The Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

I recently finished Elin Hildebrand's latest novel, The Summer of '69.  This novel takes place during, you guessed it, the summer of 1969.  This is a historical fiction turn for Hilderbrand because the novel takes that summer of 50 years ago - the summer of the first landing of a person on the moon and of the Vietnam War, and interweaves a story of a family dealing with war, infidelity, racism, and life. 

I am never disappointed with Hildebrand's novels.  The way she writes just pulls me in and has me devouring her words.  This book was no exception.  I could not put this book down! I think part of this is because I love the way Hilderbrand writes, but also because the topic is different.  I don't think I ever read a book set in this time period (except maybe for brief parts of Kristin Hannah's Firefly Lane.)  

Pick up this book and pack it in your beach bag! You won't be disappointed.  I give you a rating of 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.

Until the next read!

~Jessica 

2019 Summer Reading Library Book Haul

Summer is here! In the library world, summer means summer reading and summer reading is here.

Courtesy of CSLP

Every year, CLSP (collaborative summer reading program), a system of "grassroot consortium of states" who, together, set up a summer reading program that provides summer reading materials to adults, young adults and children.  According to the ALA, summer reading started back in 1890s as a way to encourage students on summer break from school to read.  If you're looking for more information, you can click here.

The CLSP Summer Reading Theme for this year is "A Universe of Stories"

Jessica and I happily work in libraries and educating individuals on the benefits and services that are offered at the library make us somewhat passionate about summer reading. (Oddly enough, library card sign up month is in September- AFTER Summer Reading occurs...)

We encourage everyone out there to go to your local library and get a library card.  Not only can you check out books but your library has services that allow you to borrow e-books plus audiobooks and magazines! 

In honor of Summer Reading, this post will be a library book haul - all of the books that I have picked up from my library within the last week! 

- Nothing Left to Burn by Heather Ezell (you can find the review for that book here)

- Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines (review for this book is here)

- Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey (you can find that review here)

-The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

- D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis and Helped Win World War II by Sarah  Rose

- La Passione: How Italy Seduced the World by Dianne Hales

This library book haul has a balance of adult fiction (including mystery and romance), YA fiction and non-fiction!  Not to toot my horn here, but I think I did a pretty good job. 

Fix Her Up seems like it will be a cute rom-com story.  La Passione will hopefully indulge my new found desire to one day travel to Italy.  Until Friday Night was picked because I needed a good YA book to read.  I picked Nothing Left to Burn because of the cover art and because being a volunteer EMT myself, I found it intriguing to read a story featuring a volunteer firefighter. D-Day Girls was added to be TBR pile because MB and I will be touring Fort Miles in August and I wanted to learn a little more about WWII and D-Day. Lastly, The Widows of Malabar Hill was checked out because it was a recommendation on my Tailored Books Recommendation list! (But *shhhh*, don't tell Jessica that I subscribed out of curiosity....)

I hope this inspires at least one person who reads this post to go out to the library and see what's going on! Go complete the summer reading challenge at your library.

See you guys soon!

~ Jillian

The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable - Reshelved Books

Hello dear For the Love of Dewey Readers!

I recently just finished Michelle Gable's The Book of Summer.  I book-lusted after this novel for quite a while after seeing it on display in Barnes and Noble, but I wasn't sure I was going to buy it.  You know, I really don't need to keep buying books... actually I really need to stop. But my public library system did not own a copy, and when I saw it sitting on the shelf at my favorite local used book store in Montclair, I just knew it was meant to be. 

Aren't the hydrangeas on the cover (and in my garden) just gorgeous?! 

I totally and 100% judged this book by the cover and by how it's location is set in Nantucket.  I guess I'm a total cliche when it comes to great summer reads.  What I liked about this book was that it isn't just another summer story, but rather takes an actual environmental issue that has happened in Nantucket (the erosion of the Sconset Bluff) and personifies it to show the reader how this has effected not only one individual but also an entire family history.  Gable does this by telling the story both from present day and from a historical flashback to the 1940's, making this novel just as much as a Nantucket novel and environmental novel, as it is a WWII novel.   

A brief synopsis of the story lines:

Bess Codman is visiting Nantucket to try to get her mother to pack up her belongings and leave the house that her family has owned for generations on Sconset Bluff.  The years of erosion have slowly taken the property and sacraficed it to the ocean below.  The foundation is weak and being in the house for too much longer can be deadly.  Bess herself is going through a terrible divorce and just found out that she is pregnant.  Her mother does not leave the house easily, and is fighting to have measures taken to prevent further erosion from taking place.

Ruby (Bess' Grandmother) was married on the eve of WWII.  She struggles with her husband, brothers, and friends going off to war, while also suffering from numerous miscarriages.  The house on the bluff becomes her home as well as her strength as it is passed down onto her and thus onto the one child who she does carry to term.  

My take:

At first I thought that this novel came across as a little slow, but it soon picked up.  I loved the blending of a Nantucket summer novel, with environmental issues, and a WWII story.  It was well done and cohesively put together.  I also liked how Gable included information at the end of the novel about Sconset Bluff and the erosion.  

So dear readers, I leave you with a For the Love of Dewey rating of 4.5 out 5 Coffee Beans. 

For more information on Sconset, check out Gable's sources:

Sconset Beach Preservation Fund 
Vanity Fair: Nantucket and Malibu Disappearing 

Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe - Reshelved Books

I love Mary Alice Monroe's Beach House series.  I discovered these books years ago when my Grandma's friend lent us Swimming Lesson's (Book #2).  After devouring Swimming Lessons and reading it twice, I jumped right into The Beach House (Book #1), and Beach House Memories (Book #3).  And no, they do not have to be read in order... So it's an understatement to say that I was both thrilled and excited to learn that a 4th book in the series entitled Beach House for Rent was due to be released this summer!  

