Cleopatra - Really interesting. Almost reads like an awesome textbook; it's obviously meticulously researched and it rarely offers speculation. This isn't a historical fiction novel or a dramatized account that loosely interprets history... but it's so engaging (even though you have to work at it a bit to remember names, dates, locations) that I didn't even notice until I had almost finished it that it has almost no dialogue. Starting with the image on the cover, it will challenge what you think you know about Cleopatra (especially if, like me, Elizabeth Taylor is what comes to mind when you think of her).
Drowning Ruth - This is an odd book, but it's really hard to put down. My grandma passed it on to me after she picked up a stack of paperbacks at a thrift shop. I love historical fiction, so the book has that going for it, but it's written from different first person points of view and goes back and forth in time; so it keeps you on your toes in terms of knowing where things are. Also, right up until the end you don't know if the characters were at the center of a murder or tragic accident. Yeah... it's a bit of an odd one and overall not very uplifting whatsoever, but one that I sped through.
The Zoo - So my Papa gave me this one for Christmas and laughed to himself that "this isn't the kind of book you usually read." It's definitely something he'd read, he usually has a military mystery or spy thriller paperback by his side. And even though it's not something I'd probably have picked out for myself, I tore through this one. I won't be surprised if this becomes a movie. It's far-fetched (I hope--it's about something human-created that's driving animals to attack people) and it's a disaster and it's rather violent. You just have to go with it. But I took from it a strong message about our destruction of the environment and the impact of our choices and dependence on technology; that alone makes it compelling to me.
One Thousand White Women - I expected this to be something a bit different; and if I'd had the pen in hand I think I would have taken a different route with this. Nevertheless, it's very engaging. Once again, historical fiction, and once again from a woman's perspective -- in fact the entire thing is written as a series of journal entries. So it's a guy writing as an woman in the 1870s raised upper class but who was exiled by her family for falling for a lower class guy and then said family conspires to have her put into a mental institution because they're ashamed of her. She then forges some signatures so that she can join a project of similarly disenfranchised women from the East Coast to GO WEST and marry "savages" to help settle the prairies and convert Native Americans to Christianity and (really the main objective of this hypothetical government-sponsored mission) to convince their new husbands to move to the newly established reservations. Had this been written in the present tense and not trying to adopt the voice of a progressive-yet-still-genteel 25 year old woman with insane life experiences, I think it would have been more effective, I just couldn't buy the voice and internal monologues of this lady. Still, a very compelling look at the time period, the lives, and of course the shameful mistreatment of Native Americans.
Lost in Shangri-la - Ok, this really needs to be a movie. Wow. Amazing (true!) story of a plane that went down in a remote jungle in New Guinea during WW2... on a morale-boosting sight-seeing trip, of all things. There are three survivors, including a spunky WAC, a ragtag team of paratroopers sent it to help perform a daring rescue, and tribes of indigenous people that had been basically isolated and "undiscovered" by the outside world. This one is also impeccably researched and very tenderly crafted. The author clearly cares deeply about the very real people that he came to know as he researched and wrote this book, and is very objective in his observations of a completely foreign culture, the potentially avoidable circumstances of the plane crash, and the aftermath and rescue operations. I would so watch this movie---I've already cast it in my head.
So there's my last five! Some good, some slow, some scholarly, some weird... some all of the above! What are you recently or currently reading and what should I add to my list? My current five books have kind of a common theme of adventure, leaving your comfort zone, taking a leap of faith.... and I'm starting to think it's a sign and that I should take advice from them! Anyone else find that you tend to read similarly themed books all in a row?
Happy Readings,
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