Tag: book-reviews

books, Historical Fiction, literature, reading, Women's literature

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

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Inspired by the life of Martha Ballard, a well‑known midwife from the 1700s, this book gives a close look at a world where women had to live very carefully. They worked hard at home, supported their husbands, raised their children, and went to church. Anything outside those roles was risky. A woman’s word was rarely trusted. She could only speak in court if her husband stood beside her. Even years of hands‑on experience meant less than a man’s formal education. And if a woman became pregnant outside of marriage, she carried all the blame and shame.

In this setting, Martha Ballard is asked to examine the body of a man pulled from the river. With no doctor in town, her experience as a midwife made her the closest thing to a medical expert. The dead man was a well‑known citizen who had recently been accused of a violent rape. One of the other accused men—the town magistrate—decides that a newly arrived doctor should give the official opinion instead. This doctor immediately contradicts Martha’s conclusion that the man was murdered.

Against this backdrop, we see Martha support and protect women through her work as a midwife, pushing back against male arrogance and sexism. We also see her try to raise her children, especially her sons, to be good and responsible people. Her husband loved her and even taught her to read and write, which gave her opportunities most women of the time did not have.

Some of the conversations between the Ballards, and between groups of women, felt more modern than I expected, which made me wonder how much creative license the author used. Still, the story was interesting and worth reading. I do prefer her other book, The Wife, The Maid, and The Mistress. That was really good.

books, Family Drama, literature, reading

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

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Elizabeth Strout brings many of her familiar characters back together in Crosby, Maine. By pulling in people and histories from her earlier books, she continues the character‑driven storytelling she’s known for.

This time, Lucy Barton and her ex‑husband William, Bob Burgess and his wife Margaret, and Olive Kitteridge and her friend Isabelle Goodrow all end up in the same orbit. It’s an unusual mix, and even when I tried to map out how everyone was connected, it still felt tangled. What holds the book together is the way these characters pair off and share stories about other people. There is a lot of this. Bob hears about his sister‑in‑law’s declining health from his sister instead of his brother. Olive learns about Isabelle’s future living situation from the retirement‑home staff. Bob hears about Lucy’s plans from William. Almost everything comes secondhand, like gossip passed along before reaching the source. It made me want to know the full truth behind each story.

Each character is trying to understand not only their own place in the world but also what life means more broadly. Lucy and Olive meet to talk about “unrecorded lives,” hoping to shine light on people who might otherwise be forgotten. The fear of not being remembered—or not mattering—runs through many of Strout’s stories about these women, and it feels like the force behind their need to tell and retell these moments.

Bob’s murder case also ties into this theme of being seen. The young man accused of killing his mother has lived a life mostly unnoticed while caring for her. Bob helps bring him into a world he has been shut out of. This storyline requires action based on what Bob observes in the present, while many of the other stories rely on looking back at things that have already happened.

I enjoyed reading about these people, but this is a very contemplative book.

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, reading, romance

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reed

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This story explores the expectations society places on women and the personal cost of trying to meet them. It takes place in the male‑dominated world of 1980s space exploration, where women are only beginning to break through. Reading it reminds us how much has changed in the last 40 years.

The book uses two timelines that eventually come together. This structure shows how each choice Joan Goodwin makes leads her to the moment she is living now. The back‑and‑forth kept me engaged, trying to connect her past to her present and guess what would happen next.

Joan tells her own story. As a child, she loved the stars and pushed through tough science classes to become an astronomer. She earned her doctorate and became a professor at Rice University. She was proud of what she had achieved and didn’t expect to go any further. Is it a mirror opposite of her sister, Barbara, who challenged rules in her own way but still felt trapped by society’s expectations. Barbara’s daughter, Franny, is raised by both her mother and Joan.

Everything changes when Barbara finds an ad calling for women to apply to NASA and shares it with Joan. Joan applies on a whim, never thinking she’ll be chosen. But she is—and suddenly she must put her own goals first. As she steps into this new world, her relationships shift, especially with her sister. Joan begins to see how often she lets others define her place in their lives.

