Review: The Sacrifice of Tamar

The Sacrifice of Tamar by Naomi Ragen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book - knowing Ragen to be a well-respected author and amateur sociologist when it comes to the Orthodox Jewish community - but I didn't. It is about a woman named Tamar who is married to a well-respected scholar in her isolated ultra-Orthodox community. Tamar is raped early in the book, and the results of that incident follow her through her life and that of her family.

What I did like about the book was that her two best friends represented two alternative approaches to Judaism within the Orthodox community. Still, I found the character development weak, the plot predictable, and the community in many ways reduced to the archetypes and stereotypes already familiar to me. The writing was easy to follow, but not good enough to make up for the other shortcomings.

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Review: China Rich Girlfriend

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was fabulous fun, just like Crazy Rich Asians, Kwan's first book in this series. Most of the same characters were back from the original story, and there are more great examples of scheming, outlandish displays of wealth, and gossip - more than even the characters know what to do with. Though the book jacket summarizes the book as being about Rachel's finding her birth father, that is just one of the four or five intertwined plots within the book. Couldn't wait to read this each day!

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Review: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina

Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I would give Copeland 5 starts as a person, but her autobiography only earned 3. She is one of the first only black soloists in a major ballet company, and her life is amazing - she began ballet quite late (as an adolescent) but had a natural gift for it. The book tells the story of her discovering ballet and training under several teachers, being pulled between professional success and family as a young woman, and then succeeding as a ballerina at a level few ever reach, particularly black women. I enjoyed learning about her and reading her story, but didn't think the writing was very good. There were parts I would have wanted to know more about that were omitted, and places where more detail or color would have made it a better story. That said, she is an icon and I have a ton of respect for her as a person, so I'm glad I know more about her life.

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Review: The Indian Bride

The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this at the Harvard Bookstore Warehouse Sale this summer. It's a mystery, about an awkward Norwegian man who marries an Indian woman abroad. He eagerly awaits her arrival in Norway, but on the day she is due to show up, the body of a battered foreigner is found near his house. The story is about him and about her, but also about the detectives who investigate the crime as well as the town itself, and its secrets and characters. Just one of those good books that is somewhere between a mystery and a novel, kept me thinking and kept me reading.

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Review: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think it was the election that did it - that pushed me towards several non-fiction books and a search for some hints on faith. Anne Lamott isn't Jewish (and I am) - far from it, she goes to a Church and talks about Jesus and God as if they are her neighbors - but she has faith, and I needed a good dose of that. She is the best example I have found of Brene Brown's gospel of vulnerability. She completely opens herself up to the reader, sharing all her failures, foibles, and doubts, while simultaneously displaying her faith. Not a blind faith in a traditional god, but a questioning and malleable faith in something palpable and engaging.

Anyway, I love her. And I loved the essays in this book that dive into these ideas.

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Review: Love Warrior

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love love love love loved this book. I am a hug fan of Melton's and was so excited to hear her speak at the Massachusetts Women's Conference just weeks after reading this. She is a recovering addict who has generously shared her ongoing life story through her blog and several memoirs. I did not love her first book - finding it a bit repetitive from her blog, but this one was really good. I find her as a person (and her books) to be so honest and revealing and true, while also being rooted in her faith. She refers to Anne Lamott (whom I've also been reading) as her patron saint, and I love that and think she is like my generation's Anne.

In this book, Melton covers the breakdown of her marriage. But she starts with her wedding day and chronicles pieces of her story I had not heard about or read before. She's funny, honest, neurotic, and direct.

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Review: The Summer Before the War

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I truly loved Major Pettigrew's Last Stand so I was excited to read this by the same author. It wasn't quite as ... zippy? ... as Major P., but I enjoyed it. It is about a small English town right before WWI breaks out. A young woman arrives to become the local school's Latin teacher, and her arrival is just one of several catalysts for change and politics in the town. This book had a great sense of time and place, and the frustrations of British manners. There were juicy characters, interminable committee meetings, and enough plot twists to keep me busy. While a little long in places, it more than made of for it with its charm. Were you in an intergenerational book club, this would be a delightful choice.

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Review: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was unlike anything I've read lately (although not altogether different in theme from The Circle), and yet somewhat reminiscent of The Thirteenth Tale or even The Da Vinci Code. Yet smarter than all three of them.

