Is it too early to start thinking about June reading goals??? Probably not. I am thinking that it wouldn't be a bad idea to use RANDOM.ORG to do random reads from my list of review copies.
#91 on my list:
From Dust to Stardust. Kathleen Rooney. 2023 [September] 287 pages. [Source: Review copy]
Goodreads description: From the bestselling author of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk comes a novel about Hollywood, the cost of stardom, and selfless second acts, inspired by an extraordinary true story.
Chicago,
1916. Doreen O’Dare is fourteen years old when she hops a
Hollywood-bound train with her beloved Irish grandmother. Within a
decade, her trademark bob and insouciant charm make her the preeminent
movie flapper of the Jazz Age. But her success story masks one of
relentless ambition, tragedy, and the secrets of a dangerous marriage.
Her
professional life in flux, Doreen trades one dream for another. She
pours her wealth and creative energy into a singular achievement: the
construction of a one-ton miniature Fairy Castle, the likes of which the
world has never seen. So begins Doreen’s public tour to lift the
nation’s spirits during the Great Depression—and a personal journey
worth remembering.
A sweeping journey from the dawn of the motion picture era through turbulent twentieth-century America, From Dust to Stardust
is a breathtaking novel about one determined woman navigating change,
challenging the price of fame, and sharing the gift of real magic.
#98 on my list
Saving Grayson. Chris Fabry. 2023. [November] 272 pages. [Source: Review copy]
From Goodreads description: An inspiring fiction story from the bestselling author of War Room
Grayson Hayes doesn’t remember things as well as he used to, but he’s sure his time is running out. Diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, he realizes he has a small window of time left to right a terrible injustice―he just can’t remember what it is.
Convinced of the importance of his mission, he embarks on a journey to the small West Virginia town of his childhood hoping he can put together the fractured pieces of his memory and set things right. But as the past becomes more clear, he wonders if God forgives the sins he can’t remember.
A thought-provoking story with challenging themes, this book deals with issues like Saving Grayson is a wrenching yet hopeful story of a journey to right unknown wrongs and of holding on to what you know even when it feels like everything is slipping away.
#138 on my list:
Elisabeth Elliot by Lucy S.R. Austen. 2023 [June] 624 pages. [Source: Review copy]
From the GoodReads description: An In-Depth Biography on the Life and Work of Missionary Elisabeth Elliot
Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) is one of the most widely known Christians of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. After the death of her husband, Jim, and four other missionaries at the hands of Waorani tribesmen in Ecuador, Elliot famously returned to live among the same people who had killed her husband. Her legacy, however, extends far beyond these events. In the years that followed, Elliot became a prolific writer and speaker, touching the lives of countless people around the world.
In this single-volume biography, Lucy S. R. Austen takes readers on an in-depth journey through the life of Elisabeth Elliot―her birth to missionary parents, her courtship and marriage to Jim Elliot, her missions work in Ecuador, and her private life and public work after she returned to the United States. Through Elliot’s example of love for God and obedience to his commands, readers will ponder what it means to follow Jesus.
#38 on my list
The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club by Julia Bryan Thomas. 2023. [June] 384 pages. [Source: Review copy]
From Goodreads description: For readers of Martha Hall Kelly and Beatriz Williams comes poignant historical fiction that reminds us that literature has the power to speaks to everyone uniquely — but also to draw us together.
Massachusetts, 1954. With bags packed alongside her heavy heart, Alice Campbell escaped halfway across the country and found herself in front of a derelict building tucked among the cobblestone streets of Cambridge. She turns it into the enchanting bookshop of her dreams, knowing firsthand the power of books to comfort the brokenhearted.
The Cambridge Bookshop soon becomes a haven for Tess, Caroline, Evie, and Merritt, who are all navigating the struggles of being newly independent college women in a world that seems to want to keep them in the kitchen. But when a member of the group finds herself shattered, everything they know about themselves will be called into question.
From the author of For Those Who Are Lost comes an extraordinary love letter to books and friendship, a story that is at once heart-wrenching, strengthening, and inspiring.
# 56 on the list
Ladies of the Lake. Cathy Gohlke. 2023. [July] 384 pages. [Source: Review copy]
From GoodReads description: A historical novel about the wonder and complexities of friendship, love, and belonging. Band of Sisters.
When
she is forced to leave her beloved Prince Edward Island to attend
Lakeside Ladies Academy after the death of her parents, the last thing
Adelaide Rose MacNeill expects to find is three kindred spirits. The
"Ladies of the Lake," as the four girls call themselves, quickly bond
like sisters, vowing that wherever life takes them, they will always be
there for each other. But that is before. Before love and
jealousy come between Adelaide and Dorothy, the closest of the friends.
Before the dawn of World War I upends their world and casts baseless
suspicion onto the German American man they both love. Before a terrible
explosion in Halifax Harbor rips the sisterhood irrevocably apart.
Seventeen
years later, Rosaline Murray receives an unsuspecting telephone call
from Dorothy, now headmistress of Lakeside, inviting her to attend the
graduation of a new generation of girls, including Rosaline's beloved
daughter. With that call, Rosaline is drawn into a past she'd determined
to put behind her. To memories of a man she once loved . . . of a
sisterhood she abandoned . . . and of the day she stopped being Adelaide
MacNeill.
#69 on the list
The Museum of Lost and Found. Leila Sales. 2023 [May] 304 pages. [Source: Review copy]
From GoodReads description: A warm, relatable middle-grade story about a friendship falling apart and the abandoned museum that becomes a shrine to lost connections
Vanessa isn't sure which happened finding the abandoned museum or losing her best friend Bailey. She doesn't know what to do with herself now that Bailey has left her behind—but when she stumbles upon an empty, forgotten museum, her purpose becomes clear. Vanessa starts filling the museum with her own artifacts and memories, hoping that perhaps, if she can find the right way to tell the story of her broken friendship, she can figure out how to make it whole again.
As Vanessa's museum grows, it seems like the place might have the answers to other questions, too. Like why a mysterious work of art was left behind. Or how to deal with a military dad who's trying to parent from thousands of miles away. Or why Vanessa's bad habit is getting harder and harder to quit. Or even, maybe, how to set the past to rest and find a way to move forward.
Moving and charming, The Museum of Lost and Found is about how we grow apart from some people as we grow up—and how sometimes we can find new pieces of ourselves in the aftermath.
#125 on the list
Give Me A Sign. Anna Sortino. 2023. [July] 320 pages. [Source: Review copy]
From GoodReads description: Jenny Han meets CODA in this big-hearted YA debut about first love and Deaf pride at a summer camp.
Lilah
is stuck in the middle. At least, that’s what having a hearing loss
seems like sometimes—when you don’t feel “deaf enough” to identify as
Deaf or hearing enough to meet the world’s expectations. But this
summer, Lilah is ready for a change.
When Lilah becomes a
counselor at a summer camp for the deaf and blind, her plan is to brush
up on her ASL. Once there, she also finds a community. There are cute
British lifeguards who break hearts but not rules, a YouTuber who’s just
a bit desperate for clout, the campers Lilah’s responsible for (and
overwhelmed by)—and then there’s Isaac, the dreamy Deaf counselor who
volunteers to help Lilah with her signing.
Romance was never on
the agenda, and Lilah’s not positive Isaac likes her that way. But all
signs seem to point to love. Unless she’s reading them wrong? One
thing’s for Lilah wanted change, and things here . . . they're certainly
different than what she’s used to.
© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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