The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

May 20, 2025

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

Leslie Hamlyn and her husband Robert have lived in Penang in Malaya (now Malaysia) for 15 years, the entire time they have been married. But now Robert is ill and wants to move to South Africa for the drier climate. Before they leave Malaya, their old friend Somerset Maugham (Willie, to his friends) and his secretary Gerald came to stay with them for a few weeks. Willie is hiding the fact that he has made poor investments and is in desperate financial straits and needs to publish a new book as soon as possible, while Leslie and Gerald are hiding their own secrets.

I read the author's previous book, The Garden of Evening Mists, and loved it. To my surprise, I loved this one just as much. It was exactly what I was in the mood for. Set between the two world wars, he story was inspired by Maugham's short story The Letter, which he later turned into a successful play that was adapted for film. Themes include race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, love, betrayal, and redemption. Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction.

W. Somerset Maugham

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

April 10, 2025

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

Dan scores a reservation at the exclusive La Fin du Monde restaurant and takes his wife Jane to celebrate their wedding anniversary. But his timing is off, since Jane has decided that she is going to ask for a divorce over dinner (also maybe not the best timing). Not to mention that climate change activists have chosen that night to bomb the restaurant.

Quirky and fun, with a long-term marriage that turns out to be a romance after all. Recommended for readers who enjoy off-beat fiction like Nothing to See Here or Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend.

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

Trust by Hernan Diaz

February 3, 2025

Trust by Hernan Diaz

A novel comprised of four shorter books: a novel called Bonds, about the life of a New York financier; the outline of a memoir/family history by a Wall Street investor who believes Bonds is a fictionalized account of him and his wife; a memoir by a woman hired to write the financier's autobiography but later decides to discover the truth about the couple; and a journal by the financier's wife. But what is true, and what isn't?

A complex novel that explores themes of family, wealth, ambition and deception in a non-traditional format. I really enjoyed the first three sections of the book, but I found the last section to be disappointing. Since that section was in the wife's voice, I was hoping for answers to the questions posed in the earlier sections, and while there were some revelations, I mostly found it unsatisfying. Love the cover art, a skyscraper under a bell jar. Five stars for the first 3/4 of the book, 2 stars for the final section. For readers of literary fiction, especially if you enjoyed books like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

Panic on Wall Street in 1929, which figures in all sections of the novel

Set for Life by Andrew Ewell

December 4, 2023

Set for Life by Andrew Ewell

A nameless creative writing professor who is on a deadline to get something (anything, really) published has major writer's block. He is a failure at writing, at teaching, at being a husband, at life in general. His wife is a successful novelist and she encourages him at every turn. In typical male midlife crisis fashion, he begins an affair with one of his wife's friends, thinking that this is the answer to all of his problems. When his now-estranged wife publishes another novel with a character based on him, his envy knows no bounds and he feels he is entitled to some kind of compensation. After he manages to implode his entire life, he retreats to Florida where his parents (who he has always looked down on as failures) own a small beachside hotel.

All of the characters in this novel are unlikeable, with the exception of Carlos, the visiting writer. The main character is immature and a complete snob - everyone and everything is beneath him, and he feels that success should be just handed to him rather than having to work for it. It's always someone else's fault. Also, the main character drinks WAY too much, in fact many of the characters drink almost constantly. It's fairly obvious that he is depressed and everyone knows it but him, and several of the characters try to throw him a lifeline (including the department chair, who he despises, who not only doesn't press charges after the main character almost burns down his office, but he tries to help him find a new job). The writing is good, there is some dark humor, and it's a quick read - like a train wreck, you can't look away. I sincerely hope this novel isn't autobiographical.

Is it just me or does anyone else think this is a really boring cover?

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

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

August 22, 2023

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

In a community theater production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Lara Kenison played the role of Emily when she was 16 years old. It becomes her defining role, and led her to a brief acting career that included commercials, a short-lived TV series, and a motion picture. While doing the part of Emily in summer stock in Tom Lake, Michigan, Lara met struggling actor Peter Duke, who would go on to become a famous movie star. Her adult daughters return to the family farm during the COVIC-19 lockdown and while they are picking cherries, the girls ask Lara to tell them about her acting career and her romance with Duke.

