Happily Never After Lynn Painter Penguin Random House AUS 2024, 352p Read via my local library
Blurb {courtesy of the publisher}: Two love sceptics agree to work together as professional wedding disruptors. But fate has more romantic plans in mind for them . . .
When Sophie finds out before her wedding that her fiancé cheated again, she desperately employs the mysterious Max to yell ‘I object’ at the alter.
On the big day, Sophie sees a gorgeous stranger stand up and tell the entire congregation the truth about the cheating groom, blowing the ceremony apart.
Enjoying the thrill from the aftermath of being saved from her own wedding, Sophie agrees to work together with Max as a love-cynic duo.
When they’re both hired for a wedding by a groom, who happens to be marrying the woman that broke Max’s heart many years ago, Sophie sees Max wrestle with his feelings and is struck by her own jealousy.
This can only mean one thing . . .
I have mostly really enjoyed Lynn Painter’s books. I’ve read both YA and adult books by her and they’re a feel good time. So this one was a pretty anticipated title for me for this year and I have to say, it was exactly what I wanted it to be and what I hoped it’d be.
Sophie is about to marry Stuart when she realises that he’s been cheating on her again. Not wanting to be stuck with the bill for the wedding for being the one calling it off, she employs Max, to stand up and declare his objection, based on Stuart’s cheating, during the ceremony. Faced with the irrefutable proof that Sophie knows, Stuart will be stuck with the bill. Max is someone that has done this multiple times before for people, who don’t know how to pull out of the wedding or who, like Sophie, have reasons for not wanting to be the one who calls it off. They end up hanging out a bit together after the failed ceremony and when Max gets another ‘objector’ job, he decides to ask Sophie to help him with it.
From there starts a ‘friendship’ that they both insist is just that, despite realising pretty quickly that they have some crazy chemistry. For reasons, both Sophie and Max are insistent that they don’t want to be in a relationship. Sophie isn’t a believer in love, Max had a relationship end badly a few years ago so they’re both happy to delude themselves I think, that this won’t be anything that threatens the status quo. But the more time they spend together, the more it’s quite obvious that isn’t going to be the case and when Max realises that a new job they’ve been offered to ‘object’ is actually the wedding of his ex, he’s straight up adamant he won’t do it, which really puts him at odds with Sophie.
I really enjoyed Max and Sophie’s chemistry. I thought they were so much fun together and although it’s a bit silly, I actually really liked their side gig of interrupting weddings. Do I imagine there are that many weddings in someone’s (even broad) social circle to be hired for? No. But did it bother me? Also no. I can understand how in this economy and a “person who calls it off is stuck with the bill” mentality, why someone might not want to do that, particularly if they are actually the wronged party, like Sophie was. I found a lot of their scenes very entertaining and I enjoyed the way Max and Sophie’s friendship progressed. This is also a dual perspective so you get to be party to Max’s inner thoughts as well, which I always really like in a romance. Some people prefer having the love interest’s thoughts be a mystery but I am the opposite. I love knowing when he’s obsessing over her.
There were some fun side characters in this, such as Sophie’s senior citizen flatmates and Max’s family. I just spent a lot of this laughing to myself because it was silly, funny and just a feel good kind of read – a book that you pick up when you want something that you can just immerse yourself in without thinking about it too much, when you want something that is light and enjoyable and feel good. This absolutely did the trick for me after a couple of books that I felt like I was struggling with. It was fresh and fun and just a cute read.
The Life Of Birds David Attenborough Narrated by David Attenborough William Collins 2024, 9hrs 59min Personal purchased copy
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: A fully updated new edition of David Attenborough’s bestselling classic. BIRDS. Over 9,000 species, the most widespread of all on icebergs, in the Sahara or under the sea, at home in our gardens or flying for over a year at a time. Earthbound, we can only look and listen, enjoying their lightness, freedom and richness of plumage and song.
David Attenborough has been watching and learning all his life. His classic book, now fully updated with the latest discoveries in ornithology, is a brilliant introduction to bird behaviours around the what they do and why they do it. He looks at each step in birds’ lives and the problems they have to learning to fly; finding food; communicating; mating and caring for nests, eggs and young; migrating; facing dangers and surviving harsh conditions.
Sir David has no equal in helping others to learn and making it exciting. His curiosity and enjoyment are infectious. He shows the lifelong pleasure that birds around us offer, and how much we miss if unaware of them.
Not that long ago, Audible lured me back in with the 2 credits for 0.99c deal. They have done this before, probably because they know the chances of someone remembering to cancel immediately are low. How do I know this? Because the last time I forgot to cancel and paid for another credit. And this time? I also forgot to cancel (it renewed 2 days earlier than I thought it would) and paid for another credit. But with one of my original 2-for-0.99c deal credits, I pre-ordered this because when in doubt for an audiobook, I always go for a David Attenborough.
I really love listening to non-fiction on audio. Also David Attenborough is second-to-none as a narrator and considering he writes the books he reads, also as a writer. He manages to pack in so much information but in a way that doesn’t make it feel confusing or overwhelming. Nor does it all immediately fly out of my head the second I’ve finished listening to it. Some of it does but I find that I retain a lot as well.
