Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

I was not excited about reading this book.  The book flap did not excite me.  But my book club friend said it was really good, so I dove in.

The Book Flap Writer should be fired.  (And I should be hired. HA.)

What I thought from a review was going to be a politically charged story about cross racial adoption was actually a story of the complicated definition of motherhood.  And teenage rebellion.  And the secrets from your past that can break you.

There is a LOT going on in this book.  A mixed race teenage couple.  A single mom who won't name her daughter's father, especially to her daughter.  A Stepford Mom who always plays by the rules, much to the disgust of her youngest child.  Two teenage girls who are jealous of each others' lives, and each other's Mothers. A boy named Moody caught in the middle.  And a childless woman who would do anything for a baby.  The issues of teenage sex, abortion, adoption, friendships, first love, surrogates, and whether or not to stick your nose in (or your neck out) are all intermixed.  Whew, I'm exhausted.

The author does a fine job of melding all of this together seamlessly.  Her writing flows, even when she is skipping ahead to give the reader a clue as to the future path of a particular character or relationship.  I liked that.  The ending left me hanging and a bit heartbroken, but with a thread of hope.  And the title is both literal and figurative.  A really good read.

Matchup edited by Lee Child

Short stories are not usually my thing.  I like to get deep into a novel and wallow there for a while.

However, one must be open to new experiences, right?

I had a great time with this book and surprised even myself.  I was intrigued by the premise - matching up (see what I did there??) one male and one female "thriller" writer to create a story that includes the author's famous characters working together.  Now, my favorite Diana Gabaldon is not what is commonly referred to as a thriller writer, but her writing certainly can be thrilling!   Especially when she is writing with Steve Berry and his Cotton Malone manages to meet Jamie.  (And you know if Jamie Fraser is involved, this reader is on it.)  It was nice to be reaquainted with Harper Connelly, Jack Reacher and Bennie Rosato and introduced to Bravo Shaw, John Corey and Ali Reynolds.  The match of Jack Reacher and Temperance Brennan was literary gold, and the rapport between Lisa Scottoline's Bennie Rosato and Nelson DeMille's John Corey left me wanting more.  There was even a vampire story co-written by Anne Rice's son Christopher, and the vampire was not even his character!!!  (Nice nod to his mom in the story too!)  Clever winks at the super-fan or observant reader from each of these authors made this a really fun read.  I think the funniest pairing has to be Val McDermid and Peter James and their story Footloose - they obviously had fun with the foot puns.

Each story is introduced by editor Lee Child and explains how the pairing of authors was made and how they worked together.  Fascinating.  This is the second anthology produced by the International Thriller Writers (Faceoff was the first and matched all male authors) that paired two writers for each story; they have also published other short story anthologies whose proceeds support the ITW.  I love that this time they matched  male to female authors.  Maybe next time they will do all female!  I'm IN!!!!!!!


Authors:
Sandra Brown and CJ Box
Val McDermid and Peter James
Kathy Reichs and Lee Child
Diana Gabaldon and Steve Berry
Gayle Linds and David Morrell
Karin Slaughter and Michale Koryta
Charlaine Harris and Andrew Gross
Lisa Jackson and John Sandford
Lara Adrian and Christopher Rice
Lisa Scottoline and Nelson DeMille
J.A. Jance and Eric Van Lustbader

Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan

 Great read!  The story of two sisters, one family and one -or maybe two - decisions that changed them all.  Told in alternating time lines, we learn of the youth and later lives of two Irish girls transported to Boston in the late fifties, one quiet but bossy older sister there to meet her pledged husband, who she doesn't love, and the other a flighty teenager who loves lipstick and dances and all things American.  The paths of their lives are not at all what they imagined when they arrived in America, but may well be exactly where they are meant to be.  The estrangement that comes as a result of one decision is heartbreaking, and the forced reunion is appropriately awkward and bittersweet.  The tragedy that results from the second decision is a bit more subtle but even more devastating in its result.  I love how the title here really does describe the book (you'll get it eventually!!).  I felt the ending was a bit abrupt, but the story is beautifully done and the relationships are real.  Sisters, siblings, mothers and favorite sons, mothers and daughters - this is a story of relationships, secrets and belonging.  I was not a fan of The Engagements by this author, but after this one (thank you for the encouragement Sally!) I will forever give authors a second chance!!!!!

