My friends, this might be about a couple honeymooning at a fancy hotel on a Greek island, but it is no beach read.
Evelyn and Richard are a match made My friends, this might be about a couple honeymooning at a fancy hotel on a Greek island, but it is no beach read.
Evelyn and Richard are a match made in hell. They fundamentally don't like each other and are, in no way, ever on each other's side. She's a writer and actress who used to be his parent's housekeeper, and he thinks she's kind of slutty. He's kind of a dick to her, questioning everything she says and trying to make her feel trashy, crazy, overly picky, or fat. If this isn't bad enough, they both have secrets in their past that put them into a twisted relationship with each other.
And the hotel sucks too, not much privacy, and the innkeeper is a sexy young woman who treats Evelyn like crap while treating Richard like a king.
I've read books by this author before, and was very obsessed with he The End of Mr. Y. She's always interesting, and this gripped me from the first, although it lost me a bit in the middle, and in the end, I was just confused. It just doesn't really hold together or make sense, and the characters do baffling things that are never explained. It seems like there are great big holes in the plot. Even the title doesn't really work. "The sleepwalkers" referred to a couple who stayed in the hotel maybe a year before Evelyn and Richard, and supposedly, he sleepwalked into the sea, she followed to protect him, and the tide then swept them both out and they drowned. Why do they give this title to the book? At the end there are some documentary filmmakers who are interested in doing a film about the events in this book, and they decide not to because this story is kind of a mess and doesn't make any sense. I have to agree....more
Secrets and lies, bad husbands, murder. Sometimes I like to get sucked into these books of, what, domestic thrillers? Psychological fiction? They’re uSecrets and lies, bad husbands, murder. Sometimes I like to get sucked into these books of, what, domestic thrillers? Psychological fiction? They’re usually not very memorable, but good ones do pull you right into the story and keep you turning pages- or for me, listening. Books like this I like to experience as an audiobook. I think this was an especially good one!
Two women meet at a restaurant and they discover that both of them are there because they’re celebrating their 45th birthday. Birthday twins! And they were even born in the same hospital.
But that might be where the similarity ends. Alix is chic, has two cute kids and a handsome husband, and is a successful podcaster. Josie wears lots and lots of denim, seems to lack confidence, has a husband who is much, much older than her, and has two adult children who are suffering from the results of previous trauma.
Josie comes to Alix with a proposal for a podcast, and they start working together on it. You know from brief little snippets set in the future that things between them have really gone off the rails, and that there have been murders, and you start to want really badly to know what happened in Josie’s past and what’s going to happen in the future.
I think the audiobook reader did a great job. Honestly, I was reading this so obsessively that I ignored some political podcasts, and I am very, very much into politics in this election year. All this nice murder and dishonesty had to have been a fun distraction! Kind of a spoiler below.
Kind of a disappointing ending? The twist makes it less interesting than the straight story is. ...more
This was so good. Probably my favorite book of the year so far.
It's set in Alaska. I spent four summers in southeastern Alaska. Not the interior, wherThis was so good. Probably my favorite book of the year so far.
It's set in Alaska. I spent four summers in southeastern Alaska. Not the interior, where this is set, but still, Ivey's descriptions of plants and bears, wilderness and Alaskan local bars- it all made me very nostalgic. Her writing about the natural world is some of the best I've ever read, poetic and specific and visceral. Alaska is gorgeous and dangerous, and that all shows itself in her prose. Another thing about Alaska is that it has this mythic quality. You read and listen to native stories about ravens and eagles and bears, and then you see all these creatures around you, all the time, and the myths and the reality of nature don't feel like they're necessarily very far apart. I love how in Ivey's books, the three of them that I've read so far, the membrane between the mythic and the natural is all too permeable.
Her characters are rich, too. This book is about a young mother, Birdie, and her daughter Emmeline, who is about six. Birdie is a great character, one you see in the world, but don’t find in books very often, because she couldn’t be less writerly. She’s impulsive, endlessly energetic, seeking sensation, in love with the natural world, and not at all interested in translating sensations into words, as I am, or as writers are. She doesn’t think much about consequences, so is maybe not the best mother? But she loves her daughter so much. Emmaleen is a realistic and beautifully created child. I love the sections of the book when she's engaging in imaginative play. It reminded me so much of being that age, with my imagination going wild. The plot gets going as Birdie is becoming attracted to Arthur, a local man who lives out in the wilderness, far from any town. I think she's more interested in living out in the bush than she is in Arthur, a quiet and strange man who has trouble putting his thoughts into words. Another thing about Arthur is that he has a secret, a pretty big secret.
