🌟 Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

 

So glad that my book club selected this book. I am so glad that I read it a second time.  I got so much more out of it and appreciated the beauty of the language so much more. I was able to check out the audio book from the library and found myself enveloped in her beautiful prose.  I got to know the characters much better, too.

I highly recommend this book and recommend reading it twice.  Hell, even thrice!

The Vixen by Francine Prose

Fabulous book. I have always liked this author but have nor read her much lately. I heard about this book and knew I had to read it. The main character, Simon Putnam, is a Harvard graduate, living in Coney Island with his parents, when he gets a job at a major publishing house. Then all hell breaks loose when he is given the assignment of editing a book about the Rosenbergs, who have recently been executed for treason. Simon's mother has a vague connection to Ethel, as they lived in the same apartment builidng. The book, "The Vixen, the Patriot, and the Fanatic depicts Ethel Rosenberg as a communist Mata Hari seducing every man in sight and, by the way, as guilty as hell."

Simon has a moral dilemma, knowing his mother would lambast him for having anything to do with this trashy version of the Rosenberg case. A touching, funny and interesting read!

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

This was read for my book club. It was a quick and amusing ready; not particularly deep or thought-provoking.  The plot revolves around a family who lives in the Fifth Avenue branch of the NY Public Library. That was an awesome idea, but I wish we had learned more about the building than about the plot to steal books and sell on the black market. Some of this was very predictable and some was a bit far-fetched. What the book did yield for us, the members of the book club, were some tasty NYC treats! Roasted chestnuts, pretzels with honey-mustard, Manhattan Clam Chowder, Waldorf Salad, Lox and Bagels and of course, something made with apples!

Not sure I will venture further into Fiona Davis books.  Now I have read one!

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Since I read Daisy Jones and the Six and enjoyed it, I picked this up at the library. A fast and furious read.  I was trying to figure out if it is supposed to be funny or taken seriously.....and I hope the former. After watching two shows recently that dealt with white privilege, I have to think that this book could also be made into one of these series on Netflix or Hulu and I probably would like the adaptation better.  The humor would be more obvious.  The party in this book could be portrayed so well in one of these shows.  It was comic and so over the top.

The characters?? Eh. I guess I was supposed to really like some of Mick's children, but they were not appealing to me. 

But if you are looking for a fast and amusing book - this could be it. You won't meet memorable characters; you will just be carried along a fast plotline to the conclusion.

The New York Times review was pretty critical of a lot of aspects of the book and I agreed with the reviewer all the way.

🌟 The Night Watchman by Lousie Erdrich

I am so glad that someone in my book club suggested we read the winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize (and she suggested that BEFORE we knew the winner.) I probably would not have read this because I have never finished a Louise Erdrich novel. Now I can't figure out why I did not!  This book was beautiful. I loved the characters, especially Patrice and Thomas, of course. They were so real.  And actually, Thomas is based on Erdrich's grandfather, who accomplished just what Thomas does in this book. And under some very similar circumstances. After I read the book, I went online searching for interviews with the author and learned so much about her and her quest to help indigenous people.  She is of Cherokee descent.

I learned so much from this book  (so much that upsets me, of course), and learned about the culture, beliefs and way of life of a people that I know very little about.  I reflected a lot on the Social Studies curriculum that I am involved with, and how Grade 4 teachers barely scratch the surface when teaching about NY State Native Americans.  And they rarely take the conversation into the present tense.  I discussed this with my fellow consultants, who are doing so much to make the curriculum culturally responsive.

Here is Amazon's summary of the book, so you'll know what it's about:  

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

 

Wayward by Dana Spiotta

I was not familiar with this author, but found she has several well-reviewed books out there and has been nominated for some pretty impressive awards.

From Slate:

Wayward is about rescuing your life from the mess you’ve made of it so far, while your body goes haywire.

I enjoyed this book. I read it in a few days. This quote from the NYTimes book review says a lot about the book:

We accompany Sam through her sleepless nights, in her newfound solitude as she restores a majestically crumbling house in another part of town. She sends plaintive text messages to her daughter, calls her mother. She eats a piece of cake. Her mind churns, she scrolls the internet, she listens to the storm of her body.

🌟 Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

This is one of those books that I will recommend over and over again. I won't forget it and I will aim to read it again soon. But it's SO long; it might have to wait a while. I actually wanted to write to the author after finishing it, but since I could not find an email address, I sent a note to her publicist and agent, raving about what an incredible literary achievement I think Great Circle is!

The book is long, but I never grew tired of it.  It jumps around in time, which is often confusing, but not this time. I also have to say that I am glad I read the e-book because I liked being able to search for character's names and go back to reacquaint myself from time to time.

I was very surprised at the ending of the book, too, and I didn't expect that at all! Surprised twice!

Here is what it is about, in essence: "Great Circle tells the unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost."  From GoodReads.

But it is so much more than that. Read it!