I apparently spent the
entire month of June with my nose in a book. I read seven books! What the
heck! I was spurred a little bit because I had several library books I’d waited
on forever that became available at the same time.
1. Fierce,
Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You, by Jen
Hatmaker. ★★★★★ The author says: In this book, I break it down into
five self-reflective categories—who I am, what I need, what I want, what I
believe, and how I connect—and by working your way through them, you will learn
to: own your space, ground, and gifts (they are YOURS, sister); be strong in
your relationships and lay down passive aggression, resentment, drama, and
compliance; say GUILT-FREE what you want and what you need; and welcome
spiritual curiosity and all the fantastic change that doing so creates.
You with me, beloveds? If
we do this work on our own selves now, not only will we discover a life truly
worth living, but we will free our daughters to rise up behind us, with spines
straight, heads up, and coated in our strength.
The Bug Says: That
description reads like a typical self-help book, but it doesn’t feel like one.
While the writing style is worlds away from Glennon Doyle’s book, the message
is similar and just as electrifying: you are allowed to be yourself no matter
what boxes your world erects around you. I’ve always chafed at boxes, but I
also REALLY dislike any kind of conflict. This gave me a little boost to see if
I can break free from some of my confining spaces.
2. Hideaway,
by Nora Roberts. ★★★★
Caitlyn Sullivan had come from a long
line of Hollywood royalty, stretching back to her Irish immigrant
great-grandfather. At nine, she was already a star—yet still an innocent child
who loved to play hide and seek with her cousins at the family home in Big Sur.
It was during one of those games that she disappeared. Some may have considered
her a pampered princess, but Cate was in fact a smart, scrappy fighter, and she
managed to escape her abductors. Dillon Cooper was shocked to find the
bloodied, exhausted girl huddled in his house—but when the teenager and his
family heard her story they provided refuge, reuniting her with her loved ones.
Cate’s ordeal, though, was far from over. First came the discovery of a
shocking betrayal that would send someone she’d trusted to prison. Then there
were years spent away in western Ireland, peaceful and protected but with
restlessness growing in her soul. Finally, she would return to Los Angeles,
gathering the courage to act again and get past the trauma that had derailed
her life. What she didn’t yet know was that two seeds had been planted that
long-ago night—one of a great love, and one of a terrible vengeance.
The Bug Says:
This is another fine novel by one of my favorite authors. She writes the best
dialogue, and most of her heroines aren’t stupid. I hardly ever yell at them,
so you know she does a good job of writing strong women. Ha!
3. Necessary as Blood, (Duncan Kincaid
& Gemma James #13), by Deborah Crombie ★★★★ Once the haunt of
Jack the Ripper, London's East End is a vibrant mix of history and the
avant-garde, where elegant Georgian town houses exist side by side with
colorful street markets and the hippest clubs. But here races and cultures
still clash, and the trendy galleries and glamorous nightlife of Whitechapel
disguise a violent and seedy underside, where unthinkable crimes bring terror
to the innocent.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in mid May, a young mother, Sandra Gilles,
leaves her daughter with a friend at the Columbia Road Flower Market and
disappears. A few months later, her husband, a Pakistani lawyer, is killed.
The Bug Says: I
love this series (obviously, since I’m on book 13). This is no cozy British
mystery, but even so there is something comforting about reading a Scotland
Yard murder mystery. Maybe it’s because I listened to the audiobook and I love the
British accent? (This is also true of the next book, although it’s set in the
London of the WWII blitz instead of present day).
4. The
American Agent, (Maisie Dobbs #15) by Jacqueline Winspear. ★★★★ Beloved
heroine Maisie Dobbs, “one of the great fictional heroines” (Parade),
investigates the mysterious murder of an American war correspondent in London
during the Blitz in a page-turning tale of love and war, terror and survival.
As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British
Isles, raining death and destruction from the skies, Maisie must balance the
demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young
evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt. Entangled in an investigation
linked to the power of wartime propaganda and American political intrigue being
played out in Britain, Maisie will face losing her dearest friend—and the
possibility that she might be falling in love again.
The Bug Says: This
is another series that I love. She reminds me a bit of Sherlock Holmes because
she gathers all kinds of seemingly innocuous information & then uses it in
the end to find the killer (or rather, usually she’s just naming the killer who
has been there all along). This one was just as interesting as the previous
ones. And I really had no idea until the end whodunit!
5. The
Daughters of Erietown, by Connie Schultz. ★★★★ Hidden
desires and long-held secrets, the sacrifices people make for family and to
realize their dreams, are at the heart of this powerful first novel about
working class people in a small town. By the popular Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist.
In the 1950s, Ellie and Brick are teenagers in love. As a basketball star,
Brick has the chance to escape his abusive father and become the first person
in his blue-collar family to attend college. But after Ellie learns that she is
pregnant, they get married, she gives up her dream of nursing school, and Brick
gets a union card instead.
This riveting novel tells the story of Brick, Ellie, and their daughter
Samantha, as the frustrations of unmet desire for sex, love, identity, and
meaningful work explode their lives. The evolution of women's lives over
decades of the second half of the 20th century is explored, in a story that
richly portrays how much people know about each other and pretend not to--the
secrets at the heart of a family.
The Bug Says: I
read this book because I follow Connie Schultz on Facebook. She is an award
winning journalist who lives in Cleveland, but she’s also the wife of Senator
Sherrod Brown. I was prepared to be kind while reading it, but it is actually a
very good book! I don’t often willingly read novels about generations of
families (see British mysteries, above), but this one was engaging and left me afterword
wondering how Sam was doing. I missed her & Ellie! I highly recommend
picking this one up!
6. The
Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides. ★★★ Promising
to be the debut novel of the season, The Silent Patient is
a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her
husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive…
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an
in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows
overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her
husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him
five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the
opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and
unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path
into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume
him...
The Bug Says: I
got very behind on book club books. I
think this was the book for May? It’s because I didn’t want to purchase the
book (and the next one, below), so I had to wait until they were available at
the library. This book was pretty good. The writing style sort of reminded me
of somebody reading someone else’s notes from the file. Kind of dry? I don’t
know – it was hard for me to get into it in the beginning, but it did pick up
momentum, and there is a twist at the end that had me reflexively giving it 4
stars. Such a great twist! But in the end I backed it down because of how hard
it was for me to stay engaged until the last third of the book. HOWEVER, I
still recommend that you read it & tell me what you thought of the end.
7. No
Exit, by Taylor Adams. ★★★ A brilliant, edgy
thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined
young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath.
On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets
caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads
impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop.
Inside, are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.
Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . .
. and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her
car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.
There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her
fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?
The Bug Says: This
is another one where I wavered between a 3 and a 4. It was a romp to read (in a
gory, sadistic, evil villain matching wits with an intrepid heroine sort of
way), but there were so many little things that drove me crazy (whose iPhone hovers
at less than 10% power for that many hours?). Also, by the end, I was like, come on – another plot twist? However,
it was fast paced and very satisfactory despite the fact that not all of the
good guys lived.
On my shelf now: The
One-in-a-Million Boy, by Monica Wood and I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a
World Made for Whiteness, by Austin Channing Brown. They are both
excellent and I already know I’m going to want to recommend them to you. What
are you reading?