This is the kind of book that makes you sad when you finish it. I have a book hangover now and can't really get into anything else.
Thanks to the publisher for giving me early access to this book in exchange for an honest review....more
I was looking for an audiobook quick before heading out on a walk, and this was in my Libro.FM app. I was clearly sucked in by the promotional writingI was looking for an audiobook quick before heading out on a walk, and this was in my Libro.FM app. I was clearly sucked in by the promotional writing that compared it to Fleabag. This was no Fleabag.
I dislike most reality shows and have definitely never enjoyed a reality dating show, but this sounded like maybe a not dumb way to enjoy the trashiness of a dumb thing. But no. This is dumb and annoying in the exact same way a reality dating show is, with about the same shallowness of characters and dialog. I kind of wanted to know what was going to happen, so thought I'd finish it anyway- but then I looked at the app and saw I was only halfway through- because apparently, this book is stretched out just like one of those shows.
The narrator is a failed romance writer who becomes part of the cast of a reality dating show in order to boost sales of her books and maybe get paid to write new ones. I don't think this is a spoiler because of the title of the book? She's "cast" in the show as the villain, the bitch who all of America will hate. And she pretty much deserves it. She says early on that she's not the kind of woman who makes friends with other women, which always make an alarm go off for me. "Don't ever trust women who don't have female friends" is one of the things I truly believe. And she's so bored once filming gets started, but she never really talks to the other women, is completely uninterested in their stories. Of course the show producers push this narrative, manipulating her in all the ways reality show producers are said to do, and oh yeah, there's also a sort of shallow relationship with one of the shallow (but insanely handsome) producers.
I'm sure there's a market for this, but obviously, I'm not that market. It made me feel bad about humanity and very bored. Next!...more
This pulled me right in, completely surprised me, and held on until the very end. This novel's construction is absolutely brilliant. Zee and Doug, a mThis pulled me right in, completely surprised me, and held on until the very end. This novel's construction is absolutely brilliant. Zee and Doug, a married couple, moves into the carriage house at a mansion belonging to Zee's wealthy mother. She's teaching at a college and he's supposed to be working on his dissertation. They're both fairly unpleasant people. I think it's not a spoiler to say that you know from the very beginning that this marriage will not be around very long, that their stay at her mother's house will break them for good. The house, built a hundred years ago, holds a lot of secrets. Doug tries digging into them a little, and discovers a few things. We discover a lot more though, as later chapters tell us about the lives of Zee's ancestors and about the arts colony that inhabited the house for a good chunk of its existence. This blew my mind at least twice. It was pretty great....more
This was great. I recently read this author's Anita De Monte Laughs Last and really liked it, but I noticed that on Goodreads, a lot of reviewers prefThis was great. I recently read this author's Anita De Monte Laughs Last and really liked it, but I noticed that on Goodreads, a lot of reviewers preferred this one. I liked this one a little better too, maybe?
Olga is a dynamo, a very successful (if slightly larcenous) wedding planner for ultra-rich and very annoying people, a member of a loving but contentious Puerto Rican family living in New York City, a bit of a loner dealing with her parents' abandonment when she was a child, and the sister of Prieto, a U.S. Congressman who is not quite living up to the ideals that drew him into politics in the first place. Olga meets an odd but charming man and starts a relationship with him, and this is truly a lovely and quirky little romance. Olga and Prieto's merciless mother, who left them to start a revolution, gets back into their lives and forces a reckoning that nearly blows everything apart, or maybe they start dealing with things they should have dealt with ages ago? This was an exciting, deeply involving read. I really loved this vibrant family and the strong sense of place in this novel....more
A bunch of 40-ish friends who formerly all belonged to their school's speech team reunite after the suicide of a member of their team, partly in orderA bunch of 40-ish friends who formerly all belonged to their school's speech team reunite after the suicide of a member of their team, partly in order to confront their former team advisor, who, they discover, said and did harmful and inappropriate things to all of them. I zipped through this and found it fun and immersive, but I suspect I'll forget it pretty fast too?...more
I always listen to this author's books as audiobooks. The same reader reads them, and I like her, and the books are always entertaining enough. But reI always listen to this author's books as audiobooks. The same reader reads them, and I like her, and the books are always entertaining enough. But recent ones seem to have big holes in them and elements of the plot seem extremely unlikely. This one is pretty bad in that regard- the murder requires so many random events to happen just right. But I still enjoyed it. There's a spoiler below.
