Images from Goodreads

[63] Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team by Elise Hooper
Fiction / Historical / World War II, recommended on Sarah’s Bookshelves Live episode 60 Summer 2020 Book Preview

Synopsis: Three women – Betty Robinson, Louise Stokes, and Helen Stephens – fight adversity to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Betty Robinson competed and won gold in the 100 m race in the 1928 Olympics (while still in high school!) and is ready to defend her title in 1932 when she faces a horrible setback. Louise Stokes is a phenom on the track, but her skills are overlooked because she’s a Black athlete. Helen Stephens is a poor, outcast tomboy who only fits in when doing something athletic, and desperately wants to get away from her small Midwest farm town and prove herself. Their three distinct stories converge at the 1936 Olympics.

Review: I heard about this book and added it to my TBR based on the topic alone – women’s running in the Olympics! – and back in the day when women were thought of as the weaker, fairer sex (ha, “back in the day”…). I did not realize this story is based on REAL women until I got to the end of the book. Duh, Kim. I loved each woman’s story (and the side character’s stories too) and felt appalled by the treatment they received as female athletes. I’m grateful women like these three and their friends paved the way for more inclusion in the Olympics, especially in running (can you believe the women’s marathon was not added until 1984?!). Reading about these women’s hardships oddly made me feel better about my work crap too.

Recommend: Yes!

[64] We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union
Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, recommendation from Stephany

Synopsis: Gabrielle Union shares essays from her life about family, race, identity, rape, divorce, fame, and more.

Review: I love memoirs like this – raw and open with some humor, and lessons for me to learn. Union is brutally honest about her life and I loved that. The essays are not chronological, and my nosy-side wanted more of her story, like why she decided to become an actor. But I loved reading what she did share! She talked a lot about colorism in the Black community, which was the word missing from my vocabulary when I read The Vanishing Half. In that book, the town the twins come from is founded by light-skinned Black folks, and they want it to remain that way. When one twin comes back with her very dark daughter, the daughter experiences a lot of harassment because of her skin tone. Union talks about her mom being light skinned but herself being darker, like her dad, and finding herself being prejudiced against the few darker Black kids that attend her school. Reading two books with that topic so close together has been eye-opening for me.

Recommend: Yes!

[65] The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey
Fiction / Literary, Mica saw in article (pdf here) and shared with me

I told Mica I was looking for a fiction book for my father-in-law for his birthday and she shared the article about this one with me. I bought it for him, but wanted to read it too, in case he wants to talk about it. (I was teasing him for always requesting non-fiction books for his birthday/Christmas, and he said to pick out a fiction book for him.)

Synopsis: Siblings Matthew, Zoe, and Duncan are walking home from school when they find a bloody boy in a field. They flag down a driver to call an ambulance and the boy is saved, but the siblings are all affected by the experience.

Review: The writing is spectacular and I flew through this book. When I read the article about it, I somehow thought the book was about the siblings (all teenagers when it happens) processing this as adults, but it’s how they processed it in the months after it happened. The synopses online give a lot away so I won’t say anything about what they do, just that they all process it differently. I love a good character-driven novel, so I loved this.

Recommend: Yes, if you like character-driven novels