February 2020 Book Club- "The Secret Keeper" by Kate Morton

I just got this book on Tuesday, and started it on Thursday. I wanted to make sure it was done in time for Book Club on Monday, because I heard there was a major plot twist. And HOLY COW was that right!

The premise of the book is- A 16 year old girl witnesses her mom commit a murder. She never speaks of it for 50 years. 50 years later, her mom is dying and the family comes together. She finds out there was a mystery woman named Vivien in her mother (Dorothy, or Dolly)'s life when they lived in London, and that things were not as they appeared. She decides to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding this murder. 

The thing this made me think of is the fact that we think we know our parents from before they were married and had children, but we never really do. Laurel (the one who was 16 when the murder happened) learns that the woman she thought was her mother really had a whole past. She was a survivor of the Blitz in London, and was the only one who survived out of her whole family. She went to the seaside to start a new life, and met her husband and had children. But her kids never thought of anything beyond the happiness they had in their home. They didn't know the skeletons in their mother's closet.

Ok WOW. So much to unpack. Dolly went to London to follow her boyfriend Jimmy, and became a maid for a woman who lived alone in her enormous house. She becomes obsessed with a woman that she works with in the volunteer service, who lives across the street from them. She believes that they are best friends, and that she will inherit the estate from this woman. When Vivien says she doesn't know her, and the old woman dies without giving her anything, she blames Vivien. Dolly is convinced that she is having an affair (Vivien is married to a famous author), and tells Jimmy they should blackmail her.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Jimmy begins to fall in love with Vivien. while pulling away from Dolly because of her obsession and cruelty in wanting to destroy Vivien's life. Vivien finds out about the plan, and decides to give Jimmy an enormous check to 1) insult him enough to keep him away (saving him from her husband who happens to be abusive), and 2) let him run away with Dolly like he wants because she is starting to love him.

Dolly's blackmail photograph accidentally gets mailed to Vivien's house, and her husband opens it. He tells her he already killed Jimmy, and that Dolly is next. She makes it to the house Dolly is staying at, and tells Dolly what is happening and that she needs to run away and LEAVE. Right when she says that, a bomb falls on the house. You find out that it was actually Dolly who died, and that Vivien put her ring on Dolly's finger and took her place. It was her escape from the abusive life she had lead.

So Laurel didn't know who her mom was AT ALL until just before her mom died. The regret Laurel thought her mom had over the blackmail was actually over the fact that Dolly wouldn't have been in the house if Vivien hadn't come to talk to her.

So when Henry Jenkins (her abusive former husband) came to find her that day, she knew that she needed to kill him because he would not stop until she was dead. She had escaped him for 20 years.

"The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama

I have been alternating between serious and light books. This was a book I wanted to listen to, to understand Obama more. Even though he's out of office, he's still an interesting person to follow.
I liked reading about the man behind the office. He came from a difficult situation, and worked hard to become who he was. While I disagreed with most of his policies, reading about his life made me understand him more. One of the things I liked the most was reading about how he met Michelle. He was going to law school and got an internship for the summer. He only had 3 suits, that he had just bought. The lawyer he was working with was a strong, tall woman. When he asked her out, she said no. He eventually wore her down. She was a really good partner for him. As a parent, he worked hard to try to be there for his children. Even when he was a Senator, he flew home every weekend to spend time with his family.
I really appreciated his thoughts on faith. He grew up in a house that didn't have religion in it. But he decided to be baptized in a church as an adult. His mother, who was a skeptic her whole life, became afraid of what was ahead when she was dying of cancer.

As a person who did not vote for Obama (twice), I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This was written in 2006, before he had run for president. So I wonder what the book would be like if he had written it in 2017 instead of 2006.

"All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

I started this book when visiting in Dallas, and was instantly hooked. Alyse told me it was one of the best books she's ever read, which is saying something. If you haven't read it and want to, stop reading this and check it out immediately!
The first chapter is about the bombing of San Malo in France, and the main character is a blind girl who can hear and smell the bombs around her. Who wouldn't be hooked by that??

