A few years ago, my husband got me a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas. I did not want it, as it had been many years since I had made time to read. However, my oldest daughter told me about Libby and Hoopla, two apps that allow you to check books out virtually from your library for free. The best part is that there are no overdue fees as the books automatically return after 14 or 21 days! I am sure I still have outstanding library fees at the Glenvar Library in Salem, Virginia from when I was a teenager. 🙂 I have attached pictures and descriptions of some of my favorite Summer 2023 reads. (Disclaimer: I have a personality where if I start reading, I can’t stop, so I allow myself to read from 9:00-10:00 pm each evening.)
I love, love, loved The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley! It was so relatable and real! Isadora Bentley follows the rules. Isadora Bentley likes things just so. Isadora Bentley believes that happiness is something that flat-out doesn’t exist in her life—and never will. As a university researcher, Isadora keeps to herself as much as possible. She avoids the students she’s supposed to befriend and mentor. She stays away from her neighbors and lives her own quiet, organized life in her own quiet, organized apartment. And she will never get involved in a romantic relationship again—especially with another academic. It will be just Isadora and her research. Forever.
But on her thirtieth birthday, Isadora does something completely out of character. The young woman who never does anything “on a whim” makes an impulse purchase of a magazine featuring a silly article detailing “Thirty-One Ways to Be Happy”—which includes everything from smiling at strangers to exercising for endorphins to giving in to your chocolate cravings. Isadora decides to create her own secret research project—proving the writer of the ridiculous piece wrong. As Isadora gets deeper into her research—and meets a handsome professor along the way—she’s stunned to discover that maybe, just maybe, she’s proving herself wrong. Perhaps there’s actually something to this happiness concept, and possibly there’s something to be said for loosening up and letting life take you somewhere . . . happy.
The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady was one of my favorite reads this summer. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book and highly recommend it! It is a story of a struggling church and a young pastor who is trying to figure out ways to get the denomination not to close its doors. That, along with the story lines of each of the ladies and people in the book were so relatable to real life that I could not help but love it. A synopsis from the back of the book: Margaret, Rose, Jane, and Fran had a good thing meet every week in the quiet of their peaceful chapel and knit prayer shawls. No muss, just ministry. That is, until the pastor boots them out of the church in his last-ditch effort to revive the dwindling congregation.
Uptight Margaret isn’t having it. Knitting prayer shawls where people can watch is the most ridiculous idea she’s ever heard of, and she’s heard plenty. Prayer belongs in the church, not out among the heathen masses. How are they supposed to knit holiness into these shawls if they’re constantly distracted by the public? But with no choice, the others embrace the challenge. They pack their knitting bags and drag Margaret–grumbling the whole way–to the mall with them. She can’t wait to prove them all wrong when it fails miserably, and show the pastor that she always knows best. Without the familiar mold the group has been stuck in, their own losses, pain, and struggles rise to the surface. And the people and situations they encounter every time they try to sit quietly and knit are taking them a lot further out of their comfort zone than they ever imagined. Can they find the courage to tackle the increasing number of knotty issues they learn about in the community–or will the tangle be too much to unravel?
I have discovered that historical fiction is one of my favorite genres in reading! I think I have learned more about history in the last three years of reading than I have my entire life. I have loved Kelly Rimmer’s books since I first read Before I Let You Go several years ago, and since then, I have devoured almost all of her books. The Paris Agent released in July and it does not disappoint. I could hardly put it down! Kelly has an amazing ability to make you feel her work, as if you are actually in the settings in which her books take place; and so, in The Paris Agent, we travel to England. Twenty-five years after the end of the war, Noah Ainsworth is still preoccupied with those perilous, exhilarating years as a British SOE operative in France. A head injury sustained on his final operation has caused frustrating gaps in his memory—in particular about the agent who saved his life during that mission gone wrong, whose real name he never knew, nor whether she even survived the war. Moved by her father’s frustration, Noah’s daughter Charlotte begins a search for answers that resurrects the stories of Chloe and Fleur, the code names for two otherwise ordinary women whose lives intersect in 1943 when they’re called up by the SOE for deployment in France. Taking enormous risks to support the allied troops with very little information or resources, the women have no idea they’re at the mercy of a double agent among them who’s causing chaos within the French circuits, whose efforts will affect the outcome of their lives…and the war. But as Charlotte’s search for answers bears fruit, overlooked clues come to light about the identity of the double agent—with unsettling hints pointing close to home—and more shocking events are unearthed from the dangerous, dramatic last days of the war that lead to Chloe and Fleur’s eventual fates.
