8 summer reads to get lost in...

I just LOVE sitting pool side, at the beach or on the patio on a warm and sunny day and getting completely lost in a great book.  It is one of the most delicious way to spend a summer day.  Here are 8 books I have read recently that make for really great summer reads…

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman… This historical fiction set in a mental institution is a real page turner as the story line bounces between the present and the past. With themes of love, family and redemption with a touch of mystery thrown in, this story line will suck you in quickly.   

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal… You will get lost in the South with this civil-rights era story set in New Orleans.  One part The Help and one part Secret Life of Bees you will soon wish Fannie and Queenie were your family too.

Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin… An honest look at motherhood on the Upper East Side of New York City.  This pages practically turn themselves in this book. I equally loved the peek into the lives of New York City mothers and could also find many parallels to motherhood regardless of location in this book.

Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore… Set in an idyllic family summer compound in Vermont… one minute you think you are reading a book about a girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" trying to become an insider in this new world. The next minute you realize there is way more mystery beneath the surface.  This is absolute favorite read in a while! I highly recommend.

Paris, He Said by Christine Sneed… When a wealthy art dealer offers a young beautiful starving artist a chance to live and create art in Paris, she says yes.  Through the eyes of Jayne, Paris is beautiful and full of opportunity but is it what she really wanted? This book asks the question, what happens when our dreams come true?

Charleston by Margaret Bradham Thornton… A writer returns to her roots in Charleston and the city is brought alive on the page with fancy parties, old lovers and Southern charm.  This is one of my favorite reads about Charleston to date.  Truly a great book to get lost in.

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber… This book is so mind-blowing and just plain strange.  That said, I adored every moment of it. A young pastor is offered to travel to space to live on a planet that is being colonized.  His experiences and daily interactions with the natives in nothing short of bizarre.  This book still haunts my thoughts.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins… If you haven't already - read this. It's creepy and addicting and the ultimate summer read.  I am desperately hoping they make this into a movie, like probably everyone else that has read it.

Have you read any of these? What other summer "get lost in" books do you recommend?

50. Book Review: The Great Gatsby (2014)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Synopsis

This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

Review

For my 50th book this year (I met my goal!) I decided to go with an easy and enjoyable read that would be a good companion to the holidays.  For some reason classics seem to perfectly pair with the Christmas break.  This was my third time reading this book and more enjoyable than the previous times.  This is such a fun and easy book to read. I often find myself reading and re-reading passages just because of how eloquent or absolutely perfect they are. This book was a great way to end the year!

Other classic books you may like…

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 

Pride & Prejudice

43. Book Review: Mariana (2014)

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

Synopsis

Julia Beckett believes in destiny, settling into her rustic new home, Julia encounters haunting remnants of a beautiful young woman who lived and loved there centuries ago. It's seems Mariana has been waiting for Julia. 

 Review

I am now officially a Susanna Kearsley fan for life.  Similar in mood and readability as The Winter Sea, Kearsley effortlessly blends historical fiction and love into an absolute page turner.  These characters are instantly lovable and the scenery is so well written I absolutely felt like I was right in the action.  After I finished this book all I wanted to do was start another book by the same author.  Also the end has a very sweet twist that I loved.  I highly recommend this book!

Other books you may like…

anything by Susanna Kearsley

anything written by Kate Morton

39. Book Review: The Winter Sea (2014)

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

Synopsis

History has all but forgotten...In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown. 

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write. But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…

Review

I originally picked this book up a few years ago to read and just couldn't get into it - I have no idea why! I started again from the beginning and just flew through this book this time around. I loved every single page!  I could feel the sea air on my face, picture Carrie's cozy little cottage and loved the gentle unfolding of the two love stories as well.  This is historical fiction at it's best.  This is a great fall or winter read when you can snuggle up with a cup of tea by the fire and devour a great book.  I would be curious if Kearsley's other books are this delicious.  Have you read any others by this author?

Other books you may like…

The Secret Keeper: A Novel

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

37. Book Review: The Fortune Hunter (2014)

The Fortune Hunter: A Novel by Daisy Goodwin

Synopsis

Empress Elizabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, is the Princess Diana of nineteenth-century Europe. Famously beautiful, as captured in a portrait with diamond stars in her hair, she is unfulfilled in her marriage to the older Emperor Franz Joseph. Sisi has spent years evading the stifling formality of royal life on her private train or yacht or, whenever she can, on the back of a horse. 

