Spring has sprung and my March readings are done!

 This month's reading was pretty solid.  8 books.  2,632 pages.  So an average of 85 pages a day.  I have one book listed that I didn't include in my number count because I read the bulk of it across the school year and only just finished in this month.  But I did include it because I technically finished it this month.  So let's get to it!

The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan (338 pages).  Anna Trent is single and 30 years old, managing a chocolate factory in England.  When an accident lands her in a hospital bed next to her high school French teacher Claire Shawcourt (who has cancer), she is offered a chance to work at a world famous chocolate shop in Paris.  While there, she learns how to live, how to love and how to really make chocolate.  She also learns about Claire's one beautiful summer in Paris,  I laughed, I wept.  It was so beautiful.  And it made me want to go to Paris!  I finished in 5 days.

Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward (356 pages).  American Maddie met British Ian when she was living in Eastern Europe.  She was a teacher, he was in the British army.  Their attraction was undeniable.  But both of them (especially Ian) had too many demons to make their eventual marriage work.  Years of love and fear culminate with the Day of the Killing.  When the police arrive at their home, they face a grisly scene.  But murder scenes aren't always what they appear.  And neither are marriages.  I finished in 5 days.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (325 pages).  Eleanor Oliphant lives a perfectly fine life- she's got a job and a routine.  But she's got a severe lack of social skills and an uncanny ability to say whatever is on her mind (appropriate or not).  One day, the new IT guy at work, Raymond, comes to her desk to help.  And suddenly, Eleanor learns that life isn't meant to just be fine- it's meant to be lived.  Through her friendship with Raymond, she begins to go out, to meet people, to take more notice of her physical appearance and to learn more about her tragic childhood.  Eleanor was both frustrating and endearing.  I'd heard mixed reviews about this book.  It was a NY Times best seller, but I'd heard that some people didn't like it.  Those people were not me- I really enjoyed it!  I finished in 5 days.

The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon (336 pages).  This was a special edition steamy romance Once Upon a Bookclub box, so the gifts are on social media.  Shay loves her job as a producer at a local Seattle public radio station.  She does not love the new reporter, Dominic.  But when their boss asks them to cohost a new talk show, Shay is both excited (being on air has always been her ultimate dream) and repulsed (working with Dominic will not be fun).  Their new show?  Ex Talk.  Yep, they have to convince the world that they are exes who have managed to work together and navigate a friendship post breakup.  But as their attraction grows, can they keep lying to everyone?  And what happens if the world finds out the truth?  This was super cute and I wish I could've been poolside while reading it.  I finished in 2 days.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan (407 pages).  Yes, my second book by this author this month.  Zoe is a single mother, struggling to make ends meet in London with her four year old son Hari (who is electively mute).  Hari's father is of little to no help.  But his sister is (at least once she learns about Hari's existence).  She finds Zoe new jobs.  In Scotland.  The first is nannying for three children at the local big house.  Three broken children and their equally broken father.  The second is working at the mobile bookshop in town (the back story to that is in The Bookshop on the Corner and is delightful).  Between the new family and new environment, Zoe and Hari start to emerge from their shells and finally find a sense of belonging.  I finished in 5 days.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Ducksworth (291 pages, plus nearly 40 pages of notes that I did not read).  This book was "required" reading for a mentor/mentee program that I am a part of with JLC.  It was a very interesting book.  I learned that I'm not a super gritty person.  And I'm 100% okay with that!  It did give some excellent pointers on how to become more gritty and how to encourage grit in others (including your children).  I finished in 14 days (because it was spread over about 8 months).

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (503 pages).  Y'all know I love a good historical fiction.  And this one was amazing!  In 1947, college girl Charlie St. Clair is desperate.  She's unwed and pregnant and wants to find out what happened to her beloved cousin Rose in Nazi-occupied France.  When she is sent to Europe to "take care of her little problem," she manages to get herself to London to find the one person she thinks can help.  She has two names- Eve Gardiner and Rene Bordelon.  In 1914, Eve was part of a network of female spies called the Alice Network (after their fearless leader Alice Dubois, real name Louise de Bettignies).  After the war, there is little more than a shell of Eve left.  But when Charlie mentions the name Rene, the two women, along with Eve's driver Finn, join forces and head to France to finally learn the truth about Rose and even Eve herself.  OMG- I cannot stress how much I loved this book!  I finished in 4 days.

