March Books #LifeInBooks

 

Here's what I read in March:

Shadows of Berlin by David Gilham - an interesting look at the life of Holocaust survivors in the immediate aftermath of the war. This wasn't my favorite read, but it made for an interesting discussion with our book group. 

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibert - a cute little enemies-to-lovers romance, with a nice British twist. 

The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges - I liked this one, a sweet story with a bit of magic. 

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear - From the author of the Maisie Dobbs books, which are my faves, I loved this one so much! I just love her writing and her storytelling. This one bounced between the two wars and the post-war period, and it was so good! Will there be more stories in this series? I would definitely not complain about that!!!

January Books
February Books

#BlogExodus #ExodusGram 5783

 Rosh Chodesh Nisan is Thursday, March 23, 2023.

Passover beckons us. It calls....it reminds us....spring is coming. Renewal is coming. We are, all of us, a people with a future. The cycle continues. And, as always, Passover is here to offer a respite. I know that many people don't see Pesach in this way, as a resting moment, but I believe that it offers us just that - an opportunity to step back from the ordinary and to focus on something special, wonderful, and beautiful. 

It's easy to get caught up in the Pesach prep and to feel a bit of drudgery, a taste of the hard work imposed upon the Israelites. But there is spiritual preparation too, and that, I believe, is where BlogExodus and Exodusgram come in. 

So what is this really about? #BlogExodus and #Exodusgram are really what you want to make of it. I've provided topics for the first 14 days of the month of Nisan. What you do with it is up to you -- write a blog post, tweet, Facebook, tumblr, or something that I haven't even thought of yet! Use the hashtag to share your post (I put it into the title of each post). It's a great way to kickstart a blog or rejuvenate your languishing blog or just get yourself ready for the holiday of Passover! Maybe this year, someone will get #BlogExodus trending on tiktok!

Maybe you don't have a blog? Maybe you could just post your thoughts, photos, comments, or haikus on your Facebook page. Maybe you're a yogi? What about a photo of a different yoga post each day related to the theme of the day? Creativity is endless.

There aren't any rules, so maybe you don't like the order of the topics? Maybe you want to write on only a few of them? It doesn't matter. It is what you make of it.

Whatever you do, don't forget to tag with #BlogExodus and/or #Exodusgram so we can all share.

Grab and share my graphic and just jump right in!

The themes are really up for your own interpretation. I was thinking broadly and openly about what makes Passover special and interesting to me. I hope it will translate into creative and inspirational posts from all of us!

Are you going to join in? Leave me a comment here or send me a tweet or just...jump in! If I miss your posts, let me know so I can go back and be inspired by what YOU have to say!

#BlogExodus #Exodusgram topics for 5783
1 Nisan - Launch
2 Nisan - Exalt
3 Nisan - Rise
4 Nisan - Cleanse
5 Nisan - Seek
6 Nisan - Retell
7 Nisan - Read
8 Nisan - Expand
9 Nisan - Perplex
10 Nisan - Join
11 Nisan - Celebrate
12 Nisan - Reveal
13 Nisan - Welcome
14 Nisan - Thank

 *Yes, I know that I put the Shabbat dates there. I don't blog/tweet/Facebook on Shabbat but I will post on Fridays before Shabbat and on Saturdays after Shabbat is over. You can, of course, do it any way you like!

February 2023 - Books I Read

This was a great month for books! What are you reading?

A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti - We discussed this one at our synagogue book group and all agreed that it was quite interesting. A play staged in the Warsaw Ghetto by orphaned children is now, many years later, being staged in India. In both cases, the play represents the tragic situation of the time, and I think it's a powerful commentary on the importance of art even when the world feels like it's crumbling.

Keeper of the Lost Cities 8, 8.5, and 9 by Shannon Messenger - Okay, I thought I was headed into the END of the series but I didn't know there is a 10th book coming out sometime this year. I hope. Now I really want to just know what the ending is!!!

The Summer of Lost Letters by Hannah Reynolds - This was a little bit of a prequel to Eight Nights of Flirting (same universe). I liked it, the teen romance was a little messy (as teen romances often are) but the intertwining stories about the history of this Jewish family on Nantucket Island was interesting and a little bit unique. 

