Year 3, week 36: Beach Read / The Two Lives of Lydia Bird

Two books this week!



Beach Read
By Emily Henry

This week's book was one of my Book of the Month books for April. I may have bought two from the options for April and added a book from before I started getting books from them, because I was so excited.

This book was the pick I was most jazzed about. The story is about two authors (one that writes romantic books and the other writes more serious novels). It sounded like a light quick read and I was excited. It kind of seemed like the author was trying to write both and didn't succeed doing either.

I still enjoy the book and would recommend it, I was just a little too excited about the book and was a little disappointed by it.



The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
By Josie Silver

This book was my March Book of the Month book. When I was picking my selection for the month, I originally picked it because I had read another book by the author last Christmas, and when I read the little blurb about the book it reminded me of an episode of Ally McBeal.

The book is about a woman who is engaged to her high school boyfriend and he dies suddenly in a car accident. The reason the book sounded like that beloved show from the late 1990's was because there was an episode that Ally was defending a lady who wanted to be put into an induced coma because she had this whole other life that she lived when she was dreaming. The lady wanted to live this other life in dreamland instead of living her real life. When the main character in this book struggles, she starts taking sleeping pills that send her to an alternate universe where her sweetheart is still alive and they are still getting married. The main character jumps from each plot and it can be jarring sometimes.

I lost my mother over seven years ago, and I had and still have a hard time with her loss. The trauma of losing your way after the death of a loved one isn't really something I want to read. It was my fault for picking this book. I didn't enjoy the book, but maybe you would if you like a fantasy tearjerker type of book.

Year 3, week 35: Mary Poppins

This week's book:
Mary Poppins
By P.L. Travers

The kids have been on a Mary Poppins kick for over two weeks now. Out of nowhere, they will start singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious for no reason. I can't completely blame them, because I rather like the film, but goodness gracious.

When my sister got a CD player when we were young, I wanted some music of my own. The three CDs I received that Christmas were Snow White, the soundtrack to The Mask (it was the early 90's, give me a break) and the soundtrack to Mary Poppins. Then in high school our big production in dance was a medley of Mary Poppins; my best friend and I were chimney sweeps, don't be jealous. The kids liked the new Mary Poppins as well, but even though I love Emily Blunt and Hamilton (Lin Manuel Miranda) I super didn't enjoy the new one, nor did I really think I think it needed to be made.

Since the little weirdos were on the Mary Poppins kick, I thought I would check out the original book so we all could listen to it. Libby (the audio book app) lets you have the book for fourteen days, which should have been plenty of time for us to listen to it. The kids didn't care for the book and I couldn't really blame them. When you are watching the movie, you’re like "holy smokes this is a lot of weird stuff going on", but because of Julie Andrew's Academy Award winning proformace and Dick Van Dyke you can look past it. But when you are reading the book, it comes of as just plain weird, and Mary Poppins is a bit of a poop. Maybe she gets better the longer the series goes on, there are seven books, but as for the first one, meh. I also kept thinking of the author and Walt Disney's feud and that kind of distracted me. I ended up listening to the last little bit by myself, just so I could return the book.

I guess I would recommend the book if you want to hear the source material for the movies, or want to read a classic to your kids.

Year 3, week 34: The Giver of Stars / The Year of Living Biblically / Where the Crawdads Sing

I'm going to rapid-fire a bunch of books this week.



The Giver of Stars
By Jojo Moyes

This week's book is kind of the same subject matter as The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardso, which I read a while back. The packhorse libraries of Kentucky seem like such an interesting part of history. Women would ride mules into the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky to bring books to the severely poor population. This book is more of a novel, where Richardso's book is historical fiction. I enjoyed both a great deal. I had read the Me Before You series which Moyes wrote, so that pulled me in.

I would recommend both The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and The Giver of Stars.



The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
By A. J. Jacobs

I picked up this book forever ago at Goodwill. The book is the true story of a writer who decided he would try to follow all the rules the Bible instructs people to do for a year.

I read A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master" by Rachel Held Evans a few years ago for a book group. I had enjoyed Evans' book when I read it, but I felt like she didn't do enough for it to be a full book. She picked twelve items to do, one for each month.

Jacobs jumped in with both feet and tried to live as close as he could to the Bible. I found the book quite interesting and entertaining. The author's pregnant wife gives him a hard time pretty much the whole time. I didn't know it was made into a TV show at some point, but I don't know anything about it. I would recommend either of the books if you want to hear about people trying something new.



Where the Crawdads Sing
By Delia Owens

I actually read this book months ago for my book group, but we finally discussed it via Zoom recently. This book was/is the one of those books that is on everyone's book lists for 2019 or 2020. Everyone in the group loved it and were raving about it. I apparently am the only one on the planet that didn't like it.

I will admit it is well written, beautifully worded and images, but the plot is so sad. The main character is left by everyone that she loves and has to live by herself in the swamp, leaving everyone in town to call her swamp trash. She is very smart but wildly misunderstood, and even is accused of murder after a man uses her. When my book group discussed it, many people thought this book sounded like a fairy tale or folklore, and I would have to agree. The novel has also been compared to Educated, another book that was a big hit for reading group darling, which I also didn't enjoy. I found both of those books just far too depressing.

So even though I didn't enjoy the book, read if you want.

Year 3, week 33: Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love

This week's book:
Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love
By Jonathan Van Ness

International Transgender Day of Visibilitiy was on March 31 and I thought I should branch out and read something from that demographic. I didn't know where to start, so I went to Goodreads and searched the best reviewed books by trans authors, and this was one of the top results.

True confession: I have never watched Queer Eye, the original or the reboot. I just don't watch reality TV, I don't really watch much TV anymore to be honest. If I am watching TV, it’s usually with a smaller version of myself which normally wants to watch a singing animated something or other. The only thing I could have told you about Jonathan Van Ness, who wrote the book about his life, before I read this book was that he was in one of my daughters favorite music videos, Calm Down by Taylor Swift. That being said I think the book was well written and told an important story. So many people that are LGBTQ have had such hard paths in their lives, including the author.

I would recommend the book if you like the reboot of Queer Eye, or you like Van Ness, or if you want to learn about LGBTQ culture. If you don't want to hear a flamboyant story of hairdressing and figure skating, then maybe take a pass on this one.