That Summer by Jennifer Weiner

Don't let the pretty pastel cover art fool you into thinking That Summer is a lightweight read. Jennifer Weiner's latest novel delves into the #MeToo movement, showing how toxic masculine culture impels conformist behavior that ruins women's lives. Her protagonist, Diana, struggles with how to hold her rapist and his friends accountable.

Understanding how young men make bad decisions does not exonerate them. 

Weiner's portrayal of a teenage girl destroyed by someone she trusted and cared for, and her long path to recover her derailed life, is a page turner. Diana decided on a plan of revenge, assuming a fake identity to infiltrate her rapist's family. But nothing turns out the way she expects, especially when she bonds with the wife of her rapist.

Diana's experience is handled carefully, showing the resulting emotional scars. The one sexual encounter described is one that models true care and respect, if too graphically detailed for my taste; it seems a model of the behavior women should demand of a lover.

I previously read Weiner's novel Big Summer, reviewed here, and Mrs. Everything, reviewed here.

I received a free gallery from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

That Summer
A Novel
by Jennifer Weiner
Atria Books
Pub Date May 11, 2021  
ISBN: 9781501133541
hardcover CA$37.00 (CAD)

from the publisher

Daisy Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful, her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it good. So why is she up all night?

While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisy’s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making plans to reorganize corporations. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy?

From the manicured Main Line of Philadelphia to the wild landscape of the Outer Cape, written with Jennifer Weiner’s signature wit and sharp observations, That Summer is a story about surviving our pasts, confronting our futures, and the sustaining bonds of friendship.

The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst

Obviously the notes have to be right. But they're just a path to the music."~from The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst

Schubert knew he was dying when he wrote his B-flat major sonata. The piece was going to be Susannah's reentry into her lapsed career as a concert pianist. Her early gift had been set aside when she became a wife and mother. Now it was time to put music a priority in her life. Especially as there was a chance of being on a CD of composers who had died young.

But Susannah's little finger was not as responsive as it should be and a doctor delivered the horrible news: she had Dupuytren's contracture, and no one could predict how quickly it would progress or how severe it would become. There was no cure, and few treatments available.  

Susannah would not to listen to the doctors, or her husband, and merely wait and see what developed. She would do everything to make her comeback a success and to prevent another sidelining of her career. Misha Dichter had overcome Dupuytren's. So would she.

I loved how the story is filled with music, composers, and the stories of the challenges they faced. I remember hearing some in concert, like Alicia de Larrocha and Vladamir Horowitz. The author is a serious amateur pianist and understands what she is writing about, and it shows. Susannah's search for just the right piano with the right touch struck home; I always had a challenge when I played a piano not my own. 

When Susannah met her future husband Aaron he bonded with her father over Thomas Kuhn. I loved this reference! I had read Kuhn's book Structure of Scientific Revolutions in a Poly Sci class in my early college career. 

Now, Susannah's father is losing his memory and will need to find Assisted Living soon. With her dad, preparing for her upcoming concert, her teenage son going his own way, and her husband trusting her to take care of all the domestic duties she had always been responsible for, the stress is building.

Aaron was the logical thinker, the scientist. Susannah was the creative one, the one who could speak through music. They had always relied on each other's strengths to balance. Now, by not listening to her husband's advice, a wedge had appeared between them. She had broken the unspoken contract; would their marriage survive it?

The Sound Between the Notes has great depth into human nature and family connections, including Susannah's feelings and relationships with her adoptive parents and biological family. The climax is dramatic and the resolution satisfying. Readers of women's fiction will enjoy this novel. Many of us will recognize the challenges of how changing marital roles require a paradigm shift that some couples overcome and others can not.

I previous read the author's novel The Queen of the Owls.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Sound Between The Notes
by Barbara Linn Probst
She Writes Press
Pub Date : April 6. 2021 
ISBN: 9781647420123
paperback $16.95 (USD)

from the publisher

The highly anticipated new novel from the multiple award-winning author of Queen of the Owls . . .

What if you had a second chance at the very thing you thought you’d renounced forever? How steep a price would you be willing to pay?

Susannah’s career as a pianist has been on hold for nearly sixteen years, ever since her son was born. An adoptee who’s never forgiven her birth mother for not putting her first, Susannah vowed to put her own child first, no matter what. And she did.

But now, suddenly, she has a chance to vault into that elite tier of “chosen” musicians. There’s just one problem: somewhere along the way, she lost the power and the magic that used to be hers at the keyboard. She needs to get them back. Now.

Her quest—what her husband calls her obsession—turns out to have a cost Susannah couldn’t have anticipated. Even her hand betrays her, as Susannah learns that she has a progressive hereditary disease that’s making her fingers cramp and curl—a curse waiting in her genes, legacy of a birth family that gave her little else. As her now-or-never concert draws near, Susannah is catapulted back to memories she’s never been able to purge—and forward, to choices she never thought she would have to make.

Told through the unique perspective of a musician, The Sound Between the Notes draws the reader deeper and deeper into the question Susannah can no longer silence: Who am I, and where do I belong?

Advance Praise

“The climax, on the night of her performance, is a tour de force steeped in suspense, and Susannah’s subsequent revelations are satisfying and authentic. A sensitive, astute exploration of artistic passion, family, and perseverance.”—Kirkus Reviews

 “As soaring as the music it so lovingly describes, poignantly human, and relatable to anyone who’s ever wondered if it’s too late for their dream, The Sound Between the Notes is an exploration of our vulnerability to life’s timing and chance occurrences that influence our decisions, for better or worse. Probst creates her trademark intelligent suspense as Susannah, an adoptee trying for a mid-life resurrection of an abandoned music career, confronts lifelong questions of who she is. A story that speaks to our universal need to have someone who believes in us unequivocally, and how that person had better be ourselves.”—Ellen Notbohm, award-winning author of The River by Starlight

Eternal by Lisa Scottoline

Lisa Scottoline first drew my attention with her legal thrillers set in Philadelphia; they became a nostalgic read recollecting our fifteen years in that city. Scottoline expanded into stories inspired by social issues, and now with a new publisher, has written her first historical fiction novel about a time and place that has intrigued her for decades: Italy under the fascist dictatorship of Mussolini. 

