The Vanishing Place
by Zoë Rankin
Unusual Thriller about a Strange Family (5/26/2025)
This is one of the most unusual books I've read this year. The experiences of the family living "off the grid" in New Zealand are horrifying and grip the reader immediately. The novel is arranged in mostly alternating chapters between the present day of 2025 and a period about twenty years in the past. The descriptions of the "bush" and the events that happen there are masterfully written.
Effie, the oldest child of the family, is the main character and has become a policewoman in Scotland when she is called back to New Zealand to investigate a murder that seemingly involves her family. This brings back many difficult memories since she had moved away years before to escape the trauma of her childhood.
The book has many characters, and switching between the different time periods and viewpoints gets a bit confusing. I really enjoyed the first three-fourths of the book, but the last fourth was difficult to read through. The alternating chapters became very short, and then a much earlier time period with a different set of characters appeared. I kept thinking the book was ending, but then it kept going. The author must have been determined to include the extra plot points as well as complicated feelings emerging between Effie and an old friend. I think the book would have been better if the book left the reader less weary at the end.
Happy Land
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Great for a Book Club to Read (10/27/2024)
Review of “Happy Land” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
The author of this new book mentions in her acknowledgments that she is a fan of historical fiction. That is probably true of a lot of readers, including myself. There is something magical in
learning about a true event, a place, or a group of people, and then reading this new information set in a compelling fiction story with vivid characters to bring it all to life.
The framework of the novel shifts between a group of freed slaves in the antebellum south and their descendants in the present day. The hardships and prejudices endured by the settlers of The Kingdom of the Happy Land are vividly described. The modern characters are portrayed as a family in crisis, with many old grudges and misunderstandings to solve.
The author keeps the interest level high between chapters, as the reader comes to care deeply about the people in both eras. The outcomes are revealed at last, in satisfying conclusions for all.
This is a book I plan to recommend to my neighborhood book club.
The Funeral Cryer: A Novel
by Wenyan Lu
Not the book for me (2/4/2024)
I liked finding out about the profession of "funeral cryer", a new idea to me, and the description of life in a rural village in present day China was surprisingly primitive. (Three stars just for the new information).
However, the book as a whole was difficult to enjoy. The unnamed narrator was too passive to even attempt to solve the problems in her marriage and her life. The author introduced multiple plot lines which were never resolved, and the abrupt ending was disappointing.
This book is too dull and depressing for me to recommend it to either of the book clubs I manage.
A Council of Dolls: A Novel
by Mona Susan Power
An Important Book! (6/22/2023)
I liked this book so much that I couldn’t decide whether to read it slowly and make it last longer, or to read it quickly and think about it more deeply after I read it!
The first three sections of the novel are told in the voices of three young, related Lakota girls, with the final fourth section in the voice of the first girl, now as an adult. Each girl receives a very special doll, who becomes like a guardian spirit, helping each child to get through some very difficult and traumatizing experiences. In the last section, we learn more about the missions of the dolls. Throughout the book, the author, herself a Native American, weaves imagery and dreams into the reality of the characters’ daily lives. We see the vast differences in the world view between Whites and Indians.
The book highlights the tragedy of efforts by the American government to separate Native American children from their families and tribes to educate them at boarding schools. While some sources say this was done to help the Indians assimilate and prosper in White Society, the actual experiences of the children were terrible and abusive. They tried to hold onto their knowledge of their languages, traditions, and ancestors despite the efforts by the schools to strip all those memories away from them.
This book also highlights the importance of good historical fictional writing. Most of us have read or seen news reports of the mistreatment of American Indians, from the early colonies into the late 20th century and beyond. The impact on our emotions is so much greater when the information is presented as stories happening to characters with whom we care about and understand.
This is an important work of fiction which deserves a wide audience to help us realize that each ethnic group in our country should be respected and cherished.
Homestead: A Novel
by Melinda Moustakis
Wonderful story of homesteading in 1950's Alaska (1/13/2023)
In poetic prose as lean and and haunting as the Alaskan wilderness, the author tells the story of a marriage begun in haste but enduring through seasons of hardship, sacrifice, tragedy, and joy. Both Lawrence and Marie are in search of a refuge from troubled pasts, and the land and cabin they build on their homestead plot in 1950’s Alaska represent the fulfillment of their dreams.
What happens when a dream is realized but does not satisfy the longing? Can love survive secrets? These universal themes are beautifully explored in this novel.
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen Oakley
Great Book for a Book Club to Read (9/28/2022)
This is a very well-plotted story with intriguing characters and an exciting plot!
