Book Review: The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas

The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 stars)
Publisher: Flatiron Books (July 17, 2018)


The Tabors are converging on the family home in Palm Springs to celebrate patriarch Harry's Man of the Decade award. There's much introspection going on by each family member. Harry, who is of a mind to think of his life in titan and lionized terms. All three Tabor children bring secrets with them and matriarch Roma, intends to get some of her questions answered. But much like real life, the biggest secret and turn of events is the one no one saw coming and all are unprepared for. Harry Tabor has a secret too.

Book Review: Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives

Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Penguin Press

Summary:   Stella Krakus, a curator at Manhattan's renowned Central Museum of Art, is having the roughest week in approximately ever. Her soon-to-be ex-husband (the perfectly awful Whit Ghiscolmbe) is stalking her, a workplace romance with "a fascinating, hyper-rational narcissist" is in freefall, and a beloved colleague, Paul, has gone missing. Strange things are afoot: CeMArt's current exhibit is sponsored by a Belgian multinational that wants to take over the world's water supply, she unwittingly stars in a viral video that's making the rounds, and her mother--the imperious, impossibly glamorous Caro--wants to have lunch. It's almost more than she can overanalyze. 

Book Review: Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach

Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Random House


Summary:   Ava Antipova has her reasons for running away: a failing family vineyard, a romantic betrayal, a mercurial sister, an absent father, a mother slipping into dementia. In Paris, Ava acquires a French boyfriend and a taste for much better wine, and erases her past. But two years later, she must return to upstate New York. Her twin sister, Zelda, is dead.

Book Review: Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau


Summary:  Phoebe is a factory girl who has come to Shanghai with the promise of a job - but when she arrives she discovers that the job doesn't exist. Gary is a country boy turned pop star who is spinning out of control. Justin is in Shanghai to expand his family's real-estate empire, only to find that he might not be up to the task. He has long harboured a crush on Yinghui, who has reinvented herself from a poetry-loving, left-wing activist to a successful Shanghai businesswoman. She is about to make a deal with the shadowy figure of Walter Chao, the five-star billionaire of the novel, who - with his secrets and his schemes - has a hand in the lives of each of the characters. All bring their dreams and hopes to Shanghai, the shining symbol of the New China, which, like the novel's characters, is constantly in flux and which plays its own fateful role in the lives of its inhabitants. Five Star Billionaire, the dazzling kaleidoscopic new novel by the award-winning writer Tash Aw, offers rare insight into China today, with its constant transformations and its promise of possibility. 

Book Review: Florence Gordon by Brian Morton

Florence Gordon by Brian Morton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Houghten Mifflin Harcourt


Summary:  A wise and entertaining novel about a woman who has lived life on her own terms for seventy-five defiant and determined years, only to find herself suddenly thrust to the center of her family’s various catastrophes

Meet Florence Gordon: blunt, brilliant, cantankerous and passionate, feminist icon to young women, invisible and underappreciated by most everyone else. At seventy-five, Florence has earned her right to set down the burdens of family and work and shape her legacy at long last. But just as she is beginning to write her long-deferred memoir, her son Daniel returns to New York from Seattle with his wife and daughter, and they embroil Florence in their dramas, clouding the clarity of her days with the frustrations of middle-age and the confusions of youth. And then there is her left foot, which is starting to drag. 

Book Review: Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki

Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Hogarth


Summary:  A sinister, sexy noir about art, motherhood, and the intensity of female friendships, set in the posh hills above Los Angeles, from the New York Times bestselling author of California.

High in the Hollywood Hills, writer Lady Daniels has decided to take a break from her husband. She’s going to need a hand with her young son if she’s ever going to finish her memoir. In comes S., a magnetic young artist, who will live in the secluded guest house out back, care for Lady’s young toddler son, and keep a watchful eye on her older, teenage, one. S. performs her day job beautifully, quickly drawing the entire family into her orbit, and becoming a confidante for Lady. But as the summer wears on, S.’s connection to Lady’s older son takes a disturbing, and possibly destructive, turn. Lady and S. will move closer to one another as they both threaten to harm the things they hold most dear.

