Share Your Shelf-May/June

It's the first Thursday of the month which means it's time to share what we've been reading. I had a busy spring, draining in many ways, so didn't read as much as I would have liked. I didn't post my May books so am lumping them in with June in today's post. Here we go-

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

A somewhat confusing fictional tale that follows author Grady Green after his wife, Abby, disappears on the very night his newly published novel reaches the bestseller list. A year later, he's gifted a stay on a remote Scottish island, where nothing is quite as it seems. Grady becomes convinced he's seen Abby, despite believing she's dead. The story unfolds through alternating perspectives, with chapters told from both Grady's and Abby's points of view.

This is the kind of psychological thriller that's incredibly popular right now, but it's not a style I particularly enjoy. The story started off strong, and I was genuinely excited to see where it was going. Unfortunately, the second half completely lost me. 

This was my book club's June pick, and while some members really enjoyed it, we all found ourselves scratching our heads as we tried to connect the dots and make sense of what had actually happened.  

Like Mother Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight

Billed as a domestic thriller, and I'd say the description fits. NYU student Cleo arrives home to find her seemingly perfect mother, Kat, missing and blood on the kitchen floor. As the police search for Kat, Cleo begins investigating on her own. In the process, she uncovers secrets about her mother's past, including her childhood in a series of foster homes before being placed at a home for teens called Haven House, as well as the truth about her current job as a fixer for a powerful corporate law firm.

The story is told through alternating first-person perspectives from both Cleo and Kat, with news articles and therapy transcripts woven throughout. I was drawn into the mystery from the very beginning, and with so many possible suspects, the story kept me guessing until almost the very end.

I enjoyed this one. It's a fast-paced, engaging domestic thriller with plenty of twists. 

Lost, Found, Kept: A Memoir by Deborah Derrickson Kossmann

I went to high school with the author and when her book was released several months ago she let us know on our class Facebook page. Our high school was huge and we weren't close friends back then, but everyone knew everyone at least a little bit, and it's been fun reconnecting with classmates-turned-adults online. 

I found the topic intriguing and added the Audible version to my library right away. I didn't get around to listening until this past weekend, and found the book well-written and the story gripping. I listened start to finish in almost one sitting.  

When her fiercely independent, aging mother is involved in an accident and suddenly needs help, the author returns to the childhood home she has not set foot in for more than two decades. There, she discovers the staggering extent of her mother's hoarding and is faced not only with the daunting task of emptying the house, but also with confronting long held family secrets and the pain of her past.

Told with gentle yet unflinching honesty, Lost Found Kept reads like fiction. Kossman's voice is compassionate and engaging,  drawing readers into both the literal and emotional mess as she navigates grief, memory, and the complicated bonds between mothers and daughters.

The Nowhere Child by Christian White

When Kim, a photography teacher living in Melbourne, Australia, is approached by a man who claims she may be the victim of a U.S. child kidnapping case from 26 years earlier, her life is thrown into turmoil. As she investigates the striking connections, it becomes increasingly apparent that she could be the missing toddler, Sammy Went. Desperate for answers, she travels to the small town of Manson, Kentucky, determined to uncover the truth.

I expected this to be more of a mystery, but it leans instead toward a story of family dysfunction and the fallout from that. Parts of the plot felt cliche to me, so I didn't love it. I did want to see the mystery unraveled so stuck with it, and was rewarded with a twist I hadn't anticipated. 

 

The Shepherd's Life:A People's History of the Lake District  by James Rebanks

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know I have a bit of a love affair with the English countryside. A book about a sheep farmer set in England's Lake District? Yes, please.

Born in 1974, the author grew up on a small sheep farm owned by his grandfather and worked by both his father and grandfather. In this memoir, he chronicles a year in the life of a traditional sheep farmer in northern England. Organized by season, the book captures both the harsh realities and the quiet beauty of farming in the Lake District.

Throughout the book, the author defends the increasingly rare way of life of upland sheep farming. He writes about his determination to remain connected to his family's heritage, preserve the landscape, and pass down generations of agricultural knowledge and traditions to his own children.

This won't be a book for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. It's a slow, thoughtful read rather than one to race through in a single sitting. It offers a glimpse into a way of life that's completely different from my own, and now I need a trip to the English countryside.

Summit Lake by Charlie Donlea 

This book was excellent, but it's also incredibly heavy. A sense of sadness lingers throughout the entire story, making it an emotionally intense read. I don't usually include content warnings in my reviews, but the rape scene is especially difficult to read. Despite that, the writing is beautiful, the characters are richly developed, and I was completely invested in the story. I'll definitely be reading more from this author.

Set on Summit Lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the novel unfolds in a place that seems far too beautiful and peaceful to be the setting for such a horrific crime. Becca Eckersley, a first-year law student and the daughter of a powerful attorney, has been brutally murdered, leaving the police with more questions than answers.

Investigative journalist Kelsey Castle, still recovering from a violent assault of her own, arrives in Summit Lake to uncover the truth behind Becca's vicious rape and murder. As she digs deeper, she's drawn into a tangled web of secrets and what feels like a cover-up of some sort.

I really enjoyed the structure of the novel. The chapters are short, which kept the story moving at a great pace, and the narrative alternates between two perspectives. We follow Becca in the months leading up to her death and Kelsey in the present as she investigates the case. Through Becca's perspective, we also get to know her college friends, and those flashbacks add depth to both the mystery and the characters. Altogether, it made for a compelling and engrossing read.

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

This checks two boxes in terms of my current reading goals, as it's both a classic and one of the titles mentioned in The Correspondent. 

To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf, and centers on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920. 

The story centers on the Ramsay family and their guests during visits to their summer home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Much of the novel focuses on the characters' inner thoughts and emotions rather than external events. A planned trip to a nearby lighthouse is delayed, and over the years the family experiences loss, change, and the effects of time. When they finally make the journey to the lighthouse, the trip symbolizes acceptance, reconciliation, and the enduring power of memory.

The novel is known for its stream-of-consciousness style and its exploration of themes such as time, perception, family, art, and the search for meaning.

I say it with every classic I read, but the writing in these novels always feels so elevated. When I sit down to summarize the plot, it often seems as though not much actually happened, yet that isn't how the novel feels while I'm reading it. It's rich with depth and emotion, and leaves me with plenty to think about.

If you've read something you loved recently send it my way. Share Your Shelf is hosted by Joanne (Slices of Life) and Dara (Not In Jersey) , so hop over there for some recommendations and reviews and to add your own books to the link. 

Happy 4th everyone!