The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes is one of my favorite authors. This book was completely different than the other books that I have read by her. First of all, it was set in the Depression era America. Alice is a British woman who marries an American to escape her life in Britain, which she finds unbearable thanks to her mother. Alice marries a American from Kentucky, Bennett Van Cleve, whose family owns and runs the local mines. So the biggest mystery of the entire book for me is, what's up with Bennett?? Alice falls in love with Bennett in England, and he seems to be in love with her as well. So they marry and she moves to Kentucky with him and his father, who is a number one jerk. They actually live with Mr. Van Cleve, who is as overbearing as Alice's mother in England. Anyway, they never have sex! Ever. Alice doesn't even know what it means to have sex with a man - and Bennett doesn't seem inclined to show her. Why? Is he gay? Is he impotent? I kept waiting for the answer. Alice tries to talk to him a few different times, but he never explains. She sees him being happy when hanging out with his old classmate, Peggy, but he had every chance to marry her before meeting Alice in England. But he doesn't. He marries Alice - and then doesn't seem to want anything to do with her. It was very odd.

As much as I love books, I wasn't thinking that a book about women delivering books to rural families in Kentucky would be all that interesting. But it was. I loved how this small (and brave) group of women, referred to as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky, bonded with each other. I love how the rural families, many of which where "rough around the edges", to put it mildly, accepted these women and their books. I love how the children learned to read - and how their parents encouraged them to learn. These were moonshining and mining families. They would as soon as shoot a stranger on their property as invite them into their home. This job (and it WAS a job because these women actually got paid to do this) was not for the weak of heart. It was dangerous job at times, not only because of some of the people they encountered, but the weather too. 

Of course with knowledge, comes conflict. Those in power over the town, like Mr. Van Cleve, tried to shut down the library a variety of different ways, saying that the books were causing insurrection (my word, not his, but that's what he meant). He called the books "immoral" and held town meetings at the local church and in front of the courthouse speaking his mind. Meanwhile, Bennett just listened. He rarely defended Alice or anyone else against his father. He came across as a handsome, well-dressed weenie.  Alice certainly deserved someone better than him! Things get really bad when the leader of the Librarians, Margery; is arrested for murdering a hillbilly drunkard on her route. The only really decent thing that Bennett does in the entire book is suggest to Alice a way to prove Margery may be innocent.

The book is interesting, heartbreaking, heartwarming and even funny at times. I enjoyed it very much.

Wendy's Rating: ****

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book has pretty solid positive reviews. Readers seem to love it. I did not. I found it indulgent. I found Evelyn Hugo self-indulgent. Maybe it's because I had just read The Last Train to London, which was heartbreaking because it was set in Nazi-controlled Europe. Maybe it was because I had to listen to it (audio book) instead of read it because the waiting list is so long at the library - and I knew it wouldn't be the kind of book I would want to buy. Maybe it's because I simply find old and new Hollywood "too much". Actually, I think many "stars" today do a lot more for the underprivileged than those icons of "old Hollywood", but they are still overly privileged and over paid and overly indulgent for the most part. (Yes, there are certainly some exceptions to that.)

I realize that the book addressed some serious topics: biracial racism; domestic abuse; the lack of equality between men and women in pay and power; lack of acceptance for homosexual relationships. So why did Evelyn Hugo's problems come across as "first world problems"? Maybe because she did anything and everything to get to the top. She tried to get other actresses fired who she saw as a threat; she married for clout; she slept around; she was snotty and rude and obnoxious; she married to cover up her true feelings for another woman; she slept with men to manipulate them; she even covered up a fatal accident! It was 400 pages of Evelyn Hugo manipulating people. Do I think she actually loved some people? Yes. She loved her best friend, Harry; her daughter, Connor; and the love of her life, Cecily. Other than that, she loved herself. She actually chose herself over the people she loved many, many times.

The important issues mentioned above, that are still relevant in 2021, were overshadowed by the way it was presented. How can you take the issues seriously if you don't respect the person vocalizing them? If I don't respect the person on the "soap box", than I can't invest myself in the issue. Evelyn lied and cheated and committed a crime! These actions - her actions - detracted from the message she "preached" throughout the book and actually detracted from these very real issues in our world. I honestly can't believe that so many people love this book! Maybe, just maybe, it was the woman on the audio version, who sounded so smug throughout, that didn't allow me to feel sympathy for Evelyn (because I certainly didn't!). Or maybe it was just the writing. I will never know because I will never read this book in print.

Wendy's Rating: ***

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton

This novel (historical fiction) broke my heart! The very beginning was confusing to me. Even though I read the book jacket and knew basically what the book was going to be about, it just jumps right into the story and it took me a few chapters to get into the swing of it. Plus, it's set in Amsterdam and Vienna, Austria and so even though it's written in English, it's still a European event and the language used represents that.