This month's favorite was... duh, The Alice Network.  Historical fiction is almost always going to win!

February is a short month, so this is a short list

 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. 

Kicking off 2021 with some good reads

 I didn’t read a lot of books this month. But I still read a lot of pages. Only 7 books at a total of 2,382 pages. So that’s an average of 77 pages a day. So away we go!

The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman (374  pages). This was my Once Upon a Book Club book. So gifties on social. Review on blog. Over 200 years ago, an elder Fontana sister cursed her younger sister, that she and all second born daughters would never find true love. Whether you believe in curses or not, this one seems to have come true. 29 year old, happily single Emilia and her 21 year old, unhappily single cousin Luciana are invited to join their 79 year old great aunt Poppy on a trip to Italy. All of them are second born daughters. And Poppy has promised them that she will break the curse by meeting her true love on the steps of the church in Ravello on her 80th birthday. Adventures ensue. But can a curse be broken, especially if you don’t really believe in it?  I finished in 4 days. 

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer (387 pages). Why yes, I did buy a novel that’s the exact Twilight novel except with role reversals. Edythe is now the hundred year old vampire and Beau is the human in love with her. Almost all of the roles are reversed and names changed, except for Charlie and Renee. Beau lived with Renee and Phil in Phoenix until moving to Forks to live with Charlie. There were several changes, but most of them were to simply have it make sense that Beau was a boy and Edythe a girl rather than some massive change to the storyline. Except for one HUGE change to the story. Parts of the change I liked, others I didn’t. It was, however, a perfect ending to not have sequels. I finished in 4 days. 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (288 pages). I did not like this book at all. It made absolutely no sense to me. Kathy, Ruth and Tommy grew up together at Hailsham. Was it a school?  Was it some sort of holding place for kids?  Who knows. But after they grew up and were allowed to leave Hailsham, they lost touch. Life eventually brought them back together and some of their questions were answered. I was still confused. Completely and utterly. How this book won a Nobel in literature is beyond me.  Truly a confusing and unenjoyable book. I finished in 5 days. 

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke (356 pages). This was a Once Upon a Book Club box. So gifts on social (as usual). After 7 years together, concert pianist Diana is finally ready to marry Arie. She’s even written him a love song while on tour. But before she can return home to him, tragedy strikes and her song disappears with her. But a simple notebook and talented musicians around the world manage to bring Diana’s song home to Arie. Along with the possibility of new love. I finished in 2 days. 

The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics by Barton Swaim (204 pages). This was another book that Popsicle thought I’d enjoy. Again, he was correct. The author was Mark Sanford’s speechwriter for the last 3 years of his time as governor. Yes, he was there during the Appalachian Trail debacle. With a PhD in English (I got my BA in English), Barton wasn’t sure what careers were available to him (I feel your pain, which is how I ended up in law). He loved to write so applied to be Sanford’s speechwriter during his second term. A job that can only be described as horrific and hysterical, all at the same time.  The takeaway was that while “good” people might be elected into office, politicians are never to be trusted. I finished in 2 days. 

Little Big Love by Katy Regan (356 pages). 10 year old Zac decides he wants to find his dad, a man who did a runner before he was born. Or so he’s always been told. While he has people who love him (his mom, his grandad and nan, his best friend, his mom’s ex-boyfriend), he still feels like something is missing. Between bullying at school (both he and his mom are severely overweight) and learning the truth about his uncle’s death and his father’s subsequent desertion, Zac goes on a quest to find the dad he’s been missing. I really enjoyed it. I finished in 6 days. 

28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand (417 pages). This book takes place over (shocker) 28 years of summers. At the age of 24, Mallory Blessing is living in NYC and hating her life.  But a miracle happens- her aunt Greta passes away and leaves her a cottage on Nantucket. And from that moment, her life changes. That very first summer, her brother comes to Nantucket for his bachelor part, bringing his two best friends. One of whom is named Jake McCloud. Jake and Mallory have a connection from the instant they meet. And when the bachelor party ends up falling apart, they have a weekend alone that they will never forget. And commit to repeating every year, no matter what. Marriage, children, family- nothing gets in their way. I finished in 8 days. 

This month’s favorite was.....probably 28 Summers. I know it’s easy to say the last book you read was the favorite. But I actually don’t say that often. The Lost Love Song was a close second though. 

The year is done. My reading was great!

 I finished out the year pretty strong. This month, I completed my 100 book challenge with Goodreads (and managed to read 5 additional books, just for fun!). But this month, I read 9 books, a total of 2,760 pages. Which is an average of 89 pages per day. Bringing my yearly reading total to 105 books. 37,010 pages. An average of 101 pages a day. 

Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron (327 pages). I’ve had this book for quite a while but wanted to wait until close to Christmas to read it!  Jane Austen- world famous novelist. And sleuth?  During the Twelve Days of Christmas, Jane and her family (mother, sister, brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece) find themselves guests of the Chute family at their home. A snowstorm means that the guests find themselves snowbound at The Vyne for far longer than anticipated. On the third day, one of their party is found dead. While every else assumes it is a tragic accident, Jane and Mr Raphael West have other ideas- that someone at The Vyne killed him.  But for what gain?  And which of the other guests is a murderer? I finished in 4 days. 

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson (337 pages). Amy Whey loves everything about her life- her professor husband, her teenaged stepdaughter, her new baby boy, her best friend, her job as a dive instructor, her neighborhood. But when new neighbor Roux shows up to book club and high jacks it with a game, Amy’s world is turned upside down. Because Roux’s game is all about the worst thing you’ve ever done. And Amy has never shared that with anyone. But if the truth comes out, it could wreck Amy’s perfect world. It’s a game Roux excels at. And a game that Amy can’t let her win. I finished in 6 days. 

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan (315 pages). This was my 100th book of the year!  Lucie Churchill is a 19 year old college student when she is invited to get former babysitter/adopted big sister’s wedding in Capri. From the parties to the fashion to the location, Lucie feels like she’s dropped into a fairytale. Especially when she meets 20 year old George Zao and they share one passionate, scandalous moment. Five years later, their paths intertwine again.  Only this time, Lucie is newly engaged to Cecil Pike.  Cecil is everything Lucie has ever wanted in a husband. But there’s something about George that makes him irresistible to Lucie. Still. Even 5 years later. I finished in 5 days. 

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce (334 pages). This was my Once Upon a Book Club book box. So again, you know the drill- pics of the gifts are on social. Margery Benson fell in love with beetles as a child. Her dream?  Finding the never before found golden beetle of New Caledonia. But life took her in another direction after multiple disappointments. But in 1950, Margery has had enough- England is still reeling from WWII and she is unhappy with her job. So she makes a decision to go to New Caledonia. She advertises for an assistant and that’s when Enid Pretty enters her life. Nothing about Enid seems ready for the wilderness of a beetle-finding expedition. But the women make their way across the world and into the wilds. Along the way, they become the best of friends, each of them offering the other what they’ve always needed to become their best selves.  I finished in 2 days. 

Secrets of the Chocolate House by Paula Brackston (308 pages). The second book in the Found Things series. Xanthe Westlake has spent several weeks trying to get the seventeenth century and Samuel Appleby out of her mind. Until she finds a new object that sings to her, this time a chocolate pot. The pot takes her back in time. To just a few short months after she left Samuel behind. Last time, a young servant girl was in trouble. This time it’s Samuel himself. And Xanthe will stop at nothing to make sure that the man she loves is safe. But unfortunately for Xanthe, this time around she is facing a truly difficult foe- another time Spinner like her.  I finished in 5 days. 

