The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Fiction

Jessie gets a call from her aunt summoning her home to deal with a family emergency. Jessie grew up on an island off the coast of South Carolina with her mom, dad, and brother until a tragic boat explosion took her father when she was only 10. Since then, the family was never the same. Jessie escaped the island the first chance she got, got married to Hugh and had a daughter. But when she finds out that her mother has purposely cut off a finger, Jessie needs to return to the island and face the past.

When Jessie gets to her mother's house, there's a lot of emotions in that house. Jessie knows something is wrong with her marriage and is trying to re-find herself. Her mother is obviously struggling with a very deep grief. The two aren't good at confronting each other so they just dance around each other for the majority of the book.

Also on the island is a monastery where monks live and the island famous mermaid chair sits. As a child, Jessie was in awe of the mermaid chair and things haven't changed. Finding her mother there one night, she also first sees Brother Thomas and instantly falls in love with him, causing further turmoil in her marriage.

The love story of this book bothered me from the start. Jessie and Brother Thomas see each other, exchange no more than a sentence or two, and decide they are in love with each other? None of the rest of the book read like a fairy tale so not sure why the author went down this path. The internal struggle they both had on whether to accept the relationship was interesting, coming from two completely different points of view.

I know others have not enjoyed this book because it doesn't compare to Sue Monk Kidd's other book, The Secret Life of Bees. Having not read that book before, I had nothing to compare this one to. It was very easy to get in to and though I didn't love the story, it was a good enough read to keep me engaged the entire book.

First Line: "In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh's wife and Dee's mother, one of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a Benedictine monk."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Pearl Diver by Jeff Talarigo

Fiction

Miss Fuji is the youngest pearl diver in her group. She feels at peace in the water and comes back daily with bounty from the sea. On one dive, she cuts her arm but doesn't notice the pain. She sees a spot on her skin in the same area where she got cut. She doesn't think too much of it until she finds another spot and goes to the doctor. Miss Fuji has leprosy.

In the mid 1900s Japan, those with the disease are shunned and sent to an island to live out the rest of their life. Even though Miss Fuji tries to hide, they find her and send her to this island.

The first part of the book focuses on the profession of pearl diving, which is incredibly interesting. Having recently visited the Korean island of Jeju where this practice is still in place, I really wanted to learn more. Unfortunately this part of the book ends pretty quickly and it moves right in to life on a segregated island. I was disappointed by this, but I blame myself for having incorrect expectations.

The majority of this book is about being in exile with others like Miss Fuji. She finds herself a job that is important to her and the other patients and seems to find some purpose in life. The book becomes disjointed in this part because it is separated by artifacts from the island and what they mean. It would have flowed better if told traditionally; there wasn't really much value in having these artifacts help tell the story.

Though this book wasn't bad, it really suffered because I expected a completely different story from it.

First Line: "Her words are the only remaining artifact of those days before she arrived."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

Fiction

When the disease hit, the midwife was right in the thick of it working at the hospital as it took out almost all females and children. No babies survived childbirth and hardly any of the mothers. Men were contracting the disease as well, but the mortality rate wasn't as high as the females. When she falls sick she thinks this is the end for her as well.

Waking up in the hospital after society has fallen, the first thing she must do is find supplies. She soon runs in to two men, one of which is cooking food and invites her to eat. After eating, they enter a mall for supplies and when others in the mall learn there is a female, they attack. The men manage to keep them away but cut ties with her after that. They can't be responsible for keeping a female safe in these conditions. Many females are being kept as slaves and raped daily since there are so few.

Back on her own, she changes her appearance to be as male as possible and runs in to more people. Both those that want to help her and those that want to hurt her. She also finds a few small groups of people that are working together to survive.

I could not put this book down. I was completely invested in the midwife surviving her journey, wherever it was going to lead to. There were some interesting characters introduced along the way but all of them in passing. This tale, for the most part, is pretty lonely, but there are some relationships and companionship that give a bit of light to this overall dark tale.

First Line: "Mother Ina tapped her fingers on her hollow wooden belly."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

When by Victoria Laurie

Fiction

Since she was young, Maddie Fynn has been able to see people's death dates. She first recognized it on her dad's forehead, but wasn't aware of what it meant until he was killed in action. Now a teenager, Maddie's mother is a drunk and Maddie is convinced her mom blames her for her dad's death. To try and make ends meet, and pay for mom's habit, Maddie sees clients who want to know when they will die. A lady brings a picture of her daughter who is undergoing treatment for a medical issue to determine if she will survive. Maddie gives her the good news that she will survive, but her son has a death date within a week. The mother leaves in a huff, unbelieving what she has been told.

