Summer Reading Celebration

A modern day twist on Same Time, Next Year (which is actually referred to frequently in the book). I found this book to be amazing. I listened to it while on a long distance trip, which is my usual way to pass the time on my trips. The characters were amazing, each one was well rounded and I could relate to each of them for different reasons. I've recently found out that there is a short story that accompanies this book and will be looking for that one. I highly recommend this book in whatever form you like!!

I really liked the CLSC lecture and I really liked this. Very Temperance Brennan and the 300s.

Magic Tree House series book 20. Read with grandson. He loves these books.

Wonderful journey through difficult relationships featuring love, forgiveness, understanding, betrayal and redemption. Kristin Hannah creates characters that seem to come alive right off the pages. She did a good job with creating Summer Island as well, so good that I have to Google it to see if these islands really exist off the Washington coast. This is a story of an estranged mother and daughter. Nora, the successful mom, hosts a radio call in show giving stellar advice and upheld as a model of morality. Her daughter, Ruby, thinks otherwise, and rightfully so. Ruby carries a huge chip on her shoulders and is unable to connect with others at any level of depth. She ends up having to spend a week caring for her mother at their childhood home on Summer Island. She is offered a huge sum to write a tell all story about her mom just before she makes the decision to go. What follows is the packed week, an old boyfriend and the untangling of many emotions, learned behaviors and walls.

This was such a cute and quick read!

Oh that was good. There were times I was like....okay so where is this going now, only for the story to get more complicated. My only complaint is that the fmc was very smart and clever and competent in the beginning and then she kind of took a backseat...kind of unfortunate. But I did really enjoy it, and hope at least one of the girlies has a lesbian love story ?

“We all need to do things that take us out of ourselves.” (p. 364) whether it is embroidery, fly fishing, or bell ringing, the activities we do offer purpose and focus, especially in difficult times. This novel is set in England in the 1930s and the thread that binds characters is sometimes physical, such as yarn to embroider with or ropes in a bell tower, and sometimes spiritual as between friends and lovers. The losses of The Great War are keenly felt by the parents, sisters, and girlfriends of boys who died. How they build new lives through service, activities, employment, and especially relationships create the threads that embroider a new life and society.

Pleasant read of historical fiction set in Ireland in the 1920's during the Irish war for independence from England. The story involves the daughter of the English overseer who has been sent to the area to keep things in check. In an unprecedented move, her father allies her to apprentice at an Irish owned jewelry shop. The owners son is dead st against it because of who she is. While the story feels predictable, the history is well researched. The writing lacks the depth of best sellers, but it was a pleasant enough read.

Very compelling. I liked the will they won't they element and the questioning of truth. The book felt much shorter than anticipated. I easily got through half in my first sitting. What a great book to end pride on. Although I did guess the twist pretty early on it didn't really ruin it for me.

Everything about Henrietta Lacks and her family was heartbreaking. Henrietta was lost to history and not even a footnote in her own story. Her genes were used over, and over again. Her DNA was used in so many breakthroughs in science and not even a mention. What a harrowing life. Henrietta's story was tragic, dying young of cancer and so riddled with tumors that pain was her only companion. What was more tragic was her children's mistreatment, malnuroshment and torture at the hands of the people that should have protected and sheltered them in their time of grief. Circumstances were just not on the Lacks family side. Most of the children were dead or imcarcerated before the book was even published. The author, Rebecca Skloot did so much research and talked to the family extensively even when said family was very against even that for a long time. This book was good and very interesting but oh so devastating. Please read this story, if not to hear this family's story but to get the true behind the immortal genes and where they really came from.