July flew by here. We had some visitors and took a crazy and quick trip back to California, but I did still manage to get a good amount of reading in, thanks to organizing and making reading and prayer top priorities in my days. It also helped that we were in the car for looooong hours to CA. I read a book and then some in those few days alone.
A couple books on my list (Lizzy and Jane and The Nightingale) were books I had seen on a blogging friend's (Bobbi at Revolution of Love) lists, so I decided to check them out at our local library and see what I thought. And I even formatted my review system similarly to hers, pulling from Amazon summaries and giving my own take as well. Enjoy.
by Katherine Reay
I adored this book. A lovely and easy to read book. One that was filled with food, family relationships, and real life struggles. I laughed, I cried, and I ate food along with the characters. It was like Food Network meets Jane Austen meets real life.
Definitely grab your own bowl of fresh fruit and fresh whipped cream (or whatever food strikes your current fancy) and dive into this book.
Amazon's summary:
Elizabeth left her family’s home in Seattle fifteen years ago to pursue her lifelong dream—chefing her own restaurant in New York City. Jane stayed behind to raise a family. Estranged since their mother’s death many years ago, the circumstances of their lives are about to bring them together once again.
Known for her absolute command of her culinary domain, Elizabeth’s gifts in the kitchen have begun to elude her. And patrons and reviewers are noticing. In need of some rest and an opportunity to recover her passion for cooking, Elizabeth jumps at the excuse to rush to her sister’s bedside when Jane is diagnosed with cancer. After all, Elizabeth did the same for their mother. Perhaps this time, it will make a difference.
As Elizabeth pours her renewed energy into her sister’s care and into her burgeoning interest in Nick, Jane’s handsome coworker, her life begins to evolve from the singular pursuit of her own dream into the beautiful world of family, food, literature, and love that was shattered when she and Jane lost their mother. Will she stay and become Lizzy to her sister’s Jane—and Elizabeth to Nick’s Mr. Darcy—or will she return to the life she has worked so hard to create?
by Jacqueline Winspear
I really enjoyed the first book in the Maisie Dobbs series, so I snagged up the next one on my Kindle from our local library. It was just as fun and intriguing a read as the first and I loved the historical elements as well. Time to grab the next one, hopefully for the latter part of August....
Amazon Summary:
Jacqueline Winspear’s marvelous debut, Maisie Dobbs, won her fans from around the world and raised her intuitive, intelligent, and resourceful heroine to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths. Birds of a Feather, its follow-up, finds psychologist and private investigator Maisie Dobbs on another dangerously intriguing adventure in London “between the wars.” It is the spring of 1930, and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress. But what seems a simple case at the outset soon becomes increasingly complicated when three of the heiress’s old friends are found dead. Is there a connection between the woman’s mysterious disappearance and the murders? Who would want to kill three seemingly respectable young women? As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of the Great War.
by Kristin Hannah
I loved this book and cried my eyes out reading it. There aren't many books I have cried so much through. The characters were so relate-able, the historical elements were thoroughly interesting, the horror behind the history was devastating, and it just came together in a beautiful story that touched every emotion I have. Love, family, war, separation, fear, guilt.... This book rocked my world and made me think differently and more deeply about life and the blessings I have.
Amazon summary:
In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.
FRANCE, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France … but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can … completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
by Emily Cavins
This was my Saint biography choice for the month of July since St. Kateri's feast day is July 14 (my sister's birthday). Our oldest, Kayla, loves St. Kateri, and has already read the Encounter the Saints series book about St. Kateri, which we were (and still are) reading aloud. I know only a very basic story about St. Kateri, so I picked this up earlier in the year at a closing sale, so that I could learn more and better relate to my daughter's great love for this Saint. I did really enjoy learning more about St. Kateri, and I was floored by the intensity of her devotion, love, and choice to suffer for and with Christ.
Amazon summary:
Even before Kateri Tekakwitha’s canonization on October 21, 2012, many had been inspired by the story of the young Native American mystic who lived in the Mohawk Valley during the seventeenth century. With Emily Cavins's skill for weaving together historical facts and a compelling story, readers will discover Kateri’s path to sainthood against the backdrop of her life as a Native American in New York. These pages will reveal:
What led to Kateri’s desire to become a Christian
Her piety and self-denial in the face of persecution and illness
Her impact on the Catholic Mohawk community
The long road to sainthood, including two miracles attributed to Kateri
More than just a compelling story of Kateri’s short life, readers will also learn how to avail themselves of Kateri’s intercession, why Kateri has become known as the patron saint of the environment, and of her connection to St. Francis of Assisi.
by Maria Morera Johnson
The title might throw some (I know it would drive my own mother batty), but I LOVED this author's approach. I loved her style of writing, her wit, and the real true to life element she weaved into a book about saints. She weaved in her own experiences, those of other strong, amazing women, and a wonderful collection of women Saints to teach lessons and inspire women everywhere to live holy, grace-filled, empowered, and courageous lives of faith.
Ave Maria Press summary:
In this edgy, honest, and often audacious book of Catholic spirituality, blogger and popular podcaster Maria Morera Johnson explores the qualities of twenty-four holy women who lived lives of virtue in unexpected and often difficult circumstances.
In My Badass Book of Saints: Courageous Women Who Showed Me How to Live, Johnson shares her experience as a first-generation Cuban-American, educator of at-risk college students, and caregiver for a husband with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Through humorous, empowering, and touching portraits of twenty-four spiritual mentors who inspired her, Johnson shows how their bravery, integrity, selflessness, perseverance, and hope helped her and can help others have courage to reach for a closer connection to God.
She presents remarkable holy women and saints—including the gun-toting Servant of God Sr. Blandina Segale, who tried to turn the heart of Billy the Kid; and Nazi resister Irena Sendler, who helped smuggle children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II—in a way that brings their vivid personalities to life and helps readers live out the challenges of their lives with virtue and conviction. The book includes a group discussion guide.
...and we're still working through a few books that we started in June and/or July, so August should bring lots of wonderful books and reviews as well.
Did you read any books in July?
Share away!
