Shelf Control #164: Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

A little note for 2019: For the next short while, I think I’ll focus specifically on books I’ve picked up at our library’s fabulous annual sales. With all books $3 or less, it’s so hard to resist! And yet, they pile up, year after year, so it’s a good idea to remind myself that these books are living on my shelves.

Title: Lilli de Jong
Author: Janet Benton
Published: 2017
Length: 352 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

A young woman finds the most powerful love of her life when she gives birth at an institution for unwed mothers in 1883 Philadelphia. She is told she must give up her daughter to avoid lifelong poverty and shame. But she chooses to keep her.

Pregnant, left behind by her lover, and banished from her Quaker home and teaching position, Lilli de Jong enters a home for wronged women to deliver her child. She is stunned at how much her infant needs her and at how quickly their bond overtakes her heart. Mothers in her position face disabling prejudice, which is why most give up their newborns. But Lilli can’t accept such an outcome. Instead, she braves moral condemnation and financial ruin in a quest to keep herself and her baby alive.

Confiding their story to her diary as it unfolds, Lilli takes readers from an impoverished charity to a wealthy family’s home to the streets of a burgeoning American city. Drawing on rich history, Lilli de Jong is both an intimate portrait of loves lost and found and a testament to the work of mothers. “So little is permissible for a woman,” writes Lilli, “yet on her back every human climbs to adulthood.”

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

Something about the description on the back cover absolutely drew me in. I do enjoy historical fiction, and I’m always up for reading about women’s struggles to control their own lives in difficult times. This novel sounds powerful and moving, and I’m excited to rediscover it on my shelves!

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

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24Apr2019

Shelf Control #163: The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Light of Paris
Author: Eleanor Brown
Published: 2016
Length: 336 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

The miraculous novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Weird Sisters–a sensation beloved by critics and readers alike.

Madeleine is trapped–by her family’s expectations, by her controlling husband, and by her own fears–in an unhappy marriage and a life she never wanted. From the outside, it looks like she has everything, but on the inside, she fears she has nothing that matters.

In Madeleine’s memories, her grandmother Margie is the kind of woman she should have been–elegant, reserved, perfect. But when Madeleine finds a diary detailing Margie’s bold, romantic trip to Jazz Age Paris, she meets the grandmother she never knew: a dreamer who defied her strict, staid family and spent an exhilarating summer writing in cafes, living on her own, and falling for a charismatic artist.

Despite her unhappiness, when Madeleine’s marriage is threatened, she panics, escaping to her hometown and staying with her critical, disapproving mother. In that unlikely place, shaken by the revelation of a long-hidden family secret and inspired by her grandmother’s bravery, Madeleine creates her own Parisian summer–reconnecting to her love of painting, cultivating a vibrant circle of creative friends, and finding a kindred spirit in a down-to-earth chef who reminds her to feed both her body and her heart.

Margie and Madeleine’s stories intertwine to explore the joys and risks of living life on our own terms, of defying the rules that hold us back from our dreams, and of becoming the people we are meant to be.

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

Eleanor Brown’s first novel, The Weird Sisters, was an absolute favorite of mine (and now that I think of it, I really should reread it). I’ve always wanted to read more by this author. I love the description of The Light of Paris — especially the discoveries about the grandmother’s life and Madeleine’s attempt to create a Paris of her own. I’m actually really excited to discover this on my shelf this week. I can’t wait to read it!

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

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17Apr2019

Shelf Control #162: Neverland by Douglas Clegg

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: Neverland
Author: Douglas Clegg
Published: 2010
Length: 288 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

From Douglas Clegg, New York Times bestselling author of Isis, comes a southern gothic tale of family secrets and games of innocence turned to darkness.

For years, the Jackson family has vacationed at Rowena Wandigaux Lee’s old Victorian house on Gull Island, a place of superstition and legend off the southern coast of the U.S. One particular summer, young Beau follows his cousin Sumter into a hidden shack in the woods—and christens this new clubhouse “Neverland.”

Neverland has a secret history, unknown to the children…

The rundown shack in the woods is the key to an age-old mystery, a place forbidden to all. But Sumter and his cousins gather in its dusty shadows to escape the tensions at their grandmother’s house. Neverland becomes the place where children begin to worship a creature of shadows, which Sumter calls “Lucy.”

All gods demand sacrifice…

It begins with small sacrifices, little games, strange imaginings. While Sumter’s games spiral out of control, twisting from the mysterious to the macabre, a nightmarish presence rises among the straggly trees beyond the bluffs overlooking the sea.

And when Neverland itself is threatened with destruction, the children’s games take on a horrifying reality—and Gull Island becomes a place of unrelenting terror.

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

Southern gothic? Yes, please. A few years ago, I picked up a little book by this author — a novella called Isis, and it was perfectly creepy and delicious. So when I came across another book by the same author at the library sale last year, I grabbed it. Neverland sounds disturbing and haunting — a great read for a dark, stormy night, perhaps.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

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10Apr2019

Shelf Control #161: The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists by Gideon Defoe

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists
Author: Gideon Defoe
Published: 2004
Length: 144 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Not since Moby-Dick… No, not since Treasure Island… Actually, not since Jonah and the Whale has there been a sea saga to rival The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, featuring the greatest sea-faring hero of all time, the immortal Pirate Captain, who, although he lives for months at a time at sea, somehow manages to keep his beard silky and in good condition.

