Share Your Shelf-August

Good Morning. It's the first Thursday of the month which means it's time to share what we've been reading.  This is a monthly link up hosted by Marilyn (Memphis Bridges), Joanne (Slices of Life), Tanya (The Other Side of the Road) and Jennifer (Overflowing with Thankfulness). Here's what I read in August-

1. The Girls In The Stilt House by Kelly Mustian 

This is our book club selection for September and I loved it. If you read online reviews you'll see many comparing it to Where The Crawdads Sing, but I liked this one better. And a debut novel to boot! The writing is exquisite.  The Girls In The Stilt House is a work of historical fiction set in 1920's Mississippi, with a dead body buried in the dark of night on page one. The tale centers around two teenagers who have to fend for themselves after bonding over this murder. 

Ada is the daughter of a mean and abusive drunk (Virgil) living in the Mississippi swampland. Natchez Trace, or the Trace as it's referred to, is every bit as much a character as the two teenage girls who call the swamp home. The sense of place is so intricately drawn you feel as if you're there. Matilda is a year older than Ada, and the daughter of a black sharecropper. She is also much less naive about the world. Both girls deal with a tremendous amount of hardship, yet they form an unlikely friendship as they try to move forward and make their lives better. 

The story is told in three parts-Ada's background, Matilda's background, then present day. It's not an easy read, there's a lot of 'unfairness' that occurs, and a lot of just plain awfulness, but the story is so well told, so moving, that you want to keep reading. Five stars for me. 

I will add that I try not to read any in-depth reviews before I read a book, but I do go check them once I'm finished. Many many people said the Audible narration on this one wasn't very good. I like Audible, but I read a hard copy of this book and recommend reading here as opposed to listening. 

2. The Housekeepers by Alice Hay 

I wasn't immediately hooked, but once it started coming together I found it an enjoyable read. 

The plot revolves around a very grand high society ball, during which a daring and somewhat ragtag group of women launch a revenge heist against London society. It goes deeper than just 'London society', and you realize that as the story unfolds piece by piece. Mrs. King is the housekeeper, or rather former housekeeper, in a mansion in Mayfair. When she's fired from that role she recruits an assorted cast of female characters to help her take revenge. And so they do in spectacular fashion. A little Downton Abbey, a little Oceans 11. I gave it three stars. 

3. Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea

This was an Audible selection for me and I liked it. There were flaws, but I wanted to keep reading, and my hubs listened too because we were on a road trip. Not his normal read and he kept saying things like, 'That would never happen' and 'A normal person would call the police immediately' etc. Much like when you watch a whodunit on television and a person walks into a pitch dark house or apartment without flipping on a single light. That sort of flaw, but it was minimal and still a very good story that kept us engaged. 

Thirty years ago baby Charlotte Margolis and her parents disappeared. When Dr. Sloan Hastings submits her DNA sample to an online site for a research assignment on forensic pathology she sets off a chain of events she could never have imagined. She's always known she was adopted but when DNA results reveal she is the missing and presumed dead baby Charlotte, she embarks on a mission to discover what happened to her birth parents. You learn early in the book that she is the missing baby so I'm not giving anything away by telling you that much. 

The narration is a dual timeline, moving back and forth between present day and then thirty years prior and the days leading up to the baby's disappearance. This worked and the suspense built with several twists in the storyline that kept you hooked. I would read more by this same author, and gave this one four stars. 

4. West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge 

I loved this one. What a sweet story and I loved the way it was told. Based on the true story of two giraffes who traveled west during the Depression, after being stranded following a hurricane on the east coast. They were headed to the San Diego Zoo and create quite a stir as they pass through small towns along the route.

Their container truck is driven by a 'down on his luck' seventeen year old boy named Woodrow Wilson Nickel, known as Woody. Accompanying Woody and the giraffes is an old zoo keeper named Mr. Jones, and together they commit to getting Boy and Girl safely to California. 

Obstacles are encountered along the way, some heart wrenching moments, as well as many tender moments. The story is beautifully told, and I learned a few things about giraffes too. I gave it four stars. 

5. Beautiful Resistance: The Joy of Conviction In A Culture of Compromise by Jon Tyson

I gave this one three stars. Nothing earth shattering, not really anything new, but still a good reminder of how we as Christians are to live in a culture set against it. The author has been a pastor in NYC for over fifteen years so he's got 'the world' smacking him in the face on a regular basis. 

Bonhoeffer is one of Tyson's heroes and he's one of mine too, so I appreciated the references to his story in this book. I'm always cautious reading books that fall under the category of spiritual without knowing something about the author. I want sound theology and scripture to back up whatever is being presented. Tyson includes a fair amount of scripture that support his message, but some of his word choices (we know the vocabulary of the woke by now, right?) weren't my favorite. Not saying he falls into that category, but it was a bit vanilla so a little hard to tell. 

Overall Tyson encourages Christians to resist the way of the world and live out the commands of Jesus. 

I'm not sure the book fully lived up to it's title, but it was written pre-pandemic (2020) and we now view the world through a post-pandemic lens. The culture has changed so much in a very short period of time. 

I heard the author interviewed on a podcast recently and really enjoyed what he had to say there. He talked about secularism and responding to the cultural obsession with identity, generational differences happening in the church, aging well, and AI. He has a chapter in this book on Sabbath and in the podcast he spoke a little differently than he had in the book, which I appreciated. 

What have you read lately that was too good not to share?