Weekly Reading Thread: September 2-8

I read Eagle & Crane.

Wow.

I had this one from the library, sitting at home for a while. I almost returned it without reading it because so many books! But I'm sooo glad I kept it.

Eagle & Crane is the story of a conflicted relationship between a young Japanese man, Harry, and his friend and neighbor, Louis, at the start of WW2. With many dynamics, the novel starts out a bit slow. Still, it held my interest throughout until the last 100 pages when the pace accelerated to breakneck speed.

This book was full of delightful and nuanced characters and twists and turns that I never saw coming. And I loved the different POV of WW2; this one takes place in America and includes the horrific treatment of the Japanese people by our government. Highly recommend. 5/5 stars

Lisa

Two for me this week. 

The first one was called The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan. It's a historical fiction novel about 2 women living in two different time periods. One woman is named Elizabeth and lives in 1889. She's 18, the daughter of a doctor and lives in Pittsburgh but summers at a beautiful lake that is part of an exclusive club with her family high in the Allegheny mountains above the working class community of Johnstown, PA. The private retreat is patronized by society's elite like the Carnegies and the Mellons. Elizabeth is blessed (or cursed) with a mind of her own. When Elizabeth discovers the club's poorly maintained damn is about to burst and sent 20 million tons of water down the mountains on top of the town of Johnstown what will she risk to warn the people below in the town? 

Lee Parker is the other woman in the novel and she is also 18. She lives in the present day. She's adopted and lives mother in the pool house on the property of the house where her mother is the maid. On her recent 18th birthday she was able to get some of her adoption paperwork (her file) opened. She see's an old photograph of a woman who looks just like her standing in a pile of rubble next to Clara Barton-the founder of the Red Cross. The woman is not named. Lee decides she must find out who the woman is and so her search begins. 

I really liked this book very much. I don't remember anything about the Johnstown, PA flood although the name does ring a bell so I must have learned about it before. The flood did happen although the two character in the book are fiction. What's really interesting is that throughout the book there are these amazing black and white photos of the club (which did exist) and people posing on the porches of the cabins (actually very fancy homes), the docks near the lake, and all sorts of other places from that time-1889. Then there are photos that show the destruction in Johnstown after the flood with houses ripped apart and men standing on the roofs of those houses. I found the photos as interesting as the book. They added to the book so much I thought, but then I am a photographer so maybe for me they had more of an impact. At the end of the book the author mentioned a Clara Barton biography she found very helpful so I've put that book on hold at my local library. I gave it 4 starts at Goodreads. 

The second book I read was The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas.  This book is also historical fiction. It takes place in 1880 and is about a midwife named Gracey who is the only midwife in a small Colorado mining town where she has delivered hundreds of babies in her lifetime. The women of this town trust and depend on Gracey and most couldn't imagine getting through pregnancy and labor with her by their sides. But everything changes when a baby is found dead, and the town's most powerful citizen is pointing his finger at Gracey.  I liked this book but it seemed to get a bit tedious in the middle. I don't know why. It could have very well been me, and not the book at all. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads. 

Not sure what's up next because I just finished that last one today. Will have to see what strikes my fancy at bedtime tonight. Happy reading everyone. 

Four books for me this week! Although I will admit one wasn't a true read.

First was I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman. I gave this 3 stars for this on Goodreads as it was an easy, okay read. Nothing amazing.

Then Leonard: My Fifty Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner. I also gave this 3 stars. To me it felt like most of it was a one-up-manship type story from Shatner. Like whatever Nimoy did Shatner had to say how he did the same thing or why he didn't do the same thing and tried to make it sound like they were very similar.

The book I only sort of "read" was Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable Path Adventure by Ryan North. I only read a couple of the paths and then didn't read anymore. I thought it was going to be a fun read, but I didn't care for how the author treated the characters (both Romeo and Juliet were almost implied to be transexual). It was also hard to start a new path. The story would end and you basically had to go back to the very beginning of the book to start a new story (as opposed to other books of this type which usually says if you want to re-try the previous step go back to page X).

