What I Read in February: Dinah

February felt very different for my reading habits, since I took on two longer and denser books, and I’ve been reading more zippy thrillers and romances this winter. I had so many loans coming up on my library app that I had to delay multiple times, but I really enjoyed all four of the books I did read.

The Vanishing Half

This book had been on my list for a while, so I was very excited to dive into it (Eloise recently read Brit Bennett’s other book, The Mothers). The plot centers around two twin sisters, Desiree and Stella who live in Mallard, Louisiana, a town where everyone is Black, but colorism runs rampant as the lightness of skin and the ability to pass for white are highly valued. The two sisters run away at 16, with one disappearing and cutting all ties to live life as a white woman, and the other marrying a man with much darker skin and pushing back against the values of their community. When Desiree returns to Mallard, she and her daughter Jude face discrimination over the color of Jude’s skin. The story then switches over to focusing on her daughter as she moves to Los Angeles for college, falls in love and begins to discover more about her mother’s past and family history. When her life collides with her long-missing aunt, the question of identity, family and community come crashing down around everyone.

I loved this book - the way it was written, the characters, the different settings and perspectives. Setting it from the 1950’s through the 1990’s also made it especially striking, as the characters were navigating issues like race, transgender identity, sexuality and AIDS in that changing context, and without much of the open conversation that we have today.

Friends and Strangers

This was such an interesting read - really examining two women at critical turning points in their lives - Elisabeth, a journalist and new mom who just moved to a small, university town upstate after years in Brooklyn, and her babysitter Sam, a local college senior in a long-distance relationship with an older man, trying to choose her path after graduation. Elisabeth struggles with missing New York, and her “Brooklyn Moms” Facebook group, writer’s block and a very toxic family situation. Sam is working her way through school, trying to balance her wealthy friends with her relationships with the women she works with in the university kitchen, grapping with inequality, student loan debt, and her older British boyfriend. They form a friendship, but as the line gets blurry between friend and employee, everything becomes very complicated.

I loved this book, as both Sam and Elisabeth were real, sympathetic but also flawed people. It examines privilege, but not in a heavy handed way, and really sets up the idea that a lot can happen and change in a year - one of my mantras for 2021.

The Wife Upstairs

The premise of this book is “Jane Eyre set in a wealthy Alabama suburb, with more murder” and to be honest it works! This Jane is a poor orphan, who bopped around between foster homes, experienced major trauma and abuse, and is trying to make her way, while leaving her past and her old identity behind. When she starts walking the dog of handsome widower, Eddie Rochester, her fascination with both him and the tragic disappearance of his wife and her best friend pulls her into a dark mystery.

I was very excited when I realized this was set in Mountainbrook, a suburb of Birmingham that I have actually been to as we have an old friend Anne who lives there! I could imagine the streets and some of the people, although I think that our friend Anne would have definitely figured the mystery out immediately. It’s a great zippy thriller that you can read in a few days, and I loved seeing Rachel Hawkins write something that wasn’t YA (she wrote the Royals and the Rebel Belle series).

Girl Gone Viral

Last month I wrote about The Right Swipe, and this is the second book in that same trilogy of tech-world modern romances. Katrina is a former model and a recluse, who barely leaves the mansion she lives in while building a fortune and making investments with the money left to her by her older husband. With a tight circle of friends, and a list of 10 places outside of her house that she can go, she feels ready to look for love, but a chance encounter at a cafe goes viral, and brings back the fears that have held her back for so long. Her hunky head of security Jas takes charge and whisks her into the center of his complicated family to keep her safe. Little do they know, they both have a crush on each other!

I love how diverse these books are and the different sides of California they highlight - this one focusing on Jas’ family and their extensive farm, as well as their path to wealth as immigrants from India. Plus there are steamy scenes that feel sexy without being too scandalous.