The Berry Pickers

 

When I originally requested The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters from the library on January 29th, I was 231st in line for the hold of the e-book edition. I was very surprised to see that the audiobook was available to be borrowed immediately on February 24th when I'd finished listening to Liz Cheney's memoir.

The Berry Pickers was a great novel to listen to while driving the hour each way back and forth to spend time with my husband who was in the hospital. It was excellent story telling that engaged me from the start. 

The blurb states "A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years."

The one thing I found a little bit distracting was that the female reader sounded exactly like Cassidy Hutchinson! I'd highly recommend this one.

The Lemon Tree

Lots of folks in many avenues were recommending The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan for a better understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict. I was able to request the Young Reader's Edition from the library so that's the version that I read. I figured it might be an even better explanation than the version written for adults. Now I'm not sure about that. I felt like there was a lot missing.

This book certainly made me feel very pessimistic about what's going on in Israel now. The territorial claims on both sides are so strong. What I liked about this book is that it really forces you to consider the whole concept of "fugitive" and "refugee."

I feel like I got a lot more out of Noa Tishby's book, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. But I would recommend either one.

 

Oath and Honor

 

Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney was the first audiobook that I listened to on Spotify Premium. I wish I could figure out how to bookmark, but how wonderful was it to select a book to listen to and then just listen without having to wait for the audiobook to become available from the library.

There was no much new to learn from Liz Cheney's memoir. Listening to the audiobook, she included actual audio clips of speeches, announcements, etc., so the listener gets to hear the tone and expressions of those Cheney is quoting. This truly is a warning. Cheney names names. I respect that she was able to put obligation to the country and the Constitution above all else.

Such an important warning to listen to. But those who most need the warning likely will not listen!

Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe is the first book that I've finished since I did my massive catch-up. It was a long, slow read for me that sometimes read like a textbook and sometimes read like narrative non-fiction. In the early pages, it reminded me a little of The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell Shorto. Even at the end of the book, I felt like I'd read something about the history of NYC society just as much as I learned about this specific branch of the Vanderbilt family. I think if I wasn't a New Yorker, I might have put the book down unfinished, even though this is my February title for Books & Beer Club.

Prior to visiting the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina in 2022, I read one fiction and one non-fiction about that particular branch of the Vanderbilt family. Both branches start with "the Commodore." Maybe those books that I read were more interesting, maybe that branch was more interesting, but I remember being much more engaged reading. See The Wedding Veil  and The Last Castle.

Writing this family history with Katherine Howe must have been so enlightening to Anderson Cooper. Not many people have these sort of access to specifics of their family history.

Playing catch-up

I really, really, really need to play catch-up here. I can't believe I've read so many books since I last posted a review! I've read some really good books in that time - as well as a few duds. I read 7 books during the 7 weeks I was away from home (first for my daughter's wedding, then on a celebratory trip to Italy), finished another 11 through the end of 2023. I've already finished 10 books in 2024, with 4 more (yes, crazy) in the works.

You know how it's so overwhelming to catch up once you kind of lose the habit of getting things done. After 7 weeks away, I had a crazy time getting back into the swing of being home. (And wasn't home long due to an out-of-town family emergency less than 2 weeks after my return.) Writing book reviews was near the bottom of my list of things to get done. (But yes, seriously, it was - and is still - on my list. I guess I'll get to tick it off today. Yay!

I don't want to not share the books I've read here so I'm going to list them with the stars I gave them on Goodreads. I'm hoping to write at least one or two lines with my thoughts on each title. Yes, for all 28 books!

1. The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed this one about a young women learning so much about herself as a leader on a bike trip with some unexpected group members.

2. Recipe for Second Chances by Ali Rosen ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I read this in the days leading up to our departure for Italy because it took place in Italy. It was just okay.

3. The Villa Girls by Nicky Pellegrino ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another just okay read for me. This novel told a story that came before The Italian Wedding (not sure the order of the books being published). The story was okay. What I did love were the bits of the story that took place in Italy. As usual, Nicky Pellegrino does a great job at evoking the location.

