Fiction Reviews: House in the Cerulean Sea & Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Since its publication in 2020, I've heard nothing but rave reviews of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, but since I rarely read fantasy, I still hadn't read it (though I did enjoy Klune's Under the Whispering Door). When I heard that a sequel was being published, I quickly downloaded and listened to the audio of the original book and then listened to the new one, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. I was enchanted by both heartwarming books, with their original premises, thought-provoking topics, delightful humor, and a touch of suspense.

In The House in the Cerulean Sea, a man named Linus Baker takes his job very seriously. He is a case worker for The Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) and travels around to various orphanages and schools run by the department, to assess whether the children in their charge are being well cared for. One day, his careful routine is upended when he is summoned by Extremely Upper Management. They give him a highly classified assignment: to travel to

Marsyas Island and assess an unusual home where six especially dangerous magical children reside. The managers are clearly concerned about the safety of the rest of the world, but Linus is focused on the well-being of the children, as he always is. He arrives on the very remote Marsyas Island to its usual beautiful, tropical weather and is met by the caretaker of the home and the children, Arthur Parnussus. He introduces Linus to the very unusual children: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentified green blob with eye stalks, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. As Linus stays with them over the course of a month, he gets to know each of them--and Arthur--very well. Though Arthur's methods seem unorthodox (and Linus can quote the DICOMY rules and regulations), he begins to realize what a special place Marsyas is and what a special family Arthur has created here.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea picks up right where the first novel ends (no spoilers!), carrying on with the stories of Arthur, the children, and Linus. A short prologue is included about Arthur's first arrival back on the island, before he created the home. In the present day, Arthur has been invited to give testimony to the Council of Utmost Importance about his own time as a child under DICOMY's "care" and the abuses he suffered. As you might expect, things do not go quite as Arthur had hoped they would. Nevertheless, he is also in the city to pick up a new child to join their family, a yeti named David. Soon, the unusual family on Marsyas Island is fighting to hold onto the happy, peaceful life they have made for themselves.

The new sequel is just as delightful as the original novel. There is a bit more tension and suspense here, as Arthur and the children face potential perils, but the warmth and marvelous sense of humor remain. If you read The House in the Cerulean Sea in print, I highly recommend you give the audio a try for the sequel. Both audio books are such an absolute pleasure to listen to! I was just about to tell you that they each feature a full cast of talented narrators, but I was shocked to just discover it's only one person, professional actor Daniel Henning. I can't believe he did it all by himself because he's given each of the children their own unique voice. Much of the humor in the novels comes from the things the children say and observe, and hearing them say these things on audio is so much fun! I often laughed out loud (while walking, cooking, brushing my teeth). At the same time, both books are warm and tender, featuring beautiful, loving relationships that embrace diversity. These novels are full of hope and joy, and I loved living in this world for a while.

[NOTE: If you have not yet read the first book, then avoid reading the description of the sequel online or on the jacket; it's full of spoilers of the first book!]

The House in the Cerulean Sea - 416 pages, Tor 

Somewhere Beyond the Sea - 416 pages, Tor

Macmillan Audio

These books fit in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge

Big Book Summer Challenge
 

Disclosure: I received the sequel 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:

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

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

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Print and e-book from Amazon:

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

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 Ferryman

With my husband's encouragement, I chose The Ferryman by Justin Cronin from my stack of Big Books in late August. It was longer than some of the other books still in my pile, but he assured me it was a quick, gripping read. And he was right! This inventive novel from the author of The Passage trilogy (and a very different (not sci fi) novel,  The Summer Guest) took me on a rollercoaster ride, with surprises around every corner.

Proctor works as a Ferryman, a very respected position, on the island of Prospera. There was some sort of global crisis out in the wider world that resulted in the creation of this hidden, remote paradise. No one dies on Prospera. Mental, physical, and emotional health is constantly monitored, and when someone's rating starts to decline (and definitely before they hit 10%), they "retire." Ferryman like Proctor guide them through this transition phase and accompany them to a ferry, where they will travel to a neighboring island known as the Nursery. There, they will be "reiterated," eventually taking the ferry back to Prospera as a new 16-year-old iteration (with no memory of their past life/lives) to start fresh. Proctor remembers his own ferry ride to Prospera at 16, meeting his adoptive parents, Cynthia and Malcolm, who were delighted at his arrival. Now, Proctor enjoys his important job--and is very good at it--but he has started to have some difficulties. First, his mother dies (actually dies) in a very unexpected and unusual way, and now he's been summoned to retire his own father. Even more disturbing, Proctor has been dreaming, which isn't supposed to happen to Prosperans, and his dreams are increasingly disturbing. He begins to see cracks and flaws in their perfect society, as he wonders what is happening to him.

