Fiction Review: Firekeeper's Daughter

For Christmas this year, instead of asking for specific books, I gave my family a list of authors I've never read and about whom I've heard great things. One of those was Angeline Boulley, and I was thrilled that my husband gave me The Firekeeper's Daughter as a gift. I finally see what all the fuss was about! While published as a YA novel, this story has so many layers and such complex themes that it will be loved by any adult, too. It's a mystery/thriller with great emotional depth, set against a fascinating cultural background.

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has always had a foot in two worlds, though she often feels as if she doesn't fully belong in either. She lives in Sault (pronounced Soo) Ste. Marie, Michigan, near the Canadian border, with her mother. Her mother's parents were French and Italian, and her father, who died, was a part of the local Ojibwe tribe, though her parents were never married. Her closest ties to the tribe are her half-brother, Levi, her beloved Aunt Teddie, and her best friend Lily. Levi is a part of the renowned Sault Ste. Marie Superiors hockey team, and as the novel begins, he introduces Daunis to a new member of the team who just moved to town. Jamie is gorgeous, polite, and charming to everyone he meets, including Teddie's twin six-year-old girls. Daunis soon starts to fall for him, though she senses he's hiding something. 

Daunis' town, where the tribe seems integrated into the larger community and hockey is king, includes a dark secret. The scourge of meth has reached their community, with tragedy seemingly around every corner now. Lily's ex-boyfriend, Travis, was a straight-A student in all of Daunis' AP classes until he got into drugs, discovered meth, and started dealing. He keeps begging Lily to take him back--and to try meth. Daunis' own Uncle David, her mother's brother, died recently of an overdose, stunning his family since he'd been clean for 15 years. Amid this community in crisis, Daunis discovers an FBI investigation is ongoing and is asked to go undercover as a part of it. She wants to help her community and find out who the source of the meth is and where it's coming from, but she doesn't necessarily agree with the FBI's approach. Her conflicted feelings increase, as does the danger, as she gets closer to answers.

While this is a mystery/thriller at heart, with plenty of suspense, action, and a twisty plot, there is so much more to it. We see the complex grieving process of Daunis and her family, her closeness to both sides of her family, and a burgeoning love in the midst of tragedy. In addition, this novel provides an in-depth look at the modern Native American experience, and Daunis' own particular challenges of living in two different worlds (though, to some extent, all members of the tribe live that way). The details of traditional ceremonies, healing, and customs, and the closeness of the tribal community, are beautiful and fascinating. These details are authentic because the author herself is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe. I loved getting to know Daunis and her family, felt fully immersed in their world, and was rooting for the whole community to get to the bottom of the drug problems and begin to heal.

NOTES: 

The author says this novel is being developed into a TV series (which would be amazing!), but it doesn't show up in IMDb yet. 

The setting was described so beautifully that I wanted to visit and included stop in Sault Ste. Marie on our summer vacation to Michigan! Unfortunately, we had to cancel due to my illness, but I can't wait to see it in person next summer.

494 pages, Henry Holt and Company

Macmillan Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Alphabet Soup Challenge - F

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Michigan
 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample gives you an idea of both the suspense and the cultural setting.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Middle-Grade Review: Countdown

Back in 2015, I read Revolution by Deborah Wiles, which was book 2 in her Sixties Trilogy. I absolutely loved the novel (my review at the link), but it took me this long to finally read book 1, Countdown. I listened to it on audio and absolutely loved it. These books overlay the experience of a child against a historical backdrop, showing their perspective(s) of significant events in our history. The result is engrossing and fascinating.

