The Ghosts of Eden Park by Karen Abbott

Amy  

nonfiction

The Ghosts of Eden Park:The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America tells of the larger-than-life George Remus who was a bootlegger (among other things) in Cincinnati during Prohibition.

Hyped as nonfiction that reads like a novel, it missed the mark. A lot. This book was largely a dump of facts and names. So many people were mentioned without sufficient backup information to index them in my mind. It was difficult to remember who people were in the scheme of things at times and it also did not allow me to care much about anyone.  The nerve of George Remus seemed unbelievable—he was quite a character. However, despite his outrageous behavior, his incredible story never grabbed my attention due to the way Karen Abbott wrote his tale. Admittedly, I’m not a nonfiction lover. So, if it truly doesn’t read like a novel, chances are it’s not going to bring me much enjoyment. If this hadn’t been a book club book, I’d have abandoned it. Remus' tale was definitely worth being told. I just didn't appreciate this format.

   

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Amy  

historical fiction

Ana lives in Galilee shortly after the birth of Christ and is a victim of the patriarchal circumstances of the times despite her wishes to have control over her own life. Her father arranges a marriage with an old widower, but a young Jesus of Nazareth catches her eye.

This novel never gained much momentum for me. It’s another example of the plight of women that’s been told many times from different time periods, different geographic locations, different backgrounds, and different circumstances. It’s a common theme for a novel--the suppressed young woman, betrothed against her will and publicly ridiculed for things that aren’t true or are beyond her control, whose own desires and skills are ignored and unvalued.  The books that are creative and exciting enough to rise above the hoard of similar stories are few. This was not one of those extraordinary novels. I’m sure many people appreciated the angle that Ana ends up marrying Jesus which provides an alternate version of Christ’s life, but I’m not one who particularly enjoys reading about religious figures or religion in general. I do, however, give Sue Monk Kidd credit for her creative, researched take on Jesus’ history.

The book was about Ana—not Jesus—and I did appreciate the aspects of female solidarity and feminism in the novel. Ana was ambitious and determined despite the challenges of her time and place. But The Book of Longings just never pulled me in. I would not have finished if it weren't for book club. I’m sure most of the book club discussion will be a religious discussion which, frankly, I don’t relish.

The audiobook narrator was Mozhan Marno. While her voice acting was great, I wasn’t impressed with her vocal repertoire in this one (compared to what I know she can do from another audiobook of hers I’ve heard) and she mispronounced many of the Hebrew names which bugged me.  I give her a B+ for this one.

   

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Amy  

fantasy

Oona has an issue. Starting at the stroke of midnight on her 19^th birthday, and every new year thereafter, she leaps into a random year of her life instead of living her life chronologically.

I loved the concept and the execution of Oona Out of Order! It was reminiscent of The Time Traveler’s Wife (which I adored very long ago).  Despite the far-fetched premise of the story, the author does a great job of making it all seem plausible…. well…except for the leap when she emerges into the time in which Edward if present. (I can’t say more without giving stuff away but I found it highly unlikely that he would be so accepting of Oona’s “situation”.) Despite that, I loved experiencing Oona’s strange and difficult life with her. There were some creative aspects and surprises. My main complaint is that I felt Margarita Montimore lingered in two time periods too long and I would have preferred an additional year or two of her life than all that detail on those two years. Alas, it was still a great ride and even became very touching near the end. I do love a good time travel novel!

The narrator was Brittany Pressley and she was terrific! She had a fairly decent voice repertoire and did a marvelous job acting all the different people, different accents, and different Oonas. I give her an A+.

 

   

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme

Amy  

memoir

As one would expect from the title, this memoir covers a period of Julia Child’s life while she and her husband were frequently living in Europe, particularly France.

I figured I wouldn’t love My Life in France and I was right. First, I’m not a huge memoir lover because I usually don’t care enough about celebrities to read about the details of their lives. Secondly, I’ve never been a big Julia Child fan. It’s nothing personal, I just have never enjoyed cooking and I’ve hardly watched cooking shows.  Julia was famous when I was too young to even have an opinion about cooking and my main memory of her was her silly voice. Alas, I wanted to give it a try for the sake of my book club. I’d already blown off reading this book for another book club (and the members had generally enjoyed it) so I decided it should be attempted.

The main threads in this novel are, appropriately, living in France and cooking. However, most of the story, while chronological, bounces around from topic to topic—some of which seemed insignificant enough that I questioned why they were published.  There was no plot or mystery to keep me interested until Julie finally started working on a cookbook. Since I’m not passionate about the cooking or the level of food detail in this book, I skimmed a LOT.  I persevered.

