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Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

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The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids
by Alexandra Robbins

This Book Is Deeply Disturbing…and That Is Exactly Why You Should Read It (4/19/2023)

This book is deeply disturbing. And that is exactly why you should read it.

Written by Alexandra Robbins, the book follows four juniors, three seniors and one graduate of Walt Whitman High School in tony Bethesda, Maryland for a little more than a year during 2004-2005. As …more the title would indicate, these teenagers have it all and do it all. They are highly intelligent and deeply motivated. They not only excel at their schoolwork—be it AP English or AP physics—but also excel at athletics, art, and music. They participate in a dizzyingly high number of extracurricular activities. The only thing they don't do is sleep.

This is what it feels like to be an overachiever:
• Getting a B is like getting an F.
• Cheating is perfectly OK if it means getting the A.
• Sabotaging other students' work is a legitimate way to compete.
• It's perfectly OK to take unprescribed ADD drugs for better focus.
• If you're going to play a sport, you absolutely must be a superstar. Or don't play.

While many of the students profiled in the book are highly self-motivated, some of them are pushed—relentlessly and (in one case) cruelly—by their parents. The students and parents truly believe that if the kids don't go to an Ivy League university or an Ivy-wannabe, all the effort, time and lack of sleep in high school was worthless. It's Harvard-Yale-Princeton or nothing. And that is a lot of pressure!

This book is nonfiction, but Robbins is so talented that it reads more like a novel. It was hard to put down because I wanted to know what happened next to Julie, Taylor, Sam, C.J., Ryland and the rest of the crowd.

I have only one quibble with this extraordinary book: Except for one student, those who are profiled all come from wealthy families. The cost of college is not a concern. So while the parents and students stress over an A- or a "low" SAT score of 1410 (out of 1600), at no point is there any discussion—much less worry or stress—about the outrageously high cost of these top-tier colleges to which they all aspire. There are overachievers at every high school in this country, but it is truly rare when parents can easily write checks to cover $65,000 a year. Most overachievers also have to lose what precious sleep they do get wondering how they will pay for it all. (less)

The Orchid House: A Novel
by Lucinda Riley

What a Huge Disappointment! Weak and Boring…Nothing More Than a Mediocre Soap Opera (4/19/2023)

Oh, what a huge disappointment! The publisher's plot summary is spectacular, and based on that this could have been a wonderful, compelling ChickLit book. But it wasn't. Why? The writing is stilted, the dialogue is strained and unrealistic, and the characters' actions are …more

Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard

Not a (4/19/2023)

What this book is: A fascinating, extraordinarily well-written historical novel on a young Abraham Lincoln, whose future wife, Mary Todd, was making eyes at him across the well-to-do parlors of Springfield, Illinois in the early 1840s, while at the same time the future …more

The Art of the Wasted Day
by Patricia Hampl

Thought-Provoking and Scholarly, But NOT an Instruction Manual for How to Be a Lazy Bum (4/19/2023)

I admit it! I bought this book for the title. For me, wasting a single hour, much less an entire day, is an anathema, so I was fascinated about an entire book on the topic.

As it turns out, the book is not exactly an instruction manual for being a lazy bum.

Instead, it's a …more

The Great Believers
by Rebecca Makkai

This Is the Rarest of Books: A Heartbreaking and Devastating Story, But I Couldn't Stop Reading (4/19/2023)

This is the rarest of books. It is a story of loss and separation—the kind that is foisted upon us by death and the kind that is inflicted upon us by estrangement—but it is also a story about the abiding power of love and friendship. It is a riveting, can't-put-it-down …more

The Other Americans
by Laila Lalami

There Is Always Another Side of the Story (4/19/2023)

There is always another side of the story.

Author Laila Lalami has taken this adage to heart in this searing and ingenious tale about the death of Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in the small town of Mojave, California with this wife, Maryam. The couple have two …more

Hazards of Time Travel
by Joyce Carol Oates

A Dystopian Novel and Also a Coming-of-Age Love Story…But Not One of Joyce Carol Oates's Best Books (4/19/2023)

Many us have wondered in recent years if our democracy is under a very real threat. If you are one of these people, this dystopian novel by Joyce Carol Oates may give you nightmares because what should be a horrific fantasy limited to the pages of a book may feel more like …more

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
by Erik Larson

This Is the Best Kind of Nonfiction Book: A Fact-Filled Page-Turner (4/19/2023)

Crescendo. That is the best word to describe this book.

