The Bluest Eye - Review

The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
2 of 5 stars

Nope. Giving up at page 164 of 215, you'd think oh well, might as well finish. Nope. If the goal was to bash her point into my head repeatedly, mission accomplished, along with a major headache and feelings of disgust and depression.

Bethlehem: A Novel - Review

Bethlehem: A Novel🌟🌟🌟🌟
by Karen Kelly
Published July 9 2019 by St. Martin's Press 

I enjoyed this one, right from the start.  I have a thing for interesting cemeteries and their caretakers (my grandfather was one after his retirement and he sometimes took me, age 7 or so, to run around while he did his thing) so the first chapter sucked me in.

The cemetery was only one part of the story, but it's where a mysterious headstone is found and imparts some intrigue.  A work of fiction about the Bethlehem Steel company in Bethlehem PA and the families behind it, I am not sure now if the wealthy Colliers and Parrishes were real families or not.  They are all close friends and then inter-marry.  There isn't a lot of action; I just enjoyed reading about them and their relationship struggles.  The two storylines are 1962 and 1918-1924, with the focus being on the females who try to do more than just support their men. 

Just one complaint and it annoyed the heck out of me.  Several characters were called by their given names as well as their nicknames.  With three families in the cast, it's hard enough to keep them all straight.  But then add one or more nicknames per person and it gets boggling.

Not for everyone, but it fit my current mood. Thank you to St Martin's  Press for the complimentary copy.

Montauk - Review

Montauk 🌕🌕🌕🌓
by Nicola Harrison 
Publishing June 4 2019 by St Martin's Press 

3.5 stars.

This book is extremely well written, especially for a debut.  The author takes us to a new vacation hotspot in 1938, Montauk, Long Island, where New York's wealthiest plan to invest and spend their summers from then on.  Beatrice and her husband Harry hope to rekindle some of the spark in their marriage after failing to get pregnant.  Instead a giant chasm is created when Beatrice discovers some things about Harry, and then about herself.  She no longer feels she fits into such a life, being from a simpler background and finding the other wives to be mostly shallow and self-centered.  

The seaside town of Montauk, originally a small fishing village with a lighthouse and mysterious lighthouse keeper, is described with visuals that had me picturing every scene.  I was rooting for Beatrice to come into herself, even though there was more romance here than I usually get into.  I loved Dolly, one of the more likeable wives, and Elizabeth from the village, both of them straight shooters in contrast to Beatrice.  The ending had me reeling -- I will say it was unexpected and even over the top. Could have turned out much differently.

I read an egalley thanks to St Martin's Press via NetGalley.

The New Neighbors - Review

The New Neighbors
by Simon Lelic
Published April 10 2018 by Berkley

Many thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy, and many apologies for the tardiness of my review.  I don't  know why I delayed my reading of this, but it was well worth the wait.

Jack and Sydney have purchased a house together, fulfilling a dream.  The house was, shall we say, too good to be believed, with the deal they were given against other higher bidders.  Almost as if a higher power wanted them in this house at this time.  Creepy things start to occur, beginning with a discovery in the attic.  Excursions into old attics always give me chills.  Then noises in the night and other mysterious happenings, not to mention an a$$hole  of a neighbor, set against Jack and Sydney each telling their background stories, kept me riveted.  I finished it in two days.  

I would seek out recommendations for reading this author again. 

Between the Lies - Review

Between the Lies   🌟🌟🌟

by Michelle Adams
Publication March 5 2019 by St Martin's Press

Anytime a book or a TV show resorts to a character contracting amnesia, it is automatically going to be hard to pull off as credible or interesting to me.  It has been done and overdone.  So from the beginning of this, I needed to be impressed with the rest of the story or the characterizations.  If you like the amnesia tactic, you'll likely enjoy this much more than I did.  

The characters themselves were all a bit of a mystery, which can be intriguing.  Here it is mainly because the main character and narrator Chloe has amnesia  and cannot remember even who her mother, father, and sister are.  So I had no idea who to trust or believe when she went to recuperate in their house.  Chloe was in a very serious car accident (hit her head of course) but can remember nothing about it.  It appears she has no friends or job as she cannot remember anyone else existing in her life.  Gradually she begins to suspect that her family is covering up or making up facts about the past.  I felt her frustration as the storyline progressed only as quickly as her memories returned.  There is one main mystery that I needed to see the answer to, and it turned out a little disappointing. Then the last chapter made so sense, partly because there seems to be a major misprint in my galley copy (I am out on a limb here).  

Overall the star value of 3 is mostly for the lies, secrets, and suspicions.  A point was deducted for the amnesia.

