Fiction Review: The Women

My first audio book for this year's Big Book Summer Challenge was The Women by Kristin Hannah. I always enjoy her novels and had heard good things about this one, but this book astounded me. It was an absolutely stunning novel that will stick with me for a long time.

Frances "Frankie"  McGrath is just twenty years old in 1965 when she graduates from nursing school and decides to follow in her brother's footsteps. He's in the Air Force and has been sent to Vietnam, so Frankie signs up for the Army Nurse Corps. Her father is always talking about their family's proud history of service to the country (he even has a family "hero wall" in their house), but when Frankie announces her decision, he's not proud of her; he's angry. Both of her parents feel that Frankie should stay home, get married, and have children like a respectable woman, but Frankie heads to boot camp. A year later, she is shipped out to Vietnam. Frankie has almost no nursing experience, and in boot camp, the nurses were mostly taught how to roll bandages and change bed pans. But this is real life and real war. Frankie meets her new roommates, Barb and Ethel, and that very first day, she's thrown into the deep end when helicopters with wounded soldiers begin to arrive. She's immediately surrounded by blood, missing limbs, and dying boys. Though ill-equipped at first, Frankie soon becomes a surgical nurse and is eventually one of the most skilled nurses there. 

The three women finally return home, with their minds filled with the horrors of war, and try to go back to their lives. They return to a changed America, where veterans are no longer revered but reviled, and war protestors scream terrible things at them. Frankie's father will barely speak to her, and her mother expects her to settle down and get married. But Frankie suffers from horrible nightmares and crippling flashbacks (what would later be known as PTSD). Worst of all, when she says she was in Vietnam--even at the VA--people tell her over and over that there were no women in Vietnam. Her life is a mess, and she doesn't know where to turn,. She, Barb, and Ethel have become lifelong friends, and they're the only ones who truly understand. Frankie's path to normalcy and health is a long, slow, twisting one, but by the time the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is dedicated in 1982, both she and the nation have begun to heal.

Where to start? Everything about this novel is completely engrossing and powerful. It's clear the author did a lot of research for this novel, including first-person accounts by women nurses who went to Vietnam and returned home, as well as details about the time periods. In an author's note, she explains that she's wanted to write this novel for a long time but felt she wasn't a good enough writer to do the story justice until now. It was worth the wait. The details--both during the war and of Frankie's experiences afterward--are vivid, horrifying, and realistic. I was very young during the war, but I remember my cousin and uncle being drafted and going to Vietnam, an experience that changed their lives forever. In fact, my uncle died from cancer (and suffered lots of other health problems) caused by Agent Orange. 

But this novel isn't just about the horrors of war. The reader experiences everything along with Frankie: the comradery among the troops, the need to let go and have fun once in a while even in the midst of war, the fierce friendships formed, and even the passion and love that develop between people put in such pressure-cooker situations. The audio was very well done, narrated by the talented Julia Whelan, and completely immersive; I couldn't bring myself to start another audio for a week after finishing it because it was still living in my head. This was an amazing, epic novel I won't forget that brings to light the contributions (and heavy price paid) of these brave women whose role and impact was mostly overlooked. It's a stunning, powerful story and so important to tell.

480 pages, St. Martin's Press

Macmillan Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Vietnam

Literary Escapes Challenge - California

Big Book Summer Challenge

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from an early chapter, at Frankie's brother's going-away party.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     
  

Fiction Review: My Beloved Life

One of the last books I finished for Booktopia, held at Northshire Bookstore, was My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar. It was my mom's favorite book at Booktopia this year, and the author was very entertaining and interesting at the event. This novel is a beautifully written account of one man's life against a fascinating historical backdrop.

