book review: The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan

Q: With the war on, _______ will be closed down because there are no men to keep it going.

a) Major league baseball

b) Factories

c) Church choir

While a) above is actually an excellent movie (A League of Their Own), The Chilbury Ladies Choir is actually about c). The town vicar says their small town choir cannot continue with only the sopranos and altos, but the ladies decide they need music to persevere in the sadness of war. Plus, they argue, who will sing at all the funerals?

This book has five main characters, women of various professions and social status, all connected by the choir. While there was an element of predictability that removed the intrigue I was hoping for, I still enjoyed this story. Some of the story line was far-fetched, almost to the outlandish, but I sense that the author was trying to add a little bit of whimsy and happiness to the starkness of war. The lead characters were all women, of course, and each was dealing with a different aspect of being on the homefront during a difficult time. Worth reading, even if it isn’t a favorite.

book review: The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

The front of this book promised ‘taut, almost unbearable suspense.’ I have to say, I was skeptical, particularly once I began reading and the style was epistolary. How unbearably suspenseful can a series of letters really be?

Turns out, pretty taut.

Talk about a page turner! This (*very) young bride’s husband is shipped off to fight the Civil War after a single day of married life together. He is a widower with a young son—hence the book title, the second Mrs. Hockaday.

The book notes tell that the story was inspired by a real incident. I’m sure there was a LOT of conjecture on the part of the author, but it sure made for a good story! Many of the letters are written by Placidia (the second Mrs. Hockaday) from jail, as she’s awaiting trial. As the reader, you have to first unravel why she’s in jail and what she’s accused of, then determine why she won’t defend herself. The nice part is, it’s mostly Southern women in the 1860s writing, so the vagueness of the details that keeps the reader in suspense feels believable as ‘ladies won’t talk about such things’ rather than anything overly contrived on the part of the author to maintain the suspense for her readers.

The conclusion was satisfying, although as in the case of most reasonably authentic war stories (and in the case of a marital conflict as turns out to be the case here) — there’s not a ‘happy’ ending so much as the avoidance of any further disaster.

Highly recommend. This was a fun read!

book review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

How did I earn an English degree without ever reading this book? It was wonderful. This was one of those books that I’d heard referenced occasionally but still managed to know nothing about. It did not disappoint, and I can see why it’s often referenced as an iconic story. Generations of love and loss, with poverty as the background of it all. The book includes so many memorable scenes, and many realistic characters. I was actually sad for the story to end, because you know there’s so much more to come for the very real-feeling people you’ve gotten to know.

The author based the setting and many of the incidents on her own life, which is saddening based on the level of poverty. One chilling thing that comes up over and over again is a ‘game’ the family plays that they are lost and can’t find anything good to eat, which is how the parents try to distract the children when there is nothing to feed their family. The children narrowly escape many horrors and painfully endure others. Despite the setting and the reality portrayed, the story is hopeful. The protagonist Francie loves to read, using books to explore other worlds and lives, which ultimately opens up a wider future for her than most.

Francie’s hardworking mother is both a hero and an anti-hero in the book, as you watch her love for a hopeless lost cause (Francie’s father) drain the family, but as the reader, I was also inspired by the way she persevered in difficulty and stayed true to her commitment. The entire family’s story was captivating, from the younger siblings to the grandmother to the singing-waiter-father, as the author gives regular glimpses back into the parents’ earlier lives. She has a strong message of paternal sacrifice as the older generation has come to America, knowing they will be destitute and scorned for their ethnicity, but hoping that it will lead to a brighter possible future for their children and grandchildren.

book review: Cemetery Road by Greg Isles

New favorite book opening!

I never meant to kill my brother. I never set out to hate my father. I never dreamed I would bury my own son. Nor could I have imagined that I would betray the childhood friend who saved my life, or win a Pulitzer prize for telling a lie. All these things I have done, yet most people I know would call me an honorable man.

Caught my attention right away.

This book had a lot of twists and turns, general intrigue and —-very unfortunate adult content. I’ve never read this author before and he really held my attention in some of the opening action sequences—which are SO difficult to write. For example, a sequence of swimming across the freezing Mississippi River with a group of friends on a careless dare was truly riveting. The sequences relaying his experiences as a war journalist were also captivating and felt authentic.

Unfortunately, because the content involves a betrayal (an extramarital affair) the content descends and there were a lot of parts I didn’t read. I felt like the really compelling layers of inter-connected mysteries could have existed without that. Disappointing. The final question of “who fathered this child” can be asked without showing the reader.

Book review: bridge to haven by Francine Rivers

I literally hated every single thing about this book. I only finished it because it’s by one of my top-three-favorite authors. Honestly, I was so angry reading it that I think my motivation to finish was I felt like I had to finish the fight I was having with Francine Rivers. Bailing on reading would have been the equivalent of walking away from a fight I was morally justified in winning because the other person was so, so, SO SO very wrong.

