Sunday Salon: Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson

 

Books reviewed

Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson, July 31, 2024; BooksGoSocial

Genre: thriller, family drama

Themes: reflective, suspenseful, nature descriptions, dramatic, family 

I picked this book because of the unusual title, Letting Go of September, piqued my interest.

Garrett Emerson has lost his wife, Ember, who disappeared after leaving a note of farewell, which he finds both puzzling and uncharacteristic of her. He lives alone now in his big house with his dog Sam, at the edge of his acres of forest land, flipping houses for a living. 

 Life goes on until there is tension when the remains of unidentified women begin to crop up around the area, making Garrett and the others uneasy. 

 A young couple, Elizabeth and Josh, move in nearby.The lives of the couple and Garrett intersect, their history seemingly connected through a past romantic fling of Garrett's and the unknown mother of Elizabeth who had disappeared when she was only 11-years-old. 

The theme of disappearing women flows through the book, as the lives of those people who knew or who miss the women are affected. This was a well planned thriller, even though connections become clear before the book's ending. I like the suspense, the main characters, and the natural surroundings. 

The writing is clear, descriptive, and effective. The poetic view of nature in autumn and winter are excellent, especially as the setting plays such an important part in the drama of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book.

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden, August 2, 2022; Berkley

Genre: magical realism, romance

The title of this book made me choose it,  as I love both lemon pie and the idea of lemon pie! One of my favorites.

In this story, Lolly is approaching 33 years of age, yet is stuck in an uneventful present, having forgotten her youthful hopes of opening her own restaurant, finding love, and moving to a new city. Her duties towards an ailing father and a younger sister keep her at their struggling family diner, her lost high school crush always on her mind.

When great-great Aunt Gert gives Lolly three magic lemon drops to take overnight, giving her three tries at a different life for one day, Lolly sees what her life might have been if she had chosen a different path earlier on, and decides which of the three she would really want right then. She uses this information about herself to try and move forward on a path closer to her dreams. 

An easy to read romance with a likeable main character, and a unique plot, plus a fabulous recipe for lemon drop pie at the end. This was a light but enjoyable romance read.

 Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance version of this book. 

To Read:

Ex Marks the Spot by Gloria Chao, publication Dec. 31, 2024, Penguin Random House

A YA book set to be published New Year's Eve. If I stay in that day, this could be my read. 

Set in Taiwan, it's a rival-to-lovers romance. For a treasure hunt leading to her inheritance from a grandfather, Gemma flies to his home in the city of Taipei and its vibrant street scenes. 

I've read books in setting in Korea and China and other Asian cities, but only a few in Taiwan. It's time to armchair travel there to find out more about it. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance version of this book. 

I’m considering one or more of these challenges posted by  https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/

Around The Blogosphere

• 2025 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge hosted by Carol’s Notebook 
• 2025 COYER Out to Lunch Challenge hosted by Because Reading Is Fun 
• 2025 Library Love Challenge hosted by Angel’s Book Nook & Books of My Heart

What are you reading or watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves  

Empresses of Seventh Avenue by Nancy MacDonell: Historical Novel

 Fashion in Paris and New York City during WWII

 

Empresses of Seventh Avenue

World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion

by Nancy MacDonell, August 27, 2024, St. Martin's Press, NetGalley

Description

Fashion historian and journalist Nancy MacDonell chronicles the untold story of how the Nazi invasion of France gave rise to the American fashion industry.

The fall of Paris to the Nazis in WWII had a profound effect on the French Legend, the belief that all women in Europe and America wanted only French couture and fashion. With Paris shut down and shut off during the war, American designers came into their own. 

My comments:

When Paris was taken over by the Nazis in WWII, that famous capital of high fashion began a decline that was filled by American couturiers who had previously relied on the French to lead the way in fashion, no longer only copying their styles and looking to Paris for their inspiration, Starting September 1940, American designers began to shine on their own and by 1945 American fashion began to rival that of France, and New York began to challenge Paris as the capital of high fashion.

