Reading

The struggle is real

by

Like with electronically stored photos and documents, I have “management issues” of where all of my books-to-read lists are kept. And then there’s the digital detritus of the books that I’ve read but haven’t removed from the list or deleted its download.

I have no fewer than 4 “to-read” lists. I say “no fewer” instead of “exactly,” because there are undoubtedly some scribbled on pieces of paper somewhere.

1. My to-read list at the Wake County Public Library currently contains 33 books, all of which, of course, the library carries. Most of them include a note as to how it came to be on the list.

Expand if you’re interested in seeing my library to-read list. 

2. My to-read list on Goodreads currently contains 54 books, and the ones on this list are primarily ones that I did not find available at the library at the time I added them to this list.

Expand if you’re interested in seeing my Goodreads to-read list. 

3. My to-read list on my Kindle contains 30 books, and these are free downloads that I got either from BookBub or Amazon First Reads.

Expand if you’re interested in seeing my Kindle to-read list. 

4. My to-read list in the Notes app on my iPhone is a “quick list” of the priority items to consider for my very next book.

Expand if you’re interested in seeing my iPhone Notes to-read list. 

 

 

Finished book #34 in 2025

by
Book #34
The Dakota Winters book cover		 Book: The Dakota Winters Author: Tom Barbash
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 324 Duration: 04/15/25 – 04/18/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, New York, entertainment industry, mental health
📕10-word summary: A healing NYC family’s year preceding the John Lennon’s assassination.
🖌6-word review: Fascinating male relationships. Excellently paced plot.
💭Favorite quote: “When, once in a blue moon, they fought, it was scary, in the way arguments can be between smart people who know exactly how to hurt each other.”
🎓A new-to-me word: SRO
Description:* It’s the fall of 1979 in New York City when 23-year-old Anton Winter, back from the Peace Corps and on the mend from a nasty bout of malaria, returns to his childhood home in the Dakota. Anton’s father, the famous late-night host Buddy Winter, is there to greet him, himself recovering from a breakdown. Before long, Anton is swept up in an effort to reignite Buddy’s stalled career, a mission that takes him from the gritty streets of New York, to the slopes of the Lake Placid Olympics, to the Hollywood Hills, to the blue waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and brings him into close quarters with the likes of Johnny Carson, Ted and Joan Kennedy, and a seagoing John Lennon. But the more Anton finds himself enmeshed in his father’s professional and spiritual reinvention, the more he questions his own path, and fissures in the Winter family begin to threaten their close bond.
*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I saw this book in a BookBub email, and since I recently read The Address, which was about The Dakota apartment building in NYC, the fact that it was part of this title caught my eye. While the building was a “major character” in The Address, it played a comparatively small part in this story. As is often the case with historical fiction, I wondered how much of the story was historically factual and how much of it was fiction. John Lennon played a big part in this story, and at first, each time it said he did something, I wondered if he really did that and looked it up. (e.g., owned a sailboat named “Isis.”) Checking everything soon became untenable, and it didn’t really matter in this story. There were 2 things about this story that I loved: 1) the male relationships — specifically those between Anton and his father, Buddy; Anton and his brother, Kip; and Anton and John Lennon, and 2) this story moved right along; a typical example being when one paragraph mentioned that something was going to happen in 3 weeks (and arguably, it’s the thing you’re most interested in seeing how it plays out), and in the very next paragraph, it’s 3 weeks later. No waiting until the next chapter with filler or another storyline, or anything like that.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #33 in 2025

by
Book #33
The Best We Could Hope For book cover		 Book: The Best We Could Hope For Author: Nicola Kraus
Source: Free First Reads download
Format: Print		 Pages: 260 Duration: 04/12/25 – 04/14/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, mystery, family
📕10-word summary: Kids try to resolve effects of very complicated family dynamics.
🖌6-word review: Powerful story. Family tree logistics challenging.
💭Favorite quote: “It means that we never really know what we’ve seen, only what we noticed. It means absorbing that these are two different things, and living differently with that knowledge.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: cerise, crenellation, striate, apotheosis, kouros, pullulate, louche, palaver, chiaroscuro, deadheading
Description:* When Bunny Linden abandons her 3 children with her older sister, Jayne, she knows Jayne will be the perfect mother, one that she could never be. As months turn into years without word, Jayne and her husband, Rodger, a rising journalism star, strive to give the children the opportunity to flourish and feel loved. When Jayne and Rodger finally have a child of their own, a seemingly stable home is built. But then, after nearly a decade, Bunny resurfaces and sets a chain of events in motion that detonates all their lives.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a compelling story with a lot of kids in it, of which one sister (Bunny) dumps her 3 kids (Sage, Huck, & Brian) on her sister (Jayne) who then has 2 kids (Linden & Clyde) of her own — raising all 5 of them, and at times they think they’re all brothers and sisters, when in fact 3 of them are cousins to the other 2. And then there are 2 other kids (Michael & Luke) of Margaret and her first husband, who are Jayne’s & Bunny’s half-brothers. It was just a lot. So much in fact, that after reading chapter 20 (of 25), I had to stop and draw this family tree:

to remind myself who Michael & Luke were (they hadn’t been mentioned for ~15 chapters) and how they were related to the other 5 kids. And if that wasn’t enough — and it really was — at one point Jayne divorces Rodger and marries another man who has a kid (Justin), so becomes Linden’s and Bunny’s step-brother. Anyhoo, that was all problematic, but I really did enjoy the story, and I loved the pace. It moved along snap, snap, snap.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #32 in 2025

by
Book #32
The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard book cover		 Book: The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard Author: Michael Callahan
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 305 Duration: 04/07/25 – 04/10/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, mystery, romance, drama
📕10-word summary: Dual-timeline, multi-generational story reveals consequential, brutal, and grave family secrets.
🖌6-word review: Compelling story with pronoun antecedent issues.
💭Favorite quote: “Kit was taken aback, because maternal concern is not an armament Lucinda keeps in her quiver.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: stagecraft, insouciance, shoulder season, traif, harridan
Description:* In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director… until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off. Almost 60 years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior Manhattan television producer, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister Claire was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles. Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I suppose I was destined to read this book for several reasons: 1) I saw it in my 3/27/25 BookBub email and went to put it on my to-read list at the library, where I found it already there from my 7/29/24 BookBub email. 2) I’m a sucker for stories about found letters. 3) I have a great fondness for stories about The Cape in general, and Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, & Provincetown in particular, probably because I grew up just off The Cape in Fall River, and my husband and I spent a month at a VRBO in Eastham during the pandemic. In this dual-timeline story, I found the storyline in the past more interesting than the one in the present, but both kept me interested. The only complaint I had was that there were several times when a pronoun’s antecedent wasn’t clear. For example, a paragraph talked about 2 female characters, and the subsequent paragraph referred only to “she” (4 times), and I wasn’t sure which of the 2 characters it was referring to until the end of the paragraph. And finally, my pet-peeve word showed up a quarter of the way into the book: “Well,” she said almost conspiratorially, “it’s just we don’t see Mint out that much anymore. She rarely leaves Sycamore.”

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #31 in 2025

by
Book #31
Snow in August book cover		 Book: Snow in August Author: Pete Hamill
Source: Library loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 403 Duration: 04/01/25 – 04/03/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: historical fiction, magical realism, coming of age, language, baseball, religion, Judaism, Catholicism, ethnic identity
📕10-word summary: An altar boy and a rabbi forge an impenetrable bond.
🖌6-word review: Religious dogma eclipses remarkable relationship storyline.
💭Favorite quote: “This was the last mass of the day, and so he went back to the altar to extinguish the two candles with a long-handled device the altar boys had named the 'holy snuffer.'”
🎓Some new-to-me words: ciborium, chasuble, maniple, amice, Spaldeen
Description:* Brooklyn, 1947. The war veterans have come home. Jackie Robinson is about to become a Dodger. And in one close-knit working-class neighborhood, an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague. For Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rivals anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there’s only one way out — a miracle.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I read about Pete Hamill’s book, North River, but the library didn’t have it. Searching on the author’s name, I saw this book, which sounded interesting. I didn’t notice that one of the genres of the book was magical realism, of which I’m not a fan, and unfortunately, that aspect didn’t manifest itself in the book until the very end — or I might have abandoned it. It was a decent story, but a huge section of it was about religious beliefs that didn’t advance the plot, and of which I started skimming through after it went on and on and on. (FTR, I am an atheist.) I also found way too much violence depicted in the book, of which I’m also not a fan. I gave it 3 stars for the story that was outside of all that, which was the relationship between the young Catholic protagonist and the elder Jewish rabbi, which I really enjoyed. I was extremely disappointed in the ending of this book for the reason I already stated.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #30 in 2025

by
Book #30
Greek Lessons book cover		 Book: Greek Lessons Author: Han Kang
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 176 Duration: 03/20/25 – 03/29/25 (10 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: literary fiction, Asian literature, romance, Nobel Prize
📕10-word summary: Sight-losing professor and speech-loss adult student connect on several levels.
🖌6-word review: Concentration required: arduous-to-read, Nobel-prize-winning, lyrical literature.
💭Favorite quote: “She has goosebumps on her arm and on the back of her neck from the aggressive air conditioning.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: imperious, hanji, zelkova, inarticulacy, maru, dappled, cryptomeria, fretsaw, paroxysm, philtrum, declensions, iljumun, bunsik, stridulations, hanok
Description:* In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I saw this book on BookBub and the description intrigued me enough to check its availability in the library. I liked the plot premise and that it won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2024. Not surprisingly though, that made arduous reading at times. Several times I put it down after reading only a short bit of it. I didn’t discover until a good way into the book that the male protagonist’s storyline was in first person and the female protagonist’s storyline was in third person. Short on dialogue tags, there were times when I could only tell who the speaker was by whether it was in first person or third person particularly in chapter 19, A Conversation in Darkness. I expected to like this book more than I did, but I’m just not a huge fan of lyrical writing, and this book was no exception in spite of being a Nobel Prize winner.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #29 in 2025

by
Book #29
Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem book cover		 Book: Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds Author: Nancy Johnson James
Source: Library loan
Format: Print (picture book)		 Pages: 32 Duration: 03/19/25 – 03/19/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: nonfiction, African American, poetry, biography, history childrens
📕10-word summary: Short, biographical introduction to an African American seamstress and poet.
🖌6-word review: Lyrical prose. Beautifully illustrated picture book.
💭Favorite quote: “What thoughts do you carry when idle with nothing to do? Do you dream of the future? Or of someone who lived before you?”
Description:* What dreams do you carry? Myra Viola Wilds dreamed of opportunity. She left her home in rural Kentucky for the city, learned to read and to write, and became a dressmaker. She hand-stitched gorgeous gowns. She worked so hard she lost her eyesight, and her world went dark. But those well-loved stitches turned into words, and one night Myra woke in the middle of the night and wrote a poem she called “Sunshine.” She kept writing. She wrote the lush green, sweet-corn yellow, cerulean blue, sunshine-y world from memory, collecting her poems into a book called Thoughts of Idle Hours, published in 1915.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I hadn’t heard of Myra Viola Wilds before reading this book, and I’m glad to know about her now. The story seemed a little disjointed to me, hence the 4-star, as opposed to 5-star, rating. The art work is great.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #28 in 2025

by
Book #28
Notes of Unspoken Words book cover		 Book: Notes of Unspoken Words Author: Jennifer S. Alderson
Source: Free BookBub download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 259 Duration: 03/14/25 – 03/19/25 (6 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, MM romance, MMM romance, LGBT, polyamory
📕10-word summary: A dysfunctional gay male couple takes in a third partner.
🖌6-word review: Existential angst, self-doubt — to a fault.
💭Favorite quote: “I’d never seen three men together in a committed relationship. Before me sat three groups of them. It was great to see.”
Description:* Casper loves two things — his guitar and his stepbrother, Reed. Being in a band with Reed is both amazing and torturous. If only Casper could get out of his own way and tell Reed how he feels. The lead singer, Reed’s passion is music, but he’d give it up if it means staying in Casper’s arms. When a new man enters their lives, he could be who Casper and Reed are missing to make them whole. The lost soul, Elic’s world tilts when he meets Casper and Reed. Living on the streets has left scars on Elic, inside and out. He’s surprised to find both men desire him. Their relationship is tested repeatedly. Truths are revealed. They will have to lift each other up and prove their love is worth it if they want to see what their future looks like.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I’m not a fan of romance novels at all — and after reading this one, I’m still not. The only other gay romance novel I’ve read has the most oddly specific genre I’d seen to date: gay Amish romance, and it was called A Forbidden Rumspringa. I nabbed this book from BookBub back in December as a free download, and finally decided to give it a whirl. One blurb I read about it contained two acronyms I had to look up: MMM and HEA. There was a lot of, “I don’t deserve you,” or “You deserve better,” “I don’t deserve what’s happened to me,” etc. In other words a lot of existential wallowing. Also a lot of thinking the wild sex and intensity of their feelings for each other was going to last forever. Ah, youth!

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #27 in 2025

by
Book #27
Death by Leprechaun: A St. Patrick’s Day Murder in Dublin book cover		 Book: Death by Leprechaun: A St. Patrick’s Day Murder in Dublin Author: Jennifer S. Alderson
Source: Free BookBub download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 189 Duration: 03/13/25 – 03/13/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, cozy mystery, holiday, travel, Irish culture
📕10-word summary: Bad guy, Guy, pisses off people and gets hisself kilt.
🖌6-word review: Typical cozy mystery. Decent “holiday read.”
💭Fun quote: “Sláinte!”
🎓A new-to-me word: coddle
Description:* When an old friend is arrested in Dublin, tour guide Lana Hansen will need the luck of the Irish to clear him of the crime. Lana is thrilled her friend Jeremy and his wife are on her tour to Ireland. The couple are having the time of their lives exploring the country’s rich literary and cultural history, until they run into Guy Smith, a reporter Jeremy recently exposed as a fraud. A tussle turns into a fight and leaves each man vowing to destroy the other. Yet cross words and dirty looks tell Lana that Jeremy is not the only client on her tour who has a grudge against the reporter.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This book was “right on time” — holiday-themed and free — in my daily BookBub email. It was a short, quick read, although when at 50% complete without anyone having yet been murdered, I wondered how long without a murder in a murder mystery was “acceptable.” A search found the answer to be all over the place, but most said closer to 25% to 33% of the way through. While down that rabbit hole, in one page about what elements make a good cozy mystery, the author said to “include a plot twist that the reader won’t see coming.” I’m pretty sure you can’t write a plot twist that people will see coming. Not seeing it coming is the very nature of a plot twist. Needless to say, I’d be hard-pressed to take writing advice from the author of said writing-advice article. I found 3 editing misses in this book, which only made me happier that I got it for free.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #26 in 2025

by
Book #26
Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer book cover		 Book: Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer Author: Quartez Harris
Source: Library loan
Format: Print (picture book)		 Pages: 40 Duration: 03/12/25 – 03/12/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, biography, picture book, art, writing, childrens, African American, LGBT
📕10-word summary: Rare children’s biography about an African American and LGBT person.
🖌6-word review: A lyrical, beautifully illustrated picture book.
💭Lyrical quote: “The first time James Baldwin read a book, the words clung to him like glitter.”
Description:* Before James Baldwin was a celebrated novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and activist, he was a boy who fell in love with stories. Words opened up new worlds for young Jimmy, who read and wrote at every opportunity. He ultimately realized his dreams of becoming an author and giving voice to his community, and in doing so he showed the world the fullness of Black American life.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I was curious to see how a children’s book would (or wouldn’t) address the fact that James Baldwin was gay, and I suppose it was “age appropriate” that it wasn’t mentioned at all as part of the main story. It is covered in a back-matter section called, “More About James Baldwin,” which noted: “As a young adult, Jimmy began to reckon with his sexual identity. He was queer and felt romantic love toward both men and women, which was an aspect of identity that was rarely spoken about publicly during that time. That silence made him feel alone.” The back matter also contains short “A Note from the Author” and “A Note from the Artist” sections. This book is beautifully illustrated.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #25 in 2025

by
Book #25
The Address book cover		 Book: The Address Author: Fiona Davis
Source: Library loan
Format: Large print		 Pages: 462 Duration: 03/10/25 – 03/12/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, mystery New York, romance
📕10-word summary: Uncovered family history, a century apart, rocks the family’s world.
🖌6-word review: Well-done, dual-timeline epic family secrets story.
💭Amusing quote: Melinda: “Did you make any friends in rehab?” Bailey: “No. Not my type. Bunch of drunks and addicts.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: bedsit, shantung, dupioni, aquiline, trompe l’oeil, cur, bombazine, Birkin, truncheon
Description:* A century apart, Sara and Bailey are both tempted by and struggle against the golden excess of their respective ages — for Sara, the opulence of a world ruled by the Astors and Vanderbilts; for Bailey, the nightlife’s free-flowing drinks and cocaine — and take refuge in the Upper West Side’s gilded fortress, the Dakota. But a building with a history as rich, and often as tragic, can’t hold its secrets forever, and what Bailey discovers inside could turn everything she thought she knew about the building’s architect, Theodore Camden, and Sara and Bailey’s ancestor — and the woman who killed him — on its head.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a Mostly Social Book Club book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those dual-timeline stories, where I preferred one storyline over the other — in this case, the past (1880s) over the more recent (1980s). It was an epic family secrets saga, which at times reminded me of one of my all-time favorite classics, The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The title of the book is an allusion to when this actual apartment building in NYC was first built and its location was considered “way out there” from “the city,” but the promise/prediction was that one day it would become the address to have. And indeed it did, with the area now known as the “Upper West Side” area of Manhattan. The building still exists, and according to AI, the maintenance fee for an apartment in the building can range from $11,057 to $13,000 per month. As of this writing, there are 2 units for sale — one for $6.2M with 8 rooms, 4 bedrooms, and 2½ bathrooms, and one for $19M with 6000 sq.ft. 15 rooms, 5 bedrooms, and 9 bathrooms. If the name of the apartment building sounds familiar, it might be because it’s where John Lennon was shot and killed in 1980.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #24 in 2025

by
Book #24
Attachments book cover		 Book: Attachments Author: Rainbow Rowell
Source: Library loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 338 Duration: 03/08/25 – 03/09/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance, chick lit
📕10-word summary: An I.T. security guy is sucked into employees’ email conversations.
🖌6-word review: 75% epistolary “dialogue.” Amusing, fun, fluff.
💭Amusing quote: “She was loud. And funny. (But not as funny as loud.)”
🎓Some new-to-me words: strident, pithy, rotavirus, Valkyrie, nadir, vetiver
Description:* Beth and Jennifer know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives. Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now — reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers — not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke. When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories. By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he say…?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This book was on NPR’s list of great summer reads. Not being in school and being retired made me wonder what characteristics of a book make it a “summer read.” According to AI, it’s “a light, accessible, and entertaining book, often with a focus on escapism, romance, or a lighthearted plot, perfect for relaxing during the summer months.” Not sure why you can’t relax during the spring, fall, or winter months — but I digress. I enjoyed this book, which comprised many email exchanges between the two female protagonists. Reading other people’s mail is something that appeals to me, and I can see why Lincoln, the I.T. guy, got sucked into reading Beth’s and Jennifer’s — ethics and privacy issues aside. It definitely checked off the summer read characteristics of escapism, romance and a lighthearted plot. With enjoying the book said, if a movie was made of it, it’d be the kind of movie I’d never want to see.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #23 in 2025

by
Book #23
The Lost Daughter book cover		 Book: The Lost Daughter Author: Elena Ferrante
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 140 Duration: 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, Italy, feminism, family
📕10-word summary: A candid, ferocious, and compelling introspection on womanhood and motherhood.
🖌6-word review: Classic Ferrante voice — quirky and dark.
💭Compelling quote: “How foolish to think you can tell your children about yourself before they’re at least 50. To ask to be seen by them as a person and not as a function.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: Camorra, reproof, pareo, tohu-bohu
Description:* Leda, a middle-aged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Ferrante’s language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I was prepared for this author’s voice, quirky and dark, from her book The Days of Abandonment, which I read in 2022. My husband watched and reviewed the movie made from this book, starring one of his all-time favorite actors, Olivia Colman, and which was Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s directorial debut. There was a lot packed into the 140-page story, and it’s a rare, refreshing, honest look at women who aren’t completely taken and in love with their own children. Oh, and lest I forget, my pet-peeve overused word made an appearance on p. 18: “They called each other by name with drawn-out cries, hurled exclamatory or conspiratorial comments, at times quarreled: a large family group, similar to the one I had been part of when I was a girl, the same jokes, the same sentimentality, the same rages.”

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #22 in 2025

by
Book #22
And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison's Life in Stories book cover		 Book: And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Source: Library loan
Format: Print (picture book)		 Pages: 48 Duration: 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, biography, African American, poetry, picture book, childrens, art
📕10-word summary: Author Toni Morrison’s life beautifully honored in poetry and pictures.
🖌6-word review: Brilliant accomplishments. Understandable poetry. Glorious art.
💭Compelling quote: “You, Tony Morrison, first-of-the-first brown-skinned bosses, bringing color to an all-white literary landscape.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: griot, gutbucket
Description:* From imaginative child to visionary storyteller, Toni Morrison was a fiercely inspiring writer who helped change the world. This poetic picture book is part love letter and part biography, praising the power of this Nobel Prize winner. With its tender refrain, readers will know how much Morrison’s stories — and their own — mean to the world. She was loved — and so are they!*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, Go tell it: how James Baldwin became a writer, and Dream a dress, dream a poem: dressmaker and poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I didn’t expect this one to be poetry, but thankfully, it was very accessible poetry. I knew that Toni was a Pulitzer Prize winner (1988), but I didn’t know (or remember) that she’d also won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993) and that President Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012). This book is beautifully illustrated.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #21 in 2025

by

Book #21
The Sublet: A Short Story book cover		 Book: The Sublet: A Short Story Author: Greer Hendricks
Source: Free First Reads download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 49 Duration: 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, short stories, psychological thriller, novella
📕10-word summary: Ghostwriter learns truths about the famous person she’s writing for.
🖌6-word review: 49 pages were just enough. Unremarkable.
💭Laughable quote: “With the cleansing power of this sage, I release all negative energy from this space. Visualize the smoke absorbing all negativity. Watch it disappear and float out of the windows.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: wakeboarding
Description:* Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client Melody Wells. When Melody passes along a lead on a spacious sublet complete with East River views, built-in closets, and three bedrooms, Anne can’t believe her luck. Melody seems to know just what her family needs. But as small, unsettling incidents begin to accumulate, Anne starts to wonder what price she’s willing to pay for the good life.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was an “interesting enough” read, nothing remarkable. I was interested enough to invest 49 pages to see how it ended. I’m ambivalent about including the explanation of polydactyl cats and the boiling frog apologue. It felt like a couple of things that the author knew about and wanted to fit into the story, which violates a classic rule of writing: In your edit, find your favorite word or line that you worked into the story and delete it.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #20 in 2025

by

Book #20
Eleven Numbers book cover		 Book: Eleven Numbers: A Short Story Author: Lee Child
Source: Free Prime Reading loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 50 Duration: 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, short stories, thriller, mystery, espionage, novella
📕10-word summary: A mathematics professor gets himself in a world of shit.
🖌6-word review: My first Lee Child book. Excellent.
💭A favorite quote: “Korovki [a Russian prison] is like any small town. Full of gossip. Sometimes exciting.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: last
Description:* Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics — in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever. All he has to do is get to a meeting with the renowned Russian mathematician who created it. But when Nathan crashes headlong into a dangerous new game, the odds against him suddenly look a lot steeper.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I became aware of Lee Child during an after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen through Barnes & Noble. She recommended his Jack Reacher books, but this book of his was available to borrow free through Amazon’s Prime Reading service, so I grabbed it. At 50 pages, it was a super quick read, although I do wonder what part of that enjoyment was served by my love of mathematics. Although the Kindansky numbers in this book are fictional, they reminded me of the Fibonacci numbers, which actually exist in mathematics. I thought it was a great introduction to Lee Child’s writing, which I definitely plan to read more of, probably starting with Killing Floor, the first in his Jack Reacher series of 29 books to-date.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #19 in 2025

by

Book #19
The Rules of Fortune book cover		 Book: The Rules of Fortune Author: Danielle Prescod
Source: Free Frist Reads download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 293 Duration: 02/28/25 – 03/02/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, African American, family
📕10-word summary: Family faces hard truths in wake of businessman patriarch’s death.
🖌6-word review: Good story. Good pacing. Hopeful ending.
💭Compelling quote: “Casual dress is a privilege for those given the benefit of the doubt. It is for people who will be accepted without question, and that’s not you.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: senescence, bicker, boater hat, quiddities, bouclé, B-roll, kente, diapason, rubicund, inosculated
Description:* On their Martha’s Vineyard estate, the Carter family prepares to celebrate. But when the billionaire patriarch dies right before his 70th birthday, the media is quick to question the future of the multi-industry conglomerate that makes the Carters living legends. Amid the succession crisis, his daughter, Kennedy, is questioning her father’s past. Kennedy is an aspiring filmmaker, and the documentary she’d planned to present at her father’s party begins an inquest into the life of a man she never really knew. As a twisted history emerges, the fault lines in the family grow. Torn between morality and the promise of maintaining wealth, Kennedy must decide what’s most important—the Carter legacy or exposing the shocking truth of how it was built.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I liked how each chapter was from one character’s perspective, and essentially rotated through the members of the family at the center of this story. A scene about “a request form to ensure the chef and housekeeping staff were aware of everything from who liked to sleep with socks on, to who liked their bacon extra crispy,” reminded me of a spreadsheet that my work team created once for an off-site retreat that involved several nights during which some of us would have to share a hotel room: “We’ve started a spreadsheet to note preferences such as “needs white noise,” “likes it cold,” “snorer,” “not a morning person,” etc. Well, it quickly devolved with added columns, such as: “potty-trained,” “litterbox-trained,” “nude sleeper,” “never-nude sleeper,” “needs arm rub to fall asleep,” “needs bedtime story + song,” “needs bedtime story only,” “AM radio,” and “cuddler.” And the memory made me chuckle. I enjoyed reading about “the Black experience” attending Princeton, and a couple of times thought of a book I read last year, The Last Negroes at Harvard,” to which there was an allusion in this book, in fact. There are some good thoughts in this story about capitalism vs. humanitarianism.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Three 50-word stories about my sources for free books.

by
The library BookBub Amazon Prime
The last book I purchased was White Fragility in 2020. I borrow most of the books I read each year from the Wake County Public Library. I’ve added a field to my list of books that I’ve read in 2025 to indicate where I got the book and its format. BookBub is a service that alerts you to cheap or free downloads of ebooks on amazon.com. I only get one that sounds interesting if it’s free — or once I got a $1.99 one for free with a balance on an amazon.com gift card I’d earned participating in a focus group. I get free book downloads from two services available as an Amazon Prime member. At the beginning of each month First Reads presents 9 or so free books to choose one — and sometimes two — from, and Prime Reading lets you borrow up to 10 ebooks or audiobooks at a time.

Finished book #18 in 2025

by

Book #18
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone book cover		 Book: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone Author: Benjamin Stevenson
Source: Library loan
Format: Audiobook		 Pages: 384 Duration: 02/26/25 – 02/28/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, crime, books about books
📕10-word summary: More murders take place while trying to solve old ones.
🖌6-word review: Very complicated plot points. Didn’t love.
💭Compelling quote: “Age gives you perspective. Now I know the difference between being popular and just being talked about.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: balaclava
Description: Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Like many others, the catchy title of this book drew me in. But, I didn’t love this book. The author broke the fourth wall often, which at times came across as a funny or expositive aside, but at other times felt too gimmicky. There were a lot of characters and murders in the story — with lots of sometimes obscure, and often complicated, connections to people outside the family. I never quite cared — as much as I thought I should have — about who the murderer was. My pet-peeve overused word made an appearance about a third of the way through: “I leaned over and whispered conspiratorially.” And in what’s apparently an Australian pronunciation quirk, the narrator of this audiobook distractingly pronounced the word “assume” (which was used a lot) as “ashoom.” I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this book without a lot of caveats.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #17 in 2025

by

Book #17
Turbulence book cover		 Book: Turbulence Author: David Szalay
Format: Print Pages: 145 Duration: 02/24/25 – 02/25/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, short stories, travel, flying, interconnectedness
📕10-word summary: The ripple effect on each other of 12 mostly strangers.
🖌6-word review: Quick paced. Nice surprises. Wonderfully interconnected.
💭Compelling quote: “What she hated about even mild turbulence was the way it ended the illusion of security.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: muezzins, fug, tiffin, escutcheon
Description: A woman strikes up a conversation with the man sitting next to her on a plane after some turbulence. He returns home to tragic news that has also impacted another stranger, a shaken pilot on his way to another continent who seeks comfort from a journalist he meets that night. The journalist’s life shifts subtly as well, before she heads to the airport on an assignment that will shift more lives in turn. In this novel, Szalay’s diverse protagonists circumnavigate the planet on twelve flights, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers or estranged siblings, aging parents, baby grandchildren, or nobody at all. Along the way, they experience the full range of human emotions from loneliness to love and, knowingly or otherwise, change each other in one brief, electrifying interaction after the next.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: During a recent after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen, through Barnes & Noble looking at books, sharing what we’ve read, and trading recommendations, she recommended this author to me. This book of his was readily available at my library, and I loved the premise. As it turns out, though, Jen recommended John Scalzi — and has never read anything by this author! But now that she’s read my review of this book, she’s adding it to her to-read list. Too funny! I loved how each of this book’s chapters was around a flight, whose chapter title comprised the flight’s departure and arrival airport codes, and after the first chapter, how each featured someone who was somehow connected to the person in the previous chapter. There were a couple of nice surprises; for example, when you didn’t know how someone at the beginning of a chapter was connected to anyone in the previous chapter, and it was revealed in such a way that all of sudden you figured it out or it became obvious. I also liked when a character seemed unlikable or unsavory in one chapter, but you found out why they might be that way in the subsequent chapter. (It reminded me of Stephen Covey’s 5th habit: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood®.) If I’m remembering correctly, only the first story involved literal and figurative turbulence, the others having just the figurative sense of it — turbulence in the character’s lives. Also, I thought the ending was brilliant. I will probably put this forth as my Mostly Social Book Club book when it’s my turn again to chose one.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #16 in 2025

by

Book #16
The Book of Last Letters book cover		 Book: The Book of Last Letters Author: Kerry Barrett
Format: Kindle Pages: 400 Duration: 02/20/25 – 02/23/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, World War II, romance, dual timeline, books about books
📕10-word summary: Nurse creates opportunity for potential last words to loved ones.
🖌6-word review: Compelling dual timeline — ultimately heartwarming — story.
💭Compelling quote: “She was suffering terribly, and you did the best thing for her. This is a war, and any man on the battlefield would have done the same thing.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: maisonette, hob, Luftwaffe, Primus, cagoule, swifts, biro, chivvying, trundling, naff, welly
Description: London, 1940: When nurse Elsie offers to send a reassuring letter to the family of a patient, she has an idea. She begins a book of last letters: messages to be sent on to wounded soldiers’ loved ones should the very worst come to pass, so that no one is left without a final goodbye. But one message will change Elsie’s life forever. When a patient makes a devastating request, can Elsie find the strength to do the unthinkable?
London, present day: Stephanie has people she’d like to speak to: her estranged, incarcerated brother; her nan, whose dementia means she’s only occasionally lucid enough to talk. When she discovers a book of wartime letters, Stephanie realises the importance of our final words – and uncovers the story of a secret love, a desperate choice, and the unimaginable courage of the woman behind it all.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I read about this book on BookBub and it was available for a $.99 download. Since I had a credit for that amount, I “bought it” at no out-of-pocket expense. I appreciated that this was one of those dual-timeline stories in which both the present-day storyline and the in-the-past storyline were both good. Other than the aspect of “the nurse and the airman” communicating in “the book” in a couple of pages that were “purposefully stuck together to keep them private” being totally implausible, it was a believable and compelling story. I was completely sucked into it, and I looked forward to picking it back up as soon as possible and pretty much zipped through it. YMMV, of course.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #15 in 2025

by

Book #15
The Answer Is No book cover		 Book: The Answer Is No Author: Fredrik Backman
Format: Kindle Pages: 68 Duration: 02/19/25 – 02/19/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, short stories, humor, novella
📕10-word summary: Man who doesn’t like people very much overdoses on them.
🖌6-word review: Smart satire. Overdone hyperbole at times.
💭Compelling quote: “Therefore, to avoid your neighbors, you have to make yourself uninteresting, but not too uninteresting, because that makes you interesting.”
Description:* Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and Pad Thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Until this book of his, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this author. I read A Man Called Ove in 2017 and with so many metaphors and similes (several of them in one paragraph at times), the writing became distracting enough for me to abandon the book. Then in 2023, our Mostly Social Book Club read Anxious People, and I absolutely loved it! I’m happy to say I really enjoyed — albeit just short of loving — this book. I thought that at times, although it sounds redundant, the hyperbole was over-the-top — to approach being just plain silly. I’m also turned off when (professional) reviewers describe a book, like many did about this one, as “hilarious” or “laugh-out-loud funny,” because humor is so personal and subjective. With all that said, it was a short, fun read, and I’d definitely recommend it. I chose this book as my November 2024 First Reads offering, which provides free early access to an editor’s pick from Amazon Prime.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #14 in 2025

by

Book #14
All the Lovers in the Night book cover		 Book: All the Lovers in the Night Author: Stuart Turton
Format: Audiobook Pages: 224 Duration: 02/18/25 – 02/19/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, Japan, Japanese literature, literary fiction, Asian literature, Romance
📕10-word summary: A glimpse into a mid-thirties freelance copy editor’s inner life.
🖌6-word review: Sometimes great, sometimes excruciating protagonist’s dialogue.
💭Compelling quote: “As long as you’re living on this planet, you have to be serious about something, but it’s better to be serious about a limited number of things.”
Description:* Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyuko stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it. As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko’s past surface and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I saw this book in my BookBub email, and it sounded interesting, perhaps because the protagonist was a copy editor. I went back-and-forth between not liking and liking this book, and ended up on the “like” side, as per my 4-star rating. Several times, I had to tell myself that I was frustrated with the main character because she was an introvert when she sometimes either took forever to answer somebody’s questions, or just didn’t answer them at all. I found all three of the main people she interacted with during the story — Hijiri, Mitsutsuka, and Noriko — quite interesting. I also liked how this book did not have a “Hollywood ending.”

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #13 in 2025

by

Book #13
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle book cover		 Book: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Author: Stuart Turton
Format: Audiobook Pages: 458 Duration: 02/14/25 – 02/17/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, fantasy, crime, time travel
📕10-word summary: Man stuck in time loop until he solves a murder.
🖌6-word review: Interesting premise. Complicated execution. Tedious reading.
💭Favorite quote: “Thankfully, the leaves and twigs are so demoralized by the earlier rain they don’t have the heart to cry out beneath my feet.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: brazier
Description:* Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let’s begin… Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: If, like me, the title of this book reminds you of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, disabuse yourself right now of any notion of a connection between the two books. There isn’t any. It took me a while to get the rhythm of how the storyline in this book was going to work, and the dealbreaker for me was the one chapter that was solely exposition of the time- and body-traveling rules. I mean, if you have to stop the story with a chapter explaining how a device — which you’re purportedly employing to enhance your narrative — is going to work, maybe that’s a little too heavy-handed writing. It suspended my effort to suspend my disbelief with the sort of reading equivalent of breaking the fourth wall in theater.

