Reading Update

Book #39 was The War I Finally Won, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. This is the sequel to The War that Saved My Life, which I read earlier this year. (The link is to what I wrote about it at the time.) I was happy to get to read more about Ada and her experiences in World War II London.

 

Book #40 was Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand, by Jeff Chu. Chu participated in the "Farminary" while attending Princeton Theological Seminary, and this is a memoir centered around what he and his spiritual life experienced there as a Chinese-American, gay "writer, speaker, reporter, editor, preacher and teacher," as he describes himself on his website. 

 

Book #41 was Arundhati Roy's memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me. I learned a lot about this author, including about her political activities in India. You can really tell where her strange, atmospheric novels came from when you read about her life.

 

Book #42 was a book club pick, West With Giraffes, by Lynda Rutledge. We all loved this historical novel set in dust bowl America and including giraffes! 

 

Book #43 was We'll Always Have Summer, the third in the Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy, which I first read back in 2016 when my middle schoolers were so into them. 

 

Book #44 was The Poppy Fields, by Nikki Erlick. I enjoyed this novel about grief and healing.

 

Book #45 was Lake Effect, by Cynthia d'Aprix Sweeney, the story of pair of neighbor families that are changed forever by the decisions of two of the parents. We learn about what happened in 1977 and then we get to see the next generation many years later as they deal with the long-term effects. 

 

Book #46 was This is Not About Us, by Allegra Goodman. Not a novel but connected short stories, this book introduces us to the members of a Jewish-American family who lose one of their own in the first story. I enjoyed meeting all these finely-drawn, convincing characters. 

 

Book #47 was Kate Bowler's new book, Joyful, Anyway, which explores how to have joy in a world that is so full of not-joy. 

 

Book #48 was More Than Enough, by Anna Quindlen. I really enjoyed this novel about a DNA test and a book club.