Review: You Are Here (by David Nicholls)

My Rating: 3 stars

I had decided to pick up David Nicholls’s You Are Here because so many of my book friends loved it, so when my audiobook hold finally came through, I was excited to finally read this, as there were so many aspects of it that seemed to be right up my alley:  smart and funny protagonists, witty banter, heartwarming humor, characters that are realistically written, a love story rather than pure romance, etc.  I liked all the characters well enough, especially Marnie and Michael, who were relatable and realistic, and as a romance novel, I appreciated the not-as-common premise where two middle-aged protagonists unexpectedly get a second chance at finding love while on a 10-day hike through England.  With so many things going for it, I was truly expecting to fall head-over-heels in love with the story like all my friends did. 

Yet for some reason, I found it difficult to get into this one.  Perhaps it was the slow start to the story, as Nicholls does take quite a bit of time to set things up, and also the structure, where each (short) chapter hopped back and forth between Marnie’s and Michael’s perspectives in seemingly quick succession, which felt a bit dizzying and also made it hard to get to know each of the characters deeply.  It also perhaps wasn’t a good idea to listen to this one on audio, especially at the speed that I’m usually most comfortable with (1.25x).  While the two narrators were lively and entertaining, it was hard to understand what they were saying at times due to the accents not translating well at higher speeds – whenever this happened, I would pause the audio and locate the same spot in the book so I could see what I missed.  This repeated “stop-and-go” got a bit tiresome after a while, not to mention it took me out of the story so often that it started to negatively impact my reading experience.  Specifically, this became a somewhat tedious read which, overall, made me enjoy it much less than I initially anticipated.  About halfway through the audio, I decided to switch over to the e-book version and while that worked a lot better for me, as I was able to read the book through without stopping, it was, unfortunately, a bit too late by then. 

I think the lesson learned here for me is to choose carefully when deciding which books to listen to on audio versus which ones to read in print, and definitely to do more research before diving in, since the impact to the reading experience can be quite significant.

I may try this again at some point down the road, as my book friends don’t usually steer me wrong and I think in this case, I just picked the wrong medium with which to experience this one. If I do end up taking another stab at this, definitely will go with the print version.

Received ARC from Harper via NetGalley.

Review: Whistler (by Ann Patchett)

My Rating: 5 stars

As an Ann Patchett fangirl, I will read anything she writes and while I’m not a completist of her works (yet), reading all her books is on my bucket list of life goals (alongside visiting her bookstore Parnassus someday).  While I slowly work my way through Patchett’s backlist, I’m also making sure I don’t fall behind with her newer works, so I prioritized her newest release, the novel Whistler, which came out this month.  I originally got approved for an ARC copy, but due to timing issues, I ended up reading the finished version, since I of course pre-ordered a copy that landed on my doorstep last week (just in time, if you ask me). 

With Whistler, Patchett once again delivers a beautifully crafted, exquisite story that made me both laugh and cry in equal measure.  This poignant and moving novel opens with our protagonist, 53-year-old Daphne Fuller, and her husband Jonathan visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York when they notice an “old guy” who appears to be following them.  When they go to confront the guy, they discover that he is none other than Eddie Triplett, the former husband of her thrice-married mother Abigail, and the stepfather whom Daphne and her sister Leda loved more than their own biological father.  Daphne last saw Eddie forty-four years ago, when she was nine years old – they were involved in a car crash together that year which ended up changing the course of their lives.  Before they returned from the hospital, Abigail had divorced Eddie and sent him away without even allowing him to say goodbye to the stepdaughters whom he loved as though they were his own.  Devastated, Daphne buries the memories of that brief period when Eddie was in her life and moves on to live a happy existence as a schoolteacher, eventually marrying Jonathan, a now-retired hospital administrator who is seventeen years her senior, but the age difference has not stopped them from having a deep and loving relationship.  Now that they’ve been reunited, Eddie and Daphne resume their father/daughter relationship, catching each other up on their lives and meeting each other’s families and friends, determined this time to never be separated again. 

