Hi everyone, this week’s reviews will feature the two stories that I read over my Sri Lankan adventure. Despite the exciting and amazing new things I saw during the daylight hours, those early morning hours and free time by the pool were spent reading the two books I had packed away into my bag. So, if you’re interested, why not head on down to see which books have made their way into my carry-on…
And if you were paying attention to the images in the collages from my personal post, you would have seen these two books within them!!
My Oxford Year: A Novel by Julia Whelan (William Morrow, 2018), just like the title suggests, boasts the idyllic setting of Oxford university in England. Our main character, Ella Durran has finally made it to England on a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford when she’s offered an unbelievable position in a rising American political star’s presidential campaign. With the promise that she’ll work remotely and return to DC at the end of her Oxford year, she’s free to enjoy her Once-in-a-lifetime Experience. That is, until a smart-mouthed local ruins her shirt on her first day. When Ella discovers that her English Literature course will be taught by none other than that same local, Jamie Davenport, she thinks for the first time that Oxford might not be all she’s envisioned. But a late-night drink reveals a connection she wasn’t anticipating, and what begins as a casual fling soon develops into something much more when Ella learns Jamie has a life-changing secret. Faced with a seemingly impossible decision, Ella must decide if the dreams she’s always wanted are the same ones she’s now yearning for. Learning that this book was adapted from a screenplay had piqued my interest before I turned the pages. I wanted to know if the tempting trailers on Netflix would be worth me reading the book. And boy did it deliver! Despite the initial disastrous meeting, you can’t help enjoying how Ella and Jamie’s relationship develops. Those amazing descriptions of student life, those historical halls and the picturesque town of Oxford were a joy to read!! If you’re an Anglophile like me, you’ll surely enjoy this lovely story! As the love story wove around the poetry and literature discussed, I found myself captivated with each chapter!! The movie, which I watched recently with mum, didn’t disappoint either!
Quote I liked:
“To truly experience a poem… you need to feel it. A poem is alive, it has a voice. It is a person… Reading poetry is a conversation of feeling between two people. It shouldn’t answer anything, it should only create more questions, like any good conversation…” – Jamie to Ella
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Transworld Publishing, 2022) takes the reader across the Atlantic Ocean to California sometime during the early 1960s to the life of an intriguing woman. Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, she would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. Her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Forced to resign, she reluctantly signs on as the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. But her revolutionary approach to cooking, fuelled by scientific and rational commentary, grabs the attention of a nation. And soon a legion of overlooked housewives find themselves daring to change the status quo. I found this book quite funny despite the powerful themes addressed. Zott was an enigma at first, but her brutal honesty and matter-of-fact personality won me over later. Calvin, on the other hand, was interesting and thus, I found him more likeable. Their daughter, Mad or Madeleine, was another unique character. I liked their dog Six-Thirty the best!! A really well crafted storyline, and I loved the attention to detail Garmus has used to detail life for women during the early 1960’s in California. Those TV shows and the behind-the-scenes chapters were quite entertaining for me. For me, the supporting cast that included the women that enter Zott’s life, were captivating and kept me reading more. As it depicts the issues of how females in the workplace were treated during those years; and intertwined it with the emerging impact of daytime television, the story became somewhat thought-provoking and reacting to the turn of events! It’s no wonder that Lessons in Chemistry won the Australian Book Industry Award for International Book in 2023 and the Barnes & Noble Book of Year award in 2022.
I hope you enjoyed this short post!!
Stay safe and keep reading
Miss Mahee
Miss Mahee's Library of Reads 