Monday Moments - More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen

More Than  Enough by Anna Quindlen is a good solid read. I love that it's about the fact that your book club knows a lot about you. From book choices to discussions to the after book discussions, Polly Goodman, an English teacher counts on these close friends. The club friends give her an ancestry kit as a joke. She matches with a stranger and that causes Polly to look at family history. Polly learns how friendships can change your life. 

Polly after meeting with Barbara -  Sometimes our minds protect us, but not enough. You walk along with this pain in your head, thinking about things you know, the things you've discovered, the things you've lost, and all those things that run around and around in your mind, like a stone in your shoe. And then everyday life saves you. Weather talk - maybe snow, maybe rain. You go to the laundromat and a neighbor ask if you have detergent. Life happens. 

Anna Quindlen draws you in with her writing and her characters. You are along for Polly's search and solutions to a life mystery. Twists and turns and surprises amidst ordinary life.  Enjoy the journey. 

 

Whatever Wednesday - The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

 cover blurb - The Sentence by Louise Erdrich asks what we owe to the living, to the dead, to the reader, and to the book. A small independent bookstore is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020. Flora, an incredibly annoying customer died on All Soul's Day and will not leave. Tookie, the owner, has to solve the haunting plus try to understand a year in Minneapolis full of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning. 

Tookie, the bookstore owner, spent time in prison. Her first book from a teacher was a dictionary. She looked up the word "sentence" after being sentenced to sixty years. The word "sentence" sounds so easy and yet proved to be a challenge. 

Erdrich writes of rich characters and complex emotions. It's well written and interesting with the comings and going in a bookstore, with the added bonus of Flora who's seeking  attention by knocking books off shelves, sending signals from her afterlife. There is a lot of emotion  involved, flashbacks to prison time,  plus the Covid year conditions.  Well done!

Whatever Wednesday - That's Not How it Happened by Craig Thomas

 Paige ended up a stay at home mom with a Down's Syndrome boy. 

Her husband's screenwriting career took off and she stayed home despite her writing trajectory. 

Then she wrote a memoir about her experience.  The tables turned. 

She was the hot thing.  His career was stalled.  

This is a fiction work that is so "true".  

cover blurb - As  their lives are chewed  up and spit out by the Hollywood machine, triggering old resentments and launching new betrayals, will  any of them even recognize the "inspiring" family in the film to be made. Or will this be the end of them?  

I enjoyed this quick read.  It sounded very fresh and true.  The author made this fiction, but he and his wife did deal with their challenge and lived to tell the tale. It's full of humor and groans.  

I give it a thumbs up. 

Finally Friday - The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

 New Year's Day - Tasmania. Lexi Villers is a second year medical resident. Everything's going great. 

alas, a helicopter lands.

Her  father and older brother were killed in a skiing accident. 

She is now the heir to the throne. Lexi's grandmother is the Queen of England. 

Lexi returns to England reluctantly.  Her grandmother gives her a year  to make a very important decision.  

Let her scheming uncle claim the throne?

Give it up and be with Jack?

Lexi must chart her own destiny.............The Heir Apparent by  Rebecca Armitage. . It's not obvious what route will be chosen.  Whew!

Monday Moments - The English Teacher by Lily King

 Vida Avery is one of the best English teachers Fayer Academy has ever seen. She's a fixture. Her son Peter has managed his life.  Now his mother marries, rather impulsively.  He's very happy to have a new dad - Tom Belou - and new siblings.  He seeks a normalcy.   His mother is still adjusting. She's been so accustomed to an isolated life and has protected Peter from so much.  She uses books as a wall. 

The English Teacher by Lily King is really well written.  Vida is a peculiar heroine. You root for her and her new marriage. And then you root for Tom because she is not treating him well.  Peter wants his siblings  to love him, but they still mourn their wonderful mother,  They weren't ready to move on. 

So many emotions in this book.  It is extraordinarily well written, yet  tears at the soul.  

Dang.  Tears.  Heart!  I recommend this for its deep feelings. 

Have tissues ready. 

Monday Moments - David Sedaris Latest

 I love David Sedaris humor.  The man is a gem. He's a national treasure. His humor and observations are priceless. 

I own every book in his career and can chuckle reading any page.

