Books and Short Stories Part 2

 This is the book check in for February 20th - April 20th I've read 15 books. My total listening time as of 4/20/23 is 10 Days 5 Hours and 21 Minutes or 245.35 hours My original goal was 365 hours for this year. My new goal is 75 books. I have so far read 34. 

If you want to check out the check-in for the first 19 books I read this year you can find that HERE

I took about a week and a half off from listening when I first got back from mid-winter break. I was struggling to find a book to listen to. I'd get a few chapters in and not be enjoying it so I'd stop and start another. As a result progress was slower. 

I listen to books at 1.3x speed.  I struggle with the silence people give when they talk or read aloud, so I remove most of it.  I found 1.3 is the best for me for most things.  If any particular book is listened to at a different speed I will note that. 

20. Rosemary- A story about Rosemary Kennedy- the hidden disabled sister of John F. Kennedy.  The book explores the great lengths and web of lies the family told to keep her disability under wraps.  This book isn't long, but it took me several weeks to get through due to the use of the R word and not even slightly vailed ableism that was talked about like the weather throughout the book. It's important to know but it was triggering. 

21. Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing- A single mother, a politician, a women who just wants to move forward ends up being pulled back and having to look critically at how she got where she is, and her own mistakes- regrets- and the impacts they have on the people that matter most. 

22. The Little People A commute Listen- less than 50 minutes since I listen on 1.3x it was odd, but I am trying to get better on not judging a book by the first 10 minutes, this was so short there was no reason to not just finish it. It was a narrator telling a story of a small town, almost like a really long introduction at the start of some sci-fi television series. It felt more like TV pilot description than book

23. The Engineer's Wife- Based on the true story of Emily Warren Roebling though perhaps a little more fiction than true history this story elevates a woman whose story I had not known but who played a critical role in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Like all well written historical fiction, this book makes me want to do research on Emily Roebling and learn more about her story. 

24. The War Nurse is the second novel by Tracey Enerson Wood who also wrote my previous read "The Engineer's Wife". the lead character's overlaps is entirely fictional and again this is more fiction than fact but it is based on a real person and her very important place in the history of medicine on the front lines and for nurses training in general.  I was very invested in the characters and sad to find out those relationships were fictional.  All that said I finished it in a weekend and a commute.  If you like strong leading ladies- who don't need a prince charming you'll enjoy this read. 

25.The Flight Girls The story takes us on the adventures of Audrey a young seemingly fearless woman who is present during the attacks on pearl harbor and the first of a group of amazing women to fly military aircraft, long before the country was willing to recognize them for that. I finished this book in less than 24 hours because it had me completely hooked by the end of part 1.  If you're taking the time to read or listen, give yourself a chunk of time to do part 1 by itself if you can, let it sit with you for awhile and then take on parts 2 and 3.  

26.Malibu Rising Another Taylor Jenkins Reid novel.  I appreciated that in this book the women learn to NOT be reliant on men, though it takes the whole novel, eventually they learn to stand on their own two feet. A story of children forced to grow up too fast and deal with the aftermath of what their parents left them.  (Book read on 1.2x) 

27.City of Girls Some people like to talk for the sake of hearing their own voices. Some authors use too many words to tell their story. This is book is a striking example of that. I am all for descriptive language that can help place me in the setting, but this was too much. As an audio book listener, I truly believe a solid 2-4 hours could have been cut out without changing the story or experience even a bit- except to say I would be less frustrated. After 6 hours of listening I just wanted to know what was asked about at the beginning- but hell I waited another 8 hours before I got to that.       
I think her story would make for a great short story- could cover the entire plot and effects in 2.5 hours- which maybe is the goal, maybe there's a movie here, but can you ever trust a book that you know the movie would be better? 

28. Find Another Dream by Maysoon Zayid. Because city of girls was so drawn out and only mediocre, I needed short sweet to the point and fabulous and I found that in Find Another Dream. A delightful collection of memories and the story of the life that has brought her to where she is and a snapshot into the fight she's had as a disabled person along the way. I listed to this on 1.4x. It was an easy evening listen. 

29. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War 2 By Liza Mundy. This book peels back the curtain on a side of American History I've only begun to learn about- the impacts of women in war. In this case specifically World War 2 and primarily in the Pacific Theater. This book uses primary sources, declassified information along with interviews and personal accounts to tell the story of the women who were recruited from women's colleges and teachers colleges from around the country to take on civilian and enlisted positions with the Army and Navy before and during our involvement in the 2nd World War.  My only issue with the book is that the story isn't told in chronological order, the book is broken into 3 parts and has several subsections within each.  Each subsection moves in consistent fashion, but the parts and their relationship to the whole jump around from WW2 back to WW1 and a series of dates within WW2.  It takes me about 20 minutes each time to adjust to being in a new date range, realizing that what I just learned had been cracked in fact hadn't happened yet.   I recommend this book for anyone looking interested in WW2, the role of women in war time or anyone who has a fascination with cryptography. 

30. Carnegie's Maid My first full length read by Marie Benedict and I am hooked.  She creates a reality you wish to be real and provides as humanity in her characters that is must missed from the people in the reality in which I find myself living in most days.  This book is truly fiction though most of her work finds itself on the fictional side of historical fiction this one is all imagined, but great none the less. (1.2x)

31. The Other Einstien Very good read. The story of Albert Einstein's first wife and the possible roles she played in his most famous works. As a physicist and mathematician herself she was certainly more than capable and based on a series of letters and other works of non-fiction Ms. Benedict creates a lovely story that is sure to pull you in. 

32. Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict and it does not disappoint. As an avid World War 2 history enthusiast, I had never stopped to think that Churchill had a wife. He's never pictured with a wife, but how important she was both during WW2 but also WW1 and the years in between. The book reads like we've uncovered a long lost diary or journal flipping through the inner workings and thoughts of yet another forgotten woman of history. We feel her anguish, her anxieties her frustrations with herself and her husband as well as her finding her joy and her place in the life she's created for herself. As with any good historical fiction, this novel makes me want to learn more about the person it's based on, to dive into biographical and non-fiction works, to continue learning so that these women are hidden no more.

33.My Dear Hamilton is a Biographical Novel about Eliza Schuyler Hamilton- wife of Alexander Hamilton ** spoiler alert ** Who lives who dies who tells your story? Sorry to steal a line from the musical devoted to her husband, but it seemed fitting. Eliza's story is mostly unknown as it seems that's the way she wanted it. To not be questioned or undermined the way Alexander was, to protect her family in a way he did not. This story takes us from a time before Hamilton to a time long past his death. It unearths her experiences as the wife of a man who perhaps should not have taken a wife, of someone who on many occasions certainly didn't make time for a wife or put himself in a station able to support her. But we should all be thankful for her. Thankful for the stories and history that she preserved for us as a Nation. Thankful that whatever anger she harbored and whatever doubts she had, she did not destroy history.

    I was surprised to learn that they had a disabled daughter- whose crisis of mental health occurred after the death of her brother- and was disappointed to see I could not find any information on her in doing my own research.

    I had not heard the rumors of John Lawerence and did engage in deeper research. It seems George Washington was far more liberal minded in 1776 than our own military has been in my lifetime.

    This novel does what you hope any biographical historical fiction does, that that is that is leaves you wanting more. Unfortunately in the case of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, historical fiction may be as close as we will ever get to knowing her story.

34.The Way I See it By Mellisa Sue Anderson. I'd call it 1.5 stars.  If you were a huge little house fan and want to hear a play by play of most of the episodes, you'll probably love it.  If you are interested in the impacts of a 7 year run on a major television show on a teen with some of the insider scoops you should check out Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim, which I read earlier this year and enjoyed. 

There are some odd choices made in this book where she talks about herself in the 3rd person from the perspective of reading a script with notes like interior and exterior shots and stating who said each thing. It's not a choice I would have made and was not a fan.  

Well thats another 15 books and 133.6 hours of listening done. I can get hyperfixated on what I am doing. One of my Autistic traits that can be both a strength and a struggle. But I'm glad to have found a way to enjoy books.