Leonora has just figured out who the murderer is. That person says, "Here, I'll make you a nice cup of tea." Leonora takes it and thinks, "Well, hmm, it tastes weirdly bitter, but okay," and she drinks it down. Really!?...more
I really loved this great coming-of-age novel and I read it so fast, in about 3 days. I found it really hard to put down and really fun to read.
Margo,I really loved this great coming-of-age novel and I read it so fast, in about 3 days. I found it really hard to put down and really fun to read.
Margo, the main character in this book, has an affair with her jerky English professor because he's kind of pushing for it and she's a little curious. When she gets pregnant- at the age of 19-he breaks up with her, and she has almost no support from her unreliable single mom. Her father, who has only been nominally involved with Margo, is a retired former wrestling star who has been managing other wrestlers- and he is also a FANTASTIC character, both awe-inspiring and goofy. Margo rather thoughtlessly decides to continue the pregnancy, and when the baby arrives, she finds that she both loves him madly and has no knowledge or ability to take care of him or to support the two of them. Finally, for the first time, her father becomes an important figure in her life, and Margo starts her own business- as an OnlyFans star. And a little weird community forms around her. Margot takes an unusual, but nevertheless meaningful path to self knowledge, and to being an artist. She becomes the author of her own story. That's what this book is about, becoming the author of your own story, and it’s so satisfying....more
I liked this fine. If I hadn't loved this author's Disappearing Earth so much, I would have found Bear a satisfying enough read. Disappearing Earth waI liked this fine. If I hadn't loved this author's Disappearing Earth so much, I would have found Bear a satisfying enough read. Disappearing Earth was impressive, unbelievably well-structured, vivid in its depiction of Kamchatka, which I found fascinating. Looking back, though, I wonder if the way narration passed from character to character made me not notice that it was a little light on character development? Because in this book, I never felt like I really knew the characters very well, I never got inside. I also didn't even know the bear.
What this book did well, though is to show what it's like to be the working poor, trying to stay on top of things, but one financial setback can cost you everything. This novel is about two sisters who live on San Juan Island, a tourist town off the coast of Washington. They're taking care of their mother, who is dying of cancer, and getting further and further behind on paying for medical bills and everything else. And then a bear shows up and seems to be hanging around their yard, and Elena, the older sister, and usually the most responsible one, becomes fascinated with it. Oh, yeah, and this is kind of a retelling of the old fairy tale, Snow White and Rose Red, in which a bear plays and important part.
Spoilers below:
It's hard to tell, but I think the author gave a little too much blame to Sam, and to a lesser extent, the neighbor guy for Elena's death- and for the bear being put down. I just want to step in and say, yes, Sam and the neighbor guy were kind of chaotic and foolish, but the overwhelmingly huge share of blame goes to Elena herself. Only idiots think they have a special bond with a wild animal- a grizzly bear!- that will keep them safe. Everyone was telling her of the potential dangers and she ignored them. Don't mess around with wild animals that could kill you in a second, because they're wild animals. Her foolishness wound up leading to the death of the animal she claimed to love, too. I have no patience for dumbass humans who underestimate nature....more
Greta, a directionless- and pretty unlikeable- woman works for some kind of a new-agey life coach in a small tourist town, as a transcriber for his seGreta, a directionless- and pretty unlikeable- woman works for some kind of a new-agey life coach in a small tourist town, as a transcriber for his sessions with patients. She's quickly fascinated by one of the patients, a married woman originally from Switzerland. Greta dubs her Big Swiss- and then she meets her and a very weird and dishonest affair begins. This was pretty entertaining- I liked the wry narration from Greta, AND I listened to it as an audiobook, and the reader was one of my all-time favorites. I enjoyed it- but I'm also not sure what the point of it was? I guess Greta and Big Swiss both learn better how to deal with their trauma? I finished this about a week ago, and I'm already starting to forget it, so this isn't exactly a ringing endorsement- but it was fun....more
I read this because the reader is really good- I've listened to a bunch of books she's voiced. This one is kind of meh though, the kind of book with aI read this because the reader is really good- I've listened to a bunch of books she's voiced. This one is kind of meh though, the kind of book with a plot that pulls you in, but with shallow characterizations. This felt so gendered, too, full of families with a mother, a father and children with no one else in their lives. Still, I finished it! I almost decided not to, but I did want to see what would happen....more
I would like to say I didn't hang around BabyCenter when my kids were little, but I totally did, all full of I just can't be unbiased about this book.
