Liz Moore

Fiction 2024 | 496 pages

God of the Woods is a mystery thriller that revolves around the disappearance of Barbara, a 13-year-old girl, from a summer camp.  Moore offers us strong character development, a complex plot, and an unusual setting.  The camp and the preserve surrounding it have been in Barbara's family for decades.  As a matter of fact, her parents live on the property.  And this is not the first time a child has disappeared from this camp.  Barbara's brother Bear disappeared 14 years ago, from the same location.

In the early pages we come to know the campers, the camp counselors, and various staff members.  After Barbara's disappearance, the point of view really shifts to the first female investigator in New York ... Judyta, who also goes by Judy.

We move around a bit in the timeline, from the 1950's to the present day, which is August 1975., although most of it is in the present.  The novel is praised for its exploration of class, privilege, power, and family dysfunction.  And there are a lot of these elements!

There is a wide range of function/dysfunction among the female characters, from Alice, Barbara's mother, who is addicted to prescription drugs, to astounding competence and insight from Barbara, T J, and Judy.  These personalities allow us to witness a variety of perspectives.  And no, there isn't a man in the book whom I would describe as functional and healthy, except for a minor character, Judy's boss.

This is our book club read for September.  I can tell already, by a casual conversation, that the discussion may be lively, as two of us disagree about whether or not Peter did the right thing by not telling his wife Alice something very important.

No question ... read this book.  If you can, engage with someone else who has read it.  I think the conversation could be insightful.

Thank you, Pam, for suggesting God of the Woods.

September 2025

Tana French

Fiction 2007 | 496 pages

Dense.  Dense is the only word I can use to describe this book.  Dense especially in action.  Another author might write, “he stopped his truck and climbed out, lighting a cigarette and leaning against the truck.” French would write something like, “he gently opened the truck door, and with a sigh, climbed out.  He searched for and found his lighter in his jeans pocket, lit his cigarette, and blew a smoke ring into the constellation Orion.”

The authors descriptions are detailed, slow, and vivid.  We follow our two main characters, Murder Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox, through a solid two weeks or longer of their investigation of the murder of a young girl, Katy Devlin who is 12 and has a twin sister.  Even now, I can picture the interaction between Cassie and Rob, how they stood, where their hands were, the looks on their faces.

But Rob has a special and intimate involvement in this case, as his two best friends disappeared when they were 12, in nearly the same place.

Speaking of investigation, you will follow the steps of the investigation with the same amount of detail. I am astonished to learn how many actions the investigative teams take, interviewing people, following up on alibis, scraping all the dirt and land near the place of death.  It is nothing like what we see in a movie, nor have I ever gained such insight from another mystery novel.

The relationship between Cass and Rob is a precious, hard-to-believe, delightful friendship.

100 pages before the end, the murderer is revealed.  However, this is followed by a complex unfolding of the motive for the murder.  There is nothing in this fine book that touches only the surface.  Deep action, deep characters.  I recommend it … and please know it will take a while to read.

September 2025

Sandra Cisneros

Fiction 1984/ 110 pages

The House on Mango Street is set in a working-class, urban Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois.  We are here for about one year.

The protagonist Esperanza, who turns 13 during the narrative, lives with her impoverished family in a dilapidated, small red brick house on Mango Street. This environment shapes Esperanza's identity and her desire to escape the limited opportunities and cultural insularity it represents, fueling her yearning for a better life and self-expression.

The vignettes are inspired by the author's real life, growing up in a similar working-class neighborhood in Chicago.  The short vignettes range from happy to sad, joyous to grieving.

The book is sweet, endearing, enjoyable, interesting, and kind of a waste of time.

August 2025

James Baldwin

Fiction 1956 | 159 pages

(still technical challenges, so I re-titled this book!)  Giovanni's Room is the real name!

So, truly, is becoming an adult so difficult?  For David, who loves Giovanni and simultaneously loves his ex-girlfriend, Hella. it is that difficult.  There is so much shame, so much secrecy, so much dirt and rot and filth, and at times, so much love ...  how does someone live with that?  *SPOILER ALERT* Giovanni doesn't live with it.  He dies.  Hells doesn't live with it.  She goes home to her parents in the Midwest.  David ... does he stay in Paris, or return to America?  America, I think.