Look, not going to lie, there are some birds I find quite terrifying. For an Australian, it’s probably embarrassing that I’m scared of emus, considering they’re on our national coat of arms. But I’m sorry they’re just creepy. And terrifyingly large. We also have a deadly bird in Australia, the Southern Cassowary, which is capable of killing a human. I don’t much like those either but you’re not expected to interact with them at least, the way that wildlife parks always want you to interact with emus.
But there are also a lot of birds I really love. I’ve been vocal on here of my love of penguins and I’m also a big fan of a lot of Australia’s native parrots and smaller birds. This was a really comprehensive look at the way birds have evolved to adjust first to the changing conditions of their environments over time but also of course, the ways that human actions have caused problems. There are so many interesting facts in here with a focus on how certain species do things like feed, migrate, mate, lay eggs and raise their young.
One of the most interesting segments in here, are the birds we have lost through human action. The ones that have been hunted to death for fun or sport or a lack of knowledge on how to sustain numbers and the ones that have been driven out of their homes by development and human activity. There’s also a small part on birds that almost became extinct and human intervention to prevent it, to establish breeding programs or relocate small populations of them to safer areas so that they might flourish without predators. One of them was the New Zealand kakapo, which I’ve watched documentaries on before. They’re a ground dwelling large parrot which made them particularly vulnerable to introduced predators in New Zealand like the stoats, ferrets, feral and domesticated cats, etc. Even as of 2023, there are only about 247 of them believed to exist in the wild. The efforts to increase the population of the kakapo have been complicated by the lack of places they can be safely located as well as the length of time it took scientists to understand how to replicate situations where they might breed.
This was thorough – I’d expect nothing less. I’ve listened to so many David Attenborough books now and I think they’re the fastest I get through audios. I just love listening to his voice and I love the topics he’s always talking about. I find the audiobooks easier than the documentaries too, because although I love those, I do find some of them confronting, because they’re unedited raw parts of nature and I hate watching things die, even though I know it’s what happens. In this you sometimes get descriptions and stuff but…it’s different.
I highly recommend anything and everything by Sir David.
8/10
Book #87 of 2024
I am going to count this one to my participation in the 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge, hosted by Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out. I am going to put this one towards the science category and it’s the second book read so far towards the challenge. It doesn’t take long to catch up.
Categories:
History Memoir/Biography True Crime Science Health Food Culture Transportation The Future Pets Architecture Published in 2024
Hello and welcome back to another edition of Top 10 Tuesday! Hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl, it features a different, bookish related topic each week. I took a break last week as I wasn’t really feeling the topic but this one…well. Let’s just say I have a lot of candidates!
10 Unread Books On My Shelf I Want To Read Soon
Okay I have a lot of unread books – probably around 300 physical books. Some I’ve had a really long time. Actually, most I’ve had quite a long time. Some others are newer but I have to admit, most of the ones that have been hanging around for years are books I was sent for review and never had the time for. When I buy a book myself, it tends to be one I read pretty quickly although I do definitely have some books I’ve bought that have been lingering on the TBR shelves for a while. Basically every book on my TBR shelf is a book I want to read (soonish) so I decided I’m just going to pick some at random, maybe the ones that stand out to me today, as I stand and look at the shelves.
Come And Get It by Kiley Reid
I actually didn’t end up reading Such A Fun Age but a family member gave me a copy of this one and I’m curious.
A Fate Inked In Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
This is actually borrowed, so I don’t own it but it is sitting on my TBR shelf so I’m counting it! I’m seeing this everywhere at the moment! Everyone seems to be reading it so I’m very excited to find out what all the fuss is about.
Throne Of The Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco
I enjoyed the Kingdom Of The Wicked series. And I was definitely keen for more of this world, especially one of the Princes in particular. It’s not the Prince of this book (I suspect the book I want is probably going to be last?) but I am definitely keen for this one.
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss
I’ve had this on the TBR for a couple of years now and I’ve been meaning to get to it. Anita Heiss is an Indigenous Australian author (the title is River of Dreams in the local Indigenous dialect from where it is set) and I believe this was the first novel to be released in Australia with a title in that Wiradyuri language. I’m going to a retreat where Anita Heiss will be one of the guest authors so I definitely want to read this before that happens in June.
With Love From Wish & Co by Minnie Darke
I’ve had this a couple of years! Maybe since 2022? I’m not sure why I haven’t read it because I loved The Lost Love Song so much. It was one of my favourite books the year I read it and I was so excited for this. I remember buying it with a bunch of other books and pretty much all of them are still on my unread shelf! I really do need to get to this one.
