The Sweetness of Forgetting

Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2022
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: At thirty-six, Hope McKenna-Smith is no stranger to bad news. She lost her mother to cancer, her husband left her, and her bank account is nearly depleted. Her own dreams of becoming a lawyer long gone, she's running a failing family bakery on Cape Cod and raising a troubled preteen.

Now, Hope's beloved French-born grandmother Mamie is drifting away in a haze of Alzheimer's. But in a rare moment of clarity, Mamie realizes that unless she tells Hope about the past, the secrets she has held on to for so many years will soon be lost forever. Tantalizingly, she reveals mysterious snippets of a tragic history in WWII Paris. Armed with a scrawled list of name, Hope heads to France to uncover a seventy-year-old mystery.

Uncovering horrific tales of the Holocaust, she realizes the astonishing will of her grandmother to endure in a world gone mad. And to reunite two lovers torn apart by terror, all she'll need is a dash of courage, and the believe that God exists everywhere, even in cake.

Review: This book was first published in 2012, but I read a copy that was published in 2022 and included recipes not found in the original. This layered novel was heartbreaking and sad, but full of hope too (and not just because that was the main character's name). 

Some books grab you from the first page, and I was all-in early in this novel. It was obvious to me that the author was writing from a place of experience, and the author's note at the end is not to be missed.

Other Kristin Harmel Novels:
The Paris Daughter
The Winemaker's Wife

The Sisters of Summit Avenue

Author: Lynn Cullen
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2019
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family's Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, fell into a comatose state, infected by the infamous "sleeping sickness" devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June, who is the envy of everyone she meets: blond and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And June has a coveted job, too, as one of "the Bettys," the perky recipe developers who populate General Mills' famous Betty Crocker test kitchens. But these gilded trappings hide sorrows: she has borne no children. And the man she used to love more than anything belongs to Ruth.

When the two sisters reluctantly reunite after a long estrangement, June's bitterness about her sister's betrayal sets into motion a confrontation that's been years in the making. And their mother, Dorothy, who's brought the two of them together, has her own dark secrets, which might blow up the fragile peace she hopes to restore between her daughters.

Review: Sometimes you pick up a book and you're at the right time or right place in your life to read it. This is that book for me. Not only did the plot and characters appeal to me, so did the way the story unfolded. I may have written a different ending, but all-in-all, this was a great story.

Back to the Garden

Author: Laurie R. King
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: A magnificent house, a vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: The Gardener Estate was a twentieth-century Eden.

And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home's past: a human skull, hidden away for decades.

Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate's young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love, and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents - monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye.

Could the skull belong to one of his victims?

To Raquel-a woman who knows all about colorful pasts-the bones clearly seem linked to The Highwayman. But as she dives into the Estate's archives to look for signs of his presence, what she unearths begins to take on a dark reality all of its own.

Everything she finds keep bringing her back to Rob Gardener himself. While he might be a gray-haired recluse now, back then he was a troubled Vietnam vet whose girlfriend vanished after a midsummer festival at the Estate.

But a lot of people seem to have disappeared from the Gardener Estate that summer when the commune mysteriously fell apart: a young woman, her child, and Rob's brother, Fort.

The pressure is on, and Raquel needs to solve this case-before The Highwayman slips away, or another Gardener vanishes.

Review: My reading challenge prompt this month, is a book you chose for the cover. I saw this on display at my library and the cover did grab my attention. I don't read many mysteries anymore, even though that was one of the first genres that hooked me on reading years ago - my mom gave me her collection of Nancy Drew novels.

This particular novel didn't exactly grab me so that I forgot the world around me, but it was good enough to keep me turning pages.

#GirlBoss

Author: Sophia Amoruso
Genre: Nonfiction / Memoir
Publisher: Random House, 2014
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Amoruso spent her teens hitchhiking, committing petty theft, and scrounging in dumpsters for leftover bagels. By age twenty-two she had dropped out of school, nad was broke, directionless, and checking IDs in the lobby of an art school - a job she'd taken for the health insurance. It was in that lobby that Sophia decided to start selling vintage clothes on Ebay.

Flash forward to today, and she's the founder of Nasty Gal and founder and CEO of Girlboss. Sophia was never a typical CEO, or a typical anything, and she's written #GirlBoss for other girls like her: outsiders (and insiders) seeking a unique path to success, even when that path is windy as all hell and lined with naysayers.

#GirlBoss proves that being successful isn't about where you went to college or how popular you were in high school. It's about trusting your instincts and following your gut; knowing which rules to follow and which to break: when to button up
and when to let your freak flag fly.

Review: As a brand new supervisor at a company I've been with for 20 years, in the same role, I found this book so interesting and identifiable. Some of the tips Amoruso discusses are things I've unknowingly been doing for a long time. There was so much to learn as well too. This may be my new favorite business-based book. 

Looking forward to diving into this genre to become a better leader/supervisor, employee, and person. I love my job and am looking forward to seeing how far I can take it.

The Summer of Songbirds

Author: Kristy Woodson Harvey
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2023
Pages: 368
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Nearly thirty years ago, in the wake of a personal tragedy, June Moore bought Camp Holly Springs and turned it into a thriving summer haven for girls. But now, June is in danger of losing the place she has sacrificed everything for, and begins to realize how much she has used the camp to avoid facing difficulties in her life.

June's niece, Daphne, met her two best friends, Lanier and Mary Stuart, during a fateful summer at camp. They've all helped each other through hard things, from heartbreak and loss to substance abuse and unplanned pregnancy, and the three are inseparable even in their thirties. But when attorney Daphne is confronted with a relationship from her past - and a confidential issue at work becomes personal - she is faced with an impossible choice.

Lanier, meanwhile, is struggling with tough decisions of her own. After a run-in with an old flame, she is torn between the commitment she made to her fiance and the one she made to her first love. And when a big secret comes to light, she finds herself at odds
with her best friend. . .and risks losing the person she loves most.

But in spite of their personal problems, nothing is more important to these songbirds than Camp Holly Springs. When the women learn their childhood oasis is in danger of closing, they band together to save it, sending them on a journey that promises to open the next chapters in their lives.

Review: My first book by this author and I loved it. It took me back to week-long girl scout camps that I used to love attending, and my now sacred decades long friendships with some amazing women. Just a really awesome read for us ladies with some life behind us.

During the pandemic, Kristy Woodson Harvey started a Friends and Fiction Facebook page/group with fellow authors Mary Kay Andrews, Patti Callahan Henry and Kristin Harmel (all of whom you can find in this blog). I don't even remember how I stumbled upon the Facebook group, but it's an active page with its own book club, author interviews, giveaways, etc. 

Also by Kristy Woodson Harvey:
The Wedding Veil