In 1933, a Dutchwoman from Amsterdam, Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer ("Tante Truss") started rescuing children who were at risk (basically Jewish children) from Germany. She started by rescuing a couple/three children at a time, traveling into Germany and sneaking the children out across the border back into Amsterdam. Once they were in Amsterdam, they were considered "safe" and then transported again to various countries willing to take them. The book actually starts in December 1936. Tante Truus continues to "polish" her skills at dealing with the border control between countries as she brings children across the border. The challenges and risk increases as Hitler becomes more powerful of course. Truus and her husband, an incredibly kind and supportive husband (Joop), have been pregnant and miscarried a few times already. They both desperately want children. Unfortunately, Truus has been unable to carry a child to term. So she dedicates her life to saving other people's children.

In Vienna, we get to meet a young playwright, Stephen, who is from a wealthy Jewish family and the girl Stephen likes, Zofie-Helene, whose mother edits an anti-Nazi newspaper. Even though they are only teenagers, Stephen is a talented writer and Zofie-Helene is a brilliant mathematician. They each have one younger sibling. Stephen's brother, Walter, is 5 years old and Zofie-Helene's sister, Johanna, is 3 years old. With the Nazis taking over Austria, Stephen's family is forced to surrender their home and valuables to the Nazis. At first they are allowed to stay in the attic of their own home (thanks to their non-Jewish family member), but eventually Stephen's father is taken and killed, Stephen goes into hiding and Stephen's dying mother (cancer) and brother are forced into the Jewish ghetto to live. Zofie-Helene's family doesn't fair much better even though they are Christian. Zofie-Helene's mother is arrested and her grandfather becomes the primary caregiver for Zofie-Helene & Johanna. (Her father had been previously killed.)

In 1938, Truus is asked to go to Germany, talk to the "up and coming" Nazi leader, Adolf Eichmann, and ask him to release Jewish children from Germany (to London). This is the start of the "Kindertransport" which eventually saves 10,000 children, three quarters of them being Jewish. Adolf Eichmann agrees to release EXACTLY 600 children, not one more and not one less, the following Sabbath. Despite the fact that participating in this venture on the Sabbath is against Jewish law, many more than 600 try to send their children (between the ages of 4-17) on the transport out of Germany. In this story, Zofie-Helene and Stephen's brother, Walter are accepted as part of the 600. Joanna is too young and Stephen ends up being #610. When one of the 600 gets diagnosed with the measles before the Sabbath, Truus decides to take a chance on Stephen being able to "bluff" his way in, in place of the ill child.

The story moves quickly between what Truus is doing and what's happening with Stephen and Zofie-Helene. It's a page turner. The only time I put it down is when I needed a break from the horror of it all. I have never understood how people can treat others so horribly. It's heartbreaking. As a mother, I can't even imagine sending my child off to a different country by themselves. A country that speaks a different language and practices a different religion. These parents loved their children so much that they sent them away to the unknown rather than keep them in their Nazi-occupied countries. That's how awful the Nazi's were. Most of these children never saw their parents again. Thinking about what these families suffered through makes me want to sob out loud. (I actually did cry.)

The other significant feeling I experience whenever I read a book about the Holocaust is "awe" when it comes to all the brave people who did everything in their power to save the Jewish people from the Nazis - at blatant risk to themselves and their own families. It astounds me how incredibly selfless some people are. I love my own children so much I don't know if I could have ever been that brave, knowing that my actions might lead to the death of my own children/family. It's truly incredible. Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer was inspiring - along with all the other brave souls of that time.

This is a must read book, in my opinion. It certainly puts my life in perspective.

Wendy's Rating: *****

The Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley

I am getting sad thinking about this series ending. The Sun Sister is the 6th book in this series of 7. Book 7 is expected to be published in Spring 2021. So now I wait..... This was the longest book so far (at 637 pages), but I again read it pretty quickly due to my interest level, which made it hard to put down. The 6th sister is named Electra. She is a black super model, with significant drug and alcohol addictions, who lives in New York (Manhattan). It was hard to read about her alcohol and drug use. It's amazing what the body can endure day after day. She also slept around a lot. She seemed to have a difficult time just spending time with herself. She was extremely self-involved and self-centered (and not in a good way). She pretty much treated people like crap. She hadn't even read her letter from Pa Salt, or looked at the coordinates of her birthplace, or opened the envelope that held the translation of the "words of wisdom" that had been left for her by Pa Salt. Her addictions were her undoing (finally!) and she goes to rehab and starts the long process of turning her life around. She only becomes interested in her history after her birth grandmother contacts her and asks to meet.

