Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith

July 1, 2025

Fun for the Whole Family by Jennifer E. Smith

The four Endicott siblings have been estranged for several years. When sister Jude, a well-known actress, summons them to meet in North Dakota on short notice, they are all curious enough about why, that they drop what they are doing to travel there in the middle of winter. 

Disappointing. Based on the title font and colorful cheerful cover and the blurb that it was “joy-filled,” I was expecting a happier story. Instead it was a tear-jerker with uber drama. There was enough foreshadowing that I had a pretty good idea where the plot was going, although it took a long time and loads of stupid ideas to get there. I know a lot of readers really liked this book and the travel sections were okay, but overall I found it depressing, especially the ending. 

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee

March 30, 2023

Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee

After four years of incarceration on a drug conviction, Ranita is about to be released. She longs to return to her two children, but release means leaving her partner Maxine behind. Once back in Boston, Ranita finds it increasingly difficult to avoid old habits and old companions. Ranita remembers her father giving her a pomegranate once. A pomegranate has chambers like a heart that are filled with beautiful jewel-like seed, full of juice that is sweet and tart at the same time, much like life.

Really slow moving story. I liked Ranita's visits with Drew but would have like to know more about why Geneva was the way she was, also about Maxine other than she is a militant black woman. I found the characters to be largely stereotypes. The characters and setting have been done before - nothing new here. Depressing.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

September 22, 2022

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Bird Gardner is a mixed-race child - his mother, the poet Margaret Miu, is a PAO, a person of Asian origin. Three years earlier,. she vanished one day, and her disappearance devastated the family. Bird's father gave up his position as a linguistics professor and now shelves books at the university library, while he and Bird live in one of the dormitories. One day, Bird receives a communication that could only have come from his mother. He sets out to find her and ask her why she left them.

Set in the near future in a dystopian. post-crisis world where Asians are viewed with hatred and suspicion for causing everything afflicting the U.S., this is an old story retold that could easily happen again. There are themes of racism/racial purity (think Nazism), cultural homogeneity. fear and suspicion. But there is also bravery, especially among a group of librarians who are determined to continue making information accessible (as we have always done). It will keep you thinking long after you finish reading it. Really great cover art. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC.

Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin

August 6, 2021

Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin

Like so many other young adults before her, college student Pru Steiner planned to take New York City by storm. But instead, she fell in love with one of her professors, a brilliant Shakespearean scholar, and married him. Pru has big plans for their future, but 30 years later, it's obvious that there is something seriously wrong with her husband. He falls asleep reading the newspaper, forgets things, and is unable to teach his classes. A visit to the doctor brings a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimers.

Told through different points of view, it's the story of a marriage, a family, and the heartbreak of Alzheimers.

Morningside Heights has gotten loads of positive reviews on many different sites. but this was a really depressing book that made me feel really sad. I didn't like the characters so it was hard to empathize with them. I struggled to finish, and ended up skimming the last third of the book. Other than Pru's daughter going off to medical school, NOTHING good happens to these people.

This is not Fredrik Backman who takes everyday life and ordinary people and transforms it into something extraordinarily special. I don't recommend this unless you're in a really black mood and want to read about people with very crappy lives.

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

February 27, 2021

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

In 1934, in the middle years of drought brought on by soil erosion, with the Great Depression in its fifth year, Elsa Martinelli makes the difficult decision to leave the family farm in Oklahoma and travel to California. Elsa's husband disappeared a few years earlier and Elsa believes he went to California following dreams of easy money. Their son is suffering from dust tuberculosis and the cleaner air in California is supposed to help. 

But California proves not to be the promised land - unable to find cheap housing, reduced to picking crops for low wages, the family is forced to live in a tent city. They experience grinding poverty, prejudice, and a number of other tragedies.

We all enjoy a good tearjerker now and again, but this was just too bleak. Nothing went right for the family and when Elsa finally does stand up for herself, it ends in tragedy. Her daughter Lorada has no absolutely redeeming qualities, and the sick son is a non-entity. The best characters in the book are Elsa's in-laws, Rosa and Tony Martinelli. They take Elsa in when she becomes pregnant with their son's child and her own parents throw her out (Elsa's parents also have no redeeming qualities). They are the first real family and love that Elsa has ever know.

I kept reading, hoping that something good happens or that there will be a happy ending, but it's all just so sad.

I am hit or miss with Kristin Hannah's books. Normally I'm not much into women's fiction, but I loved The Nightingale (which was more like historical women's fiction) and I moderated the book discussion at the library. The Great Alone was more like The Four Winds, bleak and depressing.

That's a dust storm blowing across the Great Plains behind the farm, not a mountain range

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC.