101 Books to Read Before You Die discussion
What are you reading?
Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilsonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Funny, clever, sweet, snarky, this is exactly what I needed during COVID summer. When a filthy rich, very ambitious, political couple suddenly gains custody of his twins from a former marriage, they hire her pothead former friend as nanny and keep the kids out of sight. Not only are these kids not groomed for his media spotlight, they have the nasty habit of self-combusting whenever they get upset. It is a ridiculous premise with a foul-mouthed social drop-out channeling Mary Poppins. At most any other time in my life, I would probably be somewhat lukewarm about this book. But this weekend, it hit a perfect sweet spot. 3.5 stars
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anayahttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the story of a young, first-generation Mexican boy in the mid-1940s. As he navigates school yard bullies and parental dreams, his mother’s Catholic faith and the ancient religious beliefs of his ancestors, curses, witches, adult vengeance, death and the universal questions of goodness, suffering and God, he begins the process of moving into adulthood. I think I would have enjoyed this more had I read it as a young adolescent.
Songs of Mihyar the Damascene by Adonishttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I don’t understand poetry and the cultural allusions in this Syrian classic were unfamiliar to me. Yet I loved the feel of the language, the atmosphere these poems created, the mysticism.
Bluebird Bluebird by Attica Lockehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Straightforward police procedural with enough of a back story to sustain a series.
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvalahttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Two women, separated by half a century, move from England to India where they uncover new aspects of themselves. I enjoyed the sense of place and the development of the characters.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...I am so glad that I am reading this as part of a GR group. A post I read this morning changed my opinion of this novel by enabling me to make sense of the larger themes. I had read it as the story of a broken British family in the first half of the 20th century. Although that is the context of the story, this post helped me to understand that this is a story about the unmerited gift of grace pulling us to God in subtle and often unrecognized ways. I was struggling with this book, not because it was inherently difficult, but because it failed to engage me. Every time I picked it up, I would have to reread the last 10 to 15 pages because nothing stuck in my memory. Now, reflecting back on the story through this key, so much has been unlocked, even scenes that I thought I had forgotten.
Frances wrote: "Ironweed, by William Kennedy"I really enjoyed Ironweed.
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolverhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I did not enjoy this novel. Two parallel families, separated by more than a century, live strikingly parallel lives on the same spot. The thing that bothered me most was the preachiness of the tone. The reader is given lengthy debates between science with its intellectual honesty verses religious belief with its ludicrous, irrational and dangerous doctrine, between socialism, particularly Cuban socialism, with its generosity, community and minimal environmental destruction verses capitalism, particularly U.S. capitalism, with its exploitative, selfish environmentally destructive practices. There were also times when the word choice felt like the over ambitious awkwardness of a novice author rather than the confident craft of a best-selling novelist. An example came early in the novel when a husband, embracing his wife from behind, rests his head on top of hers. But he does not rest his head, his chin, not even his jaw, but his mandible. Maybe the author is signaling an intellectual distancing between the newly married couple, but everything else in this scene describes intimacy. It simply felt like an unnecessary use of a 50 cent word. The crumbling house was a metaphor for a crumbling world view which will fall apart around us no matter how hard we try to prop it up. Those who are smart, realize that our possessions, including the explanations we tell to order our world, only weigh us down. The smart and honest are willing to abandon the crumbling edifices and head into the unknown carrying only their integrity and compassion for others.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchetthttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Dutch House is a gaudy mansion built to announce the newly acquired wealth of a 19th century family. It is the manifestation of the aspirations of an ambitious WWII vet. It is the crushing weight that threatens to destroy his young wife who longs to serve among the poor. It is the shimmer that lures an avaricious young woman into the role of second wife and step mother. It is the magnetic pull that draws and constantly realigns the lives of two aging siblings who grew up beneath its roof. The Dutch House is not so much a character in this family story as it is a force that blindly pulls and pushes the characters who encounter it. The power it exerts does not distort but rather brings into sharp relief the personality and disposition of each character. This is a slow book with an understated emotional voice. The characters do not develop significantly. Most have little to no depth. Those whose behaviors are the most incomprehensible early in the book remain an enigma throughout.