I was immediately drawn to Louise, an 84-year-old widow whose grown children are concerned for her health, and 21-year-old Tanner, who is reluctantly persuaded to be a live-in companion and driver for Louise. They are not settling in well together, until some unexpected news causes Louise to suddenly leave for a trip across the country. Since she is unable to drive because of recent hip surgery, she convinces Tanner to drive her, with the promise of a large cash payoff when they get to California.
During their trip both find out much more about each other’s lives, but the true reason for the trip is not revealed until the final chapters. Before that reveal, the reader is treated to a series of funny events, as Louise outwits everyone they meet along the way. There is even a bit of romantic adventure for both women.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will be looking for more from this author. This would be a good book for a book club to read together, especially if it includes members of several ages.
Fly Girl: A Memoir
by Ann Hood
Interesting Topic (3/28/2022)
Those readers who love nostalgia, when travelling by plane was glamorous and luxurious, will enjoy this memoir, and anyone planning a career as a flight attendant can learn a great deal from this book. The best parts of the book are the descriptions of her duties and interactions with passengers in flight.
However, those of us who read memoirs and autobiographies expecting to be inspired by a story of someone overcoming a hard life may be disappointed, as I was. The author is a gifted (and successful) writer who describes her training and work as a flight attendant for eight years, before becoming a full-time writer. Along the way, she details the many successes and achievements in her life. I found this to be tedious rather than inspiring.
Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America
by Nefertiti Austin
Made me feel sad! (8/16/2019)
I was excited to receive this book to review. Since I live in a very diverse suburban area, with many neighbors, friends, and former co-workers of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, I wanted to read about how black mothers would differ from white or other mothers.
There is much to admire in Ms. Austin's memoir. She overcame a difficult childhood to become an excellent and loving mother to her two adopted children. She is herself educated, thoughtful, and involved in efforts to promote adoption among black families. Her worries about her children's safety and acceptance in society, and their future opportunities, are explained in detail and are often disturbing to read.
What does concern me and makes me worry is that she expresses a lot of distrust for white people, even implying that all white people are deliberately holding black people down. She also communicates this distrust of whites to her children. I understand that she feels justified in taking these precautions. Not until the end of the book does she mention that she has some white friends. Most of her experiences in motherhood and her children's education discuss being involved only with black acquaintances, friends and family.
Her theory that motherhood in America is somehow reserved for white women is not convincing to me. I am in my early '70's and remember when black faces began to be seen on TV, in magazines, and in all media in general. Before the mid-1960's, I lived in the south, where black and white people moved in very different circles. That changed for the better after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and our country is much improved because of him and the civil rights movement. It is unfortunate that in the present political climate, some of those advances in race relations are now suffering, but I have hope that people of good will toward others will predominate again.
I was left at the end of the book feeling sad that if I met Ms. Austin, she would feel unease or even anger toward me because of my white skin. I would not feel that way at all toward her or her children.
Travelers: A Novel
by Helon Habila
Wonderful Writing (5/4/2019)
Every day in the media, we see images of huge numbers of immigrants traveling to what they hope will be a better life or fleeing from famine or danger at home. There are so many of them that any remedy seems almost impossible. In this book, Helon Habila has given a voice to these people.
Although the book is fiction, it is firmly grounded in contemporary events. The unnamed main character is a Nigerian man working on his PhD and married to an American wife, who is living in Germany with a grant to paint portraits of refugees. Her portraits cannot tell us much about the subjects, but as the narrator meets other immigrants and refugees over the course of the book, we do learn their stories. The novel is organized in six "books," with a number of main characters, both male and female, ultimately united by their relationship with the narrator. Some of the immigrants are educated and searching for better economic opportunities, and some are fleeing war and hunger, enduring terrible conditions and lost families.
Habila's writing is almost poetic in some of his descriptions, and he has a firm mastery of characterization and plot. He draws the reader into the narrative and makes the reader care deeply about the immigrants and their fates.
American Princess: A Novel of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt
by Stephanie Marie Thornton
Incredible Story (11/3/2018)
This is an incredible book about an incredible woman. I remember when I first moved to the Washington D.C. area, as a young bride in 1969, reading about Alice Roosevelt Longworth in the society pages of the newspaper; she seemed to be included in every gathering of famous people. I never knew much about her until reading this book. Her life was like a novel, with so many important events and well-known characters of the 20th century.
I am glad the author has given an emotional dimension to the story of Alice's life. She was controversial in many ways, and I'm not sure whether I would have liked to be her friend. She made many enemies, but toward the end of the book we can see that she has changed and has some regrets about her past behavior. In her search for lasting love, she made some bad choices but was always true to her sense of self and her pride in her family. It was sweet to read of her love for her granddaughter, which brought fulfillment in her later years. I'm glad to know so much more now about this amazing woman.