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

I had a hard time with this one!!  Not your typical historical fiction, even though the bookseller told me it was the best HF novel to come out all year.

This is well written, split between two time frames, and yes, historical fiction grounded in truth.  There really was a Tennessee Children's Home Society and there really was a Ms. Georgia Tann.  What she did to families in the decades she ran that "home", and how those children were treated, is a blight in American history for sure.

Here, Wingate brings to life one fictional family destroyed by the deception of Tann.  When mother Queenie is taken to the hospital during a life threatening delivery of twins, she and her husband leave their other five children on their river boat and tell them to stay together.  Hours later, representatives from the children's home show up and take the kids - planning to "auction" them off, and appreciative of their blond curls - they will bring in higher bids.

I found this a difficult read.  I was terrified of child abuse, which I just cannot read about.  It was heartbreaking, even in the anticipation of whether or not it would happen.  These kids are beaten, harshly treated, and starved before being sold off to the highest bidder.  Most of the parents are conned into signing adoption papers and they have no idea they've just signed away their parental rights.  It happened, and it made me sick.  But for the main characters, there is a happy ending, rest assured.  It is just not the ending that their beginning foretold.

The alternating chapters set in the current day helped alleviate my stress though. The story of Avery Stafford, federal prosecutor and daughter of a Senator with an eye for his seat when he retires, is a good one.  She stumbles on some half information which leads her on a secret search to learn the truth about her grandmother's life.  And it totally changes her own.  Nature or nurture??  That is the question.

IF you liked Orphan Train, this book is in the same vein, so the story itself is truly fascinating.  That this sort of thing went on unchecked is unthinkable these days.  But it did, and it changed the course of history for many a child and many a family.  Records were destroyed and names were changed so that even when records were reopened decades later it was near impossible to trace lost loved ones.  Some remain a mystery here; some are solved.  Just like real life.  Wingate ends it well, with a few things left to wonder about.  Again, a tough read, but certainly well done.

And for once, I LOVED the cover.  Very appropriate for the story.

The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis

News flash - this might be my new favorite book of the year.

I found it hard to believe that this is Lewis' first book.  His command of the English language is like nothing I have seen since Pat Conroy -I had to carry around a dictionary for Conroy and I wanted to carry around a dictionary with Lewis' book too. That is a good thing to my mind.  Lewis' writing style is very descriptive without overdoing it - sometimes impossible especially for a southern writer!  He is concise, yet quietly paints the reader a picture not only what the eye can see, but of what the heart can feel.

The story is about family, about a father and son who live parallel lives, always in dread.  Wait, that sounds depressing!  But this story, while a tiny bit dark or even gothic in places, was not depressing for me.  It was fascinating.  Henry grows up in a small remote NC town where his father is a brilliant lawyer but spends most of his time locked away trying to write his Great American Novel.  Henry is a great big brother to his sister Threnody, and reads to her every night.    The book goes back in time to describe how Henry's parents met, and takes Henry on through his life in college and beyond, and his relationship with the girl called Story, who of course has a story of her own.  Henry's father's disappearance when Henry is 15 is a turning point for Henry, as it should be, but becomes a much greater plot point when we finally learn what really happened to his father.  Henry's reluctance to return home, for years at the time, became a troubled spot for me as a reader - it seemed out of character but I think was necessary for Henry's state of mind.  And the second half of the book, focusing on Story, seemed almost another book in itself - the second or third chapter if you will in Henry's life.  The mystery of her family almost overshadows Henry's past!

My favorite lines:  "It took them less than a day to move in and the rest of their lives to leave."

"We left her there, where her magnificent heart diminished."

My favorite new words:  fuliginous...deliquesce....cataleptic....malefic....illimitable....erubescent....

(At one point, a character mentions the undulant lake - then makes fun of his own use of the word!  I loved it!  Wink!!)

If you enjoy beautiful writing, an engrossing story of family, loss, secrets, abandonment, growth, forgiveness and love, this is the book for you.  I can't wait to read Lewis' other books.  I am sure there will be many.  I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Lewis at our book club meeting last month, and I assure you he is a fantastic story teller, with a wicked and quick sense of humor that you don't see much of in this novel, so I hope he lets that spark shine through in another book.  He had us all in stitches as he discussed the book, the publishing process, and the many many many many edits he had to go through.  (The only one they missed was when Beth Ann said "you guys."  Hello, she is from Mississippi, y'all!!!!)  We thoroughly enjoyed the evening with him and look forward to having him come again with his second book, which is currently rattling around in his head.  Whoo hoo!

