Category: General Fiction

Lucky by Jane Smiley (Literary Fiction — Audio Book)

Ostensibly the story of a Jodie Rattler — from childhood until her 80s — who achieved moderate fame as a folk/rock singer/composer and, due to some clever investing of the money she had, was able to live her life and create her music without having to make herself a slave of the music industry. I never get the impression that she has any particular plans or goals. Instead she does what she wants to at the time, gathering (and enjoying) experiences that she often embeds into her music. This takes us from her birthplace in St. Louis to England, to recording studios, to tropical beaches, to New York City, and often back home to St. Louis. It takes us through her 25 lovers and their stories. The book is highly reflective with Jodie clearly describing her experiences, her feelings at the time and upon later reflection, and her thoughtful musings on life as a result. It’s really a personal voyage of self-discovery and ongoing development but without the cataclysmic events that often send people into these states. While it sometimes felt a bit slow moving (especially as the audio book reader spoke at a measured pace) I found myself consistently interested. By the end I felt like I knew what it was like to be Jodie. At the same time, I didn’t resonate with her — we are very different kinds of people — which made it even more interesting to be her for the duration.

There is a theme throughout the book where she reflects on how lucky she is every step of the way — chance meetings, being seen by a promoter etc. Hence the title. There is a lot of interesting detail on how she writes her songs, where her ideas come from, how she develops them, and what kind of experimentation she does to get a particular sound — all of which was completely accessible to me as a non-musician. Because the book spans about 80 years (from 1955 – 2030), we also get to watch (through her eyes) the evolution of the music industry, the political scene, and the planet. The worries about climate change and political instability float about the book, settling into something more solid by the end of the book as Jodi ages.

Now — I very much enjoyed listening to this book and thought the end was reasonable. But. I hated the epilog and I would honestly suggest you just don’t read it. It’s short and has a very interesting twist to it (and a tie in to the name of the book), but it has a complete downer of a future prediction that honestly has nothing at all to do with the story and just left me in the worst mood for no good reason! I don’t want to include a spoiler so I’ll say no more except that I really found it both emotionally draining and literarily gratuitous.

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley (Fiction)

I loved this book. It was hysterically funny and I found myself laughing out loud on almost every page, multiple times on some. I definitely got some looks on the subway.

A community center housing a senior citizens social club and a daycare is threatened with closure when the board gets greedy for development money rather than making the effort to fundraise for repairs. But the senior citizens (and one desperate teen father) will do anything to keep that from happening and come up with some pretty interesting long shot ideas. FYI these are not senior citizens living up to society’s (pallid) expectations! We’ve got the larger than life Daphne whose future is bleak but whose past was “extraordinarily colorful;” Art, the actor who specializes in playing dead bodies while managing a small kleptomania problem; Ruby, the Banksy of knitting; Anna, the ex-trucker with quite a number of dead husbands to her credit; and William, the retired Paparazzo who puts his (IMHO sleazy) skills into useful practice. All supposedly organized by the 50 something Lydia, whose life has been drained of purpose but filled by an utter a*hole of a hubby. There is something very appealing about old cranky people getting a new lease on life, and this intensely uplifting book has that in spades.

I loved the characters (a teen father? how often does that happen?), loved the humor and excellent writing, and loved the random thoughts on aging — like how to take advantage of the apparent invisibility of the aged for your personal aging benefit. I loved the author’s note where she claimed she still did not feel like a “grown up” despite her “advanced” age — I so relate to that! Lastly, I loved the reference to the Dylan Thomas poem “Do not go gently into that good night.” How many times have I heard of that poem without ever bothering to actually read it and think about what it means? Here are the first lines:

Do not go gentle into that good night 
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

There is more — it is good — go read it if you haven’t …

Some great quotes — only a tiny fraction!
“She appeared to have jumped out of the frying pan of sexism and into the fire of ageism. The final frontier of isms.“

“There was nothing better than listening to someone else’s guilty conscience being offloaded.”

“Her comfort zone was exceedingly spacious, but this experience lay well outside of it.”

“She needed to turn over a new leaf. Become an entirely new plant, even.”

“Despite her age, Daphne seemed to have the hearing of an adolescent bat.”