In 1935 in a rural village in northeastern India, near the Tibetan border, Jadunath Kunwar is born in a small hut. His family are farmers, but they want their son to be educated and send him to schools in nearby towns that offer more. Eventually, Jadu attends college in Patna, a small city in the region. There, he and his first-year history classmates attend high tea in the governor's residence to celebrate Tenzing Norgay's triumph of summiting Everest, as the Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary. Meeting Norgay has quite an impact on Jadu, who finishes his history degree and then stays on to begin teaching at the college. Jadu sees that the world is a much larger place than he knew from his childhood in the village. Classmates become good friends who go on to become poets, activists, and politicians. Eventually, Jadu marries and has a daughter, Jugnu, who enjoys a happy childhood with her parents in Patna. Jugnu goes to college herself, for journalism. A disaster in her personal life throws her into despair for a while, but she ends up getting a job with CNN in Atlanta, moving across the globe, talking to her father on the phone each week, and reflecting on both her own life and her father's.

While the focus here, as the title indicates, is on one man's life, Jadu's experiences are shown against the stunning backdrop of history, as in his lifetime, he witnesses world-changing events in India and beyond. In this way, this moving, very personal story is set against national events and universal truths. As the reader, we go along with Jadu, through joys and sorrows, loves and losses, and the various stages of life. The novel is filled with thoughtful passages that I marked for my Quote Journal, like this line from one of Jadu's college friends telling Jadu about his father's death:

"Tragedy is a demon that has a tail attached to it. The tail is the lesson that you are supposed to draw from the tragedy. This is the truth that civilization has recognized through the ages so that you don't feel robbed of everything."

The beauty here lies in both the ordinary aspects of a person's life as well as the extraordinary events that shape both a life and a nation. It's a tender, warm, witty story that is both eye-opening and relatable.

332 pages, Alfred A. Knopf

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Monthly Motif Challenge - "Face Off" - book with a face on the cover - I think this counts!

Alphabet Soup Challenge - M

Diversity Challenge - and mini challenge for May: southeast Asian

Travel the World in Books - India

Literary Escapes Challenge - Georgia
 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/ordownload it from Audible. It's narrated beautifully by the author (sample is from the first chapter).

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  

Fiction Review: Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions

Wow, I have read some really outstanding novels for Black History Month this year: Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe on audio, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi in print, and now Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi. It is a novel told in interlocking stories, featuring four Nigerian women who meet as young girls in boarding school, following them throughout their lives.

At an all-girls boarding school in 1986, Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape, all eleven years old, are assigned to the same house. The four girls become inseparable friends, until a tragedy ends their happy experiences at school. Other stories in the interwoven collection both go back in time and forward in time, filling in each of the girls' pasts and childhoods, as well as following each of them through their adult lives, as they remain friends, bonded by what they experienced together. As a child, Nonso traveled extensively around Africa with her mother, experiencing the vastly different worlds of Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Johannesburg, as well as the stunning historical truths revealed at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana (which I'd just read about in Homegoing). After moving to the United States, Aisha attends college and then law school, and we see her in 2003, attending a friend's wedding in Poland. In 2004, Remi is living in New York, with a high-powered job at a bank. All of the women travel or move back to Nigeria at various times in their lives, always struggling to weave together family, traditions, and their modern lives. Other stories focus on or are narrated by secondary characters, like the opening story of Adaoma (1897-1931) in Nigeria  or a young man named Segun in 1991 New York, who's being hassled by the police. The focus, though, is on the friends, and the final story, set in 2050 with dystopian tones, brings them back together again.

I was entranced by this captivating set of characters and stories that was excellent on audio, narrated by Liz Femi and Korey Jackson. I ended up also borrowing the print book from the library because partway through, I realized that in struggling a bit with the unfamiliar Nigerian names, I was missing some of the connections. Being able to see the names in print helped to clarify things for me, and I began to see just how cleverly the whole story fits together. I didn't always know how a side character fit into the story until later, but this truly is a cohesive novel, though at the beginning I was listening to it more as short stories. The characters are fully-developed, and the writing is engaging. While having the print book helped, I'm glad that I listened to the audio because the narration, in the rich tones and cadence of Nigerian voices, made it even more immersive. These women face plenty of challenges throughout their lives, with sorrows and joys, but they are strong, independent women who have their families and each other to support them. This thoughtful, moving novel and its voices have really stuck with me. I think this is the author's first novel, and I look forward to seeing what she writes next.

