“We are thirteen, almost fourteen, and these streets of Sea Cliff are ours. We walk these streets to our school perched high over the Pacific and we run these streets to the beaches, which are cold, windswept, full of fishermen and freaks. We know these wide streets and how they slope, how they curve toward the shore, and we know their houses.”

We Run the Tides
By Vendela Vida
Source: Advance review copy

Four girlfriends feel like they are on top of the world in San Francisco during the 1980s. They talk about boys, plans for the future and any other thing that is so important when one is 13-years-old.

Eulabee and Maria Fabiola are the main characters but it is clear from the beginning that Maria Fabiola is the Queen Bee. She is the one that captures everyone’s attention is she is the one who will tell a story one day which Eulabee doesn’t backup. The events lead to a rift among the friends with Eulabee being cast out of the group.

Despite not being part of the inner group any longer, Eulabee is still concerned with what Maria Fabiola is doing and another event calls into question Maria Fabiola’s narrative of events. Eulabee tries to get to the truth. It’s clear she misses her friends but she’s also trying to understand what is happening and why.

I mentioned before that part of why I liked this book so much is for the sense of time and place. As a child of the 80s I could clearly imagine what these teens looked like. The author presents the characters in a way that they seem wise beyond their years. Perhaps if there is one thing that I could have done without was the very last part which takes place many years later on but still that didn’t diminish my great enjoyment of this coming-of-age story.

I hope you all had a great weekend. I feel like it was not nearly long enough to catch up on relaxing after the crazy work week I had last week but well, sometimes that is just the way it is right? Anyway, wanted to just pop in and let you know what I’ve been reading this month. Some books I’m still carrying over from two months ago (yes, two months!) and others are recent additions.

So the first one is The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. I think last month I said it was my goal to finish it and that didn’t happen but I’m close to the end so I really want to finish up this book in April. It is so interesting but I feel like because so much of it is something totally new to me that I have to stop and take it in small doses.

In honor of National Poetry Month I started Lima :: Limón by Natalie Scenters-Zapcio. This collection is a raw look at relationships and what makes these poems special is that the women and men in these poems are living along the border of U.S. and Mexico. So not only are there gender roles to navigate but also cultural norms to explore. I love the use Spanish interspersed with the English.

Moving on to the France, a book set in a cemetery is Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin, translated by Hildegarde Serle. Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Her routine is disrupted one day by the arrival of Julien Sole—local police chief—who insists on scattering the ashes of his recently deceased mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. I’m not very far into this book but it’s really wonderful so far.

Finally, I’ve been focusing on Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride. This is the first book featuring DI Logan McRae. Logan has been on sick leave for a year and his first day back he’s quickly thrust into a case of a murdered child. The case is gruesome, the weather is foul and there are some less than likable characters but it’s really capturing my attention.

Anyway that’s the reading scoop around here. I hope you are reading some good stuff and I’ll try to get some recaps posted soon as well as answer comments. Sorry I’m quite a bit behind. Oh and don’t forget that Amazon has their Discover World Book Day with some free books from around the world. Good through April 24. Hope you have a great week ahead and let me know if you’ve been reading some poetry or what’s your favorite read so far.