759. ALL ADULTS HERE by Emma Straub (12/15/25) Fiction
The matriarch of the Strick family, Astrid, reevaluates her life after witnessing an accident. She comes out to her three adult children that she is bisexual and is in a relationship with Birdie, her hairdresser. She then urges her children to confront and deal with their own issues rather than hide them away.
This multigenerational story explores many issues within the family and beyond, like parental responsibility, acceptance, unconditional love, infidelity, and sexuality, which are handled in a funny, at times, emotional way, while being up-lifting. I enjoyed this family portrait and could relate to a lot of their issues.
4 Stars
758 A BURNING by Megha Majumdar (12/12/25) Fiction
A Burning follows three characters after a terrorist attack at a railroad station in a Kolkata, India slum. Jivan, who wrote anti-government Facebook posts is accused of aiding the terrorists when her only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The other two characters are PT Sir, her former teacher and Lovely, an aspiring actress. All three have distinct perspectives on Jivan’s imprisonment. The national climate and mob mentality created by social media have gone against Jivan. Her friends could help her but Lovely is worried that she will be blacklisted which might ruin her chances of being cast if she supports Jivan, and PT is afraid of uncovering his past of falsely testifying against his political enemies to supplement his teacher’s salary.
This scenario, that the government is corrupt, that the power lies in socisl media, and that how few solutions there are when a government is more interested in solvng a crime than finding the truth, is very active and alive in our modern world. And solutions don’t seem to exist. This is a very well-written and highly charged debut novel.
4 Stars
757. THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE by Abi Dare (12/11/25) Fiction
Adunni is a fourteen year-old Nigerian girl who wants to get an education in a poor country where it is not free. Her family is poor and her father removes her from school and sells her as a third wife to an old man. Her value is four goats, two bags of rice, some chickens, and a new TV. She obeys, but when tragedy strikes the new home she secretly is sold to a wealthy household in Lagos as a servant to replace Rebecca who disappeared. The new place is run by Big Madam and Big Daddy are equally brutal but finds an ally in Kofu, their cook. But the obedient daughter, subservient wife, and abused servant slave who is constantly told she is nothing, cannot be silenced and she finds her voice as she secretly applies for a scholarship.
This fictional story is a powerful debut novel-so real, so emotional and authentic that it feels like a memoir. To hear a young girl yearn to be able to speak for herself and decide her own future is inspirational. What Adunni goes through is unimaginable, but she doesn’t let it break her. You will find yourself rooting for this remarkable child.
5 Stars
755. THE DEARLY BELOVED by Cara Wall (11/30/25) Fiction
Two co-pastors of a New York church in the 1960’s, with contrasting personalities, faith, and marriage issues, come to preach together. Over several decades they develop a great friendship amid a backdrop of social changes, personal crises, and testing of their faiths.
Charles and his wife Lily, an intellectual atheist, are challenged when their son is diagnosed with autism. James and his wife Nan, a devout women, struggle with infertility. The four lives become shared communal struggles.
This story is no blockbuster, but is a good map of the complexities and beauty of marriage and friendship when their lives are so closely intertwined.
The author was able to give with lyrical grace a gentle meditation on love and life that unfolds slowly, and with great depth. The social and political time was also relatable to me as I also was bringing up children in the 60’s and 70’s, a time when assassinations were happening too often, riots and revolts against the Vietnam War were country-wide, and the drug era of peaceniks and hippies brought a new dimension to a troubled time.
4 Stars
ATMOSPHERE by Taylor Jenkins Reid (11/28/25) Fiction
Want to go on a space ride? In this book is a moving story about NASA’s Space Shuttle program. It is 1984 and astronaut Joan Goodwin is the capsule communications person who relays data back and forth between Ground Control and the astronauts in space. An air accident happens as a satellite explodes sending shrapnel through the hull of the space shuttle, injuring some of the crew. Oxygen is leaking and it is Joan’s job and Ground Control to find a way to save the ship.
The story then goes back seven years to tell the story of how Joan, a university professor in physics and astronomy, became a integral person in this narrative. Joan learned that NASA was recruiting women for their astronaut program for the first time and applied, but was rejected in the first round. A year later was selected as part of a chosen sixteen. We see how she faired in the early days surrounded by extremely smart, primarily white males. We see how the men learned to respect Joan’s intelligence and passion for the cosmos. As we learn about astronaut training and the complexities she endured we see the breath of the program which looks accurate and researched.
Now we follow the conclusion to the disaster in space. You will have to read this to see the conclusion. I was enthralled with the story.
4 Stars
753. TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT by Maria Semple (11/26/25) Fiction
This was written in 2016 by the author of “Where’d You Go Bernadette?”, a book I loved. This book follows a single, chaotic day in the life of a Seattle mother, Eleanor Flood, as she is derailed by family issues and a past she can’t escape. I won’t give away the problems of her day, but I will say her “crazy” is a manic on steroids, a condition I found little to become attached to. When not attached to a character I find it hard to like or even care about the person. Some reviews called it “funny” and since her reactions were over the top, some might find it funny. But it’s tone is too weird and I found it pointless. Although I thought about returning it to Libby early, I painfully saw it to the end, hoping for some conclusion I could get my head around, but that never happened.
3 Stars
752. GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Emily Henry (11/23/25) Fiction
Two writers are competing to become the author of the biography of a once famous, now reclusive, heiress with a possible scandalous past. But Margaret, the heiress, is giving these writers a month-long challenge where they are to begin writing her story. She will choose from the two of them. Alice is a likable ingenue but learns her competition, Hayden, is a Pulitzer prize winning biographer. Margaret, however, tells her story differently to the two candidates.
Although the story becomes romantic, the core of the story is Margaret’s life, which she conveys more completely to Alice.
This story went beyond other Emily Henry novels in the depth of it’s characters and how their pasts affected their futures. Margaret was well-aware that Alice’s overly sunny disposition was a cover-up and challenged her to be honest with herself. It was deeper than her previous books.
4 Stars
748. I’LL BE RIGHT HERE by Amy Bloom (11/17/25) Fiction
Gazala moves to New York from Paris after World War II and becomes friends with sisters, Anne and Alma. Soon her brother Samir joins them and this foursome become an unconventional family. The years go by watching their lives evolve amidst happiness and despair. Through the decades the four and their additions to the family suffer and celebrate their love, mistakes and disappointments, but unapologetically do not blame their lifestyle for their problems.
I was unable to relate to the family and was not entranced with their relationships or their lifestyle or their choices. I saw it as “looking for love in all the wrong places” which became frustrating to witness and hard to justify (for conventional me).