“Why on earth, when there were so many more important things they could be teaching their children, would parents waste their time reading stories about an insect with a dysfunctional relationship with food?” (about the Hungry Caterpillar)

“Daphne wrote texts, he’d discovered, just the way she spoke in proper full sentences and with perfect grammar and an under current of condescension.”

“She leaned forward and gave the man she was with a peck on the cheek, an incidental comma nestling up to a bold exclamation mark.”

“Art had tried to call his new pet Maggie, as instructed by Lydia, but her surname lurked in the ensuing pause like toxic waste.” (pet’s full name was Margaret Thatcher)

Thank you to Pamela Dorman Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 11th, 2024.

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood (Literary Fiction)

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

Violet, a young woman released from jail after serving 22 months for manslaughter for driving while intoxicated and killing an elementary school teacher; Harriet, a retired librarian who runs the best book group in the world (IMHO) at the local prison where Violet has been incarcerated; and Frank, the retired tool & die guy whose wife was the one killed. A chance meeting in the local bookstore brings these three together in a pretty wonderful way.

This book was well-written, hits the sweet spot between humorous and deep, and is overall uplifting. I love uplifting! Especially when it isn’t stupid (honestly what isn’t better when it’s not stupid?). With broad themes of forgiveness and regret along with kindness (the genuine kind, not the saccharine type which is far more focused on the person being kind than the person in need of kindness), the book is full of dynamic dialog, slowly gained self-understanding, and relationships — the good, the bad, and the ugly types. Also some capital F fun-to-read sections that aren’t essential to the plot but are engrossing and plot-supporting. For example, Violet ends up with a job supporting a crazy / crotchety professor studying the higher cognitive abilities of African Parrots (based on the real life research of Dr. Irene Pepperberg (www.alexfoundation.com). Absolutely fascinating. I also LOVED every scene concerning the book club at the prison. From Harriet’s planning and selection process to the questions she asked and the way the (female) inmates responded to the emerging personality of the club itself. Some questions she asks: If you were God, would you alter the facts for these characters? Do books change, depending on when and where we read them? Why do people tell stories? Or more specifically, if Gatsby had a brother like Ethan Frome, would he have made the same mistakes?

While probably not the primary purpose of the book, it did make me consider the (always muddied) purpose of our justice system. I wish we had a better understanding of the goals of prison: Punishment? Deterrence? Rehabilitation? Safety (in case of recidivism) of the public? Sometimes sentences just don’t seem to make sense. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions after reading.

Lastly, though there is little in common in terms of messaging or plot, the style and tone reminded me of Lessons in Chemistry. Really enjoyed this book.

Quotes:
“From her years in the classroom, Harriet understood that any group, no matter how diverse, eventually acquired a personality; Book Club had decided they were misunderstood souls born to the wrong era, and William Butler Yeats was their proof.”

“… the days when the place feels not like a dementia unit on Mars, but like an animal shelter filled with calm dogs. I can almost see them, our Reasons, small smoky thicknesses in the air. Like guardian angels, in a way. Guarding our memory of them. They float among us, quiet and uncomplaining, and they refuse to disappear.”

“Lorraine fell for Frank the defensive lineman, but he was a team chaplain at heart. He’d given her love, patience, stability, and her only child. These gifts had turned out to be the wrong gifts.”

“But these kids, who had acres of poetry committed to memory and the mechanical skills of an aardvark, they needed him.”

“Was Baker shucking the chains of patriarchy, or emulating a pop singer? Harriet genuinely wanted to know.”

“The youngster had a cuddly laugh; if hamsters could laugh, they would sound this way.”

“She’d begun their marriage as lead, soft and pliable, elastic and forgiving, but over the years she’d transformed herself into a high-carbon steel, strong and hard and resistant to wear.”

“They remained in this magical silence for a little while, as their separate pasts floated harmlessly between them”

“Retired people were often thought to be lonely, but it wasn’t that. It was the feeling of uselessness, of being done with it all.”

Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 7th, 2024.

