Janine_S

Short novella that retells the folk ballad, The Two Sisters, with Esther and Ysabel Hawthorn, who tend magical willows at the edge of Faerie and cannot be separated, even in death.

The Hawthorn sisters live in Thistleford, known for its grammar or transformative magic, which is along a magical river, Liss, that flows down past The Professors who translate its magic into Arcadia into the land of the Fae. The sisters sing to the willows (The Professor) keeping them vibrant and healthy. Life is idyllic until Esther loves on fall with a fae, Rin, and is tempted to flee Thistleford for Arcadia. Simultaneously a neighbor seeks to marry one of the sisters, separating Ysabel on the opposite side of the Arcadia border from Esther. They are required to sing across this divide but darkness is there as we await to see if the sisters can reunite.

The novella is a fairy tale but a cautionary one. It tells of how “sisterhood and solidarity” can stand up to patriarchy, conformity and greed. The story is atmospheric and changes from prose to poetry which often breaks up the whimsy of the story. The sisters are a delight. Their separation is a sorrow. The songs are philosophical and thought- provoking. When Esther says “Demand better” to Ysabel I thought this got to the heart of the tale - conformity and patriarchy want women to be subservient and yet like all humans women want their individuality v

I listened to this book. From reading reviews by those who read the book, I’d recommend the audiobook. It has the sisters singing, background sounds of nature and the narrator is phenomenal.

If you want a soft, quiet respite from our crazy world, I’d recommend this audiobook. It has a soothing and peaceful quality.

3.5 stars. A fictional exploration of the complexities of female friendships and how class differences can affect this.

I’m glad the author put her note at the beginning of this book otherwise I might not have finished this book the way Chapter One began. The second sentence reads “I had decided to end our friendship earlier . . . .” Margot and Tania have been friends since childhood and roommates during their twenties living in an apartment subsidized by Margot’s parents, which Tania was invited to live in by Margot. The curiosity of that sentence lies in the word “friendship”. Why does that have to end? The reader becomes aware the Margot’s goals are changing now that she’s nearing thirty and would like to live with her boyfriend and start a family which probably would have result in Tania having to move out, but the nixing of the friendship would cause that anyway.

As the story plays out we learn how the friendship began, its ups and downs. The two women, friends since childhood, are diametrically different. Tania comes from a working class Congolese family, is estranged from her parents but is an accomplished writer. Margot is white, liberal and privileged and has been indulged all her life but now yearns for the traditional family. When Margot’s cousin, Eli, enters the picture and begins dating Tania (even though he’s engaged), she realizes she’s been proving emotional labor to Margot’s family for their kindnesses. Then Tania agrees to go with Margot to see her therapist together and what emerges is very engrossing - and saved the book for me.

Friendship is complicated and as in marriage, there can be a breakup. I can understand friends like lovers growing a part, we evolve, we change. As we move on to new jobs or relationships, the old ones are often left behind. In making these life choice changes, it’s often bittersweet. And as this story takes its trajectory of a friendship ending, it is told with a deep poignancy. Tania’s return to her family was perhaps the best part of the book for me. But I still go back to why use the word friendship rather than something like “it’s time for me to move out.” The blurbs all state something like this is a “bold” debut and I get that with the second sentence for the book.

Well enough of my concern with the book’s premise. I enjoyed it. The author is a fine writer and the story resonates with good pacing and tough realities.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and G.P. Putnam & Sons for granting me access to this ARC.

Gothic horror novel set in North Wales building on Welsh folklore.

Carwyn and Rhian Gwynannt are an older couple, sheep farmers their whole lives. They live simply in an old stone house. Their lives are steeped in Welsh tales of fairy hags and ghosts. After a terrible late snow buried their spring lambs, and a woman visitor trips and hurts her ankle, whom the Gwynannts care for, a partly buried stone head is found. Carwyn believes this to have been left by “Neolithic farmers” and starts to work to unearth it. Carwyn becomes so obsessed in doing this, he abandons his farm work causing great concern to Rhian. Strange things begin to happen and as Rhian sees her husband changing, an epic battle emerges between her and the malevolent forces overtaking the farm.

This is indeed a pretty creepy tale. Carwyn and Rhian live very isolated which adds to the atmospheric sense of doom that pervades the novel. I didn’t always understand the flashbacks to their lives and felt it impeded the pacing of the book. From watching BritBox and several Welsh detective shows, this is a harsh country with a language still spoken by some but which is dying - I sensed this might be sort of a theme in the book; that is, so much is changing in the Gwynannts’s world, is this creeping horror all about the changes happening in the modern world they Carwyn and Rhian would to keep away? I didn’t always understand the folklore - but that’s my problem - though horror books based on folklore seem to be the rage.

