The White Lady by Jacquelin Winspear

I saw the author name on this audio book at my library and didn’t remember she’s the author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries, but I picked it up anyway. I knew it was familiar.

Stats: Published in March of 2023, print book is 321 pages, audio book is 8 discs/10 hours read by Orlagh Cassidy.

Blurb:

A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, and exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government.

Post-World War II Britain, 1947. Forty-one-year-old “Miss White,” as Elinor is known, lives in a village in Kent, England, so quietly and privately as to seem an enigma to her fellow villagers. Well she might, as Elinor occupies a “grace and favor” property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor’s war work had been, or how deeply their mysterious neighbor continues to be haunted by her past.

It will take the child of Jim Mackie, a young farmworker and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White’s icy demeanor—but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie, who reminds her of the darkest day of her life.

Elinor’s wartime training and instincts serve her well, but as she endeavors to neutralize the threat to Jim, Rose and Susie Mackie, she is rapidly led along a tunnel of smoke and mirrors in which former wartime colleagues – who know the truth about what happened in 1944, and the terrible event that led to her wartime suicide attempt – are compromised by more powerful influences.

Ultimately, Elinor will hold a gun to the head of a Mackie crime lord to uncover the truth behind the family’s pursuit of Jim, and in doing so, reveal the far-reaching tentacles of their power—along with the truth that will free Elinor from her past.

What I liked: It was fun how Winspear slowly revealed Elinor’s true nature. Makes you think a bit about the people you meet. Not that you’d expect an elderly neighbor of having such a past, but one never knows. It also made me think about how it really was after the WWII in England. I didn’t realize that prisoners were let out to fight, and when they came home, they had earned their freedom and learned some new skills along the way. Cassidy does a good job with the narration.

What I didn’t like: I’m not sure a friend (and someone who had feelings for Elinor) would have kept secret related to a trauma she underwent in the war. (I won’t say what so as not to give anything away). Keeping secret the operation, yes, but not what happened during the operation that significantly effected Elinor.

Rating: 4/5

Educated by Tara Westover

This was available in my local library as an audio book (my favorite way to “read”) and I had wanted to read this for a while. (non-fiction)

Stats: First published in 2018, print book is 352 pages. The audiobook is 12’10” narrated by Julia Whelan.

Blurb: Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

What I liked: What a story! I am just amazed that Ms Westover was able to save herself, and like most stories like this, she had to do this herself. It also speaks of how strong family bonds can be – good or bad. She is an amazing young woman. Luckily, (or was it more than luck), she had people along the way to show her a different way to live. It’s just very hard to read her struggle, especially the verbal and physical abuse. The story is laid out in such a way that it’s hard to put down. Very well-written. Julia Whelan – the narrator – did a wonderful job, as well.

What I didn’t like: The abuse by the brother, Sean, seems like it could have been shortened a bit. We get the point what kind of person he is and what he does to Tara. But maybe Tara had to keep repeating this abuse for herself vs for the reader.

Rating: 5/5

Haven by Emma Donghue

This was one of my blind picks at my local library.

Stats: Published in 2022, audio book is 7 discs – 8′ 30,” narrated by Aidan Kelly, hardcover is 272 pages

Blurb: In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks—young Trian and old Cormac—he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?
Three men vow to leave the world behind them. They set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. What they find is the extraordinary island now known as Skellig Michael.

What I liked: This is an interesting book. I have never read any of Donoghue’s other books but the reviews say this is different than her others (she has 9 others). It isn’t a page turner, per se, but it did keep my attention through most of it. It is an interesting perspective/commentary on religion, faith, and humanity. Even though it’s set in the 7th century, it made me think of my own beliefs. Aidan did a nice job with the narration. Each character felt very distinct, which, of course is partly do to the author as well.

What I didn’t like: I’m not sure I understand the point of the whole story; it wasn’t obvious to me, though that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad read. It made it an “it’s all right” read for me. I was just left with a “Huh…” thought when I was done. It’s definitely not for everyone.