3 Stars
747. A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara (11/17/25) Fiction
Jude, the protagonist, has had a traumatic childhood, but as he tries to cover-up his past it consumes his physical and emotional body. Loved by all of his friends for his kindness and just being there when needed, binds their relationships together.
This story covers many decades as they all evolve and mostly become successful. Jude becomes a lawyer, a brilliant litigator, Willem, his best friend, becomes a successful actor, Malcolm becomes a well-known architect, and J D is an artist. Jude is the glue who becomes the center of their lives, through struggles and triumphs.
As we pass through time Jude’s health becomes the center of attention, as he struggles with faltering mobility issues, and horrible pain. His suffering and trauma take over the rest of the book as his friends come to his service and give him support. Willem, who travels a lot making films, always tries to help Jude, but these sacrifices by his friends make him feel bad as though he is holding them back from their lives.
This was a difficult book to read. Jude’s affliction was so pronounced that enduring it just as a reader was challenging to me. My endurance to suffer along with Jude was almost too much. The ability to expose the suffering of a human being in turmoil shows the author’s unique ability to draw out pronounced empathy. This book is deep and painful, but tremendous.
5 Stars
746. A RIVER IS WAITING by Wally Lamb (11/12/25) Fiction
Corby Ledbetter, a young stay-at-home dad of 2 year-old twins, is not only caring for the kids but is looking for a job. As his frustration and self-worth suffer as his job search seems futile, he starts taking drinks in his coffee to help him get through the day. Positive that he can handle it, he increases his alcohol use but to himself denies that it is a problem. His cover-up to his wife means lying to her. Then the unspeakable happens. There is an accident that cannot be repaired, and the alcohol abuse may be a factor. He is in despair and also learns that he will have to face time in prison. His wife cannot forgive him and he realizes his marriage is over. He blames himself for the accident and is at the lowest point a life can handle.
This book reminds us that in a weak moment, a bad decision can ruin everything in our lives forever, and there seems to be no way to atone for it. This emotionally charged book is hard to read but hard to put down as we all wish this nice family could find a way back from their personal hell, because we care about them.
Wally Lamb knows how to grab at our heartstrings and tie them in knots–unlockable, unbearable, unconscionable. This is a part of life that happens to some and not others, and makes us realize how lucky we may have been to survive our own occasional stupidity. This is a powerful book.
5 Stars
738. THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans (10/29/25) Fiction
The Correspondent is an interesting book with a writing style completely written though letters, an almost unknown way of corresponding these days. Each day Sybil Van Antwerp would spend her mornings communicating with friends and family members, giving her opinions to authors and newspapers, and handling her policy problems with a university president, and others, about things important to her. She is a mother, a grandmother, a divorced wife, a distinguished lawyer who knows many people and who has led a distinguished life. Her correspondence is answered in kind by letters, some solving her problems and concerns, some thanking her for her giving input for the subject at hand. It is through the correspondence that we learn about the situations in her life, both good and complicated, and learn of her inner-most thoughts and reflections, which she happily communicates. Believe me, she is not boring!
It becomes almost voyeuristic, as a reader, to be able to see her reflect upon her life and her desires in her letters and see the responses to them. We witness an intelligent and unique personality and character who is easy to feel we know.
I thought this style of writing was fun to experience and enjoy.
5 Stars
733. ALL FOURS by Miranda July (10/12/25) Fiction
An artist with some notoriety, embarks on a road trip from Los Angeles to New York, leaving her son, husband and dog behind to attend a meeting with another artist to pursue the possibly of a collaboration. In reality she has hit a crisis stage of her life, most likely at 45 is peri-menopausal, and needs to get away from her life which is stagnating. She barely makes it out of L.A. and stops at a gas station. There, a guy starts washing her windshield and they lock eyes. Something inside her connects with him and instead of going on to N.Y. she decides to stay at a motel. She is unhappy with this typical worn out room and calls a local designer to help her do a makeover of the room. $20,000 later she has a beautiful and comfortable room to her liking. Also, she happens to find the guy at the gas station and is flattered that he recognized her and loves her work. She is drawn to him and he, being an dance artist, also connects. Soon she finds out that his wife is the designer of the room. She becomes totally obsessed with him, who is 20 years her junior, they start meeting and he joins her in the room. Although they never have sex, he intends to be faithful to his wife, they explore intimacy and eroticism in visual and audible ways. This sexual fantasy gets out of control for her and is quite explicit and awkward. But still no sex. When she finally leaves for home she thinks he will want to come back to the room occasionally but he moves away and is gone to her.
The rest of the book is hurried and seems to have no resolution. It felt flat and I would have appreciated some help for her wonky behavior which was over the top and unsound.
3 Stars
732. ALL THAT LIFE CAN AFFORD by Emily Everett (10/10/25) Fiction
Anna was in love with England after reading Jane Austin numerous times. After graduating from Smith College on a scholarship, having an absent father, and a mother who died from cancer, she decided to follow her dreams and go to London to pursue a masters degree in literature. To support herself she worked as a bartender at night and a tutor for students who wanted to go to college in the U.S. and needed high scores on their SAT exams. Through the tutoring job she met 16 year-old Pippa whose wealthy family invited her to join them on a holiday to Saint-Tropez. It was here Anna saw what life was like for the mega-wealthy. Her own life had been one of making due and getting by and she was exhausted to be this person. Pippa, her family, and their friends lived a life of luxury and privilege, with seemingly little to worry about. The people she met assumed she also was wealthy and she made her first big mistake as she passed herself off as one of them.
There are a lot of mixed reviews about this book, which I think caters to a youngish audience, Jane Austin lovers, especially, who loved it, and to others who thought it was snooty and mundane. Although this isn’t great literature, it was set in Europe, showed modern day class distinctions with the desire to belong, and the problems and reasons of living a lie.
4 Stars
730. A MANUAL ON HOW TO LOVE US by Erin Slaughter (10/1/25) Fiction
This debut novel is unlike anything I have read before. It comprises several stories about women handling their grief in unconventional, sometimes morbid ways. Rather than showing a woman handling her grief in more traditional, quiet despair, the author uses unusual, always unhealthy ways. Through a series of stories the women act or react to their pain or loss in absurd ways to regain control, such as, the woman who becomes a “gazer” at a fraternity house, staring at the boys as they act out in gross, sexual and ignorant ways. Another shows a couple whose only communication happens when they go in to their basement into a black box to talk.
