It’s been a good year of reading so far, even though it took months for me to find a anything in my “book of the year” catagory. But in this book stack there are two exceptional books that definitley stand out as favourite favourites!!!
The Land of Sweet Forever
- A gorgeous collection of coming of age stories.
- The perfect gift for classic lovers, who own all the classics.
- Delightful, poignant stories, an excellent read.
I loved this beautiful hardback book. I read it on the train, back from Silent Book Club in the City. It is a short poignant read, a collection of stories written by Harper Lee before she published To Kill a Mocking Bird. This collection of essays follows her writing journey… and gives you a little look into her life, and her coming of age during the Great Depression. It is laugh out loud funny, really thought provoking and in places strikingly sad. This is a gem, for those friends that love a classic, but have read them all… it is beautifully giftable. I thoroughly enjoyed this, it’s the kind of book that you would like the world to slow down a little, so that you can savour your read.
The Secret Lives of Murderous Wives
- Loved the Setting: Hot, sticky summer in California.
- Loved the Era: Late 60s.
- Loved the feisty characters: In an era, where women stayed home and did the cooking and cleaning, these gals really changed the mould!!!
- In a Nutshell: Perfect weekend read. This book is definitely a movie in the making.
A gritty true crime novel about serial killers, and their wives. Have you ever asked: When a serial killer is eventually caught and goes to prison for his crimes, what happens to the wives? Well this book answers those questions, regular women from the late sixties, whose husbands committed heinous crimes, become friends… because nobody what’s to know them, it is as if the crime washed over them too… not only are they plagued by all the “what if’s” and could they have saved lives if things had been different, but the guilt… Should they have noticed more? Should they have been aware? But when similar crimes start to happen in their town, again, and it’s not their husbands… then these gals can start to piece together the kind of man that is committing these crimes… they know “him,” they have lived with “him.” This is their journey of healing, as they come face to face with a killer, as they make mistakes learning and discovering and ultimately confronting. Gripping read… if you like true crime, you will love this.
A Hymn to Life
- If you read a biography this year, let it be this one.
- Possibly the most triumphant book about overcoming… ever.
- This is a five star read.
When Gisèle Pelicot was called to her local police station to be a witness to her husband’s character, because he had been caught filming up ladies skirts at the local supermarket, she had no idea of the horrors that would be made known to her. The love of her life, her husband of fifty years, turned out to be a monster of the worst kind. She thought she was getting dementia, and had spent ten years looking for answers and going through several medical procedures, with her husband at her side, to determine the reason for the gaps in her memory and feelings of lethargy and fatigue. Meanwhile, her husband had been sedating her and inviting the locals in, to do with her “lifeless” body as they pleased… a horrific crime that shook the world. This book could have been a harrowing book, but it draws on Gisèle’s strength… as you read through her journey of pain, and her realisation of the depraved crimes against her. Even more so, when she was faced with the idea of a closed court, and being alone, with just her two lawyers, in a room full of perpetrators, who were all in denial of the crimes they had committed. She asked for an open courtroom, let the world see what they had done, “Shame has to Change Sides,” she said. I had seen the news, and I thought this book would lock me into despair, but no she has provided women everywhere with hope, she grew in strength throughout this book and I only say that when a woman so desperately wanted an ordinary life and family filled with love and laughter, she did not get that, but she remained steadfast through it all.
The Calamity Club
- This really could be my book of the year.
- This is a book that could go on forever, I never wanted it to end.
- The Main Characters: Meg and Beth are just the best, they rise above their difficult circumstances. I loved them and I can’t help wondering what became of them.
- Setting: Mississippi, during the Great Depression.
- The entire book was based on a terribly sad premise, honestly there are some extremely mean and dysfunctional people in the world.
- Don’t be put off by the number of pages, well over 600, and not a word is wasted.
- I immediately listened to the audible afterwards… so totally worth it. In fact, I think I preferred the audible.
I literally lived inside this book. We have two wonderful and feisty protagonists: Meg is 11 and considered un-adoptable, she is in a word, hardworking, gritty and above all, optimistic. She stays at the La Fayette County Orphan Asylum, and is destined to be a factory worker as soon as she turns 12. Meanwhile, Birdie is considered “un-marriageable” and has come into town to borrow some cash from her socialite sister. Birdie ends up doing the orphanage books and meets up with Meg.
In an era where appearances were far more important than reality. Rich and poor suffering as they tried to hold onto the social structures that were collapsing around them. This is historical fiction at a time when women “held the world of men together,” and it cost them dearly.
And Birdie, in desperate times, goes to desperate lengths to save the day. She inadvertently, with a gathering of very dubious, desperate local gals, decide to set up a small “Dance Club” to entertain the local college boys and to earn some hard cash, and fast. Together they define friendship and loyalty and integrity in a far more determined and uncompromising manner, than the local aristocracy, whose behaviour under the guise of upper-class indestructibility displays anything but strong moral principals.
This book is all the emotions… it will make you laugh out loud and cry out-loud, it is happy, it is sad, it is brutal. If you enjoyed The Help by Kathryn Stockett you will wish she had written so many more books, this one is hilarious and devastating all at the same time.
Many thanks to Penguin Random House South Africa, for providing a few of these books for review purposes. This is not a sponsored post and opinions expressed are entirely my own.