Rating: This one is hard to rate, maybe 3.5/5

If Only I Could Love You by Hannah Beckerman

This was also recommended by a friend.

Stats: print is 368 pages, published in 2019. I listened to the audio book, but can’t remember the number of discs (6-7 I think). Unfortunately, I didn’t write down the narrator.

Blurb: Audrey knows that life is filled with ups and downs, but she can’t help feeling like she’s been dealt more than her fair share as she’s watched her family come undone over the years. Her dream as a mother had been for her daughters, Jess and Lily, to be as close as only sisters can be. But now as adults, they no longer speak to each other, and Audrey’s two teenage granddaughters have never met. Even more upsetting is the fact that Audrey has no idea how to fix her family as she wonders if they will ever be whole again.

If only Audrey had known three decades ago that a secret could have the power to split her family in two, but ironically, also keep them linked. And when hostilities threaten to spiral out of control, a devastating choice that was made so many years ago is about to be revealed, testing once and for all Audrey and those she loves.

Is it too late for one broken family to heal and find their way back to each other…?

What I liked: The story is well written and the pain and joys everyone goes through feels real. Unfortunately, the premise doesn’t work for me. The narrator did a lovely job.

What I didn’t like: The title should have been “If Only You’d have Opened Your Mouth.” It is too hard to believe that a grown woman (Jess in this case) wouldn’t have asked her sister or her mom what went on when she was ten. That fact that she doesn’t ask leads to 20 years of heartache for the family. Also, wouldn’t she have eventually, as an adult, understand that what she THOUGHT happened (since she didn’t know) when she was ten was clouded by her young age. And then to be such an ass to her sick mother, she is just to immature to care about.

Rating: 3+/5

Flying at Night by Rebecca L. Brown

This book was recommended to me by a friend. A nice surprise was it’s an author that lives close to me.

Stats: 304 pages, published in 2018

Blurb: Stay-at-home mom Piper Whitman Hart is too close to her nine-year-old son Fred to realize that his idiosyncrasies are signs of something more. And just when his diagnosis of autism sends her life reeling, she’s dragged back into the orbit of her emotionally abusive father, Lance, after a heart attack leaves him with brain damage.

Fred is in need of a friend. Lance is in need of care. And Piper just wants to feel stable ground beneath her feet. What she never expects is that Fred and Lance–both misunderstood by the world–will start to connect in the most miraculous of ways…

What I liked: This is a lovely debut novel. The characters are very real and it is easy to empathize with all of them, even Piper’s dad after he loses his memory. Before that, he is a perfect ass. The struggles Piper has with her son and husband are relatable. The mom’s reaction to the events that play out are understandable to a point.

What I didn’t like: (spoiler alert) The point being that the mom doesn’t correspond with her only daughter after she leaves the area or even her grandchild. I can see her not wanting to help her husband, but she doesn’t seem to care how Piper is fairing. Yes, it was Piper’s decision to take her dad in, but it seem very non-mother-like for her to ignore her daughter and grandchild.

Rating: 4/5  Good story, overall.

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer

I saw this audio book in my local library and it sounded interesting, so I picked it up.

Stats: Published in June, 2022. Print is 464 pages, audio book is 11 CDs (13′ 49″). Narrated by Nancy Peterson and Ann Marie Gideon

Blurb: Berlin, 1930—When a wave of change sweeps a radical political party to power, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’s academic husband benefits from the ambitions of its newly elected chancellor. Although Sofie and Jürgen do not share the social views growing popular in Hitler’s Germany, Jürgen’s position with its burgeoning rocket program changes their diminishing fortunes for the better. But as Sofie watches helplessly, her beloved Berlin begins to transform, forcing her to consider what they must sacrifice morally for their young family’s security, and what the price for their neutrality will be.

Twenty years later, Jürgen is one of the many German scientists offered pardons for their part in the war, and taken to America to work for its fledgling space program. For Sofie, this is the chance to exorcise the ghosts that have followed her across the ocean, and make a fresh start in her adopted country. But her neighbors aren’t as welcoming or as understanding as she had hoped. When scandalous rumors about the Rhodes family’s affiliation with Hitler’s regime spreads, idle gossip turns to bitter rage, and the act of violence that results will tear apart Sofie’s community and her family before the truth is finally revealed.