She has incorporated events that few remember, and for that, I have to commend her. She obviously did her research and her passion shows.

Three best friends in Rome are challenged when the two boys, Marco and the Jewish Sandro, fall in love with the girl, Elisabetta. The early part of the novel reads like a young adult romance, teenagers learning to deal with their new feelings and the problems entailed. All three families are ardent supporters of the Fascist government, and all three families have deep roots in Rome. But there are family secrets to be revealed.

The plot becomes more intense when Mussolini aligns with Hitler and brings anti-Semite laws to Italy; the families begin to doubt the government. Marco's family is torn apart, Sandro's faces the loss of everything they have built, and Elisabetta finds herself alone and fending for herself, torn between her two best friends vying for her love.

It is interesting to see how each individual must decide between loyalty to country and leader and their moral conscience and religious beliefs. Mussolini proclaimed that he was always right, and extolled duty and loyalty to him.

My Goodreads friends have rated the novel highly, drawn in by the plot line and the love story. You will see glowing reviews across media. The finale is heart-rending.

I love Scottoline. She is a great person and has given me hours of entertainment. But...I am sorry to say, I do not love this book. I did not love the writing. I felt the characters were flat and their growth without meaningful development. The dialogue was sadly cliched. 

Because the violence  and sexual content is handled delicately, I could recommend the book to young adult readers as well as to the general reader of historical or women's fiction. And again, I commend the author for bringing to readers a time period that can give insight into our contemporary political issues. 

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Click on the titles to see the previous books I reviewed by Scottoline:

• Corrupted
• Damaged
• After Anna
• Feared
• Exposed

Eternal
by Lisa Scottoline
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Pub Date March 23, 2021 
ISBN: 9780525539766
hardcover $28.00 (USD)

from then publisher

#1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline offers a sweeping and shattering epic of historical fiction fueled by shocking true events, the tale of a love triangle that unfolds in the heart of Rome...in the creeping shadow of fascism.

What war destroys, only love can heal.

Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined.

As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment. This moving novel will be forever etched in the hearts and minds of readers.

Brood by Jackie Polzin

 

What an unusual book this is, quietly narrated, full of detail of an ordinary life's decisions. The nameless narrator talks about her four chickens and the daily tasks of keeping them alive. She talks about her husband's pending job offer and the decision to sell their home and relocate closer to his work. In the background is the memory of a lost baby.

In action, the chickens take the most space in her story, their behavior and health, and eventual deaths. 

So, on the surface this is a boring book about dumb birds, those pea-brained creatures descended from the dinosaurs.

Wait! One does have to look under the skim of surface to the deep water below.

Our protagonist nurtures her wards as best she can, but in ignorance learns from her mistakes. 

Like giving the chickens a feed mix that is fifty-percent "Twinkies," junk food, which may have contributed to Gam Gam's death. "I 'd made a practice based on bad information," she thinks. Was there anything that could keep her from making the same mistake again? she wonders. In despair, she admits, "I never feel smaller than when I am filled with doubt, such a small, small feeling, it's a marvel it can fill anything at all."

Oh, boy, which of us has not been there? In blissful optimism, stumbling into behavior and decisions that in hindsight are appalling. I shudder when I consider some of the things I did with my first born. The day I allowed our beloved, exuberantly happy dachshund to run free, then helplessly ran after him as he ran into the street in front of a car.

The grief of losing a baby, the awareness that we can not protect anyone. Our narrator rises in the night, takes a flashlight to the chicken coup. 

"If only I could promise her safety," the narrator says watching her chicken fighting sleep, eyes popping open again and again. But who is safe in this world? Which of us can protect all our loved ones from harm? We can chase away the waiting hawk, but what of the one flying overhead, beyond our view? We can't save our loved ones from nature's furious weather, the unexpected accident, the traumas of life.

Regret is the cost of living, she and her husband Percy agree. One hopes for a decision that does not end in disappointment. But all we have is the journey. 

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Brood
by Jackie Polzin
Doubleday Books
Pub Date: March 9, 2021  
ISBN: 9780385546751
hardcover $24.00 (USD)

from the publisher

An exquisite new literary voice--wryly funny, nakedly honest, beautifully observational, in the vein of Jenny Offill and Elizabeth Strout--depicts one woman's attempt to keep her four chickens alive while reflecting on a recent loss

Over the course of a single year, our nameless narrator heroically tries to keep her small brood of four chickens alive despite the seemingly endless challenges that caring for another creature entails. From the forty-below nights of a brutal Minnesota winter to a sweltering summer which brings a surprise tornado, she battles predators, bad luck, and the uncertainty of a future that may not look anything like the one she always imagined.

Intimate and startlingly original, this slender novel is filled with wisdom, sorrow and joy. As the year unfolds, we come to know the small band of loved ones who comprise the narrator's circumscribed life at this moment. Her mother, a flinty former home-ec teacher who may have to take over the chickens; her best friend, a real estate agent with a burgeoning family of her own; and her husband whose own coping mechanisms for dealing with the miscarriage that haunts his wife are more than a little unfathomable to her.

A stunning and brilliantly insightful meditation on life and longing that will stand beside such modern classics as H is for Hawk and Gilead, Brood rewards its readers with the richness of reflection and unrelenting hope.

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn/ Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst

The library book club read in October was A. J. Finn's suspense thriller The Woman in the Window.

I have read several suspense novels in the past and am pretty much over them. I dreaded reading 488 pages! Luckily, the chapters are short, there is lots of blank space, and I read it in a few days.

Of course, there is an unreliable narrator. Not one but two 'unexpected' twists. A murder, threat of death, mental instability, and all the stock noir memes. Finn saturates the novel with references to the classic, black and white, noir movies, the narrator's obsession. 

