Icarus by Kayla Ancrum

“Love, care, and tenderness. They are our birthright. They are not 'too little'; they are what matters most. When instinct tells you to pay attention and choose tenderness, do it.”

- Kayla Ancrum

This is a story of friendship, vulnerability, and being willing to put yourself on the line to chase after what your heart truly desires. Sometimes we find ourselves caught in a cycle of being isolated, overwhelmed, wearing ourselves thin, and we don't realize how truly awful it is until we are seen by others and experience their love. As we follow Icarus through his journey, these lessons become more and more apparent. 

Icarus is an art thief, breaking into the home of Mr. Black to steal priceless artwork and replace them with the forgeries his father makes. Forced into this life from a young age, he has intentionally walled himself off from both meaningful connection and the spotlight. Things change during a break-in when he is discovered by someone, and this moment breaks a crack in the walls Icarus tries so hard to uphold. Just like a crack does, it spreads until Icarus finds himself face-to-face with light he didn't know felt so good.

I deeply recommend this book. Please give it a read and let your heart strings be tugged, just like mine were. And if you find yourself wanting to chase after a light, don't be afraid to fly. For even if your wings melt, there will always be people to catch your fall.

- Leo H.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Every year, as our Summer Reading Challenge gets closer and closer, I find myself increasingly stressed and therefore less likely to read. But once the challenge starts, the stress eases, and I find myself reaching for the fluffiest of books as a little treat (though, to be honest, I find myself reading fluffy books all the time, and there's literally nothing wrong with that). Enter The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood.

Olive Smith is a Ph.D. candidate in biology, studying at Stanford. After a few tepid dates with fellow grad student Jeremy (and after seeing how well he hit it off with her best friend, Anh), Olive breaks things off, and lies to Anh about dating someone new, just so Anh will take a chance with Jeremy. So when Olive spots Anh at the lab late one night when she is supposedly on a date, Olive does the only logical thing - she kisses the first guy she sees. Except she realizes that she kissed Dr. Adam Carlsen, who is not only a professor, but also a well-regarded scientist and researcher, and the reason why half of her fellow grad students either have nightmares or drop out before graduation. When Olive apologizes and explains the whole lying-about-dating thing to Dr. Carlsen, he shocks her by suggesting that they keep the ruse going. As time progresses, Olive begins to realize that Adam isn't as horrendous as he seems. Even worse, she catches feelings, feelings that threaten to explode the more they get to know each other...

This one hits some of my favorite romance novel tropes, like fake dating and forced proximity, with a secret softie of a male main character who would do literally anything if it meant Olive would be happy, though she obviously doesn't realize it right away. Even though I pretty much knew how the story would end, I was more than happy to go along for the ride. I wouldn't have minded a little more spice, but the amount we got was fitting to the story. It does have a third-act breakup, which is becoming one of my least favorite romance novel tropes, but I can forgive it since I loved everything else. There is a good reason why Ali Hazelwood's books have become instant bestsellers, and I look forward to reading more by her!

Hemingway's Widow: The Life and Legacy of Mary Welsh Hemingway

Confession: this may be considered sacrilege in literary circles, but I've always liked books about Ernest Hemingway and his orbit more than books by him. Yet I suspect I'm not the only one. His life was so huge and colorful compared to that of most of us. At times his personal adventures seem larger than his literary creations. Fun fact: three of Hemingway's four wives were from St Louis (Hadley Richardson, war correspondent and novelist Martha Gellhorn, and Vogue fashion writer Pauline Pfeiffer.) His fourth and last wife was the exception; she was from Minnesota. Mary Welsh Hemingway - also a war correspondent - was as complex as he was - talented and highly accomplished, courageous, likeable and unlikeable, magnanimous and petty, enjoying the world's favorable spotlight throughout her life, and ruined in the end by alcohol. This book is an incredible accomplishment by a retired Canadian civil attorney and law school Dean who spent many years tracking down and reading thousands of letters and documents and interviewing as many friends, family members and publishing world associates of Mary and Ernest Hemingway as he could locate. His voluminous findings have been integrated into a sensitively rendered interpretation of the last years of Hemingway's storied life and what it cost his wife Mary to spend these years with him as his mental health deteriorated. It wasn't only the writer that charmed the world who ultimately lost his mind. Though not the specific focus of this book, intergenerational, multigenerational mental and emotional health issues in this family are tragically evident in its pages. Depression, substance abuse, and suicide - all are expressed in various ways and patterns up and down at least four Hemingway generations and likely more. Gender bending was another multigenerational issue in the author's family. Hemingway was curious but also ambivalent about gender fluidity and sexual identity. In childhood his mother frequently dressed him in girls' clothing - perhaps planting a seed that bedeviled him into adulthood. He experimented with themes of gender switching in his writing as well as in his marital relations. Yet once his sons were grown, he angrily rejected the transsexual identity of one of them. Maybe that was a latent manifestation of how he felt about the clothes he wore as a little boy. Even if in close up you don't entirely like these people - Ernest and Mary - and you are especially repelled by their thoughtless destruction of animals and magnificent sea life, your heart is broken by the time you finish the book. Broken simply by the overall sadness of it. The Hemingways lived large, yet despite the richness of opportunity and life experience and the worldly glamour and respect they enjoyed, so many members of this family - including Hemingway's widow - came to sad and lonely ends. Reviewed by Marianne W