Category Archives: Book Reviews

Friday Book Whimsy: 2016 Favorites

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pile-of-booksMy reading goal every year is 100 books. I’m not sure I have ever hit my goal, but I have come close. For example, in 2015, I read a total of 93 books. I’m afraid in 2016, I was a bit of a slacker, having only read 88 books – a couple of which were, quite honestly, novellas. In my world, they counted! Especially since I’m not graded on quantity. And I’m thankful I’m not rated on quality, because I don’t use the New York Times Book Review for my book choosing. Actually, I’m not graded on anything being retired and all….

Anyway, I post a book review each week, so if you are a faithful Friday Book Whimsy reader, you will be familiar with all of the books I am going to feature as my favorite five books of the year. The books may or may not have been published in 2016; they have just been read by me in the past year.  Frankly, most are books published in earlier years.

My five favorite reads in 2016, in no particular order….

Britt-Marie Was Here, by Fredrick Backman
Britt-Marie is a 60-something woman who leaves her controlling husband after she learns he is having an affair. She is compulsive and entirely set in her ways. She has been since she was a little girl and her much-adored sister is killed in a car accident. It should have been you, is the message that Britt-Marie got regularly from her mom, whether or not it was spoken out loud. So Britt-Marie begins the process of starting a new life. The only job she is able to find is the manager of a recreation center in a very small town. She has spent most of her life taking care of others and has no idea who Britt-Marie is and why anyone would care. But she learns that people do care, and begins to put together a new life where people accept her for who she is.

What I liked best about the book: Britt-Marie. I loved the main character so, so much. The book was entirely feel-good, and who didn’t need that this past year?

The Last Days of Night, by Graham Moore
The novel examines the invention of the light bulb, and the eventual replacement of gas lighting with electric lights in this entirely readable, eminently fascinating account of the legal battle waged between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. There is no one less interested in science than I, and yet I found the book to be fascinating. Moore uses real characters such as Edison, Westinghouse, Nikola Tesla, and Paul Kravath to give readers a snapshot of life in NYC in the late 1800s and how progress is REALLY made. It unexpectedly provided me with one of my favorite reads of the year.

What I liked best about the book: I love to learn about history and science via novels, as I find that so much easier to read. Moore was able to pique my interest in the notion of inventing and patents. It takes good writing to successfully accomplish that task.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
This novel is everything I would hate in a book. The entire story is told via emails, text messages, flashbacks, school documents, and so forth. There is no driving narrative and virtually no dialogue. It is really all about the characters, but Semple does it so well that this book was a total pleasure to read. I had it in my library for a long time before I finally picked it up and read it, almost straight through. Bernadette is the star of the show, despite her quirky, agoraphobic nature. She is likable and believable. I would like to have her as my best friend. I don’t regularly reread books, but I will read this book again and again.

What I liked best about the book: The author’s characters are the best thing about the novel. Despite the fact that there is no driving narrative, she was able to paint clear and distinct pictures of each character through her unusual writing style.

The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
There is a plethora of novels available about World War II, and lots of good ones. I found The Nightingale to be one of the best I’ve read (and I’ve read more than my share) simply because it offered a different perspective on the awful war. Two sisters from a small village in France experience the war from entirely different perspectives – one as the woman and wife left behind to care as best she can for everyone around her, and one who becomes part of the French resistance. The look at the war from the women’s perspective, as well as Hannah’s beautiful writing, made this one of my favorite reads of 2016.

What I liked best about the book: There are many books – novels and nonfiction alike – about the horrific treatment of the Jews, and about the miserable conditions of the fighting men and women, but I liked reading about what it was like to try and keep your world in order under wartime conditions as the woman back home.

Tiny Little Thing, by Beatriz Williams
Christina “Tiny” Schuyler was the so-called good sister of the three Schuyler girls. She did everything the right way. She was good in school, she married well, and she was the perfect political wife to her ambitious husband. But what is missing is love. It made for a wonderful book with a thoroughly satisfying ending. Tiny Little Thing was the first book I had ever read by author Beatriz Williams, and I have read several since. They almost always have some connection to the Schuyler family, and they are very good. But Tiny Little Thing is my favorite.

