The Patron Saint of Liars (Ann Patchett)

 

I was reading a different book in preparation for my book club meeting when I realized I was reading the wrong book and so I quickly switched to this one. LOL I still didn't get this one read before book club, which I really regret because this would have been a great one to discuss. I feel like there was some kind of symbolism between the healing water spring where the hotel/home for pregnant girls was built and the main character's inability to make connections and give/feel love and connection....but I struggle to put that together succinctly.

The ending was quite surprising and quite unresolved. Call me weird, but I kind of like a book that leaves you sitting there stunned, in the middle of the road, like I did with Cecilia. 

I read a lot of reviews that said they did not like the main character, Rose. I found myself really sympathizing with her and feeling bad for her. I wanted her to find happiness....but she never did. (I added disabilities as a tag because I felt like Rose had a disability when it came to making healthy connections with other people).

Goodreads says:

In 1992, celebrated novelist Ann Patchett launched her remarkable career with the publication of her debut novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. On this 25th anniversary, read the best-selling book that is “beautifully written . . . a first novel that second- and third-time novelists would envy for its grace, insight, and compassion” (Boston Herald).

St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth's extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose's past won't be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth's; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving

Before We Were Yours (Lisa Wingate)

 

I really enjoyed this story. It bounces between the present and the past and I found myself engrossed in each of the stories and then eager to get back to the other one as it came up. I read this book for my book club and everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

Before We Were Yours also has a non-fiction companion book of sorts. It is called Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society.

Before andGoodreads says:

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong. 

Murder On My Mind: A Memoir of Menopause (Dana Goldstein)

 

Even though this book is hilarious, I felt a little sad as I read this book to think of all the hard things women go through.. Her feelings of rage and fear and everything else are so real. A couple years ago someone told me about a doctor that does Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy. I took the bait and went to him and the BHRT has made all the difference. No more rage. No more fear. No more tears. It changed everything! I'm so sorry that more women don't know about this. 

I saw many of my friends in her stories. 

The book was well written. I'd read it again.

Just like some mother's hold parties for their daughters when they have their first period, this is a book women should give other women around age 40! Menopause is something that just doesn't get talked about enough.

Goodreads says:

Menopause. Every woman walks through this lava pit of hormones, remorse and chicken wing cravings, yet few of us are offered a warning about the perils, let alone a survival guide. Following the success of The Girl in the Gold Bikini, author Dana Goldstein is throwing back the curtain on the most challenging years of a woman's life. Holding nothing back, the author brings her unique sense of humour to her menopausal journey, sharing stories of hair growing where it shouldn't, erotic dreams that leave her shaken for days and her struggle to stop herself from killing her beloved husband.
Murder on My Mind will make you laugh out while while making you feel better about the chaos of your own menopausal journey.

Sarah's Key (Tatiana de Rosnay)

Goodreads Summary:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

This book totally captivated me.  I found myself being totally irritated when things came up that interrupted the story. "What??! You want something to eat right now??! Can't you make your own sandwich??!"

Julia Jarmond finds herself pregnant in this story. I think that was one reason I was so struck by the story. She is older, her husband does not want another child, but she does desperately. I remember feeling that way when I was pregnant with Destiny. Only it wasn't that my husband didn't want a baby, it was that I was so torn. I was excited, but unsure that I wanted to start over again. Then, when our baby was stillborn, I felt so guilty for ever being unsure.

It's interesting how stories touch your own emotions and mesh with your own story. Somehow the well crafted words that created images of the soldiers tearing Jewish children away from their mothers felt like it felt when Destiny was stillborn and all the possibilities of another child in our family were torn away.