Fly Girl: A Memoir

Fly Girl: A Memoir by Ann Hood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was in preschool the year that Ann Hood began her career as a flight attendant for TWA, but I do remember a little bit about what it was like to fly at that time, though I most definitely never got to experience the luxuries of flying first class. Her memoir is a fascinating look at what it took to become and remain a flight attendant in the years when the airline industry was undergoing massive upheaval both culturally--the sexism is nauseating in the extreme--and financially, with deregulation bringing both positive and negative changes, and corporate greed causing widespread devastation.

My favorite parts of the book were the ones focused on her personal experiences and growth. Hood's recounting of her time at the Breech Training Academy in Kansas City was captivating. I wasn't surprised that they were trained to do all the obvious things like demonstrate how seatbelts and life vests work, but I had no idea the breadth and depth or complexity of their training, from how to carve chateaubriand (they used to do that on airplanes?!) to how to deliver a baby, and a million other responsibilities big and small. I don't know how many of those tasks are still part of modern-day flight attendant training--I'm assuming the meat carving isn't a thing any more--but I have a whole new appreciation for the men and women who have patiently offered me drinks and hot towels on past flights.

I also found the history of the airline industry itself to be fascinating, though I struggled with the lack of coherent timeline. Actually, that's true for some of her personal recollections as well--she tends to go off on tangents during anecdotes sometimes. All of which are interesting, but the non-linear detours did make it difficult for me to figure out when various events took place. The overall story arc moved chronologically, but the individual threads zigzagged.

One thing that surprised me was that for all the stories of what life was like as a beautiful, young, single woman with an adventurous spirit, and her tales of dating or refusing propositions, there is virtually nothing about meeting or marrying her husband. I thought that's what she was alluding to with her recollection of meeting 47F, but alas, no. Perhaps that means meeting her husband was unrelated to her time as a flight attendant? Perfectly fine to keep that story private, but I admit I was a little disappointed.

All in all, I very much enjoyed reading this memoir. 3 1/2 stars, but I'll round up. Many thanks to Bookbrowse and the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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The No-Show

The No-Show by Beth O'Leary
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is, hands-down, my favorite adult fiction book so far this year, and I've read some excellent ones. I requested the eGalley copy from NetGalley thinking I was getting a rom-com, and while there definitely is romance as well as some humor, this book took me on an emotional journey I was not expecting, and I could not bear to put it down.

The first half of the book is character-driven, focusing on the three women Joseph Carter stands up on Valentine's Day: Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane. We get to know Siobhan's over-scheduled world as a life coach with past relationship grief. We learn about Miranda's life as the only woman on a tree surgeon crew (a.k.a. arborist). And we wonder exactly what trauma caused Jane to flee corporate London for a volunteer job as the youngest member on staff at a charity shop in Winchester. Their lives intersect in only one way: their relationship with the same man.

The second half of the book (or maybe the last 3rd? eGalleys have wonky formatting) is hard to talk about without giving anything away. The pace intensifies, the story taking unexpected twists and turns. I anticipated loathing Joseph, yet he defied all my expectations, and I honestly couldn't decide what outcome I wanted...none of which mattered in the end because O'Leary is a genius.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways are both VERY strong. The setting is England and Ireland. Some profanity and mild sexual content. One scene with accidental violence. Discussion or mention of grief, death of loved one, depression, dementia, stalking, sexual harassment, self harm, miscarriage, and panic attacks. LGBTQIA+ secondary characters.

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A Closed and Common Orbit

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book SO much! I had a hard time getting into it because I started reading it quite soon after finishing book #1 in the series (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet), and book #2, although it begins right where #1 leaves off, only tangentially mentions the characters from the first book. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to the original characters at all, but once I got past that and started learning more about Jane 23, Pepper, Sidra, Blue, and eventually Tak, I became completely absorbed in their story.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways are primary. The world-building is incredible, and I spent much of the book wishing fervently that I could reach in and hug the characters. A fair amount of swearing, especially when Jane is a rebellious teenager. Some references to sex but no sex scenes. Not really any violence except for when Jane kills her first feral dog as it attacked. A Closed and Common Orbit has a non-linear structure, alternating between Jane's story in the past and Sidra's in the present. ("Present" being hundreds of years in the future somewhere else in the galaxy.) Many completely different species, and humans are far from dominant. There is really no such thing as a "white" person any more. One of the characters comes from a 4-gendered species, and xe is of the gender that regularly switches between male and female. (Can I just add how much I love the creation of neutral gender pronouns in this series?! Xe and xyr are SO much more useful and specific than using the plural "they" to refer to a singular person. I wish this would transfer to real life!)