Multi-layered narrative that ponders the meaning of the past and how it shapes who we are. I usually run like crazy from books that are selected for one of those TV book clubs but I decided to give this one a try because I have read the author in the past. I loved the fact that Lara didn't regret or apologize for any of her choices. While Lara's story fascinates her children, it forces them to think about their parents' lives before they married and had children, and also about the direction of their own lives. I love Ann Patchett's writing, and while nothing can beat The Dutch House, Tom Lake is very good indeed. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys literary fiction.

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

Cherry orchard in bloom in northern Michigan

Excavations by Hannah Michell

July 18,. 2023

Excavations by Hannah Michell

After a day spent looking after her children, Sae is looking forward to her husband Jae coming home from his job with a small engineering firm subcontracted to do work for a major Seoul corporation. But then there is a news report that the building where Jae is working has collapsed and hundreds of people are trapped or dead. Sae goes in search of her husband, but as the days pass with no sign of him, Sae begins to uncover more and more deception, eroding away at what she believed was their life.

I enjoyed this novel a lot more than I expected to when I started it. There are different types of excavations going on: the building site, unethical business practices at the corporate level, a karaoke salon where businessmen gather and spill their secrets, Jae's hidden past, what Sae thought was their life together. You can feel Sae's growing desperation as the days pass and she is unable to get answers about what happened to her husband. Thoughtful contemporary fiction.

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

Seoul, Korea

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

June 2, 2023

The Whispers by Ashley Audrain

Four couples in a suburban neighborhood. From the outside, their marriages appear solid. But then a child, a difficult child, falls from a window, causing a waterfall of secrets to come out.

I'm not a fan of domestic fiction, especially mommy fiction, and this one isn't even very suspenseful. First we had girl fiction; then we had woman fiction; now they have morphed into mommy fiction. Suburban housewives whose lives revolve around being mommies, while their husbands are having affairs, frequently with other mommies. The mommies look down on women who don't have children (kind of sick of this one - some of us didn't get a choice about having children). Way, WAY too many descriptions of miscarriage. Disappointing overall.

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

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

May 1, 2023

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

Sophie Whalen, an Irish immigrant living in New York, answers a newspaper advertisement for a mail order bride, then travels to San Francisco to meet the man she has agreed to marry. Martin Hocking is a handsome widower with a small child who needs a mother since he travels for business. Sophie has always wanted a child and is so happy with little Kat that she accepts her strange marriage and strange husband. But a year after their marriage, a pregnant woman shows up at Sophie's door, claiming that Martin is her husband as well, but under a different name. But Martin isn't the only one living a lie - Sophie also has secrets that she fears will destroy her carefully constructed life if they were to become known.

Well-researched historical novel set against the backdrop of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. There is wonderful detail about how the upper middle class lived in the early 20th century. Although the sociopath husband is the story's catalyst, it is predominantly about the women that he has used so carelessly, who band together and pick up their lives and go on. Most of the stories threads are wound in at the end, but it is never really clear why Martin wanted a mail order bride from the east coast or why he married Sophie - at least one character notes that he could have hired a nanny and a housekeeper. Will appeal to readers of Kate Morton and Diane Chamberlain. 

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

February 5, 2023

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Do you follow your heart, even though you know it's going to hurt the people you're closest to? The four Padavano sisters have always functioned as a unit: oldest sister Julia is the organizer, second sister Sylvie is a reader and a dreamer (and a librarian), and twins Cecelia and Emeline are like two halves of a whole. But when one of the sisters marries a broken young man, there are unexpected consequences for all the sisters, shaking their foundations and forcing them to rethink who they are. If you grow up without love, can you be healed by another person.

This is a modern re-telling of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, which is referenced throughout the text, with the four sisters changing roles. Having read Little Women, I knew someone was going to die, but it wasn't who I expected, and I did some crying through the last chapters anyway. 

I am of the same generation as the Padavano sisters, and their mother Rose reminds me a lot of my mother, with the drama and the constant concern over what the neighbors or the pastor was going to think about everything. She also would have thrown me out just as Rose did the unmarried pregnant sister. 

