Review: THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY (+Friday56 LinkUp)

I just finished The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai. It took me two months to read and it felt like it, too. I just piddled along reading maybe ten pages a day, not feeling like I was making any progress, because I wasn't. I liked the story, in fact, I liked the story a lot. I just couldn't make myself read it. It was the oddest thing. When I discussed my problem with a nephew at a recent gathering he suggested I needed to set aside a block of time with the book so I could immerse myself in it. He also suggested trying the audiobook. I did and that did the trick. Within a few days of switching formats, I found myself completely captivated by the story. When I wasn't listening, I was wishing I was. Within a week I had finished the book -- no easy feat since the book is 670 pages long and over 26 hours of listening time. No wonder I felt like high-fiving myself when I completed it.

Oddly now that I am finished, I miss the book. Ever feel that way? It makes sense, though, for it was my constant companion for the better part of the summer. I just learned that the author, Kiran Desai, took 20 years to write the book. Gulp! In an interview with Alexandra Alter, Desai said she didn't realize how thoroughly the story would swallow her and she feared she would never finish the book. Now that it is done she feels lonely without it. "It was so much my entire world that life seems very thin on the other side of this book. I don’t quite know what to do with myself. It was my companion all these years,” she said. (NYT) I thought 2 months was a long time to be immersed in a story, just imagine living inside a story for 20 years!

The book starts in India with Sonia's grandparents and aunt, Mina Foi, discussing what the cook should make for the day's meals since the cook must go directly to the market. This begins not only to show the stark differences between Indian and American cultures but also a recurring theme of kebabs.

It was Mina's fifty-fifth birthday, the first day of December in the year 1996, and the mutton for the dinner kebabs had been marinating overnight in the kitchen. 'Rice or Roti?' Ba [grandma] shouted. She was growing deaf, but she knew she must raise her voice over the morning traffic thundering past the front gate and the cawing of hundreds of crows -- their racket and the sun's struggle so closely linked, it was as if each morning the crows gave birth to the light. --Mina Foi, Ba, and Dadji, pg. 1

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny deals with, um, the loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, two Indians living in the United States, feeling displaced and isolated from family and culture. Yet when they return to India, each doesn't feel quite at home there either. 

'I spend all my time trying to pretend I am not lonely! If you are lonely, you feel ashamed, and the only relief to your shame is being alone, which is what makes you lonely in the first place.' -Sonia, p. 49

One thing seemed certain: If India existed, then America could not, for they were too drastically different not to cancel each other out. Yet despite this fact, they refused to remain apart. India invaded his life all the way from the other side of the world, and then life here became instantly artificial, a taunt. He became an impostor, a spy, a liar, and a ghost. -Sunny, p. 82                                       

The book begins with Sonia attending college in Vermont with dreams of becoming an author. Sunny is living in Brooklyn after graduating college and working for the AP as a copy editor in the New York office, with dreams of becoming a journalist. As their loneliness and sense of isolation deepens both try to find ways to cope. Sonia by starting a relationship with a mentally ill artist who is very controlling and demeaning. Sunny by disappearing as a whole person.

There was so much life in this country that Sunny needn’t bother to create one. His life could be simply looking upon life. -Sunny

As both Sunny and Sonia pursue their writing careers separately, their lives seem to be on a collision course. First Sonia's family proposes an arranged marriage with Sunny, which he dismisses out of hand. Later in a pivotal moment in the story back in India, they are on the same train heading to Allahabad, where their families have a connection. This brief encounter sets up future interactions. Still later they meet up on in Goa (Southwest India on the coast) where they get to know each other better and love blossoms. It would seem that a full throttled romance was on its way but what happens is much more tangled and twisted.

So what is the story about? It is about culture and displacement. It is about family and traditions. It is also about post-colonialism, superstition, and magic. And ultimately it is about finding self awareness and acceptance. Maureen Corrigan, reviewing the book for NPR described The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny as a book of ideas. Nalini Iver, writing for the International Examiner, says "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a deeply satisfying, profoundly moving, witty, and occasionally heart-rending novel that explores immigration, alienation, the relationship between art, the artist, and artistic subject. It also probes the changing role of women in contemporary society." Nobody can quite put their finger on all the themes covered in this book. Just suffice it to say there are a lot!

