listen to the mothers

Hollow Bones by Jodi Picoult

Rating: 4.25 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: If Jodi Picoult is the only author I would have trusted to write about the COVID-19 pandemic when we were still coming out of it (and she is), then I also trust her to write about the September 11 attacks with care and sensitivity (and she does).  But this book is about much more than September 11, and in some ways isn't actually about that day at all, although it provides a necessary backdrop for the story.  This book is really about motherhood, friendship, and postpartum psychosis, and perhaps, by putting all of that together, Picoult has taken on a bit too much.  If this were a book by anyone else, I would say that it was definitely too much.  So the book drags a bit in the middle and towards the end, and one character is perhaps dragged off the stage too abruptly, but this is still Picoult, if not at her finest.  You will learn something from this book (probably lots of things), find yourself thinking about something in a different light (probably lots of different lights), and have all the feels (probably at once).

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

done and dusted

Denim and Dust by Harper Dale

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance

Review: Laurel never wanted to leave her small Texas hometown, and she knew she'd never really get over Calder, her first love, but she didn't feel as though she had any choice -- at the time.  Ten years later, having put up with her husband's cheating for the last time, she leaves Nashville with Bowie, her young son, to return home and start her life over again.  Inevitably, she and Calder can't avoid each other, and the sparks are definitely still there.  Readers will root for Laurel and Calder from the beginning, and will absolutely fall in love with Bowie.  Secondary characters come to life as well, as Laurel's parents thrill to be grandparents, and Laurel and Calder's best friends try to decide what their feelings are for each other (and set us up for a sequel).  The "denim and dust" metaphor is a little strained, a couple of minor characters are more like charicatures, and the author seems to have a vendetta against wind turbines, but this is still a western romance worth reading.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

along for the journey

Long Island Girls by Gabrielle Korn

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: It took me a while to figure out why Korn name-drops so many brands and bands and trends in this book, but I finally realized that it's because this book is very intentionally grounded in the times and places it portrays, spanning the 20 years from 2005 to 2025, and the country, from Long Island to California.  Frankly, as someone who's not into indie music and doesn't pay much attention to brands, it put a barrier between me and the story.  Once I figured out that the names were just signals to orient us in time, space, and socioeconomic status (and that there were other signals that a brand-oblivious person like me could use), and not meant to convey any superficiality on the part of the characters, I was able to get on board.  And once I was on board, I enjoyed joining Susan in her journey to discover who she's meant to be.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

2/3 worth it

The Last Page by Katie Holt

Rating: 3.75 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance

Review: I was about 1/3 of the way through this book before I started to feel comfortable with the main characters.  Prior to that, it seemed like they were acting in ways to deliberately set up conflict, even though they were, ostensibly, on the same side.  I get that some tension needed to be established, but it felt excessively clunky to me.

Once Ella and Henry got over themselves a little bit and agreed to work together, the story smoothed out.  There was still plenty of narrative tension (will the bookstore survive? will Henry really go back to Tennessee?) but their actions and motivations made a lot more sense.  Getting to that point is well worth it, though, so the remainder of the book is a sweet love story, with some excellent secondary characters.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

meaningful, but not heavy

Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Rating: 4.5 stars (out 5)

Genre: romance

Review: At 26, Ramona Wilder is done with the spotlight.  A child star who transitioned to being a pop star at the urging of her manipulative mother/manager, she's had enough.  But what is she going to do with the rest of her life?  She'll go to college, she decides, to try to make up for some of the "normal" experiences she missed growing up.  From her first day on campus, Ramona and her psychology professor, recently divorced Nick Navarro, feel undeniably drawn to each other.  Solomon doesn't shy away from the many issues inherent in this scenario: the professor/student relationship, the age gap, and the sexualization of young stars, as seen in the way that Ramona struggles to figure out a way to relate to Nick in anything other than a sexual way.  This is a lot of weight to put on a romance novel, but Solomon is more than up to the task of exploring those issues and also giving us relatable characters and a believable love story.  You'll be rooting for Nick and Ramona's happy ever after all the way through.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

a picture is worth...

The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiigari, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: healing fiction

Review: The Lantern of Lost Memories is, at the same time, a cohesive novel, and a collection of three short stories that seem only loosely connected until the end, when the connection becomes much clearer.

Each story begins with a delivery,  The deliveryman, Yama, brings a box to Mr. Hirasaki and they have a cheerful exchange, as they always do.  Yama comments on the size of the box, and makes a prediction about Mr. Hirasaki's next visitor based on the size and heft of the box.  Each box contains photographs - precisely one photograph for every day of the life of the next to visit Mr. Hirasaki's photo studio.

The photo studio is a waystation between life and the afterlife.  The recently deceased must sift through their individual boxes of photos and choose one for each year of their life.  The photos will then be placed on a spinning lantern to give them a last chance to relive their favorite memories.  Additionally, each person has the opportunity to go back to one day in their life to retake a photograph of a special memory.