Overall this was a good read. Be prepared for a slow burn to the horror.

I’d like yo thank NetGalley and Hogarth for granting me access to this book.

There are so many books with “witch” in the title - some are fantasies, some murder mysteries, some historical - so when I came across this book, the 2025 Goodreads nonfiction winner, I thought I’d explore the topic a bit more.

The book, written by two Scottish women, explores Scotland’s witch trial history. It’s a dark, comedic look at how Scotland while basing witchcraft on the premise of women being the ones up to this mischief has also promptly assured these women were forgotten in history and how patriarchy often places women in cruel and unusual places (in this case as the villains of unexplained circumstances and phenomena). In doing this the authors show historical parallels that even apply today: scapegoating (DEI is 47’s answer to that) and modern-day misogyny.

The book breaks down the witch hunting process into the following phases: identifying, torturing, trying, and executing. Deeply researched with references from trial records, books published at the time (two written by King James) and other information, the book shows the deep religious factor played into the whole process. I thought this was an excellent way to explain the witch phenomena of the 16th-17th Cs especially highlighting certain women who perished this male cruelty. Particularly egregious was the witch pricker who was charged with finding the “Devil’s Mark.” He’d get to see the accused naked and got to do “who knows what” (shades of the orange toad getting to walk through female dressing rooms for Miss Universe contestants).

While a lot of the witchcraft evidence probably came from torture (most likely sleep deprivation), most of it is crazy and unproven - shades of QAnon. How it ever came to accusing someone always seemed to me a vengeful thing - shades of false claims found even today by people seeking to ruin a reputation (courts are bit more civilized today but not necessarily less corrupt). But strangling and burning the witch seems like cruel and unusual punishment - no higher was available at that time to challenge that means of execution (the fear was the witch could come back so kill it twice).

Most counties have repealed their witch laws but interestingly Britain used The Witchcraft Act of 1735 to convict Helen Duncan of fraud for the seances she performed - that act was tacked on more for the flimflam of the seances than witchcraft. That 1735 law was eventually repealed. One of the last chapters chronicles the status of witchcraft today pointing to some African and Asian countries where accusations are still common.

The book concludes with an examination of the status of women today noting “that it is the very existence of women that is problematic to some men.” Indeed in this country white Christian nationalism wants to relegate women back to traditional biblical roles. As with the book’s beginning where the authors noted no statutes of females from Scottish history exist in their country m, the authors did find a Norwegian sculpture dedicated to 91 people executed for witchcraft in 1621 in Vardø, Norway. But the conclusion remains that women today and as in the past just don’t hold the same importance as men.

I gave this book five stars because the topic was well researched, for the strength of the book’s structure, focusing on a process and explaining it, and for its focus on women and how history continually tries to erase us.

This is a psychological character-driven, coming-of-age thriller with historical elements exploring "isolation, parental influence, and the ethical implications of technological change."

This had been sitting on my TBR list for a while so I picked it up and literally could not put it down - read in one day. I don't know what it was, but the character of Jane reached out to me immediately and I just got so immersed in her story. Jane has been living with her father, Saul, in the Montana wilderness for most of her eighteen years. It's been a closed world with little contact with the outside world; she's home-schooled by her narcissistic, egotistical father (who as we learn in the story is really brilliant). When he takes her with him on one of his trips (which usually leaves Jane alone, fending for herself), a horrific event changes everything and Jane and her father are on the run. Jane returns home, packs things her father left, and decided to go to San Francisco to look for her mother. During the bus trip, Jane's backpack is stolen but she's able to make it to a soft ware start up, Signal, to find Lionel, a young man she befriended online. From there the story proceeds to a dramatic but satisfying conclusion.

I really liked Jane, as naive as she was, her upbringing in the wilderness give her a resilience a think anyone else in her shoes couldn't have carried off as well. Her father, "a fictionalized version of Ted Kaczynski," is a bit of nut with a grudge against technology (not necessarily but taken to extreme by him). Over time his intellectual isolation leads to dangerous extremism. While the book starts in the present, it proceeds to the past as Jane reveals who she was, who she becomes, and who she is now at the end "me". While there may be some pacing issues and some things that happen in San Francisco that don't seem complete, I just kept focusing on Jane and these things didn't seem to interfere.

While a thriller of sorts, the fictionalized elements of the Unabomber in the 1990s when Kaczynski was found adds another layer to a story as with Saul's concerns to AI and other technological things that can change our world. I think its main focus on parenting, though, was by far the most interesting to me. I kept thinking about Tara Westover's book, Educated. as I read (and even Jason Arday's memoir, Great and Fortunate Things). Parenting has a profound effect on a child but some children like Jane and Tara has some inner strength that allows them to get past "poor" parenting. I thought the author did a good job with this theme.

