Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Olivia has done what she can to protect her son, Asher. Raising him as a single mom, providing him a safe home even when money was tight – she has given him all that she could. And he has seemed to flourish, excelling privately in art and more outwardly both socially and in hockey, a sport quite popular among his peers in his New Hampshire high school. When attractive, somewhat shy, newcomer to the school, Lily, arrived, he was in the right place at the right time, introduced to her by his closest, oldest friend and they immediately hit it off. Little did anyone know how it would lead to a fatal incident and a court case that would upend all of their lives.

Out of a literal dream of Boylan’s, grew the coming together of two talents to compose a powerful and insightful work of literature. In this novel, we find every important element: complex character development, the spinning of a suspenseful plot that is constructed both backwards and forwards – and actually works! – and an opportunity to learn. We learn about beekeeping – which is interesting at times but does get perhaps a bit too detailed at other times, in my opinion – and we learn about the experience of being trans, which is, also in my opinion, invaluable.

I find it fascinating how two authors can come together and write a novel that reads so seamlessly. It demonstrates collaboration at its finest. Clearly they have each edited each other’s work such that there is a united style that is woven throughout and it gives the novel a single tone and clear voice.

I also deeply appreciate what we learn from the perspective of the trans voice. While I have personally worked some in this area, I feel I always have more to learn and I always appreciate when I am helped by those who are generous enough to share their experience with those of us cis folks who have had the privilege to have not struggled with these issues. It is not their responsibility to do the work for me, and at the same time, I am grateful to be able to benefit from their thoughts and experience so that I may become better.

This is an important story in so many ways, not the least of which is that it’s a gripping, powerful, and enlightening read. Highly recommend this one!!

No Angel by Penny Vincenzi

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

When Celia focuses her attractive, intelligent gaze on a target, she essentially uses whatever means necessary to achieve it. So when she falls heavily in love for Oliver Lytton, even though he does not meet her parents’ ideal of whom she is to marry, she manages an underhanded way to force their approval. And when Oliver does not envision his wife as a working woman, she likewise convinces him that she is in fact essential to his publishing family business. As we follow Celia and Oliver through the first World War and see how it impacts their family and their business, we learn about life, about class, and about how compromise and understanding can heal a multitude of ills.

Once again, Penny Vincenzi has created a family, even a world, in which we are engrossed and enamored. Every one of the characters – and there are many with whom we become intimately familiar -is deeply rich, utterly imperfect, and so lovable that we care what happens to each and every one of them. These characters are taken through important moments in history during which they struggle and experience lasting impact. And there are moments of great tension, near-misses, and disappointments, when you cannot help but catch your breath or utter out loud.

There is also an important discussion of class here, that is raised sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. When little Berty, the daughter of a poor, working class family is taken into Celia and Oliver’s family to be raised alongside their children, we are brought into her experience of feeling at home in neither family. Feeling over-privileged among her actual siblings, but treated like a foundling among her adoptive siblings, she is caught between these two worlds and is forced to navigate this tension starting at a very early age. She learns to use her intelligence and her kindness, and to find her allies early – and this serves her well, but she does suffer plenty along the way.

As each of the characters and each of the story lines come together, they wind around to enthrall and engage the reader just as in a perfectly choreographed dance. You want to know what happens but you never want it to end…

The perfect summer read!

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Jean has been stuck in her dreary routine for longer than she cares to remember: caring for her mother, who complains at any deviation from their rigid schedule, and working as a reporter where she is treated like “one of the guys” because of her plain, middle-aged, single status. When a letter comes across her desk from a woman, Gretchen Tilbury, who is convinced that her daughter was born a virgin birth, it incites a curiosity in her that she must investigate. When Jean meets this family, she opens herself up to a whole new experience that changes her life forever.

Despite the attempts to integrate science into the discussion of the “virgin birth,” it was obvious to this cynical reader where the narrative would lead. In fact, while there were many attempts at realism, too much of the story was so unrealistic that it made the whole picture a bit hard to swallow. For example, Jean is tied to her mother and can’t get away during weekends, but why is her mother ok during weekdays? Why is her sister abroad and NEVER visits, ever – for years? Do folks really believe that this woman conceived by parthenogenesis (the development of an egg without fertilization)? 

