Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

 

What book has Instagram or other social media convinced you to read?  I kept seeing Yesteryear everywhere, so I read it last month.

Natalie Heller Mills is an Instagram “trad wife” living a seemingly perfect life. She lives on a beautiful farm in Idaho with her cowboy husband and six kids.  Behind the scenes nannies, farmhands and a producer keep the perfect life alive for social media.  When Natalie wakes up one day in the past and must live without modern conveniences, will she make it?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I see mixed reactions to this book online.  People seem to love it or hate it.  I liked it, it was a unique story, and I couldn’t stop reading it.

·       The characters are not likeable, but I did want to see what would happen next.

·       The twist in the story was interesting, I had suspected it, but I was not one hundred percent sure how it would work.

·       It is interesting to think about the power of social media and how it can show things to be 100% different than reality.  It seems like a lot of problems now are that people believe in “realities” that don’t really exist such as the “perfect” life you see in pictures that is not actually reality.  This book also showed how politics and social media are intertwined.

·       I find the “trad wife” trend confusing.  Do women really want to the live the life of our ancestors without having rights and modern conveniences?  I am 100% behind women that want to stay home and raise their kids, but I am not behind women who think that their lifestyle is the only way that women must live.  I didn’t think I would be living in a world that is talking about taking away women’s right to vote.

·       The book show the hypocrisy that even the women who say they want traditional roles are not really following them themselves.  It reminded me of Serena Joy from The Handmaid’s Tale.

·       Natalie’s point of view moves through time to show how her and her husband got together initially and their life leading up to the start of the book.

·       This would be a good book for a book club discussion.

·       This book is hard to classify – maybe contemporary, mystery, speculative, psychological thriller.

·       SPOILER ALERT – I did feel like Natalie is made out to be the villain when she was more the victim of her upbringing, postpartum depression, and from being drugged.

Overall, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke was a unique and thought-provoking novel that I think would be great for a book club discussion.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

Miss Bates: Emma Revisited by Catherine Cliff

 

What is your favorite flower?  One of my favorites is the peony.  Mine just finished blooming for the year, or have they?  I still see a few buds left out there.

Happy Release Week and #bookbirthday for Miss Bates: Emma Revisited by Catherine Cliff.  I just finished this book today and am posting my review today a well.

Henrietta “Henrie” Bates is known from the book Emma by Jane Austen as a very boring elderly and poor spinster.  What was her life before this that brought her to a spot in life to be looked down upon by Emma?  This book tells the story of her life from her early childhood until after the events of Emma.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This novel did a great job of really delving into what life would be like for a woman of limited means during the late 18^th century and early 19^th century.  It was disheartening to see how Henrie was reduced as she grew older as her means kept decreasing.  When your father does not save money to leave to his female heirs, they are left in dire straits.

·       It really made me think about what life would be like for such women in that time period and thankful for the rights we have today.  This is the life that Jane Austen lived and feared.  Luckily, she was never reduced as much as Henrie, but it could have happened if things had turned out differently.  This is what Mrs. Bennet feared for her daughters in Pride and Prejudice.

·       I liked how Henrie was a sharp person who was well aware of everything that was happening around her.  She put on a mask of happiness and silly prattle in order to survive in her world.  She needed extreme gratitude to help people to remember her as their gifts were often the only food she had.

·       Her love for Jane and having to give her up to ensure that she could have a better life was heartbreaking.

·       This is a well written literary novel and a good character story.

·       This is a dark take on the story of Emma and best for those that really hate the character of Emma.  While it was dark and I like Emma, I couldn’t put the book down and wanted to see what would happen next.

·       The very last couple of pages were the perfect ending for this book.

Favorite Quote: 

“But we, we undistinguished and unmarried women – we are like imaginary beings to the rest of the world.  We only have substance when we are before them.  What is it to forget someone imaginary?  - there can be no consequence. While to use it is the difference between living and dying.  The humiliation!”

Overall, Miss Bates:  Emma Revisited by Catherine Cliff is an intriguing and literary character study of Miss Bates and the plight of a poor single woman trying to make it in the past.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @catherinecliffwrites @pegasus_books @greatreadsbookpromofor a review copy of the novel as part of the Great Reads Promo Book Tour.

One Leg on Earth by 'Pemi Aguda

 

Title:  One Leg on Earth

Author:  'Pemi Aguda

Narrated by:  Délé Ogundiran

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Length: Approximately 6 hours and 39 minutes

Source: Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @w.w.norton for the review copy of the physical book.  Audiobook purchased from audible.

