Category: What I’m Reading

My Goodreads and Amazon review of The Boys: A Novel by Katie Hafner (Rating 5) – Recovery and Reentry. The Boys by Katie Hafner is a sly yet sympathetic journey into how we cope with the dual traumas of loss and isolation. Ethan Fawcett, the protagonist, is aided by the love of two good women. After his parents are killed in a tragic accident, Ethan is raised by lukewarm grandparents and grows up a socially awkward tech wizard. With traits that could easily be dismissed as “on the spectrum,” he is instead rendered by Hafner as endearing. His coworker Barb, a psychologist who studies loneliness, falls in love with his quirkiness too. She draws the introverted Ethan into a richer life, captured in their idyllic honeymoon bicycle trip through Italy, run by Hill and Dale, a service-oriented company. Back home, Barb wants to expand their family. Ethan is torn between his fear of being an inadequate parent and his desire to please her, but agrees to a “trial run” when she brings home Tommy and Sam, orphaned Russian twins. In a reversal, Ethan becomes the more nurturing parent. COVID further enables him to isolate with the boys, supervising their diet, hygiene, home schooling, and media consumption. His protectiveness is so all-consuming and restrictive that Barb feels she has no choice but to leave. Devastated, but doubling down on his devotion to the boys, Ethan decides to recapture the elation of the Italy trip by repeating it with them. He is taken underwing by his tour guide, Izzy, another woman who values his strangeness. The novel opens soon after their return, with Ethan receiving a letter from the head of Hill and Dale, politely asking him to never use their services again. What happened? And what does it mean for Ethan and his family? The surprise Hafner delivers could have been contrived but is instead deftly produced and believable. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire her talent for humanizing odd characters and persuading readers to suspend their disbelief. A contemporary comment on isolation, the novel asks timeless questions about whether we can heal from trauma and redeem ourselves, not through penitence, but through re-immersion in joy. The Boys restores hope for those we care for, those who care for us, and ultimately, for ourselves.

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Have You Eaten Rice Today? by Apple Gidley (Rating 5) – Complex and Captivating. Apple Gidley’s novel, Have You Eaten Rice Today?, weaves history, adventure, and romance into one captivating tale. Underlying the drama is a lesson in Malaysia’s fight for independence, a bloody struggle that most westerners know little about. Readers are immersed in the enervating heat and ever-present buzz of the ulu, the jungle, then dropped into the cool elegance of Britain’s colonial outposts. It is at one of these establishments that Simon, a former British soldier and now cool intelligence gatherer, meets Dee, a young and feisty Australian nurse, igniting a spark that decades and oceans apart cannot cool. Two generations later we meet Max, Simon’s adoring grandson, an aspiring writer, and Jessica, Dee’s granddaughter, an emergency room physician and her grandmother’s temperamental match. What happens next (no spoilers) is a physically and emotionally challenging journey as inevitable as the promise of redemption. A writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Gidley’s ability to blend fact and invention in just the right proportions. Have You Eaten Rice Today? transports readers to another time and place. Required carry-on: Minds and hearts.

My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (Rating 3) – Upload. Download. Delete. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan opens with the intriguing premise that in the near future we can upload our life experiences, including those not available to conscious memory, and then watch not only our own, but those of everyone else. We could discover hidden truths, check the accuracy of our impressions, and understand the past. Unfortunately, this promising concept, dubbed Own Your Unconscious, is only sporadically reintroduced throughout the book. Instead readers are treated to a confectionary of dazzling riffs in chapters that are meant to be linked, but are merely disjointed. I was challenged to track the characters within one story, let alone across stories. As both a reader and a writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I prioritize character development. Unfortunately, Egan doesn’t dwell on anyone long enough to get inside their (un)conscious selves or dive into their interactions with others. She captures the disconnect between people in today’s social media Zeitgeist, but given that I’m turned off by this fragmentation in real life, why would I choose to recapitulate the experience in a work of fiction? Like many tweets and posts, Egan’s writing is self-indulgent; she amuses herself rather than engaging readers. Fortunately, neither she nor we have to download the contents of our brains to assess one another’s thoughts and feelings. They’re right there on the page. And not worth replaying.