I thought it overwritten, too many cute descriptive words. And I early guessed the real villian.

Over all, the book club readers said it was a quick easy read that kept their interest, full of the expected thriller twists. One thought it contrived. Entertainment, if nothing more. 

Maybe. One reader appreciated the insight into agoraphobia. 

And yet the book spurred a great discussion. Was too much space given to Anna's drinking or movie watching? Did we feel sympathy or disgust by her behavior? What spurred her self-destructive behavior? How soon did we predict the real villian, if at all? We talked about bad parents, red herrings, and how familiar Anna's homebound life felt during COVID-19.

Readers did find the book very cinematic with detailed descriptions that brought the book to life, and learning a movie was made of the book, we were all interested in viewing it.

*****

The Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst came to my attention on Facebook's Breathless Bubbles & Books page.

The main character, Elizabeth, struggles with her dissertation on Georgia O'Keefe, trying to connect her time in Hawaii as a transition point in her art. 

Elizabeth's marriage lacks physical passion and emotional intimacy. She finds herself attracted to a photographer and together they discuss O'Keefe and her modeling in the nude for Stieglitz. She accepts his challenge to recreate the photographs with him as a way of coming to better understand O'Keefe and her motivation for modeling, if she was a co-creator in the art.

Plot-wise, the novel felt inevitable and unsurprising. The real interest is in Elizabeth's internal struggle for self-realization. She and her sister were early pigeonholed into narrow roles. Their husbands keep them confined to those roles, Elizabeth the 'owly' intellectual, her sister the fun and pretty one. Elizabeth is a good teacher and she believes in her work and can defend it. She has to learn to believe in her beauty, free herself to find real love, and take charge of her destiny.

Much of the novel's space is centered on O'Keefe's art and life, which I did enjoy.

The sexual issues are addressed with great honesty, from the marriage bed's coolness to Elizabeth's intense, unrequited attraction.

The novel is well written and an enjoyable read. Fans of women's fiction, stories of young women's self-actualization, or the art world will enjoy this one.

I purchased an ebook.

Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed

If she told her family the truth, death would get on everything.~from Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed

Secrets. Children who don't really know their parents. Parents who don't really know their children. Trauma, consciously forgotten or unspoken, eating their souls.

Ninety-one-year-old Violet Swan's secret was not just the cancer killing her; guilt had dogged her life since a girl. A fire had killed her beloved father and sister. Evil men took advantage of the unprotected child. She escaped, a teenage vagabond crossing the country to the West Coast, pursuing a fragile dream of finding her place in the world.

Violet became famous for her abstract paintings. She lived in her art studio tower, her loving husband Richard protecting her solitude and running her business.

Their son Frank (Francisco, named for Francisco Goya) grew up imprisoned in himself, his silence smothering his marriage, his dutiful wife growing increasingly resentful. Their son Daniel had loved his Grand, Violet, but also felt his father's distance and had stayed away from home for years, living in LA as a filmmaker.

An earthquake begins the story, a premonition of the changes that will shake their relationships nearly to the breaking point. Daniel returns home bearing a secret. Violet finally agrees to allow her grandson to make a film interview; she will spill her secrets at last.

Deborah Reed saturates Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan with visual details, seen through an artist's eye. Music and literature enrich Violet's life.

Violet's story is unravelled throughout the novel, lending an urgency to keep reading, like a mystery novel; we want to understand the intricacies of life experiences that have brought this family to crisis.

I will warn that Violet's life includes trigger events. Violet is a survivor, a resilient woman. She finds salvation in the beauty of this world and in her art that endeavors to capture it.

Frank is mired in anger, addicted to television news. "How on earth was a person supposed to live a normal life?" he wonders, in despair.

Into their lives comes a small child and she changes everything and everyone.

An ordinary happiness runs through me...This is everything beautiful, this is love. Are you listening? Do you hear?~from Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed

I was very taken by this novel that glows under Reed's capable hands and beautiful writing.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

from the publisher: 

The story of a famous abstract painter at the end of her life—her family, her art, and the long-buried secrets that won’t stay hidden for much longer.

 Ninety-three-year-old Violet Swan has spent a lifetime translating tragedy and hardship into art, becoming famous for her abstract paintings, which evoke tranquility, innocence, and joy. For nearly a century Violet has lived a peaceful, private life of painting on the coast of Oregon. The “business of Violet” is run by her only child, Francisco, and his wife, Penny. But shortly before Violet's death, an earthquake sets a series of events in motion, and her deeply hidden past begins to resurface. When her beloved grandson returns home with a family secret in tow, Violet is forced to come to terms with the life she left behind so long ago—a life her family knows nothing about.

 A generational saga set against the backdrop of twentieth-century America and into the present day, Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan is the story of a girl who escaped rural Georgia at fourteen during World War II, crossing the country alone and broke. It is the story of how that girl met the man who would become her devoted husband, how she became a celebrated artist, and above all, how her life, inspired by nothing more than the way she imagined it to be, would turn out to be her greatest masterpiece.

 Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan: A Novel of a Life in Art
By Deborah Reed
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication October 6,  2020
ISBN: 9780544817364
paperback and audiobook  $15.99 (USD); $9.99 ebook

With Or Without You by Caroline Leavitt

Forty-nine years into my relationship with my husband, I can attest that people change and grow and couples must learn to adapt to the changes. 

Typically, personal growth evolves over time. But imagine waking up to find your partner in a coma, and they recover they a totally different person. Imagine that your connection is broken, your shared loves lost, that you are strangers that quickly.

With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt is the story of Simon, a one-hit-wonder still lusting after fame, and Stella, a practical nurse. They have been in love for decades even though their dreams don't mesh. Early in their relationship Stella gave up following Simon on tour and took up a career. Now in her early forties, she wants permanence and a family.

A new star in music recognizes Simon's band as his inspiration they are invited to open for him in Las Vegas. On the eve of Simon's leaving to reboot his career, Stella isn't sure she wants to give up her life to go on the road again.

