The Vibrant Years is the story of three generations of the Desai family. One day, Bindu Desai received $1 million dollars in an inheritance and will nThe Vibrant Years is the story of three generations of the Desai family. One day, Bindu Desai received $1 million dollars in an inheritance and will not talk about it. She decides to move out of her ex-daughter-in-laws house and into a condo in a retirement community. After a few dates with a neighbor, he passes away leaving his entire estate to Bindu. Quickly her ex-daughter-in-law, Aly, and granddaughter, Cullie, come to her aid to keep her company. Now Bindu is being hounded by the other women in her retirement community, the family of her neighbor who are now wanting what they think should be theirs, and someone connected to her original benefactor. While Aly and Cullie try to help Bindu get through all of this, Bindu and Aly help Cullie develop a dating app by being her guinea pigs.
This is a beautiful story about secrets, loss, love, support, and finding ones self. While it is about an Indian-American family, this a universal story. I definitely recommend this to fans of family dramas and women's literature.
Merged review:
The Vibrant Years is the story of three generations of the Desai family. One day, Bindu Desai received $1 million dollars in an inheritance and will not talk about it. She decides to move out of her ex-daughter-in-laws house and into a condo in a retirement community. After a few dates with a neighbor, he passes away leaving his entire estate to Bindu. Quickly her ex-daughter-in-law, Aly, and granddaughter, Cullie, come to her aid to keep her company. Now Bindu is being hounded by the other women in her retirement community, the family of her neighbor who are now wanting what they think should be theirs, and someone connected to her original benefactor. While Aly and Cullie try to help Bindu get through all of this, Bindu and Aly help Cullie develop a dating app by being her guinea pigs.
This is a beautiful story about secrets, loss, love, support, and finding ones self. While it is about an Indian-American family, this a universal story. I definitely recommend this to fans of family dramas and women's literature....more
Maude Horton is the story of a women in Victorian London who wants to find out what happened to her sister and as the title states, get her revenge. MMaude Horton is the story of a women in Victorian London who wants to find out what happened to her sister and as the title states, get her revenge. Maude's sister Constance joined a ship expedition to find Franklin's missing ship in the arctic by pretending to be a boy from the neighborhood who was selected to join the trip. When the ship returns to London, Constance is not there. Maude wants to know how she died but the Navy is giving her nothing. She finally gets some help from a sympathetic person who has access to her sister's diary.
The story is told from three perspectives, Maude's, Constance's Diary, and the killer. You know who the killer is fairly early on but you do not know how Constance died or what Maude's revenge will look like. The story was interested and well crafted until the end, it felt like the author realized that the book needed to end and then the climax and end are just dumped on you in the last few minutes. You really only know what happens from the epilogue. This feels like a debut novel that just needs some help with pace....more
Normally I do not put a review on a DNF but I want to clarify why this is a DNF.
This book is a fine book but at a quarter of the way through I was uttNormally I do not put a review on a DNF but I want to clarify why this is a DNF.
This book is a fine book but at a quarter of the way through I was utterly bored with the story and did not care one bit about the characters. The writing was fine, the story was just not for me....more
Alchemy of a Blackbird is the story of Remedios Varo. She was a Spanish-born, Mexican painter in the first half of the 1900s. Follow her story from NaAlchemy of a Blackbird is the story of Remedios Varo. She was a Spanish-born, Mexican painter in the first half of the 1900s. Follow her story from Nazi Germany to Mexico and from losing her passion for art to being a successful painter whose art is sought by the wealthy in Mexico. This was such an interesting story of a women who I had never heard of nor seen her art and after reading this I wanted to see her paintings. While a big part of this book is about her muse and the journey to find who she is as a painter, the actual art itself is not a part of the story. I did not get a good idea of the type of art she created, other than the commissions for Bayer and the government, but when I saw her surrealist paintings they made sense with the mystical elements that McMillan discusses in this story.
I highly recommend both this story and Varo's art to any reader of fiction....more
I loved The Nix so this was on my list the second I heard it was coming. The Nix it is not. This is theWellness was a DNF for me. Here are my reasons.
I loved The Nix so this was on my list the second I heard it was coming. The Nix it is not. This is the story of a couple who stalk each other when they are 19 and have been together ever since. Now they are middle aged and looking to buy their first home in Chicago but are having major marital problem. One is a photographer who has lost his muse and instead teaches and a "scientist" who studies (and on occasion creates) the placebo effect.
