Happy Tuesday! While I might be able to accurately pinpoint what book I was reading on August 11th over the last 10 years, I am not sure I have the energy to do that. It’s too hot here in middle Georgia! LOL. So for today’s TTT topic I am going to list the most memorable books read in August of the same time period. I keep a list of books read by month, so it is a fairly easy task. It was fun to remember the books that made the biggest impressions. I hope you find one to love!
For more August 11th reads, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.
Top Memorable Books Read In August over The Last 10 Years
2016 — Within The Veil by Brandy Vallance
2017 — Ghost Heart by Lisa Harrisand Lynne Gentry
2018 — Falling For You by Becky Wade
2019 — In The Shadow of Croft Towers by Abigail Wilson
2020 — The Last Year of The War by Susan Meissner
2021 — The Nature of Small Birds by Susie Finkbeiner
2022 — The Paris Betrayal by James R. Hannibal
2023 — Songs That Could Have Been by Amanda Wen
2024 — The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater by Jaime Jo Wright
My book club absolutely loved AllWe Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee. Although it wasn’t what I would call an easy read it was full of heart and emotion. It also brought to light new details of 2 eras we thought we knew. This Christy Award Book of The Year is a definite must-read. If you liked it too, here are a few more books to read. Enjoy!
All Manner of Things by Susie Finkbeiner (available on Kindle Unlimited)
When Annie Jacobson’s brother Mike enlists as a medic in the Army in 1967, he hands her a piece of paper with the address of their long-estranged father. If anything should happen to him in Vietnam, Mike says, Annie must let their father know.
In Mike’s absence, their father returns to face tragedy at home, adding an extra measure of complication to an already tense time. As they work toward healing and pray fervently for Mike’s safety overseas, letter by letter the Jacobsons must find a way to pull together as a family, regardless of past hurts. In the tumult of this time, Annie and her family grapple with the tension of holding both hope and grief in the same hand, even as they learn to turn to the One who binds the wounds of the brokenhearted.
Author Susie Finkbeiner invites you into the Jacobson family’s home and hearts during a time in which the chaos of the outside world touched their small community in ways they never imagined.
The Last Year of The War by Susan Meissner
In 1943, Elise Sontag is a typical American teenager from Iowa—aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.
The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.
But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.
The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.
The One True Love of Alice-Ann by Eva Marie Everson
Living in rural Georgia in 1941, sixteen-year-old Alice-Ann has her heart set on her brother’s friend Mack; despite their five-year age gap, Alice-Ann knows she can make Mack see her for the woman she’ll become. But when they receive news of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Mack decides to enlist, Alice-Ann realizes she must declare her love before he leaves.
Though promising to write, Mack leaves without confirmation that her love is returned. But Alice-Ann is determined to wear the wedding dress her maiden aunt never had a chance to wear—having lost her fiancé in the Great War. As their correspondence continues over the next three years, Mack and Alice-Ann are drawn closer together. But then Mack’s letters cease altogether, leaving Alice-Ann to fear history repeating itself.
Happy Tuesday! This week TTT bloggers are posting about Thanksgiving and thankfulness. I have done a lot of these posts through the year and just couldn’t seem to come up with anything fresh. So . . . I am spelling out THANKGIVING with titles from books I am thankful for. The authors created books that made me smile, laugh out loud, and cry. They made me think and examine and ponder. They entertained and educated. So a big thanks to all on my list!
Top Book Titles That Spell Thanksgiving
T — Truth Be Told by Patricia Raybon
H— The Heart of Bennet Hollow by Joanne Bischof DeWitt
A — The All American by Susie Finkbeiner
N — The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
K — The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
S — The Stories We Carry by Robin Pearson
G — Guilty Until Innocent by Robert Whitlow
I — The Indigo Heiress by Laura Frantz
V— The Vanished by Cara Putman
I— Indigo Isle by T. I. Lowe
N — Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jaime Jo Wright
Although I usually don’t have time not to read (read that again 😉 ), I do go through reading slumps occasionally. If you see me scrolling on the phone instead of reading a book, then that means I am either not engaged with the story or just too spent to keep reading. When that happens I need a book that has a unique plot or engaging characters or a subject that is intriguing. If you are ever faced with that dilemma, then check out the following books — they are sure to break that slump!
This week the TTT theme has another throwback vibe — books that deserve a re-read. It is rare that I re-read a book — there are just so many other books vying for attention! Last week I shared my favorites from July 2015, so I thought I would pick those from the whole summer of 2015 that would be great to read again. 10 years is a long time in the reading world, so many of the books would be fresh again. I hope you find one to re-read or read for the first time!