What I liked: Most everything, really. The narrators did a wonderful job, to start. And I really enjoyed how we got to see the beginning of the rise of the Nazi party, how it wheedled it’s way into power over time. It all seemed very plausible. And equally plausible for the people that didn’t like the Nazi party to stay silent initially until they no longer could do much about it without putting themselves or their families in danger. And the flip side, the families that got sucked into the party. This juxtaposed with the life of Lizzie and her brother in Texas, then Alabama at the same time and how the American and German lives come together after the war. The characters on both sides all seem real and their situations understandable.

What I didn’t like: The only thing I don’t quite buy is how Lizzie stays married to Calvin for so long. (small spoiler) Or really the other way around. Most men wouldn’t live in a loveless/sexless marriage for that long, at least when they are young.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: “We Are All Welcome Here” by Elizabeth Berg – Good Summer Read

Not sure where I got this. Maybe a library book sale.
Anyway, wanted something small to read and this fit the bill.

Stats: 224 pages, published in 2006

Blurb:

It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of Elvis’s birth, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently–and violently–across the state. But in Paige Dunn’s small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns. Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy, Paige is nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter, Diana, in the way she sees fit–with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie.

Diana is trying in her own fashion to live a normal life. As a fourteen-year-old, she wants to make money for clothes and magazines, to slough off the authority of her mother and Peacie, to figure out the puzzle that is boys, and to escape the oppressiveness she sees everywhere in her small town. What she can never escape, however, is the way her life is markedly different from others’. Nor can she escape her ongoing responsibility to assist in caring for her mother. Paige Dunn is attractive, charming, intelligent, and lively, but her needs are great–and relentless.

As the summer unfolds, hate and adversity will visit this modest home. Despite the difficulties thrust upon them, each of the women will find her own path to independence, understanding, and peace. And Diana’s mother, so mightily compromised, will end up giving her daughter an extraordinary gift few parents could match.

 

What I liked: It’s a quick read with characters that feel very real in a setting that feels very real (and I’m a 60’s kid so I know of what I speak, though not a southerner). Berg does a great job melding the times with the character’s lives. And to make it even more interesting, the idea came from the life of a real woman. Not a woman who is this character, but a woman who gave birth to a daughter while in a breathing chamber and who went on to live a very full life. That is the amazing thing.

 

What I didn’t like: The ending was very quick and wrapped a bit too nicely. Quite a happy ending, which was fine.

 

Rating: 4/5

We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker

This was the library book club read at my local library, and there was an audio book available so I thought I’d try it.

Stats: Published March 2021, 384 pages (hc), audio book – 9 discs narrated by George Newbern.

Blurb: Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released.

Duchess is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five-year-old brother. At school the other kids make fun of Duchess―her clothes are torn, her hair a mess. But let them throw their sticks, because she’ll throw stones. Rules are for other people. She’s just trying to survive and keep her family together.

A fortysomething-year-old sheriff and a thirteen-year-old girl may not seem to have a lot in common. But they both have come to expect that people will disappoint you, loved ones will leave you, and if you open your heart it will be broken. So when trouble arrives with Vincent King, Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed.

What I liked: It is a great story. The characters – primary and secondary too – are all very real and Whitaker does a great job with the setting, even though he’s never been in Montana or California (he’s from England), though from other reviews I’ve seen, he doesn’t get some English usage correct (which I missed listening to the book). And we really care for this teenager – Dutchess (I wonder why that name). It’s kind of a complex story – lots of pieces and characters in play – which helps make it difficult to figure out who done it. The twist at the end is perfect and resolved perfectly too, since he’s dealing with a teenager. Newberg does a good job with the narration.

