A Song for My Mother

 Book 65 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on September 2

A Song for My Mother by Kat Martin

published 2011

Summary (via the book jacket)

Years after running away with her boyfriend in high school, Marly Hanson returns to Dreyerville at the request of her daughter, Katie, who has recently been treated for brain cancer. Katie has never met her grandmother Winnie. The homecoming is bittersweet, but reuniting is crucial if Marly and her mother are ever to rediscover the bond they once shared.

To complicate matters, living next door to Winnie is handsome sheriff and widower Reed Bennett, and his son, Ham. Ham and Katie become fast friends, while their parents find themselves attracted to one another. But Marly's time in Dreyerville is limited and risking her heart isn't something she's willing to do.

Can she risk loving the handsome sheriff and give up the future she worked so hard to forge for herself and her daughter? Can she make a life in Dreyerville after what happened all those years ago?

Will Marly finally realize that her true destiny and ultimate happiness lie in coming to terms with her past?

My Opinion

3 stars

You already know before reading the book what the answers to the questions in the summary are and that's ok.  I enjoy a palate cleansing "safe" book now and then and this small paperback novella fit the bill.  I appreciate that it's 150ish pages because the shorter timeline leads to less of the miscommunication tropes that have to happen to move the story along.

I picked it out from the library because of its small size and innocuous vibe as something to take on vacation...you know the jokes about packing extra underwear "just in case" you shit yourself every day?  That's me with books...I always pack way too many "just in case" and picking smaller, lighter books as extras is a way to compromise with myself.  Then when I didn't read it on vacation I took it with me to the doctor's office this morning; again, it's small and benign enough to not draw attention like I might have with the other book I'm currently reading that says "My Ex, The AntiChrist" in large red letters.  Between the time at the appointment and the time eating breakfast after, I was finished.

Even though it's pretty much as advertised and expected, I went with 3 stars because I think some pretty heavy topics were glossed over.  It's tricky to find a reason strong enough that the main character would stay away for twelve years but also something that could be resolved fairly quickly once she returns, and I don't think the final straw in this case that made her leave was that reason - either take it seriously and continue to stay away or at least address it before moving on, or brush it off twelve years ago like she did when she returned.

Girlhood

 Book 64 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on September 1

Girlhood by Melissa Febos

published 2021

Summary (via Goodreads)

In her powerful new book, critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos examines the narratives women are told about what it means to be female and what it takes to free oneself from them.

When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she’d been told about herself and the habits and defenses she’d developed over years of trying to meet others’ expectations. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness, or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs.

Blending investigative reporting, memoir, and scholarship, Febos charts how she and others like her have reimagined relationships and made room for the anger, grief, power, and pleasure women have long been taught to deny.

Written with Febos’ characteristic precision, lyricism, and insight, Girlhood is a philosophical treatise, an anthem for women, and a searing study of the transitions into and away from girlhood, toward a chosen self.

My Opinion

4 stars

I checked this book out from the library after seeing it in Bookpage.  I read it in chunks over the span of an entire day but it's Labor Day so I had the whole day to sit and read.

It's a very high 4 stars for me.  Her writing was weighty and meaningful but still accessible.  I understand and can relate to the matter-of-fact ways some situations are described that could use more reflection and therapy in hindsight but it sounds like the author is working through things and I hope she has found happiness and comfort.