I would like to say I didn't hang around BabyCenter when my kids were little, but I totally did, all full of boring obsessions with things that only parents of babies are obsessed with. Most of my friends either didn't have kids or had them later, so even though I thought a lot of it was stupid and annoying, I often lurked around this early 2000s message forum for parents. And I found one great thing, Catherine Newman, who wrote a blog on the website, and whose kids were just the ages of my kids. I've followed her all about the Internet ever since, as she writes about food and parenting and marriage and loss. She's a writer who can make me laugh and cry on the very same page. I do a fair amount of reading when my husband is trying to sleep, and my regular laughing out loud maybe annoyed him? But screw him- he's so much better at sleeping than I am. Anyway, I just love spending time with this writer. I would read a detailed and minute account of her doing her taxes. I would read her sports blog if she had one.
This one is about a fictional family a lot like her own spending a week in Cape Cod on vacation. They eat lobsters and go swimming and reveal secrets and make each other laugh. I loved every page. I am so sad I have finished this book. Oh, and the main character, like me, is menopausal, and so this book didn't only entertain and move me- it also gave me actionable information I can use to deal with one annoying symptom, acid reflux! So, huzzah!- you should try to read it as soon as you can....more
I really enjoyed this, the first South Asian/South African gothic tale I've ever even heard of.
It took me a while to get into it. There are two timelI really enjoyed this, the first South Asian/South African gothic tale I've ever even heard of.
It took me a while to get into it. There are two timelines, and in the current one, about a girl, Sana, and her father, who move into kind of a boarding house in Durban, South Africa, there are a lot of characters to get to know, and it took a while. The other residents of the house are mostly pretty old and eccentric, as is the house, a huge mansion that has fallen on hard times. The house is full of secrets, including secret rooms, and a passageway full of abandoned junk, and Sana starts digging into it and finding things out. In the timeline from the past, you meet the people who lived in this mansion when it was new and very, very luxurious, and you get to see the love story, beautifully rendered, that so fascinates Sana decades later.
After the first 40 pages or so, this is very engaging, and the writing is gorgeous. I was a little disappointed in the ending, but this novel was still very worth reading....more
Technically, I suppose, this book is about a very realistic sex robot who has been programmed to value her owner's pleasure over everything else. But Technically, I suppose, this book is about a very realistic sex robot who has been programmed to value her owner's pleasure over everything else. But really, it's about how all women, are at least many women, have been programmed by society to please men. I couldn't help seeing myself and most women in Annie.
She is such a good robot that you actually can't tell by looking at her that she isn't human. And she's been programmed to learn, which she does. Emotionally and intellectually, Annie is a human being, except that she has been programmed to care about pleasing her owner above all things and to not go anywhere without her master's permission. She has a libido, too, that the master can tell her to turn up, and while her normal body temperature is about 75, she can turn it up to reach 98.6 within just a few minutes.
This is very engaging and was fun to listen to as an audiobook. It's so interesting to watch with bot become a person. Spoilers below.
I thought this was going to end badly for Annie, so I found the ending a delight, and I enjoyed both her rage and her freedom so much!...more
This is more a story about a commune and family than it is a time travel story, I think? I found it very engaging, although it lagged a little in the This is more a story about a commune and family than it is a time travel story, I think? I found it very engaging, although it lagged a little in the middle and sometimes it didn't quite make sense to me. The audiobook was read very well.