 Captain Bay Middleton is dashing, young, and the finest horseman in England. He is also impoverished, with no hope of buying the horse needed to win the Grand National—until he meets Charlotte Baird. A clever, plainspoken heiress whose money gives her a choice among suitors, Charlotte falls in love with Bay, the first man to really notice her, for his vulnerability as well as his glamour. When Sisi joins the legendary hunt organized by Earl Spencer in England, Bay is asked to guide her on the treacherous course. Their shared passion for riding leads to an infatuation that jeopardizes the growing bond between Bay and Charlotte, and threatens all of their futures.

Review

I absolutely adored this book.  It solidified and reminded me of my love for historical fiction and was quite a delight to read after having read some books I haven't cared for much.  The story line moved at a steady pace with absolutely lovable characters and rich imagery. I almost felt like I was watching this in movie form rather than reading it, the author brilliantly painted her landscape.  I highly recommend this book if you too are a historical fiction lover.

Other books you may like…

The American Heiress: A Novel

The House at Tyneford: A Novel

34. Book Review: The Steady Running of the Hour (2014)

The Steady Running of the Hour: A Novel

Synopsis 

A QUEST NOVEL and a historical tour de force, The Steady Running of the Hour unravels a tale of passion, legacy, and courage reaching across the twentieth century. 

 In 1924, the English mountaineer Ashley Walsingham dies attempting to summit Mount Everest, leaving his fortune to his former lover, Imogen Soames-Andersson—whom he has not seen in seven years. Ashley’s solicitors search in vain for Imogen, but the estate remains unclaimed. 

 Nearly eighty years later, new information leads the same law firm to Tristan Campbell, a young American who could be the estate’s rightful heir. If Tristan can prove he is Imogen’s descendant, the inheritance will be his. But with only weeks before Ashley’s trust expires, Tristan must hurry to find the evidence he needs. 

 From London archives to Somme battlefields to the Eastfjords of Iceland, Tristan races to piece together the story behind the unclaimed riches: a reckless love affair pursued only days before Ashley’s deployment to the Western Front; a desperate trench battle fought by soldiers whose hope is survival rather than victory; an expedition to the uncharted heights of the world’s tallest mountain. Following a trail of evidence that stretches to the far edge of Europe, Tristan becomes consumed by Ashley and Imogen’s story. But as he draws close to the truth, Tristan realizes he may be seeking something more than an unclaimed fortune.

Review

I absolutely loved this book from the get-go and about half way through I couldn't put the book down at all - I even stayed up until 2am reading one night. I can't remember the last time I did that.  The two stories lines make for a definite page turner and my curiosity about the mystery that the story presents is irresistible.  I would have loved a little more involved ending… the book ended so abruptly!  But regardless this is a gorgeous book and one I won't soon forget.

Other books you may like…

The Signature of All Things: A Novel

Flight Behavior: A Novel

Any book by Kate Morton who is a genius with double story lines like this book!

28. Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See (2014)

All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr

Synopsis

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. 

 In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Review

Wow! This book was a stunningly gorgeous read and an up-all-night-page-turner.  I highly highly recommend this book.  The characters and scenes are brilliantly rendered - I felt like the characters were old friends and the settings of the book were my childhood homes.  I could so vividly see each and every character and each and every scene.  This book was such a delight to read.  The short (often very very short) chapters made for an addicting read as I continually found myself saying "just one more chapter" and would end up reading another 100 pages.  This is one of those books that I waited all day to finally sit down and read and now that it's over I'm a little sad, but I will never forget it.  

While the book takes place during World War II I wouldn't categorize it as just another WWII book (while I do love reading that genre, if it even is a genre, it can get old after a while) in that the characters are so richly portrayed that the war takes a back seat to the story. Definitely read this book!

Other books you may like…

Suite Française

The Book Thief

25. Book Review: The Museum of Extraordinary Things (2014)

The Museum of Extraordinary Things: A Novel by Alice Hoffman

Synopsis

Mesmerizing and illuminating, Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things is the story of an electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century. 

 Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River. 

 The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie. 

 With its colorful crowds of bootleggers, heiresses, thugs, and idealists, New York itself becomes a riveting character as Hoffman weaves her trademark magic, romance, and masterful storytelling to unite Coralie and Eddie in a sizzling, tender, and moving story of young love in tumultuous times. The Museum of Extraordinary Things is Alice Hoffman at her most spellbinding.

Review

This is the half way point! 25 more books to go!

