For those of you who actually keep up with my blog, it clearly
seems as though I haven’t been reading much.
The truth is, I have been reading lots, just not blogging. It’s been hard for me to find time to actually
sit in front of the computer and blog because we have been so busy this summer,
which is a good thing. And, as I said
when I started reading this year, reading is not my life, just something I do
to enjoy life. With that being said, I
am finally getting around to blogging about the last SIX (yes, SIX) books I
have read in July and to this point in August.
Some I liked more than others, but all were worth my time in their own
right. You can decide for yourself.
Table for Five
by Susan Wiggs
As I read this book, I got the distinct impression that I had
read the book before. I checked my blog
and even the journal I kept with the books I had read the year before I started
blogging (which would take me back three years) and I could not ever find a
record of reading it. So, I kept reading knowing that if I had
actually read it, it had been so long ago that it wouldn’t hurt to read it
again.
The story is a good one and very reminiscent of the fairly
recent movie, “Life as We Know It.” Lily
and Sean, two people who are as different as night and day, are suddenly thrown
into the role of parents as they care for their best friend and brother’s three
children. The evolution of this “family”
is a touching and sweet story that left me crying at times and laughing at
others.
It also reminded me, once again, that Rob and I have got to
make a will. Leaving the care of your
children up to the will of others is not a good idea. It can get very messy and should not be a
decision made by anyone other than the parents.
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah
Addison Allen
I loved this book. I. Loved. This. Book.
I actually picked this book up because when I turned it over
and read the back cover, Beth Hoffman, author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (a
book that I LOVED!), had been quoted and her comment enticed me into buying the
book and reading it. It was a very good
decision.
Set in Mullaby, North Carolina, we are introduced to Emily (a
teenage girl who has recently come to live with her grandfather) her
grandfather (a gentle giant), Julia (the cake baker who leaves the window
cracked ever so slightly when she bakes and you’ll sob when you discover why
she does this), and a long list of other characters who are both memorable and
endearing. The mystery of the Mullaby Lights
propels the story forward and links all of the characters together in a very
interesting (yet maybe a bit far-fetched) way.
This story spoke to me as both a daughter and a mother. The parallel stories of Emily and Julia kept
me turning the pages and kept me close to a box of tissues. I actually read this book last month and I
still get teary thinking of the story.
The last chapter truly did me in and I know that it will touch your
heart as it touched mine.
The Girl Who Chased the Moon is right
up there with Cee Cee Honeycutt in my opinion.
It’s a great story. Pick it up
and read it. It will touch your
heart. And make you hungry for
cake!
Where We Belong by Emily Giffin
I have waited for this book for a long time. Emily Giffin doesn’t write a lot of books,
but the ones she does craft are done so well that you’ll wait years for her to
turn out another one. Where We Belong
has become my favorite of hers (and I seriously loved Something Borrowed,
Something Blue, and Baby Proof).
Where We Belong is written in my favorite
way: the two main characters (Marian and Kirby) alternate chapters, telling the
story in first person. I love that! You get to know the characters so deeply this
way. I just love books written like
this.
I can’t give you too many details about Marian and Kirby because
it really will spoil the story, but I guarantee you that you will love both of
these ladies. Marian is a 36 year old
television producer. Kirby is an 18 year
old who is trying to find her place in the world and is trying to figure out
what comes next for her in life. Marian
has spent her entire life hiding a secret that I can’t imagine being able to
hide from anyone, much less everyone, but when Kirby appears, her secret
becomes a lot more difficult to hide.
As a mother of two girls, this book was heart wrenching at
times. I read this book in a day and a
half on the beach and found myself crying in my beach chair, glad that I don’t
wear contacts to the beach because they would’ve been all dried out from the
tears. The book was a quick read and a memorable
one. The characters are hard to
forget. Their lives are hard to
forget.
Before reading the book, I read that Emily Giffin thinks that
Kirby might be her favorite of the characters she’s written about. I might feel the same way. She’s a really cool 18 year old. I wish I had only been that mature and
intelligent at 18.