What I liked best about the book:  Blackmail, adultery, Vietnam, dirty politics – all wrapped in a 1960s package. It took me a bit to get into the novel, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down.

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Friday Book Whimsy: My Cousin Rachel

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18869970Back in 2014, I reviewed what is one of my favorite novels ever – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. At the end of that review, I said that I hadn’t read anything else by the author, and likely wouldn’t because the book would never compare to Rebecca and I would thus be disappointed.

Recently, I succumbed to temptation, and read My Cousin Rachel, by du Maurier. I was definitely not disappointed. What an exceptional novel. I simply couldn’t put it down.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Nothing could compare the romance and intrigue of Rebecca, a book clever because the title character – who really is the main character of the story – is long ago dead and buried. The book also has one of the best opening lines of any novel: Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again. Mysterious, yet sublime, once you have read the novel.

My Cousin Rachel also has an intriguing first line: They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not anymore, though.

Young Philip Ashley comes to live with his cousin Ambrose as an infant upon the death of his parents. Ambrose – the master of an estate in the Cornwall section of England – is a good and loving guardian despite the fact that he is a confirmed bachelor. Ambrose and Philip are very happy together.

Ambrose is a confirmed bachelor, that is, until he takes a trip to Italy when Philip is 24 years old, leaving him to manage the affairs. He writes letters to Philip, telling him of his activities. Soon, he begins talking about meeting a distant cousin named Rachel. Via the letters, Philip learns that Ambrose eventually falls in love with Rachel, and they marry. But then the letters become further and further apart, until finally Philip gets a mysterious letter from Ambrose that implies that Ambrose believes he is being poisoned by Rachel. Philip travels to Italy, but it is too late. Ambrose has died, supposedly of a brain disease believed to have been inherited from his father. Rachel is nowhere to be found.

Philip returns home, deeply saddened and angry beyond words at Rachel. Eventually, Rachel comes to visit, and much to Philip’s surprise, he likes her very much. In fact, as the months go by, he becomes more and more attached to “my cousin Rachel” as he calls her throughout the book. And then mysterious things begin to happen to Philip as well…..

Du Maurier’s story telling is beyond belief. Her stories are creepy without being gory. The characters are multifaceted, the opposite of one-dimensional. Her plotting is creative without being silly. I forbade myself from looking at the end of the book (as I often do, I’m ashamed to admit), and didn’t. Yet, wanting to know how the book ends kept me reading late into the night. Like Rebecca, the house and grounds were almost a character. The author’s descriptions are vivid and allow the reader to feel like they are part of the story.

The ending was highly satisfying.

My Cousin Rachel is a wonderful book that I highly recommend, especially if you like gothic literature.

Here is link to the book.  

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Friday Book Whimsy: The Last Days of Night

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imgresWhen I was young, there was a section of the children’s area of our public library that featured a series of biographies ranging from Eleanor Roosevelt to Florence Nightingale to Booker T. Washington. I read them all.

And so I remember that I read all about how Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. That’s it. Nothing murky.  He was responsible for those light bulbs that we use every day of our life to light up our world.

But was it really that simple? Of course not; nothing ever is. What is unarguably true is that he was the first person to hold a patent for the direct charge light bulb.

The Last Days of Night, by Graham Moore, examines the invention of the light bulb, and the eventual replacement of gas lighting with electric lights in this entirely readable, eminently fascinating account of the legal battle waged between Edison and George Westinghouse, who had also invented a light bulb, but his used alternating current.

It’s hard to imagine that someone who cares about or understands science as little as I would enjoy this novel. Nevertheless, I loved this book. It will undoubtedly be among the top five books that I’ve read this year.

