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!

 

      <script
      src="https://bookshop.org/widgets.js"
      data-type="book"
      data-affiliate-id="1993"
      data-sku="9780063309616"></script>      
  

Teen/YA Review: I Am Not Alone

I'm a longtime fan of Francisco X. Stork, who wrote (my reviews at the links) Irises, Marcello in the Real World, The Memory of Light, Disappeared, and its sequel, Illegal. Like The Memory of Light, his latest novel,  I Am Not Alone, provides a realistic, enlightening picture of what it feels like to struggle with mental illness. I was engrossed by this excellent audio book.

Alberto is an undocumented older teen, living with his sister, Lupe, and her baby in Brooklyn. They live with Lupe's abusive boyfriend, Wayne. Alberto wants her to leave Wayne, but they rely on him and live in his apartment. Alberto works hard for Wayne, doing maintenance and repair work on the apartments he manages, and sends most of the money he earns back home to Mexico, to help support their family, including a sick sister. His real talent--and love--is for pottery. Lately, though, Alberto has begun to hear a man's voice talking to him, and it's saying disturbing things. It's not like thoughts in his head, but like a voice outside of him that no one else can hear. Even more strange is that it talks to him in English, while he still thinks mostly in Spanish. One day, Wayne sends Alberto to do a job in a nice apartment in another building, and he meets Grace. She is about his age but seems to have a perfect life. She's an excellent student, on track to be valedictorian and attend Princeton pre-med, and she has a wealthy, perfect-seeming boyfriend. Beneath the surface, though, Grace has been struggling ever since her parents' divorce. She's no longer sure about anything in her life or even if she's on the right path. Alberto and Grace meet that day and become friends, each confiding their fears to the other, as Alberto's voice gets more urgent, trying to force him to do terrible things, and harder to ignore.

As with all of Stork's novels, this one fully immerses the reader/listener in the characters' lives, here showing what it feels like to deal with the disturbing voices Alberto hears (which an author's note explains might be schizophrenia or any of several other mental illnesses). The topic is handled here with compassion, as are Grace's problems. Alberto's undocumented status is simply a fact here, that complicates his getting the help he needs, rather than a main subject. The two new friends find comfort and support in each other during difficult times for both of them. There is also plenty of suspense here, as Alberto starts to have memory black-outs and ends up running from the police who suspect him of a horrific crime. All of that tension, though, comes to a satisfying conclusion for both main characters. The audio production was excellent, with two narrators reading Alberto's and Grace's chapters. I was fully engaged in this moving, suspenseful story, and I learned a lot about mental illness.

(Another outstanding YA novel about this kind of mental illness is Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman (my review at the link), based in part on the author's son's own experiences with schizoaffective disorder and accompanied by drawings from his son that show his declining mental health.)

320 pages, Scholastic

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - New York

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/ordownload it from Audible. The sample is from the start of the novel and gives a great introduction to Alberto's life.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (same 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: Our Missing Hearts

My first book read in the new year was a Christmas gift from my son and his girlfriend, Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. I had never read anything by this author and really wanted to give her a try. This latest novel of hers has a scary real-life dystopian setting but with a lot of heart and a touch of hope.

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives with his father in a dorm room in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his dad works as a librarian. Bird is half-Chinese, and his father his white. His dad used to be a professor of linguistics, but after Bird's mother left, his dad lost his position and they left their house with the wonderful garden his mom had planted. Bird's real name is Noah, and everyone calls him that now, but in his head, he's still Bird. His mother left suddenly and without warning three years ago, and Bird doesn't know why, only that a book she wrote had been banned. His father gives him strict instructions to walk straight home from school each day, following the route he outlined, with no detours or stops. In spite of this, sometimes Bird notices strange things, like the street in front of their dorm painted red overnight, or a group of maples on the common yarn-bombed, dripping with red yard and a sign reading "Our Missing Hearts." One day, a letter arrives addressed to Bird, and he knows it must be from his mother, since no one else calls him that. There's no return address, just a New York, NY postmark, and nothing inside but a single sheet of paper, covered with drawings of cats: sitting cats, sleeping cats, playing cats, cats--big and small--all over the page. It tickles an old memory in Bird's mind, and he struggles to retrieve it. As Bird begins to investigate the meaning of the letter and where his mother may have disappeared to, helped by a local librarian, it sets him off on a perilous journey to find out what happened to his mother.

I haven't described much about the world that Bird lives in, a near-future dystopia with chilling connections to what's happening in our own world, because the book is written from his perspective. As Bird slowly figures out what is happening in the wider world and all that his father has protected him from, the reader comes along on that journey of discovery. From Bird's school assignments, answering questions and writing essays about a law called PACT, to the art-based protests Bird witnesses to the way that people treat him, Bird eventually begins to put the pieces together, all leading him back toward his mother. Bird is a wonderful main character and guide to this changed world so like our own. His innocence and his love for his mother guide his actions, and we get to come along. It's a heartbreaking story of a society that has lost its way and is now led by fear, but it is also a beautiful, moving story of the power of the mother-child bond and of art to guide change. I was completely immersed in Bird's world and was rooting for things to turn out OK for him and his family. While frightening in its connections to our own world and elements that we see today in society, there is a thread of hope in the ending, and I loved the role that librarians play in that hope!

331 pages, Penguin Books

Penguin Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge (starting the year off right!)

Motif Challenge - "Red Carpet Reads" (award nominee or winner) - Booklist Editor's Choice award

Alphabet Soup Challenge - O

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Massachusetts 

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. Audio is read by Lucy Liu and sounds great!

 

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: How High We Go in the Dark

I've been hearing great things about How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu ever since its release in January 2022 and saw it recommended by lots of top magazines and other review outlets. I listened to it on audio this month, and even with all that advance hype, this very unique novel told in widely varying stories over generations surprised me with its warmth, humor, and creativity. 

In the first of these linked stories, in 2030, Dr. Cliff Miyashiro has come to a remote site in Siberia where his daughter recently died so that he can finish her important work. Global warming has created a huge rift in the ice that grows larger every day, uncovering woolly rhinos and other extinct animals. His daughter, Clara, a scientist like himself, was working when she felt into the giant crevasse and discovered the perfectly preserved body of a young prehistoric girl before she died. Unfortunately, her colleagues also discovered the girl had died of an ancient virus that has now been unleashed. The next story, City of Laughter, takes place a few years later in California. A young man and struggling comic takes a job in a euthanasia park for the "arctic plague's" youngest victims. Since there are not yet any cures, and the end stages of the disease are painful and horrific, parents and their dying children can stay in the park, so their kids can have one last day filled with laughter and fun before their hearts are stopped painlessly during one last exciting rollercoaster ride. While working there, he has an affair with one young mother and becomes very attached to her dying little boy. 

The stories mostly move forward in time, taking place mainly in California and Japan, each one focused on a different character, though you can often see connections to previous stories (for instance, there is a later story about Cliff's wife and their granddaughter, Clara's daughter). The stories paint a picture of the apocalyptic world, as the virus ravages populations and people come up with creative ways to deal with the virus, the dying, and the dead. Topics range from "elegy hotels," where bereaved families can spend a few more days with their disinfected, preserved loved one to a talking pig named Snortious P.I.G. who was created after splicing human DNA into pig DNA to grow and harvest more organs for transplant to changing Japanese customs after cemeteries become full. There is even a story set 100 years in the future, on a spaceship, where the crew has just woken up from stasis, as hundreds more people sleep on, to search for a habitable planet.

I hope you're still reading and didn't turn away at that second paragraph thinking, "Nope, too depressing for me!" Because that's the stunning thing about this book. In spite of its dark subject matter, this is a novel about the resilience of humanity, about the creativity and adaptability of our race. It is ultimately uplifting and even funny at times (I loved Snortious P.I.G.) ... and they do eventually discover a vaccine and cure for the virus. The stories range from amusing to poignant to surprising, but they are always deeply moving, delving into the essence of what makes us human. It is science fiction wrapped in a very character-driven, thought-provoking, philosophical approach. The writing is beautiful, and each individual story is completely immersive, especially in the excellent audio book with 15 different narrators. Characters of Asian descent are featured in every story, creating another connecting thread. You come to care for each character, so when you see him or her mentioned in a later story (that perhaps references that person tangentially or features a family member or friend), you smile at the connection because connections are a big part of this novel as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this original, compassionate novel about the essence of humanity that filled me with wonder and hope. Just writing about it here makes me want to start back at the beginning and listen to it again.

320 pages, William Morrow Paperbacks

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Japan

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook, from the first chapter of the novel, 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!

  
  

Nonfiction Review: The Zookeeper's Wife

Way back in 2007 when The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman was first released, I heard scores of rave reviews, so I added it to my want-to-read list (a very long list). Fast-forward to 2022 when I was visiting Little Free Libraries in my town--supposed to be just dropping off--and I spotted the book and snatched it up. I finally read it last month for Nonfiction November. Wow, what a stunning book! It was definitely worth the wait.

