Review: Bonfire

Bonfire by Krysten Ritter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book from Book of the Month, and for a quick read, and a first novel by an actress, it was surprisingly good! It is about a woman who returns to her childhood small town after becoming a lawyer to investigate an environmental charge against the town's largest employer, a chemical company. Replete with old boyfriends, high school drama revisited, and juicy characters, it kept me up late at night. A really fun read.

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Review: Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table

Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table by Jenny Rosenstrach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love love loved this book. I discovered Rosenstrach when she wrote a column for Bon Appetit about the things she has learned about feeding kids, and when I posted that on Facebook, several friends turned me on to the fact that she has a cookbook, blog, and empire! This book was sweet - it was a memoir about her life before marriage, upon marriage, and upon kids, with recipes for each stage of life. And the recipes are delicious!! I loved hearing her stories, and really enjoyed getting a "professional" opinion on what is and isn't reasonable for toddlers and preschoolers to do at the dinner table, and to eat. A must-read for parents!

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Review: The Sympathizer

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a book that made me feel kind of dumb, or uncultured, or too impatient. It won the Pulitzer. It is considered groundbreaking and all that. And I didn't feel like I really "got" it. It was about a Communist spy embedded in Vietnam. Parts of the book were about his life, his escape from Vietnam in the last days before the fall of Saigon, and about his lifelong friendship with two boys, one Communist, and one not. But the structure of the book (a confession), the climax (the revision of the confession), and the denouement (not completely even clear to me) were confusing. I enjoyed reading about the narrator's life and story, but the ending got too theoretical and fantastical for me.

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Review: Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation by John Freeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This might be one of those, "if you only read one book this year" books - in that it truly captures what is going on in America today. Not my America, of $5 lattes, but of people struggling to make ends meet, facing deep questions about identity, and many other important things taking place right now. I noticed this book in Denver's Tattered Cover bookstore, and seeing that it included writing by Ann Patchett, Roxane Gay, and Rebecca Solnit was enough to convince me. After reading it, I found many, many more wonderful authors sharing their stories and those of others, and I learned a lot.

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Review: The Sisters Chase

The Sisters Chase by Sarah Healy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oy. This book had promise - it was about a set of sisters whose mother dies, and the elder takes on raising the younger. The motel their family owns ends up owing too much in back taxes to be worth anything, so they go on the run, which begins with their distant (and filthy rich) cousins, and continues for several decades. I did not enjoy the writing, the plotting, or the characters. The characters were mostly archetypes, not well-developed, and the major twists were all thin and predictable. I did not enjoy this one at all.

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Review: The Nix

The Nix by Nathan Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was great - Lisa kept recommending it to me, and when I finally got started I could tell why. The story is nominally about a young man who, when faced with an overdue manuscript for his publisher, agrees to investigate his estranged mother, whom he learns is a radical from the 1960's. However, the book is so much more than that - Hill is a master at characterization, from the main characters to minor people, he paints such a clear picture of who they are, that it seems as if you know them. While the plot of this book was interesting enough, it was the characters that really made it great. Thanks, Lisa!

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Review: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I love Annie, I mean, REALLY love Annie, this book was just ok. I typically lose myself in her writing, invite myself into her anecdotes, and come out of reading her feeling like I have the power to be a better person. This book, not so much. It didn't have enough of her charming stories or self-deprecating encouragement for my taste - it was too straightforward without enough personality. I did like the idea of their being three categories of prayer (which, coincidentally was covered in my daughter's Hebrew School class the same week I was reading this), but didn't find that illuminating enough to carry the book.

I'll definitely read more of Annie's books, and hope they are more like her others than like this one.

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Review: The Girl with All the Gifts

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a creepy book - one that I had seen twice at Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver this year (and I don't live in Denver!) - that I requested at the library. It is about a girl, who at the outset seems like a lovely and curious pre-teen imprisoned in an institution that is part mental hospital and part prison. Over the course of the book, however, we learn that some sort of apocalyptical event occurred and this girl (and others like her) may be very dangerous.

Part psycho-thriller, part post-apocalyptic story, and part a story about humans connecting to each other, with a dose of The Passage, this was thoroughly enjoyable, if you're into that kind of thing. And I am.