Happy Tuesday! Today is a Freebie Day with a bit of a throwback vibe. I am listing the books I read and loved in July 2015. This was an easy post to compile since I keep a list of all the books I read by month and year. Plus it was fun to lock back on the great books that I have read in the past. If you haven’t read some on my list, I hope you find one to love.
For more great bloggers’ lists, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.
Happy Tuesday! Today in TTT bloggers are talking about the changes their blogs have undergone since they began. Can you believe I have been blogging for 15 years?! I missed this milestone anniversary last November; I probably need to do something about that. 😉 My blog has changed in a lot of ways, but in basics it has stayed the same.
For more changes in blogging, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.
Changes in My Blogging/Reading
I still review mostly CF and clean fiction. Nowadays I rarely review non-fiction.
I have cut way back on the number of books I review. I started blogging when my kids were at home, I was working part time, and my husband was working full time. Now we are empty nesters, I’m retired, and my husband is semi-retired. More time means less time for the blog.
I am reading less too. It seems weird that having more free time translates to less reading, but in my case it does, since I have more opportunity for other pursuits.
I am reading what I like. In the early years of blogging I took any and all books publishers were willing to send me. Now I am more choosy.
I read almost exclusively on my Kindle. It’s easy and portable. I never thought this would happen, but it also allows me access to more books, especially through NetGalley.
While I have contemplated phasing out my blog, I am still really attached to the book blog community. I love engaging with other readers and reviewers from all over the world. Who knows how long my blog will go on . . .
Because I can’t stand not referencing books in the TTT posts, here are a few books I have read recently. I am still an eclectic reader! I love reading my go-to authors books and discovering new authors.
My book club chose The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner as our April selection. This twisting novel full of secrets and deceptions features a point in time that triggers all things hidden to come to light. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a devastating natural disaster that is hard to wrap a mind around. The setting had to be daunting — the details that needed to be searched through and chosen to best depict the magnitude of the event. Meissner did a great job of putting the reader in the middle of the terror of the first moments and the determination needed to survive and rebuild. If the novel was just about the earthquake, Meissner would have done a creditable job. However, she weaves a story of three very different women brought together in unbelievable circumstances. And I’m, not talking about the earthquake. The first person, present tense narrator ( which is done extremely well) is Sophie Whalen, a recent immigrant from Ireland who comes to California for a new start. She seems to get everything she dreamed of until the night before the quake. As one of our members said, the book gets exciting from that point! I don’t want to share any spoilers — the book is rich in surprises you don’t see coming — so I’ll just say that the tangled stories of the three women kept me furiously turning the pages. There are themes of female friendships, mother love, and incomplete justice. I can’t recommend this book enough! Enjoy the historical context, the intertwining mystery, and the thought-provoking storyline. I look forward to our discussion of this book — it will definitely make for a great conversation.
Highly Recommended.
Great for Book Clubs.
Audience: Adults.
(I purchased the ebook from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.
Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin’s silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin’s odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn’t right.
Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved.
The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.
From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.
Susan Meissner is the USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction with more than three-quarters of a million books in print in eighteen languages. Her novels include The Nature of Fragile Things, starred review Publishers Weekly; The Last Year of the War, a Library Reads and Real Simple top pick; As Bright as Heaven, starred review from Library Journal; Secrets of a Charmed Life, a 2015 Goodreads Choice award finalist; and A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist’s Top Ten women’s fiction titles for 2014. She is also RITA finalist and Christy Award and Carol Award winner. A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University and is also a writing workshop volunteer for Words Alive, a San Diego non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing.
Happy Tuesday! Since it’s April Fool’s Day, this week’s TTT topic is you’d be a fool not to read these books. My list contains books I have read this year that I highly recommend you read. As always there’s a variety of genres so you can easily find your next favorite book. Enjoy!
My book club is reading The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner. Meissner is a favorite of ours, and I am hearing good things about this book from club members. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake figures prominently in this story. Have you read it? I’d love to know what you think.
Here’s the first lineof chapter 2. (The first chapter is the beginning of an interview between a US Marshall and main character Sophie.)
The sun is dissolving like an enchantment as I stand at the ferry railing and look out on the San Francisco horizon.
April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.
Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin’s silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin’s odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn’t right.
Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved.
The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.
From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.
Susan Meissner is the USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction with more than three-quarters of a million books in print in eighteen languages. Her novels include The Nature of Fragile Things, starred review Publishers Weekly; The Last Year of the War, a Library Reads and Real Simple top pick; As Bright as Heaven, starred review from Library Journal; Secrets of a Charmed Life, a 2015 Goodreads Choice award finalist; and A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist’s Top Ten women’s fiction titles for 2014. She is also RITA finalist and Christy Award and Carol Award winner. A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University and is also a writing workshop volunteer for Words Alive, a San Diego non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing.
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