Mattia Goddard
Calling all theatre lovers! Where are my theatre geeks? This is our book. The intersection of Chekhov and Our Town is too much for my BFA in Theatre heart to take. Because I played the Stage Manager in Our Town in High School I was knee deep into this book on page TWO. Auditions for Our Town? I am paying attention. I really enjoyed this book. Ann Patchett coyly gives us THREE SISTERS on a CHERRY ORCHARD and theatre loving parents who quote Anton Chekhov. OKAY I am belaboring the point but all of you out there with no point of reference for any of this you will love this study of young love, parental love, sibling love and then that final deep and abiding love that comes from knowing who you are and being happy with the life you've chosen. That is the story Ann Patchett has created here. She has cleverly woven in the pandemic to a bygone story of young love lost- but boy does that story rage bright and brilliant. I've read many stories with parallel timelines. This one is different. The story told during summer stock 25+ years earlier is a wholly developed story in and of itself. These are not flashbacks. Ann Patchett truly introduces us to these young wild characters and invests her storytelling prowess in them. This book is going to stick with me. I loved it.
This was our book club pick for the month of September and it absolutely delivered. So much to discuss. We were transported to the 15th century Ming Dynasty, where we were privy to the private lives of China's elite class. Imagine practicing medicine but never touching blood and male doctors never so much as looking at their female patients. This is how medicine was unless there was a female who practiced hereditary medicine. The protagonist here was a real person in the late 1400s who learned the practice of women's medicine from her grandmother who practiced that same medicine. The bound feet- that hideous torture done to Chinese girls from the 10th century until the 20th century- was well explored, both from a child's and mother's perspective.
This book is chock full of beautiful, profound quotes sprinkled throughout the dialogue about everything from friendship, marriage, relationships, childrearing, love, and a funny one concerning mothers-in-law and their relationships with their daughters-in-law. We were astounded at their cultural norms. The idea of never leaving your compound- never seeing the town or the outside world. Not attending your own wedding banquet. Buying a servant for your child, buying concubines for your husband, selling your extra sons to the emperor to become eunuchs. This book takes you through all of this and so much more.
This book will get you thinking and talking about what has changed for women and what really hasn't. We were glad to meet this rare woman doctor who had a life so much fuller than the typical woman of her time and stature. The women in her part of China lived better and longer lives because of her.
The four phases of a woman's life- She begins the book with this and ends the book with it.
Divided this way:
the milk days,
the hair pinning days,
the rice and salt days, and finally,
the sitting quietly days.
Well if that doesn't say it all.
Excellent read. One of our liveliest discussions yet. Highly recommend.
I enjoyed this book. First, the title. Who exactly are the soulmates? In this story we get two marriages, both from the outside, look storybook perfect, two couples ideally suited. Then Sally Hepworth does her beautiful work of layering the issues, the cracks, the history. And it gets oh so juicy. I find her characters particularly well written, realistic in the examination of their daily lives and then also mental health issues. She handles it here with such deft. There is also intrigue and mystery and really great alternating POVs. I do love the Australian setting. Another good one.
This is a weird one- which is of course, the point. This is absurdist realism- messy female protagonists behaving in strange ways and existing in bizarre situations. I did not love this book as so many else have. I liked certain parts of it. Big segments are therapy notes and I found that writing to be crisp and funny and excellent. I did not care about the main character even though I could tell she was living out a flawed existence due to deeply repressed trauma. Part of the dark comedy of this book is that she works in the wellness culture field and yet is emotionally unwell. Her internal monologues were bizarre and even gross at some times, also often insensitive. She was rather a sad, even pathetic character. Overall, none of the characters here act in normal, expected ways and several don't seem particularly sane. If you like absurdist realities, give this one a go. The writing is strong, I just didn't love the story.
This book had boring characters and a boring storyline. I've loved Kubica's previous books but this one did not hold my interest. The two women in this story are high school teachers at the same school. They could've been interesting but alas they were not. It also felt like a lot of telling and not enough showing -which gets tedious to read.
I even figured out who the baddie was well before I was supposed to. I felt like I had seen a very similar storyline on The Closer years ago. Even the ending was missing some explanations- it kind of just jumped from that main important revelation to the resolution. Normally, I thoroughly enjoy Kubica's writing and especially her deep character building, but this one felt really slow. It was a miss for me.
I don't know how I came across this book as I usually do not pick up YA. There's a reason for that. This book is for your teenager- a young teenager. There is no cursing and no sex which is exceedingly rare and thus I know it will appeal to parents of readers. I did not love this book mainly because the main character was so self-involved, which is not unexpected in a 15 year old who has suffered trauma. So I think this book is excellent for teenagers, just not for this 40-something year old. One thing I loved- the map of the private island at the front of the book. I needed help visualizing all the houses and spots the narrator referenced. The map was a great choice.
