Top Ten Tuesday: My Spring TBR List

Spring is just around the corner. Some days, it seems like it has already arrived! It's the perfect time of year to sit on your porch with a cold drink and a good book. Here are the ones I am hoping to read in the next few months.


1. A Tyranny of Petticoats, edited by Jessica Spotswood
15 stories of belles, bank robbers, and other badass girls, you say? Count me in!

2. Relief Map by Rosalie Knecht 
A sixteen year old girl in rural Pennsylvania has an unforgettable summer when the FBI cuts off access to their town to find a fugitive.

3. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi 
New Helen Oeyeymi. Need we say more? 

                


4. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
True story of an archivist who smuggled thousands of books to safety under the nose of the Taliban

5. Why We Came to the City by Kristopher Jansma
I loved Kristopher Jansma's debut novel and I am excited to read this one, about a group of friends five years after graduation.

6. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
17 years ago, a girl fell into a hold and landed in a giant metal hand. Now, as an adult, she is the top researcher to discover how that hand got there and what it means. 

               

7. Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeffrey Seller
The making of Hamilton the musical. You know, those songs that are on at my house all the day.

8. Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel
A wealthy family in the 1970s loses all of its money and has to figure out where to go. I adored her novel and her short story collection, so I can't wait to read this one!

9. Alice and Oliver by Charles Bock
Alice seems to have it all - a fantastic job, a great husband, and a brand new baby. But then she discovers she has cancer.

10. Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett 
This book follows one man's struggles with depression through his eyes and those of his wife and children.

                 


Which books are you excited to read this spring? Check out more Top Ten Tuesdays at The Broke and the Bookish!

It's Monday and I didn't blog much this week

Hello again. Fancy meeting you here.

I am fairly certain we haven't stopped moving since Monday. We had our first allergic reaction in a certain toddler, the grownups went out on a rare date, and a certain little boy and I spent this afternoon at our local Barnes and Noble.

Don't worry, there was still reading. There is always reading. I read The Golem and the Jinni, took a short comics detour for Jessica Jones: Alias and then finished the week with Passenger.

                  

On the blog, I reviewed The Tsar of Love and Techno (finally) and that was about it. Somehow the blogging just did not happen this week!

Tonight, I plan to dive into Addie Zierman's Night Driving and then follow that with Maisie Dobbs, which is the first in a series that a lot of readers seem to love!

               

What are you reading this week?

Review: The Tsar of Love and Techno

In The Tsar of Love and Techno, nine interconnected stories span centuries in Russia and Chechnya. The characters vary, from a censor in the 1930s to soldiers to women recounting the history and sacrifices of their grandmothers. Each story stands on its own, but the beauty and subtlety with which Marra connects these people will drive readers back to reading it again and again to find the threads.

Roman Markin is the protagonist of the first story. He is an artist who paints away the faces of people who are no longer in favor of the government. He is struck by a picture of a beautiful ballerina. In the second story, Galina, the granddaughter of that very dancer, is crowned in a local beauty pageant. We later follow Galina's first love as he has his heart broken and searches for peace and purpose.

While the events of this book are often heartbreaking, there is a sense of wry humor throughout. In "The Grozny Tourist Bureau," we meet a man who is charged with making a tourism service for the city of Grozny in the metaphorical and actual rubble of years of war. Throughout each story, there is a sense that the future is a very uncertain thing. We might as well chuckle at the absurdity of it all.

The Tsar of Love and Techno is just as wonderful as Marra's debut novel. The characters are compelling and the writing is equally likely to sweep you off your feet or feel like an emotional punch to the gut. As I sit here writing this review, I find myself itching to read it again. Mr. Marra is quickly becoming one of the authors whose books I will read, buy, and love each and every time.


The Tsar of Love and Techno
By Anthony Marra
Hogarth October 2015
352 pages
Read via Netgalley

It's Monday, so let's talk books and pie

Hello friends. How ya doing?

It's been a busy, good week for us. We did a lot of cleaning and organizing, mostly in the room of a certain eight year old. I made some pies this week - one for a woman from our church who has been sick, and one for us to enjoy. (They're apple, by the way.)

On Friday, D and I went to see a high school production of Shrek. My mom did an amazing job playing a lot of music; she's a wonderful pianist.

          

This week, I read Mr. Splitfoot and it was so very good. I picked up 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, but it wasn't working for me. I will give it another try at some point. So now I am reading The Golem and the Jinni, which I have been meaning to read for forever!

                 

I reviewed Flight of Dreams and The Only Ones, both of which I recommend. I also wrote about February, with all of its sickness and reading.

Next up is Passenger and Addie Zierman's new book Night Driving. 

                 

What are you reading this week?

Review: Flight of Dreams

Emilie Imhoff is the only female crew member aboard the gorgeous and world-famous Hindenburg. She is tasked with attending to the wealthy wives aboard and watching over their children. Her position is one of prestige, but it also carries a lot of scrutiny. The watchful gaze of her superiors and fellow crew members is problematic for Emilie as she battles her feelings for Max, the ship's navigator, and tries to keep a big secret out of the light. But the bigger danger is one she could never have predicted. It is May 1937 and the Hindenburg is about to explode.

