Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Amy   

historical fiction

Hamnet is a fictional imagining of William Shakespeare’s family life centering around his wife and children.

This novel is so beautifully written by Maggie O’Farrell. Usually if I’m noticing beautiful writing it means that the author is providing more description, and less story content, than I prefer. And, yes, O’Farrell is guilty here of being overly wordy. However, the telling of this story is so well-crafted that I don’t hold her wordiness against her. In fact, she has a habit of listing multiple examples of the same idea sequentially—each with different words/phrases.  It serves to emphasize the internal acceptance of the characters’ realizations/observations.  But I still wonder if it was also the author considering multiple ways to say the same things and, instead of selecting one or two and discarding the rest, choosing to leave them all in there.  I was fascinated and, instead of being bored with the redundancy, enjoyed the many ways she was able to describe this world. I truly appreciated her writing style. Considering that the novel is about one of the most famous writers of all time, the thoughtful usage of the English language seems appropriate.

It is fictional, based on a general framework of facts, but the story feels so real and believable. The emotions were deeply felt, especially the heartbreak around the death of Hamnet. The characters were well-drawn and the historical perspective felt genuine. I did not love the way the author jumped around the timeline without clearly labeling the timeframe of the chapter ahead.  As an audiobook listener, this was confusing at times. But if you are interested in learning more about Shakespeare or life in England in the 16^th century, I recommend it!

Aside from the lack of time indexing, audiobook narrator Ell Potter and her near-perfect voice acting drew me into this very atmospheric novel. I give her an A.

   

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

Lynnie 

Amy     

contemporary fiction

The story of Dear Edward isn't a secret, it's right there on the book jacket. A young man is the sole survivor of a terrible plane crash in which he lost his parents and brother, as well as 188 other passengers and crew. What unfolds in the pages, however, is both full of melancholy and hope as we watch Edward grow up and learn to exist and live in this new reality.

Lynnie's Review

Told in alternating viewpoints of Edward's story after the crash and the stories of a select few passengers on the flight, the reader is the observer as the third person narrative unfolds. We see what happens to Edward and the other passengers rather than view life from their perspectives. This sometimes has the effect of making the story feel cold and detached but also creates an air of honesty not always available from first-person stories. Still, Ann Napolitano has written a gripping story and one I couldn't turn away from. It's easy to feel Edward's confusion and heartbreak and loss and to cheer for him in each small step forward. A beautiful book to start a new year.

Amy's Review

Edward, a 12 year old, is the only survivor of a commercial airplane crash. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to read this novel. It sounded very depressing. But several friends rated it well so I gave it a read. The book alternated between getting to know many of the passengers on the flight and Edward’s life after the crash. I found myself wishing for less of the passenger background sections and more of Edward’s experiences. I didn’t want to like the passengers who were all about to die so tragically. The more I read, the more I dreaded my upcoming flight next month—the first I will take in 1-1/2 years. I’m quite sure I’ll be thinking about this novel’s plane crash while I’m in the plane.

So, while it was well-written, and I enjoyed watching Edward’s recovery and the love and kindness of those around him, it wasn’t an entirely pleasant reading experience overall for me. I would also like to say that I’m sort of shocked at the activities by others which are the reason for the title of the novel. I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll stop there and just add that I can’t imagine doing that.

The audiobook was narrated by Cassandra Campbell.  She did a good job. I wish she’d been a little less “news anchor” and more heart-filled in the sections in which she read as the narrator. But, I do understand why she was directed to do it that way. However, the result was that it felt a bit too distanced. In any case, she had good accents and a decent repertoire of voices so I’ll give her an A-.

 

 

The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright

Amy    

historical fiction, fiction

The Orphan Keeper is based on a true story. Chellamuthu is a mischievous 8 year old in a small Indian town when he is kidnapped off the street and taken to an orphanage where the owners have been stealing children in order to put them up for adoption. The orphanage's rationale is that they are enabling poor children to live better lives than they would with their impoverished birth families while enriching their own pockets. But as newly named Taj grows up, he seeks answers about the family and the country of his birth.