Bad decisions leave Stella in a coma. Simon stays at her side while the band replaces him and moves on. Stella's work friend and doctor, Libby, had never liked Simon before, but in their mutual care for Stella, they become friends.

Stella comes out of the coma and recuperates. Foods she loved she now hates. She volunteers at the hospital and no longer enjoys being there. What does engross and calm her is drawing, demonstrating an amazing talent. For her drawings do not only show the outside of a person, they capture their inner being.

Simon, Stella, and Libby work out their ever more complex relationships, all on a journey into healing, personal growth, and an opportunity for full and productive lives.

Each character's childhood has impacted their self-image, and once confronted, they are able to become happy and healthy. This aspect of the story has universal appeal, affirming the possibility for wholeness and self-realization.

I loved the exploration of the quest for artistic success and the lure of fame against the pure love of doing art leading to success.

A thoughtful, deep novel with fully formed characters and a happy ending which I read in 24 hours.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

See Leavitt's Virtual Book Tour here

With or Without You
by Caroline Leavitt
Algonquin Books
Pub Date  August 4, 2020 
ISBN: 9781616207793
Hardcover $26.95 (USD)

from the publisher

New York Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt writes novels that expertly explore the struggles and conflicts that people face in their search for happiness. For the characters in With or Without You, it seems at first that such happiness can come only at someone else’s expense. Stella is a nurse who has long suppressed her own needs and desires to nurture the dreams of her partner, Simon, the bass player for a rock band that has started to lose its edge. But when Stella gets unexpectedly ill and falls into a coma just as Simon is preparing to fly with his band to Los Angeles for a gig that could revive his career, Simon must learn the meaning of sacrifice, while Stella’s best friend, Libby, a doctor who treats Stella, must also make a difficult choice as the coma wears on.

When Stella at last awakes from her two-month sleep, she emerges into a striking new reality where Simon and Libby have formed an intense bond, and where she discovers that she has acquired a startling artistic talent of her own: the ability to draw portraits of people in which she captures their innermost feelings and desires. Stella’s whole identity, but also her role in her relationships, has been scrambled, and she has the chance to form a new life, one she hadn’t even realized she wanted.

A story of love, loyalty, loss, and resilience, With or Without You is a page-turner that asks the question, What do we owe the other people in our lives, and when does the cost become too great?

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

I love this novel.

I love the writing, its beauty and quality, the slow reveal of backstory, the melding of the personal and communal crises.

I love the chilling portrayal of a near-future world devastated by climate change and human greed.

I loved the strength of will of the fragile and broken protagonist, Franny.

I love the love story of Franny and Niall, how they hold each other close while letting each other go.

I love the adventure, the chase, how Franny choses the impossible and survives.

I love that the novel made me cry. And think. And love it.

Five Stars. Read it.

I won a free ebook from a publisher giveaway. My review is fair and unbiased.

Migrations
by Charlotte McConaghy
Flatiron Books
Pub Date August 4, 2020
ISBN: 9781250204028
hard cover $26.99 (USD)

from the publisher

For readers of Flight Behavior and Station Eleven, a novel set on the brink of catastrophe, as a young woman chases the world’s last birds—and her own final chance for redemption.

Franny Stone has always been a wanderer. By following the ocean’s tides and the birds that soar above, she can forget the losses that have haunted her life. But when the wild she loves begins to disappear, Franny can no longer wander without a destination. She arrives in remote Greenland with one purpose: to find the world’s last flock of Arctic terns and follow them on their final migration. She convinces Ennis Malone, captain of the Saghani, to take her onboard, winning over his eccentric crew with promises that the birds she is tracking will lead them to fish.

As the Saghani fights its way south, Franny’s new shipmates begin to realize that she is full of dark secrets: night terrors, an unsent pile of letters, and an obsession with pursuing the terns at any cost. When the story of her past begins to unspool, Ennis and his crew must ask themselves what Franny is really running toward—and running from.

Propelled by a narrator as fierce and fragile as the terns she is following, Migrations is both an ode to our threatened world and a breathtaking page-turner about the lengths we will go for the people we love.

"As beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read...Extraordinary." —Emily St. John Mandel

"I recommend Migrations with my whole heart." —Geraldine Brooks

Paris Never leaves You by Ellen Feldman

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is a quick reading page-turner filled with conflicted characters who are damaged survivors of WWII.

In occupied Paris, Charlotte runs her family's book shop. A war widow, she struggles to keep her baby daughter Vivi alive. A German army doctor visits the shop and takes an interest in her baby daughter, secreting in food and medicine. Charlotte reluctantly accepts his gifts and trust and friendship grow, putting them both at risk.

Years later, Charlotte's choices come back to haunt her in her new life in New York City where she works for a publishing house. Teenaged Vivi is pressing to know more about her father and heritage. Charlotte's boss, a paraplegic, knows that war destroyed the enlightened man he had been. Charlotte has been trashing the unopened letters from the German doctor.

I appreciated how Feldman incorporated less known WWII history, including the privations of occupied France and post-war retaliation against collaborators. Her handling of the character's moral struggles was of special interest to me. There are several strong romance stories that will appeal to readers of women's fiction.

Surviving the war brings guilt for having survived, their decisions and actions kept secret. Admitting their shameful truths brings healing and the possibility of a new life.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Paris Never Leaves You
by Ellen Feldman
St. Martin's Griffin
Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 9781250622778
PRICE: $16.99 (USD) trade paperback

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

I've been in lockdown for two months, reading books on environmental justice and refugees and war; it was time to pick up something completely different. So, I snatched up Jennifer Weiner's newest novel Big Summer.

With some trepidation, having learned the protagonist is a plus-sized beauty with self-doubt. Could strike a little too close to home, or could make me seethe with stereotypes.

Daphne has built a career as an influencer and her latest sponsor is a fashion designer who wants to expand into plus sizes. Leela's clothing makes Daphne feel glamorous and confident.

