April 2019

The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After by Julie Yip-Williams
Admittedly, I am slightly morbid in my devotion and love of death memoirs. Having sat by the bedside of both dying parents, I am always searching for the 'good' death, wondering if it truly exists? This new book by Julie Yip-Williams is a worthy member of the canon of beautiful memoirs. Julie is a mother of little two girls, shockingly diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer at the age of 37. Having survived an escape from war-torn Vietnam, lived with legal blindness, earned a degree from Harvard Law School, this was not the expected trajectory of her life. You will read of her past, her near-infanticide as a handicapped baby, her years of treatments as the disease ravages her body, and her strong desire to build a future for her husband and daughters. Most importantly to me, was her raw honesty and authenticity: her anger, bitterness, and frustration; the agony of treatment decisions; the battle to hold on just one more year, month, day; and yes, the final acceptance of the 'unwinding' of the miracle of life. I wept at the unfairness, and also reveled in the final chapter, knowing I will keep this book close when my time comes.

The Editor by Steven Rowley
Combine the art of how a book comes to life with an age-old fascination with Jackie Kennedy, and it is no surprise that I loved this book. It begins with a phone call to a hopeful young author, James, to come and meet at the Doubleday office in NYC about publishing his book. Unbeknownst to him, until she enters the conference room, it is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who has fallen in love with his book. As the story takes us through the heavy editing process, the complicated relationship with his boyfriend, and the search for the book's ending, James and Mrs. Onassis form an intriguing bond. Not an intimate friendship, but not just editor and client, she pushes him to dig deep into his own emotions and find what is stopping him from the perfect conclusion to his semi-autobiographical novel. At a memorable family meal, James learns the secret that has directed much of his relationship with his mother and even his father, a revelation that will have significant consequences. This is a beautiful little story, wrapped with gorgeous prose and intriguing bits of historical trivia that is throughly enjoyable.


My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
Bonnie and Clyde meet Ted Bundy and his wife...kinda how this book reads. What happens when a young married couple, madly in love, striving to find financial stability, working to build careers, team up and decide that becoming co-serial killers is a great idea?! Yep, you get this book. It is a roller coaster of a ride, with some humor in spots, some daaaark places in their past, some eye-opening decisions, and some fabulous twists that leads down a long and twisted rabbit hole. Looking for that next great thriller? This could be it.

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
Found in the YA section of bookstores, I cannot recommend this one unless your teen really likes to be scared. Wow, this is a spine tingler, hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck, don't-read-it-at-night kind of book. Makepeace, a young girl raised in a Puritan family outside London, in the midst of the civil unrest of the 1600's, actually belongs to an old aristocratic family who has an 'interesting' skill - the ability to hold ghosts within their skin, hence the title. As the civil war heats up and the family starts losing bodies, they need more willing victims to hide their spirits from years ago, causing some issues for both Makepeace and her beloved half-brother. Beautifully written, this creative story is highly entertaining.

The Ruin (Cormac Reilly, #1) by Dervla McTiernan
Ah, the next great Irish mystery writer has arrived and this time instead of Tana French from Dublin, it is Dervla McTiernan who sets her stories in Galway. This first in the series begins with a death, that of a young doctor's boyfriend who throws himself off a bridge in a surprising suicide. As Jack's sister Maude becomes involved, the two women begin to suspect that the police are hiding evidence and burying what should be a murder. Entwined in this story is Detective Reilly's cold case involving the death of a negligent mother and two young children. Being a big fan of mysteries, I often see where the trail is leading sooner than I would like; however, not with this one. McTiernan is masterful plotter, weaving small clues throughout, building peripheral characters slowly so that when all is revealed, the pieces fit together perfectly. This is a huge hit in the UK and should be soon here in the states. when people discover this incredibly talented new author. (And if you like to listen to books, the narrator has a beautiful Irish lilt)

The Liar (Eddie Flynn #3) by Steve Cavanaugh

Having loved this Irish writer's last book, The Defense, I had to go all the way to the UK to find this next book before #4 comes out in August. Yes, I like this author, this character, that much. I have always loved a good legal mystery but throw together a conman turned defense attorney, a badass female FBI agent, a corrupt lawyer, and a few mysterious deaths, and I am hooked. I stayed up waaaay too late at night finishing this page turner. If you're looking for a legit 'pleasure' book, a cracking good tale, then this one is it:)

Little Lovely Things by Maureen Joyce Connolly
I was a bit torn by this one, eventually landing on 3.5 stars. On one hand, it is a well-written drama about how a family falls apart. Yet, the marketing of it as a thriller/mystery is a bit disconcerting. The story begins with a busy medical student rushing her two little girls off one morning; when mom becomes ill and passes out in a sketchy gas station bathroom, she awakens to an empty car. Taking the point of view in different chapters are a variety of characters: the overworked mom, as her life falls apart for the years following her daughters' disappearance; the young Native man who is spiritually connected to the girls; the Traveler who kidnaps the girls who has deep issues of her own; and the oldest daughter herself, as she works to discover who she really is. No mystery is really involved here, but the disintegration of people's lives is engrossing and entertaining as one reads to a rather predictable ending. Solid debut novel - I will definitely check out her next book as I thought her character development was rich.

