The One Day You Were My Husband

Finished July 29

The One Day You Were My Husband by Rosie Walsh

This compelling read takes us through Carrie's situation as she is faced with revising her past. Carrie is married with six year old twins and is feeling ready to return to her career as a surgeon after stepping back when her children were born prematurely. Her mother is less present in her life; her stepmother is preparing to move her father, who suffers from advanced dementia, to a care home; her sister is now living in the U.S. and her husband is supportive of her decision. 

While planning a trip to Sweden to reconnect with her surgical mentor, and attend a conference for the short-term rental company she is part of, she comes across a rental owned by her first husband, Swedish Johan. She is taken aback. Twelve years ago, the two met through a patient brought into the hospital she was interning at and felt an instant connection. They had moved in together, and impulsively married when she visited Thailand to meet him when he was on location in Cambodia. Johan was apprehended violently by armed police on the evening of their wedding day as they were dancing on the beach. Despite her efforts, Carrie was unable to get Johan released and was actively discouraged from doing more by the threat of violence against both of them and others. It took her years to move on. She wasn't even aware he'd been released from Thailand. 

At first she isn't sure whether she should cancel her trip but, even after talking to her sister and mother, she checks that he isn't on the list of attendees at the conference and decides to go, as meeting with her mentor is important to her and will give her a better restart to her career. But she still wonders about what really happened back then, why he's been released, and why she didn't know about it. When she runs into him in person, the questions are even louder, and she decides she needs answers, even if they are difficult. 

I found this to be a real page-turner, with interesting plot twists and character dynamics. 

The Midnight Train

Finished July 25

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig.

This book came out of the responses from his previous book The Midnight Library, compelling him to explore these ideas about life in another way. Since I loved that book, I decided to try this one as well. 

The central character is Wilbur. First we see a vignette from his life, when he is on his honeymoon in Venice. Then we see him in the present, as he is nearing the end of his life, in his 80s, with regrets over his choices. He had a successful life, founding a bookstore chain and making lots of money, but he has sacrificed people and personal life over those choices. Unexpected contact with someone from his past gets him thinking and he finds himself in death, which is nothing like what he expected.

He is by train tracks, waiting for a train, greeted by someone from his past who will guide him on his journey, explaining the rules of travel and helping him understand what is happening. He is a version of himself where he was most himself, on that trip to Venice. The train will take him through time, over the course of his life. It will stop and key moments where he must get off and observe them, feeling the joy or pain or other emotions again and perhaps noticing things he hadn't noticed in the moment. The purpose of the journey is to help him better understand his life. When he hears the train, he must reboard and travel forward in time again. The train is a larger version of a toy train he had as a child.

As Wilbur witnesses his life, seeing things he hadn't noted, feeling the feelings again, he wants himself to have noticed, to choose differently, but that isn't how this journey works. But he can't help wondering whether it is possible to influence his younger self and make different decisions.

This is a fascinating read, that had me as a reader considering my choices, and what I might have done differently. What moments would my train stop for? This is a book that will stay with me.

The Secret Book Society

Finished July 19

The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin

This historical novel focuses on a group of women struggling for control in their own lives in 1895. A widow, Lady Duxbury, has invited select women to tea at her home. She has sent a separate note via private means letting them know that it will involve more than tea, and that they have been asked for a reason. 

Eleanor Clarke is a young woman from a titled background, whose American husband wanted her to elevate his standing in society. He is brutish and cruel, limits her time with their young son, and controls almost everything in her life. The one thing she still has some autonomy for is her clothing. He also beats her in private, leaving marks mostly hidden by her clothing. 

Rose Wharton is an American woman from a loving family and married her husband, the second son of an Earl for love. But now his elder brother, the present Earl, is ill and Rose's husband will become the Earl soon. The current Earl is, for lack of a better word, training his brother for his duties and sets expectations on Rose as well, none of which she meets. It doesn't seem to matter how hard she tried, the Earl is always disappointed and Rose feels her husband is also disappointed in her. He has begun to limit her reading material, and be critical of her. Rose has struggled to be accepted in English society, due to her being American, and longs to make friends and have a happier life. She also suspects that she might be pregnant and is worried about telling her husband. 

Lavinia Cavendish is the oldest daughter in a titled family. She is emotional and bookish, and her grandmother was sent to a madhouse. Her father has been critical of her strong emotions lately, and has limited her reading material, and also her mother's reading material. It was her mother who was invited to tea, but she feels Lavinia will benefit from the opportunity. Lavinia's younger sister is soon to be presented and her father is worried about reputation. There is the threat of sending Lavinia away, similar to how her grandmother was treated. 

As the women open themselves to each other, connect through reading books, and begin to have that external support system, they also become more confident in themselves. Lavinia, in particular, finds writing poetry lets her express her emotions safely on the page and lets her be more calm in her daily life. She also attracts a suitor who is more progressive and understanding in nature than her father. 

This was an interesting study of women's lives in high society at a certain time, and emphasizes how little control they had over their own activities. I enjoyed it, and the ending seems to open the possibility for future books. 

The Confession Club

Finished July 16

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg

This novel is the third in a loose series set in the small town of Mason, Missouri. They have recurring characters with a focus on different characters in each book. Here, the focus is on Iris, a middle-aged woman who moved to town a few years ago. She is divorced and now teaches baking classes. As the book begins, Iris agrees to help out a friend who has taken on a complicated cake for a get-together that day. The cake takes hours to make, and Iris is pleasantly surprised when her landlord Maddy has unexpectedly returned to town with her seven-year-old daughter Nora and helps with the cake. When the two deliver it, they find a group of women wide-ranging in age who meet weekly for food and sharing confessions. The confession part started at one of their meetings and has proven to be cathartic and helpful and they take turns sharing. The women invite Iris and Maddy to join the group, making representatives from every decade from the 20s to the 70s. Maddy finds herself sharing her insecurity about her life and her urge to return to Mason from the city where she had moved for her art career. She is concerned how her husband will feel about her hard-to-describe urge to leave the city and has avoided talking about the details with him. 