Doerr's style of writing was so fascinating. I love his descriptions. Part of it was so interesting because he was writing from the perspective of Marie Laure, the 16 year old girl who was blind. The other main character that they follow, Werner, is an 18 year old Nazi engineer who is a genius and taught himself to repair machines at a young age. So they both have unique outlooks. However, it jumping around from character to character, and time period to time period, made it confusing to watch.
It was difficult to follow the part of the story with the Flame of the Sea and Sergeant Major von Rumpel. The Flame of the Sea is a stone that has mythical properties. If you own it, you will have luck but everyone around you will start to die. Marie Laure's dad worked at a museum that allegedly had it. When they needed to leave Paris, her dad had a secret with him. She finds out he has a stone with him, either the real Flame or a copy. Nobody who took it knows if they have the real stone or the copy. The point is to keep it safe. Sergeant Major von Rumpel is on the hunt for the Flame, and tracks down one of the stones to Marie Laure. At this point she is living with her great uncle Etienne, a man who has been traumatized and isn't "quite right" after watching his brother die in WW1. Her dad was arrested and taken prisoner. Etienne's housekeeper died. So it was just them, until Etienne was found to be broadcasting rebel radio messages and was arrested. So Marie Laure is home alone, with the world falling apart around her. She can't get out, and she can't see what is happening.
Meanwhile, Werner was growing up in an orphanage in Germany with his younger sister Jutta. He is a boy with white hair and big ears, and taugt himself to put together a radio. Soon everyone was coming to him to repair their electronics. When he was older, some of the older boys started to get taken to be part of Hitler's youth. When Werner gets taken, he becomes friends with a boy named Frederick. They go to Frederick's house, and Werner sees what it is like to have wealth. After they return, a Polish prisoner is captured and brought to the camp. He's tied up in the snow. Every single one of the boys is supposed to throw a bucket of water in the man's face. But Frederick refuses multiple times. He then becomes the target of the wrath of the entire camp. he is eventually beat so badly that he is sent home, unable to do anything for himself. Jutta is so disappointed in Werner for how he is changing during this time that she refuses to send him new letters.
Werner becomes a radio tracker, and trains to find enemy armies. He is able to isolate signals to within a few yards. He's taken out on a tank with other soldiers. One of the other soldiers was probably the most crude person I could think of, and talked horribly about girls. Werner is haunted by a small girl and her mother, who are killed by the other men in his tank. At night, he will randomly hear a young girl reading "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" over the radio. He knows this is illegal and could get her killed, but he doesn't say anything about it. They eventually make it to Sant Malo, and are there during the Blitz (the first chapter). Werner is trapped under a hotel with Volkheimer and some other men, and they try to get some radio frequencies. Suddenly, Werner hears the girl over the radio again. He's able to triangulate the sound to Etienne's house.
So HERE is where the stories merge.
Werner gets to the house to find Sergeant Major von Rumpel looking for Marie Laure. There is a brief struggle, and Werner kills von Rumpel. He's able to rescue Marie Laure and bring her to an Allied camp. While they only briefly met, they had a deep connection.
So, this is where the story SHOULD end. But I saw there were still hours left on the audiobook and I knew it wouldn't end this cleanly.
Jutta and the older girls in the orphanage run away with the nun, Frau Elena. They're hiding out and are found and raped by Russian troops.
Werner gets taken away to be a prisoner of war. He gets sick, probably from sitting in cold water for days after the hotel he was in collapsed. He runs away from the camp and- in the most shocking twist I've read in a while- steps on a landmine and dies.
Ok let's just talk about this. WHAT??? That's just how it ends for Werner??? It was heartbreaking to say the least. But I suppose that makes it more accurate. War doesn't just end badly for minor characters, and every soldier had a story like that.
30 years later, Volkheimer tracks down Jutta and gives her Werner's things. And even later, you see Marie Laure with her grandchildren.


This book was PHENOMENAL.