His latest, The Land and Its People, investigates what it means to be a traveler, a brother, a lifelong friend. 

cover blurb - Throughout these essays - at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound - Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing warmth - our fascinating human species, and the land we inhabit. 

Trust me - as you read and wonder where he's going with a story, he will zap you with a hilarious final line. 

I  laughed out loud multiple times.      Enjoy.

(PS - I  saw him once at a public reading - This was a bucket list item.  He is hysterical and gives it his all live in performance. )

Finally Friday - The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware

 You can count on  Ruth Ware's writing to you keep your attention, keep you surprised, and keep those pages turning. The Woman in Suite 11 is  a follow-up to The Woman in Cabin 10 and it's a doozy.

cover blurb - Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe. She's ready to reestablish her journalism career, but she's been out of the game for ten years. It's a different landscape. 

The luxury Swiss hotel is owned by billionaire, Marcus Leidmann. She hopes to land an interview. A late night call from his  room leads to her being greeted by an alleged mistress in  life or death jeopardy. 

cover  How much is Lo willing to sacrifice to save this woman...and can she actually trust her?

I can't write more. I don't want to give away secrets.  Money, power, and intrigue. Who will survive?

Whew!

Finally Friday - The News From Dublin

 Finally Friday and you read The News from Dublin title of this  blog post. Did you think I was off traveling again? Fooled you. This is a book of short stories  by Colm Toibin. It is a lovely journey - nine short stories set in Ireland, Spain, and  America. His work covers the complexities of family, longing, and love. (cover blurb)

Toibin writes with ease - complex dynamics, haunting pull of the past, and the quiet revelations that define our lives. Whether navigating the aftermath of war, forbidden love, the longings of a Catalan girl in Argentina, or  the  quiet  struggles of mundane life, all are rendered with  illuminating empathy and insight. (cover blurb)

I enjoyed dipping in and out of this book and peering into others' lives. Very well written and rich tales told. 

Whatever Wednesday - Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand

 Winter Storms by Elin Hilderbrand is part of a series. I bought this book at a library sale and did not realize it. However, it was easy enough to get the gist of the characters and story line of the Quinn family. Mitzi's home. Patrick's getting released from prison. Kevin and Isabelle are getting married. Bart's a prisoner  in Afghanistan and they all await hopeful news. 

cover blurb - An historic blizzard bears down on Nantucket. Before the snow clears, the Quinns will have to survive enough holiday intrigue to send anyone running for the spiked eggnog. 

This is amusing fluff romance reading. I needed a no brainer and Hilderbrand is consistent in her writing. I was entertained. 

Monday Moments - Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 1980s space program.   Anything was possible and women were finally admitted to the program.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid brings to life the intensity of the NASA Space shuttle program. 

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed by the stars forever.  She's admitted to the 1980 Houston's Johnson Space Center along with exceptional candidates - Hank, Griff, Lydia, Donna, and Vanessa Ford.  They all bring varying skills. 

Unlikely friends.  We watch them prepare for their first flights and learn to trust each other. Joan also finds a love she never imagined.

December 1984 - a mission changes it all (life as Joan  knows it) in an instant. 

Reid truly sets a great backdrop, offers us interesting characters, and a  very real plot line. 

What can happen beyond  the limits?    Read and find out.  

Monday Moments - Dave Barry: Class Clown

 I always liked  reading a Dave Barry column. He was proud of being a wise ass and always had a skewed way of looking at the world. This memoir  Dave Barry: Class Clown is quite humorous as he regales us with childhood shenanigans, high school class clown, and then a journalism career in Pennsylvania, which detoured into humor via the Miami Herald. 

He's a member of a literary rock band with Stephen King, et al.   As the son of Midwesterners, he learned a most important lesson: Never take anything too seriously, especially yourself. This laughter filled book is proof that he learned that lesson well. (cover blurb)

It's hard to give an example here of his humor because it's kind of the whole flow of stories he is telling. But his last column began: There comes a time in the life of every writer when he asks himself - as Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Hemingway all surely asked themselves - if he has any booger jokes left in  him. 

I want  to stop before I join the hordes of people who think I used to be funnier. 

