The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

 

This was my kind of book!!!!

Historical Fiction set in late 18th century London? Check.

Strong female characters facing hardship with secrets?  Check.

Rambunctious girl who tries to help but messes up with devastating results?  Check.

Modern day woman trying to solve the mystery of those strong female characters facing hardships 200 years ago and having her own issues? Check and check.

Nella, Eliza and Caroline all have their own stories, pasts, and secrets, but only two of them have any hope for their future.  Nella has learned of potions and poisons and herbs from her mother, and her talents are a secret from all but those who truly need her services - oppressed women.  She lives sparsely and alone in a secret shop hidden from all of London - all except those in the know.  When 12 year old Eliza becomes a client, Nella does not want to get involved, but feels she must, and Eliza insists on helping.  Nella has more than one secret and prefers to suffer alone, but feels her heart tugged by Eliza.  When danger finds them, they must separate, in a most heartbreaking manner.  

Meanwhile, Caroline is in London (two hundred years later!!) for what was supposed to be an anniversary trip that went very awry.  A lover of history, she becomes fascinated by an apothecary's vial she finds by the river, and begins to investigate the markings on the side.  Along the way, she finds some (not all) answers about the vial and about herself too. 

I found the modern day story to be a bit trite - the whole marital problems (James is an ass, whyever would she have even liked that guy?), emotions, and improbable research.  BUT I did like how Caroline grew during her stay in London, and her ending is most satisfactory.  I would say the "ending" for Nella and Eliza is a bit more ambiguous and I would love to have a conversation with others about what they think happened in Nella's last chapter.  I know what my optimist's heart would say!  Nella is the most fascinating, as the poisoner and healer who herself is sick and wasting away.  She seems to yearn for her own end, yet when Eliza comes along she is diverted.  Nella is just downright sad, and Eliza bounces right on over that.  

Themes of motherhood, sisterhood (and I don't mean that in the bloodline sense), female empowerment and taking responsibility for your life/actions run rampant here.  Any male character is a mere outline, and frankly men are presented as all being awful here, at least in their actions towards our heroines.  I never thought of Nella as a villain, more a victim - of poverty, of abuse, and maybe of depression.

The book itself has a whole section in the back about essential oils and building your own "apothecary" shop, right down to what tea to boil to help you sleep.  A reader's guide has questions that begat more questions, and a history of mudlarking (gotta read the book to learn more!).  A fun read, and a great debut effort from a promising writer.

The Searcher by Tana French

Ireland, a broken down house, a broken marriage, a restless ex-cop....and a missing teenager. 

Sign me UP.

This book had so much more too!  I have a love-like relationship with Tana French.  Some of her books I love, some of them not so much.  This one?  Definitely a LOVE.  I even used Book Darts to mark passages and places.  Other reviewers have said this is a departure in tone for French; I hope it becomes her direction instead!!!

French does an amazing job setting the stage here.  A remote village in Ireland definitely becomes one of the characters in this story, just as much as the nosy neighbor (a man), the meddling store owner in town (a woman), and even the rooks that laugh their asses off on this American trying to fit into centuries of, well, Irish.

Cal Hooper moves to Ireland to start over and take a break.  He is jaded from his years on the Chicago force, his wife has left him for reasons that baffle him, and his daughter is grown and living her own life now.  So he moves to Ireland to get away and sets to work making his purchased-on-a-whim cabin livable.  He learns about permanent misty rain, bogs, walking, and what the men down the pub are really saying to him and warning him about. And one day, the Kid shows up from the family trailer a few miles up the mountain, totally skittish but obviously wanting something.  Trey is about 12-13, has a missing older brother, and wants Cal to find him.  Simple, right?

Nope.

The story takes a while to build; be patient.  It is atmospheric and a little bit eerie in tone. The relationship between Cal and Trey is precious and at first tenuous, almost fraught with tension.  Cal does NOT want to get involved.  Cal is restless.  Cal is curious. Cal has a strong moral core.  Sigh, of COURSE he wants to help Trey!!!  But how much trouble will it get him into?  What is he actually dealing with here?

I just thoroughly enjoyed this story.  It is about so much more that what happened to Brendan.  It is about finding yourself instead of escaping your life. I liked that we don't know what happened with Cal's marriage right away.  Pieces come together about his awkward but loving relationship with his daughter. And I love it when the setting is a character too.  All the people in this story are fully fleshed out, although I kept reading the nosy neighbor's name as Matt (it is Mart, see my visual issue??). There's a twist that I never saw coming that delighted me once I got it (well done, Tana!!).  The descriptions of the farmlands and Ireland itself are done with gorgeous prose. The rooks are hilarious.  I laughed out loud at their treatment of Cal (insert rueful eye roll here).  And Cal eventually figures out that sometimes the best way to help is to sit down and do nothing. Sometimes.

