Okay wow, somehow I haven't done a book update post since the end of January. I am so behind! And since we have been on the stay at home order for over a month now, I have been doing A LOT of reading. So we have a lot to catch up on today! Over the past few months I have been reading almost exclusively on my kindle. Which I have really been enjoying. Since the library is closed there aren't many "real" books available without buying them and shipping is so slow. I just LOVE my kindle but until just today I couldn't download books from the library to it - but our library just switched to Libby - so yay!!! I see lots more kindle reading in my future.
Here are the books I have read in the last few months...
Cartier's Hope by MJ Rose
Book Blurb: Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate its value. Vera is determined to find the truth behind the notorious diamond and its legendary curses—even better when the expose puts her in the same orbit as a magazine publisher whose blackmailing schemes led to the death of her beloved father. Appealing to a young Russian jeweler for help, Vera is unprepared when she begins falling in love with him…and even more unprepared when she gets caught up in his deceptions and finds herself at risk of losing all she has worked so hard to achieve.
My Review: This book was a little so-so for me. The plot was slow to pick up and the characters were difficult to really fall in love with. I loved the IDEA of this book but the storyline fell flat for me. I will say the back story on the Hope Diamond was very interesting and I would love to learn more. I rate this book 6/10.
Light Changes Everything by Nancy Turner
Book Blurb: It’s the summer of 1907 and the sun is scorching down on Mary Pearl in the Arizona Territory. Mary Pearl and her sister Esther take their minds off the heat by sneaking banned Jane Austen novels from Aunt Sarah Elliot’s lively bookshelf. Whispered read alouds preoccupy their nights, and reveries of getting hitched to their own Mr. Darcy à la Pride and Prejudice swirl through their day dreams. In walks old-fashioned old-money suitor Aubrey Hanna, here to whisk seventeen year old Mary Pearl off her feet with a forbidden kiss and hasty engagement. With the promise of high society outings and a rich estate, Aubrey’s lustful courtship quickly creates petty tension among the three generations of Prine women. As autumn approaches all too quickly, Mary Pearl’s Wheaton College acceptance counters quick marriage preparations. Days of travel by horse and by train carry her deep into a sophisticated new world of Northern girls’ schooling. Seeking friendship but finding foes, Mary Pearl not only learns how to write, read, and draw, but also how to act, dress, and be a woman.
My Review: This was another semi disappointing read for me. It was interesting and a quick read but I had high hopes after loving this authors book These Is My Words previously. I adored that book. This book was a little to surface and every time it started getting good the story line would change. I rate this book 6/10. I highly recommend These Is My Words though - so maybe read that instead!
Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon
Book Blurb: Told in interweaving timelines organized around the four code names Nancy used during the war, Code Name Hélène is a spellbinding and moving story of enduring love, remarkable sacrifice and unfaltering resolve that chronicles the true exploits of a woman who deserves to be a household name. It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name.
My Review: This is a fantastic WWII novel based on a true to story - and it's incredible. It's sad and beautiful and at times tough to read. I definitely enjoyed it though at times I found it so tense I had to put it down and come back to it. I loved the parallel storylines - even though they were a little tough to decipher on a kindle versus a hard copy. I rate this book an 8/10. And I highly recommend some of her other books too. I Was Anastasia was one of my favorite books of all time. Her two other books The Wife The Maid and The Mistress and Flight of Dreams were both GREAT reads too.
Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau
Book Blurb: The year is 1911 when twenty-year-old heiress Peggy Batternberg is invited to spend the summer in America’s Playground. The invitation to Coney Island is unwelcome. Despite hailing from one of America’s richest families, Peggy would much rather spend the summer working at the Moonrise Bookstore than keeping up appearances with New York City socialites and her snobbish, controlling family. But soon it transpires that the hedonism of Coney Island affords Peggy the freedom she has been yearning for, and it’s not long before she finds herself in love with a troubled pier-side artist of humble means, whom the Batternberg patriarchs would surely disapprove of. Disapprove they may, but hidden behind their pomposity lurks a web of deceit, betrayal, and deadly secrets. And as bodies begin to mount up amidst the sweltering clamor of Coney Island, it seems the powerful Batternbergs can get away with anything… even murder.
My Review: Ugh, I hate to say it, but this was another so-so read for me. I tried to get into it and just couldn't. I ended up finishing it but skimming lots of it. I rate this book 5/10. Other similar books that I enjoyed much more are Swan Gondola, Devil in the White City or The Night Circus.
Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun
Book Blurb: When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too? Calhoun decided to find some answers. She looked into housing costs, HR trends, credit card debt averages, and divorce data. At every turn, she saw a pattern: sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X women were facing new problems as they entered middle age, problems that were being largely overlooked. Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to “have it all,” Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of their issues being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take “me-time,” or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.
My Review: This is a fascinating and enlightening (although sometimes a little depressing) look at how female Gen-Xers are going through midlife and all that means for this generation. I loved it and had a few friends recommend it to me and also have recommended it to many friends too. There were lots of lightbulb moments and dog eared pages while reading this. I rate this 9/10.
The Queen's Fortune by Alison Pataki
Book Blurb: As the French revolution ravages the country, Desiree Clary is faced with the life-altering truth that the world she has known and loved is gone and it’s fallen on her to save her family from the guillotine. A chance encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambitious and charismatic young military prodigy, provides her answer. When her beloved sister Julie marries his brother Joseph, Desiree and Napoleon’s futures become irrevocably linked. Quickly entering into their own passionate, dizzying courtship that leads to a secret engagement, they vow to meet in the capital once his career has been secured. But her newly laid plans with Napoleon turn to sudden heartbreak, thanks to the rising star of Parisian society, Josephine de Beauharnais. Once again, Desiree’s life is turned on its head. Swept to the glittering halls of the French capital, Desiree is plunged into the inner circle of the new ruling class, becoming further entangled with Napoleon, his family, and the new Empress. But her fortunes shift once again when she meets Napoleon's confidant and star general, the indomitable Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. As the two men in Desiree’s life become political rivals and military foes, the question that arises is: must she choose between the love of her new husband and the love of her nation and its Emperor?