This memoir, Dave at age 77, still has the laughs and self deprecation.  It's worth a look and a chuckle. 

Monday Moments - The Academy

 The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and her daughter Shelby Cunningham is a fun romp through the halls of  a private New England high school/ college prep boarding school. Money. Secrets. Rumors. Liaisons. 

Tiffin Academy is a small glitzy school and it just leaped in rankings to number two. How can that be?

Gorgeous campus. Fabulous food. Parties. Lovely students...seriously, physically attractive - all of them.

As they bask in their newfound glory, a new  app Zip Zap posts scandalous items - nobody is safe. Who's cheating on whom? Is there more  to hide than  the liquor bottles?

This is just a fun, no brainer page turner with amusing characters, outrageous situations, entitled youth, and teacher  power struggles. You do not need your thinking cap for this read. Just enjoy.   

Whatever Wednesday - Lucky Seed by Justinian Huang

 Lucky Seed by Justinian Huang is a ridiculous romp of a read. 

cover blurb - Succession meets Crazy Rich Asians in this chaotic, darkly funny saga about the lengths a wealthy family will go to ensure the birth of a male heir from the gay black sheep of their clan. 

Re-read that sentence. Now, just picture how ridiculous that statement is for life.  The billionaire Sun clan is nuts. Powerful struggling aunties, emasculated uncles,  scheming cousins,  scandalous secrets, and a fortune teller on  retainer. 

This book is hilarious, nutso, probably has a touch of  reality beyond normal peoples comprehension,  and is  a fun read. It's total escapism, written with a wink and a nod. The family characters are hilarious, sad, pathetic, and yet, empathetic. 

Altogether it's about finding and connecting the right love, making it work, and continuing family traditions (albeit with the right grace note). 

Pure mind candy and that's okay.  Enjoy!  

Finally Friday - It Was the Way She Said It

 It Was the Way She Said It by Terry McMillan is an excellent compilation of short fiction and non-fiction essays. 

Her book Waiting to Exhale put her on the national stage in the early 1990s. But the works in this volume are (cover blurb) provocative, boundary-pushing short stories, capturing the struggles and triumphs of  Black life in America with vitality and honesty. McMillan's inimitable voice bravely explores the dark corners of human relationships with compassion, humor, and nuance.

I've always enjoyed her books. Her short stories and essays are really strong. Her characters, her humor, and her candor are eye-opening. 

From her 2016 Life Lessons Essay: When I watch the news these days, the vitriolic tone of some of the  rhetoric feels like we're heading back to the sixties and seventies. I'm not going.

I just want us to respect each other for the content of our character and not  be disrespected because of the color of our skin. We are Americans. 

I highly recommend diving deeper into Terry McMillan's words. 

Finally Friday - All the Broken Places by John Boyne

 All the Broken Places by John Boyne is a powerful book. It moves back and forth in time between Nazi Germany and 2022 London.  Gretel Fernsby is ninety-one years old. Opinionated,  but lives a quiet life until emotions are stirred up by her downstairs neighbors. 

Her memories are churned up as she thinks  about her  escape from Germany at age 12, knowing her father was killed  for being  a Reich commandant of an extermination camp. She managed to start a new life and create a new identity after time in Poland, Australia, and  now  London  - oh so many years later. 

But she hears and witnesses abuse by the husband living below her to his wife and young son. 

cover blurb - Back then (in Germany), she denied her own complicity; now, she must interrogate her guilt, grief, and remorse and risk revealing the secrets she has  spent a lifetime protecting. 

Whoa!  As each chapter builds and  connects, back and forth in time, the tension rises. Gretel is a complicated woman, wise and strong. What will she do as she confronts the bully husband? What secrets could spill out?  Lots of twists and turns and then a dramatic wow.  Well done!

Finally Friday - Your Inner Writing Soul 2026

2026  Fresh Start:

 Here's a good book for writers, dear blog friends - Writing Creativity and Soul by Sue Monk Kidd

She wrote The Secret Life of Bees, The Book of Longings, and more. 

Now she imparts a part memoir, part philosophical investigation, part advice to aspiring writers, and touchstone for the spirit.   "If you encounter writing infused with soul, you know it".  "It feeds you somewhere inside...our internal revolutions, our reach for our true selves, our struggle to write unsayable things with brave voices".  cover blurb. 

