Thursday, March 14, 2024

The Fury by Alex Michaelides (audiobook)

 genre: contemporary mystery

When Lana Farrar decides she needs to escape the London dreariness, she brings her friends with her for a weekend at her Greek island summer home.  As an ex-movie star, her Lana's friends are quirky creatures with secrets of their own and from the beginning of this tale, we know that one person doesn't leave that island alive.  What we don't know is who - or why.

I jumped on this as soon as I heard it was coming out because I'd enjoyed The Silent Patient so much.  This one wasn't as smooth or enjoyable of a read, unfortunately.  The narrative style was unique and I liked it to an extent, but all the back and forth and labyrinthine dead ends ended up feeling heavy and overdone.  It needed MORE linear plot, in my opinion.  There also wasn't one single likable character by the end of the book, which just left me feeling a bit flat.  Bottom line: I was interested enough to be engaged in the whole thing but it just really was lacking the sort of zing I want in a psychological thriller.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

The Lover by Marguerite Duras

 genre: fictionalized memoir

In colonized Vietnam, a fifteen year old girl from a French family (whom we never know by name) finds her life utterly changed the day she meets the older Chinese man while on the ferry to school.  This part-reminiscent part-stream of consciousness look at the narrator's family and life explores not just this Lolita-like affair but also her struggles within her poor family and the racism and complicated relationships among the colonizers and the colonized.  

This is such a short book but it took me a lot longer to work my way through it than I'd anticipated.  I chose it because it was on a list of big award winners for French writers For one thing, it's not linear.  None of the main characters have names and even the narration switches between third and first person as our main character explores her painful memories.  There are some truly vivid scenes and images, both of her as a young person with a quirky nature and especially of Siagon and the lives of the French living in Indochina at the time.  The strange dreamlike quality of the "scenes" with the Chinese man aren't super open-door but they aren't non-descriptive either.  It's almost like she can't even look at what happened straight on.  What does really intrigue me is that the author says that it is based on her own experiences from pre-war Vietnam so I can really appreciate it as a look at a place and time that no longer exist in the same way.

Honestly, I can't say I loved it.  I can see the value of it from a literary point of view but it just didn't capture me.

content: super adult themed with sexual scenes

Monday, March 4, 2024

Above Ground by Clint Smith (audiobook)

genre: poetry

I still have goose-bumps, right now, from listening to the author read his collection of poetry. It has been a LONG time since I just listened to poetry and I forgot how I can be moved by it.  MOVED.  Clint's words lulled me and reminded me of the beautiful moments we can take for granted.  They made me feel nostalgic for times and places that aren't mine.  His way of making words create an image made me want to wrap my language around me like a giant quilt, so grateful for how a voice making sounds can tell me so much, even in the spaces.  From maternity wards to the shores of Louisiana, from deep inside the heart of a father to the face of stranger deserving of compassion, Clint Smith made me feel so deeply.

If you even think you might ever like to try poetry, try this.  Please.  I would put it in the hands of every language lover that is in my circle.  Highly recommended.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

genre: contemporary fiction 

When Lily meets Ryle, she’s not in a good place. Her dreams are on hold, her childhood was full of pain and her life in Boston isn’t what she’d anticipated. But in their short first encounter, Lily sees something in Ryle that she notices - and likes. So when chance throws them together again, Lily’s story pivots in a huge way. Determined to live a different life than her mother, Lily knows how to be a strong and capable woman, no matter what she faces.

I am truly of two minds about this book. Part of me says: this book was GOOD. I couldn’t put it down, I cared about what happened to Lily, it made me feel big things and I didn’t know what would happen next. I love that. Also, the powerful look at domestic abuse is a topic that is absolutely worth discussing and I felt very invested in Lily’s past and future.

On the other hand, the writing is NOT great. I didn’t really get the chemistry between Lily and Ryle, I don’t feel like I knew them well enough to understand their obsession with each other. The best friend plot line, as well, just happened so fast that it made me work harder to suspend my disbelief.  The language never super moved me.

So, I’m giving it a strong three stars. It would be deeply triggering to anyone who has any experience with domestic/partner abuse. A few open door sex scenes and some language.

*the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs*

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store James McBride (audiobook)

 genre: historical fiction

The neighborhood of Chicken Hill might not be fancy. It might be filled with those who exist on the edge of society, heck, it might be filled with people who can’t even always get along themselves. But they know each other and what they are up against as immigrants and descendants of former slaves in a Pennsylvania where the white man makes the rules. And amongst the Jews and African Americans in this there is enough of a camaraderie that the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is a place everyone visits, especially to see Chona, whose vibrant spirit has made it a place of welcome. When bureaucracy threatens one of their own, the residents of Chicken Hill have a choice to make that will impact even those that are most beloved.

Technically this is a murder mystery, I suppose. I mean, there is a murder and we do find out who committed it. But it’s also so much more than that. It’s portraits of individuals, all tied together in the kinds of knots that small towns can make and what I most appreciated was the way that Jewish immigrants interacted with and yet still kept themselves apart from their neighbors and how that balance can impact the ebb and flow of a sense of community. The darkness here was hard to read but it was balanced out by the compassion and redemption in a way that worked for me. I can see why so many praise this novel and while it wasn’t my favorite read I really enjoyed it.

Audiobook narration was well done.

Content: a scene of child abuse, adult themes

This Impossible Brightness by Jessica Bryant Klagmann

genre: speculative fiction

The hole in Alma’s heart will not close. After loosing her most important person, to stay out in a crowded society is more than her heart can handle, especially in a world on the brink of environmental disaster. So she escapes to a wild island off the coast of Canada to live as solitary an existence as she possibly can. Except there is something…unique about the location of this island that makes it collect old sounds and radio broadcasts. That uniqueness will tap into something special inside Alma and connect her to this barren place.