It was a mystery, sort of, but also a fable. It followed a young man who, victimized by the internet economy, takes a job in a bookstore. However, the bookstore turns out to be an outpost of a secret society, and he begins to unravel the story of, and puzzles within, the group. It's a story about the tension between old and new, progress and history, and machine learning vs human ingenuity. Truly a book for our time, and one I will remember for a while.

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Review: Modern Lovers

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book well enough - an easy read but well-written and well-developed. It is the story of several friends who had been in a band in college. One woman breaks out into general fame, then dies young. Years later, a movie is produced about her, and the rest of the band, now "grownups" with families, problems, and marriages, need to consent to their music and likenesses being used. I liked the characters and the neighborhood they lived in, and I appreciated how well the plotting was done.

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Review: Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A new friend (Liz) recommended this to me. It's a memoir of sorts - or at least a meditation on society told through one women's point of view. West is a comedian, one who is physically and personality-wise large. She writes about how women are expected to be neither of those things, and how society treats them (us). I found the first few chapters difficult to relate to, as she references several characters and people I didn't really know. However, as she continues on, she makes some very astute and sadly unfortunate observations about how we treat overweight people and how we treat women who speak their minds.

The final section of the book was a retelling of a story I had heard on This American Life, of her finding and confronting an Internet troll who was abusing her online. No less shocking in print, it's a remarkable story of anger, hurt, and reconciliation - sort of. Overall, a really interesting read as a woman in today's world.

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Review: The Girls

The Girls by Emma Cline
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was one of the "it" books this summer, but I didn't love it. It was memorable, and well-written, but it left me feeling - icky? Maybe that is a good thing, and a testament to the book's accomplishing its goal. The story follows a young woman whose rocky adolescence leads her to a cult. While she is taken under the wing of the cult's leader as well as a powerful ally of is, she somewhat remains on the outside, still connected to her family and comfortable way of life. She narrowly misses being involved in a violent crime, and that - the crime, as well as her lack of participation - defines the rest of her life.

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Review: Commonwealth

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I mean, I just adore Ann Patchett. She writes such rich characters and puts them in such impossible situations. In this book, a set of step-siblings who spend summers together encounter tragedy together, which they each bury in their minds. However, as an adult, one of them falls in love with an author and tells him the story - which becomes the basis for his bestseller. This book spans many decades and several generations, from the affair that breaks up a first marriage to the children and grandchildren who come after. I got lost in this book - in a good way.

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Review: Fates and Furies

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oooh this one was a doozy. I loved it. It told the story of a married couple, first from the husband's point of view, then from the wife's. And after reading her telling, you realize that nothing was quite as simple as it seemed in his telling. The characters were great, and the plotting very intelligent. It was a kick to get to the second half and hear her point of view. There was also a Greek chorus of sorts who butt into the story now and then, which I found amusing and clever. Part Gone Girl Gone Girl, and part A Reliable Wife, maybe?

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Review: Rich and Pretty

Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an easy read, and an enjoyable one. It follows two friends, who have known each other for most of their lives, as young adults. One is planning a wedding, the other perpetually single, and their friendship ebbs and flows through several big and small occurrences. I thought the author did a great job of depicting the complexity of adult friendships and their imperfections. I really liked the character development and the development of the relationship the women had with each other. This could be a great beach read that surprises you with substance, or an easy, more literature-y book.

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Review: The Heart Goes Last

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was great. I have always loved Atwood's speculative fiction, and this was no exception. It follows a couple who is really struggling in a post-apocalyptic world, who decide to join a commune. The commune seems to offer a stable and comfortable life, with the simple odd exception that each month the community members take turns being imprisoned. While it is significantly better than their life "outside", as they discover the truth about their new environment, they realize that nothing is as perfect as it seems. Atwood's writing, characters, and plot development were, as is usual, extremely well-done.

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Review: My Brilliant Friend

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was such a disappointment to me. I had read much about these "Neapolitan Novels" and looked forward to enjoying the saga of two women's friendship in Italy. The author writes under a pseudonym which I thought was cool. And I had read rave reviews of the books. Unfortunately they were not for me. Too much description, not enough plot, and I didn't really care that much about any of the characters.