If you love Sue Monk Kidd's writing, then you need to enjoy this book. She writes about her struggles to become the writer she knew she could be, while she was a mother raising kids. She writes about her doubts, her fears, and the time it took to truly acknowledge herself as a writer.  She imparts some writerly wisdom, but it's really just common sense.  You - if you truly wish to be a  writer- must do the work.  Think, sit, write, research, read and repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat.  It's hard work.

Sue Monk Kidd said she has to work from an outline.  She has to really know her characters - what do they want?  Where shall the story end?  

She bares her writerly soul in this book and as you read this, it is as if you are hanging at a kitchen table and just talking.  I really enjoyed this memoir and it has inspired me  to take up the pen again.  We'll see what happens in 2026. 

Happy Writing, my friends. 

Monday Moments - The Eights by Joanna Miller

 The Eights by Joanna Miller is an excellent piece of historical fiction.  Well written with engaging characters, this book takes us back to 1920 Oxford. For the first time in over a one thousand year history, females are admitted, and they are eager to forge a path. 

Now, don't get too excited. This is a tough new world.

 Four women, Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto are in  Corridor Eight. They come from all walks of life, each have secrets, and they are driven for different reasons.  They also find that there are still  many restrictions for  women.  

cover blurb: The shadow of the Great War still looms providing a turbulent world to  navigate.  Misogyny is rife, influenza threatens, and the ghosts of war don't always remain dead. 

The author obviously did plenty of research. She  alternates with back stories for each young lady, and then gives us their  daily lives at  university. The history,  traditions, and  now the  new  paths  being forged are presented well.

I enjoyed this book and were proud of these ladies.  When you really  think about that time period, these young ladies were quite bold and brave. This was my grandmother's  era, back in  the day in the U.S., and apparently she participated in suffragette parades. It's hard to picture, but The Eights brings the time period  to life in  England.  Well done!  

Finally Friday - The Widow by John Grisham

 John Grisham churns out reliable, entertaining books. His latest, The Widow, does not disappoint. 

Simon Latch, a small town lawyer in Virginia, is struggling. He's doing the usual boring paperwork for folks, which isn't big income. He's on the cusp of divorce, so that price tag is hanging over his head. And he has a small gambling problem. 

A widow, Eleanor Barnett, walks in and needs a new will. Her late husband was frugal but invested in Coca-Cola stock (he worked for them), and Wal-Mart. Otherwise, house is paid for and she lives a quiet life. Simon is filled with  glee at this good luck.  He does proper paperwork and counts on continued income for him when it's time to process it.  She has no contact with her stepsons, and plans to give money to charity. 

cover blurb - When she is hospitalized after a bad car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems. He finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he did not commit: murder. 

I can't tell you more, but there are plenty of twists and turns in Simon's life. The Widow is a page turner. 

Plenty of  surprises abound.  Enjoy!

Whatever Wednesday - Writers and Lovers by Lily King

 cover blurb - Blindsided by her mother's death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody arrives in Cambridge MA, summer of 1997, without a plan. A child golf prodigy, she now waits tables and rents a tiny side garage room where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years.

In Writers and Lovers by Lily King, we follow Casey's fight to fulfill ambitions, balance demands of art and life, juggle two new very different  men, and avoid crisis after crisis. 

Casey is a likeable character, as are the two men in her life. But I wanted to  shake her too. King does a good job of exploring artistic passion, ambition, and the terrifying and  exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of  life and the beginning of  another. (cover blurb) 

Finally Friday - After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 cover blurb: After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a love story about what happens when love fades. It's about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you've got. Above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game - and searching for a new road to happily  ever after. 

Lauren and Ryan's marriage is  out of sorts.  They decide to take a year off to figure things out. The only rule is NO Contact at all.   Lauren finds this very challenging. She's  questioning monogamy, marriage, romance, fidelity, love, lust, and more.  Key questions - what do you value?  What are you  willing to fight for? 

I enjoyed this story and it does make one think about the whole concept of marriage. Taylor Jenkins Reid writes a good tale and obviously liked her characters.  She's realistic with their flaws and helps them work through a tough year. 

A worthy reading journey.