summer reading continues

caveat:
this is summer reading folks.
i did try and throw one meaningful read in there but just to make myself feel better.




the thief lord

by cornelia funke.


one more YA read for my summer vacation.  venice, magic realism, orphans, and that element of a story that captures you and intrigues you to the end. it was not the most amazing book i have ever read, but i did enjoy the characters, youthful intrigue and suspension of disbelief. i have heard her inkheart series is worth checking out.... i liked this enough to try her as author again.  and i did love it being set in venice. she captures that element of mystery, an old theater home and just a few adults to help move the story along. 






the age of miracles.
by karen thompson walker.


okay, what? 
time is slowing down. 
and what happens at the end....oh, wait....you aren't going to tell me.
but okay, this is really just a story about coming of age in a tense, challenging time. right? okay..... i have read you before.   as far as coming of age, it is a unique twist..... but still coming of age.  and yet,  i liked it.  i didn't' love it..... but there were some really beautiful quotes:  

“It still amazes me how little we really knew. . . . Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It’s possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.”

there were some beautiful aspects of loss and learning about life that she captured in the midst of a very confusing premise. 






the flight of gemma hardy
by margot livesey


okay.... the remake of jane eyre. 
you can't re-do jane eyre. you just can't.
well, you can but you can't do it well.  i have to admit, i was intrigue at the beginning. but there is a point where there is a departure and then it just doesn't work.  you lose the beauty of jane's character, her moral fiber, her resolute faith that dictates every action or inaction in her being. when you take that out of the story, it just is a post-modern story of an orphan finding a place to call her own but making choices that i thought were lame and didn't make any sense.  so.... no go for me. 




living with mystery: finding god in the midst of unanswered questions
by stacey padrick


wonderful.
i should mention that i know her. 
but she deals so beautifully with the reality that it is hard to have faith sometimes, especially when life is not going the way that you thought it should or might.  she is honest and candid about where she has needed god to meet her in her disbelief and where she has seen god give her faith when she had little.  she writes openly about needing god to show up and provide...move in big ways but also the reality of having to carve out space to be quiet and meditate on who god is.  she has beautiful reflection questions at the end of each chapter but also adds quotes and scripture for further contemplation.  it was a wonderful read and encouraged my heart immensely considering the year we have just come full circle. 

major pettigrew's last stand

by helen simonson

okay, this i loved. 

i loved major pettigrew: retired military and 68 in quiet english country-side. i was so sad my encounter with him was over at the end of the book.  small town england, racial dynamics, aging patriarch, lame-ass son, and a romantic element of being able to find love in the most unlikely, normal places against tradition and culture. i really loved how major pettigrew as a novel dealt with racial tensions, ignorances, and stupidity of culture. the author captures how culturally we can be so insensitive to anyone that does not have our cultures, belief, or traditions.  i really loved it nuance

of racism and how subtle it can be.... but it was so woven in the story that it is not heavy handed at all.  oh, i enjoyed!!!

happy reading!!