233 pages, Amistad

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - J

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books Challenge - Nigeria

Literary Escapes Challenge - Mass.
 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the first chapter, about Adaoma.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too). This sample features an excerpt from Segun's chapter.

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Fiction Review: Homegoing

I feel like I may be the last person to finally read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I just read it for Black History Month, after receiving it for Christmas, and I can see why this book created so much buzz! This historical epic, covering eight generations of a family, from 1700's Ghana to slave plantations in the U.S. to the present day, was a stunning novel that kept me rapt.

In eighteenth-century Ghana, two half-sisters are born in different villages, each completely unaware of the other. Effia was born in the Fante realm on a night when fire raged through her village. Her mother, Baaba, never seemed to like Effia and often mistreated and beat her, though her father tried in vain to protect her. In the 1770's, a white British man named James Collins, the newly appointed governor, married Effia, and she went to live with him in Cape Coast Castle. She was well-treated by James and the other British men, lived in a beautiful home, and was soon pregnant and gave birth to a son, Quey. As time went on, she began to better understand what went on in the castle, that many of her own countrymen and women (and children) were kept in the basement dungeons and sent overseas on ships as slaves.

During the same time period, Esi was born into a small Asante village, the daughter of a Big Man (prominent in the village) and his third wife. She had a wonderful childhood, as her village grew, and she enjoyed long walks with her father, who adored her. House servants, slaves stolen from warring villages, were a simple fact of life in Esi's world, until she discovered that her own mother was a captive servant at one time in a Fante village, and she begins to truly understand what that means. As a teen, Esi is stolen by a warring tribe, and made to walk for many miles, tied to other captives, all the way to Cape Coast Castle, where she and the others are sold to the British. There, she is kept in the women's dungeon in horrific conditions. Just before being walked to a waiting ship to travel to America as a slave, Esi is raped by a British soldier.

In this way, each of the different lines of this split family, unknown to each other, begins. The novel alternates between Effia's family and Esi's family, with a long chapter focused on one person in each generation, all the way to modern times (with a helpful family tree at the beginning). Gyasi's wonderful writing weaves an intricate, complex picture of each family and each generation. When I realized the framework of the novel, I worried that it would be too disjointed, but it works. While I was always sorry to leave one person's story, the next one was just as engrossing, and there is usually information about how the previous character's story continued. Each of these characters is fully-formed, with great emotional depth, each dealing with their own unique challenges through the centuries.

The history here is fascinating, and I read the novel with my iPad by my side so that I could look up more information on the history, photos of the places described, and other facts; this book made me want to learn more. For instance, Cape Coast Castle is a real place that is still there today, and I just read a travel essay on a plane by actor Anthony Anderson, about his emotional first time touring the castle. Before reading this book, I was completely unaware that Africans were complicit in the slave trade (though, of course, it was the large sums of money Europeans were willing to pay that helped it grow). There is plenty of tragedy in this story, for both bloodlines, in Africa and in the U.S., but there are moments of joy and triumph, too, and the ending was very satisfying. This is a powerful, moving novel that will stay with me for a long time.

300 pages, Vintage Books

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Alphabet Soup Challenge - H

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books Challenge - Ghana

Literary Escapes Challenge - Alabama

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. I like the sound of the narrator, Dominic Hoffman.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (the same audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Nonfiction Review: The Zookeeper's Wife

Way back in 2007 when The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman was first released, I heard scores of rave reviews, so I added it to my want-to-read list (a very long list). Fast-forward to 2022 when I was visiting Little Free Libraries in my town--supposed to be just dropping off--and I spotted the book and snatched it up. I finally read it last month for Nonfiction November. Wow, what a stunning book! It was definitely worth the wait.