Read this book immediately. It is one hundred percent worth the hype as it currently perches at #8 on the NYTIMES Bestseller List. Lisa Jewell has outdone herself with this one. I spent the hurricane reading this one. I even read by candlelight because we lost power during Idalia. It was unputdownable. Best to go in knowing little to nothing about it. I'll leave it at that. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
This book was so much fun. Perfect summer beach read in every way. I did however read it during and after Hurricane Idalia so I did not get the joys of being beach side with this one. I would definitely recommend You read it that way. It is fluff, but the delicious, scandalous, rich-people-behaving-badly type of fluff. It's not Real Housewives idiocy level - these women play far too much tennis and do loads of beachy outdoorsy activities. Plus they have lots of sex, lots of fancy drinks, and dress up in fabulous beachy-chic fashions. PLEASE HBO make this into a movie! So go in with these expectations and you will enjoy it. Expect anything more and you will not have fun with this one.
What I loved about this book is that these four women, all aged 60 use the invisibility of ageism to their advantage time and time again. If that is not the ultimate societal truism- far more than the virility and vitality of James Bond or the equivalent head turning beauty of a young Charlies Angels type. Old women are invisible and thus they can get away with murder. Now understand me- anyone reading this knows that 60 isn't OLD- but it's also not young and it's not sexy, not by conventional standards. These women age themselves by decades more in order to play up this idea that old people are harmless, and can thus be ignored. Then add in their decades of traditional training. Sure they can fire guns and blow things up, but they are taught the subtle art of killing- quietly and surreptitiously. The ingenious ways they kill people in this book astonished me. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these four women: their specialties, their histories, both shared and individual, and also how they lived through and understood, first sexism, then ageism and how they used both to their advantage and for their survival. This would make a killer movie. Highly recommend this one and it is a FUN read.
Parallel storylines following two women both running from messy, messy lives. This was a quick, compulsive read. I enjoyed the back and forth between the two women's stories and found myself thinking about this story when I wasn't reading it- always a good sign. This is not a new book, it came out in 2020 and hit my radar from other bookstagrammers' posts. If you see it on the Target book aisle, grab it and be confident that it's a solid escapist piece, one that will pull you in from page one and keep you sucked in until the last thread is tied up on the very last page.
This story opens with an unlikeable character - a writer- which of course, I love. In short order she manages to become rather grudgingly likable. In dual timelines, she takes us on a mournful retelling of her experiences with young love, and naïveté, then early parenting trouble. But then the story morphs into one of lies and secrets and eventually tragedy. All of this done with one of my favorite techniques- the book within a book. And wow did it work. It pulled me in and wound me up. The last 30 pages were so unexpected, so surprising, so intense. Great read.
Yet ANOTHER NYTIMES Bestseller deserving of all the hype. Is my faith in this country's readership returning? Who could not love Marcellus the giant pacific octopus? Oh what a clever story, so original, such a slice of joy, but with a side of sadness. It's hard not to ache for Tovah and then desperately root for her happy ending. This book is tremendously satisfying. Plus such a gorgeous cover- also a work of art- like the story within. Highly recommend.
My second pandemic story and back to back no less. I find I enjoy looking back on the early days of the global pandemic. Staying home with family, work and school suspended, loads of puzzles, books and binge watching. It's all here, the crazes at the super markets then the deserted shops, the fight to find hand sanitizer and the wiping down of every package we brought inside. I enjoyed reading about those shared experiences and in this case as far away as Dublin. Add in a dead body, then switch up the the timeline and POV- one chapter it's today and there's a moldering corpse, the next it's the meet cute 56 days prior. Then the author brilliantly gives us the same scenario over the subsequent 56 days from both character's perspectives. But not so much that it's repetitive. It feels like you're part of their secrets- of which there are several. And they are doozies. This was a great read if you're ready for the pandemic as a setting or perhaps a plot twist. I was definitely ready and this story really worked for me. Quite the ingenious co-mingling of ideas. Highly recommend.
This book! Ahhh! It was wonderful and funny and entertaining and everything good. First I learned the backstage life of an SNL writer (SNL -TNO -wink wink) then the pandemic hits and the book moves into an epistolary format. I happen to love that form of storytelling. Here it's email. Then, part 3 in our romcom is these two endearing characters together. This is not my usual genre, but after Prep, I'm a big Curtis Sittenfeld fan and loads of people I trust loved this read. I know exactly why. This book hits all the right notes. This was the absolute right palate cleanser for me after my last bloody, violent mystery. Highly recommend this one.
Cosby has done it again. This might be his best yet. I am already a huge fan of his characters, his rural Virginia settings, his always powerful choice of dialogue, the situations he puts his people into, but most of all I'm a fan of his almost poetic writing style. The words sing off the page. Just gorgeous, even when violent and full of bloodshed. He is fast becoming my favorite author. This book tackles topics that are both timely and timeless and crime noir lovers everywhere, heads up, this one is chef's kiss.