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How to Find Love in a Bookshop

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A bookstore owner dies of cancer, and his daughter moves home to take over his shop, which has had a big impact on a wide variety of people over the years.

I so enjoyed this delightful book! I especially enjoyed listening to it on audiobook, as the narrator is fantastic with the accents. The feel of the book is a lot like the movie Love Actually, with different characters' story arcs intersecting in different ways, although the main character was definitely Amelia Nightingale.

Reminded me a bit of a Maeve Binchy novel also, although to be fair, I've not read one of hers in probably 20 years, so memory could be faulty. And the story resolutions here are MUCH more satisfying that with the Binchy books I've read--Henry doesn't seem to get bored with her book and rush through the ending, making the characters behave out-of-character like Binchy did. The only "Hunh?" moment for me was near the end when Amelia was sick for a couple of weeks, culminating in a couple of disastrous decisions, and no one seemed to notice or take care of her. She was surrounded by people who knew and loved her--how could no one notice she was near collapse with a combination of stress/grief and what sounds like pneumonia??

Otherwise, though, I wanted to live in the world of these flawed, wonderful people--just...delightful!

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, setting is secondary (Peasebrook is a small fictional village in the Cotswolds in the U.K.). A bit of swearing. No onscreen sex or violence.

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Young Jane Young

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When Aviva Grossman was a young intern for a charismatic but married older congressman in South Florida, she had an affair with him and blogged anonymously about it, not realizing that her choices would ruin her reputation, destroy her budding career, and cause collateral damage to her family. Scandals never really vanish in today's internet world, and years after changing her name and rebuilding her life far away from Miami, hers erupts again when she runs for mayor of her small Maine town.

I am what is known to Nancy Pearl fans as a "character doorway" reader. Since this novel definitely has character as its primary doorway, I expected to really enjoy it. However, I never really connected with any of the characters, and the structure of the story didn't quite gel for me either--it lacked cohesion, which further distanced me from caring about the people in it. I really struggled to figure out what was going on when each section was narrated from the point of view of a different character, and some sections rambled or jumped around in time, making it incredibly difficult to construct a mental timeline or know what to pay attention to. I spent too much energy focusing on details of timing rather than becoming absorbed in the story itself. Had the book better matched its blurbs, particularly the one on Goodreads, I think I would have loved it. I'm sure plenty of readers would disagree with me, but I think tightening up the narration and not starting with Rachel's point of view would have made a world of difference. This novel strikes me as the book version of a student essay written without a clear thesis statement: nuggets of goodness but scattered, unfocused, and with loose ends dangling.

I don't mean to sound harsh. I didn't hate it, and I can see how some readers will absolutely love it. I did enjoy the narrative conceits of letters to a pen pal and choose-your-own-adventure. Even though it took me a while to finish, and the pace of the story arc was very slow, it still felt like it read fast, particularly the final chapters.

Readers' advisors will want to note that there is a fair amount of profanity, and since it's centered around a sex scandal, there are references to sexual activities, including anal sex, and plenty of face-palmingly poor decisions.

I received an advance reading copy from Bookbrowse and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

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Before We Were Yours

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In 1939, twelve-year-old Rill Foss lives with her parents, three younger sisters, and a toddler brother in a ramshackle shantyboat on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee. All is well in their world until the stormy night when their father has to rush their mother to the hospital across the river in a frantic attempt to save both her and the twin babies she's struggling to bring into the world. The next morning, while Rill and the fifteen-year-old ward of their family friend are in charge, the police come and force the five siblings into a car, saying they are taking the children to visit their folks in the hospital. Rill knows this is a lie but is powerless to prevent her siblings from being kidnapped and taken to the Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage where Rill, her sisters, and her brother are plunged into a nightmare of abuse and separation.

In present-day South Carolina, Avery Stafford is a privileged daughter of a prominent family, a successful attorney, and engaged to marry a lifelong friend. While home helping her father the senator get through a health crisis, an elderly woman in a nursing home mistakes her for someone else...and changes Avery's life forever. Buried family secrets lead Avery to question who she is and what she wants in her life.

Rill and Avery's stories are told in alternating chapters, urgent and riveting, their paths slowly converging in ways both inevitable and unexpected. Bittersweet, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful.

4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because the .5 off is solely due to my incomprehension over why the present-day characters feel the past should remain a secret. Who cares if it becomes public knowledge that nearly 80 years ago children were kidnapped and sold to adoptive families? The perpetrators are long since dead, and the victims deserve to have their stories told. How would it harm the senator if people knew his mother had been one of those children? This makes no sense to me.

