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Reviews by Joan V. (Miller Place, NY)

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Once We Were Home
by Jennifer Rosner

Where is Home? (11/2/2022)

This book was very different from other WWII books that I have read. It takes place over several decades from the late 1940s to 1968. It deals with four Jewish children who were separated from their parents and hidden during the war to keep them safe from the Nazi. After …more

Good Husbands: A Novel
by Cate Ray

Who Do You Believe? (2/22/2022)

The book has a great start that immediately hooks the reader. Three women (Jessica, Priyanka and Stephanie) receive letters from a woman named Holly saying their husbands had raped her mother, Nickie over 20 years ago. One of them was her father, but her mother never knew …more

Honor
by Thrity Umrigar

Can you ever go home again? (9/9/2021)

This was an easy book to rate, no hesitation five stars, but then the author is Thrity Umrigar who never disappoints. The story follows Smita a journalist who travels the world reporting on human rights abuses. She comes back to India, a country that she left when she was a …more teenager and had no intention of returning in order to help her fellow journalist Shannon. What she doesn't realize is that what Shannon wants is not help with her recovery from surgery but to write a story about a woman named Meena.

Meena is a Hindu who married Abdul a Muslim and because this caused shame on her family her brothers set fire to the couple's home. Abdul died and Meena escaped but she was horribly disfigured. Meena did an unusual thing and brought charges of murder against her brothers.

When I first started to read "Honor" I thought it was set in the distant past. The fact that it takes place in present day India was a shock. The murder happened in a remote area where Hindu and Muslin relations don't seem to have changed since the 1940s when the country was divided.

Because of an incident that changed her life and gradually unfolds, Smita's feelings for India are summed up when she says, "...she found herself dealing with everything she detested about this country - its treatment of women, it's conservatism. But you're the damn gender issues reporter."

Shannon has her friend Mohan an upper caste Hindu escort Smita to meet Meena, her lawyer and her brothers. At first Smita sees Mohan as a privileged rich man and dislikes him. However, as she gets to know him she starts to view him and India, the country he loves, in a different way.

Ms. Umrigar brings the city of Mumbai to life with her descriptions of the crowds, the heat, the beauty and the cultural disparities. You feel as if you are on the journey with them whether they are in a large city or a remote village. Smita's journey helps her to come to terms with her past, to heal and to appreciate the things she loved about her homeland. We also learn about Meena and come to respect her strength and courage as she tries to protect her daughter Abru and face the consequences of her decision to marry outside her faith and try to live her husband's dream of a new Hindustan.

It is impossible to read this book and not be touched by these characters and deeply immerse yourself in their stories.

Parts of this book are hard to read, but I think it would make an excellent choice for a book club. (less)

Morningside Heights: A Novel
by Joshua Henkin

Morningside Heights (3/26/2021)

I had high expectations for this book and was really looking forward to reading it, mostly because it's set in the neighborhood where I grew up and of which I have fond memories. While the upper west side of Manhattan was the location for most of the book, it probably could …more have been set in almost any metropolitan area with a university as a backdrop.

If this book is supposed to be funny, the humor was lost on me. The characters were so strange and their interactions to each other made little sense to me. This definitely would make a GREAT book club pick since I would love to discuss it with someone, but sadly I didn't like it enough to recommend it to anyone.

Spence Robin is a Distinguished Professor at Columbia University, a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award and has a waiting list for his classes on Shakespeare. He marries his graduate student Pru, but neglects to tell her until they are seriously involved in their relationship that he has a son (Arlo) by a previous marriage. Arlo's mother got custody of their child and Spence sees him on holidays and one month in the summer. When Arlo is 15 he comes to live with them, they have a young daughter named Sarah. Arlo calculates he has spent a total of two years with his father.

Sarah is very smart and excels in school while Arlo is dyslexic and struggles with reading and keeps getting left back. I found this section of the book where Spence decides there is nothing wrong with his son other than that he's lazy and decides to teach him to read very disturbing. Spence is a bully and arrogant. Love or lack thereof is a constant in this father and son relationship. Eventually Arlo leaves and goes back to living with the peripatetic Linda who neglects his schooling and they move around each time she becomes involved with a new man.

The POV switches throughout the book between characters, time periods and locations, while not too jarring it was rather annoying. People leave abruptly and don't stay in contact with each other for years (mostly Arlo) and then they unceremoniously reappear and at the same time profess to really love each other.

I don't mind a book where none of the characters are "likeable" however none of these characters were relatable to me; for smart people they sure were dumb in some ways. For example, if someone can no longer do daily tasks without help i.e., put on their shoes and lace them – give them loafers to wear. If you are nervous about cutting someone when you shave them – use an electric razor. Perhaps I am quibbling about trivia, but these things drove me crazy.

On the plus side the descriptions of dealing with Alzheimer's were heartbreaking and very well written. Pru's struggle to get help and decisions on whether or not to get Spence into an experimental treatment program as well as her guilt over trying to still maintain a life of her own struck a chord.

