I just finished My Latest Grievance and I give it ☆☆☆ 1/2.
I know I said I was done with my revisiting of Elinor's books but this one came across on the Unlimited so I gave it another read. I remembered very little about it, except the main character/narrator has the same voice as in all her other books. It was ok. It was more interesting to read as my campus had unionized (the main character's parents are union organizers at a college). But other than that, this was just an ok book.
I just finished End of Story and I give it ðĄðĄðĄðĄ.
I liked "The Woman in the Window" and I liked this book more. Nicky is invited to visit an author she idolizes--Sebastian Trapp--and to write what is supposed to be a 'private memoir' for a dying man. Trapp's first wife and son went 'missing' twenty years prior, and Nicky, a mystery aficionado, wonders if she might find out what really happened. At the house, she meets not only Trapp, but his second wife Diana, his daughter Maddy, and his nephew Fred. As she starts to put the puzzle pieces together, truths start to arise for her and for other members of the family. If you like mysteries, and mysteries about mysteries, this book might be of interest to you.
I just finished Spoken Bones and I give it ðĶīðĶīðĶī1/2 .
This is the first book in a series that features a detective named Fenella Sallow and it wasn't bad. Fenella is an ok character, but the other detectives were all kind of the same. She's a detective in a small town with an obnoxious boss. There were lots and lots of potential suspects for the crime (a murder of a popular citizen) and, well, there were just too many suspects. It was well written but I'm not sure if I'm interested in reading any more.
I re-read The Ladies Man and give it ★★★. Not sure exactly what I loved about this book in the past. It's just kind of icky now. Gross men, meddling women, too much of a focus on looks, some body shaming--no bueno.
I just finished The Inn at Lake Devine and I give it ✡✡✡✡ 1/2.
This is a re-read of an older book (part of 'rereading Elinor Lipman' phase and I haven't read it in a long time. Natalie learns as a young girl that a resort in Vermont (near where her Newton-based family has been vacationing) is restricted (ie allows no Jews) and this fact doesn't necessarily affect her through her whole life but it has a huge influence on what happens in the story. This is a good story with a lot of humor and some important messages. I took off a half a star because as much as I love Lipman's voice, all her main characters (regardless of the book) speak in the same voice.
I just finished Game of Lies and I give it ðððð.
This is the second book in the DC Morgan series, set at the border of Wales and England, and I liked it as well (and maybe even more) than the first one, The Last Party. Ffion Morgan is a DC who doesn't play by the rules and has never left the small town where she grew up, so her youthful indiscretions seem to follow her during the investigations she undertakes. In this book, she investigates the disappearance of a contest on a reality show that is being filmed near her town. The reality show is bonkers and I can't even describe it. There are lots of characters in this book (reality show) but it is very easy to keep them all straight. She reunites with the detective she met in the first book (Leo) and there's some good chemistry there. All in all, I really liked this book and Mackintosh reminds me a bit of Elly Griffiths so there's that.
I just finished The Last Word and I give it ðĄðĄðĄðĄ 1/2 stars.
I am a huge huge huge Elly Griffiths fan, and this book is the fourth book in her Harbinder Kaur series. This one, though, has very little Harbinder in it, instead revisiting some of the characters from her second book, The Postscript Murders. The book focuses mainly on Benedict, Natalka and Edwin, the latter two having started a private investigation agency. They are hired by two sisters who want to pin the death of their mother on their mother's second husband. Anyway, Benedict and Edwin go 'undercover' to a writer's retreat to try to find answers. They find more murders, and many suspects.
I didn't really remember these characters that well from three years ago (when the book was published) but it works fine as a stand-alone story. It is well written and quite intriguing, and moves along really well. The end was kind of rushed and I said 'huh?' at one point, but it was a good book that I enjoyed.
I do miss Ruth Galloway though. I may need to go back and reread them all!
I just finished Then She Found Me and I give it ððððð.
I'm a big Elinor Lipman fan, and I've read all her books and enjoyed them, but I like her earlier work the best. This is her first novel, set before cell phones and internet and the 'she' in the book is Bernice who 'finds' April (the me), her birth daughter. Bernice is quite the character, and much of what happens in this 1990 book is kind of problematic today. I do love this one though.
I just finished The Lost Bookshop and I give it ð.
It's been described as 'charming and uplifting' and yes, it gets uplifting at the end and I guess there is a bit of charm but most of it is about women with abusive family members and there is nothing charming and uplifting in that. This book is extremely well reviewed but it just didn't do it for me.
I just finished Women of Good Fortune and I give it ✡✦✧✵. Really, I give it 3 3/4 stars because it isn't a four star book, so I rounded up.
