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Young Jane Young
Young Jane Young
Gabrielle Zevin | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
An emotional, character-driven tale
This is the twenty-fifth book in my #atozchallenge! I'm challenging myself to read a book from my shelves that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Let's clear those shelves and delve into that backlist!

YOUNG JANE YOUNG weaves together the story of five women--Rachel Grossman, who worries about her college-aged daughter, Aviva and her future. Jane Young, who lives in Maine with her daughter, Ruby. Ruby Young, who has led a quiet life with her mom, until now. Embeth Levin, the wife of a famous congressman. And Aviva Grossman, who became Internet famous after a terrible scandal. These five women are bound together by this scandal and the man at its center.

This was an interesting read, told from the perspective of each of our female protagonists. Zevin is excellent at portraying different voices, from young Ruby to the older Rachel and Embeth, and I really enjoyed how strong of a storyteller she was. Some of the women's stories were told in unique formats, such as all email or a "choose your own adventure" style. It was different, took a little getting used to, but overall worked for this book.

This is less of an action packed tale than a character-driven one, focused on how Aviva's actions affect everyone going forward. It has a political bent, but centers more around emotion, relationships, and family. It does a good job portraying the double standards applied to women--in politics, in marriage, and more. My favorite character was probably Ruby, but I thought Zevin did a good job of bringing each woman to life and showing their complex feelings and flaws.

I would have liked more of an ending to this story, especially finding out what was next for Ruby and Rachel. But this was an interesting and different read, and I'm glad I picked it up. As always, as I get nearly to the end of the alphabet, I'm glad my challenge has gotten me to choose some books I might not have otherwise.
  
The Push
The Push
Ashley Audrain | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
10
8.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
The protagonist in this book is a nameless woman, a daughter, a wife, a mother, and this story is told from her perspective, kind of. The woman is telling us her life story: how she met her husband, about her pregnancy and her troubles with her daughter Violet, and other events that traumatise her for life. The characters in this book are quite disturbed, intense and very complex. For some strange reason, I could really relate to the protagonist. I understood her and her thoughts resonated with mine sometimes.

At the beginning of the book, I was not very impressed, I had no idea what it was about. But the more I got into it, the more absorbed I became. The narrative has several different lines and is telling the story of women from three generations. The protagonist is sharing the deepest and scariest thoughts of her life, and it got very intense for me sometimes. I really enjoyed the suspense, turns and twists. The topics discussed in this book are marriage, pregnancies, lack of motherhood instinct, mother-daughter relationship, children behavioural issues, grief, depression, trauma and many more.

The book is set somewhere American sounding (might be Canada), the atmosphere of this book is pretty dark and shrouded with mystery. I really liked the writing style of this novel, it is very honest, detailed and the mystery was kept perfectly. The chapters are pretty short, so this book was a true page-turner for me. I really loved the ending, because I was pretty confused with some stuff happening in the book, but the ending kind of clarified it for me. I have to throw in a warning, that this book has triggers when it comes to pregnancies, cheating, death of children, grief, psychotic behaviour.

So, to conclude, this book is a very intense life story, filled with very well crafted characters, that are intriguing, absorbing and the plot that is layered, complex and brutally honest.
  
The Scarlet Pen (True Color #12)
The Scarlet Pen (True Color #12)
Jennifer Uhlarik | 2021 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The last book in the True Colors series is called "The Scarlet Pen." What a story it told. Though at first, you might think about what is going on. Why would parents be concerned for their daughter and not allow her to marry her friend?

We meet a young woman and her sweet talk lover Stephen. But will they end up getting married, or will Emma finally see what is going on with their beloved and find true love? We seem to follow Stephen's journey from his marriage proposal to a young woman to his eventful capture.

There a young man on horseback comes to visit and do some business. As the twist and turns show up. Something happens to make Stephen and his friend jump town; Stephen tries to keep Emma at bay and in the dark. Clay seems to want to help and protect her. Emma seems to want to defend Stephen. Why is that?

There seems to be a trail of banknotes that keep leading back to Stephen and connecting to Emma. Will Emma confront a man that may harm her and possibly kill her. Or will someone come and save her.

Who is this serial killer? Why is he doing it? Clay seems to get hints and information and then loses Richards while he is on the run. Will they all make it out safe? Will Stephen get caught, or will he run free. I felt terrible for the family that brings Clay to face the past that happened to him and his family.