Revolution took place in 1964 in Mississippi and was about the Freedom Summer. In Countdown, the setting is Maryland, near Washington, DC, in 1962, during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. As the novel opens, eleven-year-old Franny is in school. She's upset because her teacher never calls on her to read aloud during Social Studies and fumes while she calls on other kids all around her. The class goes out for recess, and Franny doesn't know what to do because she forgot to bring her Nancy Drew book, and her best friend Margie seems to have a new best friend, Gale. Their typical school day is interrupted by a shrill, shrieking sound: the town's air raid siren! They're supposed to hide under their desks when it goes off, but what do they do when they're outside? Their teachers call all the students together, and they crouch on the ground against the brick building and cover their heads in terror until the all-clear alarm when their principal calls out, "It's OK, kids, it's just a drill!" At dinner that night, Franny and her younger brother, Drew, tell their parents all about the frightening air raid drill. Also at the table are their older sister, Jo Ellen, who just started college, and Uncle Otts, who lives with them and sometimes thinks he is still fighting WWI. Tonight, the air raid siren set him off, and he was marching to all their neighbors' houses, wearing his helmet and passing out civil defense literature, much to Franny's embarrassment.

The story continues in that vein, focusing in on Franny's perspective, as she worries about school and friendships and is starting to notice boys (well, one boy), while the world seems to be in frightening chaos all around them. She tries to protect her little brother and her uncle, while her older sister is getting involved in protests at college with a new group of friends. Their father is in the air force, which makes the threats of nuclear attack, Communism, and potential war all the more frightening.

What makes the books in this series so special is that the author integrates real-life documentary-style media throughout: quotes from magazines, ads from the time, headlines and excerpts from newspapers, posters from schools featuring duck and cover drills, and excerpts from social studies textbooks of the time. In the print version, all of this is interspersed with the narrative, scrapbook-style. I worried I would miss some of that by listening to the audio, but the audio book is equally immersive, with real TV and radio ads, recordings of Walter Cronkite reading the news, radio programs, and even John F. Kennedy addressing the nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis. This helps today's kids to better understand exactly what Franny and her family and friends are experiencing, and it provides a fascinating window to the past for us adults. Integrating all of those primary sources with the story narrative is very powerful, as Franny deals with both ordinary kid problems and extraordinary world events. Franny is a very likable and relatable narrator, and the other characters are equally interesting and realistic. I absolutely love these books and will definitely be reading book 3. And I hope that teachers are using these books in the classroom!

400 pages, Scholastic

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - C

Literary Escapes Challenge - Maryland

Big Book Summer

 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. In the sample, you can hear some of those historical audio clips

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too). This sample is from part of Franny's narration.

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   
  

Fiction Review: The Women

My first audio book for this year's Big Book Summer Challenge was The Women by Kristin Hannah. I always enjoy her novels and had heard good things about this one, but this book astounded me. It was an absolutely stunning novel that will stick with me for a long time.

Frances "Frankie"  McGrath is just twenty years old in 1965 when she graduates from nursing school and decides to follow in her brother's footsteps. He's in the Air Force and has been sent to Vietnam, so Frankie signs up for the Army Nurse Corps. Her father is always talking about their family's proud history of service to the country (he even has a family "hero wall" in their house), but when Frankie announces her decision, he's not proud of her; he's angry. Both of her parents feel that Frankie should stay home, get married, and have children like a respectable woman, but Frankie heads to boot camp. A year later, she is shipped out to Vietnam. Frankie has almost no nursing experience, and in boot camp, the nurses were mostly taught how to roll bandages and change bed pans. But this is real life and real war. Frankie meets her new roommates, Barb and Ethel, and that very first day, she's thrown into the deep end when helicopters with wounded soldiers begin to arrive. She's immediately surrounded by blood, missing limbs, and dying boys. Though ill-equipped at first, Frankie soon becomes a surgical nurse and is eventually one of the most skilled nurses there. 

The three women finally return home, with their minds filled with the horrors of war, and try to go back to their lives. They return to a changed America, where veterans are no longer revered but reviled, and war protestors scream terrible things at them. Frankie's father will barely speak to her, and her mother expects her to settle down and get married. But Frankie suffers from horrible nightmares and crippling flashbacks (what would later be known as PTSD). Worst of all, when she says she was in Vietnam--even at the VA--people tell her over and over that there were no women in Vietnam. Her life is a mess, and she doesn't know where to turn,. She, Barb, and Ethel have become lifelong friends, and they're the only ones who truly understand. Frankie's path to normalcy and health is a long, slow, twisting one, but by the time the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is dedicated in 1982, both she and the nation have begun to heal.

