California Golden

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin 352pages

 

I’m not much of an outdoorsy person. In fact, I rather loathe it.  Bu that doesn’t stop me from reading about the great outdoors.  I would like to hang ten and try surfing, but like I just said…and without my glasses/contacts I couldn’t even see the darn wave.

 

Most of the time, when I hear “great outdoors,” I think woods and insects. The critters I can handle, but not those pesky insects. However, in Melanie Benjamin’s newest novel, the great outdoors refers to the surfs and sand of California and Hawaii. Benjamin’s description of the waves, the sun, and the freedom one feels in the water is unparalleled. I felt as if I was there.

 

Carol Donnelly is one of the first female competitive surfers in the sport. She is a marvel to behold on board. But Carol is trapped in 1950s- ‘60s societal expectations of marriage and motherhood, and she resents her children for it.  Her daughters, Mindy and Ginger drop out of school to partake in the surf culture and, sadly, to gain their mother’s attention.

 

Carol teaches her daughters to surf. Mindy is a natural while Ginger can barely hang onto the board. When Mindy wins a competition in California, Carol seethes with resentment. And to top it off, Minday gets work as an extra in the surfing movies that were so back then. Mindy first gains notoriety as the Girl with the Curl. The 1960s come alive when Mindy goes to Whiskey A-Go-Go and is seen at all the LA hotspots.

 

She finds love with a Hawaiian surfer. But with Vietnam escalating, the pair breaks it off. It is only when Mindy is on a USO tour in ‘Nam, does love return in a rather unexpected way.

 

Meanwhile, Ginger falls in love with an abusive surf bum. Author Benjamin creates the life of authentic beach bums, unlike the glamorous life portrayed in the movies. Unwashed and malnourished and high isn’t the life Ginger had dreamed of as a little girl, but she loves Tom with every fiber of her body and mind.

 

Readers don’t know much about Carol after she loses the competition. She had an accident which forced her retirement from surfing and eventually was the root cause of her Parkinson’s Disease (I’m not sure how a head injury could cause Parkinson’s, but what do I know.).

 

Reader’s journey through the two very different lifestyles of each sister. However, an unexpected pregnancy causes major strife and happiness with the family.

 

California Golden is different than most of Benajmin’s wonderful books. While most of her novels are character driven, this didn’t have a strong plot. California Golden receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

In the Face of the Sun

 “In the Face of the Sun” by Denny S. Bryce   320 pages  

Denny S. Bryce hits another one out of the park with her second novel, “In the Face of the Sun.” She returns to the 1920s for one of her two timelines, but juxtaposes it with a 1968 road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.  

In 1928 Los Angeles, Daisy Washington is a young woman who has dreams of becoming a journalist, writing for Black-owned papers. Mostly she collects gossip for Harry Belmont’s column in the “California Eagle” she gleans from the rich and famous Blacks who are checking into the new Hotel Somerville where she and her sister work as chambermaids... From Bryce’s descriptions the hotel is stylish and glamorous. Daisy is excited that gets to meet Stepin Fetchit, the comedian, one of the first Black actors to make it big in Hollywood. But even more, Daisy is over the moon to see W.E.B. Du Bois as he and a bevy of Hollywood elite arrive. Du Bois has arranged to hold the NAACP’s annual meeting at the Somerville.  

Then the narrative shifts to 1968 Chicago. Daisy’s niece Francine (aka Frankie) has learned that she is about eight weeks pregnant with her abusive husband, Jackson. For the baby’s sake, and hers, Frankie has decided to leave him. As she is headed to the bus station, Daisy pulls up and talks her into going to Los Angeles with her. Since they will be driving, Jackson will never be able to catch up with her and force her to return. The two take off for a Thelma and Louise road-trip along Route 66. Daisy isn’t being nice; she has some business in LA and wouldn’t mind the company.  

The 1928 timeline was well-researched. I felt as if I were there.  In the 1968 timeline, there were more twists that made the road trip dangerous. 