During astronaut training, Joan forms a new circle of friends—Hank Redmond, John Griffin, Lydia Danes, Donna Fitzgerald, and Vanessa Ford. They help her see new possibilities for her life. As her love for space grows, so does her sense of self. When she falls in love for the first time, she again faces pressure to hide who she is and fit into a role others expect.

When the two timelines finally meet, Joan understands what she wants, who she is, and what she stands for. She stays true to herself and supports the people she loves as they try to do the same.

books, reading, romance

Romance on Tap

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When life becomes overwhelming, it’s always good to pick up a Romance Novel. You are assured a happy ending – something we need more than we would likely admit.

This summer, I have indulged in this genre. Too many heavy books during this unsettling time led me here – and I am not apologizing for it.

Friday Night Cocktails by Allison Rushby

Two friends, Gemma and Sarah, create a list of cheating, lying or despicable men they dated, permanently taking them off the eligible list. This list has been written on loose leaf paper, with a place of honor on the fridge door. When the list becomes too bulky for the magnet to handle, Sarah suggests putting it online. Gemma, an underemployed writer, puts it on her homepage, and it goes viral. Taken by surprise, Gemma works with her friend to make this into a business. While learning how to do this, she begins a journey of self-reflection on why men are bastards, why she has a chip on her shoulder about her ex, and what her role was in their breakup. More self-reflection than expected, but it was a fun ride.

The Summer of Us by Holly Chamberlin

Three vastly different women who don’t know each other decide to rent a house on Martha’s Vineyard for the summer. Through the support they provide for one another, they all begin to see themselves differently and become more comfortable with who they truly are.  

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

Nina was brought up by a single mother, never knowing her father. With a dream job at a bookstore, a winning trivia team, and a cat, she doesn’t think she needs more from life. Then a lawyer shows up and informs her that her father has died, and she has a number of siblings, nieces, and nephews, and they are all nearby! She begins to step into a world of a family – and of the real world outside the cocoon she has wrapped herself in, including the possibility of a boyfriend.

The Little Cottage on the Hill by Emma Davies

Maggie comes to the country with a job to promote a luxurious holiday retreat. When she arrives, however, she finds a rundown estate. She has everything riding on this job, after a scandal pushed her out of the London PR firm she was at. Maggie digs in, working with Seth – the owner – and his friends, and they both end up coming out ahead.

Death Takes a Honeymoon by Deborah Donnelly

This is the fourth installment of a series centered on Carnegie Kincaid, a wedding planner. In this story Carnegie is convinced to come home to Montana to help her best friend cover a secret from her beloved husband. Other strange happenings occur, as people begin to die as the wedding of the third friend, now a famous actress, is upset by more murders. Predictable, but fun.

The Lost Girls of Ireland by Susanne O’Leary

Lidia Butler has nothing left, so she moves with her daughter to her Great Aunt Nellie’s home in Sandy Cove, Ireland.  As she begins to heal from her trauma, Lidia finds herself building relationships throughout the town. As Lidia comes to embrace her past and forgive herself for it, she builds a new life based upon her strengths and friendships.

book-review, books, fantasy, literature, reading, romance

Summer fun with Faeries and Serial Killers.

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On vacation I want a light, fun book. I forgot to bring some with me, so I ran to the local bookstore and came home with two books – a fantasy and a romance. Just right for my mood.

First up: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries By Heather Fawcett

I first heard of this book on the Reading Glasses podcast. While not typically covering my type of reading, I thoroughly enjoy listening to these two women discussing books. I decided to take the leap with the summer book because – well why not? This is the story of a Cambridge professor, Emily Wilde, who is a bookish woman with no social skills. She is working on creating an encyclopedia of faeries. While young, she is very accomplished in her field. We follow her to the far reaches of the north to find proof of the Hidden Faeries – the most elusive of their kind. When we get there we find a tough village with gruff survivors that stick to their own. Emily struggles to connect with these people, who are the key to her studies.

Enter Emily’s less disciplined, extremely handsome, academic Wendell Bambleby. He charms the townsfolk, and insinuates himself into Emily’s research, frustrating her to distraction. What follows are spoilers, but you learn more about faeries and about the human heart as you read on.

