ALL WE EVERR WANTED by Emily Giffin

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3.5 stars

This was the first book I read by Emily Giffin so I have no way to compare All We Ever Wanted to any of her many other books. However, given all I’ve heard about this author,  I was left feeling a bit disappointed. All I Ever Wanted felt too familiar and a bit predictable. While some of the dialogue was cliche, I enjoyed the multiple POVs.

While it was a fast and satisfactory read, All We Ever Wanted is not something I would ever re-read again. The writing was O.K. and the storyline was interesting but there was insufficient character development for my liking. No one was three-dimensional — I didn’t feel like I got to know anyone sufficiently to care. However, I was a little intrigued and interested to see how it moved forward. The ending felt abrupt and the 10 year later epilogue didn’t seem necessary. I think the story would’ve been better served with one more chapter in the present to wrap it up.

THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict

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The Only Woman in the Room is Marie Benedict’s third novel featuring a powerful woman overlooked by history — in this case, a female actress popular in the 1930s and 1940s named Hedwig Kiesler, who you might know by her stage name Hedy Lamarr.  All I knew about her was that she was an actress but I had never seen any of her movies.  There is so much more to learn about this extraordinary woman that I am sure The Only Woman in the Room will be a fascinating and engrossing read for many.  Furthermore, the story is very topical and relevant for current times because it deals head-on with misogyny.  

Hedy Lamarr was a beautiful and accomplished actress who also happened to be extremely smart, strong, clever, and determined. I felt like I got to know her through these pages and found her very likable while rooting for her all along her journey. Ms. Benedict does an outstanding job bringing Hedy Lamarr to life via words on the page.  It is well-written and it is clear that a vast amount of research went into this story,  making it a compelling read.  At its core, this is a story of self-discovery and self-acceptance with a lot of historical significance along the way.

Ms. Lamarr was Austrian and Jewish though she was not religious (not that the Nazis ever cared about such a distinction). In order to keep herself and her family safe, she married Fritz Mandl, the richest man in Austria who sold weapons to anyone and everyone, earning him the nickname the “Merchant of Death.” He forced her to make many sacrifices, including her acting career and her heritage. After they were married, Heddy learned quickly that he was an extremely controlling man.  He dictated her clothing choices and told her which shade of lipstick to wear.  But these were small things — ultimately, he became much worse.  She was confined behind seven locks on the door and was unable to go anywhere without his permission. The numerous servants made sure she obeyed his wishes.

There were only rules and locks and fury.  By imprisoning me, it seemed, he hoped to cage the rampant virus that was Hitler.  I became the unspoken emblem of the evil within and without whenever he needed a place to vent his anger.

During her time married to this monster, she listened and learned everything she could about his business as well as his dealings with Mussolini and Hitler. She had a scientific bent and her curiosity prompted her to invent things, which came in handy later as she invented signal frequency hopping technology, earning her a patent, which would have vastly improved the accuracy of torpedoes during WWII. However, her invention was discounted simply because she was a WOMAN!  The war would’ve ended sooner and lives would have been saved if gender didn’t get in the way of evaluating this new technology.  They told her she would be more effective if instead of trying to invent things, she sold War Bonds.  While she was confident she was much more than a pretty face, she conceded and in the course of one night, she sold $2,250,000 in war bonds! 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I OWE YOU ONE by Sophie Kinsella

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I give this book 3.5 stars.

While I Owe You One was a relaxing read, I think it would be best suited as a beach read — light fare that doesn’t require full attention. 

I read most of the Shopaholic series years ago and enjoyed it. With those expectations, I Owe You One was a disappointment.  While the story itself was interesting and the premise was unusual, the character development fell flat for me and I missed the humor that made the Shopaholic series so enjoyable to read.

The story follows Fixie, a nickname which encapsulates her need to fix everything and everyone sans herself. Yet she is the thing most in need of fixing but she seems oblivious to this fact.

The first paragraph drew me right in — I was intrigued and curious about the narrator:

The trouble with me is, I can’t let things go. They bug me. I see problems and I want to fix them, right here, right now. My nickname isn’t Fixie for nothing.

Fixie is somewhat pathetic and hardly relatable. While she is the main character, at best she is two dimensional whereas the other people surrounding her are one dimensional.  Fixie makes it difficult to root for her as she is not a likable character. She’s had a crush on her brother’s bestie since she was 10 years old and let’s him treat her poorly and practically begs for more. 

