Anything Is Possible: Amgash Series #2
by Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout Is My New Favorite Author (4/22/2023)
I just want to say this first: Elizabeth Strout is my new favorite author. She consistently writes with an empathetic and wise compassion of the human condition. Her books touch my heart.
"Anything Is Possible" is a continuation--not a sequel--to "My Name Is Lucy Barton." Do read "Lucy Barton" first as it adds to the richness and depth of "Anything." Lucy grows up in an impoverished and abusive home in Amgash, Illinois. She marries, moves to New York City and becomes a successful and somewhat famous author. "Anything Is Possible" is a novel in stories with each story about someone who lives in Amgash and knew Lucy as a child. These are not happy people, for the most part. These are people who have had to fight for just about everything. But there is hope and solace in these stories.
I was enveloped by this book in a way like no other. Strout's understanding of human nature--of how we think, how we act and how we treat one another--is soul-deep.
House of Names
by Colm Toibin
A Chilling and Dramatic Page-Turner (4/22/2023)
If you think Greek mythology is boring, dull and ancient, think again. "House of Names" by Colm Tóibín is an exciting, thrilling and imaginative retelling of the story of Clytemnestra's murder of her husband, Agamemnon, after he brutally sacrificed their 16-year-old daughter, Iphigenia, in a bid to entice the gods to assist them in their war against the Trojans. And then their son, Orestes, and second daughter, Electra exact their own vengeance for the murders.
In Tóibín's hands, this tale is a chilling and dramatic page-turner filled with the most basic of human emotions--violence, sex, lust, treachery and rage. It is a gripping ancient story retold in modern English--expanded with a bit of poetic license--and you won't be able to put it down!
Aside to Mr. Tóibín: Please do this again with other tales from Greek mythology!
The Sleepwalker
by Chris Bohjalian
Brilliant! This Book Will Give You Goosebumps (4/22/2023)
Imagine a mountain. A boulder is on the top. The wind and rain eventually--but slowly--push the boulder inch by inch to the crest. And then gradually it begins to tumble down that mountain...ever so slowly at first and then it picks up an inexorable amount of speed until it comes crashing to the bottom. That crash is the reader finishing this book. And the sudden wind that just blew over the boulder at the bottom of the mountain? Those are the goosebumps on the reader's arm.
"The Sleepwalker" tells the story of a typical, but accomplished, woman, Annalee Ahlberg. Married with two daughters and a successful career as an architect, Annalee could be anyone--except she sleepwalks. And her sleepwalking has an unusual, if not creepy, undercurrent. One night, Annalee simply vanishes from her home in a small town in Vermont. Author Chris Bohjalian expertly tells this tale that morphs from a simple story about a grieving family into a thriller laced with lies, guile, sex and mystery.
The book starts out VERY slowly. Repeat: very slowly. I imagine there are some readers who give up. Don't be one of them. And pay attention. There are important clues embedded in this somewhat mundane beginning. But all of this is absolutely required as fuel for the powerful blast that is to come. Stick with it, and you will be richly rewarded. (See goosebumps above.)
Hint: Read the Kindle Single "The Premonition" first. It's a short story prequel to "The Sleepwalker" and offers great insight into the characters' lives before the events of the novel.
A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
An Extraordinary and Charming Book (4/22/2023)
In 1922, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is declared by the new-to-power Bolsheviks of being a Former Person and is sentenced to house arrest. It just so happens that the good count, a highly-educated, well-read aristocrat who has never worked a day in his life, has lived for the past four years in the world-renowned and very posh Metropol Hotel, located directly across the street from the Kremlin. And so he must spend the rest of his life as a guest of the Metropol. He may never leave the building.
This delightful book tells the story of how he manages to not only survive, but also thrive. (Hey, it's better than Siberia!) Ever the optimist and ever the gentleman, the count's daily existence is influenced in countless ways by the Metropol's ever-changing roster of upper crust guests, including the Kremlin's top leaders, movie stars, international journalists and wealthy travelers, as well as the hotel's surprisingly stable staff--the bartender, concierge, chef, waiters, maître d' and seamstress.
