Category: literature

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, reading

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

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This novel is a tribute to family, faith, and love. Told through the voice of 11‑year‑old Reuben Land, the story begins with the miracle of his birth. His father, Jeremiah, arrived late to the delivery room. After 12 minutes without breathing, the doctor told Reuben’s mother there was nothing more to be done. But Jeremiah picked up his son and commanded him to breathe in the name of the living God—and Reuben did. From then on, however, Reuben lived with severe asthma.

Jeremiah had once studied medicine but gave it up to follow the path of God. He worked humbly as a janitor at the town school. A man of deep faith and honor, he saved his son’s teenage girlfriend from being attacked in the boys’ locker room during a football game. The boys involved were known troublemakers who had terrorized the town, and they soon turned their anger on the Land family. They harassed them repeatedly, even kidnapping the youngest daughter, Swede, and hurting her before returning her home. At that point, Reuben’s older brother Davy realized the danger would never end. Armed with a shotgun, he waited in his room. When the two boys broke into the house, Davy shot them dead.

Although Davy believed he was protecting his family, he knew he had taken human lives. He was arrested but later escaped from jail and disappeared. Jeremiah, desperate to find his son, gathered the family into an Airstream trailer and set out toward the Badlands.

Both Davy and Reuben were the focus of their father’s prayers, but those prayers came with a cost. Reuben had been given life, yet his breathing remained weak and difficult. Davy knew his father prayed for God’s help against the family’s tormentors, but the price was heavy—Davy’s own act of violence. The novel suggests that faith can bring solutions, but those solutions are not always the same as justice.

The writing is strong, though at times the events feel a little unbelievable. Still, the family’s love and faith in one another never waver, making this a powerful story about resilience and devotion.

book-review, books, fantasy, literature, reading, romance

Summer fun with Faeries and Serial Killers.

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On vacation I want a light, fun book. I forgot to bring some with me, so I ran to the local bookstore and came home with two books – a fantasy and a romance. Just right for my mood.

First up: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries By Heather Fawcett

I first heard of this book on the Reading Glasses podcast. While not typically covering my type of reading, I thoroughly enjoy listening to these two women discussing books. I decided to take the leap with the summer book because – well why not? This is the story of a Cambridge professor, Emily Wilde, who is a bookish woman with no social skills. She is working on creating an encyclopedia of faeries. While young, she is very accomplished in her field. We follow her to the far reaches of the north to find proof of the Hidden Faeries – the most elusive of their kind. When we get there we find a tough village with gruff survivors that stick to their own. Emily struggles to connect with these people, who are the key to her studies.

Enter Emily’s less disciplined, extremely handsome, academic Wendell Bambleby. He charms the townsfolk, and insinuates himself into Emily’s research, frustrating her to distraction. What follows are spoilers, but you learn more about faeries and about the human heart as you read on.

At times a romance, at times a thriller, always fun if not high brow literature. I will be taking more walks in the woods for this kind of read as I continue to recover from the heavy stuff I have been reading lately.

Next up: Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson.

I finished the Emily Wilde book quickly, so I turned to my other splurge book. This one was shelved as a romance. Trying not to discard it because of the title, and because of my love for hallmark endings, this was just right for me.

Phoebe Walsh, a PhD candidate in English, has returned to Florida to help her brother clear out their father’s house after he died. She has been disconnected from this place for years, and was estranged from her father for decades. While she is clearing the house, her memories of times here – before her parents divorced – were not great. Now she is focusing on finishing her dissertation on the True Crime genre. We come to learn that Phoebe is a loner, obsessed with Serial Killers, who thinks everyone is one. Then she starts to reconcile what her past was to what she recollected, spending time with her brother, her former best friend, and now the man, Sam, who lives next door to her dad’s house.

While this is a romance, the themes explored include body dysmorphia, self confidence, trust, divorce, and family dynamics. The happy ending is there, just like a hallmark movie. And just like how I love those, I recommend this as a fun read, with surprising depth.  

book-review, books, literature, reading

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

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This novel is widely regarded as a literary masterpiece, and Kundera is often hailed as one of the greats.

