Ahhh, back in Three Pines! Well, not exactly with this one in the series, but it still has all the familiar sumptuousness of the first three books and, of course, the incomparable Inspector Gamache. I was happy to have timed this for some warm weather reading (before the inevitable June-uary hits Seattle) as it’s set at a secluded lake resort in the summer. I also serendipitously timed it for a rather stressful week around here, and these are such cozy and comfortably familiar reads. I feel as if this series gets better with each book. This was book four and number 15 (!) comes out later this year. I'm so glad I can keep working my way through them for years to come.
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I'm rather picky about suspense or thriller novels - I have to be really invested in the plot, or really invested in the characters. I would say that this debut novel from Ellen LaCorte definitely grabbed my attention with her plotting. Even though it's pretty clear what's going on early in the novel, with some unreliable narration, I breezed through this book curious as to how she'd bring the two women together.
Dual narratives are a favorite of mine, especially when they seem like nearly unrelated accounts that dramatically collide in the final pages of a book. The author was a little heavy handed with Rena's unbearable personality and grammar (if you are a grammar nerd, it will make you CRINGE), and Claire's character felt somewhat wooden and cliched. However, I couldn't help but turn the pages in their increasingly fraught, increasingly sinister, cat and mouse dance.
If you're looking for a quick and easy thriller that doesn't require a lot of brain space for the beach this summer, this would certainly fit the bill. Trigger warning, though, for child abuse. Many thanks to Harper Books for a complimentary advance copy for my honest review!
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This was an utterly absorbing, stay up late turning the pages courtroom drama! Not only is it an unflinching dissection of modern parenthood, and how we can never truly understand each other’s complex experience, but a whodunnit that had me guessing until the very end. This is what I expect from thrillers, yet they don’t seem to deliver- perhaps I should read more courtroom dramas?
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I am admitting that, until now, I have not consumed any of Anne Lamott's work. The spiritual woo-woo is just so. not. my. bag. However, I think all of us can use a little soothing and hope in these ridiculous times and it's been a little stressful in my little corner of the world. I figured this would be as good a time as any to give her, and Notes on Hope, a shot. One of the reasons I don't jive with self-help style books is that I find them to be just stating the obvious but in a pretty way. Certainly Lamott falls into this category for me, but she was so darn funny and she states the obvious in a profound, not just pretty, way. "Expectations are resentments under construction." Dang.
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Circe was one of absolute favorite books last year and I'm glad I finally got around to reading her first novel! This was just as readable and compelling as Circe, and I'm beginning to think I need to read more Greek mythology. Or is it just Miller's amazing storytelling? This account of Achilles and the Trojan war from the perspective of his companion and love, Patroclus, lends so much humanity and heart to the tale. I'd say I loved Circe a smidge more for her searing one liners and inherent feminism, though!
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I spotted this on the paperback picks shelf at the library and I'm so glad that I FINALLY read a graphic novel for adult readers. Certainly I have enjoyed a smattering of middle grade, and enjoyed them immensely. But this was on a completely different level, the emotions and perspective that Bui brings to her family story is downright visceral. It's a heartbreaking story about migrants, trauma, and family. I can't recommend it enough.
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Thanks to the buzz around this Reese's Book Club pick, I decided to listen to this audio book and it was lovely, and sad. Her vivid descriptions of young love, Italy, and food were lovely. Her story about losing her husband to cancer when their daughter was only seven broke my heart. It hit close to home, too, because I lost my own father (to a heart attack) when I was only seven. It made me ache for her daughter, for childhood me, for her as a mother, and for my own mother. The relationship with her Sicilian mother-in-law is especially touching and beautifully hopeful in the end.
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The only other book I've read by Gilbert was Eat, Pray, Love (shocker!) and I didn't care for it, for the same reason many others did not - it screamed of privilege and I'm not big on those 'stating the obvious' type of self help books. But, oh man, I am so very glad I put that aside to read City of Girls. I have such a hard time getting into the details of why I love a book when I LOVE IT SO MUCH. All the platitudes apply: vivid characters, sweeping sense of place, a propulsive story, etc. etc. At nearly 500 pages I burned through this in just a few days. This coming of age story is reminiscent of one of my long ago favorites: Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk, mashed with a recent favorite: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Gilbert just infuses such beautiful self awareness and 'HELL YEAH' into her characters - it's going into my all time greats, no doubt.
"When I was younger, I had wanted to be at the very center of all the action in New York, but I slowly came to realize that there is no one center. The center is everywhere - wherever people are living out their lives."

I enjoyed O'Farrell's most recent fiction novel, This Must be the Place, and picked up her memoir after hearing so many (correct) rave reviews. Her 'Seventeen Brushes with Death' are harrowing, lyrical, wrenching and also life affirming. So often she brought me to tears or heart pounding fear with the terrible hardships she's suffered and I had a GREAT DEAL of righteous anger on her behalf - seriously, her story about birthing her first child is rage inducing, and the treatment by the other children when she returned to school after a life threatening illness is just terrible. I also did some googling after reading (always the sign of a great book) and she didn't set out to make this for public consumption, but an account of her life for her daughter who suffers terribly from life threatening allergies. To show her that we are all suffering in some way, so close to death an any moment. She didn't even take an advance on the book, well only one pound for legal reasons, in the event she did not want to publish. It's just all around remarkable.
For more reviews and boksih musings visit http://www.bornandreadinchicago.com/
For more reviews and bookish musings visit http://www.bornandreadinchicago.com/