My Favorite Reads - The First Half Of 2018

In my typical cliff notes version - If I can recommend just one book to you this year, it would be Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Even if you don't think the description sounds like something you would enjoy - just try it.  It's beautifully written, and my favorite read so far this year.

It's been a great year for reading!  According to my Good Reads log, I've read 73 books so far this year. The rainy days have made for great reading weather, if nothing else.  :-)

One of my new favorites is the Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton.  "Agatha Raisin is a frustrated, yet endearing, PR agent who retires from London to Carsley village in the Cotswolds, English Midlands and solves murders." It's not a ground breaking series, nothing incredible about the books, but I am just loving the character.  She's brash and rude, and somewhat bumbling..  but she's honest and loyal and funny, and she's British.  It reminds me of a much older, classier, British,  Stephanie Plum.  

From the Great American Read list of 100 books, I had already finished more than 50 of the books.  I know I won't make it through the entire list this year, and some I will never chose to read.  But I do want to make an attempt at a few more on the list.  So far this year I've finished Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood.  Both were very pleasant surprises for me, as for some reason I didn't think I would like either book.  Admittedly, I struggled through the beginning of Rebecca.  It was a bit heavy on the prose, for me, and I thought the entire book would drag.  HA!  If this book was written this year, it would be listed right along all of the other thrillers that everyone is talking about.  What great twists and surprises!  And the Handmaids Tale was one that once I started, I had trouble putting down.  I enjoyed the authors notes at the end of the book almost as much as the story.  What a fantastic read.

Don't forget to vote for your favorite in The Great American Read!

https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/vote/

In general fiction, my favorite is The Women Of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck.  There's a scene about a murdered horse that made me actually put the book down and walk away for a bit.  It was horrible.  So it's a testimony to the rest of the book that it still makes my favorites list.  Normally when a scene disturbs me that much, I end up disliking the entire book.  (The Kite Runner is an example.  That one scene just ruined the book for me, although I recognize that it was a great story..  I just can't get past it.)  As with many books, sometimes you just read something at the right time of your life and it resonated more with you - I think that was the case, for me,  with this book.  It's about women in nazi Germany, who live in a castle.  But they are not glamorous.  From my goodreads review:

"Overall, the book is an amazing look at three imperfect women. Their failures and issues that somehow show us that we all have horrible parts, that we all have life alternating failures, and that we can all be so very different and still have a bond. I wish I could find a way to say that without it sounding trite. This is not a trite book. It's one of the best books I have ever read."

 

In non fiction, I inadvertently read two books from the same time frame (1920's, roughly) , both about incredible injustice.  Killers Of The Flower Moon & The Radium Girls are two books that would be great in any history curriculum.  While familiar with the Radium Girls (although I had no idea the extent of the damage and legal battles!) I had never heard of the plight of the Indians who were murdered one by one for their oil rights, nor did I have any idea that at one time the wealthy Indians were considered "incompetent" and assigned overseers to control their money.  Both are absolutely unbelievable stories.  And both are part of our history.   Killers Of The Flower Moon is a bit more difficult to read - I could have used a chart of characters, it was hard to keep them all straight.  But that's simply how the story played out in real life, so I'm not sure what could be done about it.  Radium Girls is a bit more gripping - but every few chapters I would think the story had to be almost over, why was there so much left?  And then once again there would be a reason the real life story dragged on.  It's amazing how many never saw any justice at all.  Both are books I strongly recommend to everyone!  