Flight of Dreams begins at the end of the story. Two weeks after the explosion, Max is testifying about what happened on board the Hindenburg during that last trip. But, as he plainly tells the reader, he has decided to lie in order to protect the people he knows and loves. Max may be about to lie about what he does know, but he actually doesn't know what caused the explosion. Neither do we, almost eighty years later. Ms. Lawhon excels at finding a mystery lost to the past and presenting a possible version of history. The characters in this novel are the actual people who flew on the Hindenburg. Some pieces of this story are true, based on the recollections of survivors. But other parts, including the cause of the terrible tragedy, are created by the author.

Lawhon expertly builds the tension throughout the story. As the reader, you obviously know what is going to happen. But the characters don't and, as you gain more insight into their lives and their dreams, the stress about their fates becomes palpable. The building tension is aided by a date, time, and countdown to the explosion that marks every section. The reader counts down to a deadly explosion while observing people go about their lives with no idea what is about to occur.

Max, Emilie, and the other people on the Hindenburg may have been real people, but through the creation of Ariel Lawhon, they are characters you will fall head over heels in love with. As the clock counts down and you start to panic about these people you have come to adore, you realize just how carefully and wonderfully Flight of Dreams has been crafted. You will hold your breath in hope and you might cry when it is revealed who survives and who does not, but you will certainly never forget the last flight of the Hindenburg.

Flight of Dreams
By Ariel Lawhon
Doubleday February 2016
336 pages
From the publisher


Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I am a part of the She Reads book club which is run by Ariel Lawhon. Even if that were not the case, I would have read this book because I adored The Wife, The Maid, and The Mistress!

February Wrap-Up and What I'm Into

I didn't do a January wrap-up, mainly because I was running around wiping down doorknobs with disinfectant and pumping kids full of antibiotics. Between myself, my husband, and the kids, we went through a few rounds of a stomach bug, several colds, and walking pneumonia. There were a few weeks there where I felt like we were barely holding it together. But I think we are coming out the other side and the couple of warm days that we have had and the ability to actually drive home from work in the daylight are doing wonders for us!

I have to confess that while 2 and 8 can be challenging ages, I'm having a blast watching these two. Every once in a while, I find myself laughing hysterically or needing a mop to wipe my heart off the floor after a particularly adorable moment. I especially love watching them together and I'm so glad that they are friends.

What I Read/Reviewed:
I only reviewed 5 books in February because I was posting weekly posts about Alexander Hamilton and I participated in a readalong of a great book about female scientists called Headstrong, as well as Book Blogger Appreciation Week. So I guess, technically, I reviewed 7 books - 5 were nonfiction and 2 were fiction.

                  

I think my favorite book of this month was The Queen of the Night, but I also have to send some love to Ron Chernow's Hamilton. I spent eight weeks with that book and I feel like I learned so much, not only about the man himself but also about the era in which he lived and the beginning of our American government and politics.

                              The Queen of the Night    Sounds Like Me    Twain's End
                                                       Wildflower          Big Magic 

What I'm watching:
The husband and I loved the end of Agent Carter and I really hope that it gets a third season. When I'm working or blogging and I want some background noise, I find myself rewatching Gilmore Girls. I guess I'm getting ready for the new episodes!


  

What I've been listening to:
Hamilton. Obviously. Always. But I've also been branching out and listening to some new-to-me musicals including Little Women and The Drowsy Chaperone. 

And then there are podcasts. I love Book Riot's The Podcast and Get Booked. What podcasts do you listen to?



What were you into in February?

Review: The Only Ones

Inez Fardo is on her own in an uncertain and terrifying post-pandemic world. She survives by keeping her head low and selling her blood and tissue to scientists, since she is immune to the diseases decimating the population. When she is asked to assist a grief-stricken woman become a mother again, she agrees and treats it like any other job. But when the mother backs out at the last moment, Inez is left with a baby. Ani is a marvel of science and in danger from religious zealots who think she is an abomination and from scientists who will want to study her. But she is also a child and Inez must fight to keep Ani safe and care for her in a world where nothing is safe and no one can be trusted.

In The Only Ones, Carola Dibbell has carefully crafted a world where disease is everywhere and tomorrow is certainly not guaranteed. Inez does not have education, but she does have experience and that experience has taught her that she has to think fast and keep moving. That gets much more difficult when she finds herself with a baby. Since her daughter was created in a lab and not born through more traditional means, Ani needs to stay off the grid. That is difficult to do, though, when your child needs to go to school or see a doctor.

The most striking thing to me with this story was how much was exactly the same, even as the world is ending around us. Inez is, for all intents and purposes, a single mother and she frets about how to make money or scavenge for food and supplies with a baby. When Ani is older, she has to face that heartbreaking parenting moment when you leave your child at school and they cry for you to come back. Inez listens to a daughter who understands only that they do not have the same things as her peers and not the sacrifices that she makes for their survival. Can Inez raise Ani to be better, to accomplish greater things than she did, even though they live in the same environment and share the same cells?

The Only Ones is one of those wonderful stories where you are hard-pressed to quickly say what the book is about. It's about survival, or medical ethics, or motherhood, or all three. It's about the lengths we will go to for the safety and happiness of someone we love. Carola Dibbell has written a unique and powerful book that I am still thinking about long after I finished reading it.


The Only Ones
By Carola Dibbell
Two Dollar Radio March 2015
344 pages
From the publisher for review