Let's Bust a Recap : Tea with Elephants

Believe it or not, I am still trying to catch up on recaps for books I read last year, and today we're going to cover one of them. Despite this book being by one of my all-time favorite authors with a title that sounds tailor-made for me, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth so I've just been putting off writing this recap even though I've pretty much known exactly what I want to say since finishing this one shortly after it was published last October. 

I mean, "Tea with Elephants"?! Come on. Do y'all remember when I wrote an entire blog post about a tea cup my sister-in-law sent me that was shaped like an elephant? I would have bought this book based on the title alone no matter who the author was, but the fact that Robin Jones Gunn wrote it meant I pre-ordered it immediately after it was announced and opened it up to read as soon as it arrived in the mail. This should have been an easy homerun, and for the most part I really enjoyed it but you guys, ugh. It just didn't do it for me. 

In this brand new series that Robin Jones Gunn is calling "Suitcase Sisters" (which is funny because this book fits solidly into her Sisterchicks format so why the new series?), best friends Fern and Lily end up on the trip of a lifetime to Kenya together, but both arrive carrying some heavy emotional baggage—recent job loss, a strained marital relationship, death of a close family member—and throughout their time together, they do what girlfriends do best: help each other process and heal. 

Like I said, it was mostly a solid offering from an author I love. The descriptions of the lush Kenyan landscape, the exotic animals, and the warm and welcoming people were right on the money. The entitled young influencer Lily and Fern encountered was instantly recognizable. The little Katie Weldon Easter egg for longtime readers was fun. 

But somewhere about halfway through this novel, Lily starts bringing up the fact that Fern has never had a baby and pushing the idea on her even though at no point did Fern bring this up on her own or ask for Lily's opinion. This was not part of the aforementioned baggage that either woman brought with them on the trip. And Fern has a stepson with her husband that she mothered and helped raise. By the end of their trip together, Fern has not only decided she now wants a baby, but when she gets home and informs her husband of this, they immediately get pregnant. This rubbed me so wrong. Now, full disclosure: I am the same age as Fern and Lily in this book, and I also have never experienced pregnancy or childbirth. Whether Robin Jones Gunn intended it or not, the underlying message that your worth as a woman can not be fully realized unless you have brought new life into this world through your body is so damaging. Especially to the countless women who so badly want children and for whatever reason, haven't had any. When I married my husband, I wanted a big family. I wanted to adopt, I wanted to be pregnant, I wanted a house full of kids, and my husband was on board. Over thirteen years later and God did not make us parents. And that's okay. It hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows and smiles, but can I just stand up on this soapbox for a minute and say this loudly for the people in the back: you can be a woman and have a joy-filled, God-glorifying, fully satisfying life without ever pushing a baby out of your body. You really can. 

Just for funsies after finishing this book, I did a Google search for books—novels specifically—about women who have dealt with infertility. I found a lengthy list of popular ones on Goodreads. After reading reviews of the top fifteen or twenty in which every single woman or couple dealing with infertility ended up with a healthy child by the end of the book: I gave up. I'm not one to complain about representation in media (I mean, hello, I'm a straight white American-born woman, what do I really have to complain about?), but if any of y'all are sitting on a really great novel in which the female protagonist starts out wanting a big family, for literally any reason discovers that is not going to be her reality, and then she embraces that reality by the end: please pass that title along, thanks.

I know this recap got a little rant-y, and we even entered some spoiler-y territory as well, but I felt blindsided as I read Tea with Elephants and I obviously had some Big Feelings about it. So would I recommend it? I mean, if you want to read Robin Jones Gunn, this isn't the book I'd press into your hands. But if you don't have any underlying trauma surrounding infertility or growing your family, this might be a great option for you. 