Mr. Hirasaka is on hand for every state of the journey from death to afterlife, but doesn't know why he's stuck in the liminal space of the photo studio.  Unlike his guests, he has no memories of his life or death, and only a single photograph of himself to go by.  As the last story wraps up, and the threads begin to tie together, we get hints of why this is so, but no clear picture (pun intended) emergese.  Perhaps a sequel is in the works in which Mr. Hirasaka will help more people make the transition from life to death and will also learn more about himself.

Overall, a thoughtful and reflective addition to the healing fiction genre.

on repeat, but lovely

Love in Plane Sight by Lauren Connolly

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance

Review: Lauren Connolly knows how to write a romance that a reader can root for.  Watching Beth and George fall in love and overcome obstacles was absolutely lovely.  Though Beth's is slightly fuller, both have well-drawn backstories that make the road they're on together very real.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that Connolly would agree that she's given us excellent backstories, because she feels the need to repeat Beth's several times.  We get it.  We understand why Beth accepts George's offer of free flying lessons but is afraid to act on her attraction to him.  We get that she's worried about money but doesn't want to cause her mother any stress.  We get it.  Let's move on.

I have to say, though, that my favorite parts of this book involve Beth's book club with her brother, especially the scene where she tries to win an argument by standing on his coffee table and shouting.  Except they really resolve their literary disputes over a deck of cards and shots of tequila.  It's absolutely marvelously written.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

friends are everything

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective by Katie Siegel

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: cozy mystery

Review: Charlotte Illes was a detective when she was a kid.  But that was then, and this is now, and she does not want to talk about it.  Unfortunately, she doesn't really have a sense of who she is now.  But she's not a detective, and watching her childhood friends figure out who they are as adults is giving her a crisis of confidence.  Convincing herself that they don't need or want her messy feelings in their lives, she begins to pull away from them, and from her older brother.  But when her brother's girlfriend starts getting love notes from an anonymous stranger, Charlotte agrees to poke around a little bit.  Soon, she's got two mysteries to solve, and her friends are eager to resume their roles as her trusty assistants.  Can Charlotte figure out how to move into adulthood with her friends, and maybe still be a detective, a little bit, on the side?

Charlotte is a very sympathetic character, and readers will be rooting for her to not only solve the mysteries, but also to figure out how to be both a former kid detective and an adult.  The best parts of the book, though, are Charlotte's interactions with her best friends, Lucy and Gabe.  The bond that they share, and the support they give to Charlotte, and that she's relearning to give to them, is beautifully written, and comes wrapped in the best kind of snarky dialogue.

With a cast of diverse, likeable, and offbeat characters, and an intricate plot, this book will have instant appeal for fans of cozy mysyteries.

short and sweet

A Coffee for Two by Renée Gendron

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance, novella

Review: In this first installment of Megan the Matchmaker's Brilliant Blind Dates, Megan sends reluctant coworker Arianna on a blind date at a local coffee shop.  When the coffee shop becomes the meeting place for a local improv history group, the two find themselves falling for each other as they lean in to the hilarity surrounding them.  Short, sweet, and funny, this novella is a lovely bite-sized romance.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this e-book from the author in exchange for this review.

6DoBS - August - The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

We start with *The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose.

Heather Rose also wrote The Butterfly Man.

Not too many books have butterflies in the title.

But *In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez does.

In the Time of the Butterflies takes place in the Dominican Republic during Trujillo's rule.

*The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz also deals with the Trujillo's rule in the Dominican Republic.

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.

Someone by Alice McDermott was also shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. 

Alice McDermott is an inductee in the Empire State Center for the Book Hall of Fame.

Colson Whitehead, author of *John Henry Days, is also an inductee in the Empire State Center for the Book Hall of Fame.

Colson Whitehead has childhood ties to Long Island.

Alice Hoffman, author of The Museum of Extraordinary Things, grew up on Long Island.

From Modern Love to Extraordinary Things, it's all about museums that aren't.

*indicates that I've read the book

6DoBS - July - Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

We start with Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, in which 19-year-old Katherina begins an affair with a married man in the late 1980s and follows their relationship through the fall of East Germany and beyond.

Kairos is translated from German, as is *Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

In Inkheart, fictional characters escape from their books.

In *The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, the antagonist wants to live outside of his book.

The Eyre Affair takes place in an alternate history.

*The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal also takes place in an alternate history.

In The Calculating Stars, a meteor strike causes drastic climate change that changes the development of space travel. 

The development of space travel is changed by the explosion of the moon in *Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. 

Neal Stephenson received his Bachelor's degree from Boston University.

Isaac Asimov was a professor at Boston University.

Isaac Asimov won several Hugo Awards, including one for The Foundation Trilogy.

Carl Sagan also won a Hugo Award, for Cosmos.

From Kairos to Cosmos, it's all Greek to me!

*indicates that I've read the book

6DoBS - June - Butter by Asako Yuzuki

We start with Butter by Asako Yuzuki, which features a gourmet cook imprisoned for serial murder and the journalist who interviews her.

