Book review {July and August}

July and August have flown by.  I try and read a new book every week.  Sometimes it works out but in July and August I couldn't make that work with everything else going on so I decided to combine my July and August book review into one post.  I read four great books over the past two months.  They were all so different but not a bad one in the batch.  There are SO many books I have on my list to read.  Let me know your favorites and I'll add them to my list.  You can read my other book reviews for this year below

January  February  March   April  May

The Summer I met Jack  is a historical fiction book about   Alicia Darr is a poor, Polish immigrant who comes to America after WW II for a chance at a better life.  She works at a movie theatre in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.  While working, she meets a young Jack Kennedy and they fall madly and deeply in love.  She meets the entire Kennedy family and at the end of their summer together  Jack proposes to her but his Father adamantly objects to their marriage because Alicia is Jewish and he wants Jack to run for President.  Devastated, Alicia moves to California to start a new life for herself but Jack Kennedy keeps re-appearing in her life at various times until his death.  I never knew anything about Alicia Corning Clark and found this book very interesting.  I have always loved reading about the Kennedy family and this book was fill of history, intrigue and scandal.  I highly recommend it!

The Sound of Gravel is a memoir about a girl who grew up in a polygamist family.    This is the first book written by Ruth Wariner and I can’t believe this is her first book because she is a wonderful storyteller.  In the book Ruth talks about her childhood and growing up in an FLDS compound in Mexico.  She served as the caretaker for her many siblings.  She survived severe neglect, extreme poverty and molestation by her stepfather. I still think about what yhe author and her family went through.  This book is a story of survival and is both heartwarming and heartbreaking I couldn’t put it down.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things was my book club book for August.  This book was another heartbreaking book about a young girl Wavy who lives with extended family because her father is a drug kingpin who parties hard, has multiple girlfriends and shady business associates and has little time for Wavy.  Wavy's mother is a drug addict who also is dealing with mental health issues.  The only bright spot in Wavy's young life is Jesse Joe Kellen who works for her father.  Kellen takes care of Wavy and makes sure she has what she needs to survive.  This is where we had the most discussion at our book club-Wavy and Kellen have a physical relationship when she is a young teenager and he is a 20 something year old man.  This part of the story made me very uncomfortable.  I did enjoy this book and the way the author made you really feel compassion for Wavy and her circumstances.   The author tells a beautiful story of love and survival.  

I just finished reading From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein.  She was a 20 something unemployed teacher working part time jobs when she saw an ad on Craig's list for a job in a law firm. The law firm turned out to be the Obama White House and Dorey-Stein served as a stenographer for the President providing transcripts of meetings, press interviews, etc. The most interesting part of the book for me was reading about the author's travels with the President.  She got to see the world with him and it was interesting reading about the ins and outs of travel with the President.  She also talked about the toll the job took on her personal life and  the many friends and adventures she had while working for the President. She is a wonderful story teller and I hope this is the first of many books from her.

Happy reading!

Xoxo