Her ancestry story was really interesting because it was set in Kenya before World War II affected Africa (1939). This story centered around a white woman named Cecily Huntley-Morgan, a young woman from a wealthy New York family. As Electra's beautiful black grandmother shares Electra's history of origin with her, Electra kept wondering where she and her mother fit into the story. So did I! Cecily ends up in Kenya because she is invited to visit her socialite godmother, Kiki, who is Cecily's mother's best friend. She was also adventurous, promiscuous, unreliable and a really bad role model! She was a huge part of the Happy Valley set in Kenya. Cecily decides to visit Kiki to get away from her ex-fiancé who breaks off their engagement shortly before their wedding to marry someone else. Cecily ends up marrying an older British man who owns a cattle farm in Kenya (which is a long story so I won't get into the details here). 

Although each sister in this series ends up being a better person by the end of their individual stories, their origin stories often have sad parts and this story was no exception. I realize that reality involves a lot of turmoil and sadness at times, but I am always sad when a main character dies too young! Not only did the book involve the effects of World War II and addiction, but also extreme prejudice against black people, both in Kenya and New York. Cecily and her husband, Bill, also had a difficult time expressing their true feelings with each other, which makes for a sad story involving their marriage as well. 

This was the first book that I really started thinking that Pa Salt might actually be dead. The way he was talked about in this book by various people, including Ma, made it seem like he really did die. But there are obviously many secrets that we are waiting to have explained in Book 7, so you never know! When Georg Hoffman visits Atlantis suddenly at the very end of the book with "news", I thought it would be about Pa Salt. But no. He announces that he has finally found the 7th sister, who has been "missing" since the beginning. "Missing", meaning "never found".

It's going to be a difficult wait for Book 7!

Wendy's Rating: *****

The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley

This is Book #5 in The Seven Sisters series. It was my least favorite of what I have read so far. It's not that I didn't like it, but Tiggy's ancestors were hard to take! The fifth sister is Taygete but everyone calls her Tiggy. Both her story and that of her Great Grandmother, Lucia, were full of the more negative aspects of life: poverty, philandering, theft, poaching, selfishness, bigotry, death. Since Tiggy comes from a family of gitanos (gypsies), she possesses a "6th sense" like many of her ancestors. Her 6th sense allows her to aid in the recovery of animals, which is probably why she has dedicated her life (26 years) to caring for and saving animals and working at an animal sanctuary. Tiggy accepts a position at the Kinnaird Estate in the Highlands of Scotland when the animal sanctuary closes down. Tiggy falls in love with the owner of the Kinnaird Estate, who is married and has a teenage daughter. (And that's just the beginning of that tangled family dynamic!)

The foundation story is that of Lucia, an infamous flamenco dancer in the early 1900s. She leaves home (the caves outside the city walls of Granada, Spain) with her father at the age of 10 to become famous. Her ultimate goal, other than being the most famous and most talented flamenco dance of all time, is to get to the USA. Lucia and her father, Jose, are two of the most selfish people I have ever had to read about! They care about themselves and only themselves. They will do whatever it takes to get what they want. It's astounding to me that their family was able to "accept them for who they were", because I would have written them off for sure! Maria, Jose's wife and Lucia's mother, tries really hard to forgive them again and again, but eventually finds her own life (and true love), which is a relief. Maria and Jose had four other children (all sons), but three of the four die (one from illness; two in the civil war in Spain). Jose barely acknowledges their deaths. He was truly an unlikable person. Eventually Lucia gets pregnant, much to her indignation. She loves the baby's father, but he finally leaves her after many years of dedicating his life to her, and before he finds out she is pregnant. She is too proud and angry and selfish to inform him of her pregnancy, so she just leaves the USA to return to Granada with her mother to give birth. She takes terrible care of her own body when she is pregnant and it's amazing that her baby, Isabel, is even born healthy. Seriously. Anyway, Lucia leaves Spain again when Isabel is only 4 months old. She's leaves Isabel with Maria to raise. Isabel, is Tiggy's mother.

Lucinda Riley bases the character of Lucia Amaya Albaycin on a real flamenco dancer (Carmen Amaya), so she again weaves fiction into history in a skillful way. The Gitanos were ostracized and seemed to be banned worldwide (even in the USA) from "nice" establishments. They were treated like second-class citizens. I thought it was interesting though that Lucia and Maria were able to pass themselves off as non-Gitanos just by cutting their hair and changing their attire. 

So, again, although these books are always incredibly fascinating and explore different parts of worldwide history, I didn't care for it as much simply because of my feelings about Lucia, who is obviously a main character. Although I understand that it takes a lot of persistence and hard work to be infamously successful, I don't think that precludes showing a little bit of kindness.

