REVIEW The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

 

I read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett many, many moons ago and enjoyed it.  She's exactly my type of author and this novel was not only shortlisted for the Pulitzer but was on the Women's Prize for fiction so of course I had to read it and it was well worth it. 

Danny and his older sister, Maeve, spend the vast majority of their childhood in an extravagant home in Pennsylvania called the Dutch House since the former owners were (you guessed it - Dutch). Their father loved it and bought it without telling their mother, who hated it. Their mother ultimately leaves and their father remarries a stepmother that isn't fond of her new stepchildren (and they are kicked out after he dies!).  This novel is told from Danny's perspective.

I LOVED the writing style.  It was quick and easy and never something that I considered to be a chore (which, let's be real, some books absolutely are!). But it's not really historical fiction. At all.  It's more of a novel about families and relationships - and could have taken place at any point in history. I loved Maeve and Danny. All the characters frankly were so colorful and lively it was like I was in the middle of things while they interacted around me. I loved how Danny and Maeve interacted with each other - they love each other and it was both touching and divine to experience. The book moved very well - I never felt that it was too slow or too fast, although it seemed like there were a lot  of rich white people problems!

Definitely recommended. 

REVIEW: Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman

 

I was nervous about reading a book about running.  I came to utilize running later in life. As an athlete, I had always had running used as a punishment and not something to really be enjoyed. And I was nervous about an athlete memoir.  But this was different.  Ms. Fleshman tells her story but she also exposes the difficulties and issues in the running world (both amateur, collegiate and professional) that so negatively impacts the women that choose to engage in this activity. 

Fleshman, in describing her experiences, confronts things like eating disorders head on. There are often explicit descriptions of disordered eating and the impact that it had on the runners that she encountered, including herself. She discusses puberty (and its impact on runners), going pro and the competitive pressures that high level runners often faced. I loved that her book put into words the struggles that female athletes often faced, but remained silent about. She combined scientific studies with her own story in order to tell these stories and it was effective.  The writing was simple and effective.  

This is an important book, although read with caution if you are worried about eating disorder issues. 

Links I love

 

During the last week in February, we were in St. John, USVI.  It is my favorite of the islands and also the smallest of the three.  This weeks links therefore will likely be longer because we skipped a week. We got in last Saturday, arriving home at close to 2 AM. We were all pretty happy but tired.

• Netflix has a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice coming out and here is the trailer. 
• 10 books that changed Martha Hickson's life. 
• The finalists for the PEN Faulkner award.
• 6 islands with dark histories. 
• 9 black women who changed history. 
• These novels look good!
• Should your  muscles shake during a workout?
• I'm always looking for quick breakfasts that are also healthy. 
• Suicide prevention for midlife women.
• disney villains inspired by real people. 
• 10 places that look like they're from ACOTAR. 
• The best music biopics according to Rotten Tomatoes. 
• Daylight savings and how it impacts your sleep. 
• The culprit behind the death of reading. 
• Women's long prize for fiction is announced. 
• 9 Women who were written out of history books.
• What inspired Romeo and Juliet.
• The history of Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

I hope that everyone has a good week!

REVIEW The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden

 This novel is all over the place given that it's being made into a movie in short order. It's a very quick and easy read too, which provides a nice break. Millie is the main character of this novel and she lands a really great job as a housemaid after being released from prison. She's hopeful and wondering if her background is a secret from her new employers, who hired her so quickly that she wonders if a background check was actually performed. Her new boss, Nina Winchester, however, is incredibly odd and really abusive in Millie's eyes.  Everything is soon flipped on its head in this novel.

This was a super quick read for me and exactly what I needed after some heavier reads. I couldn't put the novel down and kept reading even when I knew that I should be sleeping, working, cooking dinner, whatever. The plots are pretty good, but sometimes I want an easy read and this gave me that. I didn't  have to chart out characters or plots.  

I will say this - it's a very gory thriller. There is a lot of abuse, domestic violence and other not  so fuzzy or friendly things in it that might give you pause. 

Very much glad that I read it.  

links I love

 

Happy Sunday.  Assuming the TSA hasn't all left their posts, we're experiencing the Carribean!  This week will be slower than normal for posts. I hope you enjoy your week!

• 6 soups that can help with your immune system. 
• What are "the yips?"
• A reader's guide to Freda McFadden.
• Books for Armchair Travelers.
• Books for avid Toni Morrison fans. 
• I guess this isn't a shock.
• The LA Times books honorees.
• This is so cool.
• 6 abandoned places that you can visit. I love this one too

I hope that you have a great week!  See you on the other side!

REVIEW: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

 

I will admit, I was intimidated and worried about reading any novel by Octavia Butler, but I wanted to give it a go because I love dystopian fiction, fantasy and novels that critique society and this novel hit all the spots. Besides, Ms. Butler is the WOMAN.  I am so glad I read this novel.  

This is the first book in the Earthseed duology series, which many have hailed as classic sci-fi.  The story begins in the year 2024 (this novel was published in 1993 FYI) and revolves around the life and family of teenager Lauren Olamina and her family. They live in a gated community in the suburbs of what remains of Los Angeles and it is widely considered to be one of the safe areas of the city. The community is trying to salvage their society but it has been ravaged by drugs, homeless, violence, crime, theft, war, disease and water shortage (sound familiar?). Survival seems to get harder each day. Lauren has a condition called hyperempathy, which makes her really sensitive to the pain of others, often experiencing it as they experience it. It is told in the form of Lauren's diary entries, which I found to be really effective in conveying the story. 

I really enjoyed the novel's themes of family, faith, hope, community but also human's capacity to inflict violence upon each other.  Butler's prose is engaging and vivid, although the novel itself is hard to read, in the sense that what she writes about can be hard to digest. I loved meeting her characters and watching them develop throughout the novel. I definitely would recommend this novel and I hope to read Parable of the Talent at some point. 

REVIEW Motherland by Julia Ioffe

 

I picked this up because I was curious about this aspect of Russian history and Russia is all over our news, still. I was also a history major so it appealed to me.  What I learned was very surprising, particularly with regard to one of Communist Russia's legacies.  

Early in the Bolshevik Revolution, in 1917, women not only gained the right to vote, but they gained the right to no fault divorces, child support and free higher education. Abortion and birth control were also legalized within the same time frame. by 1920, women were required to work under the new regime. Journalist Julia Ioffe, a Russian born journalist, follows this history from its unique and optimistic beginning to the unraveling of this idealism at the hand of male leaders. Interspersed is a personal history of the women in her own family. She also tells of the history through female leaders, such as Alexandra Kollontai, the wives and daughters of Russian political leaders and the ordinary people. Ioffe and her family emigrate to the US in 1990, but when she returns to Russia as a journalist in 2009, she finds that the very stereotypes that the women in 1917 were trying to dismantle have returned. 

 This book was obviously widely and thoroughly researched and I learned so much that I hadn't known previously.  I did find the parts about Ioffe's own story more interesting, however although I loved the parts about Putin and Navalny.  It is incisive and illuminating in  its history and I would highly recommend this to anyone seeking to better understand Russian.