Family Drama, Women's literature

The nature of fragile things by Susan Meissner

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Susan Meissner has once again taken a real-life experience and made it come to life with engaging people to watch experience the event. This is the story of Sophie, an Irish immigrant living in a terrible tenement in New York City, who answers an ad for marriage to a widowed man with a young child in San Francisco.

Martin Hocking meets her train, and they go directly to city hall. Sophie insists upon having a photograph taken to commemorate the occasion. After that he brings her to a beautiful home to meet his 5-year-old silent daughter, Kat. Martin leaves them that night to go on a business trip. Sophia takes her responsibility to Kat seriously, and the bond between them grows, while interactions with Martin are stilted and cold.

On April 18, 1906 a pregnant woman named Belinda comes to the door looking for her husband. Sophie begins to put answers to questions she never fully acknowledged but now must face. As the two women piece together the information they have, the earth begins to quake. San Francisco sustains significant damage, and fires begin to rage. Sophie takes charge, making sure that Belinda and Kat are with her and taken care of. It is Sophie’s poverty history that helps make sure they all survive and continue to search for answers to questions asked before the quake.

It is the resilience of women, and the understanding of what is right and just, that brings the surprising ending – no spoilers here. This is a reminder that most things are not as they seem, and not all stories have a happy ending.

book-review, Women's literature

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

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This book is beautifully written, with a difficult topic. If you have ever witnessed someone you care slip toward death, this book will hit the spots in your heart that will forever be raw. You will question every thing you did or did not do to make the journey easier, and wonder how the feelings expressed in the book were so similar to those you felt?

While I cried throughout the story, it was because I wanted to crawl into the scenes and hold both Edi and Ash close. Their emotions are front and center, and in my opinion, really the whole purpose of the book. It is a study of friendship, devotion, despair and acceptance. You go through all the stages of grief, watching from the sidelines, but knowing exactly what they are feeling. When the inevitable happens, everyone gathers, deals with things the only way they know how, and find themselves looking at those around them with not new eyes, but grateful ones. They are better able to see those that would walk through this journey with you, both holding you up and letting you go.

While the subject matter is very sad, the book ends on a note of resilience. You take the pain you experienced and it becomes part of who you are. It determines your future. The person you lose remains an influence in your life by what you witnessed and what you lost. They are forever near, continuing to guide and support you.

This story will linger with me, not just as sad, but as an acknowledgement that you can survive, and the love remains.

book-review, books, Historical Fiction

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

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While there are many bright spots in the prose, the overall story was too far fetched and disjointed. I didn’t truly care much about Hamnet. He was a flat character I never really felt drawn to. Anne/Agnes’ story was sort of interesting, but again not fully believable or endearing. Many half stories throughout. Still not clear why the name Hamnet being change to Hamlet was such an intolerable thing.

I have questions: are these half stories part of the point, that we really don’t know what was real or not? Was the Latin Tutor never named because there are questions if Shakespeare was the true author of the works? Was Anne/Agnes given powers that were considered unnatural because she was supposed to be a magical inspiration for the plays? And my big question – why should I care?

book-review, literature

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

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The more things change the more they stay the same. Melina Green is a playwright who believes she can’t get anything seen on stage due to a scathing comment from a renowned critic during a contest when she was still in college.

When she wins a contest to put on a play after her best friend submits her manuscript under a male pseudonym, art and life become similar. The play is about a distant relative Emilia Bassano, who lived in the late 1500s. A ward of English aristocrats taught the arts and a gift for storytelling, she was forced to be the mistress to Lord Chamberlain. The tale that unfolds portrays her as Shakespear’s Dark Lady. Her story, intertwined with Melina’s, is about a writer needing to hide behind a male face/name to be considered as talented.

