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What are you reading?
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Christine
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Dec 26, 2021 12:03PM
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My review for If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finishing today: A Redbird Christmas, by Fannie Flagg. (Good any time of year.)Starting: Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang (immigrant memoir)
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen – 4****
What a delight to listen to this again. Having done so previously, and also having watched the PBS miniseries, I have an even greater appreciation for Austen's send-up of gothic novels. It's just a charming story and so well told! And, of course, we have a romantic HEA ending! What's not to like?
My full review HERE
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Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo – 4****
Evaristo’s collection of short stories earned her the 2019 Booker Prize, the first black woman to be so honored. As the title implies, the stories all focus on women and girls from childhood to old age and are primarily set in current-day Britain. The book features wide variety of unforgettable characters that fairly leap off the page, and the stories are loosely interconnected. I can hardly wait for my F2F book club discussion!
My full review HERE
Jack Maggs – Peter Carey – 3***
I had heard that this was inspired by Dickens’ Great Expectations . I can see similarities, though the focus here is not on Pip but on Magwitch. I did get quite caught up in Jack Maggs’s story and wondered a few times how Carey was going to wrap this up. The plot is definitely convoluted in places, with many twists and turns, and I did not really appreciate the Tobias Oates subplot. Carey’s writing is very atmospheric, and the city of London is explored in some detail, especially the impoverished slums and criminal underbelly.
My full review HERE
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies – Deesha Philyaw – 4****
In this wonderful collection of short stories, Philyaw explores the modern African-American woman and her hopes, dreams, relationships, and actions both in and away from church. The stories feature all ages, from children to great-grandmothers. Philyaw does a marvelous job of bringing these many characters to life. I could see a few of these stories expanded to novel length, but I find them satisfying in and of themselves.
My full review HERE
Resistance Women – Jennifer Chiaverini – 3.5***
This is a work of historical fiction concentrating on the women who worked in Germany as part of the resistance movement to thwart Hitler’s ambitions. I was engaged and interested from beginning to end. The novel spans the time from June 1929 to the year following the end of the war, 1946. I had to wonder at times, whether Chiaverini was lifting certain phrases and descriptions of the political climate that led to the rise of Nazism from current-day news reporting and commentary. It was chillingly familiar.
My full review HERE
Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde
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