For readers' advisors: all four doorways are strong, especially character & story. In some ways it qualifies as a "clean read," but the subject matter might not be what readers are looking for if they ask for that. The novel is based on real-life events wherein Georgia Tann ran a Memphis-based adoption organization that elevated the perception of adoption and orphans while simultaneously ripping families apart as she coordinated the kidnapping and sale of impoverished children to wealthy families across the country from the 1920s to 1950. Thousands of children endured horrific abuse, and hundreds died (or were killed).

I do not recommend reading this novel at bedtime because you won't be able to put it down, and if you did manage to put it down, you'd lay awake thinking about it instead of sleeping. Or at least, that's what happened to me!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest review.

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The Forgetting Time

The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Janie's son Noah is an unusual child. He is four years old and refuses to bathe. Not just the usual temper tantrums either, but full-fledged terror-filled panic attacks. She does her best to keep him clean with hand sanitizer and diaper wipes, but that only goes so far. Then his preschool/daycare calls her in to let her know they are going to call child protective services because of some of the stories he's been telling them, and she has to explain that ever since he learned to talk, he's told stories of places he's never been, people he's never known, and about things he's never seen. Every night, like clockwork, her sweet boy has nightmares where he begs and pleads to "go home" and wants to be with his "other mother."

Janie is exhausted, frustrated, broke, and in despair. She has taken Noah to an endless series of doctors and psychiatrists, and the only diagnosis they can come up with is schizophrenia. In desperation, she contacts a doctor she would otherwise consider a loony-tunes quack, Dr. Jerome Anderson, whose life's work has been to document cases of children remembering past lives and past traumas. Janie doesn't know it, but Dr. Anderson has been diagnosed with aphasia--he's losing the ability to speak and remember words--and he needs one last case in order to publish his book before he's too far gone to write. Or care.

They embark on a journey that upends Janie's worldview and alters the lives of two families.

It took me a couple of chapters to really get into the story and figure out what was going on, but once I did, I was hooked. Haunted, really, and not in the "scary-ghost" sense of the word, but in the "can't-stop-thinking-about-it-long-after-lunch-breaks-ended" sort of way. Reincarnation isn't a new idea, but this novel had me thinking about the possibility in an entirely new light. Hoping, in fact, that it might be true, and that these reborn souls might be able to bring peace to themselves and their previous families if we would just listen and help reunite them.

The intense, palpable pain and despair felt by each and every character broke my heart--even the killer's. I'm amazed that Ms. Guskin managed to make the book feel ultimately hopeful, given all that anguish and loss. It struck me that not a single character seemed to have a support network of any type--no really close friends, family, or faith community to rely on in any way. I think that fact is crucial to the story; if any one person had been less lonely, isolated, or in the depths of despair, I think the novel would have collapsed or at least gone in a different direction.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story secondary.  There are some crude situations and language, including some profanity and teen drug use. There is also love that survives anything, even death.

My thanks to Bookbrowse.com for the free advanced reading copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest review.

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The Beekeeper's Ball

The Beekeeper's Ball by Susan Wiggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Isabel Johansen is about to open a cooking school on her family's sprawling hacienda in Sonoma Valley, California, when author Cormac (Mac) O'Neill roars into her life. Her sister and grandfather decided to hire Mac to write a book about her grandfather's life, particularly his role in the Danish Resistance as a teenager during WWII. Writing a biography means getting to know the family, and in spite of--or perhaps in reaction to--their calamitous introduction which resulted in an emergency trip to the doctor, rooted-in-place Isabel fascinates Mac, the perennial wanderer. Isabel is also drawn to Mac, but her disastrous past relationship and the secret she's kept since then have destroyed her trust in herself and her judgment, immobilizing her heart. Authors poke at secrets, however, and this one breaks free when Isabel's ex comes to town and threatens her fledgling business.

I love how Susan Wiggs slowly unfolds the story by alternating between present-day and the 1940s. Book two in the series fills in some of the details shared in book one and leaves plenty of room for book three, which I am eagerly awaiting. There are really two stories at play here: Isabel's personal growth and budding romance, and Magnus's survival as an orphaned teen determined to thwart the Nazis every way he can. Both absorbed my complete attention. This series should definitely be read in order, beginning with The Apple Orchard .

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story secondary. A little bit of swearing, allusions to sex but no descriptions.

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The Mill River Redemption

The Mill River Redemption: A Novel by Darcie Chan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the early 1980s, Josie DiSanti flees to Mill River with her two young daughters after they lose everything in a house fire, including Josie's husband.  The trio takes refuge with Josie's aunt, a lovely, generous woman Josie barely knows, and they begin to rebuild their lives.  Twenty or so years later, a tragic accident breaks the bonds of sisterhood.  A decade goes by in icy silence, until their mother's will forces Rose and Emily to live side by side one summer and work together to solve the clues to unlock their inheritance.

