This month’s roundup of book reviews contains some excellent historical fiction, a little mystery, an eerie sci-fi short story, inspiring and thought-provoking nonfiction, and more. Let’s jump into the reviews!
NONFICTION
The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education, by Leigh Bortins—Leigh Bortins is the founder of Classical Conversations, the homeschool co-op that we have been a part of for the past year. Now that we are one year into incorporating Classical learning into our homeschool, and as I prepare to be a CC tutor next year, I wanted to learn more about the Classical model. I was first pointed to Susan Weiss Bauer’s book, and while her tome does contain a great deal of helpful information, I found the size and scope of Bauer’s book overwhelming and made my way to The Core instead. And I truly cannot say enough good things about this book—not just for for homeschooling families who are already utilizing the Classical model of education, or for those who want to know more, but for every parent who wants to incorporate Classical learning principles into life with their children.
Bortins begins by explaining the Classical model and its answer to many of the problems of modern education, emphasizing the idea of the world as classroom and parents as educators, with brain training as a goal. She explains the Grammar stage (approximately Kinder through 5th grade) and makes a case for the importance of memory work at this age, which sets students up to succeed in the later levels of Logic and Rhetoric, where students learn to engage in more critical thinking and become skilled in the art of persuasion. In other words, Bortins provides answers to the many critics who dismiss Classical education as “just a bunch of meaningless memory work.”
In the second half of the book, Bortins gets into the specific methods she uses for teaching Reading, Writing, Math, Geography, History, Science, and the Fine Arts. Many of the suggestions tie into the material we’ve already tapped into through CC and I loved seeing the “why” behind our memorization of these specific facts. I also appreciated the many methods she suggests for incorporating learning into schoolwork and life with our kids. These ideas are almost entirely free (no additional materials to buy) and require little or no extra time or energy from mom/teacher; they simply capitalize on everyday experiences and build on things we are already doing. I think my biggest takeaway from the book is that nearly every moment can be an opportunity for learning if it’s approached with curiosity and an eye toward building our children’s minds and character. Through each section, Bortins gets into both the why and the how of her methods and explains their application in her own home.
While my home and my teaching methods would have benefitted from reading this sooner, I believe the book came to me at just the right time. Having already gotten my feet wet with the Classical model, the terms were not foreign to me, and I’ve already seen the benefits of utilizing this model, so I needed no persuasion to dive into even deeper Classical waters. I will be adopting a number of the ideas in our home and as I lead a cohort of 5th- and 6th-grade Grammar students as a tutor next year!
My only critique with the book is that I feel it’s in need of an update. It was published in 2010 and many of the statistics and references to technology are pretty dated. But the principles themselves are as old as education itself and worth consideration from everyone interested in their children’s education and future.
My Rating: 5 Stars // Book Format: Kindle
Family Unfriendly: A Critical Examination of Overparenting and Its Consequences, by Timothy P. Carney—There was a time when family life (marriage and children) was a given, with every child knowing that he or she would one day become a mother or father (and probably looking forward to that prospect). Today, though, parenthood is not necessarily a given. Birth rates have plummeted and Timothy P. Carney—a researcher and father of six—has some ideas on the cause. In Family Unfriendly, Carney explores the reasons that many Americans are intimidated by the idea of having kids—from overparenting and warped expectations that are being placed on parents and children, to cultural mores, government codes, and workplace practices that devalue children and families, making it harder for those who DO have children to enjoy their family life or parent in ways that are healthy and productive for everyone involved.
As someone who always wanted children and is now living the dream of staying home with my four kids, I am saddened by the declining number of families in our country, but it’s a trend that I can understand. Stumbling blocks are everywhere: culture either places children on a pedestal (setting an impossibly high bar for parents who feel the need to keep up) or makes them seem like a nuisance; the current economy is hardly conducive to larger families or stay-at-home parents; and with more and more individuals opting out of having children, raising a family can feel like an uphill battle.
I love that Carney puts words and statistics to trends I’ve personally observed. His research is extensive and touches on every contributing factor that I have noticed and many that had never occurred to me: affordability, subsidies, technology, feminism, evolving views of sex, workplace dynamics, and even the changes in urban planning are just some of the aspects that are addressed. And Carney doesn’t just observe the trends, he also has practical advice for individuals, families, businesses, and policymakers who would like to promote healthy families. Some of Carney’s ideas are pretty radical, but many are totally actionable. And most importantly, in penning this book, Carney is jumpstarting conversations that our society really needs to be having about parenthood, family, and the future demographics of our nation.
Though this subject matter could easily become dry or heady, Carney maintains a lighthearted tone with personal stories and insights and an optimistic view towards the future of American families. This pairs perfectly with Hannah’s Children, which offers a more personalized/case study perspective on the same topic.
My Rating: 5 Stars // Book Format: Audiobook
This American Woman: A One-in-a-Billion Memoir, by Zarna Garg—Zarna Garg is not your typical stand-up comedian, or your typical American woman, yet in this insanely funny memoir she shares her unconventional path to becoming America’s first Indian immigrant mom comedian.
