thoughts on books

Category: Literary Fiction

  • broken country by clare leslie hall

    This book grabs you and slowly pulls you into a small country town and a collection of tragic, untimely deaths that will leave you reeling. This book is heartbreaking, but in the very best way, and you will no doubt hold your heart and sigh. EVERYONE IS GOING TO READ THIS BOOK. I am sure of this, it is going to be on every top ten list this year, everyone’s book club pick, and a movie will be made, so you might as well add it to your TBR now.

    The very symbolic beginning starts when a dog runs into a field of sheep and attacks the lamb, as it likely the dog’s nature. The farmer shoots the dog to save the rest of the flock, and a 10 year old boy, Leo, cries out. Leo believes his dog has been murdered. Leo and his father Gabriel are new to the small country village in England after being in America, Gabriel is returning back to where he grew up after a divorce from Leo’s American mom.

    Small towns are where everyone is connected, and the farmer, Jimmy Johnson, has a close brother Frank and his wife, Beth. It turns out that Beth was Gabriel’s first love, and they still have feelings for each other 10 years later. Beth and Frank have a good partnership, but one that has been racked with tragedy. Two years ago, Beth and Frank lost their son Bobby, who was Leo’s age.

    Gabriel and Beth become friends again, and Beth begins to look after Leo. She tells Frank that it helps her with Bobby, because no one else in her life will let her talk about her dead son.

    I read this book in one sitting, it is historical fiction as it takes place mostly in 1968, but jumps back to 1955 when Beth and Gabriel and Frank meet, and jumps forward at the end to 1975 when the tragic events of the book have all run their course to a future of hope. The story sits with you for some time, and you consider what intimacy means. Can you be in love with two men at the same time? Can you love a child in the same way you loved your own? Can your relationships heal after losing a child?

    If you have lost your only child, are you still a mother?

    It will make you think about how you treat the people in your lives that have overcome loss.

    Thanks to @netgalley and @simonbooks for the ARC. Book to be published 3/4/25.

  • my friends by fredrik backman

    Grief is a selfish bacteria, it demands all our attention.

    The group of friends is 14 years old, with varying levels of trauma and grief and painful lives. But Fredrik Bachman will have you remembering what it is like to be 14, when friendship and infatuation feel exactly the same. Ted is serious, and becomes a history teacher who is tasked with telling their story. Joar is rebellious and funny and a little belligerent. And the artist sees the world in a beautiful way, he paints the way they laugh together.

    Told in alternating timelines, Louisa is the current day 18 year old who has inherited a special painting done by the artist. The artist spends all of his money buying a painting that Louisa, a grieving foster kid, sees beauty in. Ted, who was living with him during his illness, promised to get her the painting. What follows is Ted and Louisa travel together, Ted telling her the story of how the painting came to be. She asks wonderful questions, Louisa has an artist’s eye and an inquisitive nature. Louisa just lost her beloved friend Fish, and is facing how to get along in life without her partner in crime. Ted comes to her from a later period in life but knowing what it means to love someone.

    Fredrik Backman is just the master of beautifully worded observations that will have you reaching for your pen and highlighter. Yes, it is funny, and of course, it is touching, and just a tad bit ….too unnecessarily sad. This is a story of how people view and value fine art, what constitutes art or an artist, how people love and trust their friends, and the loyalty therein. All of the characters are pitiful in some way and they can’t abandon people who need them, even to their own destruction. This painting was described so frequently that I started to envision it in my mind, I am a bit resentful at the cover showing me the teenagers legs under the sea. This is an author I always reach for and the writing is beautiful, if under-edited. I think after some time, when movie directors become really well regarded, the producers stop forcing them to make their movies a good length. Eventually when a director becomes a star in their own right, their movies are just too long. And I think this happens with some beloved authors also, after awhile their editors don’t want to fight them to revise their work. That’s a long explanation to say that perhaps 100 pages or so didn’t contribute to the setting, characterization or narrative.

    And yet, it is truly a beautiful story made of well constructed characters and tenderhearted dialogue. A must read for the Backman fans out there.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC. Book to be published May 20, 2025.

  • now is not the time to panic by kevin wilson

    Kevin Wilson is my favorite. I read [b:Nothing to See Here|42519313|Nothing to See Here|Kevin Wilson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559591792l/42519313.SY75.jpg|66239115] recently and loved it- such a unique and heartwarming story. I then read his 2025 release [b:Run for the Hills|218671843|Run for the Hills|Kevin Wilson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1727261499l/218671843.SY75.jpg|225604603] and it is one of my top ten books of 2025- I simply adored them both. Of course I had to read this novel from back in 2022, and not only did it not disappoint, it solidified Kevin Wilson as one of my top ten favorite authors. His stories are absolutely unique and also lovingly crafted. In fact, the main character in this novel is a writer and discusses ideas for new books- and describes the plot of Run For the Hills, his 2025 release, so I know that the idea for this book has been bouncing around his head for many years.

