THE LIBRARY OF THE UNWRITTEN by A.J. Hackwith

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I was very excited by the concept of the Library of the Unwritten and was eager to read it. We learn that in this library, an unwritten book can wake up, manifest as one of its character and escape from the book. It was the Librarian’s responsibility to track down the escapee and return him or her to its pages. The worst thing that can happen is for the character to make contact with the author and influence them and their writing, thereby potentially changing the book and it’s direction, which may not bode well for the character’s return to its pages. Furthermore, the longer the character experiences life outside the book, the more he or she could change and as a result, no longer fit in the book.

The idea of escaped characters from unwritten books is very imaginative and my favorite part of The Library of the Unwritten was following the escapee named Hero. But I found the reading of this book to be a major chore. It took very little for me to be distracted from reading it and putting off picking it back up again. For me, the plot meandered and never fully pulled me in. I do enjoy science fiction/fantasy novels but this one just did not satisfy me. I am not exactly sure why I had so much trouble reading The Library of the Unwritten but overall, the execution of this appealing premise did not work for me. 

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group/Ace and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

THE PERFECT WIFE by J.P. Delaney

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The Perfect Wife is a fun beach read kind of a book. It will draw you in and keep you hooked until the last word. There are some great twists throughout the story that will keep you on your toes, trying to figure out the ending. Some people didn’t enjoy The Perfect Wife because they considered it to be science-fiction. I personally do not feel that it portrays some fantastical future because A.I. is in the news nearly everyday. I believe it’s closer than you think.and that is what The Perfect Wife is about — artificial intelligence. But in this case, it’s about a cobot or companion robot. And that is all I will say about it as I do not want to reveal too much.

Philosophical and moral issues arise as well as legal ones that many of us have never contemplated, which makes the book even more interesting.

The Perfect Wife also has a sub-story about childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) or Heller’s syndrome, which is unfortunately, real. I did not know about CDD so appreciated being informed and learning about it. It is truly a horrific disorder in which the a child regresses in terms of language, cognition and social skills.

Danny has childhood disintegrative disorder, also known as Heller’s syndrome. It’s so rare, most pediatricians have never seen a case. Instead they’d tell you patronizingly that children simply don’t reach the age of four and then get struck down by profound autism over the course of a few terrifying weeks.

            

 CDD takes your child away and swaps him for a stranger—a drooling, broken zombie who inhabits your child’s body. In some ways it’s worse than a death. Because you go on loving this beautiful stranger even while you’re grieving the sweet little person you lost.

The different educational strategies for CDD were explored in the book and again, is fodder for thought as it raises philosophical issues as well.

Perhaps the real test of someone’s humanity, you think, is how tenderly they treat those like Danny. Whether they blindly try to fix them and make them more like everyone else, or whether they can accept their differentness and adapt the world to it.

CILKA’S JOURNEY by Heather Morris

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Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, has written another remarkable and important book titled Cilka’s Journey. While it is a follow-up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, it is a completely standalone novel. Once again, Ms. Morris has done an incredible amount of research to tell this amazing story of one young girl’s harrowing journey, which began in a concentration camp and continued in the Siberian Gulag, 50 miles from the Arctic Circle. Cilka’s Journey is an inspiring testament to one women’s generosity, courage and determination to survive. While it is a novel, it is based on true events and a real person named Cilka Klein.

At the young age of 16, Cilka is taken to Auschwitz and is forced to become a Nazi officer’s sex slave. When the Russians liberate the concentration camp, they sentence her to 15 years in the Gulag for sleeping with the enemy, like she ever had a choice in the matter. 

This book serves a very important purpose in that it exposes the horrors of the Gulag and the oppression and inhumanity that many dealt with at the hands of the Russians. There are many reasons that individuals were imprisoned in the Gulag, such as marrying a foreigner, making garments for a Nazi General’s wife, etc.

Cilka is haunted by her time in Auschwitz-Birkenau and feels cursed. Death is her constant companion and is always around her. She fears she will bring it to those she befriends. Cilka also feels she loses people from her life, not necessarily by death, all too often. Eventually, her fellow prisoners in her hut become her family and help her to survive.

She has lost everything — her childhood, family, dignity, hope, and a future. Yet in the face of all this atrocity , she strives to make a difference at the Gulag and yearns to help those around her. Cilka easily overcomes any fear in order to save others. She will walk into a collapsing mine to look for survivors. 

Cilka’s Journey is sad and heartbreaking yet compelling and triumphant. Cilka is a strong character that you will admire, care about and hope for during the telling of her story.