This is a book about three women in Shanghai: Lulu, who is getting married to a very wealthy man; Rina, Lulu's roommate who is torn between her career and settling down to get married; and Jane, who hates how she looks and is married to a man who she thinks married her for her money. Lulu's mother-in-law-to-be is a horrible person, and the novel suggests that wealth=horrible people. Lulu is unsure she really wants to be married, and her two friends come up with a plan: steal all the red envelopes (filled with cash) that the couple will receive at their marriage, split the money, and then go off to live their perfect lives (Lulu will live in Thailand, Jane will get plastic surgery, and Rina will get her eggs frozen). This has "Oceans 11" vibes but without the joy and silliness of Oceans 11. There are a few good twists that I didn't see coming, and once the actual 'heist' occurs it is a fast and fun read, but these three women are so miserable that it is hard to enjoy the book before the heist begins. I learned a lot about Chinese culture so that's a plus?
I just finished The Ravenmaster and I give it ðĶðĶðĶðĶðĶ.
This is the memoir from a man who until recently was a Beefeater (Tower Warden) in charge of the ravens at the Tower. If you've visited there, you know that there is a myth that if the ravens leave the Tower, the empire would fall (and he shares the history of this myth in the book). He travels the path of his childhood and his life in the army prior to becoming a Beefeater (he's one tough guy) and shares stories of the daily routine and the individual personalities of the ravens. It's quite chatty and charming, some might find it too saccharine but I really liked it.
I just finished The Woman on the Ledge and I give it ⭒⭒⭒.
I had great hopes for this book---unreliable narrator, twists galore, and it started to have a good "Oceans 11" vibe. But I was not prepared for it to morph into a story about girls being 'groomed' and all the twisty fun kind of went away.
I just finished The Weekend Retreat and give it ✦✦✦.
Three siblings and their partners travel to their palatial family estate in upstate New York to celebrate two of the sibling's birthdays. As these things tend to go with thrillers of wealthy people: they all have secrets, they all will get stuck in the palatial estate, and someone (or someoneS) will die. That gets told in the first page! Then you have to read the story to figure out who died, what were their secrets, and why they're stuck. This one had some interesting characters but they were all pretty much awful people. It was a quick read and a good dreary-afternoon book for me.
I just finished Don't Think Dear and give it ðĐ° (that's two stars).
I am a sucker for a ballet book, especially a first person one, but this is not a good book. Basically, the author borrows heavily (probably more than is academically correct) from other published works to share how dancers like Misty Copeland and Margot Fonteyn suffered and coped with the challenges of being a ballerina. Then after quoting a ballerina extensively, Robb would write a paragraph basically agreeing with the former ballerina and then giving a two sentence "and I saw this too!" which was just annoying. No new ground is tread in this book.
I just finished My Favorite Terrible Thing and I give it ☆☆☆ 1/3.
I enjoyed the first two thirds of the book--the story of a private detective finding a missing person--an author who had written a best selling and highly compelling novel who disappeared the day of her wedding. There were lots of references to Donna Tartt and I thought this book would be like that. I enjoyed following how Nina investigated the mystery. The last third of the book contains a huge twist which was creepy and unbelievable. The explanation for the twist was not believable either. So that pretty much killed it for me--4 stars for the first 2/3, two stars for the last 1/3.
I just finished Up-Island Harbor and I give it ððð 3/4.
In my search for the next Elin Hilderbrand, I gave this book a try. It's set on Martha's Vineyard, but in a 'non touristy' part so we never get quite the flavor of what it is like to live on MV. Maddie has come to visit her late Grandmother's house, which was left to her when her grandmother died. She is just planning to make a quick visit since she hadn't seen her grandmother for years (her mother died when she was a child). However, upon arrival, there are THINGS that signal to her that mayyybbbeee she shouldn't leave the island (yes, one of these is a guy, but this really isn't a romance). I loved the part of the plot about the native Americans on the island, but this book just went on far too long (three trips to the hospital for Maddie? Please). The author will write more in the series but not sure if I'll read them or not.
I just finished The Happy Couple and I give it ðððð.
Celine and Luke are engaged. But will they get married?
That's the plot of this novel. It's told from the perspectives of Celine, Luke, Celine's sister, and a few of their friends. Celine is a pianist, and Luke is an IT who 'is bad at relationships'. They love each other, but is that enough? I really liked this book. It is written quite briskly with the voices of different people all very strong. Everyone is flawed but kind of likeable. I was very invested in whether they would actually get together or not.
I just finished Private Equity and I give it ðēðēðē1/2.
Sun's memoir is the story of her experiences working as the assistant to the head of a hedge fund. "Boone Prescott" (not his real name) runs "Carbon" (not its real name) and Carrie (her real name) helps run him. It's the story of how the amount of work pushes Carrie to the edge, and as a memoir it also covers earlier trauma from her parents, her ex-fiance, and from a violent situation when she was at college. Anyway, it's kind of an interesting book but we never really know WHY the job is so overwhelming. She doesn't discuss what she actually does, so it's hard to sympathize with her (she goes into great detail about the perks---gifts, parties, trips, lunches, etcetera). I'm not sad I read this but I find it kind of hard to empathize with her about her job.
