This summer, I read 10 books that earned four or more stars! Since I was on vacation over the summer, I did not keep up with writing blog posts. Instead, I will just give a brief summary of each title. I recommend these titles.
This is a story about a child who was sent to live with her grandparents shortly after World War II in Kyoto, Japan. Because her father is Black and her mother is Japanese, she is shunned and an embarrassment to her family of royalty. She should have been a princess but instead, she struggles to find significance as she grows up.
Hannah receives a note from her husband one day that simply says "Protect her." The day's news reveals that he may not be who he said he was. Hannah realizes that protecting her 16-year stepdaughter must be the meaning of this note. Together the two of them set out to figure out what has gone wrong.
This story is a combination of Downton Abbey and The Great British Bake-Off. Set during World War II in England, four cooks enter a contest to develop recipes that help homemakers use rations well. The winner will be cohost to a popular radio show. Each cook is as unique as the recipes they create.
I knew that reading about "The Great Depression" and "The Dust Bowl" would not be light reading. Everyone told me that this book is really sad and that is true. But I loved the perseverance and resilience of women and men who struggled during this time period. This book was a great reminder of our American history.
I related to the new girl in this book. Rachel takes her first teaching job on an island in Newfoundland, Canada teaching high school french in 1985. Little Cove is small and only about 400 people live in the town. I was also a first-year high school teacher around that time in a small town in northern North Dakota. This story felt somewhat familiar. I love reading about small towns where you get to know many quirky characters. This book was a good choice for me. I listened to the audiobook and that was great because the narrator read the Newfoundland dialect and I experienced the sound of the speech as I listened to the book.
This is a story of a bank robber who takes a roomful of apartment hunters hostage. I had read plenty of reviewers who said you might have to get to the middle of the book before you really get into the story. They were right. The first half is really crazy and I kept wondering how so many people could be so idiotic. I think the author takes us on a bit of a ride with this one. It turns out that there are some heartwarming plot lines and everything ties up nicely despite being so far-fetched.
I read this series like potato chips. I couldn't read just one and I had to hunt down the entire series. It is another small town set in Missouri where you learn about some pretty interesting characters. In the first book, elderly Arthur Truluv is grieving the death of his wife and visits her grave each day while eating his lunch. A teenager who is escaping school life befriends him. Meanwhile, his neighbor faces love loss and turns to Arthur for friendship. There are a bunch of baking classes in these titles that were fun to read about. Although there were a few cringy language parts and some short steamy scenes....you could skim or skip them. All three books could stand alone but are also great to read in order as a series.
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