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
This one is a pretty recent addition to the TBR shelf, I think I bought it in the Black Friday sales last year. I’ve heard some amazing things about this book but I’ve also seen a few people say that it wasn’t their thing and that it was overrated. So I’m interested to see how I feel about it…
Possession by A.S. Byatt
I have somehow never read this. I’ve seen it referenced in a couple of books and when I was at a charity second hand book sale last August, I spotted a copy and grabbed it for my stash. Then I spotted a copy in a better condition so swapped out the one I already had for that one. And it’s sat on my shelf ever since, even though I do really want to read it. One day!
The Empire Of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty
Hi, my name is Bree and my toxic trait is that I am really bad at finishing series’. Like, I just…do not do it. Is it a reluctance to have it all be over? Am I scared of what might happen and who might not survive? No one knows, but that is my unfortunate bookish bad habit. This is just one of quite a few final books in a trilogy or series sitting on my shelf that I have owned for ages (this one for years) and haven’t picked up yet. Often I leave it so long that it becomes hard to even remember what happened in the previous books. But I want to finish this! I really enjoyed the first 2 books.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
I really want to read this! I can’t remember how long I’ve owned it, definitely quite a few years. I actually can’t even remember buying it. I think I will enjoy Colton Whitehead’s books and I keep hearing a lot about books he’s released apart from this one but I’ve told myself I’m not allowed to buy anymore until I’ve read this….. So. I have to read this!
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
I haven’t ever read Brandon Sanderson before and I feel like I need to give one a go. He has a huge backlist, so if I enjoy this, there’s a lot out there waiting for me. I bought this late last year and I put it on my 24 in 2024 to motivate me and I really do need to find the right time to pick it up. Maybe after I finish this semester at uni.
I am someone that is always getting distracted by the new shiny books and my library is so good that I’m always picking up new releases there too. But I do have a desire to get the number of unread books down and I’m trying to include those books more in my reading, rotating through new/review books, library books and books from my shelf. So these are 10 of the ones I hope to get to soon….here’s to this list holding me accountable as I keep track of my Top 10 Tuesday lists in my planner so that I can check back easily and see how I’m going.
The City Of Stardust Georgia Summers Hodderscape 2024, 343p Read via my local library
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Curses are made to be broken.
For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor is a woman named Penelope, who never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.
Ten years ago, Violet Everly’s mother left, determined to break their curse, and never returned. Now Violet must find her mother, or she will be taken in her place.
To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet to whom she finds herself undeniably drawn.
Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began . . .
I think I first saw this on a special edition unboxing. I thought it sounded interesting and so I requested it through my local library. It was immediately available and sometimes, the way I decide what book to read next is to look at what is due back first at the library. It was this book on the day I checked so I decided to pick it up.
I had high hopes for it, so it’s with a bit of disappointment that I finished this, because I didn’t really live up to the expectations I had. It sounded so good, the cover is great….but the reviews are definitely mixed and I can see why. For me, this had so much telling, very little showing and it didn’t take the time or care to develop the world or characters. Especially Violet, the main character. It probably doesn’t help that she’s a child when the book starts, but it jumps forward in time to when she’s a teenager and is running out of time before a family curse will take her. Violet’s mother disappeared when she was a child to try and break the curse and hasn’t been seen since. Now because she’s gone, it’s Violet that must bear the curse’s bleak future for her family.
The biggest letdown in this for me was probably the romance. It’s supposed to be an enemies to lovers kind of thing – Violet is the one being sought by a powerful being and Aleksander is the apprentice/assistant to this person. And look, there are some times where you can be like, Aleksander is abused, he’s clearly been groomed and is beholden to this person. But he betrays Violet over and over and over again and it honestly? It was tedious after the first or second time. Especially because Violet is mad for all of like, five minutes and is then like “so answer this question?” and continuously brushes these betrayals aside. Even after Aleksander finally has the truth about his ‘Mistress’ shoved boldly into his face, he’d still go with her if she asked him. I didn’t buy anything about the romance, it felt very forced and like they did not have any real chemistry. How could they when Aleksander was so enmeshed with someone else? And I don’t mean romantically. I wish Violet had taken a fraction of the anger she felt for her uncles when they kept the family curse a secret from her and applied it to just one of the times that Aleksander stabbed her in the back.
There’s just so much that felt underdeveloped in this book. Especially Marianne. Like she’s the person that the whole plot hinges on for most of the book. She left Violet behind as a child with one of her brothers, so she could go and break the curse. She’s being hunted every which way, not to mention the fact that there’s Violet, a girl who hasn’t seen her mother in forever. Violet keeps being told that her mother is doing this for her, that she loves her and wanted to break this curse to see her safe. Except that there’s absolutely zero evidence of this. In fact, for someone who is apparently so crucial, she’s barely spared a page and you’re still left with so many questions. Because in the end it must be Violet who tries to break the curse, to do what her mother could not and free the future generations from this. There are two versions of the story that began the curse, one told by Violet’s family and one told by the other side of the curse. That was kind of interesting, but like so many things in this book, I don’t feel like it was stretched to its full potential and the ending/resolution felt…obvious and also lacklustre.