I found Arlo to be the most interesting character in the book. He appears for a while, then disappears, he starts schools and then drops out. He seems to have a strong moral compass no thanks to his upbringing, he becomes very successful and yet is a social misfit.

I wish I could give this book a higher rating, but all-in-all it left me dissatisfied. (less)

The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

Living a Lie (1/25/2021)

Belle de Costa Green started life as Maude Greene; her mother changed the family's name after leaving her husband and moving to New York City. She foresaw the Jim Crow era as the post-Civil War era was beginning to change in the South. She felt the only way her light …more

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
by Marie Benedict

Three Cheers for Agatha! (10/25/2020)

Other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Agatha Christie is probably the most famous mystery writer of all time. When she disappeared for eleven days in 1926 the English countryside saw thousands of people searching for her. They even called the search The Great Sunday Manhunt. …more

Big Girl, Small Town
by Michelle Gallen

A Side Order of Fries Please (10/12/2020)

I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book. At first, I thought two stars but as I progressed, I began to like it more mostly because of Majella the main character. Some readers might be put off by the style of writing which was in a STRONG Irish accent and no …more

The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal
by Bryn Turnbull

The Rich ARE Different (6/29/2020)

I very much enjoyed The Woman before Wallis; I would have given it more than five stars if that rating were possible. I highly recommend this book.

I thought I knew a lot about the Duke of Windsor's abdication, but this book filled in a lot of details that were new to me. …more

And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
by Stephanie Marie Thornton

Not what I expected (12/8/2019)

Perhaps no woman other than Princess Diana has so enthralled the world as much as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Therefore, I was really looking forward to reading this book to see if there were any new insights into Mrs. Onassis' life. Unfortunately, this book does not live …more

Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights
by Dovey Johnson Roundtree , Katie McCabe

What an outstanding woman (8/30/2019)

I would rate this book a ten if I could. It's one of the best biographies I've ever read.

I had never heard of Dovey Johnson Roundtree before I read "Mighty Justice." What a life she had!! Once you start to read her biography you won't be able to put it down. It's very …more

Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America
by Nefertiti Austin

From Foster Care to Adoption (8/5/2019)

I'm sure we've all heard the expression "It takes a village." Ms. Austin did not have a village when she set out to adopt a Black boy as a single mom, so she created her own. There was very little research to be found and she did not have a lot of support from her family …more

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
by Anissa Gray

Family Relationships (10/5/2018)

A really good book is satisfying but leaves you wanting more. Although the ending does bring closure, I would really like to know what the future will be for this family. I like to think that they went through an amazing period of soul searching and came out better for it.

…more

Our House
by Louise Candlish

A House of Secrets (5/28/2018)

You never know what is happening behind your neighbors' doors and sometimes you don't know what is happening in your own house. I just finished this book and can't wait to share it with someone because I really need to discuss it. That is how you KNOW a good book when you …more

Meet Me at the Museum
by Anne Youngson

A friendship flourishes (4/25/2018)

Although "Meet Me at the Museum" is a short book, it is not one to speed through, but to savor. It is so nice to read a book about older people which does not ridicule them. I guess this is why it has been compared to "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry."
This is a book …more

French Exit
by Patrick deWitt

French Exit (1/26/2018)

Although none of the characters were very likable, they were very amusing and witty. Perhaps a bit too studied in their witticisms, but that really did not bother me.

The book is about a relationship between a widow, Frances Price and her son Malcolm. For various reasons …more

Our Lady of the Prairie
by Thisbe Nissen

Our Lady of the Prairie (11/1/2017)

I really enjoyed the way Ms. Nissen used language. There were scenes where her descriptions made me almost laugh out loud. She made a tornado funny!

This book would be a fabulous choice for a book club because it was so confusing at times that I really wanted someone else's …more

Seven Days of Us: A Novel
by Francesca Hornak

A house full of secrets (5/19/2017)

Seven days is not a very long time, but it was interminable for the Birch family. Everyone had a secret.

At first I feared the characters would be stereotypical the stiff journalist father, Andrew; the spoiled egocentric daughter Phoebe; Olivia, a doctor in an organization …more

The Women in the Castle
by Jessica Shattuck

Women in WII (3/27/2017)

I loved this book. It represented three different viewpoints of this era. I found the characters were not stereotypes. The heroic woman who represented the Resistance in Germany did have some flaws. The one who had been at first a follower of Hitler made us see how ordinary …more

Extraordinary Adventures
by Daniel Wallace

Extraordinary Adventures (2/2/2017)

I was hooked after the first few pages. This book is a fast read and very entertaining. Socially inept and set in his ways Edsel Bronfman hates change. However, one phone call was all it took for him to begin the biggest (and first) "extraordinary adventures" of his 34 …more

The Next
by Stephanie Gangi

A Woman Scorned (7/1/2016)

A blurb from the cover perfectly sums up this book. "The Next isn't just a ghost story – it's a love story…What freedom comes from being a ghost! I no longer am accountable." The story is told in alternating voices, from the perspective of Jo as she begins to use her …more

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