The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

This novel received mixed reviews from my book club, but I thought it was fascinating. Sometimes a book just hits you, and for some reason, this one did.

There were two story lines. The first takes place in the 50's in Russia where we read about Boris Pasternak's lover, Lara. (Yes, the author was named after her!) Lara was captured and imprisoned by the Russian government in order to get information about Boris' novel, Dr. Zhivago, because it contains anti-Russian writings. The second story line happens in Washington DC, also in the 50's, at "the agency" which, I assume, is the CIA. A young woman in the typist pool is trained to be a spy, and later she and others secretly push copies of Dr. Zhivago into Russia where it is banned.

I'm definitely oversimplifying both stories, but they are related and yet very different. And I just enjoyed reading about how the spies were trained and what they were sent to do. I believe the information about Boris and his lover is factual; the DC portion of the book is based on documentation but the characters are fictional.

A few book club members found it to be slow and too long. OK, I'll go with that in parts. But I also found I really got into it about 1/3 of the way in. I say give it a try. -June

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Don't blame the book when I say that it took me a month to read it. This is the book I had just started then the COVID-19 pandemic started. Although I've been housebound, reading has been difficult and I found I have had to force myself to sit down (without my phone or iPad to distract me) and read.

The Leavers is very well written. It is one of those books that jumps around in time but it works. The story starts in the middle where a young Chinese boy is living with his mother after immigrating to New York City. One day his mother goes to work and never returns. As the book continues, we find out what happened to the boy as well as the background of the mother and what caused her to not return home.

I recommend it. I probably would have liked it more if I'd read it more efficiently rather than a few pages at a time, but I do this it's a worthwhile read. -June