Perfect timing, as Daphne has a wedding to attend.

Out of the blue, Daphne's high school friend Drue called with a request to be her maid of honor. Daphne was doubtful at first.

Drue was wealthy and had been a mean teen who took up, used, and dropped friends. But their adventures together were always exciting. And Drue seemed to genuinely admire Daphne's relationship with her folks, especially her dad.

Their relationship ended badly when Drue took Daphne clubbing where an arranged 'date' was to give her a night to remember. Daphne learned of the arrangement and had a melt down--recorded on a cell phone. The video became a social media sensation.

Daphne used the moment to rebrand herself into a fierce fat woman promoting self-acceptance.

Drue pleads she is a changed woman, making amends for her teenage terror years. Daphne gives her another chance.

At the wedding, Daphne learns that Drue isn't as excited as a bride should be. The over-the-top wedding costs big bucks, and Drue's dad interrupts the party with a meltdown. There's trouble in paradise.

The first section of the novel is typical women's fiction, its well-developed characters dealing with issues readers will relate to.

Then comes a sexual encounter between Daphne and a wedding guest. Warning: it's a bit of a sex manual about how to use hands, etc. The next morning he is missing.

Everything changes when Drue is discovered dead. Daphne and her mystery lover are prime suspects. The rest of the novel is the unraveling of Drue's family secrets and the identity of her killer. I didn't put the novel down. I loved the unraveling of the mystery.

Weiner nicely incorporates the current online culture of social media, living one's life online. Followers want genuineness, but how does one keep a boundary between the personal and the public?

At first I didn't relate to Daphne's relationship to Drue on a personal level. Then...I remembered...

When I was fourteen a girl from Eighth Grade took me up as a friend. She lived in the posh neighborhood in an amazing house her father designed. My dad was an auto mechanic and we lived in a modest, working class house. My friend encouraged me to lose weight and loosen up, have fun. (I was a serious kid who read the classics and played the classics etc.) Then, a year later, she pushed me away by being mean. I invited her to some parties over the years, but we were never again close. Years later she called my mother and admitted she treated me rotten.

Big Summer is branded as a 'beach read,' a term I don't quite understand since I don't do beaches. (Sunshine give me hives.) So, maybe a sit in the shade on the patio read? But in true Weiner style, it incorporates deeper themes of self-image, class, and social media issues.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Big Summer
by Jennifer Weiner
Atria Books
Publication Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 9781501133510

SIn Eater by Megan Campisi

Orphan May stole a loaf of bread and when arrested expected to die a horrible death. The Recorder stared hard at her and sentenced her to be branded as a Sin Eater. The teenager would be shunned for the rest of her life but would never again starve. She was to hear the sins of the dying and eat the proscribed foods to take their sins upon herself. The dead would fly to heaven; a locked collar kept May chained to hell.

Being a sin eater is a constricted life, alienated from society, yet May has unlimited access to the darkest secrets of the human heart for the the dying are eager to shrug off their worst sins before judgement.

The Queen's ladies in waiting are dying. May hears their confession but is given foods for sins never confessed. Something is afoot in the palace, and illiterate, powerless May is the only person who can cipher out the truth. 

Sin Eater by Megan Campisi is set in a familiar Elizabethan-inspired alternative world with the virgin Queen Bethany jealously guarding her favorite while lords present themselves as suitors. 

The stench and inhumanity of the times are vividly described, as are the consequences of the quest for beauty and power.

May is a remarkable and sympathetic heroine whose story arc takes her from powerlessness to embracing her destiny. The story winds up to a tense climax.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Sin Eater
by Megan Campisi
Atria Books
Pub Date April 7, 2020 
ISBN: 9781982124106
PRICE: $27.00/$36.00 (CAD) hardcover
$12.99 ebook/$19.99 audiobook

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

Anna Dale. 

Morgan considered the artist signature on the mural she was to restore, wondering how a promising young artist had 'gone crazy' and mysteriously disappeared.

Anna had won a contract through a WPA art competition to create a mural for the Edenton post office. Now, the mural was filthy and the paint was flaking after years in famed African American artist Jesse Jameson's William's closet. Morgan was out of prison early, named in Jesse's will to restore the mural which would hang in the art gallery provided for in his will.

Morgan was not an established artist. She knew nothing about art restoration. She doubts her ability to meet the timeline.

Morgan is filled with guilt over the night when she and her boyfriend drank too much and their car struck a young woman.

The mural is filled with incongruous images: a motorcycle peaks from under ladies skirts, a lumberman holds a bloody hammer, skulls peer out from house windows. What had happened to Anna? Morgan delves into solving the mystery.

Readers learn about Anna's Depression-Era Edenton and the violent acts that altered her life. And how Anna's mural helps Morgan to learn her strengths, overcome her past, and embrace new relationships.

Big Lies in a Small Town was a quick-reading, engaging read, focusing on the challenges and resilience of two women, with a mystery to solve and a romance to blossom.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Big Lies in a Small Town
by Diane Chamberlain
St. Martin's Press
Pub Date 14 Jan 2020
ISBN: 9781250087331
PRICE: $27.99 (USD)

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Kiley Reid's debut novel Such a Fun Age offers an original and unique perspective on race and class through a page-turning story that is deceptively entertaining.

The setting was familiar--Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square and Kensington. My husband once worked at the corner of Rittenhouse Square and we spent 1980 living in Kensington. The two neighborhoods could not have been more different. The historic Rittenhouse Square and the upscale shops around it, ethereal sounds of music wafting from the Curtis Institute of Music; and Kensington with its empty factories and yardless rowhouses built to house textile factory workers. Money and privilege and the working poor. After we left, Kensington declined even more.

Reid's character Emira has graduated from my Alma Mater, Temple University, with a B.A. in English--as I did. I often proudly said that I held a degree that prepared me to read intelligently while impoverished. Emira has other complications: she has no idea what she wants to do in life and she is African American.

