My recent restraint in buying eBooks and audiobooks slipped slightly in May, but that's only because I did find a couple of can't-resist sale prices AND I used several "coupons" that I'd been squirreling away. I'm still scrolling past many books that I would've snapped up last year, so my newfound fiscal responsibility hasn't disappeared completely!
Last month, I mentioned my monthly "reading map" in which I plug in any Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) that I have and then add gems that have fallen down the rabbit hole of my Kindle. So far, it's been going well, aided in large part to the fact that I've had fewer ARCs to read the past two or three months. See? My restraint has also included ARCs-- which is a good thing because I have hundreds of books, not only on my Kindle, but on my physical bookshelves as well.
What books proved to be irresistible
last month? Let me show you! I've got them grouped by genre/subgenre,
and if you click on the link in the book title, you'll be taken to
Amazon US where you can learn more about the book.
=== Non-Fiction ===
Synopsis: "The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a
time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely
American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old
Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews,
Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to
keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in
motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic
charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.
Stephenson was a magnetic
presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years
of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and
the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows
– their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at
family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers,
governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their
membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly
powerless woman – Madge Oberholtzer – who would reveal his secret
cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to
their knees.
A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama
to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads
in American history."
▲ Timothy Egan wrote one of my all-time favorite books, The Worst Hard Time about the Depression and the Dust Bowl. He has a brilliant talent for turning all his hard-earned research into a riveting story that rivals the best fiction. After reading one of Jess Montgomery's Kinship mysteries that featured the Klan and after learning that the little Illinois farm town (population 1700) in which I grew up had its own chapter of the KKK in the 1920s, there was no way I wasn't going to get my hands on this book and read it.
Synopsis: "In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked
on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just
lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But
Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her
doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she
bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees,
and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had
little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even
have a map. But she did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and
her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with
kindness.
Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, rode straight
into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways.
Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards,
forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as
cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. Annie rode more than four
thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns. Along the
way, she met ordinary people and celebrities—from Andrew Wyeth (who
sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many
offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas
station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming
rancher. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, when
television’s influence was expanding fast, when homeowners began locking
their doors, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an
outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world."
▲ I love horses. I've read and enjoyed other books by Elizabeth Letts. When I saw the title of this book, I had to read the synopsis, and once I'd done that, I was hooked and had to buy it.
Synopsis: "
History would have us believe the sea has always been a male
realm, the idea of female captains almost unthinkable. But there is one
exception, so notable she defies any expectation.This is her remarkable story.
Captain
ThurÃdur, born in Iceland in 1777, lived a life that was both
controversial and unconventional. Her first time fishing, on the open
unprotected rowboats of her time, was at age 11. Soon after, she
audaciously began wearing trousers. She later became an acclaimed
fishing captain brilliant at weather-reading and seacraft and
consistently brought in the largest catches. In the Arctic seas where
drownings occurred with terrifying regularity, she never lost a single
crewmember. Renowned for her acute powers of observation, she also
solved a notorious crime. In this extremely unequal society, she used
the courts to fight for justice for the abused, and in her sixties,
embarked on perilous journeys over trackless mountains.
Weaving
together fastidious research and captivating prose, Margaret Willson
reveals Captain ThurÃdur's fascinating story, her extraordinary courage,
intelligence, and personal integrity.
Through
adventure, oppression, joy, betrayal, and grief, Captain ThurÃdur speaks
a universal voice. Here is a woman so ahead of her times she remains
modern and inspirational today. Her story can now finally be told."
▲ Book titles catch my eye more than covers do. I grew up in a village library and finally got paid for the work I did when I turned sixteen. One of my jobs was to choose books for housebound patrons, and my eye quickly became trained to look for those all-important titles on the spines. Once this particular title caught my eye, my love of maritime as well as women's history took over.
Synopsis: "In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful
portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an
immersive, deeply researched, and beautifully written narrative and
stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history
has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human
rankings.
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a
powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and
the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi
Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems
across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and
more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King,
Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son,
Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious
undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis
studied the racial systems in America to plan their outcasting of the
Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a
bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she
writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and
life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and
politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond
the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward
hope in our common humanity.
Original and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of
what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life
today."
▲ The title grabbed me, and the synopsis made it a done deal. I like the fact that I'm getting back to reading more non-fiction.
=== Thriller ===
AUDIO: The Last Word by
Taylor Adams. Set in Washington state.
Synopsis: "
Emma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever
Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington
coast. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and
(via text) the house’s owner, Jules.One day, she
reads a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel by the author H. G.
Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument
with none other than the author himself. Soon after, disturbing
incidents start to occur at night. To Emma, this can’t just be a
coincidence. It was strange enough for this author to bicker with her
online about a lousy review; could he be stalking her, too?
As
Emma digs into Kane’s life and work, she learns he has published
sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and
murder. But who is he? How did he find her? And what else is he capable
of?
Displaying his trademark command of rapid-fire
pacing, unnerving atmosphere, and razor-sharp characterization, Taylor
Adams once again delivers a diabolically disturbing—and deadly—game of
cat and mouse."
▲ I came across this book while doing some work on The Poisoned Pen Bookstore's Pinterest page. Once I read the synopsis, I decided I had to use an Audible credit to get it. I think it's something few book bloggers/reviewers could resist taking a peek at!
Loot by
Aaron Elkins. Set in Europe.
Synopsis: "In April 1945, the Nazis, reeling and near defeat, frantically
work to hide the huge store of art treasures that Hitler has looted from
Europe. Truck convoys loaded with the cultural wealth of the Western
world pour in an unending stream into the compound of the vast Altaussee
salt mine high in the Austrian Alps. But with the Allies closing in,
the vaunted efficiency of the Nazis has broken down. At Altaussee, all
is tumult and confusion. In the commotion, a single truck, its driver,
and its priceless load of masterpieces vanish into a mountain snowstorm.
Half a century later, in a seedy Boston pawnshop, ex‑curator Ben Revere
makes a stunning discovery among the piles of junk: a Velazquez from
the legendary Lost Truck. But with it come decades of secrets, rancor,
and lies, and the few who know of the painting’s existence have their
lives snuffed out one by one by an unknown assassin. Revere must travel
back to the grand cities of Europe to unravel the tangled history of the
lost truck and its treasures before fifty years of hatred, greed, and
retribution catch up with him."
▲ I've always been interested in art history and art theft, and articles about found art that was looted by the Nazis are guaranteed to capture my attention, so... Loot was right down my alley.
What do you think of last month's
purchases? Have you read any of them? Did you add any of them to your
own wish lists? Do tell! Inquiring minds would love to know!