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| The twin peaks, Longs Peak and Mt Meeker, on my Saturday morning walk earlier this month. |
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman - finally got around to reading this, knowing nothing about the story whatsoever, so was pretty blown away by how good it was. Honeyman did a masterful job in keeping Eleanor's pov on target. In a way, it reminded me of a time travel story in which a person from another time/space is plunked down in the modern world and is aghast at what passes for normal amongst the natives. I loved how Eleanor grew as a person as she traveled the road from trauma to health, and the ending was particularly satisfying.
A Sunlit Weapon, by Jacqueline Winspear - the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery, still in WWII, but this time focused on female pilots and the work they did during the war. I absolutely love this series and seeing the war through Maisie's eyes and experiences.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell - I read O'Farrell's Hamnet last year and absolutely loved it, so when Joann of Gulfside Musing reviewed this earlier novel by O'Farrell, I promptly got a copy and dived right in. Like Eleanor Oliphant, the story is about a woman who is out of step with her world. In this case, Esme is the wild child of a conservative colonial family that returns to Scotland from India in the early 20th century (between the wars). Like Honeyman, O'Farrell does a masterful job of revealing the full scope and horror of Esme's story layer by layer over time as her last living relative, Iris, digs for the truth of who Esme is and what her family did to her. I cannot say that I loved the ending as I did with Eleanor--in fact, it shocked and disturbed me. It almost ruined the book for me, but I respect O'Farrell and trust that she told the story she wanted to tell.
Sharpe's Triumph, by Bernard Cornwell - number 2 chronologically in the series about Richard Sharpe, soldier of the British Empire, circa 1800. As with the first book, this was a terrific adventure story in which I learned about military strategy and the British subjugation of India. I picked up the next four books in the series--it's that good!
Hope everyone is having a good summer if you are in the northern hemisphere and a good winter if you are down under. It's been hot here in CO, but mercifully our afternoon thunderstorms are yielding much needed rain (though not nearly enough, as always), which cools everything off to bearable.