Anyway, if you liked Emily Giffin’s other books, I feel
certain you will love Where We Belong.
The Ice Cream Girls by
Dorothy Koomson
No one recommended this book to me and I’ve never read
anything else by Koomson (in fact, I had never even heard of her until I picked
up this book). I took a chance on a book one day in Target and I was glad that
I did. This book was fascinating. Truly. I was glued to every page and could not turn
them fast enough.
The Ice Cream Girls, Poppy and Serena, are telling their separate
yet intertwined stories in a series of flashbacks. The chapters alternate between the two girls,
as they tell their present day stories, as well as recount their memories. Through these memories, we get to meet “Sir”
or “Him” depending on which girl is telling the story. Sir/Him makes me scared to death to send my
girls off to high school, but I guess I have to put faith in our local public
school system and pray that my girls will never have such a teacher EVER. We also meet Poppy’s parents and Serena’s
family and through these characters we are able to understand both the teenage
and adult versions of these two ladies.
Because this is a murder mystery, I will leave the amazing
details in the book and not post them here to spoil the story for any potential
reader. But, I will say this. I never saw the ending coming. I never had any idea about what really
happened. It was rather brilliant,
actually. And totally unexpected. You’ll have to read it for yourself to
understand, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
I will give this one word of caution about this book. Don’t start reading it if you don’t have much
reading time to devote to the book. You
will want to keep reading as the story unfolds and if you can’t, I can only
imagine that you might get frustrated. I
started this book after finishing Where We Belong at the beach and
finished it on the airplane to Las Vegas.
It was perfect to have long, uninterrupted periods of time, like beach
time, or time crossing the country in an airplane, to devote to reading this
book. It was a great read. Not always easy to read, but truly
fascinating.
*****
Big Sky Country and Big Sky Mountain by Linda
Lael Miller
These two books are the first two of a trilogy written by
Miller. The third is scheduled to be
released in January. I typically save
these “cowboy” books, as my husband calls them, for my beach bag because they
are simple reads with easy to remember characters and a fairly light plot. Well, I was right about the books, but this
year they were read on the place to and from Las Vegas. I was grateful for them as the turbulence was
a bit bumpy and I could read and distract myself from my fear of dying in
flight.
Anyway, the first book, Big Sky Country, was centered around
Slade (totally a cowboy name) and Joslyn.
As the story progresses, along with learning about both Slade and
Joslyn, we meet the townspeople of Parable, Montana. They are generally kind, good-hearted
people. The kind of folks you want to
have for neighbors. It’s these sort of
people who have made me want to move to a small town. If I could only get my family on board! Slade
and Joslyn’s story is a good one, although I have to admit, it’s fairly
predictable, if you have read other books by Miller, or any other cowboy books
at all.
Big Sky Mountain was my favorite of the
two. In this book, we get to know Joslyn’s best friend Kendra and Slade’s
brother Hutch. But, my favorite
characters were four year old Madison and Opal, Joslyn’s older friend who is a
cook and who we actually met in the first book but get to know better in the
second one. I’d like Opal to come take
care of my house. It would sparkle in no
time and I’d have some great family dinners!
Yum!
I have to say that I am anxiously awaiting January to read the
final book in the trilogy as I know it will wrap up the story with Kendra and
Hutch as it begins a new story with characters we’ve already met. I’m going to take a guess and say that the
main characters of this last book will be Tara (the New Yorker turned chicken
farmer) and Boone (who is a widower with two small boys). I guess I’ll know in January.
Anyway, if you like cowboy books, or light romances, you can’t
go wrong with these first two Big Sky books.
So, there you have them.
The last six books I read this summer.
I spent today blogging and catching up because tomorrow Debbie Macomber’s
newest series debuts with The Inn at Rose Harbor and I can’t wait to
read it! I still have 5 books on my
night table, but I am reading Macomber’s new book first. It might take a while as school has already
started for me, but I’m going to savor every word, knowing that I am going to
have to wait a full year for the next Rose Harbor book to be unveiled!
Happy reading everyone!
J Dodie
