July Book Reads

I read four wonderful books this past month that I hope you enjoy as well!

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Three Wishes

I really enjoyed this book, even more so than many of the author’s other books I’ve liked. This story features triplet sisters in their thirties. The book starts with celebrating their collective birthday in a restaurant during which one of them ends up throwing a fork into her sister’s pregnant belly. From there we backtrack to where “it all started”. Infidelity, new romances, infertility/fertility are all topics interwoven in this great read.

The Wolves of Winter

My only major disappointment with this book is that there is no follow-up. I want a sequel, a trilogy, I want to know what happens next. After 9/11, events occur that lead to nuclear war and a pandemic of the flu. The main character’s family has been able to survive in the Yukon wilderness for a few years. Then she meets a stranger in the woods. Her family takes in the stranger but the group Immunity is hunting this man down and his being at their homestead can only lead to trouble. The goal of Immunity is to find an immunization to the flu that basically caused the world to collapse but the ways in which they are going about finding the solution may be questionable. I think the book is a little Hunger Games-esque.

The Boys in the Boat

I love a true story and this was a good one. I would have given the book 4 stars but at times there was way too much (in my opinion – unnecessary) detail. The novel mostly focuses on one boy from a very poor and sad background who had the tenacity to work hard, get into college, and pay his way through by joining the crew team. Washington’s team, unlike many east-coast schools, was comprised of a number of boys who had never rowed before, were poor and lower-class. The reader learns about the crew team’s coaches, boat, and competitions that all lead up to them making the Olympics. Also, included in the book is some background history on Hitler and how the Berlin Olympics really helped Nazi propaganda.

Dumplin’

Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones but I shed a few tears with this one . . . and read the book in a day. This story is about an overweight high school girl and her struggles with friendship, love, and her mother. When she decides to enter the local beauty pageant to make a statement a movement is started and other “freaks” at her school enter the contest as well. It touched me. I hope the movie does this book justice.