 I am only sorry I did not also listen to this one to get that amazing Irish lilt!  This book makes me want to be a Tana French completist.  I am half-way there!!!

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

 

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

In his first book, The Silent Patient, Michaelides totally blindsided me.  I did not see the ending coming.

In this book, I expected a huge twist again, so I read this one really fast to get to that ending.  It is a quick read, short chapters, and a mystery you do want to have solved. (Briefly: newly grieving group therapist Mariana has raised her niece and when one of her niece's friends is murdered at college, Mariana goes to help and protect and solve the murder, more bodies pile up, she suspects a certain professor and is determined to prove his guilt.) 

But...it was just kinda flat.  I gave it four stars on Goodreads because it did hold my interest (oh how I wish for half stars, this would have been a three and a half really), I loved the Greek Mythology nods, the setting was good.  Mariana was blind to a lot going on and missed a huge clue about the killer, and why was she so obsessed with this anyway?  Just pull her niece out of school to keep her safe and go home!!  What I felt was flat though was Mariana's obsession with proving the professor was guilty (not finding out who did it), her relationship with her niece, the whole introduction of Fred, and the reveal itself seemed way too unlikely and creepy.  I agree with other reviewers that the hints were not there.  But why should they be?  We are blindsided in this book as if we are Marianna and HAD NO IDEA. 

A bit of bull malarkey there though.  I just don't believe the ending, it doesn't add up (literally).  I do believe who the killer was, but how many people in a group therapist's life are unstable, seriously??  Mariana has dealt with a LOT of loss in her life - parents, sister, husband.  I think there was too much going on - too many red herrings and diversions that were honestly obvious.  I did not really buy into the conspiracy.  I said it was a quick read, and maybe that just means the story itself was rushed.  It also seemed weirdly unemotional. I don't want to give too much away here, so this review probably seems as disjointed as the book because there is a lot to discuss once you have read it; the spoiler alert questions on Goodreads are a good place to go debrief if you read this outside of a book club.

There is a clever and scary nod to The Silent Patient at the end which was a great wink, and if you think about it, the irony of it once you know what you know about TSP could really frighten you.  Why is it that therapists never see their loved ones in a clinical light?  The cobbler's son has no shoes syndrome??  

Interesting how the author uses the device of an unreliable narrator in such a different way here.  I do think he is better with a male protagonist. As a suspense novel, this is still a good one, just has some flaws.  I would still read another by him; this sophomore effort was just not as good as his debut.  And as I reread this review, you'd think four stars would be too much, right?  You are right, which is why it now shows as three.  Sometimes a bit of distance (and a review!) reveals more truth.

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

 

Yes, I am slowly dipping my toes back into WWII fiction.  I just could not resist the Library setting in this one!!!

What I loved about this story:

-It is based on real people, real events, and a real library!

-I learned several historical facts about Paris during WWII. 

-The Dewey Decimal System!!!!!

-So many books and authors are mentioned throughout, and quoted pertinent to the events in the book, that I kept a list.  Very interesting to consider the books that were popular in the '30's and '40's.

-There is a love story or two, but friendship and relationships with colleagues is more forefront.

- The relationship between Odile and Lily.

-The relationship between Lily and Eleanor. There is a lot to unpack here about teenagers and blended families, and standing up for yourself, from Lily, Eleanor and Odile!

-The author does a good job of presenting how people were so torn during wartime - to do their jobs sometimes they had to betray their friends, or vice versa.  Wartimes lead to impossible decisions and actions that would never have happened during peace.  Walking in other's shoes and skin indeed......

- Even though it is a split timeline, we spend the majority of the novel in the further past (I still have a hard time thinking 1987 qualifies for historical fiction, but that is just me showing my age!).

- The author nailed being a 1980's teenager with angst, grief, and parents that don't understand.

-Did I mention it is a book about books?????  Well, sort of, they are an important secondary character at least!

What I did not really like:

-Young Odile.  UGH!  So immature, even after college.  Maybe that is a statement on the mindset of society about young unmarried girls who during that time still live with their parents until they got married.  But it grated on my nerves that her mother still told her to turn out her light at bedtime, and how she threw temper tantrums and could not keep her mouth shut.  She meant well, and I guess no one is perfect especially when young, but it just took her a long time to learn not to stick her nose in and tattle.  And to face her jealousies - the whole thing with Bitsi was another tantrum.