Written with empathy, incredible skill and a touch of the absurd, author Amor Towles proves once again that he is a master of storytelling. Because more than anything else, this book is a good read! Laugh-out-loud funny in many parts, compassionate in others and distressfully sad in some, this is a book that will charm you and touch your heart for a long time to come. The cherry on top of this delicious book is the ending: It is absolutely inspired.
P.S. The footnotes are delightful and quirky! Yes, this novel has footnotes. And if you're reading it on the Kindle, do click on every one of them--because they are that good.
The Leavers
by Lisa Ko
Heartbreaking and Emotionally Raw--But Oh So Important to Read (4/22/2023)
This book will leave you emotionally raw and potentially bruised, but it's worth the psychic pain because the story--illegal immigration and its consequences big and small--is vitally important, perhaps more so now than ever.
After a seesaw life of ups and downs in China, unwed Peilan moves to New York City to have the baby she is carrying. It soon becomes apparent she cannot care for her son, Deming, so she sends him back to China to live with her father. Eventually Deming returns to New York, but the fates are against Peilan, who has Americanized her name to Polly. When she disappears one day, Deming is declared abandoned. He is adopted by well-meaning white parents, and his world is upended. What happens next is heartbreaking--one person's distressing and tragic tale of illegal immigration. In this case, the microcosm explains the macrocosm.
Lisa Ko's "The Leavers" is a coming-of-age novel that works on many levels. In addition to exploring what it means to fully belong--or always live as "the other"--it examines the meaning of family, the meaning of the individual and the meaning of hope.
And best of all, it's a really good story.
The Nix
by Nathan Hill
This Is Genius! A Must-Read Book Worth 10 Stars (4/22/2023)
Wow! (Sigh.) Wow! (Sigh.) Oh, wait. This is a book review. I should use real words to describe it. Let's see...Genius. Astounding. Mind-boggling. An absolute must-read. I would give it 10 stars if I could.
The title of the book comes from a Norwegian superstition about the Nix, a cruel, vicious water spirit that appears in the form of a gentle horse. The moral of this fable is that the things you love the most will hurt you the worst.
Due to author Nathan Hill's incredibly creative structure, style and plot execution, this is unlike any novel I have ever read. The plot, which is complex and jumps back and forth primarily between 2011 and 1968, is far too difficult to summarize here. Read the official reviews for that, but know that you'll only get a sliver of it. The plot simply defies succinct description! But don't worry. Complex though it is, it is easy to follow.
As much as this book is about plot, it is even more about the characters. The main character is Samuel, a young professor of English at a small liberal arts college outside Chicago. He is the hub from which the other characters are the spokes--his mother who abandoned him when he was a child, a beautiful violin prodigy and her twin brother, a student who obsessively cheats, '60s college radicals, a violent police officer named Charlie Brown and a video gamer who plays to such excess that this addiction has extraordinarily dire effects on his health and brain.
One of the most interesting aspects of the author's form/function is that we as readers know things--a lot of things--that the characters don't know (or take a LONG time to learn/figure out). So we have background and insight into what is happening in a boldly innovative way that is curiously effective.
Most of all, Nathan Hill has accomplished every author's ideal hat trick: Great literature, highly-enjoyable entertainment and commercial success.
Epilogue (added after I published this review on Amazon and Goodreads): I was privileged to hear Nathan Hill speak at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on September 2, 2017, and even he can't summarize the plot!
Before We Were Yours: A Novel
by Lisa Wingate
A Tragic, Riveting Tale Based on Historical Facts (4/22/2023)
Although it's very sloooow in getting started (Hang in there! It's worth it!), this becomes a can't-put-it-down book that tells a heartbreaking tale based on historical facts. From the 1920s to 1950 in Tennessee, wealthy couples were able to adopt babies and children who had been taken from poor families--from trickery to outright kidnapping--in a scheme that essentially put those children up for sale. Even more tragically, while awaiting adoption, the children who were under the auspices of the Tennessee Children's Home Society were housed in horrific conditions, including being routinely fed bug-infested food, beaten and placed in solitary confinement, sexually abused and even murdered.