"In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances." - Killers Of The Flower Moon

Leonardo, by Walter Isaacson, was another great non fiction read as well as Down The Great Unknown, about John Wesley Powell's 1869 journey down the Grand Canyon.  We were fortunate to visit the Grand Canyon this year, I read Down The Great Unknown on the plane on the way there and home.  I love to read books about places we visit.  I also read the childrens book Brighty Of The Grand Canyon, because it was written by Margaurite Henry.  She wrote the Misty of Chincoteague books, that my daughter loved as a child, and we read when visiting  Chincoteague, years ago.  Brave Companions is one that I read, and loved so much that I got the audiobook for my husband to listen to with me on one of our drives.  No surprise that I loved this, i love everything David McCullough writes.  I own very few actual books these days (we read mostly ebooks) but I own almost all of his in print form.  (I also own a complete collection of the Nero Wolf books by Rex Stout...  among manhy others, just not walls of bookshelves anymore, now that ebooks can be filed and stored so neatly in the cloud)  

Flat Broke With Two Goats was the Big Library Read.  This means that this book was available for anyone with a library card to borrow digitally - no waiting list, no limits on how many people read it at once - we were all encouraged to borrow it and read it, using the Libby or Overdrive apps..

A memoir, I found it to be fairly amusing, and I enjoyed reading it.  It's also a bit ridiculous, to whine about having no money while recounting your visits to starbucks, and I know that it annoyed many others.  I wasn't annoyed.  Since we raise goats, I simply related to a lot of her story, even if I couldn't relate to others.  It was simply a fun read for me, not a great moral lesson.  One goodreads reviewer wrote " It is a bourgeois tale of roughing it where responsibility is never taken & the author is never able to see beyond her own nose"  Well, he's not exactly wrong....  but I still found the book entertaining and interesting.

The Next Big Library Read begins July 9th. https://biglibraryread.com/

 

Young Adult
This year I've been branching out a bit more into Young Adult fiction, on the recommendations of some friends.  I've had some GREAT recommendations this year, including Night Circus by Erin Morgensten, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, & The Giver series by Lois Lowry.  The Giver series is one I always felt I should have read before now, so when someone mentioned them earlier this year, I decided it was time I finally got to them.  What great reads!  I enjoyed them all very much.  When You Reach Me is a book that builds on, but is in no way shape or form a sequel to, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  It is a charming read, especially if you loved A Wrinkle in Time.   Night Circus was recommended by several women my age, who simply told me that it was "a bit different".  It is a wonderful read!  The only thing I can think to compare it to is Harry Potter, and yet it's not Harry Potter at all.  It is my favorite read so far this year.  Little Monsters by Kara Thomas is another YA book I really enjoyed.  It was every bit as gripping as the other thrillers on my list this year, and better written then many of the best sellers I read.

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart."

In "thrillers" - my favorite genre, yet one of my least read genres so far this year - my favorites have been Sunburn by Laura Lippman (although the ending still bothers me a bit!), The Passenger by Lisa Lutz, and the much talked about The Woman In The Window by AJ Finn.  Although it's a young adult book.  Little Monsters by Kara Thomas is a really good thriller as well.


Disappointments for me, this year, have included: 
The Missing Ones - Detective Lottie Parker Book 1.   I love books with female detectives, but this one just didn't click for me.
Jackie, Janet & Lee by Randy Taraborrelli - More gossip rag than history lesson, very disappointing.
Raspberry Danish Murder by Joanne Fluke - Can it be counted as a disappointment if you read it knowing it won't be very good? I know the new books are basically drivel, but I keep reading them...  I can't explain it.  This one was so ridiculous it had me sputtering... and yet I'll likely read the next one.  
Into The Water by Paula Hawkins is one of the thrillers popping up on this years to read lists - and many gave it rave reviews.  I almost didn't finish it.  Convoluted, way too many characters, and not suspensful.  The Girl On The Train, her first book, was SO much better.  So, so much better.  
Partners by John Grisham.  I loved Rogue Lawyers, but this novella was a disappointment for me.
Carnegie's Maid by Marie Bennedict.  I really enjoyed the Other Einstein, but this new book had very little to do with the Carnagie's.  It was just a fictional love story.  Since the Other Einstein wasn't actually true history anyway, this shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did.

(Speaking of John Grisham, if you are looking for a great summer read about a book store - not about lawyers - pick up a copy of Camino Island.  GREAT read, really the perfect summer beach read.)

Some Of What I'm Looking Forward to Next: