Month: September 2023

Real Americans by Rachel Khong (Literary Fiction)

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 4.5/5 Plot: 3.5/5

An exploration of how we become who we are (nature vs nurture and all the permutations) through the stories of three generations of a single family: Lily — raised American (down to the bologna sandwiches she took to school) by her immigrant Chinese parents; her son Nick who looks almost completely like the rich, white father he never met, and not Chinese at all; and Lily’s mother May, who escaped from China during the Cultural Revolution with broken teeth and broken English — and a sharp mind trained in genetic research. Into this mix roam themes of wealth and poverty, racial inequalities, and the ethics of gene editing.

The book held my interest throughout — it’s a plot that thoroughly covers all sorts of interesting times and places from Mao’s cultural revolution to a pharmaceutical empire and across the different stages of an individual’s lifespan. Lily and Nick’s stories felt more real to me. May’s story felt more like a recap of documented history — all true but it didn’t feel like someone’s personal experience to me in the same way the others did (this could be my problem). I liked the depiction of the science, and I thought the descriptions of relationships — with the true intentions, unrealistic expectations, and the heaviness of eventual disappointments — felt genuine. I was sad that these genuine seeming relationships included several people not speaking to others for decades, rather than trying to work through the problems — a sad waste of love. I’m honestly not sure what the overall message of the book was — I get the ethical dilemmas the book (adeptly) portrayed, but I had a hard time understanding what led to individuals literally breaking off all contact with the most important people in their lives. I’m open to someone explaining this to me!

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 30th, 2024.

The Museum of Lost Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini

I tend to think of Chiaverini’s “Quilt Books” as generic uplifting women’s fiction, but coming to this latest installment after reading her fantastic WWI historical fiction — Switchboard Soldiers and Canary Girls — I now recognize all of the deeply interesting history embedding in the Quilt books. Specifically history focusing on the often hidden contributions made by women. The plot of this book focuses on the fundraising for an historical building restoration to save it from a (somewhat two dimensional) greedy developer by collecting and curating a set of beautiful old quilts with strong ties to local history. It is the story of the individual quilts and the research process for tracking down and understanding their history that made it so interesting to me. Plenty of individual stories and the unearthing of historical context that made those stories possible. While the plot was fairly predictable, it was pleasant and entertaining, and the historical bits really kept my interest.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 30th, 2024.

Chenneville by Paulette Giles (Historical Fiction)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 3.5/5

A beautifully written book that fits into the same post Civil War world as her News of the World and Simon the Fiddler. Jean-Louis Chenneville — once a successful farmer and gentleman — returns from the war a broken man having spent a year in the hospital in a semi-coma. He awakens to a dark world of ruin — Lincoln had been assassinated, Lee had surrendered, and the Gray Union army had gone home. His body and mind are slowly healing — his memory has wide gaps.

When he does finally get home, he gets worse news — news that sends him off on a long, single-minded journey to right a terrible wrong. Giles excels at bringing a place and time to life — in this case I almost wish she was a little less skilled. It is a depressing time — full of chaos, corruption, and despair. The war is over but things have not returned to any kind of normal — there is little stability in the South, with deep-seated hatreds and little consistent law enforcement.

The story is slow paced with characters — some unpleasant but many good people just trying to make things work again — introduced as part of his heroic journey. Each character had a unique backstory that highlighted all the different people who found themselves in this difficult time and place from a wide variety of starting points. My favorite part had to do with the telegraph operators that he met and the sub community they formed (with details completely and accurately belonging to the time period). There were definitely times that I wished we could have a little less atmosphere and more plot. The book was thick with description and I don’t visualize from textual description very well, which made some of the (albeit exquisitely depicted) passages tedious for me. I was happy with the ending, but until then it was a bit of a depressing read — depressing because of how hard that time really was, not because someone put a bunch of dramatic events to force readers into heavy emotions. I’m very glad I read it, but I wasn’t super cheerful during that week …

Some quotes:
“The clippers ran like teeth over the long scar. John shut his hands together with tense precision as if pain were a mathematical problem, as if he had just solved it and the solution did not include making a noise if he could help it. Sweat ran down his face.”

“The Ohio steamboat was better because the only movement was the unhinged, sliding feel of a vessel with a shallow keel as it moved across the water.”