A friend of mine told me that I need to stop reading books that have anything to do with foster care, and he’s right. Because people get it SO WRONG and it breaks my brain.

SPOILERS AHEAD BUT THIS BOOK IS GARBAGE SO DON’T READ IT

Let me summarize this hideousness. Druggie woman delivers a baby under a bridge (book title) in a town called Haven (also book title). Town pastor strong-arms his wife into being foster parents when she’s terminally ill. Wife dies. Husband/dad bails on the foster child but keeps his biological son. The foster daughter gets adopted by someone else—a family (who by the way wanted the baby from the beginning but he made a commitment to this child and then bailed when things got hard!!) who have a daughter her age; they were best friends but as sisters are endlessly competitive. The pastor’s biological son and the foster/adopted daughter continue their intimate sibling relationship as they grow but the pastor cuts off contact saying essentially ‘it’s too hard’ and ‘I want her to bond with her new dad.’

Ok, so now they’re grown up. The girl has a series of horrifically abusive relationships with men (one of which includes a man forcing her to have an abortion against her will when she gets pregnant). So she comes back home now (she shaved her head because she’s edgy) and runs into her foster brother at a restaurant and “falls in love” with him who of course has “always loved her.” Wait, I’m sorry, what? GROSS GROSS GROSS. And the crazy thing is, we’re supposed to ship them—like the author isn’t using this to emphasize her male-relationship issues. But wait, there’s more. The girl’s biological mother re-appears (she’s successful now, by the way, and beautiful), and starts a relationship with the boy’s dad (the pastor, one who bailed on being the girl’s parent).

Hold it because I’m still not to the worst part. The kids get married (ew!), but the girl is still uncomfortable with his father who abandoned her (gee, go figure). But it’s ok because there’s like a big snowstorm and this huge healing moment for the family and SURPRISE the big healing at the end isn’t from her finding a safe, intimate male relationship with her brother-husband (which is gross anyway) — no no no — it’s from the father-in-law that she’s finally accepted is her “true father” and that the abandonment is what was best for her (EXCUSE ME?) and SHE STARTS TO CALL HIM DADDY AGAIN. HER HUSBAND-BROTHER’S DAD. SHE’S CALLING HIM DADDY.

I honestly had to wash my hands after reading this; it was that heinous.

book review: the great alone by kristin hannah

I’m REALLY glad I read this in early 2019 so that I don’t have to say Beartown and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry were no longer my favorite books of the year. They can stand proudly in 2018. BUT this book was AMAZING. Standing at my “favorite book of the year” for 2019 (unless somehow there’s something even better ahead) is Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone.

I did not love The Nightingale, but this story’s protag Leni had me from page 1. This girl is the daughter of a very PTSD-burdened Vietnam vet and a former-rich-girl hippie (who’s a little too attractive for her husband’s preference). There are so many memorable moments in the complex relationship between Ernt and Cora, but the most telling was a conversation Leni overhears where her parents confess they are each other’s “heroin”—and how as the girl ages, her perception of what it means to love vs. need another person means. Her own experience with young love is captivating because her fear and confusion change the way she perceives other people’s affection.

Leni’s story is both tragic and empowering. The setting of the most-remote-of-the-remote outskirts of civilization in Alaska is stunningly beautiful and also terrifying. I learned so much about that place alongside the main character… you really feel the constant pressure of living in an environment where everything wants to kill you. And in Leni’s case, it isn’t just the weather or the wild animals.

A lot of really great minor characters bring this story to a high level of reality. This is a weird description, but it felt like if this book was a movie, all the minor characters would be played by huge A-list stars. Even the people who only showed up once or twice were hugely impacting and memorably written. Each of them was a big plus to making the world of the book so immersive.

The father’s descent left my feeling hugely conflicted as the reader. I wanted so badly for Leni’s family to heal but feared (no, knew) they never would. The writing gives you such a good picture of the victims of domestic violence but also the victims of PTSD. It was heart-wrenchingly beautiful to read. Not that the author ever excuses the terrible things that are done, but it felt like the opposite picture from Jack’s story on the great TV show This Is Us. Like one little nudge in the wrong direction at a vulnerable time… you’re left with an awful sense of “what if.”

While giving the warning that there are a lot of potential triggers for readers (characters experience domestic violence, loss, anarchy propaganda from a colony of crazies)—I highly recommend this story. What an experience to read and enjoy. This is far more than a ‘coming of age’ story or even a ‘man vs wild’ story of defeating the untameable Alaska wilderness. It’s not really a “how I overcame my crappy start in life” bit, either. It is all that, but much more, and with a sweet love story to boot.