When the Day Comes has to be one of my favorite books ever! I heard about it from a group I am part of on Facebook. Libby is a time traveler, meaning she lives in two different centuries. When she turns 21, she must decide in which life to remain. Gabrielle Meyer is a gifted author, and this book will cause an entire gamut of emotions. A synopsis from the back of the book: Libby has been given a powerful gift: to live one life in 1774 colonial Williamsburg and the other in 1914 Gilded Age New York City. When she falls asleep in one life, she wakes up in the other without any time passing. She has one conscious mind but two very different lives and bodies.
In colonial Williamsburg, Libby is a public printer for the House of Burgesses and the Royal Governor, trying to provide for her family and support the Patriot cause. The man she loves, Henry Montgomery, has his own secrets. As the revolution draws near, both their lives–and any hope of love–are put in jeopardy. Libby’s life in 1914 New York is filled with wealth, drawing room conversations, and bachelors. But the only work she cares about–women’s suffrage–is discouraged, and her mother is intent on marrying her off to an undesirable English marquess. The growing talk of war in Europe further complicates matters and forces her to make sacrifices she never imagined. On her twenty-first birthday, Libby must choose one path and forfeit the other forever–but how can she possibly choose when she has so much to lose in each life?Â
In This Moment is the sequel to When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer. I thought it would be like the movies for me, the second is not as good as the first, but the second installation of Meyer’s Timeless Series drew me in and I loved it. (Sadly, the last does not release until summer 2024!) A synopsis:
Maggie inherited a gift from her time-crossing parents that allows her to live three separate lives in 1861, 1941, and 2001. Each night, she goes to sleep in one time period and wakes up in another. Until she turns twenty-one, when she will have to forfeit two of those lives–and everyone she knows in them–forever.
In 1861, Maggie is the daughter of a senator at the outbreak of the Civil War, navigating a capital full of Southern spies and wounded soldiers. In 1941, she is a navy nurse, grappling with her knowledge of the future when she joins a hospital ship going to Pearl Harbor. And in 2001, she’s a brilliant young medical student, fulfilling her dream of becoming a surgeon. With so much on the line, how can Maggie choose just one life to keep and the rest to lose?
All Manner of Things is another historical fiction book that I loved; and it brought me to a new area of the world in my reading-Vietnam. This book was real, raw, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
When Annie Jacobson’s brother Mike enlists as a medic in the Army in 1967, he hands her a piece of paper with the address of their long-estranged father. If anything should happen to him in Vietnam, Mike says, Annie must let their father know. In Mike’s absence, their father returns to face tragedy at home, adding an extra measure of complication to an already tense time. As they work toward healing and pray fervently for Mike’s safety overseas, letter by letter the Jacobsons must find a way to pull together as a family, regardless of past hurts. In the tumult of this time, Annie and her family grapple with the tension of holding both hope and grief in the same hand, even as they learn to turn to the One who binds the wounds of the brokenhearted. Author Susie Finkbeiner invites you into the Jacobson family’s home and hearts during a time in which the chaos of the outside world touched their small community in ways they never imagined.
Stay tuned for more of my favorite reads of 2023! In the meantime, if you want some more recommendations, check out a couple other blog entries here and here.
Thriving in the Fishbowl 