Written by Lisa Wingate, the book is structured as two stories in one, alternating chapter by chapter. The present day story focuses on Avery Stafford, an attorney and daughter of a U.S. senator from South Carolina, who is trying to uncover the secrets of her family that she traces back to the Tennessee Children's Home Society. The other part of the book takes place in 1939 during the Great Depression and focuses on Rill Foss, a child who lives with her parents and siblings on a shanty boat on the Mississippi River, and is terrifyingly kidnapped with her sisters and brother and sent to live at a notorious Memphis boarding facility that is part of the Tennessee Children's Home Society while awaiting adoption.
This novel is compelling and eventually becomes a real page-turner as it explores what it means to be a family, as well as the power of secrets--even those decades in the past--to unravel and hurt us or empower us and make us stronger.
Bridge of Sighs
by Richard Russo
Genius. Pure Genius (4/21/2023)
I read the first sentence and thought: "Oooh! This is going to be a good book."
I read the second sentence and thought: "I adore Richard Russo. Such a good author."
I read the third sentence and thought: "Hmmm...this might be a five-star book."
I read the fourth sentence and thought: "Everyone leave me alone. I'm reading!"
This book tells the story of Louis Charles "Lucy" Lynch, aged 60 on page one, and the life he has led in a small town in upstate New York. It also follows his boyfriend friend, Noonan (originally named Bobby), who grew up in the town but moved out as quickly as he could.
While it is always profound and deeply sorrowful at times, it is also highly entertaining, exploring the full circle of life. The book deftly explores themes of love and hate, good and evil, belief and doubt--and not in the big sense, but rather how we as individuals feel and act. What drives us to love? To be good? To believe? But most of all, this book is about change. The changes that just happen to us whether we like it or not and the changes we consciously make. But can anyone REALLY change?
Russo is an extraordinary writer, who speaks truthfully and insightfully--with compassion and humor--about the human condition. Every word is perfect. Every sentence is exquisite.
I read the last sentence and thought: "Genius. Pure genius."
Bittersweet
by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
This Is the Quintessential Page-Turner (READ IT!) (4/21/2023)
Warning: Do not start reading this book unless you have hours and hours to read. It will suck you in and not let go, and your planned schedule will fly out the window.
Girl No. 1, Genevra (Ev for short), comes from a New York family that is wildly wealthy in money, real estate and art. It is not only a world of privilege, but also a world of family, love and values. (Or so it seems.) Girl No. 2, Mabel, comes from a poor, dysfunctional family in Oregon, and she is harboring lots of secrets about them. The two young women are assigned as roommates at a tony East Coast women's college (which Mabel is attending on full scholarship). Until a series of events occur in February of their freshman year, Ev is oblivious to Mabel's existence--even though they live together in a small room. That bonding entices Ev to invite Mabel to spend the summer with her family at their palatial lakeside compound in Vermont. And then the action kicks into high gear as Mabel discovers the dark underbelly of this moneyed dynasty--from shocking sexual secrets to reprehensible financial schemes.
Written by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, "Bittersweet" is part thriller, part romance and part women's fiction, this book is the quintessential page-turner. Read it! But save it for when you can really READ and not just skim a few pages at a time.
The Witches: Salem, 1692
by Stacy Schiff
Serious Nonfiction Ideal for the History Buff (4/21/2023)
The 1692 Salem, Massachusetts witch trials and executions can be considered America's first true-crime story. And a helluva story it is! Mass hysteria turned the idle chatter and bizarre accusations of several bored little girls into mass hangings of innocent people. It happened 325 years ago and lasted less than a year, and we still do not fully understand it!
To appreciate the magnitude of what happened in 1692 in Salem requires an understanding of the times. While today we scoff at the notion of sorcery or witches, the Puritans believed both were just a real as the sun shining at noon. Besides, what better way was there than witchcraft to explain why a child died or why a young wife had black and blue marks on her arm? It was also a convenient way to get rid of society's least desirable and often annoying people--the homeless, the desperately poor and the mentally ill, as well as smart, sassy, strident and outspoken women.