The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionnehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The story opens with a news bulletin of a prison break. The convict is serving a life sentence for having kidnapped a 14 year old, holding her for a decade and a half in the marsh, and having a daughter by her. The narrator of this novel is that daughter, now a young wife and mother living in society. Knowing that her father is a skilled hunter who taught her all he knew, she knows that she is the only person who can track and catch this man. This is a suspense, but that suspense is muted by the lengthy back story that is inserted between each moment of tension in the present. This back story is not one of terror, but of an adoring daughter with her larger-than-life father, hunting, fishing, listening to stories, etc. Overall, this was a fast and engaging read even if it required the suspension of disbelief at times, such as at the final conflictual scene. 3.5 stars
Five Minutes Alone by Paul Cleavehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is part detective, part thriller. A retired cop is executing paroled rapists and others he thinks were not sufficiently punished. His former partner is investigating the crimes. He figures out the identity of the killer fairly quickly, but he also has skeletons in his closet which the killer blackmails him with. There was quite a bit of very improbable scenes. But the action kept the story moving and the reader somewhat engaged.
East of the Mountains by David Gutersonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A widower with terminal cancer decides to stage his suicide to look like a hunting accident. He wants to spare himself the months of pain and diminishment and to spare his children and grandchildren the burden of caring for him through a prolonged illness. When a car accident alters his plans, his life intersects with a series of strangers as he moves through unexpected events. Much of this novel is recollections of his youth, the early death of his mother, meeting the girl he would marry, serving in WWII. This is a very slow and detailed novel. I was very tempted to skim through much of it, unable to see how the lengthy descriptions of a field hospital surgery or a dog’s injuries, or…. Advanced the story or increased my understanding of the characters.
Paradise by Toni Morrison https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
There are few authors that can make me feel as stupid as Morrison makes me feel time and time again. This novel centers on a small community in rural Oklahoma founded as a safe place for black families that had faced prejudice and a former convent nearly 20 miles away that has become a refuge for broken women. The stories of these women intertwine with the people of the town of Ruby. As the women slowly heal their psychological wounds, the town slowly experiences fractures and tension. Finally, the leading men of the town decide that these women, who do not need men, who flaunt their sexuality and possibly practice witchcraft, is the cause of the town’s problems. Although they manage to destroy the community of women, it is not clear if they destroy the individual women. Of course, this violent act does nothing to heal the town. In this novel, Morrison explores racial hierarchies, the tension between patriarchal systems and feminism, and group cohesion and the fear of the outsider. I found this novel very difficult to follow. Stories wove in and out of one another, the focal point changing without any signal. I know I missed 75% of what was really going on in this book.
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffinhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
In late 1959, Griffin embarks on a research project. He darkens his skin, shaves his hair, and travels by bus and by hitchhiking through several south eastern states. His aim was to document his experience so that he could reveal the ridiculousness, cruelty and injustice of racial segregation. Published in the early 1960s, this text was scandalous, prompting death threats against him and his family. Sixty years later, a white man masquerading in darkened skin, claiming to speak for a race to which he does not belong, drawing definitive conclusions about the perceptions, reactions and thoughts of “the black man” after intersecting with the black experience for a couple of weeks comes across as racially insensitive and arrogant. If a book group had not picked this title, I would never have read it and I don’t think I would have missed much. Do I rate it for the impact it had 60 years ago, or for my reaction today?
Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrantehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I did not enjoy this third volume in the Neapolitan Quartet as much as I did the previous books. The two women have largely gone separate ways. Very little of this book was directly about their relationship. Both of these women seem to be becoming their own worst enemies.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whiteheadhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I was reluctant to read this award winning novel because I struggle with depictions of cruelty, especially toward children. Set in a reform school in the 1960s, a place where young men are brutalized, even killed, this is not an easy story to read. I appreciate that Whitehead informed the reader of the brutality, but refrained from showing the worse of it. This is very well written. Based on actual reformatories, it is a story that we need to hear and remember. I am glad it was short because it was also very difficult.
