Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover

Avon

Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover
Sarah MacLean
2014

The Summary
"By day, she is Lady Georgiana, sister to a duke, ruined before her first season in the worst kind of scandal.  But the truth is far more shocking--in London's darkest corners, she is Chase, the mysterious, unknown founder of the city's most legendary gaming hell.  For years, her double identity has gone undiscovered...until now.

"Brilliant, driven, handsome-as-sin Duncan West is intrigued by the beautiful, ruined woman who is somehow connected to a world of darkness.  He knows she is more than she seems, and he vows to uncover all of Georgiana's secrets, laying bare her past, threatening her present, and risking all she holds dear...including her heart."

The Good
I was curiously caught up in this story.  It was a bit like a soap opera--dramatic and heart-wrenching and saccharine sweet simultaneously--and, once I was hooked, I couldn't seem to stop.  I found myself committed to the story, because it was complex and rather exciting.

While I wouldn't call it the best audiobook which I've had the pleasure of hearing, it wasn't a bad story.  I mean, character development is decent and romantic entanglements were fairly believable.  Plus, I loved the fact that the main female protagonist took charge of her life and decided she would no longer remain under the thumb of Victorian social expectations.

Honestly, I found Georgiana's courage and her plan to quietly undermine society refreshing.  Her activities, while rather far fetched, make her a formidable and forbidding woman.  She's not a shrinking violet, she's not a damsel in distress; in fact, she can take care of herself and she's done so for nigh on ten years.  Personally, I appreciate that in a character.

The Bad
Justine Eyre did a nice job narrating Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover.  She fits Georgiana's character quite well; however, I hated listening to Temple's voice.  For some reason, her male voices made me cringe.  It wasn't quite to the nails-on-a-chalkboard level, but it did make me think of grinding my teeth.

I'll be honest, I just couldn't stand it and, occasionally, I had to take my earbuds out to take a break.

The Ugly
Mature content.

If it's not explicit sex scenes, then it's domestic abuse and a general array of vices.  Definitely not for younger readers.

In Progress: Rejected Princesses (Completed)

Dey St.

Okay, so I finished reading Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath--and, in many ways, it makes me proud of my gender right about now.  I mean, sure, there are a few dark parts to history (Boudica, here's looking at you!) and they aren't always nice, considerate, or remotely moral; however, I enjoyed reading Rejected Princesses just for the simple fact that it decided to chronicle interesting, sometimes terrifying, sometimes brutal, but always fascinating women of history.  I learned so much more than I expected.

I've heard of Mata Hari, Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Bathory, Boudica, Ching Shih, and a few others.  I read Bad Girls by Joan Stradling and gained a whole new appreciation for the most infamous women in history; however, Porath offers a more comprehensive look at these famous--and, of course, infamous--ladies and he does it with a touch of humor.  His passages are relatively short (three to four pages, max), but they're simultaneously informative and entertaining.

More importantly, I discovered aspects of history about which I never knew.  I love history and I love learning about history, whether it's in my own back yard or across the ocean, and I loved that I was able to deepen my knowledge of various time periods.  For instance, I was excited to learn more about female contributions to the American Revolution with Sybil Ludington.  Or learning about the Canary Islands, about which I knew nothing, with Andamana.  Or learning more about technological, mathematical, and scientific discoveries with Annie Jump Cannon, Hypatia, Ada Lovelace, and so many more.

It was exciting.

But, I have to say, I think I loved the Night Witches of World War II the best.

I mean, I am fascinated by World War II.  I've read several books about it, and I've studied it probably more than the average person.  I'm not an expert by any means, but I find myself constantly fascinated by conflicts and social/political shifts that occurred in WWII.  It's an era that has such wide-reaching effects we can still see the ripples today; heck, we can still talk to the people who endured it.  I may not enjoy violence, but I like hearing stories about it and I like piecing together my knowledge of it, I like holding those stories.

And yet I've somehow never heard of the Night Witches.

How?

