It has been over 100 degrees here in Austin for weeks now. It is exhausting to step foot outside if it doesn’t involve a pool and iced water. This has lead to a lot of reading and I have enjoyed it a bunch! What have I been reading?
The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips – This was recommended to me by a friend that enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale and searched for similar books. I definitely feel that this book incorporated some of the feel of the Thirteenth Tale, but lacked some of the complexity. I still to this day can’t fathom how Setterfield created such an intricate and detailed plot. I think this book was a combination of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Davinci Code and The Thirteenth Tale, so if you enjoyed those books, you will enjoy this one. There were elements of this book that I truly enjoyed but some of it was very predictable, at least in my opinion. There was a certain cleverness with how the two different story lines paralleled each other and met up in the end and it was an enjoyable read. Was it up to par with The Thirteenth Tale? Maybe not, but it was an entertaining read nonetheless. 7/10
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott – I read her book Traveling Mercies and I really enjoyed it. It’s very raw. No fluff, no trying to be someone else – she is who she is and sometimes that means she cusses a little bit. She doesn’t try to justify her behavior, often the book is dealing with how she is rooting sin out of her life and the difficulties that ensue. Plan B was very similar to Traveling Mercies. Many people call her a female Donald Miller, and I can see that in some ways because she is very honest and open the way Miller is, but she has a certain raw element that comes from a rough upbringing and a difficult life. I loved this look into her life, growing older, parenting her teenage son and dealing with the then president G.W. Bush. (She is unapologetically, wholeheartedly liberal – you have to be able to take her political commentary with a grain of salt, regardless of your particular beliefs.) 8/10
August’s Book Club Book: firefly lane by Kristin Hannah – Talk about a tear jerker. I’m pretty sure this is as close to lipstick literature as we have gotten in our bookclub but that’s the reason I’m in a bookclub: to read books I wouldn’t have read otherwise! The book follows the life of two girls, Kate and Tully, starting in the 70s, during with a crisis during their tumultuous teenage years. The unexpected friendship grows and the two become best friends. They giggle and primp through high school, strut and date through their 80s college experience, and the climb the corporate ladder to become career women in the 90s. At this point, their paths diverge a bit as Tully strives for success in the news industry and Kate becomes a stay at home mom. Much of the book was fairly light hearted, but a heaviness starts to develop as Kate struggles with motherhood and Tully rises to fame and fortune, all the while, missing true relationships in her life. As surprised as I was, I appreciated this book. Hannah aptly describes the struggles and thrills of each decade, develops the characters into people that you feel like you know and wraps you up in the story line. Not to give anything away, but I sobbed for the last quarter of the book. To me, that means that I was wrapped up in the characters and the story. A fun read, nothing too intellectual, but entertaining! 8/10
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One Comment
The way the two storylines set in such different times intertwinded was the part that interested me the most about the Devlin Diary. I thouhgt the romance part was unnecessary and predictable, as you said
I recently finished ‘Green Darkness’ by Anya Seton and enjoyed it far more. I apparently have a liking for dark, somewhat gothic, historical fiction, who knew? Anyways, it was very interesting. It is set in two different times as well, but is about reincarnation of the soul, fate, karma. How what you do/how you live in a past life can and will effect your future lives, positively or negatively, even dangerously. The majority of the book takes place in the past life, in England in the 1500s, and I enjoyed how the two lives and characters came together in the end. And I learned a lot more history that I knew; I had no idea how crazy the religious persecution was back then!