The Atomic City Girls

Title: The Atomic City Girls

Author: Janet Beard

Pages: 353

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The Manhattan Project started towards the tail end of World War II and ended up employing a secret city's worth of scientists, physicists and young women, because most of the other young men were off fighting in Europe or the Pacific. This story mainly takes place in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which was a city that was built from scratch specifically for the research behind the atomic bomb and for the isolation and enrichment of Uranium. The book follows a few different characters and most of their stories are from real-life accounts of the people who lived and worked in Oak Ridge.

My Review: I started this book believing that it was a non-fiction account, but after about a chapter I realized that it was more of a historical fiction than non-fiction.  After my initial disappointment I carried on and found that I enjoyed the book, even if it bounces around throughout the first 80% before finally linking the characters together towards the end of the book.

Beloved

Title: Beloved

Author: Toni Morrison

Pages: 324

Genre: Fiction, Classic

Grade: B

Synopsis: Sethe was a pregnant slave with 3 kids who escaped to Ohio. While on the run she gave birth to another baby and made it to her husband's mother's home in Cincinnati. The story talks about the demons of slavery, Sethe's demons that she is always fighting and her relationship with the ghost of her daughter who was killed soon after she arrived in Ohio.

My Review: I actually listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author herself. I really struggled through the first part of the book, I enjoyed the middle part and I started to quite like the book by the end. The writing style of the book makes it difficult to always know what is really happening and what is just flowery prose. Once I started reading the book alongside a detailed summary everything started to make more sense and I enjoyed the book more.

Garden of Lies

Title: Garden of Lies

Author: Amanda Quick

Pages: 359

Genre: Romance

Grade: B

Synopsis: Anne Clifton committed suicide while working as a secretary under contract for the Kern Secretarial Agency.  The owner of the agency, Ursula Kern, does not believe that Clifton would actually commit suicide and believes that Anne Clifton had actually left a coded message for Ursula before her death.  As Ursula starts to dig deeper and deeper into Clifton's past the startling truth begins to become clear.

My Review: This was a unique plot and storyline, but it was not a book that I loved.  It was, however, fairly easy to follow and did not leave a bunch of loose ends at the completion of the book.

The Boys in the Boat

Title: The Boys in the Boat

Author: Daniel James Brown

Pages: 12 discs

Genre: Non-Fiction, History

Grade: A+

Synopsis: The 1936 eight-oar rowing crew from the University of Washington defied the odds and won National Championships as freshman, junior-varsity and varsity.  They went on to represent the United States at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where although forced to row against the odds in the worst lanes were able to pull off a stunning upset and win the gold medal.

My Review: If you liked Seabiscuit or Unbroken, then this book is for you.  Similar to those books (especially Seabiscuit), the author takes a sporting event that most of us know very little about and turns it into the most fascinating chronicle of the rowing world in the early to mid-1930s.  Very well written and very well researched, I can't wait to watch the rowing races in the next Olympics!

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Title: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Author: Grace Lin

Pages: 282

Genre: Children's Fiction, Fantasy

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Minli is a young girl living with her parents in the shadows of Fruitless Mountain.  All day long she toils in the fields and at night she listens to the stories that her father tells of dragons, pearls, destiny and the Old Man of the Moon. Eventually Minli determines that the only way that her families fortune can improve is if she asks the Old Man of the Moon herself. She sneaks away from her family's small house on a journey to improve their fortune.

My Review: I was surprised, but I ended up really enjoying this book.  Minli's story is interspersed with all sorts of old Chinese fables and eventually everything ties together nicely at the end.

No Applause ~ Just Throw Money

Title: No Applause ~ Just Throw Money

Author: Trav S.D.

Pages: 328

Genre: History, Non-Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book is a biography of vaudeville in the United States. For a period of about 30 years, vaudeville was the main source of entertainment here in the USA.  It's legacy lives on at halftime shows during major sporting events, America's Got Talent, traveling circuses and loads of shows in Vegas.

My Review: The book was definitely well-researched and well-written, I'm just not sure why I picked it up.  For people who love reading about how the old-time stars got their starts (i.e. the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplain, Harry Houdini, Mae West, etc.), then you'll probably enjoy this book more than I did.

The Well-Educated Mind

Title: The Well-Educated Mind

Author: Susan Wise Bauer

Pages: 480

Genre: Non-Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: The subtitle for this book is "A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had." I thought it would be a primer on a bunch of different subjects, but instead, it is just a glorified reading list of novels, autobiographies, histories, dramas, poetry and science texts. Bauer gives strategies for making it through difficult subjects and advocates for time spent reading each day, keeping a reading journal, asking questions and reading books at the same time as a friend in order to stimulate discussion.

My Review: I do love reading lists.  I've got a good number of them and I rarely read books that are not on one list or another. However, I'm posting this review after only reading about 90 pages of the book as the remainder of the book is dedicated to the reading list along with little tidbits about the books suggested. While I can see the benefit of the strategies suggested for deep learning while reading, I also am of the mindset that life is short and that I'm not going to spend too much time re-reading and studying these texts.  Instead, I'll just read them for enjoyment with sparknotes open to help provide clarity to the difficult passages.  Next up (from Bauer's list): Don Quixote.

Brave Companions

Title: Brave Companions: Portraits in History

Author: David McCullough

Pages: 240

Genre: Non-Fiction, History

Grade: A

Synopsis: Each chapter of this book focuses on an exceptional man of woman who has helped to shape the course of history. The book is composed of short essays about Alexander von Humboldt, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederic Remington, Louis Agassiz, Charles & Anne Lindbergh and others. Each of these persons profiled has done something exceptional.