Tedious, annoying, distracting: 1) I found it tedious that there were 8 “hosts” (i.e., other characters’ bodies) that the protagonist inhabited during the story, but then there were a couple of bodies he “visited” more than once. End it already. 2) Overuse of the word “conspiratorial” (or its derivative) in writing is annoying to me, and there were three instances of it in this book. Nobody whispers and conspires that much. 3) This is the second audiobook by a British author that I’ve listened to recently in which I found distracting the pronunciation of these words as “enna-thing,” “enna-one,” and “evra-thing.” Is that how all Brits say those words? I don’t think so.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Started book #13 in 2025

by


Starting off with a complete aside, this book has no connection whatsoever to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

At 33% of this book read, I’ve come across the word “conspiratorial” (or one of its derivatives) 3 times. Here are the contexts:

  • In chapter 1: Impatient to unburden myself of the morning’s trauma, I try again to raise the issue of Anna, but my Samaritan silences me with a conspiratorial shake of the head.

  • In chapter 6: There’s a crook in her smile, a slight twist of the lips that could easily be damning yet somehow comes across as conspiratorial.

  • In chapter 19: My grimace causes Harrington to lean over conspiratorially, “I had the same reaction.”

Finished book #12 in 2025

by

Book #12
Flags of Our Fathers book cover		 Book: Flags of Our Fathers Author: James D. Bradley
Format: Kindle Pages: 400 Duration: 02/08/25 – 02/13/25 (6 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: nonfiction, military fiction, war, World War II, biography, military history
📕10-word summary: Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima photograph’s shocking history.
🖌6-word review: Scholar-like accounting. Incredibly written. Horrific details.
💭Compelling quote: “John’s other nightly habit, though, was something he refused to talk about at all. When Betty would ask him about it in the morning, he would simply turn away. He’d be sleeping, his eyes closed, was the way my mother remembered it. But he’d be whimpering. His body would shake, and tears would stream out of his eyes, down his face.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: chockablock, sintering, billet, supplanted, jingoistic, pillboxes, mettle, tyro, bivouacked, bibulous, paeans
Description:* In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: To be clear, the writing in this book is excellent. My 2-star rating is because I didn’t enjoy it, and I would not recommend it to others, which is a result of my extreme pacifism and the excruciating details about the horrific acts of war written about in this book. Full disclosure: The only reason I didn’t abandon this book was because it was a Mostly Social Book Club book. I skipped chapters 7 (D-Day), 8 (D-Day Plus One), 9 (D-Day Plus Two), 10 (D-Day Plus Three), and I skipped over many other paragraphs, passages, and sometimes pages of prolonged descriptions of murder, torture, and dismemberment. While reading this, I thought a lot about my father, and his 2 combat tours in Vietnam, during one of which he received a Purple Heart for wounds received during Operation Purple Martin. I also thought about his unwillingness to talk about his time in Vietnam like a lot of the guys in this book with regards to the battle on Iwo Jima. Also, like a lot of these guys, my dad suffered from long-term effects of his war experience — he was a terrible sleeper, couldn’t eat rice because it reminded him of maggots in the food in the field, and had severe PTSD reactions to fireworks being set off.


With all that said, this story is a fascinating look at marketing and PR and its — in retrospect — absolute disastrous treatment of the most recognizable image of World War II, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal. And finally, the Afterword of this book made me gasp.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

New intel after 52 years

by

Today I learned that the name of the place where I lived 52 years ago actually has significance.

While my dad served a year in Okinawa, we moved off the main Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune to one of the base’s adjunct housing areas called Tarawa Terrace during his absence from June 1973 to June 1974.

Fast forward to today, and I’m reading Flags of Our Fathers by James D. Bradley with Ron Powers, which is about the 6 men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima, and which is an upcoming book in our Mostly Social Book Club.

And lo and behold, this passage appears in a section talking about World War II: “And from the Pacific, the radio commentators had been sending stirring reports of U.S. Navy and Marine victories with names such as Midway and Tarawa.”

I had no idea there was a “Battle of Tarawa” and that’s what the Tarawa Terrace housing area was named after. Also, with regards to “Midway,” there was also a housing area, just off the base for the low-ranking enlisted soldiers’ families, called Midway Park, which I now know was named after the Battle of Midway.

As Bob would say, “I wonder what else I don’t know I don’t know.”

Finished book #11 in 2025

by

Book #11
The Fall Risk book cover		 Book: The Fall Risk Author: Abby Jimenez
Format: Kindle Pages: 82 Duration: 02/07/25 – 02/07/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance, short story, novella
📕10-word summary: Neighbors bond over the shared stairs to their apartments disappearing.
🖌6-word review: Fun characters. A short, playful story.
💭A favorite quote: “Sometimes the start of something good begins during something bad,” he said. “We don’t get to pick when these things happen.”
Description:* It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I chose this book as my February 2025 First Reads offering, which provides free early access to an editor’s pick from Amazon Prime. I liked the premise of the story, and it was a short little book to slip in after reading 4 lengthier ones and before starting the next serious, nonfiction, book club book, Flags of Our Fathers.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #10 in 2025

by
Book #10
The Storyteller's Secret book cover		 Book: The Storyteller’s Secret Author: Sejal badani
Format: Print Pages: 390 Duration: 02/02/25 – 02/06/25 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, India, romance, cultural
📕10-word summary: Deep personal loss leads to self-healing and uncovering family tragedy.
🖌6-word review: “A rich, thoughtfully woven generational tale.”
💭A favorite quote: “Her stories were her only passport to places she had never been. Without them, she would be forever trapped in this village.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: Dalit, ghatiya, salwar kameezes, mangalasutra, puja, lassi
Description:* Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I read about this book on BookBub and found it in the library, with no waiting list for it. I love, love, loved this book. It’s the kind of book that while reading, I’m thinking, “How do writer’s come up with this stuff? It may very well end up being the best book I read in 2025, and it’s only January. And it might very well become my next Mostly Social Book Club book recommendation.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

2025 books read

by

So far in 2025, I’ve read 34 books:

Row 1: The Dakota Winters | The Best We Could Hope For | The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard | Snow in August | Greek Lessons | Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem Row 2: Notes of Unspoken Words | Death by Leprechaun | Go Tell It | The Address | Attachments | The Lost Daughter Row 3: And She Was Loved | The Sublet | Eleven Numbers | The Rules of Fortune | Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone | Turbulence Row 4: The Book of Last Letters | The Answer Is No | All the Lovers in the Night | The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle | Flags of Our Fathers | The Fall Risk
Row 1: The Dakota Winters | The Best We Could Hope For | The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard | Snow in August | Greek Lessons | Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem Row 2: Notes of Unspoken Words | Death by Leprechaun | Go Tell It | The Address | Attachments | The Lost Daughter Row 3: And She Was Loved | The Sublet | Eleven Numbers | The Rules of Fortune | Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone | Turbulence Row 4: The Book of Last Letters | The Answer Is No | All the Lovers in the Night | The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle | Flags of Our Fathers | The Fall Risk


Ratings legend:

★★★★★ Completely enthralling, couldn’t put it down. and/or More than just entertaining (e.g., educational, enlightening). Would highly recommend.
★★★★☆ Really great book in all respects with perhaps some minor flaws. Would definitely recommend.
★★★☆☆ Average. An entertaining read but probably forgettable. Might or might not recommend.
★★☆☆☆ Finished, but did not like. Would not recommend.
★☆☆☆☆ Abandoned before finishing, usually because it was poorly written or just uninteresting to me.


The books I’ve read so far in 2025—summary

Clicking on the title of a book will take you to its detailed entry further down on the page, which contains a description of the book and some thoughts I had about it.

Number Title & author Source Format Pages Duration Rating Genres
34 The Dakota Winters
by Tom Barbash		 Library loan Print 324 04/15/25 – 04/18/25 (4 days) ★★★★☆ historical fiction, New York, entertainment industry, mental health
33 The Best We Could Hope For
by Nicola Kraus		 Free First Reads download Kindle 260 04/12/25 – 04/14/25 (3 days) ★★★★☆ historical fiction, mystery, family
32 The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard
by Michael Callahan		 Library loan Print 304 04/07/25 – 04/10/25 (4 days) ★★★★☆ historical fiction, mystery, romance, drama
31 Snow in August
by Pete Hamill		 Library loan Kindle 403 04/01/25 – 04/03/25 (3 days) ★★★☆☆ historical fiction, magical realism, coming of age, language, baseball, religion, Judaism, Catholicism, ethnic identity
30 Greek Lessons
by Han Kang		 Library loan Print 176 03/20/25 – 03/29/25 (10 days) ★★★☆☆ literary fiction, Asian literature, romance, Nobel Prize
29 Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds
by Nancy Johnson James		 Library loan Print (picture book) 32 03/19/25 – 03/19/25 (1 day) ★★★★☆ nonfiction, African American, poetry, biography, history childrens
28 Notes of Unspoken Words
by Michelle Dare		 Free BookBub download Kindle 259 03/14/25 – 03/19/25 (6 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, MM romance, MMM romance, LGBT, polyamory
27 Death by Leprechaun: A St. Patrick’s Day Murder in Dublin
by Jennifer S. Alderson		 Free BookBub download Kindle 189 03/13/25 – 03/13/25 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, cozy mystery, holiday, travel, Irish culture
26 Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer
by Quartez Harris		 Library loan Print (picture book) 40 03/12/25 – 03/12/25 (1 day) ★★★★★ nonfiction, biography, picture book, art, writing, childrens, African American, LGBT
25 The Address
by Fiona Davis		 Library loan Large print 462 03/10/25 – 03/12/25 (3 days) ★★★★★ historical fiction, mystery New York, romance
24 Attachments
by Rainbow Rowell		 Library loan Kindle 338 03/08/25 – 03/09/25 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, romance, chick lit
23 The Lost Daughter
by Elena Ferrante		 Library loan Print 140 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day) ★★★★★ fiction, Italy, feminism, family
22 And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories
by Andrea Davis Pinkney		 Library loan Print (picture book) 48 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day) ★★★★★ nonfiction, biography, African American, poetry, picture book, childrens, art
21 The Sublet
by Greer Hendricks		 Free First Reads download Kindle 49 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, short stories, psychological thriller, novella
20 Eleven Numbers
by Lee Child		 Free Prime Reading loan Kindle 50 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day) ★★★★★ fiction, short stories, thriller, mystery, espionage, novella
19 The Rules of Fortune
by Danielle Prescod		 Free First Reads download Kindle 293 02/28/25 – 03/02/25 (3 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, mystery, thriller, African American, family
18 Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
by Benjamin Stevenson		 Library loan Audiobook 384 02/26/25 – 02/28/25 (3 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, mystery, thriller, crime, books about books
17 Turbulence
by David Szalay		 Library loan Print 145 02/24/25 – 02/25/25 (2 days) ★★★★★ fiction, short stories, travel, flying, interconnectedness
16 The Book of Last Letters
by Kerry Barrett		 Free BookBub download Kindle 400 02/20/25 – 02/22/25 (3 days) ★★★★★ historical fiction, World War II, romance, dual timeline, books about books
15 The Answer Is No
by Fredrik Backman		 Free First Reads download Kindle 68 02/19/25 – 02/19/25 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, short stories, humor, novella
14 All the Lovers in the Night
by Mieko Kawakami		 Library loan Audiobook 224 02/18/25 – 02/19/25 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, Japan, Japanese literature, literary fiction, Asian literature, Romance
13 The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
by Stuart Turton		 Library loan Audiobook 458 02/14/25 – 02/17/25 (4 days) ★★☆☆☆ fiction, mystery, thriller, fantasy, crime, time travel
12 Flags of Our Fathers
by James D. Bradley		 Library loan Kindle 400 02/08/25 – 02/13/25 (6 days) ★★☆☆☆ nonfiction, military fiction, war, World War II, biography, military history
11 The Fall Risk
by Abby Jimenez		 Free First Reads download Kindle 82 02/07/25 – 02/07/25 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, romance, short stories, novella
10 The Storyteller’s Secret
by Sejal Badani		 Library loan Print 390 02/02/25 – 02/06/25 (5 days) ★★★★★ historical fiction, India, romance, cultural
9 Something in the Water
by Catherine Steadman		 Library loan Audiobook 352 01/30/25 – 02/01/25 (3 days) ★★★★★ fiction, mystery thriller, suspense, crime
8 Yellowface
by R.F. Kuang		 Library loan Audiobook 323 01/27/25 – 01/28/25 (2 days) ★★☆☆☆ fiction, thriller, mystery, books about books, books about writing, British
7 My Absolute Darling
by Gabriel Tallent		 Library loan Kindle 432 01/23/25 – 01/26/25 (4 days) ★★☆☆☆ literary fiction, coming of age, thriller, domestic abuse, violence
6 The Uncommon Reader
by Alan Bennett		 Library loan Print 120 01/22/25 – 01/22/25 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, British literature, books about books, novella
5 Magical Midlife in Glimmerspell
by Addison Moore		 Free BookBub download Print 235 01/20/25 – 01/21/25 (2 days) ★★☆☆☆ paranormal women’s fiction, cozy mystery, gothic
4 Some Trick
by Helen DeWitt
(Abandoned)		 Library loan Print 197 01/16/25 – 01/19/25 (4 days) ★☆☆☆☆ literary fiction, short stories
3 All the World Beside
by Gerrard Conley
(Abandoned)		 Library loan Print 353 01/15/25 – 01/15/25 (1 day) ★☆☆☆☆ literary fiction, historical fiction, queer, LGBT, Romance
2 All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
by Bryn Greenwood		 Library loan Print 421 01/10/25 – 01/13/25 (4 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, justice, domestic abuse, drugs, drama, crime, contemporary romance
1 Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes		 Gift from friend Print 388 01/01/25 – 01/09/25 (9 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, historical fiction, mystery, British literature, crime, justice

The books I’ve read so far in 2025—details

Book #34
The Dakota Winters book cover		 Book: The Dakota Winters Author: Tom Barbash
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 324 Duration: 04/15/25 – 04/18/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, New York, entertainment industry, mental health
📕10-word summary: A healing NYC family’s year preceding the John Lennon’s assassination.
🖌6-word review: Fascinating male relationships. Excellently paced plot.
💭Favorite quote: “When, once in a blue moon, they fought, it was scary, in the way arguments can be between smart people who know exactly how to hurt each other.”
🎓A new-to-me word: SRO
Description:* It’s the fall of 1979 in New York City when 23-year-old Anton Winter, back from the Peace Corps and on the mend from a nasty bout of malaria, returns to his childhood home in the Dakota. Anton’s father, the famous late-night host Buddy Winter, is there to greet him, himself recovering from a breakdown. Before long, Anton is swept up in an effort to reignite Buddy’s stalled career, a mission that takes him from the gritty streets of New York, to the slopes of the Lake Placid Olympics, to the Hollywood Hills, to the blue waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and brings him into close quarters with the likes of Johnny Carson, Ted and Joan Kennedy, and a seagoing John Lennon. But the more Anton finds himself enmeshed in his father’s professional and spiritual reinvention, the more he questions his own path, and fissures in the Winter family begin to threaten their close bond.
*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I saw this book in a BookBub email, and since I recently read The Address, which was about The Dakota apartment building in NYC, the fact that it was part of this title caught my eye. While the building was a “major character” in The Address, it played a comparatively small part in this story. As is often the case with historical fiction, I wondered how much of the story was historically factual and how much of it was fiction. John Lennon played a big part in this story, and at first, each time it said he did something, I wondered if he really did that and looked it up. (e.g., owned a sailboat named “Isis.”) Checking everything soon became untenable, and it didn’t really matter in this story. There were 2 things about this story that I loved: 1) the male relationships — specifically those between Anton and his father, Buddy; Anton and his brother, Kip; and Anton and John Lennon, and 2) this story moved right along; a typical example being when one paragraph mentioned that something was going to happen in 3 weeks (and arguably, it’s the thing you’re most interested in seeing how it plays out), and in the very next paragraph, it’s 3 weeks later. No waiting until the next chapter with filler or another storyline, or anything like that.

Book #33
The Best We Could Hope For book cover		 Book: The Best We Could Hope For Author: Nicola Kraus
Source: Free First Reads download
Format: Print		 Pages: 260 Duration: 04/12/25 – 04/14/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, mystery, family
📕10-word summary: Kids try to resolve effects of very complicated family dynamics.
🖌6-word review: Powerful story. Family tree logistics challenging.
💭Favorite quote: “It means that we never really know what we’ve seen, only what we noticed. It means absorbing that these are two different things, and living differently with that knowledge.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: cerise, crenellation, striate, apotheosis, kouros, pullulate, louche, palaver, chiaroscuro, deadheading
Description:* When Bunny Linden abandons her 3 children with her older sister, Jayne, she knows Jayne will be the perfect mother, one that she could never be. As months turn into years without word, Jayne and her husband, Rodger, a rising journalism star, strive to give the children the opportunity to flourish and feel loved. When Jayne and Rodger finally have a child of their own, a seemingly stable home is built. But then, after nearly a decade, Bunny resurfaces and sets a chain of events in motion that detonates all their lives.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a compelling story with a lot of kids in it, of which one sister (Bunny) dumps her 3 kids (Sage, Huck, & Brian) on her sister (Jayne) who then has 2 kids (Linden & Clyde) of her own — raising all 5 of them, and at times they think they’re all brothers and sisters, when in fact 3 of them are cousins to the other 2. And then there are 2 other kids (Michael & Luke) of Margaret and her first husband, who are Jayne’s & Bunny’s half-brothers. It was just a lot. So much in fact, that after reading chapter 20 (of 25), I had to stop and draw this family tree to remind myself who Michael & Luke were (they hadn’t been mentioned for ~15 chapters) and how they were related to the other 5 kids. And if that wasn’t enough — and it really was — at one point Jayne divorces Rodger and marries another man who has a kid (Justin), so becomes Linden’s and Bunny’s step-brother. Anyhoo, that was all problematic, but I really did enjoy the story, and I loved the pace. It moved along snap, snap, snap.

Book #32
The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard book cover		 Book: The Lost Letters from Martha’s Vineyard Author: Michael Callahan
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 305 Duration: 04/07/25 – 04/10/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, mystery, romance, drama
📕10-word summary: Dual-timeline, multi-generational story reveals consequential, brutal, and grave family secrets.
🖌6-word review: Compelling story with pronoun antecedent issues.
💭Favorite quote: “Kit was taken aback, because maternal concern is not an armament Lucinda keeps in her quiver.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: stagecraft, insouciance, shoulder season, traif, harridan
Description:* In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director… until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off. Almost 60 years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior Manhattan television producer, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister Claire was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles. Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I suppose I was destined to read this book for several reasons: 1) I saw it in my 3/27/25 BookBub email and went to put it on my to-read list at the library, where I found it already there from my 7/29/24 BookBub email. 2) I’m a sucker for stories about found letters. 3) I have a great fondness for stories about The Cape in general, and Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, & Provincetown in particular, probably because I grew up just off The Cape in Fall River, and my husband and I spent a month at a VRBO in Eastham during the pandemic. In this dual-timeline story, I found the storyline in the past more interesting than the one in the present, but both kept me interested. The only complaint I had was that there were several times when a pronoun’s antecedent wasn’t clear. For example, a paragraph talked about 2 female characters, and the subsequent paragraph referred only to “she” (4 times), and I wasn’t sure which of the 2 characters it was referring to until the end of the paragraph. And finally, my pet-peeve word showed up a quarter of the way into the book: “Well,” she said almost conspiratorially, “it’s just we don’t see Mint out that much anymore. She rarely leaves Sycamore.”

Book #31
Snow in August book cover		 Book: Snow in August Author: Pete Hamill
Source: Library loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 403 Duration: 04/01/25 – 04/03/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: historical fiction, magical realism, coming of age, language, baseball, religion, Judaism, Catholicism, ethnic identity
📕10-word summary: An altar boy and a rabbi forge an impenetrable bond.
🖌6-word review: Religious dogma eclipses remarkable relationship storyline.
💭Favorite quote: “This was the last mass of the day, and so he went back to the altar to extinguish the two candles with a long-handled device the altar boys had named the 'holy snuffer.'”
🎓Some new-to-me words: ciborium, chasuble, maniple, amice, Spaldeen
Description:* Brooklyn, 1947. The war veterans have come home. Jackie Robinson is about to become a Dodger. And in one close-knit working-class neighborhood, an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague. For Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rivals anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there’s only one way out — a miracle.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I read about Pete Hamill’s book, North River, but the library didn’t have it. Searching on the author’s name, I saw this book, which sounded interesting. I didn’t notice that one of the genres of the book was magical realism, of which I’m not a fan, and unfortunately, that aspect didn’t manifest itself in the book until the very end — or I might have abandoned it. It was a decent story, but a huge section of it was about religious beliefs that didn’t advance the plot, and of which I started skimming through after it went on and on and on. (FTR, I am an atheist.) I also found way too much violence depicted in the book, of which I’m also not a fan. I gave it 3 stars for the story that was outside of all that, which was the relationship between the young Catholic protagonist and the elder Jewish rabbi, which I really enjoyed. I was extremely disappointed in the ending of this book for the reason I already stated.

Book #30
Greek Lessons book cover		 Book: Greek Lessons Author: Han Kang
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 176 Duration: 03/20/25 – 03/29/25 (10 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: literary fiction, Asian literature, romance, Nobel Prize
📕10-word summary: Sight-losing professor and speech-loss adult student connect on several levels.
🖌6-word review: Concentration required: arduous-to-read, Nobel-prize-winning, lyrical literature.
💭Favorite quote: “She has goosebumps on her arm and on the back of her neck from the aggressive air conditioning.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: imperious, hanji, zelkova, inarticulacy, maru, dappled, cryptomeria, fretsaw, paroxysm, philtrum, declensions, iljumun, bunsik, stridulations, hanok
Description:* In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I saw this book on BookBub and the description intrigued me enough to check its availability in the library. I liked the plot premise and that it won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2024. Not surprisingly though, that made arduous reading at times. Several times I put it down after reading only a short bit of it. I didn’t discover until a good way into the book that the male protagonist’s storyline was in first person and the female protagonist’s storyline was in third person. Short on dialogue tags, there were times when I could only tell who the speaker was by whether it was in first person or third person particularly in chapter 19, A Conversation in Darkness. I expected to like this book more than I did, but I’m just not a huge fan of lyrical writing, and this book was no exception in spite of being a Nobel Prize winner.

Book #29
Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem book cover		 Book: Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds Author: Nancy Johnson James
Source: Library loan
Format: Print (picture book)		 Pages: 32 Duration: 03/19/25 – 03/19/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: nonfiction, African American, poetry, biography, history childrens
📕10-word summary: Short, biographical introduction to an African American seamstress and poet.
🖌6-word review: Lyrical prose. Beautifully illustrated picture book.
💭Favorite quote: “What thoughts do you carry when idle with nothing to do? Do you dream of the future? Or of someone who lived before you?”
Description:* What dreams do you carry? Myra Viola Wilds dreamed of opportunity. She left her home in rural Kentucky for the city, learned to read and to write, and became a dressmaker. She hand-stitched gorgeous gowns. She worked so hard she lost her eyesight, and her world went dark. But those well-loved stitches turned into words, and one night Myra woke in the middle of the night and wrote a poem she called “Sunshine.” She kept writing. She wrote the lush green, sweet-corn yellow, cerulean blue, sunshine-y world from memory, collecting her poems into a book called Thoughts of Idle Hours, published in 1915.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I hadn’t heard of Myra Viola Wilds before reading this book, and I’m glad to know about her now. The story seemed a little disjointed to me, hence the 4-star, as opposed to 5-star, rating. The art work is great.

Book #28
Notes of Unspoken Words book cover		 Book: Notes of Unspoken Words Author: Jennifer S. Alderson
Source: Free BookBub download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 259 Duration: 03/14/25 – 03/19/25 (6 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, MM romance, MMM romance, LGBT, polyamory
📕10-word summary: A dysfunctional gay male couple takes in a third partner.
🖌6-word review: Existential angst, self-doubt — to a fault.
💭Favorite quote: “I’d never seen three men together in a committed relationship. Before me sat three groups of them. It was great to see.”
Description:* Casper loves two things — his guitar and his stepbrother, Reed. Being in a band with Reed is both amazing and torturous. If only Casper could get out of his own way and tell Reed how he feels. The lead singer, Reed’s passion is music, but he’d give it up if it means staying in Casper’s arms. When a new man enters their lives, he could be who Casper and Reed are missing to make them whole. The lost soul, Elic’s world tilts when he meets Casper and Reed. Living on the streets has left scars on Elic, inside and out. He’s surprised to find both men desire him. Their relationship is tested repeatedly. Truths are revealed. They will have to lift each other up and prove their love is worth it if they want to see what their future looks like.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I’m not a fan of romance novels at all — and after reading this one, I’m still not. The only other gay romance novel I’ve read has the most oddly specific genre I’d seen to date: gay Amish romance, and it was called A Forbidden Rumspringa. I nabbed this book from BookBub back in December as a free download, and finally decided to give it a whirl. One blurb I read about it contained two acronyms I had to look up: MMM and HEA. There was a lot of, “I don’t deserve you,” or “You deserve better,” “I don’t deserve what’s happened to me,” etc. In other words a lot of existential wallowing. Also a lot of thinking the wild sex and intensity of their feelings for each other was going to last forever. Ah, youth!

Book #27
Death by Leprechaun: A St. Patrick’s Day Murder in Dublin book cover		 Book: Death by Leprechaun: A St. Patrick’s Day Murder in Dublin Author: Jennifer S. Alderson
Source: Free BookBub download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 189 Duration: 03/13/25 – 03/13/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, cozy mystery, holiday, travel, Irish culture
📕10-word summary: Bad guy, Guy, pisses off people and gets hisself kilt.
🖌6-word review: Typical cozy mystery. Decent “holiday read.”
💭Fun quote: “Sláinte!”
🎓A new-to-me word: coddle
Description:* When an old friend is arrested in Dublin, tour guide Lana Hansen will need the luck of the Irish to clear him of the crime. Lana is thrilled her friend Jeremy and his wife are on her tour to Ireland. The couple are having the time of their lives exploring the country’s rich literary and cultural history, until they run into Guy Smith, a reporter Jeremy recently exposed as a fraud. A tussle turns into a fight and leaves each man vowing to destroy the other. Yet cross words and dirty looks tell Lana that Jeremy is not the only client on her tour who has a grudge against the reporter.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This book was “right on time” — holiday-themed and free — in my daily BookBub email. It was a short, quick read, although when at 50% complete without anyone having yet been murdered, I wondered how long without a murder in a murder mystery was “acceptable.” A search found the answer to be all over the place, but most said closer to 25% to 33% of the way through. While down that rabbit hole, in one page about what elements make a good cozy mystery, the author said to “include a plot twist that the reader won’t see coming.” I’m pretty sure you can’t write a plot twist that people will see coming. Not seeing it coming is the very nature of a plot twist. Needless to say, I’d be hard-pressed to take writing advice from the author of said writing-advice article. I found 3 editing misses in this book, which only made me happier that I got it for free.

Book #26
Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer book cover		 Book: Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer Author: Quartez Harris
Source: Library loan
Format: Print (picture book)		 Pages: 40 Duration: 03/12/25 – 03/12/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, biography, picture book, art, writing, childrens, African American, LGBT
📕10-word summary: Rare children’s biography about an African American and LGBT person.
🖌6-word review: A lyrical, beautifully illustrated picture book.
💭Lyrical quote: “The first time James Baldwin read a book, the words clung to him like glitter.”
Description:* Before James Baldwin was a celebrated novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and activist, he was a boy who fell in love with stories. Words opened up new worlds for young Jimmy, who read and wrote at every opportunity. He ultimately realized his dreams of becoming an author and giving voice to his community, and in doing so he showed the world the fullness of Black American life.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I was curious to see how a children’s book would (or wouldn’t) address the fact that James Baldwin was gay, and I suppose it was “age appropriate” that it wasn’t mentioned at all as part of the main story. It is covered in a back-matter section called, “More About James Baldwin,” which noted: “As a young adult, Jimmy began to reckon with his sexual identity. He was queer and felt romantic love toward both men and women, which was an aspect of identity that was rarely spoken about publicly during that time. That silence made him feel alone.” The back matter also contains short “A Note from the Author” and “A Note from the Artist” sections. This book is beautifully illustrated.

Book #25
The Address book cover		 Book: The Address Author: Fiona Davis
Source: Library loan
Format: Large print		 Pages: 462 Duration: 03/10/25 – 03/12/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, mystery New York, romance
📕10-word summary: Uncovered family history, a century apart, rocks the family’s world.
🖌6-word review: Well-done, dual-timeline epic family secrets story.
💭Amusing quote: Melinda: “Did you make any friends in rehab?” Bailey: “No. Not my type. Bunch of drunks and addicts.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: bedsit, shantung, dupioni, aquiline, trompe l’oeil, cur, bombazine, Birkin, truncheon
Description:* A century apart, Sara and Bailey are both tempted by and struggle against the golden excess of their respective ages — for Sara, the opulence of a world ruled by the Astors and Vanderbilts; for Bailey, the nightlife’s free-flowing drinks and cocaine — and take refuge in the Upper West Side’s gilded fortress, the Dakota. But a building with a history as rich, and often as tragic, can’t hold its secrets forever, and what Bailey discovers inside could turn everything she thought she knew about the building’s architect, Theodore Camden, and Sara and Bailey’s ancestor — and the woman who killed him — on its head.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a Mostly Social Book Club book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those dual-timeline stories, where I preferred one storyline over the other — in this case, the past (1880s) over the more recent (1980s). It was an epic family secrets saga, which at times reminded me of one of my all-time favorite classics, The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The title of the book is an allusion to when this actual apartment building in NYC was first built and its location was considered “way out there” from “the city,” but the promise/prediction was that one day it would become the address to have. And indeed it did, with the area now known as the “Upper West Side” area of Manhattan. The building still exists, and according to AI, the maintenance fee for an apartment in the building can range from $11,057 to $13,000 per month. As of this writing, there are 2 units for sale — one for $6.2M with 8 rooms, 4 bedrooms, and 2½ bathrooms, and one for $19M with 6000 sq.ft. 15 rooms, 5 bedrooms, and 9 bathrooms. If the name of the apartment building sounds familiar, it might be because it’s where John Lennon was shot and killed in 1980.

Book #24
Attachments book cover		 Book: Attachments Author: Rainbow Rowell
Source: Library loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 338 Duration: 03/08/25 – 03/09/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance, chick lit
📕10-word summary: An I.T. security guy is sucked into employees’ email conversations.
🖌6-word review: 75% epistolary “dialogue.” Amusing, fun, fluff.
💭Amusing quote: “She was loud. And funny. (But not as funny as loud.)”
🎓Some new-to-me words: strident, pithy, rotavirus, Valkyrie, nadir, vetiver
Description:* Beth and Jennifer know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives. Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now — reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers — not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke. When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories. By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he say…?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This book was on NPR’s list of great summer reads. Not being in school and being retired made me wonder what characteristics of a book make it a “summer read.” According to AI, it’s “a light, accessible, and entertaining book, often with a focus on escapism, romance, or a lighthearted plot, perfect for relaxing during the summer months.” Not sure why you can’t relax during the spring, fall, or winter months — but I digress. I enjoyed this book, which comprised many email exchanges between the two female protagonists. Reading other people’s mail is something that appeals to me, and I can see why Lincoln, the I.T. guy, got sucked into reading Beth’s and Jennifer’s — ethics and privacy issues aside. It definitely checked off the summer read characteristics of escapism, romance and a lighthearted plot. With enjoying the book said, if a movie was made of it, it’d be the kind of movie I’d never want to see.

Book #23
The Lost Daughter book cover		 Book: The Lost Daughter Author: Elena Ferrante
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 140 Duration: 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, Italy, feminism, family
📕10-word summary: A candid, ferocious, and compelling introspection on womanhood and motherhood.
🖌6-word review: Classic Ferrante voice — quirky and dark.
💭Compelling quote: “How foolish to think you can tell your children about yourself before they’re at least 50. To ask to be seen by them as a person and not as a function.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: Camorra, reproof, pareo, tohu-bohu
Description:* Leda, a middle-aged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Ferrante’s language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I was prepared for this author’s voice, quirky and dark, from her book The Days of Abandonment, which I read in 2022. My husband watched and reviewed the movie made from this book, starring one of his all-time favorite actors, Olivia Colman, and which was Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s directorial debut. There was a lot packed into the 140-page story, and it’s a rare, refreshing, honest look at women who aren’t completely taken and in love with their own children. Oh, and lest I forget, my pet-peeve overused word made an appearance on p. 18: “They called each other by name with drawn-out cries, hurled exclamatory or conspiratorial comments, at times quarreled: a large family group, similar to the one I had been part of when I was a girl, the same jokes, the same sentimentality, the same rages.”

Book #22
And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison's Life in Stories book cover		 Book: And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Source: Library loan
Format: Print (picture book)		 Pages: 48 Duration: 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, biography, African American, poetry, picture book, childrens, art
📕10-word summary: Author Toni Morrison’s life beautifully honored in poetry and pictures.
🖌6-word review: Brilliant accomplishments. Understandable poetry. Glorious art.
💭Compelling quote: “You, Tony Morrison, first-of-the-first brown-skinned bosses, bringing color to an all-white literary landscape.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: griot, gutbucket
Description:* From imaginative child to visionary storyteller, Toni Morrison was a fiercely inspiring writer who helped change the world. This poetic picture book is part love letter and part biography, praising the power of this Nobel Prize winner. With its tender refrain, readers will know how much Morrison’s stories — and their own — mean to the world. She was loved — and so are they!*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I didn’t expect this one to be poetry, but thankfully, it was very accessible poetry. I knew that Toni was a Pulitzer Prize winner (1988), but I didn’t know (or remember) that she’d also won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993) and that President Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012). This book is beautifully illustrated.

Book #21
The Sublet: A Short Story book cover		 Book: The Sublet: A Short Story Author: Greer Hendricks
Source: Free First Reads download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 49 Duration: 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, short stories, psychological thriller, novella
📕10-word summary: Ghostwriter learns truths about the famous person she’s writing for.
🖌6-word review: 49 pages were just enough. Unremarkable.
💭Laughable quote: “With the cleansing power of this sage, I release all negative energy from this space. Visualize the smoke absorbing all negativity. Watch it disappear and float out of the windows.”
🎓A new-to-me word: wakeboarding
Description:* Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client Melody Wells. When Melody passes along a lead on a spacious sublet complete with East River views, built-in closets, and three bedrooms, Anne can’t believe her luck. Melody seems to know just what her family needs. But as small, unsettling incidents begin to accumulate, Anne starts to wonder what price she’s willing to pay for the good life.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was an “interesting enough” read, nothing remarkable. I was interested enough to invest 49 pages to see how it ended. I’m ambivalent about including the explanation of polydactyl cats and the boiling frog apologue. It felt like a couple of things that the author knew about and wanted to fit into the story, which violates a classic rule of writing: In your edit, find your favorite word or line that you worked into the story and delete it.

Book #20
Eleven Numbers book cover		 Book: Eleven Numbers: A Short Story Author: Lee Child
Source: Free Prime Reading loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 50 Duration: 03/02/25 – 03/02/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, short stories, thriller, mystery, espionage, novella
📕10-word summary: A mathematics professor gets himself in a world of shit.
🖌6-word review: My first Lee Child book. Excellent.
💭A favorite quote: “Korovki [a Russian prison] is like any small town. Full of gossip. Sometimes exciting.”
🎓A new-to-me word: last
Description:* Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics — in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever. All he has to do is get to a meeting with the renowned Russian mathematician who created it. But when Nathan crashes headlong into a dangerous new game, the odds against him suddenly look a lot steeper.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I became aware of Lee Child during an after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen through Barnes & Noble. She recommended his Jack Reacher books, but this book of his was available to borrow free through Amazon’s Prime Reading service, so I grabbed it. At 50 pages, it was a super quick read, although I do wonder what part of that enjoyment was served by my love of mathematics. Although the Kindansky numbers in this book are fictional, they reminded me of the Fibonacci numbers, which actually exist in mathematics. I thought it was a great introduction to Lee Child’s writing, which I definitely plan to read more of, probably starting with Killing Floor, the first in his Jack Reacher series of 29 books to-date.

