The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

Amy   

historical fiction

The Shell Seekers is a family saga about the Keelings, a British family, living in the 1980s (the novel was published in 1987). Centered around Penelope and her grown children, the readers come to know the personalities and lifestyles of the family members. 

Rosamunde Pilcher’s way of introducing us to one person at a time allowed me to get to know them without the confusion of too many characters at once.  Each of the characters seemed interesting in their own way although none of them are exaggerated.  Some people were likeable and some were not. The story simply shared normal lives of normal people and situations. However, these situations appealed to me and kept me wanting to know how things would turn out for them.

This novel was a pleasure to read. I enjoyed Pilcher’s writing and will likely read more of her novels.  I loved her concept of “cherishing yourself” which is a way of saying that you need to take care of yourself—your health, your needs, your individualism. I also loved her description of one of the characters as running her life like a submarine with multiple waterproof rooms that couldn’t be affected by the other rooms. Nowadays that would be called compartmentalizing. There were many profound nuggets like that peppered throughout the novel. I also loved her settings and am now particularly interested in visiting Cornwall, England.

In all honesty, the only reason I read this novel was because it was one of my mother’s favorites.  The funny thing is that I saw a little bit of my mother in all of the main family members.  I wonder to which one(s) she felt closest.  Also, the underlying story of art collection and investment was something dear to my mother’s heart as well.  I wish she were still alive so I could discuss this novel with her!

I might have given in 5 stars except for several overly descriptive sections that either stopped the momentum of the story or were too long-winded in building up to the next scene. They were more of a nuisance than anything but, still, took away from the otherwise perfectly enjoyable novel. Pilcher also sometimes used these build-ups as a red herring to make the reader think something was imminent but then she would surprise us by making nothing of it in the end. At least she kept us on our toes. Some foreboding came to fruition while other potential troubles were missed. I appreciated that.

The novel was narrated by Hayley Atwell and she was terrific!  She was a marvelous voice actor and had a wide repertoire of voices and accents. However, during character conversations, she sometimes dropped her voice to such a low volume, particular with male characters, that I had to replay after turning up the volume to hear what was said.  Therefore, I’m dropping her to an A on this production.

   

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

 

Amy      

Lynnie   

 

contemporary fiction, romance

 

Nora is a literary agent with a reputation for being vicious on behalf of her clients. Charlie is an editor who once turned down the job to edit a book by Nora's most famous client, which went on to become a subsequent best-seller. It was only a matter of time before their paths crossed again and, of course when they do, the sparks fly.

Lynnie's Review

Would I have liked Emily Henry's Book Lovers so much if I hadn't been on vacation? I don't know, but I was & I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This was a fun, fast-moving story with witty banter (I am a sucker for witty banter!), characters who manage to be both charming and snarky, and an entertaining fish-out-of-water setting that often had me chuckling. Also, it was kind of hot. It's easy to love a book about people who love books and Henry hits the mark on this one- I did not want to put it down once I started reading. Another one to put in your suitcase (or on your Kindle) if you're taking a trip. Book Lovers is a great book for a getaway.

Amy's Review

Nora and her sister, Libby, take a month-long trip to the town in which Nora's author's best-selling novel is set.  To me, the premise of the trip was highly unbelievable until close to the end of the novel when we were rewarded with the explanation.  Until that point, I could not imagine any young mother of two with a third child on the way planning a month-long trip away from her home, spending three of those weeks away from her family. But I decided to let it slide so I could enjoy the story.

Even though the ending was no mystery, the banter of the characters was charming and witty and the progression of the story didn’t seem contrived like Henry's other novel I've read, Beach Read. I’d recommend it as a good beach read.

The audiobook was narrated by Julia Whelan.  I only listed to the audiobook for the last quarter of the novel or so.  I didn’t love the way she acted the part of Nora—making her sound bitchier than I think she needed to be.  But the way she voiced the other characters was okay. I won’t give her a grade since I didn’t hear most of the audiobook but I’ve definitely heard better narrations by her. I'd recommend skipping the audiobook on this one.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Amy   

historical fiction, adventure

After Emmett’s release from a juvenile detention camp and the death of his father, he and his 8-year-old brother, Billy, plan to drive from Nebraska to California along The Lincoln Highway in order to start their new life together.  However, before their new adventure can begin, two of Emmett’s friends from the detention camp appear with their own plans. While on the way to the train station to drop off his friends, Emmett is blindsided by betrayal and must figure out how to continue on his journey with Billy.

What a marvelous novel! I love a good adventure and this novel is full of good adventures.

Just when I thought I knew how things would go, Amor Towles would surprise me…all the way up until the very end! I had not expected Towles to keep me pleasantly surprised because I was disappointed by A Gentleman in Moscow which had been too slow-paced and plotless for me. Thankfully, The Lincoln Highway has plenty of forward motion and a storyline which kept me hooked. I loved the characters and had to know how things would turn out for all of them. 