The first main character is Ursa, a damaged and pretty heartless woman who is able to travel into her own past, although her body stays in the present and she can't really affect anything in the past. She starts a commune for women and children, and her son Ray grows up there. The children in this commune are neglected, mostly don't go to school or receive medical care, and spend a lot of time working on weed production, the commune's main industry. As soon as he can, Ray flees the commune, taking Cherry, one of the other commune kids he's fallen in love with. Their daughter, Opal, winds up having the same time travel abilities as her grandmother, and she has to figure out what has happened to her family and solve some rather terrible problems that Ursa has caused....more
I finished this, but it was a little disappointing. The titular English teacher is not quite a fully realized character- which is intentional on the aI finished this, but it was a little disappointing. The titular English teacher is not quite a fully realized character- which is intentional on the author's part. Lily King is a very good writer, and the story did pull me in, ultimately. I liked her son, and I liked the new step-family, too. It was a problem that you could see the "secret" coming from miles away. It was fine, but it was no Writers and Lovers or Euphoria. ...more
This is a great one to suggest to readers who like Sally Rooney's books, and I have to say, I liked it just as much as the 2 Sally Rooney books I've rThis is a great one to suggest to readers who like Sally Rooney's books, and I have to say, I liked it just as much as the 2 Sally Rooney books I've read. It's set mostly in Cork, during the great recession, and it's about the friendships, romances and financial struggles of young people. They're all kind of insecure and messed up like so many people in their early 20s are, and it was a fun and absorbing read, or actually listen, as I read this as an audiobook. I love an Irish accent....more
I was truly surprised by all the readers on Goodreads who hated this. I listened to it as an audiobook, which maybe helped with problems of quotation I was truly surprised by all the readers on Goodreads who hated this. I listened to it as an audiobook, which maybe helped with problems of quotation marks not being used, and the reader was very good-but I never found this boring at all. This grabbed my attention and held it, and I finished the book within 3 days. I found the main character, Edgar Drake, the titular piano tuner, to be a rich character and a delightful one to spend a rather long book with. I loved his openness and the pleasure he took in his surroundings, his willingness to believe the best of people, his desire to do a really good job. And I was enchanted by the descriptions of the people and places and wildlife of 19th century Burma.
Drake is a middle-class Londoner when the book opens, busy and in love with his wife of twenty years, but he's very excited when the British army offers him a commission- to journey deep into Burma, into the jungle, to tune a piano that has been transported there at enormous expense at the demand of a mysterious British colonel. He goes and writes fabulous letters to his wife, who waits for him at home, and he meets people who tell him stories. He's a great narrator, so enthralled by what he's experiencing. He likes the colonel enormously, but slowly, Edgar- and the reader- start to have doubts about the colonel as he pushes the piano tuner in unexpected and surprising ways. There's a love interest, too, and one of the most romantic scenes I've ever read in a book between a man and a woman and a piano. Mason was young when he wrote this, but damn- he could write. I absolutely loved The North Woods, which I read last year, and I'm glad it inspired me to read this one....more
It was indigenous History Month, and I found myself reading Tommy Orange's new book and this one just by happenstance, both of them good novels by indIt was indigenous History Month, and I found myself reading Tommy Orange's new book and this one just by happenstance, both of them good novels by indigenous authors.
This novel tells the story- no spoilers here, it happens at the beginning of the book- of a four-year-old girl who is stolen from her indigenous family by a white woman, who then gaslights the child into believing her memories of her actual family are dreams. I liked this book, which I read as an audiobook. It's narrated by Ruthie, the girl herself, and by her brother from her indigenous family. I wound up really caring about both characters, and I really enjoyed her original family.
There's a spoiler- kind of a spoiler?- below.
I kept waiting for Ruthie/Norma to be as mad as she should have been- like an inferno-level of mad- and she never was. I read this with increasing anger at the family who stole this child and at the consequences it had for her and for the family members that had to live with the trauma of her disappearance, so it disappointed me a bit that my anger didn't manifest itself in the character-- but still, good book....more
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