Books read in November and December

The following are books that I read in November and December. 2021 was the first year that I blogged during the year either monthly or bi-monthly the books that I read and I am glad that I did it… I included my thoughts on each book in addition to a short summary. I am not much of a re-reader of books but if I were to become one, it would be interesting to see if my thoughts changed on a particular book. 

Whatever Happened to Janie? (Janie Johnson Book 2) by Caroline Cooney. This is the second book in a series. Janie is a teenager who discovers that she was kidnapped when she was three years old. In the beginning of this book, Janie has to go and live with her birth parents and siblings. She does not want to leave the only home she's known and the only people who have parented her as long as she can remember. The book was pretty good- heart wrenching in describing Janie's angst in having to completely leave the only life she's known. I enjoyed reading the book but honestly have no desire to read other books in the series. I'm ready to be done with Janie- it's a YA book series and I could see teens liking this book more than adults. It appears to have taken place shortly before the Internet was widely available, there are no cell phones, etc. yet it's still "fairly" modern (I would guess it takes place in the late 1980's). I would be curious to know how young people today would view the world bereft of social media, cell phones, etc. and realize how different life for young people was without those things.

The Plot- Jean Hanff Korelitz- I enjoyed this book a lot. In it, a one hit wonder author is teaching a writing seminar in a small non prestigious England college since he can't seem to write another good book. He meets a student who is convinced he has an idea for a novel that is sure to be a best selling book. The author agrees, after reading several pages of the draft, that it is well written and the plot is superb. Several years later, the author searches the young man's name to see what became of the author and the book as he's not heard anything about it. He discovers the young man died without having written his book and so our protagonist decides to write the novel himself. The book becomes a best seller but someone knows the plot was taken from another author. So well written with interesting insight into the book publishing world and it was fun that the plot of this book centered around the plot of another book which was slowly revealed. I saw pretty easily one of the plot twists but did not see the final one. 

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth- I had heard a lot of good about this book. it was pretty good- maybe not quite s good as I thought it might be. The book centers around two sisters and things are, not surprisingly, as they appear. One sister appears to have her life in order, has a successful career, is married and about to embark on starting a family. The other sister lives a very solitary life as someone who is somewhere on the autism spectrum. I found the book engaging on a superficial level- it was interesting but not challenging, I guess is one way to describe it. I didn't dislike it but the plot twist was fairly easy to see coming. 

The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth- I completely forgot that I read another of Sally Hepworth's books until I saw it on my list. I liked this book better than the Good Sister. It was more original and less predictable. I was completely surprised by the plot twist. It takes place in a small town in Australia and specifically on a quiet street in a suburb. It centers around three neighbors but primarily one of the ladies on the street. She had a break down after the birth of her first child and has recently given birth to her second child. A new neighbor moves in... and things are quickly not the same as they were. 

Plainsong by Kent Haruf- I liked the premise and promise (from reading reviews) of this book. Set in a small Colorado town, it tells the story of several characters whose lives intersect at various points. It tells the story of a family where the wife leaves her husband and two young sons (no real reason was given even though the wife/ mom played a role in the book), a pregnant teenager and two older farmers- brothers who live together on their farm. The New York Times Book Review said this about it, "A novel so foursquare, so delicate and lovely... it has the power to exalt the reader."  I am sorry to report that I wasn't exalted- I sure was hoping to be!!

The Huntress by Kate Quinn- This was a really good book! It is the story of The Huntress (die Jägerin)- a German (maybe Austrian?) woman accused of killing Jewish children in Poland during WWII. Three Nazi war crime hunters want to track her down- she killed one of the crime hunter's brothers. The huntress disappeared after WWII and the crime hunters are determined to find her. Told from multiple points of views, the reader knows almost right away who has done what- it is not a whodunit but rather howwillthey find die Jägerin. Despite several complete lapses of possibilities (she was able to move to American and completely lose her German accent when speaking English so no one suspected that she was a native German speaker. That just... does not happen), the book is so well written and engaging that I could overlook them. I will be reading more from this author. 

The Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith- This loooong book starts out horribly depressing- a woman living in NYC who had worked on a novel for years gets one final rejection letter from a publisher and decides life isn't worth living- she kills herself. Her mom arrives in the city from her job as a librarian (in Bloomington, IN no less (home of Indiana University where I went to school which had the largest library system IN THE WORLD (this was when I was there at least))) and makes it her mission to get her daughter's book published posthumously. The result of that mission is an inside look at the wild, wacky world of publishing... just prior to the advent of Amazon, other Internet retailers, the Kindle (oops, sorry), etc. Bookstores' largest threats were the likes of Barnes & Nobles- in that way the book was quaint. That was the only way it was quaint...The characters were complex, brash, egotistical and multiple story lines that eventually intersected kept things interesting. I loved everything about this book except the bad language and rated R type situations. But the storytelling, the writing, was so good. 

