Writers & Lovers by Lily King
324 pages

What’s it about?
Casey is in her early thirties and still struggling to finish her first novel.  She waits tables in Harvard Square as she recovers from her mother's unexpected death and a brief love affair. She is burdened by grief, anxiety, and debt but she continues to try to write. "I liked reading, but I was picky about books.  I think the enthusiasm came when I started writing.  Then I understood how hard it is to re-create in words what you see and feel in your head."    
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What did it make me think about?
I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this book.  This is a novel for those that love the written word.  However it is also about so much more.  "I squat there and think about how you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them."    So many small revelations- so much hope.

Should I read it?
The first novel I read by Lily King was "The Pleasing Hour" and I have not missed any of her books since. For some reason I have been putting this one off.  Shame on me!  I am sure "Writers & Lovers" has an autobiographical element to it, and for that reason alone I would love to get stuck in an elevator with Lily King one day!  

Quote-
"Nearly every guy I've dated believed they should already be famous, believed that greatness was their destiny and they were already behind schedule.  An early moment of intimacy often involved a confession of this sort: a childhood vision, teacher's prophesy, a genius IQ.  At first, with my boyfriend in college, I believed it, too.  Later, I thought I was just choosing delusional men.  Now I understand it's how boys are raised to think, now they are lured into adulthood. I've met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny." 

"I just nodded.  I wish I had been awful to her that day.  I wind I'd thrown my food and screamed vile things at her.  I wish she'd dug all my feelings out of me.  Maybe I'd be better at saying them now."

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9 1/2 stars

The Last Flight by Julie Clark
302 pages

What’s it about?
 This is a thriller centering around two women who are both fleeing troubled lives.  Mmmm....  No need to tell you more.

What did it make me think about?
 How fast can I turn the pages?

Should I read it?
 Who doesn't love a little suspense?  This is a great summer read.  Pick it up!

Quote-
"I glance over my shoulder, as if I expect someone to catch me in my own office in the middle of the night, reading my thoughts, knowing what I am about to do.  I listen hard, the silence a loud rush in my ears, straining to hear the hint of footsteps two floors above me.  But the door remains empty, and the only sound is the pounding of my heart."

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8 stars

All Adults Here by Emma Straub
354 pages

What’s it about?
 Astrid Strick is the mother of three grown children- and a grandmother as well.  One day as she is doing errands a bus hurtles by and kills a woman right in front of her.  The victim is someone she has known for years. The shock seems to heighten her awareness of how quickly her time is passing.  With a renewed vigor she sets out to share her biggest secret, and also right some wrongs from her past as a mother.  

What did it make me think about?
 Does anyone ever get parenting completely right?

Should I read it?
 This was a delightful book!  When I really think about it - the book did not have a stellar plot but I just did not seem to care.  The family was lovely.  Lots of family members doing their best with what they are given.  Lots of forgive and lots to love- just like most families.  I would recommend this one as a great beach read!

Quote-
" That pierced her too- the thought of her children alone, none of the three of them quite adults, still, even now!  When she was their age, she'd been ancient."

​" So much of becoming an adult was distancing yourself from your childhood experiences and pretending they didn't matter, then growing to realize they were all that mattered and composed 90 percent of your entire being."

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8 1/2 stars

Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf
260 pages

What’s it about?
 Maryanne Wolf is a neuroscientist who studies the reading brain.  In a series of letters to us, the reader, Maryanne Wolf addresses her concerns over how the digital world may change our brains and what those changes may bring.  In these letters she cites different research and covers a wide range of topics. 

What did it make me think about?
How can Maryanne Wolf be scientific and folksy at the same time?  I think it would be kind of hard to do...

Should I read it?
 I really enjoyed this work of non-fiction.  Lots to think about here!  I will let the quotes speak for themselves.

Quote- so many quotes in this book to share....
 "The unsettling reality, however, is that unbeknownst to many of us, including until recently myself, there has begun an unanticipated decline of empathy among young people.  The MIT scholar Sherry Turtle described a study by Sara Konrath and her research group at Stanford University that showed a 40 % decline in empathy in our young people over the last two decades, with the most precipitous decline in the last ten years."

 "The sheer amount of information that we all consume involves one set of inherently game-changing issues after another.  What do we do with the cognitive overload from multiple gigabytes of information from multiple devices?  First, we simplify.  Second, we process information as rapidly as possible: more precisely, we read more in briefer bursts.  Third, we triage.  We stealthily begin the insidious tradeoff between our need to know with our need to save and gain time.  Sometimes we outsource our intelligence to the information outlets that offer the fastest, simplest, most digestible distillations of information we not longer want to think about ourselves."

"More disturbing altogether, close to half our children who are African-American or Latino do not read in grade four at even a "basic" reading level, much less a proficient one.  This means they do not decode well enough to understand what they are reading, which will impact almost everything they are supposed to learn from now on, including math and other subjects. "

"As depicted earlier, we need to confront the reality that when bombarded with too many options, our default can be to rely on information that places few demands upon thinking.  More and more of us would then think we know something based on information whose source was chosen because it conforms to how and what we thought before.  Thus, thought we are seemingly well armed, there begins to be less and less motivation to think more deeply, much less try on views that differ from one's own."

