Book Reviews
Been a long time since I’ve posted a blog. So I thought I’d finish 2023 with some book reviews from other authors I’ve read over the past year. Below are 4 of my favorites. If you’ve read any of them, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The Reading List by by Sara Nisha Adams
Someone has created a list with the heading ‘Just in case you need it’ followed by 8 well-known fiction novels. This mysterious list is written in an elegant hand and there are multiple copies floating around a London neighborhood. The characters who encounter the list are struggling in one way or another. Two of these characters are the main focus of the story.
Mukesh is a self-conscious, aging man who feels lost since the death of his wife. She was his inspiration during their many years of marriage. Now he finds himself alone and lonely. At least until he discovers an overdue library book under his bed.
Aleisha is a teenage librarian for the summer break and would rather be any place else. Unfortunately, she and her older brother Aidan are the only breadwinners in the family. Their father left and their mother suffers from crippling depression. Aleisha feels lost and alone until she encounters Mukesh at the library.
An assortment of other characters pass through the pages. Each with their own unique challenges. But they all gain new insights after encountering ‘the list’.
I loved reading this author’s debut novel because it demonstrates the power of a good story and the value of community, culture and tolerance. It is a book that I will read more than once.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Fifteen-year-old Esch lives in the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. She narrates this tale of her life with her father and 3 brothers. The family struggles to survive on their late mother’s ancestral land.
Esch’s alcoholic father is currently obsessed with preparing for a hurricane, only 10 days away. Brother Skeetah only cares about breeding pit bulls for fighting. Oldest brother Randall hopes that his basketball skills will get him out of Bois Sauvage. Young Junior runs wild. And Esch stands in the center of this chaos in auto-pilot.
When Esch discovers she is pregnant by a neighborhood boy who doesn’t care about her, memories of her mother’s death during childbirth haunt her.
When the hurricane strikes it is with a vengeance and everything that Esch thought was important is lost.
I was impressed with the poetic prose in the voice of Esch, alternating between unsightliness and beauty. Esch narrates a day by day countdown of a community living in poverty while preparing for a category 4 hurricane. Her family is put to the test where survival of the fittest reigns. The losses are great but the community comes together, giving Esch a new sense of value.
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot: A Novel by Marianne Cronin
At Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital there is a ward for terminally ill children called the May Ward. 17-year-old Lenni will spend the rest of her life there. She will touch the hearts and minds of Father Arthur whose hospital chapel is always empty, New Nurse whose red hair clashes with her uniform, Paul the Porter whose arms are covered with questionable tattoos, The Temp who was over qualified to work at the hospital, Pippa the art therapist who is very good at her job and Margot whose 83 years added to Lenni’s 17 makes for a 100-page pictorial account of their combined lives.
Margot and Lenni share in the narration of their lives before and up to Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. Although it is Lenni that this reader longs to interact with, Margot’s bits and pieces of her long life are a joy to read.
In Lenni’s words, “When people say ‘terminal’ I think of the airport.” Lenni has a way with words and her interactions with Father Arthur regarding God were a pleasure to read. She manages to distract others from her obvious ‘terminal’ outcome with humor and wisdom. In the end, Lenni will return to her airport metaphor in a beautiful and touching way.
Jo Nesbo, famous for Norwegian crime novels, has the reputation of creating scary bad guys and smart but flawed good guys. There are 12 stories in this collection, each with its own unique Nesbo twist.
One story takes place in an airplane’s first class section. A woman, seated at the window seat is leaving her unfaithful husband. But she wants to leave him with a message. She has signed an unbreakable suicide contract that ensures her death within a 3-week period. A death that will not appear to be suicide. Then she falls in love with her seatmate.
Another tale takes place on a small island in Greece where identical twin brothers are visiting for rock climbing. One brother goes missing and an investigation reveals that both men were in love with the same woman. Without a body, the Athens detective must unravel what happened to the missing brother. All this while a storm pounds the island.
There is also a story that focuses on a Chemistry student working as a cashier and who hates it when people cut in line. She sees it often but she has a unique method for relieving the world of such people.
I’ve read many of Nesbo’s novels including the Harry Hole series. What I enjoy most is a common theme of the love and lust that drives his characters. And the unexpected which always shows up.
Happy Holidays and Well Wishes for the coming year.
Note: This blog is sponsored by me, Karen J Adams. Any recommendations or suggestions are purely my own opinion without the exchange of money.
Unpublished work © 2023 Karen J Adams