My favorite parts of the book shined a light on differences in cultures and the ways that people within those cultures view property, nature, parenthood, etc. and how the characters viewed themselves in those other cultures. For example, here Sonia is talking to Babita, Sunny's mother, try to explain what it is like in America:

'It was all the things I’d have to do alone.' 'Why would you have to do anything alone?' asked Babita. 'It’s the premise of being American: You are an individual, therefore you are alone. Therefore you must be able to do everything by yourself. Rent a car at an airport, drive yourself cross-country to a job in a place you’ve never heard of, defeat your enemies, trap a rat, make money to pay bills to look after yourself even when you are dying—' -Sonia to Babita

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny was a 2025 Booker Prize finalist, therefore I thought that would be a great place to start as I looked around for book club discussion questions. I will be leading the discussion on the book the end of this month. Here are two resources I thought would be helpful:

• Booker Prize Readers' Guide: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
• LS&S: Sweet Shoppe Sugar Babe

My rating  for The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is on a sliding scale. I give the book a 5-star rating for the writing, the complexity, and the epic nature of the story. But I give the book a 4-star rating rating based on my reading experience with it. I just had such a hard time actually reading it. Suffice it to say, it is a beautiful, rewarding, yet hard book to read.

At 670 pages, this qualifies for Big Book Summer Challenge

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Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

Review: YEAR OF WONDER: CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR EVERY DAY

Cue the music to listen to as you read this post: Gregorio Allegri -Miserere

Title: Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hall

Book Beginnings / First Line Friday quote from introduction:

Friday56 quote  (56% of sample):

Summary:

Year of Wonder is a unique celebration of classical music by an author who wants to share its diverse wonders with others and to encourage a love for this genre in all readers, whether complete novices or lifetime enthusiasts.

Clemency chooses one piece of music for each day of the year, with a short explanation about the composer to put it into context, and brings the music alive in a modern and playful way, while also extolling the positive mindfulness element of giving yourself some time every day to listen to something uplifting or beautiful. Thoughtfully curated and expertly researched, this is a book of classical music to keep you company: whoever you are, wherever you're from. (Publisher)

Review: This past week I spent at a family reunion with 20 others. At one point I asked each person to tell me what they were currently reading, their favorite book of the year, and how they would describe themselves as a reader/ what they prefer reading. Among the 20 of us several people, including myself, described themselves as reading omnivores -- as long as a book is interesting, we will read it. I think the fact that I read this book (and loved it) is proof of my status as an omnivoric-reader (I think I just made up a word.) Not only did I read it, but nerded out on it.

As you see from the Friday56 sample, each day highlights one specific classical piece. It didn't take me long to figure out to enjoy the book, I'd have to listen to each piece in addition to reading the information about the piece and the composer. Luckily for me someone else took the time to place all 365 pieces on a Spotify playlist and all I had to do was push play to hear and enjoy them. Here it is: Year of Wonder on Spotify. Now here is where the real nerdiness came into play -- I had the audiobook for Year of Wonder, so I would listen to Clemency Burton-Hall read her own text on my phone while I listened to the Spotify playlist on my computer. It absolutely drove my husband crazy when he walked into the room while I was juggling the two. I couldn't listen to the book with my headphones or I couldn't hear the music or vise versa. So he just had to put up with it or leave the room himself.

Since the book is designed to be a daily activity for a whole year and I only had the book for the three-week checkout time from the library I really had to listen to at least 18 entries a day to stay on a completion schedule. In doing this I never, or rarely, was able to listen to all the pieces in their entirety. I would listen to the song until the narration of the text was complete and I'd skip on to the next piece. Since I sped through all 365 days in 21 days, I have vowed I will go back and relisten to the whole playlist at a more leisurely pace since I can access it any time. For example as I am writing this I am listening to the "Oboe Concerto in D Minor, Op. 9, No 2: II Adagio" by Tomaso Albinoni, (January 17th) which is a personal favorite, one I've heard before.

When I think of classical music I tend to think Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven, and these three are certainly represented on the list, but my definition was expanded well beyond these popular three. Classical music is a broad tradition in Western music from the 11th century to the present which uses formal compositions, standard notations and traditional instruments. This collection had examples of music from all the musical eras: Medieval/Renaissance; Baroque; Classical; Romantic; and Modern (20th Century to today.) Burton-Hall also highlighted music from all over the world and explained how the folk traditions of those regions factored into the pieces. I really enjoyed my musical education while I listened to each piece.

At one point while I was listening to the book in the presence of my husband, he wondered if he had heard a piece before. I thought I had to and we asked our daughter, who has a lovely soprano voice and has sang in several choirs over the years, if she was familiar with a piece or composer. This simple question opened up a whole new dialogue with her. She talked about the composers whose choir pieces she has sung and her favorites. It was like a whole new aspect of her emerged before our eyes. One of those modern composers, Morten Lauridsen, she lovingly referred to as "Morty" and knew he was born in our state, Washington. I love it when when reading projects lead to get-to-know-you better moments among family and friends. (If you want to listen to a Morten Lauridsen piece try "Les Chanson des Roses"  from the January 18th offering.)

I didn't love every piece, some of that modern atonality is pretty weird to me, but most of the pieces were the perfect accompaniment to my days and I never would have found them without this project. Clemency Burton-Hall did a great job including female composers in this list, which I really appreciated. (An example you might like to try: Paradis: Sicilienne by Maria Theresia von Paradis / or Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello in D Minor by Ethyl Smyth.) Smyth and Paradis are two female composers I've never heard of before.  Women's contributions have been so downgraded over the years it was good to see them elevated to the places they deserve in musical history.

My rating: 5 stars.

At 416 pages this book is my first Big Book of Summer 2026.

-Anne

Review: ENORMOUS WINGS

Title: Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

Book Beginning/First Line Friday blurb, p. 1:

Friday56 blurb, p. 33 last page of sample:

Summary: Pepper Mills is 77 when her adult children encourage (force) her to move into the Vista View Retirement in Austin, Texas and to give up her driver's license. She doesn't expect it, but she finds that she makes new friends and falls in love. Then she starts feeling sick, exhausted, and confused. Pepper worries that she has something very serious like a brain tumor. But when she goes to the doctor she finds she does have something serious... and inexplicable... she's pregnant. How can that be?

Review: In the book's blurb the publisher sums up the book this way:

Enormous Wings is an urgent novel about female agency and bodily autonomy, morality and mortality. It’s about what happens when you don’t get to choose anymore.

OMG. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this book. Pepper Mills, a retired English teacher is my kind of gal. She is long divorced, happily so, and enjoys her independent life. When she moves into Vista View she is not thinking about love and yet it happens. Then she is not thinking about pregnancy. What 77-year-old would?  But now that it has happened she is suddenly confronted with the laws in Texas which make getting an abortion a crime, even if the person getting the abortion is 77 and a pregnancy may very well kill her.

The lack of consideration for personal choices and the morality and mortality issues involved all make this book very complex and thought-provoking. Yet, the dialogue and the characters are all filled with charm and humor. Heavy topics with a light touch. I think the book would make a great book club, for sure.

Lest you think I am giving away spoilers, I haven't told you anything you can't find on the book's blurb by the publisher. I guess the surprises aren't in the physical details but in the conversations and relationships with the characters.

I was attracted to the book initially because I am a Laurie Frankel fan, in fact I've met her. She wrote a fantastic book, This Is How It Always Is, about a family with a trans kid which was the first time I'd read anything on the topic. I found it eye opening. I was also attracted to the book because my siblings and I just finished helping our mother move into a retirement apartment. She has since given up her driver's license. I felt like I could relate to Pepper's dilemma about moving and making new friends because I've seen it happen with my mom. Even though I had read the blurb, I wasn't really prepared for the emotional impact the other main theme of the book would hit me. Egads, why are non-doctors making decisions about laws which affect so many people and then treat them as if every situation is the same? Women everywhere should be fighting for their rights to personal autonomy and for making decisions about their own health.

I tell you what -- this book really got me going!!! I just bought a copy for my sister. Can't wait to talk to her about it.

My rating: 5 stars.

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Anne

Review: AGNES AUBERT'S MYSTICAL CAT SHELTER

Title: Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

Book Beginning/First Line Friday blurb:

Friday56 blurb:

Summary: Agnes Aubert runs a cat shelter in the 1920s in Montreal. She and other volunteers rescue abandoned cats from all over the city and find them forever homes. Unfortunately though, her shop is just about destroyed as evil magicians battle for supremacy in a fight over her neighborhood. She must find a new place for the shelter before winter arrives or she will have to give up the project. Fortunately an almost perfect site opens up in the nick of time. Right after she moves in and after the snow arrives she finds out why she got such a good deal. It turns out the building is owned and inhabited by one of those evil magicians. Can she ignore all the weird magical things happening around her and just focus on saving cats? Or will she get drawn into the magical world?