I, however, didn’t agree.

The book explores the philosophical tension between “lightness” and “heaviness” in life—where lightness symbolizes emptiness and heaviness represents meaning. Interestingly, I believe these metaphors can be reversed, and Kundera seems to play with that inversion, challenging conventional ideas about what truly matters.

While the writing is undeniably skillful, I found myself disconnected from the characters. In fact, I actively disliked them. As their backstories unfolded—revealing what they abandoned, how selfish they were, and how condescending they remained—I grew even more alienated. Their emotional detachment made it hard to care about their journeys.

Perhaps I’m just not erudite enough to appreciate the deeper layers of this novel.

I’m okay with that.

book-review, books, literature, reading

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

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Orbital is not an easy read. It demands effort and patience to grasp what’s unfolding. There’s no conventional plot, no direct dialogue—just a stream of impressions and reflections that pass quickly, often without resolution. Does it make sense? That’s for the reader to work out.

The novel follows a single day aboard a space station that orbits Earth sixteen times. Through these cycles, we encounter six astronauts from vastly different backgrounds—American, Russian, Italian, British, and Japanese—each of whom has committed to life and work in space. Their cultural differences shape their perspectives, yet they share common emotional terrain: the loneliness of being far from loved ones, and the awe of floating above the planet.

Harvey presents their lives in fragments—snapshots both literal and metaphorical. The crew tracks a typhoon building over Asia, takes photographs, recalls artwork, eats, exercises, and reflects. These glimpses offer data points about each character, but never a complete portrait. This mirrors their view of Earth: partial, obscured, requiring faith to fill in the gaps. The typhoon’s trajectory, like the inner lives of the crew, remains elusive.

With no spoken dialogue, the novel evokes the solitude of orbit. Each revolution around the planet reframes what “home” means, especially when viewed from such distance. The astronauts’ thoughts drift toward their families, their countries, and the landscapes below—each pass offering a new angle, a new emotional resonance.

Ultimately, Orbital is a quiet meditation on perspective, isolation, and connection. The storm on Earth parallels the internal storms each astronaut carries. You don’t know where it will strike, or how hard—but you feel its presence, circling with them.

book-review, books, literature, reading

Lulu Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kristen Miller

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If you look at this book and assume this is just another light comedy, you would be right – and wrong. This book is not just about banning books. Its about what happens if people are silent when they see something happening that is not right. It is about what hate can do to a person. It is about how easy it is to be taken in by hate. It is about how reading a book can open yourself up to learning about what another’s experience was. It creates empathy and understanding. Some of the most dangerous things that cannot be controlled by those that want you to be afraid of everyone, and obey them.

Beverly is on the school board in the town she grew up in. Her nemesis, Lulu, has been behind a push to remove books from the libraries that will “harm” the children of the town. Instead, she has created a lending library of “wholesome books” on her property. What she doesn’t know is that Beverly’s daughter has switched these books with the actual banned books, leaving only the dust cover of the original book. Hilarity ensues as people borrow books, not expecting to read what they get. Each book, however, does what they are supposed to do – to bring other’s experiences to you, so you can make your own decisions on life.

This is the reason that book bans exist. The purpose is to keep information from others, to keep “others” as the unknown enemy, less than human. It is through this, and those that stand by and let things happen without saying anything, that hate can grow. This hate changes people. As we meet the people of the town, we begin to see how this hate has crept in, unknowingly, and how it is confronted.

Well written, timely and still fun. Worth your time.

Asian Culture, book-review, books, Historical Fiction, literature, read around the world, reading

House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

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This novel relies upon historical events that did occur, even if there is literary license taken with the exact timing of the events. This is especially appropriate, as they are told as a memory of a prior time. Lesley Hamlyn receives a package at her far from everything farm in South Africa. Surprised, since mail still comes for her now deceased husband Robert, that this package is for her. It is a book of W. Somerset Maugham. This takes her back to the time she and Robert were living in Cassowary House located in the straits of Penang, Malaysia.