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Review: Truly Madly Guilty

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had read a lot of heavy books lately (and been doing a lot of introspection) so it was nice to read some fluff. That said, I did not enjoy this as much as her other books. Like her other books, it was a story about women and friends, and secrets. It was about two women who had been childhood friends, one from a friendly, healthy home, the other not. Their interdependence on each other grew as they grew older, and one asks the other for a favor. But all of this is revealed in flashbacks. And there is a terrible event, but it is only teased and not revealed until late in the book. All in all, I was frustrated by the teasing, and turned off by how much is revealed in flashbacks. The plotline itself was kind of cool - but the frame ruined it for me.

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Review: The Nest

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this book was fine. It was about a set of siblings who expected to inherit a large trust fund, but before its maturity, one of them gets in trouble and his mother uses the money for himself. The characters were richly developed, and alternated telling the story. However, I didn't find them likable or sympathetic. The plot was interesting enough, but overall not too memorable a book.

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Review: When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another book club pick. I had heard about this book - an unfinished memoir by a young neurosurgeon diagnosed with incurable cancer - but hadn't been attracted to read it. One of those book club benefits when you read stuff you weren't planning on. I really liked this. I expected it to be very sad, and indeed the story is sad, but the author isn't writing a dirge. He writes of how he decides to become a neurosurgeon, what his relationship is like with his wife, and what his plans are for the future. Then once diagnosed, he chronicles his disappointment, treatment, optimism, and his family's support. I enjoyed it without feeling too sad reading it.

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Review: Here I Am

Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was great. In fact, since A Little Life I have had a hard time finding anything I like since then. But I am a big fan of Foer's, and eagerly awaited the release of this book.

The story is of a Jewish family whose Israeli cousins come for a visit on the eve of several major events - the bar mitzvah of their son, the dissolution of their marriage, and an unexpected collapse of Israel. All of these plots intertwine, but it is really the dissolution of the marriage that takes center stage. It was frustrating at times to read, because there were such obvious things that both the husband and wife could have done (and whose internal monologue knew it) to make things better. Or maybe not frustrating as much as tragic. In any case, one of the most perfect depictions of the internal workings of a marriage (and of the American Jewish experience) I've read in a long time.

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Review: The Rocks

The Rocks by Peter Nichols
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I noticed this book in an airport bookstore. It had a lot of promise - a great premise (honeymooners who have not spoken since their honeymoon), and a beautiful location (Mediterranean island). However, I didn't end up loving this. Maybe it was a genre problem, not quite a beach read, but not good enough to be real literature. The characters were good but nothing special. The reveal at the end wasn't unexpected. Just not a great read.

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Review: Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My book club chose this book and I thought it was pretty good. (It won the Pulitzer in the '80's so obviously some other people thought it was better than "pretty good.") In any case, it followed the story of two Americans who were in London for a few months for professional purposes. One, an older woman, is curmudgeonly and set in her ways - reminiscent of Olive Kitteridge. The other is a younger man, unexpectedly separated from his wife. Each of them fall in love with someone unlikely, and the book follows each of their struggles with love, and with their pasts. The TL;DR of this book would be that you can't escape yourself when you leave town. Great character development and good plotting.

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Review: Heroes of the Frontier

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book had the unfortunate fate of being what I read after A Little Life, so I have to take that into account. Even so, I wasn't a huge fan of this. It was about a woman who takes her kids and flees her "normal" life (which is falling apart) for the wilds of Alaska, with no discernible plan. Throughout the story, details of her childhood are revealed, and there is a lot of inner monologue building her character. That aside, the story didn't seem plausible nor did the climax actually seem climactic. Eggers' writing was, as usual, amazing and compelling, so I enjoyed the process of reading it but didn't get much out of the book overall. I miss the Eggers of Heartbreaking Genius.

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Review: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Delightful book!! I loved this and wished I had read it when my littles were babies. Anne Lamott is so generous, honest, and funny as a writer, and this book was no exception. She really captures what those first few months are like, and reassures the reader of the normalcy of the situation without seemingly trying to. She is known as being a spiritual writer, but I found her take on religion and God totally accessible and not off-putting. What a woman.

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Review: A Little Life

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This may have been the best book I've ever read. I couldn't put it down while I was reading it, then re-read so much of it in the following two weeks that it's as if I read it two or three times.