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

WOW.  Loved it!!!!!  And, another book off my Summer Reading list.  (It is technically still summer, just saying.)

I listened to this one on Audible on the great advice of my friend Sarah M.  I usually prefer the page, but boy was she ever right that this is one to listen to and absorb auditorily.  Mainly because Trevor Noah himself tells his own story.  Spectacular.

Born in South Africa during Apartheid, Trevor was literally proof of a crime - his mother is Black, his father is white.  Mixing among races was illegal then.  And in a nation obsessed with labels and place, Trevor himself was confusing - he was light skinned, raised Black, multi-lingual, and considered special by some because of his skin.  And considered dangerous by others for that same skin.

Trevor's stories of his childhood are hilarious, laugh out loud funny, and horrifying at the same time.  He got in all sorts of trouble as a kid.  He was always running - from his strict but loving Mom, from the police,  from his scary step-father, from the gang down the street.  Told with an abundance of humility and truth and pluck and wry humor, this is a story everyone should hear.  He had me laughing out loud with the story of the Turd and the Demon. Then I was horrified by the stories of abuse at the hand of his stepfather, with no protection from the police (oh, that's a woman for you!!!).  Then I was stopped in my tracks by several statements:
 "Soweta's story is the story of driveways.  Hope."  Many of the poorest people still built driveways, because the ultimate success was having a car - so they built driveways just in case.  Rarely did these driveways ever hold a vehicle.  And:  "Language, more than color, defines who you are to other people."

 BAM.  In the South, we call that "who's your daddy?"  If you sound like me, you must BE like me.
 If I can define you by what language you speak, even more than what you look like, if I can feel more comfortable with you because I can literally understand what you are saying, then you must be ok.
 His knowledge of several dialects and languages saved Trevor on more than one occasion, because people are so eager to label each other based on either skin or language (appearances!!!).  Brilliantly written and even more brilliantly told with different accents and languages peppered throughout, Trevor explains his South Africa as he saw it.  Many insights into race from all sides, into the definition of belonging, and the hard truth of tough love, this is a fascinating and tremendous book.  I highly recommend it!!!!! An amazing story, of an amazing man and his even more amazing Mother.  Because she is the reason he is who he is today.

Well done, Trevor.  You DID break the cycle.  See, your Mom was right.  Again.  ;-)

Today will be Different by Maria Semple

Meh.

This was a very quick and light read.  Some humor and a frenetic pace that is somewhat jarringly interrupted, and often, by flashbacks.  The story is one day in the life of Eleanor Flood:  wife, mother, illustrator, quoter of poems, sister.  In that order.

Or is it in that order at all?

Eleanor pledges to be her better self today - play with her kid, pay attention to her husband, and maybe even finish her book which is a tiny bit late.  But as with all well laid plans, Life happens and it all goes to hell.  Her husband is obviously hiding something, her son sees more than she thinks he does, her editor keeps calling, her poetry instructor is disappointed in her, and her sister....well, that is a whole other kettle of fish that permeates every other thing in her life.  Except her son who has no idea he even has an aunt.

I really liked Where'd You Go Bernadette.  It was hilarious and poignant and mysterious.  I guess I expected more out of this one - you do get a bit of insight into how your life can spiral spectacularly despite the best intentions.  So that made me feel better, haha.  But the disjointed format and even the main character herself were annoying.  I never really sympathized with Eleanor except during the passages about her sister.  She pretty much spends her life being blindsided by things she could have seen coming if she had paid attention.  (Especially that steel pole - metaphor much?) Maybe that is the point.  We should all pay more true attention to those around us and not worry about what are really the small things but seem like the entire world when you are too close to them.  Today will be different - I will pay attention. Right?  Wait, what?  Squirrel!!!!!!!!

Good light read for the beach - although I bet book clubs would get a good kick out of talking about this day in Eleanor's life and how she got to where she is - and especially what she will do next.  The ending leaves a few things unanswered, but alas, such is life.  Good luck with that!