That is just the broad framework of the earliest chapters in this unique novel, which is continually surprising. As Proctor's journey continues, the reader goes along for the ride. Every time you think you have something figured out or know what's coming next, there is another shocking twist you never saw coming. It's a truly unique science fiction plot that provides insights into our own humanity and society (as the best sci fi does), like this passage:

"It's been my experience that a lot of human interaction comes down to just these sorts of exchanges, less an actual conversation than a form of parallel confession--the two parties performing their interior monologues, not really listening to each other but merely taking turns. I do not mean this cynically or as a statement of personal superiority; I'm as guilty as the next guy."
 

Cronin's writing pulls the narrative along at a fast pace; this was indeed a quick read because I couldn't bear to set it down. His characters are fully fleshed-out and feel real so that you are rooting for (or booing for) them throughout the story. I love this combination in a novel: unique, gripping plot with plenty of emotional depth and thoughtful insights. The end result is truly magical and a delight to read, and the ending was perfect. I wish I could read it again for the first time, not knowing what was coming.

538 pages, Ballantine Books

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - August: Seasons, Elements, Weather
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. It sounds great, with multiple narrators.

 

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 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: 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! 
  

 

Two Great Teen/YA Graphic Memoirs

I took advantage of Nonfiction November to  catch up on some graphic memoirs, and I read two of them that are perfect for teens and young adults (though I enjoyed them as an adult, too!).

Pénélope Bagieu has written and illustrated several graphic novels and graphic nonfiction books, including the award-winning Brazen, though her coming-of-age graphic memoir, Layers, was the first of her books I've read. I'm so glad I did! In it, she tells sixteen different stories about her life in France, covering the period from childhood to young adulthood, with warmth, emotional depth, and humor. Each of these is a separate vignette, not in chronological order, on a different topic, but together they paint a full picture of her early life and process of growing into an adult. Her first story is titled, Why Don't You Have a Cat?, and it tells the story of the kittens she and her sister got for Christmas when she was very young. But she had her cat for almost twenty years, and she tells stories of her relationship with her cat throughout those years, so we see every stage of her life through that lens, from small child to young adult. Some vignettes are very short and funny, like A Story About My Seduction Abilities, or short and dark, like the one-page story about noticing signs that a friend in school was being abused. Sometimes she digs a bit deeper into some serious topics, as in Deja Vu, where she compares, side-by-side, two instances of unwanted sexual attention, one as a child sleeping over at a friend's and another as a young adult. That one, like many of them, uses very creative story-telling techniques and makes maximum use of her drawing talents. These aren't illustrated stories but truly a graphic memoir, where the pictures tell the story. Often funny, sometimes thought-provoking, and always intimate, Layers is a truly unique, though very relatable, memoir that uses the graphic form perfectly.

144 pages, First Second

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction November - Published in 2023

Travel the World in Books - France

 

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!

 
  

Dreamer: Growing Up Black in the World of Hockey by Akim Aliu (co-written by Greg Anderson Elysee and illustrated by Karen de la Vega) is another coming-of-age graphic memoir with an international flavor but quite different. Akim was a professional hockey player in the NHL who here tells the story of the terrible racism he faced, from youth hockey all the way up to the pros. Akim's mother is Ukrainian and his father is Nigerian, and when he and his brother were children, they lived in both countries. As a biracial couple, his parents found prejudice and racism in both places--even from family members--so they moved the family to Canada, hoping to provide a better life for their sons. Life was generally better in Canada, but Akim and his brother were still often the only Black kids in their school or neighborhood. Akim fell in love with hockey from the first moment he saw it, and when his parents got him some used skates at a yard sale, they discovered he was a natural. He loved the sport and was very good at it. So good, in fact, that he qualified for an elite teen league in Canada. At age sixteen, he moved to a town four hours away from his family to live with a host family and play hockey. He eventually went pro and joined the NHL, but Akim encountered horrific, often violent racism at every step of his journey--from teammates, spectators, and most alarmingly, sometimes his own coaches. As dark as this story is, there's a happy ending because Akim started a foundation, the Hockey Diversity Alliance, and has dedicated his life to making hockey, the sport he loves, more inclusive and to stamping out racism on the ice and off. The way that he turned his pain around to help other kids is truly inspiring.

