BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

Reviews by Linda J. (Ballwin, MO)

If you'd like to be able to easily share your reviews with others, please join BookBrowse.

Girl Falling: A Novel
by Hayley Scrivenor

"Girl Falling" is "Reader Depressing" (10/8/2024)

Seldom have I read a book that I find a waste of time. I usually read at least a fourth of a book, maybe a third, before setting it aside. In this case, I was curious enough to plow through it, wondering how it would end, even though I was tempted to read the last chapter. …more

The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson

"The Flower Sisters" Bloom (4/12/2024)

Starting the book, I was a bit unsure if it would fall into my "unfinished" pile. But Anderson's plot development kept me going. I am glad I did. Being from Missouri and familiar with the setting, I found myself completely invested in Daisy, Violet, and Rose. With a town …more

Delicate Condition
by Danielle Valentine

Chilling and Exciting (8/5/2023)

For those of you who haven’t experienced pregnancy, try to keep in mind that this is fiction…we hope!
Danielle Valentine has penned a RIVETING story of one woman’s journey through pregnancy. Millions of women give birth. Some were happy, some not.
Actress Anna Alcott wants a …more child more than anything. Even though she is successful – so much so she is up for an Academy Award.
She and her husband, Dex, have been trying for years, and Anna is 36. She feels the time is running out, so they decide to in-vitro fertilization.
Having known a few women who have undergone this procedure, and they have described it as “uncomfortable” at best, what Anna goes through certainly ranks as more than “uncomfortable.”
Afterward, things really start going awry. She forgets appointments, then someone breaks into their apartment.
She and Dex are overjoyed when she finally finds out that the IVF has been successful. But, instead of the blissful pregnancy women see on television and in movies, along with the kindly obstetrician, Anna’s experience begins to take on the form of a nightmare.
So much so that Anna begins to wonder if someone, somehow, is interfering with her body – does someone not want her to have this baby?
Enduring pain in prenatal yoga classes adds to Anna’s fear, and she questions everything going on in her body.
Not wanting to stay in their apartment after the break-in, Anna accepts her friend’s offer to stay in her beach home on the coast.
Then she has a miscarriage – or so she thought, as did her doctors. However, she later finds out she did not lose her baby. By this time, she is suspicious of her doctors and everything happening to her body.
While her husband tries to be supportive, he obviously thinks she is overreacting to all that is happening to her.
Anna is a woman who is always in control. She set her goals high in her acting career and met them. Now, she is not in control, and not knowing what is “normal” and what isn’t regarding her body changes, and food cravings, she views everything as a threat to the baby (?) growing inside her.
“A real page-turner” is a cliché we’ve seen hundreds of times. Still, Danielle’s novel will keep readers up at night, desperate to see the conclusion of Anna’s pregnancy journey.
But more than another novel about pregnancy, Danielle hits on a theme that many women have thought about and probably have not voiced. “Why won’t anyone listen to me? Why won’t my doctor, husband, or friends who’ve had a blissful pregnancy take me seriously?”
The United States, for all its ballyhooed healthcare system, has one of the highest pregnancy mortality rates in the world. Why is that? Are we, as women, supposed to line up to our obstetrician like the lame going to Lourdes and not question what is happening in our bodies if we feel something could be wrong?
I, like thousands of other women, had a normal pregnancy. But I feel I was lucky. I know women who have had miscarriages, including my daughter and myself. I’ve known women who had IVF, and while they mentioned how difficult it was, I had no idea.
I believe Danielle’s book will prompt women with any questions or worries about what is going on with their bodies to insist that their doctors LISTEN to them or find one that will.
In the meantime, immerse yourselves in this fantastic book! (less)

The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill
by Brad Meltzer, Josh Mensch

What We Didn't Know (1/1/2023)

While most of us are familiar with WW2 such as how it started, Hitler's insane racism and anti-Semitic views, Omaha Beach, and the bombing of Hiroshima. However, I for one had no idea a plot to assassinate Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin at their first "Big Three" …more

The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West
by Carrot Quinn

On The Road Again (8/15/2021)

Anyone wanting a primer on how the wandering homeless manage to conduct their lives will certainly become educated reading "The Sunset Route." I admit I got rather bored at first, thinking it was another "poor me" book. What kept me going, however, was Carrot's unique …more writing style. I felt like she just started writing and telling her story without going back and doing endless edits and rewrites Her "free writing" style kept me engaged. I felt like she was sitting across a table from me, and telling her story. The further I got into her book, the more I crawled into her mind.