Inheriting Edith by Zoe Fishman (Literary Fiction –audio book)

Writing: 4.5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 4/5
Single mother Maggie — a college graduate who drifted into house cleaning — is bequeathed a beautiful house in Sag Harbor by Liza — a previously good friend with whom she had had a falling out years before. The only catch? The house comes with an inhabitant — Liza’s 82-year old crotchety mother, complete with recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Maggie and her two-year old daughter, Lucy, move in, and what follows is a beautiful, slow-moving but deeply felt novel of two women coming to terms with who they are, who they were, and what kind of closure they need before moving forward. Liza was a suicide — a best selling author who did not leave a suicide note. And so part of work both Maggie and Edith have to do is to try to understand why, what they could have done, and what it means for them going forward.

Excellent dialog — full of the clear, deescalating interactions we all wish we could do on demand. Also some wonderful supporting characters: Edith’s oldest and best friend Esther — they were Broadway dancers together way back when; Sam — single dad, philosopher and now owner of a popular toy store; and two-year old Lucy who is as charming and off-the-charts annoying as any toddler could be. Lots of reflection and the gaining of self-knowledge; lots of discussion of depression, guilt, best effort, and second chances. Really nice relationships. Brought me to tears several times.

I liked the audio book reader — her “Esther” voice was my favorite. Reminded me of my grandma 🙂

Sandwich by Catherine Newman (Literary Fiction — Humor)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 4/5 Humor: 5++/5

Ok, this book is just flat out funny. I snorted, giggled, and guffawed my way through it with only occasional pauses. But while it gets top top grades for humor, it has plenty of depth, too. Ostensibly about a week at the beach with an extended (and all adult) family, it’s a study of functional (as opposed to dysfunctional) family dynamics. Many readers seem to want intense drama, with earth shattering impact, but I love these close looks at how real people work and learn and connect. The themes are family, love, and life with plenty of personality, philosophy, and interaction thrown in and a strong focus on parenting, pregnancy, and reproduction. Also the (new to me) phrase “anticipatory grief.” Wow — I should have learned that one a long time ago…

I loved the characters and the way they interacted. Our first person narrator is Rocky (Rachel) — a mother so full of emotion and worry and menopausal heat she is constantly threatening to (metaphorically) explode. I liked the way husband Nick — even as told through her eyes — is depicted so completely and not just a bit player in Rocky’s drama. Without giving anything away, I thought he was masterfully written. I loved the multifaceted views of all of the characters — both as themselves and also as they were in relationship with each other. I also appreciated the way Newman dealt with daughter Willa — the requisite lesbian through whom plenty of social commentary on LGBTQ+ issues was included in a nice relaxed, off key way that both made me laugh and made me think.

I also loved the dialog — it was written the way I wish people would speak — fast, humorous, and with a high signal to noise ratio. General banter and friendly family squabbling throughout but always overlaid on clear, honest, and trusting communication. I could be laughing at the (over-the-top-of the-top menopause complaints and then be tearing up at the essential humanity and love concisely tucked into an honest exchange. Kind of a combination of Nora Ephron (humor), Matthew Norman (human exchange), and Anne Lamott (parenting and reflection).

I will say that the inside of Rocky’s head is a fun, but very tiring place to be and I’m glad I don’t live there permanently.

Quotes:

“Ugh, my voice! You can actually hear the estrogen plummeting inside my larynx.”

“… I say quietly, but my veins are flooded with the lava that’s spewing our of my bad-mood volcano. If menopause were an actual substance, it would be spraying from my eyeballs, searing the word ugh across Nick’s cute face.”

“People who insist that you should be grateful instead of complaining? They maybe don’t understand how much gratitude one might feel about the opportunity to complain.”

“I’m always Sherlock Holmesing around them all with my emotional magnifying glass, trying to figure out if anybody has any actual feelings and what those might be.”

“Also he will get out the innocuous-sounding foam roller that is actually a complex pain device designed by people who hate everybody. I’ve seen enough videos of cats terrorized by cucumbers to know what my face looks like when I suddenly see the foam roller.”

“Nick’s curiosity about feelings and the people who have them is fleeting at best.”

“Forty percent of my waking thoughts were about the children dying — the other sixty about sleep. I was ashamed of this demented pie chart.”

“A conversation like this might be a wolf in clown’s clothing, and he knows it. My rage is like a pen leaking in his pocket, and before long there will be ink on his hands, his lips.”

