The Seven O'Clock Club
by Amelia Ireland
The Seven O'Clock Book Club (11/25/2024)
Well- written story of four strangers and their struggles.
The characters are well developed and interesting.
This is a pleasant read.
The Lost English Girl
by Julia Kelly
Love and Loss in WWII England (2/8/2023)
I enjoyed this book for the story itself, as well as the quality of the writing. The characters are well-drawn and respond in a realistically human way to the conflicts and decisions they face.
The chapters flip back and forth in time between the two main characters
but are fairly easy to keep up with because they are clearly dated.
This is a story of a young man and woman who are confronted with unexpected challenges and the consequences of their decisions. This is a great choice for those who enjoy reading about what is was like to live through World War II London and who will want to root for a woman who is on her own.
The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill
by Brad Meltzer, Josh Mensch
Much More Than a Conspiracy (1/3/2023)
I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the big three - Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. The author described their personalities as well as their intrigues and strategies.
The opening and closing of each chapter made me want to keep reading, and I was not disappointed. There was drama and intrigue.
What a pleasant way to learn the history of the pivotal battles of World War II!
Everybody: A Book about Freedom
by Olivia Laing
The Body and its Discontents (5/1/2021)
I've read and enjoyed several of Olivia Laing's books in the past, but this one did not hold my interest. I found it to be dry and repetitious.
Laing is an excellent writer who obviously conducted a great deal of research about the body, studied it extensively, and examined and explained it quite thoroughly and clearly in this book. However, I did not find the subject interesting, and so I found reading this book to be a chore. Others may very well have a much more positive response, but this is a book that turned out not to be for me.
Mrs. March: A Novel
by Virginia Feito
Quirky and Quaint (5/1/2021)
Mrs. March is one quirky character, and you are solely reading her thoughts for the entire novel. To say that she is insecure and obsessive is quite the understatement. I was intrigued by Mrs. March's quaint voice and her interpretations of the events unfolding in her life. Gradually I began to have doubts that she was a reliable narrator.
This is a strange and intriguing story, and although I found it interesting and well-written, it dragged a bit in the middle. I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed by Mrs. March,and also feeling eternally grateful that she was neither a real person nor someone in my life. The ending took quite a turn. It was surprising and shocking.
Crossing the River: Seven Stories That Saved My Life, A Memoir
by Carol Smith
Journeys Through Loss (2/3/2021)
Crossing the River is about the author's loss of her young son, intertwined with accounts of the grief of other survivors of traumatic experiences. Smith is a journalist, and she has done her homework, extensively interviewing and documenting the experiences. We hear their voices as they struggle through excruciating times and work their way back from them. You will be hit with a series of blows to the heart. But, in the end readers will come away with the gifts of empathy, understanding, and ultimately, hope.
At the Edge of the Haight
by Katherine Seligman
At the Edge of Survival (10/4/2020)
"How does it feel to be on your own - with no direction home?" - Bob Dylan
The book gives a glimpse of the homeless life, as we get to know a small group of young people loosely banded together to survive on the streets of San Francisco. They intermittently cling to one another, but their friendships are fragile because they are wounded, haunted and hampered by their pasts.
I was engaged and fascinated, learning about a life completely outside my own experience. It struck me soundly, seeing the tragic effects of parental dysfunction and disintegration on their children's lives.
The story was made believable to me, but it was a bit disjointed, and I wish the characters had been drawn with more depth.
Seligman shows a different world than most of us inhabit, and gives "living on the edge" a jarring new meaning. Reading At the Edge of Survival gave me new insight, and I value it for that reason.
The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir
by Sara Seager
The Smallest Light in the Universe (7/5/2020)
I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir by a physicist, even though science has never been a favorite subject. Why? Seager is a darn good writer. She is highly skilled with words, and knows how to strike the right balance between telling us about her personal and professional lives. And there is drama and wonder in both. I learned more science from this book than I ever did in school, and enjoyed it in the process. And although we are different in may ways, I could relate to Seager in her struggles to deal with loss and to be a good mother and a great scientist.
With or Without You: A Novel
by Caroline Leavitt
The Course of True Love (5/2/2020)
Love is complicated, and so are people. Stella and Simon love each other, but they're at an impasse; they desperately want different things, and those things don't go together. Leavitt sets the stage with their argument and unresolved differences. Then something happens that changes everything. More complications arise. The characters, confused and in conflict, are believable and the story moved along, holding my interest. It's a good, solid read, and the ending was not predictable. Even though the characters were likable, I felt detached from them, and that weakened my involvement with the story.