Raised by a schizophrenic mother, Barbara, who thought she was the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, Carrot never knew, from day to day, if she would eat. She attended school, which made me wonder why her teachers seemed to be unaware of her circumstances. Adopted by her strict catholic grandparents when she was 14, Carrot left that home when she was 17. She starts her odyssey across the country, first by hitchhiking, then graduating (if you can call it that) to trains. I did not realize that people still hopped trains and this huge segment of society prefers this way of life. They scour dumpsters for discarded food that they resurrect for meals, and clothing deemed unwearable for anyone but their new owners. They live in punk houses or sleep under the stars, depending on their whereabouts and circumstances at the time.

Carrot is incredibly self-sufficient, and the more I read, the more impressed I was with her survival skills. She finds jobs to give her enough money for a few months, then she is off again, sometimes with a new friend, sometimes alone. The one constant is her love for her mother, even though Barbara was incapable of love. Carrot wonders where she is, if she's alive, and if so, what should Carrot do?

Underneath her bravado is the knowledge that her mother had not loved her enough to take care of her. Her traumatic childhood left its mark, and reading Carrot's memoir with her childhood memories is painful, especially realizing that there are many people like Carrot who travel the country, healing themselves.

I finally realized that she liked her way of life. She did what she wanted to do, with someone or not, whenever she wanted, and going wherever she wanted. From the frigid Alaska landscape through forests, mountains, and deserts, Carrot learns about herself, her limitations (few) and capabilities (many). (less)

Vox
by Christina Dalcher

Choose Your Words Carefully (6/12/2018)

If you could only speak 100 words a day, how would you decide when and where to use them?

That is the all-too-realistic future where Christina Dalcher has set her debut novel, “Vox.” The election of a conservative president and his psychotic religious advisor causes all …more

America for Beginners
by Leah Franqui

America For Beginners (4/21/2018)

If you have ever wondered what America might look like for those immigrating from India, then Leah Franqui's debut novel, "America For Beginners," will provide some insight, good and no-so-much.

After her abusive husband's death, wealthy Indian widow Pival Sengupta decides …more

Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces
by Dawn Davies

Mothers of Sparta (10/6/2017)

I can only describe Dawn Davies debut novel, "Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces," as a book that I will return to again and again, if only to make sure that I absorbed it all.

The book is a series of essays, many of which have won awards.

Although the book does start at …more

The Stars Are Fire
by Anita Shreve

A Fire in the Heart (3/24/2017)

Once again, Anita Shreve, one of my favorite authors, has penned a novel that snares the reader's interest from the first sentence.
It is the summer of 1947 and Maine is suffering through an unbearable drought. The spring rains have long since dried up and the sun parches …more the state. Even the coastal towns have no relief save the slight ocean breezes.
Grace Holland is 24 with two children under the age of two, and is suffering through a drought of her own in her marriage.
She married Gene, thinking life would be wonderful. It hasn't turned out that way. She performs her wifely duties of washing, ironing, and cooking, but the occasional "nightly duties" are unsatisfying, nothing like her vivacious friend and neighbor, Rosie, describes in her relationship with her husband Tim.
After one "nightly duty," Grace finds herself pregnant, and realizes she is truly trapped.
Then, the unthinkable happens. A fire starts miles from town, and all the men, including Rick and Tim leave to build fire breaks.
Word comes that the fire is spreading, and Grace waits for Gene to come for them, but he never does.
The fire overtakes the town. Grace and her children along with Rosie and her children run to the sea, thinking that is their only salvation, and cover themselves with soaked blankets.
When rescuers finally find them, Grace is deathly ill, but she has saved her children. When she finally regains consciousness, Gene is still missing, their house is gone with all their possessions, and her baby is stillborn.
Tim comes back to Rosie, but does not know what happened to Gene. They leave the destroyed town and travel to Nova Scotia to be with her parents.
Penniless, with two children and her mother, Grace goes to the only place she knows for shelter – her deceased mother-in-law's coastal mansion which, she assumes, is now Gene's since his mother died.
But it is not unoccupied. Walking into the house, she hears a beautiful melody being played on the piano.
Aiden, an Irish pianist, his tour cut short by the fire, has been living in the deserted mansion until he finds another job.
With Aiden, Grace finally finds the joy that had been missing in her life, but when he finds a job, he leaves, promising to see her again.
By this time, Grace has gotten a job she likes, a car, and is discovering all the freedoms she had never known.
Then, her life is turned upside down again, and she has to summon all the strengths that she has learned through her previous experience to cope with this unexpected turn of events.
Shreve has written a novel of love, loss, and triumph in the face of a force that threatens to tear away all that Grace has gained.
She gets inside Grace's head to the point where readers can identify with her struggles, her fear, and her triumphs.
I found it to be a quick read, because I couldn't put it down. (less)