Each story is more weird than the next, leaving the story high and dry by ending without conclusion or taking a breath on the part of the narrator. I searched to find any hint of redemption or healing and found none. It is imaginative in a grotesque and obscure way, but without a way to have them make sense I personally do not feel the creativity outweighs any redeeming value. I guess I didn’t like it too much!
2 Stars
729. MY FRIENDS by Fredrik Backman (10/1/25) Fiction
Written by the author of “A Man Called Ove”, “My Friends” starts out in a dark alley where an older, dying man had sought refuge from the artsy crowd inside. Suddenly, a teenage girl, Louisa, escapes to the alley to hide from the security who thinks she has vandalized the gallery, and blasts into the older man. She appears quite troubled and in trouble. She shows her hostilities, how out of balance she is, and trusts no one. The man relates to this young girl who is probably alone in the world. As they get to know each other he finds out that she came to the gallery to see, in person, a painting she had loved since she saw it on a card which she showed to the man. It was his painting which he made as a young boy and is now worth a fortune. He had just sold everything he had to buy the picture back.
Before the artist passed away he instructed his companion, Ted, to find the girl and give the painting to her. He said, “She is one of us.” When Ted found her he tried to give her the painting but she refused saying she could not take care of it being homeless and poor and she didn’t deserve it.
This is the beginning of Ted’s story about the artist and how his picture gained such prominence. On his journey home, Louisa listened intently to the story of how the artist and Ted and two other friends survived their childhoods with their friendship bond. Some of the story showed the love they had for each other. Some was of the brutal abuse shown to them by family. Like peeling an onion, Ted uncovers a story so like her own that Louisa felt a part of this teen family from so long ago.
Parts of the book were magical and some were tragic. The love and kinship was balanced with heartache and pain. The journey was difficult but worth it. It was a glaring reminder of the opposite poles of humanity and life.
4 Stars
726. THE LiBRARY OF BORROWED HEARTS by Lucy Gilmore (9/20/25) Fiction
Librarian, Chloe Sampson, had been struggling to keep her family together, after their mother left with a new boyfriend. Chloe was forced to quit college, to come home, and to find a job, as she struggled with the responsibilities of raising her three younger siblings. One day she was at the end of her rope for money, and was looking through the throw-away pile of books at work when she came across an old book she thought she could sell. Inside the margins of the book she saw notes between two lovers and was drawn to the romantic verbiage of the time. The man writing the note appeared to be her crabby, old next-door neighbor, Jasper Holmes, who was always angry with her children for throwing their frisbees into his yard. Most of the time he wouldn’t return them. When she approached him about the book he offered her $5,000 for the book. Chloe couldn’t believe it and couldn’t accept that much. He gave her a blank check and said she could write what she wanted for it. That was the beginning of a growth in their friendship and she came to realize that the children could see through his outward crankiness and that he had probably been heartbroken by his one and only love and never recovered from that loss. Her heart opened to him.
This is a sweet story about love and how circumstances prevented the love to be fulfilled. Chloe also rejected advances by men because she had no time or energy to entertain a love interest. There is much more to this story that I have indicated. What I loved the best are the characters in the book, so well developed, each with their own unique personalities, and the enjoyable dialogue between them all. This was well written, kind and gentle, and I hope Gilmore has written more like this.
5 Stars
723. THE LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER by JoJo Moyes (9/14/25) Fiction
Jennifer Sterling wakes up after a car accident with no memory of the accident, who she is, or that she is married. She goes home with her husband, a stranger to her, to a magnificent lifestyle complete with mansion and servants. She feels lost and alone and her distant husband, an aristocrat, shows little interest in her, mostly lives for his business. Her life feels empty and boring. While looking for a book to read, a letter slips out. She realizes it is a love letter to her begging her to leave her husband.
The story now takes place in 2003 where a young newspaper writer named Ellie is on a search in the newspaper’s archives for more details about the old love letter she found. Ellie is totally obsessed with love and continues to hope for a miracle that the married man she is having an affair with will also leave his wife. As Ellie uncovers the truth in her love letters in the past she begins to realize that her affair is just an affair, not the real devoted, romantic love she sees in these love letters.
This dual love story, set decades apart, shows a comparison of how love is conducted then and now. The social pressures about divorce, the wanting what is not available, and the society’s acceptance of extra-marital affairs is different, even though the scenarios are doomed from the start. This was not my favorite Moyes book but it is worth reading.
4 Stars
722. WE ALL LIVE HERE by Jo Jo Moyes (9/12/25) Fiction
Lila Kennedy is in a very hard place in her life. At 42, she had divorced her husband of many years for infidelity with a much younger woman who was expecting his baby. He expected Lila to understand that he could not pay as much alimony as before now that he would be raising a new family. Their two daughters were acting out because of losing their father and from peer bullying in school. And as an author her career has stalled and money was a big factor.
The family drama becomes even more distressful when her step-father comes to live with her after her mother died. And her estranged father, who had abandoned the family for the life of a Hollywood actor, also moves in now that his career had dried up.
This complicated family, full of old resentments and hostilities overcomes Lila and she becomes enamored when a fellow parent, recently widowed, from school shows her attention. She falls easily.
Jo Jo Moyes has a great ability to define characters and give them life and puts them in situations that feel authentic. This story seemed to be a little drawn out at times with all thee family confusion and relationship problems, which to a reader can become depressing, but it was so relatable that it made up for a little drifting.
4 Stars
716. WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH by Lisa Ridgen (8/31/25) Fiction
This book was the winner of the Swedish Book of the Year Award. It is about an elderly man, Bo, at the end of his life, whose wife is in a Memory Care Hospital, while he lives alone in his home with his beloved dog Sixten. Care workers come twice a day to feed him, give him medication, and do personal care.
The author gave a picture of Bo’s earlier life by having him talk silently to his absent wife or to fall asleep and dream of the past like his own father’s cruelty towards him, his loving mother who wanted to intervene but couldn’t, his own marriage and his relationship with his son.
His son who is worried about his father’s safety taking care of the dog, feels he could fall while taking him out for a walk. Sixten is Bo’s only companion and the thought of taking him away from him makes Bo excessively angry at his son, but he has trouble verbalizing this and just refuses to talk with him.
This emotional read was a realistic portrayal of the end of life issues that tugs at your heart. The loneliness and frustration of Bo’s present limitations made you see he was just waiting to die. It is sad, but so poignant. This is a tough subject matter to approach but is real and valid. This is Ridgen’s first book and is a winner. She really shows her understanding of the human spirit.