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

OLIVE, AGAIN by Elizabeth Strout

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How do you write a sequel to a Pulitzer Prize winning novel?  It is probably a rare occurrence and may never have even happened before.  But Elizabeth Strout takes on the challenge and is triumphant. Now that gets me wondering if a sequel to a Pulitzer Prize winning book has ever won a Pulitzer Prize? 

I was thrilled to see the story of Olive Kitteridge continue into a second volume and jumped at the chance to read it. Not surprisingly, Elizabeth Strout did not disappoint. While she is a brilliant storyteller, she never ceases to amaze me with her insight into human nature.

It was delightful to be able to visit again with Olive and the inhabitants, both old and new, of Crosby, Maine. The structure of the book is the same as previously — short stories which feature Olive while others focus on other people living in Crosby. But once again, Olive is the thread that ties all these stories together. 

Olive continues her psychological evolution, becoming more self-aware and gaining a better understanding of herself. She comes to to appreciate universal truths about the human condition. Her growing insight into herself comes from many sources. 

Olive sees some of her flaws in others and then makes the connection to herself — for instance, she sees her daughter-in-law yelling at her son in front of others and realizes she did the same thing to her husband. 

She reflects on her past, recognizing her mistakes as well as her psychological shortcomings. Olive realizes that she has become a somewhat better person over time and regrets that Harry was unable to benefit from it. 

She overhears her daughter-in-law describe her as narcissistic, looks it up in the dictionary but cannot see how it applies. Later, she comes to understand that she talks a lot about herself and encourages her companion at the time to take over the conversation, assuring her that she’ll return to talking about herself.

Olive contemplates moments of regret, wishing she could have done things differently. She realizes that she was unkind to her husband in his final years and she feels remorse. Also, she comes to understand that her relationship with her son is lacking in so many ways,

It came to her then with a horrible whoosh of the crescendo of truth: She had failed on a colossal level. She must have been failing for years and not realized it. She did not have a family as other people did.

Olive reads a poem about herself written by the Poet Laureate, a former student of her’s who she recently met up with, and while dismissing it at first, she comes to see the truth in it. She is positively amazed that the author, knowing so little about her, had more insight into her than she did. 

Many characters in this book wonder who they are and how others perceive them. We meet them when they are reflecting on their lives and questioning their identity. We learn how fragile those identities can be. For example, one character learns later in life that contrary to what he believed at the time, he was not responsible for a tragic event. While relieved, he feels that he has lost a little bit of his identity.

The writing is just as wonderful as Olive Kitteridge — the world is richly described and the characters have tremendous depth.

The truth is that Olive did not understand why age had brought with it a kind of hard-heartedness toward her husband. But it was something she had seemed unable to help, as though the stone wall that had rambled along between them during the course of their long marriage—a stone wall that separated them but also provided unexpected dips of moss-covered warm spots where sunshine would flicker between them in a sudden laugh of understanding—had become tall and unyielding.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group/Random House and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout

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Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is an amazing book. There are so many adjectives that apply — wonderful, glorious, magnificent, fantastic, and so on. I didn’t think I would love it so much because I am not a fan of short stories but these worked so well, possibly because they all take place in Crosby, Maine and Olive Kitteridge links all of them together. Some of the chapters are primarily about Olive but the others that focus on other Crosby inhabitants feature conversation about Olive and/or a “cameo” appearance by her, interacting with the chapter’s main characters. Both the town and Olive hold these stories together. 

Olive strives to know and understand herself and through this self-awareness, she hopes to become a better person. We watch as she evolves over time, privy to her innermost thoughts and desires. She is a complex character and Strout takes time developing her to the fullest. Olive Kitteridge ultimately becomes the reader’s close friend, someone you don’t want to lose touch with or say goodbye.

The writing is exceptional as is the use of imagery, metaphors and similes.

The girl was neat as a pin, if plain as a plate.

Lots of people had favorite songs, and Angie would sometimes play them, but not always. Henry Kitteridge was different. She always played his song because whenever she saw him, it was like moving into a warm pocket of air.

The natural rubber band around people’s lives that curiosity stretched for a while had long ago returned to encompass their own particularities. Two, five, then seven years passed by—and in the case of Olive Kitteridge, she found herself positively squeezed to death by an unendurable sense of loneliness

The scenery is vividly and richly described, to the point that the reader feels he/she is there. The characters have depth and are well developed. While I wasn’t as eager to learn about other people as I was about Olive and her family, I found myself sucked right in to these chapters featuring other people’s stories. Strout does an amazing job inviting the reader in to these stories and keeping interest high. I became intrigued to see how Olive was worked into the chapters about other people — how the connection was made.