The Typewriter's Tale
by Michiel Heyns

The Woes of an Amanuensis (1/24/2017)

“Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to.”

So said famous author Henry James and his typist, Frieda Wroth, fervently wants to heed his maxim.

“The Typewriter’s Tale” by Michiel Heyns tells the story of Wroth, a young girl who does not know what to do with her life. Her mother …more

News of the World
by Paulette Jiles

A Journey of Trust (9/19/2016)

In “News of the World,” Paulette Jiles, author of “Enemy Women,” has written a story of courage, compassion, and dedication.

In the sparsely-populated Texas plains, news is hard to come by, so Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an elderly widow who has fought in two wars, travels …more from town to town reading from newspapers to audiences interested in what is happening in the world such as the Irish immigration, erupting volcanoes, and the westward progress of the railroad.

He is happy with his solitary life. Then, in Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver an orphaned 10-year old girl, Johanna, to her relatives in San Antonio. Joanna was taken four years earlier by the Kiowas who murdered her parents and sister. Rescued by the U.S. Army, Johanna has little memory of her life before her capture, and has completely assimilated the Kiowa life.

Kidd and Johanna set out on the hazardous 400-mile journey, not understanding each others language. Feeling that she has lost the only family she ever knew, Johanna attempts to escape several times, throws away her shoes, eats with her hands, and even steals a chicken from a friendly soul who gives them a place to camp for the night.

At each town along the way, when they stop for the night, Kidd finds someone to watch Johanna while he gives a reading to the interested townspeople. He still needs the dime-a-head admission, and readers will find out later in the book just how handy those dimes turn out to be.

As they travel, they begin to understand each others language, and Kidd tries to teach her table manners and the proper way to eat. Johanna starts calling him “Kep-dun,” then, one day, she calls him “Kontah,” the Kiowa word for “grandfather.”

“The Captain never did understand what had caused such a total change in a little girl from a German household and adopted into a Kiowa one. In a mere four years, she completely forgot her alphabet. She forgot how to use a knife and a fork and how to sing in European scales. And once she was returned to her own people, nothing came back,” Jiles writes.

They forge a bond on their journey as they face Comanche raids, bandits, and bad weather, while Kidd tries to prepare her for her German aunt and uncle.

The closer they draw to San Antonio, the more Kidd worries. Johanna was yanked from one family, then from her second one that she recognized as her true family. Now, becoming familiar with Kidd, she is about to undergo a third separation for, once again, an entirely different existence.

Jiles writes "She felt the arrival of something chilling, something wrong. Something lonely. He was the only person she had left in the world and the only human being she now knew. He was strong and wise and they had fought together at the springs. She ate with a fork now and wore the horrible dresses without complaint. What had she done wrong?"

Jiles captures the feel of the Texas landscape, from the plains of north Texas to the Hill Country to the desert of San Antonio. Moreover, she writes a beautiful story of courage, acceptance, and love. (less)

The Dark Lady's Mask
by Mary Sharratt

An Interesting Blend of Fiction and Non-Fiction (3/9/2016)

When I first started "The Dark Lady's Mask," I had some mixed feelings about how this book would go. I liked author Mary Sharratt's descriptions of life in 17th century England and Italy, and Queen Elizabeth's court.