The Au Pair - Review

The Au Pair  🌟🌟🌟🌟

by Emma Rous
Published January 8 2019 by Berkley Books

This was a mighty good suspenseful tale of family secrets and misfortunes never told, and what can happen when one starts asking questions.  The inquiring mind belongs to Seraphin (a name new to me and highly distracting, since I kept wondering how it's pronounced, why didn't they just call her Sara for short instead of Seph, etc., etc.).  Her chapters were less interesting, as her character seemed shallow and undeveloped.  After finding a snapshot of her family taken on the day of her birth, and the day of her mother's suicide,  she becomes obsessed with finding out if she actually belongs in this family or if something shady transpired that day.  There are rumors of there being only one baby born, rather than two, or maybe there were three.  

The alternating chapters belonged to the au pair, spanning the eleven months just before Seraphin and her twin brother were born.  Here's  where we see how the secrets came into being.  The au pair knows everything, it appears, but someone is threatening her not to talk about it. 

As all is finally revealed, you had better be paying attention or it could become downright confusing.  I had most of it figured out but there still remained some details, which kept coming and coming and coming.  Maybe the final chapter could have been eliminated altogether to give the reader more to imagine.   Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street - Review

The Girls at 17 Swann Street  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
by Yara Zgheib
Publishing Feb 5 2019 by St. Martin's Press

I do not cry over books.  I might tear up a bit, but seldom is there actual crying.  This book made me cry, multiple times.  

Anna was a ballet dancer, was living in Paris with her French husband, eating fine meals, drinking wine.  Ballerinas are pressured to stay thin, get even thinner, so eating habits had to change.  She also had lost some family members, tragically.  Anna did not choose to become anorexic; she did not consciously decide that 88 pounds was her ideal weight, or that fruit and popcorn  were her main food groups. It just happened as the disease aggressively and stubbornly took over her mind and body.

Now in Midwestern America, she goes for treatment at 17 Swann Street and so much happens in such a short time for her.  I was taken in by all the young women there and their daily struggles.  A very emotional  journey, for me at least.  

A quote from the preview copy I read:  "Only 33% of women with anorexia nervosa maintain full recovery after nine months . Of those, approximately one-third will relapse after the nine-month mark." 

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin's Press for offering me a copy through NetGalley. I will be recommending this one to all my reading friends.   

In the Blink of an Eye

In the Blink of an Eye  💔💔💔💔
by Jesse Blackadder
Published March 2019 by St. Martin's Press 

In the blink of an eye is how long it can take to lose track of where your beautiful and smart 2 year old has wandered off to, and how long to realize that someone <spoiler alert> left the pool gate unlatched and your son is lying face down in the water.

This is a very sad (understatement) rendering of something that happens all too often, as the author knows all too well.  To watch this family, already with some rips in its seams, get completely shred to pieces is difficult  and emotional.  It's really well thought out and told.  I loved the epilogue.

My only complaints are these:  Telling the mother's  version of the story  in second person.  "You" did this and then "you" did that. Who is saying this and to whom?  Caught me off guard but I did get used to it.

1/2 star deducted.

Also there are paragraphs and paragraphs of incomplete sentences, which always throws off my rhythm until I see why it is so. For example, instead of someone saying, "I got up and I walked  to the kitchen," it would be more like "Got up.  Went to the kitchen.  Remembered something."  I mean, I write personal emails like that in the interest of time, but find it unprofessional otherwise.  Just my own opinion and personal preference.

Another 1/2 star deduction. 

Otherwise, let me say that I couldn't put this down.  I cared about the family and whether they would heal themselves as individuals and help each other to heal as a unit.  A big thank you to NetGalley and to Jordan Hanley of St Martin's Press.

The Kennedy Debutante - Review

The Kennedy Debutante   3.5 stars
by Kerri Maher
Published October 2 2018 by Berkley  Books

The Kennedy family makes for interesting story fodder, that's  for sure.  If nothing else, they provide a look into surviving multiple tragedies while maintaining a pretty charmed existence. Joe Sr. and Rose had nine children and tragedies befell five of them, six if you include Teddy's story that was mostly covered up.  Then there was John Jr. and his wife, and I'm purposely leaving out the other grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  But it makes me wonder and marvel at their history.

I did not know much about the fourth oldest, Kathleen, aka Kick Kennedy, maybe the most tragic and short-lived of them.   Because the family was living in London during Joe's term as Ambassador, Kick's debut took place there.  These were her formative years and so she made her best friends and social connections in London.  She would always consider London her home, not America. Her true love was an English noble who would one day become Duke of Devonshire.  He was Protestant, which was a major issue with his family, with the Catholic church, and the Kennedys, especially Rose.  Most of the book delves into Kick's conflicted feelings about marrying for love or marrying to keep the peace in the two families.  I hope today religion isn't as big an issue, but I don't  know.