Where to start? Everything about this novel is completely engrossing and powerful. It's clear the author did a lot of research for this novel, including first-person accounts by women nurses who went to Vietnam and returned home, as well as details about the time periods. In an author's note, she explains that she's wanted to write this novel for a long time but felt she wasn't a good enough writer to do the story justice until now. It was worth the wait. The details--both during the war and of Frankie's experiences afterward--are vivid, horrifying, and realistic. I was very young during the war, but I remember my cousin and uncle being drafted and going to Vietnam, an experience that changed their lives forever. In fact, my uncle died from cancer (and suffered lots of other health problems) caused by Agent Orange. 

But this novel isn't just about the horrors of war. The reader experiences everything along with Frankie: the comradery among the troops, the need to let go and have fun once in a while even in the midst of war, the fierce friendships formed, and even the passion and love that develop between people put in such pressure-cooker situations. The audio was very well done, narrated by the talented Julia Whelan, and completely immersive; I couldn't bring myself to start another audio for a week after finishing it because it was still living in my head. This was an amazing, epic novel I won't forget that brings to light the contributions (and heavy price paid) of these brave women whose role and impact was mostly overlooked. It's a stunning, powerful story and so important to tell.

480 pages, St. Martin's Press

Macmillan Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Vietnam

Literary Escapes Challenge - California

Big Book Summer Challenge

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from an early chapter, at Frankie's brother's going-away party.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     
  

Fiction Review: Honey

Back in 2017, I had the pleasure of reading a wonderful novel, Edgar and Lucy (my review at the link), and meeting its author, Victor Lodato, at Booktopia. He and his book were favorites of my mom and me at the event that year, so I was thrilled to hear he has a new novel out this spring, Honey. When he sent me a copy to review, he explained, "This novel is my whole heart," and it shows. I finished this beautiful novel with tears in my eyes and hugged it to my chest. It's that good.

Eighty-something Honey has returned to her hometown in New Jersey. As a young woman, Honey escaped this world--her father's world--first to college, then to New York, and finally to Los Angeles, where she lived a happy life. Her father was a powerful mob boss, strictly ruling both his business and his family, and Honey saw some horrific violence as a teenager. She escaped to the world of art and enjoyed a successful career in auction houses on both coasts. But after her two closest friends in LA both died, Honey decided to finally go back home, to reckon with her violent past and hopefully make peace with it. At first, it seems as though nothing in her family has changed, except the faces. Her parents are gone, but her nephew now heads up the family business. In a short span of time, a quirky, unrefined new neighbor named Jocelyn--wearing overalls, of all things!--drives into her young cherry tree, her grandnephew Michael bursts into her home asking for money and looking like he's on drugs, and her Lexus gets stolen. Old resentments bubble to the surface, and Honey is torn between forgiveness and revenge. As she battles her rage, Honey encounters a young painter who seems quite talented, attends too many funerals of old friends (and enemies), makes a new friend, and falls in love. Through it all, she tries to come to terms with her family and her own assumptions about the world around her.

This beautifully written novel explores the full range of human emotions and love in all its forms. My copy is filled with bookmarked funny or insightful or thoughtful quotes. Honey is a flawed but extraordinary character, who is still capable of change at her advanced age. She doesn't think change is even possible at the beginning of the story, but as she struggles with unexpected situations and previously hidden emotions, she even surprises herself. Honey is at the center of the novel, but the other characters are just as well-drawn and interesting. This isn't just a character-driven novel, though. As with Edgar and Lucy, there are plenty of surprises in store for the reader (and for Honey as well), as well as a wonderful sense of humor. This novel is about love, loss, aging, art, forgiveness, and second chances--it's about life, with all of its complexities, sorrows, and unexpected joys. And the ending is absolutely perfect.

400 pages, Harper

Harper Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - New Jersey
 

 Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. Sample from the beginning--I love the narrator!

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (a different audio sample here, with a glimpse into Honey's LA life).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

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Fiction Review: My Beloved Life

One of the last books I finished for Booktopia, held at Northshire Bookstore, was My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar. It was my mom's favorite book at Booktopia this year, and the author was very entertaining and interesting at the event. This novel is a beautifully written account of one man's life against a fascinating historical backdrop.