I just finished The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Green and I give it ððð 12. It's a fine twisty thriller. Read my review at Goodreads!
I just finished Going Infinite and I give it ðēðēðē. This nonfiction book is the story of Sam Bankman-Fried, who was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding customers in his cryptocurrency exchange. Michael Lewis is a good writer, but he knows so much about the financial world that someone who doesn't (ie me) gets lost really fast. Really fast.
I just finished Pete and Alice in Maine and I give it ★★★★★.
I really liked this novel. It is the start of the pandemic, and Pete and Alice leave NYC for their summer house in Maine with their two daughters and cat, Ingmar. Alice has recently learned of Pete's infidelity, so things are a little tense. As they navigate their pandemic lives, their family comes together and tears apart in ways that can only be due to the pandemic. It's a simple, real, heartbreaking and hopeful book, and I am so glad I read it.
I just tried to finish Worry and I didn't. I give it ðð. I do not want to spend any more time with Jules and Poppy.
I just finished If Something Happens to Me and I give it ððð. Read my review at Goodreads.
I just read Friends in Napa and I give it ððð.
This book is from Mindy Kaling's imprint Mindy's Book Studio, which focuses on Indian women writers, and I think that is a great thing. This book is not that great, though, although it has the elements I tend to enjoy: friends from college getting together, a murder, a very plot-driven story. The friends getting together are Anjali and her (non-Indian) husband, Rachel and Raj, Victoria, and Hari. The book begins with a murder of someone by a woman in stilletos, and the rest of the book is the weekend before the murder, where Rachel and Raj invite their friends to the grand opening of their Napa vineyard. There are a couple plots floating around about old friendships and new jealousies, which were pretty well drawn. I just didn't care that much about the characters, instead I just kept reading to find out who got murdered and who was the murderer. If you're like me, you'll know about 3/4 of the way in who is who.
I just finished Free Food for Millionaires and I give it ðŠðŠðŠðŠ.
This is kind of a long book with a lot going on. It focuses on Casey Han and how she is navigating her post-Princeton years after she gets thrown out of her family's home for being sassy to her very traditional father. Casey's discovery of who she is and who she wants takes up much of the book. There's a rich cast of characters who are also learning about themselves: Casey's very traditional mother Leah, who sings in the church choir; her cousin Ella, who marries what looks to be the perfect man and finds out that he really isn't, and her sister Tina, who is the 'good daughter' compared to Casey. The characters are written so well. The problems with this book is that it can be repetitive in places, some of the storylines kind of fizzled (all the stuff with Sabine) and most of the men were horrible. But all in all, a good (if long) read.
I just finished Class by Stephanie Land and I give it ð§đð§đð§đ.
Class is a sequel to her first book, Maid, and the subtitle is "A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education". Class follows Land as she moves to Missoula to attend the University of Montana and, hopefully, gain admittance to their MFA in writing program. She continues her housecleaning work to try to make ends meet, all the while raising her daughter basically on her own.
There's little new territory covered in this book. The challenges of being poor in America are devastating, and she continues to highlight this devastation, but doesn't really bring anything new to it. She continues to have horrible taste in men, and the book also highlights many of the (to me) bad decisions she makes. I thought I'd get some new insights into the challenges of being poor while going to college, but instead she shares how she really kind of blows off her classes (as well as her application to the MFA program). At the end, she is faced with a decision about an unplanned pregnancy that had me very, very judgey (I'm kind of embarrased to write that) and that kind of ruined the whole book for me. Anyway, not a favorite.
I've just finished Green Dot and I give it ððððð.
Wow. This book. This astonishing book. It's the story of a woman growing up, of love, of desire, and of what we will or won't do for the people we love. Hera is a recent college graduate in Sydney, living with her Dad. She has good friends, a recent breakup, and an unclear vision of her future. At her 'content moderation' job, she meets and falls in love with an older journalist, who is married. The novel centers on the development of their relationship, and her perceptions of what she will and won't accept, and how that changes during the course of the relationship. I steeled myself for a heartbreaking conclusion at about the 75% mark, and I was so invested in Hera and her happiness. Just a great book.
I just finished an ARC of The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley and I give it ❤❤❤❤❤. Read my review at Goodreads!
I just finished Society of Lies and I give it ✸✸✸✸. If you like dark academia, read by review on Goodreads!
I just finished " Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team" by Kara Goucher and I give it ððð 1/2 stars.
