Review: The Playgroup: A Novel

The Playgroup: A Novel by Nelsie Spencer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really liked the first half of this book - it's about a woman who enrolls her toddler in a prestigious New York City playgroup (sounded like a preschool to me) and feels like her lifestyle - breastfeeding her other baby, not having a nanny - makes her an outcast. Immediately I got a vibe like the Odd Mom Out show i've been enjoying on Bravo.

But this book takes a turn - a weird one. There are enough complexities to the main character's background to satisfy a book - she is recovering from an eating disorder, and lost a best friend when she became a mother to someone who chose career instead, but the friendship haunts her. And yet even with all that, the author decides that (spoiler alert) a LESBIAN AFFAIR between the main character and one of the other moms is in order. An affair that the other women's husband assists in and supports.

Anyway, what was a fun read to begin with became so unrealistic it was just no fun to finish.

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Review: Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Liane Moriarty has quickly become a favorite of mine. This book was another of hers that was easy to read, with well-developed characters and a juicy plot. What I like about her is that despite all this, the writing is actually pretty good. Evocative of place, and descriptive of emotions.

This story follows three women whose kids all attend the same kindergarten. One is new to town, with a mysterious past; one is happily married with a teenager and a kindergartener, and an ex-husband whose new wife is a yogi; and one lives a seemingly perfect life. However, they all have secrets that unwind themselves as the book unfolds - lies they've told themselves about their families, identities, and problems.

This book truly had an explosive ending - one that I did not expect with a great twist. I will definitely read more books by Moriarty, but this one may be my favorite.

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Review: The Invention of Wings

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jo recommended this to me, and it sat on my bookshelf for a while, because I read A Respectable Trade and didn't want to read two slavery books back-to-back, worried i would conflate them.

When I finally go to this one, I enjoyed it. It was about a girl named Sarah growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, whose parents "gift" her a slave girl named Hattie when she turns 11. An uncomfortable friendship emerges between Sarah and Hattie, as Sarah believes that Hattie should be free, but can do very little to effect that change. As the girls grow older, the differences in their stations magnify, and Hattie's mother (also a slave) becomes increasingly daring in her efforts to escape the reality of her daily life.

The character development in this book was great - and the story heartbreaking. I learned too that Sarah is based on a historical figure. Sometimes I feel like I've read all the books on slavery that I "need" to, then I stumble on a book like that that reminds me that it's an era in slavery important to continue learning about always.

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Review: Written in My Own Heart's Blood

Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just can't help myself - I love these books. When Micah was born, I got a bunch of "beach reading" books, thinking that early in maternity leave I'd want some easy novels.

Apparently, not so. After a few poorly-written books I found myself sleep-deprived and hating what I was reading, instead of sleep-deprived and loving what I was reading. So back to Gabaldon I went, to her most recent book, released in paperback on Micah's due date.

This was the first one I thought gave Brianna's storyline the same weight as Claire's. I enjoyed following both stories - opening with Claire in Philadelphia during the Revolution and Brianna searching for her kidnapped son, but of course quickly winding its way to be about significantly different times, places, and concerns.

Overall, this did not disappoint - except the end. Not the ending - which was the most mischievous ever in this series - but that it was over and for the first time I was no longer behind, so now I have to wait for her to write and publish them.

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Review: One Fifth Avenue

One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Meh. This was another book I chose when Micah was a baby, thinking I wanted something easy to read during maternity leave. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't anything to remember either.

This book tells the story of a group of tenants in a famous old New York City apartment building. A newly-minted hedge fund billionaire and his wife, an 'old-money' busybody and her bachelor nephew, the young-at-heart lady, every potential personality is represented in this cast of characters. Some of the characters were relatable and well-developed; others were more thinly veiled versions of familiar archetypes. Reading this book was more about getting to know all the personalities than it was about the plot/storyline of what actually happens.

I love Sex in the City, so I will always be a Bushnell fan, but this was nothing special.

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Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This was awful. I took it out of the library when Micah was a baby hoping to have a few mindless novels to flip through but this was terrible.

