It’s Elementary by Elise Bryant – Mystery novel about a single mom who is guilted into heading the PTA’s diversity committee at her 7 year old’s elementary school. And then the principal goes missing. It’s light and frothy and some of it made me laugh out loud. BUT the main character starts a relationship with the school counselor and I kept thinking how wildly inappropriate that was and by the end of the book, it kind of made it hard to enjoy the book. Even still, this line, where the main character bristles at the idea of being a Young mom, made me snort with laughter:
“I’m grown, just like you! I use Sensodyne, and I have enough white hairs that I can’t keep casually plucking them without looking like a “before” in one of those women’s hair loss Instagram ads I keep getting, and I’m pretty sure my back hurts more than it doesn’t hurt now, and I’m wearing Old Navy Pixie pants. There is nothing more grown than Old Navy Pixie pants!”
― Elise Bryant, It’s Elementary, p. 30
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune – sequel to The House on the Cerulean Sea. I LOVED The House on the Cerulean Sea, a book about a government worker who is tasked with investigating a school for magical children. This sequel is… fine. It was nice to re-visit the characters, but this book lacked the urgency and plot drive of the first book. There was no tension in this book – it was pretty much magical kids and those who love them vs. big bad government, and some of the book felt very preachy.
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams – A whimsical romance featuring a florist who leaves her wealthy upbringing in Atlanta to open up a flower shop in Brooklyn where meets a mysterious stranger. In a parallel plot, the book follows Ezra, a jazz pianist whose star is rising during the Harlem Renaissance. The book involves some time travel, which isn’t usually my thing, but I really liked the mix of historical and contemporary settings here. The plot kept me turning the pages, though I thought the resolution of the various elements fell a little predictable and rushed.
There were some really thoughtful contemplations about modernity. In a way it reminded me of Ministry of Time and some of the ideas in that book. For example:
“I like vinyl, so I didn’t evolve past record players. Not a fan of Google. If I had my druthers, I’d only research in libraries. But I do enjoy Alexa telling me the weather every morning. Washing machines, AC, photocopiers, and LASIK surgery? A-plus inventions. Tinder, automatic transmission, Roombas, CGI? Dumb.” He shrugged. *I’m not that impressed by freezers. They made milkmen obsolete. I miss hearing them deliver those glass bottles at the crack of dawn; it signals a new day has started!” he exclaimed. “Social media? None of my business. Websites frustrate me, mostly. What are these cookies I’m always being asked to accept? TV’s probably my favorite twentieth-century development. I always have the newest model, and these days, it’s all so good: prestige, reality, sitcoms, cartoons. I mean, have you seen Succession? P-Valley? And, obviously, I keep up with music. All kinds. Good music’s good music; genre’s just the bag you carry it in.””
― Tia Williams, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, p. 243
No Two Persons by Erica Baumeister, read by Cassandra Campbell, Stephen Graybill, Carol Jacobanis, Rachel L. Jacobs, Barrie Kreinik, Max Meyers, George Newbern, Jesse Vilinsky, Braden Wright, Gabra Zackman – This book tells the story of a novel and how it comes into the lives of nine different people. The first chapter tells the story of how the novel Theo comes to be written and then each chapter focusses on on person whose life is impacted by the novel. Even though the stories are slightly interconnected, each chapter is more like a self contained short story. This book really believes in the mythology of how powerful books can be. I don’t think I bought into the idea as much as the author did, but I did find each story absorbing.
On my proverbial Nightstand: I’m not finding a lot of time to read these days, but I do have a few things with bookmarks in them. Interestingly theses are all hard copy of books. I’ve been finding that I’m more able to focus these days on hard copy books so I haven’t been reading on my phone these days.
The Unlikely Thru-Hiker – Adventures on the Appalacian Trail.
The Impossible Us – It’s been a page-turner. In the alternate universe Trump does not become president. I don’t know if the author realizes how much that tiny plot detail reverberates right now.
This is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained – Insightful.
No Two Persons! I did really like that book. I loved her sharp, observational writing. I think I bought into the premise a lot more than you did.
I was very intrigued by the premise, but it started to feel gimmicky to me after a few chapters. I think I liked the parts better than the whole of that novel. Though I did like the interconnected parts of the story a lot too.
I loved No Two Persons! I thought it was such a creative and interesting book. And it was fun to figure out how the stories connected.
I’ve been on the fence about reading somewhere beyond the sea. I loved the first book but it seems impossible to improve upon or extend that story. I want to read the Tia Williams romance.
I just finished ‘wolf at the table’ which is very literary, character-driven and quite dark/sad. It’s about a family of siblings from a Catholic family, and the narrator changes from sibling to sibling and then to a dependent. It soaks 50 years or so. It was good but nothing something I would broadly recommend.
I would say Somewhere Beyond the Sea is for people who really hard core love the characters and the twee aspects of the first book. I didn’t like the other T.J. Klune book I read – it was just very heavy handed in a way and so was Beyond the Sea.
I thought the Tia Williams book was fantastic for 7/8th of the book, and then the end just felt rushed – I would recommend that one, though!
I haven’t heard of any of these books, I like the idea of No Two Persons and The Impossible Us. You had me at ‘No Trump’.
The Impossible Us is proving very page turning for me!
Lol I gave my sons the “what’s happening to my body” and “it’s perfectly normal” books and put them on the shelf so they could just get them for reference whenever they wanted to, and then come to me or (preferably) their dad with questions. Years pass. We go get ready for the move, and I come across these books, thinking okay, I’ll drop them in the little free library, obviously no one needs them anymore. THEY ARE COMPLETELY DEFACED. The boys just drew a lot of dicks in them. So…I felt weird about donating them.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!