Books I read in spring 2019

Since I want to document what I read (or I forget) and my reading has been going at a snail's pace, I decided to group everything I read this spring into one post.  Here's hoping I read more in the summer.

Becoming by Michelle Obama ***

I was intrigued by this book.  Even though she's a bit older than I am, her children were born about the same time as mine were.  It was fascinating to compare the vast differences in our experience.  Her childhood in Chicago and life in the White House were nothing like anything I've lived.  I liked that the book wasn't super political.  At the end, she launched into a list of everything they had accomplished and since I was listening to the book, I just started pushing skip.  I wasn't as interested in hearing how great she thought they were.  I probably wouldn't be interested in anyone telling me a list of how great they were.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng ***

We read this one for book club.  Set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, this book centers around a wealthy family and their tenant/housekeeper.  It's mainly about mothers and daughters and really covered it all:  abortion, abandonment, adoption, dysfunction, surrogate motherhood.

It was chock full of unlikable characters who led self-destructive lives (and sometimes were destructive to other people).  It led to a rollicking book club discussion.  Quite often I have a different opinion than most people in my book club.  They thought the author had an agenda and was trying to make us sympathize with one of the characters.  I felt like the character was so awful, who would sympathize with her?

The book did keep me interested the whole time though.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens****

Loved this one!  It was part coming of age story, part murder mystery.  Set in the swamp on the North Carolina coast, a girl is abandoned at a young age and with some help from friends, manages to raise herself.  The swamp was basically one of the characters in the story and I loved how immersive it was.  Also, even though I had my suspicions, I didn't know until the end who the murderer actually was.

The Twenty One Balloons by William Pene du Bois **

This is a Newbery book and I thought it was OK.  It's about a man who is a retired math teacher.  He uses his savings and sets out on a hot air balloon journey to go around the world.  He ends up on Krakatoa, discovering a civilization there.  Then the volcano erupts.  The story was pretty good and I think kids would like it but it was really heavy on engineering details that didn't interest me.  I kept thinking my dad or Mark would like that part.

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler ****

How I love Anne Tyler!  No one writes characters like she does.  They are delightfully quirky and real.  This was a great book.  There were a few vignettes at the beginning about the main character's childhood/young adulthood that felt sort of random because they never figured into the main part of the story.  I still loved it.  It's about a woman in her 60s who feels like she's at loose ends and sort of creates her own family.

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave ****

This was another book club book.  I thought it was great and lots of people in my book club did not.  (Do I just have a book club full of haters?  I don't know.  I still love them.)  This book is set in London during World War II.  It's about a young wealthy woman who wants to join the war effort and becomes a teacher.  When all the children are evacuated except the "unwanted"--either for racial reasons or because they're disabled--she still teaches them.  Some of the characters are also soldiers fighting in the war.  It was tragic so if you're looking for a happy read, keep looking.

Books I read in March 2018

Hope was Here by Joan Bauer ***

This is a Newbery Honor book.  So it's not exactly part of my goal, but it was a good book.  It's about a girl named Hope who lives with her aunt because her mom couldn't handle motherhood and abandoned her.  The aunt is a cook so teenaged Hope is a waitress.  They live in several places but this book takes place in small-town Wisconsin where they moved to work.  Since I was a waitress in high school and college, I enjoyed the waitressing aspect of the book.  Also, there were real and believable characters and the book was about...hope.  Good book.

The False Friend by Myla Goldberg **

This book had a very compelling story--it's about a woman who remembers something from her childhood, the disappearance of her best friend, that everyone else remembers differently.  I was interested in finding out whose memories were correct and why and then the book just ended.  It was as if the author woke up one morning and realized the date and that the manuscript was due so sent it in.

I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass **

This book chronicles the lives of two sisters over several decades.  It was OK but the sisters were pretty much unlikable.  Meh.

Flora by Gail Godwin ***

Definitely the best book I read this month.  It's a pretty sad tale about a little girl who is left in the care of a distant relative over the summer.  There is a polio scare so they are quarantined away most of the time.  Even though the story was sad and I prefer a happier one, I really liked this book.  The writing was impeccable and I felt like it was summer and I was right there with them.

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor ***

Mark gave me this book for my birthday and I was surprised by that because there is a dog on the cover and he refuses to read books with dogs on the cover.  He is convinced they're not getting out alive.  Emma told me she picked out the book on Mark's behalf and then that made more sense.

I liked the book.  It's about a boy who lives in rural West Virginia and finds a dog who is mistreated by his owner.  Marty, the boy, tries his best to hide the dog but you know that's not going to work out.  It was jarring when there was mention of a computer at his friend's house because I was convinced it was set during the Depression based on other descriptions.  Guess I don't know a lot about rural West Virginia.