The plot device of I Owe You One was the most appealing aspect of this novel.  Fixie saves a guy’s laptop from a collapsing ceiling at a coffee shop and he is eternally grateful and “owes her one” for saving his computer, which he describes as his “life.” The favor switches back and forth between the two and actually makes for a good plot. If only Fixie was likable or relatable, this might have been a more enjoyable read. While her brother’s life is spiraling out of control, his redemption happens too quickly and too easily, making it hard to believe and accept. Ultimately, the story is about family and its importance in one’s life.

I Owe You One is a fast read but also very predictable. While the first half of the book was slow-going, it does pick up in the second half when the reader begins to care what happens to Fixie. The secondary characters were only mildly interesting at best. The book has its moments and some of the writing, albeit not enough, was classic Kinsella — clever and witty.

Hi Greg acts in good faith, no one doubts that, but his logic is random and unnerving. He’s like a computer on its last legs that works perfectly until it suddenly decides to email your whole in-box to Venezuela.

Distantly, I’m aware that I’m not speaking appropriately. But I can’t seem to stop myself. Sense has taken a back seat for now. Alcohol is in charge of talking. And Alcohol says, “Woo! Anything goes!

Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

THINGS YOU SAVE IN A FIRE by Katherine Center

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I absolutely loved How to Walk Away so I was very excited to see that Katherine Center has a new book.  Fans of Center will not be disappointed.

Cassie is a firefighter and is faced with having to relocate from Texas to Massachusetts to help her mother with her medical problems.  She quickly discovers that her new department is not nearly as progressive and female-friendly as Austin’s, which even had a female chief. Cassie finds that she has to prove herself again and again to be accepted as “one of the guys.”

Cassie lives a very predictable and regimented life. She likes it like that. She needs to to be in control of her life at all times after two unpredictable and tragic events traumatized her on her 16th birthday

Because of these traumatic experiences, Cassie has successfully insulated herself from getting close to others, but now she finds herself craving companionship and love. You see, Cassie has a big crush on the rookie firefighter at her new department but she knows that if anything were to happen between them, she would lose her job and career. But sometimes, as hard as one may try, you can’t stop love.

Center has a talent for creating characters with such depth, that you truly feel like you know them.  Cassie is believable, relatable, genuine, and admirable. At the same time, she faces major psychological struggles that you or I might have encountered as well — emotionally blocked and isolated, estranged mother, doesn’t believe in love, etc.

Things You Save in a Fire is about Cassie’s journey to psychological maturity and confronting the issues holding her back from love and enjoying life. Her biggest obstacle and lesson she needs to learn is forgiveness of others and of herself. I was rooting for Cassie and experienced her transformation. 

We feel so many different emotions along with Cassie, such as joy, anger, trust, surprise, etc.  I was particularly moved when she experiences empathy and compassion for her mother.

“For the first time, I understood. In all the times I’d remembered that story, I’d experienced every single part of it from my own perspective, standing in my own sixteen-year-old shoes. Now, for the first time, I saw it unfold from a new angle. Hers. And it changed the story.”

This book has all the elements — drama, love, suspense, heroism, a little humor, and secrets! It is well written with three-dimensional characters. We get to know the inner struggles of these characters and the motivations for their behavior.  

The first line of the novel grabbed me and it never let me go.

“The night I became the youngest person—and the only female ever—to win the Austin Fire Department’s Valor Award, I got propositioned by my partner.”

I really enjoy Katherine Center’s writing (see examples below) and am looking forward to reading her earlier books while I wait for her next one.

“...two ladies pulled out dress after dress, holding them up in front of me, then tossing them in rejection piles on the bed. Too purple, they’d decide. Or: Too bright. Too dark. Too flashy. Too plain. Too stiff. Too floppy. Too many pleats. Too teenagery. Too old-lady. Too much cleavage. Not enough cleavage. And on and on.”

“Down in Texas, everybody had been robust and tan. Here, they looked like ashtrays.”

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens

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Sometimes you finish a book and while feeling good because you really enjoyed it, you also feel sad because you have to say goodbye to the people you’ve come to love. That is how I feel about Where the Crawdads Sing. 