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Prepare for Departure by Mark Chesnut (Rating 5) – Mark Chesnut’s Prepare for Departure is a romance memoir about his dual love for aviation and his mother. Chestnut is an erstwhile misfit who fits in the air and on the page, a seasoned traveler as well as a talented author. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I appreciate his ability to simultaneously focus on characters worth caring about, and the complex settings they inhabit. Written with devotion, humor, and honesty, Prepare for Departure regales readers with stories of Chesnut’s outsider status: A flight-obsessed child among earth-bound classmates; a boy with conservative southern roots living in the liberal north; a gay Caucasian man with an Hispanic husband in a straight white world; a fatherless son raised by a feisty mother who was wary of breaching the norms she herself had escaped. “Time traveling” between childhood memories and his mother’s final decline, Chesnut’s memoir invites readers aboard to laugh and grieve with him. Fasten your heart lest it burst out of your rib cage by the time you land.

My Amazon and Goodreads review of All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Rating 5) – Radiance Amid Darkness. It’s been decades since I made this claim about a book: I was so enthralled by Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, that I did not want it to end. Given the raft of books about World War II, it’s difficult to find a unique perspective on an oft-told story about this senseless chapter in human history. Doerr has more than met the challenge by creating two indelible protagonists on opposite sides of the conflict: a blind French girl and a young German soldier. As the war blows apart ordinary lives, he draws an intricate, albeit unlikely, connection between them. Doerr is a sure-footed guide for those who cannot see, a nimble hiker beside the infirm, a mature companion for youth, and a youthful tonic for the elderly. He explores all the senses to awaken readers’ sensibilities. As a writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I’m filled with admiration for Doerr’s deft interweaving of broad research and deep imagination. Amid the darkness of war, All the Light We Cannot See finds gem-like radiance in tenderness, awe, and persistence.

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Automatically Hip: Stories by John McCaffrey (Rating 5) – Seriously Jazzy. At first, the tales in John McCaffrey’s collection Automatically Hip appear easy, effortless, even flip. Then he drops an insight that makes you realize, “This story is more substantial than it seems!” Like being hip, there’s nothing automatic about good writing. It takes work and McCaffrey has done his. I say this as both a reader and a fellow fiction writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page). While the protagonists in these stories are not hip, neither are they losers or geeks. Just run-of-the-mill guys who wish they could be cooler. And yet, every now and then, something extraordinary happens to them. Just like those magical moments that can strike all us ordinary mortals if, like McCaffrey, we’re open enough to let them. Each piece is finely crafted, designed not only to entertain but also to enlighten us about human desires, foibles, and quirks. The result is seriously satisfying.

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor (Rated 3) – Razzle Dazzle. Things They Lost by Kenyan novelist Okwiri Odour is the story of 12-year old Ayosa, whose mother, a world-traveling photojournalist, abandons her daughter for unpredictable stretches of time. Ayosa longs for her mother, herself the daughter and granddaughter of neglectful mothers. She says of a radio poet, “She knows what it’s like to want something with all your heart and not get it” and observes that “Botched up love isn’t any kind of love at all.” Alone and self-sufficient, Ayosa keeps company with ghosts, is wary of wraiths who threaten to snatch her, and is befriended by Mbiu, a girl (or possibly a spirit) her age, whose own mother is dead. Despite her longing, Ayosa is gleeful when she (mistakenly, if briefly) believes that her mother is dead. In this game of “I love her, I love her not,” Ayosa is filled with joy at the prospect of no longer waiting for her mother’s return or aching for the love she’s incapable of giving. She can leave home with Mbiu. They need each other at least as much as they need their absent mothers. Sisterhood is more dependable and doesn’t leave deep-seated scars. Ayosa’s story is moving. The portrait of pain alleviated by the escape of magic realism can be dazzling. But therein lies the novel’s problem. The book is so taken with its technical prowess that it often sacrifices an engaging narrative. It’s like a movie that’s boasts special effects but ignores its characters’ inner lives. Oduor’s magical scenes grow repetitive; Ayosa’s status remains static. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), my foremost concern is character development. Ayosa’s fantastic encounters enthrall at first, but ultimately fail to add up to a satisfying journey.

