(3) Brief Reviews - The Only Woman in the Room; Marie Benedict - The Measure; Nikki Erlick and Summer Love; Nancy Thayer

The Only Woman in the Room; Marie Benedict

(book group read - purchase)

SourceBooks - 2019

The Only Woman in the Room is fictionalized account of Austrian born icon Hedy (Kiesler) Lamarr a woman with both brain and beauty.   Born in 1914 to jewish parents, at 19 years of age she marries Fritz Mandl, a munitions mogul who was both controlling and violent.  In 1937 she finally is successful in escaping for London where she is discovered by Louis Mayer (MGM Studios) and gets her ticket to Hollywood.  Despite Hedy's brilliant scientific mind and her work on a torpedo guidance system, she never really got the recognition she deserved because she was female.

My book group met in July to discuss this book. Most everyone thought it was a light, easy read with it's short chapters and quick moving storyline but, we also all agreed that historical fiction, loosely based on true events should not be written in the first person.  I especially enjoyed the first half of the book about her marriage to Fritz Mandl and her relationship with her parents.  I thought the second half , about her years in Hollywood and her scientific work felt rushed and, I never got a sense of how her scientific brilliance came about.  

Some of the historical details here were inaccurate which was troublesome. In this book she adopted a son but, in real life she actually had four of her own children.  The ending was also disappointing - I wanted more. as did most everyone in our group.

RATING - 3.5/5 stars

The Measure; Nikki Erlick

(Harper Audio - library loan)

(Julia Whalen narrator) - very good

The Measure was an audiobook I requested by chance from the library as it sounded different from what I would normally select.  It ended up being pretty good.

In this story (8) ordinary people all from different demographics find a mysterious box on the doorstop. The box contains a string -- some long strings and some short ones.  The length of the individual's string is to determine whether they can expect to live a long life or one that is cut short.  Soon more people, everyone adult over the age of 22 will receive the same box/string.  What does it all mean? 

This is one of those stories that makes the reader wonder about what they would do in the same situation.  I thought it was interesting to see how different the individuals were and what they did with the information about a short versus long life.  The story was told through multiple POVs, each individual is struggling with life issues while trying to decide how to live out their lives.  A unique debut novel that seemed to have at least a bit of a political agenda but, it wasn't heavy or off-putting for me.. Overall, this was mostly a story about life, love and how we choose to spend our time here on earth.  Readers looking for something different might want to try this one. The audio, read by Julia Whalen was well done.

RATING - 4/5 stars

Summer Love; Nancy Thayer

Ballantine Books - 2022

(eGalley) - (20 Books of Summer list)

I always look forward to a Nancy Thayer summer release that returns readers to Nantucket Island.  Unfortunately, this book was lackluster and really disappointed me.

Ariel, Sheila, Nick and Wyatt spent a summer after college working on the island and became fast friends. At the time they crashed in the basement of a hotel that was being renovated.  Fast forward (26) years and Nick now owns the Lighthouse hotel on the island and invites the group to return over the summer. This time it's not just the friends but their children who are now in the 20s, the kids are the same ages the parents were when they first spent that summer there.  What has happened to this group over the last 20-something years?  How different will this summer be for them and their adult children or, will Nantucket work its magic?

The best thing about this book was the setting and all the little details that make this island setting work over and over again no matter who the author is.  The book itself seemed so rushed and unrealistic, I almost stopped reading midway.  The issues I had with the book were - the characters lacked substance and everyone seemed to fall in love instantly.  The word choices the author used were not the way young people speak today and much of what took place just felt cliche.  This is not what I've come to expect from Nancy Thayer - disappointing.

RATING - 2/5 stars (eGalley provided by publisher in exchange for my unbiased review.)

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - The Only Woman in the Room; Marie Benedict

                                                  

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book we are reading or plan to read soon. 

This is my book club read for this month and it is a real page turner with very few characters. It is Fiction but based on a true story and should make for a good discussion book.

The Only Woman in the Room; Marie Benedict

Sourcebooks - 2019 (purchased)

Part One

Chapter One

May 17, 1933

Vienna, Austria

"My LIDS FLUTTERED OPEN< BUT THE FLOODLIGHTS blinded me for a moment.  Placing a discreet, steadying, hand on my costar's arm, I willed a confident smile upon my lips whiIe I waited for my vision to clear.  The applause thundered, and I swayed in the cacophony of sound and light.  The mask I'd firmly affixed to myself for the performance slipped away for a moment, and I was no longer nineteenth-century Bavarian empress Elizabeth, but simply Hedy Kiesler."

What do you think - read more or pass?

