October Book Review: Someone We Know, Carnegie's Maid, The Giver of Stars, and Nomad: Designing a Home for Escape and Adventure
Happy Halloween! What an exciting month October has been. As most of you know, Garrett and I finally took the leap and started cruising down the California Coast. We sailed about 700 nautical miles from Sausalito to San Diego, stopping in Santa Cruz, Monterey, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Marina del Rey, Newport Beach, Dana Point, and Oceanside along the way! We are now in San Diego doing final preparations for our next stop: Mexico! We sail for Bahía de Tortugas on Monday, November 4.
I’m happy to report that, with all of this going on, I was still able to read four books in the month of October: Someone We Know by Shari Lapena, Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict, The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes, and Nomad: Designing a Home for Escape and Adventure by Emma Reddington. Exciting news: Garrett, Thisldu and I are profiled in Nomad: Designing a Home for Escape and Adventure! If that alone doesn’t convince you to buy this beautiful book, keep on reading down to my review. I loved two of the books I read this month, didn’t so much care for the other two. Find out which ones I’d recommend below!
Someone We Know by Shari Lapena was, in my opinion, just okay. It’s a mystery thriller novel centered around a death that takes place in a suburban New York neighborhood. There’s the usual cast of suspect characters, the trusty detective team, the somewhat surprising ending that you find in this type of book, and…just not a whole lot more. I think I struggled to get through it because I didn’t really like any of the characters. I didn’t really feel the normal pull to read and figure out who did it. This one fell short.
Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict sounded right up my alley: historical fiction, strong female lead, the hinting of a romantic element to the story. And it started out well enough; I enjoyed the first half. But then the story got dull, the character development slow, and it just…stopped being good. I had to push through this one. It was a disappointment, and I wouldn’t recommend.
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes is the book I have been waiting for! Oh my goodness, I fell in love with this story and all of its characters. The Giver of Stars follows Alice, a young British woman who marries an American man and moves with him to his small Kentucky hometown. But marriage and America are far from what she expected. She finds solace and purpose in a new job opportunity: delivering books for a packhorse library, a project decreed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as a means to mitigate the decline in education that resulted from the Great Depression. Alice rides horseback into the Kentucky mountains to deliver library books with three other woman, each as different as their delivery routes. Alice’s story, along with the other women’s, really sucked me in. The Giver of Stars does a wonderful job of capturing the beauty of friendship, the struggles of being a woman and a minority in a rural, depression-era town, and the wonders of nature, in all of its seasons. I didn’t want to put this book down, but I didn’t want to read through it too quickly, either. I enjoyed the company of the story, if that makes sense. This has been one of my favorite books of the year and I definitely recommend it!
Nomad: Designing a Home for Escape and Adventure by Emma Reddington was exciting to read for a few reasons, the first being that Garrett and I are profiled in it! Right on pages 224-233. The book documents twenty-six different groups of people—couples, families, friends, individuals—who have designed alternative living situations for themselves so they can have easier access to adventure, mobility, and freedom. We are so honored to be in the company of all of these cool people, from van lifers, tiny home owners, canal boat dwellers, Airstreamers, and more! What really pulled me in, though, was how beautifully all of the designs in these mobile, floating, and tiny homes are. It’s an inspirational read for sure, and would make a great gift for the holidays (wink, wink). I 100% recommend this beautiful book.
Happy reading!
Here are book reviews from months past: