March is done. Here are my readings

This month, I did a great job of sticking to my resolution to read at least 50 pages a day. So this month, it was 4 books, totally 1,663 pages. And an interesting mixture of genres this time. Despite only reading 4 books.....

Fly Away by Kristin Hannah (400 pages). I've read one book by this author before (shocking when I realize how many books she's written). So I was excited to add another one to the list. Not sure I was excited by the time I finished it. The story bounces back and forth between 2010 and the past. Tully and Katie have been best friends since they were young. When Katie dies, she asks Tully to watch out for her husband and kids. The bad news is that Tully can barely watch out for herself. The family shatters at the death of Katie. But when another tragedy strikes, they find themselves inexplicably coming back together. It took me quite a while to get into the rhythm of the book. As a result, I wasn't the biggest fan. It took me eight days to read.

Life Mask by Emma Donoghue (639 pages). Another very fictional historical fiction. Which is usually a hit with me. This one takes place in London, from 1787 to 1797. Eliza Farren is a famous actress who has long been wooed by Lord Derby, he of horse race fame. As long as Derby's wife is alive, Eliza refuses to allow their courtship to advance beyond friendship. But Derby is hellbent on having her in his world. To that end, he introduces to her many of his friends, including Anne Damer, a widow and a sculptress.   Anne had long had Sapphic rumors swirling around her. Rumors she adamantly denied.   Which made her friendship with Eliza quite scandalous. But after 16 years of courtship, Derby's wife finally dies, freeing him to marry Eliza. And Anne realizes that sometimes rumors are frequently true. Amongst the cast of characters, there was also a world of political upheaval occurring. The author herself stated it's the slowest paced of all of her novels. This was my third one by her, but I have to agree. If I weren't the type who finishes a book no matter what, I might have stopped after day one. Which would've been my loss, as all of this history was fascinating!  It took me twelve days to read.

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious (372 pages). I recently started the Gilmore Guys podcast while traveling for work.  They were discussing obscure references in one of the episodes and Peyton Place came up. So I decided to give it a read. I'm pretty sure the reference was to the tv show from the 1960's, and not the book from the 1950's, but ultimately it's the same thing. This book was super scandalous when it first came out. Like 50 Shade of Gray levels of scandalous!  Not, however, 50 Shades levels of insanity in the story. The book opens in 1937 in the bucolic seeming Peyton Place, New England. But just like every idyllic small town, this one has so many scandals. Incest, illegitimate children, affairs, suicides, crises of faith, secrets, lies, murder, you name it and it's happening in this town. I couldn't put it down. Amusingly, not as salacious  in today's society as it was in the 1950's. But definitely a page turner.  I was reading it while I was getting my nails done. When the nail tech asked what I was reading and I told her, the older woman next to me perked up a little bit at the title. She'd watched it in the 1960's and acknowledged how risqué it was at the time. It took me five days to read.

Chocolates for Breakfast by Pamela Moore (252 pages). I literally picked this book because I knew I needed a 250 page book to finish out the month. And shockingly it was another scandalous book from the 1950's. Clearly an inadvertent, but enjoyable, theme this month. The story opens with 15 year old Courtney, who is at boarding school on the East Coast because her divorced parents aren't sure what else to do with her. Her mother is an actress in Hollywood. Her father is an executive in New York. But Courtney is her own person. She develops a slight crush on one of her (female) teachers.  She leaves school and moves to Hollywood, where she loses her virginity to a bisexual actor who is over a decade older than her. Eventually, she and her mother move to New York, where she is reunited with her wild child boarding school roommate, Janet, a fixture on the young New York party scene. Eventually a tragedy causes Courtney to reevaluate her life and her desires. The book was pretty good (I've read better). But then I googled the author. She was 18 when this book was published. And it was a best seller!  She delved into great detail of young adult sexuality and hedonism in a most shocking way. It was sad to me that she committed suicide at 26, 9 months after giving birth. Makes me wonder if she could have survived if postpartum were acknowledged then like it is now. It took me five days to read, just as anticipated.