Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer

Lynnie

 

short story collection

 

I had not heard of Hilma Wolitzer until this book came up in my library list of "books you might enjoy." A fan of women's fiction and short stories, the library was correct. Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket (which is an exceptional title!) is a collection of stories mostly from the 1960s and 70s, though ending with a modern tale, and focused on domestic life. Most of the stories were interesting- some sad, some funny, some sadly funny. Many of the stories blurred together for me unfortunately. There were a few standouts but I found that as the book continued, and the novelty wore off, I had a tougher time staying interested. I suspect that if I'd read them as intended, weekly or monthly as they were published, I would have adored them and even felt a bit conspiratorial with Paulie- the wife in most of the stories. 

 

It's an interesting collection and a wonderful look back at society. I suspect it's the mirror that it holds up to current society that made me just a bit uncomfortable as I was reading.
 

The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

Amy  

fiction, historical fiction

Rosalie, a Dakota tribe woman who had been sent into the foster system as a tween, looks back on her life including the struggles she experienced as a Native American living in a white world without a caring family, being a farmer’s wife, raising a child, and surviving through drought and chemical poisoning concerns.  In addition to her own story, we learn the stories of her ancestors and people.

At its core, The Seed Keeper is about acceptance, family heritage, and survival. Rosalie’s early difficulties largely stemmed from racism, poverty, and the loss of her family.  Of my generation, Rosalie’s experiences were relayed in a way that I was able to vividly imagine. Diane Wilson drew very clear pictures with her beautiful writing. However, she also gave too much detail at times with overly descriptive segments that did not move the storyline forward. Despite that, I enjoyed getting to know Rosalie and she taught me, someone who hates gardening, to appreciate how people can be passionate about seeds and planting. The seeds provided a connection between Rosie and her ancestors.

Kyla Garcia was a good audiobook narrator. She had a nice vocal repertoire including great male voices and accents and she was a terrific actor. My only complaint is that she did not differentiate the voices of the main female characters at all, despite the fact that I’m sure she could have.  That was a lost opportunity, in my opinion.  I’ll give her an A.

   

Ink and Bone, Paper and Fire (The Great Library #1, #2) by Rachel Caine

Ink and Bone

Amy  
Lynnie

young adult, fantasy

Jess Brightwell has been raised to be a book smuggler in London.  The Great Library has claimed possession of all original books which are stored in its serapeums (like library branches) around the world.  It provides copies, or mirrors, of the originals to the people of the world. Punishment is severe for those caught in possession of originals. But when Jess turns 16 years old, his father decides that Jess should attempt to become a scholar at The Great Library so that he can serve as a spy for smugglers. Jess is happier than his father realizes to be escaping his home and his life of crime.

Amy's Review

Ink and Bone is a creative novel set in an alternate future where the Great Library of Alexandria, rather than being burned down, has become the headquarters of an all-powerful system of information where only the highest leaders decide which information is available to the public, how it will be disseminated, and who has access.  Within this world, The Library holds itself above all governments and religions wielding unchecked, absolute power. It holds as hostages those who are most talented with alchemy and it forces them to do The Library’s bidding. Ink and Bone has a disjointed feeling of being set in medieval times while simultaneously feeling more current, with magic used similarly to the way technology is utilized today. The method by which the public receives information feels similar to today’s e-readers. But they are called “blanks” and there is none of the current technology.

Jess is a fantastic character—smart, cunning, strategic, but still a teenager who makes mistakes. He, as well as most of the characters, are not easily labeled as good or evil. Rather, they are a little bit of both which makes them that much more believable and intriguing.  The more you read, the more you learn about things that make you re-evaluate previously formed opinions.

I’ve not enjoyed a book about students this much since Harry Potter. There are a few similarities between The Great Library series and the Harry Potter series, but they really are entirely different.

While Rachel Caine is a terrific writer overall and I love her creative premise and character-drawing, the novel does have its flaws. There were scenes which went on for entirely too long.  I started to zone out while listening to the audiobook because these “journeys” did not matter to the story—only the destinations or what happened when the journey ended was important. For me, it would’ve been enough to know a lot less about the details of the journeys. If I’d been reading the novel, I’m sure I would’ve skimmed them.  Alternately, there were settings and battles that didn’t feel all that well described. I was a little lost but just accepted that the details of these scenes didn’t really matter. Again, these scenes weren’t all that important to the outline of the story.  I’m hopeful that her writing will improve with the series. 

