Reviews and Comments

I might be a David Mitchell fan. This was superb. It's a sweeping novel about four very different young people who form a band in the late 1960s. It's also about the times, their families, and how hard they work. Without spoiling any of the plot, characters from Cloud Atlas and Bone Clocks might appear, also. I found myself caring very much for these four people, their manager, and their families, as well. It's a fascinating read, and I do recommend it.

Rachel and Toby's marriage has become untenable, and the omniscient narrator describes Toby's life as a doctor and his history with Rachel, and his feelings about everything--Rachel, himself, his life, and his two children.

It's not long before the reader will understand that the narrator is actually one of Toby's oldest friends. Eventually, her character and life become illuminated, as well, and it becomes a second point of view. Near the end, this friend runs into Rachel, and spends some eye-opening time with her, as well.

I admired this story not just for making me care about these three characters, but how it reveals these relationships. Which Fleishman is in trouble? I discovered that I'd made a certain assumption in the very beginning.

This novel touches on a number of topics, too, especially about women's career struggles. There is also the conundrum of children and very young people's relationship to the internet and social media. And online dating apps? Yikes.

I recommend this highly.

Rémy Ngamije has written an intriguing and painful coming of age story about an intelligent and unusually insightful young man. His name is Séraphin, born in Rwanda to educated, prosperous parents who were forced to flee their country, along with their three sons. Séraphin has memories of living in different places, before settling in Windhoek, Namibia.

Everywhere his family has lived, they have been treated with diminished respect for being immigrants, sometimes called refugees, which in some places has a derogatory implication. Séraphin, always atune to his surroundings, is very sensitive and easily angered by this unfairness. Additionally, he is verbally talented and able to interpret and articulate what he sees.

During most of this novel, Séraphin is attending law school in Cape Town, South Africa, and dreaming of remaining there. As we follow Seraphin's adventures with his group of friends, we see a South Africa in which Apartheid has ended, but racism is still very much apparent.

Rémy Ngamije's writing style is beautiful, I love the inner dialogue Séraphin has with himself, and the characters of his friends are well developed and interesting. Their conversations are sometimes hilarious and usually philosophical. We are in brilliant company.

Also, I love the way we are let into the stories of the adults in Séraphin's life, especially each one of his parents. They, too, were bright young people, working hard to achieve their dreams. And suffering in similar ways.

This is an extraordinary coming of age story. There may be some instances when Séraphin might be immature and not totally likeable, but then, just like any other person his age, he must do his own growing up. In Séraphin's case, growing into himself is full of a number of mean, grievous obstacles, but he is up to the challenge.

I highly recommend this. It is both thought provoking and beautiful. For me, it was an educational peek into another culture, as well.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read a magnificent book I might not have discovered, otherwise.

When I heard an old interview of Octavia Butler on NPR, I was both very impressed and very surprised that I had never heard of her. She won a MacArthur Fellowship, Hugo, and Nebula awards. At the time, there were so few women's names in science fiction, and even fewer who were African American.

This latest mystery from Tana French is a departure from her usual, and as usual, the writing is just beautiful. This story is more about the characters and relationships than it is about a mystery. It's about healing and closure, life changes, and finding one's way in a new landscape.

I did not need to suspend my belief with this story at all, but just read on, in awe of a narrative that makes everything fall into a peaceful place.

Of course, I recommend this.

Author Stuart Turton has written another clever and creative novel with engaging characters and mystifying happenings. The only thing I'll give away is the fact that the reader does not have all the information needed to solve this mystery ahead of the denouement. So, surprise!

I do recommend this one. Enjoy!

This murder mystery that takes place during an extremely pretentious, extravagant wedding, and surprise, the bride and groom are both thoroughly unlikeable. Also, some of this story is predictable, while other parts seem like wild coincidences. And yet, I enjoyed this very much. The manner in which each character's story unfolds, and then how they come together, is effective and satisfying.