Robert and “Willie” Maugham had been school chum in England. During Willie’s travels in Asia, he came to stay at Cassowary House with his secretary, Gerald. Willie learns that Sun Yat-sen, a Chinese revolutionary, had been known to them, he seeks information on who he is, and guesses that Lesley had an affair with him. While Lesley is warned that confidences given to Willie will end up in his works, she decides to tell him her story. It is a story of the shocks of learning things are not as neat as society lets on, that assumptions are wrong, and that deception can be both a blessing and a curse. As Lesley describes how she attends her friend’s trial for murder – a real event – the secrets come out to Willie.

The story comes to a close when we return to the older Lesley, in South Africa, comes to find her own peace and ability to choose for herself – something that had not been allowed in society when this is written.

Well crafted, engaging and thoughtful, I will seek more books by this author.

book-review, books, literature, Middle Eastern, read around the world, reading

Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jaber

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This story is a fictional telling of a family from the middle east, with roots throughout the region. The author starts and ends the book with assurances that the story, while similar to her family’s, is a true fictional tale.

As the story opens, Amani and her father are at an exhibition of falconers for the King of Jordan’s 60th birthday. Falcons had been used by the Bedouins to hunt as they migrated throughout the middle east. These falcons have become symbols of good luck, excellence and inner strength. They are seen as spiritual messengers, asking you to pay attention to your intuition and focus on what is important.  They remind you to look at things from a different perspective and forgive yourself for your past. Being on the alert for possibilities, to be decisive in decisions and actions, and to adapt to change are especially important to the context of the story. These lead the way into the heart of Amani’s story.

Amani is a woman living in two cultures – America of her birth and upbringing, and Jordan of her ancestry. Her father Gabriel (Gabe) came to America by chance to work with his hands in carpentry and construction, while his brothers stayed in Jordan. His older brother Hafez has become a trusted adviser of the King of Jordan after studying in Syracuse, NY. He has risen in power and is in charge of arranging the King’s 60th birthday celebrations. He asks his brother Gabe to return to the land of his birth after 40 years to reprise his role as fencing partner to the King. Gabe does not want to return, but his daughter Amani wants to return to learn more about her grandmother, whom she has been told she resembles by all in the family. She persuades him by with a letter she finds from her grandmother.

Amani and Gabe stay at his brother Farouq’s guest home. Her cousin Omar becomes a close confidant. As she searches for answers about her grandmother, you see she is enamoured with Hafez. He and his wife try to take her in hand as if she were their heir. But when Amani begins asking questions, they put her off. Unknown to Amani, Hafez has ulterior motives for asking Gabe to come. Hafez believes that a family heirloom knife that his father gave to Gabe should be his and has asked that it be brought on the trip for him to see it one more time. The more complicated reason is not revealed until later in the story.

As the falcon introduction suggested, Amani comes to accept her past and looks to her own future. She searches for the family’s past, and is able to find joy and forgiveness in doing so. It also brings truth to the family and consequences for the person that started the family down a dark path. 

Throughout this family story are facts about those that settle in Jordan – and what makes a real Jordanian. It outlines the refugees from the Ottoman empire to the present, including the fact that the King was selected by the French. It is with true compassion that these are facts interwoven in the story but not used to accuse anyone person or culture.

This was a truly beautiful book about family, self-awareness, consequences, and forgiveness.   

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, reading

The redhead by the side of the road by Anne Tyler

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This is the story of Micah, a fortyish year-old man that lives in a basement apartment where he is the super, runs a free-lance computer tech business, and lives a regimented and predictable life. We see how Micah is in need of this structure, but yet his dreams and his visualizations tell you otherwise. When he is running each morning without his glasses, he believes that the fire-hydrant is a redhead child and that there are other objects that resemble people also. Then there is the dream of a baby being left at a store in an actual dream.