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9 stars

A Burning by Megha Majumdar
288 pages

What’s it about?
Three lives intersect in present day India when a terrorist group bombs a train.  The bombing sets off a series of events.  Jivan is a young Muslim woman accused of helping the terrorists after she carelessly posts a flippant comment on Facebook.  PT Sir is her old teacher, who in the aftermath of the attacks finds himself immersed in a right wing political party.  And finally, Lovely is an aspiring actress who might finally be realizing all her dreams.  The public wants someone to pay and Jivan is chosen by the authorities as that someone.  Will Lovely and PT Sir take a stand or will they use this situation to further their own ambitions.  This novel goes back and forth between the characters to give us a unique perspective on India.

What did it make me think about?
 India- complicated problems and I am sure complicated solutions.

Should I read it?
 This was a quick page-turner with an interesting plot and plenty to think about. What would we choose if the direction of our lives would be forever changed?
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Quote-
"I admired these strangers on Facebook who said anything they wanted to.  They were not afraid of making jokes.  Whether it was about the police or the ministers, they had their fun, wasn't that freedom?"

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8 1/2 stars

Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin
371 pages

What’s it about?
 Claire is replaced as the lead singer in an emerging band just as their first big hit comes out.  Nursing her wounds she quietly tries to make a little money as a playgroup musician to stay afloat.  She is hired to perform once a week for a group of toddlers and is soon enamored with their uber wealthy, instagram loving moms.  

What did it make me think about?
Am I really wasting my time reading about these people?  Who cares what they do? 
 
Should I read it?
 OK- so again it could just be my mood.  Somehow, in a time of pandemics and racial strife, it is really hard to read a book about super wealthy New Yorkers whose problems are all of their own making.  I don't think this book would have captured me in the best of times- but this week it hit the wrong note. 

Quote-
"The instagram made her happy for another reason too: Hope was so small and unspoiled, and Whitney had been given the awe-inspiring power to shape her."

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6 stars

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawaii Strong Washburn
373 pages

What’s it about?
 In 1995, off the coast of Kailua-Kona Hawaii, 7-year-old Noa falls off a boat and is rescued and delivered back to his mom in the jaws of a shark.  Thus begins the legend of Noa and the great expectations put upon him.  Noa is the middle child and his "specialness" has repercussions for the whole family, but especially for his older brother Dean and his younger sister Kaui.   This is a story of Hawaii, the Gods, a family, and expectations.

What did it make me think about?
 Hawaii.

Should I read it?
I really expected to love this book.  However despite the lyrical writing, the beautiful setting, and the vivid characters- I just did not love it.  Kawaii Strong Washburn is a very talented writer but I struggled to connect to the characters. I did love reading about Hawaii, and the setting was almost a character in itself.   It might have been my mood because so many have loved this book....

Quote-
​" 'Whenever I've made  a choice in my life, a real choice..'  She leans back from my head.  Touches my shoulder just for a second.  'I can always feel the change, after I choose.  The better versions of myself, moving just out of reach.' "

7 1/2 stars

Deacon King Kong by James McBride
370 pages

​What’s it about?
 This novel is set in the 1960's at The Cause Housing Project in Brooklyn.  The story centers around an old church deacon named Sportcoat that can't stay away from the booze.  His wife Hettie has died and he spends too much time drinking and talking to her ghost.  He is obsessed with finding the Christmas Club money she left somewhere because he is afraid the church people will think he stole it.  One day he drinks too much and walks up to the neighborhood drug dealer and shoots him.  Now the whole neighborhood gets involved to protect him.

What did it make me think about?
 Brooklyn and changing neighborhoods.

Should I read it?
 This was my favorite James McBride novel to date.  I loved the characters and he just brings Brooklyn in the 1960's to life.  It takes some patience in the beginning but if you stick it out Sportcoat may be one of your favorite literary characters this year.

Quote-
​"She'd known most of them her whole life.  They stared at her with that look, that projects​ look: the sadness the suspicious, the weariness, the knowledge that came from living a special misery in a world of misery.  Four of their numbers were down- gone, changed forever, dead or not, it didn't matter.  And there would be more.  The drugs, big drugs, heroin, were here.  Nothing could stop it."

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Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
306 pages

What’s it about?
This novel takes place in 1976 in and around the oil fields of Odessa, Texas.  Gloria is just fourteen-years-old when she shows up at the front door of MaryRose White-head’s ranch house.  She has been raped and beaten and is not safe yet.
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What did it make me think about?
Class, racism, and justice. 

Should I read it?
This book was not what I expected.  The story is told from multiple perspectives.  With each perspective we see how this crime affects the community.  This was a really good book.  It is well-written and fast paced.  I always love a glimpse into a different world and West Texas in the 1970's was a world I had not heard much about.  In the end this book demonstrates both the ease and the difficulty in dehumanizing another person.

Quote-
“Ginny’s grandma was a toothy old woman, a believer in hellfire and hard work and punishment that fit the crime. If the devil comes knocking on your front door in the middle of the night, she liked to say, chances are you flirted with him at the dance.  When she delivered the punch line, she clapped her hands twice sharply, just to make sure Ginny was paying attention.”

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 8 1/2 stars