Now In November by Josephine Winslow Johnsonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a wonderfully written story of the struggles of a small family farm told from the view point of the daughter shifting from childhood to adulthood. Set during the drought of the 1930s, this is a story of loss on many levels, loss of the crops and the family livelihood, of a young girl’s sense of security and hope, of any sense of agency or of an understanding of the forces that shape reality, of community disintegration and of death.
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strouthttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This collection of interlocking short stories continues the glimpse into this small town in Maine and into the life of an irascible, but lovable woman. I enjoyed finding the appearance of several characters from other Strout books in these short stories.
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luisellihttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a novel about journeys: the grueling journey of unaccompanied children across the US border, a family’s road trip across the country, children’s journeys from childhood into adulthood, etc. I initially reacted very positively to this book. There is a freshness about the story. But it soon began to drag. As the mother narrates the family’s road trip, there is many random tidbits collected in her telling, and much philosophizing. I suppose this is to give the book an archival feel, all the collected pieces to be sorted out and meaning made in hindsight. The mother’s passion with the plight of unaccompanied migrant children, the fate of the Apaches, a novel read by the family during their journey, the fate of a friend’s daughters and the adventure of the children in the family all merge in a way that was more symbolic than credible. It was clear that the author wanted to sensitize the reader to the plight of migrants, a position that I sympathize with, but her approach came off as heavy handed. I also found the choice to have the mother consistently identify her children as “the girl” and “the boy” distracting.
Queen Lucia by E.F. Bensonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a satire of pretentious social posturing in a small 19th century British village. Although I intellectually understood the humor, I was not amused. This is considered a classic, so I imagine that most readers will enjoy it more than I did.
Long Bright River by Liz Moorehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a novel of family dysfunction, a missing persons story, an addiction account and so on. This book took on so many story lines and deluded all of them in the process. The drug addicted sister of a Philadelphia cop disappears. But her search for her alternates with the account of their childhood, raised by their angry grandmother after the overdose death of their mother and neglect by their father. When the bodies of several young female addicts are found in the neighborhood, police incompetence or wrong doing is thrown into the mix. Add in themes of forgiveness, second chances, unrevealed character connections, endless trivia about Philadelphia, and the only thing that might be missing is a vampire. This was not a terrible book, but it was also not a gripping story.
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa Seehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I enjoyed the historical element of this book far more than I enjoyed the story. I had never heard of this subculture in Korea where women are the dominant bread winners and hold economic, social and spiritual power while the men assume responsibility for child rearing and much of the domestic work. I also was unaware of the horrible war crimes perpetrated on the civilian population in the decade after the close of WWII. But the story arch was too similar to “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”. The contemporary time frame did not feel authentic, particularly the character of Clara. I am glad I read this book for the culture it opened to me, but it is not one of my favorite novels of the year.
Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island by Joanne Mulcahyhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I love oral history so I greatly enjoyed this recollection of a life lived in a remote village on an Alaskan Island, a life of a midwife and healer that saw the gradual transition from a traditional native culture to a more modern American way of life.
The Meadow by James Galvinhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Set in the mountains that border Colorado and Wyoming, Galvin paints a landscape and a way of life as he weaves together the lives of several generations of ranchers. The literary merit of this short novel kept me reading, although I found the shifting time periods and narrators confusing.
The Last Palace by Norman Eisenhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
When it comes to history, the personal is universal and the universal is personal. This microhistory of an opulent house built in Prague by a wealthy coal barren in the heady days of the 1920s parallels the history of the Czech Republic and of much of Eastern Europe.