I got about 60% through the book and found that I did not care at all about these two people, their lives, their troubles, their history. I have thought maybe I will go back and finish it but I DNF'd this back in October when it came out and I cannot force myself to pick this book back up. I have just gotten to the point where I will put a book down that just does not draw me in enough to want to finish it....more
Seven women find a man's head in a hotel room on New Year's Eve. They all have a reason to want him dead and in order to keep everyone safe they need Seven women find a man's head in a hotel room on New Year's Eve. They all have a reason to want him dead and in order to keep everyone safe they need to figure out who did it. Everyone who knows Jamie thinks he is great but the women who really know him would never think so. From the day he was born he has been ruining the lives of the women who come into his life.
It is an interesting concept but it fell a little short. Having seven different stories of what Jamie did made the story feel a little repetitive and more than was necessarily needed. Half of the stories would have been enough to hate this man and feel like he got what he deserved.
Now with that said, I did enjoy the read and it read quickly....more
The Devil's Flute Murders is the latest of the English translations of Seishi Yokomizo's Detective Kindaichi series. In post war Tokyo a series of mysThe Devil's Flute Murders is the latest of the English translations of Seishi Yokomizo's Detective Kindaichi series. In post war Tokyo a series of mysterious events occur that turn out to be related. First, a man kills several workers in a jewelry shop, then a couple of month's later a Viscount disappears and is then found dead miles away. Finally, there are a series of murder at the Viscount's home. The family seems to think that the Viscount has come back to life and started killing his family members but Kindaichi does not think so.
The Devil's Flute Murders is filled with a locked door murder, a murder when no one could have done it, and a chase that leave Kindaichi just steps behind the person he is looking for. If you have never read a Yokomizo mystery so should definitely pick up one. The series is not being translated in order so it does not matter which one you select and this one is a pretty good one....more
The Drift is a post-apocalyptic story where a virus has hit the population and those who survive turn into animalistic versions of man. The story is bThe Drift is a post-apocalyptic story where a virus has hit the population and those who survive turn into animalistic versions of man. The story is broken into three parts. The first is a group of college kids on their way to a retreat after a breakout at their school. The next is a group of volunteers stuck in a gondola high above a canyon on the way to the retreat. Finally is the staff of the retreat.
This is a book that feels like it is going to be stale until about halfway through when you start to understand what is actually going on. Now that being said the book falls a little flat and at some point predictive. It is not a bad book but not one I would go out of my way to recommend to someone unless this is their style of novel....more
Central Park West is the story of Assistant US Attorney Nora Carleton and her colleagues. Nora was slated to a mobster to justice but part way throughCentral Park West is the story of Assistant US Attorney Nora Carleton and her colleagues. Nora was slated to a mobster to justice but part way through the trial the defendant offers up someone more appealing, the real murderer of the former Governor.
The state has arrested the former Governor's soon to be ex-wife for his murder but with the new intel the Feds have, the case might be screwed. The only thing Nora has to do is prove that the intel is good.
The book is interesting and nice that the story focuses on the prosecutors instead of the cops or defense attorneys. Central Park West is filled with details that only a former US Attorney would know to even fill their novel with. For a first novel, this one is not bad and if this is the style of book you like I would suggest it....more
Nocturne is the story of Grace, a ballet dancer in Chicago in the 1930s. She has lost everyone and now her best friend is leaving the ballet company tNocturne is the story of Grace, a ballet dancer in Chicago in the 1930s. She has lost everyone and now her best friend is leaving the ballet company to get married. To Grace's surprise, she will be the new prima because she has a patron she has never met that will save the company. But she must go live with him and has no say in the matter. The only requirement of her is that she must dance with him once a week.
This is a book where nothing seems to happen and yet everything does. Where time goes really fast and yet does not. It is just a blah book. I wanted to like it but was bored most of the time and confused the rest. Not sure who the audience was but it feels like an overly descriptive, under developed pre-teen book. There are better magical fantasy novels out there that you could spend you time reading....more
The Swiss Nurse is Mario Escobar's latest book about civilians during WWII in Europe. This is based on a true story about a Swiss run expectant motherThe Swiss Nurse is Mario Escobar's latest book about civilians during WWII in Europe. This is based on a true story about a Swiss run expectant mothers hospital in southern France during the war. Escobar's novel follows Isabel, a Spanish woman who is trying to find her American husband at the end of the Spanish Civil War, and Elizabeth, a Swiss woman who convinces the charity she works with to fund an expectant mothers hospital for the Spanish women stuck at the refugee camps in southern France after fleeing Franco.