5 Stars
711. THE ONE IN A MILLION BOY Monica Wood (8/21/25) Fiction
There are three essential characters in this book. All are eccentric in different ways, all are lovable when we get to know them, and and all are interesting and unique. First there is an 104 year-old Lithuanian immigrant named Ona Vitkus. For her age she is doing well living alone in her own house and always cooking up a storm. She is spunky and intuitive and wise. To help her out and to earn a Boy Scout badge, the 11 year boy, (we never learn his name), comes to Ona’s house to help with feeding the birds, cleaning up her yard and helping around the house. The boy is friendly, open and honest and obsessed with many things, especially the Guiness Book of World Records. He has memorized many of the records, and relates them to whoever is listening. He is especially interested in Ona because of her age and the probably that she could be a candidate for some records. When he hears she still drives a car he encourages her to become the oldest person to have a valid drivers license in the world. As he comes back to help the two begin a great relationship where they regard with loving respect.
One day the boy’s father, Quinn, comes to Ona’s house. He says he is filling in for the boy and Ona is disappointed, since so many helpers have been unreliable. Quinn was bullied into coming in place of the boy by his ex-wife, since he had been an absent father to the boy. Quinn was a musician in a band that was on the road a lot doing minor gigs and weddings, barely making it financially. Quinn was never home long enough to get to know his son or understand and appreciate his quirkiness. Quinn had always been disappointed that the boy was not interested in music, the passion of his dad. Eventually, he just stayed away. Through Ona, Quinn discovers his son’s unique character and personality and appreciates him and establishes a bond with Ona.
This is a character-driven story of people, so real, that it is hard not to care about them and to feel their pain. Loneliness, aging, friendship, and regret and handled in a poignant way with many lessons learned. A beautiful book.
5 Stars
708. THE BLOND WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD by Ally Carter (8/14/25) Fiction
Two rival spies with chemistry, and lots of reservations, for ten years romp all over the world on their missions, with secrets, apprehensions, and trust issues-always sparring and aggravating the other rather than teaming up.
This rom-com, although I didn’t get the “com” much, is all over the place with back and forth time sequences and multiple spy personas which were hard to follow in this fast-paced saga. It got complicated fast with multiple people and incidents and used the back and forth time to enhance the excitement, but did the opposite with me. Instead of exciting it was confusing and I wasn’t interested enough to try to figure it out. But the biggest annoyance was the constant whining between the two who eventually fall in love. Yuck!
3 Stars
706. HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood (8/9/25) Fiction
Twelve incarcerated women attend a weekly book club led by Harriet, a senior citizen volunteer who doesn’t judge the women and is interested in helping the women to understand and enjoy literature and poetry. This varied group come from all backgrounds but the book club brings them unity.
Violet is able to get an early release for good behavior but has a hard time finding a job. Harriet and another friend from the bookstore help her and she finds an opportunity working in a lab for a Russian scientist who is studying parrots language skills and proving their intelligence. Violet loves working with the parrots and is their primary caretaker. When a manager at the lab retires Violet gets her job and she is does an exemplary job.
When a situation occurs at the end of the book that forces Violet to quit, I have to admit I hated this ending which didn’t resolve itself and left her out on a limb. She had to start thinking about a new career path and I couldn’t imagine her leaving her beloved parrots behind. It was a one of a kind job that made the ending harder to accept. If the author fulfilled an ending giving Violet more hope for her future I think I could have given this book a 5 Star rating for the unique story and joyful telling of a difficult life for a woman so young, needing a break. This ending left me feeling down and unassured.
4 Stars
703. NOTHING TO SEE HERE by Kevin Wilson (8/3/25) Fiction
This is a hard book to understand, but I will do my best. Here goes.
Lillian and Madison were inseparable roommates at their elite boarding school. But when Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly due to a scandal, they barely communicated. Now adults, Lillian gets a letter from Madison asking her to move in with her family to care for her two twin stepkids. But, the problem is that the kids catch fire when they get agitated, with flames igniting from their skin. Lillian doesn’t believe her (who would?), but it’s true and since she is not living much of a life, she decides to take the job.
Over the course of the summer Lillian and the children build trust. They learn to stay away from their stressful politician Father, and the children appreciate the innovative ways she protects them from danger. As Lillian grows more attached to them and their vulnerabilities, she can’t imagine being without them.
Kevin Wilson wrote a tender and humorous story filled with love and warmth.
4 Stars
702. SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER by Abby Jimenez (8/2/25) Fiction
Samantha brings a sick kitten into a vet who happens to be a hunk and although they instantly have chemistry, when Dr. Xavier thinks the kitten is sick beyond help and should be put down, Sam is appalled. She is under a lot of stress for a lot of reasons and she already has an emotional attachment to the kitten. She leaves the vet with the kitten, nurses it and it miraculously survives. She was out to prove him wrong and she did! They do eventually become a couple but bad things happen and they must face decisions which do not include being together.
Can this love story work out? This is one the reader is rooting for because they seem so right for each other, but the circumstances seem insurmountable. When one or the other have to give up their dreams to be together, things look doomed. Jimenez writes great rom-com and always has true-to-life situations that can happen to muddle the waters, but make the story more meaningful than most romance stories.
4 Stars
699. THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU by Jonathon Tropper (7/25/25) Fiction
When the Foxman’s lost their father, they agree to his wish to have a Jewish weeklong ritual of a sitting Shiva, even though he was not devout. For a week, with chairs lined up in the living room, the family, reluctantly, was expected to be present while family and friends come to pay their respects. What happens between family members and friends is funny with both appropriate and inappropriate quips about life and death. They remember the Rabbi as a dirty-minded school boy, now morphed into an authority figure. The cast of characters makes the book fun filled with irreverent wisecracks and jokes. But the Shiva was too long.
3 Stars
696. FINDING GRACE by Loretta Rothschild (7/20/25) Fiction
“Finding Grace” is a debut novel for Rothschild and like the famous Baron she uses the most glamorous settings in London and Paris with a lifestyle fitting a young couple that could be Rothschilds. But the protagonists are Tom and Honor who appear to be having a big problem conceiving a second child. Honor is obsessed about a second child, and Tom is going along with being a donor to a surrogate, although he is happy with just his four year old daughter Chloe.
From here on it is impossible to tell much about the story other than there is a tragedy that occurs which is a shocking reveal.
I found the rest of the story contrived. I was unenthused with the plot twist, found Tom boring and cranky, and emotionally vacant. What started as a pretty good story fell flat for me.
3 Stars
693. THE VIEW FROM LAKE COMO by Adriana Trigiani (7/18/25) Fiction
Silly me. I thought I was getting a book about the European Lake Como-not Lake Como, New Jersey where many middle class Italian American families reside. I mean-look at the author’s name-pure Italian! I wanted a little George Clooney glitz and instead I started reading about a blue collar New Jersey family saga. But I gave it a chance, and I’m glad I did.
Jess Capodimonte Barratta is divorced and knows she needs to build a life of her own. After the discovery of a long buried family secret, she decides to go to Carrara, Italy, where her family was from, to seek a fresh start in her life. She does this with Angelo Strazza, a gold artist. With great authenticity the author takes us on a sensual landscape of Italy while we are witnessing Jess’ transformation from the good family caretaker, to the woman with passion for life romantically, creatively, and spiritually.
I ended up rooting for Jess and I did really enjoy this book.
4 Stars
691 SOMEONE ELSES SHOES by Jo Jo Moyes (7/16/25) Fiction
At the gym, Sam accidentally takes the wrong gym bag home. In the bag are a pair of expensive red Christian Louboutin shoes. Sam, who has been struggling with her job and family matters, finds new confidence when her shoes make a statement in her job. Meanwhile, the owner of the shoes, Nisha, goes home to find she is totally locked out of her life and her belongings by her husband. She was used to a wealthy lifestyle and now has nothing. But she wants her shoes back!
This story leads to a series of events that force both women to confront their own issues. And then to rely on each other. Jo Jo does it again with a great story.
4 Stars
688. SO FAR GONE by Jess Walter (7/2/25) Fiction
“So Far Gone” makes us ponder-what would it take for us to break-what pressures, what absurdity, what stresses would put us over the edge?
The story begins when Rhys Kinnick arrives for Thanksgiving dinner at his daughter and son-inlaws home. Shane is a conspiracy spewing nut with preposterous ideas, like that the NFL is controlling the media. Rhys, who spent his life as an environmental reporter, believes facts matter. He’s had it and he impulsively cold-cocks Shane, upsetting his daughter. He retreats to a cabin in the woods and lives off the grid for seven years.
Now 2023, the political environment is worse than ever and it is not a good time to re-enter society. But his two grandchildren are dropped off at his door-13 year-old Leah and 9-year-old Asher. Their mother has had it with the world and her unstable husband. But soon a couple of right-wing sect members, friends of Shane, from the Army of the Lord, track down the kids, beat up Rhys, and take them to their compound in Northern Idaho. Over his head, Rhys begins a quest to rescue the kids.
This is actually a funny read, making fun of all the absurdities of life and trying to figure if this is the new norm.
4 Stars
685. THE RETIREMENT PLAN by Sue Hincenbergs (6/27/25) Fiction
680. PRACTICAL MAGIC by Alice Hoffman (6/14/25) Fiction
“Practical Magic” is a 1995 novel about Gillian and Sally Owens, two happy sisters until they lose their parents in an accidental fire. They move in with two eccentric aunts, Frances and Bridget. The aunts raise them with no boundaries or rules and when the girls find a ‘spell’ book in the attic the aunts tell them that they come from a long line of witches. They teach the girls how to unlock their magic.
When they grew up they wanted to escape the town that taunted and pointed at them and blamed them for everything that went wrong. One ran away to get married and the other just ran away, but their close bonds brought them back together and back to the magic.
4 Stars
679. MAAME by Jessica George (6/12/25) Fiction
Maddie’s life in London is hard. Her mother, who spends most of her time in Ghana, left Maggie to be the prime caretaker for her father who has Parkinson’s. Maddie is the only black person at work and her boss is difficult. When her mother return’s she vows to get out of the family home, find a flat to share, start saying “yes” to after work drinks and internet dating. Then tragedy strikes.
With fun and funny dialogue, George delves into many themes from familial duty and female pleasure to racism and being torn between two cultures. Both charming and moving, it is a journey to self-understanding.
4 Stars
THE LOST DAUGHTER BY Elena Ferrente (6/3/25) Fiction
“The Lost Daughter” was published in Italian in 2006 and translated into English in 2008. It was also made into a movie starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson, which is streaming and is excellent.
The book introduces us to Leda, a middle-aged English literature professor, whose two grown daughters are in Canada with her ex-husband. Leda decides to take her holidays on the Ionian Coast. She sees a young mother with her young daughter on the beach and is enthralled with them. Each day she goes to the beach and spends most of her time observing, and even asked the lifeguard about the mother and daughter whose names she found were Nina and Elena. One day other relatives join the two and Leda is shocked to see that Nina’s husband is old and less refined and she is repulsed. One day she see’s that Nina is upset because Elena has disappeared. Leda decides to look for her and finds her and returns her to her mother. But the child’s doll has disappeared and Nina finds it and puts it in her purse. She intends to give it back since Elena is inconsolable, but can’t find the right time to do it.
The story and Leda get stranger and stranger as we see Leda become obsessed, then judgmental, and totally inappropriate for the lack of knowing these virtual strangers. The book certainly kept me interested but in a creepy way. I liked it.
4 Stars
674. WITHIN ARM’S REACH by Ann Napolitano (5/29/25) Fiction
This book, Napolitano”s debut novel, was originally published in 2004 and did well. After nine more novels the publishers decided to reissue this book which had gone out of print and it became a bestseller like the other books, such as, “Dear Edward” and “Hello Beautiful”.
This book is about three generations of an Irish Catholic family whose oldest grandchild of the matriarch, Catharine, twenty-something Gracie is pregnant out of wedlock. Catherine, residing in an assisted living home thinks Gracie should try to hide her condition by living with her cousin who is in med school. Gracie broke off with the father of the baby when it was apparent he was still involved with an old girlfriend. He panicked and denied being the father.
Gracie, who wrote an advice column for a local newspaper, went back to work and told her boss, who was an ex-boyfriend, that she was pregnant. He told her he wants to marry her but she is not sure about that.
The story continues with various issues that intertwine in and out of the family relationships. The author was excellent in giving interesting personalities and flaws to her characters, making them feel real, which helped me to care about their outcomes, a major need in a book that is not earth shaking in lot and depends on you to wanting to spend your time with them.
4 Stars
671. HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN by Joya Maynard (5/15/25) Fiction
This follow up story to “Count the Ways”, supposedly (I didn’t read it) complex story of three generations of a family, now follows Eleanor, the fifty-four-year old matriarch has moved back to the New Hampshire farm after the death of her former husband, where they raised children to care for her brain-damaged son, Toby, now an adult. Eleanor and her family are still harboring bitterness and resentments in the years 2010-2024, integrating historical events (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, etc.), how they cope and how things changed their lives.
I did not feel invested in this family saga. Maybe it was because I didn’t read the first book. I don’t know but it just didn’t work for me.