This is billed as an adult fantasy (Violet is a bunch of ages but is probably like 20ish? during the bulk of it) but it honestly read more like a YA fantasy to me. The abrupt way she treated her uncles felt very reminiscent of YA fantasy and misunderstood heroines who are ‘special’ and go it alone. It was very easy as an adult, to see why they had chosen to protect Violet and keep the truth from her. She was a child and the more you understand the implications of the curse, the more it becomes obvious. Plus they expected her mother to return. The uncle that provided the majority of her care was only in his mid-20s when Violet was left with him with little to no warning and I’m not sure Violet ever realises the sacrifices he made, in order to keep her taken care of, safe and protected.
I felt like this had such a good premise and there were times when I think I caught a glimpse of something well done. But honestly, the best thing this had going for me for me, was that it was a really quick read. I read it in just a couple of hours but overall, I didn’t find much in here that is going to stick with me.
A Tempest Of Tea (Blood and Tea #1) Hafsah Faizal Macmillan 2024, 336p Read via my local library
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone.
Calling upon a band of misfits, Arthie formulates a plan to infiltrate the dark and glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not every member of her crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.
This promised a lot but ultimately I do not feel like it delivered.
The setting is reminiscent of a Victorian London but in a fantasy world. Arthie is a teenager (?) who runs a tearoom by day that is a blood house for vampires at night. She’s helped in this by her best friend/chosen brother and the two are bonded by a shared trauma involving probably dead parents. They’re very close and work as a seamless team, often targeted by the city’s guards who are trying to shut Arthie down. They know what she does but they can’t find any evidence. One night a mysterious man in her rooms offers her a way to secure being left alone and the safety of her establishment. She just needs to steal this very important, guarded thing from this impenetrable place. Arthie is like absolutely not but then also, okay no worries, let me assemble a crew: herself, her best friend (what is his name….Jin! His name is Jin), a master forger named Flick who is under some sort of house arrest, a dandy of a vampire (Mateo) and the mysterious man who offered up the suggestion of stealing, insists on being included. His name is Laith and he I think, is from a place that may sound familiar if you’ve read Hafsah Faizal before.
This is short for a fantasy and for me, the plot felt that. It felt underdeveloped, the world felt very underdeveloped and I have to admit, there were things that happened in the way it played out that just felt very convenient. It also makes the mistake of constantly telling the reader how clever and ruthless and what a dastardly criminal Arthie was, dealing in secrets, but didn’t bother to show us. Or at least, not anywhere near enough. I also really struggled with Arthie, who comes across as basically very two dimensional. I think the author was going for one thing with her but for me, it really didn’t feel like it came off successfully and I’m not entirely sure what the deal was with either Mateo or Laith.
Weirdly, despite the fact this is quite short, it felt like it dragged until maybe the last 50 or 60 pages and then it was the opposite. There are at least two romances in here or the starts of them and at least one other dubiously romantic potential interaction (I don’t know) and I didn’t really feel invested in any of them. It was like ok there are two women and three men, let’s pair of one of the women and one of the men and the remaining woman is going to interact with both of the men in ways of varying levels of attraction and flirtation that may mean nothing or may lead to betrayal or them trying to lull the other into a false sense of security, who knows.
I feel like the biggest problem was that the heist never really felt that….interesting? Like if you’re going to structure a whole book around a heist, going into a place that it’s supposed to be impossible to break into and steal the Important Thing with all the people who are Useful In Their Own Way….it should feel high stakes. It should feel like the characters are in huge danger. For me, that just never happened with this. It got to the point of me forgetting what they were stealing and why. That’s how little I ended up being invested in the story and these people. The one thing I did find interesting was the mirroring of colonisation .
Also, I think the ending was supposed to be incredibly shocking but I was more like….huh?
Counting The Cost Jill Duggar (with Derek Dillard & Craig Borlase) Gallery Books 2023, 271p Purchased personal copy
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: For the first time, discover the unedited truth about the Duggars, the traditional Christian family that captivated the nation on TLC’s hit show 19 Kids and Counting. Jill Duggar and her husband Derick are finally ready to share their story, revealing the secrets, manipulation, and intimidation behind the show that remained hidden from their fans.
Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting , Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married.
But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore.
For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members—they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.
Not going to lie, I was an avid viewer of 19 Kids And Counting. I discovered it when it had already been going for a while and binged a bunch of episodes. I found it fascinating that honestly, people chose to have 19 kids. Although I wondered how much of it was a ‘choice’. I saw how strictly regimented the lives of the girls were, from what they had to wear to how they wore their hair to what they were allowed to do, to the fact that none of them had any formal education really, to the fact that their father was most likely going to choose their husbands and that those husbands would be chosen based on how much they shared views with their father.