You can check out brief summaries of these novels, as well as other novels by Monroe here.

I wanted to take a #bookstagram with all 4 novels,
but the other 3 are packed away in the basement... So here is my pool.

So a brief background to this series:

These books tell the story of a beach house on the North Carolina coast owned by Olivia "Lovie" Rutledge.  Lovie was known as the "turtle lady" of the shore, active in conservation, and protector of the sea turtle nests.  When Lovie's daughter Cara loses her job up North, she returns home, mending broken ties with her family and discovering both new and old relationships all linked to a love for turtles and ultimately for the beach house.  One of these relationships is in found in Toy, a young pregnant girl fleeing an abusive relationship and family situation whom Lovie takes in, and another is in her romance with Brett, a local man whom Cara falls in love with and begins to replant her Carolina roots with.  As Cara begins to learn more about her mother's past and the woman that she is, she also learns that her mother is dying from cancer. Eventually after Lovie's passing, the beach house is left to Cara, which sets the readers up for the latest installment.

Now on to the latest novel:

Beach House for Rent opens with Cara and Brett working on the beach house and getting it ready to rent for the summer.  Hence the title. The woman renting the beach house, Heather, is a young and pretty 26 who suffers from terrible social anxiety issues that became worse after her mother passed away in a car accident. There is also hinting at financial difficulties that place a strain on Cara and Brett's relationship, which becomes clearly known to reader when it is learned that they cannot make the loan payments on a tour boat they recently purchased.  The couple is now faced with a dilemma.  Should they sell Cara's beach house, or sell their home which is legally Brett's house (his name is still the only one on the deed.)  Like with Nancy Thayer's novel, this part of the book struck me.  Not because it's the life I live now, but the beach house vs. regular home is a fantasy I have contemplated in my head. Can I have a beach house now, please!? After a fight, Brett goes out for a run, where he dies suddenly of a heart attack.  This was an unexpected twist to the story that came out of nowhere to the reader, and ultimately leaves Cara utterly devastated.  Cara returns to the beach house, where along with Heather they learn to heal themselves and grow despite their grief and their guilt.    

Why I like it...
One thing that I adore about this series is how Monroe focuses on endangered wildlife.  In Swimming Lessons, Monroe did this by offering readers short facts about sea turtles.  In Beach House for Rent, Monroe does this by bringing attention to endangered shore birds.  Monroe accomplishes this both by short facts about various shore birds, and also through Heather, who is studying the birds so she can accurately paint them for postage stamps.

Why I don't...
However unlike the other novels, which I felt could be read as stand alones or even out of order, I felt that Beach House for Rent relies too much on the backstories of the other novels.  If a reader had picked up this book instead of one of the other 3 it wouldn't have the same effect.  I also was disappointed that Monroe didn't bring Toy into the story.  She mentioned her character in passing, but she was such a large and important character in Swimming Lessons and The Beach House.  I missed her.

So my dear For the Love of Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 3.5 out of 4 Coffee Beans.  I love this series, but I love Swimming Lessons and The Beach House more.  This novel alone does not do the series proper justice. 

~Jessica 

P.S.  This series was one of the group of books that Grandma & I have successfully gotten my non-bookish mother to read and enjoy.   

Summer Reading- Thoughts

Happy Friday!

Since the weekend is coming up, I wanted to ask you guys what *you* have read so far this summer and what you'll be reading! What you're excited to read and even what you know you won't be interested in reading. 

I ordered two books on Monday and they came in the mail today. So, I'm super pumped to bust into that box and jump right in!  

Let me know in the comments down below what's on your list! Also, let us know if you have any recommendations!

Catch you guys soon!
~ Jillian


...P.S.
An awesome beach read, that is TOTAL throwback... #flashbackfriday, is The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares (and I'm talking the whole series here, guys!).  I totally remember reading those books during the summers I spent in Lavallette.

Secrets in Summer by Nancy Thayer - Reshelved Books

Hello fellow Dewey readers! 

Today we give you a review on Nancy Thayer's latest novel, Secrets in Summer.    Let me start off by saying that I (Jessica) absolutely loved and adored this novel.  I felt like it was my life- or rather the life that I live inside my head that was being told within these pages.  Maybe that's why I loved it so much.  

Reasons Why I Felt Like This Was My Life In a Book:
1) The main character, Darcy,  is a librarian. ✔ 
       I have my MLIS. 
2) Darcy lives by the beach. ✔
      Can I? Please?
3) Darcy married young and was left both heartbroken and free. ✔
      So I've never been married, but close enough.
4) Darcy finds someone new to love, who is a much better fit. ✔
      Bingo. 
5) The man Darcy falls in love with doesn't want to move into Darcy's house.  He would rather pick out a new home /  start a new life together.   ✔
       AND. 
6) To do this they must both learn how to compromise.  ✔

Did Nancy Thayer write this for me?  Nancy, if you're reading this, you don't know how much I needed a book like this right now in my life.  Thank you.

This book is fun, it is beachy, and it is impossible to put down!  I guess maybe I'm little bit biased because I felt like I could have very easily been Darcy, but nonetheless, I just want to take this book, hold it in the air, and shout "READ THIS BOOK!" at the top of my lungs. And really, you all should.  I promise you will not be disappointed.

I love this book so much, that I am giving it 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans!  

P.S. Jillian and Grandma loved it too. 
  
~Jessica