This was fun, and I do recommend it.

4.5

Vern has grown up in a commune, one that is organized by a religious cult. As a bright child, she begins to question the beliefs of the adults raising her and chafes at the rules imposed on her. At the age of fifteen, she has already been married off to the cult leader and is pregnant. Desperately unhappy and with no one she can relate to, she escapes into the surrounding woods.

Rivers Solomon has drawn Vern's character in a well-written, intelligent manner. Vern is a young woman who is torn between some of the teachings of Cainites and what her intelligence perceives to be her truth. It is important to the story that the Cainites are African-Americans who separate themselves from the surrounding economy, especially white culture. The members of this community have sought to live together and help one another without persecution and mistreatment. However, as Vern slowly realizes, the Cainites are still victims. There is an atrocity happening here, and it's told as an unfolding mystery.

Vern's life in the woods is filled with birthing and raising twins, survivalist skills, and finding herself. She is a complex character who is damaged and confused by her childhood, angry with the adults in her life, especially her mother, and trying her hardest to be a better mother to her children. It is during this time in the woods that this novel begins to seem like science fiction--the way Vern is changing and her superhuman skills and strength alert us that something has been done to her.

Without giving away too much of the story, Vern does eventually become involved with other people and is able to confront her past as well as her present.

The events I'm leaving out in this review are quite fascinating. The action is well-paced, the characters come off the page, and it's a pleasure to read about such strong female characters. This is a thought-provoking, good read.

Thank you to Netgalley for this opportunity!

This story is set in the late 1970's and is the story of how Cassie Lyman, a graduate student, navigates a critical time in her life. She is developing a research subject for her doctoral thesis in women's history, when she comes across a fascinating amount of information at Smith College about Kate Easton, a woman who founded the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916. Cassie also discovers that she is actually related to Kate Easton.

At this point, Cassie has been living in Minnesota, but she has returned to her childhood stomping grounds for the wedding of her sister. So, in the foreground of this story is Cassie's current family drama surrounding the wedding and-- other later developments. Meanwhile, Cassie is obsessed with reading Kate Easton's journal entries and letters. As time goes on, Cassie finds parallels between her life and her great grand aunt's, and is thankful for and awed by the work and strength exhibited by her predecessor.

I enjoyed the historical background of this story-- Kate Easton's writing was the best part of this historical novel. She seemed real. Unfortunately, Cassie did not come off the page for me, and I thought that she seemed too young. For example, the petulance she feels towards her mother's bossiness before and during a family wedding was surprisingly immature. Then, she is absent during most of her sister's wedding reception because she can't resist going up to her room to read Kate's letters. This seemed both rude and childishly self-absorbed. Also, the way she avoids her husband during the event, which he has had to fit around his schedule, seems unfair.

One part of Cassie's life that is never developed is how she came to be married to Martin, in the first place. Their marriage is an important part of Cassie's life, and so should have been drawn with more detail.

In contrast to the dearth of background on Cassie's marital situation, there is a lot of dialogue, much of which I found awkward and sometimes unlikely.

In the end, I thought her life came together easily, with her problems solved in predictable ways. This is a light, pleasant read, but not overly compelling. The history about Massachusett's Birth Control League was intriguing.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me this opportunity.

This is a powerful, beautifully written novel that will stay with me forever. It starts during the Jim Crow era in Florida, and in the beginning, the main protagonist is Elwood Curtis, a gentle, bright young man with a bright future-- that is, until he is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reform school. This school turns out to be a violent place where the boys are trapped and enslaved until they age out, if they live that long.

The school in this novel is based on the real life Dozier School, which operated for over a century. This novel puts faces on some of the most vulnerable victims. In this novel, Elwood is befriended by Jack Turner, who has a different kind of intelligence and is a survivor. Their friendship becomes not only special, but of the utmost importance. Together, they can stay alive.

I would recommend this to absolutely anyone. It's a masterpiece.