Wonderful read, highly recommended.

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

The Lozano branch of the Chicago Public Library, where sister Sylvie works

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

January 31, 2023

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

Geeta lives in a village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where she supports herself by making wedding jewelry. Five years earlier, her no-good husband Ramesh walked out on her. It wasn't much of a loss, since Ramesh beat Geeta, stole her money, and drank heavily. After he ran off, a rumor began to circulate that Geeta had murdered Ramesh, and the story persisted. Although it troubled her at first, it kept the men (and also many women) away from her out of fear. Struggling to construct a life for herself as a single woman of undefined status living on her own (i.e., not under a man's control), Geeta's role model is Phoolan Devi, India's Bandit Queen who took revenge on all the men who abused her (physically, sexually, verbally). But now the women in the village have begun to come around, wanting Geeta's help in disposing of their own no-good husbands.

In this contemporary novel, Shroff explores issues that trouble modern India: caste, gender roles, religion, discrimination, domestic abuse. Another rec;urring theme is motherhood and the pressure placed on women to have children (preferably male children), as well as men abusing children (especially girl children). There is a lot of humor and the women are clever about getting around the men in their lives. One of my favorite aspects of the book is when Geeta rescues and adopts a street dog that she names Bandit. One of the best lines in the book is when the wanna-be don tells Geeta's husband Ramesh "killing people makes me a don; shooting a dog just makes me a psychopath. Great cover, too.  Recommended.

Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen who exacted revenge on the men who abused her and later was elected to Parliament (she was assassinated at the age of 39)

Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

January 26, 2023

Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

Leo Demidov, former KGB agent, and his family are living in reduced circumstances in Moscow since Leo left his position as one of Stalin's agents. But they are happy: Leo is a factory manager, his wife Raisa is a teacher, and their two daughters are in high school. When Raisa and the girls are given the opportunity to visit the U.S. as part of a goodwill tour, Leo has a bad feeling in his gut about the whole enterprise. But there isn't any choice in the matter, so his family heads off to America while Leo remains behind in Russia. The tour starts off well, but then disaster strikes and Leo's family is shattered. Leo resolves to find out who is responsible, no matter what measures he has to take, even if it takes the rest of his life.

Third in the Demidov series, and probably the last one, since Leo is back in the USSR after defecting to the U.S., in prison and awaiting trial. I'm sure many readers were dissatisfied with the ending, and while it wasn't a happy ending, it was a logical conclusion. I don't remember a lot about the Cold War, but I do know there were no fairy tale or magical endings when someone committed what the Soviets considered to be a crime against the state. 

Lubyanka Prison, Moscow

Maureen by Rachel Joyce

January 8, 2023

Maureen by Rachel Joyce

The conclusion to The Harold Fry trilogy. Maureen is Harold's wife, prickly and somewhat literal minded. She is suspicious and has a hard time recognizing the goodness in others. For ten years, since Queenie Hennessey's death, she has been obsessing over Queenie's sea garden, after Harold's friend Kate wrote to tell them that Queenie had made a memorial to Harold and Maureen's son David. Maureen is actually outraged, convinced that Queenie wanted to "take" first Harold and then David from her. Finally Harold tells Maureen that she has to go see the garden to understand Queen and move on with their lives.

A novella rather than a full-length novel. Maureen is not as likeable as Harold or Queenie. She has difficulty connecting with people she does not know and is so deep in her own grief that she cannot fathom that others are grieving as well. When she first meets Kate, she cannot get beyond the clutter and dirt of Kate's home to see the kind, caring person that Kate is. Having grown up without love, Maureen has difficulty loving others and being loved, but Harold sees the sweetness in her. On her journey, Maureen finds answers to questions she didn't know she had. A lovely conclusion to the trilogy.

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

A driftwood garden

The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

June 30, 2022

The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

Adapted from Chaucer's Wife of Bath tale in the Canterbury Tales. The author imagines Eleanor's life (called Alisoun in the Canterbury Tales, but the name change is part of the story) with her five husbands.