The synopsis of this book totally hooked me… and I was really excited to dig into this book.  Right away the book drew me in but by about mid-way through this book totally fell flat for me. The tough thing about challenging yourself to read 50 books in a year and then reviewing them is that sometimes the book isn't as good as you wanted it to be and then you have to write about it. It's so hard for me to say even remotely negative things about a book.  I will say that the characters were great, I just loved Eddie, Coralie and Maureen… but the story line felt so terribly slow at some parts and break neck fast at others.  I am glad I read this book as it really was a fascinating story but I wish the story line flowed a little better. I can't ever give a book a "bad" review but I will say that if you read this, prepare yourself for a few slow spots and then hold on tight when the story finally "starts" about 50 pages until the end.

Other books you may like…

The Night Circus

The Swan Gondola: A Novel

23. Book Review: Under the Wide and Starry Sky (2014)

Under the Wide and Starry Sky: A Novel by Nancy Horan

Synopsis

From Nancy Horan, New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank, comes her much-anticipated second novel, which tells the improbable love story of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny. 

 At the age of thirty-five, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium—with her three children and nanny in tow—to study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated “belle Americaine.” 

 Fanny does not immediately take to the slender young lawyer who longs to devote his life to writing—and who would eventually pen such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In time, though, she succumbs to Stevenson’s charms, and the two begin a fierce love affair—marked by intense joy and harrowing darkness—that spans the decades and the globe. The shared life of these two strong-willed individuals unfolds into an adventure as impassioned and unpredictable as any of Stevenson’s own unforgettable tales.

Review

These days I am almost scared to read authors' 'much anticipated second novels' as a lot of them have fallen flat for me lately.  It's hard to know exactly how to review this book, to be honest.

I absolutely LOVED this author's first book Loving Frank and so I was excited to be taken on another one of Horan's literary adventures into the story and history of a bright man.

This book was long and pro-longed at times, going on and on about his sickness, his inability to have the life he wanted and the struggles of his wife.  I feel like this book could have been half as long with an extra dose of drama added in.  Even when Robert Louis Stevenson was well and successful the book glossed over those parts and tended to focus on his sickness and 'starving artist' life.  

With all that being said I will say that there was a slow meandering and depth to this book that made it very likable.  The reader is on an adventure to be sure… just one that moves quite slow at times.  Portions of the end of the book I just skipped because it felt so repetitive.  But this book left a lasting legacy in my mind at least.  Days after finishing this book I find myself wondering what Fanny and Louis are up to or replaying scenes in my head over and over.  For that I think the book is a success.  If you were/are a fan of RLS this book would likely be even more of a success.  So this book gets a mixed review from me.

Other books you may like…

Loving Frank: A Novel

Hemingway's Girl

The Paris Wife: A Novel

17. Book Review: The Wives of Los Alamos (2014)

The Wives of Los Alamos: A Novel by Tarashea Nesbit

Synopsis 

They arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret—including what their husbands were doing at the lab. 

Though they were strangers, they joined together—adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery. While the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud or in letters, and by the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind. 

 The Wives of Los Alamos is a testament to a remarkable group of real-life women and an exploration of a crucial, largely unconsidered aspect of one of the most monumental research projects in modern history.

Review

I first heard about this book from the Books on the Nightstand podcast (have you ever listened? I'm a huge fan!) and I was excited to check it out, so when I randomly found it at the library recently I was thrilled.  The book is written in the first person plural (as in "we" or "us") and I was hoping that I would get used to it as I read it, but I just couldn't relate to it. The way it was written it seemed to tell all the story and none of the story at the first time.  And while I am sure that a lot of work went into this book, the tense of first person plural made it seem really shallow. HOWEVER (and this is a big however) the book was quite intriguing.  I think this is a book that will really stick with me as the imagery was fantastic and the history of the Manhattan Project and the women that picked up their lives to follow their husbands who were working on it is a riveting subject.  In addition this book was a super quick and easy read.  It would be a great palette cleanser after perhaps a tough or lengthy book.

Other books you may like…

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Land Girls

14. Book Review: Stella Bain (2014)

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve

Synopsis

An epic story, set against the backdrop of World War I, from bestselling author Anita Shreve. When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in. A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse's aide near the front, but she can't remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield. In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.

Review

I picked this book up on a whim after finding it at the library without having heard anything about it previously.  After reading the book flap I was curious and brought it home with me.  I was pleasantly surprised by it. Anita Shreve also wrote The Pilot's Wife, which is a book I remember really enjoying reading. The story moves quickly and the writing is driven mostly by dialogue which in my opinion makes for a fast read. This book is a perfect "palate cleanser" after a deep, tough or lengthy book. Where some books can be equated to an epic movie… this was more of a one hour tv show. If that makes sense. The characters were likable and the story was an interesting albeit predictable one.  This book would make a great beach read.