Switching between first person and close third, Patchett skillfully layers in the events of the past – specifically, the incident that changed both Eddie’s and Daphne’s lives – while telling Daphne’s story in the present.  This is done so masterfully that, to be honest, I didn’t even notice until I watched an interview that Patchett did where she mentioned it.  As always, Patchett writes perceptively about the complexities of human relationships, capturing the messiness of complicated family dynamics in a way that is both resonant and relatable.  The characters in this story were all so wonderfully rendered, I honestly loved them all, but Daphne and Eddie were definitely favorites – the way they interacted with each other was witty and fun and never failed to put a smile on my face.  I especially loved how Patchett juxtaposed the interactions that the nine-year-old Daphne had with Eddie during the car crash scenes versus their interactions once reunited as adults to highlight both characters’ growth as well as the nuances of their relationship. 

With this newest novel, Patchett continues to do what she does best – present an emotionally subtle story with endearing yet far from perfect characters who navigate the vicissitudes of life with grace and clarity.  Reminiscent of Patchett’s previous two novels, Tom Lake and The Dutch House (both of which I loved), Whistler is written in a wistful yet hopeful tone – in addition, there are also similarities in its focus on characters who are perfectly content with basking in the quiet enjoyment of being in the company of people they love.  There are not many authors out there who are able to take a simple premise such as this one and craft a narrative that is both incredibly rich (yet not overwhelming) as well as profoundly insightful.  Ann Patchett is, without a doubt, a national treasure and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us next!

Review: Tom Lake (by Ann Patchett)

My Rating:  5 stars

Ann Patchett has done it again!  One of my favorite authors on the planet has once again written a poignant, beautiful story, masterfully told in a way that had me hanging on to her every word from the first page to the last (and never wanting it to end).  

Told from the first person viewpoint of the main character Lara Kinnison, who lives with her husband Joe on a cherry farm in Michigan, the story weaves seamlessly between past and present as Lara tells her three grown daughters (who have returned to the farm during the pandemic to help with cherry picking) about the time she played summer stock at a theater company named Tom Lake, where she also had a brief romance with an actor named Peter Duke (who later becomes a hugely popular and famous actor).   I mention the pandemic, but please note that this is NOT a pandemic novel — instead, this is a novel about complicated family dynamics (especially the relationship between parents and their children), about love in its many iterations, about the innocence of youth, and above all else, about the complexities of human relationships.

With this novel, Patchett once again does what she is so good at — she presents an epic, luminous, profoundly perceptive story, but in a way that is subtle, exquisite, and never feels overwhelming. Patchett writes with an emotional subtlety that I absolutely love, but it was especially effective with this story, which, at its core, is an homage to Thornton Wilder's classic play Our Town. There was so much to love about this book — the gorgeous prose, the flawless writing, the endearing characters, the subtle humor, the picturesque setting, the quiet beauty of the story told in a wistful yet hopeful tone, the perfect amount of detail to establish a sense of place that made for an incredibly immersive experience, etc (and that's just scratching the surface).

In terms of the Our Town references — I had actually never read that classic, but immediately after finishing Tom Lake, I went and bought a copy of Our Town because I felt compelled to finally read it (on a recent podcast interview that Patchett did, the host said she should get a commission for all the times someone bought Our Town after reading her novel and I agree 100%!).  

Given how much I adored Patchett's newest novel, of course I recommend that everyone read it.  For me, I will read anything she writes at this point and while I wait for future new work, I will continue to slowly work my way through her backlist as I have been doing (I intend to be a completist of her work at some point).

Received ARC from Harper via NetGalley.

Review: The Butterfly Girl (by Rene Denfeld)



My Rating: 3.5 stars 



As the sequel to 2017's The Child Finder, Rene Denfeld's latest work, The Butterfly Girl, sees the return of Naomi Cottle, an independent investigator whose knack for finding missing children stems from a childhood tragedy, a kidnapping that she was able to escape from, but sadly her sister did not.  Unable to let go of the guilt of leaving her sister behind, Naomi has made it her life's mission to find her sister, despite barely having any information to go off of.  This time around, Naomi's search for her sister brings her to Portland, Oregon, where she discovers a growing number of homeless children disappearing off the streets, only to be found murdered days later, their bodies tossed in the dirty waters of the local river.   Despite her best efforts not to get involved due to a vow she made to locate her sister before taking on any more cases, Naomi is eventually pulled into the case after meeting Celia, a twelve-year-old girl who chooses a life on the streets rather than returning home to an abusive stepfather and an oblivious, drug addict mother.   Seeing Celia reminds Naomi of her own past and instills in her an urgent need to try her best to protect her, while Celia's own desire to protect her younger sister Alyssa from the abuse she herself suffered draws parallels to Naomi's relationship with the sister she is desperately trying to find.