“I mince down the spiral staircase in my memory-foam slippers, all of my joints clacking like the witch in a marionette performance of Hansel and Gretel.”

“All of the names of everything have oozed out and away from the drainage holes menopause has punched into my memory storage.”

“My ancient father actually swimming in the ocean feels like a bridge too far in terms of what I can handle fretting about.”

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 June 18th, 2024.

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett (Fiction — audio book)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5+/5 Plot: 5/5

Loved this book and absolutely loved the audio book reader (Katie Schorr) who added an extra authenticity in her outstanding rendition.

Freedom, Alabama. Ten-year old Elvis (a girl, named after Presley) is working her way through the 18 months of grief as defined by the school guidance counselor after the “accidental” death of her sleepwalking mother. In the meantime, her older sister Lizzie (15) has begun her own escalating experiences with sleepwalking which is (understandably) terrifying the family.

Despite the subject matter, this was in no way a depressing book. It’s an odd coming of age story of an unusual but absolutely relatable (to me) girl who loves her family, has no friends, is whip smart, and whose main objective (at this point) is to find out what really happened to her mother and to finish her mother’s book on the sleep patterns in animals. Think Flavia DeLuce.

The 10 (and later 11) year old voice is utterly believable and the portrait of the other characters — in particular the deceased mother — as seen only through a child’s perspective is startling in that the reader is faced with the stark notion that we are all interpreted differently depending on the interpreter! While I am focusing on Elvis, all of the characters were well-drawn, interesting, and didn’t have a stereotyped trait within 50 miles of their personalities. There was also a non traditional exploration of what constitutes mental illness — and how to make it through life in light of what is thrown at you — uncontrollable events, intractable people, or your own genetic predispositions.

This book reminded me of how much I like Southern Fiction — the quirkiness coupled with individualistic depth, utter nonconformity of thought, and the uniqueness of each family.

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (Historical Fiction)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 5/5

Thanksgiving 1954. Washington, DC. A women’s boarding house. A body. And blood — lots of blood. That’s how Kate Quinn’s latest book gets started. And yes, once I started, I never put it down as per usual with her books. She can really write!

Backing up from the Thanksgiving turmoil, the book starts in June 1950 and shifts the POV from boarder to boarder as the timeline makes its inexorable crawl towards the “exciting” date. This is an excellent device as not only do we get the events leading up to the end from different perspectives, we also get the stories of the women — all from different backgrounds and with different goals which together comprise a compendium of women’s lives at that time. An injured female baseball player from the short-lived women’s leagues; an older immigrant from Hungary; a young mother whose doctor husband has been overseas for two years; a secretary for the (real life) female Maine senator who goes up against McCarthy when nobody else has the guts; a secretary for HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee); a woman working for the National Archives in love with a gangster despite her best intentions; and the elusive Grace Marsh who brings them all together. These are just hints! Quinn does meticulous research and is able to bring so much of the McCarthy era to the surface — especially around the societal expectations of women. It felt like I was living it.

The book is non-stop action — but — I realized it is the kind of action I care about. Things change, people and their prejudices, fears, and disappointments have to be dealt with and some individuals actually use their experiences to shift their perspectives. Opportunities come up and people learn about themselves (for better and worse) when they choose a reaction. Action does not have to be long (and very dull) car chase scenes or long battles of any kind. Epiphany! Absolutely captivating characters — a couple of “bad men” with no real depth but plenty of men and women (and kids) who are each real in their own way. FYI two of the (fictional) characters were named after people who won the “name-a-character” raffle — what fun! Some impressive twists — do not read the end or the notes first. In addition to being a gripping read, I’m still thinking about it many days later. Always a good sign.

Highly recommended.