This is a sad, gripping novel, magnified by the times.  We don't know exactly when the story occurs, but since it was copyrighted in 1956, we know it takes place 70 years ago or so.  David cannot face his attraction to men or his bisexuality.  And his difficult introverted struggle is what Giovanni’s Room is about.  Giovanni's room, where David discovers his sexuality.  Giovanni’s room, filthy and small and decrepit.  Giovanni's room, where shame, secrecy, love, discovery, wonder and fear lived so excruciatingly large.

And then there is Baldwin’s writing.

James Baldwin, if this book is any indication among his 17 published works, is astounding, exquisite, nearly unparalleled as a writer.  What a beautiful writer he is!  Spectacular use of the language.  A flow and a beat that draws you in.  A plot that keeps you right here, turning the page.

Two of my favorite lines from Giovanni's Room:

"Life in that room seemed to be occurring underwater, as I say, and it is certain I underwent a sea change there."  Pg 85. A gorgeous, subtle metaphor.  And ...

"Behind the counter sat one of those absolutely inimitable and indomitable ladies, produced only in the city of Paris ... " (pg 50).  I had to look up both of the "big" words in this sentence, but once I did, I had such a strong visual and visceral reaction to these women ... I can picture them most certainly, sitting at their cash registers, even today, a few days later.

Oh yes, read this classic from the Goodreads Book of the Year list for 1956.  Certainly!

August 2025

Carson McCullers

Fiction 2046/ 161 pages

The Member of the Wedding tells the story of Frankie Addams, a lonely twelve-year-old girl in a small Southern town, who becomes obsessed with her older brother's upcoming wedding as a way to escape her loneliness and isolation. The novel explores themes of adolescence, identity, and belonging through Frankie's interactions with her family's cook, Berenice, and her six-year-old cousin, John Henry.

It is a story about moving from childhood and into adolescence through a summer of being afraid, when she was twelve, and a long weekend (the wedding weekend) of being fixated on the wedding.  Frankie, who by this point in the book has renamed herself F. Jasmine, creates a dream,  a desire to move away, to travel and be on her own.  She is attempting not only to curb her isolation but also is beginning to think about creating purpose and meaning in her life.   She wants to become part of something bigger than herself. She imagines herself as part of the wedding party and even contemplates joining the honeymoon. A confusing time for any young person.

The book also addresses race through the strong relationship she has with their Black cook, Berenice.

This book is one of the GoodReads books of the year, 1946.  I would call it a sweet read, but nothing you should feel compelled to pick up.  My criticism would be that the author is clearly an adult, and writes like an adult woman, and though the character of Frankie/ F. Jasmine is interesting and complex, I don't have a sense the author was actually able to represent and portray being twelve.

August 2025

Justin Torres

Fiction 2011| 126 pages

This is a stark, dark, painful, and disturbing book.  The Puerto Rican father is violent, mean, irrational, emotionally unhealthy.  The mother is emotionally unhealthy and allows herself to be victimized,  but is otherwise a sort of empty figure.

The three boys, three brothers, Manny (the eldest), Joel (in the middle) and the never-named youngest (the narrator), lead lives that are at best confusing and at worst unsalvageable.  I often thought while reading We the Animals, that "boys will be boys".  They steal tomatoes.  They throw a rock through the window of an apparently abandoned vehicle. They buy milk for a cat who just just gave birth to a litter of kittens in a dumpster.  But then they also take quite mean and anti-social actions as well (mostly taught to them by their father.)  Frequently you can read literally or between-the-lines that the boys are also crying out to love, be loved, and have normalcy in their lives.

I can't find the redeeming message, except to lay blame at the foot of an uninformed, uneducated couple who did not know how to raise children.  I also find I am quite angry at the author at the ending ... again blaming the parents for behavior they don't like and allegedly created.

All the boys really want is love.

I can't come up with a really good reason to read; it is simply depressing.

I will be FASCINATED to hear what you liked about this book, Rene, enough to recommend it to your book club!  Clearly, we have seen different attributes.

August 2025

James Baldwin

Fiction 1956 | 169 pages

So, truly, is becoming an adult so difficult?  For David, who loves Giovanni and simultaneously loves his ex-girlfriend, Hella. it is this difficult.  There is so much shame, so much secrecy, so much dirt and rot and filth, and at times, so much love ...  how does someone live with that?  (SPOILER ALERT!) Giovanni doesn't live with it.  He dies.  Hellsa doesn't live with it.  She goes home to her parents in the Midwest.  David ... does he stay in Paris, or return to America?  America, I think.