Sadly, too, the dreariness of Jean’s life seeps into the narrative of the story and contaminates the story itself. There is a pall over the whole experience, and even the happier times feel a bit dulled because of her innate, reclusive, even negative countenance. While we certainly wish her well, we also can’t help being a bit resentful of her as well. Why has she not stood up for herself earlier? Why should it have taken this long for her to have come up with a plan to engineer time for herself? To carve out a life for herself, independent from her mother? 

With all this, I feel that with all the books in the world and with so little time that we all have to read, this should not be one to prioritize…  Spend time on my MUST READ’s instead! 🙂

 

 

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Bea has made a very full life for herself, with her plus-size fashion blog and the travel and networking that is required – or at least that is what she tells herself. That is, until she meets up with her long-term crush who utterly breaks her heart. After a public wise crack about a dating reality TV show where all the women have been impossibly thin, she attracts the attention of the producer, who invites Bea to be the newest “Main Squeeze.” Bea sees this as an opportunity to represent larger-bodied women, even as a business opportunity. But it may also be a chance for Bea herself to be convinced that she deserves love just as any other woman does…

If you’re looking for an easy, entertaining, but not entirely vacuous summer read – here it is! Written with great insight, warmth and sarcasm, the story carries us through Bea’s struggle and her growth. We learn about her difficulty with her size, how it has impacted her social interactions since her youth, and how a pivotal moment on her college study abroad has changed her course. The author occasionally intersperses comical internet conversations/texts/blog posts that comment on the plot, which add the social media dimension to the plot line and magnify the experience for us, just as it has been magnified for Bea herself. We live through Bea’s romantic ups and downs and feel deeply for her because we also love her – for her vulnerability, for her kindness, and for her gumption.

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did – I highly recommend it – it’s great fun (especially for all you reality TV fans out there!) and carries an impactful message.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Since her mother’s death years ago, Blue has been traveling around with her father, a professor of history and politics, measuring time in semesters, and in random locations throughout the US. While her father is certainly attentive — indoctrinating her with his philosophical theories, drilling her in vocabulary, and encouraging her reading of every book ever written (which she quotes throughout the narrative) – he also seems to attract women to himself as magnets attract shards of steel. When they actually commit to a single, fancier house in a small town in N Carolina and to a single school for the entirety of Blue’s senior year, Blue cannot believe her luck. And much to her surprise, she actually becomes visible to her peers after being invisible for most of her life, being chosen by one of the teachers, Hannah Schneider, to join a small, tightly knit clique of admiring, rebel students who spend Sunday afternoons with her in her home. This invitation will change Blue’s life path forever.

This is one of the most unique novels I’ve read in quite awhile. The writing is outstanding. Pessl creates characters who are simultaneously mean yet sympathetic, powerful yet vulnerable, familiar yet mysterious. The narrative is replete with sardonic humor and an encyclopedic breadth of cultural and political references, which Blue annotates as she relays her experience. There are also enough unexpected turns that even when you believe you know, you actually have no idea what is coming. It is also the kind of story that you continue to ponder and puzzle over long after the last page is turned (my favorite part…).

I could say so much more, but I don’t want to give anything away. I feel it would take away from your discovering these characters and this intricate plot for yourself. So I won’t.

I will only say it’s a MUST READ – just for the fun of it!!

 

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

From early on, William has done everything he can do to make himself small. After tragedy befell his family shortly after his birth, his parents could barely hold on and he did what he could to make himself disappear. The only outlet he found to appease his loneliness was basketball, at which he found himself excelling. Meanwhile, Julia, nicknamed aptly by her father as the “rocket,” was a force to be reckoned with. She was the problem-solver, the arranger, the one in charge. She always had a plan, for herself and for anyone else in her tightly-knit family. Once her world collided with William’s, their lives would be changed forever – and in ways even Julia could never have predicted.

