I feel like this month had a variety of books, but all my favorite kind of genres. I read more this month than I generally do, but I attribute that to getting off of Instagram and Facebook for the month. There is just too much going on in society right now, and too many opinionated people for me haha, I was having anxiety looking at everything and also just feeling it pour into my homelife, which is definitely not ok! I’m all for trying to make things better, but pushing out opinions and anger into the internet just doesn’t make sense to me as a way to solve problems, or seem beneficial.
I always appreciate breaks from social media, there are a lot of days I just really wonder if we truly need it in life. When I take a step back, I always realize how much more I can be present with my family, and am much more productive with my time. There are times I feel like it seems to cause issues between people, and in my personal opinion has distracted us from more important work such as devoting time to family, friends and personal growth, and in some ways has seemed to exasperate what is going on in our society. I know there are positives to it as well, such as keeping in touch with people and it’s just fun sometimes, and I miss that aspect of it, but I highly encourage taking some time away and focus on formulating your own thoughts and opinions, getting informed/reading, and taking some time to work on personal growth. Ok, stepping down from my soap box now! HAHAH! On to the BOOKS!
I love Ruta Sepetys. She has become one of my favorite authors, so when I saw that she had a new book out, “Fountains of Silence,” I was so excited to reserve it at my library! I love how she focuses on more obscure issues, situations in history that I may not know much about. In this book she focuses on telling the story of Spain and it’s history. I knew nothing about Spain’s civil war and the impact it’s dictatorship had on its people. It was incredible to read this story, so many issues in their society intertwined. There was bull fighting, the hard working laborers trying to make ends meet, democrats and their families who were murdered and shunned…there was a huge problem of babies being stolen from mothers right after birth and sent to orphanages to be sold…the characters and their personal stories involving all of these issues were so moving, I highly recommend this one!
Nancy Thayer is almost always a dependable good read for me. Sometimes I just want some light and easy, where everything ties up nicely and her novels always seem to fit that bill! “Surfside Sisters” was a cute light read about two best friends who aspire to become writers. They grow up on Nantucket together, but their stories growing up were of two very different backgrounds. As lives and friendships do, their paths seemed to diverge and then come back together again.
I haven’t read anything by Mary Kay Andrews before, but I enjoyed reading the “High Tide Club.” It was a long read, it seemed to just go on and on and on…but I loved the story of friendship it told, the murder mystery involved and the history of the island it told. I try and read books here and there that are “seasonally appropriate” haha, so this one also was a great summer read!
I read the “Tattooist of Aushwitz” either last year or the year before, and enjoyed reading about Lale’s true life story about his experiences in the concentration camp of Aushwitz. Lale met Cilka at Auschwitz and at one point she helped him get his job as the tattooist back after he lost it, in essence saving his life. “Cilka’s Journey” continues her story after her time at Auschwitz once the camp is liberated. Incredibly, Cilka is deemed to be a collaborator because of what she was submitted to during her three year stay at the camp. She was in essence raped over and over by German officers during her time at Aushwitz, and then also positioned as overseer at the block that was the last stop for women going into the gas chambers. She did what she had to to survive, and as a result was deemed to be a willing participant by Russian authorities, and therefore sentenced to 15 years at Vortuka. Vortuka was a prison labor camp in the Gulag system of Russia, located near the Arctic circle in one of the most hostile places on Earth. Somehow she finds a way to survive, this is her story. This book was graphic at times, the language was harsh, the treatment of the women brutal, but I remind myself that this was a life that someone lived and these things happened. While this is historical fiction, it was also a story told by a real live human being and deserves our respect and attention.
“Resistance Women” was another WW2 historical fiction read that had popped up on amazon as a book I might like, and while this book felt longer and slower paced, I feel like I learned a LOT from this read about the rise of Hitler and the progression of Germany up until the war. I’ve always wondered how someone like Hitler could convince a whole nation to follow his horrific ideology, but this book really spelled that out for me and demonstrated what can happen when people stop thinking for themselves and just follow a mob kind of mentality. Once Hitler came to power, a number of women and men formed different resistance groups to do what they could to thwart Hitler’s new regime and regulations. It was such a great read, so detailed…I felt like it really said a lot about the U.S. during this time too and its relations with Germany, as well as gave a complete portrait of the lives these ordinary people led and what they did to help, the ultimate sacrifices they paid. I truly believe it is just so vital for us to be reading stories like this…history and real stories of people’s lives, so that we can learn and never repeat what the world witnessed not many decades ago.
My final read for the month was“Home Work” by Julie Andrews. This is actually her second book, I didn’t realize she had written one previously to this until I started reading, but there was a small synopsis at the beginning that helped make things more seamless since I hadn’t read the first one. I have grown up loving Mary Poppins and Sound of Music, so I really enjoyed reading a bit about Julie Andrews’ life and story…I told Jacob at one point that she was not nearly as conservative as I thought she was haha! She did so many movies after Sound of Music that I have never heard of, so many different themes and genres, it was very interesting to read about. She popped around from Europe (London and Switzerland) to the U.S. and back again multiple times on a yearly basis, it is incredible to me that she was able to sustain a home life for her children and maintain her marriage. One thing I really admired about her was her work in Vietnam post war, and the story of the adoption of her two daughters from Vietnam. She came from such a hard home life, difficult childhood but developed an incredible work ethic, and a huge heart for others, I really enjoyed reading about her life thus far.
Ok, that’s it my friends! I told you I had a lot of suggestions for you this month haha! Hope you found something that appealed to you!!
If you’re interested in seeing the previous months of this year, just click below on the links or above on my book tab!
What I’m Reading: January, February & March 2020
I love keeping track of what I’m reading and have read on the Goodreads app, and you can follow along with me here if you’re interested! I know this quote is a tad harsh sounding, but it just feels so relevant to what has been going on in our nation lately! Keep reading, keep learning, keep growing and thinking and contemplating!
I agree with your comments about social media. I believe that’s part of the reason our society is so messed up right now.