This amazing historical novel on the growth and emergence of American fashion shows the rise of "democratic" principles in the fashion world - American designers began creating couture for all types of women. Sportswear, ready-to-wear clothes, and mix and match outfits became the new styles for America and signaled a new era of fashion.

This book tells the story of how the Americans could move forward without Paris, for once disregarding the French Legend as the one and only source of haute couture. The first American designers of note are the "empresses of Seventh Avenue." These included Eleanor Lambert, first superstar fashion publicist; Claire McCardell, creator  of American sportswear; designer Elizabeth Hawes, among several others. 

An important book for fashion lovers and for those interested in this aspect of American history, the book details the lives and stories of little remembered designers and couturiers in America who were important to American fashion. A fascinating book that is well worth reading.

What are you reading/watching this week?

Memes: Paris in July 2024,  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves

New Books: Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime and Lost in Tuscany

 In the Mailbox

I enjoy books about elderly seniors solving mysteries. This is one of several different series that I've come across. 

Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime by Leonie Swann, September 3, 2024, Soho Crime

A follow up mystery novel to The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp. Agnes and her octogenarian friends come face-to-face with a killer after winning a trip to a beautiful hotel in the seaside town of Cornwall. Translated from German

Currently reading:

a book just in time for birders or would-be-birders who are also rom com readers

Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb, June 4, 2024, Gallery Books. Genre: romance, contemporary fiction, adult fiction

Description

A divorcee crosses paths with a shy but sensitive birdwatcher who changes her life in this charming rom-com set in Arizona. Who knew Arizona had so many birders? I always imagined it as having just desert and red rock. 

Click here to see my review. 

Finished reading:

a very strange novel with an unusual plot and characters

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole, April 16, 2024; William Morrow. 

Genre: thriller, identity disorder, psychological thriller

Description: Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. 

I honestly didn't know how to rate this book. I can only say that the premise of multiple-personality Ken fighting for her life in a castle with a past is unique. Ken's many personalities interact and it's like reading a novel with real characters instead of one woman's separate identities/alternate identities popping up here and there during the narrative.

This plethora of characters/alters that belong to one woman known as Ken made me confused overall, however, and I found the novel too long to keep my interest. Ken's multiple personalities were so many and so diverse, I quickly flipped from the middle to the end of the book. A shorter version of the book would have kept my attention. And I really didn't understand the ending. Did Ken fall in love with one of her alternate identities? 

A thriller that gives extra meaning to the title and also to the term psychological in the genre psych thriller. 

Next to read: 

a summer bike ride in Tuscany. A rom com with a view

Lost in Tuscany by Sophie Sinclair, June 14, 2024; BooksGoSocial

Genre: romance, contemporary fiction

Description: Predictable thirty-six-year-old Summer Andrews doesn’t realize there’s such a thing as drunk-booking a trip until she wakes up with a beastly hangover and a non-refundable singles-only bike tour through Tuscany.

This is obviously a travel romance that has me curious about the sights on an Italian bike tour 

Watching:

I continue to find Korean drama series fascinating, even though many of them are so long. Up to 16 episodes. I recommend a heart breaking My Mister, and romantic comedy, Business Proposal, for first timers.

What are you reading/watching this week?  

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

Sunday Salon: The Stand-In, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Letters from Singapore, and Cocoon

 

The Stand-In: A Novel by 

Lily Chu

May 3, 2022, Sourcebooks Casablanca

Genre: rom com, family drama, contemporary, multicultural 

Setting: Toronto 

My comments: 

Gracie Reed wants her mother to live in more expensive senior care facility, but although she has several jobs, she can't afford the facility she has in mind for her mom. When famous Chinese actors Sam Yao and Wei Fangli visit Toronto to star in a play, and Gracie is discovered to be a doppelganger for Wei, they offer her $150,000 to act as a stand in for Wei for two months in her many public appearances. 

Gracie accepts the offer, somewhat reluctantly, but happy to leave a sexually harassing boss at her current job. How she learns to behave and act like Wei Fangli is central to this romantic drama, which involves the handsome Sam Yao. 

A humorous romance, the book focuses on the  personalities of Gracie, Sam, and Wei Fangli, their differences making this novel much more interesting. Themes of  duty versus career goals, family expectations, abandonment and mental health, are also central themes in the book.

