We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler 
308 pages

What’s it about?
This book centers around the Cooke family from Bloomington, Indiana. Rosemary Cooke narrates the story of her family- but be forewarned that Rosemary starts in the middle of the story. I was expecting a family drama, but this novel is much different than what I expected.

What did it make me think about?
So as I mentioned this book was totally unexpected. I did not read the back cover of the book before I started so I went into the book blind.  Maybe that was a good thing. This book was about childhood, memory, psychology, research, and animal activism.   This book has a point of view.

Should I read it?
I thought this was an interesting book. If you read to see issues from a new perspective then you will be open to this book. I was informed, educated, and made to feel by Fowler's story.  At times the message was heavy handed and that might bother some readers.  This  is a book that will resonate will all animal lovers out there.  

Quote-
“ It seemed to Lowell that psychological studies of nonhuman animals were mostly cumbersome, convoluted, and downright peculiar. They taught us little about the animals but lots about the researchers who designed and ran them.” 

If you liked this try-
Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
​​​The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
​

 Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
260 pages

What’s it about?
 Yedjide and Akin meet and fall in love while at the university in Nigeria.  After marrying, Akin's extended family begins to put pressure on the couple to have a baby.  When four years goes by without children the strain on the relationship begins to show.  This is the story of a marriage under pressure.

What did it make me think about?
 Nigeria- and the differences and similarities to the way we live in America.

Should I read it?
Thank you to my daughter-in-law Kristen for this suggestion.   I think this a book that many people would enjoy. It was such an interesting and quick book.  I love a story that gives you cannot predict.

Quote-
"I loved Yejide from the very first moment.  No doubt about that.  But there are things that love can't do.  Before I got married, I believed that love could do anything.  I learned soon enough that it couldn't bear the weight of four years without children.  If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to break​ing and sometimes does break.  But even when it's in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn't mean it's no longer love."

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Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
​​Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
​The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
​
9 stars
​

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
242 pages

What’s it about?
 Their is no mistaking that Ocean Vuong is a gifted poet.  This is his first novel.  The book is written in the form of a letter- from a son to his mother.  It explores the complicated relationship between “little dog” and his Vietnamese mother and grandmother. It is about being heard in a world that does not want to acknowledge you.  It is about the power of endurance.

What did it make me think about?
How War changes not just the generation that lives through it, but generations to come.

Should I read it?
This was an uneven book for me.  The writing is poetic and beautiful but the story is told in different rhythms .  That may be just what Ocean Vuong was going for but it made for a different reading experience.  At times the sheer sadness of this story made it hard to read.  Some might be bothered by the graphic gay love story.  I myself found this relationship integral to the story...  I would recommend this coming of age story to anyone who likes a poetic novel.

Quote-
There’s a word Trevor once told me about, one he learned from Buford, who served in the Navy in Hawaii during the Korean War: kipuka. The piece of land that’s spared after a lava flow runs down the slope of a hill- an island formed from what survives the smallest apocalypse. Before the lava descended, scorching the moss along the hill, that piece of land was insignificant, just another scrap in an endless mass of green. Only by enduring does it earn its name. Lying on the mat with you, I cannot help but want us to be our own kipuka, our own aftermath, visible. But I know better.”

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*A Little Lif​e by Hanya Yanagihara
​Exit West by Moshin Hamid
​Girl At War by Sara Novic
​​The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

8 stars

Furious Hours by Casey Cep
314 pages

What’s it about?
 This book is part crime novel, part courtroom drama, and part biography.  In the 1970's, in rural Alabama, Reverend Willie Maxwell has relatives that are dying under mysterious circumstances.  Adding to the unease is the fact that all those relatives lives have been insured by Reverend Maxwell shortly before they die. Many relatives breathe a sigh of relief when Maxwell is shot dead before 300 people at his latest victim's funeral.  Robert Burns is arrested for the crime.   Who is at Burn's trial day in and day out?  Harper Lee of "​To Kill a Mockingbird" fame.  She makes no secret that she is writing again and her new book will be titled "The Reverend".    This is the story of insurance fraud, murder, and Harper Lee.

What did it make me think about?
This book had three distinct sections.  The first part of the book looked at the early insurance industry and how it operated in the deep South.  The second part of the book concentrates on the trial of Robert Burns and how the judicial system operated in that time.  The last part of the book concentrates on Harper Lee and her struggle to write again after "the bird" takes on a life of its own. 

Should I read it?
 This was an interesting book in many different ways.  it really was like three books in one.  I especially found the last part of the book about Harper Lee fascinating. 

Quote-
 "Money does wonders for misfits."
" '​Mockingbird' had been read as a clarion call for civil rights, but Lee's real views were more complicated than any editor wanted to put in print."

If you liked this try-
Ghettoside A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
One Summer by Bill Bryson

8 stars

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
532 pages

What’s it about?
 This is the story of a marriage and the family that follows.  Marilyn and David meet in the 1970's and fall in love.  They subsequently marry and have a family.  This is their story.

What did it make me think about?
 Marriage, love, family, children, loss.  This is a novel with many characters that have pretty good lives.  But as is true in real life- no one gets away with out some heartbreak.

Should I read it?
 I think most readers who enjoy literary fiction will find something to like about this book.  Lombardo has written vivid, unique characters that practically jump off the page.  I really liked this book- but I must admit that sometimes I just wanted to shake these characters and tell them to "get it together"!  Having said that,  I appreciated that each character in this book had a unique perspective and a set of problems that go along with that perspective.  

Quote-
"It was in moments like this that Wendy remembered how much she loved her sister- her prissy, perfectionist, annoying-as-all-get-out sister- because Violet was the only person on the earth who had experienced the world in almost the exact same way, in real time, step for step, save for those first few months of life, but even then she'd been accompanied by Violet for most of the time, Violet growing inside of their mother."

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A Place For Us by Fatima Farheer Mirza
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

9 stars

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung
282 pages

What’s it about?
 Katherine is an exceptional child with a gift for mathematics.  Growing up in the 1950's her gifts are not always encouraged.  Katherine feels different from those around her, not only because she is exceptionally bright, but because her family is different as well.  As a young adult she embarks on a quest to solve the Riemann hypothesis- a famous and difficult Mathematics problem.  Her journey to solve this problem is at the core of the novel.    

What did it make me think about?
 This novel highlighted the obstacles a smart, ambitious woman would have faced in the world of Mathematics in the early 1950's.  "HERE WAS THE PROBLEM: I WAS AMBITIOUS.  I WANTED a career.  I wanted accolades and validation.  More than anything, I wanted to do something that mattered.  At a time when it was unseemly for a woman to want these things (is it really so accepted now?), I wanted them desperately."  This novel is a reminder of how much we owe the actual women who broke down those first barriers.

Should I read it?
 This was really almost two different books to me.  I struggled through the first half of the book.  I did not particularly like Katherine and the plot was did not hold my interest.  BUT- it picked up.  The second half of the book moved right along. The plot ended up saving this book for me, maybe because I never grew to like Katherine- although I did feel for her.  I did find the plot predictable at times but I still enjoyed it.  The math was interesting as well...  This book would make for an interesting discussion-  book clubs perhaps?

Quote-
"But she'd been the one to get married.  She'd been the one to have children.  And I'd been the one to have the dazzling- by any measure- career.  Both our lives, it occurred to me, had come with their own disappointments , their own specific kinds of loneliness."

"This is, in part, what makes mathematics so powerful- the ability to see the same thing from a different perspective, the ability to see it transformed." 

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The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
Milkman by Anna Burns
​Women Talking by Miriam Toews

​7 1/2 stars
​