The book opens in 1935 in Poland, describing the beautiful world of the Warsaw Zoo, run by husband and wife Jan and Antonina Zabinski. Their zoo was filled with unique and fascinating animals in realistic habitats, with a large collection of exotic birds, reptiles and amphibians, animals from around the world, and animals unique to their region, like the European bison (I never knew there was such a thing!) and Przywalski horses. Their large, modern house on the premises was filled with a strange menagerie of baby or injured animals being nursed back to health, many of whom became family pets, beloved by their young son, Ryszard. It was a peaceful, harmonious, lovely place. Then in 1939, they woke one morning to the sounds of German warplanes, followed by weeks of bombs directly hitting the city--and the zoo--and soon, the Nazis marching in to invade in September 1939. The Nazis walled off a Jewish ghetto and began their process of restricting, then later ending their lives. The animals still left in the zoo, those not killed or run off by the bombing, were taken by a colleague of theirs, a German zookeeper they had previously been friends with and with whom they enjoyed discussing zoology during annual professional meetings. He assured them he was talking their most valuable animals back to Germany "to keep them safe." With few animals left, and Jan involved in the underground resistance, they used their connection with the German zookeeper, up high in the Nazi organization, to repurpose the zoo several times during the war, as a placed to raise animals for fur for the German armies and other uses. With Germans coming and going freely from their zoo and home, they also brazenly used their property to hide and save hundreds of Jews during the war, putting their own lives at risk.

This remarkable true story is told in a very effective way. The author used many primary sources, including Antonina's own diaries kept throughout the war, and the effect is to make you feel like you are right in the middle of what is happening. It is horrifying, shocking, and inspiring as the Zabinskis and their "guests" struggle with starvation, despair, and satisfying basic needs while never losing hope. They not only kept all those people safe but created a temporary home for them, filled with art, music, and conversation, all right under the noses of the Nazis. My husband was teasing me as I read this book because I kept reaching for my iPad while reading the book, to look up all kinds of fascinating details: animals I'd never heard of, sculptures and artwork created by their guests, real photos and videos of the Nazi invasion and all that came after it. To me, that is the best kind of nonfiction book: the kind that is fascinating and helps you learn a lot but also makes you want to know even more. Both the subject matter here and the way the story is told make for an engrossing, captivating book, which also includes photos. I'm so glad to have finally read it.

368 pages (but the text ends on page 323, with lots of extra details at the end), W.W. Norton & Company

Blackstone Audio

I just discovered this book was adapted into a movie that we definitely want to watch!

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif - Around or Out of this World - Poland

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I got a Z!

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Science (zoology)

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Poland

 

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!

 

Middle-Grade Review: A First Time for Everything

I finally have an iPad Mini to replace my very old Kindle, and I finally learned how to download review PDFs to it and open them up in the Books app. That means I am back to reviewing graphic novels (which went all digital last year). Yay! I missed them. The first one I read was a winner: A First Time for Everything, a graphic memoir by Dan Santat.

Dan wasn't very happy in middle school. Like many kids that age, he felt very self-conscious. He had some friends but found that the bullies in middle school were really mean. Then, a teacher asked him to recite a poem in front of the entire school at an assembly, and the teasing really ramped up. He was not looking forward to high school. His parents encouraged him to sign up for a three-week European study abroad program during the summer before high school, and he did, reluctantly. The only kids going that he knew from his school were some girls who were sort of mean to him usually, so Dan didn't have high hopes for the trip. But that trip changed his life. As the group from two cities traveles across Europe to four different countries, Dan experiences a string of firsts. He discovers a popular soda in Europe called Fanta, and aims to try every flavor. He makes new friends. He sees amazing things and, when his camera breaks, discovers how much he loves to draw. Maybe he'll even meet his first girlfriend?

Based on the author's real middle-school experiences taking a European trip, this graphic memoir captures the awkward, embarrassing, funny, and unforgettable moments of adolescence that most of us can relate to. It's part coming-of-age memoir and part travelogue, with the illustrations showing both traditional story-telling panels and also Dan's wonderful drawings of the trip and the things that they saw. It's a wonderful story that reminded me of my own trip to England and France in high school. I enjoyed every page of this beautiful graphic memoir.

320 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - F

Nonfiction Reader's Challenge (my first of the year!) - Memoir category

Travel the World in Books - UK, France, Switzerland, Germany

 

 

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!

 

 

Or you can order A First Time for Everything from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Reviews: Two Novels on Audio

I'm trying to catch up on my December reviews, so I can wrap up my 2022 reading! These were the last two audio books I listened to last year, two very different but gripping stories about young people that I enjoyed.