I got a little kick out of the fact that Hadley Hemingway made a few appearances in this book since I’ve only recently read The Paris Wife about her. In fact, the European jaunts in My Life in France were very reminiscent of Hadley and Ernest’s jaunts. It was obviously something that was done in the 1950s and 1960s—even for those with very little money.  Of course, the Childs were able to do much of it thanks to Paul Child’s employment with the military. But I enjoyed recognizing the similarity in their stories.

It’s obvious that Julia Child was “a character” and it sounds like she was a fun person, driven by her passion. If you are a Julia Child fan and/or a foodie—particularly about French cuisine—you will enjoy the memoir more than I did.

 

   

Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

Amy   

young adult

I feared I wouldn’t like Instant Karma because I don’t typically enjoy contemporary young adult romances. (I do love young adult fantasy and young adult historical fiction, though.)  But since I’ve adored almost everything ever written by Marissa Meyer, I had to give it a go.  She won me over almost immediately when I learned that the twins’ names were Jude and Prudence. BEATLES!  Then, I learned that their other siblings were also named after Beatles’ tunes! I LOVE that idea!

Sadly, this turned out to be just another teen romance story (and a chaste one at that, for those of you wondering about appropriate material for your teens) and I only finished it due to my loyalty to Meyer. Prudence is a brat. She’s a control freak. She’s selfish, bossy, prickly, and judgmental.  Granted, she’s also smart, studious, and goal-oriented but it’s the bratty stuff that turned me off and made me dislike her and get tired of reading about her. Lucky for her, Quint is patient and good-natured enough to help her see things in a new light. But it wasn’t only that Prudence bugged me.  The big dilemma was obvious early and then I lost patience watching it play out. I ended up skimming the last 15% of the novel since I already knew where it was going.

Meyer’s writing was great and I’m sure many teens will enjoy this novel. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I definitely prefer her fantasy and action novels.

The narrator of the audiobook (of which I listened to the first 70% or so) was Rebecca Soler. Her voice acting was pretty good but I feel she made Prudence sound even more obnoxious than Meyer intended. She did not have a great male voice and I sometimes had trouble identifying the speaker during dialogues. I’ll give her a B.

   

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

Amy    
Lynnie 

 

women's fiction

Nina is in her upper 20s, single, living alone with her cat, and working in an independent bookstore. She loves books. Life is as calm and organized as she can keep it in order to combat her anxiety issues. Then, her unknown father leaves her an inheritance, along with many previously unknown family members, and her life starts spinning a little out of control.

Amy's Review

Right off the bat, Nina was a likeable, believable sort of person. I knew that her ho-hum life was about to get interesting based on the book description. What I didn’t know was how much I would immediately care for her and appreciate her sense of humor.  Sometimes, trendy “wit” can feel forced in a novel but Nina felt very genuine and adorable. Actually, many of the characters were extremely witty in this novel and I loved their banter. Kudos to Abbi Waxman!

The turbulence in this novel seemed a bit anticlimactic, however, and over-dramatized. I actually wished there was more tension. And the way the difficulties were resolved seemed a bit too easy. But, the world in The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was a truly enjoyable one in which to live for a while and I love a feel-good story.

Lynnie's Review

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was a joy from beginning to end! What's not to like about a story in which both books and team trivia feature heavily?

This story was a wonderful escape full of terrific, quirky characters, every one of which will charm you with their witty repartee as they navigate through the drama and discovery of both family and new love. I particularly enjoyed the way Nina and her new family members related to one another as they brought out both the best and the worst in each other.

Sure, the book was often predictable and you could smell the happy ending from the first chapter, but I really enjoyed watching it all unfold and spending time with these characters. Easily one of my favorite books of the year so far.

   

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

Amy   

young adult

In Garner County, the 16 year old girls enter their Grace Year in an uber-patriarchal civilization. The girls are sent away into the wilderness to find their “magic” and, if they return, they “get” to marry the man who has claimed them. Tierney is a tomboy and not like the other Grace Year girls. She’s not interested in marriage and has done everything she can to avoid being claimed as a bride in order to maintain control over her own life. The novel describes her Grace Year.

I never love the literary device of a society based on an exaggerated policy where the reader already understands the negative connotations of the parameters in which the characters live. It makes me feel manipulated from the start and also makes the world described seem unbelievable.  It makes the story feel like an exercise and largely predictable. Inevitably, with these types of stories, the main character doesn’t want to follow the rules and the reader is automatically on their side. The Grace Year is no exception.

This novel was so full of extremely terrible people and situations that I just wanted to get through it for book club at first. The morals of the story seemed obvious from the beginning (patriarchal societies are terrible, women are people too, human rights are vital, etc.) so the only appeal in continuing to read for me was in the wondering how Tierney would get through the trials of the year and whether she would come to see things the way they actually are vs. how she was raised to view the world in this cultish lifestyle.