A third plot line that weaves between the two narratives is Daisy and her sister, Henrietta. They were very close, but a tragedy forced them to not speak for over forty years. Bryce is excellent at spooling out bits of information about this subplot as the roared toward a conclusion. 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed “In the Face of the Sun.”  This sophomore novel receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Last Dance of the Debutante

“The Last Dance of the Debutante” by Julia Kelly   333 pages  

After reading two intense books (Melanie Benjamin’s “The Children’s Blizzard” and Dolen Perkins Valdez’s “Take My Hand”---I highly recommend both), I was looking for something a bit lighter. As I was strolling through the library, I saw that Julia Kelly had a new book out. I can always count on Kelly for a lighter read. 

Instead of World War II England, Kelly chose the 1958 debutante season for her third novel. The still-newish Queen, Elizabeth II, has decreed that will be the last season for high society parents to present their daughters to the Queen, in hope of finding a husband who is titled and/or wealthy. 

Lily Nicholls’ grandmother and mother have ties that can secure Lily’s future. But Lily doesn’t want to so “the season.” She wants to finish her studies and go the university. However, she gives in and allows herself to dive into the grind.  

I never realized how exhausting “the season” could be. From right after Christmas through late June, the debutante attends an ongoing array of teas, balls, outings, cocktail parties, and any other imaginable get-together that will put the young women near eligible men. Multiple events were held daily. It must have been exhausting…and expensive.  Lilly makes two friends, Leana and Katherine, who help her keep going. 

Lily’s family consists of her mother, her wealthy grandmother who is paying for most of the season, and a sister she has never met. The first half of the book is Lilly running from party to party, dance to dance. All she wants by halfway through the novel is a nap, and who could blame her. That first half deals with the pettiness, the sabotages, the gowns, the young men, the backstabbing.  

But halfway through, the plot gets juicy. Lilly is convinced that her mother, who has never recovered from her father’s death, doesn’t like her. Lily is certain she is hiding scandalous information about her hardly-mentioned sister, Joanna, and sets out---between parties---to discover the truth. 

To add to the intrigue, a tragedy near the end of the season shifts the plot into high gear, and I could not read fast enough. I admit that I got a little bored with the first half, but the second half shot this up to 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Nina Soni: Sister Fixer

Nina Soni: Sister Fixer (Book 2 in a series) by Kashmira Sheth; Illustrations by Jenn Kocsmiersky 144 pages

Readers are first introduced to Nina, a slightly forgetful nine year old, in “Nina Soni: Former Best Friend.” I was drawn to Nina because she is so organized; she loves to make lists!

In this second adventure, Nina is having problems with her six-year-old sister, Kavita. Kavita is e-m-b-a-r-r-a-s-s-i-n-g-l-y weird. She likes to sing, at the top of her lungs. It doesn’t matter if she knows the words or not; she makes up those that she doesn’t. Plus she makes up songs that are even more annoying…about anything. 

Nina’s plan is to come up with something that will stop Kavita from singing about anything and everything.  However, Nina is distracted by the constant rain and the big pile of dirt in their neighbor’s yard.  

Using STEAM (without knowing it, of course), Nina wants to use the dirt as part of an engineering project. Nina decides to dam up the small puddle and make a lake!

Donning their rain gear, the girls head outside. The rain is pouring through a downspout. What they don’t understand is the dammed water has to go somewhere…and OMG! A disaster is narrowly avoided. 

As in the first book, word pronunciation pull-out boxes are used. These are great to introduce new words to young readers. 

I wasn’t as enthralled with this book as I was the first one. The singing went on way to long, making several pages seem redundant. There didn’t seem to be as much depth as the first book offered. Therefore, “Nina Soni: Sister Fixer” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

The Inheritance

The Inheritance by JoAnn Ross 384 pages

Wow, the cover of this book really fooled me and has more of disconnect than any book I’ve seen in a long time. It screams historical fiction with a touch of contemporary, but the actual story is the reverse. It’s a contemporary story with a dash of historical fiction.

Jackson “Jack” Swann is a conflict photographer. He goes anywhere the world is in crisis/chaos. It’s been a great profession, however with little time, or energy, for meaningful relationships.  The father of three daughter, each by a different woman, has come home to his family’s Oregon vineyard to die. Cancer is ravaging his body.

