sincerely swaim

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus

England, 1940: Anna, 9, Edmund, 11, and William, 12, have just lost their grandmother and will soon join a group of schoolchildren who are being evacuated to a village in the country, where they will live with families for the duration of the war. The family’s solicitor hopes that whoever takes the children on might end up willing to adopt them and become their new family.

The children suffer the cruel trickery of foster brothers, the cold realities of outdoor toilets, and the hollowness of empty tummies. They seek comfort in the village lending library, whose kind librarian, Nora Muller, seems an excellent candidate–except that she has a German husband whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

A local librarian’s recommendation, I found this book to be a heartwarming story of cozy characters and even cozier cottages. While the children experience great hardships, their relationship with Nora is what made the story rich with warmth and imagination.

The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin

California, 2000s: Soccer mom, Lara Love Hardin, has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards. Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. Lara quickly learns the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder and acquires the nickname “Mama Love,” showing that jailhouse politics aren’t that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend.

When she’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she’s legally co-opting other people’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with the Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin—there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, and prove to herself that she is more good than bad, among other essential lessons.

I had this book on hold for weeks and weeks. Picked it up on a Friday – finished on a Monday. Love-Hardin’s storytelling capability immediately and effortlessly draws you in from the first page. While a memoir, it doesn’t feel fussy or overfocused on emphasizing self-help techniques. Reading this book felt like sitting down with a friend and listening to her story. I’d like to look into the books Love Hardin co-wrote prior to Mama Love. I’m hopeful they’re fantastic as well.

The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian

Mississippi Delta, 1920s: Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.

Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she’s holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio.

As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.

The setting of this book is what initially drew me to check it out at the library. The altering personalities and perspectives of Ada and Matilda kept me engaged until the last page. Mustian creates the setting to be one of the main characters, and in doing so, she fully illuminates the hardships that came with living in the deep south during that time period.

The Women by Kristen Hannah

California + Vietnam, 1960s: In 1965, the world is changing, and Frances “Frankie” McGrath suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets―and becomes one of―the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten.

Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite storytellers. I have devoured everything she has written since she published The Nightingale — and so have many others. This book covered a period in history that I know very little about it. It was eye-opening, heart-wrenching, maddening and redemptive. There’s a lot of love story wrapped up in all of the war-torn trauma that seemed a little unrealistic towards the end.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

New York, Present Day: It seems like any other day, but today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The concept of this had the greatest bones. The structure and format was clunky and hard to connect with – there were so many different characters with wildly different perspectives on the strings and their length. I ended up skimming the last fifty pages to complete it.

Beyond That, The Sea by Laura Spence-Ash

London + Boston, 1940s: As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents make an impossible choice to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle.

Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England. When she dutifully returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.

One of my favorite elements about this novel was the warmth and comfort evoked in describing the Gregory’s simplistic family moments. While Bea’s summer experiences in Maine left me in a dreamy state, pining for my own trip to an island on the northeast coast, the end of the book left me feeling conflicted by the love gained and lost. Overall, a quick and enjoyable read.

The Postcard by Anne Berest

Eastern Europe, 1918 + Paris, 2018: Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz.

Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist, and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. What emerges is a moving saga that shatters long-held certainties about Anne’s family, her country, and herself.

This novel is a work of literary magic. The stories of the Berest family are gripping, and impossible to fathom at times. For any historical fiction fans, this is a book you don’t want to miss.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Is it crazy to say this book changed my life? I found that her writing provided language to some of the deepest, most vulnerable parts of my own experiences and life outlooks. Her willingness to challenge herself, to cherish her family, and advocate for what she believes in are all traits I hope to emulate. With a gift for words, her memoir feels more like a story, one filled with very personal details you might find in a diary. Even with all of her exposure, power, and influence, you’re left feeling like she could be a really good friend. I’ll be thinking on this book for years to come.