Growing up as the forgotten youngest child of a workaholic father, Zarna was often chided for her big mouth and curious mind. Following her mother’s death when she was fourteen, Zarna made the difficult choice to flee arranged marriage and subsequent homelessness in India, landing herself in America where she married for love and threw all of her ambition into becoming an overbearing stay-at-home mother. But Zarna was always meant for more than driving carpool and scouring her children’s athletic wear; after several unsuccessful attempts at finding a career or hobby of her own, Zara’s teenage daughter encouraged her mom to give stand-up comedy a go, and soon the unconventional comedian catapulted to fame and success.
I had not heard of Zara Garg prior to encountering tons of great press for this book, but I was immediately won over by Zarna’s bold storytelling, flagrant disregard for cultural norms, and willingness to poke fun at the absurdities of both her native India and her adopted home of America. Her story of overcoming hardship and finding success in middle age is one of resilience, courage, and hard work, and she shares honestly but with the utmost humor and sharp insight into cultural, familial, and character challenges she’s endured along the way. I was fascinated by her life in Mumbai in the 1980s—so different from the life I know—and her experience as an Indian immigrant in America, and I was riveted by every detail of her unexpected foray into stand-up comedy. But it is her motherhood experience that I enjoyed hearing about the most; her version of parenthood is very different from mine, yet her tough-love approach is both shocking and somehow inspiring.
Audio is always the way to go with celebrity memoir, and that is especially the case with this book, as Zaran’s Indian accent sets the tone for the whole book, and we hear her spunk as well as her tenderness as she cries through some emotional parts of her story. We also have a chapter read by Zarna’s daughter, Zoya, who was the catalyst for her mom’s comedy career, and it was beyond touching to hear the love and pride Zoya clearly feels for her mom. And the chapters by her other family members at the end? Priceless!
Funny, heartwarming, unexpected, and inspiring, this is one of the best memoirs I’ve read/listened to in a long time. The unforunate inclusion of excessive profanity is the only thing keeping me from recommending this to literally everyone I know.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars (Rounded to 4 Stars on Goodreads) // Book Format: Audiobook
FICTION
The Lies I Tell, by Julie Clark—Meg Williams is not yet thirty, but she’s already lived many lives, shapeshifting from college student to real estate agent to life coach—always under a different name, and with a reinvented backstory and personality to match. Nobody knows the REAL Meg Williams, but reporter Kat Roberts is determined to uncover the truth of the elusive woman who set her own life on a downward spiral a decade earlier. As Kat befriends Meg, she quickly discovers the challenges of out-conning a world class con artist. The stakes are high, with each woman set upon achieving revenge before the clock runs out.
This is my third Julie Clark thriller, and all three have been home runs for me. Like her other two books, this one delivers a propulsive story with interesting (though not necessarily likable) protagonists, creative timeline and structure, insights into a new-to-me world (I learned a lot about real estate and the potential for corruption within the field), and thought-provoking themes (retribution, justice, homelessness, addiction, friendship, and the complicated questions around whom we choose to trust and why). The book isn’t perfect; the feminism is heavy handed, the setup requires some suspension of disbelief, and I had a hard time distinguishing between the two narrator voices, but the writing is smart and the story is oh-so-juicy. I absolutely could not put this one down and was rewarded with twists up to the very last page.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Kindle
The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes, by Chantel Cleeton—Three women find themselves facing tragedy, unexpected love, and invisible dark forces in this touching tribute to the power of books and storytelling that spans continents across more than a century.
In 1900, Eva Fuentes is a Cuban teacher who has been invited to participate in a cross-cultural study program at Harvard. In her first whirlwind foray outside of her home country, Eva meets a stranger who touches her life in ways that will unfold for generations. . . .
In 1966, Pilar Castillo’s husband has been imprisoned by Fidel Castro but she continues her work in the resistance movement, safeguarding the precious books of friends and neighbors who have been forced to flee Cuba. When Pilar is tasked with returning a valuable book to its rightful owner, Pilar is swept away by the story of Eva Fuentes and grows determined to learn more. . . .
In the present day, Margo Reynolds is an antiques dealer living in London who has been tasked with locating a mysterious book published more than a century ago. Margo quickly learns that she is not the only searching for Eva Fuentes’s long-lost book, with adversaries who are set on procuring the work at any cost.