This solid, nonfiction account, which reads a lot like a textbook in places, is meticulously researched. But it is not all dry. Some of the descriptions are so vivid that you will feel you are in the courtroom or on the hillside as the noose is pulled over a condemned witch's head. On the other hand, the account of the trials is very long and a bit meandering. It's hard to keep the players straight because so many witches and so many accusations and so many stories all blend into one. At times, reading this book takes work and intense concentration.
Author Stacy Schiff offers an excellent account/theory of what caused it all--and that alone is worth the price of the book if this is a subject that interests you. In addition, there is a fascinating list of celebrity Americans who are descended from the Salem witches (Lucille Ball) and the trial judges (Walt Disney).
This book is ideal for the serious history buff. If you're looking for a more gossipy, lascivious account of the Salem witch trials, this is not for you.
Charming Billy
by Alice McDermott
This Is an Irish Catholic Wake--In Written Form (4/21/2023)
This is a novel about life. About death. About memories. About the future. About faith. And the loss of it. About truth. And lies. And secrets. And most of all about the relationships that bind us to one another.
This book is essentially the written form of an Irish Catholic wake. Billy Lynch, beloved by many, dies. The story opens with the luncheon in Queens, New York that follows his funeral and continues through the next two days. But the heart and spirit of the book are in the flashbacks about Billy's life--ordinary in so many ways and extraordinary in others (just like all of us?).
Author Alice McDermott, who is one of my very favorites, has created a book that will make you laugh and cry and puzzle about the mysteries of life--just as her characters do. As the story progresses, more layers are revealed--like a closed flower that opens up--each adding plot reverberations and complexity to what happened before. It's a masterful way to tell a tale!
Hint: Pay close attention to the first chapter, which is the funeral luncheon. You might even want to reread it a second time before continuing with the book. So much is in there! And it leads to everything else in the book.
A Piece of the World: A Novel
by Christina Baker Kline
Beautifully Haunting and Lyrical: A Must-Read (4/21/2023)
You know the painting. It's called "Christina's World." Painted by Andrew Wyeth, it depicts a young woman crawling up a hill toward a home. (Google it. You'll recognize it!) This magnificent book by Christina Baker Kline tells the story of Christina Olsen, the real-life model for the painting. Based on solid fact but embellished with fiction--that is, after all, the definition of historical fiction--this book opens up Christina's world in a way I found fascinating and lyrical. The writing is beautifully haunting, vividly bringing to life the time and place near the turn of the last century and continuing through World War II.
Christina lived with her family in their 18th-century farmhouse on the coast of Maine. Think glorious summers but bitterly cold winters when the sun set at 3:30 p.m. There was no electricity or running water. It was a difficult, work-intense life for all. Headstrong, determined and smart, Christina suffered from a degenerative bone disease that left her so disabled by middle age that she was forced to crawl everywhere she went. Yet she still did most of the chores expected of a woman living on a working farm. By necessity, Christina's world was very limited.
The book not only tells Christina's story and her complex and sometimes bitter relationships with her family and friends, but also that of Andrew Wyeth and how he evolved as a painter as he used the Olson home as a makeshift studio. Many of his paintings are of the house and area around it. His interactions with Christina are a very special part of this book showing how life and art merge.
Most of all, this is a story about the human condition. Who are we? How do others see us? How do our choices--and those others make--affect our lives decades later?
Sacred Hearts: A Novel
by Sarah Dunant
Oooh! Oooh! I Loved This Book! (4/21/2023)
Oooh! Oooh! I loved this book! Set in 16th century Northern Italy, this is the story of a 16-year-old novice entering a convent--absolutely against her will. In this time, women of good birth had one of two choices: marry or become a nun. And neither one was really her choice, since her father would make the decision for her. Marriages were arranged, and if the family was unable to afford dowries for multiple daughters, those daughters were forced to enter a convent--something that happened to more than half of all noble women.