Did you ever get blindsided by a book you expected to really love?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

I have been meaning to read the true story of Fräulein Maria and the von Trapp family since at least college when I went to Austria on a short study tour. The Sound of Music has been one of my favorite movies (and, I would argue, one of the greatest movies of all time) since I was a small child. I can sing every song from the iconic soundtrack—and often do—a power achieved not only from watching the film countless times, but from hearing my mother play the songs on the piano throughout my childhood and learning to play many of them myself. I always knew The Sound of Music was based on a true story, but I didn't realize that Maria herself had written it—years before the film came to be—until much later in my life. I've had my eyes peeled for a copy for years, but never came across one in the myriad bookstores I've visited. After rewatching the film for the gazillionth time earlier this year, I decided enough was enough: it was time to order a copy and finally read it. So in the middle of the night, while my husband was sound asleep (he didn't even make it through the first quarter of the movie), I opened my laptop, found a used copy on AbeBooks, and purchased it for $6.16. Before the book even arrived in my mailbox, I discovered that not only is the movie turning sixty this year, it's being re-released in theaters nationwide for the anniversary, and I'd have the opportunity to see it on the big screen about midway through September. So when the book did arrive, instead of reading it right away, I stuck it on my trusty book cart with the rest of my 2025 TBR and determined to read it right before going to watch the film at my local cinema. 

And come last week, on September 1st, I sure enough picked up The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp and started to read it. 

And it is my favorite book of the year (so far). I laughed, I cried: it was the best of times. 

Originally published in 1949, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers starts where The Sound of Music starts, with mischievous Maria living as a novitiate at Nonnberg. The book is divided into two parts with the first part covering what we see in the film, and the second, much larger part covering the family's story after escaping from Nazi-occupied Austria. While I think The Sound of Music actually does a lovely job with Maria's story, after reading the book I've realized the film gives just a teeny tiny glimpse of a teeny tiny slice of the von Trapp family's life. There was so much I didn't know about the Trapp Family Singers. Like the fact that before Germany annexed Austria, the Trapp family traveled all over Europe singing for monarchs and even the pope. And that to escape Austria, they actually signed a contract for a concert tour in America and moved to the United States where they eventually became citizens and started their own Trapp Family Music Camp. Not to mention the relief work they did after the conclusion of the war to help Austria recover. The von Trapp Family Lodge and Resort is a travel destination in Vermont to this day...and has been added to my personal bucket list of places to go as soon as possible. 

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I picked up this book, but I loved Maria's simple, straightforward writing style, her no-nonsense, honest approach to telling her story, and especially how her deep faith was woven throughout every inch of this von Trapp family history. It was absolutely beautiful to read. And not only that: Maria was funny. Her story of being in the hospital after a surgery to have kidney stones removed and convincing her gullible nurse that the pet turtle Georg brought to keep her company is an animal that feeds on newborn babies' toes had me howling with laughter. I will add that Maria, like all of us, was very much a product of her own time and place in history, and at times it was jarring to see terms pop up in her writing for people of color, including black, Asian, and Native American people, that are no longer acceptable today. There was obviously no malice behind these monickers which made them seem even more out of place in this otherwise charming book. 

I can't recommend The Story of the Trapp Family Singers highly enough. Before I was even halfway done with the book, I texted my mother and told her she needs to read it immediately and I talked to my sister and told her she needs to read it, too. My mother and I, along with my sister-in-law and one of her friends, will be going to see the film based on this amazing story tomorrow night, and I'm excited to watch it once again, this time with a much fuller understanding of what this incredible family went through. 

What's the last book that absolutely delighted you? And do you plan to go see The Sound of Music this weekend on the big screen?

A Word for Wednesday

 "Many a one has lost his faith in God because he first lost his faith in man; 

and again, many a one has found his faith in God again 

because he met a good man who took the bitterness out of his heart."