The audiobook narrator was simply fantastic. A+!  Julian Elfer has a large vocal repertoire including multiple accents, stupendous vocal acting, and made the novel that much more enjoyable from his delivery. I hope I get to hear him narrate further novels in the series.

Lynnie's Review

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to enjoy about the late Rachel Caine's Ink and Bone. I loved the world she created and most of the characters were really fascinating. I also am admittedly a sucker for anything that revolves around libraries or boarding schools so the combination of both was bound to thrill me, right? Not exactly.

The truth is, it took me until nearly the end of the book to put my finger on exactly what I wasn't appreciating about it; why wasn't I tearing through it and telling everyone, "you have to read this book?" Even though I enjoyed it, I knew exactly what was going to happen. Though there are 4 other books in the series, I think I can figure out with at least marginal accuracy, what will happen to the characters and the Library by the end of book 5. Caine is not a master of subtlety, and if I'm going to invest time in a series, I would like to be surprised by SOMETHING.

In this book, the deaths were all 100% predictable, the people chosen for the Library? Predictable. The heroes and villains? Predictable. There is only one thing that I predicted that failed to materialize, so my guess is that it is sure to happen in one of the future books. So, as much as I enjoyed this world, and Jess and the rest of the crew I won't be rushing off to spend more time with them. Perhaps in the future I'll change my mind, but I'm just not in any hurry.

Paper and Fire

Amy  

young adult, fantasy

Paper and Fire picks up six months after the events at the end of Ink and Bone, again focusing on Jess and his experiences. He’s now in the library’s army under the command of his friend, Glain. His other library scholar friends are working in their newly assigned fields. However, Jess suspects that Thomas, who had supposedly been killed near the end of Book One, is alive. Jess enlists his friends’ help to save him.

In the first half of the novel, I was happy to be spending more time with these characters. However, near the middle, things started to feel unrealistic.  (Even fantasy novels should feel plausible.) Fortunately, I was able to move past this bad section when their adventures pulled me back into the story. All in all, not a bad sequel. If you liked Ink and Bone, you’ll probably like this one well enough. I’m just not sure how much further I’ll go with this series. I’ll likely give it one more novel at least.

Again, Julian Elfer was the narrator and, again, he was entertaining and did a fabulous job with the voice acting of many different characters.  Once again, he earns an A+.

   

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

 

Amy   

fiction

Alice, a successful author recovering from a mental breakdown in Dublin, meets Felix on Tinder. After a less than stellar date, they meet again by chance and Alice invites him to join her on a book tour in Rome.  Meanwhile, Alice’s college roommate, Eileen, seems to be struggling with her complicated relationship with her childhood friend, Simon.  Alice and Eileen write emails to each other explaining their lives and also sharing thoughts and philosophies about current topics and the state of the world.

Ugh. 

THIS WAS THE 2021 GOODREADS CHOICE BEST FICTION NOVEL??!! I have a major problem with the Goodreads Choice Awards. How can a novel win a category when it doesn’t even earn an average rating of 4 stars (out of 5) on Goodreads?  I do not respect the Goodreads Choice Awards. I feel that their website's ratings are a much more accurate assessment of the quality of books. Generally, if a novel has 4 stars and above, I either like it or can see why lots of people liked it. This one had 3.63 stars. I did not like it nor can I fathom why so many people voted for this one.

Beautiful World, Where Are You has a minimal plot. I suppose it’s supposed to highlight the mundane struggles of people in their late twenties/early thirties in terms of their lack of perceived value in society and their low personal assessment of their achievements. The characters in this book are socially awkward, have poor communication skills (especially considering the two main characters are writers), and lack meaningful relationships. They don’t know what they want out of life or with whom they would like to spend it or how to go about getting any contentment. Felix ends up being the only person who deals in reality on a regular basis.

The emails between Alice and Eileen are simply avenues for Sally Rooney to pontificate, or hold court, about her musings. To me, it comes off as a pretentious way to publish her opinions in the guise of a novel. It is as if she wants readers to say to themselves, “Wow! How enlightened she is. What a gift she has for articulation of the current problems with the world!”. Paleeze.  It felt like the author built the novel around these monologues and I did not appreciate its crafting.