120 pages, Graphix (Scholastic)

If you want to know more, as I did, here's a short interview with Akim Aliu about his experiences and his important work.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Nonfiction November - Sport

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Canada (several different provinces)

 

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: When She Woke

Back in 2010, I read Mudbound, an award-winning historical novel by Hillary Jordan and loved it (and read it again for book group in 2019 - review here). So when Jordan published a second novel, When She Woke, I got it in 2011 as soon as it came out in paperback. And then ... it sat on my shelf! I can't explain why it took me so long to finally read it, but I'm glad I did. This future dystopian novel that riffs on A Scarlet Letter, with hints of The Handmaid's Tale, is entirely different than Mudbound but just as compelling and well-written.

"When she woke, she was red."

So begins the story of Hannah, a young woman in near-future Texas. In her society, all but the most violent criminals get their skin dyed a color to match their crime, to relieve prison overcrowding. Red means murder. Hannah spends her first month as a "red" in a small, transparent cell, with a live feed that people watch for entertainment, as she tries not to go mad from the isolation and boredom. While there, Hannah thinks back to the events that landed her there: her illicit love affair with a married man and her illegal abortion to protect his identity in a world where genetic testing is routinely carried out so that fathers will support their children. She also remembers her innocent past before she met the man, growing up in a very sheltered family, among a strict religious community. She is a seamstress who used to work for a bridal salon, and before the affair, her worst crime was secretly sewing beautiful (but not properly modest) dresses for herself, to wear in private. Now, after a month in the cell, she is released to the wider world, to begin her new life with red skin. Her mother refuses to speak with her, and her sister's controlling boyfriend won't let her contact Hannah, so she is almost alone in the world. Strangers avoid her on the street or openly harass her. Her father tries to help by sending her to a sort of halfway house, focused on reforming its female criminal residents. Hannah has a long road ahead of her, making a new life for herself and considering for the first time ever, what she thinks, apart from her family and church.

That's just the very beginning of the novel because I don't want to spoil this gripping tale filled with so many unexpected twists and turns. It is suspenseful and compelling but also immersive, as the reader inhabits Hannah's mind and sees everything through her eyes. Jordan has created an imaginative dystopian world here that, like the best dystopian fiction, is firmly rooted in our real world. Chillingly, some of the details she includes--like the pervasiveness of reality TV and the overturning of Roe v. Wade--have come to pass in our real world in the 12 years since the book was published. That rooting in the real world makes this novel very thought-provoking; it would be perfect for an open-minded book group discussion. Hannah is an absorbing main character and heroine, struggling against not only her sentence but over 20 years of indoctrination and being told not to think for herself. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this engrossing, original novel--it was worth the wait!

341 pages, Algonquin Books

Highbridge, Recorded Books

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge (this should count extra after sitting on my shelf for 12 years!)

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Texas

R.I.P. 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).

 

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: When Ghosts Come Home

For a while now, I've been hearing good things about author Wiley Cash, and I finally had a chance to read one of his novels. For this fall's R.I.P. Challenge, I listened to When Ghosts Come Home, a unique and intriguing mystery with plenty of emotional depth.

In 1984, Sheriff Winston Barnes and his wife, Marie, are woken from sleep by the roar of a low-flying plane in the wee hours of the morning. He gets up to investigate the small nearby airfield that services their community on an island off the coast of North Carolina. What he finds there is shocking: a small, private plane sitting sideways on the runway and a man dead from a gunshot lying nearby. Winston recognizes the victim as Rodney, a local Black man whom Winston knows to be a good, law-abiding man with a new baby at home. It appears the small plane was involved in the drug trade, but what was Rodney doing out there in the middle of the night? The next day, as Winston scrambles to secure the crime scene, his grown daughter, Colleen, shows up unexpectedly from Texas. Colleen and her husband recently lost their baby, and she has come home looking for comfort and escape from her all-encompassing sorrow. Winston goes to visit Rodney's widow, a young woman named Janelle. Janelle has a newborn baby to care for, and her fourteen-year-old brother, Jay, has been staying with them after getting in some minor trouble at home in Atlanta. She says Rodney had gone out to buy diapers, and she doesn't know why he was at the airfield. As Winston tries to untangle the mystery of Rodney's murder, the FBI sends someone to handle the drug side of the crime. All of this is fuel to the fire of racial tensions rising in the town, as a known white supremacist is running against Winston in the upcoming election for sheriff and is also attempting to buy up land owned by Black citizens in order to raze their middle-class homes and build expensive houses near the beach. Winston has to contend with all of these things at once, as he tries to solve the mystery and hold back the growing violence in his community.

