I started this monthly post in January, basically because I was doing a lot more reading than posting. I decided to keep it up.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
I’m not a big thriller reader but I did enjoy this audio book. I thought the different POVs really helped the plot along.
The tale is set on a remote island off the Irish coast. Six different narrators add to the mystery. Jules is the bride determined to have the wedding of the century at this wild and remote location. Olivia is Jules’ introverted younger sister. Hannah is the “plus one,” accompanying Charlie, Jules’ “best friend.” The bridegroom, Will, is an entitled Bear Grylls character. Johnno is the best man and a screwup. The narrators are rounded out with Aiofe, the wedding planner. Most of the guests are rich elitists or hangers-on that are here for the spectacle.
Foley masterfully weaves these six points of view together to ultimately reveal the connections between the characters. In the end, the most evil ones meets their demise.
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Another audio book from my daily travels to work and back. I do enjoy Taylor Jenkins Reid every so often.
I appreciated the loose connection to Carrie Soto but if you haven’t read that one, no worries, you can pick Malibu Rising right up and not be confused.
The novel presents a family that was raised without a lot of material things but one of them makes it big in the modeling world. The older brother is a world class surfer who is photographed by the younger brother. The baby of the family is just trying to find her way. The novel traces the twenty-four hours before an annual blow-out party at the model’s home. The party coincides with the Broad Beach Fire of 1988.
Give me a good family dynamic dramedy any day especially when the main character triumphs.
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
I had just read The Alice Network and enjoyed it so when I saw Quinn’s name on The Phoenix Crown, I picked it up.
The novel is set in the days prior to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Strong, brilliant and talented women dominate the plot. Gemma is a talented but undiscovered opera singer who has just arrived in the city. Suling, a young Chinese woman who is gifted at embroidery, is trying to escape the fate of becoming an older man’s third wife. Alice is an older woman who is the chief curator and botanist for the California Academy of Sciences. Reggie is a talented painter and Gemma’s best friend. Reggie is the reason Gemma is in San Francisco to start with.
I started out really enjoying this novel but ended up rating it a three. I loved the plot and the characters, it was just a bit rambling. I totally wanted to find out what happened to all of them (and the villain, Thornton). The ending was a bit predictable. (I sometimes felt like I could tell which co-author was writing just by the change in dialogue style.)
The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar
This seems to be a theme: I really wanted to love this book. I did like the format and the history lessons about Theo Van Gogh’s widow, Johanna. Emsley, a young art auctioneer, is just setting out to expand her company when her grandmother dies and leaves her a pack of mysterious letters. I like a good family mystery so Emsley’s search for what the secret dairy and letters means was intriguing.
While I probably enjoyed reading about Emsley’s adventures and her struggles just as much as I loved reading about Johanna’s, there were times part of Emsley’s tale was annoying. I know she was an upper twenty-something, but good god. How long did it take you to figure out you could not be business partners with your ex who left you for your best friend (while you all were living together).
I thought the the wrap up for Emsley was a bit trite and I was expecting more of a surprise when the mystery was solved.
I wish we had a sequel to this book that was all about her grandmother’s eccentric, proud, and creative life! The book reminded me a bit of Cooking for Picasso by Camille Aubray because of the plot.
All New People by Anne Lamott
If you haven’t listened to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ podcast Wiser than Me, you need to as soon as you are able. It led me to Annie Lamott. As soon as they started discussing this novel, I stopped the podcast and found the audio book. (Louis-Dreyfus’ podcast also led me read Just Kids by Patti Smith.)
I was a little unsure about the narrator and I was a little unsure about the format, but I soon came to love the narrator and the voice of the main character.
Nanny is an adult but All New People is really a “coming of age” story. The narrator, Nanny, returns to her childhood hometown to reflect and recuperate from adulthood. She then starts the tale of her childhood, growing up in the 1960s. Her parents are almost-Bohemian liberals and her older brother tries to lose his way in drugs and San Francisco. Oh, and all the fathers are leaving. The child narrator is wise and observant. I’m not sure the adult narrator is (from the few glimpses we see of her).
I like how the tale is bookended. I would read more of Lamott’s fiction.
Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
Such an interesting narration and plot. The narrator, Honor, is a wife and mother who is desperate to have another child. Her desperation is driving a wedge between her and her husband and might even effect her care of her existing daughter.
Honor has convinced her husband to hire a surrogate using an anonymous egg donor.
A horrific tragedy happens in the first chapter: Honor and her daughter are killed in a terrorist bombing. Honor continues to tell her tale and watches her husband deal with this unbelievable tragedy. At least he is surrounded by their friends who try to buoy him up. He also finds the strength to live because he is now a father to the little boy that is born out of that surrogacy.
Honor shares the insight she has of her husband as the reader watches him navigate life without his family but with his new son. Who is Grace? Someone who is already connected.
I rated this one a five which seems to be high praise from me lately.
Other books that I’ve read but already posted about were Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (for January’s Cook the Books) and Linger by Hetty Lui McKinnon.
I am currently reading This is Not About You by Allegra Goodman. Talk about a family drama! So far I am loving it!
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