Book Review: Bradstreet Gate by Robin Kirman

Bradstreet Gate: A Novel by Robin Kirman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher:  Crown


Summary:   Georgia, Charlie and Alice each arrive at Harvard with hopeful visions of what the future will hold. But when, just before graduation, a classmate is found murdered on campus, they find themselves facing a cruel and unanticipated new reality. Moreover, a charismatic professor who has loomed large in their lives is suspected of the crime. Though his guilt or innocence remains uncertain, the unsettling questions raised by the case force the three friends to take a deeper look at their tangled relationship. Their bond has been defined by the secrets they’ve kept from one another—Charlie’s love and Alice’s envy, Georgia’s mysterious affair—and over the course of the next decade, as they grapple with the challenges of adulthood and witness the unraveling of a teacher's once-charmed life, they must reckon with their own deceits and shortcomings, each desperately in search of answers and the chance to be forgiven.

Review: Soul

Soul by Tobsha Learner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Very good (like 4.5 stars good). Nature vs. Nurture. Free will vs. genetics. Pure logic vs. the heart wanting what it wants. The story is told in two threads. Julia, our modern day geneticist & Lavinia, her great-great grandmother. The women's lives unfold for us as their marriages unravel & the aftermath of the events follow. I very much enjoyed that both women were scientifically minded & took their work seriously. I felt for Lavinia when she was cut off from hers & was glad Julia still had hers when everything else fell apart. Julia's research with the soldiers was a fascinating thread of the story & I still don't know on which side I am of the ethical implications of her undertaking it for the military. I'll be thinking about that for some time. That said, I enjoyed the resolution to it at the end. I did like how the Bakairi tribe & The Tempest were additional threads that tied the two women's stories together across time.

I was very interested in both women but I only really felt any empathy for Colonel Huntington (though the head shaving of Lavinia & subsequent forced visit to the phrenologist tested that). Julia's husband Klaus was just not sympathetic to me. Every time he showed up after the initial break, he seemed worse. I figured out fairly quickly what Carla's attitude was about & while I was appalled by her brazenness & borderline cruelty, I still wanted to know what made her tick. I was fairly intrigued by Hamish. Gabriel & Aloysius were only nominally interesting but her served their purpose well. I felt the same way about Lady Morgan. Naomi was interesting but not as deeply rendered as the rest.

The only thing a bit off was that the Americans in Julia's thread, don't speak generally as Americans do. Those instances stood out glaringly to me, not the least being that the instances were so frequent. Using "ring" instead of "call", "jumper" instead of "sweater" or "cardigan"; "primary" school teacher instead of "elementary" school teacher; "laying" a table instead of "setting" a table; a waitress in a diner saying saying "one serve of bacon, eggs..." instead of "one order of..."; a born & raised in L.A. soldier saying "get on" instead of "get along"; "night porter" not "security guard". And even with all of those, they were only distractions because it was still a great read. I'd definitely read another by this author.



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Review: Vlad The Last Confession

Vlad The Last Confession by C.C. Humphreys

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I bought this a while ago & in my continuing 2013 quest to read some of the lingerers on my Kindle, I tore into this one. I do have something of a fascination with Vlad (not the vampire) & really enjoyed reading a fictional recounting of his final confession as told through three closest to him. I really had hoped it would be something like Vlad's own words speaking to us in found journals or from the great beyod but I really came to enjoy the points of view of those closest to him. I think the main character is well known enough that I don't need to recount them here but I will say that the author spared nothing in the bloodfest & ruthless campaigning that was done. I thought it was necessary & certainly well written & ultimately does give one a lot to think about when trying to reconcile the man with his deeds. I don't think the author was giving Vlad a pass for anything but simply laying out the complexities of the man & that made for a good read for me. I'm glad that I read it but I probably wouldn't read it again (not a 5 star for me) but I will definitely read more by Humphreys.



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Review: Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



One of my favorite genres is historical fiction but the Tudor reign is not my absolute favorite time or place to immerse myself (Southern Europe, Egypt, House of Este, Borgias, Cleopatra, etc, is where I like most to linger). Even so, I have to say that this was a very engaging read. There's no need to rehash the main players here but I did find the take on the Thomases fairly addictive & fascinating. I must admit that like others, I had to get used to the "he" pronoun in the narration. I've not come across that device much (maybe I've seen it once before) but certainly not in so long a work. Once I got it, I felt it was a more personal way of existing with Thomas & it worked for me. I was really taken with the story & once I got about 60% in, I ended up reading all night to finish. I'll have to read "Bringing Up the Bodies" & won't leave it as long as I did this one.



