So this month I only read 8 books, but it was a total of 3,107 pages. That averages 103 1/2 pages per day. So that's pretty good! Let's get into the books, shall we?
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (465 pages, which included 2 very helpful reference appendices). This was sci-fi, which is not my favorite genre. In the very distant future, earth has been wracked by occasional fifth seasons. These seasons are extended winters triggered by some sort of environmental disaster. Some towns and people survive, most do not. The book follows three women at the possible onset of a new fifth season. Damaya is a young girl who has just become aware that she is an orogene (a person with the ability to manipulate earth and stone). Her parents send her off to the Fulcrum, where she can train and learn to control her orogency. Syenite is a star orogene at the Fulcrum. She is paired with Alabaster, the most powerful known orogene, in hopes that they will produce a child. While on a mission, Syen encounters a strange obelisk that offers her unusual powers. But when the power is more than she can handle, she and Alabaster find themselves on a hidden island with a new community. A community led by an untrained orogene. Essun is a middle aged orogene who is searching for the daughter her husband absconded with after he killed their son. During her travels, she befriends Hoa, a young stone eater, and Tonkee, a woman with no town and no family. Eventually, all of the stories converge as we learn the disaster that is threatening the next fifth season. I actually liked this more than I thought I would, but not so much that I would recommend it to anyone other than a sci-fi fan. I finished in 3 days.
The Secrets We Left Behind by Susan Elliot Wright (374 pages). Jo has the life she's always dreamed of- perfect house, perfect husband, perfect mother-in-law, perfect daughter and son-in-law, perfect brand new grandson. But one day, she gets a call and a voice from her past promised the upheaval of her perfect world. All of a sudden, memories that were better left in the past make their way to Jo's present and threaten her future. I seriously couldn't stop reading. I read the majority of it in one day and wasn't even poolside! I finished in 3 days.
Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique (392 pages). My sophomore year at Davidson, I took a Caribbean literature class that I absolutely loved. This book wouldn't fit in perfectly. In 1917, the Danish West Indies became the US Virgin Islands. The Bradshaw family had long made the island of St. Thomas their home. But when Captain Bradshaw's ship wrecks and Mrs. Bradshaw dies shortly thereafter, their two daughters are left to make their own way in the world. Both are beautiful. And both contain their own special magic. It's a story of love and curses, of family history and suffering. It was a great mixture of Caribbean literature and magical realism. I finished in 2 days.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (727 pages). So Once Upon a Bookclub does occasional special edition boxes that are not part of the regular monthly subscription. This was one of those. I'd never read this classic before, although it IS the book that Melanie Wilkes is reading in Gone with the Wind when the women are waiting for the men to return from raiding Shantytown. I enjoyed it more than I expected to. David Copperfield is more 6 months after his father's death. After a briefly happy few years of early childhood, his mother remarried a wretched man and David's idyllic existence is no more. His mother dies shortly after her remarriage and David is left alone, with only his faithful nurse Peggotty as his family. Along the way, he makes friends and foes, falls in love, and experiences triumphs and heartbreaks. The gifts were great (and on my social media). I did find myself wondering if LM Montgomery named the twins Davy and Dora after Copperfield and his wife (it can always come back to Anne of Green Gables for me). I finished in 10 days.
The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase (352 pages). This was my regular Once Upon a Bookclub box. And it was a good one! Tragedies strike the Harrington family in 1979, causing mother Jeannie, children Hera and Teddy, and nanny Rita to leave London for their country house, Foxcote Manor, for the summer. When Hera finds a baby abandoned in the woods, everything is turned on it's head. Decades later, Sylvie is trying to piece together her own family history while going through family tragedies of her own- her mother was in a horrible accident and now lies in a coma, her teen aged daughter finds herself pregnant. Slowly, she starts to put together the truth behind her adoption. This book had me like WHOA, way too many times. And I loved it! The gifts were spot on too (and posted on social media). I finished in 3 days.
Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly (427 pages). This was a prequel, of sorts, to Lilac Girls. In that, the American heroine was Caroline Ferriday. This book is about her mother, Eliza, who is actually the only historical person included in the book's main characters. The world is on the brink of World War I. Eliza had become dear friends with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. After Sofya gave birth to her son, she hired Vanika, a local girl and daughter of a fortuneteller, to be his nanny. When the Revolution strikes the Russian aristocracy, the so-called "White Russians," Eliza fears the worst has happened to the Streshnayva family and does everything she can to help her friend. Along the way, she ends up helping many, many others by establishing the American Central Committee for Russian Relief. I finished in 5 days.
Charm by Sarah Pinborough (189 pages). The second in a series of wickedly re-imagined fairy tales. This one is Cinderella. Cinder's backstory is a little different (perhaps the wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters weren't so awful). And the magic she used on the Prince is a little more lustful desire than love. And maybe the fairy tale isn't a fairy tale after all. But I do love a re-imagined fairy tale! I finished in 2 days.
Beauty by Sarah Pinborough (181 pages). The third in the series- Sleeping Beauty. A Prince out on an adventure with a huntsman finds a sleeping kingdom. When the sleeping queen, Beauty, is awakened, he soon learns that beauty can often be deceptive. And boy, was Beauty's beauty a HUGE deception! Several other fairy tale characters make appearances in this story. I finished in 2 days.
This month's favorite was.....Lost Roses. Y'all know I love historical fiction!
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