One of the current trends in fiction that is popular right now is retelling stories and fairy tales. I didn't love this as much as I wanted to or as much as other readers did, maybe because I studied Chaucer in graduate school and I know a lot about the Wife of Bath's tale. If you don't know the Canterbury Tales, you'll like it just fine. Disappointing.

One of the many images of the Wife of Bath

The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell

October 25, 2022

The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell

When a pair of severed hands are found in a biscuit box during the excavation of an old house, it turns out that the skeletal remains are at least 60 years old. The police ask for information from anyone who lived in the London suburb during World War II, especially about anyone who went missing at that time. A group of senior citizens who were children during war and lived in that area meet to talk to the police and get reacquainted, which has unexpected consequences for some of them.

LARGE cast of characters that is sometimes hard to keep straight. There are the seniors, and then there are their children, grandchildren, extended family, neighbors, friends, and in one instance, even a parent. Not bad psychological fiction but the sheer number of characters is confusing and probably not necessary.

Attractive London suburb

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

April 27, 2022

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. When she re-surfaced at a spa resort called The Old Swan Hotel under another name, she had no memory of where she had been or what she had done. Shortly before her disappearance, her husband Archie told her he wanted a divorce so that he could marry a woman named Nancy Neele, who they both knew from their social circle. After Agatha reappeared, she and Archie divorced, and both re-married. This novel is a reimagining of that story.

Meh. This story has been done before, and it's been done much better. If the author had stuck a little closer to the facts, it would be less like a fantasy and more like historical fiction. Gramont changes everything from Archie's mistress' name (to Nan O'Dea, and it's unlikely that Nancy was Archie's mistress given her background and upbringing), changes her social standing (from upper class woman to a working class secretary), and her reasons (to a revenge plot against both the Christies instead of Archie and Nancy falling in love). Slow moving and a little too re-imagined. I'm not sure why authors have a need to "re-imagine" a story that already has enough drama to fill a book. I've read other authors who have done the same thing about other historical figures (such as Grand Duchess Anastasia).

I'm getting to the point that when I see one of those book club stickers on the cover (e.g., "Jenna's Book Club" or "Reese's Book Club"), I'm hesitant to pick the book up, no matter how good the reviews are. These are books that are aimed at people who don't read much. It's like Oprah's book club: it's a good thing that people who are not readers are actually turning off the TV or logging off social media for a while to read a book for a change, but there are better books out there.

Nancy Neele - she was definitely prettier than Agatha

China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

February 14, 2022

China Room by Sunjeev Sahota

In a rural village in India in 1929, three girls are married to three brothers in a single marriage ceremony. Because of their Punjabi traditions and their eccentric mother-in-law, the girls live separately from the rest of the family in a small house called the china room because of the decorations. They have marital relations with their husbands only when the mother-in-law decides they can, and then she decides which husband can see his wife that night, and only in the pitch dark. The mother-in-law claims that it is so the oldest brother's wife doesn't lord it over the other two wives. None of the young women know exactly which brother is her husband, although they try to figure it out when they serve meals or tea to the men, by looking at their hands and listening to their voices. Mehar, the youngest and prettiest of the girls, believes she has figured out which brother is her husband and begins meeting him in secret during the day. At the same time, unrest over India's push for independence from Great Britain swirls through the village.

In a parallel story set in 1999, a young man arrives unexpectedly at his uncle's house in India. He is about to start university, and is hoping to kick his heroin addiction by separating himself from his home and friends in England. Rather than living in the family's empty house outside of the village, he stays in the china room and becomes curious about its history.

Based on a family legend about the author's great-grandmother (which is supposedly well-known in the family's home village) and long-listed for the Booker Prize, China Room is strongly character driven. The is not much plot (like a lot of literary fiction), and women are treated as servant-wives or sex objects, which is still true in much of India today (see previous review for Honor by Thrity Umrigar). 

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

February 8, 2022

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton's ex-husband William has always been a mystery to her. A college professor, they had been married 20 years and had two daughters when William told her that he had met a younger woman and wanted a divorce. Lucy knew that William had had other affairs during their marriage but agreed to a divorce. Nevertheless, the two remained close because of their children. When William's second marriage falls apart (he comes home to find their apartment stripped and his second wife and daughter gone - serves him right), the first person he calls is Lucy, and she helps him get his life back together. When William discovers a family secret, he asks Lucy to take a trip with him to investigate.