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Review: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was really interesting. I noticed it on the shelf at the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, then requested it at the library. Waldman is an author (herself married to author Michael Chabon), known for both her books as well as a controversial Modern Love column where she proclaimed loving her husband more than her children.

The book is part memoir (of her life with mental illness: Depression, Bipolar, and PMDD), part medical log (of her month micro-dosing with LSD rather than traditional psychiatric drugs), and part history (of drugs in the United States, both medicinal and illegal). She has a very unique point of view, both as a patient and as a former attorney, and she is meticulous in how she wields those personas throughout the book. She is generous and brave and honest in her writing, and I learned a lot reading her book.

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Review: Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As an avid reader, it is of some embarrassment to me that along the way, I missed reading anything by Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters. When I Facebook-confessed this, I was led to this book. It was a fun read. I found myself staying up late to find out what would happen in certain chapters, and laughing out loud at times. Like the experience of watching Downton Abbey, I found this to be more relatable than I expected, and the characters more complex than I gave them credit for at first blush. While I'm not sure I'd subsist on a diet exclusively of old English literature, I will certainly pick up another Austin (or Bronte) in the future.

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Review: The House of the Spirits

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a truly amazing book. Every time I read something by Allende, I'm reminded not to be intimidated, rather to feel invited, for she is such a gifted writer. This book is a saga about a family who is touched by the supernatural, but in the magical realism way that great Latin American authors seem able to introduce without distraction. The patriarch is a large landowner who provides both a great and terrible life for those who serve him. He marries a women whom he loves his entire life, though she can't forgive him for certain things during their marriage. Their daughter and granddaughter are equally enthralling characters, and introduce modernity into the family, ultimately making revolutionary changes to its structure, and to the world around them. What a great read!

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Review: The Buried Giant

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a very strange book, and I have a hard time giving it a star rating. It starts with an older couple, living in England - sort of - in a fairyland time, but amongst some historical figures. There is a mysterious mist that removes people's memories, and they have only a hazy sense that they had a son, and no real memory of how or where to find him. Nevertheless they set off to his village, encountering soldiers, goats, mountains, dragons, and descendants of King Arthur's Court on their journey. The story was quaint at times, and horrifying at other times, and some reviews I read said it was not just an adult fairy tale, but a meditation on memory and loss. Sorry, I didn't get there with it - I found the book a bit of a slog and was unsurprised at some of the most important plot turns.

Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for Literature while I was reading this, so I'm willing to bet I missed the point of this book, not that it was bad, but as a reader I can't say I enjoyed reading it.

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Review: Dark Matter

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was good, and not what I expected. It starts when a man goes out one evening to meet a friend for a quick drink, and soon after, wakes up in a lab, being told that he has succeeded in a bold quantum physics experiment. He doesn't know what to believe - which life is his "real" life, and risks everything to get back to his happy life with his beloved wife and son.

This book played on traditional sci-fi themes around multi-verses and alternate realities, but did it while portraying a character who was flawed, relatable, and emotional. There were ways in which it reminded me of The Hike, although this was less surreal and more traditionally science fiction. The ending will also stay with me for a long time.

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Review: Seveneves

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was amazing. I love reading Stephenson, and this was no exception. The story starts with an astronomical event that scientists soon figure out mean that the earth will be destroyed and nobody will survive. Representatives from different countries and cultures and with different skill sets are sent up to space to represent the future of humankind. The book follows what happens to those people, and the generations that come after them. It's part space science, part sociology, and part adventure.

Not only was this book obviously meticulously researched, but it was well-written, smartly plotted, and filled with rich characters. The book is long, like most of his works are, and it is great fun to see seeds sown early in the book grow into critical plot points later. Thoroughly engrossing and enjoying.

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Review: One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter

One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Both Lindy West and Jessica Valenti have blurbs on the back of this book, so it was kind of an obvious choice. It is a series of essays by Koul, an Indian-Canadian author who writes for BuzzFeed, HuffPost, and The New Yorker, among other outlets.

