A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi

January 11, 2025

A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi

Emma and Agathe Delorme are sisters, close friends as children with older sister Emma protecting the more fragile Agathe from their mother, other children, and life in general. As adults with their own lives, they have grown apart but remain united in their love for their grandmother, Mima. When Mima dies, the two sisters come together one last time at her house to reminisce about the time they spent there together and how their grandmother shaped their lives.

The format can be somewhat confusing, with two narrators and two timelines, one of which is always moving. I loved their story but the chapters were confusing and I found myself frequently going back to the beginning of a section to see who was talking and what year is was. While I don't have a sister, I do know about the dynamics of sibling relationships (as I tell my brothers, I know them better than anyone else on this planet). Told with love and frequent humor, painful subjects such as child abuse and mental illness are treated with compassion. Lovely writing and a good translation. You may need tissues at the end. Don't be fooled by the cheery image of the two women on the surfboards on the cover. And yes, a good life is something worth striving for. 

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

French Basque country

The Old Lion by Jeff Shaara

January 10, 2025

The Old Lion by Jeff Shaara

A novel about President Theodore Roosevelt, focusing on his life before and after his time in office.

Although Theodore Roosevelt died at the age of 60, he packed a lot into those 60 years. Before reading this novel, I knew about Roosevelt's life superficially. I knew his face is on Mount Rushmore, but not really why he was chosen over other presidents. He suffered from ill health for much of his life, as well as the loss of two of his sons, yet he was determined to experience all that life could offer. He was a prolific writer on a wide variety of subjects. Rather than his presidency, the author chose to focus on Roosevelt's adventures and exploration. Part of Roosevelt's enduring legacy is the establishment of the national parks service, and he is responsible for the birth of the conservation movement. Recommended for readers of historical fiction, especially if you don't know much about Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt in his western gear

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

January 5, 2025

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Grady Green is at the top of his writing career, with his latest book climbing The New York Times bestseller list. The his wife Abby, an investigative journalist, goes missing while driving home, and his life goes to hell. He has no idea what happened to her: no goodbye letter, no suicide note, no ransom note, no body. After a year of drifting and not writing a word, his agent offers him the use of a cottage in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. He and his dog Colombo make the long drive north from London, and once he arrives, he begins to see Abby everywhere.

The good news: Colombo the black Lab is safe all the way through the book. I have enough people who call me while reading a book, asking if the dog is okay at the end, because otherwise they won't be finishing the book, that I know to include this right away. Feeney's trademark suspense featuring the ever-popular unreliable narrator. It's a slow plot for almost 2/3 of the book. The twist and the island's backstory start at this point. The real twist is at the 90% mark. This is the third Alice Feeney book I've read and I always figure out at least part of the "twist" well before we get there - with Daisy Darker, I think I figured it out by page 20. The only reason I keep reading is to see if I'm right or to fill in the gaps. Maybe I read too much. I think I'm done with Feeney. Readers who enjoy Freida McFadden will enjoy Alice Feeney's style as well.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Outer Hebrides village

The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

January 4, 2025

The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

A holiday (sort of) short story by the author of A Man Called Ove. A bit more melancholy than most of Backman's writing. But that doesn't really matter since I read everything he writes.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

January 3, 2025

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

In 1940, three women are recruited to do war work at Bletchley Park in the English countryside. One is a debutante who speaks several languages, one has superior office skills, and the third can work a crossword puzzle in minutes. Although none of them are sure at first what the people at Bletchley Park are doing, they soon learn that BP is Britain's World War II code breaking center.

Based on actual people who worked at Bletchley Par on the German enigma cypher. They recruited university types at first, but later also people who did puzzles, spoke languages, and had great organizational skills. The reason the cypher was initially so difficult to break is that the code changed daily. Once the code breakers figured out how to break the code, the challenge became preventing the Axis forces from realizing that the British were reading their secret messages. Part of the government's strategy for keeping the secret was isolating each section from the others, sharing only the information that they needed to do their work. The rose code in the book is an example of the types of code they worked on, so called because the code wrapped around like the petals on a rose.

While I was interested in the whole story of code breaking and the enigma cypher, the book is a whopping 650 page and would have been a better book if an editor had whacked out 100 or so pages of repetitious details. Fun fact: Valerie Middleton, grandmother of Katherine, Princess of Wales, was a code breaker at BP during the war and appears in the book. Recommended for readers of historical fiction, especially about World War II.

Bletchley Park

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

December 28, 2024

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

After Achilles' death, his former war prize Briseis is now married to one of Achilles' lieutenants to protect her and Achilles' unborn child. Her husband is now lieutenant to Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. With the war over, the Greek army waits for a suitable wind to sail for home, only three days away, but they are stuck there waiting for the will of the gods to favor them.

The second book in Barker's Women of Troy trilogy begins inside the infamous Trojan Horse, in the voice of Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus is kind of a jerk, but you feel sorry for him as well - there is no way he can live up to his hero father's image. When you hear about the Trojan Horse, you don't think about a bunch of big hot sweaty men stuck inside for hours with no bathroom facilities and no ventilation (nasty). All of the main characters here are only names mentioned in the Ilian (Hecuba, Cassandra, Briseis) because they are women and therefore beneath notice. When someone in the camp commits a forbidden act, the Greek soldiers are sure it was one of the two Trojan men in the camp. There are hundreds of Trojan women, but they are totally discounted, the way royalty and aristocrats treat their servants, like they are part of the furniture. Looking forward to the third book in the trilogy. Recommended for readers of historical fiction and mythology.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

December 23, 2024

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Before the city of Troy fell, the invading Greek army destroyed the cities on the Trojan plain, killing the men and boys and taking the girls and women as slaves. The wife of a high ranking noble, Briseis was given to the warrior Achilles as a war prize. Achilles treats her kindly if indifferently, but his close friend and charioteer Patroclus becomes a friend to Briseis.

The story of the Trojan War is usually told by the men who were the victors: Odysseus, Achilles, Agamemmon, Menelaus. Rarely are the voices of the losing side heard, and almost never the women. This is the first book in Barker's trilogy about the women and girls who were the real victims, forced into slavery or prostitution by the conquering Greeks. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction and mythology. Also recommended are The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati.

Ruins believed to be part of ancient Troy