When that boy is found murdered the next week, the mother points at Maddie as a suspect and the FBI investigates. Thinking she may be responsible for the boy's death, they look in to Maddie and her friends, making life very uncomfortable for everyone. Maddie was just trying to help though. And when she sees the death date of a cheerleader on the opposing team, she knows she can't keep quiet.

This was definitely a unique concept and though I doubt FBI would treat teenagers the way they did in this book, it made you turn the pages and figure out what would happen. It was pretty easy to guess who the killer was, but that didn't really take away from the book. This isn't prize winning literature but it was fun.

First Line: "I'm not exactly sure when I first started seeing the numbers."

Rating:
(4/5)

The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman

Fiction/Romance

Natalie Marx is just a kid in 1962, looking forward to a family vacation. When her parents call up the Inn at Lake Devine, they quickly are turned away for being Jewish. Her parents move past it but Natalie can't. She needs to see this place and learn why the inn-keeper acts the way she acts. Eventually, Natalie gets an invite with a friend when her friend's family is going for a summer vacation there. At first, the inn-keeper doesn't realize that Natalie is Jewish and she really enjoys her time, including getting friendly with the children of the owners. But eventually the owner finds out and the reception is much cooler.

As Natalie grows older, the inn stays in the back of her mind. Eventually she runs in to the friend that invited her on that family holiday to find out she is engaged to the eldest son of the owners. Natalie finds herself back up at this inn and the owner is no nicer than she was in the past.

Despite the racial undertones of this entire book, it really is a romance. There are a couple of relationships focused on in the book, though obviously Natalie's is the focus. It's not a typical romance that's sappy in nature but a pretty relaxed and gentle romance.

This was an easy book to read. The characters were well flushed out and felt real. When the antisemitism issue was finally addressed it was a bit underwhelming, but the rest of the book made up for it.

First Line: "It was not complicated, and, as my mother pointed out, not even personal: They had a hotel; they didn't want Jews; we were Jews. "

Rating:
(4/5)

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Fiction

After dark in Japan, sees a teenager nursing a coffee in a Denny's, reading a book. A young man walks up to her and recognizes her. He knows her sister and asks if he can join her. Her name is Mari but she doesn't find out what his name is. He talks about her sister and how he had a crush on her. He leaves to go to band practice and soon after, another woman walks in frantically looking for her, because she has heard that Mari speaks Chinese. A woman has been assaulted but only speaks Chinese. Can Mari help?

Throughout the night, the story switches between Mari, the young man, and the Chinese woman. We learn more about Mari's sister and how she is sleeping her life away.

The interactions between the characters were interesting and the concept of one night in Japan was unique. However by the end of it, literally nothing has happened and you're questioning what the point of the book was.

First Line: "The eyes mark the shape of the city."

Rating:
(3/5)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Fiction/Literature

The Price family of six travels to the Congo to bring the Baptist faith to the people of the Congo. The couple has four daughters, including twins Leah and Adah. Adah was born with part of her brain not working, suffers a limp, and doesn't talk much but she is incredibly smart. Eldest daughter Rachel is a teenager who only cares about herself and youngest daughter Ruth May is a firecracker.

The Congolese don't take too well to the new faith being shown to them but they don't want the family to suffer either so help out in small unseen ways. Unsurprisingly, things in the Congo don't work like they do in the USA. The family fails at many things and then starts to fail at their relationships as well.

This was a very slow book to read through. There were some uncomfortable subject and some characters that were pretty easy to hate. It's amazing how out of touch the father was.

The ending seemed to just keep going and going. It almost would have been better if the last few chapters weren't included and we weren't given the final update on their adult life. It really just made me feel even more disconnected from the family.

First Line: "Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened."

Rating:
(3/5)

The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine

Fiction

Gerald Candless, renown author, dies of a heart attack leaving behind his wife and two grown daughters. The girls, Sarah and Hope, were very close to their dad as he fostered a special relationship with them at the expense of his wife Ursula. As the family comes to term with the loss, we learn how spoiled the two girls are and how miserable Ursula was with her husband.

When Sarah is approached to write a biography of her dad, she accepts. The first thing she does is start looking in to his past only to find that there's nothing to look in to. Gerald Candless does not exist before a certain date and the Gerald Candless of the town her father claimed as his died as a child. Their father assumed this identity. Why? What was he running from?