The first section of the book reads like a typical four-guy-friends-after-college-in-nyc story. But then it takes a turn, and the remainder of the book focuses on one of the guys, named Jude. Jude survived an extremely traumatic childhood (which is shockingly detailed in flashbacks throughout the book). The majority of the book is about Jude's adulthood and how his childhood reverberates throughout his adult life in a variety of tragic, violent, and sad ways.

I found Jude to be an extremely likable, as do his friends and family, but he does not see that himself. To that end, while many heralded this book as the first great gay novel in a generation," I did not read it that way. Yes, there are gay relationships in the book - central ones - but I read the book more as an exploration of trauma, shame, and what it takes to overcome those things.

This book has been thoroughly reviewed just about everywhere, and I was relieved to find that other people had the same reaction to it I did. Jon Michaud in the New Yorker said, "Yanagihara’s novel can also drive you mad, consume you, and take over your life." He was right.

And reviewer Joe Dolce said, "It's not short and it hurts, but it takes you deep into the lives of characters you'll never forget. Read it with someone else. You'll need to talk about it. A lot." I ignored that advice - and I regret it.

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Review: The Two-Family House

The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was not impressed with this book. The story was about two women who had married brothers, and how their families interacted and intertwined over their lives sharing a two-family house. The big "twist" wasn't that hard to figure out, the characters were very caricature, and the writing was simple and not very descriptive. Not worth the read.

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Review: Fool Me Once

Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book. I heard about it off a list of must-reads for the year, so I had high hopes. The premise was compelling: a woman loses her husband, then sees him a few days later on a nanny-cam with her 2-year-old. The style of the book was easy to read, and page-turning. But the writing wasn't as good, the character development was flimsy, and the plot twists were annoying, not fun, but not surprising. I finished it, but not for any good reason.

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Review: Wait Till Next Year

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a lovely book. Goodwin spoke at the Mass Conference for Women a few years ago and I really appreciated how good a storyteller she is. This book is a memoir of her childhood growing up on Long Island in the 1950's and being a baseball fan. Baseball in New York in the 1950's brought neighbors together, and had every bit as much drama as today's most complex multi-season television drama arcs. Goodwin does an amazing job depicting her childhood, both as an individual experience as well as using her familiar skill of capturing an era.

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Review: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was ok. It was a set of interconnected stories about the owners and help at an estate in Pakistan. While the writing was pretty good and the character development reasonably good, the experience of reading this book overall just didn't do it for me. Maybe I've read too much about that part of the world, or maybe I was expecting more meat, more complexity.

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Review: Kitchens of the Great Midwest

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My book club chose this book and I really enjoyed it. It followed the story of a woman growing up from childhood to adulthood, as a chef. The author did a lovely, charming job of interweaving different characters and stories together to show the development of her as a main character. I particularly enjoyed little breadcrumbs (pun intended) that the author left throughout the book only to pick them up later in the narrative. A fun read.

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Review: The Boston Girl

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a wonderful book. It followed a young woman in the early 1900's whose Jewish family was living in the North End of Boston. Her family was fearful of America and its influences, but she takes her love of books and learning and parlays it into a more modern and full life than what her parents have to offer. I'm sure part of what I liked about the book was that it is set in Boston, but I also loved the descriptions of things like her dates, her apartment, and even her clothing, meals, and friendships. It was a good view of what my grandparents' lives may have been like.

The only criticism I have is that it was written as if it were a grandmother telling her grandchild about her childhood, so it had a reasonably simple conversational style. But that also made it easy to read. I definitely enjoyed this.

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Review: Island Beneath the Sea

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really, really enjoyed this book. It was like an Outlander book, but with more serious writing and more meticulously researched.

At its center was a young slave and her inexperienced master, who first meet in Saint-Domingue when he inherits his father's plantation. The story follows the two of them through several decades, and most interestingly though a major revolt that ultimately freed the slaves of S-D. There was plenty of heartache in this book, and violence - but also love and friendship.

All in all a wonderful read.

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Review: Luckiest Girl Alive

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I knew this was chick lit when I picked it up, but I didn't remember how bad chick lit could be until I started reading it.

The story was about a woman who had been badly shamed in childhood, but had found her way to a dashing fiance and seemingly happy life. However, in the days leading up to her wedding, a documentary filmmaker decides to make a film about her childhood incident, and she is suddenly embroiled again in the shame and hate.