Book #19
The Rules of Fortune book cover		 Book: The Rules of Fortune Author: Danielle Prescod
Source: Free First Reads download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 293 Duration: 02/28/25 – 03/02/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, African American, family
📕10-word summary: Family faces hard truths in wake of businessman patriarch’s death.
🖌6-word review: Good story. Good pacing. Hopeful ending.
💭Compelling quote: “Casual dress is a privilege for those given the benefit of the doubt. It is for people who will be accepted without question, and that’s not you.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: senescence, bicker, boater hat, quiddities, bouclé, B-roll, kente, diapason, rubicund, inosculated
Description:* On their Martha’s Vineyard estate, the Carter family prepares to celebrate. But when the billionaire patriarch dies right before his 70th birthday, the media is quick to question the future of the multi-industry conglomerate that makes the Carters living legends. Amid the succession crisis, his daughter, Kennedy, is questioning her father’s past. Kennedy is an aspiring filmmaker, and the documentary she’d planned to present at her father’s party begins an inquest into the life of a man she never really knew. As a twisted history emerges, the fault lines in the family grow. Torn between morality and the promise of maintaining wealth, Kennedy must decide what’s most important—the Carter legacy or exposing the shocking truth of how it was built.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I liked how each chapter was from one character’s perspective, and essentially rotated through the members of the family at the center of this story. A scene about “a request form to ensure the chef and housekeeping staff were aware of everything from who liked to sleep with socks on, to who liked their bacon extra crispy,” reminded me of a spreadsheet that my work team created once for an off-site retreat that involved several nights during which some of us would have to share a hotel room: “We’ve started a spreadsheet to note preferences such as “needs white noise,” “likes it cold,” “snorer,” “not a morning person,” etc. Well, it quickly devolved with added columns, such as: “potty-trained,” “litterbox-trained,” “nude sleeper,” “never-nude sleeper,” “needs arm rub to fall asleep,” “needs bedtime story + song,” “needs bedtime story only,” “AM radio,” and “cuddler.” And the memory made me chuckle. I enjoyed reading about “the Black experience” attending Princeton, and a couple of times thought of a book I read last year, The Last Negroes at Harvard,” to which there was an allusion in this book, in fact. There are some good thoughts in this story about capitalism vs. humanitarianism.

Book #18
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone book cover		 Book: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone Author: Benjamin Stevenson
Source: Library loan
Format: Audiobook		 Pages: 384 Duration: 02/26/25 – 02/28/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, crime, books about books
📕10-word summary: More murders take place while trying to solve old ones.
🖌6-word review: Very complicated plot points. Didn’t love.
💭Compelling quote: “Age gives you perspective. Now I know the difference between being popular and just being talked about.”
🎓A new-to-me word: balaclava
Description:* Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Like many others, the catchy title of this book drew me in. But, I didn’t love this book. The author broke the fourth wall often, which at times came across as a funny or expositive aside, but at other times felt too gimmicky. There were a lot of characters and murders in the story — with lots of sometimes obscure, and often complicated, connections to people outside the family. I never quite cared — as much as I thought I should have — about who the murderer was. My pet-peeve overused word made an appearance about a third of the way through: “I leaned over and whispered conspiratorially.” And in what’s apparently an Australian pronunciation quirk, the narrator of this audiobook distractingly pronounced the word “assume” (which was used a lot) as “ashoom.” I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this book without a lot of caveats.

Book #17
Turbulence book cover		 Book: Turbulence Author: David Szalay
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 145 Duration: 02/24/25 – 02/25/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, short stories, travel, flying, interconnectedness
📕10-word summary: The ripple effect on each other of 12 mostly strangers.
🖌6-word review: Quick paced. Nice surprises. Wonderfully interconnected.
💭Compelling quote: “What she hated about even mild turbulence was the way it ended the illusion of security.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: muezzins, fug, tiffin, escutcheon
Description:* A woman strikes up a conversation with the man sitting next to her on a plane after some turbulence. He returns home to tragic news that has also impacted another stranger, a shaken pilot on his way to another continent who seeks comfort from a journalist he meets that night. The journalist’s life shifts subtly as well, before she heads to the airport on an assignment that will shift more lives in turn. In this novel, Szalay’s diverse protagonists circumnavigate the planet on twelve flights, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers or estranged siblings, aging parents, baby grandchildren, or nobody at all. Along the way, they experience the full range of human emotions from loneliness to love and, knowingly or otherwise, change each other in one brief, electrifying interaction after the next.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: During a recent after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen, through Barnes & Noble looking at books, sharing what we’ve read, and trading recommendations, she recommended this author to me. This book of his was readily available at my library, and I loved the premise. As it turns out, though, Jen recommended John Scalzi — and has never read anything by this author! But now that she’s read my review of this book, she’s adding it to her to-read list. Too funny! I loved how each of this book’s chapters was around a flight, whose chapter title comprised the flight’s departure and arrival airport codes, and after the first chapter, how each featured someone who was somehow connected to the person in the previous chapter. There were a couple of nice surprises; for example, when you didn’t know how someone at the beginning of a chapter was connected to anyone in the previous chapter, and it was revealed in such a way that all of sudden you figured it out or it became obvious. I also liked when a character seemed unlikable or unsavory in one chapter, but you found out why they might be that way in the subsequent chapter. (It reminded me of Stephen Covey’s 5th habit: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood®.) If I’m remembering correctly, only the first story involved literal and figurative turbulence, the others having just the figurative sense of it — turbulence in the character’s lives. Also, I thought the ending was brilliant. I will probably put this forth as my Mostly Social Book Club book when it’s my turn again to chose one.

Book #16
The Book of Last Letters book cover		 Book: The Book of Last Letters Author: Kerry Barrett
Source: Free BookBub download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 400 Duration: 02/20/25 – 02/23/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, World War II, romance, dual timeline, books about books
📕10-word summary: Nurse creates opportunity for potential last words to loved ones.
🖌6-word review: Compelling dual timeline — ultimately heartwarming — story.
💭Compelling quote: “She was suffering terribly, and you did the best thing for her. This is a war, and any man on the battlefield would have done the same thing.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: maisonette, hob, Luftwaffe, Primus, cagoule, swifts, biro, chivvying, trundling, naff, welly
Description:* London, 1940: When nurse Elsie offers to send a reassuring letter to the family of a patient, she has an idea. She begins a book of last letters: messages to be sent on to wounded soldiers’ loved ones should the very worst come to pass, so that no one is left without a final goodbye. But one message will change Elsie’s life forever. When a patient makes a devastating request, can Elsie find the strength to do the unthinkable?
London, present day: Stephanie has people she’d like to speak to: her estranged, incarcerated brother; her nan, whose dementia means she’s only occasionally lucid enough to talk. When she discovers a book of wartime letters, Stephanie realises the importance of our final words – and uncovers the story of a secret love, a desperate choice, and the unimaginable courage of the woman behind it all.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I read about this book on BookBub and it was available for a $.99 download. Since I had a credit for that amount, I “bought it” at no out-of-pocket expense. I appreciated that this was one of those dual-timeline stories in which both the present-day storyline and the in-the-past storyline were both good. Other than the aspect of “the nurse and the airman” communicating in “the book” in a couple of pages that were “purposefully stuck together to keep them private” being totally implausible, it was a believable and compelling story. I was completely sucked into it, and I looked forward to picking it back up as soon as possible and pretty much zipped through it. YMMV, of course.

Book #15
The Answer Is No book cover		 Book: The Answer Is No Author: Fredrik Backman
Source: Free First Reads download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 68 Duration: 02/19/25 – 02/19/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, short stories, humor, novella
📕10-word summary: Man who doesn’t like people very much overdoses on them.
🖌6-word review: Smart satire. Overdone hyperbole at times.
💭Compelling quote: “Therefore, to avoid your neighbors, you have to make yourself uninteresting, but not too uninteresting, because that makes you interesting.”
Description:* Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Until this book of his, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this author. I read A Man Called Ove in 2017 and with so many metaphors and similes (several of them in one paragraph at times), the writing became distracting enough for me to abandon the book. Then in 2023, our Mostly Social Book Club read Anxious People, and I absolutely loved it! I’m happy to say I really enjoyed — albeit just short of loving — this book. I thought that at times, although it sounds redundant, the hyperbole was over-the-top — to approach being just plain silly. I’m also turned off when (professional) reviewers describe a book, like many did about this one, as “hilarious” or “laugh-out-loud funny,” because humor is so personal and subjective. With all that said, it was a short, fun read, and I’d definitely recommend it. I chose this book as my November 2024 First Reads offering, which provides free early access to an editor’s pick from Amazon Prime.

Book #14
All the Lovers in the Night book cover		 Book: All the Lovers in the Night Author: Mieko Kawakami
Source: Library loan
Format: Audiobook		 Pages: 224 Duration: 02/18/25 – 02/19/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, Japan, Japanese literature, literary fiction, Asian literature, Romance
📕10-word summary: A glimpse into a mid-thirties freelance copy editor’s inner life.
🖌6-word review: Sometimes great, sometimes excruciating protagonist’s dialogue.
💭Compelling quote: “As long as you’re living on this planet, you have to be serious about something, but it’s better to be serious about a limited number of things.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: plumeria, mugicha
Description:* Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyuko stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it. As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko’s past surface and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I saw this book in my BookBub email, and it sounded interesting, perhaps because the protagonist was a copy editor. I went back-and-forth between not liking and liking this book, and ended up on the “like” side, as per my 4-star rating. Several times, I had to tell myself that I was frustrated with the main character because she was an introvert when she sometimes either took forever to answer somebody’s questions, or just didn’t them answer at all. I found all three of the main people she interacted with during the story — Hijiri, Mitsutsuka, and Noriko — quite interesting. I also liked how this book did not have a Hollywood ending.

Book #13
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle book cover		 Book: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Author: Stuart Turton
Source: Library loan
Format: Audiobook		 Pages: 458 Duration: 02/14/25 – 02/17/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, fantasy, crime, time travel
📕10-word summary: Man stuck in time loop until he solves a murder.
🖌6-word review: Interesting premise. Complicated execution. Tedious reading.
💭Favorite quote: “Thankfully, the leaves and twigs are so demoralized by the earlier rain they don’t have the heart to cry out beneath my feet.”
🎓A new-to-me word: brazier
Description:* Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let’s begin… Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: If, like me, the title of this book reminds you of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, disabuse yourself right now of any notion of a connection between the two books. There isn’t any. It took me a while to get the rhythm of how the storyline in this book was going to work, and the dealbreaker for me was the one chapter that was solely exposition of the time- and body-traveling rules. I mean, if you have to stop the story with a chapter explaining how a device — which you’re purportedly employing to enhance your narrative — is going to work, maybe that’s a little too heavy-handed writing. It suspended my effort to suspend my disbelief with the sort of reading equivalent of breaking the fourth wall in theater.

Tedious, annoying, distracting: 1) I found it tedious that there were 8 “hosts” (i.e., other characters’ bodies) that the protagonist inhabited during the story, but then there were a couple of bodies he “visited” more than once. End it already. 2) Overuse of the word “conspiratorial” (or its derivative) in writing is annoying to me, and there were three instances of it in this book. Nobody whispers and conspires that much. 3) This is the second audiobook by a British author that I’ve listened to recently in which I found distracting the pronunciation of these words as “enna-thing,” “enna-one,” and “evra-thing.” Is that how all Brits say those words? I don’t think so.

Book #12
Flags of Our Fathers book cover		 Book: Flags of Our Fathers Author: James D. Bradley
Source: Library loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 400 Duration: 02/08/25 – 02/13/25 (6 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: nonfiction, military fiction, war, World War II, biography, military history
📕10-word summary: Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima photograph’s shocking history.
🖌6-word review: Scholar-like accounting. Incredibly written. Horrific details.
💭Compelling quote: “John’s other nightly habit, though, was something he refused to talk about at all. When Betty would ask him about it in the morning, he would simply turn away. He’d be sleeping, his eyes closed, was the way my mother remembered it. But he’d be whimpering. His body would shake, and tears would stream out of his eyes, down his face.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: chockablock, sintering, billet, supplanted, jingoistic, pillboxes, mettle, tyro, bivouacked, bibulous, paeans
Description:* In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: To be clear, the writing in this book is excellent. My 2-star rating is because I didn’t enjoy it, and I would not recommend it to others, which is a result of my extreme pacifism and the excruciating details about the horrific acts of war written about in this book. Full disclosure: The only reason I didn’t abandon this book was because it was a Mostly Social Book Club book. I skipped chapters 7 (D-Day), 8 (D-Day Plus One), 9 (D-Day Plus Two), 10 (D-Day Plus Three), and I skipped over many other paragraphs, passages, and sometimes pages of prolonged descriptions of murder, torture, and dismemberment. While reading this, I thought a lot about my father, and his 2 combat tours in Vietnam, during one of which he received a Purple Heart for wounds received during Operation Purple Martin. I also thought about his unwillingness to talk about his time in Vietnam like a lot of the guys in this book with regards to the battle on Iwo Jima. Also, like a lot of these guys, my dad suffered from long-term effects of his war experience — he was a terrible sleeper, couldn’t eat rice because it reminded him of maggots in the food in the field, and had severe PTSD reactions to fireworks being set off.


With all that said, this story is a fascinating look at marketing and PR and its — in retrospect — absolute disastrous treatment of the most recognizable image of World War II, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal. And finally, the Afterword of this book made me gasp.

Book #11
The Fall Risk book cover		 Book: The Fall Risk Author: Abby Jimenez
Source: Free First Reads download
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 82 Duration: 02/07/25 – 02/07/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance, short stories, novella
📕10-word summary: Neighbors bond over the shared stairs to their apartments disappearing.
🖌6-word review: Fun characters. A short, playful story.
💭A favorite quote: “Sometimes the start of something good begins during something bad,” he said. “We don’t get to pick when these things happen.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: Dalit, ghatiya, salwar kameezes, mangalasutra, puja, lassi
Description:* It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I chose this book as my February 2025 First Reads offering, which provides free early access to an editor’s pick from Amazon Prime. I liked the premise of the story, and it was a short little book to slip in after reading 4 lengthier ones and before starting the next serious, nonfiction, book club book, Flags of Our Fathers.

Book #10
The Storyteller's Secret book cover		 Book: The Storyteller’s Secret Author: Sejal badani
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 390 Duration: 02/02/25 – 02/06/25 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: historical fiction, India, romance, cultural
📕10-word summary: Deep personal loss leads to self-healing and uncovering family tragedy.
🖌6-word review: “A rich, thoughtfully woven generational tale.”
💭A favorite quote: “Her stories were her only passport to places she had never been. Without them, she would be forever trapped in this village.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: Dalit, ghatiya, salwar kameezes, mangalasutra, puja, lassi
Description:* Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I read about this book on BookBub and found it in the library, with no waiting list for it. I love, love, loved this book. It’s the kind of book that while reading, I’m thinking, “How do writer’s come up with this stuff? It may very well end up being the best book I read in 2025, and it’s only January. And it might very well become my next Mostly Social Book Club book recommendation.

Book #9
Something in the Water book cover		 Book: Something in the Water Author: Catherine Steadman
Source: Library loan
Format: Audiobook		 Pages: 352 Duration: 01/30/25 – 02/01/25 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, mystery thriller, suspense, crime
📕10-word summary: Greed begets greed as newlyweds descend into a beyond-dangerous situation.
🖌6-word review: Riveting. Chilling. Fast-moving, who’s-doing-it mystery thriller.
💭A favorite quote: “But that’s life, isn’t it? Sometimes you’re the dog; sometimes you’re the lamppost.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: The nuanced difference between flotsam and jetsam, especially in the context of maritime law.
Description:* Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous decision to speak out or to protect their secret.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: My friend Nicole recommended this book 2 years ago, and I finally got around to reading it. And it’s become my first 5-star book in 2025! Yay! It’s a fast-moving story and Erin is the kind of protagonist that you’re yelling at, “Don’t do it! You know you shouldn’t do it!” all the while knowing she is going to do it, and since she is, you can’t wait to see what happens so you can say, “I knew it!” and “I told you so!” It’s a complex, but very-well-weaved set of plot lines with a very nice twist at the end. I listened to the audiobook of this novel, which was read by the author, Catherine Steadman. It’s the first book I’ve read of hers, and I’d definitely consider another.

Book #8
Yellowface book cover		 Book: Yellowface Author: R.F. Kuang
Source: Library loan
Format: Audiobook		 Pages: 323 Duration: 01/27/25 – 01/28/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: fiction, thriller, mystery, books about books, books about writing, British
📕10-word summary: White author steals and publishes dead Asian author’s next book.
🖌6-word review: A most improbable plot. Marginally interesting.
💭A favorite quote: “Social media is such a tiny, insular space. Once you close your screen, no one gives a fuck.”
🎓A new-to-me word: consanguinity
Description:* White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequence. Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This story started off okay, but as soon as you find out what June Hayward intends to do with Athena Liu’s manuscript, it’s blatantly obvious that it’ll never work. As hard as I tried (at least at first) to have some empathy for June, I liked her less and less as she became more and more delusional about what and why she was doing what she was doing. By the end, I only finished it because I was so close to the end, not because I cared about June’s character any more. Would not recommend—especially if you’re a writer.

Book #7
My Absolute Darling book cover		 Book: My Absolute Darling Author: Gabriel Tallent
Source: Library loan
Format: Kindle		 Pages: 432 Duration: 01/23/25 – 01/26/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: literary fiction, coming of age, thriller, domestic abuse, violence
📕10-word summary: The complex chaos of a 14-year-old girl’s domestic abuse experience.
🖌6-word review: Too violent. Too graphic. Too infuriating.
💭A favorite quote: “The truth of you, if it is there at all, exists beyond an unbridgeable and irreducible epistemological gap.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: verdigris, cassoulet, erinys, salal, stob, cultivar, gyre, rictus, cauls, numinous, adumbrations
Description:* At 14, Turtle Alveston knows the use of every gun on her wall. She knows how to snare a rabbit, sharpen a blade and splint a bone. She knows that her daddy loves her more than anything else in this world and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her with him. But she doesn’t know why she feels so different from the other girls at school; why the line between love and pain can be so hard to see. Or why making a friend may be the bravest and most terrifying thing she has ever done. Sometimes the people you’re supposed to trust are the ones who do most harm. And what you’ve been taught to fear is the very thing that will save you…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: First of all, Goodreads includes “Young Adult” as a genre for this book. I can’t imagine any situation, context, or universe in which this book could garner such a designation. There are a lot of triggers in this book, the biggest one being incestuous rape. And, as if that’s not horrendous (and adult) enough, the graphic detail in which the physicality of the act is described is off-the-charts unnecessary. There is also a lot of talk, description, and use of guns in this book, another topic that I abhor. The ratings of this book are a complete dichotomy between love and hate. I gave it a 2 rating: “Finished, but did not like. Would not recommend.” In an attempt to temper my extreme bias against reading about emotional, physical, or domestic abuse (and guns!), I will admit that this book is well written, which is to say I think it earns the “literary” part of the “literary fiction” designation.

Book #6
The Uncommon Reader book cover		 Book: The Uncommon Reader Author: Alan Bennett
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 120 Duration: 01/22/25 – 01/22/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, British literature, books about books, novella
📕10-word summary: The Queen, an opsimath reader, becomes passionately obsessed and challenging.
🖌6-word review: Enjoyable fictional account—well-written book-about-books novella.
💭A favorite quote:
Prime Minister’s advisor: “Your employer has been giving my employer a hard time.”
Kevin, the Queen’s advisor: “Yes?”
PM’s advisor: “Yes. Lending him books to read. That’s out of order.”
Kevin: “Her Majesty likes reading.”
PM’s advisor: “I like having my dick sucked. I don’t make the Prime Minister do it. Any thoughts, Kevin?”
Kevin: “I will speak to Her Majesty.”
PM’s advisor: “You do that, Kev. And tell her to knock it off.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: duff, glabrous, careered, equerry, flummeries, boulle, accretion, chivvied, opsimath, peregrinations, tetchy
Description:* Led by her yapping corgis to the Westminster traveling library outside Buckingham Palace, the Queen finds herself taking out a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett. Duff read though it is, the following week her choice proves more enjoyable and awakens in Her Majesty a passion for reading so great that her public duties begin to suffer. And so, as she devours work by everyone from Hardy to Brookner to Proust to Beckett, her equerries conspire to bring the Queen’s literary odyssey to a close.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This was an enjoyable, easy-to-read book that was a welcome change from my 3 previous 2025 books. I thought it was amusing how the Queen referred to herself as “one,” as opposed to the royal “we.” For example, responding to “Your Majesty has started reading,” she says, “No, Sir Claude. One had always read. Only these days one is reading more.” I was also amused when every once in a while, she said something that sounded a lot like Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. For example the Queen writes, “‘One recipe for happiness is to have no sense of entitlement.” To this she added a star and noted at the bottom of the page: ‘This is not a lesson I have ever been in a position to learn,'” which reminded me of the Downton Dowager’s infamous response to, “‘There are many hours in the day. And of course I’ll have the weekend,’ he says. Lady Grantham says, without a hint of sarcasm, ‘What is a weekend?'” And finally, although a fictional work and no names are stated, the inferred Queen is Queen Elizabeth II, the Prime Minister is presumably Tony Blair, and the Duke would naturally be Prince Philip.

Book #5
Magical Midlife in Glimmerspell book cover		 Book: Magical Midlife in Glimmerspell (Hot Flash Homicides #1) Author: Addison Moore
Source: Free BookBub download
Format: Print		 Pages: 235 Duration: 01/20/25 – 01/21/25 (2 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: paranormal women’s fiction, cozy mystery, gothic
📕10-word summary: Midlife crisis leads woman to town rife with the paranormal.
🖌6-word review: The cozy mystery genre gone awry.
💭A favorite quote: “I shoot Harold a look. It took us 3 years to have Harper and not a single baby soul followed suit. I was at war with my ovaries, my uterus, doing everything humanly possible to give Harper a sibling and here Charlene jumps into bed with my husband and makes it a reality.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: transmundane, telesensual
Description:* An impending divorce. A hot homicide detective. And spontaneous time travel. Midlife in Glimmerspell is proving to be magical. “If I thought the first half of my life was a bumpy ride, I’d better buckle up because I’m about to go over the hill and off the rails.”*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: So far in 2025, I’m on a roll—but it’s not a good one—of books that just aren’t working for me. Fortunately, I got this book as a free 4-book series download, and needless to say (but I’m going to anyway), I won’t be reading the other 3 books in the series. It was not at all what I expected, which was your typical cozy mystery. I would estimate that 25% of it was spent on the murder, while 75% of it focused on the female protagonist drooling after a dreamy male detective, time traveling, vampires, werewolves, and fae. Time traveling does intrigue me, and I’ve read some books of that genre, such as: Remember Me Tomorrow, Oona Out of Order, The Midnight Library, Mrs. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Time Traveler’s Wife, In Five Years, and A Wrinkle in Time, but I don’t like the gothic genre at all.

Book #4
Some Trick book cover		 Book: Some Trick (Abandoned) Author: Helen DeWitt
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 197 Duration: 01/16/25 – 01/19/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Genres: literary fiction, short stories
📕10-word summary: Thirteen short stories; didn’t understand 2 of the first 5.
🖌6-word review: Not my cup of tea. Abandoned.
Description:* [DeWitt’s] jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world’s piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success. “Look,” a character begins to explain, laying out some gambit reasonably enough, even if facing a world of boomeranging counterfactuals, situations spinning out to their utmost logical extremes, and Rube Goldberg-like moving parts, where things prove “more complicated than they had first appeared” and “at 3 a.m. the circumstances seem to attenuate.” In various ways, each tale carries DeWitt’s signature poker-face lament regarding the near-impossibility of the life of the mind when one is made to pay to have the time for it, in a world so sadly “taken up with all sorts of paraphernalia superfluous, not to say impedimental, to ratiocination.” *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Read the description. ‘Nuff said.

Book #3
All the World Beside book cover		 Book: All the World Beside (Abandoned) Author: Gerrard Conley
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 353 Duration: 01/15/25 – 01/15/25 (1 day)
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Genres: literary fiction, historical fiction, queer, LGBT, Romance
📕10-word summary: Two men negotiate dangerous, secret love in Puritan New England.
🖌6-word review: So lyrical it obfuscates plot. Abandoned.
Description:* Cana, a utopian vision of 18th-century Puritan New England. To the outside world, Reverend Nathaniel Whitfield and his family stand as godly pillars of their small-town community, drawing Christians from across the New World into their fold. One such Christian, physician Arthur Lyman, discovers in the minister’s words a love so captivating it transcends language. As the bond between these two men grows increasingly passionate, their families must contend with a tangled web of secrets, lies, and judgments that threaten to destroy them in this world and the next. And when the religious ecstasies of the Great Awakening begin to take hold, igniting a new era of zealotry, Nathaniel and Arthur search for a path out of an impossible situation, imagining a future for themselves that has no name. Their wives and children must do the same, looking beyond the known world for a new kind of wilderness, both physical and spiritual.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: “Lyrical writing is used to create a piece that feels more deeply evocative than usual, thanks to its song-like, poetic property. In a way, it’s prose that sounds more like a poem.” I’m not a fan of it. I have survived some lyrical writing: In 2020, I read What Belongs to You, and although containing lyrical writing and having a 40-page paragraph, I not only finished it but gave it 4 stars. In 2022, I read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, for whose 6-word review, I wrote, “Chapter 9 is so lyrically beautiful,” and I gave it 5 stars. However, when the writing is so lyrical that I can’t follow the plot, that’s a deal-breaker—as was the case with this book.

Book #2
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things book cover		 Book: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things Author: Bryn Greenwood
Source: Library loan
Format: Print		 Pages: 421 Duration: 01/10/25 – 01/13/25 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, justice, domestic abuse, drugs, drama, crime, contemporary romance
📕10-word summary: Young girl negotiates her family’s abusive, criminal, and dysfunctional lifestyle.
🖌6-word review: Gloom, despair, agony abundant. Unconventionally triumphant.
💭A favorite quote: “I mostly liked high school. I liked learning things. How numbers work together to explain the stars. How molecules made the world. All the ugly and wonderful things people had done in the last two thousand years.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: lassitude, keening
Description:* As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It’s safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father’s thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold. By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy’s family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. Kellen may not be innocent, but he is the fixed point in Wavy and Donal’s chaotic universe. Instead of playing it safe, Wavy has to learn to fight for Kellen, for her brother, and for herself.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is the third book in 2025 for our Mostly Social Book Club. There are several trigger-warning-worthy topics covered in this book—primarily for domestic abuse and rape; although, one reviewer purports: “trigger warning basically for everything.” Goodreads lists “young adult” as one of the genres of this book, which is mind-boggling to me. I spent a lot of time while reading it in a mental debate about the definition of pedophilia, while “seeking first to understand, then to be understood.” (And, yes, I know Stephen Covey was a homophobe.) I look forward to our book club discussion about this book when we get to it.

Book #1
Arthur & George book cover		 Book: Arthur & George Author: Julian Barnes
Source: Gift from friend
Format: Print		 Pages: 388 Duration: 01/01/25 – 01/09/25 (9 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, historical fiction, mystery, British literature, crime, justice
📕10-word summary: Two distinctive men’s lives intersect in a most unlikely way.
🖌6-word review: Slow until the connection is made.
💭A favorite quote: “Flowers. Each year, without fail, on the 15th of March, Jean receives a single snowdrop with a note from her beloved Arthur. A white flower once a year for Jean, and white lies all the year round for his wife.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: succoured, cynosure, glaucous, locum-tenens, amanuensis, packstaff, oleaginous, paterfamilias, purlieus, tantalus, coir, drayman, carapace, interregnum, fettle, jocosities, febrile, mendacious, mephitic, fulminate, pusillanimous, palaver
Description:* As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world’s most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife—their fates become inextricably connected.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I received this book a couple of years ago from my friend Susan Katz. Thanks, Susan! I found the first half of it slow moving, during the telling of the story of each of the main characters, Arthur & George (duh). I put this book down a lot, which is why it took me 9 days to read it. In addition to (the first half) not being riveting, it’s a pretty dense book comprising (as you can see by my list) a lot of words I had to look up while reading—it sure would have been easier reading it on a Kindle. Learning about Arthur and George in alternating story snippets, we find out who Arthur (really) is a good way into his story—and since I hadn’t read anything about the book beforehand, it was a nice surprise that kicked up my interest in the book a little bit. I considered abandoning this book a couple of times, but in the end, I was glad I stuck with it. With that said, I wouldn’t recommend it without a couple of caveats, which is why I gave it 3 stars (Average. An entertaining read but probably forgettable. Might or might not recommend) instead of 4 (Really great book in all respects with perhaps some minor flaws. Would definitely recommend). I see that this book was made into a 3-part 2015 PBS Masterpiece TV mini series, but I don’t plan to watch it.

Go to my books read list for: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019

Mostly Social Book Club books read in 2023

by

Our Mostly Social Book Club has been meeting for 32 years. We all worked together (at IBM) when we started the group, so now we’re all “of a certain age”—let’s just call it “retirement age” since we all are now.

We read 16 books in 2023, and at yesterday’s meeting, we thought about picking our favorite book of 2023, but when we started going through the list, we ended up happy enough just to remember what each book was about.

The 16 books we read in 2023 are on our web page.

2019 books read

by

I had a goal to increase the number of books I read over last year. In 2018, I read 26 books. This year, I read 29.

Here are some fun facts about the books I read in 2019:

Cost and sources
I spent $0.00 in 2019 for the 29 books I read this year. The source of my books included:

  • 21 borrowed from the Wake County Public Library (including regular-print, large-print, e-book, and audiobook editions)
  • 6 as free downloads from amazon.com via BookBub
  • 2 from Books at Amazon—1 as a free download and 1 that I paid $2.17 for back in 2017

Favorites/least favorites

Abandoned books
In addition to the 29 books I read this year, I abandoned 4:

Book club books
6 of the 29 books I read as part of The Mostly Social Book Club that I’m in:

Author diversity

  • 12 male writers
  • 15 female writers
  • 1 non-binary writer

New authors
26 of the authors I read this year, I was reading for the first time:

Albert Camus, Clive Barker, David Levithan, Delia Owens, Elin Hilderbrand, Emma Jameson, Franny Moyle, Garrard Conley, Gemma Jackson, Greer Hendricks, Haruki Murakami, Jacob Tobia, Jacquie Underdown, Jason Mott, Jeff Shelby, Judy Blume, Kevin Allison, Liane Moriarty, Marlene Wagman-Geller, Michelle Obama, Shayne Parkinson, Silk White, Stephen Chbosky, Tara Conklin, Will Schwalbe, Simon Winchester

Repeat authors
I’d read at least one other book by 2 of the authors of the books I read this year:

Most ambitious month
In September, I read 5 books:

Genres

  • Nonfiction: 8
  • Fiction: 21
  • Others: autobiography, biography, books about books, chick lit, classics, contemporary, French culture, Japanese culture, fantasy, feminism, history, horror, humanities, Irish culture, language, LGBT, literature, literary fiction, magical realism, memoir, mystery, paranormal, philosophy, queer, romance, science fiction, short stories, suspense, thriller, womens fiction, writing, young adult

Shortest / longest

Number of books read by pages

  • 7% (2 books) with fewer than 200 pages
  • 21% (6 books) with between 200-299 pages
  • 41% (12 books) with between 300-399 pages
  • 28% (8 books) with between 400-499 pages
  • 3% (1 book) with more than 500 pages

The 29 books I read in 2019—summary

Clicking on the title of a book will take you to its detailed entry below, which contains a description of the book and some thoughts I had about it.

Title Author Pages Duration Rating Genres
Two Henrys Kevin Allison 35 01/04/19 – 01/06/19 (3 days) 4 stars nonfiction, short stories, LGBT, queer
1Q84 Haruki Murakami 1318 01/07/19 – 01/23/19 (17 days) 5 stars fiction, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, Japanese culture
A Spool of Blue Thread Anne Tyler 358 01/28/19 – 02/10/19 (14 days) 3 stars fiction, contemporary, literary fiction
Nine Perfect Strangers Liane Moriarty 453 02/09/19 – 02/14/19 (6 days) 3 stars fiction, contemporary, womens fiction
Becoming Michelle Obama 428 02/24/19 – 04/28/19 (63 days) 5 stars nonfiction, autobiography, memoir
The Last Romantics Tara Conklin 368 02/15/19 – 05/21/19 (96 days) 5 stars fiction, contemporary
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story Jacob Tobia 336 06/09/19 – 06/19/19 (11 days) 5 stars nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
The Murder Pit Jeff Shelby 326 05/19/19 – 06/23/19 (36 days) 3 stars fiction, mystery
Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde Franny Moyle 336 06/08/17 – 06/26/19
(2 years, 19 days)		 4 stars nonfiction, biography, history
The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Simon Winchester 288 06/27/19 – 07/03/19 (7 days) 5 stars nonfiction, history, biography, humanities, language, writing, books about books
The Wife Between Us Greer Hendricks 416 07/07/19 – 07/14/19 (8 days) 4 stars fiction, thriller, mystery, suspense
The Stranger Albert Camus 123 07/16/19 – 07/18/19 (3 days) 5 stars fiction, classics, philosophy, French culture, literature
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky 222 07/19/19 – 07/23/19 (5 days) 5 stars fiction, young adult, contemporary
One Plus One Jojo Moyes 369 07/25/19 – 08/02/19 (9 days) 4 stars fiction, contemporary, romance, womens fiction, adult
Winter in Paradise Elin Hilderbrand 320 08/10/19 – 08/11/19 (2 days) 5 stars fiction, womens fiction, mystery
Summer Sisters Judy Blume 416 08/24/19 – 08/25/19 (2 days) 4 stars fiction, womens fiction, young adult, romance
The Secrets Mothers Keep Jacquie Underdown 266 09/02/19 – 09/04/19 (3 days) 5 stars fiction, womens fiction
Never Be The Same Silk White 210 09/08/19 – 09/08/19 (1 days) 4 stars fiction, mystery, African American
Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family Garrard Conley 340 09/10/19 – 09/19/19 (10 days) 5 stars nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
The Wonder of All Things Jason Mott 400 09/20/19 – 09/21/19 (2 days) 5 stars fiction, fantasy, paranormal, contemporary
Two Boys Kissing David Levithan 200 09/23/19 – 09/23/19 (1 days) 5 stars fiction, young adult, romance, contemporary, LGBT, queer
Abarat Clive Barker 393 09/24/19 – 10/09/19 (16 days) 3 stars fiction, young adult, fantasy, horror
Marriage Can Be Murder Emma Jameson 282 10/10/19 – 10/15/19 (6 days) 3 stars fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Behind Every Great Man: Women in the Shadows of History’s Alpha Males Marlene Wagman-Geller 369 10/17/19 – 10/23/19 (7 days) 4 stars nonfiction, women, history, feminism, short stories
Sentence of Marriage Shayne Parkinson 415 10/10/19 – 10/29/19 (20 days) 5 stars fiction, historical fiction, romance
What Happens in Paradise Elin Hilderbrand 432 10/30/19 – 11/03/19 (5 days) 5 stars fiction, womens fiction
The End of Your Life Book Club Will Schwalbe 336 11/04/19 – 11/09/19 (6 days) 5 stars nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, writing, books about books
Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens 384 12/19/19 – 12/20/19 (2 days) 5 stars fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Through Streets Narrow and Broad Gemma Jackson 464 12/27/19 – 12/30/19 (4 days) 5 stars fiction, historical fiction, Irish culture

The 29 books I read in 2019—details

Book cover Book: Two Henrys Author: Kevin Allison
Pages: 35 Duration: 01/04/19 – 01/06/19 (3 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: nonfiction, short stories, LGBT, queer
Description:
Coming out can be awkward enough—let alone coming out in the 1970s, in Ohio, as a Catholic schoolboy. In this fearless and funny true story, the host and founder of the hit podcast RISK! shares all. From first grade through junior high, twelve-year-old Kevin and his best friend, Ben, were inseparable. But when Kevin divulged his biggest secret, Ben froze him out. The pint-size cold war lasted two years—until they went head-to-head for student council president. Team Ben’s smear campaign began. The school took sides. And Kevin decided to run with it.
Thoughts:
Just a short, fun, little read. If you’re queer and have been in the closet or come out, you’re sure to relate to this short narrative. If you’re straight, you might gain some insight into why it’s such a big deal to the person, especially a kid, going through it all.

