May Reading Roundup

Another month has passed, so it's time to look back at what I read in May.  I finished five books - two fiction and three nonfiction.  Here is what I thought of each book. 

She Says She's My Daughter ***

by Lauren North

Genre:  Mystery/Suspense

Format:  Paperback - own

The Wick family experienced the worst nightmare possible when there beautiful four-year-old daughter Abigail was abducted during a family holiday at the beach.  Now, fourteen years later, a teenage girl shows up in their lives claiming to be the child they lost all those years ago.  Does the reunion mean that Wick family's nightmare become a dream-come-true, or is the horror just beginning?  

This book was very slow going up to about page 200, when the plot really picked up and it showed some promise of becoming the gripping and addictive psychological thriller the front cover promises.  The last 100 pages were real page turners, but I found the twist at the ending of the book a let down.  On the plus side, the book had no sex, very little violence and no bad or inappropriate language. The I didn't hate the book, it just won't go on my top-ten list for the year.  I gave it 3/5 stars on Goodreads. 

A Soul so Rebellious *****

by Mary Frances Sturlaugson Eyer 

Genre:  Biography/Memoir

Format:  Hardbound - own

Mary Frances Sturlaugson was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1955, the fifteenth child of a very poor black family that eventually had 24 children.  Her father did his best to provide a meager income for the family but it was a hardscrabble existence for all.  The family, however, was close, despite their poverty. Their mother's faith bound the family together, although the children, particularly Mary, didn't share their mother's trust or belief in God.   Surrounded by poverty, racism and hostility, Mary's frustration turned to hatred, especially for the white people she blamed for the oppression and persecution she experienced as a black woman in the deep South.  This memoir details Mary's journey from hate to love as she finds Christ and become a Christian.   This book is the first in Sturlaugson's two volume memoir and it is excellent.  The book was written and published in 1980, when Mary was only 25.  I read it when it first came out, but recently my husband found a copy of the book at a thrift store, although the book is now out of print.  He really liked both volumes of the book, so I found a copy of the first book and decided to reread it.  The book is a quick and easy read that is also interesting and inspirational.  I liked this book a lot and gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads.  

Blessed Are Ye ****

by Brad Wilcox and Roger Wilcox

Genre:  Religious/Christian

Format:  Audio on Deseret Bookshelf  Plus

This is an excellent and interesting book about Jesus' teaching in The Beatitudes which he gave during His Sermon on the Mount in the Gospels in the New Testament.  Author Brad Wilcox and his brother Roger Wilcox relate the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount to the challenges of life in today's world.   Both of the Wilcox brothers work with and teach young people, so the stories and experiences given in the book seem to be geared to young people. I enjoyed the book and gave it 4/5 stars on Goodreads.  I listened to the audiobook on Deseret Bookshelf Plus. 

Understanding Our Catholic Neighbors *****

by Mathew Schmalz & Alonzo L. Gaskill

Genre:  Religious/Christian

Format:  Kindle - own

I have several friends who are practicing Catholics and I have always had a deep respect for them and the traditional tenants of Catholicism.  I remember watching EWTN (Catholic Cable Channel) when I craved some positive to watch while I ironed.  I learned a lot about the Catholic Church from watching EWTN. This excellent book takes a deep dive into the positive aspects of Catholic doctrine and practice.  It explains Catholic doctrine and liturgy in easily understandable terms and compares Catholic beliefs with other Christian beliefs and practices - especially those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the church I belong to).   While the Catholics and Latter-day Saints have many significant differences, there is also much more in common than one might suspect.  This book explains it all in a highly readable format, that does not bog the reader down with deep theology and unfamiliar terms. There is even an extensive glossary of Catholic terms at the end of the book.  I enjoyed learning more about the Catholic faith and gave this book 5/5stars.