Review: These days it seems like everyone is reading or just finished Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter so when I saw it on a list of books to fulfill a Goodreads challenge I decided I would give it a go. Then I saw the description on Storygraph of who this book is for. It says:

Someone who loves whimsical, low-stakes stories featuring magical creatures, heartwarming romance, and a cozy atmosphere.

This description makes the book and the person selecting it sound rather milquetoast, don't you think? "Low stakes stories"? What are they? Anyway after I got done laughing at that depiction I decided it was right. Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter really is cozy-ish in its approach. Nothing terribly awful or dramatic happens. The evil magician isn't very evil at all...in fact, quite the opposite. Almost all the cats get adopted. And it ends on a happy note. Plus it is fun and different.

I decided to claim this book for the 'Paris in July' Challenge. It is set in Montreal and the characters say they are speaking French, even though it was written in English, and several times they admit to having translation issues. Plus the narrator of the audiobook had a lovely French accent as she read the book. Since no one is really keeping score for the challenge the points are really just for me. You know how it goes! Ha!

My rating: 4 stars.

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-Anne

GOLDFINCHES by Mary Oliver and Melissa Sweet

*I am going to a very important T-Ball game tonight and don't have the time to get a full book review up and ready for the Friday56 LinkUp before we leave so I'm breaking with my usual combo review/link. Instead here is a quick look at a new favorite children's book, Goldfinches by Mary Oliver and Melissa Sweet.

Mary Oliver, a favorite poet, is known for her poems about nature. In this poem she focuses on the small goldfinches which arrive en masse in her area when the thistle down is ready for use by the birds in midsummer.

Melissa Stewart is a celebrated illustrator and author of children's books. She wrote and illustrated another favorite of mine, The Story of E.B. White.

"Goldfinches" the poem was originally published in Poetry magazine in 1992 and in a volume of White Pines by Oliver in 1994.

First page of the poem.

Last line of the poem. Ever felt that way? I have.

The educational piece.

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-Anne

Review: KIN

Title: Kin by Tayari Jones

Book Beginning/ First Line Friday snippet:

My first word was "mother," spoken out loud and with texture. MOTHER.

Friday56 snippet:

All the other women were gathered around Annie's grandmother, petting her and circling her in hymns.

Summary: Vernice and Annie are two motherless girls. Annie is raised by her grandmother, Vernice by her aunt. Both girls feel the loss profoundly but they do have each other, they will always have their best cradle friend. But after high school their stories diverge and the difference become very stark.

Review: Oddly I was reading this novel, one of the hit books of 2026, when my husband and I started listening to the nonfiction audiobook of The Warmth of Other Suns by Wilkerson. Both books tell a similar story of what it was/is like growing up in the South if one is Black. The injustice is just galling. When I would say as much to my husband he would remind me that it is okay to read stories about hard things and that I shouldn't shy away from reading books that make me feel uncomfortable or sad. I agree with him but it became pretty hard for me. The timing of reading the two books at the same time was too much. I got pretty trapped in my own feelings so I had a hard time wanting to read the book, though I recognized its literary excellence. For this reason today I am sharing a few thoughts from other reviewers on Goodreads. They seem to have a better perspective than I do.

This book is the literary hit of 2026—full stop. It’s gut-wrenching, thought-provoking, empowering, heartbreakingly realistic, deeply embracing, and profoundly resonant. It takes the word kin and restores its true meaning: kin isn’t defined by blood, but by the people who truly see you, who hear the words you can’t say, who touch your soul, who hold space for your flaws, your mistakes, your missteps, and still call you theirs. -Nilufer

In novel after novel, [Jones] explores the dynamic quality of love without questioning its persistence. How we relate to one another — even those most dear to us — is not “an ever-fixèd mark.” Given the vicissitudes of time, she asks, how could it be? Our affections are altered by distance, thinned in some places, amplified in others, the way sound changes as it travels. -Ron

Three things stand out—how vivid and believable the characters are (it’s a great character study), how beautiful the language is, and how much I felt the place and time. -Debbie

The theme is deep female friendships and how those can be kinships that go even deeper than biological ties. But what stood out for me, even more than the "cradle" friendship of Niecy and Annie K, was the writing. Beautiful, lyrical prose in which the similes and metaphors were so apt, so surprising, so so so perfect, I felt chillbumps rising on my arms a few times while listening to the audiobook. The dialect and narrator accents were spot on as well. -Emily

Thank you Goodreads reviewers for the assist.

My rating: 4 stars.

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Review: THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

Title: This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History by Beverly Gage

Book Beginning/First Line Friday snippet from the introduction:

If you grow up near Philadelphia, sooner or later you eventually end up at Independence Hall.

Friday56 snippet (from page 17, last page of preview)*:

Taken as a whole, the Philadelphia area yields a remarkably efficient tour of how, in a formal sense, the United States of America came to be. All the big characters are there: Washington, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette. So are the key moments--Declaration, Revolution, Constitution--that Americans have been debating for two and half centuries. But it wasn't the big-ticket places that really spoke to me...What stayed with me, after I departed for a long drive up I-95, were the instances in which ordinary people looked to the founding legacy and made it their own. 

        *I listened to the audiobook, so this will have to suffice for my Friday56 entry.

Summary: Beverly Gage, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, embarks on a series of thirteen road trips around the U.S.A. to highlight important moments in the country's history. Gage visits museums, roadside attractions, reenactment sites, even souvenir stores. Some of the places she visited are well known sites (Independence Hall) and others are much more obscure (spending the night in a missle silo turned into an AirBnB). She doesn't try to tell a sanitized story of only heroic moments but also uses her road trips to point out places and events that highlight our country's challenges and mistakes. The words of the Declaration of Independence that gave birth to a new nation in 1776 have been consistent touchstones over the years since, but various people and groups have embraced the Declaration and molded its powerful words to fit a particular viewpoint or support causes across the political spectrum. Gage shows that Americans can honestly face their history -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- and still love their country.

Review: Don and I were on our own road trip when we listened to the audiobook of This Land is Your Land, going on a virtual audio road trip around all regions of the US. Our destination was coincidentally also an historic site - Yellowstone, the nation's first National Park.

Beverly Gage is a history professor at Yale University in Connecticut. Last year she and two other professors joined together to teach a course titled "America at 250: a History." No doubt Gage was able to use information she gleaned to write this book to teach the class. Her writing style is very accessible and engaging. She is a good storyteller, often personalizing her experiences on the road. She usually traveled alone but her college-aged son joined her on several trips. He was accustomed to family trips with multiple mandatory stops at historical sites along the way. Gage explained how she was always taking notes about what she was learning. Since it took several years to make her thirteen road trips, she experienced some personal challenges along the way, like a car that was acting up and needing time off for cancer treatments. I especially liked how Gage engaged with her material. This is anything but a sterile, textbook-style account of what she discovered on the road.

Benjamin Franklin supposedly wondered aloud at the Constitutional Convention, whether the sun is rising or setting on our republic. In an interview for the YaleNews, Gage was asked for her conclusion on this same question. I love her answer so much I'm sharing it here:

The first conclusion that I reached is that this is a question Americans have been asking for 250 years. In some ways, that question is the national tradition.

I also discovered that it’s very hard to know in our own historical moment how to judge what’s happening around you. One of the things that history does is give us some measures against which to judge our own time. But you have to really know that history. It can’t just be a matter of assuming that things were so great in the past and now they’re so horrible. I am a real skeptic of the idea that we are living through the worst and most divisive moment in American history. I don’t think that is true. I think there are some very particular things that are happening in the U.S. that are quite concerning, quite alarming, don’t bode so well for the future, but I think it is a form of historical amnesia to think that our problems are so much worse than what the country and its people have confronted over time (YaleNews).

Gage also urged her readers to get off their computers and go out and visit new places around the country. Talk with the people. She feels much more heartened about the state of the nation since her trips. Don wished aloud at the end of book that everyone in America would read this book for the country's 250th birthday. It is true. One can love their country and acknowledge it has problems.

We both rated this book 5 stars.

-Anne

Review: WHISTLER by Ann Patchett

Title: Whistler by Ann Patchett

Book Beginning/ First Line Friday quote:

Friday56 quote:

'No one would say such a thing today, but there was a time when it did not feel like lunacy to want what the majority of the human population had. Your mother’s deal was that I had to give up Skip [Eddie’s partner] and give up being gay. I know it sounds terrible now, but she didn’t know any better. I’m the one who should have known better.'

Summary: Daphne, a 53-year-old English teacher, has a chance meeting at the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York with Eddie Triplett, her stepfather for one year when she was nine-years-old. When Daphne finally recognizes her "stalker" she burst into years. Here is the stepdad of her childhood whom she loved so much, just 40 years later. Over the ensuing months Eddie and Daphne renew their relationship and family bond, with Eddie even introducing Daphne as his daughter at a party of his friends. The two clearly share something very special. As they share memories of their past they can't help but recall that Daphne saved Eddie's life after a horrifying car accident on a snowy winter night. It was just a week after that accident that Daphne's mother abruptly demanded a divorce and two haven't seen each other since that time. 

Review: By looking at the cover with a horse on it one would think that the story is perhaps a Western or at least set in the West. In fact, the story of the horse, Whistler, doesn't even enter this story until the middle of the book. While Eddie and Daphne are trapped in the car on the snowy hillside after the accident. Eddie, a book editor, tells Daphne the story of a woman who wrote an account of a time in her life when she was thrown off her horse and was so badly hurt that she was sure she was going to die but she whistled and the horse came back and stayed with her until she was rescued. The woman was convinced it was love which saved her. And so it is with Eddie and Daphne who return to each other after all those years and find that love [father-daughter love] which had been missing.

Don and I listened to the audiobook of Whistler together on the last leg of our 13-day car trip recently. In fact, we had to finish it at home after our return as we still had four hours of listening left to go. As we turned off the audio-player as the story ended I was wiping the sad/happy tears off my face as Don stood up and remarked, "Well, that book sort of fizzled out." What? Had we listened to the same book? Don thought the story was sweet but sort of plotless. I thought it was nearly perfect as we learned the stories of two people who were clearly thrilled to have found each other again. "That's what I mean," Don grumbled. "Where was the action?" As I stumbled around looking for words to express my thoughts on the book it hit me that indeed the book had no big trauma, or rising and then falling action. The book wasn't crammed full of awful people doing awful things. It was a gentle story about family love, relationships, and the importance of friendships.

Today before I embarked on writing this review, I read a interview in Elle Magazine with Ann Patchett which finally gave me the words I needed when I tried to explain the book to Don. 

Like the story Eddie tells Daphne in their overturned car, Whistler itself is a intentionally warm-hearted tale, made all the more remarkable for the courage of these qualities. Over the years, numerous readers and interviewers have asked Patchett why she writes books that the author herself has referred to as “good, smart literary fiction that will not crush people’s souls.” In an era of buzzy sad-girl lit and weird-girl lit and ragebait lit, the PEN/Faulkner Award winner writes literary masterworks about “people who are not perfect, trying their best and showing up for each other,” she says. They’re not simple books—please, don’t call them simple—but they are precise in their purpose.

Patchett continued-

“And it is how I live my life. I can watch the news; I can read the paper; I can know that terrible things are happening everywhere. But in my life, everybody’s so nice. In the bookstore, in my house, in my neighborhood, in the grocery store, people are kind to one another. I know that part of it is that these are my eyes, and this is the way I see the world, and the more you see it, the more it reflects back. It becomes self-selecting. I’m not seeing horror in my everyday life. I’m reading it. I know it’s there. But it feels very realistic to write stories about people being kind.” (Elle Magazine)

That's it. That is precisely what I was saying [obviously badly] to Don. The reason I like Patchett books, and this one is no exception, is because the characters are not perfect, they are just trying their best and they show up for one another. And the books are full of kindness and thoughtfulness. Heaven knows we need more of that in our lives these days.

I'm guessing Don will rate the book with 4 stars, but he is not here right now to ask, and you can tell from this review I rated the book with 5 stars.

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-Anne

Review: HEARTWOOD

Title: Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:

Dear Mother,

You used to call me sparrow.

Friday56 quote, from page 46, last page of preview:

I did not scream. I tried to not make a sound.

