The Travelers by Regina Porter
303 pages

What’s it about? 
This sprawling book has a large cast of characters whose stories intersect over the course of the novel.   I won’t even get into all the various plots.

What did it make me think about?
I spent a lot of time trying to remember which character was which, and then which  storyline was which...
 
Should I read it?
Regina Porter has a way with words, but even her writing couldn’t save this rambling collection of plot lines.  Not only was it confusing- but the characters seemed too emotionally distant to connect with.  Beautifully written, but I was glad when I turned the last page on this one.
 
Quote-
“The Christie house didn’t lack material things.  There just wasn’t much room to spare.  Everything was functional.  It was one of those moments, and I’ve had a few of them as a white man married to a black woman, when I understood my own privilege. You can talk about privilege until you’re blue in the face but you’ll never understand it until you live with someone who has had to do more with less.”

If you liked this try-
There There by Tommy Orange
​​Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
​​​Silver Sparrow by Tayari JonesTo Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

7 stars

Hollywood’s Eve by Lili Anolik
274 pages

What’s it about?
This is a biography of Eve Babitz- although it reads more like a love letter.  Babitz was a fixture on the L.A. social scene in the 1960’s and 70’s.  She eventually becomes a writer whose work has recently been re-discovered. 

What did it make me think?
What an interesting time period to be in L.A.  I wish I was more interested in Eve Babitz...

Should I read it?
I very easily could have put this book down, but I was on a long flight so I read it all.  For me it was just frenetic.  Lots and lots of name dropping but no cohesive story.  For example, “In 1962, Hopps left Ferus in the hands of partner Irving Blum in order to accept the position of director of the Pasadena Art Museum.  His September show, New Paintings of Common Objects, featuring Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Joe Goode, and Andy Warhol ,among others, was the first pop-art exhibition in the U.S., bearing out New York, still under the sway of the abstract expressionists, by nearly six months.”  Lots of events and people sited, especially in the first half of the book.  Even after finishing the book I never got a grasp of who Eve really was, or found her very compelling.  

Quote-
“To be Eve Babitz is a daunting prospect even if you happen to be Babitz. On the other hand, though, her humanness is a quality I’ve taken largely on faith.  Meaning intellectually I know she’s human, while emotionally I know no such thing”

If you liked this try-
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur

3 stars

Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl by Jeannie Vanasco
357 pages

What’s it about?
Jeannie Vanasco is in college when her good friend Mark rapes her.  Fourteen years later she decides to write a memoir about this experience.  Vanesco makes the unusual decision to include Mark's viewpoint in the story. In cases of sexual assault 8 out of 10 victims know their perpetrators.  This book is an unusual exploration into sexual assault.
 
What did it make me think about?
 Can good people do horrible things?

Should I read it?
 Anyone interested in the #metoo movement will be drawn to this book.  

Quote-
"Mark said the assault changed the story he could tell about himself.  It changed my personal narrative too- or it confirmed what I'd suspected but was afraid to admit: I cared too much about pleasing men.  I didn't;t stop Mark partly because I didn't want to embarrass him.  What sort of feminist acts like this?  ​I asked myself- instead of asking, What sort of friend does what Mark did?  "

If you liked this try-
How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
H is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Last Girl by Nadia Murad
Everything Happens for a Reason and other Lies I have Loved by Kate Bower

7 stars

Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
234 pages

What’s it about?
 Adrienne Brodeur is just fourteen when her mother, Malabar, wakes her in the middle of the night to tell her she has kissed her husband's best friend.  Adrienne immediately becomes her mother's co-conspirator in a torrid love affair that will last years.  What happens to a child whose well-being is second to her mothers' desires?

What did it make me think about?
 Wow! What is it like to have a charismatic, narcissist as a parent?  The harm we can do to children.....

Should I read it?
 This book kept popping up my radar, but for some reason I resisted it.  Maybe it was the cover?  I am so glad I finally gave in and read this one.  This memoir is so different than any other I have read.  I found it thoroughly engrossing.  Malabar was quite something, but it is Adrienne that you grow to admire.

Quote-
"I knew only what pleased my mother; I didn't have a moral compass.  It would be years before I understood the forces that shaped who she was and who I became and recognized the hurt that we both caused.  What I knew then was that nothing made me feel more loved than making my mother happy, and any means justified that end.  Starting when I was fourteen, what made my mother happy was Ben Souther.  With that, my lying took a dark turn.  Lies of omission became lies of commission.  What began as choice turned into habit and became my conscience's muscle memory."

If you liked this try-
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Out East by John Glynn
How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

8 1/2 stars

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson 
196 pages

What’s it about?
This book begins in 2001 as Melody is turning 16.  Melody's grandparents are hosting a coming out party for her at their Brooklyn home.  The story goes back and forth in time to tell the story of Melody, her parents, and her grandparents.  
 
What did it make me think about?
What didn't this novel make me think about?   I came away wondering if people are more different or more the same- no matter what culture they come from.

Should I read it?
One of my favorites from 2019. Of course I would read anything Jacqueline Woodson wrote...

Quote-
​"He knew what she wasn't saying. That the house felt small with him and Melody in it.  Wrong.  That she didn't want to live with him.  Didn't want to raise anybody's child.  Pregnancy was one thing, but being someone's mom was another. "

If you liked this try-
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Ruby by Cynthia Bond
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
​Lazaretto by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

9 stars

What’s it about?
This story is set in Philadelphia and flashes back and forth in time from the late 1940's through present day.  Danny and Maeve are two children that have it all, and then lose it all.  They are siblings that grow up privileged  when their world is suddenly turned around.  This book is part fairly tale and part a story of redemption.  
 
