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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