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren (304 pages). This was the Christmas special edition box from Once Upon a Book Club, so gift photos on social. Maelyn Jones is 26 years old, single, living back at home and working a job she hates. But she’s at her favorite place during her favorite time of year- a cabin in Utah with her divorced parents and younger brother, and all of her parents’ best friends and kids (including brothers Andrew and Theo- her crush and her best buddy, respectively). But after a night of too much eggnog results in a drunken misjudgment and the gut wrenching news that the cabin is being sold, Mae is distraught as they drive to the airport. The next thing she knows, she’s waking up, not from a car crash, but on an airplane that’s headed to Utah to start family Christmas. She keeps reliving the same holiday week over and over. Until she figures out what it will take to stop the time loop from restarting by figuring out what the universe wants her to learn. Literally Christmas chick lit!  I loved it!  I finished in 1 day. 

12 Days of Book-Club-Mas by assorted authors (234 pages).  This was a special edition box from Once Upon a Book Club- 12 “read one a day” short stories with accompanying gifts (see social media for those). The stories were wonderful- totally diverse. And the gifts were perfection!  I finished in 7 days (because it arrived late and I ending up reading 5 stories on day one so I could end on time!)

The Garden of Promises and Lies by Paula Brackston (309 pages). The third and final book in the Found Things series. Xanthe is back in her own time, but this time Benedict Fairfax has followed her. When Xanthe realizes that this evil Spinner is truly dangerous, she follows another object, this time a wedding dress, back to the 1800’s to deal with him once and for all. But this time around, Xanthe finally shares her Spinner secret with her mother and would-be beau.  Because she’s going to need all the help she can get.  I finished in 6 days.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (292 pages). It’s May of 1977 and the body of 16 year old Lydia Lee was just found in the lake near her house. But Lydia hated the water. And her mom Marilyn is convinced this wasn’t a suicide. The novel delves into family history- how James (an American born Chinese man) and Marilyn (a blonde haired, blue eyed white woman) met and married, the three children in the family, all of their relationships to each other and, to be honest, their relationships with the world). I finished in 2 days. 

This month’s favorite was..... a tie between Never Have I Ever and In a Holidaze. Totally different genres. 

Almost a No Read November (as far as I’m concerned)

 November wasn’t my best month. I mean, I still kept my average daily pages pretty high. But I’ve had way better months of reading. I read only 6 books. A total of 2,264 pages. Which is an average of 75 pages a day. I’ve got to read more books next month so I can finish the year out strong! 

Dracul by Dacre Stoker and JD Barker (493 pages). First of all, this one of the gifts that came in one of my book club boxes. So yes please. And second, one of the authors is, in fact, the great grandnephew of Bram Stoker. So that right there was enough to have me intrigued. It’s the origin story of Dracula. Told through the journals of Bram and his brother, letters from his sister, and Bram’s current state, we learn about Bram’s early childhood illness and the nanny Ellen who was by his side. Until she disappeared. 14 years later, she begins to reappear to the Stokers, having not aged a day. But is Ellen truly the enemy?  It definitely reminded me of Dracula. To the point that I thought I was reading the same book, only with different characters. I assume the idea is to make you think that Bram’s own personal experiences led him to write Dracula, rather than it being a work of fiction.  Well it worked! I finished in 5 days. 

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate (381 pages). The Southwestern Christian Advocate was a newspaper in the late 1800’s that was published and sent to preachers in the lower Southern states. Included in the newspaper was a Lost Friends column. This column was for people to find friends and family who had been lost to them during antebellum slavery. In 1875, Hannie Gossett is a free woman (well, girl) living as a sharecropper on her old owner’s plantation of Goswood Grove in Louisiana.  She is the only member of her family who wasn’t sold away. When she learns about the Lost Friends column, she makes it her mission to find her family. And help as many other black people find their families as possible.  In 1987, Benny Silva has arrived in Augustine, Louisiana, as the new high school English teacher.  Her students have little to no interest in literature. But in a town full of both black and white Gossetts, Benny finally gets their attention when she introduces a Tales from the Underground project. The family connects made between the two stories were just amazing. I finished in 5 days. 

