Welcome to the new year! I hope one of your goals this year is to read more books. As always, I will add four book reviews a month and rate them so you can choose what should be next on your must-read list. If you have any books you think I should read please let me know in the comment section!

   

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Dominicana

Dominicana is told solely from the viewpoint of a 15-year-old girl. After pressure from her mother, she marries a much older man who (along with his brothers) lives and works in NYC. Her family thinks New York will be a dream with plenty of new clothes and nice things. In reality, the teen ends up feeling trapped in their apartment cooking and cleaning while her husband has an affair. 

Then she becomes pregnant. With her husband back in the Dominican Republic for a few months, she begins to develop feelings for his younger brother. She starts learning English and dreams of opening up her own business. At such a young age, this girl has to make a lot of tough decisions.

I enjoyed reading a book from just one person’s viewpoint, it seems rare these days.

   

Summer of ’69

If you are in need of a good beach or plane read this would be a good pick. Summer of ’69 is an easy, simple story of an upperclassmen family that always summers in Nantucket. Except this summer, everything is a little different.

The eldest daughter is hugely pregnant and going to stay at home. The second daughter is going to work on Martha’s Vineyard and the only son is drafted to fight in Vietnam. This leaves the youngest daughter (age thirteen) to spend the summer alone with her mother and grandmother.

Women’s rights, racial issues, landing on the moon, and the Chappaquiddick scandal are all interwoven through the story alongside the family’s dramatics. It’s not a realistic story but I enjoyed a simple read. 

   

Sadie

Sadie is a bit of a mystery about a 19-year-old girl who has gone missing.  Part of the story is told as a podcast. The goal of the podcast is to try and find her by following up with leads.  What’s important to know is that prior to her disappearance, Sadie’s young sister had been found murdered.  Is she seeking revenge for her sister?  Does she know who murdered her sister? 

The other parts of the story are from Sadie’s point of view as she tries to seek out someone from her past.  The book is depressing, dark, and the ending does not exactly wrap everything up – fair warning. 

   

Where the Crawdads Sing

At first, I was wondering why everyone thought Where the Crawdads Sing is such an amazing book.  It starts super slow and I found it a tad boring but it picks up about 1/3 of the way through and gets much better.

A young girl is essentially abandoned at her home in the marsh. She has no education and learns to survive on her own selling seafood and taking charity from the local black community. Nature is her teacher until a local boy befriends her and teaches her how to read. They eventually fall in love but is her isolation from others too much for him to handle?

The story transitions back and forth between times. The first time period follows the girl’s story growing up and the second time period focuses on a popular former high school quarterback who has seemingly been murdered.

I very much enjoyed the book. Get through the first third of the story and you won’t regret finishing it!

   

Don’t miss out on my favorite books from 2019!