Iris is also having an experience she finds unsettling, an attraction to John, a man she's met recently who has been squatting in an abandoned farmhouse outside of town. John is kind and handy, but also suffering from PTSD from Vietnam and guilt over actions in his past. He's attracted to Iris as well, but is also concerned about his own mental state.

I was really struck by this group of women, sharing details of their lives that are difficult, embarrassing, and deeply personal. They are at different stages in life, and face a variety of life circumstances. They are honest with each other, but also have senses of humour that help lighten the atmosphere when it becomes weighty. I always enjoy Elizabeth Berg as she depicts everyday human struggles so clearly. Her books always leave me thinking. 

A Cold White Sun

Finished July 15

A Cold White Sun by Vicki Delany

This is the sixth book in the Constable Molly Smith series, set in the fictional town of Trafalgar, near Castlegar, in the mountains of British Columbia.  

At the beginning of March break, high school English teacher Cathy Lindsay is up early, looking forward to spending time skiing with her kids. She takes her dog for a walk and is shot dead by a skilled shooter. The police have little to go on, and cast a wide net looking for clues. Molly is on the scene soon after the crime occurred and gets involved in some of the questioning. 

We see a glimpse into her personal life as her relationship with her boyfriend Adam seems to be getting more serious and Molly is unsure about how she feels about that. She also sees her mother beginning a new relationship that involves someone from Molly's work and must deal with her feelings around that change. 

The victim's husband Gord is an IT consultant and their marriage hasn't been great lately, so he comes under scrutiny and has some things that he is hiding. We also learn that Cathy was having feelings for one of her fellow teachers Mark Hamilton, who has issues of his own as well. 

The lead on the case is Sergeant John Winters and we see his personal life as well. His wife Eliza is a retired supermodel and now owns a couple of art galleries, one locally. She has a relatively new employee, Margo, who has losses from her past that come into the plot. 

We also see Cathy's kids and the impact this loss has on them. 

I found the characters interesting and the plot compelling. An enjoyable read.  

The Paper Birds

Finished July 13

The Paper Birds by Jeannette Lynes

This historical novel follows Toronto high school graduate Gemma Sullivan from June 1943 through the end of World War II. Gemma was orphaned when her parents drowned in a swimming accident and she's had a fear of water ever since. She was raised by her Aunt Wren, a former milliner and now a seamstress. One of her teachers has recommended her for a job doing code breaking and with her signature on the Official Secrets Act, she can't tell her aunt, or anyone else what she actually does, so she just says office work.

Aunt Wren is still grieving the loss of her fiancé in World War I and her declining eyesight has led her to stop working in millinery and put them into precarious financial circumstances, so Gemma's income is very important for them. They also decide to take in a lodger, Rooney Delacroix, a young woman from Gravenhurst who has a job working at a tannery in the city. Rooney is a pleasant girl, but has her own secrets. 

Beatrice Fearing, Gemma's supervisor, worked as a math professor before working on code breaking and there are three other young women that work in the same small cottage near the lake. Cora-Lynn Ponder, a university math student had taken classes from Miss Fearing. Hester Hobbs is good with logical problems, and Ada Swift also works at another site where she secrets a variety of devices in objects. She's a good analyst. 

Wren is glad to use some of Gemma's pay to go to an eye doctor and get new glasses, and along with improved eyesight, she begins to look forward in her life with more optimism. 

One lunch hour, when Gemma takes a walk, she encounters a hungry cat and a young man behind a fence of a POW camp. She develops feelings for both, and must decide whether to trust her instincts. 

The war work is interesting and I enjoyed the personalities of the different women in the novel. Some of the coincidences in connections were a stretch, but it was still an enjoyable read. 

Death on the Island

Finished July 12

Death on the Island by Lynne Marie Taylor

This historical mystery is set in Malta in the fall of 1880, a time when Malta was controlled by the British. The main character in this series, of which this is the second book, is Scottish Detective Inspector McQueen. He is in Malta to set up a detective division in the local police and train local officers in this aspect of police services. Recently a steamship travelling from India to Britain stopped here and one of the stewards was found to have cholera. The first class passengers were put into quarantine, on a small island near Valetta dedicated for this purpose called Manoel Island. When a dead man is found floating in the harbour, with a fatal knife wound, he is soon identified as Buchanan, one of the passengers who should have been in quarantine. McQueen and the police doctor go into quarantine to question the other passengers and because they were both exposed to the body. Buchanan was accompanying a Sikh prince who was raised in England back to England after he was refused entry to India. The prince is an obvious suspect here since he was unhappy with the circumstances. 

Marie Talti is the daughter of the owner of one of the two local papers, a weekly, and she works as both a journalist and editor, actively assisting her father. With limited resources, McQueen asks her to investigate the passengers and their backgrounds for him, and she agrees, hoping this will offer her paper an edge. 

This novel deals with difficult historical events, racial and ethnic prejudice, sexual predation, and gender roles. So there's a lot of interesting plot and characters, and I learned some history I wasn't aware of. 

I picked it up to meet a couple of reading challenges and am glad I did.