The Mother-in-Law (Sally Hepworth)

Why I have this book: My friend recommended it, so I bought it on Kindle because it was pretty inexpensive.

I liked this book a lot. I was telling my husband about it, and he was perplexed by the storyline. He wondered what the point was. (Does a book always have to have a point? Sometimes it's just for entertainment!)

I feel like this book did have a point, though. It was about relationships and dynamics in families and how we don't always understand where someone else is coming from and how we don't always know each other very well even after years of sharing family ties. (I know that was a terrible sentence.) 

It had a quote about being a mother-in-law that I completely agreed with, so much so that I took a picture of it. I don't really want to type it all in, but it was basically about how there's all these unwritten rules for mothers-in-law, and how we know we're going to get it wrong, so it's intimidating to even try sometimes. All fathers-in-law have to do, though, is be welcoming. Nothing else is expected of them.

The actual quote is much better.

There were a couple of loose ends for me, but I still really liked it. I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

There were a few F-words and some other swear words. There is an unwed pregnancy, a possible murder and/or suicide. One character is stepping out on his wife. You know, just your typical modern family. Haha...

A Northern Light (Jennifer Donnelly)

Why I have this book: A friend recommended it, so I borrowed it from the ebook library. I actually borrowed the audiobook first, but I just couldn't get my brain into it, so then I borrowed the ebook.

I really liked this book. Once I had gotten my bearings in the ebook, I wished I had the audio version as well so I could stay entrenched in the story no matter what I was doing.

I don't really know how to describe it, but it just felt raw and earthy. Maybe I'm just in a "feelings" mood lately, but I was fully sucked into this story and could feel the emotions of the main character Mattie. It's still kind of processing in my brain the day after I finished it.

I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

There's definitely some creepy sexual stuff in this book... like a gross guy who likes exposing himself and an illicit affair (although I wouldn't necessarily consider it consensual) that is mildly descriptive, and some other "coming of age" sexuality that's not graphically described. It doesn't come across as a positive thing, necessarily, and almost seems out of place. There is also some swearing, but no F-bombs.

Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl)

Why I have this book: I have had it in print form for years and years, bought the Kindle edition a couple of years ago, then listened to the audio version. :) I'm pretty sure I did read it back in the day, but as with many books, life experience adds to the meaning a book has in our lives when we read it again.

This book got a solid 5 stars from me on Goodreads. Can I just tell you how often I walk around whining, "What is the purpose of my life???" Haha... 

Not that this book answered that question for me, but it validated my reason for asking that question! It helped me to understand why that's important for me to find and understand. It gave me some things to think about in discovering my purpose now that I don't have such little children to focus on all day.

And of course, reading about concentration camps and war and what I like to call "the triumph of the human spirit" is always meaningful to me. I stand in awe of the people who came before me and experienced those hard times with dignity and greatness. Listening to the book during this year of Covid gave me some perspective, as well. There were a few times I just wanted to cry for the horrors humans had to face during the Holocaust. 

Clean, although the author does briefly mention the lack of sexual desire among the prisoners when just survival was the primary need. The second part of the book talks about sexuality in a psychological realm, and it's a little more detailed than I'd want my teenagers to read.

You Are the Mother Your Children Need (Christie Gardiner)

Why I have this book: I bought the hard cover several years ago. It was probably on sale at DB or Seagull Book or something. Then I found out it was available as an audio version on DBS+, so I borrowed it and listened to it instead.

I liked this book, and I probably would have liked it better as a young mom than where I am now. I mean, some of it was still helpful (especially the parts about giving ourselves grace and mercy in our mothering efforts), but it would have been good to read it back in the day.

Some of it brought up the same feelings that some of the books I did read as a young mom brought up, like an urgency to get it right, to do more than came naturally, like I can't quite measure up, etc.

In any case, it was good and definitely had more compassion and reality than the Richard and Linda Eyre books I read while raising my family. Those books just set impossible standards for me to meet, with too many things I had to think about accomplishing as a parent. This one was much better.

I gave it three stars on Goodreads.

Clean.

Before I Let You Go (Kelly Rimmer)

Why I have this book: I bought it at a good price on Kindle because I had like another of the author's books.

Okay, so I did like this book a lot. It was a sad tale about drug addiction, and while it was probably meant to expand the way society views drug addicts (and I think it succeeded there), the family in the story was still in a much better situation than a lot of families of drug addicts. Meaning, the financial aspect, the flexibility in work, etc... I don't think that's very common for most Americans. 

Overall, it was a moving story that brought on all the emotions. There was way too liberal use of the F-word. I thought might have been because the one who used it the most — if not all the time — was the drug addict, but my friend said she's tried a couple of other books by this author, and it was happening in those books, too.

Okay, so I mentioned in a previous review of a book by this author (I think it was The Things We Cannot Say) that she kept using the word "tin" for "can" (as in "a tin of soup") even though the character was American. In this book, she uses the word "cot" for "crib" which again threw me off. The author is Australian, but this book was also set in America. I can't believe her editor didn't catch that. It happened over and over with her calling a crib a "cot."

Maybe being Australian is also why the F-word is being used so much in her books. (I know I'm stereotyping, and I think I've mentioned before that maybe other people think Americans all use the F-word constantly. A lot of Americans do, but not so much in my world.) 

I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

Lots of F-words and probably other swear words, too. Drug addiction, child sexual abuse (not descriptive), death, and an unmarried couple living together are a part of this story. There IS a story here, though, and it's an important one when drug abuse is so rampant in society.

Echo Mountain (Lauren Wolk)

Why I have this book: I borrowed the audio version because I've really liked two other books by the author. 

I liked this book a whole lot. :) I gave it five stars on Goodreads, although (like another book of hers), I'd have given it 4.7 if that was an option. My only "complaint" (if you can call it that) is that the protagonist is a 12-year-old girl, and just like the last book of hers that I read, she just thinks and acts so much older than that. My daughter is almost twelve, and I'm pretty confident that she would never think like this girl does or be confident in doing what she does. The girl (Ellie) feels more like seventeen to me than twelve, although I don't think most teenage or even young adult girls of today have the depth Ellie has.

Other than that, I really loved the book. I love the way Lauren Wolk writes and the feeling she creates with her words. It's really very beautiful. The narrator of this version did a great job, too, except for the younger brother's voice, which was too whiny and annoying for me. Haha...

Clean. I don't recall even a mild swear word appearing in this book.

If I Were You (Lynn Austin)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library because I've liked a lot of books by this author.

Well, this story was pretty intriguing all the way through until the end. I was so curious about how things would be resolved and what was going to happen next, and the book was well written all the way through. It was easy to get caught up in the storyline and picture everything that was happening. That made it disappointing when things tied up the way they did. It was a little too easy, I thought.

Still, it was an enjoyable read. I gave it three stars on Goodreads.

Clean for the most part. There is a situation that leads to adultery, but it's not made out to be an acceptable choice, and there is no graphic sexuality. I don't recall any swearing or anything offensive.