The story is very gripping.  Camron Wright does a great job drawing the picture of Chellamuthu’s home life and the realities of growing up poor in India. There is such heartbreak when Chellamuthu was in the orphanage, travelling by plane to his new American family, and facing challenges like learning a new language and being the only dark-skinned person in school. The author writes with compassion and sensitivity to all involved.

Stealing children for adoption is not unique to India.  It’s a tragedy whenever it occurs.  In Taj’s case, he did benefit in many ways by being raised in America but he and his birth family had to survive a lot of heartbreak and upheaval. His is a haunting story and I’m glad he shared it publicly.

 

   

The Switch by Beth O'Leary

Amy    
Lynnie 

women's fiction

In need of breaks from their lives, Leena and her grandmother, Eileen, swap homes/cities for 2 months in order to escape their normal busy lives.

Amy's Review

The Switch was a quick, feel-good novel. The characters were charming, the issues they faced were relatable, and, while the story dealt with handling some serious issues, it was a very upbeat, uplifting story.  It was told from both characters’ alternating viewpoints which worked perfectly. 

I’m sorry I cannot think of much else to write about it.  I liked it a lot and it’s the perfect novel when you want to read something light and heartwarming.

Lynnie's Review

I really enjoyed Beth O'Leary's previous book, The Flat Share, so I was eager to read another story of hers and I was not disappointed. The Switch is the feel good book you need to help put 2020 in the rear view mirror.

A book filled with charming characters and settings, The Switch shows us what happens with Eileen Cotton, 79 years old recently singled woman, and her granddaughter and namesake, Leena Cotton, essentially change lives- moving into each other's homes and, for Leena, taking over her grandmother's community responsibilities. The stories of Leena and Eileen, told in alternating chapters with a full cast of supporting characters, is simply a lovely way to spend a few afternoons or evenings. I enjoyed reading about everyone in this book and learning their stories as they evolved over the course of a few months. Was it predictable? Entirely. Did it matter? Not one bit because, truth be told, I would have been disappointed if it had ended any other way.

O'Leary does something many writers struggle with- she gives you the ending you want while not making it feel like a slog or a cheat to get there. Any way you slice it, this was an enjoyable book from start to finish. I look forward to reading more by O'Leary in the future.

   

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Amy  

fiction

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the residents at a mental facility find themselves thrust out of their boring routine when a new resident arrives from jail.  McMurphy is boisterous, charming, gregarious, and mischievous and attempts to undermine the authority of the Big Nurse.

I promise you that I had never read this novel or seen the movie.  I know—shame on me. So, I decided that I should finally get with the program and read the novel.  I only knew the barest outline of the story and that Jack Nicholson played McMurphy in the movie.  So I definitely pictured him while listening to the audiobook. (And I've seen the movie since writing my review!)

The story was engaging and disturbing.  Obviously, life in a mental ward was not likely to be pleasant. And it sounded like several of the staff members were malicious and, perhaps, sadistic.  So, with that information, when McMurphy arrived, of questionable mental health and an apparent knack for “reading the room”, the story was suddenly interesting.  The narrator of the novel was one of the residents who has fooled everyone into believing he is deaf and mute.  However, while the reader sympathizes with him, we are also made quite aware that he isn’t mentally well with some definite phobias and paranoia. He is an unreliable narrator.  So, the reader is made to feel a bit “off” while reading about characters who are also a bit “off”, some more than others.  However, mostly, the residents are simply depressed and defeated men who are uncomfortable in society.

I enjoyed Ken Kesey's writing style. The characters were fantastic but the outcome was doomed from the start. Aside from the boat outing (which I found to be a highly doubtful allowable outing for McMurphy since he was supposedly a prisoner), it felt sadly real. There was certainly a lot of hope in the tale but the underlying sense of who was really in control was never far away. The takeaway was that McMurphy brought hope and, even, healing to many of the residents. A certain degree of justice was served in the end, albeit bittersweet due to the high price paid.

The narrator, Tom Parker (which is apparently an alias for Grover Gardner), was very entertaining with excellent voice acting and a decent repertoire of voices and accents.  I give him an A+ for his efforts.