Books I read in August

Only 5...what can I say, school started....

1.  The Astronaut Wives Club (Lily Koppel)--Interesting book. I've loved the tv mini-series and still need to watch the final episode. Much more detail than the series could have, entertaining, fairly realistic I think.  There were a lot of things I wanted to know about, but they probably were more about the astronauts, so they weren't in these books. I also would have liked more photos and more "where are they now".  Or rather, what happened after the time period the book is set in, most of the wives have passed away (except of course, Annie Glenn and Betty Grissom...)

2.  Plum Lucky (Janet Evanovich)--Realized I missed this one somehow during July.  It was entertaining and pretty mindless.

3.  Some Luck (Jane Smiley)-My book club read this and I missed the meeting we discussed it. I would have liked to know what other people thought.  It was interesting, I suppose I would say it is good. There is a sequel though, and it ended in a way that made me not really care about the sequel. The story follows a family for 30 years--nothing terribly exciting happens, just normal family marriages, births, deaths.  None of them were particularly likable or dislikeable either, so that probably affected my view of the book.

4.  The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (Gayle Tzemach Lemmon)--Another book recommended by a member of my book club.  Again, it was ok.  About a young woman in Afghanistan who starts her own business under the nose of the Taliban.  I loved the story but wasn't impressed with the writing.  I don't know if that is due to the actual writing or if I somehow got ahold of an abridged version.  There were just some odd portions.  Great story, though.

5.  A Fall of Marigolds (Susan Meissner)--Mr IM always says that I complain too much about the endings of books when they aren't perfect.  This one is a perfect example (no pun intended?).  I really liked the book--it is a history buff's dream--partially set in 1911 Ellis Island and partially set in 2011 New York it follows two women who both lost someone---the 1911 character to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the 2011 character to the 9/11 disasters.  The weird part (at the end) was that throughout the whole book the author wove the two characters together and at the end (spoiler?) they weren't really tied together at all.  Which, I guess says something about coincidence and not having a neat ending, but was a little odd.  Still might make my top 10--it was really engaging and interesting, as well as entertaining.

So far this month (September)  I've already finished a couple books, including Go Set a Watchman, which might get its own post.  Or might not...depends on how much I neglect my grading...