The True Color series is a favorite of mine. The books are set in history and tell about true American crimes and have some fiction. These books are great for historical fiction fans and crime fans as well. This one has quite a few killings but not too much detail of the gruesome deaths. Enough to know how it happened. The stories transpire based on actual crimes in American history, but there is some friction that the author brings up in the book.
  
40x40

Mick Hucknall recommended Led Zeppelin 2 by Led Zeppelin in Music (curated)

 
Led Zeppelin 2 by Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin 2 by Led Zeppelin
1969 | Rock
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I listen to this record all the way through - even 'Moby Dick'. To me it encapsulates the Led Zeppelin sound, because the engineering on it is so magnificent. The fact that a four-piece band can sound so vast. Obviously there are great tracks on III and IV. But I feel that II is the most complete album. It's amazing to find out they recorded it mostly on tour. Extraordinary. It sounds like it was recorded in one room. I think it's accounted for by the fact they just sound like that. They just sound that magnificent. I was not a huge fan of the first album. I remember reading the story about how, I think it was Glyn Johns again, the story about him playing it to George Harrison, and George Harrison didn't really get it. I wonder if he had played him Zeppelin II he'd have got it. I is not my favourite. On II it felt fully realised. They'd pulled away from that influence of blues; it was still there, but they'd merged it into their own thing. Which again I think is something that people don't associate with Simply Red – we've been enormously influenced by African American music, but we've been influenced by it from a different era. The marriage between black and white started with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and George Gershwin and all these people that ran through music, right through to Elvis, to Jagger, to Robert Plant – we've all in our own ways been enormously influenced by African American music. But the real thing to celebrate is that we made something different out of it. We didn't just copy it. The British especially turned it into something else. It became what we now know as rock music. The Beatles and the Stones are the people who can justifiably claim to have invented what we know as rock music. Not rock & roll, not R&B, not blues, but rock. And that is something to celebrate."

Source
  
Wolf Girl (Wolf Girl, #1)
Wolf Girl (Wolf Girl, #1)
Leia Stone | 2020 | Paranormal, Romance
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I got this from the Kindle Unlimited library

This starts with Demi being picked on by her school class for being the only shapeshifter and her trapped wolf trying to break free causing her to leave the room at a run and heading outside where she lets out a howl of pure anger. Only she isn't alone, an attractive wolf shifter - Sawyer - is behind her and invites her back to Wolf City - turns out he's the Alpha's son and will be Alpha very soon himself - and she goes with him, not expecting much, but finds herself included in a strange sort of real life The Bachelor type scenario.

I've never watched The Bachelor but i know the general idea for the show and this felt very similar. Although it was clear from early on that Sawyer is very much into Demi - more than any of the other girls, anyway. I liked how different it was in that way, I've never read a book that went along the lines of a dating show. It was kinda fun.

I actually really liked Sawyer. He wasn't the typical Alpha shifter. He could be very humble at times and was always considerate of what Demi wanted, unlike most other shifters you read about who are rather demanding and shove their thoughts and feelings onto others. I REALLY liked him!
Until that end bit! What was that all about? Doing a total 180 because of one strange thing that happened and then publicly declaring your marriage to someone else without talking about it? That totally knocked my rating down a full star because after everything that you'd done for each other, you do that to her?! It was totally out of left field.
Fair enough Demi thinks she's figured out whats happened but then it ended and I'm all up in the air. On one hand I was loving it up until that last chapter or so...

I need book 2 pronto so I can see what happens next with these two.
  
The Dig (2021)
The Dig (2021)
2021 | Drama, History
8
7.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Acting from Fiennes and Mulligan - top notch (1 more)
Cinematography is gorgeous
Why make it so "man heavy" when history was otherwise? (1 more)
Found the asynchronous editing irritating
Archaeology with no fedora required
It’s 1939, and as World War 2 approaches, widower Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) hires rough and ready excavator Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to dig into one of the ancient earth mounds on her property at the site that will become famous as Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Requesting the help of her cousin Rory Lomax (Johnny Flynn) to photograph the effort, the site slowly gives up its Anglo-Saxon treasures attracting the attention of first the Ipswich museum and then the pompous Charles Phillips (Ken Stott) of the British Museum. A battle is on for both the control of the site and the resting place for the treasures found.