Butter is inspired by a true story, as is Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez.

Take My Hand centers around questions of reproductive freedom in the 1970s.

*All You Have to Do is Call by Kerri Maher is a fictionalized account of the Jane Collective, an underground abortion network in the 1970s.

All You Have to Do is Call takes place in Chicago.

Much of the action in *Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano takes place in Chicago.

Basketball is a big part of Hello Beautiful. 

Basketball also features in *The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian takes place in Washington State.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, the subject of Undaunted Courage, ends in Washington State.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition also crossed through Idaho.

What says Idaho more than potatoes?!  We end with The Potato: How the Humble Spud Saved the Western World.

From Butter to The Potato!

*indicates that I've read the book

a different approach

Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance

Reveiw: Christina Lauren's fans will likely agree that this offering is somewhat different from their previous romance novels, in that the steam level is greatly reduced, and they address some heavier themes than usual.  But if a good romance is about the emotions, their fans won't be disappointed as all the feels you expect to find in their stories is evident on nearly every page.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

6DoBS - May - The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop

 We start with The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop, which features a couple celebrating their anniversary when things take a dark turn.

The Anniversary is billed as an Australian novel, and books don't get much more Australian than *Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington.

Rabbit-Proof Fence features aboriginal Australian children, forcibly removed from their families who have escaped their government schools.

From Australia to the US, *This Tender Land by William Kent Kreuger also features native children who have escaped their government school.

Much of the action in This Tender Land takes place on the Mississippi River.

*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is the ultimate classic tale of a runaway's experience on the might Mississippi.

Mark Twain was a pseudonym used by Samuel Clemens.

Pablo Neruda was a pseudonym used by Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto.

Pablo Neruda was name-checked in the song La Vie Bohème in Rent.

Maya Angelou was also name-checked in La Vie Bohème.

*I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings takes place in Missouri.

*Welcome to the World, Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg is the first in the series that takes place in the fictional small town of Elmwood Springs, Missouri.

From Australia to Missouri!

*indicates that I've read the book

why does it have to end?!

Business Casual by B.K. Borison

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: romance

Review: I am so glad that I discovered Lovelight Farms and the town of Inglewild, and I hope that Borison changes her mind and writes more stories about other characters in the small town.  Borison's characters grow and change over the four books, but remain true to themselves, even when the focus has moved on to another couple.  My only complaint about this last installment is that Nova and Charlie's story is a bit too similar to Luka and Stella's story, but, again, it's Borison's characterizations that make this story a success.  Even if Nova and Charlie's path is similar to Luka and Stella's, they are very different characters, and that makes all the difference.  Borison has given us another warm and fuzzy (and steamy) love story.  You probably won't want to have to leave Inglewild either.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

6DoBS - April - start with a travel book

 Let's start in Hawai'i...

*Moloka'i by Alan Brennert takes place in the 1890s features a young Hawaiian girl who is diagnosed with Hansen's disease (leprosy, as it was known at the time) and is sent to the Kalaupapa, the leper colony on Moloka'i.

From one leper colony to another...

*Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice by Pam Fessler is a non-fiction book about the only leprosarium in the continental United States, located in Carville, LA and operational from 1894-1999.

Author Pam Fessler was a journalist for NPR, as was our next author.

It. Goes. So. Fast.: A Year of No Do-Overs by Mary Louise Kelly is the All Things Considered's host's reckoning with her struggle to balance work and family as her oldest son is a senior in high school.

From a memoir about parenting, to a memoir about a child-free woman who has to move back in with her parents.

*Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhonda Janzen is both hilarious and moving, as Janzen tells her story of going back home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis.

When I think of humor, I think of Dave Barry...

*Tricky Business by Dave Barry is where you find out what happens when a gambling cruise ship with a very ... interesting ... collection of people on board gets hit with a massive storm.

Of course, Dave Barry is very proud to be a Floridian.

And so we end in Florida.

And there you have it: Hawai'i to Florida in six books.

*indicates that I've read the book

6DoBs - March - Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

We start with *Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, which features a family of orchard farmers.

*At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier also features a family of orchard farmers.

Author Tracy Chevalier is an alum of Oberlin College, as is our next author.

*Song Yet Sung by James McBride is a historical fiction novel centering around slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore and the Underground Railroad.

 

From the Underground Railroad in Maryland, to the Underground Railroad in Ohio.

*The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton is a middle grade novel centering around a family which moves into a house that was a station on the Underground Railroad in Ohio.

Virginia Hamilton was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, as was our next author.

*Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler takes place in a dystopian society that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages, and follows one young woman determined to find a place that offers a chance for a better life.

Who does dystopia better than our next author?

*1984 by George Orwell is the classic cautionary tale about Big Brother and the Thought Police.

One book's title is a year in the past (although it was the future when he wrote the book), and our next book's title is a year in the near future.

*2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks is another dystopian novel that plays out what will happen if this trend continues...

And there you have it: from an idyllic orchard to a dystopian near-future.

*indicates that I've read the book