Not only could I not put it down, but I drove my husband (who studied engineering for a time in college) practically crazy with my unending did you knows.

Do you know the difference between direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC)? (He did.)

Did you know that they used alternating current (AC) the first time they used the electric chair, and it was a horrific and unimaginable failure? (He didn’t.)

Moore’s story begins in New York City in 1888. George Westinghouse hires a young, untested attorney named Paul Cravath to handle his literally billion-dollar case in which Thomas Edison is suing him over the simple question: who invented the light bulb.

Moore (who was the screenwriter for the wonderful movie The Imitation Game) uses real characters and real situations to tell an absolutely riveting story about the battle, which takes the young Cravath into the heights of society in New York City in the late 19th Century. His portrayals of the key figures – Edison, Westinghouse, Cravath, Nikola Tesla – paint a different picture from what I read in those little biographies as a child. They fought a seemingly unending battle over power – both electrical power and social power.

Don’t let the fact that this is a novel about the light bulb stop you from reading this book. It is an absolutely glorious story that involves corruption, romance, intrigue, and rollicking fun.

I have scarcely enjoyed a novel quite as much.

Here is link to the book.  

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Friday Book Whimsy: The Gilded Years

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searchBased on a true story, The Gilded Years, by Karin Tanabe is the story of a woman who is set to graduate from Vassar College, one of the most influential women’s colleges in the country, in the final years of the 19th Century. While women college graduates were not a dime a dozen in 1897, Anita Hemmings has a particular secret. She is, in fact, African American, and during that sad period of U.S. history, Black women were not permitted to attend this exclusive school.

But she was so bright and so determined to attend Vassar that she took advantage of her light skin and, with the approval of her family and the people in her community, she successfully passed herself off as Caucasian.

She is successful at staying under the radar until her final year, when she is given a new roommate, Lottie Taylor, the daughter of a wealthy New York City industrialist in the ilk of the Astors and the Rockefellers. Lottie is rich, spoiled, bright, and lots of fun. Despite her family’s warnings, Anita gets carried away, caught up in the entertaining life Lottie offers. Anita even goes as far as getting romantically involved with one of Lottie’s friends, the white son of a Chicago millionaire.

Soon, Anita’s carefully planned life begins to unravel, and she is faced with the possibility of being forbidden to complete her college career and graduate from Vassar.

There is no question that the historical facts are fascinating. Anita Hemming’s story was compelling and the reader can’t help but be furious that an intelligent – brilliant, really – woman in 1897 couldn’t attend a major university because of the color of her skin. I felt, however, that much of the book drifted away from the important story, and very often I felt as though I was reading a beach novel featuring the crazy antics of a couple of college students. Lots and lots of time was spent talking about the nonacademic activities. Interesting as the activities might have been, I would have liked a bit more meat about racism and sexism in the late 1900s and less about taking carriage rides in Central Park and the beautiful clothes that Anita borrowed from Lottie.

I sound harsh, and the fact of the matter is that I would recommend the book, with the caveat that it is a bit more of a light read than a serious analysis of a troubling time in our history. Having said that, I loved reading about New York City during the so-called gilded years, and I feel like Tanabe’s characters were realistic and interesting. I actually found Lottie’s character to be more compelling than Anita’s. It says a lot about an author’s writing when the reader can actually sort of like a character who ends up being pretty unlikable.

I think The Gilded Years would provide fodder for some discussion of the history of African American women in our country.

Here is link to the book.

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Friday Book Whimsy: The Last Moriarty

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searchThere are dozens of authors who have taken on the task of recreating Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective Sherlock Holmes. In fact, I was shocked when I went on Amazon to try and figure out how many Sherlock Holmes-related books there are in existence. The most interesting to me is a fairly recent addition to the offerings – Mycroft Holmes — actually a mystery involving Sherlock’s brother Mycroft written by – wait for it – basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Who knew?