In 1935 in a rural village in northeastern India, near the Tibetan border, Jadunath Kunwar is born in a small hut. His family are farmers, but they want their son to be educated and send him to schools in nearby towns that offer more. Eventually, Jadu attends college in Patna, a small city in the region. There, he and his first-year history classmates attend high tea in the governor's residence to celebrate Tenzing Norgay's triumph of summiting Everest, as the Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary. Meeting Norgay has quite an impact on Jadu, who finishes his history degree and then stays on to begin teaching at the college. Jadu sees that the world is a much larger place than he knew from his childhood in the village. Classmates become good friends who go on to become poets, activists, and politicians. Eventually, Jadu marries and has a daughter, Jugnu, who enjoys a happy childhood with her parents in Patna. Jugnu goes to college herself, for journalism. A disaster in her personal life throws her into despair for a while, but she ends up getting a job with CNN in Atlanta, moving across the globe, talking to her father on the phone each week, and reflecting on both her own life and her father's.

While the focus here, as the title indicates, is on one man's life, Jadu's experiences are shown against the stunning backdrop of history, as in his lifetime, he witnesses world-changing events in India and beyond. In this way, this moving, very personal story is set against national events and universal truths. As the reader, we go along with Jadu, through joys and sorrows, loves and losses, and the various stages of life. The novel is filled with thoughtful passages that I marked for my Quote Journal, like this line from one of Jadu's college friends telling Jadu about his father's death:

"Tragedy is a demon that has a tail attached to it. The tail is the lesson that you are supposed to draw from the tragedy. This is the truth that civilization has recognized through the ages so that you don't feel robbed of everything."

The beauty here lies in both the ordinary aspects of a person's life as well as the extraordinary events that shape both a life and a nation. It's a tender, warm, witty story that is both eye-opening and relatable.

332 pages, Alfred A. Knopf

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Monthly Motif Challenge - "Face Off" - book with a face on the cover - I think this counts!

Alphabet Soup Challenge - M

Diversity Challenge - and mini challenge for May: southeast Asian

Travel the World in Books - India

Literary Escapes Challenge - Georgia
 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/ordownload it from Audible. It's narrated beautifully by the author (sample is from the first chapter).

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  

Fiction Review: Sipsworth

A popular favorite book from this year's Booktopia was Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy. Simon is a prolific author who's written almost a dozen novels, but this was my first experience reading one of his books, and it didn't disappoint. It's the joyful, uplifting story of an elderly woman who finds community and a reason to live through an unexpected source.

Helen lived in Australia for decades, but after her husband and son both die, she decides to return to the small English village where she grew up. At eighty-three years old, she lives alone in a small cottage, sticks to the same routine week after week, rarely interacting with another human, and is mostly just waiting to die. One cold, wet night, Helen looks out her window and sees a neighbor carry a strange box out to the curb for trash pick-up the next day. Bored and curious, Helen puts on her robe and slippers and goes out to investigate; sometimes people throw away interesting things. The box turns out to be a large glass fish tank with a bunch of smaller boxes inside it. Then Helen spots a colorful piece of plastic inside: a deep sea diver. Her son had one exactly like it. He'd picked it out at the pet store on his 13th birthday, and it came in a set for his new aquarium. Is this one part of a set, too? Wracked with memories both painful and comforting and without really thinking about what she's doing, Helen carries the fish tank filled with boxes into her own house. The next day, she'll go through the boxes to see what treasures are inside. But the tank includes something Helen hadn't expected that she won't notice until tomorrow: a small mouse. Though she initially tries to get rid of it (with hilarious results), the mouse ultimately changes Helen's life and helps her to connect with other people in her community.