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tylerhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just what I needed. This was sweet without being syrupy, short without being flat, a bit quirky without being gimmicky. Just entering middle age, our protagonist is a kind bachelor who has fashioned an orderly life, predictable, uncluttered, on the physical, emotional and relational level. But unpredictability has a way of showing up in every life. When his instincts for kindness trump his desire for order, the quiet hero of this book it awakens him to his loneliness. Maybe a little messiness is not too great a price to pay for love. 3.75 stars
Heart Spring Mountain by Robin MacArthurhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A young woman returns to her rural New England home when her drug addicted mother goes missing. In the weeks she lingers there, she finds family secrets and new love. These family secrets are revealed to the reader in short chapters that shift between time frames and characters. I do not enjoy the technique of shifting time and perspective, especially when the alterations come rapidly. This novel is clearly atmospheric and tender, but I was unable to tap into either of those qualities.
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethehttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This novella of a love sick dandy was far too melodramatic for my taste. He needed a good smack upside the head and told to get over himself. Maybe it is a good thing that I did not pursue a career in counseling.
Little Faith by Nickolas Butlerwww.goodreads.com/review/show/3595389331
This was an intriguing story line with significant themes. When the only daughter of a loving couple becomes involved in a Pentecostal church with cult-like qualities, a church whose opposition to professional medical care could endanger their 5 year old grandson, what can they, what should they do? If they confront her, she cuts them out of the life of their grandson. If they don’t confront the situation, they could be unintentionally complicit. The writing was clear and engaging. The characters were sympathetic. So with so much positive with this novel, why did I leave it less than fully satisfied? Maybe the characters were too pure, the right and wrong too clearly delineated. I never felt compelled to grapple with the really tough questions imbedded in this scenario. Maybe it was that I wanted more family drama, to see more of the tension in the parent/child relationship and less of the sweet, small town scenes that made the grandfather so likeable. Maybe there were key moments that had resolutions that were just too easy that left me disappointed. This was a good book; I read it in 3 days. But I wanted it to be a great book. 3.5 stars
Women Talking by Miriam Toewswww.goodreads.com/review/show/3598274905
This novel was inspired by true events. In an isolated Mennonite community, a group of men were found to have been using an animal tranquilizer to subdue and rape the women while they slept. For years, women and young girls were waking up bloody and hurting. But the male authorities explained their complaints as the result of female hysteria or as being raped by demons for their sins. This novel is set in the days when the perpetrators are traveling back to the community to await their sentence by civil authorities. The community leadership have informed the women that they must forgive their own and their daughters’ rapists or be deprived of eternal salvation. If they leave, either voluntarily or by excommunication, they will also forfeit salvation because there is no salvation outside the community. This is the imagined conversation among three generations of women in 2 families as they meet secretly to decide on their response to the situation. I love the premise and the themes this book explores. I disliked the imagined conversation that never felt realistic. They have 2 days to decide if they will leave or stay and to make all necessary preparations for their course of action. They are illiterate women who have absolutely no knowledge of the outside world; even their language is insular leaving them unable to communicate beyond the community. Yet, rather than profound articulation of grief, anger, confusion, denial, and desperate planning, they chase all sorts of semi-philosophical threads.
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard by Haben Girmahttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the memoir of the first deafblind woman to graduate from Harvard Law School. The daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, she grew up with limited vision and hearing which grew worse over the years. Covering about 2 decades, this had an episodic feel. I wanted more insight into her daily life, how her peers responded to her, her interior life, etc. I was impressed with the support she received from her public high school, her liberal arts college and Harvard Law School. She comes across as a bright, self-assured, hard-working, adaptable woman. Rarely do I say this when finishing a memoir, but I would like to have coffee with her. 3.5 stars
Joe Hill by Wallace Stegnerhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Although technically fiction, this novel of labor organizer and song writer Joe Hill closely follows what is known of this man. This is very well written which is expected from this well-regarded author. Prior to this novel, I knew little about the labor movement on the west coast in the first decades of the 20th century or of Hill’s controversial conviction and execution for murder.
