Let's Just Move On: Summer Reading Volume 2

Hi.

Well that was awkward, but let's just move on. It's been hot, busy, but generally unexciting.  As evidenced by the fact that I read the following books.  I actually thought I'd read more, but I don't remember what titles those would have been.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Young Adult fiction but super funny and a little bit of a social commentary on the commercialization of everything, including ourselves.  The contestants for a teen beauty contest are in a plane crash that leaves only a few of the young ladies survive and suddenly their talents for baton and dance are the only skills they have to keep them alive on the island.  A quick read, like a funny version of Lord of the Flies with girls, glitter and lip gloss.

Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman

I was skeptical because I didn't want this to turn into a social commentary of the prison system--I was truly interested in the day to day of what it's like for a white woman of privilege to experience prison.  While Kerman does acknowledge her experience is unlike that of her peers because of her skin tone and the support (and money) she has from her outside world, her time in prison was by no means easy and it certainly wasn't puppies and rainbows despite her stay of about 15 months (far shorter than many of the women she introduces in the book).  I appreciated that Kerman took the time to talk about the good and bad of the system (and those employed to run it), but didn't dwell on any of those things at the expense of telling the story of the experience.

Maine (Vintage Contemporaries) by J. Courtney Sullivan

I loved this book.  Four women spanning three generations of one family tell their tale of how they view their family and relationships, all centering around the time they spend at the family beach house in Maine.  The story is told from various Catholic points of view (both religion and guilt) and the matriarch story alone is enough to keep you reading.  Sullivan writes beautifully and gives just enough of a hint at why each woman became the adult she is without giving it all away at once.  Definitely a good read.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Wow.  Supposedly fictional, but read the author blurb on the book jacket and you'll wonder if Kwok simply changed names and minor details about her own life.  A young girl and her mother immigrate to New York City with literally the clothes on their back and what fits in a suitcase.  It's never specified, but I suspect the time frame is the late 70s to early 80s.  The mother's sister makes arrangements for their immigration, thus leaving them indebted to her while their work in her sweatshop.  The protagonist, Kimberly, struggles to learn in school despite her limited English (her mother speaks none).  It's a beautiful tale about being different, being poor, and being unable to give up the traditions of one's heritage.  It's also a harrowing tale of the same things.  You will be moved by this book.

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

This book moved me like nothing I've read since the last time I read a book by Lamb, She's Come Undone.  Seriously, I can't describe the emotion involved in reading this book.  A married couple employed at Columbine High School in April 1999 is separated on the one day that changed their lives.  Caelum flies to the East Coast to tend to a sick relative less than 48 hours before his wife is forced to hide in the library of the school when two students go on the attack.  But aside from the emotional impact of that attack on this couple, the story is full of a history of family and secrets and how you move on in the face of the unexpected.  This is not a happy story, but I will likely ponder this story often and anticipate I'll read it--and cry in the same places--again.

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

What happens when you make a promise to never go home?  Ten years after Arlene makes that promise, she's faced with going back home to deal with secrets she's been hiding ever since.  I really liked this book. It was a quick read and really went into family dynamics (read: family misunderstandings) and the struggle to be independent but still tied to family.  Great beach read.

Barefoot: A Novelby Elin Hilderbrand

I went to the library looking for another book by Hilderbrand but since they didn't have it, I picked up this one.  Such a good choice!  Three women, two sisters and a friend, flee to the family summer home on Nantucket to spend the summer escaping each of their own demons.  A young college student enters their life and he helps them through their various struggles while they unknowingly help him with his own.  There is one story line that is a bit far-fetched, but the rest of the book is so good it's easy to let that hyperbole go.  It makes those parts a little more fun and ridiculous which makes up for the couple pages that leave you crying.

Then Came You: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner

Yay, more Jennifer Weiner!  Loved it.  Another tale of four women (seriously, I hit a goldmine of the intermingled lives of women).  This time it's the story of how a little girl is born through the help of an egg donor, a surrogate, the twenty-something half-sister and the gold-digger who would be mother.  No the ending I expected, but in hindsight, it is the perfect ending.

True Confections: A Novel by Katharine Weber

Totally fun.  The whole story is a deposition from the Christian woman who married into the Jewish family candy business and felt more at home (despite the challenges of fitting in with the family) there than in her old life with her own family.  Alice tells it like it is, doesn't filter or hold back, and even puts details in her deposition that she probably shouldn't.  And she definitely tells the story of the family and it's business wildly.  From arson to family secrets, the story unfolds as Alice explains why she is more entitled to the business than any blood-born family.  It's clever, although parts a little long in the tooth. But you'll keep reading because it's fun and Alice will hint to things that you want to know more about.

Women About Town  by Laura Jacobs

I picked this up on whim (like I did successfully with True Confections).  I really didn't like it.  I should have stopped after the second chapter, but I didn't.  Then I got so far into it that I felt I had to finish or the boredom of the book would win.  The story centers on two women in New York City, with chapters alternating the protagonist.  But it takes until the last few chapters for the women's lives to cross, so I felt like I was just reading two books a the same time, and one of the characters was far more interesting than the other.  I won't write off Jacobs, but I would suggest putting this one back on the shelf.