What country is your current book set in?

Yosoye is a lonely women, excited to be in Lagos for an architectural internship.  After a one-night stand, she finds herself pregnant.  As other pregnant women start being found drowned in the sea, Yosoye feel herself pressed by a fear that she will be next.  Does it have anything to do with the new development she is working on that is located on reclaimed land that is meant for the rich?

My thoughts on this audiobook:

·       The title comes from a saying, one leg on earth and one leg in heaven.

·       This is a literary novel that is also a women’s contemporary fiction novel.

·       It was a slow paced, but short novel.

·       It was interesting on audiobook.

·       The story explores the loneliness of motherhood.

·       I thought it was an interesting look at the parallels of growing a city as a designer and growing a new life within you as a mother.

·       I really enjoyed the setting in Legos.

·       The story never does resolve why the women were drowning.

Overall, One Leg on Earth by 'Pemi Aguda was an interesting literary fiction novel with a riveting setting in Lagos.

The Meaning of Fear by Laura Hulthen Thomas

 

What time of the day do you like best to read?  I do most of my reading at night before bed.

In 2008, Lea Johnson is a behavioral researcher who is struggling to keep her lab going during the downturn in the economy.  Even though she is a behavioral researcher, she is unable to help her husband Jay who was violently attacked by youth outside their home and no longer is the same man.  When a youth disappears that Jay had confronted outside their new home, did he have something to do with it? 

Paul had a hard life growing up.  Now as a cop, he is investigating the disappearance of a local youth when he runs into Lea, who he met as a youth.  As attraction grows between the two, will they be able to confront issues from the past, figure out the current mystery, and move forward?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This novel should have some trigger warnings.  It had a rough and depressing start that included the violent murder of a beloved pet cat and the grooming and discussion of a sexual assault of a young teenage girl.  There was a lot of violence against animals in this book.

·       The book is set in Michigan.  I grew up in Southwest Michigan and I appreciated the Southeast Michigan setting of the book.

·       This was a very well written book, and I loved the language.

·       It was interesting the Lea studies the fear response and trauma, but she can’t see and understand the same thing in her husband.

·       There was a lot of discussion on the treatment of animal.  Lea used mice in her research and her childhood friend Dinah is an animal rights activities.  There is a deer cull also happening in Lea’s neighborhood.

·       This book explored how trauma impacts relationships and an individual’s future.

·       This book is a literary fiction novel and a psychological drama.

·       It was a dark and heavy read, but very readable and kept me wondering what was going to happen next.

·       The characters were very well written and developed. 

·       There were interesting book discussion questions at the end of the book that could be used for book clubs.

Overall, The Meaning of Fear by Laura Hulthen Thomas was a very well written psychological drama and literary fiction novel with an interesting mystery and great character development.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @laurahulthenthomas @regal_house_publishing @tlcbooktours for a review copy of this novel as part of the TLC Book Tour.

Jazz by Toni Morrison

 

Title:  Jazz

Author:  Toni Morrison

Narrated by:  Toni Morrison

Publisher: Random House Audio

Length: Approximately 3 hours

Source: Purchased from Audible and checked out a physical copy of the book from Kewaunee Public Library

Do you have a favorite jazz song or musician?  I have always loved the classic songs by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

In 1926, a middle-aged man named Joe murders his teenage girlfriend, Dorcas.  His wife, Violet, attacks the corpse at the funeral and stabs it across the face, earning her the nickname, “Violence.”  How did they end up in this situation?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read Jazz by Toni Morrison this month for the Classics Buddy read hosted by @Dees.Reads.

·       The audiobook is read by the author, but it is abridged so I also had the physical book from the library to fill in the gaps.

·       I loved the jazzy music and sound effects in the audiobook and Toni Morrison reading her own work.

·       There is a great forward by Toni Morrison that sets up the book.  She was inspired by seeing an old picture of a pretty girl in a coffin and the description that went with the picture.  How creepy and interesting.

·       This is the second book in a series after Beloved.  Beloved centered on mother love and Jazz centers on couple love.  They are both set at different points in Black history, otherwise they are not related.

·       Jazz is a beautifully written book that flows like a jazz song.  Like jazz, the narrative does not flow the way you would expect it too, which made it hard to understand at times.

·       Just like when I recently read Beloved, I found using SparkNotes to be helpful after I read it to make sure I understood what I had read.

·       I am still confused though – why didn’t Joe go to jail for shooting Dorcas?

·       The setting for the book was mostly 1920s Harlem, but there are plenty of flashbacks to the past.