Book cover Book: 1Q84 Author: Haruki Murakami
Pages: 1318 Duration: 01/07/19 – 01/23/19 (17 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, fantasy, magical realism, Japanese culture, science fiction
Description:
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 – Q is for “A world that bears a question.” A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
Thoughts:
This was a challenging read for me, not because of its length, but because it contains elements of—as enumerated in its genre list—fantasy, magical realism, and science fiction, none of which do I care for. However, it’s a compelling enough story that kept raising questions that I wanted to know the answers to, which kept me reading. And not unlike The Goldfinch, which I read last year, I felt a real sense of accomplishment when I finished reading its 1318 pages.

Book cover Book: A Spool of Blue Thread Author: Anne Tyler
Pages: 358 Duration: 01/28/19 – 02/10/19 (14 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary, literary fiction
Description:
The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets. from Red’s father and mother, newly-arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor.
Thoughts:
Surprisingly, this was one of my least favorite books of the year. There just wasn’t anything remarkable that happened to the characters in this story. And although that’s probably representative of a lot of people’s lives, it just didn’t make for very interesting reading to me. One reviewer, who regularly gives Anne Tyler high marks, pretty well summed up my sense of it: “It recycles virtually every theme and major plot she has used in the past and does so in the most perfunctory manner imaginable. A disappointing performance by this talented author, who seems to be coasting on automatic pilot.”

Book cover Book: Nine Perfect Strangers Author: Liane Moriarty
Pages: 453 Duration: 02/09/19 – 02/14/19 (6 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary, womens fiction
Description:
Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be. It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question.
Thoughts:
This was among my least favorite fiction books of the year. The premise was interesting enough, but it dragged at times, and it got quite preposterous at others.

Book cover Book: Becoming Author: Michelle Obama
Pages: 428 Duration: 02/24/19 – 04/28/19 (63 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, autobiography, memoir
Description:
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Thoughts:
This book made me ache for the days when class and civility inhabited The White House. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: The Last Romantics Author: Tara Conklin
Pages: 368 Duration: 02/15/19 – 05/21/19 (96 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary
Description:
A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose – and sometimes rescue – the ones we love. A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, it is also a beautiful meditation on the power of stories – how they navigate us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future
Thoughts:
This book immediately reminded me of the first line from Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” It’s so interesting to me how siblings who grow up in the same family and household can turn out so differently and how so much dysfunction can take place in one family. Also, I love how this book starts at a funeral. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story Author: Jacob Tobia
Pages: 336 Duration: 06/09/19 – 06/19/19 (11 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
Description:
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story charts those decades, from Jacob’s Methodist childhood to the hallowed halls of Duke University and the portrait-laden parlors of the White House, taking you on a gender odyssey you won’t soon forget. With the snarky voice and wrenching vulnerability that have made them a media sensation, Jacob shatters the long-held notion that people are easily sortable into “men” and “women.” Sissy guarantees that you’ll never think about gender—both other people’s and your own—the same way again.
Thoughts:
The last serious book I read on gender was My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender by Riki Anne Wilchins’Read back in 2003. It, too, tried many of my misconceptions and disinformation about gender. I enjoyed reading this book much more than that one, though, because of Jacob’s impressive ability to share his humanity in a deep, yet relatable way that challenges one’s thinking about gender. And there definitely was a remarkable Aha! moment in it for me. I recommended this book for our Mostly Social Book Club, and here’s a 7-minute clip of Jacob with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show.

Book cover Book: The Murder Pit Author: Jeff Shelby
Pages: 326 Duration: 05/19/19 – 06/23/19 (36 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, mystery
Description:
Daisy Savage finally has everything she wants. A new husband. A bunch of kids. A charming old house. What she doesn’t want is a dead body. When a frozen pipe in the basement of her century-old home leads her and her husband downstairs into a newly discovered crawl space, they find a coal chute they didn’t know they had. And a corpse inside of it.
Thoughts:
I can’t really put my finger on why this book didn’t captivate me, but it didn’t. A reviewer, who really liked it, noted, “For me, the first 3 chapters, while charming, were a little slow. Not slow enough for me to put the book aside, but not as fastly paced as the rest of the story. It was right about chapter 4… right there at the end of it… that the novel really took off and never faltered. And I gotta confess… no, not to the murder… but to the fact that I had way too much fun flying through the pages!” I gotta confess that all of those ellipses in that review annoyed me, but with that said, I didn’t like it, but YMMV.

Book cover Book: Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde Author: Franny Moyle
Pages: 336 Duration: 06/08/17 – 06/26/19 (2 years, 19 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: nonfiction, biography, history
Description:
In the spring of 1895 the life of Constance Wilde changed irrevocably. Up until the conviction of her husband, Oscar, for homosexual crimes, she had held a privileged position in society. Part of a gilded couple, she was a popular children’s author, a fashion icon, and a leading campaigner for women’s rights. A founding member of the magical society The Golden Dawn, her pioneering and questioning spirit encouraged her to sample some of the more controversial aspects of her time. Mrs. Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in her own right.
Thoughts:
I wanted to—more like, felt like I should—like this book way more than I did. Obviously, I didn’t hate it, since I never abandoned it over the ample just-over 2 years it took me to read it. In the end, I think who I really wanted to read about was Oscar, not Constance, and the dalliances that led to his social demise didn’t happen until well into the second half of the book. She was also very much into fashion, about which I have little-to-no interest in. With all that said, I’m glad I finally finished it.

Book cover Book: The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Author: Simon Winchester
Pages: 288 Duration: 06/27/19 – 07/03/19 (7 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, history, biography, humanities, language, writing, books about books
Description:
A masterfully researched, and eloquently written, extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)—and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
Thoughts:
I, of course, knew what the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was before I read this book, but I didn’t know the breadth and depth of it. Knowing what I now know about its origin and development, it’s quite inconceivable how much of it was done without the aid of computers. This was also my first Simon Winchester book, and it piqued my interest in other books of his. After I finished reading this one, Bob and I watched the movie based on this book.

Book cover Book: The Wife Between Us Authors: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Pages: 416 Duration: 07/07/19 – 07/14/19 (8 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, thriller, mystery, suspense
Description:
When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement—a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing.
Thoughts:
I’m not a huge fan of psychological thrillers, but I do like the unreliable narrator literary device, which this book certainly employs. It did keep me guessing and wanting to know what the “truth” was.

Book cover Book: The Stranger Author: Albert Camus
Pages: 123 Duration: 07/16/19 – 07/18/19 (3 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, classics, philosophy, French culture, literature
Description:
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.” In January 1955, Camus wrote: I summarized The Stranger a long time ago, with a remark I admit was highly paradoxical: “In our society any man who does not weep at his mother’s funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death.” I only meant that the hero of my book is condemned because he does not play the game.
Thoughts:
In spite of always being in “advanced placement” English classes (of course, I was) and the tremendous amount of reading I’ve done in my life, I’d never read this novella. I loved this existential inquiry into the cost of not being willing to do what society expects.

Book cover Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Author: Stephen Chbosky
Pages: 222 Duration: 07/19/19 – 07/23/19 (5 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, young adult, contemporary
Description:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. Of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
Thoughts:
I enjoy the epistolary novel device of books like this, and I liked that there was a main character who is gay. There is a certain underlying darkness to this story, which also appealed to me. After I finished reading it, Bob and I watched the movie based on this book.

Book cover Book: One Plus One Author: Jojo Moyes
Pages: 369 Duration: 07/25/19 – 08/02/19 (9 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary, romance, womens fiction, adult
Description:
Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages… maybe ever.
Thoughts:
I first read this author, JoJo Moyes, last year with the first book of her trilogy: Me Before You, After You, and Still Me. I enjoyed the writing and storytelling so much in the first one that I went on to read the second two in the series. One Plus One landed on our Mostly Social Book Club agenda for this year, and unfortunately, I found it a bit tedious and frustrating, but I did finish it, because it was a book club book. With that said, the other members of the book club enjoyed it more than I did.

Book cover Book: Winter in Paradise Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Pages: 320 Duration: 08/10/19 – 08/11/19 (2 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction, mystery
Description:
Irene Steele’s idyllic life—house, husband, family—is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead, but before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband’s death. He was found on St. John island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John only to make another shocking discovery: her husband had a secret second family. As Irene investigates the mysterious circumstances of her husband’s death, she is plunged into a web of intrigue and deceit belied by the pristine white-sand beaches of St. John’s.
Thoughts:
I devoured this book, my first by author Elin Hilderbrand even though she’s written 30 books. I didn’t know when I started that it was the first in a series of 3 books of which the second two were not yet available. A few months after I finished this one, the second one, What Happens in Paradise, came out and it’s further down my list. This was billed as “an easy, summer read,” and it certainly lived up to its claim. I essentially read it in a day-and-a-half, and it kept me intrigued throughout as well as looking forward to the second book in the series to get some answers. I recommended we read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: Summer Sisters Author: Judy Blume
Pages: 416 Duration: 08/24/19 – 08/25/19 (2 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction, young adult, romance
Description:
In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard’s world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become “summer sisters.” Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—because she wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart.
Thoughts:
Although she’s touted as “a writer who has won the hearts and minds of readers of all generations,” I abandoned the first book of hers that I read shortly before trying this one—In the Unlikely Event. There were too many characters that I couldn’t keep track of and it wasn’t bringing me joy. This book brought me enough joy to keep reading it, and I did come to understand the fuss about Judy Blume’s writing. I’m glad I read it.

Book cover Book: The Secrets Mothers Keep Author: Jacquie Underdown
Pages: 266 Duration: 09/02/19 – 09/04/19 (3 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction
Description:
One Family. Three generations. A common goal to unite them. A lifetime of secrets to divide them. But could uncovering the truth be the only way that this family can finally heal? Three generations of women find their way back home to Tasmania. They embark on a project together to renovate the family manor and convert it into a bed and breakfast. With the family now under the one roof, and the past tampered with, the foundations of this secret are shaken.
Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and in fact had a hard time naming Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story over this one as my favorite book of the year. I just thought it did a great job of slowly unfolding enormous family secrets as the story progressed and enjoyed the portrayal of the characters’ responses to them.

Book cover Book: Never Be The Same Author: Silk White
Pages: 210 Duration: 09/08/19 – 09/08/19 (1 days
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, mystery, African American
Description:
Meet Paige, a famous actress whose career is on the come up. Things couldn’t be better, until her front door is kicked in by the police. After being forced to snitch on her fiance or go to jail, Paige makes a decision that is sure to change her life forever. Meanwhile, Paige’s fiance Jeezy has problems of his own. The kind of problems that can get him killed or placed in jail for the rest of his life. With his back to the wall and a gun in his hand the only way out is for him to shoot his way out. When it’s all said and done both of their lives will never be the same. Join Silk White as he once again takes you on a ride that you won’t soon forget. Once readers put this book down they to will never be the same.
Thoughts:
The story line of this book is what kept me reading it, because the writing was not easy for me to read. Also, I wanted to read (at least) one book classified in the African American genre.

Book cover Book: Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family Author: Garrard Conley
Pages: 340 Duration: 09/10/19 – 09/19/19 (10 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
Description:
The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a 19-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.
Thoughts:
This book surprised me in that I thought I was going to be angry the whole time reading it, but wasn’t. From all that I heard about it, which was about the movie, and with the subject of conversion therapy being a good part of it, well, I just thought it was going to enrage me. I have to think it was the voice of the narrator (the young boy that all this happened to) that kept me calm.

Book cover Book: The Wonder of All Things Author: Jason Mott
Pages: 400 Duration: 09/20/19 – 09/21/19 (2 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, fantasy, paranormal, contemporary
Description:
On an ordinary day, at an air show like that in any small town across the country, a plane crashes into a crowd of spectators. After the dust clears, a thirteen-year-old girl named Ava is found huddled beneath a pocket of rubble with her best friend, Wash. He is injured and bleeding, and when Ava places her hands over him, his wounds disappear. Ava has an unusual gift: she can heal others of their physical ailments. Until the air show tragedy, her gift was a secret. Now the whole world knows, and suddenly people from all over the globe begin flocking to her small town, looking for healing and eager to catch a glimpse of The Miracle Child. But Ava’s unique ability comes at a great cost, and as she grows weaker with each healing, she soon finds herself having to decide just how much she’s willing to give up in order to save the ones she loves most.
Thoughts:
In general, I’m not a big fan of fantasy, but this book had just a touch of it with one character having paranormal powers. What I did like about it was that it raised questions about morality and explored the question of whether one has an obligation to do good for the others at the expense of oneself, if one has the ability to. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: Two Boys Kissing Author: David Levithan
Pages: 200 Duration: 09/23/19 – 09/23/19 (1 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, young adult, romance, contemporary, LGBT, queer
Description:
David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS. While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.
Thoughts:
I learned about this book through a friend’s Facebook posting about books that have been banned, which immediately made me interested in reading it. I really liked the writing device of a past generation of gay men who have died from AIDS being a sort of “Greek chorus” for what’s going on in the present in the book. There’s a 4.5-minute podcast about it being banned, if you’re interested.

Book cover Book: Abarat Author: Clive Barker
Pages: 393 Duration: 09/24/19 – 10/09/19 (16 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, young adult, fantasy, horror
Description:
Candy lives in Chickentown USA: the most boring place in the world, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future may hold. She is soon to find out: swept out of our world by a giant wave, she finds herself in another place entirely… The Abarat is a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day, from the sunlit wonders of Three in the Afternoon, where dragons roam, to the dark terrors of the island of Midnight, ruled by Christopher Carrion. Candy has a place in this extraordinary world: she has been brought here to help save the Abarat from the dark forces that are stirring at its heart. Forces older than time itself, and more evil than anything Candy has ever encountered.
Thoughts:
I am not a fan of science fiction or fantasy, and I only learned of this book seeing it posted on a Friend’s Facebook timeline saying that they were reading it. And the only thing that intrigued me about the plot synopsis was the description of the Abarat as “a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day.” As was no surprise, it was one of my least favorite books of the year, but I obviously didn’t hate it, since I finished it.

Book cover Book: Marriage Can Be Murder Author: Emma Jameson
Pages: 282 Duration: 10/10/19 – 10/15/19 (6 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Description:
On the eve of World War II, Dr. Benjamin Bones is at war with himself. While most young men are being sent away to fight the Germans, Ben is chosen to serve on English soil. Ordered to move to wild, beautiful Cornwall, he must trade his posh London office and stylish city life for the tiny village of Birdswing, population 1,221 souls. But leaving his home and shelving his career ambitions aren’t the only sacrifices facing Ben. His unfaithful wife, Penny, is accompanying him to Cornwall in a last-ditch effort to save their marriage. But moments after their arrival, Penny is run down in the street, and Ben is almost fatally injured. And while the villagers assume Penny’s death to be an accident, Ben quickly deduces it was murder. While adapting to life during Britain’s “War at Home,” a time of ration books, victory gardens, bomb shelters, and the Blackout, Ben sets about solving the mystery of Penny’s murder.
Thoughts:
This book was described as a “cozy mystery.” I’m not sure what makes a mystery cozy, but it’s not an adjective I personally would have associated with this book. I liked the Lady Juliet Linton character a lot. The “Fenton House ghost,” not so much. I gave it a 4, because the writing was pretty good, but the story was just meh to me.

Book cover Book: Behind Every Great Man: Women in the Shadows of History’s Alpha Males Author: Marlene Wagman-Geller
Pages: 369 Duration: 10/17/19 – 10/23/19 (7 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: nonfiction, women, history, feminism, short stories
Description:
Throughout history, men have gotten most of the good ink. Often overlooked are the extraordinary wives, mistresses, and companions who were every bit as instrumental in shaping their destinies. Discover Emma Wedgewood (Mrs. Charles Darwin), Alma Reveille (Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock), and 26 more women who stood behind their alpha males, for better or worse, and helped steer the course of history.
Thoughts:
I really thought I was going to like this book way more than I did. I think there were too many people chosen to write about, and after a while they all ran together to me. When I tried to remember back at any point, I had a hard time remembering (if I could at all) which woman went with which man and what her contribution is. I know that’s sad, but that’s how it went down with me. One other thing that bugged me was, that although I was happy that a Lesbian couple was included, I can’t resolve that with the very title of the book. But, that’s just me.

Book cover Book: Sentence of Marriage Author: Shayne Parkinson
Pages: 415 Duration: 10/10/19 – 10/29/19 (20 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, romance
Description:
In nineteenth century New Zealand, there are few choices for a farm girl like Amy. Her life seems mapped out for her by the time she is twelve. Amy dreams of an exciting life in the world beyond her narrow boundaries. But it is the two people who come to the farm from outside the valley who change her life forever, and Amy learns the high cost of making the wrong choice.
Thoughts:
I really got into this book, partly because the writing that described the tension between the daughter and her father’s new girlfriend was so well done. I like it when an author can really make you hate a character coming by it honestly. It wasn’t until I was done that I learned this was book #1 of a 4-part series. I do plan on reading at least part #2—after which I decide on going on to the others.

Book cover Book: What Happens in Paradise Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Pages: 432 Duration: 10/30/19 – 11/03/19 (5 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction
Description:
A year ago, Irene Steele had the shock of her life: her loving husband, father to their grown sons and successful businessman, was killed in a helicopter crash. But that wasn’t Irene’s only shattering news: he’d also been leading a double life on the island of St. John, where another woman loved him, too. Now Irene and her sons are back on St. John, determined to learn the truth about the mysterious life — and death — of a man they thought they knew. Along the way, they’re about to learn some surprising truths about their own lives, and their futures.
Thoughts:
This is the sequel to Winter in Paradise, which I read back in August. It read just as quickly as the first one, answered a few of the questions I had about Russell & Rosie’s relationship and Russell’s business goings-on, but in general, it spent too much time on the two sons and their romantic shenanigans back on St. John. With all that said, I will read the third—and final—book once it becomes available.

Book cover Book: The End of Your Life Book Club Author: Will Schwalbe
Pages: 336 Duration: 11/04/19 – 11/09/19 (6 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, writing, books about books
Description:
The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Mary Anne Schwalbe is waiting for her chemotherapy treatments when Will casually asks her what she’s reading. The conversation they have grows into tradition: soon they are reading the same books so they can have something to talk about in the hospital waiting room. The ones they choose range from classic to popular, from fantastic to spiritual, and we hear their passion for reading and their love for each other in their intimate and searching discussions. A profoundly moving testament to the power of love between a child and parent, and the power of reading in our lives.
Thoughts:
I was amazed at the sheer volume of books this mother and son read in their lives, and especially in the final 2 years of the mother’s life. At one point, I thought I might try to make a list of them all when, but when I got to the end of the story, there was an appendix with that already done!

Book cover Book: Where the Crawdads Sing Author: Delia Owens/strong>
Pages: 384 Duration: 12/19/19 – 12/20/19 (2 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Description:
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Thoughts:
Several people told me told me that they thought the story was just okay in this book, but that the writing was beautiful. But, I liked both the story and the writing.

Book cover Book: Through Streets Broad and Narrow Author: Gemma Jackson
Pages: 464 Duration: 12/27/19 – 12/30/19 (4 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, Irish culture
Description:
On New Year’s Day 1925 Ivy Rose Murphy awakes to find her world changed forever. Her irresponsible Da is dead. She is grief-stricken and alone – but for the first time in her life free to please herself. After her mother deserted the family, Ivy became the sole provider for her Da and three brothers. Pushing a pram around the well-to-do areas of Dublin every day, she begged for the discards of the wealthy which she then turned into items she could sell around Dublin’s markets. As she visits the morgue to pay her respects to her Da, a chance meeting introduces Ivy to a new world of money and privilege, her mother’s world. Ivy is suddenly a woman on a mission to improve herself and her lot in life.
Thoughts:
This is another one of those books that captivated me right from the beginning and which I plowed through. It also makes the third series (1st of 4 books) in this “Ivy Rose” series), I read this year, joining Elin Hilderbrand’s “Paradise” series (3 books) and Shayne Parkinson’s “Promises to Keep” series (4 books)
Go to my books read list for: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020

2021 books read

by

I diverted a lot of my reading time to writing in 2021, writing 3 50-word stories around a theme for every day of the year.

Here are the 20 books I did manage to read in 2021:

Row 1: The Good Sister | The Long Call | Everything I Never Told You | The Souvenir Museum | A Forbidden Rumspringa | Guests on Earth
Row 1: The Good Sister | The Long Call | Everything I Never Told You | The Souvenir Museum | A Forbidden Rumspringa | Guests on Earth
Row 1: The Good Sister | The Long Call | Everything I Never Told You | The Souvenir Museum | A Forbidden Rumspringa | Guests on Earth
Row 1: The Good Sister | The Long Call | Everything I Never Told You | The Souvenir Museum | A Forbidden Rumspringa | Guests on Earth

Ratings legend:

★★★★★ Completely enthralling, couldn’t put it down. and/or More than just entertaining (e.g., educational, enlightening). Would highly recommend.
★★★★☆ Really great book in all respects with perhaps some minor flaws. Would definitely recommend.
★★★☆☆ Average. An entertaining read but probably forgettable. Might or might not recommend.
★★☆☆☆ Finished, but did not like. Would not recommend.
★☆☆☆☆ Abandoned before finishing, usually because it was poorly written or just uninteresting to me.

Title: The Good Sister          Author: Sally Hepworth
Pages: 313          Duration: 12/19/21 – 12/20/21 (2 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: fiction, thriller, mystery, suspense
10-word summary: Two sisters have a very different recollection of their up-bringing.
6-word review: Who really is the good sister?
Description*: There was only one time that Rose couldn’t stop Fern from doing the wrong thing and that was a mistake that will haunt Rose for the rest of Fern’s life. Later in life, Fern takes on a mission that will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past, in this quirky, rich and shocking story of what families keep hidden.
Thoughts: This was a compelling story, and one that I wanted to know what happened bad enough that I read it in two days in spite of it not being a short book. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Title: The Long Call          Author: Ann Cleeves
Pages: 542          Duration: 11/16/21 – 11/30/21 (15 days)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, suspense, LGBT, British literature
10-word summary: Investigating a stabbed dead body on the beach gets complicated.
6-word review: Diverse characters add interest to story.
Description*: In North Devon, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with the world he thought he’d left behind.
Thoughts: I borrowed this book from the library after seeing an ad on my Facebook timeline for the British series by the same name. I liked that the protagonist was a gay man and that his husband was also part of the story. It does a decent job of depicting unaccepting family members of gay people.

Title: Everything I Never Told You          Author: Celeste Ng
Pages: 297          Duration: 11/14/21 – 11/22/21 (9 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: fiction, mystery, family
10-word summary: A Chinese-American family unravels after the death of a daughter.
6-word review: A tightly woven story steadily unwinds.
Description*: A Chinese American family lives in 1970s small-town Ohio, and Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee. Her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.
Thoughts: Each of the parents in this book is carrying a lot of baggage borne of childhood and societal bullying and it comes together in tragic ways for their children. I rarely re-read books, mostly because it feels like I’m wasting time when I do. This one was no different. I first read this book in 2018, and re-read it for our Mostly Social Book Club

Title: The Souvenir Museum          Author: Elizabeth McCracken
Pages: 256          Duration: 09/20/21 – 10/09/21 (20 days)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: fiction, short stories
10-word summary: A dozen short stories testing the mysterious bonds of family.
6-word review: Loved/hated it—good book club discussion.
Description*: In these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children’s game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son, two fathers each confront a personal fear.
Thoughts: I borrowed this book from the library after reading a review of it NPR’s website. The review said it “begins with one of the funniest short stories I’ve read in a long time.” And goes on to say, “I had to stop reading several times to explain to my husband why I was laughing so hard.” And as is typical, I did not find that to be the case. What I did absolutely love about this book was the examples she used to “show” you rather than “tell” you who these characters were. The characters weren’t all that quirky, though, just the way she told you about them. I read this book on my own and then suggested it for our our Mostly Social Book Club, and two of us loved it and two of us hated it, which made for great discussion.

Title: A Forbidden Rumspringa          Author: Keira Andrews
Pages: 256          Duration: 09/10/21 – 09/18/21 (9 days)          Rating: ★★★☆☆
Genres: fiction, LGBT, religion, Amish
10-word summary: Two men work through their sexuality, complicated by being Amish.
6-word review: Not uncommon gay coming-of-age, coming-out story.
Description*: In a world where every detail of life—down to the width of a hat brim—is dictated by God and the all-powerful rules of the community, two men dare to imagine a different way. At 18, Isaac Byler and David Lantz know little outside the strict Amish settlement of Zebulon, Minnesota, where there is no rumspringa for exploration beyond the boundaries of their insular world. But when David takes on Isaac as his carpenter apprentice, their attraction grows amid the sweat and sawdust. David shares his sinful secrets, and he and Isaac struggle to reconcile their shocking desires with their commitment to faith, family and community.
Thoughts: This book was another free download from BookBub, one that I absolutely couldn’t resist even though I know I don’t like romance novels, because its genre was so oddly specific—”a gay Amish romance novel.” I’m not a fan of reading about the gory details of sexual encounters, and it held true here, too, even though it was between two men. This could be the reason I’m not a fan of romance novels of any kind.

Title: Guests on Earth          Author: Lee Smith
Pages: 349          Duration: 08/29/21 – 09/09/21 (11 days)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: historical fiction, southern, mental health
10-word summary: Story of orphaned 13-year-old questionably admitted into a mental institution.
6-word review: Fine line between art and madness.
Description*: It’s 1936 when orphaned thirteen-year-old Evalina Toussaint is admitted to Highland Hospital, a mental institution in Asheville, North Carolina, known for its innovative treatments for nervous disorders and addictions. Taken under the wing of the hospital’s most notable patient, Zelda Fitzgerald, Evalina witnesses cascading events that lead up to the tragic fire of 1948 that killed nine women in a locked ward, Zelda among them. Author Lee Smith has created, through a seamless blending of fiction and fact, a mesmerizing novel about a world apart—in which art and madness are luminously intertwined.
Thoughts: Our Mostly Social Book Club choose this book because it was on a list of books set in North Carolina. It was a time when mental illness was treated barbarically, as were women really, and I did enjoy the mentions of places in and around Asheville and trying to decide if the things said about Zelda Fitzgerald were fiction or nonfiction.

Title: An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good          Author: Helene Tursten
Pages: 178          Duration: 08/20/21 – 08/21/21 (2 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: fiction, short stories, crime, humor
10-word summary: An 88-year-old Swedish woman has no qualms about killing people.
6-word review: Just a quick, fun little read.
Description*: Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and… no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, includes 5 short stories named: An elderly lady has accommodation problems, An elderly lady on her travels, An elderly lady seeks peace at Christmas time, The antique dealer’s death, and An elderly lady is faced with a difficult dilemma
Thoughts: A friend of mine recommended this book to me via Facebook and upon picking it up at the library, I found it—quite literally—a cute little book. It wasn’t much bigger than my wallet. It was a quick, fun read about a little old lady doing what little old ladies aren’t known for doing.

Title: Liar’s Dictionary          Author: Eley Williams
Pages: 288          Duration: 07/08/21 – 07/10/21 (3 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: historical fiction, LGBT, books about books
10-word summary: Celebration of the rigidity, fragility, absurdity, and joy of language.
6-word review: Will appeal more to word nerds.
Description*: An exhilarating and laugh-out-loud debut novel from a prize-winning new talent, which chronicles the misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root out his misdeeds while confronting questions of her own sexuality and place in the world.
Thoughts: I received this book in the U.S. mail from our friend Barb Hammon who said she thought I’d like it and “when you are done, send it back—or better yet—send it on to someone else who would enjoy it.” (And I passed it on to Christina Romano when I was done with it.) It took me a little while to get into it; in fact, I started it once and abandoned it, but then picked it up several months later and ended up loving it. It’s definitely for people with a love of language and words.

Title: Far from the Tree          Author: Robin Benway
Pages: 374          Duration: 07/03/21 – 07/07/21 (5 days)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: fiction, adoption, family, LGBT
10-word summary: Girl puts baby up for adoption; seeks own birth family.
6-word review: A satisfying—but not great—read.
Description*: Being the middle child has its ups and downs. But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including
Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties and Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother.
Thoughts: This book was interesting enough. The ending, although I wouldn’t characterize it as “happy,” I would say it tied things up in a way that would be satisfying to people who like happy endings. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Title: The House in the Cerulean Sea          Author: T.J. Klune
Pages: 394          Duration: 06/22/21 – 06/29/21 (8 days)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: fiction, fantasy, LGBT, diversity, young adult
10-word summary: Linus Baker discovers an unlikely family in an unexpected place.
6-word review: I wanted to like this more.
Description*: A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
Thoughts: A friend of mine recommended this book to me, I’m guessing because of the diverse set of characters and its theme of diversity, otherwise it’s not the kind of book I’d read being of the fantasy and magic genre. I found it interesting enough, but not enthralling. What was really weird about it was that at about two-thirds of the way through it, I switched to the audio book version of it because it was available on the NC Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped site, and I absolutely hated the reading of it. Most of the characters had some kind of affectation when they spoke, and it really got on my nerves listening to them. With all that said, it had a good message, and I am glad to see a young adult book with LGBT (and other diverse characters) in it.

Title: Ten Fun Things to Do Before You Die          Author: Karol Jackowski
Pages: 112          Duration: 06/20/21 – 06/22/21 (3 days)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: nonfiction, humor, spirituality, self-help
10-word summary: Author, a nun for more than 35 years, shares wisdom.
6-word review: Wondered throughout if it was satire.
Description*: This book blends humor, insight, and wisdom in a way that’s accessible and irresistible. Nothing exhilarates and sends the soul soaring more than having the best time ever—so much so that face muscles ache from such hearty laughter, writes author Karol Jackowski, a nun for more than 35 years. May you have millions of such laughs. Time rarely gets more divine that that. Featuring whimsical illustrations and pointers on how to rediscover a fulfilling life—including how to treat yourself, get some depth, and make yourself interesting
Thoughts: I spent a lot of time while reading this book wondering if she (the author) was being serious or sarcastic. In retrospect, since it’s classified as nonfiction, she was serious. Three chapters, in particular, amused me: All nuns are treated equally, Nuns aren’t interested in being married, and Nuns listen to God more than anyone else.

Title: Giovanni’s Room          Author: James Baldwin
Pages: 159          Duration: 06/15/21 – 06/20/21 (6 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: fiction, classic, LGBT, romance, African American
10-word summary: An intense examination of the mystery of love and passion.
6-word review: I should have read Baldwin sooner.
Description*: In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.
Thoughts: Every time I come across a quote or a review of something James Baldwin has written, I think, “I really need to read some of his work.” So I finally did, and chose this classic of gay literature. Baldwin himself said about this work: “[it’s] not so much about homosexuality, it is what happens if you are so afraid that you finally cannot love anybody.” The style of this book is characterized as “confessional,” and a surprising thing about it is that all of the characters are white.

Title: Running with Sherman          Author: Christopher McDougall
Pages: 483          Duration: 05/26/21 – 06/11/21 (17 days)          Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Genres: nonfiction, animals, memoir, sport
10-word summary: A rescue donkey is trained for a challenging American race.
6-word review: Abhorred it—skimmed most of it.
Description*: When Chris McDougall agreed to take in Sherman, a donkey from an animal hoarder, he thought it would be no harder than the rest of the adjustments he and his family had made after moving from Philadelphia to the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country. But when he arrived, Sherman was in such bad shape he could barely move, and his hair was coming out in clumps. Chris decided to undertake a radical rehabilitation program designed not only to heal Sherman’s body but to heal his mind as well. It turns out the best way to soothe a donkey is to give it a job, and so Chris decided to teach Sherman how to run. He’d heard about burro racing—a unique type of race where humans and donkeys run together in a call-back to mining days—and decided he and Sherman would enter the World Championship in Colorado.
Thoughts: I’ll start off by saying I read this book for our Mostly Social Book Club, and the other three members absolutely loved it. I hated it. I supposed several things contributed to it: 1) A donkey is just not an animal I can apparently warm up to, 2) Although it’s a about a lot more than sports, it’s also a lot about sports, which I have little interest in, 3) And probably most problematic, this author had an annoying habit of going on for pages and pages with backstory about a new character that you (or I, at least) hadn’t even yet decided if I cared about. I skimmed—literally— 85% of this book and only didn’t abandon it because it was a book club book.

Title: Man’s Search for Meaning          Author: Viktor E. Frankl
Pages: 188          Duration: 05/13/21 – 05/21/21 (9 days)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: nonfiction, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, Holocaust
10-word summary: Frankl’s seminal work on spiritual survival and his logotherapy theory.
6-word review: I struggled with parts of this.
Description*: Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl’s theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”)-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
Thoughts: I know this is a heralded book that I should have liked more than I did. I will say that I am glad to have finally read it—thanks to it being a Mostly Social Book Club book—to see what all the fuss was about. I think the idea that you can choose how you react to things is very helpful, but I also think there’s a lot more that we now know about the biological (i.e., brain and chemical) aspects of reactions and interactions that significantly complicates matters and renders that idea as a little too simplistic.

Title: I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf          Author: Grant Snider
Pages: 128          Duration: 04/22/21 – 04/24/21 (3 days)          Rating: ★★★☆☆
Genres: nonfiction, graphic novel, humor, books about books
10-word summary: A graphical exploration of the love of writing and reading.
6-word review: Not a huge graphic novel fan.
Description*: It’s no secret that we are judged by our bookshelves. We learn to read at an early age, and as we grow older we shed our beloved books for new ones. But some of us surround ourselves with books. We collect them, decorate with them, are inspired by them, and treat our books as sacred objects. In this lighthearted collection of one- and two-page comics, writer-artist Grant Snider explores bookishness in all its forms, and the love of writing and reading, building on the beloved literary comics featured on his website, Incidental Comics.
Thoughts: I borrowed this book from the library after a colleague said she’d read it and loved it. To be honest, I was mostly interested in it as potential fodder for 50-word stories of which I was writing 3 around a theme every day in 2021. However, about a third of the way into it with no luck to that end, I started losing interest in it.

Title: Honor Kills          Author: Nanci Rathbun
Pages: 230          Duration: 04/12/21 – 04/12/21 (1 day)          Rating: ★★★★☆
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, suspense
10-word summary: A missing husband’s uncovered obituary adds to his mysterious disappearance.
6-word review: A standalone part of a series.
Description*: Six years ago, Marcy Wagner hired PI Angelina Bonaparte to find her missing husband Hank, who cleaned out their bank accounts and disappeared. Then Angie finds his obituary in an upstate newspaper. Marcy wants to know what why he abandoned her and the kids. Angie does, too!
Thoughts: I wouldn’t call this a page turner, but it kept me interested enough to want to find out what happened. As most of the books I get free from BookBub, this book is one of a series—book 3 of 4, but it’s said to “stand on its own,” and I found it did.