That seems like a tall order for a little mouse, doesn't it? But this is a very special mouse that comes into Helen's life just when she needs something (someone) to care for. They need each other. This is a warm, gentle story, though there are plenty of unexpected plot twists and funny moments to move the narrative along. Van Booy has created a wonderful main character and a fabulously compassionate, engaging story. As much as I enjoyed the novel, I loved it even more after listening to the author speak at Booktopia. He was an incredibly entertaining speaker who had us all laughing throughout his session, but what really moved me was his explanation of the things in his own life that inspired the story. After all, how can a relatively young man write convincingly about an isolated old woman who has given up on life? Well, he volunteers both as an EMT and in elderly care homes, where he has bonded with some of the residents. And he experienced that kind of loneliness and isolation when many of us did, during the lock-down period at the start of the pandemic. He alleviated some of his isolation with a pet mouse, and his respect and love for the intelligent little creatures comes through on the page as Helen discovers the attributes of her own mouse. This is a beautiful story of love, community, and healing that will put a smile on your face. I want to read some of Van Booy's backlist now!

NOTE: I considered including some of the many quotes I highlighted in this novel, to show you its warmth and humor, but I didn't want to deprive potential readers of the delight in coming across these gems themselves.

240 pages, David R. Godine

HighBridge, division of Recorded Books

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - S

Travel the World with Books - UK
 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the beginning of the novel, as Helen discovers the discarded aquarium.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    
  

Fiction Review: You Are Here

One of the books I read for Booktopia, the event I attended last weekend in Vermont, was You Are Here, a novel by Karin Lin-Greenberg that I listened to on audio. The author has written two short story collections and won numerous awards for her stories, but this is her first novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this warm, funny, moving story of a disparate group of people whose paths all cross in a suburban mall.

Tina is a Chinese-American hair stylist who works (often alone) in the mall's hair salon. She's the single mother of an inquisitive nine-year-old boy named Jackson who sweeps up hair in the salon and wants to know who his father was. Tina secretly watches YouTube videos about drawing and painting and wishes she could have pursued a career as an artist, though that wouldn't pay the bills. Jackson, protecting his mother as she protects him, secretly watches videos of magicians and illusionists and dreams of becoming one. He's gotten to know a sixteen-year-old girl named Maria, who works in the food court, dressed as a chicken, though Maria wants to be an actress and hopes to get the lead role (ironically, Maria in West Side Story) in her high school play. Jackson is planning to do a magic show for his school's talent show and wants Maria to be his beautiful assistant. Ro is an elderly woman who gets her hair done by Tina at the salon each week. She's lonely since her husband's death and is very fond of Jackson. A few stores away is a bookstore where Kevin works. Kevin lives in a tiny house in his in-law's backyard, next-door to Ro, along with his wife and their twins. Kevin is white and his wife is Black, and he thinks that Ro is a racist. Ro thinks Kevin is lazy, though Kevin does dream of finishing his PhD and being successful--he just doesn't know what he should do. All of these characters are concerned because of rumors that the mall, which is usually mostly empty, will soon be shut down.

This is a slice of life novel, as these very different people all meet and interact at the mall (and at home, too, for some of them). They each have private secrets and dreams and want something better for themselves than where they are now. Ro is looking back more than looking forward, with memories and regrets, though she has an opinion about everyone. While this is a very character-driven novel about ordinary people, there is also a propelling plot, with a horrible trauma that occurs at the mall and affects every one of them. Lin-Greenberg is an absolute genius at character development, so the reader gets to know each of the characters intimately through their chapters and perspectives. Her dialogue is lively, realistic, and often funny, and this novel was a joy to listen to on audio, though it does tackle some difficult topics. My mother and I agreed that this was one of our favorites of the Booktopia selections this year.

304 pages, Counterpoint, LLC

HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - Y

Diversity Challenge

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the excellent audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!
 

    
 

Fiction Review: The Half Moon

In February, I finally read Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, as a Buddy Read, with a Booktube friend in Singapore (my review at the link). She and I both loved the intricate family drama and really enjoyed discussing it. So, I was thrilled when I spotted Mary Beth Keane on the author list for Booktopia, an annual event I attend each spring! I read her more recent novel (now out in paperback), The Half Moon, and found it to be another winner.

