rating:

Bottom line : 
Not quite as strong as Chevalier's previous novels, The Last Runaway is still a good read. Recommended.

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy #1)
by Ken Follett
1008 pages
Penguin Group USA, 2010

Set in the early years of the 20th century, this sweeping saga carries us from battlefields to bedrooms across three continents. The characters, both historic and fictional, come from different countries, classes, and backgrounds, yet their lives intersect in the most plausible ways.

Fall of Giants had been on my wish list for some time when I discovered a copy on the condo bookshelf during our recent trip to Florida. Although I'd packed several vacation books, this seemed like a sign. I was immediately swept up in the drama of a tiny Welsh mining community and, before really deciding to 'commit', I'd read 100 pages. The 1000 page hardcover was far too heavy and bulky to read comfortably, so I ended up downloading the kindle version to my new paperwhite and breezed through the next 900 pages. {Unfortunately this means I have failed the TBR Double Dog Dare, but I'm still in until April.}

Fall of Giants turned out to be a perfect vacation book. Even though the character list is several pages long (and I referred to it frequently in the beginning), it's a fairly quick and easy read that held my interest for the entire thousand pages. I do enjoy a healthy dose of soap opera with my history!

Now the question is whether to download book 2 (Winter of the World) of the trilogy immediately or save it for my next vacation...

My rating:

City of Women by David R. Gillham (audio)

City of Women
by David R. Gillham
Narrated by Suzanne Bertish
Penguin Audio, 2012
13 hours and 10 minutes
source: review copy from publisher

Publisher's Summary:

It is 1943 - the height of the Second World War. With the men taken by the army, Berlin has become a city of women. And while her husband fights on the Eastern Front, Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model soldier's wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime.

But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former Jewish lover, who is now lost in the chaos of the war.

Sigrid's tedious existence is turned upside down when she finds herself hiding a mother and her two young daughters - whom she believes might be her lover's family - and she must make terrifying choices that could cost her everything.

My thoughts:

City of Women is best described in two words: tense and intense. As residents of Berlin during WWII  deal with the hardships of war, they are confronted daily with military actions which, for those like Sigrid Schröder, pose a moral dilemma. The constant doubts and suspicions of family, neighbors, and coworkers impart a palpable tension that is unrelenting over the course of the novel.

It took me a little longer than usual to become fully invested in this novel. However, once involved, City of Women haunted me night and day until I finished... and then for days afterward. The experience, while not exactly enjoyable, gives plenty of food for thought.

Caution: sexual content (especially in movie theaters)

A note on the audio production:

City of Women is one of the best-executed narrations I have come across in ten years of listening to audiobooks.  I can't imagine another narrator doing a better job with this than Suzanne Bertish. Her voice and tone are pitch perfect; you can literally feel the tension, anger, and fear. The audio version of this novel enhances and heightens the overall experience - very highly recommended.


Read or listen?
Listen, most definitely.

My rating:

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Rules of Civility
by Amor Towles
352 pages
Viking Adult, 2011
source: library, but then purchased a copy for myself

Summary (from Goodreads):

On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a yearlong journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool toward the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Condé Nast--rarefied environs where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

Wooed in turn by a shy, principled multi-millionaire and an irrepressible Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, befriended by a single-minded widow who is a ahead of her time,and challenged by an imperious mentor, Katey experiences firsthand the poise secured by wealth and station and the failed aspirations that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize how our most promising choices inevitably lay the groundwork for our regrets.

My thoughts:

Months elapsed between reading Rules of Civility and gathering my thoughts for this post - a scenario that is far too common these days, I'm afraid. What is there to say now?

• I loved this book. 
• I relished each and every sentence. 
• I will read anything Amor Towles ever writes.
• In addition to the writing, I loved the atmosphere, setting, characters, and plot. 

Can I elaborate further? No. I'm sorry.

Book club reaction:

Our discussion took place several months ago during the annual summer potluck dinner. To set the mood, we kicked off the evening with period cocktails from the 1930's. However, after a round (or three) of orange blossoms, the discussion never progressed beyond how much we all loved the book and how amazed we were that writing is not Amor Towels' day job. (He is a principal at an investment firm in Manhattan.)

Favorite quotes:

"The skyline at night is so breathtaking, and yet you could spend a whole lifetime in Manhattan and never see it. Like a mouse in a maze... Along whole avenues of the Lower East Side the sky was blotted out by elevated tracks and fire escapes and the telephone wires that had yet to be put underground. Most New Yorkers spent their lives somewhere between the fruit cart and the fifth floor. To see the city from a few hundred feet above the riffraff was pretty celestial. We gave the moment its due."

"Over Charlotte's shoulder I could see Rosie studying her nails. Fully figured with a penchant for forgetting to button the top button of her blouse, you could just tell that if Rosie couldn't romance her way to the top of the Empire State Building, she was prepared to climb it like King Kong."

"In the center of the table was a bowl of fruits so well-to-do- that half of them I'd never seen before. There was a small green furry sphere. A yellow succulent that looked like a miniature football. To get to Anne's table, they must have traveled farther than I had in traveled in my entire life."

"You look back with the benefit of age upon the dreams of most children and what makes them seem so endearing is their unattainability - this one wants to be a pirate, this one a princess, this one president. But from the way Tinker talked you got the sense that his starry-eyed dreams were still within his reach; maybe closer than ever."

"In out twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions - we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come."

My rating: