The Second Ending by Michelle Hoffman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Many many years ago, I was on an airplane when I opened “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and started reading it. I didn’t stop reading until I was completely finished. I had the same experience with this book. I started listening to it when I sat in my plane seat and I did not stop until it was completely finished. I loved every single moment of this story. I loved the narration. I loved the two characters who were competing. I loved the premise. A truly fantastic read.
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Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The surface of love was a feeling, but beyond this thin layer, there was a fathomless, winding maze of caverns offering many places to see and explore. Wren used to think romantic passion only grew more intense in the depths . But this belief was naive and impractical, a by-product of a certainty-obsessed culture that equates love with longing and views ambivalence as a fatal flaw. Wren saw now how passion was delicate and temporary, a visitor, a feeling that would come and go. Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness . What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort , a doing, a conscious act of will. Soulmates, like her and Lewis, were not theoretical and found. They were tangible, built.”
This story is unlike anything you will have ever read. In fact, it’s so unusual that I am worried many people won’t even pick it up because it’s “too weird” but it’s an absolutely beautiful book on love, family, friendship, loss, grief, and so much more.
“The Tiny Pregnant Woman’s marriage had a culture of sacrifice rather than compromise. For this reason, she was jealous of Lewis, even though she had never met.”
Even though the blurb makes it sound like it’s only about Wren and her shark-turning husband, this is actually about generations of women. Wren is at the center of it, but her mom also takes up a third of the book. It’s touching, raw, deeply sad and also deeply beautiful.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Wren wants to shout. The world is a big and small place, and life, a terrifying and sublime journey.”
I really loved every moment I spent with this unusual book. I really hope more people pick it up and get to experience this beautiful book.
with gratitude to edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars.
I waited to read this book for over ten years. I am not sure why. I kept wanting to but never doing it. And once I started I read it all in one sitting. I liked it but didn’t love it. I felt like the story was more stunted than I’d expected and the characters a bit less 3-dimensional. But I still loved it.
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Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars.
I meant the title already has it but everyone is lying and everyone here in an unlikeable character so it’s really hard to love this book. But if you like plot driven mystery novels, you’ll like this one. Lapena is a good writer and her books are unputdownable!
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The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this long, wonderful saga of a story in one and a half days. It’s the story of six sisters ( i guess i don’t know why it’s called seven sisters yet.) who are all adopted and their dad dies. I assume each book will be the story of one sister. In this one Maia follows a journey to find out about her birth mom, after reading a letter her dad wrote and finds herself in a journey that changes her life.
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Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was a nice and sweet love story. Sad and tragic in parts, too. I enjoyed the time I spent with it but I didn’t find it as amazing as many of the reviews seem to have.
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Family Family: A Novel by Laurie Frankel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“No one,” Fig giggled. “I’m just saying Mom’s mad now, but I still think calling Lewis was the right thing to do. Sometimes less is more, but not with family. With family, more is more.”
Laurie Frankel’s “This is How it Always Is” was my favorite book of the year when it came out and ever since then I’ve been an avid fan. I could not wait to get my hands on “Family Family” and not only did it not disappoint but I am confident it will be my favorite read of 2023 alongside one other novel. This story was incredibly beautiful.
“This is what parenting is, India. Solving impossible-to-solve problems while also experiencing deep crises of faith while also being kind of annoyed while also never getting enough rest. These problems only ever go away by changing into different equally impossible problems. This is how it always is for all parents, no matter how you came by your children.”
I could easily quote the entire book. I love the way Frankel writes. I love the parents she creates. I love the combination of vulnerability and strength they always display. I find myself wishing deeply that these were real people and in my life. I love them so.
“Normal parents who have their kids from birth so there’s no mystery, nothing about their children they don’t know or understand.” “In the entire history of time, India, throughout the wide vast universe, there has never been a parent for whom that is true.”
This is the story of a super-famous actress, India whose life starts unraveling as a result of some comments she makes about a movie she was recently in. The story goes back and forth between two timelines, the present day after things start unraveling and the past when India is in high school all the way to present day.
“You were five. Everything you did was gross. Then you’d cry because your fingers were cold. So I gave you a fork. Then you ate out all the strawberries and cried because it wasn’t strawberry ice cream anymore.” “What did you do?” “Opened a bottle of wine.” “About me?” “Waited for you to grow out of that phase and hoped the next would be more rational.”
This book is about adoption, parenting, siblings, parenting in all of its forms and of course it’s all about love. It’s about all the ways we can love our kids, all the ways we can love each other, all the ways we can create family and we can support and be there for each other.
“Not to,” her mother said. “With. Talk with them. Discuss what they’re scared about. Discuss what you’re scared about. Be honest with them. Tell them everything you can think of.” “Why?” “They’re family.” She could hear her mother’s shrug over the phone. “They’ve got a right to know.”
It is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read. It broke my heart open multiple times and I fell in love with these flawed and loving characters over and over again. I don’t think there’s any way you will not absolutely love this book.
Make sure to read the author’s note at the end, too, it made me love Frankel even more. Now I have to pray that she can write quickly because I can’t wait to read more of her stories.
with gratitude to netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What an unusual story full of magic that is bled into books and then read by the non-writers. I loved the premise of this book and really enjoyed the characters and the world that was built. I can’t wait to read the next ones in the series but this one was also fully satisfying on its own. Loved it.
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Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m not sure why I postponed reading this book for so so long. It was interesting, lovely to listen to and touching in all the right ways. Friendship, love, betrayal, family. All of what makes a novel wonderful.
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The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the story of Cam and Jules who go back to Cam’s birthplace in North Carolina. He is from the richest family with a notorious adoptive mother, Ruby, who has “lost” all four of her husbands to different accidents.
Cam has never wanted to go back but Ruby’s death and his cousins imploring finally bring the wedded couple back to Cam’s childhood home and, as expected, things unravel, secrets emerge and things are never what they seem.
While I enjoyed reading this story, I didn’t like Jules’ voice or the way she spoke. I wasn’t crazy about any of the characters and the revelations, when they happened, were interesting but because I just wasn’t invested in the characters, I found myself not caring too much.
It was a pleasant enough read, just not one of my favorites.
with gratitude to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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Day by Michael Cunningham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“You look great in everything else. Trust me about that, too. You’re beautiful in your own skin…. You brought with you into the world some kind of human amazingness, and you can depend on it, always.”
I was beyond excited when I saw that there was a new Michael Cunningham novel. His writing is always, always exquisite and this novel is no exception.
“Nathan has, for as long as Robbie can remember, felt like a bit of an outsider—loved, welcomed—but here for now, until he vanishes into his own private future, whereas Violet is here, a member of the family, forever.”
The premise of this novel was very interesting to me. It takes place over the course of a specific day for three years in a row. So we can see how much (or how little) can change for this one family in one year. The years in the story are 2019, 2020, and 2021 so there’s also the added element of the impact of the pandemic build into the story.
It’s hard not to fall in love with each of the characters and root for them individually and as a family unit. I loved all of the interactions so much. I loved Robbie and the love he brings into the family and the love everyone has for him.
I loved reading Cunnigham’s beautiful words again.
Never underestimate how much can change in one year.
with gratitude to netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
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The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved the author’s previous novel “The Push” and wasn’t sure she could match the intensity with which that story was told. But I was wrong. she absolutely could. This is an excellent novel about several families who are neighbors and one of the kids falls out of the window, so the story winds back in time to let us know what happened leading up to that moment.
It’s excellent all the way to the very last words.
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monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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