The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

June 4, 2025

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Sybil is a lifelong letter writer, even in the modern age of email. She is divorced, a mother and grandmother, and a retired lawyer. She has a disease that she is hiding from her children, that is causing her to lose her eyesight. Sybil is enjoying her retirement until she is asked to speak at the funeral of her former law partner. Following the funeral, she begins receiving anonymous hate mail from a disgruntled litigant.

I loved this! It is definitely the best book I’ve read so far this year. It’s literary fiction and completely written in the form of letters. Sybil and I would have gotten along well since I’ve read all the books that she mentions in her letters. Blindness seems to be a metaphor for a lot that is going on in the novel. Will appeal to readers who enjoy Ann Patchett and Fredrik Backman. Highly recommended. 

The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar

November 24, 2023

The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar

Remy Wadia has traveled back to India, the country he left a decade earlier, to adopt a baby. He plans to meet the baby's mother, visit his estranged mother briefly, and then return home to the United States. But things take a sudden turn when he learns among other things that his mother is seriously ill and in the hospital.

I love Umrigar's fiction. She writes about universal topics from a new angle (not necessarily an Indian angle). Beautiful language. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys literary fiction.

A Mumbai street market/shopping district (the author still refers to Mumbai as Bombay)

We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange

November 23, 2021

We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange

When 29 year old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital after a drunk driving accident, she has no choice but to move back home to her family in New York. It's an awkward situation to say the least, since she ran off five years earlier with no explanation to her family or fiance. 

I picked this up since it was supposed to be similar to another book that I read and really enjoyed (Say Again, Yes). But the characters are all boring, and Sunday's reason for leaving in the first place was really stupid. There's too much drama and the story line is predictable. Disappointing - I really should know better by now.

The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey

March 7, 2020

The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey

Duffy Sinclair lives at Centennial, a small assisted living facility.  Although he has a natural rebellious streak, he tries to keep it in check, since he lives in fear of being sent to live at “Simmons,” the local nursing home.  This could happen because he has run out of money, or because his health has deteriorated to the point that the staff at Centennial can no longer care for him, or because he's too much trouble.  But Duffy’s plans to stay under the radar run aground when his roommate’s granddaughter Josie climbs through their bedroom window one night, barefoot, bruised, and drunk.  Duffy decides that providence has given him one last shot at redemption, so he sets out to save Josie from herself.

Ah, curmudgeons.  They seem to be everywhere ever since Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, especially in the old-person-meets-young-person-and-they-change-each-other’s-lives format.  I really wanted to like this book more than I did, since the cover art made it look like it was going to be a warm, funny read.  And a lot of early readers HAVE found it funny and endearing, and talked about how it made them laugh and cry.  I got to the end and thought, “that’s it?”

Part of my problem was that I didn’t care that much for the characters, especially Josie.  I would have liked fewer descriptions of walkers and shaky hands, and more backstory for Duffy.  And I was really irritated with how simple it was to get Josie off the booze:  just give her some Valium and Antabuse, and all of a sudden, she’s cured.

It. Does. Not. Work. That. Way.

I was married to an alcoholic, and if an alcoholic had trouble dealing with their problems during their drinking days, just because they are no longer abusing alcohol doesn’t mean that they are suddenly going to turn into fully functioning human beings capable of making good decisions.  If getting sober was as simple as giving the addict a few drugs to get them over the worst of withdrawal, addiction would no longer be a problem.

Disappointing overall.

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