    I think there is a little bit of truth in each of his plots, then fantasy surrounding them, based on a mundane experience that meant a lot to him, that he fashioned into the plot of something big. The author’s note at the end of this novel explains exactly the background behind where the idea came from, and it then becomes obvious how unique and realistic this voice becomes.

    This book begins as it seems a typical YA coming of age story, but it is anything but. Frankie and Zeke meet each other as their mother’s make the best of how their fathers have let them down. They complete each other, and inspire the artistic tendencies of the other. They don’t exactly fall in love, but they do become each other’s more important muse. They create a poster that is pretty emo and artsy, then put up copies of it all over town. No one understands this, and it takes on a life of its own.

    High recommendation on all of his books, I would read them in order if I were starting again.

  • bitter sweet by hattie williams

    No idea why I requested this but I’m grateful that I did. I’m more of a heartwarming / happy ending person. This debut novel is just wonderful, despite the cringeworthy subject matter. So many novels about an imbalanced extramarital affair are heavy handed and depressing, you read with your hand over your eyes. This one is tender, realistic, and will anger you but also keep you wanting to protect Charlie.

    Charlie is an assistant at a UK publishing company, she does pretty menial work, processing expense reports and getting coffee. But at age 23, she is happy just to be working in the publishing industry and hoping to advance her career. She inevitably meets Richard, a 56 year old bestselling author, her favorite. Immediately she is star struck and they connect and start an affair that lasts a year. Obviously the imbalances of power in the relationship is egregious, and the reader is likely older than Charlie. I remember what it is like to be- truly- in a sort of relationship with your job, with the hope of your industry and in becoming something special. “Work never ceased to give us something to talk about.”

    The author has this way of sharing a few anecdotes about a character, and within a few paragraphs, you know exactly who this person is and how they will interact with everyone else. Charlie never really properly grieved the sudden loss of her mother at age 16, and at 23 she is eager for love and approval in a way that makes her – while brilliant – insecure to the point of being incredibly vulnerable. It is also written from a past perspective, as if Charlie has had 10 years of therapy and is now able to look back at her relationship with a healed perspective. “If you told me … I wouldn’t believe you.”

    Somehow by the end- you realize that she has grown and taken back her power. It’s depressing and sad and yet at the end she has come full circle. Well written and a fresh voice in literary fiction.

    Thanks to @netgalley and @randomhouse for the complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book to be published July 3, 2025.

  • I might be in trouble by daniel aleman

    Why should gay men be kept out of the mystery/thriller genre? Why shouldn’t we have a good chat and mouse mystery in which the main character is in the LGBTQ community, who has a great community and comedy of errors? Daniel Aleman’s book is a fun, normal-person-finds-themselves-in-a-crazy-situation dark comedy. David Alvarez is knd of desperate, he misses “the one that got away,” he can’t get an idea to write about that will be as good as his previous work, and the world is closing in on him. He only finds solace from his loneliness in matching with other gay men in NYC on Grindr, with mixed results. And then things get a lot worse. He meets a seemingly great silver fox and has an amazing night, only to wake up and find him dead next to him in bed.

    But does he alert the authorities? No, he tells his agent Stacey, and they decide to haul the corpse all around Manhattan in a “Weekend at Bernie’s” type fantasy that has twists and turns and they figure out who this body used to be.

    It is a crazy premise and this is kind of the definition of “dark comedy.” The dead body is just unlikable enough for us to not care that much that he is dead. We are more worried about David and Stacey and will they be able to get out of this unscathed. We shake our heads at them but we want them to solve the mystery (is it a mystery, really? or more of an identity crisis?)

    This is probably unlike anything else you have read this year. Kooky and fun. Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book is available now where books are sold.

  • entitlement by rumaan alam

    A haunting story of wealth, youth, and the legacy we leave behind. Brooke is not living up to her potential, a black woman raised by a single white mother who adopted her. She is a graduate of Vassar and left her job teaching at a charter school after being disillusioned that the school cared only about STEM, her literature studies went unappreciated. Brooke is now “program manager” for Asher Jaffe, an 80-something divorced billionaire who lost his only daughter, born the day Kennedy was assassinated, on September 11th in the twin towers attacks.

    Asher and Brooke have a friendship that evolves over the course of the book, Brooke’s proximity to Asher makes her more and more numb to seeing wealth. Asher has $4 billion and the goal of the foundation is to give away a lot of the money before his death. At some point, he realizes that being that wealthy looks impolite. Jaffe made his money selling erasers, very symbolic.