This is a powerful story about family – about how family can crush us, surround us, desert us and engulf us. Napolitano’s portrait of these two families (William’s and Julia’s) highlight family relationships at extremes. William’s parents emotionally abandon him at infancy, whereas Julia’s family is pathologically enmeshed such they have few relationships outside their nuclear family. While at first this seems to connect the two of them, perhaps fill a need for each of them, it may also create a blindness to what the other may be feeling, how it may impact each of them psychologically. They are both naive to the fact that our families are inside us, no matter how mightily we may try to rebel against it.

The writing in Hello Beautiful is interesting. While many authors will direct the readers in how to feel, in so many words, Napolitano seems to elicit our emotions by just telling the story outright, giving us a chance to form our own opinions, to have our own reactions. We are privy to the inner thoughts of each of the main characters- their frustrations, their demons – but we are also given the facts of their lives, the skeleton of their days in order to see the whole picture. It is not devoid of emotion – on the contrary – but what we feel in reaction to it is very much our own. What we feel is because we have formed genuine attachment to the characters and their fortunes and misfortunes. It is a unique and effective style of narrative.

I am still living with these characters – I feel that I will be living with them for quite awhile. I love when that happens.

Windfall by Penny Vincenzi

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Although she’d given up quite a bit for her family, Cassia had felt fairly content with her life. She has a lovely family, a husband who is a respected, community doctor, and she is even allowed to assist him once in awhile in his practice. What she doesn’t often acknowledge, even to herself, is how much she’s missed practicing medicine herself, after having trained at the same medical school as her husband. But now that she’s inherited quite a large sum of money from her beloved godmother, perhaps now she can make something of her education. Perhaps now she can realize some of the dreams she has had for herself. How this plays out seems to have a ripple effect, for her family and for the many people she cares about and who care about her.

In my opinion, this author, Penny Vincenzi, is a master craftswoman. She has a gift of being able to create an entire community of fully developed characters with whom we become intimately connected, interweave their stories so that they tie together but also function as engaging subplots, and all while keeping each character and story solidly lucid and memorable in and of themselves. It is not heavy descriptives or overwhelming detail that keep the characters clear and identifiable, but our own emotional commitment to each of them because of their deeply human feel. We are compelled to know what comes next because they feel as tactile as we do, we need to know because they become our family, our friends. We feel almost a part of the intricately woven plot, that we are almost a part of the fabric of their lives. We are vulnerable to the suspense, the sharp dialogue, the exotic scenes, and most poignantly, the human emotions the novel elicits.

There is also a theme of fighting convention by the many strong women herein. Women were just starting to battle against the norm of having to stay home and care for children as their only option – and at the same time they were also starting to rebel against the presumption that they, in fact, had to have children at all. Contraception was just then becoming a possibility, which liberated women from the burden of just being baby factories. At one point, Harry, a very complex character with whom Cassia has a very complicated relationship, laments that he is forever destined to be attracted to very strong women. As it happens, most of the women in this novel are strong, each in their own ways.

If you’re looking for a fun, substantive read – a truly healthy addiction because you will not be able to put this one down! – this is the novel for you!

 

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Anne has led a quiet life, since the breakup of her engagement 8 years ago. She has not questioned the wisdom of the advice her dear friend, Lady Russell had given her, knowing that it was only out of the best of intentions that her friend advised her so. But she has wondered just how her Captain Wentworth had been faring since that time. As it happens, she may now find out – because he is returning to them! Now that her father has outspent his fortune and has to rent out his estate to Captain Wentworth’s sister and brother-in-law, she may be seeing him once again. But it won’t be that simple to learn what his thoughts are – and to whom his heart belongs.

Every so often I love going back to the classics – especially ones I’ve never had the opportunity to read. While I found this one a bit confusing in that it was challenging to keep track of the characters and their connections – every male character was named either Charles or William and everyone was a cousin! – I did find it amusing and entertaining. So many of the classics are heart-wrenching and tragic and it is refreshing to know that at the time of Jane Austen – the later 1700’s/early 1800’s – it was permitted, even appreciated, to have a sense of humor!

