May Book Reviews

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman (audiobook) ★★★★☆
If you liked the curmudgeon title character of Backman's bestseller, A Man Called Ove, you may also find seven-year old Elsa's grouchy grandmother endearing. Early in the book, she passes away (not a spoiler), and leaves Elsa with the daunting task of delivering apology letters to specific people in her life. Elsa relives her grandmother's creative, otherworldly stories of the Land of Almost-Awake  and the Kingdom of Miamas as she embarks on her mission, with plenty of surprises, startling discovering, and danger in the process. This book deals with heavy hitters like grief and difficult family issues but the fairy tale component of the stories the grandmother told Elsa (and the ways they're creatively linked to real life) gives the novel a lighter, more whimsical and quirky feel.

Rating: PG (a few cuss words)

Reminded me of: A Man Called Ove (as mentioned above) for the cranky older characters and Some Kind of Happiness  and Bridge to Terabithia for the way fantasy/fairytale is used to process difficult matters from a child's perspective.


Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira Lee (audiobook) ★★★★☆
Miranda and Lucia are Chinese-American sisters who could not be more different. Miranda is the organized, responsible big sister while Lucia is the free-spirit. When Lucia starts developing serious mental health issues that progress over time and in different seasons of life, Miranda tries to step up and take charge, often to negative results. Told from different character's perspectives, this is a powerful book that is sometimes difficult to get through because of the raw, heavy subject matter, but it is one of the most realistic looks at the effects of mental health illness on individuals and those who love them.

Rating: PG-13 (lots of language and sex scenes/references)




The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd  ★★★★☆

A coming-of-age story set in South Carolina in 1964, centering around teenager Lily Owens. After an unfortunate racist-charged run-in with the police, she and her African-American caregiver escape to a town called Tiburon, where they quickly befriend three African-American sisters who run a beekeeping business. In the comfort of their motherly affection and the wise lessons surrounding bees and honey-making, Lily tackles old guilt and unanswered questions surrounding her mother's tragic death. Sue Monk Kidd is masterful at weaving words together and developing strong female characters (The Invention of Wings is phenomenal). The only drawback for me was the emphasis on the  three sister's makeshift religion that heavily influenced the story, which was a mix of Mother Mary worship with a bohemian twist, which just didn't sit well with me. 

Rating: PG (a few curse words)
Reminded me of: The Help

Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais (audiobook) ★★★★☆

Switching between the perspectives of the two main characters, a nine-year old white girl named Robin who just lost her family and a middle-aged South African mother named Beauty Mbali who is searching for her daughter after the deadly Soweto Uprising. Their lives become intertwined and forever altered in this powerful Apartheid-era story of racism, loss, grief, and family. There were times I was annoyed with Robin but I had to remember not only was she an immature and slightly spoiled nine-year old, but she was also mourning the recent death of her parents and dealing with all sorts of deep inner conflict, so that helped excuse some of her decisions. Conversely, I  loved Beauty's fierce motherly love that led her to courageous and often dangerous situations in search for her daughter. I had not read very much (other than Trevor Noah's Born A Crime) set in South Africa during the Apartheid, so it gave me a real and heart-wrenching peak at their reality. It was definitely a heavy, hard read, but I am so glad I read it. 

Rating: PG-13 (some gruesome scenes during the Soweto Uprising)
Reminded me of: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (audiobook) ★★★★★

I cannot count how many times I have heard this book recommended and now I can see why. Bryan Stevenson is founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, which focuses on giving legal assistance and defending the most desperate children and adults in the criminal justice system, many of whom are serving life sentences or are on death row. Early in his career as a lawyer, he defends an African- American made named Walter who is unjustly accused of murdering a white woman and is sentenced to death row.  Bryan delves into the racism, conspiracy, and scheming of Walter's case, weaving it throughout the book amidst shorter summaries of other equally enraging cases of people who were unjustly convicted and facing life in prison or death row. I was bawling towards the end of the book, specifically with the cases surrounding neglected and abused teenagers and intellectually disabled individuals who found themselves facing life in prison. It was extremely difficult to hear about how unfair the justice system can be, but Bryan definitely does not focus only on the devastation, nor does he point fingers or turn it into a political discussion.  