Goucher was a world class long distance runner who graduated from Colorado and then went to 'work' as a member of The Oregon Project, a track team coached by Alberto Salazar. This memoir details her time at the Oregon Project (funded by Nike) and the various abuses she dealt with: sexual abuse from Salazar, mental abuse from Nike, physical abuse she sustained with the training, doping abuse (probably) from her blind acceptance to do anything Salazar told her. I think this was kind of my problem with the book--she knew a lot of bad stuff was happening but because she wanted to be the best long distance runner, she just ignored them. She eventually blew a bunch of whistles, but probably to no real avail. I appreciate that she finally told this story, but at the same time feel she missed some opportunities to really change the world.
I just finished The Search Party by Hannah Richell and I give it ðððð.
I'm a sucker for twisty domestic thrillers when everyone has SECRETS SECRETS SECRETS and this one totally fits that bill. Four families go 'glamping' at a resort called Wildernest (eye roll) that is owned by one of the couples (it's sort of the shake down cruise for Wildernest). During the course of the long weekend, one of the children goes missing which sets off a search (hence the title) as well as the discovery of lots and lots of secrets (who had an affair, who was the father of a baby, who owes who money, who is a reality star a-hole, etc). There are just a ton of secrets that come to light in this book. It moves in a non-linear fashion between 'Sunday' (when things are slowly resolving) and Friday and Saturday (when all the bad things happen) and of course you think you know who is being 'talked about' in the Sunday chapters but in reality there are TWISTS GALORE! Only four stars though because there are just too many characters to keep track of---four couples (eight adults), eight children, local people, etc. Some of the 'secrets' were not really helping to move the story along and didn't get resolved. But if you like a nice twisty story--this is fine. Richell is no Ruth Ware but as far as these go, it's pretty good.
I just finished the ARC of Same As It Ever Was and I loved it! ✹✹✹✹✹
Read my review at Goodreads!
I just finished Help WAnted and I give it ✴✴✴✴✴.
Help Wanted is a serio-comic novel about a week or so in the lives of a group of people who work for a chain store (similar to Target) in a depressed town in New York state. The group of employees work in a department called "Movement" which is all about getting merchandise boxes off a truck and onto the selling floor. We learn a bit about the lives of the crew and how they ended up in Movement, and how they bond by the dislike of their boss, Meredith. When the store manager gets a promotion and Meredith is up for his job, several crew members are hopeful they might get a promotion and then join together to plot how to get their disliked boss the top job. Whether there can be 'movement' in their lives, or whether they are stuck in a dead end place, is the question that will be answered by this book. I really liked it.
I just finished The Hunter and I give it ☆☆☆☆. This had all the hallmarks of a Tana French book--great Irish setting, quirky characters, menacing undertones throughout the whole book. This novel revisits the characters from The Searcher, and has Trey's father returning to the little town where she lives with some type of 'scam' in mind. Retired Chicago cop Cal and his partner Lena want to make sure Trey doesn't get into trouble given her father's proclivities, but Trey is out to revenge her brother's death (which was the focus of The Searcher). I liked this book but it seemed to move a low more slowly than her other books, and I sped through the last part just to find out 'who did it'. A good book but not my favorite.
I just finished First Lie Wins and I give it ✵✵✵ 3/4 stars. This book is quite the talk of the book world, and is a Reese's book club pick. It's a thriller-type of book, and it is one of those that twists and twists and twists and twists. The main character, Lucca has a job where she basically goes undercover and gets dirt on people so her boss, "Mr. Smith", can blackmail them or steal from them or something. It is sort of John Grisham-like in that it moves as a very fast pace and it was ok--I kept reading to figure out how all the threads came together but it got so twisty at the end I could hardly keep up.
I just finished Good Material and I give it ☆☆☆☆1/2. This was a really good novel.
I guess it could be classified as a Rom-Com? But not really? Andy is a stand-up comic who, at the start of the novel, is broken up with by his girlfriend Jen. Most of the novel is the first six (maybe eight) months after the breakup as Andy tries to come to terms with the breakup. At the same time, he is struggling with his career and tries different things to try to move on and change his life (he lives on a houseboat, he starts working out). It's funny but it's sad (because Andy is sad) and it seems to be a very realistic view of what it is like to be single when you're at the age (mid-30s) when all your friends are settling down to a 'real' life.
I took off a star because I am struggling with whether the book needed the last 10% or not--it certainly changes how I viewed the first 90% but not sure if I needed it or not. If you read this book I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Lucky lucky lucky me got to read an ARC of this book! See my review here! Hint: five stars. Five big stars.
I just read Astor and I give it I read the first book these ✰✰✰ 1/2 stars.
I read the first book these two wrote together, "Vanderbilt" which was the history of Anderson's family. I am a big fan of gilded age stuff so I wanted to read their take on the Astor's. I'm also interested in what happened to these huge gilded age fortunes.