Providence by Caroline Kepnes (363 pages). This is a weird one to describe. Jon and Chloe are best friends, with a very deep connection. But when they are in middle school, Jon is kidnapped. Four years later, Jon shows back up. But it’s not the same Jon who was kidnapped. This Jon is bigger, stronger, and has a weird power that he can’t control. So he leaves his hometown to make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone he loves. Six years later, Detective Charles “Eggs” DeBeneditcus feels that there’s more to the random heart attacks that are happening around Providence, Rhodes Island. But he can’t figure out the connection between the victims. Until the stories finally converge- Chloe, an artist still haunted by the loss of her best friend; Eggs, still hunting for answers; and Jon, a confused loner who still wonders what happened to him so many years ago. I  finished in 5 days. 

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (336 pages). Elena Richardson lives a perfect life, with her perfect husband and home and children (well, 3 of the 4 are perfect). But appearances can be deceiving. And when Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl enter their lives, Elena realizes that there is much more wrong with her world than she knew. She goes on a quest to learn everything she can about the family who is upending her world. I’ve now started watching to series on Hulu. I finished in 4 days. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (288 pages). This was my Once Upon a Book Club book. And omg- it was amazing!  Nora’s life isn’t at all what she imagined. So she decides she doesn’t want to live one more day and a few minutes before midnight, she kills herself. Instead of waking up in heaven or hell, she wakes up in a library. This library is full of books that allow her to go into the different lives that could have been, if only different choices had been made.  As Nora opens different books and different lives, she starts to wonder if there really is such a thing as the perfect life. I finished in 2 days. 

The Bargaining by Carly Anne West (403 pages). Penny is used to her parents trying to pawn her off on the other parent rather than deal with her. But when her mom ships her off to live with her father, stepmother and stepbrother, Penny is none to thrilled. Especially when her stepmother April tells her they are moving to a small town in Washington State for the summer to fix up an old house April  has bought. While Penny has her own ghosts from issues, this house also has ghosts. And a chilling story to go along with it. Honestly, it was a really hard book to get into (despite sounding like an interesting story). Which is why it took me so long to read a relatively short book. I finished in 9 days. 

This month’s favorite was.....The Midnight Library. No contest. 

FALLing into some good books last month

I stayed right at my average for this month- 9 books, 3422 pages, so an average of 110 pages per day. 4 of the books ended up being supernatural, so that worked out well for the month of October!  Let’s get down to it, shall we?

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer (658 pages). Judge all you want. But as bad as they were, I love me some Twilight. When the original draft for one chapter from this book leaked years ago, I read it. So of course I had to see what the finished product was!  The Twi-hard in me loved every chapter. It was interesting to read it from Edward’s perspective- why he did what he did, his confusion with his inability to hear Bella’s thoughts, his interactions with his family. Was it great writing?  No. Was it enjoyable?  Quite.  I finished in 5 days. 

The Book of V. by Anna Solomon (300 pages). The stories of three women- modern day Lily in Brooklyn, 1970’s Vee in DC, and 480’s BC Esther in Persia. I enjoyed the stories of Lily and Vee. Lily is a second wife (an Esther if you will), struggling with motherhood, sacrificed dreams and her mother‘s cancer. Vee is a first wife (a Vashti if you will), who eventually finds herself after her husband asks a degrading favor from her. I did not enjoy the bastardization of the story of Esther. At all. Names were changed, characters added, magic added (huh, what?), and Esther did not save her people in the way the Bible states. So those chapters were awful. The only redeeming factor of the Esther chapters was that we learn what happened to Vashti. I finished in 4 days. 