“He tried to get a grip on himself. This was no way to live, in this messy chaos of despair.”

“People were draining south like wintertime migratory birds.”

“Every word seemed some strange phrase of dejection and unhappiness.”

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on September 12th, 2023

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (SciFi — Audio Book)

Book two in Martha Well’s MurderBot series following the adventures of a rogue “Sec Unit” (part organic / part inorganic bot uber-designed for security). Just as good as the first one! Our hero is a perfect symbol of what I have recently heard called “Heroic Masculinity” as opposed to “Toxic Masculinity.” Strong, caring, and bent on protection. (In truth, our Sec Bot is an it — I think of it as “male” because the audio book reader was male and the story is told in the first person, but SecBots have no genitals so … “it” it is even though it makes the next paragraph read poorly IMHO.)

I like its funny and acerbic “voice” and its constant search for how to pretend to be human to evade capture but also to understand interactions well — kind of reads like the story of someone with autism struggling both to fit in and to understand what it is it wants to fit into. In this story it (we never get a name!) makes a “friend” and finds that it surprisingly “misses” its team from book one. Its new friend is called ART for Asshole Research Transport — they weren’t friends when the name was coined. ART is a supremely intelligent and advanced bot pilot who helps our hero purely out boredom and excitement at the challenge. Plenty of action but without the dull and pointless extended chase scenes. Lots of exploration of evolving cultural norms as new types of beings are brought into play.

Moving on to book three — there are many and they are short!

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Writing: 3/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 3.5/5

I disliked this book and eventually gave up reading it when I got about 2/3 of the way through. It is the fictionalized history of Belle da Costa Greene — JP Morgan’s personal librarian — but the richly populated details of her personal and inner life seemed far more related to Benedict’s idea of how Greene would feel (or maybe how she imagined her readers would like to think Greene would feel) and not to the way all the available data about Greene would lead one to believe.

The real Belle lived her whole life as white, despite being born to colored parents and having a “C” for colored on her birth certificate. Her secret was only discovered posthumously. She burned all of her personal papers before her death, so the only information on her must be gleaned from her letters to others, her professional papers, and any news coverage of her at the time. She was in her 20s when J.P. Morgan plucked her from her job at Princeton and made her his personal librarian where she managed and grew a multi-million dollar collection. A rare-book and illuminated manuscript expert at a time when the field was almost exclusively men, she was known as stylish, clever, and determined. The early part of the book was very engaging — I loved hearing about the auctions, and the masterpieces, and the collectors she met. But it kind of went downhill (IMHO) from there as she entered into an affair with a married man which launched a set of other events which seemed to impact her heavily.

I haven’t read the personal letters that apparently “hint” at some of these things (they are not available online yet) so I can’t say how on target the fictionalization is, but from everything that I have read about Greene, the novel ascribes far more base emotionality than she possessed. Not every woman is a mass of anxiety and insecurities inside, or ready to liquefy into a puddle when a handsome man tells her he loves her. From all accounts, Greene was a truly extraordinary woman — especially for her time — and I don’t see why we would want to distract from her knowledge and accomplishments with overwrought behavior when there is no evidence at all that she ever felt or behaved that way!

I know a lot of people who absolutely love everything Benedict writes, so this is probably a minority opinion — but it is mine! By the way, the Morgan Library and Museum is opening a Belle da Costa Greene Exhibition in Fall 2024! That I would be interested in seeing.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum

I loved this quiet, reflective, and ultimately upbeat book about a young South Korean woman — Yeongju — who drops out of the rat-race to open a bookshop in a quaint residential area of Seoul. This is a far cry from similarly themed American versions with sassy owners or drama gushing from every page. Instead this bookstore slowly grows a community filled with polite and kind people who help each struggle with philosophical questions of life such as: What constitutes success in life? Have we become the person we wanted to be? We meet an array of people, each taking an unusual (especially for South Korea) path through living and hear discussions of the tactics each is employing along with a self-assessment of his or her happiness.

