Less by Andrew Sean Greer

A Pulitzer Prize winner....this was my second try at reading it. It's for one of my book clubs. I did enjoy it and really appreciated the writing but in the end, not really my cup of tea. Not enough story or plot for me.  But I certainly got into his writing, characterization, etc.

All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg

This seemed like a very different book for this author.  I recall the Middlesteins being funny. This book was not! But it was powerful.  The reader REALLY hates Victor, the husband who cheats (in many ways), hurts, abuses and doesn't even seem to care!

Love this final paragraph from the NPR review:

Attenberg brings air into this potentially suffocating story with wit, and with occasional digressions into some of the peripheral people the Tuchmans encounter without a thought as they move around post-Katrina New Orleans — a trolley conductor, ferry worker, EMT, and coroner. Initially jarring, these reminders that the people who make the city run have their own histories and troubles underscore the fact that life can be challenging. But they also reassure us of the possibility of not just good in this world but decency.

There There by Tommy Orange

Read this for my book club (#1) and it was powerful! We all agreed about a few things, however.  The ending? Very abrupt.  But I think that was his intent.
Reading this right after Trevor Noah's book was interesting. Many parallels, even though they are VERY different books!
From Westchester Library System, here's a description of what this book is about:

Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame in Oakland. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Black has come to find his true father. Thomas Frank has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the Big Oakland Powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

I learned a lot from this book and was totally engrossed in it. I didn't really know that much about Trevor Noah and I don't watch the show, but it gave me so much insight into apartheid and living in South Africa during that period of time, and beyond.
The book is funny, of course, but really disturbing at the same time. One incredible thing about his life, is his mother and her influence on him. At the start,  you think she's kind of a bitch....too stern and strict.
But in the end, the last chapter is devoted to her and it's so touching. This was well worth reading.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I truly enjoyed this book and was surprised by it.  It didn't follow any "formulas" as a rock and roll story.  Yes, there is sex, drugs and rock n roll, and some of the characters are stereotypical, but when you expect certain things to happen....they don't necessarily happen!  Which is refreshing.

The structure of the book is really interesting and it's not until the very end that you realize who the narrator is.  (Well, I didn't realize until the end...)

I can see this being a Netflix series and guess what! I think Amazon has picked it up and is producing. I will watch!

You can't help thinking Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac as you are reading, but apparently, the author does like the band but the book is not a fictionalized account of their time together.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Wonderful book!  Read for book club and then had the privelege of discussing with two young women from Ghana who are home health care aides for one of the book club members.  They even made and shared some authentic Ghanan food delicacies with us. A fantastic night.

"Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the Empire. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle's women's dungeon, and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the tribal wars of Ghana to slavery and Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the north to the Great Migration to the streets of 20th century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi's has written a modern masterpiece, a novel that moves through histories and geographies and--with outstanding economy and force--captures the troubled spirit of our own nation"

🌟 This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell

I just loved this book!  I read one of Maggie O'Farrell's books a while ago (Instructions for a Heat Wave?) and remember liking it.  I can't rave enough about this one.

The story revolves around a couple (both previously married with other people's children) who are having some troubles.  Both are flawed individuals (who isn't?) and they don't always do well with each other.  But they do belong together (at least I thought so).

The characters are really well-drawn, but not overly so.  The reader is taken by surprise by some of their actions.

There are several themes explored: infertility, infidelity, eating disorders, abortion, and more.  Some are more fully explored than others.   But in the end, I loved the book and thought.....it would make a great movie!

Here is the synopsis from Westchester Library Systems:

Daniel Sullivan, a young American professor reeling from a failed marriage and a brutal custody battle, is on holiday in Ireland when he falls in love with Claudette, a world famous sexual icon and actress who fled fame for a reclusive life in a rural village. Together, they make an idyllic life in the country, raising two more children in blissful seclusion until a secret from Daniel's past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home. What follows is a journey through Daniel's many lives told in his voice and the voices of those who have made him the man he is: the American son and daughter he has not seen for many years; the family he has made with Claudette; and irrepressible, irreverent Claudette herself. Shot through with humor and wisdom, This Must Be the Place is a powerful rumination on the nature of identity, and the complexities of loyalty and devotion a gripping story of an extraordinary family and an extraordinary love.