This month was a short month, so I didn’t get as many books read as usual. But my average was pretty good. It was a total of 7 books and 2,106 pages. Which averaged 75 pages per day. So on to the recaps.
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson (272 pages). This was my Once Upon a Bookclub box. The novel begins in 1850 in Virginia. Pheby Delores Brown has been promised her freedom when she turns 18. Her mother is the plantation medicine woman. And her father is the master of the plantation. She’s in love with Essex Henry, the horseman of the plantation. Her life is as perfect as it can be. Until disaster strikes and she finds herself sold deeper into slavery at the Devil’s Half Acre, which was a real jail in Richmond. Her beauty (and ability to pass as a white woman) makes her stand out to the jailer and he takes her in as his “wife.” Pheby’s quick wits and desire to survive are put to the test when it comes down to protecting the people she loves the most. I finished in 3 days.
Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (289 pages). I absolutely HATED this movie. But I tend to find that books are better than movies, so decided to give this one a try. It was, in fact, far better than the movie. To be honest, the casting was awful. Pat was supposed to be a huge, buff guy (Bradley Cooper). And Tiffany was supposed to be a very small gal (not Jennifer Lawrence). As far as the story goes, Pat has just been released from a mental health facility, with no memory of what put him there or how many years he’d been there. He moves in with his parents- a mom who is thrilled to have him home and a dad who barely acknowledges him. He is obsessed with three things- Eagles football, working out and getting back together with his estranged wife. His friendship with the also mentally unwell Tiffany actually offers him a way back to life. I finished in 4 days.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (399 pages). I HATED this book. I thought the movie was rough to watch. But at least Christian Bale has enough charisma to keep me moderately interested. I picked this book because I needed to read a book that scared me. Spoiler alert- this one actually managed to both bore and disgust me. It did not scare me in the slightest. The label bragging alone was miserable. I didn’t like the story, I didn’t like the characters, I didn’t like the writing. I finished in 8 days.
Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks (304 pages). I mean, you can’t beat a Nicholas Sparks book. In 1990, Tru Walls arrives in Sunset Beach, NC, to meet the birth father he never knew about. Hope Anderson, freshly off a breakup with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, is staying at her family’s house next door in order to be a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding. The 5 days they spend together are the most intense of their lives- they walk the beach, they fall in love, they visit Kindred Spirit (a real mailbox where people leave letters for the universe). But Hope goes back to her life in Raleigh and Tru returns to being a safari guide in Zimbabwe. Years pass and lives go on, even when the love of your life isn’t by your side. But sometimes, Kindred Spirit has a way of bringing people together. I BAWLED. Several times. This book more than made up for the disaster that was the last book I read. I finished in 2 days.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (225 pages). The Sinclair family owns a small island off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and they vacation there every summer- grandparents in the main house and 3 other houses for their daughters and grandkids. Cadence is the oldest grandchild. Her cousins Mirren and Johnny are a few months younger and along with family friend Gat, the quartet make up the Liars. During the summer of her 15th year, she has an accident and it strips her of a lot of her memories. After a summer away from the island, she spends the summer of her 17th year trying to figure out what happened. And boy does she! I finished in 3 days.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (291 pages). This novel takes place over a three day period in the maternity quarantine ward of a Dublin hospital in October of 1918. Yes, I said quarantine because it was taking place during the Spanish Flu. I’m literally reading about what’s happening in our world right now. How the author managed to write this book and submit it to her editor prior to March 2020 I’ll never know. Nurse Julia Powers, Dr. Kathleen Lynn and volunteer Bridie Sweeney band together to help the women in their ward- women battling death to bring life into the world. I finished in 5 days.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (326 pages). Bernadette Fox, former genius architect, has been living an agoraphobic life in Seattle with her Microsoft working husband Elgin and precocious 15 year old daughter Bee. A promised trip to Antarctica for Bee’s upcoming middle school graduation and good grades sets off a series of disasters that leads to Bernadette disappearing. Bee attempts to piece together her mother’s disappearance through a series of emails and letters that took place prior to Bernadette’s disappearance. She begins to learn more about her mother’s past and finally she and her father figure out where to find Bernadette. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I might. I finished in 3 days.
This month’s favorite was ..... Yellow Wife.