My Review: I am a HUGE fan of Alison Pataki's books. I've loved each one I have read. This one was no different. She does historical fiction so well. This was a fascinating look at Napoleons rule of France from the eyes of his ex-fiance - which yes, sounds weird but really worked. This book was absolutely engrossing and a great page turner. Plus, I learned so much about this time in history that I previously knew little about. I rate this book a 10/10 (which I rarely do) - it was fantastic historical fiction. Sisi and The Accidental Empress were two great other books by the same author.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
Book Blurb: Where do you see yourself in five years? Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers. She is nothing like her lifelong best friend—the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella. Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content. But when she awakens, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight—but it is one hour she cannot shake. In Five Years is an unforgettable love story, but it is not the one you’re expecting.
My Review: I absolutely LOVED this book! It was so fresh and unexpected and I thought I had the twist figured out until I realized OMG I didn't have it figured out at all. It was heart warming and heart breaking and all the good things. I can't recommend this enough! I rate this book 10/10.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver
Book Blurb: Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’d been together for more than a decade and Lydia thought their love was indestructible. But she was wrong. On Lydia’s twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident. So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants is to hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life—and perhaps even love—again. But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened. Lydia is pulled again and again through the doorway to her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there’s an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay.
My Review: This was a very sweet story, but the first half was so incredibly slow I almost quit. In the end, I am glad I finished it but it wasn't nearly as sweet as her other book I have read - One Day in December - I highly recommend that one. I will say that Two Lives did have a very sweet ending though. I rate this a 7/10.
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
Book Blurb: “We’ve been waiting for an hour.” That’s what Audrey says. She states it with a little bit of an edge, her words just bordering on cursive. That’s the thing I think first. Not: Audrey Hepburn is at my birthday dinner, but Audrey Hepburn is annoyed.” At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Rebecca Serle contends with in her utterly captivating novel, The Dinner List, a story imbued with the same delightful magical realism as One Day, and the life-changing romance of Me Before You. When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.
My Review: After loving In Five Years by this same author so much I quickly went in search of more books she had written and found this one! It was cute and heartwarming. I liked In Five Years more, but this one is definitely still worth picking up! I rate this an 8/10.
The Other Windsor Girl by Georgie Blalock
Book Blurb: Diana, Catherine, Meghan…glamorous Princess Margaret outdid them all. Springing into post-World War II society, and quite naughty and haughty, she lived in a whirlwind of fame and notoriety. Georgie Blalock captures the fascinating, fast-living princess and her “set” as seen through the eyes of one of her ladies-in-waiting. In dreary, post-war Britain, Princess Margaret captivates everyone with her cutting edge fashion sense and biting quips. The royal socialite, cigarette holder in one hand, cocktail in the other, sparkles in the company of her glittering entourage of wealthy young aristocrats known as the Margaret Set, but her outrageous lifestyle conflicts with her place as Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister. Can she be a dutiful princess while still dazzling the world on her own terms? Post-war Britain isn’t glamorous for The Honorable Vera Strathmore. While writing scandalous novels, she dreams of living and working in New York, and regaining the happiness she enjoyed before her fiancé was killed in the war. A chance meeting with the Princess changes her life forever. Vera amuses the princess, and what—or who—Margaret wants, Margaret gets. Soon, Vera gains Margaret’s confidence and the privileged position of second lady-in-waiting to the Princess. Thrust into the center of Margaret’s social and royal life, Vera watches the princess’s love affair with dashing Captain Peter Townsend unfurl. But while Margaret, as a member of the Royal Family, is not free to act on her desires, Vera soon wants the freedom to pursue her own dreams. As time and Princess Margaret’s scandalous behavior progress, both women will be forced to choose between status, duty, and love…
My Review: This was a great read! I love any royal books and this one did not disappoint. It felt like revisiting a favorite character from another angle. I loved Princess Margaret in The Crown and this goes more in depth to her world. If you are a royal fan this is a solid read. I rate this 9/10. My only criticism is that I would like a part two... more about if they ever had contact again or how she felt about following the Princess' life from afar.
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
Book Blurb: The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” Ryan Holiday shows us how some of the most successful people in history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—have applied stoicism to overcome difficult or even impossible situations. Their embrace of these principles ultimately mattered more than their natural intelligence, talents, or luck. If you’re feeling frustrated, demoralized, or stuck in a rut, this book can help you turn your problems into your biggest advantages. And along the way it will inspire you with dozens of true stories of the greats from every age and era.
My Review: I bought this book at the end of February and I'm not even sure what drew me to it. But I completely forgot about it and found it while tidying my room yesterday. I picked it up and couldn't put it down. I read it in just a few hours yesterday. It's incredibly poignant during this pandemic and it was just the refocusing and mental switch I needed flipped. If you are struggling with getting your mind in the right place during this pandemic like I have been - I can't recommend this enough. This was such a burst of encouragement and the inspiration I needed in my life right now. I woke up feeling incredibly optimistic and thankful the opportunity this pandemic presents to rearrange my thoughts. I rate this book 10/10. I've already ordered this authors other book The Daily Stoic.