This kept me interested, even though it felt like a really long time before Kathleen and Billy finally found happiness.  Actually it was about 5 years, and then very short-lived because, again, tragedies ensue.  The author gives some additional history at the end, and then Google led me to reading about the Astors  and Fred Astaire's sister. Thanks  to  NetGalley and the publisher for this enjoyable preview copy.   

Night of Miracles - Review

Night of Miracles  🌟🌟🌟🌟
by Elizabeth Berg
Published November 13 2018 by Random House

Books that are very sweet or saccharine are usually a big turn off.  But when there is literally sugary sweetness, as in cookies and cakes, and lots of them, count me in.  And with this author,  I am 100% in, knowing it's going to be a moving experience, as it was.

Lucille, alone in life but never lonely with all her good friends, has opened her house to baking classes, so there is much to drool over while she describes her goodies. Ancillary characters either work  in or go to the local restaurant for breakfast -- some will order an Overnight French Toast which makes its own syrup.  Yes, lots of sweetness.

As in Arthur Truluv, the characters that Berg has created are people you would want to know.  My favorites were Iris, a recent divorcee from Boston, trying out small town Missouri for the first time, and Tiny, a thoughtful, kind taxi driver and friend to all.  Oh, and little Link, Lucille's precocious neighbor boy whose mother has cancer.  

I enjoyed this tremendously, through lots of tears (happy tears and sad too), and recommend to anyone, especially if you liked Arthur Truluv.  If Ms. Berg writes more of these small town tomes, count me in.  

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.  4.5 stars.

Bring Me Back - Review

Bring Me Back  🌟🌟

by B. A. Paris
Published June 19 2018 by St. Martin's Press 

I have read all three of B A Paris'  books and find they follow a pretty similar pattern:  Intriguing start; slow, repetitious and annoying in the middle; and a surprising, out of left field ending.  At least she has had in all her efforts two-thirds of a good book in the making.  But to me that's not really enough.  When I read a chapter detailing events from one perspective,  and then the very same events are recounted from another perspective, the progress of the story stalls out and makes zero headway.  Even moreso when characters are on the unlikeable side.  My mind starts wandering...and wondering if I should finish.

I finish most things that I start, but here I admit to skimming some of the Russian doll rhetoric and much of the dialog.  The Layla and Ellen "transformations" were quite unbelievable in my opinion but I won't say any more than that.

An ARC  from NetGalley and the publisher.

Leave No Trace - Review

Leave No Trace  🌟🌟🌟
by Mindy Mejia
Published September 4th 2018 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books

This was a comp copy from the publisher that I was thrilled to read since I enjoyed the author's first book so much.  She has a writing style that is easy to understand and get sucked into.  She also develops her stories slowly and methodically.  Unfortunately, this one moved too slowly in the beginning for me and became repetitive when Luke was in the care facility and acting out quite violently in his attempts to get back to his sick father somewhere in the wooded Boundary  Waters area of rural Minnesota. I guess I was hoping to know more about the father and son missing for ten years, and less about the young woman speech therapist, whose story did not seem credible.  The ending chapters tied it together, and even that had parts not entirely believable. 

 This took me a long time to finish so I wish it could give it a higher rating than 2.5 stars, so I'm  rounding up.   

Not Her Daughter - Review

Not Her Daughter   🌝🌝🌝🌛
by Rea Frey
Published by St Martin's Griffin August 21 2018

Has she been stolen...or rescued?

Amy has a five year old daughter, Emma, and the two of them are like oil and water in their very damaged relationship.  Amy is physically abusive because Emma is a contentious brat.  Emma is contentious because she knows her mother doesn't love her.  Nothing good can come from this continuing in the same manner.

Sarah is an innocent bystander, a successful business woman, who has witnessed  firsthand the awful parenting of Amy.  Having been abandoned by her own mother at the age of eight, she compares her own feelings with what she believes Emma is experiencing.  One night when Amy locks Emma out of the house with no dinner, Sarah takes Emma and thus starts a kidnapping investigation and a series of close calls for Sarah and Emma on he run.  Emma, of course, is now the perfect child being with someone who actually cares about her.  

I couldn't stop thinking about these people even after long stretches when I wasn't able to get back to my reading.  The author had me caring about what was going to ultimately happen.  Were Sarah and Emma perhaps too perfect together?  Maybe.  Was Amy the ultimate mother from hell with not a single redeeming quality and no regrets for her actions?  Hell yes!