Then, the writing seemed to get a little melodramatic, …more

The Things We Keep
by Sally Hepworth

Loving In Spite of the Odds (9/22/2015)

When I closed this book after finishing it, I felt like I had been privy to both a heartwarming and heartbreaking story. When starting a book about Alzheimer's Disease, one knows that it will not end well. It's about the journey and how the patient's family copes with their …more

He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him
by Mimi Baird with Eve Claxton

He Wanted the Moon (3/15/2015)

Mimi Baird was six years old when her father was taken away to a mental institution. She never knew why. Her mother dismissed his absence with a wave of her hand, saying "He's away."
Dr. Percy Baird, a rising star in the medical field in the 1920s and 1930s was researching …more the biochemical root of manic depression, just as he was beginning to suffer from it himself.
He had discovered that the blood of manic patients differed from healthy subjects, and had published a paper on his findings.
Unfortunately, his condition worsened and in 1944, he was committed to the first in a series of hospitalizations where he was subjected to inhumane treatments such as electroshock therapy, ice baths, beatings, and being wrapped in a straitjacket for long periods of time – the recommended methods for those days.
During this time, he wrote constantly. This is what makes this book so fascinating. Readers can track his journey from his lucid moments to his manic episodes.
"I pray to God that in the future I shall be able to remember that once one has crossed the line from the normal walks of life into a psychopathic hospital, one is separated from friends and relatives by walls thicker than stone; walls of prejudice and superstition," he writes during a time when he was thinking clearly.
Later he writes "Another morning came. I detected an odor of exhaust gas coming through the window as I lay there in my straightjacket(sic). I surmised that everyone in New England except us had been killed by gas released by the Japs."
Ultimately, his medical license was revoked, his wife divorced him, most of his friends deserted him, and he was left to a life devoid of any meaning, save his own thoughts.
During this time, he was released, committed, released, and recommitted to different mental hospitals. In December, 1949 he underwent a lobotomy and died in 1959 of a seizure. His research unfinished and his accomplishments unrecognized.
His daughter, however, had not forgotten him. Through all the years of his absence, she continued to ask her mother, his friends, and colleagues about her father. After his death, through a series of coincidences, she ran across the papers he had written on onion skin paper throughout the years, and resolved to write a book about him.
She found that he had completed a first draft of his article 'Biochemical Component of the Manic-Depression Psychosis,'" which was published in 1944 in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease,'
However, with most of his peers overseas in World War 11, there was no one to promote his article, and, as Baird write, "My father had run out of time – the race to cure himself was lost."
The first part of the book consists of Dr. Baird's observations of his condition and experiences along with some clinical notes from the institutions in which he was hospitalized.
Mimi Baird tells her story in the second half of the book. How, through the years, she had wondered about her father, but was unable to get any answers from her mother, only that he was "ill."
After his death in 1959, she was determined to find out her father's story. She began visiting her parents' friends, asking questions about him.
One woman said to her, "Your father, he couldn't help himself. You know, Mimi, he wanted the moon."
She finally tracks down a manuscript, written in pencil in her father's hand, detailing his illness and barbaric treatment.
With this manuscript along with his medical records, she writes a compelling story of a father she never knew, who was on the brink of discovering a way to treat his condition. Unfortunately, as she said, he "ran out of time." (less)

Descent
by Tim Johnston

Descent by Tim Johnston (12/3/2014)

Those looking for a legitimate page turner need to look no further than "Descent," a novel with a "ripped from the headlines" feel.

The Courtland family goes to the Colorado Rockies for a vacation. One morning, their daughter, Caitlin, takes her younger brother Sean and goes …more

Soy Sauce for Beginners
by Kirstin Chen

Soy Sauce For Beginners (10/28/2013)

I love books about food, and the title "Soy Sauce For Beginners," intrigued me. Maybe it wasn't as grandiose as "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" or "Chocolat," but tempting nonetheless. I wasn't disappointed.

Gretchen Lin, a graduate student in San Francisco, …more is in the midst of an unraveling marriage and decides to return to her home in Singapore where her family owns an artisanal soy sauce company. I never knew there were artisanal soy sauces, so that, in itself, piqued my interest.

