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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I've never been much of a nonfiction reader, but so far this year I've read three. Is that a lot? Not so much in the big scheme of things, but for me it is. I've found a few books that have worked for me. The Wives being one of them.
At 27 years old and a new editor in New York City, the last thing Simone Gorrindo thought she'd end up doing is moving to Georgia to be an army wife to her long term boyfriend Andrew. But that's exactly what she did. Simone navigated the very early years of their marriage in a house, primarily by herself, in rural, red leaning Georgia, a wholly opposite experience from her upbringing. As she learns to live in this new world with new rules, she finds her relationships with the army wives to be her constant, steady foundation that she builds her life around. They're there for all the deployments, bumpy returns to the states and babies.
This book does an incredible job of exploring what it's like to be a fish out of water for Simone as she learns this new military world. I found it fascinating.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
At 27 years old and a new editor in New York City, the last thing Simone Gorrindo thought she'd end up doing is moving to Georgia to be an army wife to her long term boyfriend Andrew. But that's exactly what she did. Simone navigated the very early years of their marriage in a house, primarily by herself, in rural, red leaning Georgia, a wholly opposite experience from her upbringing. As she learns to live in this new world with new rules, she finds her relationships with the army wives to be her constant, steady foundation that she builds her life around. They're there for all the deployments, bumpy returns to the states and babies.
This book does an incredible job of exploring what it's like to be a fish out of water for Simone as she learns this new military world. I found it fascinating.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Rating someone’s life story is hard, so I’m rating this based on clarity and organization. I found the author’s reflection to be compelling in a number of places, especially as someone who shares some overlapping experiences. The questions she asks about loving someone whose values and actions are or have been at odds with your beliefs are worth considering.
I’m not entirely sure who this book is for. It’s outside my usual reading scope, but I like trying new things, and the first chapter made it clear that I have some things in common with the author. But I’m not sure who I would recommend it to, as a large focus of the book is dedicated to the question of the author’s ethos and morality, and gradually bending it for the sake of…? Love, perhaps, or comfort. There’s something polished and glossy about the prose, even when she’s getting into the messier bits of her experience, that made me feel like I was being held at arm’s length. At the same time, there’d a lot of stuff that would be mentioned and then set aside. For example, she was in a terrible accident with serious physical repercussions, but then it’s never mentioned it again. A couple chapters end on cliffhangers of a sort that don’t really fit the tone.
The structure just felt a little wonky to me, and it threw the pacing off. I found her narrative engaging while I was reading it, but I’m not sure what to take away with me. This is a problem I often have with memoirs, where I get the sense that the author included everything that felt significant to them without thinking about their story as a narrative structure. I’m sure it’s hard to try to boil your life down to a thesis statement, but the pat ending in particular left me scratching my head.
Still, learning about other people’s lives is interesting. Gorrindo’s prose is solid and her characterizations are compelling. She talks a lot about physical and mental health in a way that I think will be validating for a lot of people in comparable situations.
Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC copy. My lukewarm feelings are my own.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, War
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
I didn’t really know what to expect going into this memoir. I didn’t grow up in a military family and have loved my adult life pretty far removed from that culture as well.
I instantly connected with Simone, as another outsider looking in, and thanks to that and to her excellent writing, I was able to feel everything she was feeling and experiencing right alongside her.
There’s so much I’ve never considered about military life-especially for the wives. They may not be engaging in combat, but every aspect of their lives is affected by it. And while they are tasked (often explicitly by the military, if this story is any indication) with being the support system for their oft-absent spouses, who is providing *their* support? When possible, each other.
The Wives flowed much like a novel and kept me thoroughly engaged all the way through. I’m glad I had this window into their world.
Thank you Simone Gorrindo, BookishFirst, and Gallery Books for providing this gifted copy for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.
I instantly connected with Simone, as another outsider looking in, and thanks to that and to her excellent writing, I was able to feel everything she was feeling and experiencing right alongside her.
There’s so much I’ve never considered about military life-especially for the wives. They may not be engaging in combat, but every aspect of their lives is affected by it. And while they are tasked (often explicitly by the military, if this story is any indication) with being the support system for their oft-absent spouses, who is providing *their* support? When possible, each other.
The Wives flowed much like a novel and kept me thoroughly engaged all the way through. I’m glad I had this window into their world.
Thank you Simone Gorrindo, BookishFirst, and Gallery Books for providing this gifted copy for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.
Compelling portrait of American life.
I think for many people, the work and worry of war is hidden during these wars that drag on for years and years. I have really appreciated the work of Karl Marlantes and Sebastian Junger, writing about what war is like for soldiers and how we do (or more often, do not) reintegrate them into daily life. Gorrindo references these books, and her memoir would be an excellent companion piece.
Gorrindo's own ambivalence about Army life, combined with her willingness to be "a joiner" and natural curiosity about people, allows for nuance. No one is all good or all bad. I really appreciated that.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.
I think for many people, the work and worry of war is hidden during these wars that drag on for years and years. I have really appreciated the work of Karl Marlantes and Sebastian Junger, writing about what war is like for soldiers and how we do (or more often, do not) reintegrate them into daily life. Gorrindo references these books, and her memoir would be an excellent companion piece.
Gorrindo's own ambivalence about Army life, combined with her willingness to be "a joiner" and natural curiosity about people, allows for nuance. No one is all good or all bad. I really appreciated that.
Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
medium-paced