I gave The Stand-In a solid five stars, for the plot complexities, character development, the romance, and the social topics it covers.

Also reading:

Searching for Sylvie Lee by JeanKwok 

June 4, 2019, William Morrow

Family drama, suspense, multicultural interest, immigrant fiction

My comments:

A novel about an immigrant family from China who are unable to support their family in the U.S. and forced by circumstances to give up their first daughter, Sylvie, to her grandmother and cousin who live in the Netherlands. 

Sylvie is reunited with her real family years later in NYC at age nine, but returns to the Netherlands some 20 years ahead when her grandmother dies. Sylvie's younger sister Amy then travels from the U.S. to Holland to find her sister, who has mysteriously disappeared on that trip.

Immigrant culture and conflict, Chinese culture and family norms, anti-Asian sentiment in the Netherlands, and other crucial elements of society combine to define Sylvie Lee's disappearance.

A moving picture of family dynamics, love and desire, which all reminded me of a Greek tragedy taking place  in the two cultures - Asian and European.

Letters to Singapore by Kelly Kaur

Published May 1, 2022; Stonehouse Original

Genre: epistolary novel, contemporary fiction, multicultural interest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My comments: 

Simran avoids an arranged marriage in Singapore when she gets her parents' approval to first attend the University of Calgary, Canada for an undergraduate degree. While in Calgary, Simran's views and experience broaden, so much so that she is delighted to be offered a scholarship to get her Master's Degree after graduation. But her mother writes that it's time for Simran to come home, back to Singapore and her family's traditional way of life.

This is an easily read epistolary novel, with the story of Simran in Calgary revealed in back and forth letters to her friends and relatives in Singapore. I enjoyed learning about life in an Indian community in Singapore and the contrast of Simran's growing love for her life in Calgary.

The novel seems to be partly autobiographical as the author, Kelly Kaur, left her island home in Southeast Asia to study in Calgary. She brings an interesting perspective of an international student first vising and living in North America.

I gave this four enthusiastic stars.

Thanks to Wiley Saichek for a review copy of this book.

 

 
Cocoon by Zhang Yueran

Publication: October 4, 2022; World Editions
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

China: the past as seen in the grandparents, the present as seen in the parents, and the future as seen in the children who don't understand.

I had the impression of young people wanting to understand their grandparents who went through the Cultural Revolution, and their parents, who are in the midst of a new capitalist-minded China, struggling to get ahead in life, leaving behind the traditional way of life of the old China.

Young people have to deal with grandparents they don't understand, parents who leave them behind to search for a future, or divorced parents who go separate ways and let the children be taken care of primarily by the grandparents. The stories are sometimes raw and everything sordid or good is shown to the reader.

I think this novel is so specific to time and place that the readers for which it was intended, the people in China, will get much more from it than readers in another culture, reading a translated version, and trying to understand the context and complete underlying message.

I can see why this author is popular in her home country.

View all my reviews

What are you reading this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves, Mailbox Monday

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu: Book Review/Book Beginning

 

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu, November 9, 2021, Avon, library book 

Genres:  romantic comedy, YA, contemporary fiction, immigrant fiction, multicultural interest 

Book beginning: 

All of my customers have told me at one point or another that Sunshine Donuts is their happy place. Who can blame them? There are colorful sprinkled donuts.... To live and breathe it every day, that's a different story. 

Page 56: 

His lightly tanned skin was so perfectly even and smooth, with tiny freckles under his left eye. 

Book review: 

As the title suggests, Jasmine finds herself trapped in her parents' donut shop after recently graduating from college. Her feelings of obligation to her immigrant Chinese-Cambodian parents keep her at home, knowing they need help, even though they encourage her to find a job. 

In love, dating, marriage, family obligations, career, Jas weighs what she wants for herself and what her parents expect from her. When her current crush, Alex, and his mother come to dinner at her parents' house, the evening ends in a minor disaster,  Alex is no longer welcome, and Jas is in conflict.

 But Jas is determined to live her own life and to also help her parents update their store's donut offerings to keep up with the competition, hire additional help, and leave her free to find her own path.