·       Violet and Joe’s marriage gets better after the shooting.  I guess they were finally about to talk through their problems, but I was disturbed about Joe.  He, a man in his fifties, was so upset that his teenage girlfriend had decided to date men her own age that he shot her.  I think Violet deserved a better man, but she also does bad by slashing Dorcas’s face at the funeral.  This was meant to represent her sadness as she wanted to be a mother, but her and Joe had decided not to have children and she realized she wanted to be a mother too late.  Violet learns she has to take control of her own life and happiness.

Overall, Jazz by Toni Morrison was an interesting novel written in a unique way.  I am glad I read this book.

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

 

Title:  Us Against You

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Narrated by:  Marin Ireland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 14 hours and 17 minutes

Source:  Purchased from Audible.com

What series are you currently reading?

Beartown had a transformational year and change in continuing when they find out that their hockey team is going to be disbanded.  A local politician pulls strings to keep the team in place with a surprising new coach. With much of the team now a part of their rival team, Hed, how will they build back the Beartown team?  How can they work through the trauma of the last year?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read Us Against You for the February Pick for the Rogue Book Club. We are going to discuss it in March as there was not enough time for everyone to get the book and read it before our book club meeting.

·       This is the second book in the Beartown series.  We all loved Beartown, and it was a previous book club pick.  We decided to keep reading this series as a book club.

·       Sports mean so much to a small town.  When you try to take away sports, you can cause violence.

·       Sadly, the girl or victim is often blamed for a rape. A rape occurred in Beartown and Us Against You continues the story and shows that while it was a one-time act of violence, it will forever impact the life of the victim.

·       There was a line in the book about how someday there will not be female hockey coaches, there will just be coaches. This really spoke to me.

·       I loved being immersed in this town and in the lives of these characters again.

·       There is a good refresher at the start of the book to remind you about the first book.  You could potentially read this as a standalone, but I highly recommend reading Beartown first.  They are both excellent reads.

·       I liked the nice short chapters.

·       The twist in the book was heartbreaking, but I don’t want to spoil it up for others.  It was very emotional, and I teared up.

·       I like how Backman sets up what will happen in a book with a question or foreshadowing at the start.

·       Fredrik Backman is one of the best authors out there today.  He is able to capture how it feels to be human at any age.  He fully captures the complexity of humanity.

·       One such moment was when a dad pondered on how he didn’t have time to play with the kids when they were small and now that they are teens, they want nothing to do with him.  How did this time pass away?

·       Another such moment was when a teen told her Mom that she had been a great role model to her.

·       Marin Ireland is a great audiobook narrator, and I fully enjoyed this audiobook.

·       I am really looking forward to reading the next book in the series, The Winners.

Favorite Quotes:

“Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We’ll end up saying that violence came to Beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.”

“You try to be a good parent, in every way, but you never know how. It's not a difficult job. Just impossible.”

“Love and hate. Joy and sorrow. Anger and forgiveness. Sports carry the promise that we can have everything tonight. Only sports can do that.”

"Fathers need to seize the day, because childhoods are like soap bubbles; you get only a few seconds to enjoy them.”

"The complicated thing about good and bad people alike is that most of us can be both at the same time.”

"It's hard to care about people. Exhausting, in fact, because empathy is a complicated thing. It requires us to accept that everyone else's lives are also going on the whole time.”

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman is a story about a town that loves sports, but beyond the rivalries it shows empathy and what it means to be human.  The humor and drama in this novel are top notch.  I highly recommend this series and any book by Fredrik Backman. 

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

 

Title:  My Friends

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Narrated by:  Marin Ireland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 13 hours and 22 minutes

Source: Review copy from Simon Audio.  Thank-you!

What is your favorite book featuring friendship?

Louisa is a young orphan and artist with a goal to see one of the most famous paintings in the world, “Of the Sea.”  Many people didn’t notice that there are three kids on a pier in the painting.  After finally getting to see it on display, Louisa meets a man she assumes to be homeless in an alley, but who is the dying artist.  This sets Louisa on the path of learning about how the painting came to be and about the friends on the pier.  Will Louisa finally find “her people?”

My thoughts on this novel:

·       My Friends by Fredrik Backman is one of my favorite reads of 2025.

·       I love Fredrik Backman’s humor and talk about the hard things in life such as child abuse, death from cancer, abandonment, etc.

·       Backman has a way of completing capturing childhood and how much friendships mean to us.

·       The beauty and wonder of art are also themes.

·       Another important theme is how kindness can help others to value themselves.

