Hello Sunshine

“The most beautiful days in summer come after a heavy rain.”  

This summer has felt like 1-part sunshine, 3-parts rain. We’ve experienced our fair share of sickness around here. Of course, the best defense against a case of dog days malaise is reading. I’ve taken a few book cues from the legally blonde bookworm. I’m a Reese fan. But her picks can be a bit hit and miss for me.

Miranda Cowley Heller walks the line between desire and dignity in her debut novel, The Paper Palace. Her story revolves around 50-year-old Elle. The midlifer is happy with the world she’s built around her family or so she thinks. On her annual trip to Cape Cod, she runs into her life-long friend who effectively sparks a buried flame. Elle has a potentially upending decision to make. Which life will she choose? Here’s what Reese had to say about her July pick: “I was totally immersed in the fast-paced narrative that seamlessly wove together past [and] present. All the beautiful details in this book are enough to pull at your heartstrings…you feel like you’re transported to a lakeside retreat in Cape Cod with a family you have known forever.”

The Paper Palace was a miss for me. Some of the novel’s scenes felt gratuitous. And there were a few holes as well. I know I’ve been under the weather as of late, but I feel good when I say go for this Reese-inspired pick instead: Daisy Jones & The Six. If you like the 70’s or rock bands (real or fictional), you’ll love this book. Even if you’re not looking for nostalgia, this documentary-style novel is intriguing. Rumor(s) has it this is loosely based on a little band named Fleetwood Mac—in that case, this is just one more big hit. 

Posted by Sharee

P.S. Read This Book

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” – C.S. Lewis

Too bad Clive didn’t live long enough to experience Coke Zero. Oh, the bubbles! I just finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, the must-read that some reviewers are calling “the book of the summer,” and I must say it wasn’t long enough to suit me. Gabrielle Zevin’s characters got a hold of this girl’s heart. I quickly became invested in the lives of 3 brilliant young gamers. Yes, that said gamers (turned video designers). Don’t stop reading if you’re a noob like me.  It’s safe to say I know as much about Pixels, RPG, and texture-mapping as bringing a sapient monster to life in a highly unorthodox science experiment.  You know where I’m headed here, right? Powerful novels, whatever their subject, immerse us in a world unlike our own. Frankenstein does a bang-up job of this, so does Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Designing a video game becomes intriguing like drawing lightning from the sky.

Note: T & T & T isn’t necessarily a book about gaming. This is a love story. Not in the schmaltzy sense or even in the way you are likely imagining. It’s about love in its purest form: friendship. Zevin’s exploration of Sadie Green and Sam Mazur’s friendship, born in a Children’s Hospital game room, underscores the beauty and roughness of relationships. They create together, therefore they are. Sadly, I haven’t read any of Zevin’s previous novels, but I was taken back by her ability to capture the fickle nature of human connection. And the complexity of it. This book has a heartbeat. I loved the insights that flowed throughout—shining like pearls and rubies. John Green’s praise did not come as a surprise to me: “Utterly brilliant. In this sweeping, gorgeously written novel, Gabrielle Zevin charts the beauty, tenacity, and fragility of human love and creativity. [It’s] is one of the best books I’ve ever read.” Like I said, it wasn’t long enough to suit me.

P.S. It’s hard for me to resist a novel whose title derives from a Shakespearean soliloquy. Too Good.

One last P.S. Rae could school Sadie on the intricacies of friendship.

Posted by Tracy

Nothing Like A Mad Woman

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” —Audre Lorde

After months of languishing on my Audible wishlist, The Woman They Could Not Silence demanded to be read…or rather, heard. Maybe it was the combination of two solo road trips on the horizon and a general apprehension (dread) for the future of the world. In short, I needed to rally. And this, dear readers, was the clarion call I was craving. Suddenly, I was five again, dancing in my room with my older brother, Sheldon, belting “I am woman hear me roar” along with Helen Reddy. My first and most ardent ally, Sheldon fed me a steady diet of Helen, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, and Carol King in hopes I’d soak up some of their moxie. I weep for anyone who didn’t grow up with a brother like him and I weep for myself that he’s gone. Still, he remains. He’s my taste in music, my love of books, my championing of the underdog, my bold belief that women can rule the world. A belief that Elizabeth Packard shared in spades.

