Dual Review With Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction: Dreamland Burning – Jennifer Latham

Dreamland Burning – Jennifer Latham

When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present, and herself. 

One hundred years earlier, a single violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self-discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what’s right the night Tulsa burns.

Review: This review is different because I got this book from Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction. We both read it and had a discussion about it. You can read our thoughts over on Feed Your Fiction Addiction.

The Sunday Post #119

The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, and share news. It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Book Date. I get to tell you what I’ve read recently.

On The Blog Last Week

• On Monday I reviewed Company of Liars: A Novel of the Plague by Karen Maitland.
• On Tuesday I talked about what I’d eat if I was fictional.
• On Wednesday I reviewed The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff.
• On Saturday there was a book haul.

On The Blog This Week

• On Monday I have a discussion with Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction. We're talking about Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham. 
• On Tuesday I show you some cringe-worthy book titles.
• On Wednesday I review Turtles All the Way Down by John Green.
• On Thursday I do the Book Cake Tag.

In My Reading Life

Yesterday was Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon, so lots of reading happened last week. I finished The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood. Then I read Turtles All the Way Down by John Green and Escape from Eden by Elisa Nader.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. Dewey’s Readathon was great! It’s a perfect excuse to stay in bed and read all day.
2. Another readathon starts today. I’m doing #AutumnReadathon right now. It’s way less intense than Dewey’s, and I like the prompts.
3. The dog park wasn’t crowded. I like when it's empty because my dogs don't know how to be normal.
4. I’m very close to reaching my Goodreads reading goal for the year, and it’s only October!
5. This tweet is basically my life. I make a lot of lists in Word and . . . yeah.

Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other! See you around the blogosphere!

The “Can’t Wait” Book Haul

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. I get to show off all the books I’ve gotten recently.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten some books that I’m very excited about. I’ve already read a few of them, and I can’t wait to read the rest.

The “Can’t Wait” Book Haul

Dreamland Burning – Jennifer Latham

When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present, and herself. 

One hundred years earlier, a single violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self-discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what’s right the night Tulsa burns.

Turtles All The Way Down – John Green

Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis. 

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood

Marian is determined to be ordinary. She lays her head gently on the shoulder of her serious fiancé and quietly awaits marriage. But she didn't count on an inner rebellion that would rock her stable routine, and her digestion. Marriage a la mode, Marian discovers, is something she literally can't stomach . . .

The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood

In Homer’s account in The Odyssey, Penelope—wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy—is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and—curiously—twelve of her maids. 

In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: “What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?”

The Secret History – Donna Tartt

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.

All The Birds, Singing – Evie Wyld

Jake Whyte is living on her own in an old farmhouse on a craggy British island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. Her disobedient collie, Dog, and a flock of sheep are her sole companions, which is how she wanted it to be. But every few nights something—or someone—picks off one of the sheep and sets off a new deep pulse of terror. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumors of an obscure, formidable beast. But there is also Jake's past—hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, held in the silences about her family and the scars that stripe her back—a past that threatens to break into the present.

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Review: The 19th Wife – David Ebershoff

The 19^th Wife – David Ebershoff

It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of her family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how both she and her mother became plural wives. Yet soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.

Review: This book sat on my to-be-read shelf for a year before I read it. It’s an intimidating book, okay? Over 500 pages of Mormon history blended with fictional plotlines. The font is tiny. I didn’t know if my limited attention span could handle it.

 Turns out, I can handle it. Actually, I kind of loved it.

 There’s a lot of stuff packed into this 500+ page brick. The story happens on two timelines. The first one is set in the 1800s. It’s a fictionalization of the life of Ann Eliza Young, the 19^th wife of the prophet Brigham Young. Ann Eliza isn’t sold on the whole polygamy thing. She’s sick of being abused by her sister wives and ignored by her husband. She decides to leave the Mormon Church and tell the world what really goes on in a polygamist household.

 The second major plotline is completely fictional. It’s set in modern times and stars twenty-year-old Jordan Scott. Jordan grew up in a fundamentalist Mormon community that still practices polygamy, but he has been kicked out. Several years after leaving his community, Jordan’s father is murdered, and his mother is arrested for the crime. Jordan doesn’t believe she’s guilty. Can he use his insider knowledge of polygamist families to prove which sister wife committed the crime?

 I’ve read an embarrassing amount of stuff about Mormon history and religion-based polygamy. Almost all the stuff I’ve read is nonfiction. I was nervous about how the topics would be handled in a novel. I hate it when religion is sensationalized and just used for shock value. I shouldn’t have worried: This book is unbelievably well-researched. History and fiction are blended so seamlessly that it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes. This is the kind of book that makes you want to Google everything to find out more.

 One of the reasons this book is so long is that religion isn’t oversimplified. The author shows all the complexities surrounding Mormon fundamentalism. There are a lot of characters and a lot of perspectives, but I think most of them are necessary for the reader to get the full picture. Some characters are pro-polygamy, some are anti-polygamy, some don’t have an opinion. Some grew up in polygamist families and don’t know anything different. There are even a few mainstream Mormon characters who have no experience with polygamy and are looking at it as curious outsiders. I love that the author doesn’t shy away from complexity. The readers are left to draw their own conclusions.

“I must say a few words about memory. It is full of holes. If you were to lay it out upon a table, it would resemble a scrap of lace. I am a lover of history . . . [but] history has one flaw. It is a subjective art, no less so than poetry or music. . . . The historian writes a truth. The memoirist writes a truth. The novelist writes a truth. And so on.” – The 19^th Wife

While I was reading, I kept flip-flopping on which of the plotlines I liked more. In the end, I liked Ann Eliza’s more. I think it’s brave when authors write from the points-of-view of real historical people. Jordan’s plot is really good, though. It’s funnier than I expected. The young characters are blunt, curious, and not afraid to ask questions.

“‘Isn't a gay Mormon like an oxymoron?’ 

‘Do I look like an oxymoron to you?’ 

‘An oxymormon.’” – The 19^th Wife

Like I said earlier, this book is long and has a lot of POVs. I think it’s a little too long. The pacing slows down toward the end, and I was ready for it to be over. I don’t have a 500+ page attention span.

 If you want to know about life in a Mormon polygamist family, then this book is a must-read. It’s well-researched and entertaining at the same time. I shouldn’t have waited so long to read it.

“I, of course, cherish my freedom, but I shall never want my freedom to restrict the freedom of another. In that case then I am not truly free, and none of us is truly free.” – The 19^th Wife