Thinking About…

The River We Remember ~ William Kent Krueger Set in 1958 in the town of Jewel, Minnesota, The River We Remember is a murder mystery where the victim is so disliked, almost anyone in town could have done it. The prime suspect, however, is Noah Bluestone, a Native American army veteran who came home from the war with a Japanese wife, Kyoto. I’ll give you 1 guess as to why he’s the prime suspect. (If you said ‘racism’, you win.) The main characters are Brody Dern, the town sheriff, who still suffers the effects of his time at war; Connie Graff, who used to be sheriff, and is now sort…

Family Family ~ Laurie Frankel India Allwood, star of a TV show called ‘Val Halla’, lives in Los Angeles with her adopted twins, Fig and Jack. She has recently wrapped a film about the traumas of adoption, on the children, on the families, full of stereotypes about drug addled mothers and absent fathers. India makes a public statement supporting adoption, saying that it is not always about trauma and grief. She is suddenly held up as being pro-life and anti-choice, an impression that is only intensified when it comes out that India gave birth to a child near the end of High School (Bex), and again in college (Lewis), and…

Listen for the Lie ~ Amy Tintera Lucy is found wandering the streets with her best friend Savannah’s blood on her dress. Savannah has been murdered. Lucy is suspected of the murder, but not charged, and she has no memory of that night. Even her ex-husband and parents suspect she is guilty, but there was not enough evidence to charge her. Five years later, Ben, a true crime podcaster, features the murder on his show (Listen for the Lie), and he comes to her town to investigate. This was a fun murder mystery, and the question of did she or didn’t she was not at all obvious until the end.…

Leaving ~ Roxanne Robinson Sarah and Warren dated in college. He loved her completely, and while she also loved him, the ideas she has brought with her from her childhood, of what a woman could say to a man, how open one could be in a relationship, lead to a misunderstanding, and they break up. They both marry and have children and careers. Sarah’s marriage does not last, and when she and Warren bump into each other at a performance of the opera Tosca, she is long divorced, while he is still married. Now in their early 60s, they rekindle their love in an extramarital affair. She believes that she…

True Biz ~ Sara Novic Charlie is a new student at River Valley School for the Deaf, where she is playing catch-up to the other students, who all know American Sign Language. Charlie has a cochlear implant, which has never really worked, and she is far behind her peers in language skills because of this. February is the dean of the school, a hearing woman with deaf parents, who understands the issues involved, and fights hard for civil rights for her students, and for her school. Austin is the son of a deaf mother and a hearing father, whose parents are well known in the local deaf community, and is…

Sandwich ~ Catherine Newman Rachel “Rocky” and her husband go on an annual vacation to Cape Cod with their 20-something children Jamie and Willa, along with Jamie’s girlfriend. Rocky’s parents visit. A vacation is had. A lot of sandwiches are eaten. Secrets are revealed. Rocky is in what is called the Sandwich generation, between her elderly parents and her adult children. Knowing this, I expected the story to be a bit less about the children and a bit more about the parents, and was slightly disappointed about that. That is likely my only complaint about the book. I really enjoyed the meandering way the story unfolded, I liked Rocky and…

After Annie ~ Anna Quindlan Annie Brown, wife, friend, and mother of three, has died in her late 30s, collapsing on the floor of her kitchen after suffering a brain aneurysm. She leaves behind husband Bill, children Ali, Ant, Benjy, and Jamie, and best friend Annemarie. All are lost without the spoke that held their wheel together. After Annie tells the story of the year following her death, and how her loved ones are able to come to terms with the vacuum left in her wake. This was a character driven novel, and not a LOT happened, though there were some disturbing revelations about side characters. What really struck me…

None of This is True ~ Lisa Jewel Josie and her (much older) husband are celebrating her 40th birthday at a local restaurant, when Josie spies a group of celebrants coming in to celebrate another woman’s 40th birthday, and discovers that a local podcaster, Alix, was born on the same day in the same hospital. They are birthday twins! Based on this, Josie approaches Alix to feature Josie in her podcast, as she is making large changes in her life. Alix is looking for a new subject, having wrapped up a recent series, so she agrees. This was a gripping read, a psychological thriller. It is told from several points…

The Berry Pickers ~ Amanda Peters In 1962, a Native family comes to Maine from Nova Scotia to pick blueberries, as they do every year. A few weeks in, the four year old daughter, Ruthie, disappears. The last person to see her before she vanishes is her 6 year old brother, Joe, who feels responsible for her loss. Norma is a young girl growing up in Maine to an overprotective mother and a distant father. She has dreams that feel like memories, but they are elusive and unsubstantial. This was a heartbreaking tale of a stolen child, and the repercussions on both the family that lost her and the family…

The Wedding People ~ Alison Espach A suicidal woman (Phoebe) checks in to a lovely resort hotel determined to have a wonderful meal in the beautiful dress she bought but has never had occasion to wear, before ODing on feline pain medication. She is mistaken for a wedding guest at a destination wedding, a wedding that is going to take a week and has booked the rest of the hotel. She ends up talking to the bride (Lila), who asks her which family she is with, and Phoebe tells Lila that no, she is not here for the wedding. She is here to kill herself. I found this book to…

Here One Moment ~ Liane Moriarty On a crowded flight from Tasmania to Sydney in Australia, a mysterious woman stands up and starts walking down the aisle. As she does so, she points at each passenger and states how and at what age they will die. The passengers are pretty shaken by this, especially those whose deaths are seemingly imminent. When, a few months later, the first prediction comes true, followed by two others, the world begins to take notice. The book is written in chapters that skip from person to person, including one of the crew members, the mysterious sooth sayer, and several of the passengers who were told…

Absolution ~ Alice McDermott Tricia and Charlotte are military wives in Saigon in 1963. Tricia is shy and has just arrived there. Charlotte is a ‘queen bee’ type, and bullies others to do her will. Charlotte’s will is to improve the lives of the Vietnamese people. She enlists a local seamstress to help her make costumes for Barbie dolls, which she sells in order to raise money to buy candies and toys to cheer children in local hospitals. This book is told in the form of letters from Tricia to Charlotte’s daughter many years later. Tricia is telling Charlotte’s daughter about this and other charitable endeavors, some of which are…