I thought that with a newborn I was not going to have the time to do anything but tend to the baby’s needs, but that hasn’t been the case. With the baby on a three-hour cycle of feeding and sleeping in-between, I have been able to get a lot of stuff done, including reading. In fact, my most productive reading times were when the baby was awake and didn’t want to do anything but be held. I would just snuggle with him on the couch and pop open a book until he fell asleep. And so this month I was able to read five books.
“Frozen River” was my book club title for March, but at the time I only got a quarter of the way through it. I managed to finally finish it and loved it. This book is based in 1789 Maine and is loosely based on the historical figure of Martha Ballard, a midwife who delivered hundreds of babies and tended to the ailments of others. In this novel, Martha is called to examine the body of a man who is pulled dead from the river and though she declares the death a murder, another doctor disagrees. This sets off a chain of events that brings Martha into scrutiny, not only on her abilities but also other cases that she is involved in. Her diary, which she writes in daily to note things that she has been witness to as a midwife, gets called into evidence and may be the key to unearthing the truth. Martha is one of those strong women characters that is inspiring and makes the reader root for throughout the book. It was perfect for a book club discussion. However, it may have some triggers as there are birth tragedies, rape and assault depicted in the book.
This book had so much potential to be great and I felt that it was lacking in the end. The premise is about a women named Rose who wants to make a better life for her mother so she agrees to travel to Camp Zero in Canada to spy on its developer. The book hints at something lurking behind the scenes, that not everything is as it seems, but when that thing is finally revealed, I didn’t think it was that surprising. In fact, I felt that the idea of camp Zero was seriously under developed and the author missed a chance to make this a bit more thrilling. I felt like some of the themes that the author was portraying could have been fleshed out a bit more throughout the plot. The ending was a bit random and didn’t fit with the overall storyline, unless I missed something.
“Annie Bot” is an interesting concept of a robot that is used as a sexual partner for a male, but as it learns more and more human like, it begins to become more independent and challenge what it was created to do. I was immediately captured by this book but the characters bothered me, especially the male character who seemed to be a bit harsh to the robot, almost bordering on abusive. However, I appreciated what Sierra Greer was doing with this story line.
“Yours Truly” was an entertaining read. Dr. Brianna Ortiz is just getting by, as she deals with her upcoming divorce and the remnants of what happened as well as trying to find a kidney donor for her brother. All this while trying to maintain a career, which she finds out may be on the outs after a promotion to department chief may be given to a young new doctor, who everyone dislikes. That doctor, Jacob, has his own issues including a failed relationship due to his paralyzing anxiety and now his ex marrying his brother. The two don’t like each other after their first encounter but then when Jacob begins writing letters to Dr. Ortiz and decides to donate his kidney, Brianna begins to think that there is more to the young handsome doctor then she first thought. I really liked the plot for this story in terms of how they characters got to know each other but there was A LOT of miscommunication between the characters that was unnecessary and became infuriating. I loved the letter writing in this book, but I felt that it ended as quickly as it began and made it all the more frustrating when they misunderstood each other.
I am not done with this book at the time of writing this post but I am enjoying it so far. I am still too early in the book to completely know what is going to happen, but the idea of novel is unique – a secret line of people who survive on books as food, gaining the knowledge within, not by reading but eating them. However, within their community lies a darker secret, another group of people who are born with a hunger for human minds. This book goes between the past of our female protagonist Devon and how she grew up as a book eater and present day, where she is on the run with her son who happens to be a mind eater. I can’t wait to find out how her past catches up with her present and what ends up happening to her son.
What did you read this month? Have you read any of the books on this list? Let’s discuss!
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