Fried Green Tomatoes At the Wistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagghttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Charming! This is the story of the type of small town in the first half of the 20th century that makes many people nostalgic. Whistle Stop, AL is populated by quirky, funny, broken, heroic people. As a lonely resident of a nursing home recounts stories from this time and place to a middle aged visitor sliding into depression and self-loathing, all find healing, hope and renewed confidence in the goodness of humans, including the reader.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a brilliant re-imagining of the story of the hidden, crazy first wife from Jane Eyre. The language, character development, psychological depth are all stunning.
In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearnhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ugh, this pick for my in-person book group is everything I dislike in a book. It is young adult with very difficult emotional content that all gets resolved too easily. It appears to promote casual sex for teens. It offers a depiction of the afterlife that makes no theological or emotional sense to me. And to top it all off, it is a sad book when I really don’t need any more sadness in my life. In an instant everything can change. An icy road, a sudden dear in the headlights, in an instant a family ski trip becomes a tragic car accident. In an instant, life is up ended until it rights itself again and it is possible that the righted world is better than things had been.
The Dog Stars by Peter Hellerhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Heller is a strong writer. Had the topic been different, this would have been an easy 4 star novel. But, 10 months into COVID is not the time to read about a man surviving in a world of anarchy a decade after a viral pandemic caused social break down. Why is it that we naturally assume that, given any major disruption to the social order, human society will give way to violent individualism? For every person who horded toilet paper in March, there were 20 who risked their well-being to ensure that elderly neighbors had supplies. For every person who has looted an abandoned building, there are hundreds who became ill and died with COVID as they nursed the sick, fed the homeless, provided public transportation. In war-torn Syria, ordinary people run into bombing raids to rescue the wounded. In Africa, people without protective equipment or medicine cared for family and neighbors dying of Ebola. Why is it so hard for us to imagine that, when life is most precarious, people will reach out in mutual support and rebuild civilization?
The Zombi Survival Guide by Max Brookshttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I was looking for something light and silly, something to make me laugh. I was hoping that this spoof by a well-regarded comic writer, the son of a famous comic, would meet my need. This was light, but I did not find it remotely funny. As I post my review on GR, I see that this book is illustrated. Maybe if I had been able to see the illistrations, I might have understood the humor.
The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Prestonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Interesting and engaging account of an expedition to find the ruins of an ancient Mezzo-American civilization.
Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undsethttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Contemporary hagiography of a fascinating woman told by a great writer.
Passing by Nella Larsenhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This short novel is set in 1927 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. A well-to-do “colored” woman runs into a childhood friend and learns that she has been “passing” as white. Even her bigoted husband does not know that she is actually “colored”. Despite the advantages accorded to whites, the woman is longing to reconnect with the colored community. Hiding her racial background has taken its toll. But her entrance into the world of the novel’s protagonist upends her sense of security. This was very well told with an incredible ending.
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brienhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The quality of the writing carries this war novel. It is obvious why it won a prestigious literary award. But, while I appreciated the literary merits, I did not understand what was happening in the narrative. At the heart of this book is a journey from Vietnam to Paris. When an American soldier goes AWOL, several members of his squad are ordered to pursue him and bring him back. This section is filled with magical elements. At the same time, we are given chapters with the narrator in typical, realistic military situations, including a very long night watch filled with internal thoughts. I am not sure if I was supposed to read the travel sections as some allegorical journey, if this was the day dream of a soldier imagining a way out of the mess of combat in Vietnam, if Cacciato was a projection of the narrator’s inner life, a mystical guide or a real squad mate who ran off. I just don’t know what the author was doing in this novel.
Ru by Kim Thuyhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a memoir of a woman who, at the age of 10, became part of the large number of “boat people”, fleeing Vietnam as it fell to Communist forces for a new life in Canada. This is not a clear chronological account of a life, but numerous impressions woven together from various times: a shy little girl in an affluent Vietnamese home beside an adolescent filled with wonder in Montreal, the devastating poverty of a Malaysian refugee camp alongside a hardworking refugee family in Canada, the terror of a crowded boat of homeless migrants with a confident young professional comfortable on many continents. This style of constructing a memoir leaves the reader with only a vague understanding of this single biography but with deep insight into the refugee experience.