From page one, the story slowly builds to a crescendo that is searing, heartbreaking, tragic, and absolutely frustrating—because at so many points along the way, the sinking of the famed passenger ship Lusitania by a …more

The Incendiaries: A Novel
by R O. Kwon

Powerfully Intense, Somewhat Perplexing and Quite Disturbing. It's Real Work to Read This Short Book (4/19/2023)

The best way to describe this succinct, haunting book by R.O. Kwon is powerfully intense, somewhat perplexing, and quite disturbing.

You may think that because it is a little more than 200 pages long, this will be shorty, breezy read. Think again. Every word counts. And …more sometimes to fully understand those words, I had to reread passages. Several times. My point is that you must be prepared to spend quality, focused time with this book. A beach book it is not. It is work.

This is the story of three people, two of whom are college students at the prestigious (and fictitious) Edwards University (think Yale).
• Sophomores Phoebe and Will are friends, confidants, and passionate lovers. She is South Korean, a virtuoso pianist who has given up the instrument because she isn't THE very best in the world, and is searching for meaning in her life while trying to bury a dark, painful secret. In that quest, Phoebe makes reckless choices in everything from her alcohol consumption to men she takes in her bed.

• Will, a born-again Christian who has lost his faith, is a poor, scholarship student who is trying to hide his poverty from his new, rich friends—all the while secretly working a job and sending most of his money to his mother. He falls hopelessly in love with Phoebe.

• John Leal, a former Edwards student, who claims he was once captured by the North Koreans and spent five months in a gulag there, is a charismatic man on a mission. He ensnares the vulnerable Phoebe in his lurid Christian-based cult he has named Jejah and essentially brainwashes his troubled disciples to commit devious plans of homegrown terrorism.

What makes this book special: Quite simply, the language. The writing. Each sentence is perfect and nearly poetic. I was truly astounded—over and over again—reading such sentences. Such incredible beauty!

What makes this book difficult: While I do view it as great literature, it is real work to read this book. It might even qualify as hard work! Not only is too much packed into too few pages, but also parts of it are totally baffling. A real puzzle! And I don't think creating this kind of confusion is poetic license on the part of the author. Befuddling readers should be the No. 1 item on any author's "do not do" list. It's for this reason that I gave this otherwise excellent literary work of art four stars instead of five. (less)

A Hundred Summers
by Beatriz Williams

This Is the Perfect Summer Read…a ChickLit Delight! (4/19/2023)

This is the perfect beach book—even if you can't make it to the sand and waves this year. It's sassy and fun with colorful characters, lots of romance, and a plot that is so gripping you won't want to stop reading. It is nearly perfect ChickLit!

Taking place in 1931-32 and …more

Trust Exercise: A Novel
by Susan Choi

Raw, Shocking, and Bold: And I'm Not Sure I Really Understand It (4/19/2023)

I will succinctly describe this book in one word: raw. And while it is also powerful, daring, shocking, confusing, and bold, above all else it is raw.

Written by Susan Choi, this is the story of a group of talented high school students in an unnamed Southern town who are …more

You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories
by Curtis Sittenfeld

This Collection of Short Stories Is Simply Wonderful! (4/19/2023)

Zing! Each of these 10 original short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld has something special in it, something that gives it a zing, a pop, a punch. Sometimes it's a truly unexpected plot twist, sometimes it's just a brilliant observation, and sometimes it's something so totally …more

Dawson's Fall
by Roxana Robinson

The First Half Is a Slog…but Keep Reading! The Reward of the Second Half Is So Very Much Worth It (4/19/2023)

Question: When you're reading a book you don't particularly like, do you stop—as in, too many books, too little time—or do keep going so that if it gets better, you won't miss out on something amazing? I fall into the latter category. (I always keep going…no matter what.) …more And I'm so happy I kept trudging through the first half of this book because the second half is exceptional.

