The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 stars - Sometimes the stars align and you find a book that is just right at the right time. This book, about three orphaned witches taken in by a motley crew that includes an older gay couple who've been together for 50 years, a middle aged woman, who acts as household manager, and a thirty-ish male librarian with trust issues. They decide they need a witchy tutor for the girls to help them accept themselves and master their talents, and Mika Moon fits the bill. Mika herself grew up without a family, as female witches die young if they give birth. Primrose, the self-appointed leader of the English witch group, took her in and used a series of nanny/tutors to raise her, while being mostly absent. One of Primrose's steadfast rules is that witches need to be solitary, for the protection of all. Mika has been alone, lonely and found it hard to trust others for much of her life. But she finds herself with strong feelings for the girls and their caretakers, much to her chagrin.
This book is about finding ourselves, and our places in the world, and taking risks, and it really spoke to me.

View all my reviews

Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks

Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read all the novels Geraldine Brooks has written, enjoyed them all, and have wanted to read this memoir for years. It isn't available in many public libraries, but I was able to get it From UT Knoxville, through interlibrary loan.
I didn't realize that before Brooks wrote novels, she was a foreign correspondent, who grew up in Australia. Her introduction to the larger world was developed through a series of pen friends that she regularly corresponded with from adolescence through young adulthood. It was when she came home to bury her father, as an adult, that she found the many letters from these friends, who came from America, France, Israel, and one from Australia. She decides that she will see what has happened to these people 23 years later. The second half of the book sees her visiting them, or in the case of her favorite friend, who died in her early twenties, her mother. She will continue that relationship for the rest of their lives.
I really enjoyed reading this memoir and seeing clues to some of the themes in her other books.

It was my first childish inkling of the way writing can reveal us to ourselves. It was also my introduction to the notion that Australians have lives that were worth writing about. p. 32

View all my reviews

Violeta by Isabel Allende (a reread 3 years later)

Violeta by Isabel Allende
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 rounded to 4.0 stars - This is the first book that I have read by Isabel Allende, it jumped out at me from a New Book shelf at the library. The storyline is epic, covering a full century, but the author does it in just over 300 pages. While this is a very reasonable length for a book, the premise is that this is basically a letter that she is writing (albeit on her computer) from her deathbed to her beloved grandson.
Violeta is born during the 1920s flu pandemic and dies 100 years later during the COViD pandemic. In between she lives an interesting life filled with lovers, revolutions, family, and fortune. From Depression to depression, wealth to poverty, tiny villages to world travel, feminism, Cold War, and the war on drugs, this book encompasses it all in a way that was interesting, but not overwhelming.

Update 1/24/25 - I didn't realize this was a reread, until I had checked it out. I started reading it at the library, and by the end of the day had devoured it. It was really interesting, having read the earlier book The Soul of a Woman, which was a memoir, and seeing the parallels between her life and the main character's life. Well worth the reread.

View all my reviews