I really enjoyed the books I’m going to share with you! It is rare that I would recommend 5/5 of the books I share on here, but here I go. I’d love to know what you’re reading or what you’d like to read soon! I’m actually getting on a bit of an audio book rut and reading more printed books is definitely in my future. These are the last 5 books I’ve read.
Where the Crawdad Sings
Oh my word. It is hard for me to believe this is the author’s first novel. Her writing and descriptions of the swamps and marshes are honestly magical, the story is heart breaking and surprising, and I would 100% recommend it.
Summary from Amazon:
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Hill Women
This reminded me of a tamer version of Hillbilly Elegy. Cassie writes about her autobiographical experience of growing up in the Appalachian hills, going to an Ivy League school, and then coming back to home to be a public defender for people struggling. Cassie describes her different opportunities that education gave her, the class consciousness she received in both worlds, and finally finding a world of her own.
Summary from Amazon:
After rising from poverty to earn two Ivy League degrees, an Appalachian lawyer pays tribute to the strong “hill women” who raised and inspired her, and whose values have the potential to rejuvenate a struggling region.
Safe People
This is written by the same author who wrote Boundaries. The book was short, simple, and to the point. I’d recommend this book.
Summary from Amazon:
Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend offer solid guidance for making safe choices in relationships, from family to friendship, romance and work. They help identify the healthy and growing people we all need in our lives, as well as ones we need to learn to avoid. Safe People will help you to recognize twenty traits of relationally untrustworthy people and discover what makes some people relationally safe, as well as how to avoid unhealthy entanglements. You’ll learn about things within yourself that jeopardize your relational security, and you’ll find out how to develop a balanced approach to relationships.
Cleopatra’s Daughter
Mystery, romance, history, and family friendly. I really enjoyed this book a lot! I quickly looked up the other books written by the author after finishing.
Summary from Amazon:
Based on meticulous research, Cleopatra’s Daughter is a fascinating portrait of imperial Rome and of the people and events of this glorious and most volatile period in human history. Emerging from the shadows of the past, Selene, a young woman of irresistible charm and preternatural intelligence, will capture your heart.
Before and After
I love investigative journalism and memoirs; naturally, I really loved this book then. The author of this book just intended to publish a book based on children from the Tennessee Children’s Home Society and do a book tour, but people kept contacting her about stories of their experiences. The author ended up setting up a reunion for children involved and this book is the result. The book is really fascinating and sad.
Review from Amazon:
Before and After includes moving and sometimes shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives. Christie and Wingate tell of first meetings that are all the sweeter and more intense for time missed and of families from very different social backgrounds reaching out to embrace better-late-than-never brothers, sisters, and cousins. In a poignant culmination of art meeting life, many of the long-silent victims of the tragically corrupt system return to Memphis with the authors to reclaim their stories at a Tennessee Children’s Home Society reunion . . . with extraordinary results.
