books 18-24

Um, hi.  I am still here.  And I’m still reading a lot, which might explain why I don’t think about getting a post done.  Whoops.  Ok, are you ready?

1. Hank & Chloe, by Jo-Ann Mapson.  I’d never heard of this book or this author before – one of the sweet ladies who helps care for Maria while I work gave me a sack of books and this one was in it.  I really liked it!  Chloe is a horse trainer, riding teacher, and café waitress and Hank is an adjunct college professor.  They’re both messed up, and neither of them knows how to be in a relationship – but they’re in one together.  This is a great book.

2. The Owl & Moon Café, by Jo-Ann Mapson.  When I end up enjoying one book by an author I hunt the library for the rest of their stuff.  I liked this one as well – it’s the story of 4 generations of women and how they seem to make the same mistakes and learn the same lessons the hard way.  Man, who can’t relate to that?

3. The Year My Son and I Were Born: A Story of Down Syndrome, Motherhood, and Self-Discovery, by Kathryn Lynard Soper.  Oh, this was gorgeous.  This is a memoir by an accomplished mother of 5 whose sixth child is unexpectedly born with Down Syndrome.  It’s so, so real, so raw, and really, truly beautiful.  I wept over and over while reading this, and I can only slightly attribute that to the hormonal fluctuations accompanying my first natural cycle in many months.  (TMI?  Sorry.)

4. Pictures of You, by Caroline Leavitt.  Two women traveling on the same foggy road have a horrific accident, resulting in one woman’s death.  The mystery of why each of them were on that road to begin with is revealed in this book, and the intertwining of the survivor with the dead woman’s family gets pretty interesting.  I loved this book.

5. Winter Garden, by Kristin Hannah.  I’ve read a few of her other books and have liked them all.  Despite the surprising and totally improbable ending, I enjoyed reading this story of a mother and daughters, trying to connect for the first time in their lives.  The mother is a Russian immigrant who married an American soldier at the end of WWII, and she has never expressed any warmth to their two daughters at all.  Her husband’s dying wish is that she finishes telling the girls a fairy tale she used to tell them as children.  Turns out the fairy tale is actually the story of the mother’s tragic early life in Leningrad, and all the strange behaviors over the years start to make sense.  This is an excellent book.

6. Rush Home Road, by Lori Lansens.  Addy Shadd is a woman who was raised in a Canadian town founded by runaway U.S. slaves.  She leaves there as a teenager after becoming pregnant after a rape and being shamed by her family and friends.  As an adult she lives in a small trailer and agrees to take in a 6 year old girl abandoned by her mother.  Told in both present-time and flashback, we learn why Addy Shadd is who she is, and why she’d want to take in a stranger’s child.  This wasn’t my favorite of Lansens’ books, but I’m still glad I read it.

7. The Wives of Henry Oades, by Johanna Moran.  I just finished this when I woke up too early this morning.  What a great book!  Of all these I’m reviewing today, it’s my favorite.  A British accountant is sent overseas with his wife and children to New Zealand on assignment.  After a year and a half there, the wife and children are abducted by the indigenous Maori and eventually are presumed dead.  Henry tries to make a go of it and search for them, but soon the grief is too much so he moves to California, where after a couple of years he meets and marries a young widow with a baby.  Well, lo and behold, wife #1 and 3 of the 4 children are alive and escape the Maori, survive smallpox and the long journey by boat to the US to get to their husband and father.  Soon bigamy charges are brought against them and a new family dynamic must be worked out.  It’s a great book, I highly recommend it!

For my own sake, I hope I post again soon.  Remembering what to write about so many books is too much.