~Michael von Faulhauber~

Let's Bust a Recap : The Summer I Turned Pretty

Oh hey there! I let another two months slip by without blogging a single thing so I'd say it's high time to revive my little corner of the internet...at least for the time being. I'm hopelessly behind on recaps but I've been too busy having a fabulous summer to worry about keeping up with the blog. My best friend Amy came to visit me twice in July and we decided to read The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy together. I'm pretty sure she finished all three books before I even made it through the first one, but I finally finished them and I'm ready to talk about it.

A few years ago, our fledgling—now defunct—book club read Jenny Han's To All the Boys trilogy, and we all loved it. According to the internet, Han is actually best known for The Summer I Turned Pretty books which she wrote first so after reading and loving To All the Boys, I thought to myself, "Maybe someday I'll pick up The Summer I Turned Pretty." 

I also thought to myself, "The Summer I Turned Pretty could not possibly be as good as To All the Boys, so maybe I'll leave it alone." And I went back and forth like this every time I happened to think about it. So goes the typical internal struggle of your average bookworm. Or at least this bookworm. And then one day as I was scrolling Goodreads, I saw that one of my friends was starting To All the Boys and had previously given The Summer I Turned Pretty five stars. I immediately tapped out a comment detailing my dilemma, and she expressed the similar problem of having read The Summer I Turned Pretty first and loving it so much that she wasn't sure To All the Boys could live up to the hype. Well that did it. I'd read The Summer I Turned Pretty for myself and finally get to the bottom of my conundrum. 

SPOILER: To All the Boys I've Loved Before is far and away the superior trilogy. You just can't beat that killer premise. 

As it happened, I began reading the trilogy the same week the final season premiered on Amazon Prime. It seemed like the whole internet had divided into #TeamConrad or #TeamJeremiah, and even people in my real life were talking about it. At absolutely no point during the vicious cycle of my Jenny Han quandary did I have any intention of watching the show and even more so now that I have read the books I have zero desire to watch it. I am firmly in the camp of if-you-date-two-brothers-you-probably-have-no-business-ending-up-with-either-one-of-them. 

In case you were wondering what this trilogy is even about: I can basically sum it up by saying that over the course of three books, we get a front row seat to our protagonist Belly Conklin's angst over what to do about her lifelong love for Conrad Fisher when his younger brother (her best friend) Jeremiah Fisher confesses his love for her. The first book is completely from Belly's perspective during the summer of her 16th birthday. Every summer of young Belly's life, including the summer she was still in utero, has been spent at Cousins Beach with her mom, brother, and her mom's best friend and her two sons. Belly is the youngest of the four kids and has always felt left out of the boys' club, but this particular summer, she's no longer on the fringe of things. The second book is also mostly from Belly's perspective, but we also get to see behind the curtain into Jeremiah's perspective. And in the final installment of the trilogy, we get a few glimpses into Conrad's perspective. 

It wasn't great, but I will say that by the halfway point of the third book, I was invested and had to know how it would all turn out. Amy and I agreed that the middle book, It's Not Summer Without You, was the strongest of the trilogy, but differed when it came to whether the first or final book came in second: Amy preferred The Summer I Turned Pretty, while I actually really liked the ending Han managed to pull off in We'll Always Have Summer. 

Overall, I don't really understand why these books were such a hit. Belly wasn't a particularly likeable protagonist, and she never really grew up until we were down to the literal last pages. And as for the Fisher boys, I wasn't exactly swooning over either one. But to each their own. As far as my personal recommendation goes, skip The Summer I Turned Pretty but don't miss out on To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

Did you read this trilogy or watch the very popular Prime adaptation? Were you #TeamConrad, #TeamJeremiah, or #TeamGrowUpAndMoveOn? 

Let's Bust a Recap : Two Gentlemen of Verona

Two Gentlemen of Verona?? More like One Gentleman and One Scumbag of Verona. This is one of the Bard's earliest plays, and oh boy, what a doozy. 

We open on young Valentine gearing up to leave Verona to expand his horizons in Milan and trying to talk his best buddy Proteus into joining him. But Proteus doesn't want to leave his ladylove behind, not to mention he's a lame lazybones who can't be bothered to expand any horizons. 