I didn't like the writing or the story, and thought the main character to be pretty unlikable. Quick read but not a recommended one.

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Review: Fourth of July Creek

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was spectacular.

It was about a social worker in Montana who becomes involved with a family of survivalists. He tries to help their children and befriend the father, but building trust takes a long time. Meanwhile, his own family is falling apart - his wife takes his daughter to live in Texas, and his daughter runs away. The parallels of different broken families was well-crafted but not over-wrought.

I literally can't think of a single thing negative (or even neutral) to say about the characters, plot, writing, style, or composition of this book. Just amazing.

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Review: Hotel Moscow

Hotel Moscow by Talia Carner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Meh.

I picked this book up at the Harvard Bookstore Annual Sale, and going to that was fun. But this book was underwhelming. It was about a successful American businesswoman who joins a mission to recently-un-communisted Russia to mentor female entrepreneurs. She and the other women on the mission find that there is still excessive bribery, corruption, and danger in the business world, and that it is hard in ways they can barely imagine for female entrepreneurs to succeed.

Sound farfetched? It felt that way reading it.

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Review: The Guest Room

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I like Bohjalian the way I like Jodi Picoult - always a good reliable read a few steps above chick lit, and this was no exception.

The story follows an otherwise happy family who is suddenly in crisis after the husband throws a bachelor party for his brother where two people are unexpectedly shot. The book explores not just what happens to the family, but also to the murder suspects, who are trafficked women serving as prostitutes.

It was a quick read that I enjoyed for what it was.

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Review: Black Flies

Black Flies by Shannon Burke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had this book on my list to read for several years - from a year-end NYT list I think. I liked it, but not sure it was worthy of a multi-year stint on the to-be-read list.

It was about a young man who becomes a paramedic in NYC. It follows him and his colleagues through their daily routines, making life-and-death decisions. What was most unique about this was the way it was written. There were short vignettes depicting different patients and situations, often without a lot of background and with indeterminate time lapsing between scenes. It forced me, as the reader, to focus on certain things and ignore other aspects of character or plot development I may have otherwise paid more attention to.

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Review: Woman on the Edge of Time

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hands down, one of my favorite books I've read in a long time. I don't know why I have never read Piercy in the past, but she is an amazing writer - reminiscent of Margaret Atwood, both in her poetic prose and in her affinity for sci-fi, or as they like to call it, speculative fiction.

This book is about a woman who has a history of mental illness, and is sent to a hospital. While she is there, she discovers that she can communicate with the future, the year 2173 to be exact, and she begins to spend her time both in the present and the future. She becomes central to ensuring that the future unfolds as she and her new future-friends expect, based on her decisions in the present.

The writing was great, the story compelling, and the characters were incredibly well-crafted. If you're into this kind of story, I can't recommend this particular book enough.

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Review: My Year of Meats

My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book - Deena recommended it to me and I appreciated its being very different from a lot of other stuff I've read in the past.

It's about an American filmmaker who works with a Japanese studio to produce a television show about meat. As she learns more about the industry, she uncovers the dark side of cattle raising, and in particular the impact to human health. In parallel, the story also follows the wife of the show's producer, who has several problems of her won back in Japan.

I thought the story was unusual, and I really liked "meeting" the new characters that she found for each episode. The ending wrapped up a little too neatly, but I did enjoy the book overall.

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Review: Quantum Night

Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was disappointing. I usually really like Sawyer's books, but this was not good. It was about a psychology professor who figures out how to diagnose someone as psychopathic, and with his utilitarian bent on things, he suggests all sorts of dramatic ways to apply what he knows. He finds himself missing 6 months of memories in his life, which concerns him, and he sets out to figure out why. He also reconnects with an old flame, a physicist, who is also studying psychopaths. Too much philosophizing and not enough of the plot just telling itself. What's usually good about good science fiction is that there isn't too much explaining the idea or the science, or the fantasy - there's just the story telling itself. This did not fit that bill at all. I'll wait for his next book, and hope it is better.

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Review: Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was great. It was about a young girl whose beloved uncle dies of AIDS, set in the late 1980's in NYC when AIDS was misunderstood, feared, and its sufferers isolated. She is befriended by his partner, but forbidden by her parents to interact with him. In some ways, this was a classic coming-of-age story, and in others a thoughtful depiction of the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Great writing, a wonderful narrator, and a good story.