This was one of those books that I struggle with rating, as there were enough things I appreciated about the story, but there were also things that didn't work tremendously well for me.  Perhaps because I never read the first book in this series, I found Naomi's storyline about searching for her sister and the way it eventually unfolds a bit unrealistic and maybe even a tad forced  — I didn't connect with her story as much emotionally and at times, even felt frustrated with the way Naomi's search becomes an obsession to the point that it takes over her life.  Celia's story, on the other hand, was heartbreaking — drawing from her own personal experience of living on the streets as a kid, the way that Denfeld depicted the harsh realities of street living was both heartfelt and emotionally gut-wrenching.  Her story ran the emotional spectrum for me – there was sadness and anger, but yet there was also an underlying element of hopefulness interspersed throughout the story.  I think for me, I preferred more focus on Celia's story rather than Naomi's, as I found myself skimming some of the sections that dove too much into Naomi's backstory, which I felt were a bit repetitive and, in a way, dragged down the rest of the story.  With all that said, one of the things that set this book apart for me was the atmospheric writing, especially in the chapters involving Celia and her friends and what their lives were like out on the streets.  There was also the brilliant use of imagery in a seamless yet metaphoric way – in this instance, the imagery of butterflies and their importance to Celia's story.

Overall, I feel this was a good story that had a lot of potential and while I agree with other reviewers that this can definitely be read as a standalone, I think for me personally, I would've appreciated the story more if I had read the first one prior.  I do intend on going back to read The Child Finder at some point, preferably before Denfeld's next book comes out, especially if it will be a continuation of Naomi's story.

Received ARC from Harper via NetGalley.   

Review: The Dutch House (by Ann Patchett)

My Rating: 4.5 stars

I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that I’m probably one of the few people on this planet who, up until now, had never read an Ann Patchett novel.  Despite the fact that Patchett is an author I’ve wanted to read for a long time --  I’ve had most of her previous works on my TBR for quite some time and even own physical copies of several of her books -- I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to actually crack open any of them.  Of course, all that changed last week when I saw that the next book on my seemingly never-ending ARC list would be Patchett’s newly released eighth novel The Dutch House (published in September 2019) – I was thrilled that I would finally be able to experience one of her works for myself, though at the same time, that also meant I would be going into this one with relatively high expectations.  Luckily, this one ended up being a wonderful read, even better than I expected, which honestly doesn’t happen often.

The story is narrated entirely from the perspective of Danny Conroy, who is only a boy of 8 years old when the story opens.  His sister Maeve, herself only a teenager at 15 years old, took Danny under her care after their mother Elna left them 5 years ago.  Both children live in the Dutch House, a see-through glass mansion of sorts that their father Cyril, a real estate developer, had bought as a surprise gift for their mother.  Cyril is a distant father who is always consumed with his work and aside from providing his children with the necessities  — a cook to prepare food for them to eat, a housekeeper to tend to the household duties, a nanny to tend to their day-to-day needs — he could never be bothered with much else beyond that.  But Maeve and Danny had each other to lean on and along with the love of their housekeeper and cook (sisters Sandy and Jocelyn who had been hired by their mother back in the day), they were relatively happy and content with their lives.  All that changes however when Cyril decides to marry a young woman named Andrea, who moves into the Dutch House with her 2 daughters in tow — the profound impact that this decision ends up having on Danny’s and Maeve’s futures becomes the basis upon which the entire story revolves.