4. City People by Elizabeth Topp ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Seriously, until I looked at the synopsis of this novel, I couldn't remember what it was about. Having said that, it was a good read about a band of mothers experiencing the loss of one of their own. I was able to connect to this story on many levels even though my days of being a mom of young kids is way in the past.

5. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book seems to have such mixed reviews. People either loved it or hated it. I loved Tom Lake, perhaps it was because I was really able to connect to this story. It's set during the early days of COVID which holds appeal to me and Lara's adult daughters have come home to quarantine. The daughters pass the time by listening to their mom share some stories from her younger life. One of Lara's defining moments in life was starring in the play Our Town. I saw my daughter in a minor role in that play years ago so I had that connection, too. This was a warm, comfortable read.

6. Woke Up Like This by Amy Lea ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I believe this was a free Amazon Prime First Read. Time travel. Two teens time travel to their 30s. I really enjoyed this one.

7. When We Were Enemies by Emily Bleeker ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is one I really expected to love. It's about a young woman in 1943 Indiana working as a translator at a nearby Italian POW camp. It was simply okay.

8. Never Meant to Meet You by Alli Frank ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was another free Amazon Prime First Read that I did not expect to really like, but I did. It was a light enough story but one with a lot of substance about marriage, race, and religion. Plus one of the main characters was a kindergarten teacher. 

9. Paper Doll Lina by Robyn Lucas ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another free Amazon Prime First Read, this one about a woman who has really lost herself in her marriage. It had promise, was enjoyable enough to read, but just okay.

10. Enough by Cassidy Hutchinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I listened to Cassidy Hutchinson read the book. I guess I was hoping to learn a little bit more than I did. Since so much of the story is already out there, I learned a few things and was reminded of just how awful the end of the last presidency and January 6th was. Not that I need a lot of reminders.

11. Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I had started to read this highly recommended book before our family emergency. My son and I both flew across the country and were both reading Israel and boy did we have a lot to talk about. I learned many new things, I was reminded of many things I'd learned over the years, and I feel a bit better informed about what's going on in the Middle East right now. Whenever I read anything about Israel, I always wonder how accurate the information is. This seems accurate and I understand that Noa Tishby is a Zionist, but it didn't seem to me like she had some hidden agenda. Reading this reaffirmed most of what I'd already believed. There are no easy answers.

12. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The author of this one was the same author as Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting. There were lots of similarities across the two books, although the premise of each plot was quite different. In The Authenticity Project, Julian Jessop, an older, lonely artist writes the true story about his life and leaves it in a cafe, suggesting that others do the same. Write their truths and pass it along. Six strangers are brought together and form unexpected friendships. I preferred Iona Iverson but this was a pleasant read, too.

13. The Apology Project by Jeanette Escudero ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I had to look at the synopsis of this one to remember the plot of this one. It's about a woman who gets fired when she's not willing to compromise her principles for a big case at her law firm. What next? While she attempts to figure that out, she is encouraged to apologize to people from her past (some who meant something to her, others that really didn't). That became her project. It was "fun" following along.

14. Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Susan Meissner always writes an interesting novel that isn't quite the kind of historical fiction where you learn a lot about the time period but which is set in a time period that makes the story especially meaningful. In this case, a key character was living through World War II in Austria. The main character, however, was a young woman whose parents worked on a vineyard when they were killed in an accident. The owners of the vineyard agree to care for her until she legally becomes an adult. She becomes pregnant and things fall apart for her after that. 

15. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts by Thornton Wilder ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ After reading Tom Lake, I decided to reread Our Town. Apparently, I wasn't the only person who had the same thought because there was quite a long waitlist to get the play. This is Thornton Wilder's most frequently performed play.

16. One Summer in Savannah by Torah Shelton Harris ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sara Lancaster has left her home in Savannah, Georgia to protect her daughter, Alana who was born as the result of a rape. When her father becomes ill, she returns to Savannah and has to deal with the ghosts of the past. It's a bittersweet novel about motherhood and moving forward after something terrible. I loved the character of Alana who is exceptionally smart.

17. Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy by Letty Cottin Pogrebin ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This memoir was recommended to me by several people. They were all slightly older than I am, and I wonder if that's what made me think this was just okay and not great. This memoir focuses on the secrets that Pogrebin and her family kept because the truth was "a shanda" or a shame or a disgrace (in Yiddish). I was able to identify some of the shandas in the life of family members.

18. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I listened to this audiobook with my husband on a long car ride and it was perfect. An engaging story that we could both enjoy and the length of the audiobook matched the hours in day one of our road trip spent in the car. Hannah's husband has disappeared. She and her stepdaughter, Bailey, who don't have the greatest relationship, come together to figure out what could have possibly happened to Owen, husband and dad.

19. Looking for Alaska by John Green ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ After finishing one audiobook on day one of our road trip, I knew I wanted to find another "short" audiobook to listen to on day two of the trip. Looking for Alaska has been on my list of banned books to read and it was the perfect length. It's a coming of age story that takes place at a boarding school. At the end of the story (which coincided with us leaving the highway and just having the local roads to get us home - further than you'd think unless you, too, live in a rural area - my husband and I looked at each other and said, "How important is a book like this for a kid experiencing even a part of what was experienced by the characters in this novel. How wrong that a book like this is banned!"

20. The Surgeon's Daughter by Audrey Blake ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My first finish for 2024 is the sequel to The Girl in His Shadow which I read as part of a Big Library Read in June 2022. While I gave both novels 4 stars, I much preferred The Girl in His Shadow to The Surgeon's Daughter. Both novels made me really think about what it would have been like to be a women with a brain and with some amibition in the 19th century. (I liked that Nora attended med school in Italy, of course!)

21. Must Love Flowers by Debbie Macomber ⭐️⭐️⭐️ We came home from our road trip to NY and my husband had COVID. Because I'm a strong believer in public health, that meant that I isolated unless I really needed to get out and do something (always wearing a well-fitted, high quality mask). It meant I had a lot of time for reading. I decided I wanted something light so looked for something new by Debbie Macomber. It fit the bill perfectly. It was a story about a young woman and an older woman coming together for convenience and helping each other move on to the next stages of their lives.

22. The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This novel by the same author as The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett took a different spin on the kindertransport program during WWII. Hedy is a refugee from Germany. She's an older teen who goes to England unhappy to be parted from her parents and brother. She's taken in by Gertie is contemplating selling the bookstore that she owned with her recently deceased husband. The book club was really a very minor part of the novel. I think if there had been a little bit more focus on the book club, this could have been a 5-⭐️ read for me.

23. The Little Liar by Mitch Albom ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lots of chatter about The Little Liar on many of the book websites and Facebook groups that I follow. "Truth" is the narrator of the story which at times felt a little contrived, but it worked. The main character of the story, Nico, is 11-years old when the story begins. He never lies. Ever. Until... the Nazis invade Salonika, Greece to deport the Jews.That's when lying becomes a method of self-preservation and eventually redemption. I'd previously had no knowledge of the vibrant Jewish community in Salonika (Thessalonika) prior to reading this book. 

24. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Here's another novel by the author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. A.J. Fikry owns a book store that he'd started with his recently deceased wife. (Didn't I just write something similar for The Air Raid Book Club??) A.J. is still a young man, but he becomes a recluse and has difficulty figuring out what might be next for him. He becomes a recluse. Then he finds a package left behind at the bookstore which sets about a whole new life for A.J. and those in his rather limited circle.

25. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The premise of this story is that a skeleton is found in Pennsylvania in the neighborhood of Chicken Hill where years ago Jews and African Americans lived side-by-side. Chona runs the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store that was started by her father. The story was interesting, but it dragged on in many parts and I often had a hard time following things as there were so many characters who, to me, weren't all that distinct. Lots of readers have loved this one but it kind of fell flat with me.

26. Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I loved this book, most probably because I also love Hallmark movies. Nora writes screen plays for The Romance Channel (I see you, Hallmark!) and when she writes something more substantial, more or less the story of her marriage falling apart, it gets picked up to be a major motion picture. Then Nora is living in her own Hallmark movie. If you love Hallmark movies, you'll love this book.

