So I am currently reading my 25th book of the year.. that is a record for me, post children. Covid and being stuck at home obviously had a lot to do with it.
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
Synopsis - Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past—including the terrible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie's story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s, and other places in China during World War II, and traces the happy and desperate events that led to Winnie's coming to America in 1949.
Thoughts - This wasn't a really long book.. but sometimes it felt really long. Based in China during and before World War II it was not always fun to read about all the horrors people have to live through during war. But add all the injustices women have to suffer through just because they are women made me so angry and sad. Historically, I did not know anything about China's role in the World War so I learned a little.. but mostly the book was about one woman's journey from a unloved chilhood to an abusive marriage to finally migrating to America, where until a few years ago this was a land of opportunity, a home to people of all colors, races and walks of life. I did not love or hate this book.. it was a good read and Winnie was a colorful narrator, I could imagine her as many eldery relatives of my own.
5th Horseman by James Patternson and Maxine Paetro
Synopsis - It is a wild race against time as Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer and the newest member of the Women's Murder Club, attorney Yuki Castellano, lead an investigation into a string of mysterious patient deaths--and reveal a hospital administration determined to shield its reputation at all costs. And while the hospital wages an explosive court battle that grips the entire nation, the Women's Murder Club hunts for a merciless killer among its esteemed medical staff.
Thoughts - This is my 5th in the Women's Murder Club series. I liked the idea of all these strong women at the top of their fields solving crime. They killed off some major characters in the earlier books made the books less predictable but I'm not so sure anymore. They don't compare to Karin Slaughter's crime thrillers, there are a lot more tame and that is probably the problem. I don't think I will continue with the series. They are easy reads though, something to read between more intense reads.
All that Glitters by Gita Trelease
Synopsis - Paris is a labryinth of twisted streets filled with beggars and thieves, revolutionaries and magicians. Camille Durbonne is one of them. She wishes she weren’t...When smallpox kills her parents, Camille must find a way to provide for her younger sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on magic, Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille pursues a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
Using dark magic forbidden by her mother, Camille transforms herself into a baroness and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for magic. As she struggles to reconcile her resentment of the rich with the allure of glamour and excess, Camille meets a handsome younge inventor, and begins to believe that love and liberty may both be possible.But magic has its costs, and soon Camille loses control of her secrets. And when revolution erupts, Camille must choose—love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, reality of magic—before Paris burns.
Thoughts - This was such a fun read. It had a bit of everything, Paris, magic and love. It was a perfect escapist read.
My to read pile for next year is already quite tall.. new reads are always sneaking there way in and the pile never gets any shorter which brings a smile to my face. I buy books for the kids but I mostly use paperbackswap.com or bookmooch.com (a new discovery) to swap books and I have been lucky with goodreads giveaways and have managed to win quite a few.
