Crush was an interesting listen. Ada Calhoun’s novel was autobiographical and, certainly interesting, but not a favorite. Amazon: “She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life—a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband” and “wife” force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose. Using the author’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in postpandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it’s possible to love—friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world’s good books, and most of all one’s own deep sense of purpose.” It’s a quick audiobook, but wasn’t a favorite.

A Well-Trained Wife by Tia Levings was recommended by one of my best book-recommending buddies. “Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles––a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, ‘keepers of the home.’ Tia knew that to their neighbors her family was strange, but she also couldn’t risk exposing their secret lifestyle to police, doctors, teachers, or anyone outside of their church. Christians were called in scripture to be “in the world, not of it.” So, she hid in plain sight as years of abuse and pain followed. When Tia realized she was the only one who could protect her children from becoming the next generation of patriarchal men and submissive women, she began to resist and question how they lived. But in the patriarchy, a woman with opinions is in danger, and eventually, Tia faced an urgent and extreme choice: stay and face dire consequences, or flee with her children.” (Amazon) This was a good choice and I really enjoyed it.

Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson was an incredible memoir. While it was 18 and a half hours of listening, it was totally worth it, especially to hear one of Justice Jackson’s daughter read her college essay, her other daughter sing the national anthem, and to remember the times of which Justice Jackson wrote. Amazon: “With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji BrownJackson invites listeners into her life and world, tracing her family’s ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America’s highest court within the span of one generation. Named ‘Ketanji Onyika,’ meaning ‘Lovely One,’ based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth. She describes her resolve as a young girl to honor this legacy and realize her dreams: from hearing stories of her grandparents and parents breaking barriers in the segregated South, to honing her voice in high school as an oratory champion and student body president, to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, where she performed in musical theater and improv and participated in pivotal student organizations. Here, Justice Jackson pulls back the curtain, marrying the public record of her life with what is less known. She reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don’t look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood. Through trials and triumphs, Justice Jackson’s journey will resonate with dreamers everywhere, especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and refuse to be turned aside. This moving, openhearted tale will spread hope for a more just world, for generations to come.” Get this one and listen to it, you won’t regret it!

Looking to read a book that’s like a reality TV show? That’s The Compound by Aisling Rawle. Amazon: “Lily—a bored, beautiful twenty-something—wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door. Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win?” This is a total beach read and definitely a guilty pleasure. While I enjoyed it, it was candy – little substance, but delicious nonetheless.

Stop everything and grab this book!! The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is a wonderful, wonderful epistolary novel that I could not put down. Aside from the absolutely gorgeous cover, everything about this book was delicious and incredible. I absolutely adored it. “Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.” (Amazon) I cannot recommend this book more highly and, if I could give it more than five stars, I would.

Happy Labor Day – the weekend I publish my summer reading reviews. This summer, I held myself somewhat accountable to my summer reading list (published here). As usual, I kept a printout of the covers above my desk for reference and checked off each as I completed it. But, for the first time since I can remember, I didn’t read all the books I selected. I’ll chalk it up to the new job and my bargello obsession, and hope to read the missing two selections this fall.

Please let me know if you read anything amazing this summer. I love having good recs from those of you who share my reading vibe.

So, now for the overall reviews and recommendations from those I had chosen for the summer and those that weren’t on the list:

Best Books of the Summer (5-Stars)
Culpability
A Little Less Broken
What Kind of Paradise
Everything is Tuberculosis
Pending: Lovely One…only halfway through, but LOVE

Summer Reading List Reviews
Rabbit Moon (4.5-stars)
Wild Dark Shore (4.5-stars)
Great Big Beautiful Life (4.5-stars)
Heartwood (4-stars)
Isola (4-stars)
Show Don’t Tell (4-stars)
Chances Are (3.5-stars)
Hope (4-stars)
A World of My Own (didn’t read, but bought)
My Name is Emilia Del Valle (didn’t read, but bought)

What a way to end the summer! Culpability by Bruce Holsinger was an excellent read. First recommended to me by Gayle Weiswasser of the Everyday I Write the Book blog and Wonderland Books and then chosen as Oprah’s June read, it’s been top of mind all summer. There were so many things to ponder from this novel and I am going to be thinking about it for a long time. Amazon: “When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident. During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.” This book was terrific and I highly recommend.

I originally had The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue on my summer reading list and changed it out at the last minute. But, it came from the library, so I read it anyway. “Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.” (Amazon) This was a good read for a trip and kept my interest, but it wasn’t a favorite.

You have to have an Emily Henry on a summer reading list (too bad about the title being reminiscent of the Big Beautiful Bill…)! Amazon writes of Great Big Beautiful Life: “Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century. When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game. One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over. Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication. Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition. But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.” This was a great beach read and an enjoyable end of summer diversion.

Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst was a fascinating true story that was well told. Amazon: “Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away? Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But Maurice began to study nautical navigation. Maralyn made detailed lists of provisions. And in June 1972, they set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves. What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests. Although they could run away from the world, they can’t run away from themselves. Taut, propulsive, and dazzling, A Marriage at Sea pairs an adrenaline-fueled high seas adventure with a gutting love story that asks why we love difficult people, and who we become under the most extreme conditions imaginable.” I listened to this selection, which was a good choice. My only complaint was that it went on far too long after the rescue. Otherwise, it would have been a five-star choice for sure.