So Vast the Prison by Assia Djebarhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
At times interesting, at times confusing, at times compelling, at times slow-going. This novel explores the experience of women in post-colonial Algeria, French speaking and Arabic speaking, European and Berber, traditional and modern, content and restless. The narrator of the first part is a married woman pursuing an extra-marital affair, desiring a separation. The second section focuses on the discovery of an ancient monument with a bi-lingual inscription. In the third section, chapters shift between a female film director on location and the stories of women across three generations of a family. I appreciated the glimpse into the lives of women in 20th century Algeria. But I struggled to understand why certain stories seemed to be connected. I also found the language far more flowery than I enjoy.
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Sparkhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This novella deserves extra points for originality. I could have used greater insight into the inner life of the protagonist. This is one story that can not be easily summarized without giving away spoilers.
Our Town by Thornton Wilderhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It seems a near impossibility that anyone could make it to AARP status without having seen or read this play. But I managed. Three simple, spare acts in which little happens and in which all of life happens. I also understand how this is viewed as both saccharin and profound by different people. The message is that life is precious and fragile, that most of us miss its beauty because we fail to savor the ordinary moments of joy and love and kindness. I found the saddest part of the play was the recognition that our literary world rarely celebrates stories in which people are kind, families are happy and respect is pervasive. We seem to see the world so much differently now.
The Saint of Lost Things by Christopher Castellanihttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is the story of an extended Italian family that has immigrated to the U.S. in the years after WWII. This is the story of loyalty and rivalry, of dreams pursued and dreams modified, of assimilation and heritage, of anxiety and hope. The general sweet and hopeful story is tempered by the inclusion of racial harassment against the only African American family in the Italian neighborhood, but this subplot is not as fully developed as it could have been.
This Is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkaufhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a cold case detective mystery which alternates the story line between the contemporary investigation and the past events leading to the crime. Set in a small town, the suspects are quite limited from the start. This was a well-paced, typical story of the genre. As the events of the 25 year old crime are revealed, I found some initial reactions to the re-opening of the case inconsistent.
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillipshttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a series of interlocking short stories set in and around Kamchatka, a city in north east Russia. In the first story, 2 young sisters are abducted. The remaining stories take place in consecutive order during the following year. Each features a different female faced with loss in some form. Each is connected to the initial abduction, some very loosely, some more directly. Phillips writing is extraordinary. In just a few pages, she reveals depths of each character. She never spoon-feeds the reader, but trusts the reader to draw their own conclusions based on the window she opens to each life. Each story is both deeply rooted in this remote part of the world and universal, accessible to and true for each reader. I rarely give 5 stars, but this book deserves that rating.
Too Loud A Solitude by Bohumil Hrabalhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
At times humorous, at times insightful, this is a reflection on the power of the written word told by an alcoholic loner who works recycling paper and who hoards books he salvages from the scrap paper he processes. This is one of those books that I could appreciate for its quality while not completely enjoying it.
101 Books to Read Before You Die
Books mentioned in this topic
Persuasion (other topics)It (other topics)
The Immortalists (other topics)
The Hate U Give (other topics)
Timekeeper (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jane Austen (other topics)Madeline Miller (other topics)
Sarah Henning (other topics)
Sarah McCoy (other topics)
Sarah Pekkanen (other topics)
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a story of family, of the worse that can happen to people, of the deadly and healing force of love, of hope that lingers in the background. I loved the prose. There are some lovely use of language, some powerfully poignant scenes, pages of compelling characters and a story whose ending I could not predict. Unfortunately, my aging brain is not up to the challenge of novels that jump around through multiple time frames. I understand why the author chose to spool out the story this way and she used it to its best impact. But that did not make it easier for me to follow.