It's definitely better than last month. This month I've read four books. Let's get to it!!!!
Book #1: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Despite their
differences, sisters Vianne and Isabelle have always been close.
Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Vianne is content with
life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their
daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off
to fight and Vianne finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by
their father to help her. As the war progresses, the sisters'
relationship and strength are tested. With life changing in
unbelievably horrific ways, Vianne and Isabelle will find themselves
facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never
thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in
each of their actions.
I really liked this
novel. For some reason I have been entirely enthralled with WWII. Not
even in the last few months, but in the last few years. I don't know
if its the German part of me, the Italian, or possibly the Jewish,
but I devour everything I can get my hands on that somehow relates to
it. This book was fantastic. I loved the way it would jump from third
person in the past, to first person in the present. Made it so I had
no idea which sister was the one still alive. Is it Vianne or is it
Isabelle? The only one I knew it couldn't have been was Sophie
because she was still too young when the war ended. I am very pleased
with the way the story ended and I am glad to rate it a 5/5 stars.
I'm going to recommend this to everybody I know who reads this type
of book.
Book #2: The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
A richly textured
coming-of-age story about fathers and sons, home and family,
recalling classics by Thomas Wolfe and William Styron, by a powerful
new voice in fiction. Just before Henry Aster’s birth, his
father—outsized literary ambition and pregnant wife in
tow—reluctantly returns to the small Appalachian town in which he
was raised and installs his young family in an immense house of iron
and glass perched high on the side of a mountain. There, Henry grows
up under the writing desk of this fiercely brilliant man. But when
tragedy tips his father toward a fearsome unraveling, what was once a
young son’s reverence is poisoned and Henry flees, not to return
until years later when he, too, must go home again.
I was unsure of this book when I first started it. It was full of
words that you wouldn't know unless you grew up with a hobby of
reading the dictionary in your spare time. He eventually does
overcome this and stop using words that the common reader will not
understand. The story was rather irrelevant almost until about 200
pages in. It was mostly random description that seemed to have very
little to do with anything else. Once it got to the part where the
father actually vanished from their lives, it picked up. I rated this
story a 5/5 and I would probably re-read it. I've already suggested
friends to read it. I forgot to mention in the original review, but I
got this book from Blogging for Books in return for an honest review.
Book #3: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Twenty-seven-year old
Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the
story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer,
Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement
when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is
unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting
regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful
captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and
his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the
tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and
Wentworth be reunited in their love?
Anne seemed to be at
first, thought of least among her family. Then out of nowhere
everybody wanted her as a companion. I don't understand why that was.
I thought reading more would clue me in, but no. Mary made me angry.
She had a superiority complex and just could not stand if anybody did
not give her preference over others. From what I understand, she was
even upset that they were acknowledging a Viscountess before her. She
had no actual rank of her own beyond daughter of a Baronet. I thought
it was interesting that she held a grudge against Wentworth for 8.5
years not because of what he had done, for he had done nothing, but
because a friend didn't think he would amount to anything at all and
she held the opinion of her friend over her own. I'm sure if she
would have just listened to her own judgment, she and Wentworth would
have been married for the last eight years instead of wondering idly
what had happened to him. This was a good book in general, but I
highly doubt I am going to read it again so it's going to get 3/5
stars. Perhaps I will read another edition that might change my
views.
Book #4: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible. Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.
I don't really know how
to start this review. I enjoyed this book. It was pretty good. The
story line reminded me very much of a tale my friend told me about a
book she read, at least I think that's what it was. I don't know.
Anyway, the man got himself a wife but he was sad because he didn't
have the time he wanted to devote to his experiments or whatever it
was he wanted to do. Then in some other world a man had devoted his
entire life to working on his experiments and he was upset because he
didn't have anybody to go home to at night. I flew through this book.
When I actually started reading it seriously, I finished it. I went
from page 130 to 340 in like four hours. it was that good. I loved
the way that his wife knew solidly which one of the men was her
husband. She didn't even have to second guess it. I wish the ending
would have been continued a little bit. It felt too much like a movie
cliffhanger ending, very much like the end of the Knowing where the
kids just wandered into the alien wheat field. They've left the end
open for a sequel. Almost to the point where if there isn't one, I'd
be highly disappointed. I want to know how the various threads
actually wrap up. I've been wanting to read this book for a while. I
heard about it on BookTube and I was very intrigued. Had to know what
it was about. I gave this book a 4/5 stars. I enjoyed it very much
and I am likely to read it again and recommend it to friends, but it
just wasn't completely blown away by it. I received this book from
Blogging for Books in return for an honest review.
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