Author: Rory Feek
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Nelson, Thomas Inc, 2019
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: With frequent stories of his and Joey's years together, and how those guide his life today, Rory unpacks just what it means to be open to new experiences. Much like Jesus' biblical parable, when we scatter our seeds, some will grow in teh fertile land and warm sun. Rory contends that it's the same way with our dreams, but we must always pay attention to what our story is teaching us.
It's been long said that timing is everything, and it is, unless you haven't done the work to be prepared. What does it mean to cultivate life, to be open to new directions, to invest in another person as a way of connecting with God? Through his wealth of stories and vulnerable spirit, Rory opens up on those struggles in his own life and, in the process, shows the way for us all.
"This isn't a how-to book, it's more of a how we or more accurately how He (God) planed us on a few acres of land and grew something bigger than Joey or I could have ever imagined."
It's an ongoing story of a new frontier, all woven into a new season of learning to grow a new life and love in the land that his wife loved so much.
Review: While this book was missing the tear jerker element that was a huge part of this first book, this was good. I don't love his writing style, but he's a songwriter, not a novelist. It was a quick, solid read to finish out the month.
Author: John Marrs
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Hanover Square Press, 2018
Pages: 416
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you'll be matched with your perfect partner - the one you're genetically made for.
That's the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test result have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance, and love.
Now five very different people have received the notification that they've been "matched." They've each about to meet their one true love. But "happily ever after" isn't guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others. . .
A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.
Review: This was highly recommended to me by a college friend, and since I already had a full stack of reading material, I went for the audio book. I would have flown through the print version. I had favorite couples/story lines, and each chapter ends with a cliffhanger. It's well worth reading.
Author: Sandie Jones
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 304
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: THE WIFE: For Alice, life has never been better. With her second husband, she has successful business, two children, and a beautiful house.
HER HUSBAND: Alice knows that life could have been different if her first husband had lived, but Nathan's arrival into her life gave her back the happiness she craved.
HER BEST FRIEND: Through the ups and down of life, from celebratory nights out to comforting each other through loss, Alice knows that with her best friend Beth by her side, they can survive anything together. So when Nathan starts acting strangely, Alice turns to Beth for help. But soon, Alice begins to wonder whether her trust has been misplaced.
The first mistake could be her last.
Review: This was a slow starter, but once the story was set-up, I couldn't turn pages fast enough. Not the best thriller I've ever read, but it was good.
Author: Adrienne Brodeur
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: HMH Books, 2019
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was fourteen, her mother, Malabar, work her at midnight with five simple words what would set the course of both their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me.
Adrienne instantly became her mother's confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband's closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne's life in profound ways, driving her into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. Only years later will she find the strength to embrace her life - and her mother - on her own terms.
Wild Game is a brilliant, timeless memoir about how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, and the lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make. It's a remarkable story of resilience, a reminder that we need not be the parents our parents were to us.
Review: At only 256 pages, this should have been a fast read, but between reading a 5 star historical fiction novel prior to this, and maybe not being totally in the mood for a memoir, my progress was slow.
I enjoyed this novel, it's crazy to read the lives some people are born into and endure, but I never got sucked into this and turning pages so fast it was over before I realized what happened. The author failed in conveying just how consumed she was in her mother's affair. I didn't get the sense that it was the focal point of her own existence, until she would say exactly that. Something was just "off" in the telling of this story. It was also a bit disjointed from time-to-time, but it is worth reading.
Author: Susan Meissner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to the fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters, Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa, a chance at a better life.
But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn that they cannot live without, and what they are willing to do without.
Review: Fantastic. Books like this are the reason I love reading historical fiction. Factually correct, and thoroughly engaging, I lived in this world for all 400 pages.
To say more would spoil this, but this ended as a neatly wrapped package that was both satisfying, and not. Life isn't a neatly wrapped package very often, but I can appreciate the gift the author tried to give us with ending this one that way.
This book also tied in nicely with Influenza, an audio book I read a few weeks ago. The author gives credit to that book as being a source in her research.
Note to self. . .read more books by this author.
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2014
Pages: 288
Rating: Do Not Recommend
Synopsis: A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over - and see everything anew.
Review: Talk about a book with an identity crisis. First, I thought it was just simply "fiction." Then, a little mystery was introduced. That got pushed aside, and a little romance blossomed. Good lord, it's a mess.
The occasional f-bombs don't seem to fit the characters or the situation. I'm not sure what the author's motivation was for including them.
Can I rate this "Highly Not Recommended?"
P.S. I like the cover.
Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2019
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: Champagne, 1940: Ines has just married Michel, the owner of storied champagne house Maison Chauveau, when the Germans invade. As the danger mounts, Michel turns his back on his marriage to begin hiding munitions for the Resistance. Ines fears they'll be exposed, but for Celine, half-Jewish wife of Chaveau's chef de cave, the risk is even greater-rumors abound of Jews being shipped east to an unspeakable fate.
When Celine recklessly follows her heart in one desperate bid for happiness, and Ines make a dangerous mistake with a Nazi collaborator, they risk the lives of those they love-and the champagne house that ties them together.
New York, 2019: Liv Kent has just lost everything when her eccenstric French grandmother shows up unannounced, insisting on a trip to France. But the older woman has an ulterior motive-and a tragic decades-old story to share. When past and present finally collide, Liv finds herself on a road to salvation that leads right to the caves of the Maison Chauveau.
