The Heart of Everything by Marc Levy

 

A fun, quick read about a man making amends with his dead father and going on a big adventure (with said father) to do so.  Yes, I did mention that his father is dead.  Read on.

This novel has some great descriptive writing.  You really feel like you are there with Thomas, a famous pianist, during his concert, during his chats with his breezy loving life Mama (I loved her!).  The entire concept of doing this favor for his dad is really creative.  Thomas learns a lot about his dad that he could not have known while his dad was alive.  Anyone that has lost a parent will know that desire for just five more minutes with them.  Thomas gets that and probably more than he ever imagined, but not more than he needed.

If I had edited this book, I would have pointed out a few things:  1 - please have Thomas (eventually) put on headphones so it doesn't look like he is talking to himself!  This actually drove me crazy.  2 - No way Thomas would have walked home from that restaurant.  Not in that city!!  3 - I don't think the book tells you what year this is set in, but they exchanged emails??  Uh, no.  They exchanged phone numbers and texted each other.  4 - There is an editorial disconnect in the dialogue on page 147, which confused me as to who was saying what.  5 - There is a word missing on page 163.  See if you can find (or NOT find) it!  

Now, these are tiny details.  I also felt like the title didn't really "match" the book.  I have started to see that more and more lately.  But these things did not deter me (nor do they have anything to do with the author in most cases) from reading this fun story, and I would recommend it.  

Note - this is my first NetGalley review.  Hoping to have more soon.  Usually NetGalley books are ARCs or newly published. 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

 

This was my classic for 2025.  And it was not at all what I thought it was!!  I always thought this story was about the Making of the Monster.  But nope, the monster is created pretty much in the first several pages.  The rest?  Oh, the regret and the terror and the chase!!!  As you'd expect, the verbiage here is appropriate to the times, and it seems so dramatic to the modern eye/ear.  But I can see why this caused such a stir  - her age, the subject matter, the gore!  As a reader, I did not know with whom my sympathies lay.  Interesting!!

[Beware, my daughter and I (no, the younger one!!) watched the new adaptation with Oscar Issac over the holidays, and it was SO GORY!   I love Oscar but this movie was not really like the book - but did redeem itself in the end.  But we almost turned it off twice.]

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

 

I admire Jodi Picoult's work.  She takes hard topics and weaves a human story around it with care and with truth.  Often a Picoult book is hard to read; always a Picoult book makes you think.

Sometimes a Picoult book can change your mind.

There have been several theories about the work of Shakespeare.  Some people believe he didn't actually write the plays with his name on them.  Picoult takes this theory into two timelines and explores this idea, cleverly lining up why a woman in the 1590's would not be able to claim authorship on a play with a more current story of prejudice against female playwrights today.

First, the cover is beautiful.  Second, the name of this book is PERFECTION.  Third, the first few chapters of this book are hard to read.  But I am glad I did not let that stop me from reading.  Our two main characters, Emilia in 1590 and Melina in 2023, face what many women face - very little choice.  Emilia is raised with education and in wealth but then is pretty much sold into being a "courtesan" - a mistress to a titled man.  She is treated very well there, but yearns for more after being educated.  She turns to writing but has no opportunities to do anything with her words.  Then she meets Kit Marlowe and he makes a proposition that will change her life.

Melina is a struggling playwright herself and has faced discrimination due to her gender.  When she learns of a connection to Emilia, she knows the story she wants to tell.  And she ropes her best (male) friend into helping her.  

See where we are going here?

Picoult sprinkles lots of references to Shakespearean phrases throughout the Emilia chapters.  It was fun to catch a few of them!!  And to wonder - how DID Shakespeare know a woman's thoughts and emotions so well?  If he was so educated and sympathetic to a woman's plight, why weren't his own daughters educated?  How could he have described the palace in Denmark or weddings in Italy if he had never been there?  And why weren't there more manuscripts left when he died?

I admit I enjoyed the Emilia chapters the best.  The love interest in Melina's story seemed trite.  But the struggles are real for both women.  And of course, Picoult's writing is simply masterful.  She gives us lots of info in her Author's Note, and even lists out the Shakespeare references at the end.  She only leaves one question for us, which she herself has most definitely answered in her own mind:

What do YOU think???

Silver or Gold? Questioning reading new books over old

 

Silver....

or Gold??

As usual this year, I received a lot of books for Christmas for which I am of course grateful!  When I went to add them to the one cubby in my bookshelves that I dedicate to my TBR stack, I was a bit stumped.  Do I mix them in?  Do I leave them in their own sparkly stack?  How jealous are those books gonna be that have been sitting on my shelf for, I dunno, FIVE YEARS??