Title: The Nature of Fragile Things          Author: Susan Meissner
Pages: 377          Duration: 04/07/21 – 04/11/21 (5 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: historical fiction, mystery, family
10-word summary: There is more to Sophie’s husband than meets the eye.
6-word review: Compelling story with an accommodating ending.
Description*: April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.
Thoughts: This was a gripping story with a huge, what I think of as a record scratch moment, when something happens that makes you go, “HUH?????” That moment in this book is at the end of chapter 8. I really like how the “scorned” women came together in friendship and love after it was all said and done. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Title: Tell the Wolves I’m Home          Author: Carol Rifka Brunt
Pages: 367          Duration: 03/28/21 – 04/01/21 (5 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: literary fiction, LGBT, young adult
10-word summary: June’s uncle Finn teacher her more in death than life.
6-word review: Brilliant point-of-view change through third party.
Description*: In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them.
Thoughts: I loved this book. The author did a brilliant job of portraying the relationship between June and her uncle from June’s point of view, and then just as brilliantly, unraveled that portrayal (and yours!) because you thought it was exactly as June did. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Title: The Things We Cannot Say          Author: Kelly Rimmer
Pages: 415          Duration: 01/29/21 – 02/02/21 (5 days)          Rating: ★★★★★
Genres: historical fiction, WWII, romance
10-word summary: A tragic love story and a family secret unfolds dramatically.
6-word review: This kept me turning the pages.
Description*: Alice begins to uncover the story her grandmother is so desperate to tell, and discovers a love that bloomed in the winter of 1942. As a painful family history comes to light, will the struggles of the past and present finally reach a heartbreaking resolution?
Thoughts: This was a compelling, well-told story that kept me engaged and wanting to know how it ended. Flashbacks can sometimes be distracting or confusing, but neither of these were the case for me with the ones in this book. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Title: Vespertine          Author: Leta Blake & Indra Vaughn
Pages: 420          Duration: 01/07/21 – 01/10/21 (4 days)          Rating: ★★★☆☆
Genres: fiction, LGBT, romance, music, religion
10-word summary: Catholic priest and rock star, childhood friends, become adult lovers.
6-word review: Gay romance novel—not for me.
Description*: The careers of Jasper, a Catholic priest, and Nicky, a rock star, have ruled their lives since they parted as teens. When they come face to face again, they must choose between the past’s lingering ghosts or the promise of a new future.
Thoughts: This book taught me that I’m not fond of romance novels regardless of the genders (or lack thereof) involved. Fortunately I got this book as a free download via BookBub.

*Descriptions are from the book as listed on goodreads.com—either quoted or paraphrased.

2020 books read

by

I have a goal to increase the number of books I read each year. In 2019, I read 29 books. In 2020, I read 75:

oon
Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case Row 1: Girls Like Us | We The Animals | Have You Seen Luis Velez | The Strange Museum | In Five Years | The Winkler Case
Ratings legend:
★★★★★ Completely enthralling, couldn’t put it down. and/or More than just entertaining (e.g., educational, enlightening). Would highly recommend.
★★★★☆ Really great book in all respects with perhaps some minor flaws. Would defintely recommend.
★★★☆☆ Average. An entertaining read but probably forgettable. Might or might not recommend.
★★☆☆☆ Finished, but did not like. Would not recommend.
★☆☆☆☆ Abandoned before finishing, usually because it was poorly written or just uninteresting to me.
The books I’ve read so far in 2020—summary Clicking on the title of a book will take you to its detailed entry further down on the page, which contains a description of the book and some thoughts I had about it.
Title Author Pages Duration Rating Genres
Girls Like us Cristina Alger 290 12/22/20 – 12/24/20 (3 days) ★★★★★ fiction, mystery, thriller
We The Animals Justin Torres 156 12/20/20 – 12/20/20 (1 day) ★★★☆☆ fiction, LGBT, coming of age
Have You Seen Luis Velez Catherine Ryan Hyde 315 12/18/20 – 12/19/20 (2 days) ★★★★★ fiction, young adult, coming of age, Latinx culture
The Strange Museum: 50-Word Stories David Greene 128 12/17/20 – 12/17/20 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, constrained writing
In Five Years Rebecca Serle 266 12/16/20 – 12/17/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, magical realism, romance
The Winkler Case David Greene 280 12/13/20 – 12/15/20 (3 days) ★★★★★ fiction, mystery, noir, LGBT
Oona Out of Order Margarita Montimore 339 12/11/20 – 12/13/20 (3 days) ★★★★★ fiction, magical realism, time travel
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas Agatha Christie 272 12/08/20 – 12/10/20 (3 days) ★★★★★ fiction, mystery, holiday
Christmas Cake Murder Joanne Fluke 225 12/06/20 – 12/07/20 (2 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, mystery, holiday
The Family Upstairs Lisa Jewell 340 11/30/20 – 12/03/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, crime, mystery
Penance Edward Daniel Hunt 270 11/26/20 – 11/27/20 (2 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, crime, mystery
The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead 210 11/22/20 – 11/25/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ historical fiction, race, African-American culture
All Adults Here Emma Straub 366 11/02/20 – 11/21/20 (20 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, family LGBT
Olive, Again Elizabeth Strout 304 10/29/20 – 11/01/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ literary fiction, short stories
Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 280 10/25/20 – 10/28/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ literary fiction, short stories
The Trolley Car Family Eleanor Clymer 216 10/23/20 – 10/24/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, children, humor
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership James Comey 290 10/16/20 – 10/24/20 (9 days) ★★☆☆☆ nonfiction, memoir, politics, leadership
Normal People Sally Rooney 268 10/10/20 – 10/11/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, romance, Irish culture
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Ransom Riggs 352 10/05/20 – 10/07/20 (3 days) ★★☆☆☆ fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, time travel
Jackie: Her Transformation from First Lady to Jackie O. Paul Brandus 240 09/26/20 – 10/02/20 (7 days) ★★★★☆ nonfiction, biography
Educated Tara Westover 336 09/22/20 – 09/25/20 (4 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, memoir, education, religion
Happy and You Know It Laura Hankin 383 09/20/20 – 09/21/20 (2 days) ★★★☆☆ womens literary fiction, contemporary
Lady Susan Jane Austen 82 09/14/20 – 09/16/20 (3 days) ★★★★★ fiction, classics, romance, 19th century literature
Come to the Edge Christina Haag 271 09/08/20 – 09/12/20 (5 days) ★★★★☆ nonfiction, memoir, romance
The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger 540 09/03/20 – 09/07/20 (5 days) ★★★★★ fiction, romance, magical realism
A Visit from the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 337 08/28/20 – 08/31/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ literary fiction, music
This is Where I Leave You Jonathan Tropper 388 08/23/20 – 08/26/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, humor, family, Jewish culture
All You Can Ever Know Nicole Chung 240 08/19/20 – 08/20/20 (2 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, memoir, adoption, race, Korean culture
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry Gabrielle Zevin 290 08/17/20 – 08/17/20 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, books about books, romance
The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats 40 08/16/20 – 08/16/20 (1 day) ★★★★★ fiction, children, picture, classic, African-American culture
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup John Carreyrou 353 08/12/20 – 08/15/20 (4 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, business, true crime, science, technology
The Black Flamingo Dean Atta 416 08/11/20 – 08/12/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, LGBT, verse
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Lori Gottlieb 413 08/06/20 – 08/10/20 (5 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, memoir, psychology, health
Brunch at Ruby’s D. L. White 373 08/01/20 – 08/04/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ womens fiction, romance, African-American culture
Bel Canto Ann Patchett 318 07/26/20 – 08/01/20 (7 days) ★★★★★ literary fiction, music
What Belongs to You Garth Greenwell 195 07/24/20 – 07/25/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ literary fiction, LGBT
A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 736 07/15/20 – 07/22/20 (8 days) ★★★★★ literary fiction, LGBT
The Family Gathering Robyn Carr 352 07/08/20 – 07/12/20 (5 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, romance
A Dangerous Age Ellen Gilchrist 245 07/05/20 – 07/06/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ literary fiction, American south
How to Be Good Nick Hornby 305 07/04/20 – 07/05/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, humor
The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 421 06/27/20 – 07/03/20 (7 days) ★★★★★ literary fiction, historical fiction, LGBT
White Fragility Robin DiAngelo 187 06/12/20 – 06/26/20 (15 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, race, anti-racist, social movements, social justice, politics, psychology
Valentine Elizabeth Wetmore 320 06/08/20 – 06/20/20 (13 days) ★★★★☆ historical fiction, literary fiction
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You Amy Bloom 163 06/06/20 – 06/07/20 (2 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, short stories
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories Alice Munro 323 05/16/29 – 06/06/20 (22 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, short stories, Canadian culture
Days of Distraction Alexandra Chang 320 05/25/29 – 05/30/20 (6 days) ★★★★☆ literary fiction, Asian culture
The Little Friend (Abandoned) Donna Tartt 642 05/16/29 – 05/25/20 (10 days) ★☆☆☆☆ literary fiction, mystery
Days of Awe Lauren Fox 274 05/10/29 – 05/15/20 (6 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, literary fiction
A Doubter’s Almanac Ethan Canin 577 05/03/29 – 05/08/20 (6 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, historical fiction, literary fiction
Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 209 04/30/20 – 05/02/20 (4 days) ★★★★★ fiction, short stories, Indian culture
A Girl’s Guide to Moving On Debbie Macomber 162 04/26/20 – 04/29/20 (4 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, romance
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 162 04/25/20 – 04/25/20 (1 day) ★★★★★ fiction, literary fiction
Love Lettering Kate Clayborn 320 04/19/20 – 04/23/20 (5 days) ★★☆☆☆ fiction, romance, contemporary
Me Elton John 376 04/13/20 – 04/17/20 (5 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, autobiography, celebrity, music
I Owe You One Sophie Kinsella 432 04/11/20 – 04/13/20 (3 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, romance
Ask Again, Yes Mary Beth Keane 400 04/09/20 – 04/10/20 (2 days) ★★★★★ fiction, psychology
The Identicals Elin Hilderbrand 433 04/04/20 – 04/07/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, romance
The Husband’s Secret Liane Moriarty 498 03/31/20 – 04/04/20 (5 days) ★★★★★ fiction, mystery, psychology
The Obituary Society Jessica L. Randall 216 03/28/20 – 03/30/20 (3 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, mystery, romance
Be Frank With Me Julia Claiborne Johnson 309 03/24/20 – 03/27/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, humor
Postcards from a Stranger Imogen Clark 348 03/21/20 – 03/23/20 (3 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, mystery
Everything My Mother Taught Me Alice Hoffman 24 03/21/20 – 03/21/20 (1 day) ★★★★☆ fiction, historical fiction, short stories
The Last Thing She Ever Did Gregg Olsen 372 03/17/20 – 03/19/20 (3 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, mystery, thriller
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know Malcolm Gladwell 388 03/15/20 – 03/16/20 (2 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, psychology, sociology
Break in Case of Emergency Jessica Winter 269 03/08/20 – 03/12/20 (5 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, women, humor
Property: Stories Between Two Novellas Lionel Shriver 317 02/29/20 – 03/06/20 (7 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, short stories
The Road Home Kathleen Shoop 503 02/25/20 – 02/28/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, historical fiction
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 317 02/15/20 – 02/17/20 (3 days) ★★★★★ nonfiction, memoir, classics
The Bookshop of Yesterdays Amy Meyerson 364 02/12/20 – 02/14/20 (3 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, books about books, mystery
The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery 325 02/08/20 – 02/11/20 (4 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, philosophy, French culture
The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 336 02/02/20 – 02/06/20 (5 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, historical fiction
The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) Terri-Lynne DeFino 336 01/21/20 – 02/01/20 (12 days) ★★★★☆ fiction, writing, books about books, contemporary
After the Funeral Agatha Christie Audio 01/17/20 – 01/18/20 (2 days) ★★★☆☆ fiction, mystery
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh 304 01/13/20 – 01/16/20 (4 days) ★★★★★ fiction, contemporary
The Once and Future King (Abandoned) T.H. White 647 01/12/20 – 01/13/20 (2 days) ★☆☆☆☆ fiction, fantasy, classics, mythology, literature, young adult
What Alice Forgot Liane Moriarty 476 01/03/20 – 01/09/20 (7 days) ★★★★★ fiction, contemporary, romance, Australian culture, mystery
How Will You Measure Your Life Clayton M. Christensen 240 12/31/19 – 01/02/20 (3 days) ★★★☆☆ business, leadership, management, personal development, philosophy, productivity, psychology, self-help
  The books I’ve read so far in 2020—details
Girls Like Us book cover Book: Girls Like Us Author: Cristina Alger
Pages: 290 Duration: 12/22/20 – 12/24/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: Fiction, mystery, thriller
🔖10-word summary: FBI agent investigating a murder starts suspecting her own father. 🖌6-word review: Crime mystery with intriguing plot turns.
Description:* FBI Agent Nell Flynn hasn’t been home in 10 years. Nell and her father, Homicide Detective Martin Flynn, have never had much of a relationship. And Suffolk County will always be awash in memories of her mother, who was brutally murdered when Nell was just seven. When Martin Flynn dies in a motorcycle accident, Nell returns to the house she grew up in so that she can spread her father’s ashes and close his estate. At the behest of her father’s partner, Detective Lee Davis, Nell becomes involved in an investigation into the murders of two young Latina women in Suffolk County. The further Nell digs, the more likely it seems to her that her father should be the prime suspect—and that his friends on the police force are covering his tracks. Or are they? *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this as a final book of the year. It was light reading, but with a good story and it took enough turns in the plot to keep me curious as to how it was all going to turn out. I also liked that the protagonist FBI agent was a woman.
We The Animals book cover Book: We The Animals Author: Justin Torres
Pages: 156 Duration: 12/20/20 – 12/20/20 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: Fiction, LGBT, coming of age
🔖10-word summary: A dreamlike telling of three brothers navigating their chaotic childhood. 🖌6-word review: Much “magical language” lost on me.
Description:* Three brothers tear their way through childhood—smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak, and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Although this book has been described as “written in magical language with unforgettable images,” I spent a lot of time wondering what was going on in this book. I much prefer a straight-forward, prose narrative to lyrical writing, and that was no exception with this book. I also kept getting the feeling that I’d read this book before, and one line in it, in particular, “I was standing there, watching you dance and twirl and move like that, and I was thinking to myself, “Goddamn, I got me a pretty one.” However I checked in all the places in which I’ve tracked my reading over the years—2020 books read, 2019 books read, Mostly Social Book Club, The Nematomes, GLBT Bookclub, Goodreads—to no avail.
Have You Seen Luis Velez? book cover Book: Have You Seen Luis Velez? Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Pages: 315 Duration: 12/18/20 – 12/19/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: Fiction, young adult, coming of age, Latinx culture
🔖10-word summary: An elderly woman’s weekly visitor inexplicably stops coming. What happened? 🖌6-word review: Loved this story and its telling.
Description:* Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. Not with his mother’s new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father’s wife. Not at school, where he’s an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez? Mildred Gutermann, a German Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, has been alone since her caretaker disappeared. She turns to Raymond for help, and as he tries to track Luis down, a deep and unexpected friendship blossoms between the two. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: First thing about this book is that I don’t know why one of its genres is listed as “young adult,” because that thought never crossed my mind reading this book. So, if that’s a turnoff for you, don’t let it stop you from reading it. Also, honestly, I’ve read a lot of books about The Holocaust, and I’m kind of avoiding more right now (for emotional health), but though it’s mentioned in some synopses of this book, it’s not a huge part of the story and it’s only brought up toward the end, so don’t let that stop you from reading it, either. As for what I loved about this book:—of which there’s a lot—and some of which include: the wisdom of “Mrs. G” (the female protagonist) the soul-searching and inherent goodness of Raymond (the male protagonist), and the many themes touched on. They include: our humanity, our connectedness, belonging, sexual orientation, beauty, prejudice, the U.S. justice system, and Latinx culture. I highly recommend this book.
The Strange Museum: 50-Word Stories book cover Book: The Strange Museum: 50-Word Stories Author: Ran Walker
Pages: 128 Duration: 12/17/20 – 12/17/20 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Fiction, constrained writing
🔖10-word summary: 100 “microstories” of constrained writing on a variety of topics. 🖌6-word review: African-American writer, diverse, delightful, extra-short stories.
Description:* Each of these 100 stories contains exactly fifty words, save the title, and seeks to explore an entire narrative universe within its small space. The stories range from humorous to insightful to dark, and, yes, to strange! *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This book was recommended to me by a high-school friend who lives in Maine, and who visited us during our recent one-month stay on Cape Cod. I really enjoyed these (very) short stories, and I read all of them in about an hour, hour-and-a-half. I’ll give an example of what they’re like and reveal my favorite one at the same time: “Most Likely to Succeed There was hardly any debate among the recent graduates that Gregory had acted in porn movies. Where they remained divided, however, was whether or not the word ‘star'” should be attached to him, since the most voracious connoisseurs of pron among them had never spotted him in anything of note.” I highly recommend this short, fun read.
In Five Years book cover Book: In Five Years Author: Rebecca Serle
Pages: 266 Duration: 12/16/20 – 12/17/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Fiction, magical realism, romance
🔖10-word summary: Woman sees herself for 1 hour 5 years from now. 🖌6-word review: Life choices, self-discovery—magical realism backdrop.
Description:* When lawyer Dannie Kohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future, where she stays for one hour. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is my third time-travel book of 2020, but the time travel part in this one only lasts an hour. One of the things that struck me the most about this book was the frenetic pace of high-powered NYC lawyers and the extreme to which people will go to “succeed.” When it was all said and done, I was glad it pretty much skipped over the 4.5 years between when she had her “premonition” and when what happened in the dream would (or wouldn not) play out. I wasn’t blown away by this book, but it was intriguing enough to keep me interested in seeing how it would end.
The Winkler Case book cover Book: The Winkler Case Author: David Greene
Pages: 280 Duration: 12/13/20 – 12/15/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: Fiction, mystery, noir, LGBT
🔖10-word summary: Art imitates art in this non-heteronormative pastiche of Double Indemnity. 🖌6-word review: A welcome re-imagining of a classic.
Description:* The Winkler Case is a gay reimagining of the classic noir novel, Double Indemnity. When insurance salesman Elliot Blake meets a handsome boxer at the home of promoter Walt Winkler, he begins to learn the truth about the boxer’s bargain with the promoter, and about his own desires. The Winkler Case explores the predicaments of two gay men in Chicago in 1948, and the hidden desires that lead to murder. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Double Indemnity is one of my husband’s favorite film noirs, which I’ve watched with him in the past. A couple of years ago he mentioned this book, so I bought it for him as a gift, and he read it while we were in Key West on vacation. The book follows the noir genre with plot twists (“sucker punches,” to use a pugilist term) and typical traits and qualities of noir characters. It also gives you a good sense of the mentality of the closeted 50s. One reviewer said, “If you like the noir convention, Chicago, and/or gay mystery, you’ll like this.”
Oona Out of Order book cover Book: Oona Out of Order Author: Margarita Montimore
Pages: 339 Duration: 12/11/20 – 12/13/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: Fiction, magical realism, time travel
🔖10-word summary: Oona “leaps”—out of order—through life’s heartbreak and joy. 🖌6-word review: Inventive, magical, heart-wrenching treatment of time.
Description:* Just because life may be out of order, doesn’t mean it’s broken. It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she’ll turn 19, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens 32 years in her 51-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she’ll leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order—hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips. Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she’s never met? *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I requested this book from the library back in September when I was interested in a time travel book. I read The Time Traveler’s Wife then, since it was readily available at the time, and I had to get on quite an extensive waitlist for this one. Back at that time, several people at work lauded this book as a very favorite, and several of the reviews I glanced through on Goodreads had a comment to the effect of, “I cried through the last 130 pages of this book.” I much prefer books/movies with sad/tragic endings than happy ones, which is another reason I put this one on my list. I didn’t remember the comments about the ending until I got to the penultimate chapter when it all came crashing back to me. I spend a lot of time in books like this checking that there are “consistent rules” about how this particular time travel scenario works and then making sure the author adheres to them. I’m happy to report that I was both satisfied that that was the case and, bonus, I actually approved of the particular rules set forth in this one. 🙂
Hercule Poirot's Christmas book cover Book: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas Author: Agatha Christie
Pages: 272 Duration: 12/08/20 – 12/10/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: Fiction, mystery, holiday
🔖10-word summary: There is  no shortage of motives to kill Simeon Lee. 🖌6-word review: Holiday whodunit—classic Christie, classic Poirot.
Description:* The holidays are anything but merry when a family reunion is marred by murder—and the notoriously fastidious investigator is quickly on the case. The wealthy Simeon Lee has demanded that all four of his sons—one faithful, one prodigal, one impecunious, one sensitive—and their wives return home for Christmas. But a heartwarming family holiday is not exactly what he has in mind. He bedevils each of his sons with barbed insults and finally announces that he is cutting off their allowances and changing his will. Poirot is called in the aftermath of Simeon Lee’s announcement. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is classic Agatha Christie, in which by now, I’ve learned that you’re not going to guess the “whodunit,” because there’s always at least one surprise thing that you’re not privy to as the reader that plays into what happened. At one time, I read a lot of Agatha Christie, and Hercule Poirot—one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, 2 plays (Black Coffee and Alibi), and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975—has always been my favorite character, probably because of his oft-ejaculated French phrases. I purposely chose this Hercule Poirot Agatha Christie book because of the season.
Christmas Cake Murder book cover Book: Christmas Cake Murder Author: Joanne Fluke
Pages: 225 Duration: 12/06/20 – 12/07/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: Fiction, mystery, holiday
🔖10-word summary: A murder that’s inside a story that’s inside a story. 🖌6-word review: Actual recipes between chapters sound delicious.
Description:* With her dream of opening The Cookie Jar taking shape, Hannah’s life matches the hectic December hustle and bustle in Lake Eden—especially when she agrees to help recreate a spectacular Christmas Ball from the past in honor of Essie Granger, an elderly local in hospice care. But instead of poring over decadent dessert recipes for the merry festivities, she instantly becomes enthralled by Essie’s old notebooks and the tale of a woman escaping danger on the streets of New York. As Hannah prepares to run a bakery and move out of her mother’s house, it’ll be a true miracle if she can prevent another Yuletide disaster by solving a mystery as dense as a Christmas fruitcake. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: This is the first book out of 67 for which I really wish I’d had ½ stars to choose from in my rating system. I was really torn between a 3-star vs. a 4-star rating for this one. I felt that the writing was at a 3½-star level and the story was at a 4½-star level, and since I’m a writer at heart, I went with the 3-star rating. It’s not that the writing was bad, per se, it was just very, very basic. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: Instead of saying only what we really need to know, which in this case would be, “I’m going to buy a freezer and keep it in the garage,” she writes, “I’ll be glad to buy a large chest freezer,” Delores said quickly. “It’s a double garage and there are several electrical outlets. Since I’m using only one space for my car, we could put the chest freezer on the other side of the garage. Let’s all go out to look at the garage right now.” Another example, which I’ll just paraphrase (admittedly with hyperbole), instead of just saying, “They sat down for dinner,” she’d write, “We pulled our chairs out, sat down, picked up our forks, and started eating.” And not to beat a dead horse, but instead of just writing, “Use a fork to do this,” she writes, “Use a fork from your silverware drawer to do this.” We just don’t need all that. As I mentioned in my 6-word review, there were recipes at the end of chapters where the main character made a dish, which were mostly desserts, and most of them sounded very good. These are the names of them: Cocoa-Crunch Cookies, Honey Apple Crisp, Anytime Peach Pie, Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pork Roast, Ultimate Lemon Bundt Cake, Cool Whip Lemon Frosting, Bacon and Sausage Breakfast Burritos, Cashew Butter Blossom Cookies, Chocolate Hazelnut Bon-Bons (my “mémère” used this word a lot), Ultimate Butterscotch Bundt Cake, Cool Whip Butterscotch Frosting, Ultimate Christmas Bundt Cake, Cool Whip White Chocolate Frosting, and Minty Dream Cookies.
The Family Upstairs book cover Book: The Family Upstairs Author: Lisa Jewell
Pages: 340 Duration: 11/30/20 – 12/03/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Fiction, crime, mystery
🔖10-word summary: Libby works through entangled birth-family history to claim her inheritance. 🖌6-word review: Satisfying tidbits revealed in interest-sustaining way.
Description:* Soon after her 25th birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am. She learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames, worth millions. She can’t possibly know that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them. 25 years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy 10-month-old cooing in her crib. Downstairs lay 3 dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the 4 other children of the house were gone. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I got this as a free download from BookBub, and although it was part of a series (as almost all of the free downloads are), it was the first in the series, and I was satisfied enough with it as a standalone read, but if the next in the series became available free (or to borrow from the library), I’d be interested in checking it out. I did have a little trouble keeping the four children’s name and relationship straight—I got that there was a brother and sister in each family, I just had trouble remembering which brother went with which sister and which family each went with. There were a couple of things I’d call a “whammy,” a surprise, or a twist, which is always fun.
Penance book cover Book: Penance Author: Edward Daniel Hunt
Pages: 270 Duration: 11/26/20 – 11/27/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: Fiction, crime, mystery
🔖10-word summary: Trouble is imminent as Lori is a sought-after, 10-years-after-the-fact witness 🖌6-word review: Interesting enough, a few editing errors
Description:* The first book in a series of crime novels featuring retired Boston homicide detective John Gilfillan. This story is about the race to find Lori Doyle. Ten years ago, Lori, as a teenager, witnessed a killing. Today, she has established a new life for herself and her daughter in Maine under an alias. Unbeknownst to her, all that’s about to change, as some are seeking her out to do her harm and some to do her good. *From amazon.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I got this book as a free download from BookBub, and as my experience with books they make available for free, it was one of a series (in this case the first in the series) and there were several “editing misses” in it. The storyline kept me interested enough to keep reading and to see “who done it.”
The Nickel Boys book cover Book: The Nickel Boys Author: Colson Whitehead
Pages: 210 Duration: 11/22/20 – 11/25/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Historical fiction, race, African-American culture
🔖10-word summary: Racist hatred scarring children for life—both physically and emotionally 🖌6-word review: Based on an actual reform school
Description:* As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.” Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is a high school senior about to start classes at a local college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men.” *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Colson Whitehead’s winner of the 2020 Pulizer Prize for Fiction was my second book of his, having read The Underground Railroad earlier this year. These stories about racism and abuse are hard to read even when fictionalized. And to add to the horror of it all, although it’s fiction, this story is based on the real-life The Florida School for Boys—a “reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children.” Archaeologists Finally Know What Happened at This Brutal Reform School from the Smithsonian Magazine talks about the real-life place. All good stories are based on conflict, and the overaching conflict in this one was between the ideals of Elwood and the skepticism of his friend Turner, and the repercussions of the decisions they made and the things they endured while at the Nickel Acadamey.
All Adults Here book cover Book: All Adults Here Author: Emma Straub
Pages: 366 Duration: 11/02/20 – 11/21/20 (20 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Fiction, family LGBT
🔖10-word summary: Parents as parents, children, and siblings—all self-doubting at times 🖌6-word review: A fun, warm-hearted, and insightful read
Description:* When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she’d been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence? Astrid’s youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: For some reason, it took me a long time to get through this book. I had to renew it at only 30% finished after its 2-week library loan expired, but was able to immediately re-borrow it. Once back into it, I finished it quickly, though. It’s a nice, light read with a gay character and a trans character, which surpisingly didn’t make me like it any more than I might otherwise have. As one might expect, a lot of family dysfunction is exposed as we look at the life cycle of kids becoming parents, grandchildren becoming teenagers, and the matriarch of the family looking back at mistakes she made raising her kids and trying to assess the impact of those mistakes on them. One thing that really resonated with me was when one family member shared a secret that they’d been perseverating over for many, many years. The secret revolved around an incident with another family member—a family member with whom, when she finally got the courage to discuss it with, didn’t even remember the incident! I had this same experience once in my life, and I loved the way the author described the scene in this book.
Olive, Again book cover Book: Olive, Again Author: Elizabeth Strout
Pages: 304 Duration: 10/29/20 – 11/01/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Literary fiction, short stories
🔖10-word summary: Olive ages gaining some self-awareness and experiencing some personal growth 🖌6-word review: Mostly enough Olive amidst many characters
Description:* Olive, Again will pick up where Olive Kitteridge left off, following the next decade of Olive’s life – through a second marriage, an evolving relationship with her son, and encounters with a cast of memorable characters in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this telling of the next decase of Olive Kitteridge’s life. Like its prequel, it’s told in short stories, a couple of which hardly mention Olive at all, which I went back and forth on liking and disliking. I find that in the stories that contained very little of her, I had a hard time keeping track of some of the characters in them (espeically the ones with more than 3 or 4 characters in them), because I wasn’t invested in them, and knew they would mostly be fleeting with regards to the rest of the book. Now that I’ve finished both books, I’d be interesting in watching the HBO miniseries about them, but only if or when it becomes available for free.
Olive Kitteridge book cover Book: Olive Kitteridge Author: Elizabeth Strout
Pages: 280 Duration: 10/25/20 – 10/28/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Literary fiction, short stories
🔖10-word summary: Olive is one tough cookie, although even she sometimes crumbles 🖌6-word review: Great portrait of our flawed humanity
Description:* At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance: a former student who has lost the will to live: Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I didn’t realize when I started this book that it’s “not quite a novel and not quite a collection of short stories, but more like a series of vignettes.” Before I figured out what was going on, whenever a new chapter started with characters I didn’t recognize, I’d spend a little too much time wondering, “Now who are these people again?” when they weren’t “again” at all. Beyond that, I really enjoyed this book, and I can see why it was made into an HBO miniseries, and I can totally imagine Frances McDormand nailing the part of Olive. My favorite part of the book (not a spoiler) was when Olive overhears her daughter-in-law talking about her and that moment when someone realizes, “Oh my god; I’m not at all the person I think I am.” I liked this book enough to not only read its sequel, but to read it immediately after finishing this one. Most times I don’t read sequels at all.
The Trolley Car Family book cover Book: The Trolley Car Family Author: Eleanor Clymer
Pages: 216 Duration: 10/23/20 – 10/24/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Fiction, children, humor
🔖10-word summary: Ma, pa, kids live stereotypically, and it works out beautifully 🖌6-word review: Little trolley car on the prarie
Description:* Something is wrong. Cranky Mr. Jefferson is sure of it. Those noisy Parker children next door are much too quiet. Something is wrong at the Parker home. Pa Parker has just lost his job. Pa has been driving a trolley car for years. Now the trolley car company is changing to busses. Drive a new-fangled bus? Not Pa Parker! No wonder all the Parkers are worried. But if Pa doesn’t have a job, he does have a trolley car. And what could be more sensible than living in a trolley ’til Pa gets another job. So off they go–Ma and Pa Parker, Sally, Bill, George and Little Peter—and of all people, cranky Mr. Jefferson too. Bouncing and bumping on the trolley tracks, they park their new home at the last stop. It’s the end of the line for the trolley car, but it’s a beginning of fun and adventure for the trolley car family. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: Bob read this book as a child and remembered really liking it, and several months ago he came across it on a used book website and bought it. He thought being up here would be good opportunity to read it, which he did, and I picked it up when he was done. This is definite a “period piece”—set in a time when stereotypes abounded about women doing indoor/housework and men doing the outdoor/yardwork. It’s very “Little House on the Prairie” with the ma and pa references and the kids being pretty much the perfect kids—I mean they even stopped recreational activities like playing baseball to enthusiastically do all the things that needed to be done to keep their household running. Hardly anything bad happens to this family, and when it does, it all happens in one day, and it’s nothing catastrophic. It’s a very benign story, and reads easily. Can it be that it was so simple then, or has time re-written every line?
A Higher Loyalty book cover Book: A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership Author: James Comey
Pages: 290 Duration: 10/16/20 – 10/24/20 (9 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: Nonfiction, memoir, politics, leadership
🔖10-word summary: Former FBI director highlights the mafia, Martha Stewart, and 45. 🖌6-word review: Book club book I didn’t love
Description:* Former FBI Director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I debated a lot about whether I should count this book, because I skimmed through a lot of it. I’m really not interested in reading about politics, especially during this time leading up to the 2020 elections, but this was a book club book, and one of the reasons I’m in a book club is to read books I might not normally read. A lot of the first half of the book was about Comey’s time prosecuting the mafia (in which I have zero interest), and then a section about prosecuting Martha Stewart (in whom I have zero interest). I spent a lot of time anxious for him to get to his “present-day situation,” which led up to his firing. I gave this book a 2-star rating for those reasons, but if you’re into politics, you might really like it. One of our book club members, who is a mid-level manager in her job, liked several of the ideas he shared on leadership.
Normal People book cover Book: Normal People Author: Sally Rooney
Pages: 268 Duration: 10/10/20 – 10/11/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Fiction, romance, Irish culture
🔖10-word summary: A tale of an at-times strange, wonderful, and confounding relationship 🖌6-word review: Impressive writing about complex psychological relationship
Description:* Connell Waldron is one of the most popular boys in his small-town high school—he is a star of the football team, an excellent student, and never wanting for attention from girls. What he doesn’t have is money. Marianne Sheridan, a classmate, has the opposite problem. She is plain-looking, odd, and stubborn, and while her family is quite well off, she has no friends to speak of. There is, however, a deep and undeniable connection between the two teenagers, one that develops into a secret relationship. Everything changes when they’re both accepted to Trinity College. Suddenly Marianne is well liked and elegant, holding court with her intellectual friends, while Connell hangs at the sidelines, not quite as fluent in the language of the elite. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle each other, falling in and out of romance but never straying far from where they started. And as Marianne experiments with an increasingly dangerous string of boyfriends, Connell must decide how far he is willing to go to save his oldest friend. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why I liked this book as much as I did, but it’s something to do with how the author was able to sustain the unconventional way the protagonist couple responded to each other. It was also written in a way that I kept alternating between pulling for them and wanting them to (permanently) call it quits. There is a lot going on in this story with regards to themes explored, which included first love, class difference, family dynamics and dysfunction, sexual deviation, and mental health to name several. I did wish both of these characters would have considered therapy—individually and/or as a couple. Well, Connell did do a short stint of therapy; but Marianne, who arguably could have benefited more from it, never did. I’m a little ambivalent about the ending, but if I had to make a binary decision, it would be thumbs up over thumbs down.
Jackie: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children book cover Book: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Author: Ransom Riggs
Pages: 352 Duration: 10/05/20 – 10/07/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: Fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, time travel
🔖10-word summary: Searching for answers about his grandpa, Jacob finds more-than-peculiar children. 🖌6-word review: Lost interest just past halfway through
Description:* A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. A horrific family tragedy sets 16-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I will start my review by saying that I’m not a fan of the science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres, and that I’m not sure why I thought this book might fall more in the “magical realism” genre, but I was wrong. I also thought that since I’d recently read a time-travel book that I really enjoyed, I’d give this one a try. With regards to time travel, one of the things I liked about it in The Time Traveler’s Wife was that it wasn’t complicated. In this book, there were a lot of “rules and conditions” around it, which really distracts me, because I spend a lot of time thinking about whether a certain incident is or isn’t violating them. I also hate learning new words that are only going to last for one book (e.g., peculiars, wights, hollows, & ymbrynes), and my mind just doesn’t do well with suspending disbelief long enough until I get a good understanding of them. This is a big reason I don’t like sci-fi & fantasy. I do get that these are all my own neuroses, and I’m not making any judgment about people who do like those genres. With regards to horror, I lost interest shortly after the halfway mark when it became clear that the “monsters” they were referring to were “real” monsters as opposed to “figurative demons” that I was holding thinking of them as. With all that said, I did think the origin of the book was great. From the author: “A few years ago, I started collecting vintage snapshots—the kind you can find in loose piles at most flea markets for 50 cents or a buck apiece. It was just a casual hobby, nothing serious, but I noticed that among the photos I found, the strangest and most intriguing ones were always of children. I began to wonder who some of these strange-looking children had been—what their stories were—but the photos were old and anonymous and there was no way to know. So I thought: If I can’t know their real stories, I’ll make them up.” Although my 2-star rating includes: “Would not recommend,” I’ve heard from enough people that like sci-fi, fantasy, & horror who loved it that I would recommend it with that caveat.
Jackie: Her Transformation from First Lady to Jackie O. book cover Book: Jackie: Her Transformation from First Lady to Jackie O. Author: Paul Brandus
Pages: 240 Duration: 09/26/20 – 10/02/20 (7 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: Nonfiction, biography
🔖10-word summary: Jackie slowly and painfully transforms from grieving widow to jet-setter. 🖌6-word review: Missed errors by editor were distracting.
Description:* The five years between her marriages to JFK and Onassis are often overlooked. But it was an incredible period of growth and change for Jackie. How did the world’s most famous woman remain so enigmatic? What was she really like? This book reveals the real Jackie, the one that hid behind her trademark large sunglasses. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I should preface this with the fact that, being from Massachusetts, I’m a huge Kennedy fan. I enjoyed reading this somewhat darker, but understandable, side of Jackie and her grieving process. I was surprised to learn that she was such a control freak with regards to the national and lasting narrative that she wanted about JFK’s life and legacy. I also had no idea that she was abusing alcohol so much and was suicidal at times, especially in the first two years after JFK’s assassination. But, while I loved the story, which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 3, I was tempted to give it 3 simply due to the number of errors missed by the editor(s). I noticed 8 total, and I’m sure I missed a couple. The ones I saw included: a missing word in a couple of places, using the wrong verb tense, one instance of transposed words, a missing hyphen, using the plural instead of the singular (i.e., “…Jackie, for the fifth year in a row, was ranked as the most admired women in the world.”), and a mixed metaphor. The problem with editing errors, is that—at least for me, as an editor by profession—once you see one or two, then you’re on the lookout for them the whole time. And that was distracting to me. With that said, if you like the Kennedys, or just Jackie, and you’re not distracted by editing errors, then I would recommend this book. I’m also appreciative that it was loaned to me by a friend. Thanks, Sam!
Educated book cover Book: Educated Author: Tara Westover
Pages: 336 Duration: 09/22/20 – 09/25/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: Nonfiction, memoir, education, religion
🔖10-word summary: Education amidst the intersection of religious fanaticism and mental illness 🖌6-word review: Sometimes fascinating. Sometimes infuriating. Always compelling.
Description:* Tara Westover grew up preparing for the End of Days. She spent her summers bottling peaches and her winters rotating emergency supplies, hoping that when the World of Men failed, her family would continue on, unaffected. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in doctors or hospitals. According to the state and federal government, she didn’t exist. As she grew older, her father became more radical, and her brother, more violent. At 16, Tara decided to educate herself. Her struggle for knowledge would take her far from her Idaho mountains, over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d travelled too far. If there was still a way home. *Adapted from goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: There was a lot to like about this book, although it wasn’t easy to read at times. I experienced an emotional roller coaster while reading it—from fascinated to frustrated to incredulous, and from booing her to cheering her to aching for her. I thought she did a good job portraying the absolute psychological chaos at the intersection of religious fanaticism and mental illness. At times, in addition to what this woman and the rest of this family was experiencing, I thought about gay people—in terms of some religions’ incredibly harmful effects on people, their psyches, and sometimes their entire lives (up to and including ending it). I’m glad she finally excised herself from her family (for the most part), but for her sake in life, I wish she’d’ve been able to do it sooner.
Happy and You Know It book cover Book: Happy and You Know It Author: Laura Hankin
Pages: 383 Duration: 09/20/20 – 09/21/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: womens literary fiction, contemporary
🔖10-word summary: Musician takes job singing for a playgroup of overprivileged babies 🖌6-word review: Top-of-mind adjective describing book is “fluff”
Description:* After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agrees to a gig as a playgroup musician for wealthy infants on New York’s Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover that she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossibly shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy. There is perfect hostess Whitney who is on the brink of social-media stardom and just needs to find a way to keep her flawless life from falling apart. Caustically funny, recent stay-at-home mom Amara who is struggling to embrace her new identity. And old money, veteran mom Gwen who never misses an opportunity to dole out parenting advice. But as Claire grows closer to the stylish women who pay her bills, she uncovers secrets and betrayals that no amount of activated charcoal can fix. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I downloaded this book, because it was available for immediate download on Libby, and I needed a replacement for yet another library book I borrowed whose font was smaller than was comfortable reading, so I’d kept putting it off. The first word that comes to mind about this book is “fluff.” It reminded me a little bit of Brunch at Ruby’s at times (the complex relationships among the women part), and of Nine Perfect Strangers at times (the “TrueMommy” part), the former of which I read earlier this year and the latter of which I read in February 2019. The “contemporary” genre type assigned to this book was due to its heavy inclusion of Instagram in the storyline. It wasn’t a bad book, but it’s not one I would recommend unless someone was specifically looking for something fairly mindless to read. (Not that there’s anything wrong with reading mindless work.)
Lady Susan book cover Book: Lady Susan Author: Jane Austen
Pages: 82 Duration: 09/14/20 – 09/16/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, classics, romance, 19th century literature
🔖10-word summary: Scheming siren seeks suitable spouse for herself and her heir 🖌6-word review: An impressive, classic, Austen epistolary novel
Description:* Beautiful, flirtatious, and recently widowed, Lady Susan Vernon seeks an advantageous second marriage for herself, while attempting to push her daughter into a dismal match. A magnificently crafted novel of Regency manners and mores that will delight Austen enthusiasts with its wit and elegant expression. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I was made aware of this epistolary novel after watching a movie, Love & Friendship, which is based on it. I found the character of Lady Susan wickedly snarky, and then I found out Jane Austen’s book was named after that character, and then I found out that Jane Austen wrote this book when she was 14 years old. To be quite honest, that’s the main reason I gave the book 5 stars. It’s unfathomable to me that a 14-year-old could not only know many of the vocabulary words used in the book, but have a maturity level at 14 to so convincingly write about adult interactions and situations with such impressive nuance and innuendo. All that, and I laughed out loud several times while reading it.
Come to the Edge book cover Book: Come to the Edge Author: Christina Haag
Pages: 271 Duration: 09/08/20 – 09/12/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: nonfiction, memoir, romance
🔖10-word summary: Christina shares—without exploitation—her bittersweet relationship with JFK Jr. 🖌6-word review: Evocative assessment of love and life
Description:* When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. With exquisite prose, Haag paints a portrait of a young man with an enormous capacity for love, and an adventurous spirit that drove him to live life to its fullest. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I’ll admit right off that my initial realization reading this book was that what I really wanted to read was JFK Jr.’s memoirs. It took Christina a while to get to the point where John was in the picture to the level that I was satisfied with, and I was impatient waiting for it to get there. In her defense, however, this was her memoir, so starting off sharing about her childhood and how she came to know and be with John was certainly legit. And to her credit, it was well written—as is the entire book. In the end, I thought it was a kind, generous, and painfully honest at times look at what seemed like “real” love. And by that I mean, love in all of it’s complicated facets, messy incidents, tough decisions, and the balance between self and couple. I also liked that she didn’t trash any of the other many women that John pursued—some just dalliances, some more substantial than that. After I finished the book—with the duration and intensity of Christina and John’s relationship laid bare—I was stunned to read how she was incorporated into John’s Wikipedia entry, which basically highlights his relationships with famous women in a way that intimates they were the most significant. About his relationship with Christina, it simply says, “Also during this time, Kennedy dated Christina Haag. They had known each other as children, and she also attended Brown University.” It comes across as a mere, “Oh yeah, by the way…,” which so misses the mark.
The Time Traveler's Wife book cover Book: The Time Traveler’s Wife Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Pages: 540 Duration: 09/03/20 – 09/07/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, romance, magical realism
🔖10-word summary: “Time is doing” Henry, while wife Clare is “doing time” 🖌6-word review: Time-travel story absent a time machine
Description:* Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, have known each other since Clare was 6 and Henry was 36 and were married when Clare was 23 and Henry 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing. The story depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I’m not a science fiction fan at all, but I became aware of this book by way of a friend’s Facebook timeline post that asked, “What’s your favorite time travel story and why?” Several people responded about this book with comments such as “So complicated and so many tears,” “sobbed the last 100 pages,” and “It so beautifully captured love that I included a quote from it in my wedding vows.” Then when I posted on my own timeline that I had picked it up from the library, I got comments like, “Loved that book,” “That’s a beautiful book,” and “One of my all-time favorite books.” Although this book is not without its negative reviews on goodreads.com, count me as a fan. I liked that there was no complicated “time machine” (no time machine at all) involved in this story. I also liked how each travel incident was time-stamped, including the age of the traveler at the time to help keep track of what was happening when. Although this book is categorized in both the “science fiction” and “magical realism” genres, I experienced it more as magical realism. Although, one could argue that the introduction of the “chrono-displacement disorder,” and the storyline around that, make it science fiction. In any case, I really enjoyed it, and since I really love stories without happy endings, that was an extra bonus, although I expected it with that one comment about sobbing through the last 100 pages.
A Visit from the Goon Squad book cover Book: A Visit from the Goon Squad Author: Jennifer Egan
Pages: 337 Duration: 08/28/20 – 08/31/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: literary fiction, music
🔖10-word summary: People’s lives contextualized by time, relationships, and even PowerPoint slides 🖌6-word review: Purportedly important; takes a disciplined reading
Description:* Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding novel circles the lives of Bennie Salazar, an ageing former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other’s pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa. *From amazon.com’s synopsis.
Thoughts: I came by this book by way of the Nicholas Carr on deep reading and digital thinking episode of The Ezra Klein Show podcast in which they discuss “how speaking, reading, and now the internet have each changed our brains in different ways, why ‘paying attention’ doesn’t come naturally to us, why we’re still reading Marshall McLuhan, how human memory actually works, why having your phone in sight makes you less creative, what separates ‘deep reading’ from simply reading, why deep reading is getting harder, why building connections is more important than absorbing information, the benefits to collapsing the world into a connected digital community, and much more.” Carr recommends 3 books in that podcast of which this is one. I rarely re-read books, but this is one that I’d like to re-read one day, and I know sooner would be better than later, but I also know that’s probably not going to happen. There are a lot of characters, and they appear in the book in different places in their lives, but not always in the chronological order of their lives. I do like when an author stops for a second and tells you something about a character that’s going to happen to them in their future, which happened with a few characters in this book. I’m not sure I would have picked up on the “deep meaning” of this book, or understand why it was a Pulitzer Prize winner, probably because it’s pretty much completely by metaphor, and I was expending a lot of energy on trying to remember all of the characters. That’s the reason I’d like to read it again. Also, distracting me throughout was the fact that I knew one of the chapters was presented as a PowerPoint slide presentation, and I kept anticipating it being next. FWIW (possible spoiler alert—if knowing when the PowerPoint slide is going to appear in a novel is a trigger for you), it’s not until chapter 12, so relax.
This is Where I Leave You book cover Book: This is Where I Leave You Author: Jonathan Tropper
Pages: 388 Duration: 08/23/20 – 08/26/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, humor, family, Jewish culture
🔖10-word summary: Family dysfunction on display for seven days of Shiva sitting 🖌6-word review: I literally laughed out loud often
Description:* Judd Foxman’s father has died and it’s the first time in a decade that the entire Foxman family—including Judd’s mother, brothers, and sister have been together in the same house for an extended period. Conspicuously absent: Judd’s wife, Jen, whose 14-month affair with Judd’s radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. The typical Foxman family gathering ends with car doors slamming and tires screeching as various factions scatter to nurse their resentments in private. But this time around, the Foxmans reluctantly submit to their father’s dying request: to spend the 7 days following the funeral together. In the same house. Like a real family. For Judd it’s a week-long opportunity to come to terms with his father’s death, his failed marriage, and to explain the mess his life has become to a never-ending parade of people he thought he might never see again. Which would be bad enough without the bomb Jen dropped the day Judd’s father died. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: The reviews of this book are mixed—it’s one that people seem to either love or hate. I’m in the former camp. I laughed out loud many times while reading this book. It might be that it’s “just my kind of humor,” but one of the things about humorous books that really turns me off is when it comes across like the author thinks they’re funnier than I think they are. That definitely did not happen for me in this one. While reading this, I learned that this was a 2014 movie with Jane Fonda starring as the mother, and right after that, I got to the part in the book where they compare the mother to Jane Fonda, which triggered some vague memory about that being in the news when that movie came out. With all that said, I looked at the trailer for the movie, and I have to say that if I hadn’t read the book, I probably wouldn’t be interested in watching it. But I did, and I am.
All You Can Ever Know book cover Book: All You Can Ever Know Author: Nicole Chung
Pages: 240 Duration: 08/19/20 – 08/20/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, memoir, adoption, race, Korean culture
🔖10-word summary: Korean Nikki’s lifelong processing of adoption by a white family 🖌6-word review: An enlightening consideration of transracial adoption
Description:* Nicole Chung’s All you Can Ever Know is a beautiful memoir that explores her experience of growing up adopted in a white family and then, in her 20s, connecting with her Korean birth family while she is pregnant with her first child. The book offers a thoughtful meditation on racial identity, sisterhood, parenting and learning who you really are, both separate from and because of where you come from. Chung has no easy answers on multiracial adoption or family dynamics, but her nuanced take on her upbringing and the different kinds of families in her life is what makes this memoir such a deeply satisfying read. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book, because it was well written and so honest. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is considering adopting a child who is not of the same race as your family. There were also things in this book that resonated for me in terms of being the only person like you in your own family—having grown up as a gay person in a family of heterosexuals. (Not that there’s anything wrong with heterosexuals; I know they were born that way.)
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry book cover Book: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Pages: 290 Duration: 08/17/20 – 08/17/20 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, books about books, romance
🔖10-word summary: Fikry gets a chance to turn his deteriorating life around 🖌6-word review: Great characters, literary allusions, and story
Description:* A. J. Fikry’s wife has died; his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history; and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, he can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly. And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, though large in weight—an unexpected arrival that gives A.J. the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J., for the determined sales rep Amelia to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light, for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world. Or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a quick, easy read for me. Books, a bookstore, and book clubs are an integral part of the story, which appealed to me greatly. This book alludes to a lot of stories, books, plays, and authors (see a list of them), and when I searched goodreads.com for one of the books mentioned early on in this story, The Late Bloomer by Leon Friedman, to see what it was about, I was surprised to find an entry there that said it wasn’t a real book. I love that someone took the time to create that entry, and it made me wonder how many times people search for books that don’t really exist when seeing them mentioned in another book, and what percentage of those have entries like this one for them. One of the “real” books mentioned in this book was Bel Canto, which I just read last month and had never heard of until I read it—and here it is. Funny how that happens.
The Snowy Day book cover Book: The Snowy Day Author: Ezra Jack Keats
Pages: 40 Duration: 08/16/20 – 08/16/20 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, children, picture, classic, African-American culture
🔖10-word summary: Witness Peter exploring his neighborhood after the season’s first snowfall 🖌6-word review: First child African-American protagonist picture book
Description:* The Snowy Day is a 1962 children’s picture book by American author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats. It features Peter, an African-American boy, who explores his neighborhood after the season’s first snowfall. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: While educating myself about race, I came across this children’s picture book, which I’d never heard of in spite of it being an award-winning children’s book that was written 58 years ago (in 1962) and has been translated into at least 10 languages. The artwork is beautiful and the story delightfully captures the wonder of a child’s first snowfall. Read it to your children or grand-children if you have any and haven’t already done so.
Bad Blood book cover Book: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup Author: John Carreyrou
Pages: 353 Duration: 08/12/20 – 08/15/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, business, true crime, science, technology
🔖10-word summary: A female Silicon Valley startup CEO’s spectacular rise and fall 🖌6-word review: Compelling investigative reporting, now a documentary
Description:* In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood tests significantly faster and easier. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn’t work. For years, Holmes had been misleading investors, FDA officials, and her own employees. When Carreyrou, working at The Wall Street Journal, got a tip from a former Theranos employee and started asking questions, both Carreyrou and the Journal were threatened with lawsuits. Undaunted, the newspaper ran the first of dozens of Theranos articles in late 2015. By early 2017, the company’s value was zero and Holmes faced potential legal action from the government and her investors. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I was turned on to this book by my doctor at my annual physical, at whose end we talked about what each of us was reading. I vaguely remember this “going down” when the story broke in the Wall Street Journal, but I didn’t pay much attention to the particulars. I found this book’s telling of it a riveting account of Elizabeth Holmes’ meteoric rise, including details on her thought processes, how she treated employees, and how she hoodwinked so many high-profile and smart people for so long. She is currently awaiting trail, charged with 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 9 counts of wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison. (Her trial keeps getting postponed; see the lasted on it.) HBO made a documentary about this story called The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, which I plan to watch. ABC Audio also did a 7-episode podcast about it called The Dropout (Elizabeth was a Stanford dropout), which I may or may not listen to in the future. I will probably follow at least some of the trial whenever it finally happens.
The Black Flamingo book cover Book: The Black Flamingo Author: Dean Atta
Pages: 416 Duration: 08/11/20 – 08/12/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, LGBT, verse
🔖10-word summary: Mixed-race Michael explores his identity and the power of drag 🖌6-word review: A verse novel and easy read
Description:* Michael is a mixed-race gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he’s navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican—but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough. As he gets older, Michael’s coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in. When he discovers the Drag Society, he finally finds where he belongs—and the Black Flamingo is born. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I checked out this book (figuratively and literally) after it was mentioned in our Red Hat Pride chatroom. This is my second verse novel. The first one was The Golden Gate, which I read in November of 2018, and which “was composed of 590 sonnets (Onegin stanzas written in iambic tetrameter, with the rhyme scheme following the AbAbCCddEffEgg pattern of Eugene Onegin).” The Black Flamingo was far easier to read than that one, and I flew through it. I read it on my Kindle, and I’m still finding it hard to believe it was 416 pages. I’m not a huge poetry fan, but that didn’t deter me from enjoying this book. I loved, loved, loved, the open-mic poem that Michael (a mixed-race, gay teen who grew up in London and is part Greek-Cypriot and part Jamaican, but has never quite felt Greek or Black enough) performs: I Come From, whose first 2 (of 8) stanzas were:
I come from shepherd’s pie and Sunday roast, jerk chicken and stuffed grape leaves. I come from traveling through taste buds but loving where I live. I come from a home that some would call broken.I come from DIY that never got done. I come from waiting by the phone for him to call. I come from waving the white flag to loneliness. I come from the rainbow flag and the Union Jack.
 