3 Stars
666. THE PUMPKIN SPICE CAFE by Laurie Gilmore (4/27/25) Fiction
This is the first in Gilmore’s Dream Harbor series, where all the book covers look like child nursery rhyme stories, like ‘The Ginger Bread Bakery”, and “the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore”, all runaway bestsellers.
“The Pumpkin Spice Cafe” finds city girl, Jeannie, unexpectedly inheriting a cafe and she runs, not walks, to take over the shop while hoping to escape a would-be assassin.
I know, it sounds contrived, but if you accept this book for what it is: a sweet (literally) read with minor amounts of controversy, with a small-town vibe, a story-book romance, and an abundance of warm buns accompanied with the creamiest latte, that keeps you longing for fresh bakery, cinnamon smells, and a small town with people who lovingly envelope you, this could be your anecdote for a cuddly evening read.
4 Stars
666. THE PUMPKIN SPICE CAFE by Laurie Gilmore (4/27/25) Fiction
665. THE SUMMER PLACE by Jennifer Weiner (4/21/25) Fiction
The novel begins at the Denhauser family Shabbat dinner. Through their conversations we learn about the family. Eli and his second wife Sarah and the rest of the family hear that daughter/stepdaughter, Ruby and her boyfriend, Gabe want to make an announcement. Since Covid shut down NYU, they have been cohabitating with the family together and the family has accepted Gabe, into the family. He is likable, and easygoing and fits in well. Ruby and Gabe announce that they are getting married. Everyone but Sarah seems happy with the news. Her reservations involve around what she sees as Gabe’s lack of ambition. He seems satisfied to have accepted a job proofreading and admits he is still trying to figure out what to do with his life, but he is not bothered with that.
This is a lively story about a family trying to survive the pandemic together, how they struggle for privacy to work and play in a tight environment and how they love each other despite occasional disputes and disruptions.
4 Star
662. THE GRIFFIN SISTER’S GREATEST HITS by Jennifer Weiner (4/16/25) Fiction
Two sisters, different as night and day, Zoe with her beauty and outgoing personality, yearned for fame, and Cassie, musically gifted, overweight and shy, preferred the shadows to the spotlight. Together they made music and won a band contest, which whirled them into a stardom in the early 2000’s. Within a year they dissolved the band and the sisters parted ways.
Fast forward twenty years with Zoe a housewife with a teenage daughter, and Cassie who has dropped out of sight. Cherry, Zoe’s daughter has the same aspirations as her mother, despite Zoe’s warnings, and she wants to know the secret truth of why the Griffin Sister’s Band broke up.
This is a story about the other side of the music industry, the complexities of pressures fame produces, and of being exploited by the male-dominated industry. It is also the story of how it can ruin once loving relationships. Even though this story is heartbreaking, I found it authentic, dynamic, and interesting.
4 Stars
659. THE PARADISE PROBLEM by Christina Lauren (4/10/25) Fiction
Anna Green married Liam Weston for access to family housing while at UCLA. At graduation they divorced and happily went their separate ways. Three years later Anna was a starving artist and Liam a Stanford professor and heir to a one-hundred million family inheritance, with one catch. He could not receive his share until her had been married for five years. When he finds out that Anna had never signed the final divorce papers her must try to talk Anna into acting like they had been married all this time and to help him pull it off to his family. The only trouble is that he realizes they have feelings for each other and if she knows the truth she will think it is all for an ulterior motive and the relationship will be over.
Author Lauren has excellent comedic timing and dialogue and this fast-paced Rom-Com hits the spot when you want to relax and smile a lot.
4 Stars
656. A SEPARATION by Katie Kitamura (3/30/25) Fiction
A young woman and her faithless husband agree to separate. They kept it a secret while she began to build a new life for herself. She was contacted that her husband was missing in Greece and was asked to help find him. She reluctantly goes to search for him and uncovers things about him she didn’t know. The man she used to love turns out to be totally different. The narrator reflects on this love for a man she did not know.
The themes of intimacy and infidelity shows the gulf that divides her from the truth about herself and rattles the belief in herself. This was psychologically powerful and well-written.
4 Stars
654. THE KITCHEN GOD’S WIFE by Amy Tan (3/28/25) Fiction
Like “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”, Tan’s debut novel “The Kitchen God’s Wife”, has a protagonist who relates a story, long buried, about life long ago on a small island outside of Shanghai in the 1920’s and up to the years during World War II and the desperate event that led her to come to America in 1949.
This also is about the relationship between a mother and daughter and the secrets they hide from each other to protect from the truth. When Amy Tan allows these secrets to become exposed it brings light to their past struggles, losses, and heartaches and how that made their present behavior evolve. But mostly it gives empathy and understanding to their differences, then forgiveness.
5 Stars
652. THE BONESETTER’S DAUGTER by Amy Tan (3/23/25) Fiction
Ruth Young, a Chinese American woman in her forties, lives in San Francisco with her boyfriend, Art and his two young daughters. Ruth is worried about her mother LuLing, a single mother who raised her. Now older, LuLing is diagnosed with dementia and her bad temper and impatience is getting worse. Ruth wanted to know more about her mother’s history in China and LuLing gave her some papers she had written long ago before she came to the United States. Written in Chinese Ruth had trouble with the translation. After finding the rest of the papers she had them professionally translated for her.
This story is detailed describing the folklore and superstitions of the time, broken dreams, the power of myths, the hardships they endured during World War II, and her mother’s personal grief which drove her to come to America. These papers gave Ruth a way to understand her mother with a compassion and appreciation for her mother she had never had before.
5 Stars
650. WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy (3/15/15) Fiction
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island near Antarctica. Shearwater is home to the largest seed bank in the world and was once filled with researchers but now with sea levels rising the Salt Family are the final inhabitants.
During the worse storm ever, a woman mysteriously washes ashore the island. She is alive. Because of their isolation they take great care nursing the woman, named Rowan, back to health. Both Rowan and the Salt family welcom a new beginning together.
This is a dystopian preclude to what might happen in the future due to climate change and the choices which must be made to survive as the world disappears. Chilling.
4 Stars
648. SHOW DON’T TELL by Curtis Sittenfeld (3/8/25) Fiction
This collection of short stories delves with wit, humor, and honesty in relationships of friendship, marriage, fame, and all are thought provoking. Each story captures the inner conflicts which too often find themselves torn between satisfying societal norms or our personal desires. Sittenfeld writes about women, mature enough to have varied life experiences and flaws collected along the way.
I love Sittenfeld’s writing which flows so perfectly that every word feels authentic.