Wendy's Rating: ****

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

This book made me sad. How tragic that a woman would feel like she had to separate forever from her family who loved her, to "become" someone else that is more "accepted" in society and to live her life "freely". How sad that she lived a lie; that she felt like she could not share her truth with her husband or daughter. Since I have never experienced racism personally, and being born in the 60's, it was shocking to read about neighbors trying to prevent black families from moving into their neighborhood. Although I do remember something similar happening in my own neighborhood in the 70's when some of our neighbors tried to prevent a family from India moving into our neighborhood. I hadn't remembered that until I read this book. I know many believe that racism still runs rampant in our country, but I think we have come a long way from even the 1950s. Only in baby steps I guess. Our country may be "the melting pot" of the world (at least that's what I learned in grade school), but our progress towards total equality (between races; between sexes) has been slow.

The moment that Stella left Desiree and "became white", she must have realized that she could never be truly happy in her life. She seemed to really love her husband, Blake, and he seemed to really love her, but there was this huge "lie" between them. Obviously, this deception affected the way she raised Kennedy. Kennedy never seemed to feel loved or accepted by her mother. Stella kept her at arms-length away. Again, very sad. Stella's abandonment definitely affected Desiree's life deeply as well too. Desiree spent so much time longing for her sister that she wasn't living her own life to the fullest. In the end, she had a better relationship with her daughter, Jude, but some of that was Jude's doing. Once Jude understood her mother's life in more detail (and felt the same rejection that Desiree had experienced by Stella), then I think it tightened their bond. It's just a shame that everyone had to keep so many secrets, thinking they needed to "protect" each other from the truth. What a difficult way to live.

I wonder if Desiree would have married Sam if Stella had not abandoned her. Maybe she would have anyway since Sam appeared charming in the beginning. I know that Desiree felt like a failure to run home to Mallard and her mother, escaping her abusive husband, but I think that took courage and strength. Many abused women just stay with their abuser, which harms their children as well as themselves. I liked how Desiree developed a meaningful relationship with Early. How wonderful he ended up being, caring for Adele like she was his own mother. Another touching relationship was Jude & Reese's. They were so accepting of each other. In the end, Desiree and Jude (mother & daughter) seemed happiest to me, chasing their dreams and allowing them to unfold through hard work (Jude in med school) and taking a leap of faith (Desiree moving to Houston with Early).

This was not a "feel good" book, but it has a significant message, which makes it thought-provoking and meaningful. The ending left me feeling happy for Desiree and Jude; hopeful for Kennedy; and sad for Stella. You just can't live someone else's life and be truly happy on the inside.

Wendy' Rating: *****

The Pearl Sister by Lucinda Riley

Book 4 of the The Seven Sisters series. Again, loved it! The fourth sister is CeCe (Celaeno). Celaeno is the star that does not shine very brightly in the sky. CeCe is aptly named. She is insecure and lonely since separating from her sister, Star. She needs to find herself. She is an artist, and got accepted to a prestigious art school in London, but she drops out. She can't even figure out what to paint anymore. She is highly critical of her talent and her looks. She doesn't realize that other people see her as beautiful, inside and out.

Her journey to find her birth family starts in Thailand, where she meets a fugitive from the law, unbeknownst to her. She has a relationship with Ace and seems to really be enamored of him. This is important because all of her past relationships have not been fulfilling to her, in any sense of the word. Her life to this point had been consumed with the most important relationship in her life: her sister, Star. Ace encourages her to continue on her search for her birth family in Australia, even telling her that he may join her there.

The historical story of CeCe's birth family is fascinating. Her ancestor is named Kitty McBride. Kitty leaves her home (at the age of 18) in Scotland to travel as a ladies companion to Adelaide, Australia, where she meets the love of her life and her future husband. Her husband's family is prominent in the pearl industry in Broome, Australia. Living in Broome is not for the feint of heart! Kitty moves to Broome with her new husband, Andrew, and settles into a town that struggles with the "haves" and "have nots"; the whites and the aborigines; and rampant racism. The Australian outback is dangerous and difficult. It is extremely hot and red dirt permeates everything, especially in the "wet season" when red mud wipes out everything in its path. (This is ironic because the Pearl Masters always wear pure white from head to toe.)

As always, Lucinda Riley weaves fiction into historical events. I knew next to nothing about the pearl industry. I learned a lot about the pearl industry and how it evolved, this period of time in Australia and Aboriginal art. The reader "discovers" these things along with Kitty at the same time as CeCe does. It's always interesting to see how the sisters connect to the past (through the generations). Sometimes people die when I don't want them to. Sometimes the people I want together don't get together when I want them to. But in the end, there is always a positive influence on the sister's life who discovers her heritage. A lot of "growth" and fortunately, a happier, more fulfilling life.

I really love this series!

Wendy's Rating: *****