Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

Ugh. Sometimes I wish friends would not give me books. This one was passed to me from a person who I normally trust with the comment that it gets rave reviews online. And it does! Over a 4* review from Goodreads which generally means it's worth reading. And yes... it starts out with promise.

The novel starts in Japan after the war when a young girl is dropped off at her grandmother's house and left there by her mother. From there, the author must have had a list of every possible horrific thing that could happen to this girl, and she methodically checked them off. Locked in an attack, abused, tortured, raped, disowned, car accident, attempted suicide..... and the list goes on. My major complain is the overly melodramatic way the book is written. I could open to almost any page, but here is one passage towards the end. At this point, she has passed out (maybe gone to heaven) and sees the love of her life, her brother. Akira. Yes, her brother.

His eyes are brimming with warmth, and he leans forward to plant a kiss in the center of my forehead. "Oh Nori. You're stronger than you know. You don't need me anymore." 

"Don't leave me," I whisper, leaning forward so that our foreheads are touching. 

Already I know that he is right when he says I cannot stay here.  I can almost hear the sand slipping through the hourglass. We don't have much more time. If there is forever for the two of us, it does not start now. 

Akira wraps his arms around me and tightens his grip, holding me close with all his strength. 

"Never," he says simply. "I will never leave you."

We don't say anything else. We don't need to. I won't waste whatever time I have left with him on words. There is nothing I can say to Akira that he does not already know, and there is nothing I can do to stop the sand from slipping away.  All I can do is hold him, right here, right now."

And it goes on and on from there. Did I mention this is her dead brother? And what's with the sand slipping away? Gag me.

I'll return the book to me friend and tell her I finished it (skimming like wildfire through the last half). And be very cautious of future recommendations. - June

The Mysteries of Linwood Hart by Richard Russo

Sometimes book titles just pop-up on my Kindle, and generally I just ignore them. But when I saw Richard Russo's name, I paid attention. At first I thought he had a new novel out, and when I saw the price was $.99 I thought it was too good to be true! And I was right. It's just a short story, and one that is a part of his book called The Whore's Child. I rarely read books of short stories so I hadn't read this one, but I was in the mood for something quick and easy to read. AND something well written, which I knew would be the case with Russo.

Lin is a young boy who is struggling with his parent's marriage troubles, his baseball skills, and growing up. Parts of the story are sweet and others tug at your heart. But it's definitely worth a read. Anything by Richard Russo is worthwhile in my opinion. - June

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger

This was a recommendation from my niece who generally has great books to share, and this one was perfect for me! After several books in the "not so great" category, it was very nice to find one I loved.

I must say this isn't a book for everyone. To my friends who love an exciting mystery or lots of plot twists, I would recommend passing on this one. But if you crave fabulous writing where the author can use words to describe characters and settings perfectly, then this might be for you. The writing kind of reminds me of Richard Russo, a fav of mine. Leif Enger wrote Peace Like a River years ago, and I loved it. But he hasn't written much else recently. Very happy to find this one.

Virgil Wander is a man living in northern Minnesota in a small town by Lake Michigan. He works for the city but also runs the local movie theater. The locals in this town are quirky and interesting, and their lives are all intertwined. There's not a lot of action, but it still is just a darn good book. Highly recommend. -June

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

If you knew when you were going to die, would you change how you live your life? Four siblings visit a fortune teller when they are young and they all learn how much longer they will live. This beginning hooked me.

At this point, the book is divided into four sections, basically one for each sibling. The first section is about Simon who is the youngest of the four. He's gay and runs away to San Francisco in the early 80's just in time to be a part of the scene there and the advent of the AIDS epidemic. His story is, of course, tragic, but also the most interesting of the four. Things go downhill after that and each section of the book became less and less interesting to me. I admit by the time I got to the last sibling and her story, I skimmed over the details and just tried to figure out how all of this changed her life.

For a book that had a lot of promise to start, I was disappointed in how it progressed. - June

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson

Ever since I heard about this book at a holiday book talk, I've been anxious to read it. The author has obviously done extensive research on the subjects in the book. It takes place in the 1930's in rural Kentucky, and Cussy (the main character) is part of the Pack Horse women who deliver books and reading material to people who do not have access to libraries. I don't know that I've ever heard about this project, and I found this part of the book to be fascinating. 

Cussy is also a blue-skinned woman. Her color is due to a genetic blood issue that is described in the book. While I've heard of this, I didn't know much about it, and I also never realized that they suffered the same discrimination as blacks in the area.

Much of the book held my interest. Unfortunately, the author decided to add a lot of unnecessary romance and melodrama, especially at the end. I think I would have preferred a much different and less predictable ending for the book. Kind of recommend - but not wholeheartedly. - June

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Oh, Olive. I've missed you. Reading this book was truly like reconnecting with an old friend. Olive, Again is the sequel to Strout's Olive Kitteridge, which was a wonderful book from a few years ago. Olive may not be the most fun-loving, joyful character, but she is so real! She lives in a small town in Maine, and this novel (like the previous one) includes chapters about several of the local townspeople who are a part of Olive's life. Of course, Olive is the main character in the book, but there are chapters where she is only a minor mention. 

I loved this book. Just loved it. It was one of those rare books that the further I read into it, the more I enjoyed it. Please read it, BT, if you haven't already.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

I was born in Mankato, Minnesota. It's a small town about an hour southwest of Minneapolis. My grandparents lived there, and in the local cemetery, you'll find my grandparents, parents, and a brother. This novel takes place in the Great Depression in the areas around Mankato. It's a story of 4 young orphans, and they travel in a canoe trying to escape their past and get to St. Louis where they think that they can find a home. Along the way, they meet people who help them and people who abuse them. It's a slow-moving tale, but I totally enjoyed the trip with them. Extremely well written, and the characters are beautifully developed. You'll find yourself highlighting some of the paragraphs to read again. Definitely recommend. -June

Educated by Tara Westover

Again, I'm late to the party on this one. I've been hearing rave reviews for months about this one, and finally (because it's on my book club list), I read it. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of memoirs, but this one is pretty darn fascinating. It reminded me of The Glass Castle which I think I read over 15 years ago. In both books, the main character is female and somehow manages to pull herself out of a dysfunctional childhood into a life normal enough to manage to write a book! Amazing!

Tara Westover's family is living off the grid with no formal education for the children and a distrust for government and the medical community. One of her older brothers is very abusive and those were, for me, the most difficult parts of the book to read. Ultimately, her parents do not believe this abuse occurred and this manages to divide the family.

The book is well written and compelling. Would definitely recommend it. But now I certainly need to read something a little lighter. Whew! - June

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

After struggling to find books that held my interest, I was not looking forward to reading some book about Korean women who are divers. It just didn't sound that appealing. But I admit that I found the book fascinating! On the island of Jeju off the coast of Korea, there was a close-knit group of women who supported their families and their local communities by diving and harvesting things from the sea. The novel covers their relationships with each other and with other members of their family. And it doesn't hold back on the dangers of their work.

The book also deals with the political parts of their lives during the 1930's, and be warned..... there are a couple of quite violent scenes.

The themes of friendship and forgiveness are throughout the novel. It's beautifully written and researched. And it taught me so much about this part of the world that I never knew.

Definitely recommend this one, BT. - June

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

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