My first job out of Temple was working Christmas Rush at Strawbridge & Clothier's downtown; my second job was customer service at a Bala Cynwyd insurance company. Emira is a part-time typist for the Green Party and takes a part-time job as a babysitter. She shares an apartment in Kensington and hangs with her friends, wishing she had more disposable money like they do. Emira will soon be 26 and the impending loss of her parent's health insurance looms over her head. She needs a 'real job'.

The woman who hires Emira to babysit is Alix Chamberlain who has built a career as an influencer, married an older, well-off television newsperson, and has two children. She carries the heartache of her first love with Kelly, who dumped her just before prom over a misunderstanding and her ill-formed decision that proved disastrous for Kelly's African American buddy.

Emira has great affection for Alix's child. And, she badly needs the babysitting money. So when she gets a call for an emergency late-night sitting job she leaves her friend's birthday party at a bar. Dressed inappropriately, with a few drinks under the belt, hanging with a white child, Emira strikes the security guard as suspicious and she is nearly arrested. A white man records the incident and encourages Emira to prosecute. She isn't interested. But when they met up again later, they become involved personally. That man is Kelley.

Meantime, the incident causes Alix to take a closer look at her babysitter. She becomes emotionally attached to Emira, losing the boundary between the professional and the personal. This escalates to the point that Alix interferes with Emira's personal life with disastrous results for everyone. Except for Emira; she comes out the better, finally finding herself.

The interactions between races depicted in the novel were startling to me, first because I had not encountered them before in fiction, and secondly because they felt very true.

Do we white people really understand the implications of our behavior when we try to help, endeavor to show we are not prejudiced, are color blind or woke? Do people with comfortable lives really know what those who are struggling want from us? I mean, Alix sends leftovers and wine home with Emira! Is that helpful when what she really needs is health insurance?

Such a Fun Age reads like popular women's fiction but hits on important and relevant issues. It would be a great book club read.

I won a free book on Goodreads. My review is fair and unbiased.

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK PICK

Such a Fun Age
by Kiley Reid
G. P. Putnam & Sons
ISBN-10: 052554190X
ISBN-13: 978-0525541905

Polite Society by Mahesh Rao

When I read the opening of Polite Society on the First Look Book Club I was intrigued, and when I won a copy of the novel I was pleased.

The story is inspired by Jane Austen's Emma, only set in Dehli among the upper strata of society.

Early on I was laughing out loud. I even selected a sentence to share on David Abram's Sunday Sentence on Twitter. Roa's satire permeates the story.

In some ways, Ania's initial interest in Dimple's affairs could be placed on the same spectrum of charitable instincts as the one that left her to the animal shelter. When Dimple stared in confusion, widening her large brown eyes, Ania's heart gave a little flip. But over time she had become genuinely fond of Dimple and didn't see why the girl shouldn't reap the rewards of a superlative Delhi social life just because of her unfortunate beginnings.~ from Polite Society 

I was halfway into the book when I picked up another book to read for my library book club and afterward found it hard to get back into this novel. I realized I did not know what it was 'about', other than the absurdities of the wealthy. I also realized that I didn't like the characters.

I kept reading because I had already read 75% by this time. I was disappointed in the end.

On the plus side, Rao can be very viciously funny. I had not realized how sophisticated and worldly India's rich are, a mirror of Western society. There are comments about the legacy of British Colonialism and the conflict between Hindi and Muslin. There were some interesting twists to characters, bringing their story into the 21st c.

On the negative side, the growth of the characters does not mirror that in Austen's Emma. I found some actions distasteful, especially a scene near the end involving masturbation. I did not feel the satisfaction of Austen's happy ending.

Updating a classic Austen novel is not easy. This one didn't work for me.

To the Stars Through Difficulties Audiobook

The To the Stars Through Difficulties audiobook was a fantastic way to revisit Romalyn Tilghman's delightful novel.

Daniela Acitelli has a clear, articulate voice. Tilghman crafted each character with a specific voice, telling their stories first-person; the narrator interpreted the characters brilliantly.

The audiobook is over ten hours long and I listened while sewing and doing handwork. Which is so appropriate for a novel about art quilter Traci teaching traditional quilters to expand their craft in new ways!

Listening to the audiobook I appreciated again Tilghman's humor and her insight into the human experience.

The novel brings together East Coasters and Kansas natives.

Traci was an unwanted 'dumpster baby' and adopted child. She is hired to teach at the Carnegie library turned art center, including a group of problem teenagers. Distrustful and knowing she is a fraud, Traci unexpectedly discovers she is a good teacher and role model--and is worthy of love.

Angelina is researching the Carnegie library her grandmother helped to build, looking to belatedly completing her thesis. Along the way, Angelina discovers family secrets and a new path.

Kansas native Gayle's hometown has been wiped off the map by a tornado. She struggles with the loss of her entire world. Gayle discovers the courage to start over.

This is a novel about women who rise above the challenges of life, who find community and love and purpose.

I was given a free audiobook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read my 2017 review of the novel here.

A Kansas Notable Book of the Year 2018

2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards: Finalist

2017 IPPY Awards: Contemporary Fiction, Gold Medal

Readers’ Favorite: Gold Medal Award for Women’s Fiction

2017 Foreword Indie Finalist in Adult Fiction—General

2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in General Fiction/Novel (Over 80,000 words)

Pulpwood Queen Selection, June 2018

To The Stars Through Difficulties
by Romalyn Tilghman
She Writes Press
Audiobook $21.83
ASIN: B0811XF964

Tidal Flats by Cynthia Newberry Martin

I have been reading Cynthia Newberry Martin's blog How We Spend Our Days for several years and when she announced the publication of a novel I knew I would read it for I loved her quiet elegance and unique style.

I read Tidal Flats in two sittings; had I started it earlier in the day I would have read it in one!