Summary:

Heartwood takes you on a journey as a search and rescue team race against time when a hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental. (Publisher)

Review: In my heart I have always wanted to take on a hike on the Appalachian or the Pacific Crest trail but after reading Heartwood I am dispelled of any such notions. The Appalachian trail is over 2,000 miles long, traversing fourteen states, starting in Georgia and ending in Maine (or reverse, if you start at the top.) I'm sure parts of the hike are relatively flat and easy, but other parts are steep and treacherous. For example, the nicknames for Pennsylvania by the hikers is "Rocksyvania" or "Painsylvania". One doesn't need any more information to understand what it is like hiking there. Ugh.

When Valerie's hiking partner has to leave the trail to attend to family matters, she decides to go on alone. She is only 200 miles from the end of the trail and the achievement of her goal. What could go wrong? But when she doesn't show up at the rendez-vous spot to get fresh supplies from her husband it soon becomes apparent that something has gone wrong and the Maine State Game wardens are called to conduct a search. When days pass and Valerie is still not found everyone worries that she may not be found alive.

So begins a rescue mission of huge proportions. Tip lines are set up to enlist the help of other hikers. But what does an 76-year-old retirement home dweller, Lena, from Connecticut have do with this mystery? As it turns out Lena, Valerie, and Beverly have a lot more in common than one would think at first glance.

A solid mystery/thriller.

My rating: 4 stars.

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-Anne

Review: TODAY WE GO HOME

Title: Today We Go Home by Kelli Estes

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:

April 16, 1861: Wilson Family Farm, Stampers Creek, Indiana

The sounds of gunshots echoes across the field, each one making Emily clench her teeth tighter together until her jaw ached.

Friday56 quote:

Present Day: Woodinville, Washington

The moment Larkin climbed out of her car at Gram's house she was met with a wall of sensation. (p.47)

Summary: Larkin is home from her second tour with the Army in Afghanistan with a bad case of PTSD.  The firefight which killed her best friend, Sarah, was the cause of return home and now she is left to pick up the pieces and deal with the devil in her head alone as she convalesces at her Gram's home in Washington State. One day she goes through Sarah's things in left behind in a storage unit, Larkin finds an old journal which belonged to a woman named Emily. In the journal Emily recounts her story of disguising herself as a man so she could fight alongside her brother in the Civil War.

Review: Today We Go Home was a our book club selection this month. During our discussion, which focused a lot on females in the military, we all agreed that the topics -- women in combat roles; PTSD in returning female combatants; women disguising themselves as males to serve in the military -- were ones we hadn't read much, if anything, about. The topics led to a lively and interesting discussion. (See discussion questions here.) The whole evening helped me refocus my feelings about the book, for which I was grateful.

Prior to the meeting I was afraid I'd be alone in saying I didn't particularly like the book. I liked the idea of the book but not the execution of it. It seemed over-written and too long. The characters had deep flaws and it took forever for them to get to the point where they could take a look at what was holding them back. Larkin was a tough, gritty, unlikeable character especially. In the notes at the end of the book, the author said during her research she learned about how many women likely disguised themselves as men to fight in the Civil War and for what reasons. She also highlighted what would happen to these women when they were found out. Then she made her character Emily run through or past all those reasons/situations. Ugh. Too much. 

That said, by the end I was satisfied. Both Larkin and Emily made some growth and were moving in the right direction. We had a fabulous club discussion and had delicious blueberry/peach cobbler for dessert afterwards. It wasn't a total bust!

My rating: 2.75 stars.

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-Anne

Nonfiction Review: HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD

Title: How to Survive the End of the World: A Graphic Exploration of How to (Maybe) Avoid Extinction by Katy Doughty

Book Beginnings:

Page one: How did the human story start? Science tells us that we began with some apes who stood a little taller. ( From the theory of evolution) From religion and mythology come origin stories of a divine breath that brought some dirt to life... (From the book of Genesis in the Bible and Torah.)

Friday56:

Page 61: There have been five mass extinctions in Earth's history. Volcanoes had a hand in at least two of them. (Chart list these five events and answers the percentage of species extinct, the cause, losers, winners.)