Born during a time women could be institutionalized for daring to have an opinion, Elizabeth Packard was unceremoniously ripped away from her young children and sent to the Jacksonville Insane Asylum at the behest of her husband. Turns out he wasn’t a fan of Elizabeth giving voice to her own convictions and refusing to obey his every command. Little did he know that voice would only grow louder and would become one of the strongest, most consequential voices in the fight for women’s rights and the wrongfully institutionalized. Alexa, play “Mad Woman” by Taylor Swift.

And Kate Moore. Just wow. This book reads like a true crime novel and kept me on the edge of my seat. In the words of Hank Phillipi Ryan: "Kate Moore has a rare gift for combining impeccable research and brilliantly mesmerizing storytelling. You will cry, and then you will cheer, and then your life will be changed forever."

Posted by Rachel

Remarkably Bright Pages

“Shelby Van Pelt has done the impossible. She’s created a perfect story with imperfect characters, that is so heartwarming, so mysterious, and so completely absorbing you won’t be able to put it down because when you’re not reading this book, you’ll be hugging it.” –Jamie Ford, author of The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Any book bestie of Rachel’s is a book bestie of mine. Naturally, when the adorable Jenna Bush picked Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, I was intrigued. The First Lady of Book Clubs’ recommendation was enough. Combined with this promise, it became a must—“For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty, and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

Books are a lot like people. They’re unique. They carry a whole world within them. They promise a range of emotions, which allows us to connect and relate. And they have distinct personalities. I must say, of all of the personalities in Van Pelt’s premiere, Marcellus the Octopus is the hands-down favorite. It sounds crazy to call a cephalopod charming, but that’s exactly what Marcellus is. Of course, he’s incredibly clever. And wry. A captive in the Sowell Bay Aquarium since his youth, he’s spent far too much time behind the glass getting to know predictable, sometimes quirky, mundane humans. He’s not particularly fond of our kind. But he does take lovingly to a highly productive, emotionally inscrutable seventy-year-old woman named Tova—so much so that he solves a cold case for her, one that put a lead weight on her heart for 30 years. Score one for the loveable misanthrope!

Posted by Tracy

Confession

“Sometimes, we need to look at our lives from a different angle to recognize the dysfunction and damage certain relationships are causing.”

The first session is Confession, and this is ours: we’re suckers for a twisted ending. A mediocre book can take on a whole new feel if you get us with a plot twist in the end. An unorthodox therapy approach from a recently de-barred therapist claims that you can work through any sticky situation in just 10 sessions. Would you work with her?

Writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are back (think The Wife Between Us) with The Golden Couple, a story centered on an unusual method of therapy. Recently unlicensed, Avery tells her story to The Washington Post to convince D.C. residents of her highly effective 10-session therapy plan. (It hasn’t failed yet!) Desperate for a solution to her one-and-done infidelity, Marissa Bishop seeks out Avery to help her and her husband work it out and regain their relationship.

The Bishops have EVERYTHING: wealth, status, a boutique, blonde looks, and a complete willingness to do everything Avery asks of them. They are truly the Golden Couple…or are they? As Avery works through the Bishop’s 10 sessions, she uncovers secret after secret into their not-so-perfect life and realizes that not all that glitters is gold.

The Golden Couple was silver-medal material along the way, but the ending truly pushed it to gold status. The unexpected twist alone is worth five stars. Overall, the book is probably in the 4.2 range. As W.H. Auden said (and as Hendricks and Pekkanen so eloquently construct), “There’s more than meets the eye” with the Bishops.

Posted by Sharee and Michelle

Say It Real Pretty

“Take my hand when you are worried/Take my hand when you're alone/
Take my hand and let me guide you/Take my hand to lead you home.” — Ben Harper

Clearly, I’m outta steam. Or is it gas? Whichever phase is closer to exhaustion, that’s the one that’s got me. I had big plans for a fitting Juneteenth post about Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s latest novel, Take My Hand. Her “jewel of a book” revolves around a horrific true story that took place in post-segregation Alabama nearly 50 years ago. Perkins-Valdez shines a light on the likes of brave Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf. I was previously unaware of the two African American sisters who were involuntarily sterilized by tubal ligation, at a federally funded family planning clinic no less. The fact that they were ages 12 and 14 sent me flying.

