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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