Summary: 

Since 99.9 percent of all species that have lived are extinct, it’s bound to be our turn eventually, right? So what’s most likely to kill us? A well-timed asteroid? Some new robot overlords? With wit and dry humor, debut graphic novelist Katy Doughty blends science and history to explore our chances of surviving disasters such as plagues, global warming, and alien invasion. Drawing on interviews with experts in fields like infectious diseases, AI, and interplanetary exploration, she combines cutting-edge research with compelling visuals: mugshots of the deadliest microbes, graphs of the winners and losers of mass extinction events, and a whole lot of dinosaur drawings. For apocalypse aficionados, the morbidly curious, and the just plain curious, this is your antidote to existential dread—a timely, imaginative, and ultimately hopeful take on humankind’s ability to survive the odds. (Publisher)

Review: I like getting my information from a variety of sources, so when I saw a graphic (illustrated) book, about how we can possibly avoid extinction from climate change, I snapped it up. And I have to confess that by-in-large the reading experience was just about perfect for my recent attention span. 

The information was divided into eight chapters/categories/themes: The Beginning; Plagues and Pandemics: Deadly Blasts; Climate Meltdown; Killer Machines; Falling Skies; Cosmic Collapse; and The End. The first photo was taken from the Beginning, theories and science behind how the earth and humans came into existence. I like that there is both the science and the mythology/religious aspects to the explanations. As a teacher it was always apparent to me that students needed to know that we honored their religious beliefs.

The second page photo was from the section about blasts which includes volcanoes and, sadly, bombs. Of the five extinction events the Earth has encountered in the past, three were from volcanoes.

I had the most trouble reading the section called Killing Machines which dealt in part with artificial intelligence. Right before reading the book I had seen an interview with a man who has recently published a book about ways to use AI for good (as compared to nefarious purposes?) He said something which really shook me up. When the industrial revolution started it took society about 100 years to change and adapt. With AI we may have three years, if that. Gulp. I wasn't interested in feeling worried or scared so I sort of zipped through this section.

The last chapter, The End, ended on a surprisingly hopeful and positive note, as you can see from the illustrations below:

It takes courage to imagine the end of the world-- and even more courage to try to change the ending.

But if you imagine the end of the world, what other ends can you imagine? The end of greed? The end of violence? It takes wisdom to see yourself as part of these stories. You may find a piece of yourself, and of humanity, that is permanent: some history we came from and some legacy we will leave behind...

This book is a good one and very worthy of your attention. Check it out from your library. If your library doesn't have a copy, request that they purchase one. A book for all ages. 

My rating: 5 stars.

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-Anne

Review: WHAT WE CAN KNOW (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:

On 20 May 2119 I took a the overnight ferry from Port Marlborough and arrived in the late afternoon at the small quay near Maentwrog-under-Sea that serves the Bodleian Snowdonia Library.

Friday56 quote:

The humanities are always in crisis. I no longer believe this is an institutional matter -- it's in the nature of intellectual life, or of thought itself.

Summary:

2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message, but no copy has yet been found.

2119: The lowlands of the UK have been submerged by rising seas. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost.

Tom Metcalfe, a scholar at the University of the South Downs, part of Britain's remaining archipelagos, pores over the archives of the early twenty-first century, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith.

When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the great lost poem, revelations of entangled love and a brutal crime emerge, destroying his assumptions about a story he thought he knew intimately. (Publisher)

Review: Back in 2014, Francis Blundy, a renowned poet and thinker-of-day, wrote a poem as a birthday gift for his wife -- A Corona for Vivien. He read the poem, made up of 15 interlocking Petrarchan sonnets. aloud to his wife and the other people assembled for the birthday dinner. Afterwards a lot was made of the poem and the dinner party but no one ever saw the poem or had a chance to read it with their own eyes. It simply disappeared. The poem, in its absence, took on great meaning because it was thought to have said something profound about climate change.

A century later, after the cataclysmic nuclear wars and rising sea levels have changed life on Earth as we know it, a professor of literature specializing in the years 1990-2030, Tom Metcalfe, makes a difficult trip, via bike, ferry, and funicular to the Bodleian library to learn everything he could learn about the poet and his most famous, missing poem. Mining the Internet for everything there was to know about the Blundy, he says, “I know all that they knew—and more, for I know some of their secrets and their futures, and the dates of their deaths.” And yet, the corona is still missing and Metcalfe would like nothing better than being the person who finds it and reveals it to the world.

In part two, Vivien takes over the story, and we learn about what really happened with the Blundys and she reveals a secret of huge and serious proportions. 

What We Can Know is a complex, sometimes confusing, but very rewarding novel. It had a lot to say about what our future may look like. There were also some really interesting insights into academia, particularly about the humanities and literature. The book, the story, the plot were all rich.

My rating: 4.25

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-Anne