What Fiction are you reading this week, July 3, 2022?

[yellowdogintexas]

26. I finished The Marrying of Chani Kaufman

brief synopsis from Amazon: London, 2008. Nineteen-year-old Chani Kaufman is betrothed to Baruch Levy, a young man she’s seen only four times before their wedding day. All the cups of cold coffee and small talk with suitors have led up to this moment. But the happiness Chani and Baruch feel is outweighed by their anxiety about the realities of married life; about whether they will be able to have fewer children than Chani’s mother, who has eight daughters; and about the frightening, unspeakable secrets of the wedding night.

Through the story of Chani and Baruch’s unusual courtship, we meet a very different couple: Rabbi Chaim Zilberman and his wife, Rebbetzin Rivka Zilberman. As Chani and Baruch prepare to share a lifetime, Chaim and Rivka struggle to keep their marriage alive—and all four, together with the rest of the community, face difficult decisions about the place of faith and family in the contemporary world.

I learned a LOT about the rituals of strict Orthodox Judaism, and why the rituals developed. It was very interesting. However, the position of women is disturbing to say the least. The story is told well, but at the end I felt sort of dropped off. Somehow I think Chani and Rivka have more to tell us; I certainly hope so.

I finished up The Sea Turtle Did It, part of a fun cozy series set on an island on coastal Florida. In this one the murderer really sneaked up on me; I had no idea who it was. I am such a sucker for Florida fiction or New Orleans fiction; you wouldn't believe how many books I have that are set in one or the other of those places.

Currently: Working my way through The Seven by Sarah Cradit. I am up to 1974 . From the jacket notes of the first novel 1970:

1970. New Orleans. The seven Deschanel siblings live with their long-suffering mother in an historic Garden District mansion. Each of them unique. Each of them born with a gift. In some cases, a gift they wish they could give back.

When August Deschanel died, he left his wife, Irish Colleen, with more than seven children to raise. She inherited a job she was never prepared for: bringing up his heirs in a world she doesn't understand. She'd never seen true magic, not before marrying into the most prominent-and mysterious-family in New Orleans. Now, she can't escape it.

Irish Colleen knows a terrible secret. Her youngest, a prophet, has seen a future that is unavoidable: the Deschanels will not leave 1970 without losing one of the seven. She knows only that it will happen, but not when, how… or to whom.

Charles, the playboy heir apparent. Augustus, the family fixer. Colleen, the unfailing pragmatist. Madeline, the bleeding heart. Evangeline, the genius. Maureen, the dreamer. Elizabeth, the tortured one.

One of her children must die, and Irish Colleen can do nothing to stop it.
If you like paranormal fiction of any kind, grab one of these and give it a try.

I am currently in 1974, when these children are starting off into their adult lives.

These are some complex and riveting tales; there are a total of 23 books dealing with these characters and their huge family, plus their wide circle of friends and associates.

https://www.sarahmcradit.com/reading-order/
The author has two different reading order lists; one is publication order and the other is chronological. I sort of fell into these books totally unaware of the magnitude of the story, and I am tempted to follow her chronological list and just start over.