This month, I have read less 5 star books than last month, but still have some good ones to share with you today. Since the month isn’t over, there’s a chance I will still read another 5 star before it ends! You can see the first half of my August reading here and I will share the rest of my August reads next week. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.
Title: All The Lonely People
Author: Mike Gayle
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 7/13/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 5 Stars
All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle was a beautiful and sad book about a group of people who start a campaign to end loneliness. Interspersed with the present day is Hubert’s story of his coming to the UK from Jamaica, dealing with racism, and meeting his wife Joyce.
“In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship, and fulfillment. But it’s a lie. In reality, Hubert’s days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul. Until he receives some good news—good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on. The news that his daughter is coming for a visit. Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out. Along the way Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship, and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all . . .Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows, will he ever get to live the life he’s pretended to have for so long?”
Hubert has had his share of grief but he gets by, living for his phone calls with his daughter, when he tells her many exciting things about his life. Only they aren’t true. So when she says she is coming to see him, he needs to try to create the type of life he has been describing to her. I put this squarely in the “curmudgeon makes friends” genre which I love so much and I loved the friends that Hubert met, especially Ashleigh and Jan. There is a lot of grief in this world and I love the idea of a group meant to combat loneliness. “Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people like you and me, but only if we open ourselves up enough to let them.”
Title: Summer of Stolen Secrets
Author: Julie Sternberg
Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Viking, 5/18/21
Source: Author
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 5 Stars
This book was really lovely and sweet, telling the story of a family separated due to secrets from the past. Cat is a young girl from NY and when her two best friends turn into enemies, she decides to spend the summer with her aunt, uncle, and cousin in Baton Rouge. There she meets her Jewish grandmother for the first time and begins working at the store her grandmother owns. The store is based on the real life store that author Julie Sternberg’s grandparents opened in the late 1930s after fleeing Nazi Germany. Their store actually grew into America’s largest family owned department store chain before it was sold in the 1990s.
“Catarina has never met her strict Jewish grandmother. But now, with an opportunity to spend three weeks in Baton Rouge and away from her best-friends-turned-bullies, Cat packs her bags and leaves New York City to get to know the woman who has always been a mystery. Down South, she begins working at her grandmother’s luxury department store with her rebellious cousin Lexie. Nothing seems to be going right and nobody talks about the past. But just when Cat is starting to think that this whole trip may have been a huge mistake, she stumbles onto a secret from a time her grandmother refuses to speak of. Suddenly Cat’s summer, and everything she thought she knew, has changed.”
Cat begins to get to know her strict and no nonsense grandmother and stumbles on secrets that help her understand why she is how she is as well as the Jewish history of her family. This book provides insight into the post Holocaust trauma that many Jewish families face, though the central story involves the grandmother / granddaughter relationship. As this is a middle grade book, it’s a quick read, and I definitely enjoyed it!
Title: Wish You Were Here
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books, 11/30/21
Source: Publisher via Net Galley
Why I Read It: Favorite Author.
My Rating: 5 Stars
I am just at a loss for words about Jodi Picoult’s newest, not out until November 30 but one I had to read and received via Net Galley. This book is the reason Jodi Picoult is still my favorite author. While it may be too soon for some, Wish You Were Here is set in the early days of the Covid pandemic. It features Diana, who leaves to the Galapagos just as the world shuts down and ends up alone there while her boyfriend Finn is working as a doctor on the front lines. The feelings of isolation and uncertainty that we all felt are beautifully described. I really felt like I was there with Diana throughout the story. Besides Covid, other content warnings include self harm, dementia, and drowning.
“Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s an associate specialist at Sotheby’s now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time. But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes. Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders. In the Galápagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.”
One thing this book talks about is how life has changed since the pandemic began. Masks, new vocabulary, a sense of fear, and of course all of the loss. It hasn’t been easy! I wish it was all behind us and we could call it over, but I don’t think we’re there yet.
Title: The Guncle
Author: Steven Rowley
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Audio, 5/25/21
Source: Library Audio App
Why I Read It: Heard it was good.
My Rating: 5 Stars
I listened to The Guncle by Steven Rowley, narrated by the author. I loved it and I need to buy a copy! The Guncle is about grief and loss and readjustment. Maisie and Grant come to live with their Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP) after their mother dies. She was also Patrick’s best friend, although things changed with them after she married his brother. Now, Maisie and Grant’s father has checked into rehab and he wants Patrick to keep the kids for the summer. It’s hilarious and sweet and although GUP thinks he cannot help the kids, he does the most amazing job. In fact, he has lost someone else who was close to him and helping Maisie and Grant helps Patrick too.
“Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is, honestly, overwhelmed. So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of ‘Guncle Rules’ ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled acting career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting–even if temporary–isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.”
One of my favorite parts of the book was the way that Patrick saw things through the eyes of the kids. Like his pool floats and their new dog and a meteor shower. The adult characters discuss when they had their last days of childhood and I think when a child loses their mother they may have to grow up suddenly, but these kids kept their childhood alive with Patrick and I loved that.
Title: The Reading List
Author: Sara Nisha Adams
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: William Morrow, 8/3/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 5 Stars
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams is a love letter to books and reading. When multiple people find a list of books labeled “just in case you need it,” the books have wide spread effects on the community.
“Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.”
The shared love of the books becomes even more meaningful when after a tragedy, Aleisha feels she was too lost in the world of the books and missed things in her real life. But then she realizes that “through the reading list’s characters, she’d experienced injustice and childlike innocence, terror and unease, guilt and regret and powerful, everlasting friendship…resilience, independence and determination…the repercusions of trauma and the power of hope, faith, and community.” Recommended to any book lover!
Of these books, I’m between three of them for favorite of the month and maybe even of the year!
Do you have a favorite book you’ve read this month?