Malcolm seems to be living his dream, owning a bar called the Half Moon where he has worked since he was a young man, talking and laughing with familiar patrons each night, and married to the love of his life, Jess. But underneath the surface, there are several storms brewing. As the novel opens, a real-life winter storm is headed toward Gillam, NY, (the same town as in Ask Again, Yes). In the last hours before Malcolm closes the bar for the approaching storm, he gets some devastating news about Jess, who left him months earlier, saying she needed time to herself. When Malcolm awakes the next morning to find the power is out and the entire town is snowed in, he also gets a visit from the police who tell him that one of his bar's regulars has disappeared. And only a few people, including Jess, know that Malcolm and the bar are in deep financial trouble. It's the perfect storm, as all of these crises collide in one freezing cold, snowbound week in a small town.

While the present-day action all takes place over a week, flashbacks and characters' memories fill the reader in on all that led up to this week: how Jess and Malcolm met fifteen years ago, their hopes and dreams, their long struggle with infertility, the history of the bar, and what Jess has been doing since she left Malcolm. There are plenty of intriguing plot twists here, but as in Ask Again, Yes, the focus is on relationships and the characters' interior lives. In particular, this novel explores midlife, with all of its joys and sorrows, routines and disruptions, surprises and disappointments, all within a small town setting where everyone knows everyone else. I love this kind of emotional complexity in a novel with such layered real-feeling characters. Malcolm and Jess are dealing with a lot, and things seem pretty dark in the middle of the novel, but Keane wraps it up perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed this thoughtful, warm story about relationships, changes, and forgiveness. I can't wait to meet the author this weekend!

296 pages, Scribner

Simon & Schuster Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge
 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

3 Great Middle-Grade Audio Books - Mini Reviews

In March, I participated in Middle-Grade March and the Fierce Reads event for International Women's Month. I listened to three excellent middle-grade novels on audio, all by women authors and featuring fierce female characters (and with great female narrators). The first was historical fiction, and the other two were modern-day realistic fiction. My brief reviews are below, and you can also check out my review of The Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang, a middle-grade graphic novel I also read in March.

My first middle-grade audio was Iceberg by Jennifer Nielsen. I'm a longtime fan of Nielsen's middle-grade historical fiction (like Lines of Courage and A Night Divided), and as you might guess from the title, this one is about the Titanic. Twelve-year-old Hazel is on a mission to save her family after her father's death. Her mother has sent her to the docks to board the Titanic for New York, where Hazel's aunt has promised her a job in a garment factory, so she can send money home to keep her siblings from starving. But when Hazel tries to buy a ticket, she finds that all of her family's savings isn't enough for the fare for even a third-class ticket. She finds a way on board as a stowaway. Luckily, she makes some friends on board, including Charlie, a boy working as a porter, and Sylvia, a girl her age in First Class. With a dream of becoming a journalist one day, Hazel begins to hear rumors about the ship that make the reporter in her interested--and wary--so she sets out to investigate and learn more. We all know how the Titanic's story ends, so there is plenty of suspense here, as well as fascinating historical details. It was an excellent novel with a wonderful main character (and yes, don't worry--she survives).

 352 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

Monthly Motif Challenge - "Thrill Me" - this was a historical thriller

Travel the World in Books - UK (and Atlantic Ocean!)

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

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Next, I listened to Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy, my first novel from this very popular YA author (this is her first middle-grade novel). Twelve-year-old Sweet Pea feels torn apart by her parents' divorce, despite their efforts to keep everything "normal." She splits her time between her mom's house and her dad's, which are identical homes two doors down from each other! They've divorced because her father has come out as gay. She's also still grieving the loss of her first-ever best friend, Kiera, who's found prettier, thinner, more popular girls to hang out with. Luckily, Sweet Pea has Oscar, her new best (only) friend and her cat, Cheese. Her strange elderly neighbor asks Sweet Pea to help out while she travels to stay with her ill sister, and Sweet Pea makes some pretty big mistakes but also learns and grows. I enjoyed this warm, funny novel, focusing on several common adolescent issue--like divorce, life changes, and secrets--between Sweet Pea, Kiera, and Oscar and what it means to be a friend.