"Up ahead she was surprised to see that the rocks veered quite dramatically to the left. When they'd started out, it had looked like a straight shot."~ from Tidal Flats by Cynthia Newberry Martin

After meeting Ethan, Cass has one future in mind: just her and Ethan together, forever. Ethan is an intrepid photographer who works in Afghanistan, his photographs featured on national magazines, indelibly etched images that include a portrait of the amber-eyed Afghani woman Setara.

Ethan needs Cass and he needs Afghanistan. Cass needs only Ethan. On the tidal flats one wet morning, Cass following Ethan across the treacherous rocks, they make a pact: Ethan will work three more years abroad, and Cass will consider having a child.

They marry and Cass waits at home alone, aware she can never have a child, knowing that events in her past have shut the door on any future as a mother.

Cass spends her days working at a home for elderly women where her soul is fed, a place that is better for her being there. The women have much to teach Cass.  "Look for the good things," she is told, "Your heart may surprise you some day." And, "Plans are good, but life is the thing. Living. And dancing even when the music changes."

Cass counts the days until Ethan is pledged to stay by her side, agonizing over her inability to agree to children. Life veers off her planned path when Ethan's fidelity becomes suspect.

"Like that ride where you swirl so fast, you stick to the side, the bottom falls out, and you're free."~from Tidal Flats by Cynthia Newberry Martin

As Cass wrestles with the demons of her past and the uncertainties of her present, she must decide what kind of future she wants to choose for herself: sticking to her plan or learning to forgive and embrace the life she may not want, but needs.

This haunting novel is a memorable read.

Praise for Tidal Flats:"Cynthia Newberry Martin is a tremendous writer, with a Woolfian talent for taking the full measure of small moments. Her work is both subtle and revelatory, and I've been waiting a long time for this book." ―Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers and Music for Wartime.
"For once, a novel of big ideas that is also filled with bold and uncommon events. In Tidal Flats, Cynthia Newberry Martin, a storyteller at the top of her game, creates a universe of betrayal, compassion, and regret in which two people’s love for each other is surpassed only by their loyalty to their convictions. I was glued to the page." ―Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

Tidal Flats
by Cynthia Newberry Martin
Bonhomie Press
ISBN 9781732676824
$26.95 hardcover, $9.89 Kindle

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

"We lose ourselves...but we find our way back." from Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner is an emotional roller coaster about Baby Boomer sisters Jo and Bethie. Pop culture and political landmarks set the novel in specific times and places, beginning in 1950s Detroit. When their father suddenly dies, their mother Sarah struggles on her own, finding affordable housing and a job at Hudson's.

Jo was the rebel, resisting girly dress and activities and early becoming involved in Civil Rights protests. She also falls in love with her best friend Lynnette. Lynnette buckles under social pressure unable to accept her sexual orientation.

Younger sister Bethie was always the perfect Jewish middle-class girl, her mother's favorite. She becomes a victim of sexual abuse and begins to alternately binge eat and starve herself. She is in a school play with Harold, who is African American, but they do not act on their mutual attraction.

Jo goes away to the University of Michigan, meeting the love of her life, Shelley. Bethie comes to visit where she is picked up by an older, drug-dealing, man who turns her onto drugs and sex, beginning a long spiral of bad choices.

When Shelley elects to marry, Jo is devastated and allows a man to woo and marry her. She loves being a mom, but as the children grow so does the distance between Jo and her husband until he betrays and leaves her.

Passivity allows bad choices to take the sisters further from their true selves while misunderstanding and anger drive a wedge between them. Meanwhile, Jo's three girls grow up and her youngest, Lila, makes her own series of bad choices.

Their stories become a synopsis of women's history from the 50s housewives to the women who juggle career and family to the last question of what kind of death to choose.

As entertaining as the book was, for a long time I was not sure what its purpose was until near the end of the story when Jo summarizes a woman's struggle between expectations and self-fulfillment, how we find ourselves far from our deepest truths and struggle to come home again.

I was offered a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Read an excerpt at http://www.jenniferweiner.com/mrs-everything

Mrs. Everything
by Jennifer Weiner
Atria Books
Pub Date 11 Jun 2019 
ISBN: 9781501133480
PRICE: $28.00 (USD)

Note: The story takes place almost parallel to my own life and the cultural references were a trip down memory lane. We moved to the Detroit area in 1963 and I enjoyed all the references to the places and stores and radio stations mentioned. But...I take issue with one thing in the book--The sisters go to Suzy Q's for burgers. Burgers! It was known for its chicken! Why would they go there for burgers!

Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan

Soniah Kamal's retelling of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (P and P) was an entertaining read. Pakistan and Austen's world share many of the same constraints on women--especially an emphasis on marrying well over for love and a total unacceptance of premarital sex.

In Unmarriageable, Elizabeth and Jane become Alys and Jena Binat, schoolteachers who have intelligence and beauty yet are spinsters in their early thirties. Jena is shy and sweet; Alys is an ardent feminist who pushes her students to think for themselves.

The younger sisters include the Muslim fundamentalist Mari, the precocious boy-crazy and fashion-obsessed Lady, and the unhappily overweight Qitty. The family is not of the best kind, for Mr. Binat was bilked out of his inheritance which brought downsizing in house and budget, and Mrs. Binat's grandmother is rumored to have been a prostitute.

Aly's friend Sherry is forty-one but still has hopes of 'grabbing' a husband and finally experiencing a sexual encounter with a man. Every evening Alys and Sherry meet in the local cemetery, and under the pretense of feeding the birds, enjoy a cigarette and a heart-to-heart talk.

Alys and Jena meet the well-to-do Bungles and Darsee at a wedding celebration. Bungles is obviously taken by Jena. But she won't make 'you-you' eyes at him for fear of being considered a slut. Alys and Darsee, of course, stumble through a series of misunderstandings and dislike.

Just reading about Pakistani wedding traditions is interesting. And the fashions! The food! Oh, how my mouth watered over eggplant in tomatoes, ginger chicken, seekh kabobs, naan, korma, and rose-flavored cake with a cup of chai.