Against this backdrop there is a critical illness emerging, a son (Archie Barnes) and his attachment to the father figure of Brown and a potential romance between Rory and archaeologist Peggy Piggott, trapped in a loveless marriage.

Talent:
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Johnny Flynn, Lily James, Archie Barnes, Ken Stott, Monica Donlan.

Directed by: Simon Stone.

Written by: Moira Buffini (from the novel by John Preston).

Bullet points of my thoughts:

+ Superb acting by Mulligan and Fiennes – Oscar noms for both?
+ Young Archie Barnes impresses as the son Robert
+ Cinematography by Mike Eley shows the open Suffolk skies at their best
+ Based on fact, a fascinating historical record of the real excitement of uncovering the past
o The script deftly melds the archeology with the love story subplot: but was the latter really necessary?
– Curious “man heavy” script, replacing some of the historical female characters with men and making Peggy Piggott (Lily James) a bit of a klutz
– Asynchronous editing decision I found to be distracting and unnecessary.


For my full review, please see the video at https://youtu.be/m8Ad8B8dkSY .
  
The Sun in Her Eyes
The Sun in Her Eyes
Paige Toon | 2015
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is my fourth or fifth book by the author and I have to admit my least favourite. I even liked [b:Thirteen Weddings|18280725|Thirteen Weddings|Paige Toon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394992094s/18280725.jpg|25752669] better and that didn't even have the ending I wanted but the story and characters got to me more.

I can't say I felt anything for Amber, maybe the fact that she was already married from the start and in a somewhat good marriage with Ned made me a little uncomfortable with what was going on with Ethan. If Ned hadn't been in the picture I would have been all over the Ethan and Amber storyline. Revisiting first-loves is fine by me, but not necessarily when you're quite happily married. If she'd been unhappy, sure.

As for the letter that Doris sent her asking to meet so she could hear the message her mum wanted to give her, I was a <s>little</s>, make that a lot disappointed by that. I was expecting some big secret or something...

Despite not enjoying this as much as the others it has made me want to go on a Paige Toon book binge so I've hunted out all the ones I have but not read yet and will be reading [b:Pictures of Lily|7134057|Pictures of Lily|Paige Toon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1269790608s/7134057.jpg|7396938] first before moving onto [b:Lucy in the Sky|1032295|Lucy in the Sky|Paige Toon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328707137s/1032295.jpg|1018573],[b:One Perfect Summer|12064651|One Perfect Summer (One Perfect #1)|Paige Toon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330897612s/12064651.jpg|17032024],[b:The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson|18114638|The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson (Jessie Jefferson #1)|Paige Toon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383081247s/18114638.jpg|25441913] and [b:The Longest Holiday|16000770|The Longest Holiday|Paige Toon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1363007994s/16000770.jpg|21762175]
  
Murder in Chinatown
Murder in Chinatown
Victoria Thompson | 2007 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Missing Girl Leads to Murder
After a recent close call, midwife Sarah Brandt has vowed to stay away from solving crimes and getting involved in anything dangerous. However, she is in Chinatown with the Lee family since Cora Lee is about to give birth and gets a front row to the family drama unfolding. Cora’s niece, Angel, is upset that her father has arranged a marriage for her to an older man and runs away. The family is frantic to find her because the city is no place for a fifteen-year-old to be alone. While the family does find her, she turns up dead a few days later. Sarah manages to get NYPD Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy involved in the case because she fears other police won’t care to fully investigate given who the victim was. But can Malloy figure it out? Will Sarah get involved despite her promise to stay away from murder?

Once again, we are expertly transported back to 1890’s New York City. Along with our normal glimpses of life during the time period, we get to see a bit of how the Chinese were treated during the time; unfortunately, it isn’t pretty. However, the book never stops to preach at us, instead working this in during the mystery. The case itself is strong with plenty of twists to keep us entertained until the end. I thought I had a few things figured out, but I discovered I was wrong when I reached the logical ending. Sarah, in her efforts to stay out of the case, isn’t quite as involved as Frank, but she still has plenty to contribute. Both are great lead characters, and I enjoyed spending time with the regular supporting players as well as meeting the new characters introduced here. We get some advancement on a couple of on-going storylines, and it looks like one of them will be the main focus of the next in the series. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where that leads.