He changes his will so that the three half-sisters at least get to meet one time, and so the family business remains in the family. He hopes.

Jack’s oldest daughter is Tess. He was married her mother for a short time. He had bailed before she got to know him and she refers to him only as “the sperm donor.” A former child TV star (think Patty Duke), Tess is now a bestselling author of young adult books. She pissed at the sperm donor as now she feels she has lost him all over again. With a terrifying case of writer’s block, Tess thinks a trip to Oregon might be just what she needs to shake the cobwebs loose. She know about Charlotte, but has idea that Natalia exists.

Charlotte is the middle child, well woman now. Raised in Southern high society, Charlotte has a passion for interior design, which Jack encouraged. However, her mother has made eroded her confidence and she retreats into being the perfect wife for her politician husband, but it seems he also belittles everything she tries to do. Bad news usually comes in threes, but for Charlotte, two were a disaster. She learns about Jack’s death on the same day she learns her husband is cheating on her. And to top that off, she as no inkling that she has two sisters.

The youngest, Natalia, is the one who knows Jack the best. Her mother captured more of Jack’s heart than any other woman. Natalia has even inherited his talent for photography. She is aware of Tess and Charlotte, but doesn’t know if they know about her.

Not only Jack’s daughters inherit the vineyard, they also inherited a grandmother. Rocked by her only son’s death, she eagerly awaits the girls’ arrival so that she can get to know them. The historical fiction comes in with Grandmother Madeleine. She and her husband were French Resistance fighters during WWII.

“The Inheritance” is an interesting novel about families and receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Here Comes the Sun

 Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn 349 pages

Dennis-Benn tells a story from the points of view of three women from the same family.  Delores, Margot, and Thandi live in a shack in the poor part of town in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Delores sells trinkets to cruise ship tourists in the market.  Margot works at a hotel and has a side hustle taking care of the men who are staying there.  Thandi goes to private school.  Both Margot and Delores and counting on Thandi to pass her exams so that she can go to college to become a doctor and take care of them.  Thandi has other ideas.  She wants to be an artist.

When Margot's boss starts building a new hotel, she has dreams of promotion and buying a house to live in instead of their lowly shack.  She acts in a ruthless manner losing almost everything she has ever wanted in her quest, including her childhood love.

Trigger warning: several women are raped in the story and some of the sex scenes are a bit racy.

This was a book I read for a neighborhood book discussion group.  We are reading books set in other countries since it is unlikely we will vacation out of the US anytime soon.  I was hoping for a little lighter read than this was since it was set in Jamaica.  It was valuable for me to check my privilege and learn about people who live in poverty in vacation spots that are "unseen".  Only 3 out of 5 for me.

A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray

A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray by Dominique Barberis  (Translated from the French by John Cullen) 144 pages

This novella packs a lot into it. It’s brief, moody, spare, completely French and has a other-worldly atmosphere to it.

 Two sisters, Jane and Claire Marie don’t see each other often, even though they live relatively close to each other. Jane lives in the heart of Paris, while Claire Marie lives in the suburban community of Ville-d”Avray. Jane lives with her partner and Claire Marie has a husband and a teenage daughter.

It’s early autumn, and the sisters are enjoying a few glasses of wine in the garden. After the initial and normal conversation exchanges, Claire Marie begins to talk about a man she had known fifteen years prior. It’s a whimsical, whispery, misty description of a man named Marc Hermann. I’m was never sure if the two had an actual affair or danced around one.

Claire Marie would sneak out of the house to meet him, but the meetings took place more around train stations and parks than in hotel rooms or quaint B&Bs. I got the feeling that Marc was more of a stalker, and that Claire Marie was having wispy fantasies about him. The scenes in which Claire Marie tried to see him at his place of business is disturbing, making the reader feel as if there was something else going on altogether.

The pace of the novella ebb and flowed, as a good story does. However, it didn’t reel me in completely. I found myself more mystified than satisfied at the conclusion. Therefore,  A Sunday in Ville-d'Avray received 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. I wanted to give it 2 stars, but the beautiful writing and scenery had me bump it up a star.