The novel is not a rewriting of Austen's classic but does follow the plot line. We know what is going to happen. But I completely enjoyed this novel for on its own merits.

Kamal channels some of Austen's irony.

When Jena twists her ankle, Bungles carries her to the car and rushes to the clinic. Kamal writes, "The clinic was an excellent facility, as all facilities that carer to excellent people tend to be, because excellent people demand excellence, unlike those who are grateful for what they receive."

There is a lot of talk about literature. Book titles are dropped throughout many conversations. The characters often speak about Austen in an ironic twist.

Annie Benna dey Bagh comments that she found P and P "helpful in an unexpected way...I decided that, no matter how ill I got, I'd never turn or be turned into Anne de Bourgh."

"Thankfully, we don't live in a novel," Alys comments. And yet Sherry channels Charlotte Lucas in marrying for financial security although she does have the choice to be self-supporting.

Darsee and Alys agree on many points in these conversations about literature and Pakistan's colonial heritage.

"I believe, Alys said to Darsee, "A book and an author can belong to more than one country or culture. English came with the colonizers, but its literature is part of our heritage took as in pre-partition writing."

When Wickaam comes on the scene, English Literature teacher Alys is appalled by his preference that films are better than books. He is drop-dead gorgeous and spins his lies to cover his unsavory history.

Kamal includes loads of nods to Austen. Minor characters are named Thomas Fowle and Harris Bigg-Wither, real people in Jane's life.

Alys often parodies the famous opening line of P and P, such as "it was a truth universally acknowledged that people enter our lives in order to recommend reads."

Thankfully, a Goodreads win brought this book into my life!

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (With Recipes)

Lorna Landvik has created a character beloved and influential who we only know through the reactions of the people whose lives she touches. Chronicles of a Radical Hag (With Recipes) tells Haze's story through the columns she wrote for a Minnesota small town newspaper, her readers' responses, through the memories people hold of her, and most interesting, how her columns reach out and speak to a generation of teenagers.

Haze was unabashedly herself in her columns. She wrote in a speaking voice, musing on her life and the people she meets and on national and world news. She garnered letters from people who enjoyed her work and from people who called her a "radical hag." Haze embraced it all, happy to just get people thinking. And when a reader suggested she would better use the column to share recipes, she began to throw in a recipe now and then.

When Haze is felled by a stroke the newspaper publisher, Susan, begins to republish her early columns dating back to 1964. For some readers, they are a nostalgic trip into the past. Susan's teenage son Sam has been assigned the job of reading the columns and summarizing them, with suggestions on which to rerun.

It is Sam and his generation who are surprisingly touched by Haze. She becomes real to Sam. He learns from her musings on life, love, social change, and political crisis. He sees the elderly around him in a different light. And when he discovers Haze's hidden papers he learns a secret that will alter perceptions about Haze, the past, and the present.

Subplots follow women who struggle with broken marriages, heartbroken widows, acceptance and inclusion, disappointment and redemption.

Landvik's book is a pleasure to read, alternately funny and poignant. And, the recipes will propel you to the kitchen!

I received a free book from the publisher through Bookish First.

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (With Recipes)
University of Minnesota Press
Publication Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 9781517905996
$25.95 hardcover

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See is the story of a girlhood friendship crushed and buckled by shifting political and cultural sands.

Set on a small volcanic island in Korea, and spanning from colonialism under the Japanese through the post-WWII division of the country and the resulting purge of Communist sympathizers in the South, the novel is a dazzling exploration of a little-known culture.

And it is also a testament to the strength of women.

In the 1930s, orphaned Mi-ja, daughter of a Korean who collaborated with the Japanese under colonialism, was sent to live with her aunt and uncle on the island of Jeju. Young-sook, a daughter descended from generations of haenyeo women who support their families by free diving to harvest the seas, befriends Mi-ja. Young-sook's mother teaches Mi-ja and Young-sook the traditional skills to become a haenyeo. 

The women led hard lives of toil, but were proud of their work and contribution. While the sea women culled their "ocean fields" and tended their "dry fields" of sweet potatoes, the menfolk watched the kids and prepared the evening meal, spending their free time in talk. Life was a simple cycle. The girls embrace this life and future.

But the life the girls hope for is under duress. During WWII the resources of Jeju are confiscated for the Japanese war effort, resulting in starvation. Mi-ja is forced into marriage with a collaborator with the Japanese, while Young-sook remains in her village, married to a childhood friend. The women drift apart as truths remain unspoken and assumptions lead to prejudice and bitterness that lasts Young-sook's lifetime--until Mi-ja's granddaughter arrives, determined to tell Mi-ja's story to Young-sook.

What I loved about this novel is what I love about the best Historical Fiction: through sympathetic characters and an engaging storyline, history comes alive and I gain insight into the past.

I had little knowledge of the history of Korea. My birth prevented my father's induction during the Korean War; he was already supporting his mother and sister and wife. The Korea of the television series MASH offered little insight. I kinda knew about colonization under the Japanese, and I knew about the devastation of WWII and how impoverished the country was, thanks to my investigation into a handkerchief that led me to Father Al Schwartz and his Korea Relief work. (read about it here.)

But I didn't realize that after WWII, with Korea divided against its will, the Soviets in the North, and America in the South, each led by puppet presidents, resulted in such horrible violence that was unchecked by America. There are scenes in the book that rivals any horrors I have read in history. 

The statistics, presented in the Acknowledgments, are staggering.

See informs us that Jeju's population of 300,000 was decimated by about 10%, with another 80,000 become refugees. Hundreds of villages disappeared. Talk about this dark time was banned for fifty years.

Under See's capable hands, the story is not weighed down by her research into her subject. She weaves the facts and history through the action.

See has a huge following and I expect The Island of Sea Women to become as popular as her earlier novels. It would be an excellent book club pick.

Read about her last novel The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See
Scribner
March 5, 2019
ISBN 9781501154850, 1501154850
Hardcover $27.00 USD, $36.00 CAD