Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See was one of the best books I had ever read. I definitely intended to read Cloud Cuckoo Land as soon as I heard about it. And then Austin gave it to me for Christmas, and I really really wanted to read it. But it was so big! And I got pregnant and was so sick! And all I wanted to read the last six months was quick and easy short books, nothing that involved any actual thought or effort. But I feel like I kind of came out of that after our trip, and I finally jumped into this book--and it did take me a few days to get fully into it, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I read the last 400+ pages in two nights because I couldn't wait to see where the story was going. I feel like it's rare that I am surprised by the way a story is organized these days--I've read a lot of books and it seems like there are patterns. But when I heard this one described, with three different storylines, set nearly 1000 years apart, I couldn't imagine how it would go. I love the idea behind it--three different time periods (1400s, present day, 200 years in the future) and five different characters, all tied together by the same story and how they interacted with it. The main idea of the book seems to be about the power of a story and how it can change and influence people, and about the importance of preserving stories and not letting stories and books disappear. 

I feel like sometimes with these books that have multiple storylines, there are one or two of them that I am not interested in or that I feel like I am just suffering through to get back to the ones that I like better. But in this book, I actually genuinely enjoyed all of the storylines. There was one character who I liked the least, but since there were five storylines, I felt like I was really excited about what was happening and finding out about each of the characters. I really was invested in Anna and Omeir, the two young kids on opposing sides of the war in Constantinople in 1452, and in Konstance, the teenager stuck on a spaceship hurtling through space, and in Zeno, the old man in 2020 who was translating the Greek story that was the thread that connected all of these disparate characters. 

Basically, this book was fantastic. It kept me thinking, it kept me engaged, and it was really well written and beautiful. 

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow

I am always interested in fan fiction/rewrites of my favorite novels. Sometimes I can be disappointed in really terrible Jane Austen rewrites, but I am always willing to try it. But I'd never read a Little Women rewrite, and when I heard that this was one written about a formerly enslaved Black family living in the freedpeople colony in Roanoke, North Carolina, I immediately was hooked. And I absolutely loved this book. I loved that I learned some interesting history about what happened to enslaved people who became free, and I loved the characters and how Morrow created these versions of the Little Women who were adapted but still recognizable in certain ways. I was really interested in the storyline. There were a few things that I thought weren't super believable--like why would Lorie be content with just being Joanna's friend for forever? And how come the whole family was so well-educated despite just having been freed? I was also kind of hoping for a few of the favorite scenes from the book being adapted to this story, like Jo selling her hair or the big fight between her and Amy. But it was a fun book, I loved the different look at the story set in the Civil War with a black family, and it was definitely worth the read. 

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-first Century by Jessica Bruder

This book talks about the growing numbers of people in America who have been priced out of their homes and end up living on the road out of their cars or in RVs, not by choice, but by financial necessity. Bruder got to know the community and follows several people throughout the book, and shares about how they find migrant work and how they navigate living on the road. It was really interesting to learn about this group of people, but I honestly wasn't super enthralled by it. I feel like this didn't need to be a full-length book--maybe a super long essay for the New Yorker or something. But it was definitely well-researched and well-done. 

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

I really enjoyed this audiobook memoir by Jaouad about her experience being diagnosed with leukemia when she was 22 years old, and having to figure out how to keep on living after surviving her four-year fight with cancer. I thought Jaouad was a really compelling and honest narrator, and I liked how her narrative went over not just the experience she had dealing with cancer, but also what it was like coming back into the real world of the healthy after being in the "kingdom of the sick" for so long. It felt kind of like it ended abruptly after her road trip around the country--I would have liked a little more of what happened to her after that and how she really felt like she continued recovering--but it was already a pretty long book and it was definitely well done. 