The book opens in 1935 in Poland, describing the beautiful world of the Warsaw Zoo, run by husband and wife Jan and Antonina Zabinski. Their zoo was filled with unique and fascinating animals in realistic habitats, with a large collection of exotic birds, reptiles and amphibians, animals from around the world, and animals unique to their region, like the European bison (I never knew there was such a thing!) and Przywalski horses. Their large, modern house on the premises was filled with a strange menagerie of baby or injured animals being nursed back to health, many of whom became family pets, beloved by their young son, Ryszard. It was a peaceful, harmonious, lovely place. Then in 1939, they woke one morning to the sounds of German warplanes, followed by weeks of bombs directly hitting the city--and the zoo--and soon, the Nazis marching in to invade in September 1939. The Nazis walled off a Jewish ghetto and began their process of restricting, then later ending their lives. The animals still left in the zoo, those not killed or run off by the bombing, were taken by a colleague of theirs, a German zookeeper they had previously been friends with and with whom they enjoyed discussing zoology during annual professional meetings. He assured them he was talking their most valuable animals back to Germany "to keep them safe." With few animals left, and Jan involved in the underground resistance, they used their connection with the German zookeeper, up high in the Nazi organization, to repurpose the zoo several times during the war, as a placed to raise animals for fur for the German armies and other uses. With Germans coming and going freely from their zoo and home, they also brazenly used their property to hide and save hundreds of Jews during the war, putting their own lives at risk.

This remarkable true story is told in a very effective way. The author used many primary sources, including Antonina's own diaries kept throughout the war, and the effect is to make you feel like you are right in the middle of what is happening. It is horrifying, shocking, and inspiring as the Zabinskis and their "guests" struggle with starvation, despair, and satisfying basic needs while never losing hope. They not only kept all those people safe but created a temporary home for them, filled with art, music, and conversation, all right under the noses of the Nazis. My husband was teasing me as I read this book because I kept reaching for my iPad while reading the book, to look up all kinds of fascinating details: animals I'd never heard of, sculptures and artwork created by their guests, real photos and videos of the Nazi invasion and all that came after it. To me, that is the best kind of nonfiction book: the kind that is fascinating and helps you learn a lot but also makes you want to know even more. Both the subject matter here and the way the story is told make for an engrossing, captivating book, which also includes photos. I'm so glad to have finally read it.

368 pages (but the text ends on page 323, with lots of extra details at the end), W.W. Norton & Company

Blackstone Audio

I just discovered this book was adapted into a movie that we definitely want to watch!

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif - Around or Out of this World - Poland

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I got a Z!

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Science (zoology)

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Poland

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Two Great Teen/YA Graphic Memoirs

I took advantage of Nonfiction November to  catch up on some graphic memoirs, and I read two of them that are perfect for teens and young adults (though I enjoyed them as an adult, too!).

Pénélope Bagieu has written and illustrated several graphic novels and graphic nonfiction books, including the award-winning Brazen, though her coming-of-age graphic memoir, Layers, was the first of her books I've read. I'm so glad I did! In it, she tells sixteen different stories about her life in France, covering the period from childhood to young adulthood, with warmth, emotional depth, and humor. Each of these is a separate vignette, not in chronological order, on a different topic, but together they paint a full picture of her early life and process of growing into an adult. Her first story is titled, Why Don't You Have a Cat?, and it tells the story of the kittens she and her sister got for Christmas when she was very young. But she had her cat for almost twenty years, and she tells stories of her relationship with her cat throughout those years, so we see every stage of her life through that lens, from small child to young adult. Some vignettes are very short and funny, like A Story About My Seduction Abilities, or short and dark, like the one-page story about noticing signs that a friend in school was being abused. Sometimes she digs a bit deeper into some serious topics, as in Deja Vu, where she compares, side-by-side, two instances of unwanted sexual attention, one as a child sleeping over at a friend's and another as a young adult. That one, like many of them, uses very creative story-telling techniques and makes maximum use of her drawing talents. These aren't illustrated stories but truly a graphic memoir, where the pictures tell the story. Often funny, sometimes thought-provoking, and always intimate, Layers is a truly unique, though very relatable, memoir that uses the graphic form perfectly.