4 Stars
645. THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY by Gabriella Zerrin (2/28/25) Fiction
A.J. Fikry is depressed. His wife has died, his bookshop is failing, and his attitude about life is in a funk. He finds most things annoying and he cares about nothing.
Then Maya, an abandoned child comes into his life with a note asking him to look after her. This gives him no choice but to pull himself together. But he thinks: “The most annoying thing about it is that once a person gives a shit about one thing, he finds he has to give a shit about everything”.
This book gives us a great example of wht happens when we have something to live for, showing that life’s best moments are not about ourselves, but but about others.
This sweet little book is heartwarming, gives hope to the lonely, and shows how building a community enriches our lives.
4 Stars
643. THREE DAYS IN JUNE by Anne Tyler (2/16/25) Fiction
“Three Days in June” is about how a mother of the bride sees and feels her way through her daughter’s wedding day. Gail doesn’t do well in the limelight or reminiscing about her daughter and their lives together. When unexpected things happen before the wedding, and her daughter tells her a big secret, Gail tries to navigate in a place she has no confidence.
This family relationship story explores with sensitivity, the joys and challenges of love, marriage and family life.
4 Star
638. SAINT MAYBE by Anne Tyler (2/16/25) Fiction
This story is about a normal family shaken by a tragic event, and how they cope. Seventeen year-old Ian believes he is responsible for the tragedy and seeks a way to find salvation at a storefront church called “CHURCH OF THE SECOND CHANCE”. He is but burdened with the unbearable guilt of the accidental death of his older brother. As atonement he drops out of college to help his parents raise the three children left behind. But he views it as a burden.
Through the power of faith and the renewal of love for his family, he begins to find peace and forgiveness. This is an inspiring story.
4 Stars
633. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE by Anna Sortino (1/22/25) Fiction
Ellie is a deaf teen at an all-deaf boarding school which is being shut down by the state forcing her to return to her hearing family and school. At school they pair her with a student, Jackson, to help her adjust. Jackson has a problem with his legs which caused his soccer team a loss. He thinks helping Ellie will be good and later realizes Ellie helps him with a life-changing diagnosis.
Sortino takes us in the high school world of cruelty and teaches us what it means to build community and friendships.
This is a poignant young-love story both heartbreaking and sweet.
4 Stars
628. COUNTING MIRACLES by Nicholas Sparks (1/13/25) Fiction
Tanner Hughes is following in his grandfather’s footsteps as an Army Ranger. Adventure and excitement keep him going on this track with no desire to slow down.
But when his grandmother passes away her last words to him haunt him, “find where you belong”. And she tells him his father’s name, which he never knew and where to find him. He sets out for Asheboro, North Carolina. As he starts asking around townhe meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a doctor and single mother. They click with an immediate connection. This relationship exposes sympathetic characters with compelling stories which enriches their love story.
Sparks develops an emotional draw to his characters, making their stories vital, which draws us into their lives.
4 Stars
627. SWAN SONG by Elin Hilderbrand (1/11/25) Fiction
This book is the last of the Nantucket series. The wealthy newcomers, the Richardsons, move to a beautiful mansion and fit in with the high social life of the rich and famous. When their assistant goes missing after a fire at the Richardson’s mansion, Chief of Police Ed Kapenash is called. He is in a race to solve the crime in time for his planned retirement. The investigation brings out secrets of the rich islanders which forces them to confront their obsessive lifestyles. This ends a good, but not great series.
3 Stars
626. GOOD MATERIAL by Dolly Alderton (1/7/25) Fiction
Andy’s longtime and he hoped forever love broke up with him after a trip to Paris. Blindsided at 35, he mourns his loss. Eventually he tries to revive his comedy career and new relationships, but nothing jells.
The book goes on with him lamenting his life and I have to admit it got old. Jen, his ex wanders in and out of the book giving readers the understanding of why the relationship didn’t work, but I found her character more interesting than his. All I got from him was his perspective. Oh well…
3 Stars
623. MY BRILLIANT FRIEND by Elena Ferrante (12/31/24) Fiction
This is a friendship novel beginning in the 1950’s in a poor but friendly town in Naples, Italy. Elena, the narrator, tells the story of her friendship with the irrepressible Lila, a friendship which spans almost 60 years. The girls become wives, mothers, and leaders during their long, sometimes conflicted friendship.
The story begins when Lila’s son Rino calls Elena to tell her that his mother has been missing for two weeks and he is worried. Elena scoffs at the idea that she would leave until she remembers that thirty years ago Lila wanted to “disappear without a trace”. Elena begins writing all the details of their lives from childhood to the present-a very rocky road.
This book is actually four detailed volumes with far more detail than I wanted to know.
3 Stars
622. ICEBREAKER by Hannah Grace Fiction (12/31/24)
A competitive figure skater and hockey team captain are forced to share rink time. Both are competitive feeling that this is their time to live their dreams. Anastasia wants a shot at Team USA which may land her a University full-ride scholarship and wants nothing to stand in her way of training time.
Nate has similiar dreams for his team and both resent the other’s rink time.
Of course in romantic comedies things happen, sparks fly, former dislikes dissolve. This is light, funny, sort of immature, but the likeable characters hold it together.
3 Stars
621. NOT IN LOVE by Ali Hazelwood (12/28/24) Fiction
Rue Siebert is a successful biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most prominent start-ups in the field of food science. A man named Eli Killgore and his partners are launching a hostile takeover. Eli and Rue are attracted to each other and throw caution to the wind with a clandestine, no-strings-affair. But the affair is headed for failure and both learn a lot about love and loyalty.
This was a good beach read: light, romantic, not deep.
3 Stars
618. THE HISTORY OF LOVE by Nichole Krauss (12/24/24) Fiction
Leo Gursky, in his youth, fell in love with Alma, and wrote a book. Neither knew that Alma was pregnant with Leo’s baby son, Issac Moritz. Alma, thinking Leo died in the war marries another man. Leo writes his book, “The History of Love”, and sends chapters to Alma but never receives a response.
In the present day Alma has died and Leo who came to New York lives alone in Manhattan, awaiting his death after a heart attack. Now in his 80’s, he takes on one more project, a book named, “Words for Everything”. One night on a whim Leo sends his book to his son (I thought he didn’t know she was pregnant) who doesn’t know he exists. Issac he knows, is a famous writer.
In present day, fourteen-year-old Alma, who was named after a character in a book and wants to find her namesake. While translating the book called ‘The History of Love” from Spanish to English she wants to set her mother up with this man by secretly inserting a love letter in the translation.