So Valentine is all, "Hope your life is awesome. Peace out."

But then Proteus' dad is all, "You better get your good-for-nothing behind up and go see the world and quit embarrassing me, you massive disappointment." So then we have to listen to Proteus and his main squeeze Julia go on and on with much sighings and tears and swearing their love eternal to one another. Including exchanging rings and vows. 

Have you already guessed who the scumbag is and who the gentleman is? Hint: Proteus is the scumbag and I hate him. 

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. 

So Proteus follows Valentine literally the very next day accompanied by his servant Launce and Shakespeare's most famous dog Crab. 

(Let me just tell you that Launce and Crab provide a lot of comic relief throughout the play but since Crab's role is entirely non-speaking—what with him being a dog and all—and their bits not having much to do with the main plot: it's hard to translate here. Suffice it to say, we love Crab.)

Apparently within this twenty-four hour window, Valentine has gotten to Milan and fallen hopelessly in love with Silvia who is a total smokeshow but unfortunately promised by her father to sad sack Thurio. She obviously has zero interest in actually marrying Thurio, and she and Valentine have started making plans to run away together. 

In one day. Oh to be young and to feel love's keen sting. 

But then Proteus shows up and immediately falls for Silvia too. You know, the Proteus that just yesterday swore eternal love to Julia? Yeah. Same guy. He has like, a moment's pause over the fact that he's basically stabbing both Valentine, his best friend, and Julia, his eternal love, in the back, but no worries: he doesn't lose any sleep over it or anything.

Instead, he goes to Silvia's dad and spills the beans on Silvia's and Valentine's entire plan for elopement and gets his best friend banished from Milan. Classy. 

So Valentine is out wandering around in a forest (classic Shakespeare), and runs into a band of outlaws who decide to make him their leader because they're actually a bunch of standup guys and Valentine is the most upstanding of all standup guys there ever was. 

Back in Verona, Julia is wasting away missing Proteus and decides to dress up like a boy and go to Milan to be with him. Because can we have Shakespeare without any crossdressing? No we cannot. She gets there just in time to discover her eternal love serenading his love to fair Silvia who, by the way, has not given him the time of day. 

Silvia may be my favorite Shakespearean heroine of all time. Definitely in recent years. 

But does Julia give Proteus the what-for and leave that little git forever? Obviously not. The only course of action is to become his pageboy and torture herself. Naturally. 

Proteus gives Sebastian—the boy name Julia has chosen for herself—her own ring to take to Silvia, but Silvia does give him the what-for and tells him exactly what he can do with himself. 

Did I mention we love Silvia?

Silvia finally runs away into the forest to get away from her awful dad and sad sack Thurio but is immediately taken prisoner by the outlaws. As they're taking her back to Valentine, Proteus "rescues" her, and continues laying it on thick. Unbeknownst to Proteus though, Valentine is watching the whole thing. When Silvia still won't give it up to him, Proteus makes to rape her at which point Valentine steps in and is all, "You treacherous bastard, how dare you?!" But Proteus immediately pedals it back and is all, "I'm the most disgusting person to have ever lived." And Valentine is all, "Oh good, you get it too."

But then...forgives him and wishes him a good life? 

Like, Valentine, come on. 

And then Julia swoons and everyone realizes she's Julia and not some boy named Sebastian, and Proteus suddenly remembers that she's his one true love and they get back together. 

Oh Julia. Grow a spine, sis. 

Then Silvia's dad and Thurio show up. Thurio claims Silvia for his wife, but Valentine is all, "Try me. I will end you where you stand." 

I'm sorry, where was this attitude when Proteus was literally about to rape her?? But I digress.

Thurio immediately backs off because hellooo: sad sack.

Silvia's dad finally realizes what a loser Thurio is and how great Valentine is and consents to Silvia's marriage to Valentine. He also un-banishes all the outlaws. And they all live happily ever after. Except I guess for Thurio. 

