Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos This book wasn't exactly on my list but when I was at the library I saw the name and remembered I had read another book by this author and really liked it. So I impulsively grabbed it even though it wasn't on the list. And although I'm glad I did that, I should perhaps have waited since after I finished this book I realized it was the continued story of a character from a book the author wrote previously which is now also on my list. (I dislike being out of order) That being said, I liked the book a lot. It had a semi complicated plot with some expected twists and turns but also some unexpected moves even within the anticipated ones. The story is of a woman who is wanting to start a family with her husband but they first move out to the suburbs away from their city life. The woman has to struggle with new friendships, gossiping neighbors, and past events in her family's lives that will shape their future together. The story is told from 3 points of view. The main character, a hardened female neighbor who has lived in the neighborhood for years but is in the process of watching her best friend die from cancer, and a young boy who changes everything for the characters. It was interesting to read from two strong female characters and then from a highly intelligent young male character. The author could have chosen to have the boy's mother as the third narrator but I think made a good deliberate choice to have his voice heard instead. Overall an entertaining read that has me excited to read the novel with some of the same characters even though I now know how their story ends.
The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don DeLillo This was a series of short stories which seemed like they would be very interesting, but overall I just didn't get hooked at any point. A few of the stories were alright and I like this author and like how he writes, I just didn't get invested in the characters or stories as I would have liked to. Each of the stories had similar themes of being trapped/wanting to escape but didn't really come together to form a cohesive book otherwise.
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson I was a bit skeptical of reading this book because although I liked the first in this trilogy I didn't really like the first movie and wasn't sure where things were going from there. I got sucked in about 50 pages in or so and finished the book very quickly because I couldn't stop turning the pages. I love the main character, Lisbeth Salander, who is a wonderful female heroine and strong main character for the trilogy. In this book she is wanted for 3 murders and her "friends" Blomqvist, the journalist and main male character from book one, and her sometimes boss Dragan Armansky, start their own investigations to prove her innocence, while the police look for Salander who has disappeared, believing her to be guilty. I liked that as a reader you got many narrators stepping in and out aside from just the main characters which allowed you to know much more then the characters knew much ahead of them. Towards the end there is a very odd narrator briefly which I found funny but I think overall made sense for the book. I now feel hooked on the series and am excited to read the last one in the series. In finding the link for this entry I learned that the author had continued on with a fourth book but died before it could be finished. I'm very excited now to read the last one in the series and also sad to see the series conclude.
The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis I guess I still don't have a final verdict on this novel. It was a good read, and I like the author, though this is one of two of her books and I've already read the other one so I don't have anymore to add. The story is of a woman who moves into a small orthodox jewish community in Memphis TN. As an outsider her neighbors worry about the effect she will have on the community and begin to use her as a scapegoat for the community members wanting to start looking at life in new and different ways. At first some members of the community attempt to be welcoming and can see the good in this new non traditional member of their hometown. Then as she refuses to conform to their ways and continues to make her own path for her and daughter, the community grows increasingly intolerant. The story unfolds as told through most of the women of the communities perspective, but never through, essentially, the main characters view. We hear from her only through the other narrators. I like the way the author did this, making her both the main character but also the one voice you never hear from. I liked the book overall but I did not like the very end. It felt like the book concluded the chapter before the ending and then the last chapter was thrown in to tie everything together in an awkward way. I did like some of the things I learned about the orthodox community and I found it personally interesting to be reading about Memphis as that was a city on the list that we almost moved to a few months ago. I hope this author writes more novels, she has an interesting way of weaving religion and rich characters with hopes and dreams that go above and beyond their religious upbringing.
Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian I have liked this author for a long time. He has such a way of presenting a story to the reader that is hard to put the book down until you know how it ends and how each character resolves their situation. This novel was about a transexual professor in a small town in Vermont who is in the process of going from a male to becoming a female. As a man he meets and falls in love with a woman who is a teacher in their community and they settle into a relationship that they both attempt to keep going after the operation is completed. The story is told through the transexual's view, the woman she falls in love with, the college aged daughter of the woman, and the woman's ex husband. The professor comes into their lives in a unique way and has a profound impact on each of them. The ex husband is a radio personality and the college daughter is following in his footsteps so in between chapters are radio scripts of interviews that both of them have done with the professor and the teacher and sharing their own points of view as well. At some point in the book I started predicting what was going to happen at the end, but attempted to convince myself that no that would be too crazy of a turn. I kept convincing myself of that until a few pages to the end where everything was finally answered and I turned out to be right. Still not sure how I feel about the major twist of an ending, but I of course will continue to read books by this author who leaves me wondering until the end and is able to pull off wild turns in the plot that seem to still fit into the books he writes.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys Okay let's get something out of the way, no this is NOT the erotica porn book, it just has a similar title (which according the Barnes and Noble worker who helped me find it, has led to some awkward moments as this book is labeled a young adult novel and that other book is certainly not!). This is an amazing book to me and I was so excited to hear about it. This is the story of a young girl in Lithuania in 1941 during WWII who is taken out of her home and sent to labor camps and struggles to keep her family together and to stay alive and see her hopes and dreams come to be and also to be able to return to her home country. It is also a love story as Lina, the main character, is 15 and someone in the midst of so much tragedy finds love. The moment I read a review for this book I was drawn to it. My mother's parents left Lithuania during the war. They had a terrific love story that the war could have added tragedy to but instead just left a few surprise elements and suspenseful moments too. I grew up hearing this story and trying to imagine it. To read Lina's fictional story felt like it brought me closer to the reality of my family's history. Lina's struggles and limited joys felt so connected. Within a few pages so many of my family members unique names had been mentioned, familiar city names mentioned (some of which I have been fortunate to visit), and Lithuanian words/traditions that made me smile. This book was truly a joy to read and had so much significance to me. I loved reading each word. I smiled at the familiar and had tears in my eyes at the tragic. I raced through the book unable to put it down (except for the hours when my boyfriend, gently, reminded me that taking a book to the wedding reception of one of my closest friends was not acceptable). The epilogue was both hopeful and also sadly realistic. I now have a renewed interest in continuing to read about the past history of Lithuania. I also, in the 10+ years since she has been gone, have never quite missed my grandmother as much as I missed her in reading this book. I feel it brought me closer to her in a way that I haven't been able to feel in so many years. I so appreciate this author and hope that since her debut novel seems to have been a success she might continue to write more on this subject.
As a side note, I think it's interesting that many of this months books were about women and a new journey in their lives and where it will lead them. Having just moved a few states away from my previous home state that I had never before left, and starting on my own new chapter in my journey, it seems fitting.