Worried that his pirates are growing bored with a life of winking at pretty native ladies and trying to stick enough jellyfish together to make a bouncy castle, the Pirate Captain decides it’s high time to spearhead an adventure.

While searching for some major pirate booty, he mistakenly attacks the young Charles Darwin’s Beagle and then leads his ragtag crew from the exotic Galapagos Islands to the fog-filled streets of Victorian London. There they encounter grisly murder, vanishing ladies, radioactive elephants, and the Holy Ghost himself. And that’s not even the half of it.

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

I remember my daughter reading this years ago… and giggling like mad. Sounds super silly, doesn’t it? And who doesn’t need a good laugh every now and then?

What do you think? Would you read this book?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

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3Apr2019

Shelf Control #160: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: Prep
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Published: 2005
Length: 420 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.

Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.

As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of–and, ultimately, a participant in–their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.

Ultimately, Lee’s experiences–complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant, coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

I’ve been meaning to read this book for years, even though I only recently managed to pick up a copy. I’ve read two newer books by Curtis Sittenfield, Eligible and the story collection You Think It, I’ll Say It, and really enjoyed her writing, so I think Prep will appeal to me. Plus, the description makes it sound like a fun yet potentially dramatic read.

What do you think? Would you read this book? Have you read this or other books by this author?

Please share your thoughts!

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

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20Mar2019

Shelf Control #159: The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Atomic City Girls
Author: Janet Beard
Published: 2018
Length: 353 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

In the bestselling tradition of Hidden Figures and The Wives of Los Alamos, comes a riveting novel of the everyday women who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II

“What you see here, what you hear here, what you do here, let it stay here.”

In November 1944, eighteen-year-old June Walker boards an unmarked bus, destined for a city that doesn’t officially exist. Oak Ridge, Tennessee has sprung up in a matter of months—a town of trailers and segregated houses, 24-hour cafeterias, and constant security checks. There, June joins hundreds of other young girls operating massive machines whose purpose is never explained. They know they are helping to win the war, but must ask no questions and reveal nothing to outsiders.

The girls spend their evenings socializing and flirting with soldiers, scientists, and workmen at dances and movies, bowling alleys and canteens. June longs to know more about their top-secret assignment and begins an affair with Sam Cantor, the young Jewish physicist from New York who oversees the lab where she works and understands the end goal only too well, while her beautiful roommate Cici is on her own mission: to find a wealthy husband and escape her sharecropper roots. Across town, African-American construction worker Joe Brewer knows nothing of the government’s plans, only that his new job pays enough to make it worth leaving his family behind, at least for now. But a breach in security will intertwine his fate with June’s search for answers.

When the bombing of Hiroshima brings the truth about Oak Ridge into devastating focus, June must confront her ideals about loyalty, patriotism, and war itself.

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

I feel like there have been several fiction and non-fiction books recently which have centered on women doing war work during WWII, not just with the Manhattan Project but with other wartime industry support functions as well. I’m always interested to learn about the roles women played behind the scenes and how their lives were affected, for better and for worse, by the new opportunities that came their way when the country was at war. I’ve heard this book mentioned by other bloggers a few times, and it piqued my interest enough to grab it when I saw it at the book sale.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
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13Mar2019

Shelf Control #158: Definitely Not Mr. Darcy by Karen Doornebos

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: Definitely Not Mr. Darcy
Author: Karen Doornebos
Published: 2011
Length: 374 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

There’s no place for pride in this Austen misadventure. Chloe Parker was born two centuries too late. A thirty-nine-year- old divorced mother, she runs her own antique letterpress business, is a lifelong member of the Jane Austen Society, and gushes over everything Regency. But her business is failing, threatening her daughter’s future. What’s a lady to do?

Why, audition for a Jane Austen-inspired TV show set in England, of course.

What Chloe thinks is a documentary turns out to be a reality dating show set in 1812. Eight women are competing to snare Mr. Wrightman, the heir to a gorgeous estate, along with a $100,000 prize. So Chloe tosses her bonnet into the ring, hoping to transform from stressed-out Midwest mom to genteel American heiress and win the money. With no cell phones, indoor plumbing, or deodorant to be found, she must tighten her corset and flash some ankle to beat out women younger, more cutthroat, and less clumsy than herself. But the witty and dashing Mr. Wrightman proves to be a prize worth winning, even if it means the gloves are off…

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

After last week’s Shelf Control post — featuring a horror story about the Donner party — I thought it might be a good idea to switch things up and go for light and fluffy. Can’t get much lighter or fluffier than an Austen-inspired story involving reality TV! I’d never heard of this book before I stumbled across on the paperback fiction table at the library sale, but something about the cover and description reeled me in and made me NEED to take it home with me. And hey, I’m always up for some good Austen fangirl reading!

