Review 236: Mary Jane

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A charming book set in the 1970s, Nixon Era about a transformative summer for young teenage Mary Jane Dillard. She decides to get a summer job and looking after Izzy for the new family in the posh Baltimore neighborhood seemed perfect. Unfortunately, the Cone family isn’t the respectable family as her parents expected, starting with them being Jewish. Mary Jane’s conservative family and private school upbringing shielded her from so much, that when she heard about sex addiction, she assumed she was a sex addict, despite never even having kissed anyone. 

The Cone household soon included two more, a famous married couple, a tv star and her rock star husband who Dr. Cone treats for addictions. Mary Jane quickly overcomes being star-struck over the couple and ends up being the only adult in the house as no one else cleans or knows how to cook, although there is a lot of love. This love and affection are something Mary Jane is missing from her home, and didn’t even know it.

The book is surprising and has a touch of humor throughout. Little Izzy is such a delight! And I love how the book showed the growth and transformation of Mary Jane. The writing was deft and seamless so you are just immersed into the story, as it should be.

I listened to the audiobook, and it had a surprise at the end, an original song that is mentioned in the book, near the end. For this reason I would recommend listening to the audio as the best way to read this book.

Review 235: Pulse

Pulse by Michael Harvey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A few bits aren't connected, but for most you can make the leap. The quantum physics and entanglement made for a little reality bending, perhaps. That aspect drew me in. Quick read.

It is a crime book, murder mystery, thriller type. There are several main characters, a teenager Daniel Fitzsimmons and a cop Barkley, not sure he ever had another name other than “Bark”. Daniel maybe is schizophrenic, or maybe these things happen to him…he can “see” what he shouldn’t be able to, such as what happened with someone that he shouldn’t know. It isn’t labored over, but instead explained when Daniel meets Simon Lane, who is looking for someone to rent a room in his apartment. Although Daniel is only 16, he is an orphan and is sleeping on the floor in his brother’s rented room. Harry Fitzsimons is a star football player, gets great grades and is going to Harvard. Daniel is on a scholarship as well at a Latin prep school. 

Simon tells Daniel about quantum mechanics, how there are links between molecules despite any sort of distance, the are tethered, or as they use the term, entangled. Daniel then believes this entanglement and feels it with his friend, a girl who he “pushes” to kiss him, Grace. When Daniel tells Grace about this she denies she needed any prodding, but also then says how she sees things too, perhaps entangled.  Simon is a bit creepy, overly interested in Daniel, standing in his room at night.

Meanwhile Harry goes out with his roommate and his best friend and ends up dead. They went to Boston’s “Combat Zone” the seedy part of town, under the apparent “Harvard football tradition” post season. 

It’s ends up that the best friend is involved in his murder as well as a friend of the roommate, which also ends up being the dad. And the father was the one who ultimately killed him, being a bit “nutty”. Of course this doesn’t come out until the last few pages or so. Also find out the dad was the one who killed their mom, which was deemed an “accident” when investigated back when it happened. Daniel was 8 and was in the car, the trunk actually, and he surprisingly surprised the crash. Shortly after, on the way to the hospital, Daniel went into a coma for a while. 

While there an orderly or someone in the hospital, not supposed to be in the room, pokes Daniel with long needles. Is he injecting him? Is he just hurting him? What is the guy doing? It isn’t explained, it isn’t really discussed much, but the day Daniel wakes up the guy ends up jumping off the hospital roof and dying. One theory is that Daniel made him do that by willing it with his mind…like mind control.

The book does have some seediness. Daniel and Harry’s mother was a prostitute working in the Combat Zone area. Then Barkley’s partner is a dirty cop with many addictions: coke, alcohol, gambling. He is supposed to be clean, but of course not at all, and once “they” get to you, have their hooks in you, it’s impossible to get away.  There’s something he needs to do, and will earn “forever money” but what exactly is that? Who sets this up? Not really explained. Perhaps they mean it is the kids father? He’s wrapped up in this too…he’s a photographer and “just happened” to take photos of the crime in progress. Well, the guy that it was pinned on didn’t actually kill Harry and the father ended up finishing it. But the dirty copy was involved, and later he killed the suspect. Then later Barkley following leads ends up killing his partner, after he killed Harry’s best friend. He was in the whole thing too, leading Harry out of the car, to be chased down the alley so he could get murdered. 

Why the dad wanted him dead, or the mother well, that is never explained either. Maybe the guy is just nuts. He was going to kill Daniel as well, but someone, Simon comes up and kills him instead.