Answers in the Pages by David Levithan - I loved this middle grade novel about banning books and standing up for what you believe in. It had three intertwined stories, and I gasped when they all came together. A quick and sweet read.

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman - A story of two life-long friends as one of them is dying in hospice. It's beautifully written and heart-wrenching, but boy oh boy, I did not need this book. It was deeply, terribly, horribly sad. Even though I also laughed. I just wanted it to be over. Because it was so sad. And that's my review.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray - A really cool historical story about a young (secretly) Black woman who worked as JP Morgan's librarian for his own library. Interesting idea, r e a l l y s l o w moving, and also I was a bit irritated by the first-person narrative. It started out well, but I felt like the later chapters just weren't as interesting. I really wanted to love this since so many people have recommended it! After I finished it, I looked up her life and the book was quite true to it, which I do appreciate!

Thistlefoot by GemmaRose Nethercott - Let me start by saying this book isn't for everyone. It's a little dark and odd...and I kinda loved it. It is a revisiting of the Baba Yaga tales (Eastern European Jewish folklore) but with a modern twist, and my favorite parts were when the house itself (Baba Yaga had a house on chicken legs) told its story. The way this story demonstrated, through magical abilities, inherited trauma was intensely powerful and moving to me. I'm not sure who should read this one, but I liked it.  

January Books

January 2023 - Books I Read

 

Welcome back to a new year and some great new reading!

Here are all the books I read in January, 2023

Keeper of the Lost Cities - Books 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 - They're delightful - a rich and beautiful world of magic and intrigue between a team of teens, their grownup allies, and their dark and shadowy enemies. Annoying, each book ends wtih a total cliffhanger, which means I just want to keep going! (I will say that the cliffhanger for book 7 was slightly less compelling to me, so I read the first chapter of book 8 and now I'm taking a short break!) Each one is over 600 pages, so I've read a LOT of pages this month!

An Affair of Spies by Ron Balson - this was not my favorite of his books. Perhaps the dialogue felt a little too modern? Or the whole thing felt a smidge too simplistic? Obviously, a book about spies in Nazi Germany shouldn't be simplistic, but it just didn't work for me. 

The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama - I really enjoyed hearing her voice come through again, and I didn't listen to an audiobook! But I could almost hear Michelle speaking the words. A lovely and heartfelt memoir.

The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman - I don't know how I never got to this one in 2022, but I loved it. This is my favorite kind of story - one that spans a lifetime and has just a tiny hint of magical realism. I didn't want this book to end. 

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro - I'm often spoiled in January, as I read everyone else's "best of" books from the year before. This one did not disappoint me - the interlinked story of children, parents, and spouses - really an excellent and engrossing read. 

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin - I loved the characters and the journey they took together. It reminded me a little of that Natalie Portman movie - "Where the Heart Is" and I saw April as that young Natalie Portman character who finds her way to a chosen family. Definitely enjoyed this one!

Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner - I loved this sweet book about a London bookstore post-war, and the women who work there. The characters interact with all sorts of real-life famous people, and it was cozy and lovely. 

November Books I Read #MyLifeInBooks

 

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford - one of my favorite reads of the year, I loved this back-and-forth-through-history look at the way generational trauma can carry through our history. I have been recommending this one all over town!

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng - I really wanted to love this book but it didn't all work for me. I do like the whole librarians-as-heroes plotline! It was not my favorite of her books.

One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin - I wish I knew how I got to this book. I almost quit right away when I realized that Lenni was a teenager with a terminal illness, but I was totally hooked by the storytelling style and I ended up loving this sad and sweet book. 

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan MacGuire - This was the second in the Wayward Children books, and I didn't plan to read it until someone mentioned that they'd read the whole series in one sitting and I felt like I needed to revisit. This was the backstory of one of the side characters in the first book, and now I'm hoping that the rest of the books all track through other characters as well. Just a good twisty fantasy story. 

Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart - A wonderful middle-grade novel about friendship and family, about finding your passion and finding your people. Just a hint of magic, and it was wonderful. I definitely want to read all of his books now!

More Than I Love My Life by David Grossmann - Catching up for next month's book discussion. This was NOT an easy read - another story of generational trauma as it plays out in Israeli society. Come to the December book discussion to talk about it!