144 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction November - Published in 2023

Travel the World in Books - France

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Dreamer: Growing Up Black in the World of Hockey by Akim Aliu (co-written by Greg Anderson Elysee and illustrated by Karen de la Vega) is another coming-of-age graphic memoir with an international flavor but quite different. Akim was a professional hockey player in the NHL who here tells the story of the terrible racism he faced, from youth hockey all the way up to the pros. Akim's mother is Ukrainian and his father is Nigerian, and when he and his brother were children, they lived in both countries. As a biracial couple, his parents found prejudice and racism in both places--even from family members--so they moved the family to Canada, hoping to provide a better life for their sons. Life was generally better in Canada, but Akim and his brother were still often the only Black kids in their school or neighborhood. Akim fell in love with hockey from the first moment he saw it, and when his parents got him some used skates at a yard sale, they discovered he was a natural. He loved the sport and was very good at it. So good, in fact, that he qualified for an elite teen league in Canada. At age sixteen, he moved to a town four hours away from his family to live with a host family and play hockey. He eventually went pro and joined the NHL, but Akim encountered horrific, often violent racism at every step of his journey--from teammates, spectators, and most alarmingly, sometimes his own coaches. As dark as this story is, there's a happy ending because Akim started a foundation, the Hockey Diversity Alliance, and has dedicated his life to making hockey, the sport he loves, more inclusive and to stamping out racism on the ice and off. The way that he turned his pain around to help other kids is truly inspiring.

120 pages, Graphix (Scholastic)

If you want to know more, as I did, here's a short interview with Akim Aliu about his experiences and his important work.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Nonfiction November - Sport

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Canada (several different provinces)

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  
  

Middle-Grade Review: Lines of Courage

One of the audiobooks I listened to in August for the #BigBookSummer Challenge was Lines of Courage by Jennifer Nielsen, a middle-grade historical novel about WWI.  It was not only a gripping story with wonderful characters, but I learned a lot!

In June 1914, twelve-year-old Felix is proud to be a part of Austria-Hungary, one of the oldest and largest empires in the world. He and his parents visit Sarajevo, and while there, Felix sees a gunman on the crowded streets kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife as they drive through the streets waving from the back of a convertible. It's a moment Felix won't ever forget. Back home, family friends visit from Germany, including their eleven-year-old daughter, Elsa. Felix isn't thrilled to be entertaining the chatty younger girl, but Elsa is excited to tell him all about the homing pigeons she trains. She hopes they can become pen pals. As the war moves forward, and Felix's father goes to the front, Felix and his mother struggle to remain safe, as Jews living in Austria-Hungary. In Britain, as the war begins, Kara goes along with her mother, who is a Red Cross nurse, on a hospital train. They travel throughout France and England, picking up wounded soldiers, caring for them, and transporting them to hospitals for full care. Kara yearns to be old enough to help, earn a Red Cross pin herself, and maybe even someday become a nurse or a doctor. In France, Juliette is fleeing her small town with her mother and little brothers, as the Germans move into town. Her father has been imprisoned, and Juliette wants to help her mother, but she gets separated from her family. Dimitri comes from a poor farming family in Russia and joined the military in order to earn money to send back home. He's only a teenager and is sent to the front without a weapon. He just wants to survive and continue to support his family, but being in the midst of the fighting is a horrifying experience. 

Each of these five young people is experiencing different parts of the war in different parts of Europe, though their paths will all cross at one point or another. In this way, the reader gets an inside look at what it was like for families during WWI, dealing with starvation, being put out of their homes, fearing for their lives and their fathers' lives, and even, as the story moves forward, being immersed in the battles themselves in the later years of the war. The narrative moves through the different characters' perspectives and shows that war isn't a clear case of the good guys and the bad guys but all shades of gray and suffering on all sides. These brave and remarkable (yet ordinary) young people show caring, courage, and friendship as they strive to stay safe and help others. The audio production was very well done and provided an immersive experience. I've read many books about WWII, both fiction and nonfiction, but I knew very little about WWI. This middle-grade novel was suspenseful, engrossing, and very informative.