Like, what? I was really with Valentine until he didn't immediately castrate Proteus when Proteus tried to force himself on Silvia. And Julia, really?

But that's Shakespeare for ya. At least we got Crab. And one heroine who actually ends up with a good guy if we overlook his easy forgiveness of the most reprehensible human ever. I mean, no one's perfect. 

Next up on my mission to read Shakespeare's complete works: Coriolanus in August. Maybe I'll get a recap up before four whole months go by. No promises. 

A Word for Wednesday

I made an attempt at a grin. "You wouldn't like it in Russia."

"I'll hate it everywhere if I'm not in this war! Why do you think I kept saying there wasn't any war all winter? I was going to keep on saying it until two seconds after I got a letter from Ottawa or Chungking or some place saying, 'Yes, you can enlist with us.'" A look of pleased achievement flickered over his face momentarily, as though he had really gotten such a letter. "Then there would have been a war."

"Finny," my voice broke but I went on, "Phinehas, you wouldn't be any good in the war, even if nothing had happened to your leg."

A look of amazement fell over him. It scared me, but I knew what I said was important and right, and my voice found that full tone voices have when they are expressing something long-felt and long-understood and released at last. "They'd get you some place at the front and there'd be a lull in the fighting, and the next thing anyone knew you'd be over with the Germans or the Japs, asking if they'd like to field a baseball team against our side. You'd be sitting in one of their command posts, teaching them English. Yes, you'd get confused and borrow one of their uniforms, and you'd lend them one of yours. Sure, that's just what would happen. You'd get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight any more. You'd make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war." 

~from A Separate Peace by John Knowles~

Let's Bust a Recap : A Separate Peace

Okay, here's the thing: A Separate Peace was the first book I finished this year, and to be completely 100 with you, it's what threw this whole blog into a tailspin. How do you recap something so good? I've faced this problem before, but after ten years of blogging, getting the flu at the end of last year, and all the real life in between: I just wasn't up for the challenge. 

And I'm still not up for it. But we're doing it anyway because this book deserves its corner on the blog. 

On its face, John Knowles' 1959 debut novel is a young man's coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of World War II at a New England prep school. At the beginning of this novel, Gene Forrester returns to The Devon School fifteen years after leaving it and reflects on his time there from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1943. At that time of his life, he's sixteen and living at Devon with his best friend and roommate Finny. Quiet, intellectual Gene and carefree, athletic Finny are about as unlike as two boys can be, but they are the closest of friends and in the summer of '42 they form a secret society with their friends, Finny seemingly doing his best to shut out the war and cling to their childhood for a few more precious weeks while the rest of the boys are trying to figure out how to grow up and get to the war. Gene in particular is going through a difficult process of self-discovery in regards to his friendship with Finny, moving from an envy and one-sided rivalry with his chum to the realization of Finny's quality and wanting to emulate him. 

It's heartbreaking. Like, I think my heart actually broke while I was reading this book. The National Review called it "a masterpiece", and truly it is nothing short of one. Much of this book is autobiographical in nature, and I think that's what makes it so successful. John Knowles went to a New Hampshire prep school during WWII and served in the US Army Air Forces at the very end of the war after finishing school. None of his other novels garnered the same success as A Separate Peace or continued to live in the public consciousness like this one did. It's still assigned reading in some school curriculums. 

I actually drew this title out of my TBR Jar last year and read about half of it before setting it aside to read some library books before they were due. This was a book that I could read slowly because every word stayed with me no matter how much time passed between the times I opened it. I put A Separate Peace in the same class with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or The Optimist's Daughter: I want to convey how good it is, but I'm at a loss for words. I want to recommend it to you, but maybe not if you won't appreciate it. It's just brilliant. I'll be sharing an excerpt that broke me on Wednesday. Maybe that will give you a sense. 

How do you feel about coming-of-age stories?