 

Threads: A Depression Era Tale

Threads: A Depression Era Tale by Charlotte Whitney 327 pages

I was excited when I won this book in the giveaway section of the Shelf Awareness newsletter. I was dismayed when the book opened with “A Note on Mid-Michigan Farm Dialect.”  Ninety-five percent of the books I read with dialogue aren’t very good—the dialect gets in the way. Not so with this intriguing tale of three sisters over the course of 1934. It sort of got in my way in the beginning, but it soon evened out. 

To tell a story with three different narrators is challenging, even for a seasoned writer, which Whitney is not.  But she does it superbly!  And to keep the voices clear and recognizable to each sister is quite the feat!  I never had a problem knowing which sister was talking at any given time.

This is the story of three sisters:  Nellie, seven; Irene, eleven, and Flora, 17.  Remember the old adage that there are three sides to every story?  Two who tell the story and the truth.  Here we get three sides of each story, as each sister gives her account of what is happening.

And there is a lot happening.  The girls live on a farm in mid-Michigan, and reads are treated to what life is like in this hardscrabble time. 

Nellie is still too young to really know how the Depression is affecting the family.  She visits the farm animals every day, especially the cows that stand under the cherry blossom trees. She even has an imaginary friend, ZeeZee, who is an alien.  But one day, Nellie finds a shallow grave of a dead baby.  Whose it is and how the discovery affects the little girl runs through the entire novel.

The middle sister, Irene, seems to have more faults than good qualities. She finds faults with the world in general and especially with her sisters.

The oldest sister, Flora, wants to get go on dates and get married.  She eyes a schoolmate and fellow church member, Henry, as her savior from spinsterhood.  But when rumors start to fly that the dead baby Nellie found is Flora’s, well her chances to wed seem to disappear.

There are a lot of other interesting characters that the readers meet in the small farming community. By the end I felt as if I had been part of the lives of these people.  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, always looking forward to my reading time every evening. 

As I read,  wondered how on earth could Whitney without leaving the readers hanging. Easy-peasy---an epilogue that thakes place forty years later.

 “Threads: A Depression Era Tale” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Girls with No Names

 The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick  336 pages

 It never fails to surprise me when I read about atrocities that humans commit upon each other.  At the heart of this novel is the House of Mercy. A historical reality in New York that many families threatened unruly daughters and wives with unless they conformed to societal rules.

 

It is 1913. Sisters Effie and Luella are spoiled, wealthy young ladies, in their early teens I believe, who do their best to be like all the other girls their ages. Their father isn’t around much and their mother is cold and distant and almost obsessively religious.  I found this surprising considering Effie’s heart defect. She hasn’t been expected to live as long as she has. I thought she’d be more coddled and fussed over.

 

While out exploring the nearby woods, the girls wander upon a gypsy camp. Luella is mesmerized. Night after night, the girls sneak out of the house to the woods’ fringes and eventually into the company of these mesmerizing free spirits. Luella feels that they know the secrets of her soul.

 

Then, unexpectedly and shockingly to the sisters, their father begins to take them to lunch at Delmonico’s. At first, they are excited and stunned. Stunned by Father’s actions. In time, Luella figures it out: Father is using them as a cover to be seen publicly with his mistress.

 

When Luella runs away from home, Effie is certain that Father has sent her up the hill to the House of Mercy. Although her heart slows her down, Effie is convinced that she can save her sister.  Effie manages to run away from home and get herself taken up to the House.

 

Once Effie realizes that her sister isn’t there, no one believes her story---that she doesn’t belong there, that all the staff has to do is contact her parents.  After a while, a heart wrenching while, Effie makes friend with one of the other girls, Mabel.