288 pages, Balzer + Bray

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - D

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Texas

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

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My last middle-grade audio book in March was Home Away from Home by Cynthia Lord, an author I have enjoyed in the past. Mia and her mom always visit her grandma in Maine every summer, but this year, Mia's there alone. Her mom and her boyfriend are working to sell their old house and find a new one, for "a fresh start." Mia wishes everything would stay the same, but she loves visiting her grandma in the small, seaside town. Things are different there this year, though, too. Mia meets grandma's neighbor, Cayman, who's her age and seems to have made himself at home at grandma's house! The two kids spot an unusual white bird of prey when they go to check on the baby eaglets the town is known for, and Mia launches an investigation. This was a wonderful middle-grade novel that deals with lots of typical adolescent issues, including divorce and friendship, as well as the perils of social media, with a hefty dose of nature added in (which I loved).

224 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Literary Escapes - Maine

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

You can buythe book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Middle-Grade Review: Parachute Kids

One of my choices for Middle-Grade March and Fierce Women Reads was Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang. I'd heard a lot about this middle-grade graphic novel, and it lived up to my expectations. The novel was informative, engrossing, and entertaining.

Ten-year-old Feng-Li and her family are traveling from Taiwan to California for a family vacation in 1981. She's very excited and has been poring over guidebooks, picking out all the sites she wants to see. Her parents, older brother and sister, and she do have a nice week-long vacation. But then their parents break the news: the kids will be staying in America to get away from the volatile situation at home and to get a better education. Dad is returning home to go back to work, so he can support the family, and Mom plans to stay with the kids, in the house they bought. The kids all choose American first names because their Taiwanese names are too difficult for Americans to pronounce. After a month, though, mom has to return to Taiwan, too, when the U.S. won't extend her visa. There are good family friends from Taiwan who live in the same town with their daughter, Olivia, having immigrated a few years earlier. For the most part, though, sixteen-year-old Jessie, fourteen-year-old Jason, and Feng-Li with her new name, Ann, are on their own. They all have major challenges. Jessie knows English the best of the three, but she's the closest to college age and must be ready to take the SAT in less than a year. Jason has a secret and got in a lot of trouble in Taiwan; the only kids who talk to him at school are a group of Chinese boys (other parachute kids) who probably aren't the best influence. And poor Ann jumps into fifth grade without knowing a single word of English. She misses her friends and her old school, where she was a good student. At the same time, they have to manage a household, take care of the house, and get along with each other! They each make some mistakes and bad choices along the way, and Ann feels like it's up to her to keep her family together.

There is so much depth and complexity in this graphic novel! The issues these three kids are dealing with are huge, including some very adult issues. Their parents didn't abandon them, and both are trying to get new visas to come back, but the process takes a long time. I had never heard the term "parachute kids" before, but apparently, it's a fairly common experience (and one that has grown exponentially in the last decade) for Chinese parents to send their kids to the U.S. for a better education. Often, they have a host family to stay with or live in dormitories at private schools, but sometimes kids like the Lins must fend for themselves. I found news articles on the phenomenon in a Palo Alto high school newspaper and the New York Times. The novel provided an inside view to what it is like for these kids, living without their parents and trying to assimilate into American life. And it showed the language barrier by using yellow dialogue bubbles for Taiwanese and white for English. The author explains in a note at the end that she and her siblings were parachute kids in 1979, and her deep understanding of the challenges is evident. Despite the often harrowing subject matter, the novel is also entertaining, with a great sense of humor, and illustrates the love the siblings have for each other (behind the typical bickering!). I enjoyed reading it very much, and I feel like I better understand how difficult it is for kids like these.

(Note: the novel is written from Feng-Li's perspective, which is why it's middle-grade, but the teens' struggles are addressed as well, so it might appeal to older readers, too.) 

283 pages, Graphix (imprint of Scholastic)

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

Alphabet Soup Challenge - P

Diversity Challenge & mini-challenge for March: #ownvoices

Literary Escapes Challenge - California

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. This sample is a note from the beginning, explaining about the Taiwanese language and accents in the audio.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too). This sample is from the main part of the book, so it shows the different voices and accents, along with sound effects. I wouldn't normally recommend an audio of a graphic novel, but this one might be an exception to better understand the language barrier.

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!