Love and Fury- by Samantha Silva- This fictional account of Mary Wollstonecraft's life (18th century feminist and mother of Mary Shelley- who wrote Frankenstein)) while steeped loosely on her actual life is very reminiscent of Silva's book on Charles Dickens (which I very much enjoyed). I didn't care for this book nearly as much as I did the Dickens book- I thought the writing was more lyrical and compelling and the storyline way more riveting than this book. It was still an enjoyable read. It was sad because the outcome was known- Wollstonecraft died eleven days after childbirth (in real life and in the book). The narration goes way back in Wollenstonecraft's childhood and takes us to the events of the birth and the fever which claimed her life. I have no idea how much of her life the author fictionalized and quite honestly, don't care that much. The book was enjoyable to read but I have no desire to know more about Wollenstonecraft. (I did do a cursory internet search on her to learn more about her but I have little desire to read more about her life.)

Atonement by Ian McEwan- The setting in the beginning of this book is in pre WWII England on an estate of a wealthy family. A thirteen year old girl, Briony, with a vivid imagination yet little worldly knowledge thinks she has witnessed a crime. When a crime is actually committed, Briony can't see the perpetrator due to the dark but she tells everyone she knows it was the person whom she saw earlier in the commit what she thought was a crime. Her testimony sends an innocent man to jail who also happened to be someone her older sister loved. Then the novel shifts several years to WWII. Briony is aware of the cost her testimony- her sister has cut off all ties to the family and Briony sets out to atone for her role in sending an innocent man to prison. The story is engaging yet what really sets this book apart is the writing- it is superb. Don't take my word for it. Here a few better prosed than mine reviews of the book, "Flat- out brilliant... Lush, detailed, vibrantly colored and intense"- SF Chronicle; "No one now writing fiction in the English language surpassed Ian McEwan." Newsweek; "McEwan is one of the most gift literary storytellers alive... Atonement implants in the memory a living, flaming presence." James Wood, The New Republic. (With this book, I agreed with the positive praise from real book reviewers unlike with Plainsong.)

The next two books are non- fiction ones that I read in school during my long term sub ELA (English language arts) job. The students spent the first fifteen minutes of class reading their choice of one of two non- fiction books. I decided to read the books, too, even though we weren't discussing or studying them in class. The students had an independent project related to the book they chose to read but we did not use the books in class beyond the reading time. I guess that's a long winded way of saying that I didn't have to read the books. But as someone who loves to read and with "free" fifteen minutes to read during my classes, I decided to read the books. They were both very engaging, interesting and inspiring books.

The first one was Facing the Lion: Growing up Maasai on the African Savanna by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton

Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton gives American kids a firsthand look at growing up in Kenya as a member of a tribe of nomads whose livelihood centers on the raising and grazing of cattle. Readers share Lekuton's first encounter with a lion, the epitome of bravery in the warrior tradition. They follow his mischievous antics as a young Maasai cattle herder, coming-of-age initiation, boarding school escapades, soccer success, and journey to America for college. Lekuton's riveting text combines exotic details of nomadic life with the universal experience and emotions of a growing boy.

The second one was The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger. But William had read about windmills, and he dreamed of building one that would bring to his small village a set of luxuries that only 2 percent of Malawians could enjoy: electricity and running water. His neighbors called him misala—crazy—but William refused to let go of his dreams. With a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks; some scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves; and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to forge an unlikely contraption and small miracle that would change the lives around him.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a remarkable true story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. It will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability to change his community and better the lives of those around him.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

I wish that every American child would read at least one book written by someone who has lived recently in a culture very different than their own. Either of these two books would fit the bill... both books take place in Africa, in small villages with customs and problems that are very different than those (most) kids face in America. For instance, in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, the main character literally almost starved to death. His family had a vote on which one meal of the day to consume (basically, when to eat the one meal they had). And it was not a grandiose meal- it was corn meal and water. He and other villagers were hungry all of the time and some did starve to death. Both books were really good- eye opening, heart wrenching and ultimately triumphant for the main characters. Most of the students in my ELA classes liked the books.