When a teenage boy shows up on his doorstep asking if Micah is his father, however, what Micah thinks is normal is turned on its head. He begins to examine his life, and his choices, that have left him alone (his girlfriend Cass of three years had just left him) and unhappy. This awakening, something that Anne Tyler writes about in such beautiful language, is how the book ends.

Similar themes as in most of Tylers books, this is yet another example of how living a small life comes at a cost. 

Black Experience, book-review, books, literature, reading

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

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This is a story told from many perspectives. Structured as notes for an article that will become a book, you hear from participants leading up to and after the fateful day when someone was killed during a concert – James “Jimmy” Shelton III, the drummer, the author of this book’s father. Through the interviews and research of the main players in the band we meet Neville “Nev” Charles, a white man from England – a decent musician but not spectacular. We also meet Opal, a black woman aware of her place in the world of 1970s America. Both are seeking a shot at something more. These two meet when Nev and his record label’s owner seek out a complementary voice at open mic nights across the mid-west. Sparks fly in the creative process. Opal & Nev start off imbalanced in power – Nev was the writer of the songs and Opal was to be featured – and Opal is aware she needs to bring something more. She does with her voice, her looks, and her anger. Nev and Opal begin to make some cutting=edge punk (not a term yet in the music world) music. During the studio sessions to record, however, Opal begins a relationship with the only other black person in the room – Jimmy Shelton, a gifted drummer respected in the industry. The duo, however, could not really find a following. In a desperate, move the record label decides to put on a showcase of the artists they have, anchored by a band that had hits but were racist, self-important, and part of an infamous motorcycle gang. During that concert tensions between races erupted and Jimmy is killed.

S. Sunny Shelton, the editor of a major music magazine and author of the book at the center of this story, has been chasing the participants to better understand why her father died that night. What she comes to learn through the process, however, is that she was focusing on the wrong thing. What was it that made Opal – the black woman that challenged the norms – the focus of the speculation for having started the riot anyway? What was she trying to say? Who was trying to stop her from saying it? And what is the cost you will pay for ensuring you are true to your own voice?

As the layers are pealed back, we see that the real culprits – those white people that instigated the riot and those that perpetrated the murder – avoid paying the price that the black people pay – literally and figuratively. As history begins to repeat itself during the much anticipated reunion of the duo, the truth of the deception is faced. The source of the “truth” is from a racist man that started the whole terrible thing. Assuming deniability because of stereotypes you hold – can keep you from the truth and from finding justice.

A powerfully written story, unveiled in a slow and meaningful way. This has been replaying in my mind since I finished it. I am looking forward to reading more by this author, as the pacing and underlying messages were brilliantly planned and executed.

book-review, books, Historical Fiction, literature, reading

Absolution by Alice McDermott

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Wonderful language and understanding of the role of women in the 1960s, the life of ex-pats in Saigon, and reflections on these events as time has passed.

A newly wed couple arrives in Saigon where wife Tricia and husband Peter begin their tour there. Devote Catholics, they are hoping to make Vietnam a better place – safe from communism. Tricia is painfully shy, from a working class family, who always feels a bit out of her element in the world. Charlene is a powerhouse organizer, who senses this timidity, immediately selects Tricia as the next person to help out with projects to do good in the world. These schemes are challenged by many throughout the community of Saigon, and in fact are referred to as a cabal by Charlene’s husband Kent.

The dual definition of this – not simply a group or club but also contrived schemes of a group of persons secretly united in a plot – that shows the duality of much of the story. Much of the book is exploring the motivation behind helping others. The women of the story believe they are there to help lesser nation, usually because their husband thought this. As with their husbands, however, their efforts to help create a different mess.

At its core, the book asks questions of these women that we ask of our country – does a good deed help those receiving it or those that are bestowing it? Is altruism real? What cost did the children of the countries of Vietnam and of the United States pay? How did we all allow ourselves to be led by others so easily?