Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
341 pages

What's it about?
This novel is about a decades long friendship between two couples- the Langs and the Morgans.  They meet in Madison at the beginning of their careers and immediately become friends.  

What did it make me think about?
This is one of my favorite books of all time.  I try to re-read it every few years.  It is a story of friendship, of rescue, and of the passage of time.  

Should I read it?
This is a book not to be missed.  My review is short because how can I do this novel justice?  I highly recommend this one.  

Quote-
"Is that the basis of friendship?  Is it as reactive as that? Do we respond only to people who seem to find us interesting?.. Do we all buzz or ring or light up when people press our vanity buttons, and only then?  Can I think of anyone in my whole life whom I have liked without his first showing signs of liking me?"

If you like this try-
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheer Mirza
And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

9 1/2 stars

Fleishman is in Trouble by  Taffy Brodesser-Akner
373 pages

What’s it about?
 Toby Fleishman has been married to Rachel for fifteen years- some of them happy.  When he finally asks Rachel for a divorce, he thinks he knows what to expect.  He is sorely mistaken.  From dating apps, to custody of the children- nothing goes as planned.

What did it make me think about?
Anyone who reads this will think about marriage, child care issues. and the role of women in the workplace. I was so impressed with how Ms. Brodesser-Akner was able to turn the "main child care giver" on its head by making the man (Toby) have that role in this story.  Toby shoulders most of the childcare responsibilities and this allows the author more freedom to explore the complicated issues of two working parents.  Also, she was able to look at the role of women  in todays' marriages.  She does have a few things to say about working outside the home versus not working outside the home.  "No one had to tell me it was harder to have a job and be a mother.  It was obvious. It was two full-time occupations.  It's just math. Because having a job made you no less of a mother; you still had to do all that shit, too.  Keeping track of your kids from afar isn't easier.  Entrusting them to a stranger who was available for babysitting by virtue of the fact that she was incapable of doing anything else is not something that fills a person with faith and relaxation.  Now that I have worked and stayed home I can confirm all this.  Now that I stay home I can say it out loud.  But now that I don't work, no one is listening."  So maybe Ms. Brodesser-Akner has a strong perspective.  I did not always agree with her but it sure makes you think.

Should I read it?
 This is a gem!  If you can take reading explicit sex scenes then you will really enjoy this novel.   It has a lot to say  about marriage and the changing (or not changing) role of women in our society.  Don't you just love a book that keeps you turning the pages and then at the end you realize that the novel actually had a lot to say?  Be patient with this one- especially when the narrator changes in a trance way.  It took me a few pages to get into it  but this is a good book!
​
Quote-
"It was all such an insult, the Hamptons.  It was an insult to economic disparity.  It was an insult to leading a good life and asking hard questions about what one should sacrifice in the name of decency.  It was an insult to having enough- to knowing that there was such a thing as enough."  

"But also, divorce is about forgetfulness- a decision to stop remembering the moment before all the chaos- the moment they fell in love, the moment they knew they were more special together than apart.  Marriage lives in service to those moments. "

If you liked this try-
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
​Here I Am by Jonathan Safron Foer
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheer Mirza
We  Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

9 stars

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 
208 pages

What’s it about?
Elwood Curtis is 17 years-old in 1962. He is living with his grandmother in Tallahassee, Florida when he hitches a ride to school in the wrong car. Charged with car theft he is sent to the Nickel Academy Reform School for Boys.  Elwood trusts that doing the right thing will always prevail- but this strategy may not work in Nickel Academy.

What did it make me think about?
The words of Martin Luther King are sprinkled throughout this novel. “Throw us in jail, and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities after midnight hours, and drag us out onto some wayside road, and beat us and leave us half dead, and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom.”  On one hand there is the senseless brutality and abuse of power in Nickel, and on the other hand are the lofty ideals of Martin Luther King  who wanted to rise above it all.  In many ways this book is about the capacity to suffer. The history of racism in our country is wide and deep.  It is a complicated divide and stories such as these should help start much needed conversations.

Should I read it?
Nickel Academy is modeled after the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.  Dozier was an actual reform school in Florida.  The recent discovery of dead bodies has given new weight to age old stories of abuse at Dozier. Colson Whitehead tells Elwood’s story in a quiet voice that should break your heart.  

Quote-
"That's what the school did to a boy," Whitehead writes. "It didn't stop when you got out. Bend you all kind of ways until you were unfit for straight life, good and twisted by the time you left."

If you liked this try-
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
​Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Ruby by Cynthia Bond
​Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

​9 stars