Toward the middle and onward there were a few plot holes and I thought what happened in Chicago was not at all believable, but overall this made for an addictive read. 

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for my copy.  

Providence - Review

Providence  🌟🌟

by Caroline Kepnes  

Published June 19 2018 by Lenny

The first two books by this author, You and Hidden Bodies, were 4 star reads for me, and I thought them clever and sort of fun.  This book started out strong, has a good cover, and then instead of fun became just silly.

Childhood pals Jon and Chloe  are devastated when tragedy strikes -- Jon is kidnapped by a substitute teacher, held in a basement in an induced coma for four years, and then set free as an experiment of the sub teacher.  The experiment somehow gave Jon super powers which I won't go into, and I wish the author hadn't either.  There is also a good chunk of pages devoted to H.P. Lovecraft books and Lovecraft devotees.  I didn't know who he was before so had to look him up.  Monsters.  Imaginary places and made-up words no one can pronounce.   No thanks.  

By the end, the number of times that Chloe and Jon almost met up, or were in the same place without seeing it, or dialed each other and then hung up -- it became repetitive, drawn out and silly.  A disappointment to me.  I know Kepnes can write, though.  The chapters told by the detective were really quite good.  Maybe he should have a book of his own  

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

Country Dark - Review

Country Dark    🌟🌟🌟🌟

by Chris Offutt

Published April 10 2018 by Grove Press

So much to love in these few pages, Tucker being the main thing. He's a Korean War veteran, hitching a ride home, saving a girl from being raped by her uncle and then marrying her, making a life for them and their children by boot legging.  The writing is spare but still manages descriptions that give you all the visuals you need to imagine their small house in backwoods Kentucky, the wooded setting, the ruts in the road leading through the hills, and all the struggles endured.  You see the good in Tucker as well as the bad.  The bad gets him into trouble, and the good saves his hide time and time again.  After all, he goes off only when he needs to protect himself or his loved ones.  I can't say I agree with some of the things he did  but he knew how to survive (in Korea, in prison, and in the hills) and did it well, better than most.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

What Happened - Review

What Happened  🌟🌟🌟🌟
by Hillary Clinton
Published September 12 2017 by Simon & Schuster

Great book on audio, narrated by HRC herself.  Following are just some notes I made while listening to her tell me What Happened.  Not really a review, just a few thoughts and lots of quotes (actually more than a few as I got a little carried away, sorry!):

In the days following the 11-8-16 election, what I call "The end of the world as we know it," dozens of women apologized to Hillary for not voting. A woman forced her daughter to come over in a restaurant and apologize for not voting.  Hillary wanted to throttle her, or at least say, geez ya just have to vote!  But she did neither, composed and polite as she is. 

....

Her marriage really does sound solid although maybe unusual.  I think they're best friends and good for each other.  I am always wondering about that.  Almost died laughing after learning that they actually watch the Good Wife together!  Can you say... irony?

....

"I did my best 

It wasn't much

I couldn't feel

So I tried to touch.

I've told the truth

I didn't come to fool you.

And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue 

But Hallelujah  

"I'm not giving up and neither should  you."

Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton, Saturday Night Live  Nov. 2016.  

....

"I thought I'd  be a damn good President," a quote from HRC.  😭

....

HRC on Women's reproductive rights:

Texas has Defunded Planned Parenthood and refused to expand Medicaid, and maternal fatalities doubled between 2010 and 2014. Six hundred  women have died in TX, not from abortions, but from trying to give birth.  The number of teenagers having abortions actually increased when support for family planning was cut -- in one county up 190% between 2012 and 2014.

....

"Well-behaved women seldom make history."  Laurel Thatcher Ullrich

....

" When any barrier falls in America for anyone, it clears the way for everyone." HRC  

....

Those damn emails!  They occupied so much time during the election  and they do so in this book too.  Glad she explained the whole thing so well - I wish everyone would read at least that part as it's  well worth it.

....

Those damn Russians.  If you make it through  the email part, hold on to your seat because next:  The Russians are coming!  All I kept thinking was "What a freaking $h*itstorm!"  Lots of people to blame all around for doing essentially NOTHING once the extent of the Russian interference became common knowledge.

....

I thought this a very worthwhile way to spend my time. 

Eagle & Crane - Review

Eagle & Crane A Novel 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
by Suzanne Rindell
Published July 3 2018 by G. P. Putnam's Sons

I love this author and this book was a fantastic read.  I'll read anything she writes after The Other Typist, which had me bewitched but also bewildered.  Eagle and Crane fortunately skips the bewilderment and goes straight to endearment and heartbreak.  