A contemporary novel of young adults - Jas and her brother Pat-  finding their own way while appreciating and loving their families, I gave this five stars for being spot on re this topic. 

The Friday 56. Find any sentence that grabs you on page 56 of your book. Post it, and add your URL to Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

Sunday Salon: Au Soleil Redoute by Michel Bussi

 Reading books in French: 

I've cleared my ereader of tons of books borrowed, but am buying new ebooks to keep. One is by a favorite French author, Michel Bussi, whose series of thrillers take place in Normandy and all the exotic places overseas that are overseen by the French Republic. 

In Au Soleil Redoute we go to Hiva-Oa, the largest island in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, where French painter Paul Gaugain and singer-song writer Jacques Brel both lived and died. 

In the story, five would-be writers, all female, are chosen to attend a writer's retreat in Hiva-Oa, a small, isolated, but beautiful island. Each of the five women have their own cabins at the island hotel chosen for the event. However, a la Agatha Christie, the writers begin to be methodically picked off, by an unknown murderer or murderers. First, the leader of the retreat, a well known but controversial author, mysteriously disappears, and then the writers' begin to be killed. 

Young Maima, daughter of one of the writers, teams up with Yanna, a former policeman and husband of another of the writers, to investigate on their own, dangerous as that may be, and protect their family member. 

The unique culture, geography, and atmosphere of Hiva-Oa form the background of the novel, and Marqeusian traditional beliefs and religion form contribute much to the mystery and intrigue of the book.

 A well devised plot, original and diverse characters, and superb story telling made this one of the best in the author's series, in my opinion. It was published in 2020. 

Newly arrived book: 

Venice Beach by William Mark Habeeb, was released August 17, 2021, published by Rootstock Publishing. Courtesy of Wiley Sachek Publicity.

"Venice Beach" is a moving tale of the resilience of youth and the importance of reflecting on our stories (publisher). 

A 13-year-old boy without a name travels cross country to Los Angeles, and finds himself in Venice Beach, at a shelter for runaway and homeless youth. The story unfolds of his finding a life for himself. I'm on page 34 and eating it up so far. 

What are you reading this week?

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Mailbox Monday, and Sunday Salon   

The Jetsetters: Sunday Salon

 Found at the library and finished reading:

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward, March 3, 2020, Ballantine Books

Genre: family drama, contemporary fiction

I give a five to any book that has me in tears! And this one did, in several parts. A European cruise from Athens to Barcelona alters the relationship between 70-year-old Charlotte and her adult children, Lee, Cord, and Regan. It also reveals secrets and resolves family issues that had made them a dysfunctional family. Well written, with interesting descriptions of Greece, Italy, and Spain to please armchair travelers, and an unusual story for the romance and family-drama loving reader. Well worth reading. Finishing up:  Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey

What are you reading this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, and Sunday Salon

Book Review: Al Dente's Inferno by Stephanie Cole

Al Dente's Inferno by Stephanie Cole, Tuscan Cooking School Mystery #1, Berkley
Genre: cozy mystery set in Tuscany, Italy
Source: review copy from publisher

I loved the descriptions and setting of an olive farm and house in Tuscany, with an American woman, Nell, who comes to Italy to form a cooking school for a famous Italian chef.

Nell is surprised by the sudden appearance of her ex-boyfriend, a filmmaker who is supposed to make a documentary on the house and planned school. A dinner to promote the cooking school and the chef admits several distinguished members of the public to the house. A murder that later occurs has everyone puzzled and distraught, and Nell decides to not leave Italy until she has solved the crime and put the house, its chef, and its occupants back in order.

I enjoyed reading this book, its characters and setting, and the writing which seems to not follow the rote pattern that we find in many cozy mysteries.

                                                                       

Book beginning:

Twenty minutes after the train deposited me on a warm, deserted platform on Camucia-Cortona, Italy, I was still waiting for my ride. 

Page 56:

"...That woman is key to this whole operation, Nell. It's not Pop, it's not me, and it's not you."

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

Submitted for the 

European Reading Challenge hosted by Rose City Reader