Sometimes, Towles would take the story off on tangents that made the novel feel like a bunch of short stories strung together.  This occasionally ruined the forward momentum. Although the backstories ended up filling in more details about various characters, all of these tangents (and a key point in the novel I cannot specify without giving something away) are the main reasons why I’m not giving this novel 5 stars.

Towles’ command of the English language is stunning. There are few authors who make me truly appreciate their faculty of vocabulary and sentence creation.  Towles is one of those people.  His writing doesn’t get in the way of the story at all but it makes the tale that much more fun.

The novel started with Emmett’s point of view but then switched between several other characters’ viewpoints.  Unexpectedly, after thinking Emmett was the protagonist of this novel since his story was the first to which the readers were introduced, it began to seem that Duchess might be the protagonist. After all, his sections were the only ones written in first person. But then Sally’s sections were also in the first person.  How curious.  I feel this technique helped to keep several characters feel equally weighted. Although, to me, Emmett was definitely the star. I look forward to discussing this aspect with my book club.

Some topics and themes that were revisited more than once in this novel were routine days vs. experiences that break a person out of their everyday life,  orphaned children, men stepping in to be surrogate father figures, Independence Day, Abraham Lincoln, and, of course, adventure and travel.

The main narrator of the three in this audiobook was Edoardo Ballerini who I have loved in other audiobooks.  He did a terrific job with voice acting and giving most characters their own voice.  I give him an A+.  The other narrators were Marin Ireland and Dion Graham, both of whom I’ve enjoyed in other audiobooks, as well, and they did a great job with their small roles in this one.  I’ll give Graham an A+ but am only giving Ireland and A because I thought her acting was a little over the top sometimes. I would've liked to see Sally slightly less angry. Honestly, I don’t think this novel needed three narrators and feel strongly that Ballerini could’ve handled all of it. But it was a great production.

   

Book of Night (Book of Night #1) by Holly Black

   

Amy  

fantasy

In Book of Night, the world in which Charlie Hall lives is an alternate world to our current one with the main difference being shadow magic. Certain people have magical shadows which can do things independently of their humans and some extra powerful shadows can separate and become their own entities. Sounds intriguing, right?

Unfortunately, Charlie herself doesn’t know enough about shadow magic to sufficiently make things clear to the reader. Rather, we must learn along with her and this reader found it frustrating that so much of the first half of the novel was centered around things which were unclear. Holly Black gave us the gist of things, perhaps trying to keep the story surprising/interesting/mysterious, but the result was that I was bored and didn’t know enough to really care about Charlie or her self-admitted stupid behaviors. I didn’t know what I hoped would happen.  The only thing that kept me reading was the character of Charlie’s boyfriend, Vince.  He, obviously, had a mysterious past (which was, by the way, easily guessed before Charlie figured it out).  Finally, halfway through the novel, Charlie figures part of it out and things begin to get more interesting and we also finally learn more about the shadow world’s parameters.

The second half was definitely better than the first half and I just decided to swallow my concerns and see how things would turn out for Charlie and Vince. There was some fun adventure and there were clever discoveries. But then I got to the end and was bummed I’d bothered to finish the novel.  It left me feeling underwhelmed and dissatisfied.

I had liked Black’s young adult series, The Folk of the Air, and had high hopes for this adult novel. Sadly, it usually felt like a young adult novel because the characters were immature and aimless for the most part. Adding sex scenes does not an adult novel make.

I started reading the novel and also spent a good bit of time listening to the audiobook which was narrated by Sara Amini.  She did a good job and had a repertoire of different voices which mostly worked well with the characters.  I will give her an A.

The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club #1) by Richard Osman

Amy  

mystery

Joyce, Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim, four septuagenarians living in a retirement community in England, get together weekly to try to solve old murder cases for the fun of it. When murder occurs within their community, The Thursday Murder Club tries to identify those responsible using every means available to them.

What a joy! This story and the characters pulled me in immediately. The story was so funny at times I laughed out loud! It’s a mystery and a comedy but it’s also about aging and friendship.  Life is hard, then you get old, and must learn to function as best you can in your new reality.

However, there were several days I was unable to devote any time to this book, and I had already forgotten who several of the secondary characters were.  It was hard to keep track of everyone without living in their world continually.  Also, I’m not a mystery lover overall and this novel lost focus due to too many moving parts, in my opinion.  To summarize, I loved the central characters but I didn’t love Richard Osman's mysteries.