Another good Jessica Knoll read. I'm a big fan of Luckiest Girl Alive and this one has similar whip smart internal narratives. Each of the successful women portrayed on the reality tv show are well developed so I could tell them apart and I could visualize them on their tv sets living out their made up tv drama. I'm no fan of reality tv so this is not my usual fodder- but toss in a dead body- a murdered dead body- and then I'm interested. I did not see the ending coming or the various secrets the women were hiding so in the domestic suspense category that's a definite win. Good read, mines some topics about the lengths we go to for success and fame and when it all backfires, who comes out looking good and who looks bad. It's all about who can spin it best. We live in a screwed up world.
This was a good one. Three moms- “besties” -as the kids say. Their boys are likewise also besties. Then there's a dead body- which I love. These characters were well drawn, the neighborhood was unusual and interesting. I liked the writing throughout. My only issue is while I liked the ending, I wanted more from the epilogue. I had a few questions- nothing bad just things I'm wondering about- if anyone reads this one let's discuss. Good summer read, especially in these dog days- they are in Austin, TX in the same sweltering heat.
I stayed up into the wee hours to find out how the Padavano Sisters would turn out. I had already spent several earlier chapters in tears with them, so not finishing was not an option. This one is still on the NYTIMES Bestseller List as of this writing and definitely worthy of that honor. Often marketed as a modern retelling of Little Women, it is only that way in that the sisters compare themselves to the March sisters off and on throughout the story. Because to be perfectly frank, a modern retelling of Little Women is not my usual literary fare. If my bookish friends whose opinions I value- Kelly T and Narci - I'm looking at you- hadn't recommended this one so highly- I would've passed on it. I think this book touched me so deeply because I have 3 sisters of my own and I was raised in a tight knit Catholic family. I will be shipping my copy to one of my sisters immediately and then insisting she pass it along until we all have read it, wept a bit, and finally stopped to reflect on the power of familial love. Highly recommend.
I love the isolated, trapped, terrible weather plot line and this one did not disappoint. I appreciated the first 50 pages of getting to know Hannah, the main character and by far the most likable of the group. This helped me to easily keep these characters straight. I also enjoyed the Georgia setting. The family comes up from Florida to enjoy a weekend of unplugging in the Georgia mountains. Every thriller reader knows how dangerous that is. This book did a solid job of weaving in a DNA/Ancestry dot com subplot that, in my opinion, really worked. This one kept me guessing and kept me interested. Good read for domestic thriller lovers.
I am not one to choose rom-com books. I prefer murder and chaos and a high body count. So imagine my astonishment at thoroughly enjoying this well developed enemies to lovers workplace story - dare I say ROMANCE- with a solidly layered backstory and characters I actually cared about. All the Hallmark Holiday Movie lovers out there will adore this book - as will the readers who love an obscure literary reference- plus shades of famous bookish bits and characters sprinkled throughout. Book lovers, thus the appropriate title, of all stripes will find something to smile about when reading this book. Bonus for the New York lovers- the writer does a lovely job of describing the city in small, authentic ways throughout the story, as described by the main character. As a Northern transplant to the South, I absolutely loved those treasures. This one is a perfect, light summer read- you will be invested and you will feel really good when you come to the satisfying end. Highly recommend.
I do not have strong opinions about this one. Ehhhh...I was intrigued because she was an actress who moved from LA to Georgia. I don't love stalker storylines. They always seem like a one trick pony-nowhere new to go once you're on a stalker storyline. There was a subplot that was kind of interesting- not sure she fully pulled it off. Three stars, good, not great.
This book starts out as a well executed, unapologetic examination of a 30ish year old couple, whose lives are stalled, and their unhealthy one-sided relationship with a woman from their past. At about the 170 page mark it slowly becomes something else. The talk of “our lives are occurring in parallel dimensions” and “self actualizations” and that type of circular metaphysical talk actually manifests. At that point, I was reading a totally different book. This is where the book slid into a different genre. Horror. Perhaps Sci-Fi. It was interesting. I wanted to know what would happen to all of these people but man did I not expect those last hundred pages. I can't help but not love the horror/sci-fi genre- it's just not me. I like my fiction to be based in reality, but hey now- this woman write.
I picked this one up from it's place of distinction on the library kiosk during Pride Month. Part of my allyship is making an effort to read LGBTQIA authors. Rom Coms are not my usual genre of choice but this one did a solid job of giving the characters depth and the storyline plenty to work with. There were a good number of characters whose motivations were dodgey or at least seemingly sketchy. The protagonists both had compelling internal narratives. I liked them both and I wanted them to find their happily ever after. This was a well written story- not just a romance but a rom com with some nice depth to it.
I should probably mark what I'm about to say on the calendar- Wait for the HBO series on this one. Personally, this book works too hard to be clever and what the kids these days like to call meta. As in- so self aware that he's a writer telling the reader that he's writing a book. And boy does that cutsieness get tedious in written form. I think it will be less so on the screen. Plus, there were many women in the protagonist's life that were hard for me to keep straight. HBO will make this a non-issue. While I was interested in the crimes- both the 30 year old one and the modern day one- overall this story just wasn't for me.