It has been a long time since I read a book like this — so masterfully structured and crafted. Right away I knew that I would savor every sentence. I look forward to reading all of Strout’s works. She is a masterful storyteller with incredible insight into human nature.

It seemed to him he should have some opinion about this, but he did not know what to think. When had he stopped having opinions on things?

She didn’t like to be alone. Even more, she didn’t like being with people.

...after a certain point in a marriage, you stopped having a certain kind of fight, Olive thought, because when the years behind you were more than the years in front of you, things were different.

THE LAST TIME I SAW YOU by Liv Constantine

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The bar was set high by the debut novel The Last Mrs. Parrish. The odds were that the Constantine sisters’ second book would not be quite as good. While I knew that going in, I was still very disappointed by The Last Time I Saw You. 

There were too many characters to start off and it was easy to get them confused. But more importantly, I didn’t feel like I got to know anyone that well, especially the protagonist. Actually Kate was kind of pathetic and someone I would never want to get to know. 

The book opens with the murder of Kate’s mother Lily and we follow the investigation and also the stalking of Kate.  Kate suffers from an anxiety disorder which adds to the tension and stress of receiving strange notes and packages by the stalker. Here is one such sinister note -

Such a beautiful day for a funeral. I enjoyed watching you watch them lower your mother into the ground. Your beautiful face was mottled and swollen from crying. But I delighted in seeing your world fall apart. You think you’re sad now, just wait. By the time I’m finished with you, you’ll wish you had been buried today.

Kate and Simon are having marital problems and prior to the murder were separated but now he returns to the house to protect Kate and their daughter Annabelle. Kate’s best friend Blaire attends the funeral and reconnects with Kate after a falling out years ago in which Blaire tried to talk her out of marrying Simon. Blaire was close to the family, almost like a sister to Kate, spending time with the family.  For instance, she spent summers with them at their beach house and even had her own room.

I was unable to engage with any of the characters as I felt they were all two-dimensional. The book was filled with cliches and had a soap opera feel to it. I did not find it at all suspenseful but instead, dull. I am hoping that their next book is more like their debut.

ELEANOR AND PARK by Rainbow Rowell

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I adored this book! It was sweet, charming, relatable, and sincere. It took me back to those awkward days of high school and first love. Eleanor and Park is a coming-of-age love story between two 16 year old teens. But the book has more to offer than that as it deals with some very important and relevant issues, including poverty, bullying and abuse.

Eleanor and Park are two quirky teen misfits trying to find their place in the world. As the reader will learn, they are both very special, caring and lovable people. Rowell writes in a very natural and honest way and the reader can’t help but feel along with the main characters. Eleanor is the new kid in school and she is bullied on the school bus. The driver urges her to sit down and at Park’s request she sits next to him. 

That girl—all of them—hated Eleanor before they’d even laid eyes on her. Like they’d been hired to kill her in a past life.

Over the course of days, weeks and months, they bond over comic books and music. And then their relationship grows even stronger and deeper and Park just wants to protect and love her.

All I do when we’re apart is think about you, and all I do when we’re together is panic. Because every second feels so important. And because I’m so out of control, I can’t help myself. I’m not even mine anymore, I’m yours, and what if you decide that you don’t want me? How could you want me like I want you?

The story is told in short alternating narratives of Eleanor and Park and it flows well. I enjoyed the writing and it made me smile often. 

Eleanor looked like her mother through a fish tank. Rounder and softer. Slurred. Where her mother was statuesque, Eleanor was heavy. Where her mother was finely drawn, Eleanor was smudged.

She almost sounded sane, Eleanor thought. If you didn’t know that she was acting rational on the far side of crazy.

Rowell perfectly captures teen love — how it develops and how it feels. It is uncanny at how genuine and authentic Eleanor and Park’s dialogue sound, both inner and outer. Rowell also does justice to teen insecurities and worries.

She saw him after seventh hour in a place she’d never seen him before, carrying a microscope down the hall on the third floor. It was at least twice as nice as seeing him somewhere she expected him to be.

Eleanor sitting next to him on the couch made Park feel like someone had opened a window in the middle of the room. Like someone had replaced all the air in the room with brand-new, improved air (now with twice the freshness).

This is my first Rainbow Rowell book and I plan on reading more soon.