On her return, she is drawn into a power struggle between her father, her Uncle Robert, and his son, Cal, concerning the company, and she finds that her mother has gotten a full-blown drinking problem so bad that she is on dialysis.

While she is trying to process all of this turmoil, her best friend, Frankie, from San Francisco arrives, loving Singapore and wanting to live there. Gretchen gets her a job at Lin's Soy Sauce, and Frankie gets drawn into the drama surrounding the company. This begins to cause a rift in their friendship.

Add to that the fact that Gretchen gets involved with the son of a client, and it doesn't take too long to get completely immersed in this book.
Gretchen finds herself torn between her parents. Cal had previously made a disastrous business decision which caused Gretchen's father and his brother, Robert, to banish him from the company. Now, with some clients willing to pay for a soy sauce of lesser quality, her uncle has invited him back to the company, while Gretchen's father refuses. He wants Gretchen to take the lead.

Gretchen's mother, however, wants her to return to her studies in San Francisco and make her own life. Then there's the issue of her separation from her husband that she needs to solve.

Chen keeps the action at a steady pace with well-placed dialogue and setting, making it hard to put down, even for sleep.

Plus, one finds out a lot about the nuances of soy sauce. She describes how Gretchen's grandfather, Ahkong, developed the delicate sauce and aged it in clay pots, making it the premier sauce of Singapore and beyond. The conflict begins when Uncle Robert on Cal's suggestion, wants to short cut the process making a less palatable product for more profit.

My only problem with the book was that Chen made Gretchen seem a bit selfish or shallow at times. Even though one could empathize with her problems, she could come off as less than likeable. Chen does, however, capture the personalities of all the characters and their interactions.

Added to great story telling, I learned all sorts of things about soy sauce that will make me more judicious in selecting the proper sauce for my next recipe. Who knew? (less)

Songs of Willow Frost
by Jamie Ford

Songs of Willow Frost (8/2/2013)

Hard to Put This Book Down!

William Eng's last memory of his mother was seeing her taken from their apartment after he found her unconscious in the bathtub. He was five years old, and was spirited away to Sacred Heart Orphanage where now, at the age of 12, he has never given …more

Walk Me Home
by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Walk Me Home (5/7/2013)

"Hard to put down" is an over-used term, I believe, but in the case of "Walk Me Home," I would have to use just those words. Author Catherine Ryan Hyde wrote "Pay It Forward" so it should come as no surprise that her newest book would deliver. 16-year old Carly and her 11- …more

The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War
by Daniel Stashower

The Hour of Peril (1/14/2013)

History buffs will thoroughly enjoy "The Hour of Peril," a little known story about a foiled assassination plot on Abraham Lincoln as he traveled by train from Springfield, IL to Washington, DC for his inauguration. Author Daniel Stashower starts with how Allen Pinkerton …more

The Woman at the Light: A Novel
by Joanna Brady

The Woman at the Light (7/31/2012)

What a delight this book is! If you like Key West and are captivated by lighthouses, this book will keep you turning pages and wondering what will happen next. Joanna Brady did her research on women who "keep the light" in lighthouses, and has spun a tale filled with …more

BookBrowse Book Club

The Jackal's Mistress
by Chris Bohjalian

From the New York Times bestselling author of Hour of the Witch, a Civil War love story of a Confederate wife and a wounded Yankee.

About Discuss
Dream Count
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A searing new novel from the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists, exploring four women's desires.

About Discuss

Members Recommend

Girl Falling
by Hayley Scrivenor

The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

Read the Reviews
The Dream Hotel
by Laila Lalami

A Read with Jenna pick. A riveting novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

Read the Reviews
Fagin the Thief
by Allison Epstein

A thrilling reimagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London's most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue.

Read the Reviews
The Antidote
by Karen Russell

A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

Read the Reviews
Raising Hare
by Chloe Dalton

A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, and loss through one woman's friendship with a wild hare.

Read the Reviews
Jane and Dan at the End of the World
by Colleen Oakley

Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

Read the Reviews

Who Said...

If there is anything more dangerous to the life of the mind than having no independent commitment to ideas...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B O a F F T

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Reviews by Linda J. (Ballwin, MO)

BookBrowse Book Club

Members Recommend

Who Said...

Wordplay

Newsletter