It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Not a very good week at all! Here's hoping this coming week is better. This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past week are:

The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn
Search Heartache by Carla Malden
What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
The Moonglow Sisters by Lori Wilde

Reviews posted this week:

The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn
The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber
Beginning with Cannonballs by Jill McCroskey Coupe
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair
Faces: Profiles of Dogs by Vita Sackville-West
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Holding on to Nothing by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne
Difficult Light by Tomas Gonzalez
Adults and Other Children by Miriam Cohen
Grief's Country by Gail Griffin
Moments of Glad Grace by Alison Wearing
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube
Search Heartache by Carla Malden
What the Lady Wants by Renee Rosen

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock by Jane Riley came from me for myself.

This is a quirky sounding tale of a strictly regimented man who loses the woman he loves and must learn to loosen himself up some if he ever wants a chance at happiness and love. I do like books that promise to be charming and delightful like this one.

Mobile Library by David Whitehouse came from me for myself.

Will you look at that cover?! ::swoon:: If I needed to escape bullies and an abusive father, I'd want to abscond in a mobile library so I am curious about this book, which promises to be both hard and redeeming.

Mr. Darcy's Guide to Courtship by Emily Brand came from me for myself.

Do I need a reason that's more than "because Mr. Darcy?" I mean, advice from Mr. Darcy on courtship? Don't mind if I do!

Seven Days in Summer by Marcia Willett came from Thomas Dunne Books.

With summer coming, what's better than a book about family and friends gathering at or staying away from the beach house they've been coming to for years. This is the stuff of delicious stories and tensions and I can't wait.

A Happy Catastrophe by Maddie Dawson came from a lovely book friend on Litsy.

Will these two opposites, who have been in love for a couple of years now, find enough commonality, especially in the face of an 8 year old surprise, to stay together and make a life? I liked the author's previous book so I'm looking forward to this one.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Review: The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams

Sometimes friends press books into my hands despite the book not being my usual kind of read. A collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories is definitely one of these kinds of books. The title of the book, giving away the thematic link through all the stories, made me think of Pinky and the Brain and their plans to take over the world. Of course, my friend loaned the book to me specifically for the Diana Gabaldon story in it, a story adjacent to the Outlander world, focused on Master Raymond and the Compte St. Germain. But because I am a completest of the worst sort, I had to read all of the stories, not just the one she thought I'd be curious about.

As in all collections, some of the stories were more entertaining than others. I particularly like the ones that were comedic in tone with bumbling super villains but then I always liked the campy "Kapow" and "Bam" of the 1960s era Batman tv show too so my taste may be a tad suspect. I am certain that there were many stories that allude to characters or novels in the genre that I completely missed, not being much of a sci-fi or fantasy reader, which those who catch the references will probably find enhance the stories. My level of familiarity is with The Incredibles, the aforementioned Pinky and the Brain, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and for a non-cartoon reference, the baddies in James Bond.  Hardly a breadth of literary knowledge of the genre.

Each story in the collection starts with what appears almost to be a case file written by the editor. It summarizes the category of the story, who tells the story, the rule of supervillainry that the story illustrates, and who the story is about. Sometimes these little intros are fun and other times they are too much, giving away more than should be told in advance of the actual story. The stories themselves are of varying lengths and varying seriousness. Some appear to be part of their authors' larger universes while others seem to be stand alone. A unique idea for a collection, I'm not sure this necessarily made me any more likely to read some of these authors but for the most part, it was a fun and unlikely bit of reading for me.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme was hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on. I'm choosing to continue the tradition even though she has stopped.

The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves.

The book is being released by William Morrow on April 7, 2020.

The book's jacket copy says: Resonant with the emotional power of the bestselling novels of David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes, a rich and poignant debut about lies, loss, and a transcendent love at the heart of a troubled marriage.

A lifetime together.
Six months of silence.
One last chance.

By all appearances, Frank and Maggie share a happy, loving marriage. But for the past six months, they have not spoken. Not a sentence, not a single word. Maggie isn’t sure what, exactly, provoked Frank’s silence, though she has a few ideas.

Day after day, they have eaten meals together and slept in the same bed in an increasingly uncomfortable silence that has become, for Maggie, deafening.

Then Frank finds Maggie collapsed in the kitchen, unconscious, an empty package of sleeping pills on the table. Rushed to the hospital, she is placed in a medically induced coma while the doctors assess the damage.

If she regains consciousness, Maggie may never be the same. Though he is overwhelmed at the thought of losing his wife, will Frank be able to find his voice once again—and explain his withdrawal—or is it too late?