This book was interesting for the first half or so, as it traveled well-worn gilded age stories but I did learn more about how the Astors got so rich (not just the fur trade, but also they owned a huge amount of real estate in Manhattan). I also thought the sections on the Astor who died on the Titanic was interesting. But once the fortune got disseminated among ancestors, and much of it got squandered (which apparently is the way these Gilded Age fortunes go), it wasn't so interesting. There was an odd chapter about a bar at the Astor Hotel as a meeting place for gays for many years mid-century, but that wasn't much about the Astors as it was as a cultural moment. It was interesting, but not a great fit for the book. The final chapter on Brooke Astor was ok but just a sad way for this family story to end.
Anyway, I don't completely recommend but if you are interested in rich families loosing it all, this could be a book for you.
I just finished Secretary of the City and I give it ★★★★1/2. It's a novella that is basically a diary of a Secretary to a wealthy man who runs some type of vague foundation. The story covers two weeks when 1. the man's wife walked away from a plane crash and then pretended that she wasn't on the plane and 2. the man's father-in-law decides to run for President. It's a story about the people who support the wealthy family and it's pretty funny but somewhat ridiculous. You can probably read this is an hour.
I just finished Then We Get to the End and I give it ✩✩✩.
This should have been right up my alley--a novel about advertising people in Chicago (which I was once!) getting laid off (which I had been!) and it was billed as being hilarious but I just found it sad. Maybe it hit too close to home?
I just finished Cork Dork and I can only give it ✩✩✩. I loved Get The Picture so much but Cork Dork--same idea (deep dive into a subculture), same great writing--was a subculture I'm just not that into. Well I'm not into it at all. If you are a wine person--and not even a collector, just someone who enjoys wine and wants to know more about it--you might like this book.
I just finished House Lessons and I give it ✰✰✰✰✰. Five stars people!
Vera recommended this book on her blog and I discovered I had acquired it about six months ago but hadn't read it yet. It is the story of a Seattle family who renovate an old and decrepit house in Port Townsend, Washington. And of course it isn't just that, it is a meditation on architecture and family and symmetry and it is just wonderful.
I wanted to know more--about her architect that believes in aliens, about putting a note in the walls for future owners (we didn't do that with our house, darn it!)--but those are small things to comment on when a book is this perfecct.
I just finished Get The Picture by Bianca Bosker and I give it ★★★★★. Five stars! This is the best book I've read in a while.
This book is for anyone who has ever looked at a piece of contemporary artwork and has 1. been confused or 2. been disgusted or 3. said outloud 'if that's art, I could have done it' or 4. said 'my 4 year old does better art than that.' The book chronicle's Bosker's journal to develop an 'eye' (as they say in the art world) for contemporary art, and to do so she works (for free) in art galleries, assists an artist in her studio, and works as a guard for the Guggenheim museum in New York (known by guards as the 'Goog'). She talks to many people in the art world to learn what they do, how they view work, what makes art art, and how the art world works. It's fascinating, and it will change the way you look at and think about art. She focuses mainly on contemporary art (that is, art that is being made right now) although she does a ton of research into how the modern art world evolved.
I hurried up and got her first book, "Cork Dork", about the wine industry because I think it will be great as well.
Highly recommend.
I just finished The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers by Sarah Tomlinson and I give it ★★★1/2 stars.
I was looking forward to this book but it was kind of--boggy. If that makes any sense. Here's the plot: Mari, a ghostwriter, is hired to write a memoir of a famous groupie-like woman who was involved with three members of the Midnight Ramblers, a big big 70s band. After spending several days listening to the groupie's (criticism alert) dramatic and overthought memories, Mari gets fired. Quickly, though, she is hired by a member of the band, Dante, whose own ghostwriter disappeared. Through this all, Mari is trying to figure out if the death of a band member fifty years prior was an accident, a suicide, or a murder.
The first 1/3 of the book is so draggy I almost didn't finish it. It picks up when Mari goes to work for Dante, but then gets all kinds of nuts in the last 20%. Not necessarily in a bad way. Mari seems a bit naive to write a rock n roll memoir, mch less two of them. It was all---a bit much.
I just finished "The Husband Hunters" by Anne DeCoursey and I give it ✴✴✴.
I love learning about the Gilded Age (and I love watching the Gilded Age on HBO) so I thought I would enjoy this book. It's very well researched and pretty hefty. It is about, as the subtitle suggests, rich American women who went over to the UK and married an artistocratic (yet poor) man. Each chapter talks about one of these Heiresses.
