"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.

"Naturally Tan" by Tan France

I listened to this book while at the gym and on my flights to and from Dallas. I love watching "Queer Eye", and was especially interested in Tan once I found out his home is in Salt Lake City. It just gave us one thing in common.

I especially like memoirs that are read by the author. It makes it much more personal.

Tan talks about many different aspects of his life. Growing up in Britain, he dealt with a lot of racism. He tells a touching story about how he and his brother were caught by a group of thug teenagers. Tan broke free and ran home to get his dad, and talked about the look on his dad's face when he ran in screaming "THEY'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!" Tan said it was a look of horror and rage that he had never seen before, and never would again. He was able to run over and save his son's life by chasing off the thugs.

Tan traveled to Salt Lake City once, and decided he wanted to make that place his home. He began working for Shade Clothing, a few years before it was bought out. He then decided to begin designing swimwear for "Mormon women" who need to be more covered up. As one of those women, THANK YOU. He was one of the pioneers of the high waisted bikinis and the really nice one pieces. Thank goodness.

When Tan got hired at the show, he did not expect to become "famous". I was laughing out loud at the gym hearing his story about meeting Jon Bon Jovi for the first time. He literally thought Bon Jovi was talking to someone else, and when he called Tan by his name he screamed internally.

Even as a celebrity with a popular show, Tan gets stopped all the time by airport security. There's even a joke about how there is a special room just for "brown" people to be interrogated. As much as the United States  tries to be an inclusive place, there are still a lot of stereotypes that seem to die hard.

Overall, he seems like a normal guy who got a big break. It makes me love him and the show even more!

"Scarlet" by Marissa Meyer

This is the second chronological book in the Lunar Chronicles series. It introduces almost all new characters. Scarlet is a play on Red Riding Hood, if you couldn't tell by the picture. Scarlet is a girl who lives on a farm in France, who helps her grandmother deliver groceries. Her grandmother has been missing for a while, and disappeared without her tracking chip. People thought her grandmother was crazy, but Scarlet thinks something happened.
One night when she is delivering at a bar, she hears people talking about the weird cyborg girl and talking about how she deserves what she's getting. Scarlet gets on the bar and defends Cinder. One of the patrons (who caught the eye of Scarlet's friend) follows her out and talks to her. He wants a job, but Scarlet said they didn't need more help on their farm. He said his friends call him "Wolf". He invites her to a fight that he's in later that night, but she declines. When she gets back to her house, she finds her deadbeat dad at her grandmother's house. He has burn marks up and down his arm, and says he was tortured by people. They had the same type of tattoo as Wolf. She tracks him down at the fight. The police come raid the fight, and Scarlet and Wolf escape.
Meanwhile, Cinder is working to escape from jail. She miscalculates how far to tunnel, and drops into the cell of a man named Carswell Thorne. They break out of jail, and escape to his spaceship. She found out where Michelle Benoit (Scarlet's grandmother) lives, and they head out for France. Michelle Benoit is the person who kept Cinder alive for 8 years in a state of suspended animation after she was burned on Luna. The man who brought Cinder down was named Logan Tanner, and is Scarlet's secret grandfather.
Scarlet and Wolf get to Paris via the train. She meets a man named Ran on the train, and have to jump off and escape when there's a leadimosis outbreak on the train.
When they get to Paris, Scarlet finds out that Wolf is actually a Special Operative of Queen Lavana. He has had his DNA melded with that of a wolf, which heightens his senses. They throw Scarlet in jail, and Wolf kisses her one more time in order to pass on a tracking chip. Scarlet finds her grandmother, but Ran (who is also an operative) kills Michelle. Scarlet escapes, and Ran nearly kills her too before Wolf comes and kills him.
They manage to find Cinder and Thorne, who were following the trail to find Michelle. They escape on Thorne's spaceship, and decide what to do next. Cinder still has the chip that connects to Lavana's spy (from the last book), and it ends with her deciding what to do.

I KNEW Wolf had to be bad. It was too good to be true that this mysterious stranger with bright green eyes was going to actually be a help to her. But Wolf's escape from his pack is a big deal, I think he's going to be good in the end.
I love a good cliffhanger. I wish Cinder had been able to meet Michelle, because she kept Cinder alive and it would have been amazing for her to meet her hero. I can't wait for the next one!