Like Escobar's other books this is a story of regular people doing great things in the face of injustice and evil. You want to get to the end of the book to find out how the story ends, even though you kind of know from the beginning. If you are a fan of Escobar's books then you will enjoy this. Would I recommend this to someone who does not already have it on their list? Probably not. And I say that because I feel like this genre of WWII civilian novels needs to be over. Not every story needs to be told and I feel like that is what we are getting to now....more
**spoiler alert** Arrested Adolescence is a biography of Nathan Leopold, of Leopold & Loeb. If you do not know who Leopold & Loeb are, they were young**spoiler alert** Arrested Adolescence is a biography of Nathan Leopold, of Leopold & Loeb. If you do not know who Leopold & Loeb are, they were young adults who in 1924 kidnapped and killed a child, Bobby Franks, in Hyde Park Chicago. It was the crime of the century. This biography is not about that crime but about Leopold's entire life. And I do mean entire life.
If you do know anything about the crime you probably heard that Loeb was the mastermind and that he manipulated Leopold through out their relationship. During the first part of the book where Rebain focuses on Leopold's childhood through the crime, there is a feel that the victim story is true, yet he spends a lot of time during the prison years giving a different impression that the image rehabilitation story of Leopold as a victim might not be true.
The third part of the book focuses on his post prison life in Puerto Rico. If ever you have any sympathy for Leopold or buy into his version of what happened in 1924, this part will shatter that. Leopold is a disgusting human being who prays on young boys and gets away with everything.
This is a long book and is too much. Rebain writes about every event that seems to have occurred in Leopold's life. In this case, I would have been fine with broad ideas of his life and maybe one or two examples but I did not need to know about every "boy" he had in prison and every actual boy he groomed in Puerto Rico. It is not a bad biography is just needed some reducing....more
I do not normally give reviews on a book that I did not finish but in this case I felt the need to.
I barely dragged myself through part one of Birnam I do not normally give reviews on a book that I did not finish but in this case I felt the need to.
I barely dragged myself through part one of Birnam Wood, so this will be only about part one. This book is stream of consciousness writing and there are multiple story lines and POV characters that bleed into one another. So try to know immediately from one paragraph the next whose story you are on is difficult, you also have no idea how much is left of that segment. There are no chapters so it makes it hard to know where a stopping point is in the story.
Now that structure is out of the way, the story is boring and the characters are annoying. The bulk of the characters are Gen Z eco-fighters who go an "borrow" other peoples property so they can plant plants on public or other people's properties without their knowledge or consent. The story revolves around the leader of Birnam Wood (the eco group), Mira. When a natural disaster occurs several hours away she decides that this would be the best place to guerilla garden since all of the residents have left. While trespassing on a rich man's property she meets a billionaire tech designer who is there for is own, non-legal reasons.
Like I said, I found this characters so annoying that I did not want to read on but the worst part of part one is the meeting of Birnam Wood during which there is a very long discussion amongst a bunch of middle class white people discussing social injustices. It is a scene of the worst types of allies. I just could not go on after this. Not sure if the rest of the novel is better but at that point I did not care. None of these characters are heroes and I hoped they all failed....more
No Two Persons is a book about a book. And the fact that no two persons can read the same book or see the same piece of art.
Alice has always wanted toNo Two Persons is a book about a book. And the fact that no two persons can read the same book or see the same piece of art.
Alice has always wanted to be a writer and one day after the death of her brother she finds the story she is meant to tell, Theo. Theo then has a life of its own and effects people in different was. These are the stories of the various people who have an interaction with the book. There are characters that have a professional relationship with Theo like the literary reader that discovers it, or the bookseller that meets the author, or the agent that sells the book, & finally the shunned actor that voices the audiobook. Then there are the people that come to the book out of tragedy, these are the readers (or in one case the non-reader who makes art of the book).
Each person is affected in a different way by either connecting with a lost loved one who had loved the book or seeing themselves in Theo and processing through it. While in the beginning each of these characters is stand alone the book takes a turn when the bookseller meets Alice. After that some of the story lines meet. I did not need this to occur. While characters meeting or being connecting does not deter from the novel it does not add anything to it either. It feels more as if there was a need to conclude the story by coming full circle.
I highly recommend this book to any lover to books and literary fiction....more
Rockton is gone but Haven's Rock is coming soon. Before the doors are even open on the town of Haven's Rock there is already a murder that Casey & EriRockton is gone but Haven's Rock is coming soon. Before the doors are even open on the town of Haven's Rock there is already a murder that Casey & Eric need to solve.
This is the first book of the Rockton spinoff series with some of the Rockton favorites and some new characters to spice things up. A few weeks before Haven's Rock is to be handed over to the new residents Casey & Eric are called in by the head of the construction when the architect and the construction manager disappear. Casey & Eric need to find them and fast since neither is equipped to be out in the Yukon on their own.
