RawlesRoams

 Travel Notes 

by RawlesRoams

I went on a month-long vacation this summer to visit family and some spectacular new locations.  Knowing I was going to be away so long, I knew I'd need several books and since we were packing only carry-ons, I knew I would not be able to take paper books.  Yikes.  So, I decided to finally break out my trusty Kindle again!  Lo and behold, there were 60+ books collecting virtual dust in there, just waiting for me to read!  This is all because of Amazon First Reads (one free book a month for members) and my now defunct relationship with BookBub (an email every day saying WOW, you can get this book for $.99!!  And boy did I ever....).

I had no idea what was still on my Kindle, and actually had some surprisingly good reads.  I learned that I can categorize books on my Kindle into To Be Read, for instance, so I picked about 15 books, added those titles to my new category for ease of searching, and starting with the one at the top.  Following are quick reviews of each book, and the revelation of my Favorite!

The Answer is No, by Frederik Backman

I love Backman, but I did not care for Beartown.  What I like about him is his humor and how he picks fun at humanity without being mean about it.  Very wink wink.  He is also a scream to watch being interviewed - he is so shy and introverted yet very quick and funny.  This is actually a short story about a man who craves his solitude to the extreme.  When he is bamboozled by the neighbors into joining and then leading the HOA, havoc (and maybe some really weird friendships) ensue.  Fast pace, good fun.

The Quitters Club, by Jessica Strawser

This was a recent (maybe even June?)  Amazon First Read choice.  I am not familiar with this author, but the premise of four college friends gathering for a weekend to celebrate turning 40 and discussing their lives, loves, and disappointments really hit home.  They make a pact to QUIT what is  not working for them and to support each other in the endeavor.  And I am not talking about quitting french fries here - they mean jobs, marriages, grief, and their assumed futures.  Some deep issues are tackled, solved, left alone, and lived.  

Season of Storms, by Susannah Kearsley

Kearsley is another author I really like - think time travel, ghosts on the Scottish Moors, abandoned castles.  I would venture that this book is not her best, and to be fair it is an earlier work, but she does supply a twist at the end that I did not see coming.  Set in Italy, a villa on Lake Garda, this story is of a young actress asked to come perform in a once in a lifetime event, but there are conditions.  References to Shakespeare, theatre life, and of course family drama make this an easy read.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 2, by Beth Browser

Audiobook lovers, this one is for you!  Obviously start with Vol. 1, which is about 3 hours long.  Emma is an orphan who just moved back to her family home in London to claim her inheritance, but her wicked (and delightfully performed) cousin by marriage Archibald makes her life a misery.  Add a handsome man who rents part of the house, a clueless but big hearted Scottish maid, a Duke, a Vicar, the Importance of Jane Eyre, a cousin who needs her help during the "Season" to secure the richest husband, and an Aunt who wants Emma to be her daughter's dowdy wingwoman, and then set it in a village of London where things go missing (but show up at the local tea shop) and Tradition abounds, and this is a VERY fun peek into 1883 London life.  Emma is smart, unfiltered, amusing, frustrated, and she loves books.  Therefore, I love her.  I am currently on Vol. 4.

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper, by J.L. Bryan

This must have been a BookBub Buy.  No clue how I have it, but I must have liked the look of it at some point, right?  And Bazinga!  How much FUN!!  This is the start of a series, and I read three of them before I knew it.  (It came in a Bundle on Amazon so I bought the next two.  So much for not buying books on vaca, hahaha!)  These are quick reads but engaging.  We have a very serious heroine with pain in her past and a ghost in her nightmares.  She and her partner remove ghosts from clients' properties in Savannah, Georgia, which probably follows only N'Orleans as the most haunted city in America.  With a new super cheerful employee on board and some scary happenings, and usually a non-believer somewhere in the stories, Ellie meets these entities where they live - at night, sometimes in a basement, lots of times incurring injury, but always getting her man.  (see book 3)  Very chaste and not really horror, but some violence and some great banter.

A Day Like This, by Kelley McNeil

What a terrible title for this book!  More like, the Double Life of Annie Beyers, or Annie Beyers' Chosen Life.  But I digress, do not judge a book by its cover/title and all that.  