Brunch at Ruby's book cover Book: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Author: Lori Gottlieb
Pages: 413 Duration: 08/06/20 – 08/10/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, memoir, psychology, health
🔖10-word summary: Therapist talks about her patients, and herself as a patient 🖌6-word review: Vulnerable nonfiction at its very best
Description:* One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but. As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives—a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys—she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I loved this book. The author is actually a professional therapist, so this is nonfiction and a memoir. I thought she did an exceptional job of several things:
  1. The way she shared the stories of the 4 patients she chose to highlight throughout the book.
  2. How she changed the details of those patients’ stories so as to protect their identities in a way that didn’t at all detract from the telling about the issues they were facing and her assessment of them.
  3. The way she wove in her personal issues and the therapy she decided to enter in the midst of a crisis in her own life, especially about the second guessing she was doing about her therapist at the beginning of their sessions.
  4. How she sprinkled in psychological concepts and therapist nomenclature with both definitions and examples easily understood by lay-people.
  5. Opening herself up to personal and professional scrutiny by potentially millions of readers.
This is definitely in my top 3, if not the top, books of the 43 I’ve read so far this year.
Brunch at Ruby's book cover Book: Brunch at Ruby’s Author: D.L. White
Pages: 373 Duration: 08/01/20 – 08/04/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: womens fiction, romance, African-American culture
🔖10-word summary: Three, lifelong, female friends brunch monthly to share life’s journeys 🖌6-word review: Written from three points of view
Description:* Ruby’s Soul Food Cafe has been the neighborhood hot spot their whole lives, so it’s only fitting that Ruby’s is where Debra, Maxine and Renee meet monthly to do what girlfriends do– eat, drink and offer unsolicited advice on life and love. Debra Macklin has it all: a successful career, a long marriage and a happy 12 year old daughter. But she’s hiding a secret that could not only shatter her perfect image, but destroy her marriage and career. When her secret is spilled, Debra is poised to lose everything she holds dear. Maxine Donovan is a self made woman but despite all she earns and owns, she’s on a constant quest for Mr. Right. Handsome, aloof Malcolm Brooks might just be The One, but when Malcolm’s attention turns toward her friend instead, Maxine is ready to risk a strong bond to fight for him. Renee Gladwell left a lucrative job and a handsome boyfriend to nurse her father and Gladwell Books back to health. A temporary stay has turned into four years of struggling with Alzheimer’s and a family owned bookstore that is in no shape to sell. Renee is in limbo, caring for a man who is slowly forgetting his past—including her. When she meets Malcolm Brooks, her life brightens, but is love worth risking a friendship? *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I got this book as a free download from BookBub, and it was a nice, light read in comparison with a lot of “heavy” books I’ve been reading recently. It was also nice to read on a Kindle again, as I’ve read 2 or 3 printed books lately with too-small of font than I prefer. (Thank goodness I got new glasses recently.) I could have sworn that I read somewhere that this was a self-published book, but I can’t corroborate it anywhere now. Thinking that, I was hyper-aware of editing issues, but I was delighted to not find many. There were 3 instances of a missing word in a sentence, but not consistent grammatical errors or typos, etc. Enough of all that. I thought all 3 of the main characters were well-developed, and I liked having insight into both good and bad qualities of each. I thought the ups and downs of their 30-year relationship were realistic and one review characterized it as one that “bends, but never breaks.” Reading this book, I thought on and off about the Mostly Social Book Club that I’ve been a member of for 28 years and meets monthly—not at “Ruby’s,” but at (rotating locations of) Panera Bread (when we could meet in person).
Bel Canto book cover Book: Bel Canto Author: Ann Patchett
Pages: 318 Duration: 07/26/20 – 08/01/20 (7 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: literary fiction, music
🔖10-word summary: A kidnapping goes awry, and four-and-a-half months of complacency ensues 🖌6-word review: Virtuoso performance sprinkled with dry humor
Description:* Somewhere in South America at the home of the country’s vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera’s most revered soprano, has mesmerized the guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening, until a band of terrorists breaks in, taking the entire party hostage. But what begins as a life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I really loved this book, and I don’t think it’s because I like opera, but I’m pretty sure that added to my enjoyment. There were several striking—beautifully written—passages that I quoted on Facebook after reading, and I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s sprinkling of dry humor throughout, at several of which I “chuckled out loud.” And to be honest, the intermittent dry humor was my favorite part of this book. At one point, I checked the genres listed for it to see if “humor” was one of them. (It wasn’t.) From a psychological point of view, I also find the changes in the large group of people—both the captives and the captors—interesting to observe as their predicament aged four-and-a-half months. Don’t let the fact that his story is centered around an opera soprano diva deter you from reading it, and I thank my friend Jean Ells for loaning it to me
What Belongs to You book cover Book: What Belongs to You Author: Garth Greenwell
Pages: 195 Duration: 07/24/20 – 07/25/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: literary fiction, LGBT
🔖10-word summary: A men’s room trick becomes—more or less—an addiction 🖌6-word review: Lyrical prose, includes a 40-page paragraph
Description:* On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia’s National Palace of Culture. There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, drawn by hunger and loneliness and risk, and finds himself ensnared in a relationship in which lust leads to mutual predation, and tenderness can transform into violence. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he’s forced to grapple with his own fraught history, the world of his southern childhood where to be queer was to be a pariah. There are unnerving similarities between his past and the foreign country he finds himself in, a country whose geography and griefs he discovers as he learns more of Mitko’s own narrative, his private history of illness, exploitation, and disease. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: Although I’m not a huge fan of “lyrically written” novels—they’re okay in small doses—this book did have some beautifully written passages. Set in Bulgaria, there were Bulgarian words and phrases sprinkled throughout, almost always followed by a word or phrase set off by commas to translate them, which I appreciated. At one point while reading, I suddenly found myself sort of out of breath and looked down the rest of the page for the next paragraph break but didn’t see one. It was only then that I discovered I was 11 pages into a chapter that was one, long, 40-page paragraph! I’m guessing it was done for effect, but whatever the reason, I wasn’t a fan of it. The first section of this book, called “Mitko,” was first published as a standalone novella by that name, which I could see working. With its opening scene of tricking in a men’s room, one might be tempted to dismiss this book as gay fiction erotica, but it’s definitely not that—not filled with gratuitous sex. It’s more about weighty and universal ideas like differences in power, education, and prosperity; about societal perception and judgment of gay men and sex workers; and touches on the often-complicated relationships between gay men and their fathers. Its overarching theme, though, is about the many facets of desire and its consequences.
A Little Life book cover Book: A Little Life Author: Hanya Yanagihara
Pages: 736 Duration: 07/15/20 – 07/22/20 (8 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: literary fiction, LGBT
🔖10-word summary: Jude harbors unspeakable horrors that scar his body and mind 🖌6-word review: Takes a psychological toll on reader
Description:* When 4 classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I have to agree with several reviews of this book that said, “I loved this book, but I could never read it again.” It’s a great, great story about often excrutiating—both physical and emotional— pain, and it takes a psychological toll on the reader. At least it did on this one. I found Jude’s refusal to get therapy hugely selfish and increasingly infuriating as the book wore on. A criticism I have about the writing is that I felt that the narrative point-of-view was all over the map on it, and it would have been incredibly helpful to have more attribution tags (i.e., “, said Jude,” or “, she said.”) in the writing. It was mostly in 3rd person, with a couple of chapters thrown in with a 1st-person narrator—and it wasn’t the person I’d expect it to be, which just added to the confusion until I figured out who was talking. For that reason, at the beginning of more than one chapter, I was several pages into the chapter before I could figure out who the antecedents were for the “you,” “he,” “she,” or “we” in that chapter. That was a little frustrating, because of the “noise” in my head trying to figure that out instead of focusing on the story being told in those moments. With that said, once I figured it out, it was fine. And speaking of points of view, I found the writing about the male LGBT characters in this book extraordinary, especially considering that the author is a (presumably) straight, cis woman. For reasons I’m not too sure of, at times I found myself thinking of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (one of my favorite books) while reading this book. And more than once, I found myself thinking, “I wish I could write this well.” I highly recommend this book, but I would also recommend being in an emotionally healthy place, if at all possible, when you read it. It’s the kind of book that should probably come with a trigger warning.
The Family Gathering book cover Book: The Family Gathering Author: Robyn Carr
Pages: 352 Duration: 07/08/20 – 07/12/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, romance
🔖10-word summary: Dakota’s return to his quiet hometown to reconnect escalates quickly 🖌6-word review: Average, book 3 of a series
Description:* Having left the military, Dakota Jones is at a crossroads. With his elder brother and youngest sister happily settled in Sullivan’s Crossing, he shows up hoping to clear his head and is immediately drawn to the down-to-earth people and the seemingly simple way of life. But Dakota is unprepared for how quickly things get complicated. As a newcomer, he’s on everyone’s radar. And spending quality time with his siblings is eye-opening. As he gets to know them, he gets to know himself and what he truly wants. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I’d had this book on hold for a while at the library and initially chose it because it was available in large print and it was fairly highly rated. But, I didn’t realize 2 things about it until I’d started it—it’s book #3 in a 5-book series, and it’s a romance—two qualities in books I didn’t want to read any more of this year. So with that, I went into it with a bad attitude. The story was interesting enough, but the writing seemed a little juvenile to me, so much so that at one point, I checked to see if it was a “Young Adult” book. There were a lot of characters, and I had a hard time keeping up with them at times. I’m sure many of them were in the first 2 books of the series, which I hadn’t read. Overall, it was interesting enough to finish, but certainly not interesting enough to make me want to read any of the other 4 books in the series.
A Dangerous Age book cover Book: A Dangerous Age Author: Ellen Gilchrist
Pages: 245 Duration: 07/05/20 – 07/06/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: literary fiction, American south
🔖10-word summary: Strength abides in three female cousins of the Hand family 🖌6-word review: Clear, direct, no-nonsense look at life
Description:* The story of the women of the Hand family, three cousins in a Southern dynasty rich with history and tradition who are no strangers to either controversy or sadness. By turns humorous and heartbreaking, the novel is a celebration of the strength of these women, and of others like them. In her characteristically clear and direct prose, with its wry, no-nonsense approach to the world and the people who inhabit it, Gilchrist gives voice to women on a collision course with a distant war that, in truth, is never more than a breath away. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this story, which was simply told, but about complicated life events and decisions. I had a little trouble keeping the 3 cousins (and their boyfriends/lovers/husbands) straight at times, but the cousin who became the central character, Olivia, was strongly portrayed. The job of Olivia’s husband, Bobby Tree, reminded me so much of the play Grounded, by George Brant, which I saw at Manbites Dog Theater in 2014. I definitely recommend this book, which was loaned to me by my friend Jean Ells, and which I found to be a quick, easy—but not trite—read.
How to be Good book cover Book: How to Be Good Author: Nick Hornby
Pages: 305 Duration: 07/04/20 – 07/05/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, humor
🔖10-word summary: A bad husband turns good, still exasperating to his wife 🖌6-word review: Male author impressively portrays female narrator
Description:* Katie Carr is certainly trying to be good. That’s why she became a GP. That’s why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It’s also why she puts up with her husband David, the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway. But one fateful day, she finds herself in a Leeds parking lot, having just slept with another man. What Katie doesn’t yet realize is that her fall from grace is just the first step on a spiritual journey more torturous than the interstate at rush hour. Because, prompted by his wife’s actions, David is about to stop being angry. He’s about to become good—not politically correct, organic-food-eating good, but good in the fashion of the Gospels. And that’s no easier in modern-day Holloway than it was in ancient Israel. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: Another book loaned to me by my friend Jean Ells, I loved this book, mostly for the way in which it seemed to just keep tightening the screws on the female protagonist and her mostly laugh-out-loud, on-time, and dead-pan sarcasm. And just as everything she hated about her husband “went away” to presumably allow her to climb out of the hole her life had become, she instead managed to keep digging it deeper. The book is also a fascinating, philosophical and psychological look at how tenuous “being good” compared to “being good as long as it remains convenient” really is. This is my first time reading this author, and I thought his female-narrator writing was excellent. I never once thought anything was unrealistic or “off” about her first-person narration.
The Great Believers book cover Book: The Great Believers Author: Rebecca Makkai
Pages: 421 Duration: 06/28/20 – 07/03/20 (7 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: literary fiction, historical fiction, LGBT
🔖10-word summary: Fiona’s 30-year journey of loving, losing, and searching for happiness 🖌6-word review: Great story with believable, heartrending characters
Description:* In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister. 30 years later, Fiona is in Paris tracking down her estranged daughter who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finds herself finally grappling with the devastating ways AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world, as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I loved this book, which was recommended to me by my friend Jaleh. The story bounces back and forth, by chapter, between (mostly ) 1985 and 2015. When a book does this, I love when each story line is so good that you’re thrilled at the beginning of each chapter to be back to see what happens next in that story line. This is that kind of book. More than once during this book, I recalled Bob showing me old photo albums of him and his friends (way before I was in his life), and pointing to another picture, “He’s dead. He’s dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.” At times this book is a stark reminder of it all.
White Fragility book cover Book: White Fragility Author: Robin DiAngelo
Pages: 187 Duration: 06/12/20 – 06/26/20 (15 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, race, anti-racist, social movements, social justice, politics, psychology
🔖10-word summary: Learn how you’re racist even though you know you’re not 🖌6-word review: Requires intellect and openness to read
Description:* Antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo first coined the term “white fragility” in 2011, and since then it’s been invoked by critics from Samantha Bee to Charles Blow. “White fragility” refers to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially. These include emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors including argumentation and silence. In this book, DiAngelo unpacks white fragility, explaining the underlying sociological phenomena. She’ll draw on examples from her work and scholarship, as well as from the culture at large, to address these fundamental questions: How does white fragility develop? What does it look like? How is it triggered? What can we do to move beyond white fragility and engage more constructively? *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: There is so much to learn about racism in this book if you’re willing to open your mind and learn why we (white people) become so defensive when talking about race. If you say, or believe, that any of these things mean you’re not racist, you need to educate yourself about what racism really is: Color blind statements: I was taught to treat everyone the same. I don’t see color. I don’t care if you are pink, purple, or polka-dotted. Race doesn’t have any meaning to me. My parents were/weren’t racist, so that is why I am not racist. Everyone struggles, but if you work hard. So-and-so just happens to be black, but that has nothing to do with what I am about to tell you. Focusing on race is what divides us. If people are respectful to me, I am respectful to them, regardless of race. Children today are so much more open. I’m not racist; I’m from Canada. I was picked on because I was white/I grew up poor (so I don’t have race privilege). Color celebrate statements: I work in a very diverse environment. I have people of color in my family/married a person of color/have children of color. I was in the military. I used to live in New York/Hawaii. We don’t like how white our neighborhood is, but we had to move here for the schools. I was in the Peace Corps. I marched in the 60s. We adopted a child from China. Our grandchildren are multiracial. I was on a mission in Africa. I went to a very diverse school/lived in a very diverse neighborhood. I lived in Japan and was a minority so I know what it is like to be a minority. I lived among the [fill-in-the-blank] people, so I am actually a person of color. My great grandmother was a Native American princess.Please give yourself, and humankind, the gift of reading this book and using the information in your daily lives from then on. As Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Be like Maya Angelou.
Valentine book cover Book: Valentine Author: Elizabeth Wetmore
Pages: 320 Duration: 06/08/20 – 06/20/20 (13 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: historical fiction, literary fiction
🔖10-word summary: Mary Rose defies her family in her defense of Glory 🖌6-word review: Beautiful writing, strong women, compelling story
Description:* It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, 14-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field—an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I had a galley proof version of this book, another loan from my friend Jean Ells. Especially for a first novel, this is a beautifully written book. Each chapter focuses on one of the main characters, the first being Gloria (who quickly insists on being called Glory), and the second being Mary Rose and whose chapters are in first person. I usually read books serially, but I started another book while reading this one and with stepping away from it for a couple of days, and there being a fair member of characters in it, I did have to stop at about the halfway point and create a list of characters and how they related to each other, which helped me tremendously. With this book exploring the intersections of violence, race, class, and region was extra tough reading with the recent killing of George Floyd (May 25) and the extreme racial unrest in the U.S. right now. It was just one more thing that angered me a lot, especially when it got to the chapter about the trial of the boy who raped Glory. I would highly recommend this book, though.
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You book cover Book: A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You Author: Amy Bloom
Pages: 163 Duration: 06/06/20 – 06/07/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, short stories
🔖10-word summary: “Characters confronted with tragedy, perplexed by emotions, challenged to endure” 🖌6-word review: Loved a story had a “sequel”
Description: Because this book consists of 7 stories (with one having 2 parts, which I’ve designated 3a and 3b), I’m just going to provide a 10-word summary and 6-word review of each of them instead of detailing what each is about: 1st short story: A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (collection’s namesake story) Summary: Jane thoughtfully supports her daughter as she becomes her son Review: The kind of support I’d want
2nd short story: Rowing to Eden Summary: Ellie, Charlie, and Mai work through Mai’s breast cancer treatments Review: Interesting permutations of only suggestive couplings
3a short story: Lionel and Julia: Night Vision Summary: A black man and his white stepmother transgress one time Review: A just-long-enough short story that continues
3b short story: Lionel and Julia: Light Into Dark Summary: Six years later, man and stepmother superficially contemplate the incident Review: “A consideration of consequences and healing”
4th short story: Stars at Elbow and Foot Summary: A mother works through the grief of losing her baby Review: A believable account of processing a death
5th short story: Hold Tight Summary: Della’s year with a dying mother and a ghost-like father Review: Short tale with a touching ending
6th short story: The Gates Are Closing Summary: A mistress monitors her married lover’s decline with Parkinson’s disease Review: The perspective of an unlikely narrator
7th short story: The Story Summary: Author writes about a story an author’s trying to write Review: Serious example of an unreliable narrator
Thoughts: This is another of the books loaned to me by my friend Jean Ells. I didn’t realized until I got to the end of the first story that this was yet another collection of short stories. This is my fourth book of short stories, which is plenty enough for one year. I’ll be checking to make sure I don’t read another one until 2021. This was my first book by Amy Bloom, and I really enjoyed her writing and won’t hesitate to read another book by her.
Hateship, Friendship_Courtship, Loveship, Marriage book cover Book: Hateship, Friendship_Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Author: Alice Munro
Pages: 323 Duration: 05/15/20 – 06/06/20 (22 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, short stories, Canadian culture
🔖10-word summary: “Narratives that loop and swerve like memory conjuring up characters” 🖌6-word review: “Tirelessly observant, deeply and gloriously humane”
Description: Because this book consists of 9 stories, I’m just going to provide a 10-word summary and 6-word review of each of them instead of detailing what each is about: 1st short story: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (collection’s namesake story) Summary: Johanna Parry goes through all that in this short story Review: Jam-packed and entertaining in fifty-seven pages
2nd short story: Floating Bridge Summary: Older woman with cancer gets a new lease on life Review: Could have been icky, but wasn’t
3rd short story: Family Furnishings Summary: A young lady learns some lessons about being a writer Review: Short story about a short story
4th short story: Comfort Summary: Nina and Lewis have a plan for Lewis’ fatal illness Review: “A gem among finely polished stones”
5th short story: Nettles Summary: An unexpected, yet fortuitous, thunderstorm is par for the course Review: An unanticipated secret saves this one
6th short story: Post and Beam Summary: Lorna works through her strained relationship with her cousin Polly Review: Confusing opening, innuendo-laden middle, unsatisfying ending
7th short story: What is remembered Summary: Her husband’s friend’s funeral leads to an affair to remember Review: A melodramatic imagining of what’s remembered
8th short story: Queenie Summary: Chrissy keeps looking for her stepsister who keeps leaving unannounced Review: A nice, compact, standalone sibling tale
9th short story: The Bear Came Over the Mountain Summary: Complicated relationships among Grant and Fiona and Aubrey and Marian Review: Wonderfully woven web of happenstance meetings
Thoughts: This collection of short stories was recommended by a friend, Jean Ells, and I loved it. I read the title story, which was the first short story in the collection in one day, downloaded on my Kindle on May 15. After reading my next book, Days of Distraction, I went back to this collection and read the other 8 short stories after borrowing the paperback version of the collection from the friend who recommended it. I really enjoy this writer, and I’m sure I’ll read more of her in the future. Thanks, Jean!
Days of Distraction book cover Book: Days of Distraction Author: Alexandra Chang
Pages: 320 Duration: 05/25/20 – 05/30/20 (6 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: literary fiction, Asian culture
🔖10-word summary: Asian, female protagonist painstakingly works through her persistent existential angst 🖌6-word review: “Told in spare, but powerful prose”
Description:* The plan is to leave. As for how, when, to where, and even why—she doesn’t know yet. So begins a journey for the 24-year-old narrator. As a staff writer at a prestigious tech publication, she reports on the achievements of smug Silicon Valley billionaires and start-up bros while her own request for a raise gets bumped from manager to manager. And when her longtime boyfriend, J, decides to move to a quiet upstate New York town for grad school, she sees an excuse to cut and run. Moving is supposed to be a grand gesture of her commitment to J and a way to reshape her sense of self. But in the process, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship. Captivated by the stories of her ancestors and other Asian Americans in history, she must confront a question at the core of her identity: What does it mean to exist in a society that does not notice or understand you? *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: A fortuitous meeting of a retired librarian friend during (Jean Ells) a #CoronavirusDays neighborhood walk led me to this little gem. We began talking about books, and she said that she has a big collection at her house that I’m more than welcome to borrow from while the libraries are closed (and beyond, really). This book was one that she recommended. I really enjoyed it for a few reasons: 1) the protagonist was female, Asian, and a staff writer for a technology publication—I like reading books by non-white authors throughout the year, and her being a writer for a technology company appealed to me for obvious reasons, 2) its format included short, varied paragraphs—returning to alternating story lines or threads, and 3) the narrator was very honest even though it didn’t shed a positive light on her at times, and she seemed genuinely interested in personal growth in the context of the complex navigation of the world as a oft-time marginalized member of society.
The Little Friend book cover Book: The Little Friend (Abandoned) Author: Donna Tartt
Pages: 642 Duration: 05/16/20 – 05/25/20 (10 days)
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Genres: literary fiction, mystery
🔖10-word summary: A determined sister seeks the killer of her little brother 🖌6-word review: Unengaging characters, started skimming, then abandoned
Description:* The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated. So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet—unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson—sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss. *From Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This book started off interesting to me, and I was even pulling for Harriett as she set out to uncover the mystery of her brother’s death. Then, a slew of characters were introduced that I found completely uninteresting and whom the author elaborated upon beyond tolerable to me. I found myself skimming a lot, but even when the storyline returned to Harriett, I found myself struggling to care. One of the reasons it took me so long to abandon it is that The Secret History, one of this author’s other books, is one of my all-time favorite books, and I also enjoyed—though to a lesser extent—her book, The Goldfinch. The final straw, though, was when Bob asked me if reading this book was bringing me joy, and without hesitation, I said, “No, it isn’t.”
Days of Awe book cover Book: Days of Awe Author: Lauren Fox
Pages: 274 Duration: 05/10/20 – 05/15/20 (6 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, literary fiction
🔖10-word summary: Isabel’s tribulations with her husband, daughter, and beloved best friend 🖌6-word review: Not enough growth in the protagonist
Description:* Only a year ago Isabel Moore was married, the object of adoration of her ten-year-old daughter, and thought she knew everything about her wild, extravagant, beloved best friend, Josie. But in that one short year: her husband moved out and rented his own apartment; her daughter grew into a moody insomniac; and Josie—impulsive, funny, secretive Josie—was killed behind the wheel in a single-car accident. As Isabel tries to make sense of this shattering loss and unravel the months leading up to Josie’s death, she comes to understand the shifts, large and small, that can upend a friendship and an entire life. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I know that people grieve in their own way and at their own pace, but the protagonist in this story just took too long, and you’re really just left to imagine how it turned out once she finally did move into the acceptance stage of her grief. It was not a bad book, per se, but I’d be hard-pressed to recommend it to anyone.
A Doubter's Almanac book cover Book: A Doubter’s Almanac Author: Ethan Canin
Pages: 577 Duration: 05/03/20 – 05/08/20 (6 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, historical fiction, literary fiction
🔖10-word summary: Tormented mathematical genius’s life unravels his family and his health 🖌6-word review: Intellectual and philosophical inquiry into genius
Description:* Milo Andret is born with an unusual mind. A lonely child growing up in the woods of northern Michigan in the 1950s, he gives little thought to his own talent. But with his acceptance at U.C. Berkeley he realizes the extent, and the risks, of his singular gifts. California in the seventies is a seduction, opening Milo’s eyes to the allure of both ambition and indulgence. The research he begins there will make him a legend; the woman he meets there—and the rival he meets alongside her—will haunt him for the rest of his life. For Milo’s brilliance is entwined with a dark need that soon grows to threaten his work, his family, even his existence. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I savored reading this book over the 6 days I spent with it. I do wonder if I liked it so much because my undergraduate degree was in mathematics, or just because it was so well written—with exceptional character development, particularly of the protagonist. Milo made me think of archetypal characters—not unlike Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, who is often cited as a classic example of the INTJ (The architect) Myers-Briggs type. In any case, I enjoyed the inquiry into “the nature of genius, rivalry, ambition, and love among multiple generations of a gifted family.” I thought the author did a good job describing enough of the mathematical problem that Milo ended up solving to not totally alienate the reader (at least not this one), and especially considering it wasn’t a real mathematical problem—hence the “fiction” part of its “historical fiction” genre designation.
Interpreter of Maladies book cover Book: Interpreter of Maladies Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Pages: 209 Duration: 04/30/20 – 05/02/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, short stories, Indian culture
🔖10-word summary: Short stories of nuanced depth resonating across cultures and generations 🖌6-word review: Pulitzer Prize winner for a reason
Description: Because this book consists of 9 stories, I’m just going to provide a 10-word summary and 6-word review of each of them instead of detailing what each is about: 1st short story: A Temporary Matter Summary: Husband and wife confess carefully during scheduled temporary power outages Review: Beautifully told story of unraveling love
2nd short story: When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine Summary: From Boston, Mr. Pirzada worries about his family in Dacca Review: Contemplations of assimilation, politics, and identity
3rd short story: Interpreter of Maladies (book’s namesake short story) Summary: A profound secret is thrust upon a man for interpretation Review: Delicious entrapment of protagonist and reader
4th short story: A Real Durwan Summary: Boori Ma, a building caretaker, gets cast out by tenants Review: Globalization’s ripple effect on personal economics
5th short story: Sexy Summary: Sexy Miranda slowly devolves into the inevitable unfulfilled other woman Review: Parallel stories of adultery interestingly juxtaposed
6th short story: Mrs. Sen’s Summary: Mrs. Sen, an unhappy and lonely Calcutta immigrant, babysits Eliot Review: Anticipated car accident the whole time
7th short story: This Blessed House Summary: Sanjeev and Twinkle’s marriage tested by unearthed household Christian iconography Review: Opposites attract in a strained way
8th short story: The Treatment of Bibi Haldar Summary: Bibi has a mysterious illness that only marriage can cure Review: An implausible, entertaining, and satisfying mystery
9th short story: The Third and Final Continent Summary: A Calcutta man recounts his new job, wife, and country Review: An engaging snapshot of a life
Thoughts: This is my second book of short stories this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. It’s not surprising that its author won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for this work. It’s beautifully written and wildly succeeds in painting complex characters and exploring nuanced, yet universal, reactions and life experiences in the restrained genre of the short story. From the book jacket, with which I fully agree: “Traveling from India to New England and back again, the stories in this extraordinary debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations. Imbued with the sensual details of Indian culture, they also speak with universal eloquence to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner.”
A Girl's Guide to Moving On book cover Book: A Girl’s Guide to Moving On Author: Debbie Macomber
Pages: 352 Duration: 04/26/20 – 04/29/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, romance
🔖10-word summary: Mother and daughter-in-law simultaneously divorce their husbands to move on 🖌6-word review: Neither a guide nor very compelling
Description:* A mother and her daughter-in-law bravely leave their troubled marriages and face the challenge of starting over. Leaning on each other, Nichole and Leanne discover that their inner strength and capacity for love are greater than they ever imagined. An inspiring novel of friendship, reinvention, and hope, this book affirms the ability of every woman to forge a new path, believe in love, and fearlessly find happiness. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I know I just said I wasn’t going to read any more books this year classified in the romance genre, but this one had been on request at the library for several months, and 1) it was an e-book, and 2) it became available just as I was finishing The Sense of an Ending. So, I went ahead and read it. It was only “okay” to me. There were several reviews on Goodreads saying the writing in this book was terrible. Although I found it very basic, I wouldn’t categorize it as terrible. I do think the “A Girl’s Guide to…” part of the title was used mostly as a device to lure a certain demographic, but to use a somewhat overused adjective these days, I’d call it “click bait.” The 5 (Or was it 6? Who cares? I certainly didn’t.) items in “the guide” were enumerated at the beginning (e.g., Don’t allow yourself to wallow in your pain. Cultivate new friendships. Let go in order to receive. Love yourself.) and referred to, or alluded to, maybe 2 or 3 more times, at the most, throughout the rest of the book. It really wasn’t about a guide at all, and that annoyed me. Granted I’m easily annoyed, and I didn’t want to be reading a romance novel anyway. Attitude check! So, YMMV, but I would be hard-pressed to recommend this book.
The Sense of an Ending book cover Book: The Sense of an Ending Author: Julian Barnes
Pages: 162 Duration: 04/25/20 – 04/25/20 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, literary fiction
🔖10-word summary: Tony Webster rethinks his life’s actions through a new lens 🖌6-word review: What, how, and when we remember
Description:* This intense new novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he’d left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he’d understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I ran through this book in about 4.5 hours. The Goodreads blurb says, “A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication,” which certainly was the case for me. Oh, and I’m glad I read this one on a Kindle, because there were some serious vocabulary words in it, these among the ones I looked up: exculpated, susurrus, riposte, lachrymosely, puerile, lieder, deliquescent, fossicking, and priapic.
Love Lettering book cover Book: Love Lettering Author: Kate Clayborn
Pages: 320 Duration: 04/19/20 – 04/23/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary
🔖10-word summary: Two people who love codes first clash then get together 🖌6-word review: Held surprisingly little of my interest
Description:* Meg Mackworth’s hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope, designing custom journals for her New York City clientele. She has another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Knowing the upcoming marriage of Reid Sutherland and his polished fiancée was doomed to fail is one thing, but weaving a secret word of warning into their wedding program is another. Meg may have thought no one would spot it, but she hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed, pattern-obsessed Reid. A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other, both try to ignore a deepening connection between them. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This book just didn’t work for me. I thought that because it was about “lettering,” which before reading the book I translated as about writing and words, that it’d be interesting to me. As it turned out, it was more about typography than writing and words. And it was actually mostly about a romance that develops between the two main characters, neither of whom drew me in. Before this book, if you’d’ve asked me if I read romance novels, my answer would have been, “Rarely.” However, while trying to assess what I didn’t really like about this book, I noticed that one of the genres it’s categorized in is “romance.” Then I looked at my reading list for this year, and lo and behold, this is the fifth book to date that has that as one of its genres. I particularly did not like the sex scenes described between these two characters. I’m going to make a concerted effort not to read any more romance novels this year. Unfortunately, one of the things that’s affecting my reading choices lately is this damn coronavirus situation, which has our libraries closed, so I’m having to find Kindle books online that are available for free downloads.