While they search and find bodies (some they are looking for and some they are not), they also meet some new denizens of the Yukon both friend and foe. This is an interesting start to a new series but since so many of the original cast is back the feel is just the same....more
Mr. B, for those who do not know, is George Balanchine. Mr. B was a Russian born, American Ballet choreographer. He was know for discovering/making thMr. B, for those who do not know, is George Balanchine. Mr. B was a Russian born, American Ballet choreographer. He was know for discovering/making the major ballet dancers of the 20th century. He choreographed dancers like Jacques D'Amboise, Allegra Kent, Maria Tallchief, Arthur Mitchell, and Suzanne Farrell. Mr. B created the New York City Ballet.
This biography will tell you all that and so much more. And I mean so much more. Homans goes into great detail about relationships (both romantic and professional) as well as very detailed descriptions or ballets that Balanchine created including ones that no longer exist.
This is a very long biography that takes a lot of effort to get through. Part of the reason for that is that the book feels like two books, Balanchine the man and Balanchine's ballets. While some of these stories are not mutually exclusive the very detailed descriptions of the ballets bog down the story of the man causing the book to drag on. Now with that said, if you are a ballet fan, lover of Balanchine (although his ballets are not performed much anymore I do not think, after the closure of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet Company), or a fan of arts history you might enjoy this biography or at least parts of it....more
Finlay Donovan is back and causing more trouble than ever. I will start by saying this is not a series where you can just pick up one out of order andFinlay Donovan is back and causing more trouble than ever. I will start by saying this is not a series where you can just pick up one out of order and understand what is going on. These are written more like a TV series with cliffhangers and weaving of story lines.
In the third book, Finlay and Vero go to a police boot camp run by Nick and the local police department in order to find out the contract killer who was using the Russian mob's chat room to scope out kills. Misunderstandings ensue, sexual tension is everywhere, and secrets are revealed.
I highly recommend this series to anyone. They are fast reads that you will enjoy and keep you guessing just as much as Finlay is....more
What would you do if you found yourself amongst Nazis. Well that is just where Veronica and Violet Grace have landed. Shortly after moving to LA from What would you do if you found yourself amongst Nazis. Well that is just where Veronica and Violet Grace have landed. Shortly after moving to LA from New York in 1940, Veronica is employed by a couple of disseminate Nazi propaganda. She has a choice to make, never go back or became a spy. After Violet calls an old friends of her husband's, the Grace women find themselves with an opportunity, become spies for the US and relay back all information they can turn up about a Nazi group in California and their actions.
This story is based on a real mother and daughter of whom little is known. They are not the only real people in this story, just about everyone is. Something MacNeal did, that most historical fiction writers do not do, is she told you who these characters are representing before you start reading. This allows you the ability to know who is based on someone real and who is entirely made up. Then at the end of the book she goes more in depth about the real people and tells you what she changed (for example a character in the story dies but in real life they did not).
This is an interesting book that I definitely recommend....more
Two best friends since childhood have grown apart as one has a crumbling marriage and a lackluster writing career (Emily) while the other is a world fTwo best friends since childhood have grown apart as one has a crumbling marriage and a lackluster writing career (Emily) while the other is a world famous self-help writer (Chess). After a quick coffee, Chess invites Emily to spend the summer in Italy at a villa she is renting. It turns out that this villa was the seen of celebrity murder in the mid-70s. This fact gets both of their creative juices flowing but it the mystery really what it seems and do they have secrets from each other that could ruin everything.
The Villa is one of those page turner mysteries where you don't really like any of the characters but you are intrigued to find out what happens. The characters are a combination of charming manipulators or people who cannot find their own internal voice and stand up for themselves. You want more from the latter and hope the former get an ass whopping. The plot of this book is intriguing and leaves you guessing even at the end.
Definitely recommend for fans of this genre....more
The Night Travelers is a family story of love, loss, and war. It starts in Nazi Germany with Ally Keller and her biracial daughter, Lilith. In order tThe Night Travelers is a family story of love, loss, and war. It starts in Nazi Germany with Ally Keller and her biracial daughter, Lilith. In order to save Lilith from sterilization, Ally places her on a ship to Cuba with a Jewish couple and a final birthday poem. Lilith then grows up in per-revolutionary Cuba knowing President Batista. Shortly after the revolution, Lilith's husband is arrested and she needs to figure out what to do with her daughter, Nadine, to keep her safe. A couple of decades after Nadine is safely ensconced in America with a German-American couple she finds herself back in the country of her mother's birth, Germany.
This is a story about how the love and protection of a mother can save a child, send that child on a journey of discovery and yet at the same time create a deep loss in a person. These three women find themselves in three times of great change and turmoil (Nazi Germany, Revolutionary Cuba, and Berlin per & post division. It is a story that starts with a child of a great yet forbidden love and comes back after decades of loss to heal the pain by honoring the women that sacrificed so much.
With so many WWII stories released every year I found this novel very enjoyable and telling storied that I might not have heard of before. If you like historical fiction give this one a try....more
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