All in Fiction
Thirty-five years after writing her dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood has given us the ultimate gift of an absolutely fabulous sequel in The Testaments. Although I read The Handmaid’s Tale many years ago, I was able to jump right into The Testaments because I’ve been following the Hulu television series of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Every once in a while you begin a book and right away you know you are in for something special. Ice Cream Star is one of those books and delivers on its early promise right through the entire, epic story.
Ann Patchett has done it again – written a fabulous novel from beginning to end. I am amazed at how reliably she produces books that I absolutely love. The Dutch House tells the story of a brother and sister, Danny and Maeve, who were abandoned by their mother at a young age. When their father remarries and soon thereafter dies, their stepmother throws them out of their magnificent family home in the Philadelphia suburbs.
I’m going to be upfront here: this book took a long time to grab my interest, and even after finishing it, there are huge sections that never really interested me. But it’s a sneaky one, and since finishing it, I have found myself remembering the characters as though they were people I knew. And it certainly taught me a great deal of Newfoundland's history, about which I knew absolutely nothing.
Sometimes when I’m choosing what to read next, I just want a really good story, a book that’s fun to read. Elin Hilderbrand is one of my go-to authors for that kind of book. She has written 19 books set on Nantucket in the summertime, each of them chock full of memorable characters and stories of family, romance and drama.
I love starting a book when I know that at the very least, it will be well-written and engaging, and with Ian McEwan, that is always a safe bet. The Children Act was no exception in his superb, always inventive and psychologically investigative collection of novels.
When you read a Julian Barnes book, you know that it’s probably not going to be a happy tale. But it will be exquisitely written – almost poetic. The Only Story is indeed not happy. As the Globe and Mail said, “Julian Barnes’s latest novel is for the person who likes to listen to sad songs after a breakup. The Only Story hurts while it comforts.”
I could not have given this book a better title if I worked on it for the rest of my life. Never have I loved a book so much on the one hand and then completely lost interest on the other. The title, and my issues, stem from the structure of the book, which is essentially two short stories put together with a brief final chapter that sort of ties them together (sort of!).
Confession: I definitely chose this book for its cover. I was intrigued and almost bought it several times before finally getting it from the library after a long wait. But whatever I thought it would be about, The Birth House sucked me into a world and story that I never dreamed existed, and taught me some Canadian History at the same time.
The Blue Notebook is brutal to read, and yet I am grateful for the window it gave me into a world I knew nothing about. Levine has spent his life working with NGOs and non-profits all over the world to study and help children in extreme poverty. This is his first novel inspired by one moment in his travels.
I confess, I had never heard of Richard Powers before my friend Jane recommended that I read The Overstory -- because it was good and because it had won the Pulitzer Prize. I’m not sure how I missed Powers, who has published 11 books prior to The Overstory. But now that I’ve read the book, I can understand why it won the prestigious prize.
Although I have never reviewed Caleb Carr’s earlier book, The Alienist, I find myself recommending it all the time to people who want an engrossing, fast-paced and smart book. Its wide appeal is, I’m sure, why Amazon Prime made a series out of it. It took me a few years to read the sequel, The Angel of Darkness, but I was not disappointed.
This debut novel set on the remote Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia tells the fascinating story of two young sisters who go missing one day and the year that follows as the search for the girls ensues. Each chapter is set one month after the previous one and examines the search from a different character’s perspective: the mother of the girls, a neighbor, a witness, a detective. This structure could have felt contrived, but instead added to the overall appeal of the book.
It’s hard to categorize this book, and I am sure I have never read another one like it. Part mystery, part thriller, part brain teaser, every page you turn the story gets weirder and more engrossing.
Maybe you know Liane Moriarity as the author of the book on which the amazing mini-series BIG LITTLE LIES was based – with a cast that included Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern. But Moriarity has written seven other novels as well, including her latest,Nine Perfect Strangers. Moriarity is a gifted storyteller, drawing readers in with realistic characters, spot-on dialogue and engaging story lines. Just when you think you know what will happen next, the author deftly throws a curveball and sends you some place unexpected.
Considering the list of “books I should have read, but somehow never did,” Catch-22 was at the top. Had it not been for my son and his self-generated challenge to read some of the books he had never read, I may never have tackled this one. Oh! And then Hulu recently produced Catch-22 as a six-part series starring George Clooney, which further incentivized me to read the book.
Anathem is almost 1,000 pages long, and way outside my comfort zone of usual genres. It took me almost 200 pages to start enjoying it, but once I was in, I was ALL IN! The book is an incredibly crafted work of what the author himself calls “speculative fiction.” This means it takes place on an imagined planet with an imagined history, vocabulary, political landscape, etc. Having said that, if you can get past the made-up words, and allow yourself to be confused for a little while, the planet Arden begins to resemble Earth in more ways than one.
For those who are confused: no, there is not a new Harry Potter novel out. This is the published script of the play that is currently performing on Broadway and the West End in London, and it is a delight!
When I started this book I knew absolutely nothing about Mt. Everest or any of the people who have climbed it. I had no idea who the first person was to make it to the top. But even if you are someone who knows a lot of Everest history, I think this will still be an extremely enjoyable book, just a bit less suspenseful.
I first heard the term “child peril lit” many years ago when my Jodi Picoult obsession was at its peak. It so perfectly describes the genre that it suggests why someone might be drawn to it. You know: that feeling that reading about it somehow protects you and your family. Now that I have a daughter, I’m not sure that psychology is so useful for me anymore. In fact it seems to lessen my enjoyment of a book, taking me out because I can’t allow myself to get as emotionally involved out of self-protection.
