Book Review – Page 3 – That Bookish Life

Book Review: After Annie by Anna Quindlen

After Annie follows a family the year after the sudden and unexpected death of their 30-something wife and mother. The narrative focuses in on three people: Annie’s husband, Bill, best friend, Annemarie, and oldest of 3 siblings, 13-year-old daughter, Ali.

I’ve seen Anna Quindlen described as a “domestic anthropologist” and it’s so perfectly fitting. After Annie is a quiet story yet rich and brimming with the everyday crumbs of family life, which here take on a touching significance. A well rendered, poignant story of love, life, grief, and hope.

This is not the first Anna Quindlen I’ve read though it’s been a while and I haven’t read much of her backlist. After Annie reminded me quite a bit of what I love about the style of Anne Tyler’s writing.

Complimentary review copy provided by publisher.

Book Review: Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin

Review copy provided by publisher.

Enid is a lesbian in her mid-20s obsessed with interesting facts about space and true crime, is convinced a bald man is stalking her, and has a complicated relationship with her deceased father’s second family. These elements of her identity aren’t unusual, but Enid becomes increasingly lost in a prison of her own making eventually seeking professional help to find her way out.

Interesting Facts about Space is a complex and quirky character study of a woman’s fears, phobias, and traumas coming to a head. I loved Emily Austin’s Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead. In both books Austin has such an incredible ability to mix humor and absurdity with profundity.

Enid is awkward, relatable, and repellant. It’s uncomfortable being in her head, it’s also an uncomfortably recognizable place at times. In another’s hands a story like this could end up untenably bleak or too wacky; in Austin’s it somehow manages to be empathetic, hopeful, and even inspirational.

Book Review: Good Material by Dolly Alderton

Review copy provided by publisher.

35-year-old comedian, Andy Dawson, grapples with his girlfriend of 4 years dumping him. As Andy navigates middle-aged singledom and his stalled career we are treated to comedic self-destruction and curious choices (I mean, who among us hasn’t found themselves renting out a houseboat after a breakup, right?!) as he struggles to find equilibrium.

Good Material is a good read showcasing Dolly Alderton’s impressive ability to capture the nuance of emotions and relationships on the page. I’ve seen this compared to High Fidelity, which I agree with. It also reminds me a bit of Fleishman is in Trouble as we later hear Andy’s ex’s perspective, though I don’t think that change in perspective has quite the impact here as Fleishman, nor does it appear to intend to.

In the acknowledgements Alderton thanks her male friends who helped her to craft Andy’s character and voice as inspired by Nora Ephron’s methods with When Harry Met Sally. I appreciated this insight into Alderton’s process as I think she was very successful in writing the male voice.

Book Review: In Memoriam by Alice Winn

“I know you’re fine, but are you all right?”

The world was profoundly changed by the Great War, also known as the war to end all wars, later revised as merely the first in a series. The world was changed, but especially an entire generation of men, part of the so called Lost Generation, were deeply impacted by violence and loss in many forms if they were lucky enough to survive.

Two men of this lost generation are Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood teenaged students at an elite British boarding school when the global conflict breaks out. Like so many of their cohort they end up at the front, soldiers fighting for Great Britain in the trenches. But this isn’t just a war story, it’s also a love story.

In Memoriam is riveting, gorgeous, and brutal. I fell in love with Gaunt and Ellwood as they fell in love with each other. Told with sensitivity and compassion, their tender love story is interrupted by the brutality of war, society forever changing alongside them.

Unforgettable, impactful, an all time favorite. I loved this book.

Book Review: The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad

Complimentary review copy provided by publisher.

Set in a very near future in an alternate timeline where Civil Rights Movement never happened, instead a second civil war was fought in the mid-20th century. The United States was toppled and an overt white supremacist regime installed at the helm of the country now known as the Order whose federal seat now resides in Texas. In this reality Black citizens are categorized as Decedents of Slavery and controlled by the state; males are conscripted as soldiers to quell civil unrest throughout the land, often losing their lives in the process, females are assigned to white men for a period of five years at age 15, then married off to Black men, always used as the men see fit, and of course their main purpose a vessel for procreation.

The story follows Solenne who, at age 15, becomes entangled with Bastien, a high-ranking Order official being groomed as the next leader. Their relationship is controversial as Solenne, now aged 20, is not merely his assignment but instead lives as his concubine, both Bastien and Solenne believing love a part of their union. Intertwined with Solenne’s reality is a biography she is penning of her ancestor, Henriette, who was brought from Africa to be enslaved in America as a teenager in 1801.

The Blueprint is a compelling piece of speculative literary fiction with undeniable echos of The Handmaid’s Tale and historical relationships such as that of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Rashad has created a feasible and recognizable world drawn not only from the roots of our history, but our present as well. This familiarity lends a fascinating and unsettling layer to the story as it explores themes of autonomy, choice, love, liberty, control, and power. There’s much to chew on here and all told with lyrical prose. I couldn’t put this down once I started reading.