At times a romance, at times a thriller, always fun if not high brow literature. I will be taking more walks in the woods for this kind of read as I continue to recover from the heavy stuff I have been reading lately.

Next up: Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson.

I finished the Emily Wilde book quickly, so I turned to my other splurge book. This one was shelved as a romance. Trying not to discard it because of the title, and because of my love for hallmark endings, this was just right for me.

Phoebe Walsh, a PhD candidate in English, has returned to Florida to help her brother clear out their father’s house after he died. She has been disconnected from this place for years, and was estranged from her father for decades. While she is clearing the house, her memories of times here – before her parents divorced – were not great. Now she is focusing on finishing her dissertation on the True Crime genre. We come to learn that Phoebe is a loner, obsessed with Serial Killers, who thinks everyone is one. Then she starts to reconcile what her past was to what she recollected, spending time with her brother, her former best friend, and now the man, Sam, who lives next door to her dad’s house.

While this is a romance, the themes explored include body dysmorphia, self confidence, trust, divorce, and family dynamics. The happy ending is there, just like a hallmark movie. And just like how I love those, I recommend this as a fun read, with surprising depth.  

book-review, books, literature, reading

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

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Orbital is not an easy read. It demands effort and patience to grasp what’s unfolding. There’s no conventional plot, no direct dialogue—just a stream of impressions and reflections that pass quickly, often without resolution. Does it make sense? That’s for the reader to work out.

The novel follows a single day aboard a space station that orbits Earth sixteen times. Through these cycles, we encounter six astronauts from vastly different backgrounds—American, Russian, Italian, British, and Japanese—each of whom has committed to life and work in space. Their cultural differences shape their perspectives, yet they share common emotional terrain: the loneliness of being far from loved ones, and the awe of floating above the planet.

Harvey presents their lives in fragments—snapshots both literal and metaphorical. The crew tracks a typhoon building over Asia, takes photographs, recalls artwork, eats, exercises, and reflects. These glimpses offer data points about each character, but never a complete portrait. This mirrors their view of Earth: partial, obscured, requiring faith to fill in the gaps. The typhoon’s trajectory, like the inner lives of the crew, remains elusive.

With no spoken dialogue, the novel evokes the solitude of orbit. Each revolution around the planet reframes what “home” means, especially when viewed from such distance. The astronauts’ thoughts drift toward their families, their countries, and the landscapes below—each pass offering a new angle, a new emotional resonance.

Ultimately, Orbital is a quiet meditation on perspective, isolation, and connection. The storm on Earth parallels the internal storms each astronaut carries. You don’t know where it will strike, or how hard—but you feel its presence, circling with them.

book-review, books, mystery, reading

Old Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Kate Galley

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When I saw the title “Old Girls Behaving Badly”, I just had to read this. I know I am getting older every day, but this looked right up my alley.

This book is the first in a delightful new series (the second is “Old Girls on a Chateau Escape” and I am eagerly awaiting the third installment).

The stories follow Georgina (Gina) Knight, a 73 year old woman who’s husband left her after 43 years to go find himself. He, of course took all the money with him, leaving Gina with nowhere to go after the house is sold and no income. Gina decides to try her hand at “being a carer” and answers an ad in the paper. Dorothy (Dot) Reed, and 89 year old woman, has a family that is sure she needs to be taken care of, starting at a family wedding. Her niece hires Gina in exchange for room and board. Little did the family realize that Dot had her own reasons for wanting a helper – to catch a thief. Through heavier topics, such as Gray Divorce, Aging and Mourning there is plenty of fun to be had as the ladies that have been counted out become those to be counted on.   

At the end of the story Gina is asked to remain near Dot for as long as she wishes. The mutual concern becoming the basis of friendship between the women. The second book picks up after the first, and there is another thing that Dot needs Gina to help her with. An old friend was writing a memoir and Dot didn’t want any mention of something that happened over 50 years ago to be broadcast to the world. Dot sends Gina to help as a personal secretary while spying. More hilarity ensues as this too unravels.