But here's how cool they were:

"The Night Witches mark one of the greatest underdog accomplishments in military history.  Handed a bunch of slow, flammable trainer planes that had been designed only to dust crops, an all-female group of untrained civilians became one of the most decorated divisions in the entire Soviet military.  Flying without armor, guns, sights, radio, cockpits, brakes, parachutes, or virtually any navigation machinery, they dropped bombs on the Germans every three minutes, like clockwork, every night for three years."

Moreover, they would often cut their engines and dive over German military camps on the Eastern front, before kicking on their engines and dropping bombs.  They literally fell out of the sky, dropped bombs, and then did it again and again and again.  "They flew over 1,100 nights of combat, and each pilot flew over 800 missions."

Holy cow.

These women are super women.  They were--and are--amazing.  They pushed the physical limits of the human body, while simultaneously making due with substandard military equipment and challenging the typical military and/or social culture of Soviet Russia.  They're incredible!

Guess, I know what I'll be reading about next.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

Washington Square Press

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
Fredrik Backman
2016

The Summary
"Elsa is seven years old and different.  Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy--as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy.  She is also Elsa's best, and only, friend.  At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

"When Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa's greatest adventure begins.  Her grandmother's instructions lead her to an apartment building full of misfits, monsters, attack dogs and old crones, but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

"My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman's bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove.  It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights:  the right to be different."

The Good
I loved this book.

Although it took me a little time to get into the story, especially when so many characters became involved, I absolutely loved it.  I enjoyed the authentic--sometimes explosive, sometimes heartbreaking, but always genuine--emotions in this book; I enjoyed the oddity of it; I enjoyed the threads of danger and adventure woven into the story; I enjoyed Backman's storytelling, reading about Wolfheart and the Wurse; I even enjoyed Britt Marie (and that's saying something).

Admittedly, I loved the whole thing.

In his novel, Backman will show you the worst side of people:  drugs, alcohol, social and behavioral problems, grief, bullying, and more--so much more that it will break your heart.  He'll show you things that are hard to see; however, he'll balance these things with humor and insight and heartwarming moments of compassion.

I would call his novel bittersweet, because it so closely mirrors life.  It shows you the difficult side of human nature, all the struggles that weigh us down on a daily basis; however, it shows you the sweeter things in life, like best friends and wonderful mothers and good stories and loyalty and, wonder of wonders, laughter.  Sometimes, life isn't always good, but this book makes you feel like things will get better in the end.

Overall, I loved reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry.  I especially liked the characters:  they're so different.  Each with his or her own history that changes them, makes them a unique personality--and yet they're all tied together by the thread of Elsa's grandmother.  She brings them together in an oddball quest to deliver letters, to apologize for the wrongs in her life and rectify the things she can no longer fix.

But Elsa, I think, was my favorite.

She's a smart, headstrong little girl.  She's read the Harry Potter series numerous times, she's proficient in her grandmother's "secret language," and she's a frequent purveyor of Wikipedia, an avid researcher of the mundane and the obscure.  She's such a unique personality, I couldn't help liking her--and, of course, her crazy, paintball-gun-wielding grandmother.  They give the novel a unique flavor that truly makes it one-of-a-kind.

The Bad
No complaints.

The Ugly
Losing a loved one always hurts.  For poor Elsa, she's faced with a doubly great loss:  she loses her grandmother, her best friend, and all the magical stories of Miamas.  It's truly heart-breaking.

Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living

Hatchette Books

Julie & Julia:  365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen:  How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living
Julie Powell
2005

The Summary
"Powell needs something to break the monotony of her life.  So, she invents a deranged assignment:  she will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic, Mastering the Art of Frech Cooking, and cook all 524 recipes in the span of just one year."

Truthfully, the subtitle says it all.

The Good
I read Julie and Julia by Julie Powell as part of my Read Harder Challenge for 2016 (which you can read more about here), and I was absolutely delighted with it.

