We aren't one of those families who goes to the beach each summer (or at all). And even if we did, and I were to take a stack of books with me on vacation...I would come home with that same stack, mostly unread. As much as I enjoy reading and self-identify as a bookworm, I also know myself. My best seasons of reading involve cooler weather, shorter days, cozy blankets, and cups of tea, not sea, sand, or travel. And maybe that's because when I'm actually elsewhere, I want to be focused on the new, the present, the things I don't normally see. But when I'm home, with the same routine, day-in and day-out, then books are what take me to different places...Zebra Drive in Botswana, a surprisingly murderous Caribbean seaside town, the cooler mountains of North Carolina, or even the past. When traveling doesn't fit in the budget...reading always will.
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| Photo by Anna Hamilton on Unsplash |
Summer has been a season of slow reading. Longer days don't make space for couch snuggles with a book, and hot weather isn't a friend of porch swing reading, at least for me. I did make time on July 4th to float around in our little backyard pool, reading the first book on my list. It was a lazy holiday with no plans, the kids gone to spend time with grandparents, and no work lingering over my head, so I embraced it. But those days are few and far between. So far, in fact, that by the middle of the month I had only completed one book! Life happens. So on these hottest of summer days, here's what I still managed to read in July (my minimum of four books was met, even with the start of the Olympics, which is saying something!)...
- Code Girls by Liza Mundy - ★★★★★ I am a fan of history, especially little known stories from WWII, like this one. A well-written tale of the unsung heroines of code breaking, both military and civilian. Former school teachers, the "best and brightest" from women's colleges, brilliant mathematicians and linguists who would have remained buried but for the war. I was so impressed by the tenacity of these women, and the ways in which each one quietly and quickly went about their work, rarely being acknowledged for their role and removed just as quickly once the men came back. I appreciated the story about the woman who, decades after the war, was watching a television news segment about code breaking and shocked her family by saying, "Well, I guess now I can talk about what I did during the war!" As the Greatest Generation leaves us, it's so important to remember these stories and pass them on to the next generation so we do not forget the sacrifices that were made by so many. Five stars. {Amazon Associates Link}
- Father of the Bride by Edward Streeter - ★★ Much like The Egg and I, I didn't realize that Father of the Bride started out life as a book. And also like The Egg and I...the movie(s) improved the story. Written in 1949 (one year before Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor portrayed father and daughter in the first movie production), the book had its moments of levity. But just as I found while reading The Egg and I earlier this year, the language left much to be desired, and my puritanical views of the 1940s had to be tossed out the window yet again. This was rather a disappointment and I cannot recommend this one. Watch the movie (preferably the Steve Martin/Martin Short version from 1991), skip the book. Two stars. {No Amazon Link}
- Murder in the Caribbean by Robert Thorogood - ★★★★ With the first book of the month being a bit heavier, and the second book being a flop, I knew I needed to give myself a reading break and go for a book that I knew wouldn't disappoint. And it didn't! I've been watching Death in Paradise since the first season, and very much enjoy the show. When I discovered that the writer/creator of the show, Robert Thorogood, also wrote four books featuring the stubborn but brilliant British DI Richard Poole, I was all in. The first two books in the (sadly short) series can be purchased for Kindle for just $0.99 each (Book 1 and Book 2), while books 3 and 4 are only available in paperback at this time. As with the show, Thorogood's characters jump off the page and there are twists and turns galore, keeping one guessing as to the ending, right up until the big "whodoneit" reveal. This fourth (and final) book in the series is the perfect summer read and a delightful way to spend a lazy weekend afternoon. Four stars. {Amazon Associates Link}
- The Address Book by Deirdre Mask - ★★★★ I kept my expectations relatively low for this one, but was pleasantly surprised. Mask does a good job (albeit with some personal bias obvious along the way) of explaining how street addresses affect one's identity, and what they say about race, wealth, and power. Some of my own hidden biases were brought to light while reading this book, and overall, I enjoyed the premise and the writing. We are obviously on opposite ends of the political spectrum, but despite that, I enjoyed seeing some of these topics from a completely different viewpoint, and with her varied and international viewpoint (an African American woman, raised in West Virginia, living in London), I thought she did a good job, overall, of making us think a little more in-depth about the value of an address. It's so much more than just a place to lay your head. Would recommend. Four stars. {Amazon Associates Link}