Interesting premise. I preferred Emilia’s story to Melina’s, which seemed very self-centered and whiny. The truth is still here, as there are still so many women publishing under her first initials only (example: JK Rowlings)

book-review, Family Drama, Women's literature

Every Tom Dick and Harry by Elinor Lipman

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Elinor Lipman hits upon another fun one. Emma Lewis is taking over her parent’s estate sale business. She is living in their home rent free, and her father’s friend and her high school algebra teacher Frank is moving in as a renter. A former “bed and breakfast” that had more use for the beds than for breakfast, is going up for sale and an estate sale is needed. Emma jumps on the opportunity, coming to realize the open secret of the town – it was a brothel. Emma begins dating the handsome new Police Chief, and Frank begins dating the mother. Screwball comedy ensues. Light, fun romantic comedy.

book-review, LGBQ+

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

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Rosie and Penn fell in love, got married, and had kids. After 3 boys they decided to try one last time for a girl. Then Claude was born. Creative, smart, and by 5 years old obsessed with becoming a princess. ER Doctor mom and Author Penn go to great lengths to keep this a family secret. While they tried everything to support their child, the complexities of what this truly is and the choices that must be made are overwhelming. And secrets are difficult to keep. When this is reveled the confusion grows for everyone. The truth of this is stark. No matter what is done there are two sides to each choice. While there are a few things missing, like the mom not knowing what additional resources to use to help, it faces a difficult topic with compassion. The fact that there is no one answer is the point of the story.

book-review, books, reading

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King

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Monica Tsai, a reclusive computer science college student, is torn between the project her professor has her working on and the need to help her recently Alzheimer’s diagnosed grandmother. Through her work on the project EMRG, an application that is to connect people, she finds a connection to her grandmother’s cousin. As she works to untangle the past, she learns of the magic that existed in the family to reforge or recreate the words written with handmade pencils from the family company. A family saga follows them through wars and distance, always returning to the heart – of the pencil or of the family. What happens to the stories written in pencil appears to be going the same way for the digital content. As her grandmother faced the question of is it right to share other’s words without their knowledge, so does Monica.

The work for her professor is about journalling to leave a digital record of who you are and what your life was. The work for her grandmother was the same, but through the process of reforging from a pencil. Either way, the importance of leaving your story for others to share is the focus.

YA Lit

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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In the year 2044 the world is harsh to those that don’t have much. The escape is into a virtual reality game called Oasis. Created by James Halladay, a pop culture fan of the 1980s, who passed away five years earlier. Control of this program/world is to be gained through an “easter egg hunt”. Clues are hard to find, and no one has been able to find them in all these years.

Eighteen year old Wade Watts spends as much time in Oasis as possible. With few friends, and few resources, he is able to project who he wants to be by selecting an avatar and hiding behind it. This is where he meets his friends. And you can’t believe that it is Wade that solves the first clue. The world takes notice, and the chase is on – and is real in both Oasis and the real world.

Great puzzle, engaging characters, and a timeless message. Be true to who you are, and you will always find your place.

Black Experience, book-review, books, literature, reading, Women's literature

What ever happened to Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

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This novel is a story told by two people – Kitty Karr, a star actress, and her former co-star’s daughter, Elise St John. When you start you are with Elise, and you are sent in circles trying to figure out who she is, how she is connected, and why we should care. The Kitty Karr parts are fascinating, learning how she came to California in a long and winding fashion. It is even more circuitous to finding out the relationship to Elise St John.

In the end, this was an easily guessed premise that has been used many times. I did, however, enjoy Kitty’s story. Elise’s seemed too contrived.

literature, Women's literature

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick 

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Set in a planned suburb in 1960s Northern Virginia, this story follows four women come to feel held back by the strict rules and expectations of the time. Each woman came to the neighborhood for different reasons, but all of them are unhappy in their own way.

Margaret feels bored and restless. She wants more from life than baking the perfect cake or hosting the perfect dinner. With her kids in school and her marriage feeling strained, she decides to start a book club to meet other women and use her mind again. She invites Charlotte, the mysterious new neighbor from New York, who agrees to come if the first book is
The Feminine Mystique.

Viv, a former Army nurse and mother of six, is excited to finally have time for herself now that her youngest is in school. She and her husband still share a strong, loving bond, even in the middle of their busy home life.

Bitsy is the newest and youngest member of the group. Recently married to an older man, she feels lost and unsure of her place in this new community.

As the women read the book, they begin to see that their private frustrations are shared by many others. They start questioning the roles they’ve been told to accept and begin pushing against the limits placed on them. Through the book club and the feminist books that are chosen, they support each other as each woman finds her voice and begins shaping a life that feels true to who she is.

This is a story about recognizing that women’s roles were too confining—and about the strength that comes from friendship, honesty, and choosing your own path. The book club becomes the support system they all needed to stand up for themselves.