Me book cover Book: Me Author: Elton John
Pages: 376 Duration: 04/13/20 – 04/17/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, autobiography, celebrity, music
🔖10-word summary: Elton John authentically recounts his larger-than-life character, experiences, and career 🖌6-word review: Brutally honest, often unflattering, always extraordinary
Description:* Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of 23, he was on his first tour of America, facing an astonished audience in his tight silver hotpants, bare legs and a T-shirt with ROCK AND ROLL emblazoned across it in sequins. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I loved this book for a lot of reasons. I loved how honest Elton was telling his story, even when a lot of times he came across as a bully, an asshole, or a cokehead. I loved his telling of how he and his close friends gave each other drag names: Elton was Sharon. Rod Stewart was Phyllis. Freddie Mercury was Melini. Michael Jackson was Mahalia. John Reid (Elton’s first boyfriend, and later his music manager) was Beryl, and Tony King (an art director) was Joy. I loved hearing his stories of meeting and working with other artists of all kinds. His mother was an absolutely horrible woman and the stories he does share of her highlight how ruthlessly viscous she was. I loved his story about (not) working with Tina Turner. And knowing what I know about him now, it’s extraordinary that he was able to perform and record like he did being the serious alcohol and drug addict that he was for a long time, and it’s even more amazing that he didn’t die along the way.
I Owe You One book cover Book: I Owe You One Author: Sophie Kinsella
Pages: 432 Duration: 04/11/20 – 04/13/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance
🔖10-word summary: It takes a while, but Fixie finally finds her backbone 🖌6-word review: Tightly characterized, at times exasperating, protagonist
Description:* Fixie Farr has always lived by her father’s motto: “Family first.” But since her dad passed away, leaving his charming housewares store in the hands of his wife and children, Fixie spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings instead of striking out on her own. The way Fixie sees it, if she doesn’t take care of her father’s legacy, who will? It’s simply not in her nature to say no to people. So when a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, Fixie not only agrees—she ends up saving it from certain disaster. Turns out the computer’s owner is an investment manager. To thank Fixie for her quick thinking, Sebastian scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve and attaches his business card. But Fixie laughs it off—she’d never actually claim an IOU from a stranger. Would she? Soon Fixie, “Ms. Fixit” for everyone else, is torn between her family and the life she really wants. Does she have the courage to take a stand? Will she finally grab the life, and love, she really wants? *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I really liked this book despite reading a couple of bad reviews about it before I started, one of which noted that the author uses “ludicrously” a ludicrous number of times. So, of course I noticed it every time I saw it. However, I estimate that it was used 7 or 8 times, across a 432-page book and was contextually correct on each use. I’m positive I wouldn’t have even noticed it had I not read that review first. (There now you can be distracted by it, too, if you read the book. Sorry.) I love when an author can draw a character so vividly almost solely by what they say, how they react to things, and physical or emotional “tics.” One of the criticisms of this book was that the protagonist was infuriating. She was! But isn’t that good writing if the author can get you so riled up about a character? To each his or her own, of course, but I recommend this book.
Ask Again, Yes book cover Book: Ask Again, Yes Author: Mary Beth Keane
Pages: 400 Duration: 04/09/20 – 04/10/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, psychology
🔖10-word summary: Two families work 4 decades through a complex, tragic event 🖌6-word review: Human frailty exposed to its utmost
Description:* Ask Again, Yes is a deeply affecting exploration of the lifelong friendship and love that blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next 40 years. Luminous, heartbreaking, and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes reveals the way childhood memories change when viewed from the distance of adulthood—villains lose their menace and those who appeared innocent seem less so. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This author grew up in Pearl River, NY, which made me think of my friend, Mary. From a New York Times interview with Mary Beth Keane: “She was particularly affected by her husband’s long estrangement from his parents and began to look for a way to explain that break to their children. ‘I wanted to help them understand that even people who are decent in their hearts might get lost, might fail to live up to the contract of parenthood or marriage. No one ever plans to become estranged. It happens day by day, year by year, until next thing—oops!—20 years have gone by. Is it possible for a parent and child to become true strangers to one another? Or is there always some connection? I began writing this book to figure out how I might answer that question.'” I think she did a good job of that.
The Identicals book cover Book: The Identicals Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Pages: 433 Duration: 04/04/20 – 04/07/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, romance
🔖10-word summary: Twins wreak havoc in each others lives just like mom 🖌6-word review: Story starring Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
Description:* Nantucket is only 2.5 hours away from Martha’s Vineyard by ferry. But the two islands might as well be worlds apart for a set of identical twin sisters who have been at odds for years. When a family crisis forces them to band together—or at least appear to—the twins slowly come to realize that the special bond that they share is more important than the sibling rivalry that’s driven them apart for the better part of their lives. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a classic Elin Hilderbrand book, the kind that’s often referred to as a “quick, summer read.” Essentially, the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are each a character in this novel, and they hold a soft spot in my heart. Although I’m from from Fall River, MA, about 50-60 miles from those islands, I’d never been to either island until my 60th birthday. I went alone, and I spent 2.5 days on Nantucket, 2.5 days on Martha’s Vineyard, and a day in Hyannis Port. Being that I’m half Portuguese (there is a big Portuguese population in Fall River), I was tickled to death at this passage in the book: “Even hungover, Franklin installs the new kitchen cabinets the next day and sets in the porcelain farmhouse sink. There are two Portuguese guys from Fall River—both named Paulo—sanding down the floors in the living room and dining room.” All that aside, it’s typical Hilderbrand writing: intertwined lives played off and against each other, with strong characters and circumstances pushing everyone to the edge.
The Husband's Secret book cover Book: The Husband’s Secret Author: Liane Moriarty
Pages: 498 Duration: 03/31/20 – 04/04/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, mystery, psychology
🔖10-word summary: A man’s posthumous-intended, found letter shatters the lives around him 🖌6-word review: Gripping, thought-provoking, and best epilogue ever
Description:* Your husband’s letter to be opened after his death contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Then imagine stumbling across it while he’s still very much alive. Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter has earth-shattering repercussions that’s about to change everything, and not just for her. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I loved this book—hence the 5-star rating. This is my second Liane Moriarty book this year, and I gave What Alice Forgot a 5-star rating, too. I guess you could say I like this author. I did have a little trouble keeping the characters (or should I say families) straight for the first couple of chapters and when their interconnections first became apparent. But once into the groove, I was interested in each family’s own little sub-drama and even more so in how intertwined they eventually all became. The epilogue is probably the best ending to a book I’ve ever read. I found it analogous to the final scene (which I loved) of the final episode of the final season of Six Feet Under if you ever watched that HBO series. But I loved this book’s epilogue 100 times more than I loved that final scene.
The Obituary Society book cover Book: The Obituary Society Author: Jessica L. Randall
Pages: 216 Duration: 03/28/20 – 03/30/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, romance
🔖10-word summary: A granddaughter’s inherited house houses incriminating and dangerous family secrets 🖌6-word review: Finished, one notch above didn’t like
Description:* Lila Moore inherits her grandfather’s house in a small Midwestern town. She’s charmed by the people of Auburn, from the blue-eyed lawyer with the southern drawl to the little old lady who unceasingly tries to set Lila up with her grandson. But when strange things begin to happen, Lila realizes some of her new friends are guarding a secret like it’s a precious family heirloom. It’s a dangerous secret, and it has come back to haunt them. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I found this book just good enough to finish, but neither loving it nor likely to recommend it. I was having a hard time putting my finger on exactly why it didn’t grab me, but when I was creating this entry for it and saw that one of the genres that Goodreads classified this book as was “romance,” a light bulb went off. I’m not a big fan of romance novels. Also, one of the main draws of this book was the word “obituary” in the title, but there was very little information about the The Obituary Society’s actual meetings, which is what I wanted to know about. I didn’t find out that this book was the first in a 3-book series until I was well into it, and presumably they talk more about the meetings in the subsequent books, but I wasn’t intrigued enough in this one to read on.
Be Frank With Me book cover Book: Be Frank With Me Author: Julia Claiborne Johnson
Pages: 309 Duration: 03/24/20 – 03/27/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, humor
🔖10-word summary: A brilliantly precocious boy’s life with his famous-author, dysfunctional mother 🖌6-word review: At times humorous, at times heartbreaking
Description:* When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away—as a full-time companion to Frank, the 9-year-old son of Mimi, an eccentric author mother. He’s a boy with the wit of Noël Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth graders. As she gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who his father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation, and whether Mimi will ever finish that book. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this tale—but not without frequently being confounded, infuriated, and exasperated by Frank’s mother, for which I’ll credit good character development by Julia Claiborne Johnson. This is the kind of book that I could easily see turned into a movie, although a child actor doesn’t come to mind who could pull off Frank. He was quite the character. I highly recommend this book.
Postcards from a Stranger book cover Book: Postcards from a Stranger Author: Imogen Clark
Pages: 348 Duration: 03/21/20 – 03/23/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, mystery
🔖10-word summary: Old postcards in attic expose a lifetime of family lies 🖌6-word review: Entertaining investigative work by female protagonist
Description:* When Cara stumbles across a stash of old postcards in the attic, their contents make her question everything she thought she knew. The story she pieces together is confusing and unsettling, and appears to have been patched over with lies. But who can tell her the truth? With her father sinking into Alzheimer’s and her brother reluctant to help, it seems Cara will never find the answers to her questions. One thing is clear, though: someone knows more than they’re letting on. The picture that begins to emerge is not at all the one she’d expected—because as she soon discovers, lies have a habit of multiplying. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a well-told story—a mystery that unfolded at a nice clip, never keeping me waiting very long for the next revelation to satisfy me and keep me wanting to know what would happen next.
Everything My Mother Taught Me book cover Book: Everything My Mother Taught Me Author: Alive Hoffman
Pages: 24 Duration: 03/21/20 – 03/21/20 (1 day)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, historical fiction, short stories
🔖10-word summary: Mute girl survives her father’s death and mother’s mean selfishness 🖌6-word review: An impressively succinct, well-written short story
Description:* For fatefully observant Adeline, growing up carries an ominous warning from her adulterous mother: don’t say a word. Adeline vows to never speak again. But that’s not her only secret. After her mother takes a housekeeping job at a lighthouse off the tip of Cape Ann, a local woman vanishes. The key to the mystery lies with Adeline, the silent witness. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this short (24-page) story. A lot of themes were covered in a very short time—loyalty, betrayal, adultery, revenge, and love. The 4- as opposed to 5-star rating was due to “some minor flaws,” namely with questions about some plot points that I didn’t think about, but Bob pointed out when I described the story to him. I still would recommend the book, though, because they obviously didn’t bother me, since I didn’t even notice them.
The Last Thing She Ever Did book cover Book: The Last Thing She Ever Did Author: Gregg Olsen
Pages: 372 Duration: 03/17/20 – 03/19/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller
🔖10-word summary: A trio of neighbors involved in a little boy’s disappearance 🖌6-word review: A compelling, well-written, plot-driven, page-turning mystery
Description:* The community along Oregon’s Deschutes River is one of successful careers and perfect families. For years, up-and-comers Liz and Owen have admired their good friends and neighbors, Carole and David. They appear to have it all–security, happiness, and a beautiful young son, Charlie. Then Charlie vanishes without a trace, and all that seemed safe is shattered by a tragedy that is incomprehensible—except to Liz. There’s another good neighbor who has his own secrets, his own pain, and his own reasons for watching Liz’s every move. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I flew through this book, because it was well-written and plot-driven, two very important factors in how much I like a book. I also found myself yelling at the characters, “How stupid can you be?” And, “No, no, no, don’t do that!” A couple of the things a couple of the characters did at times, seemed a little far-fetched, which is the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. I do highly recommend it, though, if you like a quick-moving, plot-driven mystery.
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know book cover Book: Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Pages: 388 Duration: 03/15/20 – 03/16/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, psychology, sociology
🔖10-word summary: Complex human psychology that explains societal atrocities that confound us 🖌6-word review: Credible. Famous examples. Accessible psychological concepts.
Description:* How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn’t true? Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know. And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book, and it answered a lot of questions I had about the Brock Turner, Amanda Knox, Jerry Sandusky, Larry Nasser, and Michael Brown incidents, which he uses as examples to explain how complex human psychology is at work in these situations. The most enlightening thing to me, perhaps, was the well-explained section on (alcohol) blackouts. Fascinating. And the thing that contributed the most to my 5-star rating is the part of the criteria that says, “More than just entertaining (e.g., educational, enlightening).” Note: I also loved Outliers and The Tipping Point, the only 2 of his other books that I’ve read, so I may just be a fan of his writing and/or sociology and psychology books.
Break in Case of Emergency book cover Book: Break in Case of Emergency Author: Jessica Winter
Pages: 269 Duration: 03/08/20 – 03/12/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, women, humor
🔖10-word summary: Friendship, fertility, and fighting for sanity in a toxic workplace 🖌6-word review: Karina was a strongly written character
Description:* Jen has reached her early thirties and has all but abandoned a once-promising painting career when, spurred by the 2008 economic crisis, she takes a poorly defined job at a feminist nonprofit. The foundation’s ostensible aim is to empower women, but staffers spend all their time devising acronyms for imaginary programs, ruthlessly undermining one another, and stroking the ego of their boss, the larger-than-life celebrity philanthropist Leora Infinitas. Jen’s complicity in this passive-aggressive hellscape only intensifies her feelings of inferiority compared to her two best friends—one a wealthy attorney with a picture-perfect family, the other a passionately committed artist—and so does Jen’s apparent inability to have a baby, a source of existential panic that begins to affect her marriage and her already precarious status at the office. As Break in Case of Emergency unfolds, a fateful art exhibition, a surreal boondoggle adventure in Belize, and a devastating personal loss conspire to force Jen to reckon with some hard truths about herself and the people she loves most. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: It wasn’t until about a third of the way into this book that I was sure I was going to stick with it. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t compelling to me either. I’m aware that I’m less tolerant of humorous books these days, with the most recent example being Rue McClanahan’s book that I abandoned in my 2019 reading. Humor in writing is tenuous for me and requires a certain level of rapport with the reader to be effective. In the case of Rue’s book, I got the distinct impression that she thought she was funnier than I did, as the reader, and that didn’t work for me. That’s what I was working through during the first third of this book. Perhaps because this humor was satire, and I like good satire, I was able to hang. I mentioned “Karina” in my 6-word review, and her character really was the saving grace of this book for me. Don’t get me wrong, as a “person,” she was infuriating, but I like when an author can get me riled up about a fictional character. For all of my ambivalence about it, I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this book, but I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it.
Property: Stories Between Two Novellas book cover Book: Property: Stories Between Two Novellas Author: Lionel Shriver
Pages: 317 Duration: 02/29/20 – 03/06/20 (7 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, short stories
🔖10-word summary: Ten short stories sandwiched between two novellas each about property 🖌6-word review: Different meanings of property. Smart writing.
Description:* Because this book consists of 12 stories, I’m just going to provide a 10-word summary and 6-word review of each of them instead of detailing what each is about: Novella 1: The Standing Chandelier Summary: An enormous personal art piece wedding gift becomes problematic property Review: A tightly wound tale of love
Shorty story 1: The Self-Seeding Sycamore Summary: A widow’s property-line tree imbues grief, anger, rebirth, and love Review: Neighbors come to a surprising resolution
Short story 2: Domestic Terrorism Summary: Live-in son won’t vacate his family’s property no matter what Review: A tightly wound tale of love
Shorty story 3: The Royal Male Summary: A postman plays God with other people’s property—their mail Review: A deceitful meeting “frontfires”—ending smashingly
Shorty story 4: Exchange Rates Summary: London property ownership dreams constrained by money, family, and time Review: Dad comes. Dad goes. Goal achieved.
Short story 5: Kilifi Creek Summary: Female protagonist runs out of luck on Manhattan property rooftop Review: Close calls finally close in completely
Shorty story 6: Repossession Summary: Helen buys possessed repossessed property—it’s all downhill from there Review: Circuitous road to the repo man
Shorty story 7: The ChapStick Summary: Unlikely personal property—a ChapStick tube—has not inconsequential consequences Review: A deceitful meeting “frontfires”—ending smashingly
Shorty story 8: Negative Equity Summary: A couple’s “underwater” property complicates their impending separate living arrangements Review: A restaurateur and a hygienist resuscitate
Short story 9: Vermin Summary: The “Little Dump” Brooklyn property becomes overrun with raucous raccoons Review: An imperfect purchase and relationship deteriorates
Shorty story 10: Paradise to Perdition Summary: Tainted property—embezzled money—can’t buy happiness or even enjoyment Review: A modern-day Crime and Punishment story
Novella 2: The Subletter Summary: Emer sublets Sara’s flat with an overlapping period of calamity Review: Too politically heavy, but otherwise compelling
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. I haven’t read a novella or a short story in a while, so it was a nice change of pace. I liked how the kind of “property” at the center of each story varied, nicely described in this New York Times review: “From one story to the next, the acquisition of things—land, money, empty nests—rarely leads to happiness and often stimulates character traits that might better be kept in check.” My favorite story was The Royal Male (one of the 10 short stories) and my least favorite story (although I loved the beginning and the end of it) was The Subletter (one of the novellas and the last story in the book, unfortunately).
The Road Home book cover Book: The Road Home Author: Kathleen Shoop
Pages: 503 Duration: 02/25/20 – 02/28/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, historical fiction
🔖10-word summary: The long road back from a dramatic, circumstantial family separation 🖌6-word review: 3-POV, well-told saga penned in flashbacks
Description:* 1905—Tearful mourners at Katherine’s mother’s funeral force her to revisit a time in her life that both harmed and saved her in the most unexpected ways. Her also-grieving brother Tommy is thrust backward, compelled to rediscover the events in his life that shaped the man he’s become. They come to understand that forgiveness is the only way back to hope, the only way to find all that was good in the misfortune that transformed their lives forever. 1891—Living separately for 3 years, 14-year-old twins, Katherine and Tommy Arthur, have done their best to make each boarding house feel like home. But unrest grows as they are driven to questionable actions just to survive. Meanwhile their desperate mother is confronted with breaking yet another promise to her children. Hope rises on a cold, rainy night and changes everything. If their mother Jeanie could just get word to Katherine and Tommy, she knows she can set their lives right again. Agitators, angels, and dangerous “saviors” illuminate the Arthurs’ unmatched determination and smarts. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I found this a quick and easy read, told in flashbacks between two years—1905 and 1891—and across 3 points-of-view: Jeanie (mother, first-person narrator), Katherine (daughter/sister, third-person narrator), and Tommy (son/brother, third-person narrator). That’s also in the order of how much I liked each person’s story. In terms of present and flashback, I liked when the story returned to the present—1905—the most. I found this a well-told story about a very dramatic family break-up. Oddly enough, the beginning of it reminded me of the very first episode of Schitt’s Creek: When the wealthy family—video store magnate Johnny, his wife and former soap opera actress Moira, and their adult children David and Alexis lose their fortune after being defrauded by their business manager, the IRS enters their home to seize their assets. This story, at times, also reminded me of that song from Hee Haw: “Gloom despair, and agony on me. Deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” This is a book I downloaded for free from BookBub, and like several of the other books they’ve offered free, it turned out to be one book of a series. (Book 2 of 7, as it turns out.) I would never purposely start reading a book series without starting with the first book and without reading them in order, but this is now the third time I’ve done it, and it’s not bad. I do have interest in reading the first and third books in the series, but if history repeats itself, I won’t—especially if I can’t get the other books from the library. With all that said, as my 4-star review intimates, I’d highly recommend this book.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings book cover Book: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Author: Maya Angelou
Pages: 317 Duration: 02/15/20 – 02/17/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: nonfiction, memoir, classics
🔖10-word summary: Maya Angelou from three to seventeen—resisting racism in America. 🖌6-word review: On identity, racism, rape, and literacy.
Description:* Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I’m happy to have finally read this book. In no surprise whatsoever, the writing was exquisite and the story compelling. In devising my 2020 reading list, I didn’t purposefully schedule two books with a racism theme during Black History Month, but I’m glad it worked out that way. I had no idea Maya was the first African-American streetcar conductor in San Francisco, and I enjoyed her telling of how she made that happen. My favorite scene in this book was when Maya’s grandmother was out on the front porch of her house, standing still, singing continuously and without wavering as little white kids abased her, calling her names and making fun of her. Powerful.
The Bookshop of Yesterdays book cover Book: The Bookshop of Yesterdays Author: Amy Meryerson
Pages: 364 Duration: 02/12/20 – 02/14/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, books about books, mystery
🔖10-word summary: Girl inherits bookshop that holds clues to her family’s past. 🖌6-word review: Family secrets. Mostly believable. Implausible moments.
Description:* Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This was a “refreshingly light read” after The Elegance of the Hedgehog. The scavenger hunt thing got old by the end, but I enjoyed it overall, just more so at the beginning. The “family secrets” part of this book reminded me of my favorite book of a 2019, The Secrets Mothers Keep. The female protagonist annoyed me at times—her character being portrayed, not the writing about her, which is a compliment to the author. I’m pretty sure there was one editing error (which I have little patience for) where one character was referred to with the wrong name.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog book cover Book: The Elegance of the Hedgehog Author: Muriel Barbery
Pages: 325 Duration: 02/08/20 – 02/11/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, philosophy, French culture
🔖10-word summary: A 54-year-old and a 12-year-old contemplate the meaning of life. 🖌6-word review: Big words. Deep thoughts. Great ending.
Description:* Paloma (a 12-year old resident) and Renée (the 54-year old concierge) both hide their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he can gain Paloma’s trust and see through Renée’s timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: Be prepared to look up a lot of words reading this book. It has to be written at a grade 16 (or higher) level. This is a typical example of the high level of writing: instead of just writing, “How crazy that yesterday no one cared about my place, but today everyone does,” she writes, “How extraordinary that this loge, which yesterday was of no interest to anyone, seems today to be the focus of global attention.” The large amount of philosophical discussion in the book reminded me of my philosophy (& logic) courses in college, which I really enjoyed. It was nice to revisit that kind of writing, but it’s definitely not “easy” reading for me—and one book like it this year will be plenty. I didn’t like that the author used the r-word at least 4 times. I did like that Renée’s deceased husband’s name was Lucien, which was my paternal grandfather’s name. I enjoyed the parallel stories of the 54-year-old concierge and the 12-year-old child who were the two (alternating, for the most part) narrators. I particularly liked when it happened that you heard one side of a scene from one of them and the very next chapter revealed the same scene from the other one’s perspective. I also liked that the 12-year-old girl was planning to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. (Not a spoiler; it’s revealed early on in the book.) And finally, I liked the ending, and if you know me at all—with regards to the endings of books or movies—then you can guess what happens.
The Underground Railroad book cover Book: The Underground Railroad Author: Colson Whitehead
Pages: 417 Duration: 02/02/20 – 02/06/20 (5 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, historical fiction
🔖10-word summary: Cora flees Georgia plantation for a life on the run. 🖌6-word review: Unspeakable acts of racist American history.
Description:* Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This was one of our Mostly Social Book Club books. I really struggled rating this book in my (admittedly, self-imposed) rating system, and if I’d’ve allowed myself half-stars, I easily would have given this one 3½ stars. In the end, I couldn’t go to my 4-star rating, because I couldn’t “highly” recommend this book, but in the 3-star rating, which says I “might or might not recommend” this book, I would recommend it in most cases—depending on how much I knew about the person asking about it. I didn’t find this book too tedious to read, as a couple of my friends seem to have—according to some Facebook comments about it. I did find it difficult to read because of the graphic descriptions (as they should be) of the horrific things we did to slaves in this country. I’d never heard of the “underground railroad” before reading this book. I had a white history teacher who was a memorize-these-events-and-dates kind of teacher, so I never found it interesting, and I’d be very surprised if he ever even mentioned the underground railroad. If I hadn’t read the Wikipedia entry about it, this book would have led me to believe the myth that it was an actual, physical railroad. (Yes, I know the book is a novel, so I shouldn’t have assumed that, but I did.) And finally, I’m glad this was a book club book, because I’m sure I wouldn’t have read it otherwise, and I’m very glad I did.
The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) book cover Book: The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) Author: Terri-Lynne DeFino
Pages: 336 Duration: 01/21/20 – 02/01/20 (12 days)
Rating: ★★★★☆ Genres: fiction, writing, books about books, contemporary
🔖10-word summary: Authors living assisted in their twilight years. Book-within-a-book literary device. 🖌6-word review: The last small-font book I’ll read.
Description:* A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change the lives of the people around them. As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within a world is created. It’s a place where the old are made young, the damaged are made whole, and anything is possible. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: It took me a little while to get into the book within this book, which was being written collaboratively by the residents of the retirement home. I didn’t really like the characters in the book within the book in the beginning of their story, but they grew on me. I had a little trouble keeping track of who was related to whom in that story, too. I was definitely more interested in the characters outside of the inner book, or inside of the outer book. (Ugh!) With that said, at the end, I was interested to see what choice the main female character in the “inner book” was going to make. I would have enjoyed this book more, and read it in half the time I’m sure, if the font wasn’t so small. In fact, I have now vowed not to read any more books with font this small. Large-print books and e-books on Kindle are definitely the way to go for me here on out.
After the Funeral book cover Book: After the Funeral Author: Agatha Christie
Pages: Audio Duration: 01/17/20 – 01/18/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: fiction, mystery
🔖10-word summary: Classic Agatha Christie who-done-it with murderer confessing at the end. 🖌6-word review: Amusing and mysterious. British and entertaining.
Description:* Hercule Poirot is called on to investigate the murder of a brother and sister in this classic from the Queen of Mystery. When Cora Lansquenet is savagely murdered, the odd remark she made the day before at her brother’s funeral becomes chillingly important: “It’s been hushed up very nicely, hasn’t it. But he was murdered, wasn’t he?” Desperate to learn more about both deaths, the family solicitor turns to detective extraordinaire Hercule Poirot to unravel the mystery. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This is classic Agatha Christie, so if you like her stuff, you’ll like this. Her Hercule Poirot books are among my favorites, so I enjoyed this book.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation book cover Book: My Year of Rest and Relaxation Author: Ottessa Moshfegh
Pages: 304 Duration: 01/13/20 – 01/16/20 (4 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, contemporary
🔖10-word summary: Woman drugs herself out for a year to supposedly heal. 🖌6-word review: Train wreck you can’t not watch.
Description:* Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: This story is an absolute train wreck in progress, and like the train wreck cliché, it was impossible to “look away.” Like this author’s book, Eileen, which I read last year, the storytelling was so compelling that I read large parts of it at a time and returned to it quickly for another dose. Also like Eileen, the story bordered on the bizarre. I wondered a lot about the sheer number—and combination—of drugs the unnamed narrator was taking (assuming they were all real, because most of them were, which made me assume the made up ones were just ones I’d never heard of). At least once I thought about the myriad of medication ingested by the elderly and the—at least 15—prescriptions my mother was on toward the end of her life. There were so many that she became unable to keep track of them herself, and we ended up paying the assisted living place $500 a month to manage them (and at times, and more often that we wanted to at that price, mismanage). In the end, after her year of “rest and relaxation,” the narrator claims that it accomplished her goal, but as the reader I thought, “That remains to be seen.”
The Once and Future King book cover Book: The Once and Future King (Abandoned) Author: T.H. White
Pages: 647 Duration: 01/12/20 – 01/13/20 (2 days)
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Genres: fiction, fantasy, classics, mythology, literature, young adult
🔖10-word summary: Arthurian characters with more complex and contradictory traits and motives. 🖌6-word review: Abandoned. Excessive description stalled plot interminably.
Description:* T.H White′s masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend is an abiding classic. Here all five volumes that make up the story are published in one volume, as White himself always wished. Exquisite comedy offsets the tragedy of Arthur′s personal doom as White brings to life the major British epic of all time with brilliance, grandeur, warmth and charm. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I was inspired to read this book after seeing the play, Camelot; hearing about how much other people enjoyed reading it at various times in their lives; and how it’s considered by many as a seminal work. For me, it had too much description, with not enough plot movement. I mean 3 super long paragraphs describing the outside of a castle in excruciating detail and then the next paragraph starting, “So much for the outer defences. Once you were inside the curtain wall, you found yourself in a kind of wide alley-way, probably full of frightened sheep, with another complete castle in front of you,” followed by paragraph after paragraph describing that. Nope. That, together with my dislike of fantasy! Merlyn’s says “Wash up!” and “At this all the china and cutlery scrambled down off the table, the cloth emptied the crumbs out of the window, and the napkins folded themselves up.” Add to that, super small font with over 600 more pages to go. Just wasn’t willing to do it. I abandoned this book on page 35.
What Alice Forgot book cover Book: What Alice Forgot Author: Liane Moriarty
Pages: 476 Duration: 01/03/20 – 01/09/20 (7 days)
Rating: ★★★★★ Genres: fiction, romance, Australian culture, mystery
🔖10-word summary: Woman tries to adjust to 10 lost years of memories. 🖌6-word review: Definite page turner. Realistic and thought-provoking.
Description:* Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: I loved this book. I thought it did a good job of capturing things you might not consider if you lost a 10-year period of your memory. I also liked how it made me think about how you might react to realizing you didn’t really like the person you’d become during the gap, and how you might resolve that. I read this author’s book Nine Perfect Strangers last year, which I only liked okay. I liked this one much, much better, and I’d highly recommend it. We eventually read this book for our Mostly Social Book Club—it was the fasted everyone in the group has ever read one of our books, and the other 3 members loved it, too.
How Will You Measure Your Life book cover Book: How Will You Measure Your Life? Author: Clayton M. Christensen
Pages: 240 Duration: 12/31/20 – 01/02/20 (3 days)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Genres: business, leadership, management, psychology, self-help
🔖10-word summary: Criteria to measure your life and propel yourself to happiness. 🖌6-word review: Unengaged by kids and religion chapters.
Description:* In this groundbreaking book, Christensen puts forth a series of questions: How can I be sure that I’ll find satisfaction in my career? How can I be sure that my personal relationships become enduring sources of happiness? How can I avoid compromising my integrity—and stay out of jail? Using lessons from some of the world’s greatest businesses, he provides incredible insights into these challenging questions. How Will You Measure Your Life? is full of inspiration and wisdom, and will help students, midcareer professionals, and parents alike forge their own paths to fulfillment. *Adapted from Goodreads’ synopsis.
Thoughts: Overall, this book didn’t resonate with me. I did get one important thing out of it, and that’s the notion of asking yourself what “job” something is doing for you. The example that stands out was his talking about what (different) “job” getting a milkshake in a fast-food restaurant is doing for both adult commuters in the morning and for kids after dinner in the evening. Several chapters were devoted to applying the theories in the book to raising children, which didn’t interest me much, and the ending was a lot about God, which didn’t interest me at all. I’d recommend this book for younger people—those still early in their careers or just starting a family.