Strout wrote two previous books about these same characters, and I enjoy her exploration of their marriage and also their post-marriage lives. I think the two other books are stronger, or at least, this is my least favorite, probably because William doesn't treat Lucy very well, yet she is always there for him. The next book about these same two people, Lucy by the Sea, is coming out mid-2022.

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 Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver

June 6, 2020

The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver

Serenata Terpsichore and Remington Alabaster have been married for over 30 years.  They have raised two children, weathered the storm of Remington's forced early retirement, and generally had an extremely happy life together.  They enjoy each other's company more than they do anyone else's (including their children).  For her entire adult life, Serenata exercised for 90 minutes daily, running and cycling and doing calisthenics, not out of any fanaticism, it was just part of who she was.  Things changed for Serenata when she turned 60 and discovered that years of daily exercise had damaged her knees to the point of needing knee replacements in both knees unless she wanted to live with constant pain.  Around the time she resigns herself to giving up running, her husband Remington decides that he wants to run a marathon, something even exercise devotee Serenata had never done.  As he trains for his big run with a new group of friends, Serenata wonders how much of her husband's decision was aimed at her, now that she was unable to pursue her favorite hobby, out of resentment for all the time she spent exercising over the years.

The main plot line satirizes the cult of exercise, also highlighting the downside of exercise:  when you pound on your joints continually, they are going to wear out sooner.  Another theme is aging:  no matter how hard you try, your body is going to age, we are all eventually going to die, and years of rigid dieting and strenuous exercise may not buy you any extra time.  There are interesting parallels between Remington and his newfound fanaticism about exercise, and their adult daughter Valeria who has been sucked into a fundamentalist religious group - both groups have cult-type overtones.  The story also gives a look at the big-business aspects of marathons and triathalons.  I have read several other books by Lionel Shriver, and this one lands somewhere in the middle, not nearly as good as We Need to Talk About Kevin but nowhere near as bad as Big Brother.  

It took me about 25% of the book to get into the story; after that point, I was interested enough in the dynamics between the characters to continue and finish the book. During her last illness, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis remarked that she regretted all the time she wasted doing sit-ups, a realization that the main characters in novel arrive at in the final section.  While I was overall satisfied with how the story ended, I found Serenata's happy musings on death in the final section to be rather depressing.

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

 

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman

February 27, 2020

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman

Judy Vogel wrote a highly successful children’s book that became a children’s television series, but she hasn’t been able to write another book.  Her current job is writing 300-400 word articles for a wellness site, producing three or four articles a day.  Not only does Judy have writer’s block, but she also feels totally disconnected from everyone she knows.  She is separated from her husband Gary, but they can’t afford to live in separate residences because Gary works as a part-time snackologist and spends large amounts of time smoking pot.  So Gary lives in their basement and Judy and their teen-aged son Teddy live upstairs.  While working on de-cluttering their storage area, Judy comes across a baby sling left from when her son was born.  On impulse, she slips the sling over her head and puts Charlotte, the family’s Sheltie in the sling.  For the first time in years, Judy feels a connection to another living being.  Meanwhile, their son attends a Montessori school that is also in crisis.

I initially picked up this title because of the cover art, a woman wearing a baby sling with a small dog’s head sticking out.  While depression is a main theme, there is also commentary on marriage, parenting, and progressive education.  There is just enough humor to keep the story from wallowing in sadness.  We have one of those wellness sites where I work so I know the kind of peppy little useless articles that Judy writes.

At age 50, Judy feels invisible:  not only is her marriage falling apart and her son doesn’t need her anymore, her best friend and editor is dying of cancer and she is crushingly lonely.  Wearing the dog in a sling at least attracts some (mostly) harmless attention.  Maybe that’s why middle-aged men buy a Corvette, divorce their wives of 25 years, and get a trophy wife – anything so that they can feel someone SEES them (never mind how people see them).

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.