Perkins-Valdez knocked me for six with the timing of her book release. Her main character, Civil Townsend, is a strong, assertive, principled woman who maintains female bodies “belong to us…poor, disabled, it [doesn’t] matter.” Civil takes seriously Martin Luther King Jr’s reported last words (that inspired the novel’s title)—“Ben, make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord” in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty”—in fact, she embodies them. Civil joins hands with the least among us and tries, with all the energy of her deep-beating heart, to understand. And Lift.

Posted by Tracy

In a World Where You Can Be Anything, Be a Reader

“I loved The Violin Conspiracy for exactly the same reasons I loved The Queen’s Gambit: a surprising, beautifully rendered underdog hero I cared about deeply and a fascinating, cutthroat world I knew nothing about—in this case, classical music.” —Chris Bohjalian

“Alone, we are a solitary violin, a lonely flute, a trumpet singing in the dark. Together, we are a symphony.”

I need to read. Need like a persistent itch that I’ve got to scratch or it will drive me insane. Hearing other people’s experiences (real or imagined), witnessing their personal stories up close, fills in the seams for me. Cracks and holes too—the ones news and social media (and frankly, some people) open up. Sometimes I simply need to escape. To transport my heart and mind to another place, like portable magic. Sometimes I feel utterly compelled to climb into someone else’s shoes, to see how they feel, only to walk around and get comfortable in a size 13. The fact is reading gives me a new set of eyes to see the world with.

Rayquan McMillian’s eyes felt illuminating to me. Illuminating like Richard Wright’s black boy, Zora Neal Hurston’s Janie Crawford, and Toni Morrison’s Milkman. Yes, The Violin Conspiracy is about a priceless Stradivarius, an unlikely virtuoso, and music that is the full spectrum of colors: golden, blue, red, green, and gray. Beyond that, it’s a coming- of-age story about a boy who course-corrects his future destined for the grind of poverty and, against all odds, replaces it with inconceivable but reachable dreams. This new release reminded me that life needs beautiful rhythm as much as it needs structure and familiarity. More importantly, the heart of Brendan Slocumb’s message is one we all need to hear right now: acceptance shouldn’t be reserved for a select group. Time to shake off archaic, sometimes unwitting, ideas about race (among other things) and belonging. Time to ditch whoever put the rat in rat race.

I know it’s unlikely, but I’d love to meet Bryan Stevenson sometime, Zora Neal, and Toni Morrison too. (God rest that woman’s beautiful soul.) I’m adding a newcomer to that list. I wouldn’t need but a few seconds of Brendan Slocumb’s time—just long enough to thank him for letting me see the world through his mature eyes.

Posted by Tracy

Historical Fiction Homerun

“Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written [book].” —Karen Joy Fowler

Rachel’s been hangin’ with my boys, Rocky and Ryland. And I couldn’t be happier about it. I think it’s safe to say her lovin’ heart pumped chocolate too as she listened to Ray Porter’s expressive voice enlarge Weir’s so-much-more-than-science story.  Project Hail Mary continues to be at the top of my 2022 favorites. I just finished a book that will also land squarely on that list.

 Am I late to the Karen Joy Fowler party or what? She’s a New York Times best-selling author, a PEN/Faulkner Award Winner, and a Man Booker Prize short-lister. Plus she loves Jane Austen. Seems like I should have connected with her via the well-written page long before now. Fowler just offered me a fascinating look into John Wilkes Booth’s chaotic family life and insight into the impossibly vain mind of Lincoln’s assassin.

“Yes, we know even before we turn the first page where the intertwined timelines of the Booths and American history will lead, but Fowler’s deftly imagined family portrait keeps us riveted”—I couldn’t agree more with this Washington Post reviewer. Fowler’s strategy to peek into the Booth family dysfunction through the eyes of 3 of John’s siblings works brilliantly.  Now I better understand where the brother-who-could-do-no-wrong got it dead wrong.

P.S. Literati, you’re gonna love how Fowler intricately weaves Shakespeare throughout this historical fiction homerun.

One more P.S. This made me think I should read my niece’s recommendation Chasing Lincoln’s Killer. Asap.

Posted by Tracy