But, the chapters talk about more than the Heiresses. They talk about the parents, the grandparents, the great grandparents, and on and on. Yes, it is interesting to know how the wealth was built but there seems to be a lot of 'gossipy bits' about, oh I don't know, the Great Aunt Once Removed and it just gets Bogged Down. I wanted to read about their lives once they married and there was some of that, but it was very heavy into history of different families and I didn't find it that interesting.
It was a good book for reading before bed, since I basically would fall asleep in the middle of a chapter.
I just finished "The Lost Story" and I give it ★★★★. Read my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6252532635. Thanks to the publishers for the ARC!
I just finished Come and Get It and I give it ✵✵✵ 1/2.
I really liked Reid's book "Such a Fun Age" and in "Come and Get It" she tackles some of the similar themes--race and privilege and sexuality--but it seems a bit clunkier.
Three women are the focus of the book. Millie is a resident assistant at the University of Arkansas--she's an older student with plans and she is focused enough to get them. Agatha is a visiting professor who meets Millie when she is setting up interviews for her research into female behaviors. Kennedy is a student who lives in Millie's dorm. When Millie discovers she can hear what's happening in Kennedy's suite, life in the dorm kind of spirals out of control when Millie allows Agatha to listen in and use what she hears for columns in Teen Vogue. As the story progresses, we learn about Kennedy's secret and how that affects her interactions with students and with school.
The book is well written, and some of the secondary characters are fun to read about, but the idea that both Agatha and Millie are both completely unethical makes it hard to read some of the book or to root for them as primary characters (I think we're supposed to). Anyway, I'm glad I read it, I guess, but that's about it.
I just finished The Mean$ and I give this book--oh I have no idea. Let's say ⍟⍟⍟⍟.
I don't even know where to start with this book. The publishers describe it thusly: "The Means is a comedy about the suffering inherent in desire, capitalist delusion, and the value of unpaid labor." It's the story of the Means family, who want to have a beach house in the Hamptons, but all they can afford is a home made of old shipping containers. How Shelly Means negotiates the work in creating this house, all while her husband George is having a career setback and her new neighbors hate the home design, is the focus of the book. There's a cast of quirky secondary characters, which makes the book seem sort of 'otherwordly' feeling. Anyway, I liked it and zipped through it but it isn't for everyone.
I just finished The Other Side of the Coin and I give it ✩✩✩✩✩ !
This score reflects: 1. I love the Queen 2. I love behind-the-scenes-at-royal-palaces stuff 3. I love hats and 4. I love stodgy British clothes. If you love none of these, this is not a book for you (plus, I got it for free with Kindle Unlimited and I can't see any version of my life where I would pay more than $2.99 for this).
Angela Kelly was the Queen' head dresser for the last twenty or so years of the Queen's life, and she also designed quite a few of the Queen's (stodgy, British) clothes. This book is her own account of an average 'royal year' and how she, as a dresser, took care of the Queen's clothes during all the public events. She travelled whenever the Queen travelled, and was responsible for making sure the Queen looked great. She and the Queen were reportedly very close friends, and the book is filled with her love, admiration and respect for the Queen. She talks about how she picks out several choices for the Queen to wear, and how she packs everything up for travel, and how she gets regalia on and off the Queen (there's a lot of detail). She also talked about how she kept track of everything the Queen wore so that she didn't repeat colors and outfits too quickly.
Given the amount of detail, it's not a long book and it doesn't have a whole lot of 'anecdotes' (read: juicy gossip) and I got the feeling that just isn't Angela Kelly's style. She writes a bit about her inspiration (apparently there's a huge fabric stash at Windsor or Buckingham Palace, I don't recall which) that I would love to see but that will probably never happen.
There are lovely photos of the Queen, most of which I have seen before (although the publisher said that many of these are 'never before seen', but the book came out in 2019 so maybe they've been made public more recently?).
Anyway, if you love lots of detail on the Queen's ceremonial outfits (opening of Parliament, Order of the Garter, etc.), this is a book you should track down.
I just finished re-reading The Girl in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware and I give it ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2.
I first read this book in July of 2016, thank you blog search, and my comment was " read "The Woman in Cabin 10" by Ruth Ware and it was great--I think I lapped it up in about 2.5 hours." I enjoyed it this time around as well, although maybe I was a bit more cynical in my reading since I knew (sort of) how it ended and I wanted to see how it all hung together. I think the ending is very rushed and some key things aren't really explained well but it is a fast paced fun read.
I just finished Glossy by Marisa Meltzer and I give it ðŦ°ðŦ°ðŦ°ðŦ° . I like to read nonfiction before bed (easy to put down!) and I like books about strong women entrepreneurs. This is about Emily Weiss, who founded the beauty brand Glossier (I had vaguely heard of it prior--it really is a brand for Millenials). It's a well written book of how Weiss went from a teenage reality tv star to building a website that focused on what products women used regularly to starting Glossier. Weiss comes across as smart and likable and strategic. The subtitle of the book promised to be an 'expose' but there really wasn't a lot to expose--which kind of made it a bit of a dull ending as Weiss extricated herself from the brand.