Other books you may like…
The Pilot's Wife
The Aviator's Wife: A Novel
Sarah's Key

11. Book Review: The Swan Gondola (2014)

The Swan Gondola: A Novel by Timothy Schaffert

Synopsis

A lush and thrilling romantic fable about two lovers set against the scandalous burlesques, midnight séances, and aerial ballets of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair. 

 On the eve of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair, Ferret Skerritt, ventriloquist by trade, con man by birth, isn’t quite sure how it will change him or his city. Omaha still has the marks of a filthy Wild West town, even as it attempts to achieve the grandeur and respectability of nearby Chicago. But when he crosses paths with the beautiful and enigmatic Cecily, his whole purpose shifts and the fair becomes the backdrop to their love affair. One of a traveling troupe of actors that has descended on the city, Cecily works in the Midway’s Chamber of Horrors, where she loses her head hourly on a guillotine playing Marie Antoinette. And after closing, she rushes off, clinging protectively to a mysterious carpetbag, never giving Ferret a second glance. But a moonlit ride on the swan gondola, a boat on the lagoon of the New White City, changes everything, and the fair’s magic begins to take its effect. 

 From the critically acclaimed author of The Coffins of Little Hope, The Swan Gondola is a transporting read, reminiscent of Water for Elephants or The Night Circus. 

 Review 

This was the selection for my book club recently.  I absolutely loved this book (however I will say not everyone agreed at our recent book club meeting). This was just up my alley… with nods to Water for Elephants, Wizard of Oz, The Night Circus, The Devil in the White City and The Great Gatsby - all books which I really enjoyed. The book is part love story and part history lesson on the 1898 World's Fair. It had it's quirky parts (the Emerald Cathedral didn't seem to make a lot of sense - but was definitely a Wizard of Oz reference) and some may say too tidy of an ending. However, the cast of characters was superb, I find myself missing Ferret, Cecily, Dox, August and even Mrs. Margaret. I really enjoyed the adventure the book took the reader on and that makes this a book that I heartily recommend.

Other books you may like…

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Water for Elephants: A Novel

The Night Circus

6. Book Review: Freud's Mistress (2014)

Freud's Mistress by Karen Mack & Jennifer Kaufman

Synopsis 

His theories would change the world—and tear hers apart. A page-turning novel inspired by the true-life love affair between Sigmund Freud and his sister-in-law. 

 It is fin-de-siècle Vienna and Minna Bernays, an overeducated lady’s companion with a sharp, wry wit, is abruptly fired, yet again, from her position. She finds herself out on the street and out of options. In 1895, the city may be aswirl with avant-garde artists and revolutionary ideas, yet a woman’s only hope for security is still marriage. But Minna is unwilling to settle. Out of desperation, she turns to her sister, Martha, for help. Martha has her own problems—six young children and an absent, disinterested husband who happens to be Sigmund Freud. At this time, Freud is a struggling professor, all but shunned by his peers and under attack for his theories, most of which center around sexual impulses. And while Martha is shocked and repulsed by her husband’s “pornographic” work, Minna is fascinated. 

 Minna is everything Martha is not—intellectually curious, engaging, and passionate. She and Freud embark on what is at first simply an intellectual courtship, yet something deeper is brewing beneath the surface, something Minna cannot escape. In this sweeping tale of love, loyalty, and betrayal—between a husband and a wife, between sisters—fact and fiction seamlessly blend together, creating a compelling portrait of an unforgettable woman and her struggle to reconcile her love for her sister with her obsessive desire for her sister’s husband, the mythic father of psychoanalysis. 

Review

This book is in the vein of Hemingway's Girl or The Paris Wife or even Call Me Zelda (all three books that I loved) as a look inside the life and marriage of a popular historical figure. Freud is intriguing in that his work is so renowned and reading about him was a flash-back to Psch 101, in a good way. It's no surprise his home life was a little wacky. I think this book was a little on the predictable side, but I also loved that it was a quick and easy read with characters to love and hate and love and hate at the same time. This is a book that will stick with me for a while not for how literary or moving it was, but because of the fantastic job of the author did of sweeping me into the story in a light and airy way but also with impact. 

Other books you may like…

Hemingway's Girl

The Paris Wife: A Novel

Call Me Zelda