To say that this debut novel from Delia Owens is a magnificent and delightful read is an understatement. Delia Owens has an eye for detail and her expertise and appreciation for nature shines through. This is an amazing novel with lyrical writing and expertly developed characters. As an example of Owen’s skill, these quotes illustrate her gift for stringing together words in a mesmerizing way as she establishes the setting:

Marsh is not swamp.  Marsh is a space of light, where grass grows in water, and water flows into the sky.  

The marsh was guarded by a torn shoreline, labeled by early explorers as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” because riptides, furious winds, and shallow shoals wrecked ships like paper hats along what would become the North Carolina coast.

Those looking for serious land moved on, and this infamous marsh became a net, scooping up a mishmash of mutinous sailors, castaways, debtors, and fugitives dodging wars, taxes, or laws that they didn’t take to.

At first I wasn’t so sure about this book...girl lives in Marsh? Feral? But it surpassed my highest standards and moved me to such an extent like few books do. The story revolves around Kya, whose entire life we follow, beginning at 6 years old.  In the opening pages, we see Kya’s Mother leave the house and walk away.  I felt emotionally attached to Kya at this early point in the story, while she waits to see her Mother wave but she never does and Kya begins to wonder if she will ever return. 

 It is a tale of survival, courage, love, and a search for self. It is virtually impossible not to feel compassion for Kya as we bear witness to her life. We feel along with her, running the emotional spectrum from anger to joy, with stops along the way at despair, loneliness and contentment to name just a few.  We root for her, cry with her and celebrate with her. 

Where the Crawdads Sing is ultimately about independence, courage and the will to survive. The book explores themes of trust/betrayal and love/hate plus a murder mystery is added in to the mix. I cherished the reading of this book and it’s unfolding story. As trite as it sounds, I must confess that I did not want it to end. Also, I found myself thinking about the book when I wasn’t reading it and, not just after finishing it like other books, but throughout reading it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough — for the characters, the story and the writing.

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS by Liane Moriarty

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Liane Moriarity features the topical issue of micro-dosing in her latest book Nine Perfect Strangers.  I’ve been hearing about micro-dosing psychedelic drugs for several years and have read a few articles about its benefits. In early 2017, the writer Ayelet Waldman (wife of Michael Charon) wrote a book chronicling her personal journey with micro-dosing. Then a year later, Michael Pollan authored a N.Y. Times Bestseller (13 weeks and counting) How to Change Your Mind, which brought the discussion more mainstream. 

Nine strangers come together at a health resort in search of a transformational experience.  Nine flawed individuals, each with their own emotional baggage and unresolved issues, are desperate to turn their lives around. At first, this setup led me to think that Nine Perfect Strangers would unfold as a murder mystery, but once I read a few more pages, I was quickly proven wrong. 

I began the book concerned that I would have trouble distinguishing one stranger from another and that I wouldn’t get to know any of the nine that well.  It is a testament to Moriarity’s skill as a seasoned novelist that each one is developed sufficiently for the reader to not feel lost and to experience a connection to each of them.

For me, the standout and most fascinating character was Masha, the head of the wellness retreat and the originator of the unconventional protocol for the guests.  I found her to be a multi-dimensional character with heavy emotional baggage and delusions of grandeur.  Although she acted as a therapist for the guests, one wonders how much she would have benefitted from some psychotherapy herself.  

Based on a cursory reading of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, it seems this book was very polarizing in terms of readers’ reactions. As such, it was kind of amusing that one of the main characters, Frances Welty, a successful writer facing her first rejection, is tormented by a scathing review.  Frances has made it a point of never reading reviews but her publisher alerts her to it when he rejects her latest manuscript, claiming that it had no bearing on their evaluation of her current manuscript.  I couldn’t help but wonder if Ms. Moriarity avoids reading reviews of her own books.

While I enjoyed the story and found myself laughing out loud a few times, I felt that it got a bit far-fetched and over the top. But even so, I kept reading because I wanted to know how it ultimately turned out.  Overall it was a fun read that kept me entertained.

EDUCATED by Tara Westover

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Educated is an absolute page-turner —  it is gripping and shocking. It reads like a novel and has many of the same elements that are found in a work of fiction. The protagonist is on a quest and there is substantial conflict with the story’s antagonists —her father and oldest brother.

At its core, Educated is about Tara’s search for self and her transformation.  Moreover, it speaks to the resilience of the human spirit as well as the power of hope and determination.  It is a remarkable story and I am very glad that Westover had the courage to write it.

