I feel like this was a really great month of reading for me. Several authors I've never read before, 2 biographies, just lots of 'not the norm' for me! Hoping for some picks my readers will enjoy, too!
Irena's Children by Tilar J. Mazzeo - You guys know I love books about women/civilians in WW2 {see The Nightingale, Lilac Girls, War Brides, The Paris Architect}. Well, this is a biography of a woman who helped 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto escape. WOW! This book was so great. Very hard to read at times {the atrocities of the Nazis continues to disgust me} but so, so amazing to hear what a few brave people were able to do.
Come Sundown by Nora Roberts - I had been on hold for this book for a while thinking it was a different one coming out in the fall that is kind of apocalyptic, but it wasn't that one. A very traditional NR mystery, but I really enjoyed it!
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson - I have never heard of this author and my Overdrive app recommended it based on me searching for something else, and I'm glad I took the recommendation! It's about a family - grandmother, mother, daughter, and each chapter is told from a different perspective as they go through a crisis/family mystery. The grandmother had the mother at 15 and the mother had the daughter at 15 and the daughter is currently 15. It was a very good story - I loved that it jumped perspectives and how the story unfolded/mystery was solved. I will definitely read more by this author!
The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz - So I found out about 25% into this book that it's a YA book. Shocker. It's written as a diary of a young girl, Joan, who grew up on a farm and ran away and became a live-in servant of a wealthy family in Baltimore. This was a quick read and a couple of times I rolled my eyes at the predicaments Joan gets herself into, but I really thought it was a great story.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn - So a crossover of 2 women - Eve, who was a spy in WW1 in the Alice network and Charlie, who is looking for her missing cousin in France after WW2. The story jumps back and forth from Eve's story to Charlie's story. I ate this up and read most of it in 2 sittings. It definitely wasn't a happy read {we are talking about 2 wars}, but it was a very enthralling story!
Alex The Life of a Child by Frank Deford - A little back story on this book. I remember watching the 'made for TV' movie based on this book when I was a kid, and I found out my granny had the book, so I borrowed it and read it. I remember finishing it during reading time in middle school and just sobbing {so embarrassing} at the end. Well, I am not one to hang onto 'stuff' for the fact that it belonged to someone else, but when my granny died, I took this book. I re-read it this month. It's about a little girl, Alex, born with cystic fibrosis. Her dad, Frank Deford, is a writer who recently passed away (which is part of what got me thinking about this book), and he wrote about her life. It is such a sad story of a little girl who endured a lot in her short 8 years. I bawled and bawled over the last 20 pages! Especially touching right now as Trent just turned 8 and having a baby reminds me how lucky we are to have gotten 3 healthy kids. Just really makes me look at all 3 of my babies and want to hug them extra hard.
Read anything good this month?
2 comments:
You had some heavy reads this month! I finished the Lunar chronicles and I'm reading Fairest which gives the back story of the evil Luna queen (she and her sister were total royal b*tches and remind me of Regina!). August bc is The Attachments and were going to go see the Glass Castle (which I haven't read yet).
I'm so sad that our library's online catalogue is currently experiencing difficulties because I really want to get some of these books!
I too love the WW 1 and 2 stories, as long as they aren't too specific about what happened to Jewish people. As you may, or may not, know, my husband is Jewish and we are raising our children in both faiths. So when I read books like The Nightingale or The Paris Architect and they are too graphic about what happened to Jewish people (especially children), I can't handle it because I just see my husband and my kids. This is why I still can't get through The Nightingale :(
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