At first, I was disappointed. The first few essays were more Mindy Kaling than Arundathi Roy. I found the humor distracting; it undermined her message for me. However, either I got used to her, or her later essays were more serious, because by the end of the book I was enjoying it a lot. Her commentary on race was well-illustrated through her own experience, and that of her young niece, her father, and many other people in her life.

I need to read more intersectional feminists. This was a great start.

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Review: Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wish I had liked this book more, because Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead was very influential to me. This book was about Sandberg's unexpectedly losing her husband, how she coped, and how other people can cope with great challenges as well.

Unfortunately the book didn't hit the mark. I spent the entire book feeling pulled in different directions among a memoir, self-help book, and sociological study. I would have been interested in reading any one of the three, but the way the book was constructed, I didn't think it did any of them particularly well.

I understand this may be partially because Sandberg co-wrote this with Adam Grant. If she needed to do that to get through the heartbreaking subject matter, than I'm glad she did - for her. As a reader, the empathy I felt for her loss still didn't make me like the book any more.

One nugget I took with me, however, was the idea that kids with a "growth mindset" were more resilient than those without. It was the first I'd heard of a growth mindset, and it immediately changed how I've been talking to my kids.

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Review: Emma in the Night

Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This starts as a standard mystery - two sisters disappear and years later, one returns. The detectives and forensic psychologist who responded to the original crime resume their investigation. However, a few things tipped me off early that this was no formulaic beach read. First off, the psychologist has an unusual background herself. Second, seeds are planted early in the story that the sister who returns may not be a completely reliable narrator. Also, their mother is completely nuts. As the authorities (and me, as the reader) try to figure out what really happened, increasingly more psychological dysfunction is revealed. I was able to forgive some of the less-than-perfect character development, and some of the basic techniques used for developing doubt and leaving clues, because the plotting and story was just that good.

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Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my first Neil Gaiman book, and I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite like it. It starts out as a book about a man going back to his hometown for a funeral, but doesn't follow any familiar tropes or plots after that. It becomes part memory, part fairytale (complete with a mean stepmother-ish character). But it was so incredibly well-written and the characters well-developed, that it wasn't cheesy or tired, it was spellbinding. I would never have read a book that someone described to me this way, I'd have thought it wasn't my style, but wow - was this good.

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Review: The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was really enjoyable to read. It was about a girl and her father, and alternated chapters between their current life, and the father's life in the past. The father had been involved in many illegal heists and scams/schemes, yet made a reasonably normal life for his daughter. (OK, to be fair, it wasn't "normal" or "stable" in that they moved often, and quickly, and there was a strange shrine to the girl's mother kept in the bathroom of whatever their current home was, but compared to his past, it was as good as he could do.) I really liked both the father and the daughter, and am still not quite sure which was the protagonist. Well-written, great character development, and surprising plot.

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Review: Rise: How a House Built a Family

Rise: How a House Built a Family by Cara Brookins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I hate when this happens - when someone is strong and brave and interesting, and publishes a memoir that is not well-enough written and edited. This was my issue with Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World and it's my issue here. Brookins is amazing - she escapes an abusive marriage (which she outlines in flashbacks throughout the book) and decides that what she and her four school-age children need to do is build a house - from scratch - to reboot their lives. And they do. From Sheetrock to flooring to framing, they literally build a house from scratch. I admire her and I loved the story, but I wish the writing had been better - more descriptive about the emotions, and less of a progress log. Brava Cara, but wish I had enjoyed reading about this more.

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Review: The Women in the Castle

The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book browsing at the library and didn't know anything about it. The plot was intriguing - after WWII, a woman seeks out the wives of several Nazi resisters whose husbands were killed as part of an unsuccessful plot to murder Hitler. She brings them together in an old estate, where the form a support system and kind of a family together. The book alternates between pre-war and post-war times, and I enjoyed learning about the characters' backstories, and also seeing what happened to them going forward. This was both well-written and well-plotted, with twists, disappointments, and victories, all of which made me see how much I had been invested in the characters.