 

I found the structure of this novel perplexing.  It’s told from three points of view: Effie’s, her mother’s and Mabel’s.  Why didn’t we hear from Luella?  Another point of contention that I have is that there is no real suspense in the story. Once the author let me know what each chapter’s story was, I knew what was going to happen.  Based on these points “The Girls with No Names” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Mrs. Everything

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner   480 pages

Jo and Bethie Kaufman are two sisters growing up in the 1950s, and are as different as chalk and cheese. Jo, the older sister, is a tomboy who doesn't want to wear skirts and be a ladylike little girl. Bethie, on the other hand, is a sweet and pretty little girl who likes her dresses and being her mother's perfect little girl.  However, as the two of them and their mother navigate through the years, things aren't so clear-cut for these sisters and their paths diverge only to come together years later.

This is a well-paced book with good character development and a consistent story. I found I was sitting and turning the pages, eager to see what was going to happen to the sisters. At times, their stories are pretty sad, and there's a lot of frustration with what happens to both of them. I felt that Weiner wrote them so realistically that I could imagine both of these girls (which also made them very sympathetic characters).  Good read, especially for a day spent inside reading when it's too hot to be outside.

California Girls

California Girls by Susan Mallery            Audio Book :  10 hours, 27 minutes    Paperback book: 464 pages       

What an uplifting book.    THis is the story of 3 sisters living in California and the romantic breakups each goes through.      The story is well told and all of the sisters are likeable and you cheer for each of them all the way through.   Their mother on the other hand is a total jerk and had I been her daughter and she had talked to me like she did to them, I am afraid I would have had to tell her about herself starting with a big C word, and I don't mean cute.    I am so glad these women were all portrayed as strong and not a one of the sisters gave in nor did they give up.   They did not beg their counter-parts to come back or stay. YAY!!!!   Good!!!  Finally women in a novel who aren't afraid to call a guy a dick when he deserves it.   And there are many dick things that happen in this story.   I truly liked all of the sisters.   Finola, who is forced to the wall to bear her greatest tragedy in front of the world,  Zennie, who stands her ground - she doesn't do makeup - so what?   She doesn't find sex all that arousing - o.k. - maybe she just hadn't gotten with the right person on that because talent will out but I digress - and Ali who's fiancee went all Jonas brother and wouldn't break up with her in person and was going to just be a dick and leave her at the altar but whose brother stepped up and manned up giving Ali a heads up and delivered the news that his brother was breaking up with her and there would be no wedding - even though, the last of the invitations had gone out, some gifts had already started arriving, deposits had been put on the flowers, the cake, the venue, the caterer, the photographer,and her dress had been paid for and all was in readiness for the event to take place in two weeks.   Their mother, while critical of all of them, and who had not been a saint herself is always hassling the girls throughout the book though they each give her respect and try to curry her favor though that is useless.   So many things happen in this story that are really uplifting and while beat down show that GIRL POWER is alive and well and living inside each of these feminine superheroes, who may not always feel strong but do strong things.    I really liked this book and would highly recommend it to anyone young or old who thinks they might like to read it.   It is a wonderful sgtory full of so many ups and downs that are often just how life comes at you as though you were the pins in the bowling alley of life.   These gals are resilient and offer fine examples of how to make lemonade out of times in life that are full of lemons.   Loved it.    A couple of Woo Hoos for the sheer joy of womanhood here.

 - Shirley J

Animal Dreams

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver    342 pages

Codi Noline has returned home to Grace, Arizona to a job she's not she she wants and to confront a father who she isn't close to, but is worried about. Staying with her best friend, Codi meets Loyd Peregrina (well, she meets him again --- they dated a few times in high school) and comes face to face with her own past. Grappling with her past, her growing relationship with Loyd, and the battle to save Grace from an impending environmental catastrophe, Codi has plenty to deal with. Usually, she'd rely on her sister, Hallie, to get her through the tough times. However, Hallie has gone to Nicaragua, braving dangerous conditions to help farmers. Doing her best to stay, all Codi wants to do is run away.

I read this book about once every year, just to revisit it. I like the characters and their development, and how Kingsolver tells the story with some flashbacks, so you get an enhanced perspective on the story. I also enjoy how thoughtful the story is. Codi is struggling to reconcile her own past, now that she's in the town she grew up in, so there's conflict there. At the same time, there are the very realistic dangers of the environmental disaster that Grace is trying to avoid, as well as the danger that Codi's sister faces in Nicaragua. Loyd isn't here to save Codi but instead, makes her reconsider some of her past and how she sees her future. Each time I read this book it's a combination of revisiting somewhere familiar and also discovering things I hadn't noticed or remembered previously.