What do you think? Would you read this book?

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

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6Mar2019

Shelf Control #157: The Hunger by Alma Katsu

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Hunger
Author: Alma Katsu
Published: 2018
Length: 376 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

A tense and gripping reimagining of one of America’s most haunting human disasters: the Donner Party with a supernatural twist.

Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to the point of murder and chaos, unknowingly propelling them into one of the deadliest and most disastrous Western adventures in American history.

As members of the group begin to disappear, the survivors start to wonder if there really is something disturbing, and hungry, waiting for them in the mountains…and whether the evil that has unfolded around them may have in fact been growing within them all along. Effortlessly combining the supernatural and the historical, The Hunger is an eerie, thrilling look at the volatility of human nature, pushed to its breaking point.

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

I’ve always found the subject of the Donner party pretty fascinating. I read a terrific historical novel about it years ago (Snow Mountain Passage by James D. Houston) , but The Hunger sounds like something new and different, infusing a horror element into a familiar historical event and turning into something else entirely. The story of the Donner party is already so disturbing — can’t wait to see what happens when you add in some sort of supernatural evil.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

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27Feb2019

Shelf Control #156: The Reminders by Val Emmich

Posted in Shelf Control by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!

Title: The Reminders
Author: Val Emmich
Published: 2017
Length: 320 pages

What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):

Grief-stricken over his partner’s death, Gavin sets fire to every physical reminder in the couple’s home. A neighbor captures the ordeal on video, turning this unsung TV actor into a household name. Now, Gavin is fleeing the hysteria of Los Angeles for New Jersey, hoping to find peace with the family of an old friend. Instead, he finds Joan.

Joan, the family’s ten-year-old daughter, was born with the rare ability to recall every day of her life in cinematic detail. In seconds, she can tell you how many times her mother has uttered the phrase “it never fails” in the last six months (27) or what she was wearing when her grandfather took her fishing on a particular Sunday in June years ago (fox socks). Joan has never met Gavin until now, but she did know his partner, Sydney, and waiting inside her uncanny mind are half a dozen startlingly vivid memories to prove it.

Gavin strikes a deal with Joan: in return for sharing all her memories of Sydney, Gavin will help Joan win a local songwriting contest she’s convinced could make her unforgettable. The unlikely duo sets off on their quest until Joan reveals unexpected details about Sydney’s final months, forcing Gavin to question not only the purity of his past with Sydney but the course of his own immediate future.

Told in the alternating voices of these two irresistible characters, The Reminders is a hilarious and tender exploration of loss, memory, friendship and renewal.

How and when I got it:

LIBRARY SALE!

Why I want to read it:

I really didn’t know anything about this book before picking it up, but the bright cover caught my eye and I remembered hearing about it from a blogger friend. Turns out, the synopsis makes The Reminders sound like a great read for me — it sounds funny, quirky, but also with emotional impact. I like the description of the two main characters and the unusual plot set-up, so now that I’ve reminded myself that I own a copy, I’m eager to read it.

What do you think? Would you read this book?

__________________________________

Want to participate in Shelf Control? Here’s how:

Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
Add your link in the comments!
If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate a link back from your own post.
Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

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5Nov2018

The Monday Check-In ~ 11/5/2018

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

What did I read during the last week?

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak: Sadly, I did not love this new novel by the author of The Book Thief. My review is here.

Someone Like Me by M. R. Carey: Just finished last night! Review to follow.

In audiobooks:

First Test (Protector of the Small, #1) by Tamora Pierce: I’m back in Tortall! I finished listening to the first book in the Protector of the Small quartet. So much fun.

Outlander returns!

Outlander is back! Season 4 premiered last night, and the first episode was amazing. The show feels like it’s opening a whole new phase, and I’m so excited to see where it goes. I’ll be doing reaction posts for each episode, as I did last season. Stay turned for my episode 1 post, coming today or tomorrow.

Elsewhere in pop culture:

The big entertainment events for me this week:

I saw Waitress, and loved it! Now I need to go back and re-watch the movie version.

It was the final Rick Grimes episode on The Walking Dead last night. That ending. Whoa.

Fresh Catch:

The library’s Big Book Sale was this week, and I went — twice! I wrote about my first trip here… and then I went back and came home with yet more books. Here are my two book hauls from the sale:

And hey, that’s not all! I won a giveaway of The Astronaut’s Son by Tom Siegel, courtesy of Jennifer – Tar Heel Reader, and the book (plus some extra goodies) arrived this week.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

The Wild Dead by Carrie Vaughn: I’m so excited for this book! It’s the sequel to Bannerless, which I loved.

Now playing via audiobook:

Page (Protector of the Small, #2) by Tamora Pierce: Really enjoying this quartet!

Ongoing reads:

Book group reads:

Classic read: My book group’s current classic read is Middlemarch by George Eliot. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week, aiming to finish in January.
The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon. An ongoing group read, two chapters per week — we’ll be finished in December. Want to join in? Ask me how!

So many books, so little time…

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