2 Fantastically Awesome Books BJ Thinks You Need to Read: January 2025

The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen I was totally into this one. Ariel is a young 20 something woman working for her father’s company, which is a doorbell cam manufacturing company. The father is a complete asshole, not very popular. One day she gets completely dressed down by him at work, and one of the men there sees it happen and befriends her. Of course they fall in love, and then all of a sudden he just disappears.  Then later on she sees his obituary, after she’s given birth to his child that he never knew about.  They were in love and poof!  Gone! Then 5 years later she gets a text from him.  She learns that there was some hiccup with a local cell phone tower and everyone got a text from someone 5 years ago.  This text triggers her to investigate what happened to this guy. Then she uncovers that he isn’t at all who he said he was, and that there are some insanely nefarious things going on at work which also led to the murder of her father. I was riveted.

 

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali  I blew through this one for book club and I really really enjoyed it.  It takes place in Tehran from the 1950s-present day. Ellie and her best friend Homa are young girls when they meet in school in the 50s. It was a time in Iran when women were encouraged to go to school, and Homa declared she would someday be a judge and they’d be the lion women of Tehran who would change the world. When they entered university in the 60s things in Iran started to change. Sweeping changes in government threatened the rights of women in the country and Homa would not stand for it. She protested and made a name for herself as an activist until she’d been arrested for it. Ellie feels responsible for Homa’s arrest and horrible mistreatment while in prison. It’s a story of enduring friendship during a time of chaos in a country they call home. Very worthwhile read to give us all insight about how Iran was able to so radically change.