-Even Odile skirted around her duplicity with Margaret.  That plot was heartbreaking all around.

-Lots of loose ends at the end, esp re: Odile and her past relationships.  I did like how the author really waited til the last minute to reveal all, but I wanted a bit more wrap up, even if the wrap up wasn't happy.  Many of her actions, especially when she moved to Montana and how that happened, just did not add up.  I could not reconcile the woman who turned her light off at midnight bc Maman yelled at her with the woman who eloped.

-  I know it is literary license, but I did not appreciate the timing of when she met Buck.  Way too easy.

Overall, a nice read, good historical fiction, I liked more than I didn't, and it definitely kept me reading to figure out what the book flap meant by betrayal.  And I think there is so much to discuss here, it would make a solid book club book.  The Author's note at the end explains how so much of this is a true story and which of the characters were real people, and that she learned of these people and stories and how they risked themselves to send books to soldiers and Jews while she was working at the American Library of Paris herself!  Cool!!!

PS If you are interested in other WWII books that aren't necessarily about the WAR (as in battles), check out Those Who Save Us by Jenna Bloom; The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck; or The Riviera House by Natasha Lester (very similar to The Paris Library in that they are both split timelines and focus on books and art during the war).

Two books! The Library of the Dead and Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by TL Huchu

      

Book One:

Three Stars - Which means I liked it!! Enough that I already checked out book 2!

Cadence is different here - lots of slang and casual prose. Ghostalking is a profession in futuristic Edinburgh and Ropa is a teenage Ghostalker responsible for her family. She is hard shelled, poor, a hard worker and sees dead people, and she owes rent. She makes money delivering messages from the other side, until one client has a missing son and asks Ropa for help. She immediately is over her head but is determined to discover what happened to the missing boy, and finds several of Edinburgh’s other kids are missing too. What is going on???? Well constructed and definitely different. It took a while to really get into the plot, lots of backstory here. The style took some getting used to but I enjoyed it once I got the hang of it. Is this indicative of modern British/Scottish literature?? Cool.

                        *******************************

Book Two:

Four Stars!  Ok, I jumped right into this one after reading The Library of the Dead. This second book was unputdownable which is now a word. I love Ropa's voice, her slang, her family, and her loyalty. I love her friends and her talents and how she handles her imperfect but well meaning self in her new role as intern in a magical library. (She used to be a "ghostalker", carrying messages from the other side back to loved ones left behind - for a fee of course). She is a hustler and quite mature for a 15 year old!!! The setting of a not so distant future Edinburgh and the many references to the Catastrophe and how much of a slum the city is now is done only in passing. I am hopeful some of that will come to light in a future installment, as the author has said there should be a total of five books (yea!).

This installment has Ropa, her cradle bff Jomo and their new friend and healer Priya tasked with figuring out why local boys from magical schools are showing up comatose with high fevers, and end up chasing a dark demon, lots of money, better jobs, and for Ropa, a better future for her little sister Izwi. We get more characters in this story, with a more confusing mystery to solve, and some serious old magic. I felt like this novel flowed a little better even with a few "bridges" that sort of jumped time. But I really got into the cadence here of Ropa's narration, her slang, her life, and her intentions. I also hope we get more from her Zimbabwean grandmother in the next installment - of her powers and her history - like we did in the first novel.

A fun new character and series for me - I can see this as YA, but there is some language and some weird demonic violence. No romance though, which I appreciated, but some solid friendships that take a licking and keep on ticking.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

 

Writing is like a puzzle.  Authors have to find the right fit for each word, sentence, chapter.  EACH. WORD.  This is why I am not an author, only a writer.  I am too lazy/impatient/intimidated. (couldn't even decide which of those words to use!!)

By works like this.  

Doerr is a Pulitzer Prize winner for a novel I didn't love.  Yes, it was beautiful and a bit redeeming yada yada but come on y'all, it was SOOOO SAD!!  My book club loved All the Light We Cannot See, but I was like, meh.  I may not have loved ATLWCS, but there is no doubt this man has a seriously good command of language.  

Good thing Sally* tells me to give authors a second chance, and too bad he didn't win the Pulitzer again.  This book was abso-fricking-lutely amazing.  I can see how it might not be for everyone.  It is very...imaginative.   And the structure took some getting used to. And it is looooooong.  And I thought it was amazingly brilliant.