400 pages, Scholastic

Scholastic Audio

Note: The novel covers the full period of WWI, from 1914-18, so the characters age into their mid- to late teens as the narrative moves along. It is appropriate for middle-grade or teen readers.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge

Travel the World in Books - England, France, Germany, Austria/Hungary, Russia

Big Book Summer Challenge

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from a chapter where the Russians have begun to come to Felix's village, and Jewish families have begun to disappear.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores. You can hear that same audio sample here.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Fiction Review: The Secrets Between Us

Back in 2009, I read The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar for one of my book groups and loved it, as did the other book group members. I just realized, while looking for the link to that review, that I also read another Umrigar novel, Everybody's Son, and enjoyed that one, too. The author has a talent for creating deep, real-feeling characters and emotionally complex stories. That gift once again shines in The Secrets Between Us, a sequel to that earlier, best-selling novel, as she brings back one of her most memorable characters.

The Secrets Between Us picks up right where The Space Between Us ended (no spoilers here and you don't have to read that earlier novel to enjoy this one). Bhima, the servant woman from the first novel, is no longer working for Sera, a wealthy, upper-class woman. She is looking for a way to support herself and her granddaughter, Maya. The two of them live in a small shack with a mud floor in the Mumbai slums, and Bhima's sole goal is for Maya to have a better life: to graduate from college, get a well-paying job, and move out of the slums. Bhima is aging but still working very hard, juggling multiple smaller cleaning/cooking clients, including one young woman who astounds Bhima by breaking all the societal "rules" she's lived by her whole life. One day in the open-air produce market, Bhima meets Parvati. She's noticed the older, bitter woman before, with the disfiguring growth on her neck, often spewing an angry diatribe at some unlucky soul. Bhima has never spoken to her before, but now circumstances bring the two women together. They form a tenuous business partnership, selling fruits and vegetables together in the market. Gradually, the two women, who've both lived hard lives, begin to develop a friendship, though each of them harbors shameful secrets. Bhima is illiterate and ashamed of the reason why she had to leave Sera's employ, while Parvati hides the secrets of her disgraceful, shocking past. As Bhima makes the first real friends of her lonely life, her and Maya's lives are changed for the better by the wonderful new women who've expanded their world.

This beautifully written novel was just as compelling as The Space Between Us, and I loved being in Bhima's world again. The intriguing story again digs into the traditional class differences in India, while here exploring the changes occurring in the modern world. It's also a deep, tender look at the power of women's friendships. The audio production was excellent, with Sneha Mathan's narration pulling me into the story. I will miss Bhima, but I am so glad that Umrigar returned to this beloved character to give her the ending she deserves.  

400 pages, Harper Perennial

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Fiction Review: Everything the Light Touches

I recently finished another audiobook for my Big Book Summer Challenge, Everything the Light Touches by Janice Pariat. I was sold on this book when I read comparisons to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which I loved, and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, which is still in my stack for this summer. I enjoyed this beautifully written novel that weaves four stories together from different times and places, all linked by a nature theme.

We first meet Shai, a young woman in modern-day India. She has recently lost her job and moved from Delhi back to the smaller city where she grew up. She learns from her mother that her beloved nanny, who raised her from infancy to her teen years, has taken ill, so Shai sets off on a journey to visit her. Her nanny lives in a remote village in the mountainous northeast, a place so isolated that it has no roads to it. The elderly woman is, indeed, quite ill, living in a small home with her daughter. Shai ends up staying with her for a lengthy time, helping to care for her, becoming a part of the slower, quieter life of the remote community. She also helps out in the garden, reconnecting with nature, which is very important to her own father.

In the early 1900's, a young woman named Evelyn is leaving England for a long trip on a ship to visit India. While everyone around her expects her to find a husband and settle down, Evelyn keeps her true purpose hidden. She studied botany at Cambridge and was fascinated by the writings of Goethe, who proposed a whole new way of looking at plants, as a whole, integrated natural world. Evelyn wants to go on an expedition to the northeastern mountains, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in search of what might be a mythical plant.

