I just finished The Rich People Have Gone Away and I give it 👮👮👮 1/2.
I don't really know what to make of this book. The two main characters are Theo and Darla, who have a fight while they're hiking after leaving New York for a remote cabin during the pandemic, and Darla disappears. Then we have a bunch of other characters who dance in and out and I'm not quite sure what the whole point was. It was well written though.
I just finished Graveyard Shift and I give it ✷✷✷.
Here is what you should know about this book:
-it is a novella, and very short.
-for a short novel, it has a lot of characters. We get to know their motivations pretty quickly but the characters are not well drawn at all.
-the ending is abrupt and will lead you to say 'what?'
I just finished Show Don't Tell and I give it 💏💏💏💏💏.
I am a big, big fan of Sittenfeld (although I wasn't crazy about Romantic Comedy but that's ok) and even though I'm not a big short story person, I remember liking her other collection of short pieces (You Think It, I'll Say It) so I requested this ARC (thank you NetGalley!). Every piece is a gem. A gem. They're all about women just like us--women who are trying to do their best, but the crazy world sometimes gets in the way. I loved every single story in this collection, even the one I read earlier (The Tomorrow Box) and I can tell this is a collection I'll return to again and again to absorb the nuance and beauty of Sittenfeld's writing.
I just finished Famous Last Words and I give it ⁍⁍⁍⁍.
I'm a Gillian McAllister fan and I was excited to read this book. Cam's life changed in a second when her husband, Luke, held two hostages at gunpoint and then killed them. This was not something Cam expected and when Luke went on the run, Cam tried to put him behind her and to build a life for her baby Polly. Seven years later, when Cam is trying to get Luke declared dead, she gets some odd messages. Is Luke still alive? And does Cam want to know the truth? The book is told from two perspectives--Cam and Niall, who was the hostage negotiator (there's also a mysterious third party that is found in a few sections).
I liked this book, I liked Cam as a character and also her relationship with her daughter Polly. The twists had me gobsmacked! What I didn't really 'get' was the side story with Cam's sister. I'm not sure that was a red herring, exactly, just not sure what it added. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
I just finished Everything I Know About Love and I give it 💗💗💗💗💗.
I really liked Atherton's novel "Good Material" and I loved her memoir. It's about her years from age 20-30 (with little dips back into childhood) and it's basically a celebration of her girl friends through the years. It just made me feel so happy and hopeful, and it was great before-bed reading.
I just finished Shattered and I give it 🔥🔥🔥 1/2.
This is the first in a series of sort-of cozy mysteries by someone who lives on the Oregon coast, and the heroine (Logan McKenna) is a recent widow who moves to a small town called Jasper where I think she grew up? Anyway, she is helping at a big crafts fair (love) when a glassblower is found murdered. There are lots of suspects, including her friends who own the booth where she is working. Lots of red herrings, some interesting stuff about glass blowing and about Native American culture (love), some unfinished stuff which is kind of frustrating (her dead husband was having an affair?) and who is the lady who is a chess expert who runs the coffee place? I imagine if I keep going with the series I'll know more and I'll probably try the second book (it's on Kindle Unlimited so it's pretty low risk).
I just finished Coram House and I give it 🛥🛥🛥🛥.
When Alex moves to upstate Vermont to be a ghostwriter, her life is in shambles. Will working on this new book, about abuses at a catholic convent, help or hurt? As she gets deeper into the story, she uncovers more secrets and more danger. I liked this book--it's a good mystery. I was hesitant because I really didn't want to read about sexual abusers in the Catholic church but that was not the focus of the story at all. There were lots of red herrings and maybe one too many (Xander? Not sure what that storyline added) and on the whole a good read.
I just finished Case Histories and I give it ☆☆☆☆☆.
How have I never read any of the Jackson Brodie series? Silly silly me. This is Tana French quality literary mystery stuff. Loved it.
I just finished The Correspondent and I give it 🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊.
I just finished Weyward and I give it 🐝🐝🐝🐝 1/2.
I had this book in my TBR pile, and after I finished her new book Sirens I went back and read this one. It was sort of like Sirens--multiple time periods, multiple narrators--with a theme of female empowerment in the face of misogyny and abuse. I have to say, I think Sirens was a bit richer--the character of Violet was well drawn, but the other two not so much. You have to wonder if Kate walked away so easily from her bad relationship at the start of the book, why couldn't she have done that earlier? Anyway, it's a hard story to read but I'm glad I did.
I just finished Colored Television and I give it ★★★1/2.
I think I just don't have the brain for satire. This book is positioned as a satire of the television industry, and I guess it kind of is, but I thought satire was supposed to be funny? Maybe not. Anyway, it's the story of a mixed race woman named Jane who is trying to get tenure at her University where she's an instructor (yes, the lack of understanding how universities work was bothering to me). When her novel is rejected (a history of mixed raced people in America, only she uses the word mulattos which makes me uncomfortable to write), she tries to get a development job in television working on a show about mulattos. It's all kind of odd.
I just finished A Fine Romance and I give it ☆☆☆☆.
I read Bergen's first memoir years ago (Knock Wood) and liked it. This one starts from, whooo boy, maybe 1985 or so? It covers her marriage to Louis Malle, Murphy Brown, the birth of her daughter, the death of Louis Malle, and her marriage to her second husband. It was a good read, but only goes to about 2015, so I'm not sure what she is up to now. But you know what? She would be great on OMITB.
I just read Return to Wyldecliff Heights and I give it 🔥🔥🔥.
In general, I love a good Jane Eyre retelling but this was not a good one. Agnes is sent to Wyldecliff Heights to be the transcriber for a sequel to a famous gothic book, but she ends up with much more than she bargained for. There's a book within a book but with so many characters and so many twists that it was hard to keep track of it all. Literally the last 1/10th of the book was twist after twist after twist. Not a fan.