What I didn’t like: The writing style can be a bit too choppy and poetic for my taste – feels like he’s trying a bit too hard. When he does it a lot, (and the whole piece isn’t written this way but much of it is) it is a distraction for me rather than adding to the story. Duchess may hang onto her “outlaw” mask a bit long for a teen. But maybe because of her gruff personality, she’s been sheltered from other teens so hasn’t grown out of her persona, maybe. There is also no mention of social media. I find that odd. It isn’t needed for the story, of course, and I’m not exactly sure when this story is supposed to have taken place but if it’s present time, it just seems odd when dealing with a teen. I also don’t understand Duchess running far away, then suddenly she is back home. It made me wonder if I missed a disc (that I was listening to) but I don’t think I did. And maybe I’m dense but I don’t understand the title. Whitaker has Duchess’s grandfather say this to her and even in context I don’t get it.

Rating: 4/5

If I Were You by Lynn Austin

Got this from my mother-in-law, who is a BIG reader. It’s historical fiction, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Stats: Published in 2020, 464 pages for the paperback.

Blurb: 1950. In the wake of the war, Audrey Clarkson leaves her manor house in England for a fresh start in America with her young son. As a widowed war bride, Audrey needs the support of her American in-laws, whom she has never met. But she arrives to find that her longtime friend Eve Dawson has been impersonating her for the past four years. Unraveling this deception will force Audrey and Eve’s secrets–and the complicated history of their friendship–to the surface.

1940. Eve and Audrey have been as different as two friends can be since the day they met at Wellingford Hall, where Eve’s mother served as a lady’s maid for Audrey’s mother. As young women, those differences become a polarizing force . . . until a greater threat–Nazi invasion–reunites them. With London facing relentless bombardment, Audrey and Eve join the fight as ambulance drivers, battling constant danger together. An American stationed in England brings dreams of a brighter future for Audrey, and the collapse of the class system gives Eve hope for a future with Audrey’s brother. But in the wake of devastating loss, both women must make life-altering decisions that will set in motion a web of lies and push them both to the breaking point long after the last bomb has fallen.

What I liked: It is an interesting premise and seems plausible. And do I give too much away when I say it has a happy ending?

What I didn’t like: I have never read anything by Lynn Austin before so I don’t know her writing style, but in general I don’t like stories where the writer tells you the obvious and this book is written in this style. I am also guessing her other books are Christian books, as this one is. I have not read Christian books before and it seems it’s not for me, even though I am a Christian. Not exactly sure why. Maybe because it seems a bit preachy. Not a lot but more then I liked.

Rating: 3/5

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

This was a blind pick audio book from my library.

Stats: Published in 2019. Print book is 355 pages, audio book is 12 discs, narrator: Jennifer Lim

Blurb:

In a small town in Virginia, a group of people know each other because they’re part of a special treatment center, a hyperbaric chamber that may cure a range of conditions from infertility to autism. But then the chamber explodes, two people die, and it’s clear the explosion wasn’t an accident.

A showdown unfolds as the story moves across characters who are all maybe keeping secrets, hiding betrayals. Was it the careless mother of a patient? Was it the owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protester, trying to prove the treatment isn’t safe?

What I liked: I liked most everything about this story. The characters are very real. I especially like how Kim explores those dark and very natural thoughts we all have at times. Things we don’t want to think or even admit we think about our lives or the people we encounter or live with. The situation seems real (even though it’s a bit far-fetched). The way Kim parcels out the bits of information makes for a very interesting read (or listen) and I think it is one of the big pluses to the story. I also liked how the wife stuck up for herself and what she believed was right, at the end. Would someone be able to do that in this situation is a good debate to have after reading this story (a good book for a book club read). Jennifer Lim does a great job with the narration.

Great debut novel! I’m jealous!

What I didn’t like: That the author lets a couple people off the hook at the end is a bit disappointing, but as she says in the audio version interview, it’s more realistic, which it is.

Rating: 5/5 (and I don’t give many of those 5’s away. Thought of giving it 4.5 but can’t really think of why, so 5/5 it is 🙂 ) I also agree with the author and editor, I like “Miracle Submarine” for the title.