27. Tales From The Cafe: A Novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is book 2 in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Visitors to a small cafe in Tokyo are able to time travel, but there are several rules they must obey. And they must finish their coffee before it gets cold. In this installment, 4 patrons get to time travel to come to terms with the past and move on to the future. I think I liked the creativity of the first book a little better, but this was enjoyable, too. And I plan to read the next two books in the series as well.

28. No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I only read this because this was a title my community book club selected. It was a difficult book to read because the subject matter is so difficult. I wish it touched upon spousal abuse in wealthier couples because I have a friend who experienced that and I was hoping I'd getting some insight into her experiences. As tough as it was to get through the book, we did have a great book club discussion.

29. Unorthodox Love by Heidi Sherlock ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Penina is an Orthodox Jewish woman who longs for love and marriage but is not what any Orthodox man would want as she is unable to have babies. At 29, Penina's life is all about going to work and then doing for others in her free time. She's the family fixer and she volunteers at a NICU at a local hospital. Life becomes more interesting when she's set up with a gay Orthodox Jew who would like a fake marriage to please his mother before she dies... and her boss takes a medical leave and his son comes in to run the show. Penina has a smart mouth which I enjoyed. A very pleasant book to read, especially after No Visible Bruises.

And now I'm caught up! Whew! I'm listening to two books and reading two e-books. Hoping to review each book as I finish it.

The Italian Wedding

 

The Italian Wedding by Nicky Pellegrino was part of the 3-novel volume that I needed to purchase in order to read The Food of Love Cookery School. I loved The Food of Love Cookery School (still trying to convince my husband we need to take a cooking class in Sicily - now that he watched a Hallmark movie about a cooking school in Venice, he's more intrigued by the idea of a cooking school). I simply liked The Italian Wedding. 

It was the perfect book to read on the plane on the first leg of my Italy trip. (And no, I'm not in Italy yet.) I was initially disappointed that so much of the novel took place in England, but gradually, there was more and more of the story set in Italy. At this point it's very obvious that I love reading books based in Italy, especially when they deal with food!

What was also cool is that in this novel, the main character, Pieta, is a wedding dress designer making her sister's wedding dress and helping her plan a dream wedding. The first leg of this trip I'm on is to attend my daughter's wedding. Lots of connections there!

Pieta's mother, Catherine, helps with the construction of the wedding dress. And as they sew and bead, Catherine tells Pieta about how she and Pieta's father met and fell in love. Until that point, Pieta had a very  hard time imagining her mother before she was her mother. 

This was a very enjoyable novel to read, had my mouth watering in parts, got me really excited to visit Italy (counting the days), and it would make a great Hallmark-type movie.

I look forward to reading The Villa Girls, the third novel in this volume.

The Scenic Route

The Scenic Route by Christina Baker Kline was an Amazon Prime First Reads selection. I've enjoyed Kline's historical fiction and the premise of this short story sounded good.

I'm not sure if I was disappointed because it was short and so a little less well fleshed out or because a book about "van life" was more about the aftermath of divorce than about being a nomad.

It was a quick, enjoyable read, but not particularly satisfying. But for a free quick read before bedtime when I was between books, I'm not complaining.

 

The Woman Beyond the Sea

The synagogue book club read The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi three years ago. We all loved it. When we saw Yishai-Levi had written another novel, we wanted to read it. I'm going to miss our next book club meeting, but I try to read along anyway. I liked The Woman Beyond the Sea but I didn't love it. I think it's because the story started a little too slowly for me. Once I got to the second half of the novel, I thought it was a page turner. But it took awhile to get there.

Lily and her daughter, Eliya, have a difficult relationship. They've always had a difficult relationship. Shaul, Lily's husband and Eliya's father, keep the family together at an emotional cost to him, too. 

Jewish baby Lily was abandoned by the woman who gave birth to her when she was a few days old. At a convent. As Lily grew up, she took comfort in sitting with a picture of Mary and Jesus, but on some level, she felt like she never fit in there. That not fitting in and something missing from her life follows her through until Eliya is a young woman.

Eliya, likewise, feels like something is missing from her life. Like her mother, she feels that she's missed out on the love of a mother. It's evident in many of the choices she makes during her university days.

Both women need to come to moments of self-acceptance and perhaps forgiveness.

Lily's story is told third person while Eliya's story is told first person. But it's definitely both of their stories. The timing jumps around a little bit, going as far back Palestine during the early days under the British Mandate up through the time just following the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The history of Palestine and then Israel is essential to the plot. (Oh, how I'd love to get back to Tel Aviv and stroll along the beach.

I gave this novel 3 stars on goodreads.com, rounded down from 3.5 and it was only that low because of the slow start. However, I would still highly recommend this novel for book clubs. I think it will lead to a great discussion.
 

Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation

Possibly by now you've heard that Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation has been banned in many places. A substitute teacher was fired when she presented part of the book to her class. After that, I figured I had to read this book to figure out what is so controversial about Anne Frank's Diary adapted into a cartoon form which is more accessible to many young people.

I just don't get it. The author, Ari Folman, had to figure out how he was going to adapt and basically abridge Anne Frank's diary without losing the most important parts of Anne's story. Lots of the tougher parts are the diary are told in just a few pages. One of the objections to the book is that it minimizes the gravity of the Holocaust. I don't think so! Yes, the author conveys that Anne, at the time the family went into hiding, was a normally young teen girl. She felt like she was walking in the shadow of her older "perfect" sister, Margot. She was a little boy crazy. And she was curious about her changing body. It seems like the bits of the book focused on these normal teen things and not the gravity of the Holocaust are what these crazy banners object to. What? When Anne walks through a park or museum with nude statues, they consider that pornography. Huh? When she wonders about what it would feel like to kiss a classmate, that's considered sexually explicit.

For the first years after the books publication, there were no objections. Now they seem to come one right after the other. It's ridiculous. If our children don't know our history, how are they going to be able to make any sense of the world? How will they go on to be productive citizens? My heart aches thinking of this graphic adaptation being banned. If parents are concerned about a book, then make it clear that they don't want their own child to read it. Don't prevent hundreds or thousands of other children from reading it.

I struggle to read books in graphic form but I'm glad that I took the time to read this. I needed to see what the fuss was. And I still don't understand it.

 

Thirteen Reasons Why

If it's September,  Books and Beer Club is reading a banned book. This year's selection was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, a book I read for the first time in early 2010. It is a very banned book.

Hannah, a girl in Clay's class, has committed suicide. Weeks later, a box of 6 7 cassette tapes arrives at Clay's house. He's curious enough to find a cassette player, not an easy task, because who was listening to audiotapes back then. He's shocked when he hears Hannah's voice. 

He's compelled to keep listening. He wants to hear Hannah's reasons for why she took her own life. And he believes that he might be responsible in part. I'm not going to go into too many details of the story. It's told in an interesting manner. We hear a little Hannah on the audiotapes interspersed with Clay's reactions and thoughts about what he's just heard.

Let's go back to my first reading. Each year while I was teaching, I had each student select a book that we'd read at the same time and discuss, one-on-one. I got lots of the popular fifth grade books, sometimes I'd even get duplicates so I had less reading to do and more time for discussing. I hadn't heard of this young adult novel in 2009 when a fifth grade student of mine suggested that we read Thirteen Reasons Why. I looked it up and immediately contacted the student's mom to make sure that she was okay with us reading this novel that had pretty mature content. After all, it had been banned all over the place. The mom was fine with us reading the book and was glad that her daughter would have the opportunity to discuss this mature content with me, an adult. I barely remember the girl's name, but I do remember some of the really deep conversations that we were able to have. Even thinking about it now, wow. Just wow.

It also gave me an interesting context in which to approach my Books and Beer Club discussion. I really loved this month's meeting. Maybe because everything around this very difficult book brought back good memories of one of the favorite things I did with students while teaching.
 

Kissing Kosher

 

When I saw that Jean Meltzer, author of The Matzah Ball and Mr. Perfect on Paper wrote a new novel, Kissing Kosher, I immediately put it on request at the library. I requested the audiobook which meant that I didn't read the acknowledgement of Renee's Reading Club, the group on Facebook. I still might try to get a print or ebook copy to check that out.

Like her first two novels, this one would make a great Hallmark movie. By now you should know how much I love me a Hallmark movie! It's also a bit of a Romeo and Juliet story.

Avital and Ethan are the grandchildren of men in a longstanding feud regarding a recipe for babka. Yes, babka. Pumpkin spice babka at that. Really? People eat pumpkin spice babka all year? And these men developed a pumpkin spice recipe for babka years ago? I i had to suspend belief in order to get past that little detail. But besides that...

The grandparents developed a delicious babka years ago. After a fight, Avital's grandparents went on to build up their small local Brooklyn bakery, Best Babka, which was famous for its pumpkin spice babka. Ethan's grandparents went into commercial production of kosher baked goods. Their most popular item was a pumpkin spice donut. Ethan's grandfather has had enough. He wants the babka recipe. He forces Ethan to commit corporate espionage by getting hired at Best Babka to steal the recipe. His grandfather has been forcing him into doing things most of his life so this is no different. He doesn't have much control over his own life.

Avital had gone to art school and left Brooklyn to become a professional photographer in California when she gets diagnosed with a chronic illness and is forced to come home where she has family that can help her manage her life. She feels like she doesn't have much control over her life either.

The novel delves into the family feud, Avital's chronic illness, and how Ethan helps her come to terms with living with a chronic illness. It also takes place in Brooklyn. It's got some yiddish words thrown in. I can see myself in some of the Jewish parts of the story. And who doesn't love babka?

Kissing Kosher was a sweet, pleasant, tasty, romantic read.

Beyond That, The Sea

Beyond That, The Sea by Laura Spence-Ash was a different take on the World War II experience. It's based on something that I wasn't at all aware of. I knew all about the kindertransport where Jewish families sent their children out of Eastern Europe to safety in England. In this novel, a working class family sends their daughter, Beatrix, from London to the United States to keep her safe. Who knew?

Beatrix was sent to a family in Maine where she "grew up" with the two very different brothers of the host family, The Gregorys. At first, she is scared, missing home and overwhelmed by being part of this lively family. Eventually, though, she adapts to life on this side of the Atlantic and to live in an American family. Life in London and with her quiet parents fade away. So it comes as a shock when at the conclusion of the war, Beatrix is brought home to London. How does she come to terms with the two very different aspects of her life? And what's next?

This is a lovely novel about what it means to be part of a family, to love and be loved, and what war time was like in New England during World War II.

This is another one that I highly recommend.

 

The Perfumist of Paris

I needed an audiobook and I didn't want to wait. The Perfumist of Paris, the third novel in The Jaipur Trilogy by Alka Joshi was available so I grabbed it. What's ironic, though, is that I ended up only getting halfway thru the audiobook when an audiobook with a lot of library patrons waiting came available so it was quicker to finish up by reading the ebook. 

The first in the series is The Henna Artist. The second installment was The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. Of the three, The Perfumist was my least favorite. Don't get me wrong. I still enjoyed it. A lot. I guess that says more about how much I enjoyed the first two books.

In this one, we meet up again with Radha, younger sister of Lakshmi, who had followed a young man that she thought as her future to Paris. Like many other books that I have read lately, it was about women's roles and women figuring out their places in the world. 

In Radha's early Paris days, a relative of a classmate from India hires her to work in his perfume shop. She realizes that she's grown up with scents and that this is something she could be really good at. It's something she can make a career of. Radha's husband, though, Pierre, considers it a job that keeps her busy. Radha and Pierre struggle over how to balance Radha's work with the care and upbringing of their two daughters. 

Because I'm not going to include any spoilers here, the secret of the previous two books comes into focus in this novel as well.

I highly recommend the series.

 

The Food of Love Cookery School

I guess I lied the other day. Here is another book I purchased as a result of a Facebook ad, but not until I'd communicated with the author and read an excerpt.

The Food of Love Cookery School by Nicky Pellegrino takes place in Sicily, one of the destinations for my upcoming trip. And it's all about food. Well, not all about food. It's sort of a romance, sort of a story of women rediscovering a part of themselves that had been missing.

Luca Amore (what a name!) grew up in a small baroque town in Sicily (modeled after Modica), left to live and work in London for a little while, and returned to Sicily where he opened a small cooking school using his nonna's recipes. (Pellegrino based his cooking school on a cooking school she attended. Sounds like so much fun!) The four participants live in Luca's nonna's house and go on all sorts of excursions in addition to the one cooking class they have per day.