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Review: Since We Fell

Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was advertised on what seemed like every bus in Boston, and I like Dennis Lehane so I gave it a try. Like his other books, this was an addictive page-turner. This novel starts at the end - with protagonist Rachel shooting her husband. The next 3/4 of the book is her life story, leading up to that moment. Rachel doesn't have an easy life, and as a newscaster, she has an on-air meltdown, which leads her to years as a recluse. Once she realizes her (otherwise) picture-perfect life with her husband is anything but, she overcomes her anxiety and the novel gets really fun, with a movie-script amount of action. Did not disappoint.

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Review: The Blinds

The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was about a town where people who were criminals or witnesses can go, get their memories wiped, and live "normally" for the rest of their lives. The novel had a very colorful and well-developed cast of characters, and did a good job setting up the town and the situation before diving into the mystery and action than dominates the second half of the book. I predict this becomes a mini-series on NBC :)

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Review: A Guide for the Perplexed

A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I did not "get" this book at all. It was a free PJ Library book, and I chose it from a few options. It was about a famous computer genius who gets kidnapped in Egypt, and a parallel story about a scholar in Egypt (100 years earlier) looking for ancient manuscripts purported to be written by famous Jewish scholar Moses Maimonedes. I didn't care enough about any of the characters to propel me through the book. And the technological tie-ins were not that interesting, neither was the parallelism of the stories. All in all, not a good read.

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Review: The Windfall

The Windfall by Diksha Basu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was another Book of the Month Club choice. I liked it. It was about an Indian couple who move from a comfortable neighborhood to an affluent one after the sale of their husband's Internet business. It also follows their son's life in America. It was funny at times, and romantic. Also satiric and a great depiction of sudden wealth and how it can change families. In some ways it reminded me of The Wangs vs. the World in its depiction of an Asian family and the havoc money wreaks on their families.

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Review: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I just adore everything that Anne Lamott writes. And shame on me that I don't appreciate how she and her editors group her essays, either by book or by section, I just gulp them down. This didn't disappoint - she writes more about her finding her own faith, about her relationship with her son, and with her church, all her "greatest hits," but in a familiar way (like a new U2 album that's great but the same as their old ones). She truly is my therapist when I can't see my actual therapist. And she'd say she's Christian, but I think she's more Human than anything else.

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Review: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the Book of the Month Club's Book of the Year for 2016 and it didn't disappoint. I'm not sure I liked anything as much as this since A Little Life. That still trumps anything else I've ever read, but this was itself amazingly written, complete with empathetic characters and a truly beautiful story. It is about a young girl who is befriended by one of her meth-cooking father's employees, and how he impacts her life. While certainly morally confusing at times, that is part of the beauty of this book - not how it glorifies morally ambiguous decisions, but how it presents them as they are, with conflict and all.

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Review: Stranger, Father, Beloved

Stranger, Father, Beloved by Taylor Larsen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bought this book at the Book Loft in Columbus OH. The premise was interesting: a man sees his wife talking to a guest at a party and decides that she is supposed to be married to that man, rather than him. However, the book is an *incredibly* slow read about his descent into self-imposed exile and self-pity. While some of the characters were interesting (most notably, his daughter Ryan), in general the pace was too slow to appreciate and the resolution completely unsatisfying.

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Review: Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really interesting and honest read. I decided to read something by Roxane Gay because I've recently read both Lindy West, Jessica Valenti and Rebecca Solnit, and wanted to continue rounding out my modern feminist exposure.

This book is a memoir by Gay about her life being overweight - "morbidly obese" as her doctor tells her at one point. She talks about trauma from her teenage years and how it triggered her to have an (over)eating disorder that has followed her and shaped her entire life. It reminded me in several sections of Appetites: Why Women Want in its blending of memoir and social commentary on women's inability to both express and get the things they want. It also helped me find compassion for overweight people; her descriptions of what it is like to be overweight and sitting in an airplane seat, a subway seat, a folding chair, was harrowing and definitely changed my point of view on it.

Brava, Roxane, a beautiful life to share.

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Review: The Girl Who Slept with God

The Girl Who Slept with God by Val Brelinski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was on a business trip to Denver, and noticed this book at Tattered Cover Book Store. It was pretty good! It's about a religious family whose eldest (and most devout) daughter goes on a missionary trip to Mexico and comes back pregnant. She claims it is God's baby, and her parents send her and her middle sister to live in another town, ostensibly in shame over the pregnancy.

