The school year has started back up for me and so many little ones around Southie so I’ve been getting my reading time any way I can – at the bus stop, on the train, while walking and in many of the spots around the neighborhood!   Where’s your favorite place to read a few pages?

What I read this month:

Sunny Side Up, by Katie Sturino

Divorced – check!

Successful – check!

Need to squeeze this post-divorce body into a teeny-tiny bathing suit for a girls’ trip and feel good about life to get back out there—pending… The main character, Sunny, already has many things going for her as she’s the head of a busy public relations firm, owns an apartment in the popular Chelsea area, and surrounds herself with loyal friends/coworkers.   However, Sunny finds herself at the butt of jokes, the look of disdain from saleswomen, and always searching for a bathing suit that fits in the department store.  She realizes she should use her own contacts and experiences to challenge the “revenge body” narrative and begins investigating ways to launch her own body-positive swim line.  Along the way, she finds herself sandwiched between a hot postman and a wealthy media tycoon, both of whom she finds fulfilling in other ways.

It’s refreshing to have a main character that you admire for her smarts, her career and her life – outside of what she looks like.  Even though Sunny lives a life far beyond my own, she’s realistic in the ways she’s dealing with some of the same issues as an average woman.  She was a main character to root for – and I think that knowing it was based on the author’s own real life experiences made it more fun.  Go Megababe!

The Giver of Stars, by JoJo Moyes

This book was passed on to me by a friend, which I took only because I recognized the author’s name. Moyes wrote Me Before You the novel with the main character acting as caregiver to a man in a wheelchair… aka an amazing lovey-dovey book if you need one (also a movie).  SO, with that recognition, I thought I was getting another sappy love story perfect to read as the nights turned chilly.

Well, it was not.

BUT, it is now one of my favorite books.  The main character, Alice, follows her husband Bennett from England to the United States, hoping for a new future – that at first looked a bit like New York, but ends up being in the mountains of Kentucky.  She accepts this new life, but finds it a bit closed in and hard to adjust to the small-town life of a mine-owner’s wife.   Everyone stares and everyone whispers.  She searches for like-minded women, women who aren’t afraid to share their thoughts and discuss things beyond the household, but finds them few and far between.

It is at a community meeting that Alice learns there is funding to pay women interested in distributing books across the county by horseback, known as the Packhorse Librarians.  The group is led by Margery, a strong outlier—a woman not afraid to take risks and go against what was expected of women at the time.  Together, they organize, distribute and share their love of books and reading to young and old.  They meet families and children who otherwise would not have access, and slowly, but surely, encourage literacy to all.

However, this is not without conflict, as the leaders of the nearby mine (which employs the majority) are not happy with women taking the lead, nor with so many supporting this initiative.  There is much danger along the routes up the mountain, and the women find themselves constantly looking over their shoulder, but not stopping.  Margery is confronted by violence & the group must figure how to continue with their fearless leader.  Alice finds herself figuring out ways to placate her husband and father-in-law at first, but then realizes that they are two people she doesn’t even recognize anymore.  She finds herself drawn to the women, the families and those who have welcomed her into a “true home.”

It was part adventure, part beachy-type (though not at a beach), part historical, part love story.. Just a little bit of everything with true characters to root for.  I think this was JoJo’s best book yet.

Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall

Slow.

And delicately lovely.

Desperate.

And plainly passionate.

Many on the internet think that this book is one of the best books of the year, and half of me agrees.  That half loved the story of a love-triangle between Beth, who didn’t really stick out to me in any which way, but seemed like an average woman, stuck between Gabriel from her past as a well-to-do teenager in a beautiful home on the hill with memories of first love, and Frank, her current steady, hard-working rock of a husband.  Gabriel returns to their hometown years later with a son in tow, disturbing the slow-paced by loving life she has created for herself.  It’s a delicate dance between the two men – and every move that Beth makes is on the whole small town’s radar.  My favorite character to love and hate was Frank’s brother—super loyal and super crazy.  He wasn’t afraid to stick up for what he thinks is right and his family, including his sister in law; however, his choices and decision-making skills aren’t the best (but whose are?  And that’d make for a boring story).  The other half of me disagrees (about it being the best book of the year) because there were parts where I found the book slow —slow, like one of those old books with dusty pages that smell.  It had that old feel to it.  I hated every character at some point and was pulling my hair out with some of their decisions, but there’s always be another short chapter around the bend that made me go back to the love side.