The Story of Arthur Truluv ****

by Elizabeth Berg

Genre:  Domestic Fiction

Format:  Paperback - own

This is the heartwarming story of Arthur Truluv, an elderly widower who becomes a pseudo-father/grandfather figure to a lonely teenage girl who is pregnant by an abusive boyfriend. Truluv's next door neighbor, who finds and then quickly loses her true love when she is in her twilight years, becomes the third member of this unlikely "family."  Arthur Truluv, his neighbor Lucille, and the pregnant girl - Maddy help each other through the hard times each faces and learn that love and friendship is the best antidote to loneliness.   This was a well-written and enjoyable book. I gave it 4/5 stars on Goodreads. 

That's it for my May reading.  What have you been reading lately?  I am always looking for good recommendations.  Thanks for visiting. 

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"What a blessing it is to love books."
~Elizabeth Von Arnim

July Reading Roundup

Happy HOT July!  It seems to be super hot everywhere right now, and when it's hot outside, being inside where it's cooler, with a good book, is a great place to be. This month I read or listened to six books (I read three and listened to three).  Four were nonfiction, and all four were memoirs. Two were novels.  I gave two of my July reads 5/5 stars on Goodreads which means they were excellent and I highly recommend them.  Here is a brief review and my thoughts about each of the six books I finished during July. 

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing ****

by Matthew Perry

I don't usually read celebrity memoirs or biographies, but this one came up on my Libby app from the local library that I use for audiobooks, and I thought I'd give it a try. Another blogger I follow recently read it, and I remember watching Friends and being a fan during the first couple of seasons it was on.  This book is exactly what the title says it is, Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing on Friends) recounting his life story, with an emphasis on his time on the #1 TV show in the 90s and early 2000s.  He also writes, in detail about all the women he dated and had sex with, and of course, the "Big Terrible Thing" in his life which is his addiction to drugs and alcohol.  Perry doesn't seem to hold back much in this memoir.  Although Perry seems whiny and entitled at times in the book, he also comes across as being very honest in telling his story.  I found the book quite interesting, although I didn't like all of the name dropping because I don't follow celebrities and didn't know who many of the people he wrote about were.  Another thing I didn't like was the language.  There are LOTS of unnecessary F***-bombs in the book. I did like that Perry relates his experiences with a higher power, who he calls God, and who he credits with saving his life multiple times.  He unabashedly talks about praying, receiving answers, and feeling the presence of God.  I respect that when most celebrities and  people in Hollywood don't seem to believe and are even avowed atheists.  In the end, I think the book was worth listening to and I wish Matthew (who will always be Chandler to me) much success with his life-long battle with his "Big Terrible Thing".  I gave the book 4/5 stars on Goodreads and listened to the audiobook checked out from the library via the Libby app. 

At the Edge of the Orchard *****

by Tracy Chevalier

This is a decent historical fiction novel about the Goodenough family who settles in Ohio after leaving Connecticut in the 1830s. The family, with a highly dysfunctional, alcoholic mother and a farmer father who loves growing apple trees and does his best to support and keep his family together.  John Chapman (historic Johnny Appleseed) is a character in the first part of the novel and was actually the reason I was attracted to the book.  Johnny Appleseed is not the main character however, and the story focuses on the youngest son in the family Robert, and how he strikes out on his own when violence takes the lives of his parents.  Robert ends up in California in the 1850s, where he pans for gold for a while and then discovers Giant Sequoias and a beautiful place now known as Big Tree State Park in the Sierra Nevadas.  This is a lovely story of nature, love and family that is different from anything I have ever read. The story gracefully meanders through three decades and across the continent as a young man searches for and eventually finds what he did not know he even wanted.  I read and own a hard copy version of this book, which I plan to hang onto because it is an excellent book.  I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.  