The best part of this book was the character development. Each character was really well-thought out, and detailed. The story moves a bit slowly in places, but overall I enjoyed reading the book.

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Review: Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World

Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World by Susan Silverman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got this book complimentarily from PJ Library, a Jewish-themed organization. The rating of 3/5 is not a reflection on Silverman as a person - I admire her unconditionally. She is a rabbi, and along with her husband, they've built an amazing family - three biological daughters and two sons, both adopted from Ethiopia. The things they've navigated, as Jews, as a family, and as parents, are enormous and they do it compassionately and with great thoughtfulness.

I was, however, disappointed with some of the writing. It was honest, and straightforward, both of which I appreciated. I just thought it could have used some better editing - more even editing throughout the book to be precise. I felt like the first two-thirds held my attention, then the remainder of the book was rushed. Memoirs in general seem to suffer from this more so than novels since some of the events have taken place further in history than others. Still, it was choppy to experience that as a reader.

That aside, I'd still recommend it for its unique story of parenting.

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Review: The Leavers

The Leavers by Lisa Ko
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a Book of the Month selection, and I was glad to have chosen it. It follows Deming, a boy from childhood to adulthood, as he copes with separation from his mother as a young child, when she lives in America, trying to earn enough money to support him, while he lives in her childhood village in China. Once he comes to the US, they make a life together in New York City, but he is again separated from her at age eleven, when she mysteriously disappears from her job at a nail salon one day.

Deming ends up adopted by a WASPy couple in a small suburban town, and while they do their best to be good parents to him, he never fully belongs to them. The rest of the book tells the story of his search for his birth mother, for his identity, and for solace - of any sort. Well-written with compelling characters, this was a winner in my book.

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Review: Half Broke Horses

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Glass Castle is one of my favorite memoirs, so when I tried this book a few years ago and couldn't get into it, I was disappointed. This time around I got into it, and enjoyed it. This book is a "novelization" of Walls' grandmother Lily's life. I went into it hoping to understand how Walls' mother became the woman she was, the neglectful parent depicted in The Glass Castle.

However, I soon forgot that goal and got lost in the wild, wild West of Lily's life. From her childhood on a ranch to her attempts to get an education, her failed first marriage and her unwavering bravery and pluck, every page of this book was engrossing and entertaining. I don't know what it would be like to read this not having read Glass Castle first, though I suspect it would still be good. As a companion book, it's spectacular.

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Review: American War

American War by Omar El Akkad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was spectacular. I really enjoyed it - it was a Book of the Month pick. It takes place starting in 2074, in an America that has experienced a 2nd Civil War. This 2nd War is because of fossil fuels, the two factions differing in whether to use renewable energy sources or not. Most of the story follows Sarat, a young woman who grows up in the post-war era, following her from the south through a refugee camp, prison, and ultimately revenge - if not outright redemption.

While a timely commentary on climate change, this book is much more - it is also brilliant social commentary on war, politics, and individual responsibility. Well-written, with memorable characters and plot.

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Review: The Wangs vs. the World

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm rating this book 3 out of 5 with an acknowledgement that I wanted this to be as good as Crazy Rich Asians and it wasn't. It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't the fun, wild ride that is.

This book is about a self-made Chinese-American businessman who loses everything - goes completely broke. His (second) wife and children are used to living in luxury, and overnight they must give up their house in Southern California, their expensive schools and cars, and their pride. What keeps them afloat is the belief that there is ancestral land in China that belongs to them, and he decides to go seek it out.

I liked most of the characters (except for the ones I wasn't supposed to like, which I, appropriately, disliked), and the writing kept the book at a good pace. However, I didn't like how the plot came together in the end, which took an otherwise good idea and left me with a mediocre experience.

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Review: Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Admission: I missed this book when everyone else read it, 10 years ago. It was like that Sex and the City scene where they wonder why they stopped drinking Cosmopolitans, and realize they stopped "because everyone else started." I thought it was over-hyped self-help so I ignored it.

Big mistake - turns out I loved this book. I reminded me of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail in its generosity with inner voice, and I felt like I really got to know Gilbert. I wouldn't say she is as good a writer or as calming a soul as Anne Lamott, but she's on the road to that for sure.

