Hello hello and happy Friday! I feel like I say this a lot but man was this a long week. There were so many random things that happened that made certain days feel like other days. In short: I had no idea what day, let alone month, it was all week. Oddly enough I kept thinking it was already April. Oh well, that will be remedied on Sunday when it will actually be April.
Do you have any Easter plans? In the past Mark and I have made a huge brunch at home (i.e. a brunch version of Thanksgiving). This year we’re just not feeling the huge brunch but can’t decide if we should go out or just do something simple like cinnamon rolls at home. I love an excuse to get dressed up so maybe we’ll end up going out. Well that was the perfect introduction for today’s Recent Reads post, no? I do hope to do some reading this weekend though because I’m in the thick of Seven Days of Us and can’t put it down! Keep reading to see what else has been in my library as of late!
The Perfume Collector. Okay, so I actually read this several months ago but somehow forgot to include it in the last installment of Recent Reads. Not sure how I did that as I loved this book. Grace is a newlywed socialite in London circa 1955 and all of the sudden she mysteriously receives an inheritance from a woman named Eva, who she’s never heard of, in Paris. Grace goes to Paris to investigate and try and unearth her connection to this seemingly random woman. The story jumps back and forth between Grace’s present day and Eva’s youth in the 1920’s until you finally find out how their lives are intertwined. Eva was involved in the perfume industry and scent plays a large role in the book. I don’t know much about perfumery so I really enjoyed learning a little bit more about it. Would I recommend: definitely!
Still Me. This is the third installment in the Me Before You series by JoJo Moyes. As you may remember (you probably don’t) I didn’t love the second book. The first one was one of my all time favorites and so the second just couldn’t compare. Thankfully, they were back on track in the third book! It felt much more in line with the first. Louisa has found herself in New York working for a wealthy family. I won’t give too much away but she struggles being away from her family and trying to assimilate in America. Along the way she’s totally endearing (per usual) as she tries to find her place in the world. Would I recommend: If you’ve read the first two and liked the first book, then yes!
A Man Called Ove. One of my friends told me I had to read this book because she loved it so much (hi Michelle!) so I quickly added it to my list. I’d heard of it but didn’t know much plot-wise. It tells the story of a man named Ove (obvs) who is a grumpy Swedish man. He’s verrrrry particular and opinionated about pretty much everything. Therefore, he doesn’t have much in the way of friends or family. One day he gets some new neighbors and his encounters with them reveal that he’s a good guy under the steely exterior. His new neighbors bring out a side of him that none of the other neighbors have seen and his story comes out as he encounters all of these new people. Would I recommend: yes. It took me a bit to get into the book and then I felt the end did drag on a little but I quite liked it!
Before We Were Yours. This was one of Goodreads’ best books of 2017 so I quickly requested it from the library and then not so quickly had to wait four months for it to be available. Anyway, the story is told from the perspective of Rill Foss in the 1930’s who is the oldest of five children who live on a riverboat with their parents. One night in Memphis their parents leave them alone on the boat because their mother is in labor. The next morning police officers come and take them away to a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage. No one will listen to them or tell them why they’re there or what’s going on. Jump forward to present day where Avery Stafford has an odd encounter with an elderly woman in a nursing home who thinks Avery is someone she knows. This leads her down a path to find out what’s going on and why this this stranger from the nursing home knows her. The book jumps back and forth between Rill and Avery to tell the story of what really happened after the Foss children were taken from their parents. While the characters were fiction, the Tennessee Children’s Home Society was indeed real and I had never heard of it. They were completely awful and mistreated tons of children who they stole from their parents and then sold for adoption to rich families. Would I recommend: oh yes! Such an interesting read and as you can probably tell by now I like historical books and ones that are set simultaneously in the present and the past. So this was right up my alley!
As I mentioned earlier I’m finishing up Seven Days of Us right now but would love to know if you have any recommendations!
Have a wonderful weekend and Easter if you celebrate!
xo Catherine
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