Well, with Derek Dillard, I think Jim Bob probably feels he done messed up. He was the first man he seemingly chose for one of his daughters and I bet he rues the day because of all his children, Jill seems to be the one who was raised to be the most obedient (Sweet Jilly Muffin) and the one who has strayed the furthest from the teachings of Daddy Duggar. Some of it was Jill herself, becoming an adult, wanting to do things that didn’t line up with what her parents (father) wanted for her, realising that she wasn’t going to be able to live the way she had been instructed. But a lot of it was probably also her husband who, although religious, hadn’t been raised in the same strict and somewhat cultish IBLP principles. Derek had been to college and was one of the first to question Jim Bob about things like – why isn’t Jill getting paid for all the hours she puts in filming the TV show? Why can’t they see the contract Jill was rushed into signing the day before her wedding? Why can’t they choose not to have the births of their children filmed? Why is it that any time they ask a question, not only can they not get a straight answer, but it also comes with a side of guilt, abuse and questioning Jill’s love and obedience? And why, Jill wonders, when her brother keeps messing up and disgracing himself and the family, does he get resources and forgiveness? When she asked for help to pay her son’s ICU bill after they both almost died and was met with rejection.
They’re all interesting questions. And I’m not defending Derek much, he still holds views that I find gross but to be honest, he holds views a lot of people in parts of the world hold. But there seems to be no doubt that for me, he’s a supportive and good husband to Jill, who gives her the space she needs to question things and who gives her understanding and has treated her with kindness and allowed her to choose things she wants to do: does she want to wear pants? Then go ahead and wear them if she’s comfortable. Have an alcoholic drink on a date night? Sure. Get her nose pierced? If that’s what she wants to do. Jill has been told a lot of very strict things all her life and it took until she’d had a baby before she wore leggings in public, because she had always been told that she’d be tempting men, who need help controlling those urges.
I guess it’s no surprise that ironically, Josh Duggar, oldest of the 19 and counting, is one who was unable to control urges. Josh not only assaulted several of his sisters (Jill being one of them) when they were minors but he then also betrayed his wife, was upended in the Ashley Madison scandal, was accused of being treated violently by a sex worker and then, most famously of all, was arrested for the possession of child sexual abuse material and sentenced to prison. Throughout the trial, he was supported by members of his family, including Jim Bob who paid for his legal representation and his wife Anna. Several of his siblings spent time in court watching and several of his victims including Jill, made statements condemning his behaviour. But it seems pretty clear that his parents, at least, threw a lot of resources and money at the problem, to both try to protect him and make it go away. As they’ve done multiple times in the past, when he’s committed crimes. Sending him away to “camps” to do physical labour is not punishment adequate enough for sexually abusing several of your younger sisters, the youngest of which is rumoured to have been only 5 years old. And let’s not mention that in order to save the show after that abuse was made public, Jill and Jessa, two of the victims, were pressured into doing a TV interview for the purposes of basically pushing the family line that it’s okay, Josh made a mistake but he paid for it and everyone forgave him.
This book isn’t Jill shitting on her family (even when she probably should be). It’s more about how she came to the realisation that she wanted different things from them, that she would rather do other things with her life than filming the show after she got married, and the problems that began to bring up with her family when she wanted to move away from that. Jim Bob dealt with all the contracts and there’s no doubt that a) the shows made him a rich man and b) he wasn’t paying his kids that were over 18, the wages that they should’ve been receiving. He was keeping them tied to him, by providing housing and presumably other things but there’s no doubt that most of, if not all of, the money was being funnelled into Jim Bob’s pocket and allowing him to do things like invest in real estate. When Jill and Derek wanted to do something else, they wanted out of filming, only to be told flatly by the network or representative, that they were under contract and that wasn’t an option. When they wanted to see the contract, they weren’t shown it in full. Derek discovered when he applied for financial aid for a law degree that he wanted to do, that he wasn’t eligible because of income Jim Bob reported as paid to Jill, but that Jill definitely never received. It’s clear she loves her family and wants a good relationship with them and several times (probably many times) thought about just towing the line to have it but ultimately decided that she had to continue living her life the way she and Derek wanted. And that whatever happened because of that, was going to be on them.
Personally I think Jim Bob should be in jail for many reasons but the financial abuse he has perpetuated on his children is definitely right up there for one of the more shitty things he’s done. He capitalised on his children, especially the older girls who did a lot of the heavy lifting not just in terms of looking after the younger kids but carrying the TV show through courtships, weddings and births, all of which did well in special episodes. He raised his kids as soldiers in his army and built an empire on it – adhering to the principles that ideally, sons should be self employed or work in family businesses and women kept at home. That way, no one learns any of those ‘outside ideas’ that can be so dangerous.
I don’t know what it’s like to slowly disentangle yourself from what has been an upbringing based on toxic ideas but I think Jill is doing a good job of getting herself there. She and her husband regularly attend therapy to learn to communicate with each other and sort through things and it’s clear that she’s learning to speak up for herself and to express opinions (much the way Jinger realised in her memoir that Jeremy was asking her to speak her own thoughts). She’s also let go of a lot of the more restrictive parts of her upbringing as well, has embraced more freedom of expression and has admitted to spacing her family for multiple reasons, realising early on that she was never going to having a quiverfull. She questioned her self-worth after she had a uterine rupture during labour with her second child, considering so much of their teachings growing up focused around a woman’s value being on having plenty of children.