Book Club November 2019 Book- "Running for my Life" by Lopez Lomong

This was a gut wrenching book. Lopez Lomong was a boy in South Sudan when he was taken by the army and forced to be a boy soldier. He was trapped with boys for months, watching them drop like flies, before he escaped with 3 older boys and ran for 3 days straight. While they were running to their village, they actually made it to Kenya and were put in a refugee camp. There Lopez stayed for 10 years before he was given a once in a lifetime chance to go to America. He makes it to America, is placed with the most amazing family ever, and begins to run with his high school, college, and then in the Olympics on the United States team.

One of the lessons Lopez teaches is that he sees the hand of God everywhere he goes. When he escaped with the older boys, the cabin door didn't squeak for the first time ever. The guards were not paying attention, and they never saw the grass moving. The boys found water and food when they needed it most, and even though they didn't make it to their village they still made it to a refugee camp and they survived the ordeal. Lopez said he wishes he remembered the names of the older boys but doesn't, so he just calls them "his angels". Even the fact that he was able to write an essay in English, a language he didn't read or write, to be accepted was nothing short of miraculous.

The second lesson is the resiliency of the human spirit. While this was the "least" sad of the Africa war books I have read (I only nearly cried happy tears, not sad tears), it is still incomprehensible what some people go through. Lopez is still on the United States Olympics team. He went to the United States in July 2001, and was a sophomore in high school. This wasn't a time long ago. This was within my lifetime. He was one of the last Lost Boys of Sudan to make it to America, because 9/11 happened shortly after he immigrated here and they shut the program down.

The third lesson is the power of America. We take SO MUCH for granted what we have here. If Lopez had stayed in his village in Sudan, he would not have gotten an education. In the refugee camp, he had a basic education and learned how to speak Swahili. But he was blown away by what he saw in America. He had to learn how to shower, what a toilet was... he had barely seen what a TV was and it was a tiny thing hooked up to a car battery. To go from that to New York must have been just boggling. His parents were amazing, and did so much for him. However, he felt that he didn't deserve what he had been given and was worried that at any moment his parents would realize there was some mistake and send him back. So  he said one of the few English words he knew- "Yes"- in response to everything. It took years before he finally told his adopted parents what had happened to him.

The last lesson (which goes with the above) is the responsibility we have. We are SO BLESSED in America. How can we turn a blind eye to people suffering so much? I am pro-helping refugees. They have seen things we can't even process. Things that send a chill up my spine to even read. Meanwhile I'm sitting here in my own house with my own electricity and computer to write this blog post on. Clean water, education, and food are readily available. We can't help everyone, but we should help where we can.

I am donating to http://www.lopezlomong.com/lopez-lomong-foundation.html as part of the "Light the World" initiative, to help provide clean water to people in Sudan.

"Fairest" by Marissa Meyer

This is a shorter story in the Lunar Chronicles series, an origin story of the villain Lavana. They suggested that you read this as the fourth book in the series, but I wanted to read it now. 

I was surprised at how much I felt for Lavana in the first half of the book. Her sister Princess Channary, who would become Selene's mother, was a horrible and cruel person. Lavana was not the heir to the throne, and she was mocked by Channary. 

Lavana was in love with a royal guard named Everett, and was horrified to find out he was married and about to become a father. His wife died in childbirth, but the daughter survived. Lavana was able to use her Lunar gift (or "Glamor") to cover up scars from a childhood accident, and learned how to control Everett's feelings to make him love her. He knew she was controlling him, because his feelings changed every time she wasn't there. But Lavana convinced him to marry her and to move into the palace with his daughter, who he named Winter.

Queen Channary became pregnant with a baby, even though she didn't know the father. Shortly after baby Selene was born, Channary became ill and died. Lavana became the queen consulate, until Selene was old enough to become queen.  Lavana took her role seriously, more serious than Channary ever had. She brought Luna into a time of plenty. She kept up her Glamor, not only making herself look beautiful to everyone but also putting in everyone's mind the idea that they loved her. She couldn't stand the idea that someone else could be loved more than her. She wanted ALL of her subjects to be 100% loyal to her.