Since my husband and I both loved The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak (my review at the link), I was excited to hear he had a new book out, Hidden Pictures, a supernatural thriller. Mallory has had a rough start to life, getting addicted to painkillers after an injury while on her high school cross-country team. But she's completed rehab and is pulling her life back together. With the help of her sponsor, she gets a summer job as a nanny for a family in a nice suburb. She has their guest cottage in the back of the house all to herself, and she adores their cute five-year-old, Teddy. It seems like the perfect way to get back on her feet. She gets along well with Teddy's parents, Ted and Caroline, and settles in. She and Teddy bond and spend their days drawing (one of Teddy's favorite activities), playing pretend, and swimming in the backyard pool. Then strange things begin to happen: Teddy's usually typical kid drawings take a sinister turn, Mallory hears strange noises outside at night, and Teddy's imaginary friend becomes menacing. What is really going on here? Mallory wonders if it has to do with the rumor of a long-ago murder on the property. Is there such a thing as ghosts? 

This unique thriller ratchets up the tension, as Mallory's idyllic days with Teddy turn frightening. But the truth is even stranger than she suspects, with plenty of surprises in store for the reader. I really liked Mallory and Teddy and was rooting for them, as the suspense grew. I finished this compelling story in record time.

384 pages, Flatiron Books

Macmillan Audio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - New Jersey

 

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, narrated by Suzy Jackson (!), and/or download it from Audible.

 

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! Purchase Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak.

__________

 

My last audio book of 2022 was Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson. I'd enjoyed his mix of wit, warmth, and thoughtfulness in Perfect Little World and found the same in this new novel. Here, the story is framed by thirty-six-year-old Frankie Budge looking back on the summer when she was sixteen that changed her life and continues to affect her. Back then, Frankie felt as though she didn't fit into her small town in Tennessee or even with her older triplet brothers. Her father left them and their mom to start over with another woman. Then Frankie meets Zeke, a fellow loner who is staying with his grandmother for the summer with his mom because his father left them, too. The two of them bond that summer. Frankie wants to be a writer (she is working on an anti-Nancy Drew novel), and Zeke loves to draw, so they decide to create art together. When they find an old copy machine in Frankie's garage, they create a poster, with Zeke's art and Frankie's text: "The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us." They're proud of their co-creation and make copies to post all over town. But instead of people marveling at the creative artwork, the community panics and begins coming up with all kinds of crazy theories: it's a cult, it's satanists, etc. All of a sudden, their fun art project has taken on a life of its own and is out of their control. Twenty years later, a journalist contacts Frankie about The Coalfield Panic of 1996, suspecting that Frankie had something to do with it.

This is a fun, thoughtful, propulsive coming-of-age story. It's about friendship, being a teen, first love, and the power of art to change the world. As with most Kevin Wilson novels, it is a wholly unique story, with a sense of humor, even as things turn darker. It's made all the more provocative by the addition of Frankie's perspective as an adult, twenty years later. The author's note at the end makes it all the more intriguing. I thoroughly enjoyed this fun, thought-provoking novel.

256 pages, Ecco

Harper 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.

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by Ginnifer Goodwin, and/or download it from Audible.

 

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! Purchase Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson.

Fiction Review: Horse

I have a weird relationship with novelist Geraldine Brooks. Whenever I hear about one of her novels, I always think, "I'm not interested in that." Then, I read it (often for book group) and absolutely love it! So, when I heard about her latest novel, Horse, I again thought I wasn't interested in reading a novel about a racehorse (even though I just read and loved Seabiscuit for Nonfiction November). But, my neighborhood book group chose it for December, so I listened to it on audio, and ... you guessed it! I thoroughly enjoyed this engrossing story spanning more than 150 years.

In 2019, a young man named Theo, a Nigerian-American art history graduate student attending Georgetown University, is searching for a subject for his thesis. One day, he sees that his neighbor across the street has set out a bunch of old furniture and other household items on the sidewalk with a sign saying "Free." As he's walking by, Theo spots a painting. He pulls it out and sees it's a small painting of a horse, with a Black boy standing next to it. Intrigued, he pulls it from the giveaway pile and begins looking into it. Meanwhile, Jess, a young Australian woman who works at the Smithsonian putting together animal skeletons, hears about a missing horse skeleton from a colleague in the UK who suspects it may be stored at the Smithsonian. Jess finds the skeleton in storage and begins to work on it. Back in 1850, a Black boy named Jarret lives on a Kentucky horse farm. His adopted father, Harry, is a free man, thanks to his skill at training horses that allowed him to earn money and buy his freedom. When a new foal is born on the farm, Harry and the farm's owner give it to Jarret to train himself. As the horse grows, a traveling painter named Thomas Scott comes to the farm and is hired to paint the horses. Unfortunately, Jarret's life with his beloved horse does not unfold as he expected, and the two of them end up in Louisiana, where they again encounter Scott. Meanwhile, in the present day, Theo and Jess meet and work together to investigate the mystery of the horse from its skeleton and its painting.