Surprisingly, though, it started to be not quite as predictable around the 2/3 mark and I began to realize the larger moral which is a more nuanced version of those I was expecting.  That is, women need to stick together, to quit cutting each other down, to quit making life a competition against each other, to learn to collaborate and share and empathize.  It’s also about the benefit of questioning belief systems and unfair societal practices.  These are the messages which made Kim Liggett's story worthwhile. It did not end as I expected and, for that, I also appreciated it.

The audiobook was narrated by Emily Shaffer and she did a very good job. She had a decent voice repertoire and was a great voice actor. I give her an A.

 

   

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Lynnie    

Amy       

 

contemporary fiction, magical realism

Nora has to decided to no longer live with her many regrets. Her life hasn’t turned out the way she’d hoped and she no longer feels needed. As she attempts to end her life, she finds herself in The Midnight Library where she can try out alternate versions of her life as if she had made different choices.

Lynnie's Review

 

I have read & enjoyed several of Matt Haig's previous novels & The Midnight Library might be my favorite.

Tackling the subject of depression in a unique and thoughtful way, the story follows Nora Seed as she tries to decide which is the life she is meant to live. The multi-verse of the Midnight Library allows Nora to explore all the different ways the choices in her life, if made differently, would have affected the trajectory of her life- different careers, different relationships, different cities, different homes- Nora has the opportunity to explore them all to find the place she most belongs. 

 

While the ending felt predictable it was also very satisfying. It was a joy to cheer Nora on throughout the book as she shed her regrets one by one and learned to feel comfortable in her own skin and to enjoy life as it presents itself to her every day. 

Amy's Review

The novel investigates the consequences of life decisions as well as dealing with the hard knocks life can bring. I liked the way Nora’s fairly dismal outlook on life was eventually turned into something hopeful during her journey through the “books” of her what-ifs.  The fantasy device of the magical library was fun and creative and I felt Matt Haig did a nice job with leading the reader through the concept and playing it out through trial and error. The story was well crafted and never dull. Points were made.

Some good quotes:
“Never underestimate the big power of small things.”
“The only way to learn is to live.”
“It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.”

However, in the end, while I enjoyed it, I had expected so much more based on the rave reviews and I was let down by the build-up.  I wonder if I would have rated it higher had I not been expecting to love it. I liked it. I didn’t love it. Yes, it was a beautiful story and I’m glad I read it. But I was ready for it to end.

The audiobook was narrated by Carey Mulligan. She did a great job with the voice acting but her repertoire of different voices was limited and I sometimes lost track of who was speaking during dialogues. I’ll give her a B+.

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

 

Amy    

fiction

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips is really a book of short stories, each telling the story of a different person during a different month in the year following the abduction of two young girls in a Russian coastal town.

I almost put this book down after realizing the girls were being kidnapped.  These sorts of stories just break my heart and I don’t need more worry and strife these days.  But since it was a book club book, I persevered.  Thankfully, it didn’t dwell on the girls after they were taken. But the worry I held for them persisted in my brain throughout. I couldn’t stop envisioning what was happening/could have happened to them. This is not the sort of theme I like to read about. I generally avoid crimes toward children and women. It feels too possible and scary.

The only other novels I’ve read that take place in Russia centered around world wars. This novel was set in the present which made the aspect of learning about Russian society interesting. Surprisingly, I was able to relate to most of the characters. Their lives didn’t feel so different from those of Americans. There was very little commentary about politics in the novel. Russians thrive as best they are able with much more freedom than I imagined. They have the same issues with childhood, parenting, and romantic relationships as the rest of us. This was enlightening. And yet, there were differences, obviously.  The most noticeable to me were 1) the detective’s willingness to speak about the case to someone not directly involved with it or suspected of the crime, 2) in the hospital, a patient was asked to strip while the doctor was in the room, was supposed to bring their own medical gown and was asked to move rooms completely naked since there was no gown, and patient care and transparency was lacking, and 3) the fact that gay people are treated even more harshly there than they are here.

I thought the stories were so cleverly interwoven. Nothing was overly obvious but characters popped up in each other’s stories casually. Sometimes we learned more about them which was fun.  I wondered throughout if we were meeting the man who stole the girls in one of these stories.  One came to the forefront in my list of potentially guilty men. I thought the ending was appropriate and well-done. Truly, the whole thing was well done. But, since I did not enjoy the subject matter, I cannot rate it as highly as I might have otherwise.

The narrator, Ilyana Kadushin, was a good voice actor but had only a little variety between character voices. I appreciated her Russian pronunciation. I give her a B.