This is where you start to not like Lavana as much. She was so jealous of her niece and stepdaughter's beauty that she did not want to be around them. Eventually, the idea of Selene taking the throne was too much for her. She Glamored the nanny to fall asleep in the nursery with a lit candle under a blanket. She thought that it killed Selene, and knew that her throne was secure.

The last thing was that Everett did not truly love her. He told her one night that he would never love her. The next week she came to his room (he still slept in the guard's quarters, despite having been married to Lavana for 10 years), and that night a Thomiturge (the name of the aides to the queen) came in and killed him. Turns out Lavana had made a deal with him.

Turns out Lavana was severely disfigured when Channary had Glamored Lavana to put her own body in a fire. That's why she has the veil on the book cover. She also banned all cameras and mirrors. They don't show Glamors, and would show Lavana for what she really looked like.

This book makes me more excited to finish the series now! 

"Cinder" by Marissa Meyer

My friend recommended this book to me, it is my first time listening to an audiobook. I like that it's the first book in a series. The books are all based on fairy tales, set in a futuristic world. This story takes place in New Beijing, and has some Asian descriptions so I imagine that it's based in China.

We are first introduced to Cinder (I'm guessing you can imagine what fairy tale she is based on), a cyborg mechanic. She was a human orphan and had an operation to make her part machine, which usually happens when there is an accident or something. She was living in Europe and adopted by a man, who died shortly after. So she was raised by her "legal guardian" and step sisters. Cyborgs are treated at second class citizens, and Cinder hides her real identity.

What I loved about this story is it was predictable (you had a general idea of what would happen knowing the fairy tale), but also had its own twist. You know that Cinder will go to the ball and meet the prince, and run away and leave something behind. But Cinder actually meets the prince early on in the book, and he does not know her secret for a long time.

A big twist in this book is the outbreak of letimosis, a disease that Cinder's nicer step sister catches. They are racing to find the cure throughout the course of the book.

You expect that the worst person in the book will be her stepmother, but you actually meet the evil queen Lavana. She is the queen of Luna (on the Moon), and is based on the queen from Snow White. She even (allegedly) killed her own 3 year old niece because the niece was the heir to the throne.
Prince Kai becomes the emperor when his dad dies of letimosis, and it is after his death that you meet Queen Lavana. She wants to marry Kai to form an alliance with New Beijing and Luna. Cinder finds out that Lavana means to kill Kai afterward, and runs to the ball to warn him. Lavana exposes Cinder as a cyborg, which shocks Kai.
(SPOILER ALERT AHEAD)
After Cinder is arrested, she finds out that she is actually the princess of Luna. She is supposed to be handed over to Lavana to go back to Luna, but the book ends as she cuts out her own ID chip and plans to break out of prison.

Book Club October 2019 Book- "House of Salt and Sorrows" by Erin A. Craig

This book is a YA retelling of the fairy tale "Twelve Princesses Dancing". In the fairy tale, the 12 princesses go dancing all night and have to get new shoes every day. (I've never actually read the original story, so I only know that.)

In this story, the story opens with the funeral of a girl. She is the fourth sister in a family of twelve to die. Her younger sister, Annaleigh, is the narrator. They are the daughter of a duke, who is also a widower. They have a new stepmother, who announces her pregnancy at the funeral luncheon.

 Strange things start happening at the manor. Annaleigh is not sure that Eulalie (her sister who just died) committed suicide. She investigates with the help of her friend Fisher, and finds out Eulalie had a secret lover. But before she can talk to him about the night Eulalie was going to run away, he falls to his death. She also meets this man named Cassius, whom she takes an interest in.

She and her sisters find a secret passageway to different parties that happen around the land every night.

That's all I want to share right now because there are some crazy plot twists that I don't want to give away. We read this in our book club in October because it is slightly creepy and has to do with death and ghosts. There's also a main character named Camille, which was exciting and *spoiler alert* she doesn't die! Yay! If they make this into a movie it will be a good teen movie. Lots of romance, beautiful dresses (which I wish I could wear sometimes!), suspense, and just enough scare factor to keep you super into the book. The plot twist is mind bending, and it makes you wonder what is real and what is fake.