The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I cry in movies, but rarely do I cry when reading a book.  But during several scenes in The Fault in Our Stars, I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.  And while it certainly is a sad story - what can be more tragic than children dying of cancer or anything for that matter - it also is a story about hope and love and making the most out of your life.  The narrator is Hazel, a 16-year-old girl who is fighting cancer.  She meets Augustus at a cancer support group, and they become friends and then become more than friends.  As a parent, the hardest parts for me to read were the interactions that Hazel has with her parents.  They love her desperately and yet they know what is going to happen.  Their helpless devotion to her is touching.  I believe this is considered Young Adult literature, but I think it would have to be a mature teen to read this.  I highly recommend it.  -June

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

You know how sometimes you read a novel and a character is so real to you that he stays with you for days after you finish the book?  Well, Edgar is that character.  In fact, one of the wonderful things about this novel is that all of the characters are so real - not all likeable - but completely described.  Edgar is a young Native American boy who is an orphan.  For the first 15 years of his life, we see how he survives on his own surrounded by a cast of characters.  Despite having a mail truck roll on to his head and several other near-death experiences, he manages to keep going and keep moving.  He moves from his home with his alcoholic mother to the hospital after his accident.  From there he's sent to a school where he lives with a distant relative and then to a foster family.  The writing is fabulous.  (He also wrote The Lonely Polygamist!!)  I love the way he describes his characters.  Here is how he describes Nelson, another student in his school who torments Edgar.


"For one thing, Nelson was old; though he was in the sixth grade, Nelson was fifteen - an adult, any way you cut it.  His real distinguishing feature , however, was his size; he weighted easily over 300 pounds and was as wide as a love seat........ His head was half of a watermelon sitting on his shoulders, his fingers as thick and blunted as saltshakers, his feet so wide there wasn't a pair of shoes that would fit him; even in the midst of the coldest winter months, in ice and snow and mud, he wore flip-flops.  And Nelson was merry.  He had the look of a person prepared and willing to laugh at anything, and when he smiled his eyes would disappear into those creases of his face and his cheekbones would stand out like those on a drugstore Santa Clause."


Can't you just visualize him?  Love this kind of writing.  But the best part of the book is the ending.  And I never saw it coming.  So often, the ending to a book is disappointing or predictable.  Not this book.  Highly recommend it, and I'm sending it your way, BT.  -June

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford (audiobook)

Although I loved Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I only give Jamie Ford's second book a C.  The story is interesting and it's obvious that the author has researched the time and location of the novel (Seattle in the 1920's 1930's).  But it's a book where everything terrible that can happen, happens.  The story is told by William, a young Chinese boy living in an orphanage, and by his mother, Liu Song (aka Willow).  Liu Song's story is made up of one tragedy after another, and while it may be a typical one of that time, it is told in such a melodramatic manner that I found it difficult to read.  The author repeated things as if the reader might not have caught them the first five times they were stated.  Plus the author teased the reader with the idea that Liu Song might eventually reveal her secret as to who is William's father, but no - she would think about telling it but always held back.  I wanted to choke her and say "Tell them!!" but she didn't.  This is not one I'd recommend.  -June

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

I can't wait to talk about this book in my book group.  There are several members who insist that they can't like a book unless they like the main character, and Nora, the main character in The Woman Upstairs, isn't really very likable.  In fact, at times, she's strange, creepy, and sad.  Mostly, reading about her feelings sometimes made me uncomfortable.  I found I didn't want to pick up the book and read it just because it was like spending time with an acquaintance I'm not that fond of.  And for those people who who like a plot-driven book, they won't like this book either.  There isn't much plot, and the ending, while it has a surprise or two, isn't really very satisfying. 

Nora is a almost-forty schoolteacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She's never been married and has no children.  She's been a dutiful daughter and taken care of her dying mother and elderly father.  But she's one hell of an angry woman.  The book is her story and the one year she spent meeting and loving a family who moves to her town.  Yes, she was in love with the whole family.

And yet the book is beautifully written.  This is one of the few books where I found myself using the "bookmark" and "notes" feature on my Kindle.  Here are a few examples.

As she laments her life she says, "I was suddenly aware, almost in a panic - a joyful panic - of the wealth of possibility of in the world, and also within myself.  My everyday Appleton life, my phone calls to my father, my occasional beers with friends, my Saturday-morning jobs around the reservoir - what was all that but the opiated husk of a life, the treadmill of the ordinary, a cage built of convention and consumerism and obligation and fear, in which I'll lolled for decades, oblivious, like a lotus eater, as my body aged and time advanced?"

Did I mention that there are lots of long, run-on sentences in this book?  Here's another example:

"All the cliches of a city are new to any individual visitor and hence not cliches; just as love, in spite of the paltry means we have to express it, is, each time experienced, completely new: it can be pyrotechnic in its intensity or slow and tender but overwhelming, like a glacier passing over a landscape; or evanescent but glorious like the field of fireflies on Martha's Vineyard in my youth - whatever it is, each time is familiar and new at once, an overturning."

One more thing.... Nora is only in her late 30's.  Yet she describes her life as a spinster - as if her time for love and possibly a family is over.  She talked and acted like someone twice her age, and I'm sure every 30-year-old who read the book will agree. 