White Bird by R. J. Palacio

I'll be honest, I didn't LOVE Wonder by R. J. Palacio. I thought it was fine but kind of over the top with the message. So I've never checked out any of her other books, but then I heard that she wrote a graphic novel set in WWII--and I was all in. I'm super interested in graphic novels (even though I haven't read a TON of them), but I got this one for Dane and he insisted that I read it. It was so good! It tells the story of a Jewish girl in WWII who has to hide from the Nazis and how she survived in a friend's barn. Like any WWII Holocaust story, it's depressing and sad. But I loved the graphic novel format for this book and loved how it packed such a punch in a short reading time. 

The Maid by Nita Prose

I started this one and almost stopped halfway through because I felt so uneasy about what was happening. It felt like it was going to be a bad story about a neurodivergent girl getting taken advantage of and things not working out--but I am glad that I didn't give up on it because it had a very redeeming second half and, not to be a huge spoiler, but things DID WORK OUT and I was very happy. Molly is a maid at a fancy hotel, and we find out quickly that she doesn't understand normal social cues and relies on the rules her grandmother taught her to get by. One day she finds a longtime guest dead in his hotel bed--and she ends up becoming a suspect. Luckily she ends up figuring out eventually who her real friends are and they help her catch who's really behind this. I ended up really enjoying this one and I was super surprised by the twist at the end.

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

I freaking love Louise Penny and I love her mysteries. And after reading and enjoying Bill Clinton's foray into fiction, I was definitely down to try out Hillary Clinton's attempt. This book is about a secretary of state who ends up having to save the world from a nuclear attack, and a whole lot of intrigue and craziness that happens before then. I thought it was super interesting, especially coming from a former Secretary of State's perspective, and I could see Louise Penny's touch in the pacing and plot of the book. It was a great thriller and definitely a worthwhile read. It was really fun that Armand Gamache and Three Pines made a cameo appearance near the end. 

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

I love, love Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy, but I hadn't ever read any of her other books. I wanted to read this one because I'd heard really good things about these books too, and it was available as an e-book at my library so I could check it out easily. Jenny Han is such a great romance writer and this was such a cute story with Belly and her family and her longtime family friends who she spends every summer with. I really liked a lot of the story and the flashbacks and how I got to know Belly (although I really didn't like that nickname), but I didn't feel super comfortable with the love triangle. It just feels a little weird and gross for her to like both brothers and for them both to like her. Plus I never like the bad guy character and I wanted her to like the other brother more. I just didn't really want to finish the trilogy because I didn't know how I wanted the romance to resolve and I didn't want it to resolve either way. But it was a super cute book and story. 

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

Get this: a murder mystery where the main characters from each of Jane Austen's novels are the suspects. WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?! I can see where this would cross a lot of people's lines of what they can do and what they can't, but MAN I am all about this sort of thing. I really loved this idea where all of these familiar characters are intermingling and interacting, when they never do in Austen's books. I feel like it might have been interesting to see them all having a normal dinner party without being interrupted by Mr. Wickham and a murder, but this was interesting too. The ending was a bit of a surprise but seemed to fit well with what we know about the characters, and I thought it was a really fun read. 

The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro

This was the sequel to A Study in Charlotte and after finishing the first one, I was interested enough to follow it up with the second. I was kind of disappointed in the ending of this one--again, it seemed really dark and unnecessarily depressing. But the mystery itself was good and I felt like there was enough drama and excitement to keep me interested. But I don't know that I want to continue and finish the series since I kind of want a happy ending at some point. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

I can't even count how many times I teared up and had a hard time reading out loud while reading this book to the boys. We read this one really fast, considering how long it is, because we were all super excited about it and couldn't stop going. The boys asked to read so many nights and even during the day in the summer. It felt like such a big payoff to read to the very end. I was so glad I brought the book with us on our road trip this summer so I was able to spend some of our down time together reading. We finished the book on Callie's couch in Philadelphia, and it was such a great moment. I love this series and my appreciation for it has seriously grown as I've read it out loud. There was such great build-up and so much great character-building that I don't feel like I fully appreciated before reading it aloud. And I also felt much more in touch with my emotions while reading it, more than I've ever noticed that before. SUCH A GOOD SERIES!