The Travelling Cat Chronicles
by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel
Travels with a Cat (4/24/2018)
The first word that came to mind as I began reading this novel was "pleasant." It seemed like a rather simple story, with the only confusion on my part being the very emotional reactions the main characters had to cats. I am a cat lover and have had pet cats most of my life, but I was puzzled by the almost mystical feelings of the cat lovers in the story. Then I googled "Cats in Japanese culture" and learned that cats have a very significant role in Japanese culture. As I continued to read the book, it appeared that owning a cat was considered a great privilege and that the cat should be treated like an honored guest.
Once I got past my cultural confusion, I enjoyed the book, especially as the plot got a little more interesting with some foreshadowing of problems to come. Satoru decided to give his beloved cat Nana away and traveled to his friends' homes to see if anyone could keep the cat. The depiction of the strong bonds of friendship between Satoru and his friends from elementary, middle, and high school was lovely. While some of the story is told from the cat's point of view, other passages about past events do not seem to be related by the cat.
Each of Satoru's friends had some regrets about their past actions, and at one point his friend Sugi asked him, "How can you be such a good person when you've been so unlucky?" Later Satoru's aunt Noriko, who had raised him after his parents died, expressed her regrets to him for mistakes she had made, but he kept telling her how happy he had been with his life. His optimistic spirit and satisfaction with life seemed to be based in part on his love for his two cats, one from his boyhood, and Nana, his pet in his adult life.
Nana, the stray cat, became so close to Satoru that he remarked, "I am Satoru's one and only cat. And Satoru is my one and only pal." And later, "As we count up the memories from one journey, we head off on another."
The People We Hate at the Wedding
by Grant Ginder
Not a funny book! (4/2/2017)
First of all, this book is NOT funny; it is not the satirical, laughable quick read about complications surrounding a wedding that you might expect from the cover, plot description, and marketing for the novel. I expected a humorous novel along the lines of Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, or Jennifer Weiner. Instead, I struggled to find something admirable in the lives of four very dysfunctional people, Alice, her brother Paul, their mother Donna, and their half-sister Eloise, whose wedding they are invited to attend. Maybe it's just me, but I don't find extra-marital sex, alcohol and drug abuse funny; as a straight woman, I don't care to read detailed descriptions of three gay men in a threesome (OK, I skipped over that part.) The characters are pathetic and their lives seem totally pointless and empty of any moral or ethical concerns. I cannot imagine who would enjoy this story. It is not a book I would ever recommend to my book club. The only positive comment I can make is that the book is actually very well written, with believable dialogue and brief but accurate descriptions of people and places. If the author could find a better plot that would engage the reader's interest, and write about characters that readers might feel some liking for rather than disgust, he could certainly write a better book than this one.
Victoria
by Daisy Goodwin
Fascinating Story! (10/8/2016)
I have always been interested in Queen Victoria and have read many books, both non-fiction and fiction, about her. This novel about the first two years of her reign is one of the very best! Beginning with her realization in 1835, at age 16, that she would become Queen of England, the novel explores her feelings, first as a teenager and then as a young woman accepting the responsibilities of her destiny. Taking the name of Victoria as her royal name for her coronation in 1837 was one of her first acts of defiance against her mother and other advisers who tried to dominate her. With the help of her first prime minister Lord Melbourne, she learns to stand up against pressures from political parties and from her own relatives. The author writes very movingly about Victoria's insecurities about her appearance and small stature, her infatuation with Melbourne, and her uncertainty about whether she should ever marry. Late in the book we read of her mixed feelings for her cousin Prince Albert, whom she eventually decides to marry. Royal protocol requires that she be the one to propose, which she does in 1839.
She is such a fascinating character, and Ms. Goodwin writes with such deep sympathy for Victoria, that I hope the author will continue her story in subsequent volumes!
The Imperial Wife
by Irina Reyn
A Contrast between Two Wives (6/10/2016)
The author describes the courses of two marriages, one in old Imperial Russia, and one in modern day New York City. I found the story of modern day Tanya, the art expert who must balance the demands of her wealthy clients with the sorrow of seeing her marriage fall apart, to be especially interesting. She has worked so hard to achieve a high position in her field, but finds that her husband's love is becoming a casualty of that success.
The other wife is the very young Princess Sophia in the early 1700's, who will marry into the royal family of Russia and become Catherine the Great. She has to become a very strong personality to survive the intrigues of the court and a loveless marriage to the heir to the throne.