Briefly, you should know that we have three different time periods going on that cover several centuries and three locations, and five different characters whose stories we follow.  It seemed like it would be impossible to follow but somehow, the transitions back and forth were smooth and truly did help narrow the story down, even when we have two characters with two time periods each. Don't let that intimidate you though.  I don't think I am astute enough to catch all the parallelisms that are deep in this book, but I sure tried, and I sure enjoyed the journey.  The common thread, and title, is an ancient "lost" Greek fairytale about a man on the search for paradise.  I am also sure that the title is a wink, a double entendre, and more than just a title. For more plot than that, go read the book flap, which is so well written in its own right that it could win an award, were there awards for that sort of thing.

As a reader and lover of books and stories, I appreciated how this one ancient text stood the test of time and helped frame each of these stories, giving at the end some sort of freedom to each of our main characters, albeit in different ways.  A young girl learns to read in Constantinople; an old man finally finds happiness and purpose at his local library in Idaho; a troubled teenager takes righteous action which goes horribly wrong; an isolated young woman puts together a life-altering puzzle of clues. None of these people know each other, but their lives are woven together like a tapestry.  This is a book about a book (there is a book on the cover!), about a library or two or three (I literally sat up when Konstance's Library was introduced), about how words are immortal.  It is also about war and environmental conservation and owls and dreams for the future and misunderstood youths and Love - romantic and familial. It truly is about finding one's way in this life.  And how the threads of one life can be revealed in the most unusual ways in another.

I took so many notes on this book. I just cannot put them all in a review.  Doerr must have had a string wall to keep all the connections straight. My book club doesn't know it yet, but we are going to read this one.  We will have differing opinions I am sure - this is not a beach read.  And yet, I felt very light reading it. I actually felt like a scholar.  Even with some bad things and a few loose ends, this book made me happy as a reader.  So very much to talk about, and yes I still have some questions especially about the end(s).  This is the sort of book I have a hangover after reading.  Took me a few days to pick up my next book.  I just wanted to enjoy the aura of it, to think about it.

And, yes, to go thank a librarian, as Doerr does in his dedication: to all the librarians, then, now and in the years to come.  Fingers crossed.

*If you are new to this blog, and you don't know who Sally is, she is my local independent bookstore owner and Bookseller.  She recognizes me (or sometimes just my voice!) when she hears me come into her store (Park Road Books) and always has a perfect recommendation.  And I love her.

PPS - to see my review of ATLWCS on Goodreads, here it is:  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr | Goodreads

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Fun fantasy read! I finally read this in prep for the TV series after my cousin Pam recommended it years ago. I enjoyed it, I watched the show pretty much at the same time (while yelling, "that's NOT in the book" galore! haha), and thought they were both pretty good. I do like a good fantasy novel, and yes this one takes a lot of plotpoints from The Lord of the Rings, so astute readers/fans will see right through that. 

But the addition of a female magi makes it worth it. Women definitely have The Power here, which is a different take in fantasy a la Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule if I remember correctly. But luckily for me this book was not nearly as violent or graphic as Goodkind's.  There is definitely some violence and killing as per the times, but I did not find it graphic.  And the whole spin on women yielding power, both at the high level and in the villages with the Wisdom always at odds with the Village Council is a great refreshing take.  

Our hero is still the unsuspecting farm boy, but his two friends have their own journeys to go on and provide some interesting side stories that I am sure will come to full fruition later down the line, so they are not gratuitous characters.   I also look forward to finding out just how much his friend (??) Egwene and the Wisdom Nynaeve and of course our fearless leader Moiriane (she of the Power) and her Warder/protector, Lan, really do come into the whole prophecy and future of this world.  I loved the TV show's rendition of Loial, his slow and purposeful speech and history and of course, song.  One of the best phrases our hero Rand hears from a seer (another woman!) is regarding his relationship with his friendgirl Egwene:  “She’s not for you, nor you for her; at least, not in the way you both want.”  The Lore is strong, indeed!

I will eventually pick up the next book I think, but this one at 800 pages was such an investment I think I need a break. It was a bit long with all the travelling and innkeeper meeting and monster avoidance. Which means I probably won't remember all the characters' names and all the events, etc, but that is ok. There is always the TV show! Not to mention the very helpful glossary at the end of the book! Probably really three and a half stars, but I am a sucker for a huge fantasy world build (with MAPS!!)