Brooks is talented at weaving together an intricate story of different people in different time periods whose lives intertwine (much as she did in People of the Book). Her characters are three dimensional and interesting, and I came to care about them. As always in her historical fiction, she's taken a fascinating real-life but little-known piece of history and built a fully fleshed-out story around it. You can read the true story of the discovery of this horse, his trainer, and the painter in this article from Smithsonian magazine. The audio production was excellent, with multiple narrators reading the chapters from different characters' perspectives, which helped to bring them all to life. The narrative skillfully moves from past to present and back again, creating a sense of suspense in this already compelling story that is not only about horses and racing but also about art, history, racism, and love. Once again, I enjoyed every moment of this captivating novel by Geraldine Brooks. Next time, I won't waffle about whether to read one of her novels!

416 pages, Viking

Penguin Audio

Two other Geraldine Brooks novels I enjoyed (besides People of the Book) were Year of Wonders and Caleb's Crossing (my reviews at the links).

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes - Louisiana

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, one of Theo's sections from the beginning of the novel, and/or download it from Audible.

 

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!

  

   

 

Or you can order Horse from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

Nonfiction Review: These Precious Days

I usually try to write my reviews in the order I read the books, so according to that rule, I should be writing about another (very good) book, but I just finished listening to These Precious Days by Ann Patchett yesterday on audio, and I couldn't wait to tell you about this warm, funny, moving collection of personal essays by the renowned novelist.

Ann has put together a wonderful collection of personal essays, written at different points during her writing career. Some were previously published (there's even one that was a talk she gave), but she says that most were revised and updated for this collection. While the topics sort of jump around, as a whole they cover her entire life, from childhood to unsure young adult to author to bookstore owner. It's difficult to review such a varied group of essays, so I will highlight some of my favorites. In the first essay in the book, Three Fathers, Ann describes her biological father, her stepfather as a child, and her second stepfather when she was an adult. She talks about what makes each of them special and unique and delves into her relationships with each of them. Either here or later in the book, she also describes the end of each of their lives and her role. All of her father writing was very moving to me, as I lost my dad seven years ago and helped my father-in-law the past few years during his slow and difficult decline. 

But, I don't want you to think this is a depressing book. Certainly, Ann tackles some difficult topics--including death--with honesty and openness, but the collection is a lot of fun, too. She has a wonderful sense of humor, which comes across in many of her essays, including To the Doghouse, where she writes about how she was a Peanuts-obsessed child and how Snoopy was her greatest influence in wanting to become a writer. Beside the amusement of listening to this delightful essay, I could so relate to it, as a fellow Peanuts-ophile who read all the books and had Snoopy everything as a kid (I still wear a Snoopy watch!). Similarly, her descriptions of discovering Kate DiCamillo's magical books as an adult were pure pleasure that had me smiling ear-to-ear as I listened. The heart of this collection, though, is its title essay, These Precious Days, that recounts the bizarre chain of events that led her to a life-changing friendship with a woman. Sookie worked as Tom Hanks' assistant, and--through a series of events I will leave you to discover yourself--she ended up living with Ann and her husband in Nashville during the pandemic while undergoing cancer treatments. Ann writes about Sookie and the strange course of their relationship in a loving, tender way. In all, there are 22 essays here, and each one is unique and wonderful in its own way.

I loved every moment of this book! The essays are each very different, yet linked together in a way that paints a picture of Ann and her life, and the people she loves. She is very close to my own age, so there was a lot I could relate to in her memories of childhood and her relationships with her parents. But, I was also fascinated by the inside look into her life as a famous author and bookstore owner (I must get to Parnassus Books!). I wish I could share some quotes or excerpts with you, but that is one downside of listening to an audio book. However, I would definitely recommend listening to this book on audio, hearing these beautiful stories told directly by Ann (listen to a sample from the introduction). I always enjoy listening to memoirs read by the author, but this one is extra-special. I am, though, thinking of also getting the print copy of this book because I think this is one I will want to return to. This wonderfully-written collection of essays is moving, funny, heartfelt, and powerful. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

336 pages, Harper Perennial

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

Literary Escapes - Tennessee

 

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, read by Ann Patchett, from the introduction, and/or download it from Audible.

 

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!

     

 

Or you can order These Precious Days from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.