Pride

Prideby Ibi Zoboi, 289 pages

When two boys move in with their family across the way, Zuri knows that they are nothing but trouble.  They are rich and don’t know how to fit in her family’s neighborhood.  Even though they are cute, and seem nice, Zuri knows nothing good can come of it.  When her older sister, Janae, starts dating the older brother, Ainsley, Zuri is upset, but tries to make the best of it.  One thing is for sure, she is not interested in the younger brother, Darius, no matter how much matchmaking her mother and sisters may try to negotiate.  This is a fun retelling of Pride and Prejudice.  Teens who like realistic fiction will like it.

Good Wives

Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott             Audiobook:  9 hours, 32 mins      Hardback Book:  220 pages                  

This is the second book in Alcott’s series about the March sisters who’s characters are based on Alcott herself (Jo) and her 3 sisters and their lives growing up in their parents’ home.  This book picks up with Beth’s death, and the other sisters all now grown going on with their lives and marrying, having children, travelling and returning home and how their lives progress.   A good story, I was glad to see that Jo found someone in her hitting spinsterhood years.  J      Good information to be found here when Mrs. March gives info to Meg on how to be a good wife to her husband and how to take care of herself while taking care of her twins.   Louisa May Alcott was wise beyond her years and so perceptive on how one can lose a mate and how to undo behavior patterns that may have innocently driven one’s partner away.    May to December romance to be found here.   Very much a feel good set of books.     Many teaching moments.    I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the antics of the March family.    The death of Beth weighs heavily throughout but many new adventures seem to come from it.    The March girls seem to find themselves as last.   I found so much to love about this story and the characters I would highly recommend this story as a read or a retelling of the story to others.   It is a comfort to the soul like sitting in a rocking chair with someone you love and just enjoying the moment.   That is how the whole book is.    Excellent.

 - Shirley J.

The Water Cure

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh     288 pages

From Goodreads:


King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. He has lain the barbed wire; he has anchored the buoys in the water; he has marked out a clear message: Do not enter. Or viewed from another angle: Not safe to leave. Here women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland. The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them from the spreading toxicity of a degrading world.

But when their father, the only man they’ve ever seen, disappears, they retreat further inward until the day three strange men wash ashore. Over the span of one blistering hot week, a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out. Sexual tensions and sibling rivalries flare as the sisters confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent. Can they survive the men?

Review:

Overall, it's a stunning book, very thought provoking, and I couldn't have imagined where it would lead me. Though I'm not normally a fan of multiple points of view, here, I think, Mackintosh has utilized this tool to the greatest effect. It really shines. I will definitely be recommending this book.

The Wartime Sisters

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman  304 pages

A friend passed her Advanced Reader’s Copy to me, saying that she thought it would be something I would like….and she was right.  I loved the cover, and the blurb at the top of the back cover cemented that I wanted to read this: “In the vein of “The Nightingale” and “The Lilac Girls”….I was hooked.

Ruth and Millie are sisters, three years apart. As they developed, it became increasingly evident that they could not be more different than if they didn’t share both parents. Ruth was the plain, introverted one; Millie was a beauty from her first breath, a risk-taker. Longing for an affectionate bond between them, they had nothing in common. Ruth marries a safe, gentle man…a scientist. Millie falls for a bad boy, gets pregnant, and that’s the good part of her life. Even after their parents are killed in a car accident, the two sisters cannot seem to develop an affection for each other.

As America enters World War II, Ruth’s husband joins the Army, but instead of being sent to fight, her scientific knowledge gets him transferred to the Springfield (Massachusetts, I had to presume) Armory. Millie stays behind in Brooklyn, where the girls were raised.

