February 2.0

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Who hasn't wanted a 'do over' in life, the idea of Groundhog Day, going back and getting it right? But what if your life was all mixed up, waking up each New Year's Day in a new year, but not exactly in the right order? As in, your 21 year old brain in your 40 year old body, or returning to 1982 when you had just been in 2015? That is what happens to Oona, as chapters shows us her life out of order. Each New Year's Eve party brings Oona a new year, a new age, new problems, new desires, new people, and new learning. The one constant in her life is her mother, a colorful character who makes sure that any life philosophy is not dripping in saccharine sweetness, but based in humor and authenticity. I could not stop turning pages, waiting to see where Oona's life would take her next and kept imagining all the 'what ifs' of my own life. This is a fun read, but it also makes one stop and consider our own life choices. This would be a fantastic book club choice as the options of discussion roads are endless.

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
If you want to be profoundly moved, enlightened, and inspired, read this book and then put it in everyone's hands you know. "If you believe poverty is a choice, then you try to stigmatize and punish it, rather than focusing on interventions to ease it." In this book, the husband and wife writing team delves deeply into American despair, exploring the causes as well as some solutions. "More children die each year in the United States from abuse and neglect than from cancer...We shrug as millions of children undergo trauma in ways that harm and unravel our social fabric - and then we blame the kids when things go wrong. Some species eat their young; it turns out we are one of them." Yes, this book will break your heart, yet it will also educate you, make you question what you thought you knew was right, and force you to examine old biases. It will also show you heroes who gave their abusers grace and others who healed their own heartaches by healing others. This book is a must-read for all Americans, especially for those who will vote in 2020.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Sage of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
"If some of what follows challenges what you have come to believe about Churchill and this era, may I just say that history is a lively abode, full of surprises." Erik Larson is the master of taking a period in history, juicing it up with details of people and happenings behind the scene, and making the reader think about that history in a new light. This book is another humdinger that will make your jaw drop, will have you saying 'wow' out loud, and write down inspiring quotes over and over again. For instance, "...when I remember all that has gone wrong, and remember also all that has gone right, I feel sure we have no need to fear the tempest. Let it roar, and let it rage. We shall come through." Damn, this man could lead and inspire, like no other yet he was far from perfect. (he's got some quirky personal habits, that's for sure, and his well-known racism and elitism is quite disheartening)  This book tells the story of that first year, the worst year of the Blitz, where thousands died, women and children and ordinary people, who all stood on the side of the Channel and told Hitler NO. I absolutely loved this book and anyone who loves history will as well.

The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin
You know when you need that entertaining read, but not saccharine sweet or too fluffy? This is the book that will satisfy that desire. When a hospital network decides to stop treating gay or transgender patients, the action begins. Georgia, a doctor who bucks the stereotype and is a female urologist, and  Jonah, the gay family doc who's losing all his patients due to this new rule, have been friends for a decade.  Through questionable relationships, the loneliness of  being perceived as different, the complexity of their childhood pasts, and their tendency for stupid silly humor, Jonah and Georgia are simply the best of friends and each other's chosen family. And when Georgia meets her soul mate in Amsterdam, she finally starts to see a future that includes love that might last. But of course the feces hits the fan back home when Jonah and the 'religious freedom' movement begins to hurt their patients and the doctors themselves. I could not stop turning pages of this book; the author's voice is so engaging and the characters so compelling that I felt like I was in the middle of a familiar world, yet one that I wanted and needed to be fixed. Ultimately, this is a story of friendship and love, that also has a few things to say about the direction of 'religion,' the relationships among doctors in their world, and the terrible hurt that comes from hatred directed at people that society perceives do not 'fit in.'

The Dark Corners of the Night (Unsub #3) by Meg Gardiner
Do you like the television series Criminial Minds or Mindhunters? If so, you will like Meg Gardiner's Unsub, of which this is book number three. Do you need to read the previous two to enjoy this one? Nope - but it doesn't hurt. This time around the story is set in urban Los Angeles as the Midnight Man terrorizes the city, killing parents but leaving the children alive. FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix is back with her team of investigators, trying to unravel whodunnit. While I enjoyed this one, it was not as good as previous books, in my opinion. The characters seemed more shallowly developed, maybe because they were so complex in earlier books? I was completely engrossed in the hunt for the killer, particularly in the geographical profiling which was fascinating, but at times the story gets stuck in the weeks of the psychological aspects and the chase in the end...good grief, it just went on and on and on. Ultimately, I was satisfied - just thought perhaps a little more editing could have made the story more tight and crisp, which is what I love about a good crime novel.

The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica
Having enjoyed other thrillers by Kubica, I was excited to get my hands on an early copy of this one. Told through a variety of characters, it is the story of a young family in disarray. Rocked by infidelity and school expulsion, Sadie and Will move their two children up to a coastal island of Maine where Sadie works as a doctor, Will teaches college, their two boys try to fit into their new school lives, and Imogene, Will's niece who lives with them, all try to heal their numerous wounds. The perspective changes our viewpoint of the characters and makes us wonder...who is a reliable narrator, who killed the next door neighbor, and what happened in the past to create this chaos? My problem with the story, ultimately, was that it all felt a bit messy for me - some implausibility of plot twists, some "I saw that coming" story lines, thinly drawn characters were motivations were not fully developed (except for Sadie), and writing that just did not compel me to want to keep reading. I finished it, but ultimately was left unsatisfied. Thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.