Each book is fun, if a bit unbelievable. There is plenty of laughter throughout both books, although I liked the first one more than the second. I am looking forward to book #3.

book-review, books, Historical Fiction, read around the world, reading

Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan

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Set on February 28 in Taiwan, the story begins with a birth, a death, and martial law. The night the narrator is born is the crack down of Chinese Nationalists on the rebellious Taiwan. Her father, Dr Tsai, is brought a man that has been shot in the first street protests and delivers his youngest daughter into the world. This juxtaposition is the theme of the story – something bad and something good are bound together in this hectic world.

The next day Dr Tsai registers a protest against the violent crackdown, and is quickly arrested and sent to jail by secret police, the KMT, as are thousands of men in what is known as the 228 Massacre. How the family survives the stain of the arrest, and the wider distrust of the family when the doctor names anti-Chinese agitators, is one of perseverance under pressure. The family moves to the countryside and is shocked when a decade later a skeleton of a man returns to them.

While he has returned, he is a shadow of the man he was. Broken by the KMT, and despised by those in his community, the family struggles under the weight of the aftermath of the arrest. The four children all go different ways, with each being influenced by the events of the arrest/crackdown.

The youngest daughter moves to California with her husband. There, far from Taiwan, her husband joins the resistance. She is approached by the KMT in America, where they continue to sow discontent and fear between the Taiwanese people. The repeat of history around innocent words spoken continues to haunt the family, and all of those that live through the cycle of history and its never ending repeating.

This story examines the legacy of speaking out, its impact on those left behind, and how history continues to repeat itself. Not an easy read with such a heavy topic, with details about the brutality endured by those sent to “Green Island” for their crimes, but I am glad I read this and learned more about this period in Taiwan.

book-review, books, literature, reading

Lulu Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kristen Miller

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If you look at this book and assume this is just another light comedy, you would be right – and wrong. This book is not just about banning books. Its about what happens if people are silent when they see something happening that is not right. It is about what hate can do to a person. It is about how easy it is to be taken in by hate. It is about how reading a book can open yourself up to learning about what another’s experience was. It creates empathy and understanding. Some of the most dangerous things that cannot be controlled by those that want you to be afraid of everyone, and obey them.

Beverly is on the school board in the town she grew up in. Her nemesis, Lulu, has been behind a push to remove books from the libraries that will “harm” the children of the town. Instead, she has created a lending library of “wholesome books” on her property. What she doesn’t know is that Beverly’s daughter has switched these books with the actual banned books, leaving only the dust cover of the original book. Hilarity ensues as people borrow books, not expecting to read what they get. Each book, however, does what they are supposed to do – to bring other’s experiences to you, so you can make your own decisions on life.

This is the reason that book bans exist. The purpose is to keep information from others, to keep “others” as the unknown enemy, less than human. It is through this, and those that stand by and let things happen without saying anything, that hate can grow. This hate changes people. As we meet the people of the town, we begin to see how this hate has crept in, unknowingly, and how it is confronted.

Well written, timely and still fun. Worth your time.

Asian Culture, book-review, books, Historical Fiction, literature, read around the world, reading

House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

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This novel relies upon historical events that did occur, even if there is literary license taken with the exact timing of the events. This is especially appropriate, as they are told as a memory of a prior time. Lesley Hamlyn receives a package at her far from everything farm in South Africa. Surprised, since mail still comes for her now deceased husband Robert, that this package is for her. It is a book of W. Somerset Maugham. This takes her back to the time she and Robert were living in Cassowary House located in the straits of Penang, Malaysia.

Robert and “Willie” Maugham had been school chum in England. During Willie’s travels in Asia, he came to stay at Cassowary House with his secretary, Gerald. Willie learns that Sun Yat-sen, a Chinese revolutionary, had been known to them, he seeks information on who he is, and guesses that Lesley had an affair with him. While Lesley is warned that confidences given to Willie will end up in his works, she decides to tell him her story. It is a story of the shocks of learning things are not as neat as society lets on, that assumptions are wrong, and that deception can be both a blessing and a curse. As Lesley describes how she attends her friend’s trial for murder – a real event – the secrets come out to Willie.

The story comes to a close when we return to the older Lesley, in South Africa, comes to find her own peace and ability to choose for herself – something that had not been allowed in society when this is written.

Well crafted, engaging and thoughtful, I will seek more books by this author.