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Review: The Art Forger

The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was ok. I read it for a book club that I'm joining. It was about a struggling artist who takes on a commission to secretly counterfeit one of the missing Gardner Museum paintings, but discovers that the painting is itself a forgery. She takes on the commission in the hopes of regaining her reputation, which had been damaged by a forgery claim in the past. While I thought the plot was inventive and unique, the writing wasn't anything special and the character development was weak. I liked learning about the techniques for forgery, and different artists' preferences and styles, but overall that was not enough to carry the book.

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Review: The Widower's Tale

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was good. It was about a retired man who lets his erstwhile daughter start a preschool in an abandoned barn on his property, and all the relationships and conflicts that ensue. It's full of rich character development, from the main character to his children, neighbors, and love interest, as well as compelling plot twists that are surprising but not far-fetched. This was a very well-balanced book, and one which I looked forward to picking up each night.

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Review: The Rosie Project

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meh. This was about a professor who had trouble finding love, and decided to make a scientific project out of it, complementary to his autism-spectrum personality. The woman he finds isn't who he expects, and they both grow through the relationship. I was not crazy about the main character - nor was I impressed by him - not much more than a carbon copy of other ASD narrators. I did find the book easy to read, and it went quickly, but I didn't bond with any of the characters, nor did I find myself reflecting a lot once I was done reading it.

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Review: The Swimmer

The Swimmer by Joakim Zander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was really good. I noticed it in the airport and bought a copy. It was about a young woman who gets entangled in an international set of crimes, by no fault of her own, and her estranged father who sets out to rescue her. The plotting was great, and the characters well-developed, particularly for a fast-paced spy novel. Though translated from the Swedish, this was more Le Carre than Dragon Tattoo. A really good read.

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Review: Pirate Alley

Pirate Alley by Stephen Coonts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun novel. Definitely an airplane read, which was how I consumed it. It was about Somali pirates who kidnap and take over a cruise ship, and how the pirates, the people on the ship, and the US government all react. I didn't see the Captain Philips movie a few years back about this topic, but it seemed similar in plot. A quick, interesting read.

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Review: Fingersmith

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book - maybe my favorite so far this year. It was about a band of thieves in London who figure out a scheme to marry one of them off to a rich woman with a major inheritance. The plotting was great - surprising and wonderfully horrid. I loved the characters, and the author's setting of time and place was amazing. It reminded me a little of A Reliable Wife in its gothic-like storytelling and twists. Highly recommended.

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Review: The Lovers: Romeo and Juliet in Afghanistan

The Lovers: Romeo and Juliet in Afghanistan by Rod Nordland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fascinating book. It was about two teenagers in Afghanistan who fall in love, and because of laws and customs of differing ethnic groups, their lives are threatened when they decide to run away and get married. What I liked most about this book was that while the author was a New York Times journalist, he readily admits early on that his journalistic integrity was superseded by his desire to protect and help these kids, and much of the book was his reflections on their journey and his part in it. I'll also mention that there are some really terrible anecdotes in this book around women, violence, and sexual abuse, which was a tough but important witness-bearing and learning about what was going on in this part of the world.

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Review: The Lovers: Romeo and Juliet in Afghanistan

The Lovers: Romeo and Juliet in Afghanistan by Rod Nordland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fascinating book. It was about two teenagers in Afghanistan who fall in love, and because of laws and customs of differing ethnic groups, their lives are threatened when they decide to run away and get married. What I liked most about this book was that while the author was a New York Times journalist, he readily admits early on that his journalistic integrity was superseded by his desire to protect and help these kids, and much of the book was his reflections on their journey and his part in it. I'll also mention that there are some really terrible anecdotes in this book around women, violence, and sexual abuse, which was a tough but important witness-bearing and learning about what was going on in this part of the world.

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Review: Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really, really liked this book. I read it in the middle of a set of "beach read" books, and it stood out. It's about a Chinese-American woman whose boyfriend is from a rich Singaporean family. I mean, really rich. Really, really rich. She goes home with him for a wedding one summer in college and all the politics, backstabbing, and plotting that you can imagine goes on within his family. She is judged as "American-born Chinese" ABC, which is less prestigious than her boyfriend's native standing. All in all a fun, funny, book and I was delighted to see there is a sequel!

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