Welcome to another round of “What I’ve Been Reading Lately.” This past month I traveled all over the world — Maine, Uruguay, Vietnam, and Panama — and two of the books were even very new releases from 2024 which is unlike me.

I have finally finalized my Nordic literature reading plan for 2024. It’s going to be slow and steady (not meant to be completed by the end of 2024) with general reading categories for each of the Nordic countries to guide me along the way. Read more about it at 2024 Nordic Literature Reading Challenge.

What have you been reading lately?

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (2023) 🎧(📖)
Narrated Aaliya Warbus and Jordan Waunch

This story opens during the summer of 1962 when a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia is in Maine for berry picking season and 4-year-old Ruthie disappears. Her older brother Joe, 6 years old at the time, is the last to see her and is affected by this the rest of his life. What follows is a dual perspective narrative following Joe at the end of his life and the missing girl growing up with her new, overly protective mother and emotionally distant father. There is no mystery for the reader; it’s about how this early childhood trauma affected them both and how they are reunited. This was a highly anticipated novel that didn’t quite land with me like I expected it would. Maybe it was the narration of the audiobook that threw me. I ended up finishing the book by reading it. ⭐️⭐️

• #DiversityAcrossGenres: Indigenous / Fiction
• Book Voyage: Read Around the World: North America (USA & Canada)

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis (2019) 📖(🎧)

This story follows five queer women in Montevideo, Uruguay, who come together in secret during the Uruguayan Dictatorship and become friends, lovers, and family. They are a mixed group – a young high school student, a former activist, a married woman, a butcher, and one who is very reserved about her past and current life. A defining act of this group is discovering and buying a shack in an isolated, remote area along the coast which becomes their secret sanctuary. I read this for its setting in Uruguay and greatly appreciated the insight into life before, during, and after the dictatorship (1973-1985). I also admired the women for their resolve and determination to build their found family and to live as who they really are, despite dictators, trauma, and fear. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

• #DiversityAcrossGenres: Latine / Historical Fiction
• Book Voyage: Read Around the World: South America (Uruguay)

The Women by Kristin Hannah (2024) 📖

Loved this book. Strong female characters, deep friendships, history I’m not as familiar with. It’s about three female nurses in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and then their re-entry into life when they returned to an America that wanted to forget Vietnam and didn’t acknowledge that women were there. In particular, it follows one woman, Frankie, who volunteered to serve thinking it would make her family proud, but instead it had the exact opposite effect. It’s a heartbreaking story in so many ways, but also a powerful story of patriotism, sacrifice, and courage. I was engrossed the moment I entered Frankie’s life.  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Read My Own Shelf: BOTM selection
• Book Voyage: Read Around the World: Southern Asia (Vietnam)

The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez (2024) 🎧
Narrated by Robin Miles

This was not a unified story but instead a series of glimpses into the lives and backstories of individuals living in the Panama Canal zone during a period of its construction. Marian Oswald left America with her husband whose goal it was to eradicate malaria from the area. Sixteen-year-old Ava Bunting ran away from her home in Barbados so she could earn money for her younger sister’s surgery. Francisco was a local fisherman whose 17-year old son Omar decided to work in the cut despite his father’s protests. Joaquin was a fishmonger in Panama City whose wife became an activist when her small home village was threatened by the building of a dam. Over time, their lives intersected. It was an interesting behind-the-scenes look at a great historical feat and visit to a part of the world unfamiliar to me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

• #DiversityAcrossGenres: Latine / Historical Fiction
• Book Voyage: Read Around the World: North America (Panama)

What have you been reading lately?

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