It's easy to get hooked into this story and the lives of these characters.  The nonlinear storytelling keeps readers in suspense for much of the novel, wondering what exactly happened the night of the fire and how is it possible that two sisters went from being devoted confidants to mortal enemies?  Eventually I did get a little impatient and wished Chan would hurry it up and tell the backstory faster, as she alternated between the early '80s and present day for most of the book.

The road to Rose's alcoholism was paved with Josie's good intentions, and my heart broke for them even as I inwardly groaned and chided her for focusing too much time on her career--a completely understandable series of mistakes that predictably snowballed into a giant mess.

I haven't yet read the first of the Mill River books--Mill River Recluse--so I'm not sure how much the characters overlap, but I got the feeling with this novel that the secondary storylines must have picked up where they left off in the first book.   I'm hoping the same is true in the next book, since it seemed like there was still more story to tell.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways, primarily.  No on-screen sex, but a little bit of bad language.  Many thanks to NetGalley for the free ebook copy I received in exchange for my honest review.

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Summer at Willow Lake

Summer At Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Olivia Bellamy is a talented "fluffer" of real estate, but her eye for design doesn't transfer to her romantic life, and once again she has chosen poorly when it comes to men. She has been expecting a proposal, not another disillusionment, and when the ax falls, she takes her grandmother up on a summer-long job offer to escape the city and lick her metaphorical wounds. Olivia is tasked with getting Camp Kioga, the family's former summer camp, rehabilitated in time for her grandparents' 50th wedding celebration. Problem is, the only local contractor available turns out to be the very same man who broke her heart when they were teenage counselors at the camp ten years ago.

Connor Davis isn't quite the Bad Boy he likes to let people think he is. He has built a successful business and plans to build his dream home on a piece of property he bought. But dream homes cost money, so he takes the job at Camp Kioga not realizing that "Olivia" is the same person as "Lolly," his former best friend and the love of his life. He never told her what really happened all those years ago, so he's got a steep hill to climb to win her trust again.

This is the first installment in the Lakeshore Chronicles series, and it's interesting how many subplots/secondary characters end up getting novels of their own later. Ms. Wiggs does a good job of laying the groundwork early. Of course, part of the reason I know that is that I accidentally read this book fourth, or so, instead of first. I'm not sure how that happened, as I hate reading series out of order, and I've owned a copy of this book for so long, I no longer recall when/where/how I came to have it on my nightstand.

As with most, if not all(?), the other books in this series, this tale is non-linear in chronology, slowly doling out information to readers, while the main characters know most of what happened all those years (and even decades) ago. I like this style better in the other books where the characters are more often learning alongside the reader what really happened at crucial junctures in the past. This volume would have been better had the revelations occurred more quickly, in my opinion. As it was, I sometimes grew tired of Olivia's repetitive insecurity--by the age of 27, you'd think at least some of that would have worn off, especially when her business became so popular and she lost the weight she'd gained in adolescence. It's a good beach read, but lacks the depth of later books in the series.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character secondary. There are a couple of sex scenes, but they're not particularly explicit, as well as some inner dialogue (monologues?) of horny adolescents. Some mild swearing on occasion as well.

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That Summer

That Summer by Lauren Willig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Julia has been fiercely American since moving to New York when she was a young girl. She has blocked out nearly all memories of her years in London while her mother was still alive, so when she receives word she's inherited a house from a great aunt she doesn't remember having, she thinks it might be a scam. Then during the course of cleaning out the house and the accumulated detritus of generations, she discovers a vibrant painting in the back of a wardrobe, and curiosity leads her to investigate its provenance and ties to a portrait in the drawing room. She is aided by Nick, the handsome antiques dealer her cousin Natalie has laid claim to...which doesn't do much for family harmony.

One hundred and sixty years earlier, Imogen Grantham reluctantly posed for a portrait her husband commissioned. She had no desire to spend so much time in the presence of a man who seemed to see too much, but like most things in her life, she had little choice in the matter. Over the course of their weekly sessions, however, artist and subject gradually became friends. When their friendship turned intimate, life got complicated.

This would make a great book group selection. When I finished reading, I desperately wanted to talk it over with someone, to discuss and analyze what really happened back in January of 1850.

The story alternates between 1849 and 2009, primarily, and I found myself getting nervous reading the historical sections because the atmosphere felt so dark and oppressive that it didn't seem likely Imogen and Gavin's story would end well. Emotionally it was easier for me to read the modern-day sections, even as Julia struggled to finally face the truth of what happened the day her mother died a quarter century ago.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story and setting secondary. There are only a couple of mild swear words that I can recall, and no on-screen sex scenes.

I received a free Advance Reader's Copy (ARC) from Bookbrowse.com in exchange for my honest review.

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