The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick is a sweet book about a sixty-nine year old man whose wife of forty years has just died. On the one year anniversary of her death, he decides to clean out her closet and finds a gold charm bracelet unlike anything he has ever seen his wife wear. It sets him on a trail of discovery and travel as he finds the meaning behind each charm and uncovers his wife's long held secrets from before they met.

If you're in the mood for a charming, funny, heartfelt adventure, this is the book for you. It's hard not to like Arthur Pepper and hope for the best for him. A sweet, easy read.

When Women Were Birds

When Women Were Birds, Fifty Four Meditations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams is a beautiful, poetic, meditative memoir that is written in honor of Tempest William's mother, who has passed away and left her her journals; three shelves of journals she was instructed not to read until her mother was gone. When she opened them, she found every single one blank.

This book is Tempest William's reflections on what that might mean, and we are richer for the experience of reading it. Beautifully written, full of wisdom and grace, I loved this book.

The Girls

The Girls is the debut novel by Emma Cline that's gotten a lot of buzz so I was curious to read it. Beautifully written and heartbreaking all at the same time. Cline explores the interior life of lost teenage girls who get caught up in a CA cult at the end of the 60's led by an enigmatic, yet creepy older guy; yet she fails to capture the essence of the times and how this place might have seemed a haven for a generation rebelling against the system.

It's hard to follow all the way to the inevitable climax of the book, as the writing is much better than the story itself. I didn't like the way the protagonist still felt scared and powerless years later even as a grown woman. A grim picture of how things can go very wrong for girls without a support system to show them what they're really worth. Although Cline is undeniably a gifted writer, I was disappointed by this book.

The Lion in the Living Room

I was so excited to read The Lion in the Living Room by Abigail Tucker and I couldn't have been more disappointed. This is non-fiction, with the sub-title How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World. I wish I could invite Tucker to spend just a few hours with me and my cats to prove how wrong most of the information in this book is.

If you're truly a cat lover you will most likely disagree and dislike a large part of this book, if you're not, you simply won't be interested, so I'm not sure who this is marketed towards. This is one I wish I would have skipped, a complete waste of time.

The Mountain Story

The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens is a novel about 4 broken people who get lost on a Mountain in Southern California for 5 days and not all of them make it out alive. Told years later by a Father to his son, it's a harrowing tale of survival and bravery, family and friendship.

I didn't really enjoy the book as I kept waiting for the inevitable bad things to happen. However, it was well written, and if you like these kinds of books, then it is a good read.

Lab Girl

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren is a memoir by a brilliant scientist telling of her early days in her Dad's lab in Minnesota, through her education and struggles to make it as a female botanist with a lab of her own. She shares the journey with her eccentric lab partner Bill and eventually a husband and son. She is now a tenured professor at the University of Hawaii.

Part personal history, part a love story to science and plants, this book will make you want to go out and plant a tree. I would have loved to learn more about the split with her parents, her mental health issues, her husband, son, students, she seems to care mostly about Bill; but since her lab is the focus of the book, I suppose it is understandable. Overall I found it beautifully written and at times painfully honest, I feel richer from having read this book. A recommended read.