Swing Time

Swing Time is the new novel by Zadie Smith. Set in London, two young brown girls study dance together falling in love with all the old musicals and dreaming of a life on stage. Only one has real talent and their lives eventually diverge. The unnamed protagonist ends up working as a personal assistant for a very famous white singer and travels with her to West Africa where she wants to start a school for girls.

Tracey, the dancer, manages to make it to the stage for a while before having three babies with three different fathers. I was very drawn into this story, I think Smith is a wonderful writer, I loved her earlier books, but I was disappointed with this one. By the end, it left me feeling sad and empty after I had invested so much in caring for the characters she created. Ultimately a disappointing read.

The Book of Speculation

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler is set on Long Island Sound, in an old house sitting precariously on a cliff side ready to fall into the sea. Here lives Simon, a librarian, who comes from a family of mermaids, and tarot readers and carnival performers. He receives a very old, mysterious book that belonged to his Grandmother and begins a quest to uncover the curse that seems to be haunting his family.

Set in the past and the present, the book is full of magic and magical characters, but also sadness and darkness. It isn't the best book of this sort I've read, I enjoyed The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern much more, but it is well written and I was pulled in and enthralled by the story. A good read.

The Witches Market

The Witches Market by Mingmei Yip is a book about a Chinese American professor of anthropology in San Francisco who may or may not be a witch/shameness. She has a dream that takes her on a year sabbatical to the Canary Islands where she will supposedly write a book about witches.

What follows is the most ridiculous, poorly written book I've read in ages, not really as much about witches as about solving a murder mystery. I don't know how I even got to the end of this one, or how this book was ever published in the first place, ugh!

The Grown Ups

The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek follows three 15 year old kids starting one fateful Summer when all their lives changed. Their paths separate only to recross later as adults when their lives become entwined again with one another.

Beautifully written, emotionally charged, and full of wonderful details that pull the reader in and make us care for the characters. I enjoyed this book while reading it, however, I doubt it is one that will stay with me for long.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan is historical fiction based on the life of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny Osbourne. It's a fascinating adventure tale of two free spirited artists who met in France (Stevenson was Scottish and Osbourne American) and traveled the world looking for a place to call home.

I never knew Stevenson was chronically ill while writing Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; all the while looking for a climate where he could be healthy and thrive, finally ending up in the South Seas and building a home in Samoa. This is a well written, sweeping saga that drew me in from the first page. A good read.

The Mountain of Light

The Mountain of Light by Indu Sundaresan is historical fiction based on the 186-carat Kohinoor diamond and those who possessed it during it's long history in India, Persia, Afghanistan and England.

It's a fascinating story, however Sundaresan never lingers long enough on any of the characters for the reader to feel fully invested in what happens to them, and to understand what possessing this diamond really meant. An interesting read that could have been a fantastic story had it been better written.

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton, is a beautiful and sad novel about the survivors of Nagasaki, and those who didn't survive when the bomb was dropped. Painful memories come back to Amaterasu when a disfigured man knocks on her door and claims to be the grandson she lost 40 years earlier.

Beautifully written, heartbreaking, memorable. A great read.