There's romance, food, self-discovery, friendship, and did I mention food? The descriptions are drool worthy! In fact, as I was reading, I realized that I really need a pair of pants with an elastic waist for my trip. What if I eat all this delicious sounding food and then can't fit into the pants I was planning on packing? I stopped reading with about an hour left to order myself a stretchy pair of pants. 

I could make connections to two of the characters - Valerie, the 65-year old New Yorker and Moll, the British divorcee. One of my favorite highlights was from Moll's story. On weekends I'm always off on little adventures. I love finding spice shops or Italian delis and just breathing in the air. I lust after new recipes and the flavors I might find in them. That was me prior to moving to Florida.

In the author's notes, Pellegrino wrote: Some places I mention are real - the Caffe Sicilia in Noto is famed for its extraordinary ice cream, the Dolceria Bonajuto in Modica (which became Vincenzo Mazzara's dolceria) for its chocolate. I already had Caffè Sicilia on my list of places to try to get to. Now I'll need to add Dolceria Bonajuto.

Because The Food of Love Cookery School didn't come as a stand alone kindle book, I had to buy it as part of a 3-novel edition. So I have 2 more of Nicky Pellegrino's novels to read once I reach a lull in my book club and library reading. They might be good to save for a long plane ride I've got in my future.

Don't Forget to Write

 Don't Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino was a recent Amazon Prime First Read free selection. I'd gotten her novel She's Up to No Good  last summer, really enjoyed it so figured I'd give this one a try, too. 

It's rare to find books with truly Jewish characters when the plot isn't focused on the religion so I'm always delighted when I find such a book. This one takes place in 1960. Twenty-year-old Marilyn is caught kissing the rabbi's son in front of the entire congregation in a most embarrassing way. All four parents think the only way to make this right is for the young couple to get married. Marilyn with have nothing to do with that. So Plan B is to ship her off to her great-aunt Ada's for the summer. Ada is a matchmaker in Philadelphia but she moves her life - and her business - to the Jersey shore for the summer.

Ada is nothing like what Marilyn expects. She's quite a character. For one, she's always been single at a time when very few women remain single, have their own businesses, own their own property. In Ada, Marilyn has met her match.

Marilyn has some choices to make over the summer as well as at the end of the summer. You never know what she'll decide. Another novel about women's roles and the choices they have to make.

Honestly, I liked the book as I read it. It's simply an enjoyable read. But the last few chapters, wow! I loved them and turned the last page thinking just that. Wow!

The Rome Apartment

I don't know if I'd ever bought a book from a sponsored post on Facebook before. But since I'm really in a "books about Italy" mood, The Rome Apartment by Kerry Fisher really caught my attention. Surprisingly or not, I really enjoyed it!

Beth is a brand new empty nester when her husband informs her that he's bored with her and that since he's got a job assignment to Paris, maybe it's time for them to take a break. Beth's friend/co-worker spots an ad in a women's magazine for a really inexpensive rental in Rome that is available to only certain women who meet certain conditions - by application only - and who will be required to do some challenges to add a little more "life" to their lives. Beth applies, is accepted, and heads off to Rome. As soon as she gets there, she has second thoughts.

Veronica (Ronnie) is the owner of the apartment. She and her friend, Marina, come up with all sorts of challenges for Beth. They are in their 70s to Beth's 50. Marina is a really tough nut! Beth puts up a fight. She's not sure she's really ready for something like this. She's ready to go home after the first few days.

But she sticks it out and changes take place to her whole outlook on life as she finds her way around Rome, looking for the beauty in the small things. I loved the descriptions of Rome. Some is the Rome all the tourists see. Some would be more considered "hidden Rome." Counting down the weeks until I'm there and can look for the beauty in small things. (And really pray that I don't get pickpocketed and lose my iPhone in some crowded tourist spot.)

This is a novel about a woman rediscovering herself apart from her roles of wife and mother.

 

The Wind Knows My Name

After hearing Isabel Allende interviewed on TV about The Wind Knows My Name, I knew this was a novel that I wanted to read.