Hand to Mouth ***

by Linda Tirado

This is a memoir of sorts about being poor in America.  The author tells of her experiences as a working class mother of two who had a series of low paying jobs. While the author writes about problems and pitfalls that lower income people face (presumably based on her own experiences) but she does not reveal exactly how she got into poverty after growing up with so much privilege that she went to elite boarding schools. She doesn't give any hope or encouragement that people who are part of the "working poor" might eventually be able to have better jobs or get out of poverty.  The book itself was interesting, and it gave me empathy for the low paid service workers that we all encounter on a daily basis, but I would also like to hear the rest of the story where Tirado tells about her left leaning political activism, and her rise to become an author and award-winning journalist before she was 40.  In short, the audiobook was interesting to listen to on a long drive, but upon further reflection, is it seems that the author had a political agenda in writing about her experiences in poverty.  There was also A LOT of F***-bombs in the book and the author very openly gives her opinions about sex, so this is isn't the best audiobook to listen to with small children.  I listened to the audiobook which I got on the library Libby App and I gave the book 3/5 stars on Goodreads. 

Searching for Sunday ***

by Rachel Held Evans

I didn't know anything about Rachel Held Evans when this book come up as "suggested for me" on my library Libby App. The audiobook was available for checkout so I decided to give it a try.  This book is supposed to be a memoir of the author growing up in a Southern Baptist church congregation which she later became disillusioned with mostly because her church believed and supported marriage between one man and one woman.  Evans and her husband then left their Southern Baptist roots and, along with some other disillusioned progressive Christian friends tried to start another church, with worship services that sounded more like a wine and cheese tasting group than an actual church.  Although the church they started tried to do some good in the world, or at least in their neighborhood, ultimately, the church folded and the small group of members went their separate ways.  Evans was in and out of churches as she looked for "the one" that she felt most agreed with her not-necessarily-Biblical opinions on theology and politics.  At the end of the book, she revealed that she was attending, but not joining,  an Episcopal Church.  

While the book is interesting and it was an easy book to listen to (the author read her own audiobook), it also seemed like a collections of somewhat disjointed experiences that only reinforced her opinions and led her to believe what she already believed.  It reminded me of the psychological phenomenon that our brains look for evidence to reinforce what we already believe.  That is exactly what the author does in this book.  She does not look to scripture for answers to her questions.  She looks only to reinforce her already held beliefs.  I like listening to the author reading her own prose. She uses A TON of metaphors in the book, which, in some places becomes tiring.  When she thanked Glennon Doyle and Jen Hatmaker in the acknowledgements for their guiding influence, I realized that like Doyle and Hatmaker, it is not Christianity or Jesus that Evans is seeking, but the reinforcement of her own ideas and political beliefs. I did like the writing in the book. Rachel Held Evans (who sadly died in 2019 at the age of 37) was a talented writer and for this reason, I gave the book 3/5 stars on Goodreads. I listened to the audiobook, and I own a paperback version of this book.

Fall From Pride ****

by Karen Harper

Every now and then, I enjoy reading an Amish mystery because they can be interesting and enjoyable, and I don't have to worry about reading gratuitous sex, violence or obscenities.  It has been quite a while since the last Amish book I read, so when a blogging friend, Kathy at Looking at Life Through My Bifocals recommended this book, I found a copy and started reading. This book had some mystery and romance, and generally wasn't as completely predictable as most Amish books.  The plotline deals with a young Amish woman, Sarah,  with an artistic gift that she is not allowed to fully use by the Amish religious hierarchy. She is allowed, however, to design and paint quilt squares on Amish barns to attract outside visitors to the area. When one of the barns she has painted a design on is burned by arson, a young fire investigator, Nate, comes to try and solve the crime.  Of course, Sarah and Nate fall hard for each other even though Nate is not Amish and Sarah would never be allowed to be with him. As more Amish barns are burned to the ground by a mysterious arsonist, the fire between Sarah and Nate also grows. How will the book end?  Will the Amish arsonist ever be caught?  Will Sarah leave her family and Amish community and follow her heart? Will Nate decide to join the Amish community to be with Sarah?  I won't say it was the best book I ever read, but the plot kept moving along and it was enjoyable so I gave it 4/5 stars on Goodreads.  Goodreads doesn't allow for 1/2 stars, but this book is actually closer to 3.5/5 stars  I read a paperback copy of the book which I own.   