This story is billed as a family saga spanning 5 decades, which initially made me think that it would be so epic in scope that it would take a longer time to read, but in actuality, I devoured this one, not wanting to put it down once I started.  Patchett is a masterful storyteller and her writing here absolutely captivates — I was hooked from the very first page, not just to the story but also to the characters.  It’s extremely rare for me to already like and connect with a story’s characters within the first few chapters, but that’s exactly what happened with Danny and Maeve — two characters I loved from the beginning and who continued to grow more endearing as the story progressed.  While all of Patchett’s characters in here were nuanced and well-developed (even most of the minor characters), what made me gravitate to Danny and Maeve the most was the unshakable bond that these two siblings shared throughout their lives – a bond that continued to exist despite everything that happens, no matter how many times their relationship is put to the test.  Needless to say, I was genuinely moved by their relationship. 

Speaking of characters, of course the Dutch House itself also existed as a “character” central to the story, however the beauty here is that, even though its presence was continually felt throughout the story, it never once overtook the other characters.  Despite the house’s significance to the plot, it was quite clear from beginning to end that the story itself belonged to Maeve and Danny.  In this regard, the house serves as a connection to their past and while this past is what shapes who they eventually grow up to become as adults, it is also how they deal with this past that forms the crux of their story.  Here, again, the brilliance of Patchett’s writing comes into play, as the transitions between past and present throughout the book were seamless – no easy feat given the extensive timeline that the story covered plus the fact that the plot jumped around from one situation to the next in no particular order.

Up until the last few chapters, this actually had all the makings of a 5-star read for me – the reason I eventually decided on 4.5 stars was mainly because I wasn’t fond of the ending and also didn’t like how a few plot points played out in the lasts few chapters.  Though I must admit that I also had some issues with the character of Elna Conroy (Danny and Maeve’s mother) – things that made her character come across too unrealistic for me and made it difficult for me to wholeheartedly accept some of the situations that happen because of it.  This small complaint aside, I still consider this book a masterpiece – not quite perfect, but a masterpiece nonetheless.  While I eagerly wait to see what Patchett has in store for us next, there’s no doubt that I will be exploring her backlist of previous works very, very soon!

Received ARC from Harper via Edelweiss.   

Review: The Last Train to London (by Meg Waite Clayton)

 My Rating:  3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars

As another worthy entry into the canon of World War II related historical fiction, this book focuses on the famous Kindertransport system that helped to transport thousands of children out of various parts of Europe during the Nazi occupation of the region in the late 1930s, immediately prior to the official start of the war. In particular, the story focuses on the efforts of Truus Wijsmuller, a brave Dutchwoman who dedicated her life to helping countless children escape Nazi-occupied territories, both on her own as well as working with other agencies.  

At the center of the story are the Neumans, a wealthy Jewish family whose chocolate-making business is known throughout Austria.  Their teenage son Stephan is a budding playwright who, during the course of getting his haircut one day, meets math genius Zofie-Helene, a young Christian girl around his same age who quickly becomes his best friend and companion going on excursions together throughout the city of Vienna.  Not long after they meet however, the Nazis invade Austria and soon, the 2 youngsters, along with Stephan's little brother Walter, find themselves having to flee the only home they'd ever known, venturing on a harrowing journey toward an uncertain future where safety and survival are the goal but unfortunately not guaranteed. 

Over the years, I've read my fair share of WWII era novels and while stories set in this time period can difficult reads emotionally, I will continue to read them because of the importance I've always placed on knowing and understanding history as essential in order to learn from it.  While this book did fall into the "necessary read" category for me and I'm definitely glad I read it (especially since my knowledge of the Kindertransports program was very limited prior to reading this), I feel like the story did not have as big of an emotional impact on me as other stories set in this era usually do.    I think part of the reason for this is because of the way the story was formatted, which was basically with super short chapters where the narrative jumped back and forth from one character to another — this caused the story to come across too "choppy" for me and broke the flow a bit, to the point that it made it difficult for me to get into the story and connect with the characters as much as I had expected to.  With that said, the last third or so of the story was actually quite strong and that's when I started to feel more of a connection with the characters, however by that time, it was already near the end of the story. 

Overall though, I still feel that this story has the potential to be a powerful one if better executed, which is why I decided to round up in terms of the rating.  I would also still recommend this one, as the story is a good one and the writing is good as well, it's just that the format didn't really work for me personally, but it might be fine for others. 

Received ARC from Harper Books (HarperCollins) via NetGalley.