Three Days in June: A Novel
by Anne Tyler
A wedding reunion (12/7/2024)
A wedding ceremony offers a family a time to pause and look at what went wrong and what is good about their lives at the moment. Gail, the mother of the bride must navigate the loss of a job she thought she was due, the arrival of her X with a cat to stay with her for the wedding and a secret she thinks she needs to share with her daughter, the bride.
The book moves at a fast clip and the reader is right there while the wedding unfolds . It all happens in s few days, the rehearsal, wedding and the feelings afterwards. Now what? Is the question for the parents of the bride when the ceremony is over. A good read with well developed characters.
We'll Prescribe You a Cat
by Syou Ishida
A cat is the solution for all your problems (6/2/2024)
When five troubled Japanese citizens of varying ages seek help to cope with their unhappiness, they get their help from a psychiatrist/doctor/vet. This book is written with a fantasy solution to end every day troubles. How easy the solution is. Add a cat to your life and you'll discover a different perspective to your troubles. The cat which is prescribed helps the person to be less self absorbed. The cat is like a magical pair of glasses to view your life and your affect on others and change for the better.
I found the repetition of each story formula ….have a personal problem….seek out a doctor…..meet with a wizard like man and his rude secretary…be prescribed a cat that comes with all the supplies in a cage…...confusion how to adjust to this strange cat….see your life from another perspective…and all is well. I could have stopped the book after the first character. The repetition of ideas was annoying.
Once We Were Home
by Jennifer Rosner
Once We Were Home (12/3/2022)
We follow three characters in the book Roger, Oskar and Ana from their childhood during WWII to adulthood. We meet three of them as children who have been brought to a safe place to protect them from the Nazis who are rounding up Jews. Ana and her younger brother Oskar are taken to a Polish farm house where they have plenty to eat and are loved by the childless Christian couple. Roger was taken to a Catholic convent in France where he lives with other orphans and was baptized as Catholic. The children survive the war, but then it is time for them to join their Jewish world. Two go to a Kibbutz and Roger is rescued and returned to his Jewish relatives. Although the Jewish families were determined to get their children returned and brought up Jewish,this book demonstrates that love and caring are what nurtures children and that is more important than the religion of the care giver.
Dirt Creek: A Novel
by Hayley Scrivenor
A mystery in a small town in Australia (3/9/2022)
Dirt Creek is set in a small town of Durton Australia.Its adult inhabitants have known each other since they were children.They remember each misdeed they did to each other and past transgressions are not forgiven.These adults have children they profess to love but often their parenting is inadequate or is physically or verbally abusive. The book is written in varying points of view alternating between the adults and their children. The characters are all richly described. Some delightful and others despicable.
A girl goes missing and Detective Michaels and her partner are assigned to find her.The search for Esther reveals a hidden side of the past of the adults.
The reader is never sure what has happened to Esther or which adult has killed her. The author does an excellent job of having the reader suspect one flawed adult after another and the suspense mounts as we learn which adult was responsible for her death.
I enjoyed this book very much. I am recommending it to my book group. Each character had so many strengths and weaknesses which can lead to many areas of discussion. I was never sure until the end who was responsible for Esther's death. It was a real page turner.
A Million Things
by Emily Spurr
A Million Things (5/6/2021)
Reading this novel was an adventure as facts normally announced at the beginning of a book were revealed a little at a time. The reader has to determine who the main character is. A boy or girl? Age? Location of the story? Who is this "you" the main character speaks to? Like the peeling of an onion, the main character is revealed as a ten year old girl, Rae who is living alone in Australia with her dog Splinter in a small house. Where is her missing parent "you"? Is it her mother or father?
She navigates her day getting to school, walking Splinter, buying groceries, cooking simple meals, cleaning the house, doing her laundry, paying bills and keeping all adults in her world ignorant of the fact that her parent is missing. Her neighbors who at first seem nosey, standoffish and strange slowly reveal their true characters. The daily stress in Rae's lonely world as she tries to keep her terrible secret from her teacher, neighbors, authorities and a nosey little boy all come to a head in a near tragedy.
This is a wonderful story of a brave, resourceful young girl whose daily life leaves the reader wanting to know more about what is going to happen next.
Hieroglyphics
by Jill McCorkle
Hieroglyphic , difficult to decipher (7/17/2020)
This book has four characters who are bound together by circumstances or blood relationships. The author introduces one at a time and the reader finds herself engrossed in the story only to turn the page and another character is being introduced. There is the couple Lil and Frank who have been married many years. As the author jumps from one character to another there is also a time change. Sometimes you're with Lil in 1967,1985 or 2015. We follow Lil and Frank from before their marriage until they are in their 80s.
Turn a page and we are in Shelly's chaotic world where she is trying to balance being a single mother to six year old Harvey and her job as a court reporter. Shelly bears the scars of an abusive childhood which translates to difficulty dealing with her sons and long term relationships with men. She happens to be renting Frank's childhood home and she and Harvey are connected to Frank when he tries to visit that home before he dies.
Harvey's world is one of a vivid imagination colored by horror stories told to him by his older brother.
While I enjoyed the characters, the vivid descriptions and insight the author used, I found the disjointed threads of going from one character to another as well as a new time period made reading this book frustrating and difficult to follow. The author used another technique that was also confusing. She would state a fact, like Shelly had 2 sons long before the second son was introduced. It led me to think I had missed something earlier. I found that when I got about 3/4 through this book, I began to read just one thread at a time following Lil then Frank then Shelly and Harvey smoothly to the end of the book. It was at that time I found the characters more likeable and the book more enjoyable.
I Want You to Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir
by Esther Safran Foer
I Want You To Know We're Still Here (11/26/2019)
This post-Holocaust memoir has both facts about holocaust survivors as well as personal family history. Esther Safran Foer has taken on the burden of becoming the memory keeper of all of her ancestors who were lost in the holocaust. She's passed this obsession of hers to her children. These traumatic memories are passed on from generation to generation. Much of the book is the result of the intense research she has done to find her family's roots especially her father's story. She traces the difficult journey of her parents' escape from the Nazis in Poland, to a DP camp, to their arrival in America.
Although I found the topic interesting, I felt there was too much detail that applied only to the author's family. I kept wondering who the audience was for this book. Was it survivors of the holocaust or the Safran family searching for their roots?
Force of Nature: Aaron Falk Mystery #2
by Jane Harper
Force of Nature (11/7/2017)
This book, like The Dry, takes place in Australia with Federal agent Aaron Falk in charge. During a corporate retreat in the Giralang Ranges, four women have gone missing. Agent Faulkner and his partner Carmen Cooper have been called in because one of the missing women, Alice Russell was the subject of their case. They have been assigned to get to the bottom of irregular financial practices of Alice's company Bailey Tenants. Eventually three of the women come out of bush with scratches and a snake bite. Alice is missing and the women have no idea where she is. Alice they say, left with her phone in the middle of the night.
The story is told in two strands one being the investigation by Falk and Carmen and the other follows the women as they argue and at times physically fight over food, the way to get out of the bush and old disagreements they brought with them on the trip. If the company thought this was going to be a bonding experience for employees, it was a failure.
At first I was intrigued by the story. The description of the weather, difficult terrain were vivid. The petty arguing and the dredging up of old grievances from years before became annoying. The women not only argued about grievances among them, but also their children. I felt relieved when the story turned from the lost women to Falk and Carmen solving the crime.
Harper does a good job with building suspence at the end of each chapter, but I feel there was too much of it.
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