My Goodreads and Amazon review of Pirate Girl Falls through Beaver Dam: A Memoir of Adventurous Lessons in Earth School by Wren Godfrey Chapman (Rated 5) – Avast Me Hearties! A Yarn Worth Your Pieces of Eight. Aye, when the last name of your philandering ex-fiancé is Seagraves, there’s naught to do but crew on a ship and bury your broken heart overboard. Wren Godfrey Chapman, the spunky narrator in the memoir Pirate Girl Falls Through Beaver Dam, is up for physical exploits most of us wouldn’t dream of trying, let alone imagine surviving. Raised on conventional dreams of marriage, blind-sided by their rupture, Chapman reacts by literally and figuratively leaping into the unknown. Whether sailing the seas, braving Colorado’s brutal winters, or running her own creative enterprises, she refuses to give in or give up. Her soul is equal parts rebellion and resilience. The lessons she learns ring true but never trite. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I balance guiding readers with setting them on a voyage of self-discovery. Chapman smoothly navigates between these boundaries. Readers may not have the gumption to do what she did, but in this exuberant and self-aware memoir, they can experience the thrill of adventure vicariously. So weigh anchor, peruse this yarn, and dream.

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of Kiki Finds Friends by Marty and Amie McCracken (Rating 5) – Inventive and Insightful. Kiki Finds Friends, written by Marty McCracken and his mother Amie, is a charming children’s “space odyssey,” the first in a planned series. I read it with my grandsons. Here’s what we each thought about the book:
“It was totally amazing. After you read the first line, it makes you want to read more. I like how many different experiences Kiki has. I think the mean orbs will learn to be nice, eventually. Frank is kind and smart. You can trust him like a good friend. Maybe the next book will be called ‘Kiki Finds Family.’ I hope he visits lots more solar systems.” (Oscar, age 9)
“The geyser was cool. I liked how the drops hit Kiki’s helmet and then fell off. I was scared when his friend got hit on the head and happy when Kiki saved him. I was glad that Kiki found a cat and more friends. I think they will have a good time together once the mean robots learn their lesson.” (Emmett, age 6)
Kiki Finds Friends is a vividly imagined book about an alien child venturing forth from his home spaceship to explore his universe. Kiki confronts the same problems as real children: Will I make friends? What if others kids are mean to me? Will I look weak or stupid if I ask for help? Can I be curious and scared at the same time? What is a real apology? My grandsons nodded in recognition as Kiki faced these common challenges. The authors strike just the right balance between the unknown and the familiar. Children trust that Kiki will emerge from his adventures safe, yet wiser. As both a developmental psychologist and a writer of adult books (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I appreciate how the insights are not delivered with heavy-handed moralizing, but with patience and humor. Because his new acquaintances hail from other planets, Kiki takes it in stride that they won’t be like him, a matter-of-fact approach to accepting human differences too. Finally, Kiki Finds Friends is fun to read aloud. Not only do we learn how each alien looks and moves, but how they sound. This allows the narrator to vary the character’s voices and makes sharing this book entertaining for readers and listeners alike. (Ann, age 75)

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of The Book of Mother by Violaine Huisman (Rating 3) – Caricature in Lieu of Character. In The Book of Mother, a French novel by Violaine Huisman, the 30-year-old narrator, who shares the author’s first name, attempts to humanize the larger-than-life mother with whom she and her older sister are obsessed. Alternately smothering them with affection and verbally abusing them, Maman Catherine is a domineering, devouring figure. But as the book meanders to its half tragic, half celebratory end, Catherine never emerges as more than a caricature. Her loves and lovers, her passions and pains, fail to arouse the same devotion in readers that they do in her daughters. As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I’m not concerned with making my characters likable, but I insist on making them engaging. Catherine is ultimately tiresome. If she remains a mere cutout, even more disappointing is that Violaine and her sister remain ciphers. The opportunity to make Catherine “real” through the personas of the two women forever bound to her is squandered. The Book of Mother has been touted as a bold and courageous novel but I found it tepid and lifeless, traits which the drama addicted Catherine would have abhorred.