This is a sad, gripping novel, magnified by the times.  We don't know exactly when the story occurs, but since it was copyrighted in 1956, we know it takes place 70 years ago or so.  David cannot face his attraction to men or his bisexuality.  And his difficult introverted struggle is what Giovanni’s Room is about.  Giovanni's room, where David discovers his sexuality.  Giovanni’s room, filthy and small and decrepit.  Giovanni's room, where shame, secrecy, love, discovery, wonder and fear lived so excruciatingly large.

And then there is Baldwin’s writing.

James Baldwin, if this book is any indication among his 17 published works, is astounding, exquisite, nearly unparalleled as a writer.  What a beautiful writer he is!  Spectacular use of the language.  A flow and a beat that draws you in.  A plot that keeps you right here, turning the page.

Two of my favorite lines from Giovanni's Room:

"Life in that room seemed to be occurring underwater, as I say, and it is certain I underwent a sea change there."  Pg 85. A gorgeous, subtle metaphor.  And ...

"Behind the counter sat one of those absolutely inimitable and indomitable ladies, produced only in the city of Paris ... " (pg 50).  I had to look up both of the "big" words in this sentence, but once I did, I had such a strong visual and visceral reaction to these women ... I can picture them most certainly, sitting at their cash registers, even today, a few days later.

Oh yes, read this classic from the Goodreads Book of the Year list for 1956.  Certainly!

Sarah Marquis

Nonfiction 2014| 219 pages

Read this book now!  I loved it.  Yes, you know I have a particular fondness for true wilderness stories.  Our author is Sarah Marquis and this is the tale of her walking alone and her amazing adventures in parts of Mongolia, the Gobi Desert (which was once on my own bucket list!), China, Siberia, Laos, Thailand, and Australia (still on my list!) for three years, 2010 -2014.  While this is not her first major adventure (she walked 8700 miles across Australia earlier) but that in no way diminishes the power and the enthralling, fascinating unusual nature of her storytelling.

I highly recommend Wild by Nature.  It took me less than two days to read it.

Thank you René for this perfect loan at the perfect time!  (I have a copy if anyone wants it).

August 2025

Stephanie Meyer  |  Fiction

2008, 619 pages

Lois thought I might like The Host and I began with mixed reviews   I am not a big science fiction fan ... not since I read a bit in college, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell. The premise of The Host, “souls" or "aliens" take over the bodies of humans, allegedly for the good of the planet, perhaps the universe, is not without its redeeming qualities.  I expected more of a story .... not 100% science fiction.  I expected a bit of relief from the interactions.

I liked the format and the writing style much less than the story.  For almost 200 full pages, our soul, Wanderer, and our human, Melanie, talked with each other.  Melanie had a considerable recollection of memories and a facility with emotions. These memories, which came and went in greater strength, impacted every single conversation.  Something happens in the present and Wanderer has a thought or comment about it, and Melanie comes back with her perspective.  This happened on nearly every left-hand page near the bottom.  These conversations, dialogues, and monologues gave me a headache.  I keep waiting for the venue, context, and especially the format to change.

Finally 1/3rd of the way in, something may be changing.  There are about 60 fascinating pages where Wanda (she has a real name now!) shares stories with the 35 or so people who also live in the giant underground community.  She never gets very comfortable … telling stories about the origins of the aliens, the many planets in which she has lived, the many experiences and lifetimes she encountered.  But the humans she is living with are, for the most part, extremely curious.

Okay, I made it half way and am bored, bored.  Closing the book now with an unfortunate single heart

July 2025

Yael van der Wouden

Fiction 2022| 462 pages

Sorry, my friend Mary, I simply did not like this book, which takes place in Holland in 1961.  I found it overly sensual and overly sexual.  I am not prudish, there was just such suddenness and surprise in the critical relationship, it did not resonate as true.

Our main character Isabel is cruel and biting.  But she is also eccentric, which I find attractive and appealing in a way.  Her foil, Eva, is milquetoast.  She was blank, with no real personality, no history or background, no context.  I would have liked a better explanation, a better understanding about the sudden bold passion that seems to come from nowhere and compellingly encompasses Isa and Eva.

The men, with exception of Hendrik, whom I love, are mostly non-existent and shallow. I adore Sebastian, too, Hendrik's partner!

Of course, the house is a character in itself, and how Isabel's mom obsessively decorated it with hares when she was still alive.  Isa loves this house and takes exceedingly good care if it, including protecting it from thieves and keeping it very clean. The house is the pure heart of The Safekeep.

July 2025