Remember that old Girl Scout Song (or maybe from a Christmas cartoon?  I am specifically envisioning a snowman with Burl Ives' voice...)?  Make new friends but keep the old, one is SILVER and the other's GOLD?  That is how I am feeling.  My books from years past are gold - I know where they came from and sometimes even why I bought them.  The new ones will be good friends once I read them.  But, where do I start?  Do I dive into the new books and continue to put the older ones on the backshelf?  Do I read the old ones first to make room for the new ones?  Will I lose my excitement for my new books if I wait, though??

Oh, so many questions!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My physical TBR runs at just over 50 books.  Embarrassing really.  I do not understand people who say they don't know what to read next.  Humph.  I just don't know which ONE to read next.  My daughter is a mood reader.  I usually try to hop between different genres, not reading three historical fictions in a row for example.  A couple of years ago I started giving myself a challenge list of books from my backlist (one a month) and that has been doable.  Maybe this year I can amp it up a bit and alternate - for every Silver (new) book I read I must read a Gold (old).  This is only paper books of course; Audiobooks throw a whole other category in there!

Anyone else have this dilemma?  How do YOU solve it?  How should I?  Tell me in the comments!!!

How to solve your own Murder by Kristen Perrin

 

A super fun mystery that kept me guessing throughout.  Recommended to me by my eldest daughter (who pretty much only picks books with MURDER in the titles, my forensic science girl!!), I really enjoyed this change of pace for me.  A young woman gets a message to meet her rich and eccentric great aunt, skipping over her mom for the aunt's inheritance.  Her great aunt has been convinced she (the great aunt) will be murdered ever since a fortune told to her when she was young predicted her death.  So, before the niece can get there, guess what happens?  

Yep.

Cue all the usual suspects and secondary characters who could all very well be guilty, including the niece herself who stood to inherit everything.  Lots of twists and turns here, and while it is marked as the first in a series, my daughter and I both felt like this one was enough really.  For fans of The Thursday Murder Club and How to Age Disgracefully.  Not that this one had only elderly characters, but the tone was so fun!   

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

 

This book has gotten LOTS of buzz.  Good job by the marketing team.

I kinda felt like this started as a short story and got stretched into a book.  There is a love triangle, a farm, a motherless boy and a childless mom, and old flame, and a mysterious death.  There are secrets and sacrifice, etc.  But honestly, nothing really new happens here.  I felt like maybe I had read this before, or that is a conglomeration of plots from other novels.  The writing itself is really good though - soft and flowing and sympathetic, especially to our main character.  But she does something pretty horrible without much backlash and that made me lose my liking of her.  In the end I think everyone is happy but it just seemed unreal to me.  Better if she had woken up in the last chapter and it was all a dream and now she is grateful for what she has.  Meh.

Born Lucky by Leland Vittert

 

This year my husband and I started watching NewsNation, mainly for Chris Cuomo's show.  Right after Cuomo there is a show called On Balance with Leland Vittert.  So of course we started watching that too.

I was not familiar with Vittert or his journalistic career.  But I remember thinking, ok, this guy is a bit different. He talks a LOT and oh I hate it when journalists interrupt!  And he has some great experience on the ground during wartime, as evidenced by his advertised newsletter, War Notes.  Ok, this guy must be pretty on it.

Then I learned he had written a book, and honestly, I thought, " Oh here we go again in Bill O'Reilly style, hawking his book as the best ever written".  But, when I heard the book was not about opinion, and about experience - LIFE experience - and that his experience included autism - well, that changed the narrative.

My husband gave me this book for Christmas (major points!!).  I of course received several other books for the holidays, but THIS is the book I fell into first.  It has been touted as a beacon of hope to parents with special children more than a Woe Is Me tale, and I definitely agree.  Most of what Leland writes is presented pretty factually, and he is not in the business of naming names except for those who helped him, not those who bullied him.  His parents gave him lots of tough love, keeping him in school throughout the bullying and never asking for accommodations for him nor giving him a label.  But they, and especially his Dad, also NEVER gave up on Leland, and NEVER showed any disappointment in him, only support.  Lots of support and time and listening, to prepare him for the real world.  If only all kids had that level of support!

His story is an important one.  Some people diss it because his dad was rich and had contacts that helped Leland.  But, this is what happened.  It is what it is, and Leland's singular focus to succeed is amazing.  This is Leland's story, and the star is the support he got from his dad.  A great read with anecdotes from his time in Libya, his rise in journalism, how he even got to journalism, his struggle to make friends, and even how he met his wife (they got married this summer!).  Highly recommend!