It is about Becky, a twenty-something with credit card debt, bad luck with men and ... I am about as bored and disgusted writing this as I was reading the book. Poorly written, characters barely developed past caricatures, and unreasonably plot made this a book I could barely finish.

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Review: The Husband's Secret

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought a couple of easy novels for when the baby came, hoping to read some easy things on maternity leave. Moriarty fit the bill exactly, and this book did exactly what it was supposed to do - entertain me the way Grey's Anatomy does.

The book starts with a happily married woman finding a letter her husband doesn't mean for her to find unless he dies. Except he is not dead - just on a business trip. But she reads it and learns a terrible secret about his past. Two other women are introduced in subsequent chapters - one whose husband is leaving her, and the other who still mourns a little girl she lost many years ago.

As the story unfolds - at a brisk, beach-reading pace, these three women's lives intersect. The resolution, if not predictable, does tie up the loose ends, both of the plot, as well as of the characters' lives. I had a good time with this book and look forward to another by her.

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Review: The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With everyone talking about how this book was the next Gone Girl, I decided to get it as part of my "books to read once the baby comes." Turns out, Micah was a great sleeper for the first two days of his life, so I got to start this in the hospital.

I liked it. It was about a woman named Rachel who daydreamed about a couple whole life she could see through the window of the train. When the woman goes missing, Rachel thinks she has information to help the case, and although she is not very credible, partially because she is an alcoholic, she inserts herself into the investigation. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, this couple lives on the same street as her ex-husband and his new wife, and she continues to engage with them as well, despite their desire to stop being disturbed by her.

Soon, Rachel's drinking continues to get worse, and she finds herself waking up drunk one night in their neighborhood. Then the woman is found dead, and Rachel becomes driven to connect those two events and solve the crime.

She is a great character - and her development, as well as that of the other characters who alternate narration, make it a great book. It was a thriller/mystery that masqueraded as a novel, and one that I enjoyed very much.

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Review: Secrets of Eden

Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really like Bohjalian - and that made this book a little disappointing. I think that if this had been a different author, I may have given it four stars.

It was about a minister, and his relationship with a woman in his congregation whose husband killed her and them himself. At first a novel, it becomes a mystery, as it becomes apparent that the crime scene may indicate something different had happened. Meanwhile, the minister forms a close relationship with a self-help author who, as a child, had parents whose deaths occurred in the same way. She befriends the victim's daughter.

I expected more from the author - this was too melodramatic, with too predictable a plot, for my taste. I also didn't like the main character enough to side with him - he was pathetic rather than sympathetic.

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Review: Dark Places

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Still looking for some easy reads at the end of pregnancy, and I enjoyed Gone Girl so I decided to try another by Flynn.

I really enjoyed this, maybe even more than Gone Girl. It's about a woman whose family was murdered during her childhood, ostensibly by her father. As an adult, she begins to believe that her father wasn't responsible and sets out to find out who really did it. She's very sympathetic, although not totally likable.

The story had all the characteristics of a good mystery/thriller. Lots of twists, characters with complicated motives, and plenty of misdirection. I enjoyed reading and had trouble putting it down. The conclusion was a surprise, and far-fetched, but not so much so that it wasn't fun to read.

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Review: A Respectable Trade

A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Philippa Gregory is a go-to of mine when I don't know what to read. And getting toward the end of pregnancy, I was definitely looking for something good to read that I knew I would like.

This book was a really interesting read. In it, Frances, a woman of "marrying age" is sent from the English countryside to marry Josiah, a man in the city, and while he is reasonably kind, he is controlled by his desire to climb the social ladder, and by his sister, a spinster. Meanwhile, black slaves in England are beginning to be used as house servants, and Josiah decides to acquire several and train them. One slave in particular, formerly a priest in Africa, is brought into their household and develops a relationship with Frances.

Over time, Josiah's business interests become increasingly less successful; his sister becomes increasingly critical, and Frances learns that there is significantly more complexity to the slaves' situation than she believes at first.

I really enjoyed the character development in this book, as well as the history. As usual, I found Gregory to have meticulously researched a particular era in history and created a compelling narrative.

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