For reasons that I have never quite figured out, as much of a mystery fan as I am, I have never gravitated towards Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books, which, of course, have almost a cult following. I mean to give them another try, as my interest in the great detective has been piqued again by both the PBS show Sherlock and the CBS show Elementary.

For this reason, I decided to give The Last Moriarty, by Charles Veley, a try when it showed up as an offering in my daily Goodreads Deals email a while back. I’m really ever so glad I did.

Veley didn’t contemporize the detective as does the CBS program Elementary. But he does throw in a few surprises, which for my part, I will not give away.

The two men who reside at one of the most famous addresses in London – 221B Baker Street – have been put to work on several cases. The most important involves the safety of some of the most important businessmen from the United States, including John D. Rockefeller, who have come to London for a meeting involving the national security of both countries. It seems, however, that though Holmes’ prime nemesis, Moriarty, is, in fact dead, one of Moriarty’s trenchmen has escaped from prison and is out to continue Moriarty’s work. At the same time, a young woman with a link to Sherlock’s past, makes an appearance. Together, the three attempt to save their friends from this evil enemy.

Veley’s book read easily, and the plot moved in an interesting manner. The addition of Lucy James to the Sherlock/Watson team provided a nice change, and an indication that there will be more books to come.

Good reading.

Here is link to the book.

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Friday Book Whimsy: The Woman in Cabin 10

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imgresMurder on a cruise ship. It sounds very Agatha Christie, doesn’t it? All it needs is a small Belgian detective using his little gray cells to solve the mystery. Except about the only similarity between Agatha Christie and author Ruth Ware is their British background.

The Woman in Cabin 10 is Ware’s second novel. Her first, In a Dark, Dark Wood, (which I reviewed here) was a psychological thriller that took place in an all-glass house deep in the woods somewhere in England. Her second, The Woman in Cabin 10, is another psychological thriller, this one taking place on a cruise ship.

In fact, for the most part, The Woman in Cabin 10 is simply The Girl on a Train, except on a cruise ship. I found myself alternately at the edge of my seat because of gripping tension, or screaming out loud, “Oh for heaven’s sake, don’t have another drink!”

I found the book frustrating.

Laura Blacklock (called Lo) is a writer for a London magazine. Circumstances result in her getting a coveted assignment – reporting on the inaugural cruise of a very fancy schmancy small cruise ship on some rich-and-famous people will be traveling. This is her BIG CHANCE. DON’T. SCREW. IT. UP.

Unfortunately, at the very beginning of the book (and shortly before she leaves on this business cruise), Lo’s apartment is burgled while she is home. The burglar, though he has a gun, does not kill her, but instead leaves with some of her belongings. The incident shakes her up so much that she pretty much is a wreck for the rest of the book.

Already freaked out because of her own personal incident, the very first night on the cruise ship, she borrows some makeup from the woman in the next room, and later on witnesses a body being thrown overboard from that same room.

Well, it turns out no one else has seen that particular woman – EVER – and no one else heard a body being thrown overboard. And since Lo has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder for which she takes antidepressants, and since she is already freaked out by her own scare prior to leaving, no one believes her.

So what does she do? She drinks too much, takes too many prescription medications, and tries to solve the mystery herself.

The main problem with the story, at least in my opinion, is that the character of Lo Blacklock is so inherently dislikable. I wanted to not believe her myself. She seems to be paralyzed with fear – something that might be realistic, but doesn’t make for a very interesting novel. And I seriously got so very tired of her being drunk and overmedicated. Just say no to drugs, Lo.

And yet, just as with Ware’s first novel, the writing is quite good. Good enough, in fact, that I continued to read. And while the ending didn’t blow me away with surprise, I found it to be fairly satisfying and somewhat unpredictable.

Overall, I can recommend this book for people who like thrillers such as The Girl on the Train. Just be prepared to understand that this novel, readers, is not the next The Girl on the Train, as hard as the author might try and as strongly as the publishers might try to sell the idea that it is.

Here is link to the book.