After thinking about it, maybe it’s 75% love and 25% dislike. Thoughts?

She’s Not Sorry, by Mary Kubica

If you’ve been with us for a few years, you know that a thriller is a mainstay on my bookshelf, but I felt in a rut and didn’t have any that grabbed my attention lately.  When I saw She’s Not Sorry in a local Little Free Library – written by the same author who wrote Local Woman Missing  (LOVED!), I just had to try it.

It didn’t disappoint.

Kubica is excellent at creating descriptions and timelines that prompt the reader to question their own mental state while reading—where am I?  Did this really happen?  What did I just see?  Am I lucid? Is this in the past or present?  And this is exactly what she does with She’s Not Sorry.  The main character, Meghan, works as a nurse in an ICU unit—friendly with colleagues and good at her job.  She teeters between work and caring for her teenage daughter, with all the challenges that come with mothering at that age.

But the twist comes when a patient, Caitlin, is rushed in – barely alive from a recent suicide attempt, and Meghan is deemed the main nurse to take care of her while also wrangling the parents.  Meghan has been so successful in the past because she is able to separate her professional from her personal life, but she’s unable to do so in this case.  As she begins to fall deep in wondering who Caitlin is, why she may have taken her life… local police and news stations announce that it may have been a homicide.  This throws Meghan for a loop—not to mention the neighborhood is also dealing with a serial kidnapper —and she becomes obsessed with figuring out whether these two situations are intertwined.

That was a decent amount of word vomit, but you want to read it, don’t you?  I recommend.  The book is way better than my summary here!

Olga Dies Dreaming, by Xochitl Gonzalez

This title and cover were front and center in many bookstores, Amazon home pages, and Instagram feeds.  It was a hardcover that I’ve had on my shelves for a long time, but never picked it up – because I had read that it was intense – and my capacity for a “serious” book… not often when I just want to escape work sitting on the MBTA bus.  BUT pretty much everyone I knew gave it 4 or 5 stars, so I knew I had to start it eventually.

So.

It’s interesting.

It kept my attention from beginning to end.

It brought me to NYC.

It brought me to cultures, families, languages, and stories I hadn’t experienced, and I loved reading about the different perspectives.

I wanted to learn more about the main character, Olga, and her brother, Prieto.  I wanted to both be part of their family and be thankful for my own.

However,

It was A LOT.  Each character was going through multiple situations, while at the same time a number of current-day issues were brought up, so it was sometimes difficult to follow along… but that’s life… And I still wanted more?  For example, we follow the stories of Olga, a wedding planner trying to navigate Manhattan’s well-known circles, and her brother, a Congressman, trying to navigate politics both in the wide open and in back-room deals behind closed doors.   They’re doing this while also stuck with a mother who is leading a rebellion of sorts in Puerto Rico (who abandoned them as children)- while also dealing with a hurricane in their homeland (that the administration at the time sees as a political stage).  PLUS just the daily day-to-day with friends, family, and maintaining a love life.

I’d say grab it.  All the stories and pieces are messy at times, but they start to weave together, and you’ll be able to follow along.  It’s a dump of stories and issues, but isn’t that life?  I’ll definitely pick up other books by this author in the future. What are your thoughts?

That Summer, by Jennifer Weiner

J. Weiner never disappoints, though I thought this one would be like many of her others – light-hearted and a giggly beach-type read.  While this takes place on the Cape over many summers, it weaves the lives of two women together, both affected by the same man.  One knew him from the bonfires in a teenage summer, and the other married him years later.

Both women are stuck – and it’s the story of coming together to confront that summer night that will allow them to move forward.   Try it.  If you enjoy Weiner’s writing and her ability to tell a story as if you were part of the friend group, grab this one – just know it leans more serious than her others.

If you got this far, thank you.  Let us know if you’ve read any of these choices or want to share what you’ve got next on your list, please do so via the comments on @caughtinsouthie or catch me at @glossinbossin / @josiegl on Instagram.

All of the above hard copies have been put in Free Little Libraries in South Boston!