Normally a book like The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan would not be up my alley. While you wouldn’t know it at first, the supernatural came into play toward the end and that’s not for me. However, the story was so sweet, that I am willing to suspend my disbelief and give this choice a thumbs up. It felt very much like A Man Called Ove and The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. Anthony Peardew finds and keeps lost things and writes stories about each one. He does this because many years ago he lost his fiancé, Therese. Laura becomes Anthony’s assistant. Recovering from a divorce, she needs a distraction and finds one in taking care of Anthony. At the same time, we learn about Eunice who is also finding herself and newly employed. Their stories intertwine in predictable but enjoyable ways. I’d add this one to your summer reading list.

While The Strays by Emily Bitto had an engaging and beautiful cover, I didn’t love it. I not only felt like I had read it before but also I tired of the story’s premise quickly. It’s one of those books where the parents are bohemian artists and neglect their children. Then the children get up to no good and have adult sadnesses and regret. The story wasn’t bad, per se, and it had some suspense driven by a dangling story element alluded to in the beginning, but I found myself distracted through most of the book and only really into it at the end.

I don’t know anything about Cuba and was interested to pick up Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. The premise is as follows: Marisol’s grandmother was an exile from Cuba. When her grandmother died, Marisol was tasked with smuggling her ashes back to Cuba to be scattered. While the story felt like others I have read, it was a decent read – nothing too heavy – and worth grabbing for the summer.

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy was the perfect book to enjoy on a lazy Mothers’ Day morning. New mom, Winnie, leaves her baby for the first time with a nanny recommended by a new mom group friend. And, not surprisingly, the baby is abducted. Chapters are told by alternating members of the new moms group, each with her own motivations, leading you to question your assumptions. This was a great page-turner. Nothing to write home about, literarily speaking, but a good escape especially for the beach.

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland is a quick mystery/thriller about Vivian, a CIA analyst who discovers that her husband is not who she thinks he is. While the first 40% of the book was annoyingly focused on how Vivian couldn’t believe any of this was happening, it was a good story with a nice amount of unexpected twists and turns and one that kept the pages turning. I would recommend picking it up – it’s a good summer choice.

I get this question all the time: how are you able to read so many books? And, since I keep answering it over and over, I thought I would share the answer en masse here. First, I have been reading since before I can remember (under the covers, in the car, you know the drill). So, it’s just part of my routine and how I choose to spend my downtime. In fact, of late, the TV is hardly on and a show has to be really good to keep my interest. Second, it’s how I gain energy (introvert at heart, even though you’d never know it based on my life/job). It’s how I decompress – in fact, it’s hard for me to fall asleep if I haven’t read right before bed. Last, I have developed a habit of speed reading. There’s no other way to put it: I read really fast. This means that I don’t have the best memory of what I have read, but I enjoy the books nonetheless (and it’s the crux of why I started this blog in the first place – I can never remember all the books I have read and my real opinions about them if I don’t keep track in an organized way). So, there you have it. On top of all those reasons, I am pretty organized generally, which leaves some extra time (grocery store lines, baseball sidelines, etc.) when I can capitalize and read a few more pages.

Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao was fantastic up until the end. I really enjoyed the story of the friendship of Poornima and Savitha who are poor girls, living in India, and basically unmarry-able. The lengths that Poornima goes to find Savitha after she disappears are impressive and engrossing, but ultimately not believable. That element, as well as the ending, make me not recommend this one too highly, even though it has received rave reviews. However, other than the last 10 pages or so, it was a good one.

I was wary to start The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah because I loved The Nightingale so much and I couldn’t believe she could do that again. And, while The Great Alone was not quite as good as The Nightingale (reviewed here), I did really love it. Leni has a broken family. Her father, returned POW from Vietnam is abusive to her mother and generally angry and unable to hold a job. They head up to Alaska to escape their lives, only to discover how impossible life is in the wilderness. One might argue that this story is somewhat predictable, but it really held my interest and kept the pages turning all weekend. It gets a thumbs up from me.

After having abandoned Everything Here is Beautiful halfway through (I just couldn’t get into it), I pushed through on Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion even though I didn’t like The Interestings (and can’t even find my blog post about it, which means I must have abandoned it). The Female Persuasion focuses on protagonist Greer’s crush on famous feminist, Faith Frank. It takes place during Greer’s college years and then her 20’s. However, the book is also told by others’ points of view and jumps around a bit. The story was interesting and had some good twists and turns, but overall, I forced myself to finish and wish I hadn’t picked it up in the first place. Hoping that my next choice, Kristin Hannah’s new one, The Great Alone, is going to be great. Anyone read it?

You knew I would read Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal since Reese Witherspoon chose it for her book club last month. It’s the story of Nikki who disappoints her parents by dropping out of law school to tend bar. She moves out of the house and ends up teaching a creative writing course at the community center in the Punjabi neighborhood from which she has previously distanced herself. The widows who sign up to learn English end up telling erotic stories instead. There’s a mystery to solve in the middle of the story as well. I like this book, but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. It was definitely a good story (and even racy), but it got bogged down in the middle through about 50 pages before the end and I can’t say that I loved it overall. Others might disagree and I could have been distracted more than usual this week, but I only give it partial praise.