The book is divided into three sections. After the end of her marriage, which Gilbert's initiation of doesn't make it any less difficult for her, she travels to Italy and EATS her way to comfort, then India where she learns to PRAY at an ashram, then Indonesia where she falls in LOVE. (Get it?) While there are some boring passages and some hippy-dippy passages about meditation, all in all the book moved pretty quickly and was a lovely memoir.

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Review: The House of Journalists

The House of Journalists by Tim Finch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book. I found it at the library and thought it was one of those hidden treasures. The premise was great - journalists from different countries living in exile for political reasons all found a temporary home in a building in London. The characters had rich back stories, though some with stories that read more like exile tropes than unique narratives. That aside, there was intrigue, a really interesting collective voice, and some mystery. However, the plot and payoff just didn't live up to its setup. I wish it had - there was a lot of great stuff here to work with.

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Review: The Wanderers

The Wanderers by Meg Howrey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read about this book on the "Don't Mind the Mess" blog, which is often a good source of recommendations. This one, not so much. While I thought the premise was great - famous astronauts were spending 18 months in a simulation of a journey to Mars in preparation for an actual mission - and the characters appropriately complex and compelling, the book just didn't come together for me. I enjoyed reading about each character's back story, and I also liked reading about the "mission," training, and challenges. But I didn't really "get" the ending, or appreciate the book once I was done with it.

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Review: The Mothers

The Mothers by Brit Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bennett's book kept my attention for sure. This was about a young woman in Southern California, who is part of a religious Christian community. When she gets pregnant from the pastor's son, he and she, and several other characters in the book, make decisions about her pregnancy that have far-reaching impacts over decades. I thought the writing was really good, and I also appreciated the character development. There was a "Greek Chorus" who told of the background, not dissimilar from the writing in Fates and Furies, which I thought was a nice touch.

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Review: Another Brooklyn

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a quick read - very well written, somewhat poetic even, but short. It was about a set of girlfriends coming of age in Brooklyn in the 1970's. As many young friendships ultimately fall apart, these do, which you learn early, as the current day is interspersed with memories of the past. There are first best friends, feelings of belonging, and betrayals. A beautiful portrayal of both childhood and growing out of it, this book captures that nearly perfectly. Brooklyn as a place also becomes a character as their neighborhood changes with their growth towards independence.

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Review: Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was an eye-opener. Feldman grew up as a member of the Satmar sect of Hassidic Judaism, which could hardly be called even a branch of the same religion I practice as a modern Reconstructionist Jew. The Satmars live a very insular life, with no outside influences (like secular books or music), and strict gender roles that are governed by male (of course) rabbis. She decides to leave the sect, and her husband, but the majority of the book is about her life in the sect before she leaves, and how she makes the decision to do so.

I thought I knew a lot about Judaism, but the traditions, rules, and customs in this sect blew me away. The example that most sticks with me is that Feldman recounts the rule that when a woman is menstruating she is considered "unclean" and can't touch her husband - even casually, like in the process of passing him a plate at dinner. In fact, she can't pass him a plate at dinner. She must put the plate down, then he picks it up. When her period is over, if she has discharge, her husband brings a pair of underwear to the rabbi, who determines if the discharge stains indicate it is indeed actually over. Really.

There has been some criticism of her depiction of the community, but even if a fraction of what she writes is true, and I believe it to be much more than that, she is a brave and unusual soul indeed.


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Review: Happy All the Time

Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book exclusively because Anne Lamott told me to, and I try to do the things she tells me (and everyone) to do.

It was sweet - it reminded me of some of Betty Smith's lesser-known books (like Joy in the Morning, perhaps) in its simplicity and directness. It was published in 1978 and is more straightforward and direct than many novels written today.

It is about two couples who are friends, and is simply the story of each of their lives leading up to and including their finding each other, falling in love, and getting married. None of the four of them is perfect, but none is tragically flawed either, so this becomes, at its core, a love story. Where more modern fiction sees neuroses and flaws as downfalls, this book lets the characters embrace those things - and thus each other.

