The Frozen River

The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon

70/60 | Started 12.09.24 • Finished 12.27.24 | 5 stars

Book club picked a winner with this one. I was very caught up in the story and loved the characters, but especially the main character, Martha Ballard. I think I was drawn to her as a journaler and record-keeper. The post-Revolutionary-War setting is one that I haven't seen done a lot and I feel like the book captured the rural, small town, tavern-central, gossip-filled life quite well, at least as we have it in our collective imaginations. To me, the storyline felt very plausible and spoke heavily towards the prejudices against women at that time. Trigger warnings abound - several mentions or descriptions of rape - and one gruesome scene towards the end. Despite these survivor-sympathetic depictions, I would recommend!

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

70/60 | Started 12.01.24 • Finished 12.09.24 | 5 stars

All these years of reading and I'd never read this one. I was familiar enough with the story from movies (both funny and serious). I really enjoyed it! Dickens does tend to get a little verbose at times, but the story is such a winner that it was easy enough to overlook. As I received this classic edition as a gift, it might just be something I pick up every year.

Finding Me

Finding Me, by Viola Davis

68/60 | Started 11.13.24 • Finished 12.01.24 | 3 stars

Another book that had a lot of hype but really fell flat for me. I appreciated her story of coming out of poverty and abuse but her repeated passages about manifesting her own successes were annoying, to be honest. No one manifests her own destiny; that's just silly. There is only one person over all of your life, whether you believe in him or not. I also felt like it didn't flow very well and instead jumped around from place to place out of order. Would maybe recommend to the right reader.