    Alam’s writing is tantalizing, the use of growing more descriptive declarative sentences is very readable, and this is a good foray into lit-fic. I was less impressed with the dialogue and characterization but very intrigued by the symbolism and elements of surprise. Over the course of the book, the reader goes from identifying with Brooke to- in the last few pages- wanting to turn away and hide from her sense of entitlement.

  • run for the hills by kevin wilson

    The most surprising, heartwarming road trip of a novel with unique character snapshot. This has the energy of a quest reminiscent of Percy Jackson or Pixar’s “Onward.”

    Madeline “Mad” Hill is in her early 30’s and enjoys a quiet life on her Tennessee farm with her mother, since her dad abandoned them when Mad was just 10. One day a PT Cruiser pulls up and she meets Rube, a Boston man in his 40’s who introduces himself as her half brother. It seems her father had already abandoned one wife and child when Mad was born… and it seems he went on to do that twice more. Rube and Mad set off for Oklahoma to meet their half-sister Pep, a college basketball star, and then plan on going to Salt Lake City to meet their 10 year old half brother Tom.

    Rube has gathered information about his father and half-siblings through a private investigator, and what a story it is. They learn from each other than the “dad” they grew up with was so much different than the “dad” the others knew. With whip smart dialogue, brilliant characterization, and more than one symbolic theme, you will be forced to contemplate how the parent you know is different than the person they are throughout their life. Run For The Hills is an instant classic in the “found family” trope.

    One of my top ten books for 2025.

    Thanks to @netgalley and @eccobooks for the ARC. Book to be published 5/13/25.

  • life hacks for a little alien by alice franklin

    An interesting and quirky tale for all the awkward souls written in the second person (you). It is written about a young girl, descriptive of her experience in not fitting in and not quite feeling human. She gets a friend that is a “new kid,” Bobby, who has moved to her school. She loves the library and the ability to research languages. “Little alien” is an endearing, neurodiverse character, as a mom of an autistic son I do love main characters who are on the spectrum, and have not come across one that I liked as well that was a child. British accent with audiobook “footnotes” was a bit awkward and I would have rather read with my eyeballs. The alternating “book titles” are distracting and take you away from the character development and story. The book has a middle that drags on but I loved the ending. “You don’t know what to do with your mind, or your body. But especially your hands,”

    Thanks to @netgalley and @hachetteaudio for the audiobook e-ARC. Book to be published February 11, 2025.

  • next to heaven by james frey

    Friends, this book was not for me.

    Extremely wealthy couples in the richest, whitest part of Connecticut decide to swing/have orgies. Literary fiction is sometimes overtly sexual and it seems to be egregious and even pandering to me. “All Fours” by Miranda July certainly had a lot of good reviews and was considered to be a favorite amongst critics, but I find it depressing.

    James Frey has this very distinctive style of writing short, then longer and longer declarative sentences to design a paragraph and it ends up being distinctive pacing and descriptions. I do love his style of writing but the overall plot of this one and sheer unlikable characters made this one fall flat for me.

    Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher Author’s Equity for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Book to be published June 17, 2025.

  • the perfect plan by caitlin weaver

    Fabiola, Liz and Alice have been friends since college. Liz and her husband Peter can’t conceive naturally because she had a hysterectomy years ago. But since she froze her eggs, they are hoping to conceive via a surrogate. Fabiola, who has 3 kids of her own, volunteers to be the surrogate for Liz and Peter. After all, she loves being pregnant, and why not help out a friend? Fabi’s husband, Aron, is chasing his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur and hopes his tech company, which has never been profitable, will be sold. Aron is really gambling on himself as they rely on Fabi’s income and hopes that something happens soon.

    Fabi has twin boys and an older girl. Vivi, her daughter, is challenging as she is talking back, changing friend groups and throwing away expectations. Fabi isn’t sure how to connect with her. She has a great dad, but Fabi’s mom left them the day before Fabi turned 14.

    There is no shortage of plot elements, I don’t want to get too much more into the plot elements but I enjoyed them all. The ending is not what I would have expected, but it was a satisfying conclusion.

    I love Caitlin Weaver’s novels, this is her 3rd and I genuinely enjoy them, they are female focused and easy to read. The dialogue of the kids in these books work very well. Fabi’s kids bicker at each other and at her and it is very true to life. These are women’s stories, they are stories of friendship and – I would say- suspense. They read as if they are mysteries, but they are more family drama. The women in her novels are not perfect, they are very real, very insecure, they make mistakes and they keep showing up as mothers. The men — not so much. lol.

    Caitlin Weaver is just an auto-buy for me.

    Thanks to @netgalley and @stormpublishing for the ARC. Book to be published January 15, 2025.