Ruth’s life on the base is bucolic and well-order; Millie’s husband becomes increasingly violent. It doesn’t upset her when Lenny joins the Army, but soon she is a widow with a small child. When the two sisters finally reunite, Millie and her son come to live with Ruth and her family. While Ruth plays Officer’s Wife, Millie gets a job in one of the Armory’s factories. Then a truth from the past begins to haunt the sisters, forcing them to lean on each other.

This story has the dueling timelines that I like, but they seem off.  Here’s one of many examples: The narrative speaks of Ruth’s twin daughters, but readers aren’t even aware that Ruth has married.  In the next chapter, the reader gets the backstory. The past and present don’t seem to line up as they should. That’s the reason, “The Wartime Sisters” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Secret Sisters Of The Salty Sea

Secret Sisters Of The Salty Sea by Lynne Rae Perkins, 227 pages

“Alix Treffrey is spending a week at the seashore with her family, a place she and her sister Jools have never been. Each chapter covers a new day and new experiences: discovering the ocean, boogie boarding, meeting new friends, and building sand castles. The girls' personalities emerge in the telling. Younger Alix is imaginative and adventurous, climbing to the top of the lighthouse with her dad, holding a peregrine falcon at the raptor center, while cautious, serious Jools holds back. Told in a light, breezy style with rich but accessible language and touches of humor, the conflict is mild, with minor crises quickly resolved and without much of the drama typical in novels of this length. Though a quiet tale, there is enough action and character development to create empathy and hold the reader's interest.”  This story was a little too sweet but I liked it anyway.  There was minimal conflict and would work best for kids who enjoy stories that are easily resolved.

And the Trees Crept In

And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich     341 pages

When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt’s home, it’s immediately clear that the manor is cursed. The endless creaking of the house at night and the eerie stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too—questions that Silla can’t ignore: Why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer? Who is the beautiful boy who’s appeared from the woods? And who is the tall man with no eyes who Nori plays with in the basement at night… a man no one else can see?

I only finished this book because a) I was reading it for a book club and b) I just wanted to know, ultimately, what the author was planning for the "big reveal" to see if it was worth it. It wasn't, for me. Were the characters interesting? No, utterly infuriating because none of them made any sense in their decisions or what they were doing. Was the story compelling? Yes but then it got boring and quickly devolved into what people think of when they think "this is what a CRAZY person sounds like!" Was the writing good? See the point about the story. I just don't think it paid to finish. It wasn't a cop-out necessarily, I just didn't care for it - and really the end-end is infuriating, too.

American Street

American Street by Ibi Zoboi     324 pages

From Goodreads:

On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life.

But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own.

Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream? 

Wow, this book really packs a punch! I did not have any idea the book would end up where it did. Zoboi does an excellent job of slowly building tension, of taking a single issue and branching it out, weaving it into a network of issues so tangled that you, the reader, can't imagine what the best path would be to take. You can only sit back and hope that Fabiola makes it out okay, and preferably gets her mother back. The writing is excellent, every character with strong, distinct voices creating a tightly woven fabric of family, because, after all, it's what you you do for fam.

I cannot say I enjoyed reading this book because it was so sad. I don't like reading sad books. But it's an important look into immigrant life in America, and of a particular city that has suffered much at the hands of gentrification. Fabiola's story is powerful, evocative, and it demands reading.

The Wartime Sisters

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman     304 pages   Due out in January 2019; I read a galley

Ruth and Millie, raised in Brooklyn but estranged for years, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of World War II.  While Ruth, the older sister, leaves in relative ease with her husband and children as an officer's wife, Millie, the younger sister, arrives as a war widow with a small child.  Taking a job in the Armory factories, Millie is determined to build a better relationship with her sister. However, will old resentments get in the way?

I enjoyed this book and found it a good weekend read.  There is some back-and-forth in time, so you get a good understanding how of the two sisters were as children, and then what their lives are like in the present. I felt the author created two sympathetic, interesting characters and clearly shows the dynamic between the two of them. They felt like completely real women, which made the story easy to relate to. The pacing is steady and the accurate details about women's work during World War II also make the story interesting. Adding in some dynamic between the two sisters and some secondary characters made the story even more compelling.  All in all, an enjoyable book.