I know a lot of people have high expectations on the Duggars that have strayed even a little from the strict ankle length dress and crunchy curls days…..but they’re not going to have liberal, mainstream views immediately. I’ve read reports on people who have freed themselves from upbringings such as this and it’s a slow, painstaking process, particularly if you do not go no contact with those still holding the more conservative, strict views, which it’s clear Jill has not. She still loves her family and wants them in her life and to be in theirs. But she’s stepped out of her comfort zone and learned other things and learned that most of all, no one is perfect and that she doesn’t have to twist herself into knots to try and be such, especially when the people she’s trying to do it for, aren’t perfect either.
I don’t rate memoirs, especially ones so mired in trauma, so I won’t be giving this a numerical rating. However I do recommend it as a read.
Getting my participation in the 2024 NonFiction Reading Challenge off the ground with this one! It’s the first book (of 6) that I need to read to complete the challenge. The 2024 NonFiction Reader Challenge is hosted by Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out and you can find more information on that right here.
CATEGORIES
History Memoir/Biography True Crime Science Health Food Culture Transportation The Future Pets Architecture Published in 2024
I am using this one to tick off the Memoir/Biography category.
Do Your Worst Rosie Danan Piatkus 2023, 350p Read via my local library
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Riley Rhodes finally has the chance to turn her family’s knack for the supernatural into a legitimate business when she’s hired to break the curse on an infamous Scottish castle. Used to working alone in her alienating occupation, she’s pleasantly surprised to meet a handsome stranger upon arrival—until he tries to get her fired.
Fresh off a professional scandal, Clark Edgeware can’t allow a self-proclaimed “curse breaker” to threaten his last chance for redemption. After he fails to get Riley kicked off his survey site, he vows to avoid her. Unfortunately for him, she vows to get even.
Riley expects the curse to do her dirty work by driving Clark away, but instead, they keep finding themselves in close proximity. Too close. Turns out, the only thing they do better than fight is fool around. If they’re not careful, by the end of all this, more than the castle will end up in ruins.
I was excited for this, I love a book with this sort of vibe but unfortunately, this turned out to not be for me. I also feel that I’ve tried this author twice now, two quite different books that have both sounded right up my alley and liked neither of them, so probably I can now assume that they’re not my vibe. To be honest I probably would’ve DNF’d this except one of my April TBRJar prompts was read a book with a title starting with D and this was the only one I could find that was already in my house and I didn’t want to go and get something else. So I did finish it, just so I could say that I finished this prompt for the month but I really had to push myself through it.
This started off in a promising way. Riley is a curse-breaker, something that has been passed down to her from her grandmother. So far she’s only really broken a few smaller curses, this is the sort of job that could definitely help make her reputation in this field. She’s travelled to Scotland, to a castle that is said to be cursed. On her first night she gets dinner in the pub and meets a man she finds very attractive. He’s also working at the castle – he’s an archeologist but he has no time for curses or those who think they might be able to break one and the night goes downhill fast when he realises that’s who Riley is and why she’s there. From then, it’s enemies at twenty paces. Except for all the times they’re weirdly ogling each other.
This bickering drove me nuts. Clark, the archeologist, is smug and always smirking and constantly talks down to Riley. And Riley, well she was okay, I didn’t strongly dislike her like I strongly disliked Clark but it felt like she did go out of her way to provoke Clark and then just be insulted by everything. I didn’t like them together at all and the whole curse thing that holds the story together felt very tenuous and not at all interesting.
I did not feel like they had any chemistry and the sex ritual Riley decides must break the curse was…awkward. The sex itself was awkward. There were 1 or 2 scenes that I felt were written well but overall the build up didn’t feel organic and the actual consummation didn’t either. Clark turned into one of those guys that love pulling hair and having control and….ZZzzzzzzz. There was also a lot of drama with Clark’s family and that just kept getting inserted into the story in ways that I honestly, did not care about at all. Also I don’t know anything about archeology but some of this felt dubious at best in terms of you know, what real archaeological methods are.
All in all, this one was unfortunately a no from me. But it did tick a prompt off for my challenge, so I guess I can’t ask for more than that.
The Glass House Anne Buist & Graeme Simsion Hachette AUS 2024, 346p Copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Welcome to The Menzies. Trainee psychiatrist Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.
Amongst unrelenting hours, hospital politics, fraught relationships and new friendships, Hannah must learn on the job in a strained medical system, navigating the conflicting practice of her boss, Nash, who puts his faith in pharmaceuticals, and his boss, Professor Gordon, who takes the Freudian line. Meanwhile, the new manager thinks they’re all part of the problem.
Hannah and her fellow trainees are dealing with the common and the bizarre, the hilarious and the tragic, the treatable and the confronting. Every day brings new patients: Chloe, who has life-threatening anorexia nervosa; Sian, suffering postpartum psychosis and fighting to keep her baby; and Xavier, the MP whose suicide attempt has an explosive story behind it. All the while, Hannah is trying to figure out herself.