The Measure by Nikki Erlick - Hmm. I liked the premise of this book and I really liked how the various storylines ended up interwoven. It was a bit too simplistic and predictable, but the ending was mostly satisfying. 

Eight Nights of Flirting by Hannah Reynolds - A CHANUKAH ROMANCE NOVEL! Okay, it's for teens. But I loved it. It was adorable and sweet, and of course, Jewish! I had a few issues (as one does) but overall, it made me very happy. 

October books
September Books
August Books
July Books
June Books
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April Books
March Books
February Books
January Books

October Books #booksIRead #MyLifeInBooks

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz - One of my favorite books of the year, I could not put it down. The style was so unique, the story was great, the characters were incredibly layered, and I loved so many of the big questions that it raised. 

One, Two, Three by Laurie Frankel - okay, this was ALSO one of my favorite books of the year. Each character's voice was so clear and distinct, the story was both heartwarming and heartwrenching, and I just couldn't put it down. (It was a good couple of weeks of reading)

The Spanish Love Deception - It was fine. A typical romance novel, and I found myself a little annoyed by the characters. 

June, Reimagined - another romance novel, this one with a little twist of a character who wants to reinvent herself and her life, along with figuring out how to handle a big family secret. Not bad.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe - This is an autobiographical graphic memoir, and wow. It's a clear and interesting look at what it means to wrestle with and try to explain different gender and sexual identities, while one is also figuring them out for oneself! My sixth grader brought this book home, it was passed on from a friend. While I know he was proud to be reading a book that is "the most banned, Mom," I was also aware of the opportunity to have some big conversations after we both read it. I'm not sure I'd really recommend it for sixth graders, but I was glad that he felt he could share it with me. 

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill - I loved this alternate-history story of a 1955 "mass dragoning," when thousands of women spontaneously turned into dragons. It was a really interesting look at how women's roles and power have changed over time, and how rage can be an important driving force for change. I did think that it was a little long - meaning, I got the "big idea" pretty quickly and the story could have been pared down a bit. But I did like this one a lot!

The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberly - Back to romance novels, this one a book about two authors who work together on a hit book and then stop working together. Will they find a way to work together again? Will they fall in love? If you've ever read a romance novel, I think you can answer these questions for yourself :-) This wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite.

September Books
August Books
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June Books
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April Books
March Books
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September Books I Read #MyLifeInBooks

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - I loved this book - the characters, the storyline, the nuance...it was really a wonderful combination. There was a smidge of Jewish-element in this story (Sadie meets Sam because of her Bat Mitzvah!) but it wasn't interesting or deep enough. Other people have said this was the best book of the year, and while I really loved it, I did think it was a bit too long and so therefore it's good but not my favorite!

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynne Barnes I'm not always a completionist, but I really wanted to see how this trilogy ended. I thought this one was better than the second, and I liked how it all wrapped up. 

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen She is one of my favorite authors, and it's been quite a while since she's written a new book! This one did not disappoint - I love the blend of magical realism and real life in this story about love and grief and chosen family. 

Thread Collectors by Shauna Edwards and Alyson Richman - what a unique story of the Civil War from two perspectives - Jewish and Black. I really appreciated these stories and how they wove together. There's some interesting stuff here about these two authors, too, as they both drew on their own family stories to collaborate on this book. 

My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen - Such a fun gender-swapped My Fair Lady story, with a twist that Elijah Little (ya know, Eliza Dolittle) is Jewish to boot. It's also an alternate timeline history, which is a little steampunk and a lot of fun. Maybe a smidge too long, but I liked it overall. 

Shmutz by Felicia Berliner - Super provocative cover but the story itself was sad and dark, without a lot of redemption. I definitely didn't understand the goal of this book and the ending confused me a little bit. I don't really recommend this one. 

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay Quick read, a sweet epistolary novel set in the 1960s, focused on food and friendship. I really enjoyed this one, it reminded me of 84 Charing Cross Road. 

Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young Ooh, so good. It felt a little like a magical version of Veronica Mars! Mystery, secrets, magic...all in this one. 

August Books
July Books
June Books
May Books
April Books
March Books
February Books
January Books