July 2.0

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The author of The Underground Railroad, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, has written another stunner of a book; Nickel Boys is my prediction for many awards in 2020. Based on the true life discovery of a Florida reform school found to be the burial group for dozens of young black boys, Whitehead uses this setting as a launching pad to develop the story of a young black boy in the early 1960's. Elwood Curtis is a good boy, a good student, a good grandson. He's never been in trouble...until the night he gets into the wrong car. His time at the Nickel Academy scars him for life, as he sees torture, unhinged racism, unspeakable acts of violence and degradation. Yet Whitehead does not stay only in this place of horrors; we see Elwood post-Nickel boy status, as he tries to build his life and forget the trauma of his youth. Whitehead moves the decades along, as we see the country change and issues of race morph with it. Whitehead asks the questions, "Can we escape the violence of years past? Must society make amends, and if so, how? What is society doing today to young black boys? Have we truly changed, or have we just changed our methods of killing?" This is a powerful, unforgettable book that should be read by everyone in this country.

Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger
Having read all four of Alger's previous books, I am in awe of her ability to move amongst genres. The Darlings takes place in the world of family privilege and high finance in NYC, This Was Not the Plan tells the story of a widowed father figuring out how to raise his child in a world turned upside down, The Banker's Wife is a thriller in the world of international money laundering, and now Girls Like Us, a page-turning novel that encompasses police corruption, family drama, and a serial killer on Long Island. I will continue to be first in line when Alger writes a book; she has yet to disappoint me, and always always entertains me and makes me think. This book will keep you up late, trying to figure out whodunnit.

Turbulence by David Szalay
This is an odd, quirky book. Short, but provocative, I am still thinking about it days later. Yet, some might see it as forgettable. I think it depends on your mood, and your purpose in reading it. Here's the premise: twelve vignettes of twelve plane rides with twelve characters telling twelve stories of interaction. That's it. No great whodunnit, no great passion, no great over-arching thematic message; it just contains the world as we pass by each other and make those small connections that make us a global society. I do think it would be an intriguing book club choices, but yes, odd and quirky.


Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
America is at war; we have been in Afghanistan for 18 years. We forget this pretty much every day, every year, but Ashley White's parents do not and that is the greatest impact of this powerful book. It tells the story of a group of young women - strong soldiers who can do 100 sit ups in one minute, rappel in and out of helicopters in the dead of night, and who aided Ranger troops in Afghanistan in a myriad of life-saving ways. I was fascinated with the women's motivations, their ties to both family and country, their tenacity in being the first women involved in combat with special ops teams years before women were 'allowed' to be in combat. Each time I find myself whining about some stupid moment in my privileged life, I remember Ashley White - a 24 year old spitfire, who never gave up, who loved to bake for her fellow soldiers, who could outwork, outrun, outclimb any of the men she trained with, who treated her Afghanistan-American translator with dignity and respect, who left her marriage of six months to serve her country, and who gave her life for it as well. Ashley White is a name we should all know. Read this book and you will understand my passion for this American hero.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
A Book of the Month club pick, this has been a book that has received a lot of buzz. For me, it was good but not great, slow to get into, easy to put down, not as compelling as I thought when I first picked it up. The story focuses on two families who live next door to one another in a New York suburb. Both men are policemen in NYPD, but their families are diametrically opposite. Peter's family is in constant chaos, with mental illness and alcoholism. Kate's family is more stable, with involved parents and two sisters. When a tragedy erupts between these two neighbors, the fall-out lasts for years as the two children, Kate and Peter, find their way back to one another. It  is a solid story, but a bit forgettable for me. Admittedly, I'm an outlier on this one as many others have loved it, but I think I am just not a fan of her writing voice, as I did not love her previous book called Fever.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
From the very first page, I could see that Vuong is at his heart a poet; this is a stunningly written book. Yet it can also occasionally get tripped up by the verbosity of the author. It is a story of a young gay Vietnamese man, son of an immigrant mother, grandson of a woman who fled the violence and war of Vietnam as it collapsed. The issues run deep in this book, and they are slowly examined as Vuong tells his story in short, poetic vignettes, showing us the life of an immigrant, of how the cultural traditions impact his family, how 'Americans' treat his mother with her strong accent during work in a nail salon, how his love affair is twisted through racism and addiction. It is a painful, raw book that turns the idea of what is a novel completely on its head. Did I love this book? No. Did this book impact me? Definitely. It is short, but not a quick read; it will provide you with some provocative ideas to mull over, that's for sure.

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
Having read ALL of Benjamin's other books, I had to complete the set and read her very first novel. As always, Benjamin uses people in history to become her fictional characters, trying to get 'behind the scenes' of the real story. This time around she focuses on Alice Liddel (aka Alice in Wonderland) and the writer of the story, Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll). As a mathematics professor at Oxford, Dodgson befriends the young daughters of Dean Liddell, and yes, during a famous canoe ride, the story of Alice and her trip down the rabbit hole is born. However, there are dark and ugly secrets during this time period - rumors of pedophilia, obsessions with young girls, questionable photo sessions, and a lifetime of dark and ugly secrets waiting to ruin Alice's life. This was my least favorite of Benjamin's books; frankly, I wanted to take a shower after finishing it. A dark and ugly tale, full of sadness not only in Alice's childhood but her adulthood as well, it was well-researched but did not leave me satisfied.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks Sarah Pekkanen
You know it is an average book when you search your brain for what it was about just days after finishing it. Having thoroughly enjoyed their latest book, An Anonymous Girl, I was looking forward to reading the authors' first big hit. I find it intriguing that this due writes a story together, trading off chapters or points of view - it's a cool idea. However, this book was just fine, not great. It is about an abusive man, and his variety of wives. Some intriguing twists occur when it comes to which wife and what is the real story, yet I found it quite predictable. Perhaps I am reading too many thrillers, or my expectations are too high?