What did it make me think about?
For some reason this book just felt nostalgic to me.  It took me back to why I fell in love with reading years ago.  Danny is a wonderful narrator and both he and Maeve are both such well drawn characters.  Ann Patchett is just a gifted writer- one of my favorites in fact.

Should I read it?
This is a great book to curl up with on a cold autumn day.  I highly recommend this one!

Quote-
​"We had made a fetish out of our misfortune, fallen in love with it  I was sickened to realize we'd kept it going for so long, not that we had decided to stop."

If you liked this try-
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
​The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Driftless by David Rhodes

9 stars

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
257 pages

What’s it about?
 This novel is written in three distinct parts.  The first part of the novel is set in a performing arts school in the early 1980's. Mr. Kingsley is the head of the drama department and the students all revolve around him and his "trust exercises". I won't say more about the plot as it would give too much away.  

What did it make me think about?
 This ambitious novel made me think of another book I read earlier this summer- Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday.  Both books are written in three parts.  Both novels contain a story within a story and both are very smart novels.  However, I enjoyed Asymmetry and I did not enjoy Trust Exercise.  I just could not muster much interest in the characters...  

Should I read it?
 ​I would say this book is an intellectual trust exercise in itself.  It would be a good book to read as a class or in a group as it has so many themes to discuss.  However, I did not enjoy reading it at all.   So for me- the book was just tedious.  That is not to say that it is not a well-written, thought provoking book.  All the critics loved it- so maybe you will love it as well.  It just missed the mark for me.... 

Quote-
"Remember the impossible eventfulness of time, transformation and emotion packed liked gunpowder into the barrel.  Remember the dilation and diffusion, the years within days."

"All of us , I think it is fair to say, fixate on things from our past, maybe wanting to change them."

"Because we're none of us alone in this world.  We injure each other.  
Why should another be injured by choices I made for my Self?
You're choosing for another when you make choices.  We overlap.  We get tangled.  You can't help but hurt."

If you liked this try-
​Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
Driftless by David Rhodes

5 stars

The Gone Dead by Chantelle Benz
293 pages

What’s it about?
Billie James is in her early thirties when she inherits a shack from her grandmother in the Mississippi Delta.  Thirty years earlier Billie had been staying with her father at the shack when he died of an apparent accident.    Billie comes back to Mississippi and soon begins to question exactly how her dad died.  How much does she remember of that night?  What really happened?

What did it make me think about?
This was just a good mystery set in the Mississippi Delta.  Who did it? 

Should I read it?
I enjoyed this book.  Lots of style and grit to the writing and a pretty good plot too. 

Quote-
“They still thought that they would be rich when they grew up and buy their momma a big house, and that the Lord’s love would save them from a world that might find them too dangerous to live”.  

If you liked this try-
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

8 stars

 The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste 
424 pages

What’s it about?
 This novel begins and ends in Ethiopia in 1974, but the majority of the  story takes place in 1935 as Italy invades Ethiopia.  The novel centers around Hirut.  Hirut is a newly orphaned servant girl living in the home of aristocrats Kidane and Aster. She is taken in as a servant after her parents are killed. Her relationship with each of her employers will shift and change throughout the novel.   Another central character is Ettore.  He is an Italian photographer who happens to be Jewish.  He is tasked with documenting the war in Ethiopia for the Italian citizens.  His participation in the war adds another layer to the novel. 

What did it make me think about?
 This book is about war but is also about the role of women in society and how that changes as war comes to a country.   As Hirut observes part way through the story,  “she is no longer afraid of what men can do to women like her."  ​In many ways this is a story of women.

Should I read it?
This work of historical fiction was beautifully written and very interesting.  I knew so little of the colonization of Africa and the lasting effects on Africa.  Ethiopia was originally colonized by Italy and when Mussolini decided to invade in 1935 it was a long and brutal war.  This story is set in that time period.   Not only was i drawn into Hirut's story, but I learned a lot as well.  I highly recommend this one to any fan of historical fiction! 

Quotes-
“Ettore turns away: He has never looked directly at these prisoners. He has seen them only through the lens, and only for the purposes of arranging them in perfect light: their worth measurable in the balance of shadow and sharpness. He has found ways not to hear there pleas and curses as they pivot, poised like a dancer, on the edge of the cliff for that last picture, the final image very likely the only one they have ever taken in their life. Every photograph has become a broken oath with himself, a breach in the defenses he set up to ignore what he really is: an archivist of obscenities, a collector of terror, a witness to all that breaks skin and punctures resolve and leaves human beings dead.”


"Across the country, guerrilla fighters have ambushed at night and walked peacefully through streets during the day, waving at Italian merchants and shopkeepers. The patriots have learned to attack in in expected places: officers’ clubs in the early morning, in brothels reserved for Italians, in hotel rooms used by high-ranking officers. They have crept behind dozing guards and sleepy administrators and left nothing but slumped figures. They are everywhere and nowhere, men and women of a shadow world where a different King rules.”

If you liked this try-
A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon by Anthony Marra
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Girl At War by Sara Novic
​Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

9 stars