The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

I really, really loved this book. It was a look at Mary Bennet as her own character, explaining why she acted the way she did during the story of Pride and Prejudice but also then what happened to her after. I loved seeing how Mary could be a well-rounded, full character and how she developed and grew over time. I really loved it. My only complaint was that it felt a little long and started to drag about 3/4 of the way through.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

I didn't know much, if anything, about C. S. Lewis's wife or their relationship before this, but it made me want to read everything Lewis wrote (although I've read a bunch of his books already). It was a cute story (but I think was too long) and I love Joy Davidman now.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

This book had a lot of heart in it. I loved a lot of it. I thought Celie's growth as a character was the best part of the book. It was amazing what she went through and that she could still have love in her heart for people after it. 

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I didn't love this one, but it did go pretty quickly. I liked a lot of the stories, even though they were all about a world I have no knowledge of or interest in. I liked the short story format, because I felt like I was able to get invested in each character really deeply for that time. 

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus

I absolutely loved this middle grade WWII novel about some children who were evacuated from London during the blitz. It was basically a The War that Saved My Life but much less depressing. I loved the whole thing. 

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I honestly wasn't sure I was going to like this, but since I've enjoyed all the Taylor Jenkins Reid books I've read, I went for it--and it was amazing. I loved it. She did such a good job with Carrie as a character and showing her grow and develop and become a more full person by the end. 

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

This book bugged me and also impressed me. I loved the idea of women "dragoning" and being able to get the men who were oppressing them. I want this to be a real thing--but I hated all the emphasis on the children who were essentially abandoned by this generation of women.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

After reading Never Let Me Go, I couldn't wait to read another of Ishiguro's books. This one was even better. Same style of not much plot, but a lot of thought, and again, I couldn't put it down. I kept wanting to read more even though there wasn't much to find out. It was just devastating to read and see what his life was like and how he felt looking back about how he had spent it. And the ending--so rough. 

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

After reading her memoir, I really wanted to read more of Dumas's works. This is a YA novel she wrote based off her personal experiences growing up. I think this would be a great book for kids and a great look at the 70s and the Iran Hostage Crisis.

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. 

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 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. 

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

This was purely a Newbery read and I kind of struggled through it. But I think this could have been a book I actually enjoyed when I was a kid. It tells the story of a boy in medieval times who follows his dad who is a minstrel--and ends up getting lost and losing his dog and needing to find his way back to his dad and his dog. It is a journeying story and I think it was a great book about medieval times and what it was like back then--probably the least depressing of the medieval books I've read. But it still felt a little like a slog to me at times. I thought that Adam was a great character who found joy and determination at good times and I would be happy for my kids to read this one. \]

King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian by Marguerite Henry

I read this because it was a Newbery winner--but honestly, I did not enjoy it all that much. A lot of the reviews on Goodreads are from people who loved it as children because they were horse girls who were obsessed with horses and horse books. I honestly read Black Beauty as a child and loved it, but not really any other horse books, and I also have a hard time imagining any kid that would like this book. It was the story of a horse who became a famous racer and winning many races against long odds and not being favored. I kind of struggled through this and was glad to finally check it off. 

Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

This book is the 2nd in a longer series about the Tillerman family, and our library didn't have the first book available. I usually like to read at least the books that lead up to a book in a series, but since I didn't have that option here, I just read this one by itself and still was able to appreciate it. It tells the story about a girl, the oldest in her family, who had to help her siblings find their grandma to take care of them after their mom abandoned them. The story starts with them living in their grandma's house and adjusting to their new life and figuring out how to trust and love again and live normal lives as children. I loved Dicey's character--so proud and independent and caring for her siblings. I thought this was a great choice for the Newbery and I think this is one I would have liked also as a kid. 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I started reading this book in 2011. 2011! A decade ago! I started reading it after I read Love in the Time of Cholera, also by Marquez, and I loved it so much. (I don't remember anything about it, so I should probably re-read it... but I do remember that I loved it so much I cried at some point.) So I wanted to read this one too... but I got a few pages into it and just couldn't get past it. And I tried again multiple times over the years. So I finally decided to see if I could do it on audiobook--and guess what, that did the trick. The only way I was able to get through this was on audio, on double speed--because I did not like this at all. I don't have enough time right now to describe my issues with this book, but I'll just say this. 

1. Incest everywhere. 

2. Everyone's names were the same. Literally every character was named after the other characters so there was no way to tell them apart. 

3. What was even happening?

I read about Marquez's dream reality, where things are supposed to appear dream-like and to not make much sense... and that definitely was happening. I think this was a book I could have gotten more out of if I were reading it for a class and given some introduction to the theory behind it and the movement and what the point of it was--but as it was, listening to it on my own, I just gave up trying to understand and just listened to the story. It was really wild and crazy and not really my cup of tea. But everyone says it's a Very Important Work of Literature so it must be... so I'm glad I finished it and I'm glad I'll never read this again. (The one thing that I was interested in was the fact that the banana plantations coming in and taking over the towns actually happened in Central American countries, so I want to read more about the history of that.)

Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

I loved this historical fiction turned thriller about a Puritan woman trapped in an abusive relationship and how she managed to get herself out of it. I thought Mary Deerfield was a really believable character--she was a woman of her time, with the time's prejudices and beliefs, but she was also able to see where she was not to blame and to be strong enough to get herself out of danger (as much as possible). I felt like this was a women's power story, with Mary as the heroine and the witches as the supporting cast who swoop in and save the day at the end. It is so creepy to imagine being stuck in a world like that, but (spoiler alert!) so relieving to see her escape at the end. I really enjoyed this audiobook and kept coming back to it and listening while doing other things because I was dying to figure out what was going to happen. 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I was very invested in this story about Evelyn Hugo. Taylor Jenkins Reid does such a great job of making you feel like you're a part of the glamour of the very rich and famous (fake) people she writes about--I feel like that is part of the reason why everyone loves her books: because we all secretly want to live a life like that, but since we can't, we can read about people who are. I thought the secret twist about Evelyn Hugo being bisexual was great, and it made her whole life story make so much more sense. I thought the whole framing story of having the reporter write her story was really fun and gave it a lot more life as well. It was a fun read for sure. 

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I'm always seeing book recommendations for books by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and I really loved her one other book I've listened to (Daisy Jones and the Six). So I was excited to listen to another one of her audiobooks. This one was a story about a family in the 60s-80s in Los Angeles, and while they were definitely a dysfunctional family, I loved how the brothers and sisters all loved and supported each other. Their good feelings and good relationship really carried how I felt about this book. Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit Riva all were really well-established characters, and I loved each one in their own way. But I especially loved the story of how their parents, June and Mick, met and fell in and out of love and all of the problems they had along the way. I also really loved the atmosphere and the setting and everything about the Malibu background. It's so fun to picture Malibu being this sleepy old little beach town, when it's so expensive and fancy today. I thought it was fun how the sand and saltwater dirtiness mixed with the glamour of the rich famous surfer life of the Rivas, and I thought the ending was really satisfying.