In the 1780's, Goethe himself is traveling from his home in Germany to Italy and immersing himself in the unique natural world he discovers there. During his years spent in Italy, he comes up with his own view of the natural world that is in contrast to the study of botany at the time, defined by Linneaus. The famous botanist made a career (and changed the study of botany) by identifying and categorizing individual plants and their components in minute detail, but Goethe sees the natural world as an integrated whole; from this trip, he will write his lesser-known work, The Metamorphosis of Plants.

And, finally, we meet Linneaus himself, on an expedition in 1732 to Lapland, in the northernmost region of Finland. Linneaus is encountering wholly unique plants that he has never seen before and applying his rules of identification and classification. This section sounds as though it may have been taken directly from Linneaus' journals.

The novel's narrative takes us through each of these four unique stories, set in different times and places and focusing on different characters ... and then back again through Goethe, Evelen, and Shai's stories. The thread connecting all of these disparate narratives is nature and different ways of seeing the world: splitting it into its component parts or seeing it as an integrated whole. The inclusion of real-life historical figures gives the narrative extra dimension and relation to the real world. Along the way, the author also addresses colonialism, class differences, environmental issues, and constant change in the world. It's a lyrical novel, with moving passages that capture the beauty of nature and its effect on each of the characters' very different lives. While its structure of interwoven stories from different times did remind me of Cloud Atlas, it also brought to mind The Overstory by Richard Powers, with its disparate characters coming together to focus on the natural world. I very much enjoyed this unique and immersive novel that was excellent on audio, with multiple narrators.

512 pages, HarperVia

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - E

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - India, Italy, Finland

Big Book Summer

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

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Fiction Review: Voyager

I finally finished my biggest book of Big Book Summer 2023, Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, book three in her amazing Outlander series that begins with Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber. It was 870 pages long, and I was sorry when it ended!

I will tiptoe around the description to avoid any spoilers for those who have not yet read books one and two. In the first book, WWII has just ended, and a young British woman named Claire has reunited with her husband, Frank, for a second honeymoon in Scotland. Claire worked as a nurse during the war, and Frank was a military officer. While Frank is doing some genealogical research, Claire explores a ring of ancient stones nearby. When she touches one, she finds herself instantly transported back to 1743. Lost and alone, two hundred years in the past, she eventually meets Jamie, a tall, redheaded Highlander. The rest, as they say, is history. Book two has Claire and Jamie traveling to France to try to convince King Louis XIV to support Bonnie Prince Charles in Scotland's fight for independence (we all know how that ends). Here, in book three, Jamie and Claire are apart for the first 200 pages or so, and through a series of flashbacks and story-telling, the reader finds out what has happened to each of them during the past twenty years, since book two ended. Once they are reunited, the title of the book becomes clear, as they set off on a voyage across the Atlantic.

This was my favorite of the first three books so far! I loved it so much that after reading 870 pages over a month's time, when I finally finished it, I immediately turned the page and began reading the first chapters of book four, included at the back. In fact, several days later, I am still dearly missing Claire and Jamie and the other characters. All of that is just to show you how incredibly compelling these books are. Gabaldon writes fascinating historical fiction, filled with both widely known events and the small details of everyday life. Jamie and Claire's epic, across-centuries love story is at the center of it, of course, but these books are not typical romances. Voyager, in particular, was non-stop action and adventure from cover to cover. So much happens in this novel! The characters encounter everything from prison to pirates in settings from 1960's U.S. to 1700's France to a ship in stormy seas to the jungles of the Caribbean. Tension and suspense were sustained throughout this gripping novel. It's not hyperbole to say that I stayed up much too late every single night because I just couldn't bear to put the book down ... just one more chapter ... I can't wait to read book four, Drums of Autumn.

870 pages, Dell

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif  - July: one-word title

Alphabet Soup Challenge - V

Travel the World in Books  - Scotland, France, Jamaica, Hispaniola

Big Book Summer Challenge

 

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!