Book Review - The Lies I Tell; Julie Clark

The Lies I Tell; Julie Clark

Sourcebooks - 2022

(library loan)

After really enjoying this author's previous book: The Last Flight, I couldn't wait to try her latest thriller - I wasn't disappointed.

Meg Williams, is posing as a LA real estate agent selling high end properties.  She's a con artist and has an agenda that has brought her to LA.  Meg also her two other aliases as this isn't her first con job.   Kat Roberts is a journalist who has been waiting for Meg to surface after 10+ years.  She is ready to get friendly with Meg and then expose her and bring her down. At least initially Kat is determined to settle the score over something that happened a decade earlier. However, once Kat tracks Meg down and gets to know her better she begins to wonder whether she is the con artist she believed her to be or whether they are more alike than she could have ever imagined?

This is a fast-paced, twisty thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.  Told from dual POVs in the past and present, this is a style that worked very well helping the reader understand why these women acted in the manner they did and why they felt that they had scores to settle. This author has a real talent for creating a propulsive story line that is difficult to put down once you begin reading. I also loved that her characters were fully fleshed making the reader feel like they knew everything there was to know about both women by the end of end of this novel. If you enjoy well written thrillers, be sure to check out everything this author has written. Highly recommended.

Rating - 4.5/5 stars

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - The Lies I Tell; Julie Clark

                                                    

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book we are reading or plan to read soon. I just picked this one up at the library.

The Lies I Tell; Julie Clark

Sourcebooks Landmark - 2022

(library loan)

Kat

Present - June

She stands across the room from me, in a small cluster of donors, talking and laughing.  A jazz quartet plays in a corner, the bouncing, slipping notes dancing around us, a low undertone of class and money. Meg Williams.  I take a sip of wine, savoring the expensive vintage, the weight of the crystal glass, and I watch her.  There are few photographs of her in existence \--a grainy senior portrait from an old high school yearbook, and another image pulled from a 2009 YMCA staff directory--but I recognized her immediately.  My first thought: She's back. Followed closely by my second: Finally.

What do you think, read more or pass?  I l loved a previous book by the author - The Last Flight, so I've been looking forward to the newer release.

Book Review - The Book Woman's Daughter; Kim Michele Richardson

 

The Book Woman's Daughter; Kim Michele Richardson

Sourcebooks  - 2022

Last year our book group read and discussed The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and most everyone loved the story.  As a result I couldn't wait to read book #2 in the series: The Book Woman's Daughter.

Set in Kentucky (15) years after book #1 ends, Honey Lovett is the (16) year old daughter of Cussy Mary Carter Lovett who worked as a Packhorse Librarian in 1930s Appalachia, delivering books to eager readers upon her mule Junia.  Cussy was a bluet, a blue-skinned woman with a condition called methemoglobinemia. Cussy married a white man and their marriage earned them a prison sentence for miscegenation.  Honey's parents prepared her for what they feared was to come and sent her away with Junia, the mule,  to keep her out of orphanages until she reached adulthood.  As luck would have it Honey is hired to take over her mother's packhorse job and like her mother she is doing something she loves but, not everyone is thrilled when she arrives with the books. 

I thought the author did a good job with this sequel and although this could be read as a standalone, I do recommend that readers try the first book of the series. IMO, the first book gives a lot of good background information about the packhorse library program and the people of Appalachia as well.  This book was a good read with a few nice minor characters but, I liked the first book a bit better. Like the first book this story covered several tough issues: poverty, domestic violence, prejudice and illiteracy.  I thought the ending was satisfying.

NOTE: I borrowed this book from my public library

RATING - 4/5 stars

A Christmas Party; Georgette Heyer - First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book we are reading or plan to read soon.  It's time for me to begin some holiday reads.  I purchased this eBook last week - hope it's good.

Brief Description - 'Tis the Season―for murder...

A colorful assortment of guests at a festive holiday house party discover there is a killer in their midst when their universally reviled host is found dead―in a room locked from the inside.

For Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard, the investigation is complicated by the fact that every guest is hiding something―throwing all their testimony into question and casting suspicion far and wide. The clever and daring crime will mystify readers, yet the answer is in plain sight all along...

A Christmas Party; Georgette Heyer

Sourcebooks - 2016

One

It was a source of great satisfaction to Joseph Herriard that the holly trees were in full berry.  He seemed to find in this circumstance an assurance that the projected reunion of the family would be a success.  For days past he had been bringing prickly sprigs into the house, his rosy countenance beaming with pleasure, and his white locks (worn rather long, and grandly waving)  ruffled by the December winds.  "Just look at the berries!" he would say, thrusting his sprig sunder Nathaniel's nose, laying them on Maud's card table.