Review: The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn

While we are certainly not even close to perfect today when dealing with mental illnesses like PTSD or post-partum depression or addiction, we are certainly more open and advanced than we were just a few decades ago. Once we locked people up or sent them away, not knowing how to treat these illnesses. But even in doing so, we learned and pursued new ideas meant to help those suffering and remind them of the messy, magnificence of a life lived fully open. In Kayte Nunn's newest novel, not only does one character, suffering post-partum depression and guilt learn to live and love again, but decades later, two much younger women learn to open themselves respectively to love and experience, to embrace the new and the scary in order to have a chance at their happiest lives.

Opening in the fall of 1951, Esther Durrant and her husband are taking an odd and unexpected vacation together, ending up on isolated Little Embers Island in the Scilly Islands. But it's not really a vacation. John, in desperation, is committing Esther to the care of his old friend Dr. Richard Cresswell because Esther has not been well since the birth of her second child. Esther is completely betrayed and blindsided by being left on this remote and calm island with nothing on it save the asylum and two abandoned cottages. Initially distraught and angry, she comes to care for her fellow patients, three men who fought in WWII and the cook, although she does not much like the nurse. As her heart opens to the island and its healing quietness, she also opens her heart in other ways.  But her former life, her husband, and her toddler son beckon.

In 2018, Rachel, a marine biologist in her mid-thirties, leaves the tropical island where she's been living and researching for the past year or two for London and then her newest post researching warty venus clams and climate change in the Scilly islands off the Cornish coast. She has hopped from research job to research job, intentionally never forming an attachment to people or places and she expects this assignment to be no different. Rachel is out in a small tin boat starting preliminary research when she is caught in a sudden, fierce storm and the boat's engine quits, prompting her to try to swim to the closest island, Little Embers. Injured and stranded on the island with a woman named Leah, a gruff hermit of sorts, Rachel finds a book and unsent letters in an antique suitcase in the house. Reading them, she is transported by the strength of the love she reads in them.

Also in 2018, twenty something Eve has given up her trip to Africa with her boyfriend in order to take care of her beloved grandmother, who is recovering from a nasty fall. Her grandmother was once a celebrated mountaineer so while her Grams recovers, Eve intends to help her write her memoir as well as potentially figure out what she wants to do with her life.

The novel is set in two different times but it is really a triple-stranded narrative. Esther's time and experiences at Little Embers, what really happened after her second child's birth, and the decisions facing her as she comes back to life dominate the story. Rachel's tale of tightly guarding her heart, her near miss in the storm, and how finding the letters to "E" from "R" changed her comes in a close second. Eve's story of taking care of her elderly Grams has less weight in this braided narrative but is still vital to the story line as a whole. It isn't hard to figure out where the story is going in any of the three narratives but its predictability makes it no less charming a tale to read. Esther and Rachel in particular are well drawn and pleasant to spend time with as they try and see what their futures should look like. Esther is constrained by her times in a way that Rachel is not and although the contrast is subtle, in the end it is very definitely there: two bold, courageous women choosing their own paths, a lesson that the younger Eve is only just realizing. There are a couple of plot threads here that are a little too easily resolved and it is more a love story (or more properly the love story of a lifetime and a possible love story) than a historical novel but it was an engaging and pleasing read.

For more information about Kayte Nunn and the book, check our her author site, follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, look at the book's Goodreads page, follow the rest of the blog tour, or look at the reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and publisher William Morrow for sending me a copy of this book to review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Not a very good week at all! Here's hoping this coming week is better. This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past week are:

Moments of Glad Grace by Alison Wearing
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
Amazing Gracie by Dan Dye and Mark Beckloff
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn

Reviews posted this week:

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
The Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
Amazing Gracie by Dan Dye and Mark Beckloff

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber
The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams
Beginning with Cannonballs by Jill McCroskey Coupe
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair
Faces: Profiles of Dogs by Vita Sackville-West
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Holding on to Nothing by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne
Difficult Light by Tomas Gonzalez
Adults and Other Children by Miriam Cohen
Grief's Country by Gail Griffin
Moments of Glad Grace by Alison Wearing
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Misconduct of the Heart by Cordelia Strube

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John came from me for myself.

A comedy of manners centered around several women who all work at a department store in Sydney in the 1950s, this looks like it will be a lot of fun to read.

A Work of Art by Micayla Lally came from me for myself.

When a woman and her boyfriend break up, she rediscovers her love of art but what will happen when she reconnects with him again? I do like to see women reinventing and empowering themselves so this should be a good read.

The Switch by Beth O'Leary came from Flatiron Books.

A grandmother and granddaughter switching lives? Thinking of my mom and my daughter, this concept makes me giggle and I can't wait to read about it in this.

The Road to Delano by Beth John DeSimone came from Rare Bird Books and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

A novel about a high school senior who can't wait to leave his town and the political roilings behind, plans change dramatically when he's presented with evidence that his father was murdered just as his family's farm is on the verge of being sold for taxes. This looks like a tough but really interesting read.

If you want to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.