And then, between all the emails and difficult relationships, she includes paragraphs about absolutely nothing.  And I mean that literally. She includes details that are meaningless to the forward motion of any sort of story line and add no entertainment or educational value whatsoever. Here’s an example:

“…Felix took out his phone and flicked over to the camera app. The phone was several years old and for some reason opening the camera app caused the music to skip and then switch off. He removed his headphones irritably and took a picture of the castle. For a few seconds then he held the phone out at arm’s length, headphones dangling loose over the side of the bridge, and it was not clear from this gesture whether he was trying to see the existing image better, getting a new angle in order to take a different photograph, or simply thinking about letting the device slip soundlessly out of his hand and into the river. He stood there with his arm outstretched and a grave-looking expression on his face, but maybe he was just frowning under the glare of sunlight. Without taking another photograph, he wound up the headphones, pocketed the phone and walked on.”

WHO CARES???!!!!  There was no reason for this paragraph to be included! It brought nothing to the novel....no character development, no story advancement, no reader education, no description of the setting. 

Rooney also has something against using quotation marks and commas correctly. I am left attempting to find anything nice to say, any crumb I can feel any enjoyment about, any character that I liked, or any situation that was of interest to me.  I will say that I agreed with some of her musings in the emails. But the way they were presented felt forced. If it weren’t for book club, I would not have finished this novel. Yes, it had a hopeful ending so I’ll give it that. But when I am relieved to finish reading a book, you can bet I didn’t enjoy it. I’m very happy to leave these characters behind.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Amy   

historical fiction

Having just the right connection through her job at the Princeton University Library, Belle is hired as J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian in 1905 in New York City. Only in her 20s, she is responsible for organizing and growing the collections at the Pierpont Morgan Library.  It’s the perfect job for Belle, given her interests and education, but she must hide her family secret that her ancestors were slaves.  If anyone knew she wasn’t white, her entire family’s safety and security would be threatened.

Based on the real-life Belle da Costa Greene, this historical fiction is a fascinating read about self-determination and the realities of racism in the United States around the turn of the century. Belle is an endearing character—well-educated, pushed to never let anyone see the real “Belle” by her mother, and doing a spectacular job using her intellect and insight to help acquire an amazing collection of books and art while navigating the proprieties and business maneuvers required by her job. She does what is necessary to succeed and is responsible for elevating the lifestyle of her family. Yet she misses the family of her childhood and, especially, her father who left when his wife insisted the family pretend to be a white family. 

The Personal Librarian also provides insight into J. P. Morgan the man and his colossal empire.  I loved getting to know both of these real people, even though I’m sure quite a bit of their personalities were imagined by the authors, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.  Belle and Mr. Morgan felt authentic and it was a pleasure spending time with them. While the novel had a few slow sections, I was generally hooked to find out how things would turn out for Belle. As an art appreciator, I enjoyed the peek into the art industry of the time.

The audiobook narrator, Robin Miles, did a very good job. I thought her voice acting was well done and she had a nice vocal repertoire. However, I felt her voice for Belle sounded much too confident in the beginning. I feel like the narrator’s real, much older-sounding voice was used instead of one better suited for a 20-something year old woman pretending to hide her secret heritage from powerful people.  I’ll give her an A-.

   

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Amy  

fiction

Britt-Marie has opinions. She’s set in her ways and is out of touch because of her sheltered lifestyle. She likes things just so. She’s been married for 40 years, caring for her husband and his children but has recently left her husband due to infidelity.  She hopes to find a job so that, if she dies, someone would notice that she’s gone.

The summary describing this novel made Britt-Marie Was Here sound like a cross between other Fredrik Backman novels—Beartown (centered around a hockey team and the townspeople) and A Man Called Ove (centered around a curmudgeonly out-of-touch widow on his own). And it was exactly like that. In fact, as my fifth Backman novel, I can state that he sticks to general themes like loneliness, sports, police, parents doing their best, and rich vs. poor.

Britt-Marie was a sad character who had built her life around the care of others, always subservient and never thinking about doing anything for herself. But, finally, she had the strength to put herself out there and try something new. While not easy for her, this change of scenery and intention ended up improving her life and the lives of everyone in town. It was heartwarming, which is also a typical outcome of Backman’s novels.

The narrator of the audiobook was Joan Walker and she was fantastic!  Her voice acting was absolutely perfect and she had a huge slate of different voices.  Her comedic interpretations made listening to this story such a joy! I particularly thought she was a genius reading the role of Somebody.  I believe I wouldn’t have liked this novel as much if I’d read it myself.  A+!