What I read: the April Edition
a bunch of vacation reads and what is likely to be the best novel of the year.
So April ended in vacation mode, which was delightful. But it certainly caused a pivot from my usual fodder. From my shelves to yours, I have a smattering of fun reads and then one book that I believe will take the cake for book of the year. Check them out below and grab a copy from your local library!
Conviction by Denise Mina
This book was great as fun reads go. Anna, a somewhat irreverent mother of two, finds out her marriage is over. What to do but pick up a new true crime podcast—because someone always has it worse off than you do. But she hears the names of the deceased…and recognizes one of them. Leon was a friend of Anna’s long ago. Could he really have been part of something so terrible?
What follows is a crazy journey around Europe to track down the truth of Leon. But in the process, Anna must also face down her demons from years ago. Was he as innocent as Anna thinks? And is Anna even who we think she is? Full of twists and turns (and a lot of salty language), this one kept me up at night to finish it!
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
This was a super fun mashup of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel meets Dirty Dancing. The Goldman and Weingold families grew up in the vacation scene of the Catskills back in the Golden Hotel's heyday. But these days, the Golden is run down and at less than half capacity. Is the world of summer vacations at glamorous resorts still relevant to this new generation? The millennial grandchildren have vast and varied opinions on where the hotel's future lies: some want to keep it and its memories alive and others feel it is just a sinkhole for their money. The two families must team up to save their precious hotel. Or is it even worth saving? It's part nostalgia, part high drama, and was an endearing read!
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
This was a vacation read if ever there was one, but it kept me entertained. A long-term friendship, a will they-won’t they…but make it happen in beautiful places all over the world.
Two besties (who can’t decide if they are more than that) fell together during freshman year of college and their unlikely friendship has stood the test of time over the past 12 years. Alex and Poppy take a summer trip each year to somewhere beautiful on the cheap: Sanibel, New Orleans, Palm Springs.
When Poppy gets a job as a travel writer for a Condé Nast caliber magazine, the trips get more exotic and wonderful. But amidst it all is the tension in their relationship all these years: is this friendship or something more?
This book had me laughing out loud with some of their banter, an excellent beach read!
The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand
Such a fun, frivolous read! An old hotel gets a giant makeover by a London billionaire, enhanced to its former glory of one hundred years ago (but with modern niceties). Preparing to open for the Nantucket season, with Lizbet at the helm. She is recently single from a 15-year relationship with JJ, a chef and local darling, and she is ready for something new. Lizbet pours everything into the hotel and its staff, which begins to show as the summer season progresses.
There is Zeke the bellman, whose aunt is head of housekeeping. Alessandra hides behind her work at the front desk to obfuscate her murky past (spending the last few years abroad in socially and economically helpful relationships with rich European men). Adam and Raoul have a lovely relationship, but their previous employer noted that the married couple cannot work the same shifts (lest they get competitive and argue in front of the guests). And "Sweet Edie" (will she ever outlive that nickname working where she grew up?) works the front desk, but she holds a deep secret. And there is Chad, a Nantucket summer boy born and raised, who seeks out a job as a maid. His parents find this strange, as do the hotel staff, but he is a good worker who is always on time. Why exactly has he sought out this summer job? What is he trying to forget? Or do penance for?
Last of all, there is Grace. She's a ghost. A chambermaid who died 100 years ago at the hotel under unfortunate and mysterious circumstances. Once word is out that the hotel is haunted, bookings for this summer and the next are full immediately. Grace longs for someone to find out what really happened to her so she can rest. It may all come down to a ten-year-old sleuth who reads a lot of Nancy Drew.
Told in turns by the gossip network ("The Cobblestone Telegraph," in first person plural), main characters, and the ghost who haunts the hotel, this one was a delight to read.
And now for a stark turn…a novel that is, I believe, going to win book of the year for RSM Reads. Truly. This book was excellent in so many ways, exploring class, religion, culture, love, and so much more. So buckle up, this is a longer review. But this book was worth every word.
The End of Drum Time by Hanna Pylväinen
This is a contender for book of the year. Easily. Hanna Pylväinen (pronounced: pill-VI-none) brings to us a tale of the far north tundras of Scandinavia, a land with ubiquitous intersections of class, race, and religion where these borders don’t seem to matter…until they do.
It is 1851 in a remote northern village, and the native Sami people and settlers from Norway, Sweden, and Russian-controlled Finland struggle to make a way in the unforgiving cold. Onto the scene comes itinerant Lutheran preacher Lars Levi Laestadius (a historical figure). He brings with him his wife and large family, namely two elder daughters Nora and Willa. Lars’ intense sermons and conversions earn him the nickname of Mad Lasse and he begins to convert many of the Sami to Christianity. But who do the converts leave behind? And how will they survive in this brutal north?
The Sami (called Lapps by the settlers, another loss of indigenous language) are reindeer herders, and they move with their siida (herds and the families that care for them) annually with the weather to the coast, crossing borders many times along the way. There is the Rasti family, led by Biettar, who experiences a dramatic conversion and commits his life to the church. His son Ivvar is left to herd their struggling siida, a burden even larger than before. When Ivvar happens upon Willa (Lars’ daughter), everything they both know uproots—religion, traditions, political divisions—as Willa decides to make the strenuous journey to the sea with the Rastis. This journey will challenge both of them, but there are forces far outside of their control that will complicate both of their worlds of origin in ways neither could ever imagine.
This story takes place amidst an intense time of political upheaval. The Church and The Crown are one, making things incredibly complex. There are church attendance and marriage requirements, all enforced by taxes to the Church. The Sami have added pressures placed on them to conform to the culture of the settlers, and all the while temperance is preached while Brännvin (cheap liquor) is pushed upon the men of these siidas, making them more and more indebted to the settlers. The Lapp Codicil has been in place for nearly 100 years, a treaty giving the Sami people freedom to cross the Norwegian and Swedish borders and freedom from citizenship requirements. This treaty is crucial to the survival of each siida, ensuring them safe passage on their trek to the Sea. But when borders begin to close, it is the lives and livelihood of the Sami that become unmoored. Another tragic example of indigenous people suffering from broken treaties and borders imposed on their lands.
This tension between the traditions of the Sami and the culture being imposed upon them by settlers was so familiar but heartbreaking to hear this same drum is beaten around the globe. The story is told with sweeping and stunning prose, life at the edge of the world filled to overflowing with the beauty of the Aurora and wild places and the horror of death and the damnation we impose upon ourselves when we refuse to see the humanity that unifies us.
Highly, highly recommend this bewitching tale that made me see the land of my ancestors in a nuanced light.