Review: Two "wow" books back-to-back. It's been a great week for reading.
I'm not sure what compelled me to request this book. I've basically sworn of World War II novels because the market is flooded. I also don't know what is with the current trend of putting "wife," "daughter," "sister," or "girl" in the titles of books. Are publishers/editors/authors that unimaginative these days.
I'm glad I broke all my rules and read this book, although I would still contend the title does the book no justice. It's amazing. The author is right when she says you will never drink champagne again without thinking of this book, these characters, or the history of that part of the world.
If I have one complaint, it's that the present-day timeline was unnecessary, and I had a hard time believing a 99 year old woman would be able to keep up in the way Grandma Edith did, but those are minor details. Okay, so that's two very minor complaints. Read it anyway.
Truly an "unputdownable" novel.
Author: Axton Betz-Hamilton
Genre: Memoir / True Crime
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2019
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up in small-town Indiana in the early 90s. When she was 11 years old, her parents both had their identities stolen. Their credit ratings were ruined, and they were contsantly fighting over money. This was before the age of the internset, when identity theft became more commonplace, so authorities and banks were clueless and reluctant to help Axton's parents.
Axton's family changed all of their personal information and moved to different addresses, but the identity thief followed them wherever they went. Convinced that the thief had to be someone they knew, Axton and her parents completely cut off the outside world, isolating themselves from friends and family. Axton learned not to let anyone into the house without explicit permission, and once went as far as chasing a plumber off their property with a knife.
As a result, Axton spent her formative years crippled by anxiety, quarantined behind the closed curtains in her childhood home. She began starving herself at a young age in an effort to blend in - her appearance could be nothing short of perfect or she would be scolded by her mother, who had become paranoid and consumed by how others perceived the family.
Years later, her parents' marriage still shaken from the theft, Axton discovered that she, too, had fallen prey to the identity thief, but by the time she realized, she was already thousands of dollars in debt and her credit was ruined.
The Less People Know About Us is Axton's attempt to untangle an intricate web of lies, and to understand how and why a loved on could have inflicted such pain. Axton will present a candid, shocking, and redemptive story and reveal her courageous effort to grapple with someone close that broke the unwritten rules of love, protection, and family.
.
Review: Do not read the Acknowledgements section prior to reading. I almost always do, but in this one, there's a big spoiler. After reading the spoiler, I debated on whether or not to continue with the book, and I'm so glad I did. This is a great memoir, readable with likeable "characters."
It's hard to remember a world pre-internet, but this memoir will take you back, or open your eyes to it. Amazing.
This book and the author's story will stay with me for a long time.
Author: Anne Perry
Genre: Historical Fiction / Christmas / Christmas Mysteries Series
Publisher: Random House, 2004
Pages: 192
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: Featuring Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould - one of the most memorable characters from the Thomas Pitt series - appears here as a lively young woman, the ultimate aristocrat who can trace her blood to half the royal houses in Europe.
It's Christmas and the Berkshire Countryside lies wrapped in winter chill. But the well-born guests who have gathered at Applecross for a delicious weekend of innocent intrigue and passionate romance are warmed by roaring fires and candlelight, holly and mistletoe, good wine and gorgeously wrapped gifts. It's scarcely the setting for misfortune, and no one - not even that clever young aristocrat and budding sleuth Vespasia Cumming-Gould - anticipates the tragedy that is to darken this light-hearted holiday house party. But soon one young woman lies dead, a suicide, and another is ostracized, held partly responsible for the shocking turn of events.
To expiate her guilt, Isobel Alvie, sets out for the Scottish Highlands, hoping to explain to the dead girl's mother the circumstances surrounding the sorrowful act - and to bring her back to England for the funeral. Isobel's sole companion of this nightmarish journey is Vespasia. As Vespasia learns more about the victim and the ugly forces that shaped her desperate need, she understands the heartbreaking truth of the tragedy.
Review: I don't get into reading Christmas novel like a lot of my friends, but this one sounded like it might be different.
This is not a Hallmark movie in print, but it's good. I enjoyed it, and it's short - a good thing, since I just picked up a stack of 16 books from my library.
Author: Kerry Winfrey
Genre: Fiction / Chick Lit
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 288
Rating: Do Not Recommend
Synopsis: Annie Cassidy dreams of being the next Nora Ephron. She spends her days writing screenplays, rewatching Sleepless in Seattle, and waiting for her movie-perfect meet-cute. If she c ould just find her own Tom Hanks - a man who's sweet, sensitive, and possibly owns a houseboat - her problems would disappear and her life would be perfect. But Tom Hanks is nowhere in sight.
When a movie starts filming in her neighborhood and Annie gets a job on set, it seems like a sign. THen Annie meets the lead actor, Drew Danforth, a cocky prankster who couldn't be less like Tom Hanks if he tried. Their meet-cute is more of a meet-fail, but soon Annie finds herself sharing some classic rom-com moments with Drew. Her Tom Hanks can't be an actor who's leaving town in a matter or days. . .can he?
Review: I like light and fluffy sometimes, but this book didn't do it for me. There was no substance, and it was far too cliche. That's exactly why some will love it though.
I didn't like Annie for 3/4 of the novel, and I was more interested in her friend Chloe's "relationship" with her boss Nick. This was a struggle read, and I think it convinced me once and for all that this genre is not for me.
For the genre, this was a 5 star read, I'm sure. For me though, 2 stars, three, if I'm being generous.