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Review: Tigers in Red Weather

Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Strangers in the house & in the family. This was all about a twisted family & the time they summered over the years at their rambling house on the Vineyard. I liked the story & it was certainly engaging, peopled with characters that I didn't like but was fascinated to spend time with. The story was told through the perspectives of the five main characters and I must admit that I was sorry to never get Avery's side. I still don't know quite what to think of him. Daisy's portion was a bit tedious after a while but I had to keep reminding myself that she's twelve in her portion & her perception of what's going on around her may be dim. Nick, Hughes & Ed had the most interesting parts & honestly, I felt so badly for Helena that it distracted me a bit while reading her section.

As to the murder mystery B-plot, I can't say that I cared much. I mean, it happens, there's some chat about it, there's the not so subtle hint that Ed knows more about it than the adults really want to know & then it's not so much a big deal. At least not in any way that makes one pine to know what really happened to Elena Nunes & who is the murderer. It comes out but it's less interesting than the toll it's taken on the characters in the story. What's far more fascinating is the family dynamics that play out & the culmination of years of this insanity.

Definitely worth reading over my weekend.



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Review: The Last Night at the Ritz

The Last Night at the Ritz by Elizabeth Savage

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was in the mood for a classic type of literary fiction & so I finally got to this on my Kindle. I'm very glad that I did. Our narrator is unnamed & not wholly reliable but she has a wit & way about her that really makes the story. She & her married friends Gay & Len are boozing it up one "last" time & as the drinks flow, so do some not so pretty truths & long held secrets about each of them. At just over the midpoint I was getting a little bored of her tangents & the Boston references but I was all in for the reveals about Charley (this was the heart of the story for me), Len and the rest. It's what I would consider a period piece (set in the late 60s & heavily references a 20-25 year span) but not quite historical fiction. I definitely had a bit of a curve to understand some of the references to the time but it was worth sticking with it & calling my mother to ask some questions about the 60s & 70s. The story's conclusion is open-ended but I took it as hopeful (no matter which way it goes for our narrator) & I really enjoyed it. I was just glad she had finally decided to call Sam. ;)



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Review: American Wife

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Definitely one of my favorite books read in 2012. Easily. I don't know how I missed this one when it came out but I'm glad I found my way to it now. Alice Blackwell tells us of the path of her life that leads her to becoming The First Lady and it's a wonderful time. I can't dislike a librarian. She's introspective and has genuine concern and awareness for what is happening around her as she moves through life. I very much liked her Granny, Emilie. She was so influential in Alice's life & I have to admit that I figured out her secret pretty early on. Alice's parents weren't as clearly drawn but I didn't think it was to the detriment of the story. They certainly weren't as tuned in to Alice as Emilie was. I also figured Dena wouldn't be around as BFF forever, either. She was difficult to like for a sustained period of time because she was selfish & manipulative. I was a little sad that Alice never had another BFF in the same way but given her personality, it didn't seem she suffered a loss in that way. I liked that Alice was always able to have the company of her books & was never lonely. She was content being solitary.

Charlie was fun & infuriating. I did find his quirk about the dark as silly & endearing as Alice. I could see how they made a good match & I was very happy with how Alice was able to tell him her secret & he didn't judge harshly. The Blackwell family was chaotic & ambitious & I enjoyed them. It was strange to read some of their attitudes regarding race because it felt like they were always ten or twenty years behind the times in thought. I kept thinking "This is 1986?! Come on, people!" That's not at all a criticism of the story, it's just that I was alive in 1986 & though I was a child, I wouldn't have thought people so well travelled & read would still be holding onto so much of those old racial tropes then. It was definitely an interesting perspective given the casualness of most of the Blackwells & the outright tones of entitlement & deference of Priscilla.

I did wish that the final section, when we finally reach Alice residing at the White House, was longer. I had expected that it would be but I don't really know why. It was a very good end to what felt like a sit down at tea. Maybe I just didn't want to leave because I came to really like Alice. I read & loved Prep so I was familiar with Curtis Sittenfeld & she exceeded my enjoyment of her writing with this book. This is definitely going on my to re-read list.



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Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetary of Forgotten Books #1) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Summary:   Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.