Our story begins when the novice nun, Serafina, who has the singing voice of an angel, is "imprisoned" (in her mind that's what has happened) at Santa Caterina convent in the distant city of Ferrara, far from her home in Milan. Her younger sister is the one who was married, but Serafina has a lover of her own. Like she, he is a musician with a voice that makes the heavens weep with joy, but he is not of good birth or reputation. So Serafina is whisked far away from him and locked securely in the convent. And she does all she can to escape.
Meanwhile, there is also great turmoil beyond the locked walls of the convent where the Roman Catholic Church is undergoing massive changes as the Protestant Reformation sparks a cataclysm that is both religious and cultural. And those seismic shifts will soon envelop the convent in ways that are terrifying to some of the nuns.
The plot is fully and skillfully developed, which keeps the pages turning quite fast, and the vivid and colorful descriptions of life in a convent in 1570 are riveting. Author Sarah Dunant has written an extraordinary historical novel that will keep you up way past your bedtime!
The House at Tyneford: A Novel
by Natasha Solomons
Excellent Book That Grabbed My Heart—And Wouldn't Let Go (4/21/2023)
This book grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go! By turns quite humorous and bring-out-a-tissue heartrending, this book by Natasha Solomons is the story of Elise Landau, a 19-year-old in Vienna, Austria in 1938. She has lived a life of luxury in an upper-class world. But her family is Jewish, so for her safety her parents send her to England to work in service at a manor house called Tyneford. It is a wrenching separation, and now Elise, who has lived with the services of a maid all her life, becomes a maid herself. And then she falls in love with Kit, the young, handsome heir. But war comes and everything changes.
The plot is solid, but the real the strength of the book is in the characters, who are all so real—from the crusty butler to the confused Elise—that they just pop off the page. Excellent!
Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality
by Jacob Tomsky
Wait…WHAT?!? People Really Do THAT in Hotels? (4/21/2023)
If you plan on ever staying in a hotel again, read this book first. Author Jacob Tomsky, who has worked in a variety of jobs in two luxury hotels in New Orleans and New York City, gives the inside scoop on how to get the most from your stay. And while most of it is legal, some of it is not ethical. (You decide how far you're willing to push it for a free minibar drink.) Find out how to get a free room upgrade, late checkout, a complimentary bottle of wine and lots more—and all of that can be done legally and ethically. Find out why you should tip generously, always be friendly and never (ever) bring your own pillow.
The book is eminently readable and filled with anecdotes about guests rich, famous and ordinary. Some of these stories are laugh-out-loud funny, while others are absolutely astonishing. (People really DO that?!? Apparently so.)
Caution: There is a lot of foul language liberally sprinkled throughout the book. Some of it is perfectly acceptable, such in quotes from bellmen, doormen and valets. It's part of their job, and using it this way adds color. I get that. But there is a lot more that is not necessary and adds nothing to the text—so much so that I would have given the book five stars except for the language.
Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This Is a Book to Be Cherished (4/21/2023)
I just have to say this first: I LOVED this book! And I also have to say that it was a little out of my comfort zone. Written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, this is a book about Nigeria. And Nigerians. And Nigerians who move to the United States. And England. And then move back to Nigeria. What does a white woman from the 'burbs—even though those 'burbs are considered THE most diverse city in the country (according to a 2017 WalletHub analysis of 313 U.S. cities)—know about Nigeria? Well, that, my friends, is the joy and wonder of reading. We can experience what we do not know in our limited real lives.
Ifemelu and Obinze are in love. They are teenagers in Lagos, Nigeria with big dreams for the future that, for the most part, do not involve Africa. Ifemelu has an opportunity to move to the United States for college. Obinze, who cannot get a visa, still encourages her to go. She lives a life separate from him and does something that is so destructive to her soul she fully separates herself from Obinze—without telling him why. The book alternates between their two stories, as well as in the past and present, but the writing is so perfect this all works seamlessly.
But more than anything else, "Americanah" is a book about life and hope. Love and regret. Racism, prejudice and justice. Leaving home and going back. It is a book that speaks truths profound and witty. It is a book to be cherished.
Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story
by Wally Lamb
Laugh, Love and Be Joyful! This Book Is Perfect (4/21/2023)
If you read this book in a public place, such as a crowded commuter train or on an airplane, beware! Parts of it are so laugh-out-loud funny that I had to stop reading to wipe the tears from my eyes.
Written by genius Wally Lamb, this is the story of Felix Funicello, who is in 5th grade in the fall of 1964. (Yes, his third cousin in Annette Funicello!) Felix attends the local parochial school and after inadvertently making his teacher, Sister Dymphna, have a nervous breakdown, the class gets a long-term sub who is not a nun. And then the real fun begins. While the plot culminates in the school's Christmas show/pageant, the heart and soul of the book are in the day-to-day experiences of Felix and his friends, one of whom is a Russian girl who teaches the boys to swear in Russian (among other things!).
While it's an ideal book to read in December, it will be just as heartwarming and humorous any month of the year. If you need a distraction from your real life, read this. And enjoy the belly laughs.
Bonus: The epilogue is brilliant!
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
by Lisa See
Gripping and Endearing (and a Great Ending!) (4/21/2023)
This novel does what no other book I have read does: It is 75 percent (or so) fiction and 25 percent (or so) nonfiction. And it works! The story focuses on a Li-yan, a young Chinese woman from the minority Akha tribe in the mountains of Yunnan Province. She violates the Akha cultural taboos in several significant ways, including having a baby before she is married and then later marrying the baby's father of whom her family disapproves. But it is too late. Li-yan had to give up her daughter for adoption. Will she ever find her?
But in addition to a haunting and riveting story that is grounded in solid character development, this book is packed with fascinating information about the history of tea and teamaking in China—and will no doubt make you crave a cup of hot tea.
This is not always an easy book to read. Parts of the story are absolutely horrific to our Western ideas of what is right and wrong. But every piece of it is important and contributes to the story. Bonus: The ending is really good!
Author Lisa See magnificently captures the angst, anger and emotional churning of a mother who feels forced to give up a child for adoption, as well as the feelings of angst, anger and emotional churning endured by the child who always wonders about her birth parents. It is gripping and endearing…and one you will remember long after it ends.
In the Midst of Winter
by Isabel Allende
A Heartrending Tale for Our Times (4/21/2023)
A monster blizzard has shut down New York City in January 2016, and in the process three very different people are brought together—and their lives will forever change because of it. Their stories unfold: Evelyn, a 20-something undocumented immigrant who somehow survived the horrors of the MS-13 gang in her native Guatemala; Lucia, a 63-year-old from Chile with her own chilling stories of forced exile; and Richard, a 60-year-old American professor at NYU with four cats who prides himself on his routine, uneventful life that works to bury his tragic past. Throw into the mixing bowl, a murder mystery and a very touching love story, and stir cautiously because you will be pulled in to this delightful batch of literary delicacies by accomplished author Isabel Allende.
By turns heartrending, shocking, brutal and even somewhat humorous, this is a tale for our times if there ever was one.
A Land More Kind Than Home: A Novel
by Wiley Cash
All I Can Say Is This: Read It! (4/21/2023)
This book is intense. Very intense. I found I couldn't read it for more than an hour at a time because it just tore my heart in two. Masterfully written by Wiley Cash, this is the story of two brothers, Stump (Christopher) and Jess, who live on a tobacco farm in a valley of mountainous western North Carolina. Their mother, Julie, belongs to a Pentecostal-snake-handling church. Unadulterated evil emanates from the church and its pastor, invading the souls of its parishioners—something only Jess appears able to see. To tell more of the story would be a spoiler.
Each chapter is told in the first person by one of three characters who are most intimately involved in the plot—the 80-something-year-old church matriarch, 9-year-old Jess and the county sheriff—a literary technique that fully brings the characters to life. We readers are able to climb into the story through their personas.
This is a literary masterpiece. It is a powerful lesson in betrayal and greed, forgiveness and family, good and evil, and—in the end—an abiding hope in God. It will invade your soul and hang on. It will make you cry. It will make you think. It may even haunt your dreams. "Gripping" doesn't even begin to describe it. All I can say is this: Read it.
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Power Reviewer