The last book I finished today An Excellent Choice: Panic and Joy on My Solo Path to Motherhood by Emma Brockes. This book came off my oldest daughter's Goodreads list. I try to get books from the library that are on her list that sound interesting to me so we both can read it, but this book was a let down. I gave this 3 stars as it was only okay. It's a non-fiction account of Emma's journey from being a single lesbian woman to giving birth to her twins conceived using donor sperm.


Now I have a book about Charles Manson from the library (ordered on the spur one night) or I may read one of the many other books I have in my bookcase.

I finished a few since I last posted.

when Life Gives you Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger was a quick, light read 3.5/5

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler. I found it hard to relate to the characters in this story, but it was fairly well written so 3/5

A Double Life by Flynn Berry. I really wanted to enjoy this one more, but it was just ok 3/5

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena. This was a very quick read, a good thriller 4/5

And I just finished Tin Man by Sarah Winman. A very well-written debut novel. Sad in parts, but I enjoyed the story 4.5/5

Up next is Dear Mrs. Bird, which I am enjoying so far

Happy Reading, everyone!

I finished The Ex Wife which was okay, 3/5. I also read I Ran Into Some Trouble. 3/5, it was free on Amazon. Peggy Caserta, founder of the famous Haight-Ashbury hippie boutique Mnasidika, and lover and girlfriend of Janis Joplin, was a Louisiana homecoming queen turned airsick stewardess who eventually landed in 1960s San Francisco and set up shop. Her store was a hang-out for The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company; it was where Wes Wilson’s posters hung and Bill Graham sold concert tickets and Owsley’s LSD was enjoyed.

Now I am reading Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen. I have read other books by her that I loved, this is not one of them

I'm reading White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo. (See book thread here)

I just finished Vox by Christina Dalcher. Very inspired by Handmaid's Tale and the Trump presidency, this dystopian fiction imagines a world where women and girls are only allowed to speak 100 words a day. www.goodreads.com/book/show/37796866-vox

I just started The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal. This is the second in the Lady Astronaut historical fiction/sci-fi series. It's pretty good so far!
www.goodreads.com/book/show/33081262-the-fated-sky?from_search=true

Read Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman which I completely loved and gave it 4.5 out of 5. I know some here did not like it but I couldn't put it down. To me just a fun quick entertaining read. DNF Where'd You Go Bernadette, just couldn't get into it. Next up is The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.

I’m reading THE EXPLOSIVE CHILD by Ross Greene, which can tell you a little bit about how my labour day weekend is going 😂🤪. I’m almost half way and have found it easy to read. It is about dealing with children with explosive emotions. My dd has intense emotions and I’m finding it a very interesting read.

Last night I finished Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. It was so good, but tough to read at times. I had no idea about the subject but can't believe this all really happened. I would definitely recommend it. 4.5 stars.

I think I'm going to start I'll Be Your Blue Sky next.

I read BOOM TOWN: THE FANTASTICAL SAGA OF OKLAHOMA CITY, ITS CHAOTIC FOUNDING… ITS PURLOINED BASKETBALL TEAM, AND THE DREAM OF BECOMING A WORLD-CLASS METROPOLIS by Sam Anderson. I live in Oklahoma City and it's great to see my city written about by such a clever and witty writer as Sam Anderson, who writes for the New York Times Magazine. I learned some things about my city's history which I didn't know about. There were other stories in the book which I knew well, such as the land run, the civil rights movement in OKC and the Oklahoma City bombing, but they were told w/ a fresh perspective.

I just started “The Real Michael Swann” yesterday and I’m waiting very patiently for something twisty to happen! I’m enjoying the story so far, though. 

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint by Nadia Bolz-Weber I liked this a lot it validated a lot of my feelings about judgmental Christians.

Still reading Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John Ratey