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

The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah

This novel had a promising beginning. I was all in to learn more about Leni and her family as they make their way to the wilds of Alaska to start a new life. This first part reminded me of that TV series, The Last Alaskans. It's about people who live in a deserted part of Alaska and must completely live off the land. Leni and her family are actually is a small community, and some of these characters are fun to know about. And learning about all the work that they needed to accomplish before winter - stocking their food supply, gardening, fishing, chopping wood, etc. - was interesting to read about.

But then all hell breaks loose. The author perhaps had a list of all the things that can possibly go wrong in a family and then ticked them off one by one as she wrote about them: physical abuse, alcoholism, PTSD issues, extreme poverty, falling into a ravine, brain damage, murder, cancer, and the list goes on. I felt at times that I was reading a soap opera especially when I was reading the love scenes. Some of the violent parts of the story bothered me enough that I had to stop reading it at night before sleeping.

Perhaps a good editor could have helped if some of the plot lines could have been eliminated. Or maybe not. At any rate, I was disappointed in this one. -June

Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin

What a book and not one to be read quickly! Take your time and savor the writing and the characters. To say that this is a book about a 70+ year old man who lives in Paris and teaches music..... well, that doesn't begin to cover it. It is at times tragic and other times humorous. It's just so incredibly written that I started trying to highlight passages that I loved, and then realized I was going to be highlighting most of the book.

It starts a little slowly and I admit I found myself getting a little impatient with the pacing (and perhaps wishing for some editing) but then it picks up and moves you to the end. Trust me on this one. - June

Becoming by Michelle Obama (Part 1)

Oh, Michelle. I'm so sorry that my audio book expired before I got to hear you tell the rest of your story!! I loved hearing about your childhood, your education, your romance with Barack, your early married years and your introduction to motherhood. You are the best!! Very honest and very interesting life.

So now I'm back on the wait list, and then I'll be able to hear you tell me all about the political years of your life.

Til then...... - June

P.S. I finally did get the second part of the book and loved it as much as the first. Just a great book that everyone should read.

The Silent Wife: A Gripping Emotional Page-Turner with a Twist That Will Take Your Breath Away by Kerry Fisher

Yes, I actually think that is the official title of the book. At least that is what is on the title page!

And there might be a few little story surprises, but there was nothing that took my breath away. Most of it was quite predictable and oh so repetitive. I read the first quarter and skimmed the rest just to confirm that things ended as I assumed.

Rubbish. - June

The Institute by Stephen King

My husband loves Stephen King. I think he's read every one of his books. I read a lot of his earlier novels - Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Shining. I admire his creativity and his ability to churn out one story after another, but I haven't read too many of his recent books. Then G finished this one, he moved it to my "to be read" shelf and said, "Read this one next".

Stephen King knows how to develop characters, and I think he's especially good at capturing children. I won't give away any plot secrets, but there are a group of children in this book, and he gives them all personalities and quirks and makes them come alive. The story is a page-turner, and I spent too many nights staying up late trying to get to a good place to stop.... and not finding one. The ending wasn't quite what I wanted, but it probably ended the only way it could. I won't say any more. Recommend - June

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

In my Mother-Daughter Book Club, the Boomers have worked hard to bring out the Millennials, and I feel we are making great progress. One of the Millennials recently thanked all of us for introducing her to reading!! So when one of these lovely young women recently offered to host a meeting AND she had selected a book for us to discuss, I knew I not only would read the book, but I would do everything I could to love it. I can't show up to the meeting and bash her book.

But boy, it will be tough.

Alice falls down while working out at the gym and bumps her head. When she wakes up, she can't remember anything that has happened in the past 10 years. She thinks she's still pregnant and 29 when in fact she is a 39-year-old mother of three who is in the process of a divorce. As Alice struggles to puzzle together her life over these missing years, we are forced to hear about how thin, rich, and privileged she is. And she has a new man who is crazy about her but who she doesn't even know. Somehow she can't remember her children but she can remember her computer password. Go figure. Anyway, the book is FAR too long and repetitive, and the author does the thing I hate most.... manipulates the reader by giving clues the story will go one way when in fact it doesn't - over and over. OK, I need to stop hating it long enough to come up with something positive for the meeting.