Although then it turns out that Simon didn’t kill him, just injected him to make him pass out. And the cops don’t have any evidence, nor believe that Simon is real. After his father was killed Simon told Daniel he was him but, in the future, they were the same, and the cops believe that Daniel is just hallucinating and creating these stories as a way of dealing with all the trauma that’s happened to him…being in the car when his mom died, then his brother dying. 

Somewhat odd part of the book, not all explained well, but it was a quick read!

Review 234: Believers

Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World by Lisa Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is a powerful book. One that is not about bemoaning the state of the Earth today, but instead on how we can heal, ourselves and the land. Lisa Wells introduces us to several people who are living wildly, living to restore nature and some with unusual ways. We are first introduced to Finisia Medrona who replants prairies and deserts with edible foods, who now has a group of followers. Her group of “Prairie Faeries” or landtenders on occasion plant a hillside of edibles in the shape of letters such as “This is food.” Finisia’s dedication to replanting is tied with religious overtones while spouting a foul mouth being quite cantankerous to outsides and those who live a “typical” western lifestyle. She’s lived an itinerant lifestyle, for years living in a cave or traveled by covered wagon.

Starting the book with an outlier, it is a sharp awakening that there are other ways to live, or how to interact with the environment. Much of the book is infused with religion, talk of healing ourselves from the trauma that has happened (something is wrong when we have so many people addicted to various vices), and restoring nature.

Wells interweaves her own personal story as well, leaving high school in Portland and along with her friends, joins a wilderness survival school. Wells interlaces the people that shaped her life, important books such as Daniel Quinn’s book Ishmael, and her friends. We are also introduced to many others, people who have done something radically different and have results that prove that the ecosystem can be restored, and at an amazingly fast pace.

This book is about people who believe that we can move beyond this current climate crisis, we have the ability to heal what is broken. Wells shows us people who are doing just that.

‘How, then, shall we live’ is asked many times. Some answers are here. It is a hopeful book, albeit not an easy read at times. It can be eye-opening or maybe, world changing.



Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

 

 

Some Notes: I read Daniel Quinn's book referenced in this one in August 1997. At the time it made a huge impact on me. I wanted everyone I knew to have read it.  Later, a friend or two had read the book and didn't have the same impact as myself. Not sure if it was the format or they just weren't prepared for what the author said.  A similar type book, or so it seemed when I read it was The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You by Dorothy Bryant. I read that book in February 2001.

Review 233: A Single Thread

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



This is a quiet slow novel about Violet Speedwell during the time between world wars in England. She managed to move away from her complaining mother, always referred to as Mrs. Speedwell. Violet is mourning her finance and brother died in the war, and her father who made life with mum tolerable. Now Violet is in Winchester trying to make her own way, trying to figure out what to do with her life, give it purpose. She stumbles upon a group of broderers in the Winchester cathedral embroidering kneelers and cushions for the church. It is with this group of women Violet makes a few friends and finds purpose. As a stitched item may be used for a hundred years, or perhaps more.

Violet finds it difficult to make ends meet, with her typing salary and expenses living in a boarding house. Her daily meals are often not enough, yet she’s manages somehow. When one of the three women leave unexpectedly to marry quicker than planned due to a pregnancy, Violet finds discusses with the manager a plan for not filling the position, and giving herself and other typist a raise.
Meanwhile Violet finds herself deeply attracted to a married man, twenty years her senior. It is a relationship that cannot be, but they do develop a friendship and he introduced her to the ringing of the bells, which Violet takes a great interest in. I had to wonder if she was interested on her own, or was it due to Knight’s passion? This part of the book becomes somewhat predicable.

While this is slow and there isn’t much action to the book, after reading it I found myself thinking back on the characters. The book says a lot about the time and situation, England have a “surplus” of women after the war. Society then was very strict about what women could do and Violet was pushing those boundaries.

Somehow though, the book didn’t feel very British to me. It is set in England and a few things were nods to that, but overall it had more of an American feel with the language. Perhaps it was the author not knowing the slang and sayings of the British in the 1930s? The book does have many details of stitching and bell ringing, details at times become a bit tedious.



I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.