I must admit that intro doesn't thrill me but, I know the author is quite popular so I thought I'd give it a try.

Book Review - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek; Kim Michele Richardson

 

TITLE/AUTHOR:  The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek; Kim Michele Richardson

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2019

GENRE: Fiction / Historical

FORMAT:  print /LENGTH: 320 pp.

SOURCE: eBook / Purchased

SETTING(s):  Kentucky

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:  A story about the Pack Horse Librarian Project and the prejudices faced by a strong, brave,  Appalachian woman in 1930s Kentucky.

BRIEF REVIEW:  In 1936, nineteen year old Cussy Mary Carter from Troublesome Creek, Kentucky is mostly a happy young woman who lives with her coal mining and union organizer father.  Her father wants to see Cussy married but, marriage has never been important to her.  Cussy was born with a rare genetic affliction - methemoglobinemia - which makes her blue colored skin seem even bluer at times. The white folks consider her "colored".  

Cussy is grateful for her job as a Kentucky Pack Horse Librarian as part of President's Roosevelt's New Deal initiative.  Many of the rural people are happy to see her as she makes her weekly rounds on her mule but, others are not thrilled when "Bluet", the blue-skinned woman comes around.  Despite this she's determined to share her love and the love of her late-mother's passion for books week after week.

There are several terrible things that happen to Cussy throughout the course of this story - most based on racism and false beliefs of the Appalachian people.  For example, she is forced to endure some experimental medical tests and ordered to take debilitating medicines which only temporarily turn her blue skin to white.  

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a powerful, emotionally charged story. The fact that this story is told from the first person POV made it all the more compelling. My heart went out to Cussy Mary, a strong, tough young woman determined to bring hope and kindness to others in terrible times despite what she was force to endure, just because she looked different. It was sad to see how not much has changed in the narrow minds of some individuals today some 85 years later. 

Inspired in part by the story about the blue-skinned people and the Pack Horse Librarian Project, I'm so happy that this book was chosen for my book group discussion.  I'll be curious to hear what others thought as there is plenty to talk about with this book. I loved this one and, as one who has never been drawn to historical fiction, my feelings about the genre has quickly changed after having had several wonderful reads in 2021. READ IT!

RATING: 5/5 stars

MEMORABLE QUOTES: 

"What I wanted most was to be okay as a Blue. I never understood why other people thought my color, any color, needed fixing."

“I liked my sensibility just fine. I liked my freedom a lot—loved the solitude these last seven months had given me—and I lived for the joy of bringing books and reading materials to the hillfolk who were desperate for my visits, the printed word that brought a hopeful world into their dreary lives and dark hollers. It was necessary. And for the first time in my life, I felt necessary.”

Book Review - The Last Flight; Julie Clark

 

                                                 The Last Flight; Julie Clark

                                                               Sourcebooks - 2020 

The Last Flight was one of the better thrillers that I've read in 2020. It's the story of two women, strangers to each other, from different ends of the US, each is trying to escape from bad situation.

Claire, from Manhattan, appears to have an enviable life on the outside. But, privately,  her politically connected husband is controlling and abusive.  She has tried to leave him previously, this time she hopes she will succeed with her well thought out plan that includes a new identity.  Eva, from Berkeley, CA, is a bright, single woman who has gotten herself into a bad situation that she is desperately trying to flee from.  The women meet at JFK airport where Eva overhears a bit of Claire's frantic conversation. Eva follows her to a bar area and strikes up a conversation and, before long they come up with a plan that might work for for both women.

This was very well written and I loved how each woman's story unfolded in alternating chapters.  There was often a cliff hanger that made you want to just keep reading a bit more.  The characters were smart women who just ended up in bad situations.  I highly recommend this one for readers who enjoy a good thriller.

Rating - 4.5/5 stars

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - The Last Flight; Julie Clark

 

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, now hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book they are reading or that they plan to read soon. 

                                                    The Last Flight; Julie Clark

                                                                   Sourcebooks - 2020 

PROLOGUE

John F Kennedy Airport, New York

Tuesday, February 22

The Day of the Crash

"Terminal 4 swarmed with people, the smell of wet wool and jet fuel thick around me.  I wait for her inside the sliding glass doors, the frigid winter wind slamming into me when ever they open, and instead force myself to visualize a balmy Puerto Rican breeze, laced with the scent of hibiscus and sea salt. The soft, accented Spanish swirling around me like a warm bath, blotting out the person I was before."

What do you think, pass or read more? (I started this one last night and it's quite addictive)