The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Awesomely Narrated by: Eilidh Beaton, I read this on Hoopla as part of my library subscription. I love Jenny Colgan books and MaryAlice, my librarian friend told me about this and highly recommended it. I loved the voices of Carmen and Okie, especially Okie's Brazilian drawl! I loved the plot, poor Carmen who has not ever done anything the way her family wants, has been given a challenge to work in a bookstore- she ends of really enjoying saving this store and filling it with Christmas decorations, books, and watching the sales roll in. Not without drama, Carmen's choice of books to read bring children to tears and parents marching them out of the store. Carmen also has a dalliance with an author who does an appearance at the store. There is conflict with her sister and also the nanny, but Carmen and the kids enjoy each other. Such an enjoyable listen!!!

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A Sitting in St. James by Rita Garcia-Williams

A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many Thanks to Reading Rants for recommending this book as one of her favorites for 2021. I enjoyed reading about the white family with slaves, it's past and it's present, as Williams-Garcia writes with feeling, authenticity, and empathetic in the brutal way Madame Sylvie Guilbert treats and talks to her family, her servants, and those in her community, as she strives to marry off grandsons, ignore granddaughters who are mixed race, and still tell her own story of being married off to a brutal man. I loved many of the characters, Byron, Pearce, Thisbe, Eugenie, Jane, Lily and the painter and hated Lucien, Sylvie, and all those who ignored the hard work of the slaves on their plantations and took all the glory themselves. A mesmerizing read!

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Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to @teachingfactor for recommending this audiobook!!! The awesome narration by Miah Ellis renders this historical fiction romance as can't put down. As the Tulsa Massacre is due to unfold, Randi Pink's novel of 2 teens falling in love during this horrific time in the days leading up to the 1921 race riot was compelling, honest, and sheds a light on the families during that time. Isaiah Wilson was such an interesting character and the changes in him as he falls for Angel, breaks free from a toxic friendship, and redeems himself was so uplifting. Angel was the perfect heroine; honest, helping others, and caring for her dying father. This is a MUST listen to audiobook and MUST read!

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The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore

The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book because it received a Nerdy Book Club 2021 YA Fiction award. But I have read and loved all of Anna-Marie McLemore's books and been moved by the magical realism and their worlds of diverse Latinx characters. This book is different (read the Author Note after you have read the book) and though many tough topics are discussed, YA readers will relate to Ciela and Lock in their worlds of color and privilege. Both are struggling with what happened to them at a party (two rooms next to one another) by awful privileged white students whose parents names appear on school buildings. Ceila and Lock do not know one another at the beginning of the book, but become friends when he is a new student at her high school. Ciela has magic that has been passed down by her family and when she is assaulted that ability stops. How Ciela reclaims her life and becomes Lock's friend show what a strong brown girl feels for what is right, even as it shatters her life like a shard of glass nestling in her body. I could not stop turning the pages, and many times it was a difficult read because of what was perpetrated on these teens by classmates. Highly recommended!

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Tastre: My Life through Food by Stanley Tucci

Taste: My Life through Food by Stanley Tucci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Tara Smith for lending me this awesome, and oh so honest and funny look at Stanley Tucci's life and his love of food. I love him as an actor and now also as an author. He was so interesting as he gushed about food, provided recipes (yay!), and let us see his life as a youngster through to COVID and a health scare. What I loved most were his exclamations over food---his descriptions were authentic and I hung on every word---especially when he really liked something---we are treated to a big FUCK as the BEST way he can describe tasting food (and he did this a few times) that was just beyond awesome. I enjoyed his parents and their love of food and how it became Stanley's life too and his way to pass on memories through food to his family. A must read!

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The Sixth Wedding by Elin Hilderbrand

The Sixth Wedding: A 28 Summers Story by Elin Hilderbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novella takes us back to all of the particpants in a last Labor Day get together in 2023. Jake returns without Mallory, and Leland and Fray, Cooper, Link and Bess. I could do without the Ursula part. A nice quick and easy look into the lives of those we loved in 28 Summers.

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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

MANY SPOILERS so do not read if finding out about the awful ending! I loved this audiobook so much; tremendously Narrated by Julia Whelan. but oh did I hate the ending... it says in the Goodreads summary it is a book about hope---certainly the ending with Elsa's death--shot by a Welty hired gun, had no hope for this reader at all!!! I loved Kristin Hannah's books and find them all redemptive, BUT NOT THIS ONE!!! Taking place before the Dust Bowl and then going into horrid Dust Bowl--her husband has left her, then beacuse her son Ant becomes so ill the doctor recommends leaving Texas because he has sand and dust in his system and it will kill him if he stays. Once Elsa and her children head toward California which is being touted as a land of hope with lots of jobs (Rafe's parents were going but decide at the last minute to stay with their farm) another devastating reality hits---the mass migration to California has produced Hoovervilles, tent towns that breed disease and death as well as the town people calling them Oakies and driving them away all the time. Yes Elsa has many issues since her family raised to her with no love, telling her she was sick and ugly, and did not want to hear from her---she tries to be brave like her grandfather told her but more often she tries to be invisible hoping everyone understands where she is coming from. We all know this does not work---her daughter hates her, blames her for her father leaving and blames her for not becoming a Communist and fighting for better pay. Along comes Jack who is a union organizer and over hard times and conversations they fall in love and she becomes this woman who will speak her mind, fiercely protective of her children, but wanting better for them all. As the situation on the Welty cotton farm becomes desperate Elsa with her daughter's pushing becomes a spokesperson for her friends in the fields. I felt like I was eating dust the whole time and crossing my fingers for Elsa, rooting for her and what does Kristin Hannah do? Kills her off---I would have loved so much more of the new family unit they were becoming with Jack---why not kill off someone else or wound Jack or Elsa but they recover?!? So no hope at all with this ending---this key protagonist was needed---a redemptive, hopeful ending was needed, not what poor Loreda, Ant, Jack and Rafe's parents have to live with-- a deep aching hole for Elsa's absence. Again, I loved the book, hated the ending---it could have been better and different!


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