Interestingly, I first tried listening to the audiobook months ago and gave up after 3 minutes because of the poor sound quality.  Then, forgetting I’d already tried this audiobook, I began it again and did not remember my prior attempt until I realized I’d already saved a document with the same book title. The difference this time? I have a new wireless set of ear buds with lower sound quality than my wired pair. How funny! So, thanks to weaker technology, I was able to enjoy the audiobook. The narrator, Lesley Manville, was a perfect voice actor for this novel. She has a variety of voices and accents too. I was unhappy with some of her male voices, however, and along with the serious sound quality issues I’m giving this audiobook a B+. 

   

West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Amy   

historical fiction

In West With Giraffes, Woodrow Wilson Nickel, aka Woody Nickel, is 105 years old when he puts to paper the story that most defined his life.  As a teenager, he had been the sole survivor of his family from the Dust Bowl and, alone in the world, he happened to witness the landing of a ship in NYC that had struggled through a hurricane to bring two giraffes to an American zoo. He decided to follow the truck transporting them from NY to the San Diego Zoo with the hope that he could find a future in California.

The bulk of the novel was Woody’s telling of the time in his youth when he traveled west with the giraffes. He was brave and determined to do anything to survive.  He stumbled through life’s situations as they happened, doing the best he could and thinking on his feet. He was hapless but kept a positive attitude. His journey included a fun cast of characters and adventures.  Sometimes, his stories held a lot of humor. 

However, the main story is wrapped in a delicious outer package—the more current storyline where centenarian Woody is writing down his story.  And that is the part that really gives this novel heart.  The ending makes the rest of the novel so much better.  Woody was fun to get to know and I couldn’t help rooting for him. He was a good guy who flew by the seat of his pants from one day to the next. His intentions were good. And he had a heart of gold.

Lynda Rutledge took a true event—the arrival of giraffes in NYC in 1938 after surviving a hurricane at sea (aka the Yankee Clipper) and their road trip to the Pacific coast—and created a fictional story around it.  I thought she did a fabulous job.  She touched on so much American history during Woody’s life and I learned quite a few things I hadn’t known before.  For animal lovers, especially, this book is heartwarming.

  

 

Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman

Amy   

Lynnie

women's fiction

Laura moves to Los Angeles in order to get her Masters in Physical Therapy. Unfortunately, while out trying to find a job, there is a fire in her apartment building and she gets caught in the rain.  Her luck changes when she ducks into a bookstore, drenched, and Polly takes her home to look at the available room in the house in which she lives. Laura discovers friends and a future.

Amy's Review

This was a slice of life story about Laura, a person trying to start over in a new place due to a difficult past.  Full of fun characters and light drama, it was also a cute romance and would make a great beach read. During each scene, the omniscient narrator would move into any character’s head so that the reader could understand what they were thinking…even the pets.  I mostly liked this, even when it was gratuitous. Emphasized throughout this story was the importance of seeking therapy and supportive friends to help with life’s curve balls.

Adult Assembly Required was what I was expecting from Abbi Waxman. I enjoyed The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and wanted to try another of her novels. Waxman didn’t stray far from Nina’s world. In fact, Nina was a character in this novel as well as her bookstore, the trivia, cats, and quirky friends. I enjoyed it but Laura’s story wasn’t as fulfilling as Nina’s had been. Strangely, Nina’s personality was entirely absent in this novel. I’d probably read another book by Waxman when looking for a low-stress novel with a happy ending.

The narrator of the audiobook was Emily Rankin. She’s a seasoned narrator to whom I’ve listened several times. She has a decent repertoire and is a good voice actor. However, this story didn’t stretch her skills all that much.  I’ll give her an A.

Lynnie's Review

I really enjoyed Abbi Waxman's The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and I admit that I didn't realize when I picked up Adult Assembly Required that it takes place in the same fictional universe. In fact, Nina and the gang from Knight's bookstore are back again as supporting characters. Evidently, characters from another of Waxman's books are also secondary characters in this novel, but I haven't read that book and can tell you I did not feel like I was missing out on any back story. Obviously I was, but it didn't make THIS book less enjoyable. So, I assume Nina Hill isn't a prerequisite for those who may be curious. Regardless, I was happy to spend a bit more time with those characters and to get to know some new ones.

Like Waxman's previous book, the banter is snappy, the characters are charming and the drama is light. I enjoyed the strange narration style that jumped from character to character including the various animals if only because it frequently made me giggle. The plot however was a little more contrived than I prefer- the "villains" of the story specifically made my eyes roll and often felt like they had been pulled from the bad-guy-of-the-week catalog of a sitcom. Still, I got exactly what I was expecting from this book and since I chose it to read on vacation I was not at all disappointed. I would definitely read another Waxman book on my next vacation- clearly she knows how to bring the happily-ever-after.

I still don't really understand the title of this book however. What are they assembling? Whatever. Cute story, great for the beach or a weekend escape.