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Review: Every Kind of Wanting

Every Kind of Wanting by Gina Frangello
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A new friend Liz recommended this to me, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The premise seemed unnecessarily complicated and "Portlandia"-ish: when a gay couple decide to have a baby, they use an egg from one of their sisters, and then a gestational carrier who is an old friend of the other's from high school. The book jacket described this as the raising of a "community baby," but I found it to be much much more.

What I liked most about this book was the characters. There are four incredibly well-developed characters, each with backstories and motives. Then there are at least five other characters with their own histories and stories. This mastery of character development probably most reminded me of This is Where I Leave You.

I did enjoy the story as well, but this was one of those book that was more about the journey than the destination.

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Review: All Grown Up

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I joined Book of the Month Club and I'm not sure I've learned how to pick the right book each month. This was my first or second pick, and I didn't love it. It's about a single woman in NYC, somewhat self-absorbed, whose brother and his wife have a baby with a chronic and life-shortening condition. Told in (confusing) vignettes, the book jumps around different parts of their lives, building characters through fragments rather than full character development. The main character isn't particularly likable, nor was the non-linear plot compelling in its presentation.

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Review: Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act

Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act by Barry Yourgrau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a memoir about a man's attempt to address his hoarding. Prompted by his exasperated girlfriend and her mother, Yourgrau decides to investigate hoarding - its history, famous hoarders, and different treatments - in an effort to, quite literally, clean up his act. He is in some ways successful, thought moreso in his delving into his own underlying issues from which his hoarding sprouted than in understanding it more broadly. I applaud his sharing of this experience with readers, but found some of the book purely self-indulgent. His self-awareness only sometimes made up for that.

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Review: The Woman in Cabin 10

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A beach read to be sure, but one I enjoyed. This story is about a travel writer who gets her big break - an assignment to report on the experience of being on a luxury yacht. She observes what she thinks is a murder, but all the evidence disappears, and she is questioned as being mentally ill. It was fun to play along, and decide if I believed her or thought she was losing it. While not exceptional in its writing, the plot and character development were well-done. I looked forward to reading this each night.

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Review: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a lovely, clever book. It reminded me both of the charm of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and the unlikely friendships formed in Plainsong. Curmudgeonly Ove has lived a very measured and stern life, oddly paired with a sweet, pleasant, non-deceased wife. Her death makes his life unbearable, but his efforts to end his own life keep getting foiled (at first unintentionally) by a young family who moves in next door. This books lets you root for the bad guy who you know isn't really bad underneath.

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Review: The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well there's nothing the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and Oprah hasn't already said about this book that I can tell you here. It's spectacular. It's about a slave named Cora who seeks freedom through the Underground Railroad. Except in this telling, the UR is an actual railroad, not a metaphorical one, built under the ground by slaves.

Whitehead does an amazing job characterizing the devastating and horrible nature of her life as a slave, as well as the challenges, hopes, disappointments, and lost opportunities of pursuing her freedom. She has several long stays along the way, including one at a "model citizen" community for escaped slaves, and one in a stationmaster's attic, that well detail the life-and-death difficulties that awaited escapees like Cora.

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Review: Before the Fall

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun read - better written than a beach read, but similarly paced.

It's about a charter plane crash whose only survivors are a loner artist and the young son of a media mogul. Meanwhile, several of the people on the plane are high profile and rich. The mystery of what happened to the plane - whether (as the media suggests) it was purposeful and strategic, or was just an accident - becomes half of the story, while the development of each of the passenger and crew's backgrounds becomes the balance. Great character studies, and a good mystery with a satisfying ending I didn't expect.

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Review: The Flight of Gemma Hardy

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book. I didn't realize until after I read it that it was a homage to Jane Eyre, which is probably a good thing. I haven't read Jane Eyre (yikes!) and wouldn't have chosen it otherwise.

Anyway, the story is a somewhat classic rags-to-riches-to-conflict-to-resolution story. Gemma's life has several ups and downs from a happy childhood to awful relatives who reluctantly take her in to a boarding school that is not as advertised to a job as a companion for a petulant 8-year-old. I really found myself rooting for Gemma, and I enjoyed all the plot twists. While not as gothic as, say, Fingersmith, it did have a classic feel to it.

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