In this novel, Allende connects the plight of Jewish youth on the Kindertransport for England during WWII with the current family separation crisis at our southern border.

The story starts out pretty disjointed and as a result, I had a very hard time getting absorbed in the novel. We first meet Samuel in Vienna. After his father disappears on Kristalnacht, her mother is convinced that the best bet for Samuel is to put him on a Kindertransport with a small suitcase, some large clothes (for him to grow into), his violin, a photo of his parents, and a bravery medal from his neighbor.

Next we meet Leticia who comes to the United States in the 1980s with her father after the town they lived in in El Salvador was massacred and they had nothing else left.

Finally, we meet Anita who also flees from El Salvador after her mother feels like their lives are in danger. The trip to the north is a difficult one and they arrive in Nogales at the time when the family separation policy was being enforced. Anita and her mother are separated.

We get a glimpse of each of these characters' stories, but it wasn't until the stories got connected that I found the book absorbing to the point that I couldn't put it down. This is a novel that I will be thinking about long after reading the last page.

Going Bicoastal

I read about Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler on a Jewish book website. It was a young adult romance with the main character being queer. I guess that's exactly what it is. But to me, it was a quirky little speculative fiction which two different "what ifs" played out in alternating chapters. It even had a "choose your own ending" option.

Natalya is a queer girl living in New York City with her father while maintaining a really distant relationship with her mother who lives clear across the country in Los Angeles. After not seeing her mom much since her move several years earlier, the mom wants Natalya to spend the summer with her, working as an intern at the company where she works. Her dad seems fine with it. But Natalya doesn't want to leave her dad behind. She doesn't like change. She likes playing it safe.

What if Natalya stays in New York City? Will she form a relationship with the red-headed girl she's been crushing on all year? Will she be able to improve the long-distance relationship with her mother?

But what if she goes to Los Angeles? Will her dad be okay without her? Will she be able to improve her relationship with her mother? Will she be able to deal with being out of her routine and out of her comfortable place?

I loved the Judaism of the novel and that's what kept me going. I enjoyed reading this but not sure I could recommend it to most of my reader friends.
 

Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family

After reading and discussing  Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult, my community book club decided to read a real life story about a transgender girl and what it has meant to her family. I'm not sure how our book club member had heard about Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family.

I guess I wasn't paying attention so I was expecting a memoir. It was a biography so not quite as intimate but still quite satisfactorily. I was especially interested in the different ways the mom and the dad reacted to identical twin to Jonas transition to Nicole and what it meant to Jonas to have his identical twin become Nicole.

If more people would be reading books like this, perhaps there would be more tolerance for people that are misunderstood by so many. I'm glad that I read this biography and look forward to discussing it with my book club next month.
 

The Postcard

The Postcard by Anne Berest came highly recommended by a friend who knows a lot about me. She didn't steer me wrong. What a book. It's a fictionalized version of the author's family history.

In 2003, Anne's mother receives an anonymous postcard, an old postcard, with the names of her relatives that had been killed during the Holocaust. This set Anne's mother, Lelia, on a quest to learn more about the history of her family. Years later, in 2018, Anne, herself becomes obsessed with the postcard. Who were these people? Who might have sent the postcard and why?

The autobiographical novel is told as Anne's mother shares some of the stories with her daughter and then some of the research that Anne is doing on her own. There's a bit of antisemitism in Anne's daughter's classroom which Lelia believes Anne needs to take care of immediately.

The Rabinovitch family went from Moscow to Latvia to Palestine and eventually thought they'd found the perfect home in Paris when the world gears up for World War II. Anne - and her mother - feel very disconnected from their family history.

I'm disappointed with myself that I didn't highlight the passage that brought the most meaning of the book to me.I hope this won't be considered a spoiler. Anne never really feels quite Jewish and eventually she realizes that day in and day out, she's a descendant of survivors. I think I've mentioned that I was married to the child of Holocaust survivors so reading about Anne's lightbulb moment and questions I often wondered about my former husband's connection to Judaism, things clicked for me, too, in a very impactful way.

I've recommended this to others and so far, those who have read it were glad they had.