Two boys, one a Japanese American, the other white, grow up on the same section of farmland in pre - World War II California.  Their common age and venue make friends out of them despite their families' histories.  Eventually they join a flying circus together and spend some time away from home learning to be stunt men and pilots.  Their friendship hits some bumps but nothing like when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and the war and internment camps are in their backyard.  Oh, and there is also a young woman involved.

To avoid spoilers I'll simply say that the ending has some nice twists, one you might see coming or not, which is always a good thing.  The characters and the story, adventures and history galore, will stay with me for a long time to come.  

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

The Last Cruise

By Kate Christensen 
Published July 10 2018 by Doubleday 
🌟🌟🌟⭐

3.5 stars rounded up.

If you have no desire at all to ever embark on a cruise ship, this book will reaffirm that notion.  If you have cruised and want to go again, you may change your mind after reading this book.  I am firmly in the first category since I suffer from motion sickness.  Now I also suffer from fear of being stranded in the middle of the ocean with no power, no crew, diminishing food supply, and a chance of rain.  For these passengers on the final voyage of The Isabella, at least there was plenty of wine and whiskey.  

The Isabella is being decommissioned or whatever you call it, and this one last voyage from California to Hawaii will be reminiscent of the good old days, in both music and food.  We get to know the musical quartet, from Israel, and one of the chefs, Hungarian, plus a couple of the passengers, Valerie and Christine.  The crew has discovered that they're  all being fired by the cruiseline once in Hawaii, and it's  not going over well.  Valerie is there to write about the dynamics of a crew made up of diverse cultures and their treatment by corporate, and then her story turns into something much larger in scale when the crew quits.  Christine is the light of their cruiseship lives, but she doesn't know if her own life, her marriage to a farmer, is what she wants.

So much going on here yet I had no problem keeping up with all the names and places.  The ending might make you angry or sad or confused, depending on how you take it.  My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.   

Love and Ruin - Review

Love and Ruin by Paula McClain

Published May 1 2018 by Ballantine Books

🌟  🌟  🌟  

3.5 stars.

At nearly 400 pages, I'm afraid this felt long-ish to me.  Not a fan of war stories except WW2, I probably should have skimmed  through the Spanish Civil War and the Finnish Russian war in the first half of the book.  I probably did skim the parts on Ernest Hemingway's second marriage to Paula, who he is leaving for our narrator, Martha Gellhorn.  No matter how romantic the adventures of Ernest and Martha may have been, I am not a fan of serial cheaters being seriously considered as husband material.  You know what they say:   "If he cheats WITH you, he will cheat ON you."  I couldn't buy Ernest as a romantic, knowing how many wives he ultimately had.  He actually was a little boy in need of constant attention and reassurance.  He was brash and brazen.  Sound like anyone else you know?  Yuk.

What kept me reading was that ultimately I came to like Martha for her independent thinking and having goals of her own, other than that of being his wife.  Also the fact that they were both writers working on different material, their struggles described in great detail, and the many different homes they had, was all interesting to me.   Then WW2 hit closer to home at about 75% in, and the ending was sad but a fine depiction of a woman with ambition, spirit, and intelligence.  The author had a great admiration for this woman, which is evident in the story telling.  

My thanks to NetGalley and Ballentine Books.

Every Note Played - Review

Every Note Played🎵🎵🎵🎵
by Lisa Genova
Published March 20 2018 by Scout Press

4+ stars.  I am a huge Lisa Genova fan, having read and loved every one of her books now (Still Alice is still my favorite).  I always learn so much in her books, and each is about a different disease or condition that someone outside of the medical community like me may not have heard much about--as in Still Alice and Love Anthony, or were completely unaware of-1as in The O'Briens and Left Neglected).  

One of my Utah cousins, when we first found each other 13 years ago as a result of our genealogical research, told me at that time that his wife had ALS, which I had only heard of as Lou Gehrigs disease, and I knew only that it was very bad.  My cousin gave me periodic updates on her deterioration (I never met her),  until death finally freed her from her misery. What I remember most is when she could no longer swallow.  How can your body fail you like that and yet you're still hanging on?  But it wasn't long after that.

In Every Last Note, Richard had been a famous classical pianist before ALS struck.  He was divorced and living alone when he lost the use of one arm and then the other.  Then one leg; then both.  His ex-wife didn't want to do it, but offered up her home, formerly his home,  where she would take care of him along with the home health aides Richard was already paying for.  Genova always gives us the big picture, not only how a disease strikes the victim but also the affects on the caregivers.  She makes us think about our resilience, adaptability, our ability to forgive, and how to move on.  The ending was a tear jerker but I can't see how it could go any other way.  

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.