​Miss Jane by Brad Watson 
279 pages

What’s it about?
This is a book that chronicles the life of Miss Jane.  Jane was born in early 20th century Mississippi with a congenital birth defect that set her apart from others.  

What did it make me think about?
This book was as much about a woman coming to terms with a solitary life as it was about her physical abnormality.  It certainly made you appreciate the hardships that people must have  endured because of the lack of medical knowledge in the early 1900’s.  This story was also a testament to people’s innate kindness, and to Jane’s affable nature.

Should I read it?
This was not a novel for those that love a good plot.  This book really concentrated on the character of Jane and those people that surrounded her.  The time, place, and characters are interesting even if the plot was somewhat slow paced.  The writing is beautiful.

Quote-
"By late spring of the year she would turn six, a more complex awareness of her difference had begun to shape itself in her mind like the root of some strange plant down deep in the woods.  She had moments when she felt like a secret, silent creation, invisible, more the ghost of something unknowable than a person, a child, a girl."

If you like this try-
*Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

7 1/2 stars

​Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
433 pages
 
What’s it about?
This novel takes place in the 1930’s and 40’s and revolves around Anna Kerrigan.  As a young girl of 12-years-old Anna accompanies her father along on a visit to a man named Dexter Styles.  Years later Anna’s father has gone missing and she runs into Dexter Styles again.  World War II is raging- Anna is now grown and working as an underwater diver in the Brooklyn Naval Yard.   What exactly does Dexter Styles know of her father’s disappearance and how can Anna find out?
 
What did I think?
I so enjoyed Jennifer Egan’s novel “A Visit From the Goon Squad” that I was chomping at the bit to read her newest book.  This novel is such a vast departure from her previous book that I was somewhat surprised at first.
 
Should you read it?
This novel started off with incredible promise.  The characters are great and the plot was interesting.  The character of Dexter Styles was unexpectedly likable and interesting.  Anna’s relationship with her disabled sister was really the heart of the book.   I liked the book a lot but the second half of the book was just not as cohesive to me as the first half.  For me there was a definite great beginning- and then just an ok and improbable ending.  I would still recommend the book but I wish it had lived up to the first half.
 
Quote-
“Natalie was boy-crazy, and Tabby had grown prettier than Dexter would have liked.  Not that he wished ugliness on his only daughter, but showy beauty was an invitation to dependence.  He’d have liked her to have the hidden kind, visible only to those who looked closely.”
 
If you like this try-
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
 Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman
​Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
​A Gentleman in Moscow By Amor Towles

​8 STARS
​