2019 books read

by

I have a goal to increase the number of books I read each year. In 2018, I read 26 books. This year, I read 29.

 

Here are some fun facts about the books I read in 2019:

Cost and sources
I spent $0.00 in 2019 for the 29 books I read this year. The source of my books included:

  • 21 borrowed from the Wake County Public Library (including regular-print, large-print, e-book, and audiobook editions)
  • 6 as free downloads from amazon.com via BookBub
  • 2 from Books at Amazon—1 as a free download and 1 that I paid $2.17 for back in 2017

Favorites/least favorites

Abandoned books
In addition to the 29 books I read this year, I abandoned 4:

Book club books
6 of the 29 books I read as part of The Mostly Social Book Club that I’m in:

Author diversity

  • 12 male writers
  • 15 female writers
  • 1 non-binary writer

New authors
26 of the authors I read this year, I was reading for the first time:

Albert Camus, Clive Barker, David Levithan, Delia Owens, Elin Hilderbrand, Emma Jameson, Franny Moyle, Garrard Conley, Gemma Jackson, Greer Hendricks, Haruki Murakami, Jacob Tobia, Jacquie Underdown, Jason Mott, Jeff Shelby, Judy Blume, Kevin Allison, Liane Moriarty, Marlene Wagman-Geller, Michelle Obama, Shayne Parkinson, Silk White, Stephen Chbosky, Tara Conklin, Will Schwalbe, Simon Winchester

Repeat authors
I’d read at least one other book by 2 of the authors of the books I read this year:

Most ambitious month
In September, I read 5 books:

Genres

  • Nonfiction: 8
  • Fiction: 21
  • Others: autobiography, biography, books about books, chick lit, classics, contemporary, French culture, Japanese culture, fantasy, feminism, history, horror, humanities, Irish culture, language, LGBT, literature, literary fiction, magical realism, memoir, mystery, paranormal, philosophy, queer, romance, science fiction, short stories, suspense, thriller, womens fiction, writing, young adult

Shortest / longest

Number of books read by pages

  • 7% (2 books) with fewer than 200 pages
  • 21% (6 books) with between 200-299 pages
  • 41% (12 books) with between 300-399 pages
  • 28% (8 books) with between 400-499 pages
  • 3% (1 book) with more than 500 pages

The 29 books I read in 2019—summary

Clicking on the title of a book will take you to its detailed entry below, which contains a description of the book and some thoughts I had about it.

Title Author Pages Duration Rating Genres
Two Henrys Kevin Allison 35 01/04/19 – 01/06/19 (3 days) 4 stars nonfiction, short stories, LGBT, queer
1Q84 Haruki Murakami 1318 01/07/19 – 01/23/19 (17 days) 5 stars fiction, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, Japanese culture
A Spool of Blue Thread Anne Tyler 358 01/28/19 – 02/10/19 (14 days) 3 stars fiction, contemporary, literary fiction
Nine Perfect Strangers Liane Moriarty 453 02/09/19 – 02/14/19 (6 days) 3 stars fiction, contemporary, womens fiction
Becoming Michelle Obama 428 02/24/19 – 04/28/19 (63 days) 5 stars nonfiction, autobiography, memoir
The Last Romantics Tara Conklin 368 02/15/19 – 05/21/19 (96 days) 5 stars fiction, contemporary
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story Jacob Tobia 336 06/09/19 – 06/19/19 (11 days) 5 stars nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
The Murder Pit Jeff Shelby 326 05/19/19 – 06/23/19 (36 days) 3 stars fiction, mystery
Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde Franny Moyle 336 06/08/17 – 06/26/19 (2 years, 19 days) 4 stars nonfiction, biography, history
The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Simon Winchester 288 06/27/19 – 07/03/19 (7 days) 5 stars nonfiction, history, biography, humanities, language, writing, books about books
The Wife Between Us Greer Hendricks 416 07/07/19 – 07/14/19 (8 days) 4 stars fiction, thriller, mystery, suspense
The Stranger Albert Camus 123 07/16/19 – 07/18/19 (3 days) 5 stars fiction, classics, philosophy, French culture, literature
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky 222 07/19/19 – 07/23/19 (5 days) 5 stars fiction, young adult, contemporary
One Plus One Jojo Moyes 369 07/25/19 – 08/02/19 (9 days) 4 stars fiction, contemporary, romance, womens fiction, adult
Winter in Paradise Elin Hilderbrand 320 08/10/19 – 08/11/19 (2 days) 5 stars fiction, womens fiction, mystery
Summer Sisters Judy Blume 416 08/24/19 – 08/25/19 (2 days) 4 stars fiction, womens fiction, young adult, romance
The Secrets Mothers Keep Jacquie Underdown 266 09/02/19 – 09/04/19 (3 days) 5 stars fiction, womens fiction
Never Be The Same Silk White 210 09/08/19 – 09/08/19 (1 days) 4 stars fiction, mystery, African American
Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family Garrard Conley 340 09/10/19 – 09/19/19 (10 days) 5 stars nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
The Wonder of All Things Jason Mott 400 09/20/19 – 09/21/19 (2 days) 5 stars fiction, fantasy, paranormal, contemporary
Two Boys Kissing David Levithan 200 09/23/19 – 09/23/19 (1 days) 5 stars fiction, young adult, romance, contemporary, LGBT, queer
Abarat Clive Barker 393 09/24/19 – 10/09/19 (16 days) 3 stars fiction, young adult, fantasy, horror
Marriage Can Be Murder Emma Jameson 282 10/10/19 – 10/15/19 (6 days) 3 stars fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Behind Every Great Man: Women in the Shadows of History’s Alpha Males Marlene Wagman-Geller 369 10/17/19 – 10/23/19 (7 days) 4 stars nonfiction, women, history, feminism, short stories
Sentence of Marriage Shayne Parkinson 415 10/10/19 – 10/29/19 (20 days) 5 stars fiction, historical fiction, romance
What Happens in Paradise Elin Hilderbrand 432 10/30/19 – 11/03/19 (5 days) 5 stars fiction, womens fiction
The End of Your Life Book Club Will Schwalbe 336 11/04/19 – 11/09/19 (6 days) 5 stars nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, writing, books about books
Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens 384 12/19/19 – 12/20/19 (2 days) 5 stars fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Through Streets Narrow and Broad Gemma Jackson 464 12/27/19 – 12/30/19 (4 days) 5 stars fiction, historical fiction, Irish culture

The 29 books I read in 2019—details

Book cover Book: Two Henrys Author: Kevin Allison
Pages: 35 Duration: 01/04/19 – 01/06/19 (3 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: nonfiction, short stories, LGBT, queer
Description:
Coming out can be awkward enough—let alone coming out in the 1970s, in Ohio, as a Catholic schoolboy. In this fearless and funny true story, the host and founder of the hit podcast RISK! shares all. From first grade through junior high, twelve-year-old Kevin and his best friend, Ben, were inseparable. But when Kevin divulged his biggest secret, Ben froze him out. The pint-size cold war lasted two years—until they went head-to-head for student council president. Team Ben’s smear campaign began. The school took sides. And Kevin decided to run with it.
Thoughts:
Just a short, fun, little read. If you’re queer and have been in the closet or come out, you’re sure to relate to this short narrative. If you’re straight, you might gain some insight into why it’s such a big deal to the person, especially a kid, going through it all.

Book cover Book: 1Q84 Author: Haruki Murakami
Pages: 1318 Duration: 01/07/19 – 01/23/19 (17 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, fantasy, magical realism, Japanese culture, science fiction
Description:
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 – Q is for “A world that bears a question.” A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
Thoughts:
This was a challenging read for me, not because of its length, but because it contains elements of—as enumerated in its genre list—fantasy, magical realism, and science fiction, none of which do I care for. However, it’s a compelling enough story that kept raising questions that I wanted to know the answers to, which kept me reading. And not unlike The Goldfinch, which I read last year, I felt a real sense of accomplishment when I finished reading its 1318 pages.

Book cover Book: A Spool of Blue Thread Author: Anne Tyler
Pages: 358 Duration: 01/28/19 – 02/10/19 (14 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary, literary fiction
Description:
The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets. from Red’s father and mother, newly-arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor.
Thoughts:
Surprisingly, this was one of my least favorite books of the year. There just wasn’t anything remarkable that happened to the characters in this story. And although that’s probably representative of a lot of people’s lives, it just didn’t make for very interesting reading to me. One reviewer, who regularly gives Anne Tyler high marks, pretty well summed up my sense of it: “It recycles virtually every theme and major plot she has used in the past and does so in the most perfunctory manner imaginable. A disappointing performance by this talented author, who seems to be coasting on automatic pilot.”

Book cover Book: Nine Perfect Strangers Author: Liane Moriarty
Pages: 453 Duration: 02/09/19 – 02/14/19 (6 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary, womens fiction
Description:
Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be. It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question.
Thoughts:
This was among my least favorite fiction books of the year. The premise was interesting enough, but it dragged at times, and it got quite preposterous at others.

Book cover Book: Becoming Author: Michelle Obama
Pages: 428 Duration: 02/24/19 – 04/28/19 (63 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, autobiography, memoir
Description:
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Thoughts:
This book made me ache for the days when class and civility inhabited The White House. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: The Last Romantics Author: Tara Conklin
Pages: 368 Duration: 02/15/19 – 05/21/19 (96 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary
Description:
A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose – and sometimes rescue – the ones we love. A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, it is also a beautiful meditation on the power of stories – how they navigate us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future
Thoughts:
This book immediately reminded me of the first line from Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” It’s so interesting to me how siblings who grow up in the same family and household can turn out so differently and how so much dysfunction can take place in one family. Also, I love how this book starts at a funeral. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story Author: Jacob Tobia
Pages: 336 Duration: 06/09/19 – 06/19/19 (11 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
Description:
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story charts those decades, from Jacob’s Methodist childhood to the hallowed halls of Duke University and the portrait-laden parlors of the White House, taking you on a gender odyssey you won’t soon forget. With the snarky voice and wrenching vulnerability that have made them a media sensation, Jacob shatters the long-held notion that people are easily sortable into “men” and “women.” Sissy guarantees that you’ll never think about gender—both other people’s and your own—the same way again.
Thoughts:
The last serious book I read on gender was My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender by Riki Anne Wilchins’Read back in 2003. It, too, tried many of my misconceptions and disinformation about gender. I enjoyed reading this book much more than that one, though, because of Jacob’s impressive ability to share his humanity in a deep, yet relatable way that challenges one’s thinking about gender. And there definitely was a remarkable Aha! moment in it for me. I recommended this book for our Mostly Social Book Club, and here’s a 7-minute clip of Jacob with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show.

Book cover Book: The Murder Pit Author: Jeff Shelby
Pages: 326 Duration: 05/19/19 – 06/23/19 (36 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, mystery
Description:
Daisy Savage finally has everything she wants. A new husband. A bunch of kids. A charming old house. What she doesn’t want is a dead body. When a frozen pipe in the basement of her century-old home leads her and her husband downstairs into a newly discovered crawl space, they find a coal chute they didn’t know they had. And a corpse inside of it.
Thoughts:
I can’t really put my finger on why this book didn’t captivate me, but it didn’t. A reviewer, who really liked it, noted, “For me, the first 3 chapters, while charming, were a little slow. Not slow enough for me to put the book aside, but not as fastly paced as the rest of the story. It was right about chapter 4… right there at the end of it… that the novel really took off and never faltered. And I gotta confess… no, not to the murder… but to the fact that I had way too much fun flying through the pages!” I gotta confess that all of those ellipses in that review annoyed me, but with that said, I didn’t like it, but YMMV.

Book cover Book: Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde Author: Franny Moyle
Pages: 336 Duration: 06/08/17 – 06/26/19 (2 years, 19 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: nonfiction, biography, history
Description:
In the spring of 1895 the life of Constance Wilde changed irrevocably. Up until the conviction of her husband, Oscar, for homosexual crimes, she had held a privileged position in society. Part of a gilded couple, she was a popular children’s author, a fashion icon, and a leading campaigner for women’s rights. A founding member of the magical society The Golden Dawn, her pioneering and questioning spirit encouraged her to sample some of the more controversial aspects of her time. Mrs. Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in her own right.
Thoughts:
I wanted to—more like, felt like I should—like this book way more than I did. Obviously, I didn’t hate it, since I never abandoned it over the ample just-over 2 years it took me to read it. In the end, I think who I really wanted to read about was Oscar, not Constance, and the dalliances that led to his social demise didn’t happen until well into the second half of the book. She was also very much into fashion, about which I have little-to-no interest in. With all that said, I’m glad I finally finished it.

Book cover Book: The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Author: Simon Winchester
Pages: 288 Duration: 06/27/19 – 07/03/19 (7 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, history, biography, humanities, language, writing, books about books
Description:
A masterfully researched, and eloquently written, extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)—and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
Thoughts:
I, of course, knew what the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was before I read this book, but I didn’t know the breadth and depth of it. Knowing what I now know about its origin and development, it’s quite inconceivable how much of it was done without the aid of computers. This was also my first Simon Winchester book, and it piqued my interest in other books of his. After I finished reading this one, Bob and I watched the movie based on this book.

Book cover Book: The Wife Between Us Authors: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Pages: 416 Duration: 07/07/19 – 07/14/19 (8 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, thriller, mystery, suspense
Description:
When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement—a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing.
Thoughts:
I’m not a huge fan of psychological thrillers, but I do like the unreliable narrator literary device, which this book certainly employs. It did keep me guessing and wanting to know what the “truth” was.

Book cover Book: The Stranger Author: Albert Camus
Pages: 123 Duration: 07/16/19 – 07/18/19 (3 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, classics, philosophy, French culture, literature
Description:
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.” In January 1955, Camus wrote: I summarized The Stranger a long time ago, with a remark I admit was highly paradoxical: “In our society any man who does not weep at his mother’s funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death.” I only meant that the hero of my book is condemned because he does not play the game.
Thoughts:
In spite of always being in “advanced placement” English classes (of course, I was) and the tremendous amount of reading I’ve done in my life, I’d never read this novella. I loved this existential inquiry into the cost of not being willing to do what society expects.

Book cover Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Author: Stephen Chbosky
Pages: 222 Duration: 07/19/19 – 07/23/19 (5 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, young adult, contemporary
Description:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. Of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
Thoughts:
I enjoy the epistolary novel device of books like this, and I liked that there was a main character who is gay. There is a certain underlying darkness to this story, which also appealed to me. After I finished reading it, Bob and I watched the movie based on this book.

Book cover Book: One Plus One Author: Jojo Moyes
Pages: 369 Duration: 07/25/19 – 08/02/19 (9 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, contemporary, romance, womens fiction, adult
Description:
Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages… maybe ever.
Thoughts:
I first read this author, JoJo Moyes, last year with the first book of her trilogy: Me Before You, After You, and Still Me. I enjoyed the writing and storytelling so much in the first one that I went on to read the second two in the series. One Plus One landed on our Mostly Social Book Club agenda for this year, and unfortunately, I found it a bit tedious and frustrating, but I did finish it, because it was a book club book. With that said, the other members of the book club enjoyed it more than I did.

Book cover Book: Winter in Paradise Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Pages: 320 Duration: 08/10/19 – 08/11/19 (2 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction, mystery
Description:
Irene Steele’s idyllic life—house, husband, family—is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead, but before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband’s death. He was found on St. John island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John only to make another shocking discovery: her husband had a secret second family. As Irene investigates the mysterious circumstances of her husband’s death, she is plunged into a web of intrigue and deceit belied by the pristine white-sand beaches of St. John’s.
Thoughts:
I devoured this book, my first by author Elin Hilderbrand even though she’s written 30 books. I didn’t know when I started that it was the first in a series of 3 books of which the second two were not yet available. A few months after I finished this one, the second one, What Happens in Paradise, came out and it’s further down my list. This was billed as “an easy, summer read,” and it certainly lived up to its claim. I essentially read it in a day-and-a-half, and it kept me intrigued throughout as well as looking forward to the second book in the series to get some answers. I recommended we read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: Summer Sisters Author: Judy Blume
Pages: 416 Duration: 08/24/19 – 08/25/19 (2 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction, young adult, romance
Description:
In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard’s world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become “summer sisters.” Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—because she wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart.
Thoughts:
Although she’s touted as “a writer who has won the hearts and minds of readers of all generations,” I abandoned the first book of hers that I read shortly before trying this one—In the Unlikely Event. There were too many characters that I couldn’t keep track of and it wasn’t bringing me joy. This book brought me enough joy to keep reading it, and I did come to understand the fuss about Judy Blume’s writing. I’m glad I read it.

Book cover Book: The Secrets Mothers Keep Author: Jacquie Underdown
Pages: 266 Duration: 09/02/19 – 09/04/19 (3 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction
Description:
One Family. Three generations. A common goal to unite them. A lifetime of secrets to divide them. But could uncovering the truth be the only way that this family can finally heal? Three generations of women find their way back home to Tasmania. They embark on a project together to renovate the family manor and convert it into a bed and breakfast. With the family now under the one roof, and the past tampered with, the foundations of this secret are shaken.
Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and in fact had a hard time naming Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story over this one as my favorite book of the year. I just thought it did a great job of slowly unfolding enormous family secrets as the story progressed and enjoyed the portrayal of the characters’ responses to them.

Book cover Book: Never Be The Same Author: Silk White
Pages: 210 Duration: 09/08/19 – 09/08/19 (1 days
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, mystery, African American
Description:
Meet Paige, a famous actress whose career is on the come up. Things couldn’t be better, until her front door is kicked in by the police. After being forced to snitch on her fiance or go to jail, Paige makes a decision that is sure to change her life forever. Meanwhile, Paige’s fiance Jeezy has problems of his own. The kind of problems that can get him killed or placed in jail for the rest of his life. With his back to the wall and a gun in his hand the only way out is for him to shoot his way out. When it’s all said and done both of their lives will never be the same. Join Silk White as he once again takes you on a ride that you won’t soon forget. Once readers put this book down they to will never be the same.
Thoughts:
The story line of this book is what kept me reading it, because the writing was not easy for me to read. Also, I wanted to read (at least) one book classified in the African American genre.

Book cover Book: Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family Author: Garrard Conley
Pages: 340 Duration: 09/10/19 – 09/19/19 (10 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, LGBT, queer
Description:
The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a 19-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.
Thoughts:
This book surprised me in that I thought I was going to be angry the whole time reading it, but wasn’t. From all that I heard about it, which was about the movie, and with the subject of conversion therapy being a good part of it, well, I just thought it was going to enrage me. I have to think it was the voice of the narrator (the young boy that all this happened to) that kept me calm.

Book cover Book: The Wonder of All Things Author: Jason Mott
Pages: 400 Duration: 09/20/19 – 09/21/19 (2 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, fantasy, paranormal, contemporary
Description:
On an ordinary day, at an air show like that in any small town across the country, a plane crashes into a crowd of spectators. After the dust clears, a thirteen-year-old girl named Ava is found huddled beneath a pocket of rubble with her best friend, Wash. He is injured and bleeding, and when Ava places her hands over him, his wounds disappear. Ava has an unusual gift: she can heal others of their physical ailments. Until the air show tragedy, her gift was a secret. Now the whole world knows, and suddenly people from all over the globe begin flocking to her small town, looking for healing and eager to catch a glimpse of The Miracle Child. But Ava’s unique ability comes at a great cost, and as she grows weaker with each healing, she soon finds herself having to decide just how much she’s willing to give up in order to save the ones she loves most.
Thoughts:
In general, I’m not a big fan of fantasy, but this book had just a touch of it with one character having paranormal powers. What I did like about it was that it raised questions about morality and explored the question of whether one has an obligation to do good for the others at the expense of oneself, if one has the ability to. I read this book as part of our Mostly Social Book Club.

Book cover Book: Two Boys Kissing Author: David Levithan
Pages: 200 Duration: 09/23/19 – 09/23/19 (1 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, young adult, romance, contemporary, LGBT, queer
Description:
David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS. While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys dealing with languishing long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other.
Thoughts:
I learned about this book through a friend’s Facebook posting about books that have been banned, which immediately made me interested in reading it. I really liked the writing device of a past generation of gay men who have died from AIDS being a sort of “Greek chorus” for what’s going on in the present in the book. There’s a 4.5-minute podcast about it being banned, if you’re interested.

Book cover Book: Abarat Author: Clive Barker
Pages: 393 Duration: 09/24/19 – 10/09/19 (16 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: fiction, young adult, fantasy, horror
Description:
Candy lives in Chickentown USA: the most boring place in the world, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future may hold. She is soon to find out: swept out of our world by a giant wave, she finds herself in another place entirely… The Abarat is a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day, from the sunlit wonders of Three in the Afternoon, where dragons roam, to the dark terrors of the island of Midnight, ruled by Christopher Carrion. Candy has a place in this extraordinary world: she has been brought here to help save the Abarat from the dark forces that are stirring at its heart. Forces older than time itself, and more evil than anything Candy has ever encountered.
Thoughts:
I am not a fan of science fiction or fantasy, and I only learned of this book seeing it posted on a Friend’s Facebook timeline saying that they were reading it. And the only thing that intrigued me about the plot synopsis was the description of the Abarat as “a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day.” As was no surprise, it was one of my least favorite books of the year, but I obviously didn’t hate it, since I finished it.

Book cover Book: Marriage Can Be Murder Author: Emma Jameson
Pages: 282 Duration: 10/10/19 – 10/15/19 (6 days)
Rating: 4 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Description:
On the eve of World War II, Dr. Benjamin Bones is at war with himself. While most young men are being sent away to fight the Germans, Ben is chosen to serve on English soil. Ordered to move to wild, beautiful Cornwall, he must trade his posh London office and stylish city life for the tiny village of Birdswing, population 1,221 souls. But leaving his home and shelving his career ambitions aren’t the only sacrifices facing Ben. His unfaithful wife, Penny, is accompanying him to Cornwall in a last-ditch effort to save their marriage. But moments after their arrival, Penny is run down in the street, and Ben is almost fatally injured. And while the villagers assume Penny’s death to be an accident, Ben quickly deduces it was murder. While adapting to life during Britain’s “War at Home,” a time of ration books, victory gardens, bomb shelters, and the Blackout, Ben sets about solving the mystery of Penny’s murder.
Thoughts:
This book was described as a “cozy mystery.” I’m not sure what makes a mystery cozy, but it’s not an adjective I personally would have associated with this book. I liked the Lady Juliet Linton character a lot. The “Fenton House ghost,” not so much. I gave it a 4, because the writing was pretty good, but the story was just meh to me.

Book cover Book: Behind Every Great Man: Women in the Shadows of History’s Alpha Males Author: Marlene Wagman-Geller
Pages: 369 Duration: 10/17/19 – 10/23/19 (7 days)
Rating: 3 stars Genres: nonfiction, women, history, feminism, short stories
Description:
Throughout history, men have gotten most of the good ink. Often overlooked are the extraordinary wives, mistresses, and companions who were every bit as instrumental in shaping their destinies. Discover Emma Wedgewood (Mrs. Charles Darwin), Alma Reveille (Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock), and 26 more women who stood behind their alpha males, for better or worse, and helped steer the course of history.
Thoughts:
I really thought I was going to like this book way more than I did. I think there were too many people chosen to write about, and after a while they all ran together to me. When I tried to remember back at any point, I had a hard time remembering (if I could at all) which woman went with which man and what her contribution is. I know that’s sad, but that’s how it went down with me. One other thing that bugged me was, that although I was happy that a Lesbian couple was included, I can’t resolve that with the very title of the book. But, that’s just me.

Book cover Book: Sentence of Marriage Author: Shayne Parkinson
Pages: 415 Duration: 10/10/19 – 10/29/19 (20 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, romance
Description:
In nineteenth century New Zealand, there are few choices for a farm girl like Amy. Her life seems mapped out for her by the time she is twelve. Amy dreams of an exciting life in the world beyond her narrow boundaries. But it is the two people who come to the farm from outside the valley who change her life forever, and Amy learns the high cost of making the wrong choice.
Thoughts:
I really got into this book, partly because the writing that described the tension between the daughter and her father’s new girlfriend was so well done. I like it when an author can really make you hate a character coming by it honestly. It wasn’t until I was done that I learned this was book #1 of a 4-part series. I do plan on reading at least part #2—after which I decide on going on to the others.

Book cover Book: What Happens in Paradise Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Pages: 432 Duration: 10/30/19 – 11/03/19 (5 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, womens fiction
Description:
A year ago, Irene Steele had the shock of her life: her loving husband, father to their grown sons and successful businessman, was killed in a helicopter crash. But that wasn’t Irene’s only shattering news: he’d also been leading a double life on the island of St. John, where another woman loved him, too. Now Irene and her sons are back on St. John, determined to learn the truth about the mysterious life — and death — of a man they thought they knew. Along the way, they’re about to learn some surprising truths about their own lives, and their futures.
Thoughts:
This is the sequel to Winter in Paradise, which I read back in August. It read just as quickly as the first one, answered a few of the questions I had about Russell & Rosie’s relationship and Russell’s business goings-on, but in general, it spent too much time on the two sons and their romantic shenanigans back on St. John. With all that said, I will read the third—and final—book once it becomes available.

Book cover Book: The End of Your Life Book Club Author: Will Schwalbe
Pages: 336 Duration: 11/04/19 – 11/09/19 (6 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: nonfiction, biography, autobiography, memoir, writing, books about books
Description:
The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Mary Anne Schwalbe is waiting for her chemotherapy treatments when Will casually asks her what she’s reading. The conversation they have grows into tradition: soon they are reading the same books so they can have something to talk about in the hospital waiting room. The ones they choose range from classic to popular, from fantastic to spiritual, and we hear their passion for reading and their love for each other in their intimate and searching discussions. A profoundly moving testament to the power of love between a child and parent, and the power of reading in our lives.
Thoughts:
I was amazed at the sheer volume of books this mother and son read in their lives, and especially in the final 2 years of the mother’s life. At one point, I thought I might try to make a list of them all when, but when I got to the end of the story, there was an appendix with that already done!

Book cover Book: Where the Crawdads Sing Author: Delia Owens/strong>
Pages: 384 Duration: 12/19/19 – 12/20/19 (2 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, mystery
Description:
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Thoughts:
Several people told me told me that they thought the story was just okay in this book, but that the writing was beautiful. But, I liked both the story and the writing.

Book cover Book: Through Streets Broad and Narrow Author: Gemma Jackson
Pages: 464 Duration: 12/27/19 – 12/30/19 (4 days)
Rating: 5 stars Genres: fiction, historical fiction, Irish culture
Description:
On New Year’s Day 1925 Ivy Rose Murphy awakes to find her world changed forever. Her irresponsible Da is dead. She is grief-stricken and alone – but for the first time in her life free to please herself. After her mother deserted the family, Ivy became the sole provider for her Da and three brothers. Pushing a pram around the well-to-do areas of Dublin every day, she begged for the discards of the wealthy which she then turned into items she could sell around Dublin’s markets. As she visits the morgue to pay her respects to her Da, a chance meeting introduces Ivy to a new world of money and privilege, her mother’s world. Ivy is suddenly a woman on a mission to improve herself and her lot in life.
Thoughts:
This is another one of those books that captivated me right from the beginning and which I plowed through. It also makes the third series (1st of 4 books) in this “Ivy Rose” series), I read this year, joining Elin Hilderbrand’s “Paradise” series (3 books) and Shayne Parkinson’s “Promises to Keep” series (4 books)