I've been reading a TON lately, mostly to keep myself off of social media. I find that FB and IG generally make me feel horrible, so I've been avoiding them lately. I'd generally like to continue that trend....
Luckily, my big reading habit has been helped by a few things: the discovery of free reading via Amazon prime on my Kindle, the local San Mateo library and the local Stanford library. Among those, I have been able to read about 2-3 books a week for the past several weeks. It's been a good thing. I thought I would tell you about a few that I've read.
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tells the story of Martha Jefferson Randolph, the only surviving daughter of Thomas Jefferson. The novel follows Martha as her mother dies shortly after childbirth and she essentially becomes the mistress of the Jefferson household. The book is apparently based on thousands of letters and original sources and draws an interesting picture of the life of Jefferson's daughter. In her life, she lives in Paris during the French Revolution, is a witness to the dramatic forming of the American government, marries a cousin of hers and has a tumultuous relationship (and 11 surviving children), plays witness to Thomas Jefferson's affair with his slave, Sally Hemmings, and takes on the role of "first lady" in the White House. She lived a rich and varied life, in contrast to the slaves that Jefferson and her relatives kept. As a review, honestly, I thought this could have been so much better. The imagined dialogue is inane, the characters are fairly two-dimensional and several of the interesting plot points are imagined. With all the intrigue of forming a government and carrying out the American experiment, I would have thought that the authors could have created more interesting scenes, a more cohesive story (with or without the imagined romance) and more conflict addressing the fact that Jefferson wrote, "All men are created equal", except he kept slaves and women certainly were not considered equal. Although we know little about Sally Hemmings (and it's suggested that Martha destroyed any writings by Thomas Jefferson that referred to Hemmings), the authors create a love story between Hemmings and Jefferson. I find that largely unbelievable as Hemmings was a slave and many years younger than Jefferson (Hemmings was about Martha's age). It's well known that slave owners would rape their slaves - why would they not choose this scenario? It's definitely the more likely one, but I am assuming they chose the one they did to continue to white-wash history and not talk about reality during the creation of the US. If you like historical fiction and an easy read, you might like this book. Martha was a very interesting woman, I just think the authors could have done her more justice.
In the light of the garden by Heather Burch: I actually liked this story., although it was a bit cheesy. It was very light and easy to read. It follows Charity, who has just inherited her grandparents' house in Florida. She inherited a ton of money, too, so she decides to move to this sleepy community to start her life over. Her neighbor, Dalton, is a handyman who has moved to the island because he's experienced a dramatic tragedy (his wife and child were killed in a 7-11 robbery - a bit too dramatic, I thought). Anyways, there are some interesting characters, a slightly dramatic plot twist and the two of them end up together, naturally.
Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller. This is a memoir about growing up with parents who are hoarders. This book was well written and interesting to read. It's clear it was therapeutic to write for the author. She talks about her childhood growing up surrounded by stuff - it's enough to make you want to clean your house! She describes not inviting friends over, being different people in the car as a family vs. being at home, and the complete and utter breakdown of a house they owned that literally fell apart because of stuff. I wanted this book to end with them finally cleaning everything out, but it doesn't end that way (of course it doesn't - this is her actual life), but it's interesting nonetheless.
Her Perfect Revengeby Anna Mara. This book is free on Amazon Prime and, honestly, I almost didn't make it through this one. It is billed as "a romantic comedy" and "laugh-out-loud funny". It follows Christina as she starts high school and is bullied by Bill. Fast forward 12 years later, and Christina is still mad about that bullying situation and decides to prank Bill for reasons that are beyond me. Christina barely has a job - she is a freelance photographer yet somehow affords to live in NYC unaided. Bill is a spoiled brat, but the heir to his father's dog food (?) fortune, so he drives fancy cars and does fancy stuff. Christina accidentally crashes her car into his and then Bill convinces her to pretend to be his fiancee so he can keep getting his dad's money. All of the characters are manipulative liars, so in the end they all deserve each other, I suppose. The only thing this author is good at is creating compulsion - I was compelled to find out what happened next so I finished the book but I'm unsure that I'm better for it...
A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy. This author was recommended to me because I love Rosamunde Pilcher, so I checked out some books from the library. This book is written about a new character each chapter, which I thought was an interesting way to write a story. The story centers around a new inn on the west coast of Ireland. It's being opened by Chicky Starr, the first character we meet in the book. The rest of the characters are either connected to Chicky in some way, or are connected to the Inn in some way. And each character has a problem that is subsequently solved by their trip to the Inn. It's a cute story with compelling characters, and, honestly, I wanted more to the story when I was finished (I think that is the biggest complement to an author, that you want to keep inhabiting their world).
The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy. This was a longer book than the previous one, but was a really interesting story. The book centers on Kit, a young girl in the beginning of the book, who lives with her mum and dad and brother in Lough Glass, Ireland. When Kit is 12, her mother goes missing one night and cannot be found. Kit grows into a woman during the course of the book and comes into her own as an adult, discovering the truth about her mother's disappearance. I thought this book was so great. I really enjoyed the story, the characters and the plot twists.
The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy - this is collection of her short stories, which were fine to read. It's nice to have a story without having to wonder what happens next. One of her stories was told entirely in letter form, which I thought was original.
I've got four more that I checked out from the library this past weekend - I will let you know what I think!
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