The Love You Save: A Memoir *****

by Goldie Taylor

This book is a memoir by journalist and civil-rights activist Goldie Taylor, is about her childhood and teenage years growing up in St. Ann, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois.  I was intrigued when my blog friend Faith over at Gold in the Clouds read and reviewed this book, because my family lived in the St. Louis area for five years back in the 1990s.  So many of the places that the author mentions in this memoir were familiar to me.  East St. Louis, Illinois, where Goldie spent most of the time she writes about, is over 96% black.  Once the 4th largest city in Illinois with a population of over 82,000, the population has now fallen to just over 18,000.  When we lived in the area (east of East St. Louis by Scott  Air Force Base), we were told that East St. Louis was a high-crime "no man's land" that we should avoid at all costs and Goldie Taylor confirms this in her book.  She tells the story of growing up with a widowed mother (her father was murdered) who sent Goldie away to live with her aunt and uncle in East St. Louis after Goldie was raped at just 11 years old. She was later raped again by a cousin while living with her aunt and uncle.  Despite the trauma of the sexual assaults, some physical and emotional abuse by the adults in her life, and the trauma of constantly feeling abandoned by her mother, Goldie goes on to achieve academic success in one of the poorest and most underachieving school districts in the nation.  Her aunt and uncle, as well as maternal grandmother and paternal grandparents, step in as sort of surrogate parents to her, and though they are all imperfect and flawed, they seem to do their best and give Goldie the love, discipline and structure she needs to achieve great things and be successful in life.  This memoir is raw and real and comes across as honest in the picture it gives of growing up black in a area filled with blight, crime and poverty.  Although there were things in the the book that were hard to read about, it was a book that I wanted to keep going back to and I read it in only a few days.  There were a few places where it seemed that something had been left out but that may have been the result of some errors in editing, but I still gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.  I read the book on the Kindle App on my phone, and checked the text out through my Libby Library App. 

That's it for my July Reading Roundup.  Are you reading anything good this summer?  I am always looking for recommendations!  

Until next time, 

😊📚Deb📚💖

 

November Reading Round-Up

It has been a busy reading month for me, as I finished five books. Here is what I thought of them all.

The Empty Nest by Sue Watson

Mystery/Suspense 

Having a child go missing has got to be every mother’s worst nightmare, so as a mom myself, I was at once repelled by and attracted to the title and premise of this book.  Kat’s daughter Amy, is her only child and her everything. Kat  has been Amy’s protector, cheerleader, nurse, advocate and everything else that a mother is. Because of their closeness, Kat has a difficult time when Amy leaves to go to college, but Amy is coming home for a visit, and Kat can hardly wait to see her. Then, Amy doesn’t come home. She doesn’t call and she doesn’t text either.  Amy goes silent. When Kat and her husband Richard go to Amy’s college campus to find out where she is, Amy seems to have disappeared without a trace.   Is Amy’s disappearance the result of being a young adult sick of her mother’s over-protectiveness, or is something darker and more sinister going on?

This book was a slow start for me. The author is British, and I stumbled a bit, with some of the vocabulary and wordiness of the writing.  By page 100, however, I was all in and completely absorbed in finding out what happened to Amy.  There are a lot of plot twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, although some astute readers might figure out who the responsible party is well before the end of the book.  The ending is a little unbelievable, but satisfying nonetheless.   Over all this is a good, solid suspense/mystery.  I rate it four stars. **** (Amazon purchase)

It Was Always Meant to Happen That Way by Brooke Castillo 

Nonfiction/Self-help

There is much that is good in this book, just not enough of it. I understand that this is a collection of blog posts for the author’s life coaching practice so it is probably more of a marketing tool than an actual informative book. Some of the chapters are only a few sentences. I was already familiar with the author and her work when I purchased this book, but it did not give me the level of inspiration, information and satisfaction I was expecting. The book also felt like it was primarily aimed at The author’s weight loss clients. Very light and superficial reading. I rated it three stars *** on Goodreads.  (Kindle purchase)

