The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I did, I was hooked.  There is not a strong plot line, but the characterization holds your attention.  The book is graphic, with descriptions that may turn your stomach, but it's worth it.

Groff explores the flight of a young girl (she's just referred to as "the girl") as she leaves the Jamestown settlement, which is rife with disease (and not just pestilence).  There is a lot to flee in this settlement.  Groff slowly draws you into her character and her story, revealing bits and pieces as you progress through the book. 

This book is not for everyone, and at first I thought it was not for me. But just like "the girl," I persisted and am glad I did.

A Quitter's Paradise by Elysha Chang

 

I am not sure how I learned about this book....probably one of the "Recommended Books" articles I read. In any event, I am glad I read it.  It's definitely a perplexing book; the story rambles around and shifts back and forth in time. It introduces characters so haphazardly that I kept having to go back to see who they were, but they hadn't been mentioned before.  The writing is lovely, but was sometimes challenging for me.  Here's what Kirkus says about the book:

Funny, original, and overflowing with wisdom—this is an absolute delight of a debut.

And I do agree. It will be interesting to see what comes next from this author. 

The Postcard by Anne Berest

 

Lots of Holocaust reading and watching this month!  Winemaker's wife, Transatlantic on Netflix (based on Julie Oringer's book, "The Flight Portfolio." and now this book.  This was the best of the three, by far!

I have to do some research to find out how much of this story belongs to the author. It is classified as fiction, but the characters in the book have the last name of the author!

The NY Times in its review calls it an autobiographical novel, so I guess that answers my question!  Interesting that Julie Oringer wrote the review for the Times, too!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as much as you can enjoy a book about such a dire time in our history.  From her review:

“The Postcard” (translated into a lucid and precise English by Tina Kover) takes its readers on a deep dive into one Jewish family’s history, and, inextricably, into the devastating history of the Holocaust in France. Most memorable of the many stories Berest tells in its pages is the one that lends the novel its title: In January 2003, a mysterious postcard arrives at Anne’s mother’s house. The card, bearing a touristy photograph of the Opéra Garnier, is inscribed with the names of Anne’s great-grandparents and her great-aunt and -uncle, Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie and Jacques, all of whom died in Auschwitz. The names are written in ballpoint pen in wobbly letters, on a card that contains no other words, no signature and no return address.

In the end, the story of how the postcard was sent is insignificant, but it weaves through the story to help the author tell it in a compelling way.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject or who is interested in Nazi-occupied France.  (My sister-in-law's family lived through this - and lived!

 

The Winemaker's Wife by Kristin Harmel

 

Read this for one of my book clubs and while I was able to finish it (I did care about what would happen), this is a formulaic book. The characters are predictable and wooden for the most part, the plot is predictable, too, and the writing is not anything to talk about.  It's interesting - there are two female authors who are easy to mix up: Kristin Hannah and Kristin Harmel; they both write the same kind of books.  I did like the Nightengale by Hannah, but I am not going out of my way to read any more Harmel books.