I didn’t know anything about this when I started (for some reason, I also thought the author was different? I literally just started reading it off my Kindle and knew nothing.). I ended up finding it to be a really interesting and thought provoking read. The connection to the land, the way we can be connected to the people we love, how essential it is that someone knows our story - it mostly read quick for me. It rambled a little bit and Alma is an emotionally complicated character, a bit hard to connect to, but by the end I cared about her and the place she called home.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

genre: dystopian speculative fiction

I feel silly writing a little summary of this book because I feel like I am the last adult American to read it, but, it should be noted that even though I think I knew what it was about, I wasn't correct.  Brave New World is about an imagined "utopian" society in which pain, worry, the need to make any kind of challenging decision has all be forfeited in the quest for peace and "happiness."  To make a society like this requires a surprising amount of conformity which has been put in place using a lot of mechanical and scientific social structures to ensure that everyone knows their place, the role they play, and what is allowed.  

What happens when someone doesn't easily fit their role in society?  That's where our story comes in.  If a curious brain somehow overrides its genetic and psychological programming, or if an outsider somehow makes their way into Civilization, it must be dealt with.

This was more interesting than I'd imagined, super thought provoking.  It's deeply uncomfortable to imagine this world, so much the opposite of ours in so many ways.  No idea of "family." The ability to  dull ourselves whenever we have a feeling we don't like - it sounds appealing until you see the consequences of a society of people who have no idea of what to do with emotions.  I can see why this required reading so often because there is a lot of ethical questions to discuss.


Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera

 genre: middle grade


Cece's life is dominated by the reality of the creatures (criatura) that live in the desert on the outskirts of her home.  Every year, these powerful beings will try to create mayhem and even kidnappings among the humans in Cece's town and so going out into the desert by yourself is forbidden.  For Cece, though, the pull of that wild place is too great and when one day her choices lead to tragedy, Cece will have to be brave enough to face who she thinks she is - and what she's capable of doing - to save the people she loves.

This is another book I read out loud to my fifth grade twins as part of our prep for the Battle of the Books.  I would never have chosen it for myself or them as it's really long, and by the end, I decided TOO long.  The world building here feels clunky and almost too multi-dimensional, too many details to keep straight.  I did like the legends tied in and I have to say, even though I thought it was too micromanaged of a plot with way too many requirements to suspend my disbelief, my boys really enjoyed it.  

The strong Latin American feel between the setting, the characters and the legends sprinkled throughout definitely grounded this story in a different culture.  The fantastical criaturas were intriguing to them.  They were into it enough that by the end, we read out loud for over two hours to finish it, so that has to count for something.  I liked Cece as a character though, that I need to make sure I mention.  She wants to be brave, she wants to be a helper, she leans into her compassion all while knowing she has to do hard things sometimes to get what she wants.

I'd probably give it 2 stars for just myself but the actual target audience probably liked it at a 4 so I'll give it a 3 :)

The Amish Wife by Gregg Olsen

genre: true crime

The sheriff's office in Ohio's Amish country recorded back in 1977 that Ida Stutzman, wife and mom, died of injuries related to a barn fire.  For most of her community, though, there were doubts that there wasn't any foul play. And for Gregg Olson, author and sleuth, this case stank of murder.  Having already written one book about the case thirty years ago, he revisits the crime to try and provide justice for Ida with the assumption that instead of dying in a fire, Ida was somehow killed by her husband Eli.

First, I should mention that I honestly have very little interest in the genre, I think I've read like five true crime books in my entire life, so my baseline for judging the form itself isn't very sophisticated.  The ones I've read just felt like general nonfiction and this one is more like a glorified journal where we are walking along with Gregg during every step of his investigation - we are interviews with him, on phone calls, feeling all his feelings with him and always making connections to his previous book.  I found myself really wanting to know what happened to Ida and the look into Amish life was interesting.  However, I feel like it could've been significantly shorter and still told me what I needed to know. I completely gave up on keeping all but the most frequently referenced names straight.  It is unbelievable how many people we encounter in this book with the exact same or similar names.

I read this one because I got it as a free offering from Amazon First Reads and I thought I'd try something different but I can't say this has made me want to read more true crime.  If I did, I'd try a different author.

sensitive content: child abuse, lgbtq violence, sexual descriptions, language

Friday, February 9, 2024

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (audiobook)

 genre: historical fiction

I read the book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 the year I got married, before I was even considering being a mother.  Even then, I felt so moved by that depiction of a midwife living in a different time but with a hard-working heart and a desire to record her story just like I had. When I heard that a new book was based on her life and diary, I knew I wanted to spend time in that world.   

While this book is fiction (and at the end of the author does an amazingly thorough job of telling us where she deviates from the historical record) it is based solidly in facts and has a murder mystery threaded throughout that kept the story moving along at a great pace.  What it has at its heart, though, is Martha - midwife and witness, mother and friend.  She is so human with her faults and so dedicated to her craft.  The chapters of this book are sprinkled everywhere with births and new mothers as well as with the fine art of mothering one's grown children, all while in a tiny Puritan town where sexual sins are literally considered public business and everyone has secrets they are trying to keep.  For a while I felt like there were far too many babies from unwed mothers until I realized that these poor women not only couldn't own land or vote or really have much say at all about how their life would turn out - but birth control didn't exist. 

It is so well written, the relationship between Martha and her husband was so tender and beautiful.  All the courthouse scenes were both interesting and so so frustrating, it is HARD to remember how little women's rights have mattered over time.  I just wanted to spend all my time listening and I finished it feeling so at peace with the story and so grateful that the knowledge of at least some of the lives of women like Martha's have managed to survive until now so we can know them.  

content: a little bit of language, sexual assault, rape

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