Labor Day Weekend and books read in July and August

We had a nice and quiet Labor Day weekend. The weather was not great for most of it but that didn't impact our plans. Alyssa had a cross country meet that somehow was not impacted by delay or cancellation on Saturday (it stormed here all of Saturday morning while an hour and a half a way where the meet was in Columbus, there were no storms). Abby came home for the weekend- her school being so close to us makes it easy for us to get her for the long weekend. She had quite a bit of work to do for her classes but she was happy to do her work at home. We spent time relaxing together when that was in order and enjoyed some good meals and going to church together before we got her back to school.

Thought I would add the books that I read in July and August to this post since there was not too much to report on regarding the long weekend ;)...

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins- A young man is found dead in his houseboat. Three women who are connected to him are suspects in his death. Lots of plot twists combined with Hawkins' skill storytelling make this a page turner. I didn't guess whodunit which I kind of like ;).

Matrix by Lauren Groff- Just your average feminist/ power to the she book set in the 12th century about a woman expelled from France's royal court to become the prioress of an ailing abbey. The subject matter did not capture my attention and I disliked a lot about the book. Having read more enjoyable books by the talented Lauren Groff, I plodded along hoping it would get better. It did not.




Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewel- In this thriller, a seventeen year old girl goes missing. She's last seen by a kind of creepy/ misunderstood guy who happens to be neighbors with the therapist whom the girl had been a client of and was currently stalking/ shadowing. The therapist has secrets of his own so it's hard to say who could be responsible...This was a quick, interesting read.



Arcadia by Lauren Groff- Back to Lauren Groff- this was a much better book than Matrix! It centers around a boy name Bit who was raised in a commune in upstate New York. It's introspective and the reader gets taken along for a fascinating, if horrifying, look at what life was like in the commune (no abuse or anything like that but still the knowledge that life in the commune would not work out was in the forefront of my mind as I was reading it. Due to the propensity of humans to not flourish devoid of a reverence for God and instead believe that man can live contentedly and non violently with free love and communal sharing as its main tenants, non religious commune living has never worked out well (to my knowledge anyway). The book was much better than Matrix (by the same author). I do love Groff's writing!




The French Girl by Lexis Elliott- This thriller focuses on Kate and a group of six other students from Oxford who spent a week together at a French farmhouse and met a neighbor, Severine. Severine disappears the day the six friends leave the farmhouse; it's thought her boyfriend harmed her. Twenty years later, her body is found and the six friends become suspects. This was cleverly written with lots of tension and was hard to put down.




What Could be Saved by Liese O'Halloran Schwarz- The book begins when artist Laura gets word that her brother Philip, who was eight years old when he disappeared in Bangkok, where the family was living at the time, is alive in Thailand. The family fell apart when Philip disappeared years ago. The book chronicles the events of the past leading up to Philip's disappearance as well as what occurs when Laura travels to Thailand to see if her brother is still alive. This was a good book- hard to read at times but overall well written. I will probably read more from the author.

A Million Reasons Why by Jessica Strawser- two women, Caroline and Sela find out they are half sisters thanks to a DNA test. The women’s dad has only been in the life of Caroline and is married to Caroline's mother. Sela reached out to Caroline when she made the sisterly discovery mainly because she was desperate for a kidney and close family members are usually the best candidate for a transplant. This book was very dramatic- it read like a soap opera. "Things" were constantly happening to the main characters as well as minor ones. It kept my attention but I would not seek another book out by this author. I did like that in the book, Caroline's family live in the Cincinnati area- the exact area is not given, just generally Cincinnati with many references to 'Nati area places.




Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughn- Liz, an ER doctor, is astounded when one of her best friends brings her baby daughter to the ER with a head wound that appears to have occurred in an inconsistent manner with the narrative the baby's mom tells of how it happened. An investigation has to ensue per hospital policy. The book then splits into two time narratives- the current time frame and also events in the past that lead up to the incident. I thought the story line was good (though a bit depressing with an injured baby and all), and I appreciated the insight into motherhood and friendship. Overall, a good book and I plan to read more by this author.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan- this is a short book, a novella really, set in Ireland in 1985. The main character is a man who is the owner of a small, fledgling coal company tasked with delivering coal to the mostly impoverished members of the small community where he lives with his wife and five daughters. He has it better than most though he works tirelessly to provide. One day, when delivering coal to the local convent, he makes a grisly discovery about how unwed mothers who are sent to the convent are treated. (This is apparently based on true circumstances where, until the 1990's, a large number of unwed mothers in Ireland were sent to convents where they worked extraordinarily hard as laundresses and were treated horribly in a number of them). He has a decision to make about what to do- the convent is his best customer and always pays its bills but he knows that he should do something to help the young womens' plight at the convent. This was very well written and I will likely read more by this author.




Zorrie by Laird Hunt- this is a very literary, character driven book about the life of a simple, unsophisticated woman living in rural Indiana in the middle of the 20th century whose simplicity in station of life belies her inner stalwart strength and fortitude. If I knew one woman like this when I was growing up in rural Indiana in the late 20th century, I knew 20. Such women were my mom's friends and indeed, my mom herself in some ways (my mom grew up in MI but she was Zorrie in some ways). The book was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award, has been reviewed (almost all positively) by all the venerable review papers including the New York Times, and contained a line about Indiana stating, "the dirt she had bloomed up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, how she thought, what she knew." I should have loved the book but instead I only liked it. I guess it fell short of my expectations. Again, having grown up knowing so many women living lives in somewhat similar circumstances as Zorrie, I thought this book would resonate more with me than it did. The strength of almost all of the Hoosier women whom I knew growing up, including my mom, was directly tied to a strong Christian faith and Zorrie's faith was not central to her character. So for me at the outset of the book, just reading what it was about (a resilient woman living a simple hard scramble life in Indiana) led me to believe that I would relate to it in astounding ways and I just didn't. But it is a beautifully written book and ode to the beauty of a simple life in a bygone era.

Silverview by John le Carre- this was published posthumously by the author. I guess he's written many highly regarded books? I'd never heard of him before but I dare say there are many authors whom I have not heard of ;). He writes (well, wrote) about spies because he actually was one for a brief time when he was younger. Anyway, in this book, a young man who has just opened a bookstore is approached by a larger than life type older man who suggests a portion of the bookstore be turned into a literary salon. The man is not, not surprisingly, all that he seems and the main character is unwittingly thrust into the world of espionage. I thought this book was pretty good. Some parts of it were written obtusely and I wasn't sure I knew exactly what was going on in the story.




The Survivors by Jane Harper- This was such a good book!! Finally! It was very atmospheric, kind of dark and reminded me a little of a Tana French book. Well written, mostly plot driven but the characters were fleshed out pretty well and nuanced for a book with a lot going on. It takes place in Tasmania (my first time reading a book based on that locale ;)). The main character is a man returning to his coastal town to help his mom and dad (who has dementia) move. He left the town after the tragic drowning of his brother and brother's friend who were helping him after he became trapped in high water due to a sudden storm. Within a day of arriving home, a young woman in town is killed. Her death and the investigation of it dregs up the past for all the characters who are grappling with the recent death and the tragedy that struck the town years before. I have already read another book of hers (but that was in September) that I liked quite a lot- only two more to read as she's written four so far.

All of the books that I read besides Arcadia, Zorrie, and A Million Reasons Why took place outside of the US, most often in the UK. Not sure why so many thrillers occur there- I guess that’s where the most prolific or popular authors of suspense/ thrillers live?