I just finished The Christmas Guest and I give it ✭✭✭✭✭. It's a novella that's a mystery, and it goes by really fast (I think I read it in less than two hours). It's very creepy. It's the story of a young woman who goes to spend Christmas with a friend's family in the English countryside, and how events come together where a brother and sister start on a path that determines their destiny. It's hard to write too much about this because it is so short and I don't want to give away any spoilers! This is well worth a read even though it isn't the Christmas season.
I just finished Sandwich by Catherine Newman and give it ★★★★ 1/2 stars. Read my review at Goodreads.
I just finished Bear by Julia Phillips (read it as an ARC). I give it ★★✰✰✩. Read my review at Goodreads.
I just finished The Fury and I give it ☆☆☆ 1/2 stars.
This is the second book I've read recently about a murder on an island in Greece (the first one was called Ladykillers by Katherine Woods). This one is shorter, tighter, but has some similarities--infidelity, things being not what they seem. Two actors, one's husband (and another's lover), one of the actor's assistant, the actor's son, and the actor's best friend (the story's narrator) converge on a Greek island to (theoretically) relax for a bit. The book is an onion, with every 'act' peeling one layer to tell more of the backstory and the history of the people in the book. There is twist after twist, with this narrative technique, and that kept me reading because I had to know the killer. I guessed one of the biggest twists but that was ok. However, this is one of those books that when I'm done I say to myself "I have to stop reading these domestic thriller books--they're just kind of like potato chips."
I just finished The Shell Seekers and I give it ★★★★ 1/2 stars. First reaction: why did it take me so long to read this book? It's totally up my alley--family story (check), set in England (check), back and forth in time (check), interesting, well drawn characters (check). You probably know the story--She Shell Seekers was painted by Penelope's father, who was an artist of a school that is now (in the mid-1980s) very much in vogue. One daughter wants her to sell the painting, another wants to find the sketches made for the painting and sell that, and another daughter just wants her mom to be happy. But--there's so much more than that, in terms of living during WW2, what it means to be a family, and all of that. I docked half a star because I wanted more of Olivia and I was confused as to the whole Olivia-and-Hank storyline and why it just fizzled out. But all in all, a wonderful read.
I just finished The Eden Test by Adam Sternbergh and I give it---oh I'm not sure. Maybe ☆☆☆1/4 stars?
I love the premise of this book--a couple go off to a secluded cabin (RED FLAG) for a marriage retreat-type of thing (RED FLAG) where every day they take part in "The Eden Test"--one question that they have to discuss and answer. The experience is supposed to be life changing. The book starts out (so this isn't a spoiler) at the cabin, where some police-type guy is saying "we need two stretchers--there are two bodies." So clearly we know someone (two someones) will die. But who will it be?
The couple has secrets (RED FLAG)---we find out over the course of the book about Daisy's background and early on we find out her husband is having an affair. Does she know? Is that why she brought him to the retreat? Once at the cabin, they meet all kinds of stereotypical "country people" and the psychologists who run the retreat (and an arborist). The stress builds up throughout the book, and I liked that.
About halfway through, though, the actions in the book start to become ridiculous, and if you've read enough 'domestic thrillers' you start to figure out what the 'twists' are. There are several, and some of them are good but some of them are eye rollers.
I need to stop reading 'domestic thrillers' because they all start to veer off toward the ridiculous at some point. You may disagree, please do!
I finished "It Goes So Fast" by NPR host Mary Louise Kelly and I give it ★★★★ 1/2 stars. It's a memoir of one year in her life--her oldest son's senior year in high school. She wrote the book to document how she juggles her busy life and how she yearned not to miss out on too much of her son's last year in high school.
She's a great writer, and she has a great support system, and (what appear to be) two very smart and mature sons. As such, it might be hard for some people to relate to how she juggled (how many people can afford to fly their mom in to take care of their kids when they have to go overseas)? It also seemed to me that often, when faced with 'family or career' she always selected career (even when what she was asked to do was not by any stretch required). But I don't have kids, so who am I to comment?
Anyway, another fun thing about this book was you can hear her voice in your head while you're reading it (if you listen to her on NPR). Which is kind of weird and wonderful all at once.
I haven't thought very much about the Sugar Baby phenomenon recently. About ten years ago something was published saying that the U of O was a 'hot market' for Sugar Babies: young women who connect with older men and receive gifts for "companionship". At the time, my colleagues and I had discussed possibilities of who we knew who might be Sugar Babies, but then that all passed.