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Friday Book Whimsy: The Dollhouse

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searchThe Barbizon Hotel for Women is/was a real thing. The hotel was a residence for women only from its inception in the late 1920s until it began allowing men as guests in 1981. The Barbizon was a safe place for young women new to the big city to live. Located on the upper east side of Manhattan, it was the home for many women trying to make their place in the world – women such as Lauren Bacall, Sylvia Plath, Grace Kelly, Eudora Welty.

The Barbizon Hotel may as well be one of the characters in author Fiona Davis’ captivating debut novel The Dollhouse. The Barbizon is the star of the show.

The novel is a back-and-forth story of two women, both who live in the Barbizon. One of the women, Darby McLaughlin, comes from a small town in Ohio, and is sent to New York City in 1952 by her bossy and obnoxious mother, who pays for her to attend a secretarial college in NYC. The second story is contemporary. Rose Lewis is a journalist who lives with her boyfriend in what used to be the Barbizon, but is now condominiums. However, a few of the units are still inhabited by former residents of the old historic hotel.

Rose is dumped by her boyfriend, and through a series of somewhat admittedly unlikely events, she becomes acquainted with a couple of the women who still live in their original apartments. Originally interested in these women primarily to write a story for the magazine for which she works, Rose eventually gets caught up in these two women’s compelling and interrelated stories about life in the 1950s, love, jazz music, and murder.

It is all quite delicious.

I think part of me liked the story so much because I found the whole notion that there was a hotel for women in NYC so interesting, and when I did some research and learned about some of the real-life residents who lived there, I was hooked.

Sometimes novels with back-and-forth storylines can become confusing and jumbled, but I found Davis’ handling of the style to be smooth and flowed well. Despite the fact that I was horrified at some of the choices Rose made in her search for the story, I liked the characters and found them to be realistic and interesting.

I think The Dollhouse would be a great read for a book club.

Here is link to the book.

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Friday Book Whimsy: Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

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If I’d known the format of this book – entirely a series of e-mails, flashbacks, school documents, notes, and so forth – I assure you I wouldn’t have picked up this book. I generally know what I’m about to embark upon when I start a book, but I had heard so much about this novel that I dove in unprepared.

I couldn’t possibly be happier that I did, because Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple, will undoubtedly be one of my favorite books read in 2016.

The characters in a book are very important to me. If I don’t like any of the characters – and in particular, the main character – I am liable to dislike the book. Bernadette Fox is not only likeable, she will be one of my favorite book characters ever. I wish she was a real person and that she was my friend.

Don’t be put off by the format of the book. The author puts it all together so cleverly that it easily reads like a novel despite the lack of chapters and traditional dialogue.

Bernadette seems to have the perfect life. Her husband Elgie is a bigwig at Microsoft Corporation in Seattle. Their daughter Bee is a prodigy, super-smart and funny, despite having been born with a heart defect that nearly killed her as an infant. Bernadette is a prize-winning architect known for “green” design long before anyone even knew what that meant. The marriage is interesting and happy.

But what most people don’t know is that Bernadette is agoraphobic. She does everything possible to avoid having to leave her odd house (originally it was a school and for the most part, nothing has changed despite the fact that the family lives there). She takes Bee to school every day, and does what’s absolutely necessary outside the house. Beyond that, she has a personal assistant (a person somewhere in India she has never met but with whom she communicates via email and text messaging) who literally manages Bernadette’s life, and therefore the life of her family.

What carries this plot, however, and prevents the reader from wanting to dislike Bernadette and her weird life, is Bernadette herself. She is funny as hell and looks at life in a way that is so interesting and quirky. It’s no wonder that Bee loves her mother so very much.

And then, one day, not long before the family was to take a trip to Antartica to reward Bee for her perfect grades, Bernadette vanishes. No one knows why or where. Only Bee is certain that her mother will turn up.