Rating: PG/PG-13 due to heart-wrenching details of some of the cases

The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin (audiobook)★★★★☆

A year-long project on increasing happiness by focusing on different areas each month, including marriage, parenthood, career and leisure, health, cultivating friendships, finances, spirituality, reading and writing. Rubin includes lots of research on factors leading to happiness in both individuals and cultures, and her adventures and experiments were entertaining and at times inspiring. I liked it from a perspective of self-improvement and intentionality. She was definitely very good at staying focused and disciplined with her organized spreadsheets and detailed, specific goals each month. But I struggled with the idea that happiness should be the end goal. Although a lot of her goals were others-focused rather than self-seeking, I still felt that for me, as a Christian, I would be remiss to live for happiness rather than focus on growing to be more like Christ, regardless if it brings happiness or struggle. The underlying peace and joy of seeking Him should be a stronger desire than achieving some level of happiness that won't always last. But since Gretchen did not come at it from a Christian worldview, I cannot ding the book or her happiness philosophy based on these reservations; it just was something I had to keep in mind as I read it. 

Rating: G

True Feelings: God's Gracious and Glorious Purpose for Emotions by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Mahaney Whitacre ★★★★☆ 

A Biblical look at the value of emotions and how to use our emotions in a way that honors God. Packed with Scripture, I liked that the mother-daughter duo focused on what is underneath the emotions, our values and beliefs, rather than blaming the emotions themselves. When out beliefs and values get off-kilter whether due to fears, anger, sinful living, etc, our emotions start to take a dangerous turn that can be unhealthy and steer us away from God's Truth. Emotions are ultimately a gift from God and a way to glorify Him. This book helps work through the ways to prayerfully examine difficult emotions and bring the clarifying and heart-changing light of God's Word to untangle the often confusing and conflicting area of our emotions. This book focused on emotions in general and from a spiritual perspective and did not dive into how to deal with emotions when there are challenges like depression or anxiety disorder, so if that is what you are looking for, I would pair this book with The Anxious Christian by Rhett Smith. 

Rating: G

Reminded me of: Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow 

Running Home: A Memoir by Katie Arnold★★★★☆(audiobook) 

As Katie was grieving her father's death to cancer and dealing with severe postpartum anxiety, running up and down the canyons and mountains near her Sante Fe, New Mexico hometown became therapeutic. Soon, she was pushing herself to run ultra-marathons (which is essentially anything longer than a marathon, which is 26.2 miles), and along the way, she tested her own limits and processed the pain, grief, fears, and anger surrounding her father's battle with cancer. This is an inspiring ode to ultra-running and the ways it helped her heal emotionally but it was also a raw, vulnerable look at loss, anxiety, and slowly putting back your broken pieces after loss. 

Rating: PG-13 (lots of language)

Reminded me of: other ultra-marathon memoirs I enjoyed, including What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Marukami, My Year of Running Dangerously by Tom Foreman, Born to Run by Christopher McDougell and other  memoirs on an adult children processing their parent's death to cancer, The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Scwalbe and A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick (audiobook)★★★★☆

Four vastly different middle-school girls are told by their mothers that they are now in a monthly book club that will discuss Little Women all year long. They each have their own struggles, insecurities, and pre-teen angst that first keeps them from enjoying the club,  the classic story of the March sisters, and even each other. The story is sweet but almost to the point of saccharine with the over-the-top literary references (they live in Concord, Mass, where Little Women was set, but almost every character or street name has a name from a classic book, which was fun at first but then it was a bit excessive) and a bit too much middle-school drama (granted, I can't expect the characters to act like mature adults, but a few of girls were a little annoying at times). It was fun overall and I enjoyed all the Little Women references, since that is one of my favorite books, but I don't think I will continue the series anytime soon. 

Rating: G