This was such a fascinating story. There was so much happening but it never felt cluttered or like the authors had stretched themselves.
Hannah is a trainee psychiatrist working at the Menzies Hospital in Melbourne. She originally started in emergency medicine but switched to psychiatric care and this book primarily follows Hannah and her colleagues as they deal with several patients and the different methods each of them employ or favour, from prescribing medication to psychotherapy to psychological counselling. The patients are Sian, who presents with post-partum psychosis, Chloe who is a long time anorexia nervosa patient, and Xavier, an MP who attempted to take his own life. The man whose truck he stepped in front of, must also be counselled to make sure that he himself is suffering no ill effects from the incident. Hannah and her colleagues (including those that form a tightknit group outside the hospital, meeting weekly to debrief and exchange treatment advice and ideas) are constantly under pressure in terms of playing musical beds – there’s never enough to go around for those who truly need it.
I don’t know anything about mental health care, other than reading about how difficult it can be for people to get the help they need in a system that struggles to keep up with the load. I really appreciated this glimpse into that public system from the point of view of those treating but in a way that also showcases the patient. Each of the patients featured here are very different and so are their prognosis. For example, Sian’s post-partum psychosis is seen as a condition that can be managed in care with her baby until she is well enough to return home. It will require support – and this book shows how family can sometimes not be that support, even though they are wanting to do the right thing. They don’t understand how Sian could’ve done what she did and how they can be valuable in supporting her to care for the baby. On the other hand we have Chloe, who has been hospitalised frequently for a lengthy period of time with anorexia. Her entire family revolve around her and her illness and she is into her thirties and her parents have refused to see the effects this has had on Chloe’s younger sister. Hannah is invited into observe the therapy that Chloe and her family undertake and I found this approach absolutely fascinating.
I enjoyed the character of Hannah and her background, which is slowly revealed to the reader. It was certainly an interesting one and shed a bit of light on why Hannah might’ve chosen to pursue the medical path she did when emergency medicine didn’t work out for her originally. I also really loved the group of staff that began having weekly meetings revolving around at each of their houses where they talked about their patients, the weeks they’d had, the bosses and politics at work. They were a different mix of people and I enjoyed their conversations and the interactions they had with each other. There’s kind of a hint of a romance in here too with Hannah and a colleague but mostly if you squint and it never takes up much of the story.
I really felt like this was told with empathy but without shying away from the problems that arise in treating mental illness and the struggles the system has. There’s some gentle humour too and I also felt very grounded in the Melbourne setting. Would highly recommend this although I would also issue a soft caution to check whether or not you’re in a place to read about people experiencing these sorts of issues, such as post-partum psychosis, disordered eating, suicidal ideation, etc.
Tom Lake Ann Patchett Bloomsbury 2023, 309p Stolen from my husband’s TBR pile
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.
I really enjoyed this.
It’s weird to be reading pandemic fiction. Like, we recently passed the 4 year mark of the declaration of a pandemic and on one hand, it honestly feels like so long ago and on the other, it feels like yesterday and how has it been four years already?
In this story, Lara is in her late 50s and lives with her husband on a fruit orchard in Michigan. It’s cherry season and her three daughters have all returned to the family home for a lockdown – one lives on the farm anyway in a separate dwelling and she is the one that will be taking it over one day. All in their 20s, at least one of the others was in college and is now learning in a long distance manner. The third daughter wants to be an actress but I honestly can’t remember if she was still in college or had finished. All of them are putting in backbreaking levels of labour over the cherry picking season because they are unable to hire the amount of workers they normally would, because of the pandemic. There are mentions of social distancing, waving to neighbours, leaving things on porches, etc so you are well entrenched in the time frame but at the same time, it’s not a book about the pandemic. It’s merely a book that takes place within it.
To pass the time whilst picking (the types of cherries currently ready have to be hand picked) the three girls have asked Lara to tell them the story of when she was an actress some thirty plus years ago and had a relationship with a man named Peter Duke (known mostly just as Duke) who was also in the same play, who went on to become a very, very famous actor. It seems like the girls have known that their mother and this man had a relationship for a while in the distant past but not the details. Now they’re older, Lara agrees to tell the story. It’s obvious at least one of the daughters had some really strong thoughts about the relationship and it caused a lot of friction in their relationship – some friction that still remains to this day. Lara knows in telling the story she can’t sugar coat some of it and it may change their thoughts and opinions and everyone will have to deal with the fallout of that.
The story is told in a back and forth fashion, dipping back in time to the parts Lara is telling and you experience it as Lara did, at the time. It starts when she is a teenager in high school and a local play that is being put on. Lara watches the auditions but has no intention of actually auditioning herself….until she watches and realises that she’d do it differently. From there, she plays the same role several times over the ensuing years, it’s her way of playing that particular role that makes her. She also films a movie but that is delayed a long time in being released. When playing the role for the third or fourth time, that’s when she meets the man who would go on to be a very famous actor. Think like, award winning level of famous.