The Paris Hours: A Novel
by Alex George
Sorrows and Joys of Paris (3/1/2020)
The Paris Hours transports you to the City of Light, 1927, and the sad and beautiful lives of four protagonists, whose stories are conveyed flawlessly. Their lives intertwine - the starving artist, the wounded refugee, the struggling writer, and the maid. All with secrets and sorrows, and all fascinating. You become immersed in their stories, and find yourself in places you have dreamed of - the Luxembourg Gardens, Boulevard Saint-Germain, the Marais, Shakespeare and Company.
Famous inhabitants of Paris make brief, casual appearances - Ernest Hemingway, Josephine Baker, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein.
The writing is consistently lovely and lyrical. Reading this book is like floating through a beautiful and deep dream.
"The Paris Hours" will resonate with readers of "All the Light We Cannot See," and will be an enjoyable reading experience for book club readers.
The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt: A Novel
by Andrea Bobotis
Mystery in a Small Southern Town (7/2/2019)
There is a strong hook at the beginning of The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt. The boy - did he die of an accident, or was it murder? The writing is distinctively southern and engaging, with interesting characters. Things were happening all the time to keep me interested, but I found it somewhat confusing as the chapters flipped from present to past and back, and elements of the ending of the book did not ring true for me. Overall I think it is a solid read, but not worthy of 5 stars.
The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel
by Jeanne Mackin
Paris, Women and Fashion (3/17/2019)
How lovely to be in 1930s Paris. The Last Collection takes you there, and describes the fierce rivalry between fashion designers Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli. Their lives parallel and yet contrast sharply as drawn by a young woman who comes to the City of Light as a widow, and whose life intersects with both fashion gurus.
We see the two designers through the narrator's eyes and hear her thoughts as her life intersects with theirs.
While the writing is evocative and shows originality, it is also a bit uneven and the characters seem somewhat flat. Relationships are complex, though, and the book kept me interested.
This is a promising book club selection, with much for members to discuss - about competition and friendship and the choices women make.
The Last Romantics
by Tara Conklin
The Last Romantics (1/3/2019)
I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully-written novel, in which a renowned poet looks back on the trajectory of her life - the tragedy that traumatized her family when she was just a child, and the effects it had on each of the three siblings.
This is literary fiction. The characters are distinct, well-developed and complex. Right from the beginning the author creates a sense of foreboding. The poet's story is revealed slowly, and with an atmosphere of mystery and suspense.
An interesting feature is that the book starts in 2079, and goes back in time, with hints about what the future would hold.
Women's book clubs will find this a solid selection, with plenty to discuss - family relationships as well as a love story, and the conflicts and decisions of a full life.
Meet Me at the Museum
by Anne Youngson
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson (5/12/2018)
It's fascinating to overhear strangers' conversations. And when they are thoughtful and articulate, it is especially enjoyable. That's what I found in Meet Me at the Museum.
In this epistolary novel I became a voyeur, experiencing the unfolding friendship of two people who seemed so real that I felt I was reading actual letters.
Tina Hopgood and Kristian Larsen live very different lives six hundred miles apart. They meet on paper and develop a friendship, introduced by a man who lived two thousand years ago. The Tollund Man is real, and rests
in the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark.
At first Tina and Kristian write formally. Tina begins, "I am writing to you to make sense of myself. You do not need to concern yourself with any of this. I do not expect you to reply." But the curator does reply.
Sharing thoughts with a stranger can allow you to gain enough distance to begin to see what you hadn't before. That is what happens with Tina and Kristian.
"T. Hopgood (Mrs.)" becomes "Tina Hopgood," then "Tina," and her correspondent moves from "The Curator" to "Kristian," showing the deepening intimacy between them. Both reflect upon their lives. Tina - "What is it that I have missed by having closed off so many choices so early in my life?" Her openness influences Kristian to ponder his own life; he wonders if he has "wasted my chances and should have done something different." Both begin taking small steps that shake up their usual patterns. Regret becomes reawakening.
These characters are well developed and likable. I wanted to keep listening to their lives, and enjoyed imagining what would happen to them next.
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