Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye.
Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
Why I have it: Spotted in Susan’s #6degrees chain.
Summary: The story of Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and her struggle with her decision to leave her two-year-old son, Jay. As an adult, Jay sets out to find his mother and the reason for her abandonment.
I’m thinking: Maybe – interesting idea.
A Girl, Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Why I have it: Listed in Lizzy’s favourites for 2019.
Summary: Without warning or explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming.
I’m thinking: Yes – engrossed by page two.
The Portrait of Molly Dean by Katherine Kovacic
Why I have it: Via A Darn Good Read.
Summary: When art dealer Alex Clayton stumbles across a lost portrait of Molly Dean, an artist’s muse brutally slain in Melbourne in 1930, an unsolved murder comes to light after almost seventy years.
I’m thinking: Maybe – not mad on the writing style but enjoyed the Australian art-lit angle.
I like the idea of A Girl Returned. Some of my own family have birth families they weren’t brought up with, but have made contact with at various times in their life. But what I have always wondered is how you know ‘Why I have it’. Do you record every sample in a diary along with a link to the recommender?
There’s a niche in the counselling world devoted to helping people manage reconnecting with biological families. It’s extremely complex and unfortunately most have this fairytale idea of a ‘reunion’ Nd that everything falls into place, or feels ‘complete’ after that. All too often it’s the opposite – feelings of disconnection and lack of sense of self can be magnified.
As to ‘why I have it’ – sometimes I have no idea (which I say!); some I simply remember whose review enticed me; and some I make a note of (particularly if they’ve only mentioned a book in a #6degrees chain). In summary, a rather ad-hoc system!
Years ago when I thought I might contact my daughter who was adopted out I attended some sessions at the organisation which used to be called Jigsaw, and they were quite clear about the mixed emotional responses of newly contacted parents and children.
Hearing that Bill, I think how brave and selfless your decision not to proceed was. Like no other situation, adoption is filled with ‘what ifs’ (for the biological parents, adopted parents and the child). I have family experience of this (cousin found biological parents) and it was a terrible outcome that altered the family forever.
I hope you plump for the Buchanan but I’d be tempted by that art theme, too. Shame about the style.
I hope you keep the Molly Dean. I read it because of the unusual art angle and also that it involved an unsolved Melbourne crime. Kovacic does a creditable job of ‘solving’ the murder.
I like the sound of the Molly Dean!
I can recommend the Buchanan.
I’m drawn to Harmless Like You – I enjoy books with an art theme maybe because I can’t draw anything myself 🙂
I like an art theme as well. This one reminded me a little of The Last Painting of Sara DeVoss by Dominic Smith in tone.