While there is a mystery at the heart of this story, it is much more than a straightforward suspense novel. Cash provides in-depth characters, with narration from different perspectives, and plenty of emotional complexity. He explores the racial tensions in the community and how they affect everything that is happening. This thoughtful focus on characters and intricate issues with a mystery at its center reminded me of William Kent Krueger's standalone novels. The audio production, read by J.D. Jackson, was excellent and kept me engrossed, right up to the surprising ending. I enjoyed this thoughtful mystery and would definitely read other novels by Wiley Cash.

320 pages, William Morrow Paperbacks

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - North Carolina

R.I.P. Challenge

 

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, from the start of the novel, and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (also includes an audio sample).

 

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 Secrets Between Us

Back in 2009, I read The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar for one of my book groups and loved it, as did the other book group members. I just realized, while looking for the link to that review, that I also read another Umrigar novel, Everybody's Son, and enjoyed that one, too. The author has a talent for creating deep, real-feeling characters and emotionally complex stories. That gift once again shines in The Secrets Between Us, a sequel to that earlier, best-selling novel, as she brings back one of her most memorable characters.

The Secrets Between Us picks up right where The Space Between Us ended (no spoilers here and you don't have to read that earlier novel to enjoy this one). Bhima, the servant woman from the first novel, is no longer working for Sera, a wealthy, upper-class woman. She is looking for a way to support herself and her granddaughter, Maya. The two of them live in a small shack with a mud floor in the Mumbai slums, and Bhima's sole goal is for Maya to have a better life: to graduate from college, get a well-paying job, and move out of the slums. Bhima is aging but still working very hard, juggling multiple smaller cleaning/cooking clients, including one young woman who astounds Bhima by breaking all the societal "rules" she's lived by her whole life. One day in the open-air produce market, Bhima meets Parvati. She's noticed the older, bitter woman before, with the disfiguring growth on her neck, often spewing an angry diatribe at some unlucky soul. Bhima has never spoken to her before, but now circumstances bring the two women together. They form a tenuous business partnership, selling fruits and vegetables together in the market. Gradually, the two women, who've both lived hard lives, begin to develop a friendship, though each of them harbors shameful secrets. Bhima is illiterate and ashamed of the reason why she had to leave Sera's employ, while Parvati hides the secrets of her disgraceful, shocking past. As Bhima makes the first real friends of her lonely life, her and Maya's lives are changed for the better by the wonderful new women who've expanded their world.

This beautifully written novel was just as compelling as The Space Between Us, and I loved being in Bhima's world again. The intriguing story again digs into the traditional class differences in India, while here exploring the changes occurring in the modern world. It's also a deep, tender look at the power of women's friendships. The audio production was excellent, with Sneha Mathan's narration pulling me into the story. I will miss Bhima, but I am so glad that Umrigar returned to this beloved character to give her the ending she deserves.  

400 pages, Harper Perennial

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

 

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.

 

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 Grapes of Wrath

Every summer, I choose one classic for my #BigBookSummer Challenge (in addition to all my more modern big books), and this year that classic was The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Technically, this was a reread because I read it in high school in tenth grade (and liked it), but I didn't remember much more than the basic plot--and high school was 40 years ago--so this was like reading it for the first time. I absolutely loved this gripping novel that was suspenseful, moving, heartbreaking, and funny.