This is a translation of a surprise best-seller from Korea whose popularity spread completely through word of mouth. I enjoyed knowing that I was reading something authentically Korean that had appealed to a non mainstream audience in that way. What I assume was a modern Korean culture permeated the behavior and reflections of each of the characters in a way I found enlightening. I also loved the writing style: Quiet. Observational. Unfiltered. The story was sweet, honest, and real and had many points of resonance for me. I loved the way people communicated with each other with simultaneous insight into each person’s thoughts and assumptions. And of course, I loved all the “action” around reading and books! Yeongju reads. At the start of the book she is reading about people who have left their old lives behind, as that is what she has just done. She reads and discusses the ideas with herself. She learns but also disagrees and in this way furthers the development of her own sense of self and purpose. She makes recommendations but is far from the know-all librarians portrayed in much fiction. My favorite request: a mother whose 18-year old son is already sick of life asks for a book that will “unclog a smothered heart.”

I loved that this book tackled deep issues with neither false cheer nor gloominess. I found it ultimately inspiring while simultaneously grounded in reality. As an aside, I really had to focus on all the Korean names as I don’t have a lot of experience with them and am happy to report that with just that little bit of focused effort, the names felt very familiar to me by the end.

Quotes:
“In The past, she used to live by mantras like passion and willpower, as if by imprinting the words on her mind, they would somehow breathe meaning into her life. It only felt like she was driving herself into a corner. From then on, she resolved never to let those words dictate her life again. Instead, she learned to listen to her body, her feelings, and be in happy places. She would ask herself these questions: does this place make me feel positive? Can I be truly whole and uncompromisingly myself? Do I love and treasure and myself here? For Yeongju, the bookshop checked all the boxes.”

“Yeongju loved such stories. Stories of people going through hard times, taking one step forward at a time as they seek comfort from the flicker of light across the horizon; stories of people determined to live on, despite their sufferings. Stories of hope – not the rash, or innocent kind, but the last glimmer of hope in life.“

“Yeongju’s home felt like an extension of her — somewhat lonely, but a reassuring presence nevertheless.”

“She took care and pride in writing each piece, even though it felt like she had to squeeze out every last bit of her brain juices.”

“Isn’t that what life is about? Foraging forward with the answer you have — stumbling along the way and picking yourself up — only to one day realize that the answer you’ve held onto for a long time is not the right one. When that happens, it’s time to look for the next answer. That’s how ordinary folks, like herself, live. Over our life span, the right answer will keep changing.”

“What counts as a good book? Books by authors who understand life. Those who write about family, mother and child, about themselves, about the human condition. When authors delve deep into their understanding of life to touch the hearts of readers, helping them to navigate life, isn’t that what a good book should be?”

“Small talk could be a considerate gesture, but most of the time, at your own expense. With nothing to say, squeezing the words dry leaving only an empty heart and a desire to escape.”

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 20th, 2024.

The Women by Kristin Hannah (Historical Fiction)

Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 4/5

In 1966, freshly minted nurse Frances “Frankie” McGrath joins the Army to be sent to Vietnam in order to be in country with her brother and earn a spot of the family’s “wall of heroes.” The story follows Frankie through nursing on the front lines, returning two years later to a country that (literally) spits on her for her service, and her reliance on alcohol and pills to get through the day. She has a need to be recognized as a veteran when everyone knows there were “no women in Vietnam.” Her life is heavily influenced by the trends of the day: the wide availability of “mother’s little helpers,” the burgeoning awareness of PTSD, and the shocking lies about the War that start coming to light.

The writing is good, and the characters are appealing and have depth. I thought she captured the times and various scenarios well — front line nursing environment (far worse than on MASH!), the reception she received back in Coronado (island community outside San Diego) when she got home, the Veterans administration, and others. I loved the friendships she depicted. Hannah is overly dramatic for my taste — though I think that is exactly why she is such a popular author.   For me the story has plenty of innate drama without loading it down with coincidences and a focus of every possible “bad thing” happening to one person. However, I thought the book did a credible job of explaining exactly how a young, well-off woman could form this track through life and how she could finally turn things around.  I also couldn’t stop reading so the writing was certainly effective!

The author’s stated goal was to bring to light the (whole) story of the women who were in the Vietnam War and she did that admirably. A very good piece of historical fiction with detailed and accurate surroundings and fully embedded characters.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 6th, 2024.

Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March (Mystery –Audio Book)

Writing: 3/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 4.5/5

Mixed feelings on this one. This historical mystery takes place in India during the late 1800s. It is full of intrigue and plot twists embedded in little known (to me or to average American readers) parts of Indian history. Captain Jim Agnihotri is recovering from a brain injury resulting from a military skirmish when he reads of the deaths of two Parsi ladies who “fell” from a watchtower to their deaths. Intrigued, he approaches the widower and is hired to investigate. So begins a convoluted plot that incorporates disparate religious and cultural norms, political machinations, and the question of British rule, the princely states, and new bids for Indian independence.

The writing is decent, the characters are appealing, and the historical context was fascinating. On the negative side (for me), there was far too much repetitive anguish on the parts of two characters whose love was forbidden, and too many “impossibly dangerous” situations which Captain Jim — in true heroic style — managed to defuse / rescue / solve without too much trouble. Also, too much unnecessary (to me) hand wringing. In one case, one character killed another — a truly evil person who had had no qualms of committing truly horrific crimes and was about to kill a family member — and still our character was full of pain at the thought of killing someone. Really? That always seemed false to me. I would not relish killing another person, but in those circumstances? I would neither hesitate nor feel any remorse.

I listened to this on audio, and although I very much liked the reader it was so slow that I listened at 1 1/4 speed — something I rarely do. That sped things up but made everything sound even more fraught with tension because of the increased speed! Might have been better to read it so I could skim over the repetitive parts. This is the first book of a series which is now up to number three. The (somewhat tedious) romantic plot was resolved so perhaps the next two books won’t have to go through all that constant angst. Glad I read it and I’m going to try book two in the hopes that she keeps the great plots and drops the romance and the endless heroics. We shall see!

Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 4.5/5 Plot: 3/5

I first read Maupin’s Tales of the City books (the first five) back in the early 80s — a lifetime ago. After a long hiatus, Maupin continued producing additional books, but at a slower pace. Mona of the Manor comes ten years after the last book and my memory for any of these past plots is a little challenged! However, reading this novel was like slipping into a comfy blanket — the same easy and intimate writing style, plenty of familiar (and beloved) characters, and a delightful new locale — Mona’s manor house inherited from her late husband — a fun story on its own. Mona will be a familiar character to Maupin fans — she is the woman who (many, many, novels ago) discovered her long lost father in the form of her landlady — the transformed Anna Madrigal.

Although this is the tenth book in a long series, I think there are enough embedded recaps and hints to make it accessible to new readers. Although written in 2024, it seems to take place in the late 90s when the AIDS epidemic was at its height. Interestingly, in this book, AIDS is referred to as a pandemic, which was not the way I remembered it being referred to at the time but which is obviously correct. Although I lived through it, I admit to having largely forgotten about how horrible it was at the time. I found a thorough timeline here: https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline/. While AIDS is not the main point of the story, its continuing destruction has a big impact on our characters and their community.

The book does unsurprisingly include a very clear and outspoken sexual / gender agenda, but primarily the characters are all seeking what most of us seek — love, meaning, and a place in life regardless of their sexually diverse backgrounds. Some positive experiences with the Romani — a group that is rarely portrayed in fiction at all, never mind nicely. Well written and enjoyable — not particularly insightful but perfectly paced, easy to read, and always surprising. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Thank you to Harper and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on March 5th, 2024.

The Lost Girls of Penzance by Sally Rigby Mystery)

Writing: 3/5 Plot: 3.5/5 Characters 4/5

My first Sally Rigby novel. DI Lauren Pengelly is two years into her job on the Penzance police force when bones are discovered on a nearby farm. Not an area with a great deal of crime, Pengelly and crew are taken by surprise when a three year old girl disappears from a local day care center later that same afternoon. And thus begins the mystery novel that is sure to be the first in a series. Pengelly is a female version of the crusty old detective and her brand new sidekick — Matt Price — has an engaging backstory and personality that nicely support her. Vera Stanhope and her (two) trusty sidekicks come to mind.

Parts of the story were a little stressful for me — I don’t like to read about bad things happening to children so I’m going to give a little spoiler here to say that the children are OK by the end without giving away anything else in the plot. This is something I would have liked to know before reading. Plot is a little slow but gets good by the end. I like the characters and I feel like the author left room for future character development.

Thank you to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 5th, 2023.