So while this was not a deeply profound or moving novel, it was certainly a fun change of pace.

I wouldn’t call this a MUST READ but it is definitely on the list of classics to get to at some point…

 

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Bennie and Byron are both devastated over the loss of their mother. Still, they cannot imagine why they are here, sitting with Mr. Mitch, their mother’s lawyer, just a day before her funeral. What could he possibly have to tell them that they do not already know – she’s their mother, after all. And just because Bennie has felt she’s had to separate herself from her home and family for the past several years after a hurtful Thanksgiving feud, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know her own mother. Or does it? As Benny and Byron listen to the recording their mother prepared for them just prior to her death, they learn about her real past and how this will impact their lives in the future.

I should have loved this novel. It was told from a 360 degree narrative that I love – the perspective of different voices, involving different time periods. It is enriched with sensory descriptions and with beautiful cultural imagery, particularly when describing Eleanor’s (their mom’s) Caribbean roots. There are messages of environmental and political importance that were worthy of being elevated.

But what was missing, at least for me, was a deep connection to the characters. Maybe it’s that we are told about a palpable anger and resentment between the siblings that permeates the tone of the story, but I feel we don’t really get to know those siblings all that well. We get quick peeks into their lives, brief snippets of their struggles.  Byron in his constant state of sullenness is the overachieving Black male, having to outrun his peers just to get ahead. Bennie is the opposite: trying to find herself because she doesn’t fit neatly into any box. But not only is the storytelling somewhat dispassionate, but it is also choppy. We don’t really get to feel their feelings, we don’t see their more tender sides. Little wonder we (or I at least) can’t connect.

What I find here is a great idea with such rich potential, but I do not believe it was as well-executed as it deserved. The story deserved characters served up with deep love, empathy and much more heart. I just didn’t feel that here.

 

Four Ways to Wear a Dress by Gillian Libby

Posted on by marjorieseidenfeld

Millie has just lost her PR job in NYC. She really thought this would be her big beginning, when she would show her parents that she’d really become an adult. But alas, once again, in spite of her warnings to the company that their product was impractical and overpriced, they were forced to make cuts – and that included her. So, at least for now, she is going to take her shared, “good-luck” little black dress that her friends are foisting upon her and move out to California, where the final member of their posse, Quincy, is living, helping to run their family-owned hotel. What Millie finds is that Quincy and her friends, social media influencers hoping to bolster the businesses of their tiny coastal town, are living a dual reality: one that is on social media and one that is real life. As Millie tries to find her own way, she has to navigate this duality for herself and figure out where – and if!- she fits into this picture.

My initial reaction to this book for this blog’s purpose is to tell you not to waste your time.

The bulk of this story, which is predictable in almost every way, revolves around the superficial world of social media influencers, which is distracting, disingenuous, and really all about the money. Even the children here are trained to stop suddenly – right on cue, even mid-sibling-rivalry-argument – long enough to plaster lovely smiles on their faces for uploadable photos in a very contrived-but-meant-to-look-natural setting. Any admission of an imperfection is shameful, any hint of real-world troubles is deemed unacceptable. When Millie arrives and begins to be publicly genuine, posting her mishaps and actually getting attention for it, she gets admonished by the local “queen bee.”

That is, of course, the message, though. It is a comment on social media and its influencers. It is a critique of the idea that we must only put our best selves – or a version of ourselves that is “perfect” out there for others to see, and never admit that we are imperfect, or actually human.

But I would suggest that that isn’t good enough. I would suggest that maybe we might not publicize so much of ourselves at all. Maybe we could just be actually living more of our lives; being mindful of, rather than posting, every meal we consume, every outfit we wear, every experience we enjoy. Maybe also, we could be watching less of what others are doing. Certainly research supports this: that is, the more time we spend on social media, the more anxious and depressed we are.

So while the book is not necessarily a worthwhile read, it does get one thinking… which always has value. Lucky for you, I saved you the trouble! You’re welcome! 🙂