Shop The Blueprint on Amazon | Bookshop

Book Review: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

*The Book of the Unnamed Midwife //* Meg Elison

As the title suggests this story is told predominately through the book, or diary, of an unnamed midwife. After a deadly virus kills off nearly the entire population an unnamed nurse-midwife wakes from her sickbed to a sparsely populated, apocalyptic world with male survivors outnumbering females ten to one; chaos and violence is rampant and survival is precarious, especially for females. Pregnancy and childbirth under these circumstances is inherently risky, further complicated as post-pandemic females are able to conceive and gestate, but their pregnancies do not result in live births.

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife reads like classic dystopic/apocalyptic literature. The structure of the story being framed through a historical document referenced by future survivors is reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale as is the limited point of view. I found this to be a strong offering to the genre and appreciated the feminist lens. Not eveything is clearly explained and not all questions answered (again, reminiscent of Handmaid), but to me, Unnamed Midwife feels like a complete, stand alone novel; I like the ambiguity. For readers who want more a second and third book have since published forming the Road to Nowhere trilogy.

Book Review: Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter

From Roxane Gay’s publishing imprint a literary domestic crime thriller of mother/womanhood, marriage, families, and relationships.

Hot Springs Drive swirls around the friendship of two, early middle-aged women; neighbors, each with husbands and children. Betrayal begets violence rippling out to impact everyone in both families.

Told from multiple perspectives (including that of a house, I loved this!) with everyone involved lending perspective and layers of development. The magic of this story lies in the depth and masterful definition of a broad cast of characters. I loved the writing style and couldn’t turn pages fast enough!

I actually listened to parts of this book on audio (thanks Libro.FM for the complimentary audiobook!) Because I just couldn’t put it down! It’s great in both print and on audio.

Shop: Amazon|Bookshop

Audiobook Review: My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

{#partner @prhaudio}

Let me start out by saying I set this book aside at least 2x before I really sank into reading it, but then I ended up loving it!

Let me also say, I am not a Barbra Steisand superfan, I know she is a legend and has had a long and illustrious career and I was interested to learn more.

Well, Barbra really ended up winning me over with this memoir and after spending 48 hours of audiobook time together I feel like we’re good friends. (It’s sort of a one-way friendship, but still!)

My Name Is Barbra feels like sitting down with Steisand over a cup of coffee, or some good deli and listening to her recall in detail her 8 decades of life and 6 decades in the entertainment industry. And really it’s such a treat! Authentic, honest, frank, conversational, and comprehensive My Name is Barbra is an excellent memoir and incredible on audio as Steisand herself narrates and includes audio clips of her music when relevant.

If you’re a Barbra Steisand fan, if you are interested in feminist pioneers, if you enjoy a good memoir, you’ll love this!

Consider me now a fan!

Book Review: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

*Moon of the Crusted Snow* // Waubgeshig Rice

In the depths of winter an Anishinaabe community in remote northern Canada experiences a blackout. With satellites down and communication with the outside impossible they assume the blackout will be temporary until two members living off the reservation make their way home with news the blackout is widespread and society is breaking down in the cities.

Moon of the Crusted Snow offers an apocalyptic tale from a slightly different point of view, which is brilliant, making it both familiar and unique. What if, yes, our current world were to end, but what if this allowed for societies constrained by the current order to once again flourish?

And that’s not to say this community exactly flourishes during the story, they encounter much of the same situations any community would encounter if a breakdown of this type were to occur, but their culture, traditions, and logistics find them relatively better positioned. The circumstances posed allow for an examination of how First Nations communities have been weakened, but also what traditional strengths they retain that become, once again, essential when modern infrastructure no longer exists.

At just over 200 pages Moon of the Crusted Snow is a quick, atmospheric read perfect for winter. There is a sequel coming to the U.S. in late February 2024 and I definitely plan to pick it up!

Tell me: do you read more front or backlist books?

I am forever trying to resist the siren call of new releases and pay attention to backlist books languishing on my TBR. Moon of the Crusted Snow published in 2018.

Book Review: Family Family by Laurie Frankel

India Allwood is a recognizable actress, the lead in a popular television show and preparing for the release of her first movie, a tragic prestige drama about adoption and addiction. Amid a social media driven squall about whether the movie portrays adoption properly India stirs up a hurricane by admitting she doesn’t like what the movie has to say either.

Suddenly she’s a trending hashtag and at risk of being cancelled, both publicly and in her career. But what isn’t widely known is she’s intimately acquainted with adoption. From here the story unfolds in two timelines, the week of India’s social/media nightmare and beginning 16 years in the past following a teenaged India into adulthood. You might have preconceived notions of what to expect from this book (I know I did), but you’re likely to be surprised as it unfolds (as I was.)

Family Family {#gifted, thanks @henryholtbooks} is a complicated, sprawling family saga, as all are, about India’s FAMILY family, the people connected to her through blood and choice, those who are drawn to India’s side during her very public crisis. Just as Laurie Frankel offered a nuanced, empathetic look at a family navigating a child’s transgender identity with This is How it Always Is, so too does she offer a similar treatment with adoption in Family Family a story that is challenging (in the best way), authentic, quirky, and heartwarming.

Tell me: if you became a trending hashtag what would it likely be for?

Mine would be something related to a trending aspirational reading lifestyle, obvi #CozyBookHermitChic