White Trash: The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America

by Nancy Isenberg

History

This book is a revealing and eye-opening look at class and poverty in America from the very beginning with John Winthrop's City on a Hill to present day working-class poor. This book is long, detailed and well-researched, and focuses, as the title suggests, on poor whites in America.  What the book is interesting, and I learned a lot from it, it also comes across as negative and condescending. Isenberg seems to strip away any notion or hope of redemption and escape from  the economic class to which white Americans are born.    The author offers no solution to poverty and classism.  As a reader, I was left wondering if Isenberg, believed that only a socialist or even communist system could solve the class divisions that came with colonists from Europe in the very beginning of our national history.  Isenberg doesn't come right out and say it, but she leaves the reader feeling this nation was built on classism as well as racism and that the entire system is flawed and without hope.  I learned a lot from the book, especially where certain colloquial terms like "white trash," "trailer trash" and "cracker" came from, but her continued use of the terms throughout the book, to describe poor white people, left me feeling that the author held strong white racist views, even though she is white (at least from the images I found of her on the internet).  Overall, I had mixed feelings about the book, and while I was educated and even entertained by it, I am not sure I would recommend it. I gave the book three stars *** on Goodreads. (Library Libby audiobook)

The End of Normal by Stephanie Madoff Mack

Memoir

The author of this book, Stephanie Madoff Mack, is the widow of Bernie Madoff’s son, Mark, who took his own life two years after his father revealed that he had perpetrated an enormous fraud that wiped out over $65 billion of his investor’s funds, in a huge Ponzi scheme.  The book tells the story of the fraud and its tragic aftermath from Madoff Mack’s perspective.  The massive fraud wiped out investors from around the world, but perhaps most tragically, it resulted in the destruction of the Madoff family, including the death, by suicide of Madoff’s oldest son.  His widow tells the tragic story that is at once maddening and heartbreaking. The book is powerful and compelling - a memoir of one woman’s survival and attempt to rebuild her life after one of the most horrific public scandals of our time.   Madoff died in prison in April 2021 after destroying countless fortunes, nesteggs and lives.   Madoff’s daughter-in-law was at the center of the storm that consumed and destroyed her family. Her step-father lost much of his retirement savings in the scandal, and even her young children were sued in an attempt to recover lost funds.  Her husband maintained his innocence, but could no longer deal with the pain of what his father had done.  He hung himself in their apartment while his wife was at Disney World with their Four-year-old and his infant son slept in another room.

Stephanie Madoff Mack does not restrain her own anger and sorrow as she tells the story, which is what makes the book so powerful. Her story and her strength in attempting to rebuild her life is heart-rending yet impressive.   The book is highly recommended, if you can read about the devastation of Bernie Madoff’s crimes, including the suicide of his son.   I gave this book five stars ***** on Goodreads, because of the impact it had on me as a reader, but it is a very tough read, especially the parts about Mark Madoff's suicide. (Salt Lake County Library)

The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens

Christian nonfiction

This is a retelling of the New Testament story of Jesus Christ by Charles Dickens. He wrote this for his own children and refused to publish it during his life because he did not want to profit from what he considered his sacred duty as a father to teach his children about Jesus.  This a nice retelling of sacred scripture in language that children can understand.  Highly recommended to Christian parents to read to their children.   Five stars ***** on Goodreads. (Thrift store purchase)

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Nonfiction- Philosophy

This is a book with 366 one-page meditations on “wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living” based on the writings of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. I found some of the writings in this book interesting, some were hard to understand (even though the authors of the book wrote an explanation of each daily stoic quote), and many of them just fell flat for me as a believing and practicing Christian.  Further research I did, after finishing the book, revealed that the Stoic philosophers did acknowledge the existence of God on the basis of reason alone.  They also taught the Judeo-Christian values of virtue, honor, tranquility, and self-control and how to live them.  Parts of the book were interesting, but it was not inspirational enough for me to reread - at least right away.  I gave the book three stars *** on Goodreads.  (Amazon purchase)

As the new month begins, I am reading these two nonfiction books - Better than Happy in book form and Rising Strong in audiobook. I will also be test-reading a couple of fiction books later tonight.

What are reading as December begins? Do you read Christmas books in December? Any book recommendations you want to share?