Written by Roxana Robinson, this is the true story of her ancestors beginning with one Francis Warrington Dawson, who in 1862 at age 21 left his home country of England and sailed to the United States so he could fight for the confederacy. Dawson was a bit confused about the point of the Civil War, thinking it was only about state's rights and not realizing the true reason: the scourge of slavery in the South. Still, he fought and he stayed, settling in Charleston, South Carolina where he owned and edited a newspaper—one that was so liberal and so divergent from common Southern sentiment at the time that he struggled to keep the paper in print.

The first half of this book felt like a bait-and-switch to me. It is billed as a novel, a work of fiction. But when I started reading, it felt like nonfiction—so much so, that I checked to verify it was a novel! The author was blessed to have access to numerous primary sources, including diaries, copious family papers, and the content of Dawson's newspapers. Instead of using those resources to better tell a fictional tale, she uses those resources as the bones of the book. The "story" is secondary. Diary entries, some of which are very long, and (bizarre, but fascinating) newspaper stories dominate the first half of the book.

And then suddenly—and it really is quite suddenly—the narrative totally changes tone and becomes what I thought the book would be when I bought it: a fascinating, extraordinarily well-written historical novel with fully-developed characters and a compelling, enthralling plot that will keep you reading. I understand that the first half of the book, which was a bit of a slog to read, set the stage for the main story by delineating the background facts; I just wish an editor had encouraged the author to rewrite it—and still give all the facts—so it better fit the mold of a novel.

All this said, the underlying message of the book—how we treat "the other"—is so vitally important. In this case, the focus is on the former Southern slaves, who after emancipation suffered extraordinary poverty, high mortality rates, and a generally miserable existence. In the South in the decades following the Civil War it often felt as if white society followed the rule of violence instead of the rule of law. The book's historical message still resonates quite loudly for today's politics. (less)

The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett

Oh, This Book! It's Magnificent! Read It. Savor It. It's Very Special. (4/18/2023)

Oh, this book! This book! This is one of those rare books that I not only enjoyed from the first sentence to the last, but also it touched my heart and soul in a way I always hope will happen with each book I read but only rarely does.

Magnificently written by Ann Patchett, …more

Winter of the World: Book Two of the Century Trilogy
by Ken Follett

Great Literature This Is Not. But Great History It Is. In Fact, It's a First-Rate History Lesson. (4/18/2023)

Great literature this is not. But great history it is.

This is a first-rate lesson in history—from 1933 to 1949 with most of the emphasis on World War II—told with real facts and imaginary characters in a plot-driven novel that will place you, the reader, on the ground in …more

The Chelsea Girls
by Fiona Davis

An Inspired Story That Is Interrupted by Too Many Eye-Rolling, Soap Opera Moments (4/18/2023)

Oh, this book is such a dichotomy! Much of it is absolutely wonderful, if not inspired, but just enough of it is an eye-rolling, soap opera that these melodramatic moments distract from what could have been such a powerful novel.

It's 1950. The United States won a war, the …more

Next of Kin: A Novel
by John Boyne

This Is One of Those Rare Novels: A Literary Delight with a Page-Turning Plot (4/18/2023)

This is one of those rare novels that has all the components of great literature as well as a gripping, page-turning plot. Irish author John Boyne, who is one of my favorite writers of all time, has penned an extraordinary story filled with twists and turns that will keep …more

Clock Dance: A Novel
by Anne Tyler

An Endearing and Enthralling Tale About the Families We Create to Fill Our Hearts (4/18/2023)

This is not your typical Anne Tyler book—until suddenly, it is.

Anne Tyler has a rare gift among writers in that she can perfectly capture the minutiae of life, providing a close-up look at those tiny details that add up to something very important. In addition, she creates …more

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
by Stephanie Land

Powerful and Heartbreaking: It's Impossible to Read This Book and Not Become More Compassionate (4/18/2023)

This is a hard book to read. Let me amend that a bit. It is an engrossing, gripping, and frightening book to read. It is hard to read not because it is difficult to understand or written in a mind-boggling way; it is hard to read because it is heartbreaking. It is also one …more

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
by Andrew Sean Greer

Impossible, Implausible Plot, But It's a Boldly Imaginative Story and Very Much Worth Reading (4/18/2023)

Even though this book is most definitely not science fiction, the only way to truly appreciate it is to suspend your belief in reality. Be prepared to enter a dreamlike world and just go with it. That said, this literary time-travel novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author …more

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