Summer Beach Reading

The books I either started or finished while at the beach last week. Believe it or not, I did do a few others things, but mostly I read! It was great!

The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green

Jane Green has been one of my favorites for several years, but this just seemed too formulaic. A rotten mother, three daughters, all affected in one way or another by her bad mothering. But, when the mother is dying of ALS, she wants her daughters to gather around, forgive her and form relationships with each other. So, they do. Ho hum!

Same Beach Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank

A new author to me and again, just a little too predictable. Two couples meet at the beach every year. One husband had a relationship with the other wife when they were young and so there is residual sexual tension that one day erupts, yada yada yada. The best part of the book was when the spurned (or not so spurned) wife heads out to Greece on her own to discover her long lost relatives and herself. Loved the descriptions of Greece and it made me want to go there.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Kip recommended this to me and I finally got to read it. The writing style was sometimes like reading a stand-up comedy routine, but at least it was funny! Another way to view the racist attitudes perpetrated here and in South Africa. Thanks for sharing your story, Mr. Noah.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I had read The Marriage Plot last year and did not enjoy it so was hesitant to read Middlesex, but I kept hearing about this from so many sources, I finally broke down. It was long, but was very good. I liked this so much more than The Marriage Plot. Cal was born with recessed male sex organs and looked like a female baby. He was raised as a female and discovered at 14 that he had the male chromosome. While fictional, the story is told in first person and was very believable. Enlightening and entertaining.

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam

Two young women who have known each other since they were eleven, now living in New York City. And it doesn’t get any more exciting than that. Told through present day events as well as flashbacks, we sometimes get the viewpoint of Sarah and sometimes know what Lauren is thinking. As a former middle school classmate so knowingly delineated: Sarah is rich, but Lauren is pretty. And Alam is able to show how being rich or pretty affects your life in so many ways, even Sarah and Lauren cannot quite understand it. While nothing much happens in this story, it is one that will stick with me as I think about these characters.

Mrs. Saint and the Defectives by Julie Lawson Timmer

A sweet novel about a woman and her teen-aged son, recovering from a divorce. Markie and her son Trevor and suffering in silence and trying to figure out their own way back to the lives they want to lead when their interfering neighbor enters their lives. Mrs. Saint pushes her way into their lives and maybe the most annoying thing was that she was almost always right! While the writing was not great, I loved the story and enjoyed the premise.

Broken Harbor by Tana French

This is the fourth book in a series by French. They are police procedurals set in Dublin. One difference between this series and others I have read is that French focuses on a different detective in each book, usually one that was in a previous book, but not the main character. She also manages to set up the story so by the end (in three out of four of the books), the officer decides to leave the force. As the others were, this was a complicated story, with several clues that come at different times as well as foreshadowing that did not help me solve the crime. I like the story, but the pace is a little slow and maybe she could tell it in half the space!

The Ophelia Cut by John Lescroart

This is about the 15^th book in the series about a lawyer in San Francisco. I have not read any of the others and from reviews online, this was not the best of the series, so I may read some of the earlier ones since I liked the characters and the courtroom scenes were well done. I have heard a lot about this author and am willing to give him another shot.

A Distant View of Everything by Alexander McCall Smith

I will read anything by Smith and almost always love it. This is no exception. Another in the series about Isabel Dalhousie, the Scottish philosopher and now mother of two boys. Besides the great philosophical debates that Isabel has with herself, I love the love story that is portrayed between Isabel and her younger husband who adores her and both their sons. A feel good read that I looked forward to!

The Late Show by Michael Connelly

Another of my favorite authors, Connelly is starting fresh with a new character, still an LAPD officer, but this time a young woman. She has a lot in common with Bosch (his main character in several novels): she won’t give up, she works when she doesn’t have to, she doesn’t seem to need sleep and she is concerned about the victims at all times! I haven’t finished this one yet, but I am already hooked on Renee Ballard.