I have some great books to share- each was amazing in different ways.
Do you ever find yourself with a month of reading when all the books are long? like long, long…
Mind you, I love long books with lots of details, but… a 400-500 page book is work. However, on a good note, if the book is really, really good it’s okay!
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This mesmerizing book (for the most part) is the story of Jack and Elizabeth. The two met as college students and married only to find they might not know each as well as they thought.
Elizabeth works at a company called Wellness. It seems their main goal is to study the effect of using a placebo versus medicine.
Elizabeth is also recruited to complete some more personal tasks with meeting people. (And I will not tell you more about that!)
Jack is an artist with quite a bizarre talent. He makes pictures using photo paper but the work turns out to be nothing. It is never a recognizable person or object. So what is driving this need for him to create art in this form?
Jack and Elizabeth have backstories told throughout the book- more details I will not divulge.
So do I recommend this book? Short answer: yes. But…
- It has long sections of informational passages that are quite boring. However, these parts are essential to the story. So, read them.
- The sections about the couple’s parents and grandparents are also essential to the story. Pay attention.
- I read nearly 250 pages before I read a short page that made me sit and say, “WHAT!” That is when the story took off.
- The book is told in sections with names like Wellness and The Meaning Effect. The titles also have meanings.
- The sections were not sequential so pay attention to the dates if you can.
Overall, despite the things I mentioned above I gave this book 5 STARS! It was fun in parts, really heartbreaking, and quite insightful at the end.
Vincent, a woman, is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette. This glass hotel is on a Vancouver island and is owned by Jonathan Alkaitis.
At the same time that Vincent is meeting Jonathan, her brother, Paul, has just etched a strange sentence on the glass wall of the hotel lobby.
Thus begins a long relationship as Vincent becomes Jonathan’s trophy wife. He is quite wealthy, but how does he earn this money?
You will discover that Paul, (Vincent’s brother) is a drug addict who drifts around and eventually makes a living, but in an odd way. It is connected to Vincent, but I will not tell you about it.
It is no secret that Vincent’s demise is part of this book. The story begins with her fall overboard and ends with that fall. The chapters and sections alternate from character to character and change time as well. You must piece together this author’s writing style and be patient as the story unfolds.
In the end, you will be glad you stayed with the journey of Vincent and Paul, and other utter collapse of Jonathan. TIP: Research Ponzi schemes before you read this book! 5 stars!
Another great book from Kristin Hannah! This time, we go to the mid-sixties, shortly after JFK was shot in Texas. Troops of young Americans are being sent to Vietnam.
Like her brother, Frankie McGrath decides that she can be a hero, serving her country and making her family proud, just like her brother. She applies to the Army Nurse Corps to follow in her brother’s footsteps.
Arriving In Vietnam she is sent to a MASH unit with only very basic nursing training behind her.
The book spans 20 years of Frankie’s life as she falls in love with two men and relies heavily on her Vietnam friends, Barb and Ethel, as she struggles with PTSD and the treatment of veterans in The United States after the war.
You will find out more about Frankie’s love interests as you read- be ready with some tissues as you do. The scenes of war injuries and Frankies’ nursing care are graphic and horrid, as was the war. Upon returning home Frankie is a changed person- only to discover she is not being treated as the hero she hoped to be.
I can highly recommend that you read this book! it is historically correct and reveals some startling things about Vietnam – the men who fought, the nurses who worked on the MASH units, and the Americans who treated them abominably. It is heart-breaking in so many parts and yet a story we must remember! 5+stars.
These 3 were the best of the month! Which will you try first? Or have you already read them?
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