Review 232: Dream Girl

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A clever tale about a writer, Gerry Andersen, in his waning years but not into retirement just yet. Recently sold his place in New York City and bought a luxury apartment in Baltimore, to be closer to his mother in her final days of dementia. Unfortunately for Gerry, the floating staircase and concrete flooring, while modern and sleek, was fairly dangerous. A minor slip and fall, the accident leaves him bedridden for months to heal his broken legs. Now ensconced in a rented hospital bed in his apartment, his assistant helps even more during the day and brings in a nurse for the nights.

Bedridden and taking pain pills, sleeping pills and calcium Gerry becomes the ultimate unreliable narrator and unsure when things are odd if he is dreaming, hallucinating, or what exactly is going on. Gerry weaves between his past and present, while trying to deal with an ex-girlfriend who won’t leave him alone and a mysterious woman who claims to be a fictional character from him most successful novel, Dream Girl.

The text is generously peppered with literary references. This book is highly readable, and enjoyable with a mystery and current social references. Despite the cringeworthy main character you just want to slap, there is something about Lippman’s novels that are just a joy to read.


Thanks to William Morrow for an advance review copy of this book.

Review 231: Savage Country

Savage Country by Robert Olmstead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The writing, the words, pull you into this story. I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about the slaughter of the last large buffalo herd, and yet I did and enjoyed the tale.

Michael arrives at his brother’s home just days past David’s death. His newly widowed sister-in-law Elizabeth is determined to follow her husband’s plans, to earn a big payout to get out from all the debt he accumulated. David wrote in his journal where a herd of buffalo could be found, a good camp site and already had men lined up. Elizabeth will go no matter, despite that Michael paid off all the debts, including the moneylender and now she has the paper to her land.

Undeterred Michel goes along, to keep her safe, if possible. They follow David’s journal, and all is as he wrote. Michael is a man of little words, Elizbeth seems to follow. The men join, including a preacher who seems intent on gaining her favor to marry. Along the way they pick up a few more men, or boys really. Michael seems to be the only one who knows what to do, goes out ahead with his trusty dogs and horse, to watch for dangers, or what may be head, despite his desire to not undertake this venture, as it is tempting fate, death.

While the descriptions of the harsh conditions endured, the brutal relentless killing of so many buffalo, the deaths that come, are difficult to read, yet it is the writing that keeps you going.




I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.

Review 230: Raceless

Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Georgina’s experience growing up was she was white, period, with her darker skin color and hair was explained by ancestry somehow. This denial of her true parentage was always troublesome, making her believe maybe she was switched at birth in the hospital or something else that her mother would never admit. Her father was a generous loving man, and always accepted Georgina. After he passed away a DNA test proved he wasn’t her real father, and painfully her mother admitted to an affair one night in a pub, but without any other info.

This memoir explores this painful realization of understanding herself and her biological past, while also diving into generalizations of race. In trying to deal with the revelations and anger at her mother for never talking and denying Georgina the truth about herself, gaslighting her childhood, Georgina travels briefly, while writing freelance articles about race. Once back in London she tries again to deal with the emotional fall out with her mother.

While the book is well written, there are points where the focus seems to wander, although in somewhat related area, such as the long sections on hair. It is easy to image as more people take DNA tests, they will discover family secrets such as Georgina’s. There are a couple of similar situations also discussed in the book, but not thoroughly.



Thanks to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 229: Rabbits

Rabbits by Terry Miles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This book was a wild ride and I enjoyed it. Rabbits is a game, which you don’t talk about, and the secrecy means that nearly everything is rumor. When did it start really, maybe in 1959, maybe longer; why did it start, who controls it, and how do you play; all are shrouded in mystery and guesses. It’s also rumored that people have died playing.

K is the main character, and he is approached by a multi-billionaire that is rumored to have won the 9th version of the game. He says there is something wrong with the game and needs K’s help to fix it before the next iteration begins. Why K is never really explored but when said billionaire goes missing right after their meeting, K along with his friend Chloe is now looking into clues and patterns that may be part of the game.

The game is built on pattern recognition, coincidences and odd discrepancies in the world, such as a painting having three windows instead of the two. Deep fake videos and photographs, old technology, video games all of these things are part of playing the game. It helps if you’re OCD but then again you may go too far and have a break down like K. He’s an unreliable narrator; the lack of sleep, maybe it was a dream, he suddenly is missing time makes things murky.

The book felt like a mix of Ready Player One, Stranger Things and The Number 23. There is a deep darkness to the book, a dark shadow that seems to haunt K and want to devour him. Despite K being told several times to not play, he keeps getting sucked into following the clues, and of course we’re there along with him.


Thanks to Del Rey Books/Ballantine and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.