I think either of the narratives could have been a novel in itself, but the contrast between two main characters and two periods of time has been a popular fiction type for a while, and this book is an excellent example of that technique. It would be a good choice for a book club to read and discuss.
The Sound of Gravel: A Memoir
by Ruth Wariner
Amazing Story of Survival! (11/1/2015)
This beautifully written memoir by a woman born into a polygamist Mormon cult is touching, tragic, and ultimately triumphant. Ruth describes her life, beginning at age 5, when she lives in abject poverty in Mexico as a member of a small rural town founded as a fundamentalist Mormon colony, where the purpose of life is to have as many wives and children as possible. Women are considered to be nothing more than baby-making machines, and children are valued by quantity, rather than as individuals. As a consequence, Ruth and her many siblings, including three born with severe mental retardation, are cared for by a loving but ignorant mother who relies on welfare checks from the U.S. government to supplement the meager resources provided by her abusive husband. In spite of living in a mouse-infested shack with no running water, no electricity, and very little food, the children love their mother and each other and are often happy with the little they have.
As I read this amazing story, I realized that Ruth and her brothers and sisters were born at about the same time as my three children. What a difference between our comfortable middle-class home and the life Ruth lived! My heart ached for the deprivations the children in this family suffered and the hazards all around them. No child should have to live like this! Worst of all was the perverted religion that dictated how they should live and that this life style was somehow holy.
After many terrible events and tragedies in her life, Ruth realizes that the life she was born into is evil and based on lies. She is finally able to escape with some of her siblings and make a new life for them in the United States. It is truly wonderful to read how she triumphed over such overwhelming odds to become a teacher and a writer. Her determination to take care of what remained of her family is amazing and inspiring!
Broken Promise: A Thriller
by Linwood Barclay
Fascinating mystery! (7/9/2015)
Lots of things are broken in Promise Falls, New York; the local economy, the newspaper which has to shut down suddenly, the hospital coping with low ratings, the abandoned amusement park, and the lives of many people dealing with sorrows and secrets in their lives. The hero, David Harwood, tries to help a family member and realizes there is a bigger conspiracy behind the violent death of a young mother.
This book stands far above the usual genre of thriller, due to the masterful way the author shows each character in the story as a complete human being, with reasons to make choices between good and evil. Rather than concentrate on violence and gore as so many thrillers do these days, Linwood Barclay provides a realistic view of the town and its inhabitants as they struggle to understand a series of strange events. I found myself caring about the characters and hoping they could solve their problems.
The end of the book hints that there will be more of the story to come, and I certainly hope I can re-visit Promise Falls again in the author's next book.
The Well
by Catherine Chanter
I was immediately drawn into this story! (2/10/2015)
This is an amazing book to read as the first book from a new writer, and I can understand why the author has already won at least one prestigious award even before its publication. The language, the characters, the plot, and the settings convey an absolute assurance and control of the novel. I was immediately drawn into the story and felt great sympathy for Ruth, the main character and narrator. She tells her account of life at the beautiful English farm called The Well both in flashbacks and in her present situation of house arrest. Gradually the tragic story unfolds, and at one point I felt I might not want to read on, because Ruth had at that point lost everyone and everything she loved, and I was afraid the rest of the story would just be too depressing. But I read on, since I needed to write this review, and I am happy to report that there is at last a sense of peace and hope that comes to Ruth. Questions are answered, mysteries are solved, and the story comes to a surprising and comforting conclusion.
The Martian
by Andy Weir
Survival of the Creative (1/9/2015)
I first read this book on my Kindle and immediately recommended it to my husband and son, who are an engineer and a scientist respectively. I have always loved science fiction, especially what is now called "hard science fiction," as opposed to fantasy-type fiction. I think even those who may not read much sci-fi will enjoy this book, because it is an incredible story of how the main character uses every bit of his knowledge, ingenuity, and creativity to survive when he is marooned on Mars. Each time he seems to have solved the latest problem, another one comes along. You can't help but wonder what you would do in a similar situation! If you enjoy reading about extreme adventures and overcoming danger, read this book!
One Plus One
by Jojo Moyes
A story and a family you will love! (12/12/2014)
This was the first book by this author that I had ever read, and I loved it so much that I'm working my way through her other books now. The story of how quirky mom Jess manages to help her two children Tanzie and Nick realize their dreams in spite of their difficult life is funny, sad, exciting, and inspiring all at once. I loved Jess with her bravery and insistence on trusting her heart in every situation. I found the theme of this book - whom do we trust, and how much and for how long - to make me think more deeply about my own life and the people in it. I've recommended this book to my neighborhood book club as our choice to read in September.
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