July and August Books- Share Your Shelf

Linking up with Tanya, Marilyn, Joanne and Jennifer for two month’s worth of books and Share Your Shelf

The Bookbinder by Pip Williams- this novel was set in Great Britain in 1914. It's about two sisters who live in a boat(?) and work in a book bindery. I could not get into this book and stopped reading it.

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett- two thoughts- I realized part way through that I had already read this book- but it had been several years and I forgot how it ended. Since reading it the first time, I have read other books by this author and really enjoyed them. I enjoyed reading this book for the second time, which felt mostly like first by dint of forgetting much of my first read. This book has lots of layers to it and is in a usual format which takes some getting used to. But it's worth it! In this tale, a woman begins to investigate a cold case, one that is twenty years old, to write about it. It concerns a would be suicide, a cult, and the attempt to sacrifice a baby who may be the anti-Christ. 

The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane- I really liked the author's book, Ask Again, Yes and was excited to read this. Was disappointed in this one! It was not bad but not great. I would have stopped reading it except I know I have liked Ask Again, Yes so much and hoped that the book would get better. It's about a couple living in upstate NY who own a bar and are dealing with the impact of infertility. It was just too much- everything was overlayed in drama and intensity. 

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill- This is a whodunit as four strangers who seemingly meet by chance in the Boston Public Library hear an ear curdling scream and shortly after, a woman's dead body is discovered in the library. The four become friends... and possibly suspects. This was so cleverly written- I liked it a lot. There’s a story in a story element in it as well that just so cleverly done. 

Homecoming by Kate Morton- A woman, Jess, returns to Australia after her elderly grandmother (who raised her) is hospitalized. In the attic of her grandma's home, Jess discovers a connection between her family and an infamous crime that took place 60 years earlier. It is told in two timelines- the past and the present. Enjoyed reading this quite a bit! I have liked everything that I've read by this author quite a bit. She's a great storyteller.

After She Wrote Him by Sulari Gentill- This was a bit odd and I didn't like it as well as The Woman in the Library. It's also a story in a story with an odd twist- one writer is depicted as working on a novel with several characters. Then, in the next chapter, one of the characters in the novel is now a real person who is writing a novel about the woman who was writing the first novel. So each other's characters are depicted both as real and fictional. It's as odd as that sounds! It was too confusing- and the two characters one or both of whom may be real, start to fall for each other. Too much oddness for me!

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff- I have read other of Groff's novels and liked them but not this book at all. I would have stopped reading after page twenty had it not been for liking this author's other books. It takes place in the late 1600’s at the Jamestown settlement where the main character (unnamed) flees into the wilderness to escape the settlement. Depressing and improbable this survivalist tale (spoiler alert: she doesn’t but this book, nonetheless, is dubbed a survivalist tale), did nothing for me except to make me grateful to be living in the 2000’s and not the 1600’s…

The Defense by Steve Cavanagh- A lawyer named Eddie is forced to represent the head of the Russian mob in NYC in a murder trial. The bad guys have kidnapped Eddie's ten year old daughter so Eddie has to take on the case. Besides the obvious this-is-not-how-the legal system-works thing going on (Eddie became the lawyer and twenty hours later the trial started), it was just too over the top, action movie-esque level of one highly improbable event after another.

The Whalebone Theater by Joanna Quinn- There is a literal whalebone theater in this book- a whale washed up on the shore of the English channel in 1928 and siblings led by ten year old Cristabel create a theater. The children's parents are not fit to be parents (wealthy, of course, as the wealthy are evil is one trope I didn't care for though it's very common in novels!) so the siblings become close. During WW2, two of the siblings engage in war effort to subvert the Nazi's. The book was well written with beautiful descriptions of the country side and war torn London but I didn't love the book. 

The Vacation by John Mars- Set in Venice Beach, it tells the story of eight strangers who stay at a hostel. Their backstories leading up to how they wound up at the hostel compromise most of the novel. There are a couple of mysteries and a few twists. It was an ok read but I didn't like it enough to read more from this author.

The Devil in the Dark Water by Stuart Turton- I read his first book a couple of months ago- it was one of the most unique and compelling books that I have ever read so I eagerly anticipated this one. It was not as good as his first one but still told intriguingly and was well written. It's about a ship transporting people and cargo from Batavia to Amsterdam (in the 1400’s or so). Before the ship sails, a leper warns that the ship is cursed and will sink. Several lives of the people on the ship are the focus, including a detective who is in chains for unknown reasons. 

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim- "We didn't call the police right away." That's the first sentence of the book. While it does center around the mystery of a husband and day who disappears after hiking with his non-verbal autistic son Eugene who comes home agitated and with blood all over him, the book covers a multitude of topics and isn't a thriller in any way. It takes place during the pandemic and with college age children which I found interesting since I had a college age child during the pando. During the pandemic, I wondered how fiction books written post 2020 would be written- would the pandemic be mentioned or play a role? A writer could easily ignore it or have the entirety of the book take place in 2019 or 2022; I liked that the action took place during it.  And it did play a role, though a small one. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, more so for what I learned about the type of autism that Eugene had.

The Substitute by Nicole Lundrigan- A middle school substitute teacher (sound familiar, lol), Warren, finds himself the lead suspect when a teen is murdered. I mean, the deceased was discovered on his property, and he can't account for his whereabouts during the time frame, but the reader just knows it could not have been lonely and soft-spoken Warren. I enjoyed reading this book quite a bit- well written, atmospheric, creepy without being macabre or gratuitous.

An Unthinkable Thing by Nicole Lundrigan- I had to read another NL's after enjoying The Substitute. I didn't care for this one as much. I didn't like it nearly as much because it was more tragic from the outset than The Substitute. A twelve-year-old boy's beloved aunt who is raising him is killed and then he has to go and live with his mom (whom he's known and seen but who gave him to her sister to raise) who works for a wealthy (and very bad- again with the wealthy are evil trope) family. The boy becomes the prime suspect when members of the bad family wind up shot. 

The Hunter by Tana French- I have liked every book by Tana French a lot, so I was excited to read this one. It's the second in a series with a main character, Cal, who moved to Ireland after he retired from the Chicago police department. In the first book with this character, readers are introduced to a twelve year old girl, Trey, who’s looking for her missing brother. In this book Trey is 15 and her dad, who skipped out of town several years ago is back with a scheme to earn him and the townspeople money. I did not care for the book much at all which was a disappointment. Parts of it were good- French is a great writer- but it was so unbelievable and long that it just got tedious.