The third time period we meet Zvi Litvnoff, the writer of ‘The History of Love” who is dead (confused enough?) but had lived in Chili after the war and had printed a few thousand copies of the book and one was picked up by Alma’s father!
How do you rate a well-written, plot twisting, time and history -confusing book that you have to take notes on to figure out what’s going on? And then in the end it is like a magic, puzzle-connect-but contrived. This book was all over the place and left my head spinning.
3 Stars
617. THE WISHING GAME by Meg Shaffer (12/22/24) Fiction
Lucy Hart grew up lonely and neglected by her parents and took solace in books. Now, at 26, she is able to share her love for books as a teacher’s aide, with her students. One seven-year-old boy, Christopher, orphaned after the tragic death of his parents was her favorite. She would have loved to adopt him but she lacked the stability and resources necessary to qualify.
Jack Masterson, her favorite author of the Clock Island Series, is holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island and Lucy is one of the four finalists to compete to win the one and only copy of Masterson’s new book. The competition is stiff and serious and Masterson plots a twist to the ending which could be life-changing.
615. YELLOWFACE by Rebecca F. Kuang (12/9/24) Fiction
Described as a satire of racial diversity in the publishing industry, “Yellowface” is a tale about a struggling writer who passes off her recently deceased friend’s book as her own. It becomes a thriller about greed, truth and art.
June Hayward is a moderately successful white author who steals and publishes a manuscript about Chinese laborers in WWI. The book she stole was written by her Asian-American friend, Athena Lui, who died in a freak accident. June repackages the novel as her own using her pen name. The consequences of it are, it being culturally inappropriate and some of Athena’s fans recognize her work and cause a backlash in social media and public opinion.
June sees herself as a victim and even though she struggles with guilt she still tries to justify her actions.
I found this book to be exciting to read. Many themes are exposed in this intricate psychological study.
4 Stars
611. THE BOOK OF DOORS by Gareth Brown (12/2/24) Fiction
Cassie, a New York bookseller, receives a very old book from one of her favorite customers. This is “The Book of Doors” which gives mystical powers to those who possess it. Cassie and Izzy, her best friend and roommate, start exploring what the book can do.
This is the beginning of a fantastical journey complete with magical happiness, fear, and danger as new doors open for them. This fantasy had good characters, was interesting and different, and was fun. Very good for a debut novel.
4 Stars
MALAS by Marcella Fuentes (11/27/24) Fiction
In this debut novel Fuentes traces a legend dating back to the 1500’s Mexico about a spirit who drowned her children after learning of her husband’s infidelity. It is called the legend of La Liorona (The Weeping Woman).
In a bordertown, La Cienega, Texas, Malas follows two outcasts, Pilar, an expectinng young mother, and her son, in 1951, who is cursed by a crone who claims to be married to Pilar’s husband. The havoc of this encounter follows them through the years ruining their lives. Forty years later an old woman comes to town causing an uproar at a funeral of a grandmother, who later has a secret relationship with the granddaughter, fourteen-year-old, Lulu, and the old woman reveals the dreaded connection to light.
Fuentes is a brilliant story teller with deep plot, unusual characters, and cultural legends.
4 Stars
601. THE PREMONITION by Banana Yoshimoto (11/5/24) Fiction
In 1988, “Premonition” was an instant bestseller in Japan. Finally it was translated to English and we get to see Yayoi, a nineteen-year-old woman who struggles with haunted feelings about something forgotten in her childhood. She decides to leave her family and move in with her Bohemian-style aunt, who has lived alone all her life and has unusual habits. She lives her own way, such as, sleeping on any floor when she gets tired; waking up Yayoi up to drink with her at 2 a.m.; eating strange things whenever she feels like it, etc.
Yayoi has an ability to sense things others can’t-like premonitions that something is going to happen. But she can’t remember her childhood and thinks her aunt knows the truth.
This book has unique characters with a flimsy plot about her aunt’s recollections. It needed more.
3 Stars
595. ALL THE COLORS OF DARK by Chris Whitaker (10/27/24) Thriller
594. TELL ME EVERYTHING by Elizabeth Strout (10/20/24) Fiction
From the Amgash series we go back to Lucy Barton, a talented writer, with her ex-husband William in their seaside house. Lucy has a deep connection with Bob Burgess, a lawyer defending a man accused of killing his mother. Bob is drawn to Lucy but both are still mingled to their partners. Lucy also has a unique bond to Olive Kitterage, a resident of a retirement community. Olive shares her stories and blunt wisdom with Lucy. Through Olive and Lucy we go deeper into the lives of the locals and the complexities of life and love.
Strout’s stories about small town life and it’s residents and their relationships are what attract readers to this author’s books, bringing life, love, and human experiences to the forefront which reveal moments of human empathy, purpose, perceptions and truth which bind people together.
4 Stars
593. ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan 910/21/24) Fiction
Robbie and Cecelia become young lovers and Briony, Cecelia’s younger, jealous sister witnisses the couple’s lovemaking, then falsely makes a claim about Robbie that lands him in jail for years and which leads to his break-up with Cecelia. After being imprisoned for ten years Robbie is given an opportunity to be released to the armed forces where he will fight in World War II.
The atonement comes from the guilt Briony has brought upon Robbie and Cecelia in her lie and what it cost the couple. She tries to atone for her sins by becoming a nurse and writing a novel named “Atonement” covering the repercussions her lie has brought from the years of the trial, the carnage during WWII, and to the present time.
590. INTERMEZZO by Sally Rooney (10/6/24) Fiction
The family has always had quirks and problems but when brother, Peter, in his 30’s, a successful lawyer, was struggling with addiction, and Ivan, in his early 20’s, socially awkward, but a chess prodigy loose their father, the intricate family relationships and with others, are challenged. In their grief, their despair and longing for love and intimacy may help them to unleash what they had been holding inside themselves.
Rooney is a master at emotional exploration in to her character’s innermost worlds.
4 Stars
584. THIS SUMMER WILL BE DIFFERENT by Carley Fortune (10/01/24) Fiction
Lucy is vacationing at Prince Edward Island, meets a local guy named Felix and doesn’t realize he is her best friend’s younger brother. They have great chemistry but for many reasons decide to never repeat this night again. Each year Lucy goes with Bridget for a long walk on the beach, soaks up the sun and promises herself that this year she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed.
Bridget flees Toronto a week before her wedding and Lucy follows her to help her through her cold feet, but can she stay away from Felix, again?
As if you couldn’t tell this is a “beach read” but lacking in substance. Do we really think we wouldn’t know your best friend’s brother’s name–especially when it is FELIX!
But if you want an easy-breezy book, romantic and comical, go for it!
2 Stars
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