Weekly Reading Thread : April 1-6

Hey Readers,

I just finished Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles. It's about a young man who is paralyzed from a battle wound, and then one day he stands up and walks. Those around him want to exploit the miracle, and the story is about how that all turns out. It's a bit long, but it was intriguing the whole way.

I'm reading book three in the Gemina series, Obsidio. A remote rogue mining operation in deep space is attacked by a corporate enemy, and this is the the story of their survival.

Happy Reading!

I finished We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter, it's biographical about the author's family surviving the Holocaust. I wanted to like it, but I didn't, too many characters to keep track of and the writing isn't very exciting. And it jumps a lot in the story telling leaving holes in the story.

I'm now reading Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pederson. It's a historical look at what was considered medicine but was generally more dangerous than the disease. It's both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. It's a little bit amazing the human race survived itself for a long as it did.

Anatomy of a Miracle is either next or second on my TBR pile.

I am finally finishing The Kitchen God's Wife and loving it. I'm about halfway through.

I read one this week - My Absolute Darling by Tallent.

Oh. My.

Here I go again with the disclaimer. I almost didn't finish this as it is so violent and heartwrenching with serious triggers. Even so, it's an excellent story of overcoming and perseverance. 4/5 stars.

Lisa

I finished The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty. The subtitle is "A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South." Which the author definitely addresses, but the book also recounts Twitty's personal search for his ancestors and ancestry, tells of his journey as a black gay man who converted to Judaism as an adult and became a historical re-enactor, and explores the food brought from various parts of Africa and what enslaved Africans cooked for white people and ate for themselves in various regions of the South. It's a really ambitious book, in other words.

It works well in some ways and doesn't in others. His writing style is a little convoluted. He needed a better editor both to proofread and to offer organizational suggestions for the book. There are tangents that are hard to follow. But Twitty also has some breathtakingly poignant and insightful things to say about the experience of slaves in America and the experiences and emotions of current Americans who are descended from those people. So I would recommend the book if you have an interest in Southern cooking, or genealogy, or particularly the story of enslaved Americans.

I loved this book. I have the second in the series on my kindle, and it will probably be my next book to read.

We've been on vacation for the past 2 weeks, the second week at a beach resort, where I had plenty of reading time, so I've finished quite a lot.

First up was Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. I read this because we were going to Mexico, and I like reading books set where we are traveling. It was a pretty quick read, as it really drew me in. While there was a sadness to the story, the writing style kept it light and somewhat magical. I had tried to watch the film of this many years ago, and couldn't follow it - after reading the book, I know why!

Next up was The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty. This was partly family drama, partly mystery. A family living on an island in a river, north of Sydney, have built a business around the mystery of a baby found by 2 sisters 70 years earlier. When the older of these sisters dies, the family starts to unravel, and the mystery surrounding the baby - now a grandma in her 70s - is revealed. I had worked out where the baby came from quite early in the book, but enjoyed the writing style and the way it all unfolded.

After that, I moved onto Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet . . . So begins the story of this novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. This is a remarkable book, following a family as they struggle to come to terms with the death of their daughter and sister, the 'perfect child' who was supposed to fulfil all the dreams her parents were unable to persue. It moves between the parent's early years, Lydia's life leading to her death, and the time in the months afterwards. I found it very sad in parts, and also found myself identifying with Lydia, as she was born the same year as me, andI also grew up in a mixed culture family, in a small town. 

The last book I completed was All That I Am by Anna Funder. Another extraordinary book - I really picked them for this trip!
It is based on the real lives of German forced emigrants, in the years leading up to World War II - it begins with the line 'When Hitler came to power, I was in the bath' -  and the plot is filled with politics, love, deceit and betrayal. The novel centers on the lives of Dora Fabian, Ruth Blatt (called Becker in this book), Hans Wesemann, Berthold Jacob, and playwright, Ernst Toller, who were Socialists and anti-Nazi activists during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The deep love of their democratic state that fell to Nazis drove them to danger and heroism. Funder colors the relationships of the Activists as she describes in amazing detail, the historical events under which they lived.
The viewpoint of the novel oscillates between Toller and Ruth, who describe their relationship with Dora, the heroine.  Different chapters are written from these different viewpoints, and at different times - Berlin and London in the 30s, New York in the post war years, and Australia in the 1990s-early 2000s - so it does take some concentration, but it is woven together brilliantly. Again, this was not an easy read, due to the subject matter, but it was an interesting insight into those who tried to stop Hitler before heled the world into war.

I finished This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel.  I loved it.  I loved the writing, the family relationships, I laughed and cried.  I listened to this book and the narrator was fantastic.  5 stars for me.

I also finished The Radium Girls by Kate Moore.  I thought the subject matter was fascinating but the writing style was stilted and old fashioned.  3 stars.

I finished two this week, neither of which I would recommend.

Hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovich.  I am tired of this series - the characters have not changed/developed in 24 books. The story lines just get crazier and more unbelievable. This will probably be my last Evanovich book. 2/5

Gracious Uncertainty: Faith in the Second Half of Life by Jane Sigloh.  Nothing in this series of essays really struck me.  2.5/5

My son (10) and I picked out a few books to listen to during an audible sale. He selected I Will Always Write Back. We just finished it yesterday and thought it was great. It’s the true story of a boy from Zimbabwe and a girl from Pennsylvania who are matched as pen pals. Their letters form not only a friendship, but a cultural education in the significant differences in their lives. As Martin’s hardships become more apparent, Caitlyn and later, her parents begin sending money to support his family and his education. The subtitle is “how one letter changed 2 lives”. I loved seeing what an impression this made on my son. It really opened his eyes to the things we take for granted and broadened his view on global hardships, taught more about empathy and opened his eyes to the benefits of helping others. I’m really glad we got to experience this book together. We’ve had some great conversations stem from it.

City of Brass just became available so that my next read. This one is really outside the norm for books I pick, so hoping it grabs me right away.

I loved City of Brass!

 That's how I feel about the Stephanie Plum series too.  I used to find it amusing but I haven't read the last several books.  If she ever ends the series I will read the last one to see how it all turns out.

I'm reading The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish The book is very funny!

Only finished one book this week

The Underside of Joy by Sere' Prince Halverson about a woman who's husband dies and the birth mother of her stepchildren comes back and tries to reclaim the children she abandoned. I gave this 3 stars, read it in the span of 24 hours so it was a fairly easy read but wasn't an amazing book or anything.

At the moment I'm almost halfway through The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor a fictional account of a young woman who was a survivor of the Titanic. So far it's going okay although it has a ton of narrators (the chapters are from various character perspectives and time periods which can be a little hard to follow).

I was always a HUGE reader (my parents spent a fortune at daycamp and I'd sit on a bench and read) and everyone knew me with a book. Lately, I'm too busy, too distracted, or too exhausted by the time I sit down to relax. I did read about 30 pages of Rupi Kaur's The Sun and Her Flowers last week. If you like poetry, love, modern and progressive feminism, I'd recommend reading her books. It's not 'high poetry' and certainly no Howl, but it's relatable. She's relatable. She is creating the change we need. Everything about her as a writer, a woman, Indian, a Sikh, etc. is really inspiring.

I finished The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. It was good, kind of slow in the middle, but glad I read. I would give it 3.5-4 Stars.

Now I’m reading As Bright as Heaven by Susan Messiner. So far so good.