·       Louisa’s best friend Fish has committed suicide, and she is trying to deal with that as well as finding a pathway out of the foster system.

·       Part of the story is a travel story where two characters travel together, Ted and Louisa, and have an adventure.  Ted tells Louisa stories of the past and the artist as a child.

·       I loved Ted and Louisa’s dynamic together.

·       Marin Ireland is a great audiobook narrator that kept me intrigued.

·       This was a coming-of-age story.

·       The kids in the story from the past were all from the poor side of town and around the age of fourteen.

·       The mystery kept me intrigued.  How get the artist get the paint for his famous picture as a poor fourteen-year-old?  How did he become famous?  What death or event is foreshadowed that takes these kids over the divide from childhood to adulthood? 

·       My Friends is a beautiful story.  It’s hard to explain the beauty of the story as Backman is such a unique and wonderful writer who really writes about the truths of life.

Overall, My Friends by Fredrik Backman is one of the best books of this year.  It’s a beautiful, unique, and ultimately uplifting story about friendship and life.  I highly recommend it.

 

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

 

Title:  The Wedding People

Author:  Alison Espach

Narrated by:  Helen Laser

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 13 minutes

Source: Checked out from the Kewaunee Public Library through Libby.

What book have you recently read due to Instagram?  I kept seeing The Wedding People by Alison Espach on Instagram last year and I finally got around to reading it last month.

Phoebe Stone has arrived at the beautiful Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island.  The hotel has been taken over by “the wedding people,” and everyone has assumed that Phoebe is there for the wedding.  She is not, and she’s the only non-wedding person there.  Why is Phoebe visiting this hotel by herself?  What will the wedding people do with a stranger in their midst?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I thought it was interesting when Phoebe thought about that it was a gift that random strangers give you is that you can say anything you want to, and it doesn’t matter.

·       This was a Read with Jenna book selection.

·       The characters were great with surprising depth.  I loved the characters and they felt real.

·       This was a character driven story

·       Sometimes chance encounters can change our life.

·       It was an interesting side look into adjunct professor versus professors.  Adjuncts do all of the work of a professor, but for less pay and no benefits.  It’s a strange system.

·       Depression, infertility, divorce, cheating, death of a cat, and loss of friendship are all problems that Phoebe is dealing with.  The wedding people are also dealing with a lot of issues as well including the loss of father, wife, mother.

·       Lila (the bride) decides to prevent Phoebe’s suicide as it will ruin her wedding.

·       This was a weighty book, but funny at times.  I loved how Phoebe felt free to finally voices her feelings amongst these strangers.

·       I loved the setting.  Newport was just in The Gilded Age this summer as well.  I would love to visit.

 

Overall, The Wedding People by Alison Espach was a great character driven story that will be one of my top reads of the year.

 

A Family Matter by Claire Lynch

 

Title:  A Family Matter

Author:  Claire Lynch

Narrated by:  Miranda Raison

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 4 hours and 41 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank-you

What do you prefer- hyped books or not so hyped books?  I have started to see good reviews for this book, A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, and they are much deserved.

In 1982, Dawn is a young wife and mother, trying to do what is expected of her in life, until she meets Hazel and falls in love.  Divorce and a custody battle ensue and the courts at that time will not allow a lesbian to have any contact with her own daughter.  In 2022, Heron has discovered he has terminal cancer.  He has a close relationship with his daughter Maggie, but he has always let her believe that her mother abandoned her for another man.  Will he finally tell her the truth before it is too late?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I can’t stop thinking about this story and the lost time that a mother and daughter did not get to spend together.

·       This story was told in flashbacks between 1982 and 2022 and is set in England.

·       I found the story very relatable with myself being around the age of Maggie (daughter) and my parents being around her parents’ age.  The worries, cares, and places are all so familiar.

·       It is hard to believe that tis is a debut novel.  It was a well written and compelling story that got the little things about life right.

·       This was a Read with Jenna book pick.

·       It was a short, but powerful read.

·       The audiobook narrator, Miranda Raison, was great.  She kept me riveted on a long drive for work last week while I listened to the audiobook.

·       It was a good family drama and is character driven.

·       This was an excellent read for #pridemonth.

·       There was a good author’s note at the end of the novel about the plight of lesbians in England in the 1980s with being able to keep custody of their children.  I was disturbed that the condescending verbiage the judge and lawyer used in court was really language from trials at the time.  It’s interesting how much has changed over a relatively short period of time.

Overall, A Family Matter by Claire Lynch was a powerful, well written, and compelling story that I will be thinking about for a long time.