End of April Reading

 We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

Simply. The. Best. So many people have raved about this book that I was almost scared to begin. Could it live up to the hype?? Hell, it surpasses the hype!!!! Here’s why, for me... One, masterful storytelling wrapped within gorgeous writing. Whitaker made me care deeply about the people, feel a part of each town, and turn pages obsessively to find out the answers to all the mysteries. Two, this book made me both laugh out loud, and weep. It wrapped my heart in a blanket, shredded it a few times, and put it all back together in the end. Three, the thirteen year old girl, Duchess, is one of the best characters I’ve ever read in modern day literature. She is MY kind of girl - swears like a sailor, is loyal and protective, loves deep and wide, takes shit from no one, damn I love this girl. If you haven’t run to your closest indie bookstore and purchased this one...DO IT. It’s my new favorite of 2021.

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McClain

As a mystery aficionado, this book hit every whodunnit-lovin’ bone in my body. It was truly impossible to put this one down. In this story, I found a hero, Anna Hart, destined to be one of my all-time favorite characters. From the very beginning, we know there is trauma in her own past, yet the author takes us on a journey through her life in order to make sense of the mystery before us. The brutal  honesty in McClain’s voice and the manner in how she confronts the trauma left from sexual abuse, neglect, and abandonment - it left me raw. But it also left me hopeful and inspired, that humans exist in this world who reach a hand out to those who need it.  That there are survivors who crawl through the flames and make a better world for other survivors. That a writer like McClain has used her own childhood and past, and given us not only this incredible tale, but also a roadmap to a way to heal. Of all the Paula McClain books I’ve read, and I’ve read them all, this one will live inside my brain for all time. My only request from her is a sequel...please. I need more Anna Hart in my life. 

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

“Bacon is pig and pigs are our friends. Do you want to eat your friends?” Without hesitation. “If they taste like bacon.”   Yeah, I was laughing my ass off from the get go. Patrick, a forty-three year old gay man, a former TV sitcom star, lives alone in Palm Springs, surrounded only by his ghosts and his memories. But when his young niece and nephew need a home for the summer, Patrick becomes the Guncle, or GUP, or sometimes even Auntie Mame!

This is a family that deals with addiction, parenting, friendship, and loss, all with a sense of humor as well as touches of wisdom. If you need a book that makes you laugh out loud or touches your heart, you’re gonna love this book. I sure did. 

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

“Now...Theseus lolled with impunity on royal couches, admired by all for his bravery, his noble and heroic exploits - and like a thousand women before me, I would pay the price of what we had done together.” If you love Greek mythology, this book is for you. It uses everything we hate about the gods (their capriciousness and arrogance, their worship of so-called heroes, their utter lack of morals) and spins these character traits into an eye opening tale of not only Ariadne, but so many others of Greek fame. If you know your myths, you know that it was Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete, who aided Theseus in defeating the Minotaur. But author Jennifer Saint takes this little tale and spins it into so much more as we see the entire life of Ariadne, not just her one moment of infamy. Ariadne is a novel that makes us things about heroes...what makes one heroic, how deep do we look into our hero’s motivations, can heroes be authentic humans, and are they truly worthy of our worship? It spins history on its head, placing the men who have always been the headliners back at the end of the line, allowing the women to take their lead.  “I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself.” 

Members Only by Sameer Pandya

Premise: an Indian-American professor has a shitty week, and I mean shitty with a capital S, much of the trouble of his own making. Maybe. And that’s all I am going to say about the plot - you need to just sit back and experience the train wreck. I felt uncomfortable, tense, angry, appalled, enraged, sad, entertained, you name it. I cringed a LOT as I read about each day of the week in the life of Raj, and his supporting cast. This book made my brain come alive, to think about race in America through a different pair of spectacles. It made me see the unfettered power of the media, the push and pull of the sectarianism that is destroying us, the manner in which we segregate ourselves and the consequences of that separation, the nuanced sides of so many issues. Don’t give up when you become uncomfortable as you begin this book - it’s that feeling that makes the book so powerful. This book is a Must Read, eye-opening, hot-for-book-club discussion, master work on racial issues of today. And besides that, it’s just a damn good read.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Did it make me turn pages quickly? Yes. Was it entertaining? Mildly. Did I love it? Nope. And it’s not just because I’m comparing it to 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥, which I loved. It just had some holes for me. However...rom com is not my favorite genre, so there’s that! I found the two main characters kinda annoying instead of lovable. I didn’t cheer for them, or against them - I just kinda wanted to slap them occasionally. The friends-turn-to-lovers trope is just that, a trope, but it can work. The problem here is that there was sooooo little tension - the ending was inevitable and a bit of a bore for me. And an incident that was referred to incessantly throughout the book was a big YAWN, and quite honestly, the sex scene was as well. And his chosen method of birth control was...odd, weird, unrealistic?! 

Last Call by Elon Green

A true tale of murder amidst the gay community of the 1990’s, this book was extremely well researched, written in a tense, page-turning manner, without a lot of extraneous little details that in the past, have turned me off true crime. It also opened my eyes in so many ways. I have not been as aware as I should be of the extreme prejudice, hatred, and violence pointed at the LGBTQIA community. Shame on me. Knowing our past helps create empathy and shines a light on bias so as to not repeat it. This book is a good place to start learning.