My Review: If you've ever looked at McCullough's 7-800 page books and thought that they looked too overwhelming, then this is the book for you.  It gives you a taste of the storytelling abilities of David McCullough and you may find yourself wanting to read one of his longer books to learn more.  It seems like these essays are a sort of preview to the longer books about some of these same individuals that McCullough has written since this book was published.

On a side note, this book brings McCullough's reviewed books on this blog to 8, which breaks a tie with Brandon Mull and John Grisham (and with J. K. Rowling and Dan Brown right behind).

In the Garden of Beasts

Title: In the Garden of Beasts

Author: Erik Larson

Pages: 448

Genre: History, Non-Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: William E. Dodd is an academic from Chicago when he is named as America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany.  He arrives in Germany in 1933 and is immediately surprised by the opulent expectations of him.  He is determined to only live off of his annual salary, but most ambassadors (and even others in the State Department) come from families with deep pockets and are used to having chauffeurs, servants, cooks, etc.  While Dodd doesn't immediately recognize the threat of the Nazis, once he does he tries to convey the risks and threats back home to America. Most of his warnings are ignored as the US public is mostly interested in a policy of isolationism. As is often the case in Larson's books, there is a second story-line, that of Ambassador Dodd's daughter Martha, who sleeps her way around Berlin with other dignitaries, communists and even some from Hitler's staff.

My Review: This is a book about Hitler's Germany, but focuses more on his rise in the 1930's, which is a time period that I'm not too familiar with.  It was interesting to read about how the German people were slowly acclimated to Hitler's crazy policies and ideas.  He would move things two step forward, apologize and step back, then take another two steps forward, with a few large leaps thrown in.  A good lesson on warnings flags to watch out for.

The Orphan Keeper

Title: The Orphan Keeper

Author: Camron Wright

Pages: 9 discs

Genre: Fiction (A novel based on a true story)

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Chellamuthu is around seven years old when he is abducted from his city in India.  He is sold to an orphanage a few hours away and is put up for adoption while his family desperately searches for any information or clues of his whereabouts. Eventually his is adopted by a couple in Mapleton, Utah, where he learns English, has his name changed to Taj, goes to church, graduates from High School and eventually starts a family.

My Review: I give the book an A+ for the story and a B+ for the writing. That the book is based on a true story makes things all the more incredible.  The coincidences and way that things eventually worked out for Taj/Chellamuthu was amazing and inspiring.

Ten Days that Shook the World

Title: Ten Days that Shook the World

Author: John Reed

Pages: 351

Genre: Non-Fiction, History

Grade: B

Synopsis: John Reed was an American journalist living in Saint Petersburg (Petrograd) during the height of the Russian Revolution in 1917 when Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power and setup their own government.  The writing is not flashy or embellished as his intent was to simply convey the timeline and a description of what was happening during the height of the revolution. Incredibly, almost everything that Reed reported on in this book was based on his own account.  He was able to sit in on the meetings, congresses in addition to visiting the front of the battle and meeting with people involved on both sides. Side note: John Reed died in 1920 of typhus and is one of only 3 Americans buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

My Review: To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty proud of myself for making it through this book.  I don't think that I've read a book of this substance since college. If there is a university class on the Russian Revolution, this would be the textbook. Even though a substantial chunk of the book was well over my head, I found that I enjoyed it the more I got into it. It was more difficult to read this book in small chunks and I had to be sure to only read in places of  silence and without distractions. Normally I have no problem reading with music on in the background, but this one was too meaty.

Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2)

Title: Dragonfly in Amber

Author: Diana Gabaldon

Pages: 33 discs

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B-

Synopsis: Claire Randall has been back in the twentieth century for about 20 years and now it is time for her to tell her story to her grown daughter and to visit the Scottish Highlands where she had spent a few years back in the 1700s. The book expounds on Claire and Jamie's time in Paris as well as on the battles between the British and Scottish fighters.

My Review: For a book that is around 750 pages (or 33 cds in my case), it seemed like there was not a lot of substance and that not a lot happened in this book.  For the parts of the book where things did happen, it simply wasn't as interesting as the first book.  It looks like there are a total of 13 books in the series, but I think I'm gonna pass on the rest.

Flora & Ulysses

Title: Flora & Ulysses

Author: Kate DiCamillo

Pages: 233

Genre: Fiction, Newbery Award

Grade: B+

Synopsis: While reading a comic book, Flora Belle Buckman sees her neeighbor vacuum up a squirrel.  Flora gives the squirrel CPR and the squirrel comes back to life with superhero like powers. Flora takes the squirrel home where they become the best buddies.

My Review: This was another book that we listened to on a road trip this last summer.  My kids just loved it, I thought it was a little kooky, but still enjoyable. Well worth a listen if you've got kids around to join in.

The Crossover

Title: The Crossover

Author: Kwame Alexander

Pages: 240

Genre: Poetry, Young Adult, Newbery Award

Grade: A

Synopsis: 12-year-old Josh Bell and his twin brother Jordan have mad skills in basketball that they got from their father who had played professionally when he was younger.  The story is mostly told in a poetic verse and a series of poems describing Josh and Jordan's playing on the court, about their crushes and about some of the struggles that they are facing at home.

My Review: We listened to this book on a road trip this last summer and it was a hit in the car. The book is in a similar style to the musical Hamilton, where the story is told almost through a rap-like verse.  Extremely clever and well done.