High-powered DC attorney heads home following her mother's heart attack to fill in as the receptionist for her father's small, rural medical practice. Annnnd she never leaves.

It seems unbelievable that she would stay, trading her glamorous job for a decidedly unglamorous, UNPAID one, but as the book goes on you see why she eventually accepts her new path.

I enjoyed her writing and the local flavor stuff.

Beautifully written in free verse. This is the story of a young Vietnamese girl who flees Saigon with her mother and brothers in 1975 and relocates to America. It's a good one to read along with Ann E. Burg's All the Broken Pieces, which is about a Vietnamese boy in a similar situation.

Was in the mood for a bit of romance, and this Christian historical novel had enough schmoopiness to hit the spot. A young orphaned woman joins a convoy of Civil War widows & orphans emigrating to Seattle. The women were promised jobs as cooks, governesses, or domestics. The lumberjacks, however, were promised wives. Hijinks ensue.

The love story was a sweet one, and the author's descriptions of early Seattle intrigued me. According to the author, there was a real ship-load of women who made the journey to Washington, with reporters documenting its progress to US newspapers.

The ending seemed a little bit rushed & a bit easy, but I enjoyed the book!

Man, I just really like Joanna Brooks. Her articles on Ask Mormon Girl are well-researched and interesting, and in interviews she seems articulate, kind, and down-to-earth. So I was excited to read her memoir about her journey to becoming an "unorthodox Mormon." (Cuz, as it turns out, that's a thing you can actually be now!)

When she describes her childhood and adolescence as a devout Mormon, I kept thinking, "Oh my gosh that's EXACTLY how I felt too!" She's a great writer, and I think that even people who have never had the struggles or questions she has would still be able to connect with her.

I really admire the way she has worked out how to hold on to the faith and community that are valuable to her while acknowledging that there are policies and practices she finds troubling.

I liked it fine, but I expected to enjoy it more. I'm wondering if my problem with this book was actually a problem with the audiobook narrator. In the audiobook they don't include any of the recipes she mentions, either.