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 July 9th, 2024.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier (Historical Fiction)

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

A chronicle of glass making in Murano (still known as the center of glass!) as told through the life of Orsola Rosso — the eldest daughter of a glass blowing family. Orsola wants to work with glass herself, but it’s 1486 and the Renaissance hasn’t quite reached the stage of promoting social changes for women. The story uses the (very) unusual contrivance of allowing Orsola and those in her immediate orbit to age slowly while time for the world at large gallops by. While the “action” starts in 1486 and ends in the present day, Orsola only ages from nine to her late sixties. While this device is explained (poetically) in the prolog, I didn’t really get it so I’m hoping that I can help you avoid bafflement by stating it here with less skill but more clarity 🙂

Orsola’s life embodies the personal (love, marriage, and children in a large extended family rife with personalities), the political (Venice shifting from commercial center to Austrian occupied territory to part of a United Italy to tourist center) , and the business (Guild control to competitive pressures to tourist-driven). She and her family go through the Plague (and later Covid!), two world wars, and the changing mores of an evolving Europe as the Renaissance gave way to the Age of Enlightenment followed by whatever our current age is destined to be called. I learned a lot about Italian history — details that I had learned in the past now integrated and brought to life in this story of artisans buffeted by the constantly shifting trends over time. The history became so much more real to me told through the lens of this particular family.

I give this a four star rating because for my taste there was a little more description than I like, though that same description may fascinate others.

Thank you to Viking and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 18th, 2024.

Family Family by Laurie Frankel (audio book – Literary Fiction)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5+/5 Plot: 4/5

I loved absolutely everything about this audio book — the story, the writing, the characters, and last but definitely not least, the audio book reader.

The book follows India Allwood along two intersecting timelines: from precocious and unintentionally pregnant teen to TV super star; and the weeks following a media storm raining down on India following her truthful comments about her recent movie’s position on adoption. You see, India has quite a personal relationship with adoption, having placed her baby with a family she specifically selected. On the other hand, the movie she stars in (and most of the way she sees adoption portrayed in the media) focuses only on the negatives: trauma, regret, and pain. When she admits in an interview that she doesn’t think the movie got it right — that adoption can (and usually is) a very good experience for all involved, it seems like everyone on the planet has nasty things to say about her. When her ten-year old twins see what she is going through, they decide that finding Rebecca — the baby 16-year old India delivered and placed — is the answer to all of their problems…

This book is incredibly well-written and covers all sorts of issues pertaining to families, relationships, aspirations, values, and, well, life with balanced and exceptionally articulate interactions, reflections, introspection and dialog. I cannot stress enough how happy I am with high quality dialog like the kind I found in these pages. As an aside, I found it interesting that I really did not take to 16-year old India. I found her to be a pain in the butt. But she grew on me as she grew on herself, figuring more things out, always striving to understand her own motivations and make good decisions, until by the time she was current day India I was ready to be her best friend.

I’m trying hard not to give away the many surprises that pop out along the way — suffice it to say that the pacing is excellent, the revelations are eye-opening and well-integrated in the plot, and I liked every single character in the book (and there are many). While covering adoption from many angles, the author (through the voice of India) is also very clearly pro-choice, with a great scene between India and some right-to-lifers camped out on her driveway seeking a mascot for their cause. The author also shows strong support for non-traditional family units — but again, I don’t want to give anything away… Lastly, some very in depth and illuminating commentary on the life of an actor!

Highly recommended.

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman (Fiction)

Agnes Corey — junior editor at Gatehouse Publishing — has managed to convince the reclusive author of a wildly popular book (The Secret of Wyldcliff Hall — think Jane Eyre style) to write a sequel. What’s more, as the author was blinded in a terrible fire shortly after the first book — Agnes is to move in to the crumbling estate (once a psychiatric hospital for wayward women) and serve as the author’s amanuensis. It’s clear that the original book, and the one that will follow, are more autobiographical than not, but whose autobiography exactly?

I was pulled in from page one and am in awe of just how many truly convoluted plot twists I read by the end, although I shouldn’t be too surprised as Goodman is a master storyteller and strange and twisted plots are her forte. (I’m pretty sure I have read all 25 of her books so I should know!) Stories within stories, fluid identities, and three distinct timelines that are recalled through memories, anecdotes, letters, and scraps of papers found in odd places. It would not hurt to take notes while reading! One consistent theme: women committed to various types of institutions and the very nasty men who kept them there. But this is by no means a depressing tale of oppression — our characters are strong, learn how to become effectively wary, and forge solid friendships that survive against some pretty terrible odds.

In summary: Creepy! Gothic! Twisted! One-sitting reading! Great for fans of Kate Morton and Diane Setterfield.

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