So, would I recommend it?  Yes, I would.  Will my book club like it?  Maybe a few will, but I have a feeling the majority will be negative.  -June

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

I wonder if this is the beginning of the next series of books for J. K. Rowling.  Yes, she wrote this book under the name of Robert Galbraith.  It's a murder mystery with a private detective and his assistant diligently working to solve the crime and bring the murderer to justice.  A beautiful supermodel dies and the police determine it's suicide.  Strike, the detective, is hired to investigate and see if it might be a murder.  The plot is interesting and the characters are well developed.  And the ending is surprising although it seems that questions remain especially about how Strike was able to pull all the clues together.  My only criticism is that it could have been 100 pages shorter.  There were just so many subplots involved - how strike lost his leg, his dysfunctional family history, his relationship with his former fiancée, his flirtations with his assistant, etc. etc.  None of these really have a connection to the mystery part of the story and sometimes I think they could have been just eliminated or certainly reduced in length. However, I enjoyed it.  But I'm ready for a change from the murder mystery stories.  On to something else for a while.  -June

Mission Flats by William Landay

Carla ordered this book moments after finishing Defending Jacob because she loved the author's writing and wanted more.  I agree - Defending Jacob is a great book.  Mission Flats was Landay's first novel, and although I liked it and recommend it, I also found it to be a bit too long and confusing.  Seems as if there were so many characters (police officers, lawyers, bad guys) that I felt I needed to take notes.  And because there were so many characters involved, I never felt like I got to know any of them that well.  However, the plot is interesting and I liked the way the book started off with some seemingly unconnected events that proved to be very important in the novel.  And I really liked the main character and wondered if eventually he would resurface in another book.  -June

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

I was glad that I had no idea what this book was about before I started reading it (actually listening to it).  I probably wouldn't have chosen it if I'd known, so for that reason, I won't mention here what it's about.  But let's just say that it's a story about a young woman who was raised in a family that was..... hmmmmm..... unusual.  The story is told from the point of view of the woman and is extremely conversational.  She writes as if she is speaking directly to you with comments like "I'll tell you more about that later" or "I'll start in the middle of the story".  She tells us right away that she didn't see her brother and her sister for years, but she takes her time in explaining why this is so.  Very interesting and entertaining.  Recommend it.  -June

Orphan Train: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline

This year, I've read two books that have described the orphan trains that moved children from orphanages in New York to families in the Midwest in the early 1900's.  (The other book was The Chaperone) OK, I may suck at history because I had never heard of this until I read these two books.  I've heard since reading this book that there is a series of children's books that describe these trains and the children who were on them, but it's not something I've seen or heard about.  And I think it is such an interesting topic. 

In Orphan Train, we meet an elderly woman who tells her story to a teenage girl who just happens to be an orphan living in a foster home.  Their stories have similarities; however, the elderly woman's life is the one that grabbed me.  Not all the children on the trains were welcomed into loving families.  Many were made to work long hours or were abused.  We learn how Vivian (also known by several other names) experienced great hardship before finally finding a real home with responsible adults.

This is a quick read, and one that I enjoyed while learning about a bit of history.  Highly recommend.  -June

We are Water by Wally Lamb

I kept looking at reviews by the professionals until I found one with which I agreed.  It's in the Chicago Tribune and is by far more negative than I would report, but she does catch the essence of my "disappointment" - for lack of a better word.  I have loved everything Wally Lamb has written/published and don't think I am a hypercritical reader.  But, to my way of thinking/reading, he tries to do too much, tackle too many issues in a single novel and, as a result, doesn't do anything as well as he has in past works.  Still, my romance with him remains strong and I will read his next book but, perhaps, with lower expectations and, therefore, enjoy the possibility/probability of being delighted (again)! So, I recommend this book because, even when Wally Lamb is mediocre, he's much better than most! - BT

One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf

I don't know why I chose to read this book.  I think I read a review where the reviewer raved about it so I downloaded it from the library not really realizing what it was about.  Just thinking about the subject matter puts knots in my stomach: a man with a gun in an elementary school in Iowa.  But I was looking for a quick read between one book and another, and so I started it to see what it was like.  And I was hooked.  Although the subject is too difficult to imagine, the author does a beautiful job of describing specific individuals who are in some way related to this horrific event.  The story is told from the point of view of a policewoman, a teacher, a young female student, and a grandfather who is outside the school awaiting news.  We learn the back story of each of these characters and how their lives come together on this day.  The mystery of the story is who is the man, and it is slowly revealed as the plot moves on.  I have to admit that despite the topic, I highly recommend it.  -June

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

A group of teenagers meet at a summer camp and form a bond. The three boys and three girls call themselves The Interestings.  The book follows them from the time they meet at camp until they are in their 50's, and is generally told from the point of view of Jules, one of the girls.  Along the way, they obtain jobs; some are successful and some are not.  They marry and have children.  But throughout the changes in their lives, their friendship wavers at times but remains solid.  I thought this was a great book and loved seeing how the relationships changed over the years. The author has a magical way of revealing her characters so that you feel they are real - her sense of humor and detail makes it fun too. I listened to it rather than reading it, and the reader did a marvelous job of making slight changes to her voice for the different characters.  - June

The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein

Harry Bernstein was born around the turn of the century in England.  His street was divided with the Jews on one side and Christians on the other.  This book was written by Harry when he was in his 90's and is his story of his childhood growing up with an invisible wall on his street that separated the two groups.  While the cover promises and "love story" - and the book has a few - it mostly is a story about family, poverty, war, and the struggles the Bernstein family endured.  It's also about the love of a mother and how she will do everything possible to protect and nurture her children.  I thought this was a great book, and I loved the simply, conversational writing.  Just one thing I noticed that I'm sure no one else ever would ..... The book ends with a street party that temporarily unites the groups.  I couldn't help but see this as a musical with the cast gathering at the end for the grand finale.  Perhaps Harry had a play in mind when he wrote it.  - June