In the 1930's, Tom Joad has just been released from prison, after serving his sentence for killing a man in a bar fight. He's hitchhiking and walking back to his family's farm in Oklahoma. Along the way, he meets up with Jim Casy, who used to be the preacher in his community but has given up his profession and spent a lot of time thinking about life and humanity. The two men travel together through drought-dried land back to the Joad farm, to find the small house empty and pushed off its foundation. Jim explains that this has been happening all over the area: hardworking sharecropping families have been forced off the land they've worked for years by the land owners, who have decided they can make more money with high-volume farming with machines. Jim and Tom find the rest of the Joad family, staying temporarily at Tom's uncle's house. They've decided to pack up what they can and head west to California. They've seen flyers and heard rumors that there is plenty of farm work in California, which is verdant and lush with all kinds of fruit and vegetable farms. The entire family (plus Jim)--12 people in all--pile into a homemade truck, along with cookware, mattresses, and some food, and head west on Route 66. They soon see that they are not alone; tens of thousands of other families are making the same journey, with heavy traffic westbound, and the eastbound lane mostly empty. They encounter all kinds of challenges and losses on their long trip, and once they finally arrive, they discover that California is not the Utopia they'd been led to believe. In fact, the locals make it clear they don't want the "Okies" there at all. The Joad family struggles to make a life for themselves and earn enough money to at least feed the family, but it's an ongoing challenge.

This novel blew me away--Dust Bowl pun intended! Obviously, this is a classic, so I'm not the first to notice how outstanding it is, but it greatly exceeded my expectations. Steinbeck writes so cleverly, interspersing chapters about the Joad family with chapters about all of the migrants, as an entire population, what they were experiencing, and what factors were affecting them. In this way, he's provided a very intimate, poignant story of one family--that the reader gets to know very well and care about--alongside the larger picture of what was happening in the western United States, making such drastic changes in economy and culture. He zeroes in on the path of a turtle across the dusty land of Oklahoma, focuses on the Joad family and how they made their decision to leave, and pulls out further to describe how all of the sharecropping families were forced off their land. And all of it is written in an engrossing, compelling way that completely immerses you in theses places and times. Parts of the novel are heartbreaking, but he's also woven plenty of humor into the story, too, so that the book echoes real life: the highs and lows, the challenges, and the victories and defeats. I can see why this moving, thought-provoking book is such a renowned classic, and I am still thinking about it, after finishing it last week. I only wish I could discuss it again with my high school English class and my wonderful 10th grade teacher! My husband plans to read it next.

455 pages, Penguin Classics

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Classics Challenge - a 20th century classic

Literary Escapes Challenge - Oklahoma

Big Book Summer Challenge

 

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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.

 

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!

YA Nonfiction Review: The 57 Bus

A good friend of mine from high school who now teaches high school English recommended I read The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater when it was first released in 2017. Now I realize why she was so enthusiastic about this unique, eye-opening book. It details the true story of how the lives of two teens intersected for a few minutes on a city bus that changed both of their lives.

Sasha is an agender white teen living in Oakland, CA. They attend a small, private school that is very supportive of teens like them who don't fit it into the neat boxes society tends to place people in. Sasha's parents are also very supportive of their choices, having watched their development from a child to an older teen and seen how thoughtfully those choices were made, based on deep feelings. Sasha has plenty of friends who are self-described nerds, and their school fosters creativity, like the silly card game they've invented together. Sasha has a unique sense of style, often wearing a vest and bow tie with a ballerina skirt to school. She rides the 57 bus home.

Richard also rides the 57 bus home from his large public school in Oakland. Richard is Black with a single mother. He and his mom are close, and Richard is generally a good kid, with the kind of humor and goofiness present in many teen boys. Given where he lives and goes to school, though, he's been exposed to a lot more violence and drug use and other societal issues than Sasha, though he generally stays out of trouble. One day on the bus, spurred on by other acquaintances nearby, Richard flicks a lighter someone handed him to Sasha's skirt. To his surprise, it quickly goes up in flames, and Sasha is severely injured. Sasha spends months in the hospital recovering, while Richard heads to juvie and begins his journey through the judicial system. Because the police who interview him for hours without an adult present pressure him to say he's homophobic, he's charged with two hate crimes and faces life in prison.

In an instant, these two teens' lives were changed, and it is easy to simply identify one as the victim and the other as the bad guy. But author Slater helps the reader understand the intricate nuances of this tragic story, taking us deep inside both teens' lives and relationships with friends and family. This book also takes a close look at the failings of our judicial system. One thoughtless moment of goofing around became a life-changing moment for both teens, and this award-winning book that delves into issues of race, class, and gender makes us think deeply about the incident and its aftermath. It's a book that should be required reading for adults as well as teens, and it was excellent on audio.

320 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Recorded Books

I got this book from Sync several years ago, which offers two free audio books each week during the summer.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Crime and Punishment

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 audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

 

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!