This is a lot of story for one relatively short book, and while I struggled to keep up with the many storylines and characters, I really enjoyed this. Each setting and protagonist is compelling, facing unique but relatable challenges, and I was impressed with Cleeton’s ability to weave the timelines together into one cohesive narrative (albeit with a few convoluted twists and far-fetched plot points). This is a mystery and a thriller, with touches of romance (including a second-chance one I LOVED) and fascinating windows into parts of Cuba’s history that were totally new to me. Cleeton’s prose is smooth and insightful, pulling us into each story and reminding us—through this story, and the story at the novel’s center—of the connective and comforting powers of books.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Kindle
The Foursome, by Christina Baker Kline—At twenty, Sarah Yates is practically an old maid, and with a scandal in her past, it is unlikely that she will be able to find a good man who will agree to make her his bride. But her prospects shift when Eng and Chang Bunker, the famous conjoined twins from Siam, arrive in Wilkes County. The men quickly settle into life as landowners and successful businessmen; all that is needed are the right women to marry, and it is immediately apparent that Chang’s sights are set on Sarah’s younger and prettier sister, Adelaide.
With pressure from her sister, and despite waggling tongues from the community who cannot fathom an interracial marriage or a marriage between the two sisters and the paired gentlemen, Sarah feels she has no choice but to move forward with a relationship. Soon the fates of the four individuals are every bit as entwined as the bodies of Eng and Chang. What unfolds is a lifetime of challenge, heartbreak, and eventually love as the foursome navigates prejudice from the outside and constant conflict from within their own home.
I’ve long been fascinated by the conjoined twins and especially by what I knew of the Cheng and Eng Bunker, who actually lived in the south in the mid-1800s. This fictionalized account of their lives answers many of my questions about how these men could lead normal lives, complete with wives and children and dual households. This is more than just a glimpse into a completely different way of life: through Sarah’s candid narration, we explore themes of sisterhood, unconventional romance, racism and slavery, motherhood, and the search for purpose, connection, and significance.
Though parts of the novel are pretty slow, the prose is beautiful and vivid, providing a breathtaking and thought-provoking story that avoids salaciousness while plumbing the complexities of humans who come alive within the novel’s pages. I was particularly impressed with Kline’s choice to tell the story from Sarah’s point of view, which was an unconventional decision but allows us to get to know the famous brothers at a slightly-removed level while also bringing a sense of intimacy and relatability to what might otherwise have felt like too broad or “foreign” of a story.
This is a hard read, unbearably sad at points and unflinchingly honest about the realities of slavery, racism, the plight of women in the early 19th century, and the fragility of life. Ultimately, though, it is a lovely and resonant story from a masterful storyteller.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars (Rounded to 4 stars on Goodreads) // Book Format: Kindle
The Bookstore Diaries, by Susan Mallery—Jax is a divorced mom and manager of The Painted Lady Bookstore, a charming Victorian mansion turned bookshop that is truly the bookstore of any bibliophile’s dreams. Life gets complicated when Jax’s ex-husband gets engaged for what Jax believes are less-than-reputable reasons. Meanwhile, Jax’s sister Ryleigh finds herself single and unsure of what the future holds. Both sisters are destined to find love, but not where they would have expected.
The premise here is a fun one, so I am so sad to report that the book itself is not good. Yes, the bookstore is amazing and a place I would totally love to visit, and the character of Ramon the parrot (Jax’s beloved African Grey) is a total hoot (though I have doubts about whether a parrot could truly have Ramon’s conversational and personable skills). But the writing is clunky and tedious; the oddly-named characters are one-dimensional and repeatedly make terrible decisions; and the story is predictable and repetitive. I hate books that whitewash divorce and its effects on children, as is done here, and I really dislike books that celebrate the prioritization of parents’ selfish desires over children’s needs—something that happens again and again within this novel.
Perhaps the biggest disappoint of all is that the book has almost nothing to do with the eponymous mysterious diaries, despite a publisher burb that promises otherwise. This is not a mystery, but a romance (and a very open-door romance at that). I should have quit this early on; I stuck around for Ramon, but the reading experience was not a great one and I am a little baffled by the high ratings.
My Rating: 2 Stars // Book Format: Kindle
The Price of Honey, by Lian Moriarty—Recent widow Honey Becket makes the unconventional choice to take an old-fashioned Uber—driven by a real human, so quaint—to the funeral of her tech billionaire husband’s funeral. Honey spends the drive reflecting on her marriage to Barney: the years were marked by cheating and infantilizing, but she couldn’t help but love him. Honey still can’t believe that Barney is dead, failed by the decades of life-hacking that were supposed to help him live forever.
At the funeral, Honey is greeted by Barney’s three maligned ex-wives as well as throngs of onlookers who hated and loved the man who revolutionized the medical health industry. Little does she know that she is about to face yet another betrayal that nobody could see coming.
These Amazon stories can be hit-or-miss, but I really enjoyed this one from one of my favorite authors. The futuristic setting—with its AI relationships, holographic drivers and embedded chip tracking—was pretty terrifying reading for this wannabe luddite, and the characters are dislikable, but those elements worked well in the short story format: they make for an engaging read, but I was happy to spend limited time in an uncomfortable world. The twist ending is shocking and incredibly discussible. Despite its length, this one definitely packs a big punch.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Kindle
What have you been reading lately? I’d love to hear about it!