Amusing, candid, and insightful, I really enjoyed listening to Julie Powell's memoir--or food memoir?  I'm not really sure where it falls in the grand scheme of things, but, regardless, I thought it was a wonderful book.  It's riotously funny, yet strangely poignant.  Oddly enough, it reminds me of Jenny Lawson and her memoir, Furiously Happy--yet just a tiny bit less chaotic.

Not by much, considering Julie Powell undertakes to make 524 different recipes, many of which take hours to prepare, in just one year in a crappy little apartment in Queens.  It's astonishing the things she (and her marriage) manages to survive, including:  biological clocks, frozen pipes, disastrous dinner parties, inane dead end secretarial jobs, break downs, Blanche days, and celebrity crushes.

It's really a pretty amusing book, especially if you decide to listen to it as read by the author (which I did--and which I highly recommend); however, it's not quite the food memoir I expected.  In fact, Julie and Julia is more memoir than food.  Julie is hellbent on recreating all of Julia Child's recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. 1 and, in her journey, she learns how to make a variety of dishes and confronts some of the most trying times of her life.

While it features a lot of cooking, Julie and Julia feels like it's more about the experiences of cooking and the results, specifically what happens to the author as she slogs through more than 500 French recipes, than the actual cooking, but I can't say I minded.

Julie and Julia is strangely heartwarming and incredibly amusing.  To me, it strikes just the right balance that makes it a memoir worth reading, especially if you have the chance to listen to the author tell her own story.  It makes Julie and Julia that much more memorable.

The Bad
I will note that while I was listening to the audiobook I discovered I borrowed the abridged version.  I don't know if the audiobook had the full text, but I do know I missed a few things that might otherwise have filled in details or fleshed out the characters involved.  It was my only disappointment in a book that was, otherwise, wonderful.

The Ugly
Okay, I'll be honest:  I liked Julie, but, sometimes, I just couldn't handle very much of her.

I mean, I liked her and I liked her style of writing.  I loved listening to the audiobook, because it has this authenticity to it, this genuine emotion that seeps through every chapter.  However, I could only take so much.  She was very dramatic and she stressed out so easily--and, confidentially, she stressed me out when she went on a rant about how cooking was going to ruin her and so on...and, sometimes, it was just a little too shrill, you know?

In Progress: Rejected Princesses (Continued)

Dey St.

Okay, so I've made it about half way through Jason Porath's book; however, I have wantonly skimmed it and skipped to some of the more intriguing--not to say they aren't all intriguing, or curious, or fascinating, or strange--entries.  Like the warlord's widow who cultivated an entire school of ninjas in Japan, or the Vietnamese sisters who waged a war against Chinese invaders, or Phoolan Devi (that was a difficult one to read), or Elizabeth Bathory (this one blew my mind).

There are so many of these entries.  Some of them mind-blowing, some of them fascinating, some of them hilarious and/or tragic.  You get the whole spectrum with Rejected Princesses and, truthfully, I haven't been disappointed yet.  I mean, all of these women are powerful and independent, and they don't adhere to the traditional roles of females in society.

Instead, they go out and kick butt, fight against a system that tries to squash them, and, in  general, be awesome.

I love that Porath takes the time to carefully research these ladies; honestly, I love that he makes an effort at all to chronicle the forgotten women of history who worked as shipbuilders and soldiers and strongmen--ahem, strongwomen--and ninjas, and so, so much more.  It's great.  It's not always safe for kids, as his trigger warnings make apparent on the corner at the introduction of each entry; however, it's a nice addition to any burgeoning historian's collection.

I mean, how could you not enjoy learning about these ladies who have made and redefined history and continue to influence our world today?

So far, I have a list of favorites:

• Khutulun
• Tatterhood
• Sybil Ludington
• Grace O'Malley
• "Stagecoach" Mary Fields
• Iara
• Trung Trac and Trung Nhi
• Mary Bowser
• Julie "La Maupin" d'Aubigny
• Nanny of the Maroons
• Tomoe Gozen
• Mariya Oktyabrskaya
• Ada Lovelace
• Laskarina Bouboulina
• Ching Shih

I'm just going to say it again:  This book is great.