45

I'm running out of books.

Number 45 was Mystic River by Kristin Hannah. It's a good thing I stumbled on Winter Garden first or I might never have read her again. Or maybe it's too bad because it gave me such high expectations for her.

Another romance story set in small town Washington State. That's all I gotta say 'bout that.

44

As I was reading online reviews for The Postmistress, I noticed quite a few of them mentioned Sarah's Key (which I read earlier this year) and Those Who Save Us. I chuckled to myself because I had read one of the two books mentioned and I guess I do read a lot of war books after all. Then I went to the pantry to get the next book from my library pile and lo and behold, it's Those Who Save Us.

Time to try something new?

TWSU was so promising. Right off the bat it reminded me of Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah (which I loved). Both are told in a series of alternated flashbacks and current day story lines. The mother's story is set in WW2, she falls in love, she is separated from the man she loves, she has his child (or children), and then she has to somehow survive with her children. Eventually she is rescued by a strong American (because oh yeah, she's beautiful beyond compare) who doesn't care that she is now bascially a stone because of the things she experienced.

The daughters hate their moms because they've never once communicated anything to them. Love, acceptance, what they survived through, their own histories...all a mystery.

That's where the similarities end.

I loved Winter Garden.

Those Who Save Us was much harsher. It was brutal. Graphic. Violent. Though the story was very good, and I definitely felt carried along with it, I wondered what would redeem all the sadness we had to struggle through. Would mother and daughter come to some acceptance? Would any of the issues the daughter struggled through be resolved? Would the mother forgive herself and find healing?

I don't know. Because the book just ends.

And seriously, I hate that! Especially since there were so many aspects of both characters journeys/lives we had to endlessly read about...and suddenly no resolution. Crap.

I don't know if I recommend or not. Very, very hard to read.

42 & 43

Piece of My Heart is another mystery by Peter Robinson. This one involved a mystery from the sixties and a mystery in modern day times that were interconnected. Even though I'm not a big fan of alternating flashbacks with current times (even when done well it can be jarring, or at very least, frustrating), I did enjoy this book. I'm glad I'm on a break from PR though because the last two were quite similar even though it's the luck of the draw which book makes it to the library first.

Next up was The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. Here's the description from the back of the book: “The Postmistress is set in the years 1940-41, both on Cape Cod and in Europe. The reader follows the paths of three women – Emma, Iris, and Frankie – as Europe experiences Hitler’s fury and Americans wonder if they will enter the war. Emma has just married Will, a doctor on Cape Cod. She wants to make a good impression on the people there, and make a good home for her husband. Iris is the Postmaster of the same town Emma moves to, and watches over the people of the town. Frankie is a reporter in London during the Blitzkrieg, experiencing some of the horrors of war while trying to report on them."

Earlier this year I was recommending a book to my book club and the immediate response of my neighbor was, "not another war book!" It's had me feeling slightly defensive about how many of them I read. As I finished Postmistress, I wondered to myself, why do I like war stories so much? I'm still not sure I have an answer I can fully articulate on here.

There are some interesting themes: two characters with very strong characters find themselves doing things that run strongly against their own ideals and nature; a strong theme through the story is whether our lives are already ordered or if we can affect their course.

This wasn't the best story I've ever read, but I know it will stick with me for a long time.

39-41

A Reliable Wife is one of the books that was recommended to me by Amazon.ca because of the books I read/buy/look at on their website. The write up looked interesting so I dutifully ordered it from the library:

"Set in a small Wisconsin farming and manufacturing town still crumbling a decade after the depression of the 1890s, A Reliable Wife tells the story of Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman who advertises for “a reliable wife” in newspapers across America. The woman he chooses, Catherine Land, describes herself as “a simple, honest woman,” but in truth she is both complex and devious— not the missionary’s daughter she claims to be in her letter to Truitt but a courtesan of great beauty, kept by men and haunted by a terrible past. Catherine’s plan in accepting the marriage offer is simple: she will win this man’s devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is the passion she finds in this seemingly solid, forthright man—a man who also harbours secrets and whose own past is far from pure.

Filled with remarkable characters and drenched with colour and atmosphere, A Reliable Wife is a story of love and madness, longing and murder, played out in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis."

Turns out there was WAY more sex stuff than I needed to read. But the story definitely pulled me in so that I felt like I had to know how it ended. So, I'm not sure if I would recommend it or not!! There were lots of quotes that made me wish I was reading with a book and pen. I caught one: "we all want to be somebody else. Somebody braver, or more handsome, or smarter. It's what children want. It's what you grow out of if you're lucky. If you don't, it's a lifetime of agony....Play the hand you have, Antonio, that's all anybody expects. And it's a pretty good hand."

Summertime for me means reading lots of mysteries at the beach. So I ordered every Peter Robinson book I could get my hands on. The next two were Dead Right and In a Dry Season. Both were good, but of the two, In a Dry Season is the one I can't stop thinking about. If you're looking for a new mystery author, Peter Robinson is very good.