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.

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman.

The book is being released by Ecco on March 3, 2020.

The book's jacket copy says: From bestselling author Laura Zigman, a hilarious novel about a wife and mother whose life is unraveling and the well-intentioned but increasingly disastrous steps she takes to course-correct her relationships, her career, and her belief in herself

Judy never intended to start wearing the dog. But when she stumbled across her son Teddy’s old baby sling during a halfhearted basement cleaning, something in her snapped. So: the dog went into the sling, Judy felt connected to another living being, and she’s repeated the process every day since.

Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan. Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking an embarrassing nose dive. Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional “snackologist” who she can’t afford to divorce. On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself.

Wickedly funny and surprisingly tender, Separation Anxiety offers a frank portrait of middle-aged limbo, examining the ebb and flow of life’s most important relationships. Tapping into the insecurities and anxieties that most of us keep under wraps, and with a voice that is at once gleefully irreverent and genuinely touching, Laura Zigman has crafted a new classic for anyone taking fumbling steps toward happiness.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I've been sick as a dog and not reading at all. Three and a half days of sleeping in bed, standing hot showers, drinking hot water with lemon and manuka honey, and no books. It's been miserable. So this is an abbreviated list. This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past week are:

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
Holding on to Nothing by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne

Reviews posted this week:

A Sister's Courage by Molly Green

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

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
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

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Once Upon a Time I lived on Mars by Kate Greene came from St. Martin's Press.

A collection of essays by a woman who was a part of NASA's HI-SEAS project that simulated life on Mars on the side of a Hawaiian volcano in order to test many different things from food systems to sleep patterns and more, this looks incredibly fascinating.

The Fate of a Flapper by Susanna Calkins came from St. Martin's Griffin.

Flappers, a speakeasy, 1920's mystery? Don't mind if I do!

South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Webber came from Forge.

A woman with a knack for finding lost things finds an abandoned baby at the foot of a buttonwood tree in this story of two women trying to live the lives they want. Sounds intriguing, right?!

Montauk by Nicola Harrison came from St. Martin's Press.

About a woman who is uncomfortable among the society women her increasingly distant husband's business dictates she must mingle with, this looks like it will be a gripping tale of knowing yourself and facing difficult choices. Plus there's water and a lighthouse on the cover. So basically, perfect for me.

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.

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.

Grown Up Pose by Sonya Lalli.

The book is being released by Berkley on March 24, 2020.

The book's jacket copy says: A delightfully modern look at what happens for a young woman when tradition, dating, and independence collide, from acclaimed author Sonya Lalli.

Adulting shouldn't be this hard. Especially in your thirties. Having been pressured by her tight-knit community to get married at a young age to her first serious boyfriend, Anu Desai is now on her own again and feels like she is starting from the beginning.

But Anu doesn't have time to start over. Telling her parents that she was separating from her husband was the hardest thing she's ever done—and she's still dealing with the fallout. She has her young daughter to support and when she invests all of her savings into running her own yoga studio, the feelings of irresponsibility send Anu reeling. She'll be forced to look inside herself to learn what she truly wants.

Review: A Sister's Courage by Molly Green

Like the old Virginia Slims ads used to say, "You've come a long way, baby" so it can be hard to imagine all of the obstacles that women once faced in following their passions. In some ways, past wars advanced women's opportunities as they were allowed to step into roles that were once the sole purview of men. As men went off to war, women had to do the jobs that were vital to the functioning of their country, jobs that pre-war would never have been available to them. And this opened up fields where they not only excelled but that spoke to their souls. The main character in Molly Field's new novel, A Sister's Courage, always dreamed of flying and WWII made her dream some true.

Lorraine Linfoot, called Raine by everyone but her mother, fell in love with flying when she was 14 after her father allowed her to take a ride in a plane at a flying circus. It was then that she found her passion and there would no longer be any chance that she would join her father's accounting firm although when her family faces a financial reversal, it seems there will be no money for Raine to take flying lessons either. But Raine is determined to learn and she gets a job as a secretary at the local air field, where she can take occasional lessons from a pilot she's met. She and Doug quickly become good friends and she reveres him as an older brother as he introduces her to the joys of flight. When war breaks out and Doug is called up, it looks like Raine's piloting days will be over until she is accepted into the Air Transport Auxiliary, shuttling planes to various bases, freeing up the male pilots to fight in the war. Despite her French mother's strong opposition to her unseemly job, Raine thrives in her new position, the only cloud in her life the knowledge that Doug has been shot down, is missing in action, and presumed dead.

Green does a good job capturing the spirit of the time, drawing on actual ATA experiences for her heroine and even incorporating real historical figure Pauline Gower into Raine's story. It is fascinating to consider the service these pioneering female pilots rendered to the war effort, their amazing skills, and the "normal" lives they lived as they did their jobs. Green does not shy away from the rampant prejudice the women faced or the appalling sexual harassment they were subjected to but she also shows the close relationships these special women developed to each other and with some of the men. Raine is very young during the story but her character is often rude and prickly without reason, which makes the reader not terribly keen on her. She has a terribly contentious relationship with her mother and the reason is only hinted at as stemming from Simone's own experiences in France during the previous war, perhaps being kept secret for a reveal in a later book in this planned trilogy. Raine's feelings about fellow characters undergo some pretty abrupt about faces without much development, from disliking and judging the fellow pilot she's billeted with to inviting her home for Christmas, from her rancorous relationship with fighter pilot Alec Marshall to being deep in love with him. And as fascinating as the historical details are, this is more a love story (a love triangle really) set during WWII rather than a WWII story with a romantic plot line as the focus is more on Raine's building relationship.  This makes the book quite light aside from one devastating scene. Future books will presumably center on Raine's two younger sisters and their passions. The plot of this one is straightforward and simple and this is an easy, quick read and will likely appeal to those who enjoy fiction centered on the personal while still grounded in a specific historical moment.

For more information about Molly Green and the book, check our her author site at the publisher, 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 Avon for sending me a copy of this book to review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed over the past week are:

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

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Reviews posted this week:

St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets by Annie England Noblin
Case Histories by Kaye Atkinson

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

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
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
A Sister's Courage by Molly Green
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

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair came from Minotaur Books.

The Right Sort Marriage Bureau is hired to investigate a blackmail note insinuating something dark about the Greek Prince that Princess Elizabeth has fallen for. How much fun does that sound?!

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy came from Flatiron Books.

A novel about a woman who will do anything to follow the last migration of the arctic tern in a world on the verge of catastrophe, this looks absolutely amazing.

Migrations by Jill McCroskey Coupe came from Caitlin Hamilton Marketing and Publicity and She Writes Press.

A story of friendship and race that spans from 1951-1996, this ebb and flow of love and conflict, understanding and mistakes looks so good.

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.