June Wrap-up and July Hopefuls

Two of my June reads

June Wrap-Up

• Finished: 9
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 2,738
• Average rating: 3.944

I had not expected that I’d read so many books in June! I thought I’d have time to finish five books, but I read four more. In the beginning of the month, I read one novel in verse, Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (5/5 stars), which was also my favorite book of the month. I also read Sarah Brooks’s steampunk fantasy The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands (3/5 stars), which unfortunately was a bit of a disappointment.

December Wrap-Up and January Hopefuls

December Reads

December Wrap-Up

• Finished: 9
• Started but not finished: 1
• Total pages read: 2,304
• Average rating: 4.42

I finished three novels and one memoir in December. The novels were Lauren Groff’s historical fiction The Vaster Wilds (5/5 stars), Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian fiction Parable of the Sower (4.5/5 stars), and Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men (5/5 stars). You can find longer reviews behind the links. Tara Westover’s memoir Educated (5/5 stars) I’m reviewing below. As you can see from the ratings, I had a great month in December!

I also started one novel in December, The Beekeeper’s Promise by Fiona Valpy. I finished it in early January, but since I read most of it during the Christmas holiday, I’m reviewing it in this post as well.

Book Review: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

Book title: The Vaster Wilds
Author: Lauren Groff
Genre: Historical fiction
Published: September 12, 2023
256 pages
My rating: 5/5

“She had chosen to flee, and in so choosing, she had left behind her everything she had, her roof, her home, her country, her language, the only family she had ever known, the child Bess, who had been born into her care when she was herself a small child of four years or so, her innocence, her understanding who she was, her dreams of who she might one day be if only she could survive this starving time.”

Virginia, 1600s. In the last days of winter, a servant girl escapes from a famished and disease-ridden colonial settlement of Jamestown into the wilderness. Carrying only her wits and a few possessions, she attempts to travel north to the safety of another colony. But in the vast wilderness around her, threats loom behind every tree: hostile men, hungry animals, and the forest itself.

What an amazing read! The Vaster Wilds is Lauren Groff’s historical fiction. The writing is lyrical and poetic, and the (mostly nameless) main character is a determined and strong female lead.

Book Review: The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Book title: The Lion Women of Tehran
Author: Marjan Kamali
Genre: Historical fiction
Published: July 2, 2024
327 pages
My rating: 5/5

“Someday, you and me – we’ll do great things. We’ll live life for ourselves. And we will help others. We are cubs now, maybe. But we will grow to be lionesses. Strong women who make things happen.”

Seven-year-old Elaleh “Ellie” Soltani’s comfortable middle-class life is upended by the unexpected death of her father when she and her mother are forced to move to a poorer neighborhood. In school, she meets Homa Roozbeh, and the two girls become best friends to Ellie’s mother’s dismay. Together they play games and dream of becoming lion women of the first generation of working women in Iran. Opportunity allows Ellie to return to her earlier lifestyle, and memories of Homa fade, until years later Homa suddenly reappears in her life.

The Lion Women of Tehran is a historical fiction by Marjan Kamali. Told mostly from Ellie’s point of view with a few chapters from Homa’s perspective, this coming-of-age story follows the two Iranian girls from the early 1950s, when Iran was modernizing, to the early 1980s and the aftermath of the Islamic revolution.

February Wrap-Up and March Goals

February Reads

February Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started but not finished: 4
• Total pages read: 2,012
• Average rating: 3.75

I finished four books in February, and two of them were novels. The first was Stephanie Garber’s Caraval (4/5 stars). It was an enjoyable young adult fantasy, but I admit I had expected a lot more from it. It didn’t quite reach my expectations, as you can see from the four-star rating. Click the link to read a longer review.

November Wrap-Up and December Goals

November reads

November Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 1,791
• Average rating: 4

I didn’t read a lot of books in November as I was focusing on writing a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, but the books I did read were pretty good. I finished three fiction novels and one non-fiction book. Two of them were the first two books of Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone (4.5/5 stars) and Siege and Storm (also 4.5/5 stars). Click the links to read longer reviews and to find out what I thought about them.

The non-fiction book I read was in Finnish. Sinut on nähty by Anu Silfverberg is an autobiographical essay on gender and gaze.

Book Review: Oh Dear, Maria! by Abigail Ted

Oh Dear, Maria! by Abigail Ted

Book title: Oh Dear, Maria! (* Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Abigail Ted
Genre: Historical fiction
Published: November 1, 2022
288 pages
My rating: 4/5

“For Maria Harrington, there was no greater satisfaction than that which could be found in her own misery. It had always been the way, and there was no explaining it, at least not by the lady herself; misery was her oldest, most-beloved friend, and she was forever in search of this companion.”

Maria Harrington is a stubborn, self-centered, and melodramatic daughter of a power-hungry merchant father and a mentally ill and absent mother. Her father forces her into a marriage with a debt-ridden Member of Parliament, Honourable Mr. Jackson—a man she used to love but now despises. At first, she is sure to make everyone know how miserable she is, and it doesn’t take long for her new husband to realize Maria is more than just a ticket to financial independence. She is also an emotional time bomb whose explosions range from comical to terrifying.

Oh Dear, Maria! is a debut novel by indie author Abigail Ted. The book is a humorous Regency pastiche, following the footsteps of classic satire such as William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. That alone made me eager to read this book, as Vanity Fair is one of my favorite classics. I must admit I was slightly disappointed, but that’s probably because I was setting my expectations too high. This book does what it promises, although it does not quite reach the level of the masters it takes inspiration from.

Book Review: The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell

The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell

Book Title: The Midwife (*Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Tricia Cresswell
Genre: Historical fiction
Published: February 17, 2022 by Pan Macmillan
337 pages
My rating: 3/5

“The woman lay curled in the heather, her skin blue-white against the frost. She was so cold to John Elliott’s first touch; so certainly dead, that the sound of her breathing was shocking.”

1838. A woman is found naked and near death on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is, but she can still remember how to help a woman in labor. She is named Joanna, later Mrs Sharp, and becomes a nurse and a midwife in the village of Alnwick in Northumberland. A few years later in London, Dr Borthwick works as an accoucheur, a male midwife, helping women from the homes of the high society to the slums of the Devil’s Acre.

Book Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Book Title: Lessons in Chemistry (*Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Bonnie Garmus
Genre: Historical fiction
Published: March 31, 2022
390 pages
My rating: 5/5

 “Whenever you start doubting yourself,” she said, turning back to the audience, “whenever you feel afraid, just remember that Courage is the root of change – and change is what we’re chemically designed to do. So when you wake up tomorrow, make this pledge. No more holding yourself back.”

 Elizabeth Zott has one goal and one goal only: to work as a chemist. The all-male team at Hastings Research Institute where she works, however, has other ideas: she should make coffee, act as an assistant, and behave like any other woman. Only one person respects her for her accomplishments: the brilliant scientist Calvin Evans. Their unconventional relationship raises not a few eyebrows at the Institute. When Elizabeth is forced to resign due to her unwed pregnancy, she accepts a job as the host of the TV show Supper at Six. Her scientific approach to cooking glues women in front of the TV five days a week, while her revolutionary social commentary challenges the viewers to change the status quo.