I know this plot sounds weird, but I’m telling you that you can’t help but like Bernadette, and it makes the story fun and interesting. One of my favorite things about Semple’s writing is that, while there are quite a few characters and plot twists, and we only know these characters through emails and other documents, they don’t all sound the same. The reader gets a very good sense of who these people are, for better and for worse.

The ending was clever and satisfying and just the way I would have wanted it.

Please don’t do what I could have easily done – been turned off by the format. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Here is link to the book.

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Friday Book Whimsy: Arrowood

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searchI read and loved Laura McHugh’s debut novel The Weight of Blood, a creepy story that took place in the Ozark region of Missouri. So I was excited to read her newest novel Arrowood: A Novel, and I wasn’t disappointed. It was a page-turner, indeed.

The story is set in an old mansion on the banks of the Mississippi River in Iowa that was home to the Arrowood family for generations. So how do you get any better than a mystery set in a creepy old house?

Arden Arrowood was a young girl when her toddler twin sisters disappeared from the mansion on her watch, never again to be seen or heard.  Now, 20 years later, she has inherited the mansion upon the death of her estranged father. At loose ends in her life, Arden is happy to return to the mansion, which she feels was the only place where she really felt at home in her life.

But the house brings back the memories of that day, and she feels compelled to try to solve the mystery of what happened those many years ago. Where did the pretty twin girls go?

I mentioned in the first paragraph that The Weight of Blood took place in the Ozarks. The reason that is even important is because the author is masterful at making the setting part of the story. The town where the mansion is located is an actual town in the southeast tip of Iowa, barely within the state boundaries. I presume her depiction is realistic. It is easy to envision the line of old mansions lining the riverbed as the author so ably describes. That alone makes the story worthwhile.

But the plot is what the reader really sinks his or her teeth into. The story challenges the reader to think about what we really remember in our lives. It’s like the childhood game where one person whispers something into someone’s ear and by the end of the line of children, the story is completely different.

I loved this book and the characters. The ending, while somewhat surprising, had a realistic ring to it when the reader thinks back to the tips we read along the way.

Great, if somewhat spooky, book.

Here is link to the book.

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Friday Book Whimsy: America’s First Daughter

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imgresWhen I was a young girl, we had a set of World Book encyclopedias. One section of the encyclopedias included information about all of the presidents up to, and including, John F. Kennedy. Subsequent presidents were included in the annual updates we also received as part of our encyclopedia subscription. That section was one of two that I read so often that the book would fall open to the spots; the other was the section on AKC dogs.

I practically memorized everything of at least a personal nature about each president, and more importantly to this review, each first lady. So I was well aware that the wife of our third – and arguably most interesting – president had died long before Thomas Jefferson was elected to office. The role of first lady, therefore, went to his eldest daughter, Martha, known by those who loved her as Patsy.

America’s First Daughter, by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, is a novel based on the life of Thomas Jefferson and, primarily, his daughter Patsy.

The story begins during the Revolutionary War when, according to the novel, the Jeffersons were forced to leave their home in Virginia and hide for months in a cabin in the deep woods  Jefferson owned. The stress caused by the war did nothing to help the health of Jefferson’s beloved wife Martha, who died shortly after childbirth. However, prior to dying, she made her eldest daughter Patsy promise to always take care of her father, and made her husband promise to never remarry.

Well, he didn’t, though the story of his long-term relationship with his slave Sally Hemings is well documented, and a major part of this book.

The story is told through the eyes of Patsy, and seems to be well-researched and true to the facts. It is well-known that Jefferson – along with many of our early forefathers – was a slave owner, and that fact – and its inconsistency with the whole all men are created equal belief as laid forth in our Bill of Rights – drives much of the story.

It is a fairly lengthy book, and much of it moved very slowly. I can’t highly recommend it except to those thoroughly interested in U.S. history in general, and the history of our third president in particular. Still, I love period literature, and it was interesting to read about the customs and the relationships during the days following the Revolutionary War.

The book, however, reminded me just what an amazing job our forefathers did in planning our government. Thank goodness.

Here is link to the book.

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