Year 6, week 22: The Lincoln Highway

This week's book:
The Lincoln Highway: A Novel
By Amor Towles

This was one of Book of the Month's end of the year finalists for 2022 as the year's best book. This book didn't win, but I hadn't read it so, for free, I thought I would give it a whirl. 

The story is told from many points of views, and is a well written book. The story is a cross country coming of age story of two brothers and the people they meet along the way. This book just has the feel of a book that book groups across the country will probably read over the next little while. 

I was mostly cutting tie blankets for my girl scout troop's service project while I listened to the book. It's probably a good thing that I listened and read at the same time, because I'm not entirely sure I would have ever finished the novel. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, but it was a little too long for being thirty-seven weeks pregnant. 

I would recommend this book if you are in the mood for a thick book that is really rather deep into character development and plot. 

Year 6, week 21: The Invention of Wings

This week's book:
The Invention of Wings
By Sue Monk Kidd

This book has been on my TBR pile for a while now. It's one of those books people are talking about, and so I thought maybe I'd give it a whirl. 

I have read two other books by Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees and The Book of Longing. I enjoyed the other books I have read by her, so I was assuming I would like this novel as well. 

I didn't know much about what the book was about before I started. Her books normally have very strong female friendships or sisterhoods. This book is about a set of sisters, which I am embarrassed to say I didn't know were real people until I read the author's note. The sisters were female abolitionists and feminists. They spoke out against slavery and for black people to have rights. The book is told from two points of view, going back and forth between Sarah (one of the sisters) and Handful, a female slave that was given to Sarah as a child. 

There are so many heartbreaking moments in this book, and I always learn a new horror that was used against people of color in books like this. Why are people so horrible to each other? 

I don't think this was my favorite novel from this author, but I'm still glad I read it. As a quilter it was so interesting to hear the African American woman talk and use quilting as an escape from the horrors of being a slave. 

I would probably recommend this book, with a strong warning that some of the slavery history is so heartwrenching. 

Year 6, week 20: The Rewind

This week's book:
The Rewind
By Allison Winn Scotch

This week's blog is about a book taking place on New Year's Eve in 1999. I tried to finish the novel before new year's, but I kept falling asleep when I tried to read it. I ended up listening to the last half of the book to finish it. 

The book is about two people that dated in college and broke up on graduation day. A decade later both of the main characters are back on their college campus for a mutual friend's wedding, that just happens to be the dawning of a new century. The two haven't spoken and rather hate each other. The day of the wedding, they wake up semi naked and they are both wearing wedding rings and have no memory of the night before. 

The book's plot goes back and forth in between when they are trying to figure what happened the night before and when they were dating in college. I was so excited about this book when I saw it listed as one of the options on Book of the Month, but I was just disappointed in both of the main characters; they are both so selfish and unlikeable. 

I don't know if I would really recommend the book.