The way in which Lara tells the story is engrossing, there are reveals that work really well, particularly the reveal of her husband and how she met him and how they ended up together. There’s also the fact that her daughters, one in particular, must come to terms with the story as Lara is telling it, rather than the story she seems to have created herself. I have to say, I did find the daughters trying at times, particularly one of them, who seems to want to hear the story but their version of the story rather than Lara’s. There’s a lot of tiptoeing around possibly hurting her feelings and her attitude at times, felt odd for someone who was in her mid-20s. The flashbacks to when she was a teenager were diabolical.
I feel like this would make a great movie. The audiobook was narrated by Meryl Streep and I could definitely see an actress of her calibre playing an older Lara, telling the story to her three daughters. The backdrop of a cherry farm would make a fantastic setting, too. The way in which the story centres around acting and a play and dips back and forth would work well visually. I’m not familiar with the play (Our Town, which is apparently, an American classic). I did some research on it after finishing the book and….maybe it’s an acquired taste?
Either way, I really enjoyed this. Would recommend.
8/10
Book #79 of 2024
Tom Lake was on my 24 in 2024 list! It’s the 6th book read so far.
A Lady’s Formula For Love (The Secret Scientists Of London #1) Elizabeth Everett Berkley 2021, 301p Read via my local library
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: What is a Victorian lady’s formula for love? Mix one brilliant noblewoman and her enigmatic protection officer. Add in a measure of danger and attraction. Heat over the warmth of humor and friendship, and the result is more than simple chemistry—it’s elemental.
Lady Violet Hughes is keeping secrets. First, she founded a clandestine sanctuary for England’s most brilliant female scientists. Second, she is using her genius on a confidential mission for the Crown. But the biggest secret of all? Her feelings for protection officer Arthur Kneland.
Solitary and reserved, Arthur learned the hard way to put duty first. But the more time he spends in the company of Violet and the eccentric club members, the more his best intentions go up in flames. Literally.
When a shadowy threat infiltrates Violet’s laboratories, endangering her life and her work, scientist and bodyguard will find all their theories put to the test—and learn that the most important discoveries are those of the heart.
I really thought I would love this! From the description, it looked like it had all the making of a story that I would really enjoy – a forward thinking heroine who defies stereotypes and societal conventions and an enigmatic officer charged with protecting her when it seems like someone wants to sabotage her work. Add in a mix of ladies just as scientifically minded as Violet, which means the potential for a series (and there are three books in this series) and it was something I was so looking forward to.
Unfortunately, this fell so flat for me. I am quite sad about it. It just really didn’t pull me into the story and I found the immediate ‘attraction’ between Violet and Arthur, the protection officer, so forced. And their interactions felt very odd as well.
Violet is a young widow, who married a much older man after her coming out, who swept her off her feet and promised her that he would not stand in the way of her desire to further her scientific knowledge and then proceeded to pretty much do exactly that. Life as a wife wasn’t particularly kind to Violet but her husband ended up dying not long into their marriage and now she is a Respectable Widow (sort of) whose house and ladies club is a front for ways young women like herself can continue their work in things like mathematics and science behind privately closed doors. Violet’s stepson, a man who is actually around her own age, from her husband’s previous marriage, is a man she regards fondly as part of her family and he is supportive of her endeavours. When someone bombs Violet’s home/where the labs are, her stepson arranges for a protection officer to both investigate and keep Violet safe. Some of what Violet is doing is at the request of her stepson himself, who needs help with (I forget what) and he both needs her to be able to complete that but also wants her to be kept safe. They do have quite a nice relationship, it was probably one of the better things about this book. Even though she was briefly his stepmother, it’s almost more sibling-ish or like cousins? He is the love interest in a future book but unfortunately I do not see myself continuing with this series.
I honestly didn’t really care about who was behind the bombing of the lab and the other shenanigans that were going on, to be honest. I don’t even feel like that part of the story was particularly fleshed out at all and I just couldn’t bring myself to care about it or Arthur’s investigations into it. Violet was also one of those characters who has an attempt made on her life (or multiple attempts) and is recommended they do this or that by an expert and then they just pretty much…ignore most of that advice and do whatever they want. And that left only the romance (plot wasn’t the heaviest in this book) and I wasn’t invested in that at all. Arthur was a bit of an odd character, it was definitely hard to see what Violet was so attracted to. It came across that Violet was so starved of attention and anything remotely resembling a man treating her well that any single guy would do and Arthur just happened to be there. And look, that may have been the case. She was married very young to a man significantly older than her who presented himself as one thing and then quickly became another and also had certain opinions as well that made Violet feel ashamed or like she should hide parts of herself. However the way she just basically latched onto Arthur with like….no real interactions or anything immediately, was just very sudden and I never felt like I got a chance to feel their connection or anything.
I finished this but only because it was very short and it was quick to read. I found myself bored throughout most of the story and nothing in it made me want to pick up the next book. Ultimately this one was not my cup of tea.
4/10
Book #73 of 2024
Counting this towards my participation in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader & Baker. It’s the 9th book read so far for the challenge.
All The Books I Can Read 