As a young child, Tara quickly realizes that her family is different. For starters, they don’t go to school. Her father does not believe in them — he views schools as government-supported brainwashing. 

Dad said public school was a ploy by the Government to lead children away from God. “I may as well surrender my kids to the devil himself,” he said, “as send them down the road to that school.”

While her oldest siblings were homeschooled, being the last of seven children, Tara did not get much in the way of education. By that time, her Mom was busy with midwife duties and growing her small business of oils and tinctures.  

Tara does not “exist” — besides not attending school, she doesn’t have a birth certificate (born at home) or any medical records (has never seen a doctor).  It is not until she is 9 years old that the she becomes “legitimate” and gets a delayed certificate of birth.

I remember the day it came in the mail. It felt oddly dispossessing, being handed this first legal proof of my personhood: until that moment, it had never occurred to me that proof was required.

Tara’s escape from this very dysfunctional world, where she and her siblings are actually maimed while working at their father’s junkyard, is through books.  At the urging of Tyler, one of her older brothers, she undertakes a program of self-study in order to pass the ACT test so that she can attend college. It’s unbelievable in this day and age that she first enters a classroom at the age of 17 at college.  Tara is extremely disadvantaged because of her lack of an education and struggles to “catch up.” But her perseverance is remarkable and she pushes forward. Her father’s opposition to a traditional education is well illustrated by these two quotes about college:

“College is extra school for people too dumb to learn the first time around,” Dad said.

“There’s two kinds of them college professors,” Dad said. “Those who know they’re lying, and those who think they’re telling the truth.” Dad grinned. “Don’t know which is worse, come to think of it, a bona fide agent of the Illuminati, who at least knows he’s on the devil’s payroll, or a high-minded professor who thinks his wisdom is greater than God’s.”

Along her journey, she is plagued with self-doubt, unsure of what exactly is real.  One of her older brothers, Shawn, is abusive and tries to brainwash her into believing in a view of herself and a reality that run counter to her own. Because he is so manipulative and good at it, Tara begins to blame herself for the troubles she has with Shawn.

I begin to reason with myself, to doubt whether I had spoken clearly: what had I whispered and what had I screamed? I decide that if I had asked differently, been more calm, he would have stopped. I write this until I believe it, which doesn’t take long because I want to believe it. It’s comforting to think the defect is mine, because that means it is under my power.

It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you, I had written in my journal. But Shawn had more power over me than I could possibly have imagined. He had defined me to myself, and there’s no greater power than that.

Once Tara experiences the outside world, it becomes more and more difficult for her to be silent and accept the dysfunction at home. While growing up, Tara had only one reality and had no choice but to fully accept and embrace it. While the outside world was always considered to hold the wrong or irrational views, now Tara begins to see her family as deviant. Tara struggles with trying to understand the dynamics in her family and tries to make sense of the dysfunction.

As Tara’s world grows and she learns more, she is faced with tremendous cognitive dissonance.  How do you reconcile these two diametrically opposed belief systems — the world view ingrained in her by her parents and  a new reality borne out of learning and new experiences? 

....I felt alienated from myself. I didn’t know who to be.

Once her eyes are opened, she cannot return to the limited perspective she had before.  While reading, I couldn’t help but think that If Tara had never pursued a formal education, she would’ve remained trapped in this world, brainwashed and possibly broken. 

Ultimately Tara’s goal is something that many of us take for granted —  to develop and shape her own mind with her own attitudes and beliefs.  She yearns for the freedom to choose for herself what to believe after being told by her family how to think and what to think. You see, it wasn’t just Shawn manipulating her, it was also her parents who brainwashed her.

Everything they did had always made sense to me, adhering to a logic I understood…But here, so near the university, they seemed so unreal as to be almost mythic.

My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute.

It’s astonishing that I used to believe all this without the slightest suspicion…

Educated is a beautifully written and an extremely well constructed memoir.  There were many times as I read this book that I wanted to reassure Tara and give her a hug.  You cannot help but feel for her and root her on.  Tara Westover has enormous insight and wisdom for her age and she has come to the conclusions she has in order to live a life of her own.  She has outgrown her family, save for two siblings that also pursued an education.  Interestingly enough, all three of them received Ph.D. degrees while the four siblings left behind did not complete high school. In order for Tara to survive, she had to leave her past behind.

The past was a ghost, insubstantial, unaffecting. Only the future had weight.