Broken Country

Author: Clare Leslie Hall
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2025
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth's brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn't realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager - the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel's life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, the woman she has become.

Review: It took me some time to get into this novel. I had even considered setting it aside. In the end though, I gave it five stars.

There's something beautiful about this novel, the yin and yang of life, how one decision sets off a series of events, unintended consequences, the flawed nature of human beings. This novel has it all.

The Break-Up Tour

Author: Emily Wibberley / Austin Siegemund-Broka
Genre: Chick Lit
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2024
Pages: 352
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Riley Wynn went from a promising singer-songwriter to a superstar overnight, thanks to her breakup song concept album and it's unforgettable lead single. When Riley's ex-husband claims the hit son is about him, she does something she hasn't in ten years and calls Max Harcourt, her college boyfriend and the real inspiration for the song of the summer.

Max hasn't spoken to Riley since their relationship ended. He's content with managing the retirement home his family owns, but it's not the life filled with music that he dreamed of. When Riley asks him to go public as her songwriting muse, he agrees on one condition: he'll join her band on tour.

As they perform across the country, Max and Riley start to realize that while they hit some wrong notes in the past, their future could hold incredible things. And their rekindled relationship will either last forever or go down in flames. 

Review: I have no idea how this book ended up in a stack that I picked up from the library, but the genre (and cover) made it seem like a good choice for a cold and snowy January day. It's not the best written story with the best plot, but it was the perfect book for the day.

It seems the main character is modeled after Taylor Swift, but I put that little detail out of my mind and enjoyed the book. However, it is a long-winded novel and longer than it needed to be. Even in this genre, which isn't one I typically gravitate to, it's just okay.

Revolutionary Characters

Author: Gordon S. Wood
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2007
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: An illuminating group portrait of the men who came to be known as the Founding Fathers, this book asks, what made these men great, and shows us, among other things, just how much character did in fact matter.

The life of each - Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Paine, and Burr - is presented individually as well as collectively, but the thread that binds these portraits together is the idea of character as a lived reality. Th
ey were members of the first generation in history that was self-consciously self-made men who understood the arc of lives, as of nations, is one of moral progress.

Review: I found this book so interesting. Wood humanizes the Founding Fathers in the context of their time, the men who have become more mythical characters in the long ago past of American History. No matter how well you think you know history, there is always something new to takeaway from a book like this. 

With this Pledge

Author: Tamera Alexander
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Nelson, Thomas Inc., 2019
Pages: 448
Rating: Highly Recommend 

Synopsis: Elizabeth "Lizzie" Clouston's quietly held principles oppose those of the Southern Cause - but when forty thousand soldiers converge on the fields of Franklin, Tennessee, the war demands an answer. The Carnton home where she is governess is converted into a Confederate field hospital, and Lizzie is called upon to assist the military doctor with surgeries that determine life or death. Faced with the unimaginable, she must summon fortitude, even as she fears for the life of Towny, her fiancé and lifelong friend.

As a young solider lies dying in Lizzie's arms, she vows to
relay his final words to his mother, but knows little more than the boy's first name. That same night, decorated Mississippi sharpshooter Captain Roland Ward Jones extracts a promise from Lizzie: that she intervene should the surgeon decide to amputate his leg.

Lizzie is nothing if not a woman of her word, earning the soldiers' respect as she tends to the wounded within Carnton's walls. None is more admiring that Captain Jones, who doesn't realize she is pledged to another. But as Lizzie's heart softens toward the Confederate captain, she discovers that his moral ground is at odds with her own. Now torn between love, principles, and promises made, she struggles to be true to her heart while standing for what she knows is right - no matter the cost.

Review: When I was browsing the library shelves, I thought this book would make a nice, easy novel to start off the year. Wow. The Battle of Franklin was as much a character in the book as the people. The research that went into this novel and how details of the battle were woven into the story. This is not the "fluff" read I was expecting. 

Although I was a history major and interested in Civil War, I am not as knowledgeable about battles in the West. I took a deep dive after reading this book. I watched youtube videos, read articles, and looked up some of the sources this author cited in the book.

Roland Jones and Elizabeth Clouston were real people. Carnton is still standing and open for tours.

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Author: Sophie Kinsella
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2001
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Becky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in London's trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the season's must-haves. The only trouble is, she can't actually afford it - not any of it. Her job writing at Successful Saving magazine not only bores her to tears, it doesn't pay much at all. And lately Becky's been chased by dismal letters from the bank - letters with large sums she can't bear to read. She tries cutting back. But none of her efforts succeeds. Her only consolation is to buy herself something, just a little something.

Finally a story arises that Becky actually cares about, and her front-pages article catalyzes a chain of events that will transform her life - and the lives of those around her - forever.

Review: I hadn't read this series when it was a popular years ago, but with the author's recent death, I decided to give it a shot. It was cute and funny and expected, but boy did Becky stress me out. I wanted to be her financial coach.

The Girl from the Garden

Author: Parnaz Foroutan
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2015
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: For all his wealth and success, Asher Malacouti - the head of a prosperous Jewish family living in the Iranian town of Kermanshah - cannot have the one thing he desires above all: a male son. His young wife Rakhel trapped in an oppressive marriage at a time when a woman's worth is measured by her fertility, is made desperate by her failure to conceive, and grows jealous and vindictive.

Her despair is compounded by her sister-in-law Khorsheed's pregnancy and her husband's growing desire for Kokab, his cousin's wife. Frustrated by his wife's inability to bear him an heir, Asher makes a fateful choice that will shatter the household and drive Rakhel to dark extremes to save herself and preserve her status within the family.

Witnessed through the memories of the family's only surviving daughter, Mahboubeh, now an elderly woman living in Los Angeles, The Girl from the Garden unfolds the complex, tragic history of her family in a long-lost Iran of generations past. Haunting, suspenseful, and inspired by events in the author's own family, it is an evocative and poignant exploration of sacrifice, betrayal, and the indelible legacy of the families that forge us.

Review: I don't know what it is about this time of year, but I seem to find myself reading books set in the Middle East in December. For example, When the Apricots Bloom.

At first I wasn't sure how I felt about The Girl from the Garden. Dark themes, unlikeable characters, a shifting timeline, and unrelated to the story, long chapters. However, this is a book that grow on you. It's one I considered quitting, but I felt a pull. Chapters 11 and 12 are the reward for reading chapters 1-10. What an amazing story that I won't soon forget.

If you're like me, you may be curious about what parts of this story are autobiographical of Foroutan's family. I googled and came across this video. The interview is interesting, but if you want to hear her speak about this book specifically, start at the 19:18 minute mark.

The Maytrees

Author: Annie Dillard
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2007
Pages:  240
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Toby Maytree first sees Lou Bigelow on her bicycle in postwar Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her laughter and loveliness catch his breath. Maytree is a Provincetown native, an educated poet of thirty. As he courts Lou, just out of college, her stillness draws him. Hands-off, he hides his serious wooing, and idly shows her his poems.

In spare, elegant prose, Dillard traces the Maytrees' decades of loving and longing. They live cheaply among the nonconformist artists and writers that the bare tip of Cape Cod attracts. Lou takes up painting. When their son Peter appears, their innocent Bohemian friend Deary helps care for him. These people are all loving and ironic. Theirs is a simple and bold story.

Review: I'm confident that had I tried reading the print version of this book, I would not have been able to finish it. That said, unfortunately the narrator, David Rasche, did nothing to enhance the audiobook version of this novel. I am giving this two stars simply because I finished it.