Category: What I’m Reading

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.

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of Italian Bones in the Snow: A Memoir in Shorts by Elaina Battista-Parsons (Rating 5) – You Want to Be Her Friend. The memoir Italian Bones in the Snow by Elaina Battista-Parsons seamlessly interlaces prose and poetry to introduce readers to a free-ranging author who is strong-willed, opinionated, adventurous, and sensitive. She is an unapologetic sensualist who refuses to tone down her lust, a woman neither too afraid to reveal her imperfections nor too shy to brag about her strengths. This honest self-portrait offers penetrating observations but instead of boring down directly, Battista-Parsons approaches her subjects at a slant. Her reflections draw offbeat and intriguing connections between objects, places, events, and character traits. For example, in a piece on color, she identifies herself as a “green” person and brilliantly uses shades of green to elucidate the stages of life. As an author myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I often search for the right metaphor to represent a feeling or thought. Here, instead of treating color as a mere adjective, Battista-Parsons treats it as an entity in itself. Her associative mind operates with the kind of primary thinking we associate with childhood. That playfulness is especially on display in her poetry. What makes Battista-Parsons a disciplined adult, however, is that she then works hard to polish each image to perfection. Readers will find it liberating to meet this bold creature who is equally frank about her reverence for the women who raised her and the admiration she in turn engenders in men. You want to run beside her well-muscled legs along the Jersey shore and inhale her energy. You want to be her friend. It’s easy. Just pick up her book.

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of Violeta by Isabel Allende (Rating 3) – Mechanical Realism. Violeta by Isabel Allende is an epistolary novel written by a 100-year-old woman to someone we learn midway through the book is her grandson. (This revelation is not a spoiler; Allende creates neither mystery nor curiosity about the correspondent’s identity.) Spanning a century from the Spanish flu to COVID, the book promises to explore a woman’s evolution from spoiled rich girl to women’s rights activist. Alas, this opportunity is squandered. Instead, readers slog through a dispassionate chronology of marriages and affairs, motherhood, business acumen, national horrors, and global tragedies. Violeta is emotionally flat. She has no lasting regrets, no festering wounds. Her joys are evanescent, her victories vicarious. Allende, known for writing mesmerizing novels of magic realism, has instead written an expository account of the abuses of an unnamed right-wing Latin American regime. Readers meet a multiplying cast of characters, but only a few are memorable. As a writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I know that to entice readers to imagine themselves in another time and place, an author must immerse them in the lives of fully imagined people. Allende’s Violeta keeps both characters and readers at a distance.

My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of MFA Thesis Novel by Ian Rogers (Rating 5) – Meta-Lit Hit Job. Midway through MFA Thesis Novel by Ian Rogers, a graduate student says, “If you want original shit you’ve got to hit up small presses, the guys outside the mainstream who put out stuff that’s really good.” Reading this sentence, I instantly understood why this hilarious and irreverent book found a home with exactly the right indie venue. In literary grad speak, the book is a “meta novel,” that is, a novel about writing a novel which the protagonist, Flip, must do in order to earn his MFA in creative writing. The narrative is replete with winking allusions to literary books, journals, and organizations, some real, others snarky inventions of the author’s fertile imagination. It’s a double hoot when you’re not sure whether a reference belongs in the real or fictive category. Lest those who are not MFA candidates or English majors fear the book may he too erudite or esoteric for them, rest assured that the humor is broad — and shallow — enough for anyone to get in on the jokes. Beyond the wit, however, Rogers also grapples with a serious question: How do you produce creative work that pays the bills while also fulfilling your worthy ideals? As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I’m fortunate that I’ve never faced that quandary but, like other creative people, I must still resist pressure to churn out what’s “sellable” if it’s not authentic to my vision. I won’t spoil the book’s ending by revealing Flip’s answer to the earnings vs. art dilemma, but I will say that Ian Rogers has created a commercially viable novel that is also an entertaining and satisfying work of literature.