March 2.0

Fall Back Down When I Die by Joe Wilkins
The first fiction book by award-winning Joe Wilkins is a powerful and raw look at the dry region out in Montana, a place seeped in hopelessness and history. This story and its characters seethe with quiet rage: the widow and teacher who drinks too much, who stuffs her memories deep, who wants to change the trajectory of children's lives; the orphaned farm hand, caught in bitterness, trying to do right by his young nephew, always one step behind success; the little boy, abandoned by his drug addicted mother, terrified, speechless, seeking safety; and the story threaded through all their lives, that of Verl, who creates his own rules and regulations to live by, who seeks freedom through hate and violence. The landscape becomes a major player as well, as Wilkins uses the description to put us in this beautiful yet lonely land, the writing never too sparse, never too verbose. I found this to be an extraordinarily compelling story, telling of an area that I know little of, a region full of powerful emotions that deserves to be heard.

If Then by Kate Hope Day
Who has not thought about the other lives we might have led, or be leading? Are their parallel universes where I was a neuropsychologist instead of a teacher, where I chose to be a single independent woman with no children, where I traveled the world as a photo-journalist? Yes, those are all my 'lives' I lead elsewhere. Kate Hope Day has taken my hidden thoughts and put them into a fascinating debut novel. In her setting, a small community in Oregon waits on the precipice of an 'event.' This event brings flashes of other lives to their eyes: the community hospital doctor who sees her life with another mate; the bereaved daughter who catches glimpses of her recently deceased mother; the university professor who sees himself as madman, searching for safety in a dangerous world; the young mother who sees herself still pregnant, but this time with a boy. I was riveted by this story and by the inner desires that drive these characters. Do not bother trying to figure out time lines and which life is intersecting where - it pays to just go with the flow and experience the creativity of the story. I am still not sure of the ending, yet it has me thinking which I think is the point of literature? Well done to a first time author:)

Becoming by Michelle Obama
Yes, I finally got on this memoir train after months of debating. And YES, it is well worth the ride, especially if you listen to Michelle tell her own story on the audio version. She truly does cover her entire life: growing up on the southside of Chicago in a working class family, her years of education and friendship, the overt and subtle racism directed towards her, her romance with a goofy looking law student, the passion for changing kids' lives, her years in the White House. What I found most surprising, beyond the interesting trivia of behind-the-scenes incidences, was how inspiring I found this book, particularly for working mothers. Michelle gives some great ideas of how to juggle jobs, small children, ambitions, and romance without losing one's own identity, something I struggled with for those busy years. She is a beautiful writer with a fascinating story to tell - highly recommend.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
What was life like before dictionaries? Yes, another nerdy story about words, who has ownership of them, how we determine the multitude of meanings, and how the first Oxford dictionary was put together. Simon Winchester is the master of research, and in this case, a crack narrator of his own story. But beyond the story of the dictionary is the story of an American soldier, suffering from PTSD from the Civil War, a convicted murderer, stuck in an English insane asylum, who becomes the go-to man for much of the Oxford dictionary. I don't know that I would have liked this one as much if I read it (could be a bit dry) but the crisp British accent gave me an intriguing movie in my head as listened to this book non-stop.

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace
Just the title sounds like the biggest nerd fest ever...okay, it is a little nerdy but it is also an unbelievably fascinating story with a great narrator, if you like listening to books. The story covers the heist of bird feathers from a small museum in England. One might think "Hmmm, so what? Who cares about bird feathers?" But did you know there's a huge black market for them due to fly fishing? Or that bird feathers from centuries ago can tell how how the earth is doing, or not doing? That the feather industry was humongous in the 19th century, employing thousands of workers? Author Kirk Wallace isn't even a scientist, but a man who got pulled into an obscure lil mystery while he worked in his foundation to  aid resettlement of Iraqi support officers to America. Yep, it's an obsessive story, trust me.

The Liar's Child by Carla Buckley
2.5 Stars  I am a big fan of an earlier book of Buckley's, The Good Goodbye, but this one was a miss for me. The plot swirled around a dysfunctional family, a young woman trying to escape the witness protection program, and a retired sheriff still grieving the loss of a child. The first half was a bit slow for me, the second half definitely created more tension for this thriller, but the ending left me rather disappointed. The characters just did not gel for me, lacking significant development and the plot seemed rather implausible so nope, hard to recommend this one.

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald
Ditto this one unfortunately and it's getting a lot of positive buzz from readers - not sure I truly understand why?? The writing style is awkward and stilted, the characters are thin and wholly under-developed, and the entire plot line of "let's keep the brain-dead girl alive for months on end to incubate a baby"???!!! What happened to the rights of the mother? And the medical interventions done to keep the 'incubator' alive are literally never addressed, nor is the moral dilemma which quite frankly would have made for a more compelling read.  I have read other reviews that this book should be labeled YA but I disagree - good YA books are much better. Sorry but this was a complete miss for me.