I think we can talk about how important the decade is when a woman is in her 30s, when she has passed the frivolous 20s and is getting down to the important stuff. We might talk about how this accident was a good thing for Alice giving her a chance to see her life in a different way. Oh boy, I'm really stretching here. Perhaps I'll just smile and drink a lot of wine. Good plan. - June

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg

Recently, I attended a luncheon, and Elizabeth Berg was the guest speaker. As part of the fee for the event, we received a signed copy of this book, her latest in the "Mason" series. She was a delightful author to hear, and I remember reading some of her earlier books and enjoying them. After reading a my recent Russian non-fiction book, I thought something light might be nice for this Thanksgiving weekend.

The novel takes place in the small town of Mason, Missouri. There really are two story lines. Iris, a middle aged woman who runs a baking school and who falls in love with a homeless man, John. That's really the main story. But then Iris is also a part of the Confession Club where a group of multi-generational women get together and confess very personal, sometimes embarrassing things to one another.

This is definitely light reading, and all of the characters in Mason are delightfully feisty individuals. However, the writing gets to be a bit preachy and overly dramatic. Many of the conversations just don't seem realistic to me as one person will ramble on and on about themselves and self-analyze for pages. I did think the women in the Confession Club were interesting and certainly trusting in one another. Their confessions were varied and, for me, that was the best part of the book.

This would be a quick read for a plane ride. Not much more. - June

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder

Once again, this is a book that I never would have picked to read were it not for my book club. They drag me kicking and screaming to some of these non-fiction books, but once I get into them, I'm glad for the challenge and the variety it brings to my reading.

This is Bill Browder's story of how he went to Russia where he was very successful in heading up an investment fund. He became a target for the corrupt officials in Russia, and ultimately one of his lawyers was put in prison and died. The first half of his story is about all of the investments he made, and the second half is his fight to bring down the people who killed his attorney. It's a compelling read, and I'm surprised there isn't a movie in the works. Maybe there is.

While the story is intriguing, the writing is not the best. Browder goes too far into detail over minute pieces of information (what he was eating, detailed physical descriptions of each character, etc.). Plus he appears to be rather arrogant at times and self-involved. In his defense, this is HIS story, and so we only get his side of what happened in each event. But I found it a bit uncomfortable at times.

I did learn things about Russia I didn't know before. And I learned about the law that he pushed for and that was eventually passed. So I look it as an educational read, not necessary an entertaining one. - June

Reviews from BT

Now it's time to hear from BT and see what she's been reading and what she's thinking.....

She just finished The Idiot by by Elif Batuman. It was a Pulitzer finalist, but she felt disoriented half the time. She doesn't recommend it although it gets decent reviews. (Maybe not everyone loves it since it's available now for $1.99 on Kindle.)

BT thinks Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason is an excellent read. A WWI med student serves as field doctor. I'm adding it to my wish list now.

And she also read In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume. Her thoughts on this one were that it was kinda jumbled like she asked different authors to take and develop a character and then attached them together in a novel. Doesn't sound so great, huh?

Finally, she doesn't feel that Ken Follet's book, The Third Twin, was up to standards. Did he really write this one?

Thanks, BT!

The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens

Who doesn't love a good who-dunnit with a vulnerable detective and lots of twists and turns? This was a fast read, and one that had me guessing til the end. Yes, parts were predictable and a few things were unrealistic, I'm sure. But it still made for a good read. Or I think this would probably make a good book to listen to in the car.

I won't give anything away..... but a wealthy woman has died and the prime suspect is her husband. Proving it was him isn't easy especially when there are other secrets that come out along the way.

Just all fun without heavy lifting. -June

Dear Mrs. Bird by A. J. Pearce

Oh no! Not another World War II book! Yes, another one but with a slightly different viewpoint.

This is rather tough to describe. It's about a young girl in London during the war. She wants to be a war correspondent at a newspaper, but ends up typing responses to an advice column in a women's magazine. She also volunteers at the local fire station where calls come in at night after the bombings.

The book is a combination of romance and lightheartedness at times and then the gruesomeness of war at other times. It's also one of those stories where everything goes wrong at about the 90% mark and all seems to be lost...... and then suddenly everything turns around (quite predictably) and there's a happy ending.

It's interesting to read about women's roles in London during the Blitz and the death and destruction the citizens endured. All very eye-opening. So it's hard to describe the book as a "light" story, but it is a bit of a romance/chick lit kind of book. - June