Annie has it all - loving husband, beautiful daughter, house in the country.  She gave up a bourgeoning art career for her family, and doesn't regret it. Right?  One day she wakes up from a car accident and everything has changed.  And her daughter does not exist.  And she isn't married anymore and she is famous.  WHAT???  How the author reconciles this duplicity is fascinating and actually fulfilling.  I just think they should have picked a different title, maybe I would have read it sooner!!!

The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury, by Marc Levy

I wonder sometimes if a book's magic is lost in translation. This translation was very flat for me.  The story had a good premise, but I found the prose very simplistic and the characters totally unbelievable, especially Mr. Daldry.  I am all about books where you trace your history, or find out your heritage has more to it than you were told.  There was one lovely surprise here, but then that ENDING.  No, just no.  So there, I have given you a massive hint about which book was my favorite.  Not this one.

What the Dead Know, by Lisa Lippman

Ok back to a trusted author and genre.  Lippman, or as I call them all, The Lisas (Lippman, Scottoline, Jewel, Wingate, Genova - wait, not Lisa Genova, she is on a different planet!!! Again, digression), always provide a good read.  This one is compelling - 30 years after two sisters went missing, a woman shows up in a car wreck claiming to be the youngest sister.  A Baltimore cop calls foul, but this woman knows too much.  Where has she been?  What happened, and is she really the lost girl??  Great mystery!!

  

Feral: Losing Myself and Finding My Way in America's National Parks, by Emily Pennington

Not this one either.  Meh.  What a whiner.  This memoir tells about a rough patch in this woman's life, she breaks up with her boyfriend, she hikes a few parks, she complains the WHOLE way.  Skip it.  I thought I would do a good thing during America's 250th birthday year and read about our wonderful National Parks.  Nope,  back to fiction.

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, by Kelly Harms

Whew, ok, this was more like it!!!  In turns sad, fist pumping good for you, and family drama, Amy's story is of reinvention and breaking out of the confines of being "just a mom."  Read this if you need some serious girl power inspiration, and don't think Amy doesn't second guess herself too.  Can she stand up to the man who walked out on her and their children three years ago?  Will her inner self be able to live once again?  For every woman who devotes herself and buries herself into her family, break free baby!  Yes, you can have it all.  Reminded me that in order to feed others, one must first make sure your own soul isn't starving.

The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster, by Scott Wilbanks

By the time I read this book, my vaca novels were starting to meld into one another.  In this story, we have another young woman alone in the world except for her best he-doesn't-know-it-but-we-do gay friend. She wakes to find a new house behind her own, and discovers it is actually part of a magical portal door to the past.  How that past is connected to her long lost family, her friends, and her own past and how that all melds into the present....well, say no more.  I agree with a lot of reviewers that there was just too much going on here and it was hard to keep up.  I love a good time travel story, and I can totally deal with the supernatural and some magic.  I did like how different characters revealed themselves in the different time periods, but  - yeah.  But.  It was ok.

So, have you guessed which was my favorite?  Look for the asterisk in the list below.  One asterick is my fav, two astericks was my second fav.  

RIGHT!  That is it for this first edition of Rawles Roams.  ;-)

Next time, I will talk more about Travel Reading, meaning reading a book about a specific place before visiting said place.  Last year I went to Hawaii and read Moloka'i.  A few years ago my mom and I (and Kay!)  went to Italy and I read The Agony and the Ecstasy about Michaelangelo.  I read Boudicca's Daughter over Christmas then saw their statue in London!!  So, I have 2 books cued up for my fall trip...stay tuned!!!

Here is the above list in one go:

The Answer is No, by Frederik Backman

The Quitters Club, by Jessica Strawser*

Season of Storms, by Susannah Kearsley

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 2, by Beth Browser

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper, by J.L. Bryan

A Day Like This, by Kelley McNeil**

The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury, by Marc Levy

What the Dead Know, by Lisa Lippman

Feral: Losing Myself and Finding My Way in America's National Parks, by Emily Pennington

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, by Kelly Harms

Cold Shadows (Ellie Jordan, #2), by J.L. Bryan

The Crawling Darkness (Ellie Jordan, #3), by J.L. Bryan

The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster, by Scott Wilbanks