This book was difficult to get through for two reasons. First, all the characters are either miserable people or pathetic. The girls are complete snobs and never get what's coming to them. The mom could have helped herself but did nothing. The second reason is because there's a whole bunch of unnecessary filler content. Why do we need to know about Hope and her boyfriend or Sara and her boyfriend? There is no substance there and it doesn't really drive the plot forward.

When we finally find out the reason Gerald left his original life, it's a bit of a let down. We are told throughout the book a few times that this reason is not true only to find out it is. The way it was revealed was sort of interesting, but none of the characters ever really find out which was a let down.

First Line: "Not a word to my girls, he had said on the way home from the hospital."

Rating:
(3/5)

Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas

Fiction/Literature

Ruby is a rebellious teenager who runs away from home in England to visit her grandmother in Cairo. She has basically no relationship with her grandmother, but is desperate to leave and try something new. Showing up on the doorstep of her grandmother, the manservent Mamdooh is none too pleased to see her. She eventually convinces her way in and finds Iris, her grandmother, who is old, ailing, and struggling to remember her past. Ruby offers to help Iris document her history so that it is not forgotten and Iris can't pass that up.

Iris came of age in Cairo during WWII. She fell in love with a soldier and got engaged, working as a secretary to the British government. It was times of high stress but lots of partying and lots of love. People did things quickly for fear that war would wipe out everything.

As Ruby pieces together her grandmother's past, she also finds her own love story in Cairo. She starts to fall for the brother of the taxi driver that took her from the airport to Iris' house. This boy shows her around the city and she starts to love both Cairo and him.

This was a great coming of age story from two different generation's perspective. We learn about Iris' journey to adulthood during the war and we see Ruby's as she grows up in Cairo. Ruby is a believable teenager, starting off a little annoying but coming in to her own. I'm not sure I ever really understand her relationship with her mom, or her mom's relationship with Iris. They tried to flush out the latter in the book but it was a fairly short conversation near the end of the book and not really sufficient for me to understand or believe it.

The event that finally brings everyone together seemed a bit drastic but I guess typical to a coming of age fictional story. I've been having bad luck with books recently, unable to get through a few of them before giving up, so I was happy to be able to easily get through this one.

First Line: "I remember"

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Literature

This is a generational story of the Cleary family. With Irish roots, they settled in New Zealand and got in to sheep shearing. The family was large with many boys and one girl, Meggie, who just barely made ends meet. The eldest Cleary sister sends out a request for the rest of the family to join her on her huge farm in Australia. The family moves out there and learns life in the Australian outback. There are many ups and downs. Losses and births. The story focuses around Meggie as she grows up. As a girl, she looks up to the priest responsible for the local area. As Meggie grows up, she thinks there is an opportunity for her to pull the priest away from God but it's not meant to be. Love and heartbreak, this book has everything.

Being an older book, I find this book is very gentle and graceful. It's a pretty long one, and there were some things that probably didn't need to be in it, but the story developed the characters very well. Each character makes horrible decisions, but also good decisions. It's a pretty good representation of normal life.

Despite the gentle nature in which the story is tell, it's still pretty depressing overall. There's too much heartbreak for this poor Cleary family, it just doesn't seem fair to them.

This is true classical literature and I'm going to make sure I share my copy with others.

First Line: "On December 8th, 1915, Meggie Cleary had her fourth birthday."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg

Fiction

Each year, Laura's family gathers at her parent's place to go to the town fair. It's been a family tradition forever and one that can't be missed. Before she heads there with her husband and two teens, she gets a call from her sister saying that she has something very important to discuss with Laura and their brother. The conversation doesn't get very far before their father has a stroke and heads to the hospital. Laura's sister Caroline can't wait. She has been seeing a therapist and the therapist has recommended she talks to her sibling about what happened in their childhood. Caroline states how her mother never gave her any love and treated her completely different from the other children. When Caroline was supposedly in summer camp, she was actually at a hospital recovering from her mother attacking her with a knife. Laura has a hard time reconciling this with the childhood she remembers.

I got sucked in to this book very quickly. None of the characters are perfect and I was questioning truth along with Laura as she was hearing Caroline's story. There's also guilt of not believing a victim's story. Oddly enough, most of the male characters in this book were pretty much absent from the story because they couldn't handle the discussion, which I found a bit odd. I was a bit disappointed at the ending but still not a bad read.

First Line: "It is a photograph of a staircase that I took with my Brownie camera over forty years ago."

Rating:
(4.5/5)