Sugar, Baby, by Celine Saintclaire, examines the life of a Sugar Baby. Agnes is a housecleaner from a very religious family (she's the rebel), and the start of the novel alludes to something 'bad' that happened when Agnes was younger that had her dropping out of school (we do find out what the thing was, and it's bad but not that bad). At one of her jobs, Agnes meets Emily, who basically trains her to be a Sugar Baby. It's all fun and games until it isn't.
I give this book ★★★★. I thought it might even be a five star book for the first 75%, but the end of the book kind of devolved into too much too quickly. The ending is also wrapped up very sweetly. On the plus side, I really liked the character of Agnes and parts of the book have contemplated the natures of religion and beauty, which I liked a lot.
This book won't be for everyone--there's a lot of profanity, and an awful lot of sex (more than I care to have a book, if I'm honest). I did get transported into Agnes' world and that counts for a lot.
I just finished Erasure and I give it ☆☆☆ 1/2 stars.
This book has just been made into a movie called American Fiction and I wanted to read the book before reading the movie. I liked it, but it was a bit of a disturbing look at popular culture and the publishing industry. English Professor Thelonius "Monk" Ellison is not seeing the type of success he wishes to have with his novels, and becomes distraught when he learns a book called "We's Lives in Da Ghetto" has become a critical and commercial success. So he writes a book that is similar, which he meant to be satirical. While all this is happening, he deals with upset in his family: violence, homophoia, and family secrets that upended his views of his history. It's well written and sad, and really skewers our culture. I'm not sure why some of the things that happened in the book needed to be there; some stuff seemed added to expand a novel that I don't think really needed expansion. All in all, a good and thought-provoking read.
I just finished The Whispers by Ashley Audrain and I give it ☆☆☆☆.
I haven't read The Push by the same author but I'm going to since I found The Whispers to be a very compelling book. It's hard to say it was a 'good' book but it was really a compelling read. The book centers on four women who live on the same block in a re-gentrified neighborhood. The story focuses on what happened before and what happened after a horrible accident occured (or was it)?
The title "The Whispers" describes that little voice that many women hear telling them they need to be more--better moms, harder workers, more generous wives. All four women are holding secrets that affect (to some degree) how they view the events of the night of the horrible accident. I found all the characters interesting and the book kept me guessing til about the 80% mark. And no spoilers but: the ending is chilling.
I just finished this book with the very long title and I give it ☆☆☆.
I'll Have What She's Having by Erin Carlson is a non-fiction book that examines Ephron's three films with Meg Ryan: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail. Ephron died in 2012, and this book was published in 2018, so there's no first hand evidence from Ephron but the author uses published interviews along with interviews of others involved in the films to discuss how these films are 'iconic' (which I only partially agree with: I think the first two are iconic, You've Got Mail not so much) and how they 'saved' the romantic comedy (again, I don't think it was those films, I think it was Meg Ryan and to some degree Tom Hanks, but whatever).
Anyway, the book moves in chronological order and is kind of a mishmash of how Ephron approached the script and the production, what was happening in the personal lives of the actors in the films, what kind of issues they ran into in the making with the movies, and the like. It isn't gossipy enough to keep you reading and there's a lot of stuff that has nothing, really, to do with any of the movies.
I read til the end but it was a bit of a slog; I tend to read non-fiction before bed and this one put me to sleep every time I read it.
I just finished Anon Pls by Deuxmoi and I give it ☆☆☆.
Deuxmoi is a (real) celebrity gossip site. The owner(s) of Deuxmoi are unknown, and did not come clean in the publishing of the novel (if we can believe it, Deuxmoi was once an assistant to a nasty stylist). Anyway, it's the story of (maybe) how Deuxmoi got started.
It was OK. It is kind of light and breezy, with an interesting main character (with the ridiculous name of Cricket), two loyal buddies, the aforementioned nasty boss, and various people who want to 'out' her for various reasons. I found it hard to care about these people, though, because while I enjoy a little light celeb gossip I don't live for it. And the mixing of 'fictionalized' celebs and real celebs is annoying to me. So just OK for this one.
And I give this novel by Lauren Edmondson ★★★ 1/2 stars.
One of the blurbs described the book as a cross between Elin Hilderbrand (love) and Edith Wharton (love) and I guess I see it---it takes place in Newport, RI (not Nantucket, but Elin-adjacent) and it involves descendants of a Gilded Age family who have lost all their money. The family's oldest daughter, Maggie, is getting married to the son of the woman who bought the family 'cottage' (ie huge estate), and the family is getting evicted from the carriage house on the estate where they were granted permission to live. The novel is told from the perspective of one of the family's three children, Cass.
While I love novels of rich families having issues, this book didn't really suck me in. I think there were just too many characters. Cass as a character was very vivid, but we didn't learn a whole lot about the other characters who came off sort of stereotypically. Newport as a 'character' wasn't nearly as vivid as it could have been.
