The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen Oakley
Comfortable Entertainment Without Being Predictable (10/25/2022)
I asked to review this book because I loved "The Invisible Husband of Frick Island". If you enjoyed that book, you will enjoy this one although the plot is very different. The book is light hearted with quite a few twists and turns, so you don't really get to figure out what is actually happening. Some comparisons to "Thelma and Louise" because they are on a road trip outrunning the police. The two main characters are well written, with 21 year old Tanner prematurely angry and bitter, and 84 year old Louise cranky yet feisty. A step above chick lit for a cozy entertaining story.
On a Night of a Thousand Stars
by Andrea Yaryura Clark
Argentinian History Served with a Good Story (2/23/2022)
I enjoyed this book. It keeps your interest while educating you on an important time in Argentinian history. The book has a dual timeline 1998 and 1973. Towards the end of the book, I thought it jumped back and forth too quickly. The writer does have a reason because she reveals plot points bit by bit. For me it was easy to see where the plot was going because (possible spoiler) years ago I read "Perla" by Carolina de Robertis. That did not really diminish the story for me and I would recommend this book as a good read that familiarizes you with an Argentina that you may not know.
Women Rowing North: Navigating Life's Currents and Flourishing As We Age
by Mary Pipher
She Had Me Until Page 24 (6/6/2019)
I was anxious to read this book and delighted by some memorable sentences early on. The first warning bell was on page 24 where the author describes a retreat she attended as one of earth's protectors sent into the desert to find a mystical symbol, in her case a cactus, on which she pricked her finger and offered her blood to all her ancestors. I knew this book was written by someone with academic credentials and this was not what I was looking expecting.
The author states that the book is both descriptive and prescriptive but I found it to be mainly descriptive. As a 'how to think" book, I don't see it offering much. To me it is more of a litany of all the ills that can befall you at this stage of life. You can get sick, your spouse can get sick, people die. No kidding. Sure, resilience is good and a group of women friends can be amazingly helpful, but I didn't need to read this book to know that. Sorry, but it wasn't for me.
Clock Dance: A Novel
by Anne Tyler
It's Anne Tyler (7/18/2018)
It's Anne Tyler! Of course, it's good. In this case I would say one of her best books, better than her last two. All the good things about her writing are here. Typical of Anne Tyler there is not much plot but it is rich in details about other lives. Details that make you feel not only as if you know the person she is writing about but that occasionally, that person is you.
This story is told in two parts- Part One consists of 1967, 1977, 1997 and 2017. Part Two takes place in 2017 in (surprise) Baltimore. The stories from Part One tell you about the formative years and circumstances that help define Willa Drake and lead you to make assumptions about who she becomes. Despite having this background, as with other characters in Anne Tyler's books, the reader may not understand why Willa makes the decisions that she does. Some readers might find this to be a fault, but in real life, don't people often do the same? That is part of the beauty of her writing.
I am close in age to Anne Tyler and I believe that living through this time frame makes a difference in Willa's character development because of the way women were taught to behave during those decades. That is part of the reason I find this book to excellent. Anne Tyler invites you into a world that you don't want to leave. You become comfortable right from the beginning and want to stick around to see what happens. Her characters are realistic, flawed and in most cases likeable. "Clock Dance" returns to the theme that family is what you make it. I believe though, that new families can be just as flawed as the old ones and you might be better off working to fix what is wrong in the first place.
America for Beginners
by Leah Franqui
Hero Takes a Journey (3/31/2018)
Road trip! One Indian widow, one out-of-work Jewish actress and one Bangladeshi tour guide take a whirlwind tour of America going from New York City to Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, Washington, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and ending up in L.A. Culture shock experiencing America and culture shock for the group experiencing each other. I was curious as to how the author could bridge the cultures with authenticity and found she has a Jewish -Puerto Rican heritage and her husband was born in Kolkata. (https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/x13038/leah-franqui)
Having been to most of the places visited, I enjoyed seeing them through other eyes. I had a hard time imaging doing all this in two weeks, but I know it is possible. The descriptions of each place seemed quite accurate. But obviously, that is just the background for how the group interacts and struggles to understand each other and to understand themselves. This is especially true of Pival, who is also on a spiritual journey of her own unbeknownst to the others. The characters were realistic, well drawn and believable. Perhaps a little slow in the beginning, the book is somewhere between light fiction and literature. I would suggest it for those interested in exploring different viewpoints and other cultures.
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