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy (371 pages).  So I read the second book in this series first (accidentally). But I had already seen the Netflix Dumplin’ movie (which I loved).  Willowdean Dickson is, in her own words, fat. But she’s also quite confident. She has a best friend. And they share an undying love of Dolly Parton. But Willowdean’s mom runs the local beauty pageant. And Willowdean decides to enter. Joining her are some of the other outcasts at their high school. Along the way, Willowdean finds love and acceptance. And discovers that her own confidence could use some work. It’s a great book about self-acceptance and friendship. I finished in 4 days. 

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult (413 pages). This was my Once Upon a Book Club book. So in addition to gifties, which I LOVE, this is also one of my favorite authors!  Exciting times two!  In ancient Egypt, the Book of Two Ways was a text that would help the dead navigate one of two paths through the underworld- the path of water or the path of land. Dawn Edelstein is a former Egyptology doctoral candidate turned death doula. When she miraculously survives a plane crash, she is faced with her own two ways to continue her life- return to Egypt and the work (and man) she left behind 15 years ago OR continue home to Boston where her husband and daughter wait for her. The novel explores both paths. Typical Picoult- excellently researched, thoroughly engrossing. I could not stop reading. There could have been no gifts and I still wouldn’t have been able to put this book down. I just had to get to the end and find out which path was taken!  I finished in 2 days. 

A Tale of Witchcraft by Chris Colfer (432 pages). Bristol Evergreen is now firmly in place as the Fairy Godmother. Magical creatures are beloved now. At least by most people. Unfortunately the Righteous Brotherhood (a secret society who was responsible for outlawing magic 600 years ago) is back and ready to destroy every magical creature alive. Meanwhile, Mistress Mara has begun the Ravencrest School of Witchcraft. Which presents Bristol with a whole new set of magical people to deal with. These books are so cute and just fun reading. I finished in 4 days. 

Gatsby Girls by F. Scott Fitzgerald (284 pages). This was a collection of 8 short stories that Fitzgerald wrote for the Saturday Evening Post.  The stories are fun and flapper-filled. As F Scott once said, he married the heroine of his stories. I could see Zelda in all of them. I was 100% positive that I’d only ever read one work of F Scott’s, The Great Gatsby. Turns out, I’d actually read two of these short stories before. And I liked them just as much the second time around. I finished in 4 days. 

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth (340 pages). Lucy loves her life, for the most part. Her husband is great, her children are wonderful. Her mother-in-law, on the other hand, has always been a bit difficult. Diana is cold and distant from Lucy, not at all what she wanted in a mother-in-law. But when Lucy and Ollie open the door to two policemen who are there to tell them that Diana has committed suicide, they are shocked. Her suicide note says that it’s due to the cancer that is slowly destroying her. But the autopsy shows no signs of cancer. So what actually happened?  And why did Diana change her will to exclude her children shortly before her death?  I finished in 4 days. 

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates (329 pages). This was the Spooky Halloween special edition box from Once Upon a Book Club. So the gifts are on social media. Omg- sooooo creepy!  Adrienne learns that she has inherited a house in a small town from a great aunt Edith she didn’t even know existed. It seems a gift- she and her cat are basically homeless after her mother’s death. But strange things happen at Ashburn House. And if the local tales are to be believe, the grisly murder of Edith’s family left ghosts behind. But Addy doesn’t believe in ghost stories. Until she realizes she’s living in one. Honestly, this book would make an awesome scary movie!  I finished in 2 days. 

15 Minutes of Flame by Christin Brecher (295 pages). This was the Sweet Halloween special edition box from Once Upon a Book Club. Again, the gifts are on social media. While helping to set up for a Halloween fundraiser, Stella Wright comes across an actual skeleton of a blood soaked Quaker woman hidden in the walls. Stella is convinced that the woman was murdered and sets about on her own investigation to uncover the truth behind Nantucket’s most infamous love triangle. But when a person is killed during the course of the investigation, Stella begins to realize there’s more to the 100 year old story than she thought. And it’s up to her to uncover the truth. I finished in 2 days. 

This month’s favorite was.....The Book of Two Ways. But The Haunting of Ashburn House came in a very close second 

Bye bye summer, reading was fun!

 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!