I gave this book five stars because it captured me from the very beginning - not always an easy thing to do -, because it explored relevant themes that concern our times today, and because I just couldn't put it down. I think I'd even re-read it. Highly recommend.

A tale of two sisters seeking a mysterious painting by a forgotten Vietnamese painter, exploring family secrets, sisterhood and the enduring power of the past.

Calla and Vivi Nguy?n are sisters but estranged. Vivi is precise and orderly, working as an art conservator. Calla is an accomplished artist and a recovering addict as well. Shortly after the death of their father and their estrangement, Calla shows up at her sister’s museum with a sketch of a painting by an obscure Vietnamese painter, K. P. Lý, called Blue Mirror, along with a letter from Lý about the painting. Calla is convinced the painting belongs to their family and that their father on his deathbed wanted his girls to find the missing painting. Vivi must decide if she can look to her past.

What worked for me in this book was the globe hopping between Wisconsin (descriptions of Lake Michigan from that side of the lake) to France and the Mansion de Notre Réve (who wouldn’t want to wake up to Vivaldi’s “Summer”) as well as to Vietnam to visit the family’s crumbling estate at Long Xuy?n where they intend to spread their father’s ashes and meet their Vietnamese relatives. The descriptions are lovely.

I also liked how the sisters reforged their relationship. “The love between sisters is a sort of cosmic lace woven from tiny moments.” But then they are separated by a storm and Vivi leaves Vietnam taking home a painting of Deer Creek - you learn how the book gets its title. She also leaves behind the journal (excerpts of which are woven into the novel) of her uncle’s grandmother, T?m, and her great grandmother.

The discovery of mystery of the Vietnamese artist is a soulful and definitely interesting as is the return of and renaming of the painting that started the Nguyen sisters’ adventure. The book ends on such a poignant note. Some readers may want tissues on hand.

This is book for lovers of art and its mysteries as well enjoy a historical context for the art it anyone who enjoys a well written search for a secret of the past.

My thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for allowing me access to this ARC.

This is story about motherhood and the impact of postpartum depression told through a young academic struggling for understanding of the possibilities her daughter is a changeling.

Madeleine “Maddie” Brodeur is a raising academic who answers to the name Mads, Queen Mab or Queenie. When she becomes pregnant, she is watched during pregnancy, has a horrific labor followed by an unscheduled C-Section before her daughter, Maud, is born. At first Maddie delights in her daughter but soon she believes something is wrong as she becomes obsessed with the belief her daughter is a changing.

The book is an exploration of madness and imagination. Maddie’s postpartum depression- something I never experienced - is filled with fairy tale illusions and literary quotations (don’t miss the Source section at the end, it’s impressive). I really felt sorry for Maddie - what an awful postpartum experience! And her husband, Tom, was a douche (what every woman doesn’t need at any time). The use of fairy tales and literary quotes as part of the premise of the book was interesting. But I also felt the craziness associated with postpartum in the fairy tale trope being offered was overstated and a bit too much.

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrer, Straus, and Giroux for allowing me access to this ARC.

Darkly comedic coming-of-age story about two siblings attempting to make sense of their lives as well as exploring themes of trauma and forgiveness.

Robin Clarke is running away from abusive parents to take a teaching job in South Bend, Indiana.Her new roommate, Naomi, is confident and posed - everything Robin wants to be but because her parents never allowed her to have friends, Robin is afraid of intimacy. Meanwhile her brother, Will, attempts to be the dutiful son but when his father falls ill, he must reexamine their relationship and the meaning of loyalty. When Robin learns of her father’s illness she too must face her past.

This is a character-driven novel. It’s a compelling sibling story. Robin and Will are very close but there is trauma and resentment underneath it. This is also an emotionally intense novel which is balanced by humor and snark. Forgiveness is huge in this book. Robin’s trauma is deep so she struggles with that and her sense of family.

This is a book for readers who enjoy exploring intense family estrangements and their consequences.

My thanks to NetGalley and Amistad for granting me access to this ARC.

A dual line folklore gothic horror novel with two protagonists separated by hundred of years.

Lee Turner shows up at his father’s house in Japan running from terrible memories he’s trying to suppress and searching for his missing mother. Lee has survived on drugs his entire life and as he slowly weans himself off them, he must deal with a reality that is terrifying but safe. He meets Sen of Shinwazu, a samurai-in-training with her father. But she lives in 1877 not when Lee does in the present and in the house and same room that Lee also lives in. Lee and Sen develop a rapport but that brings out their darker sides. Sen senses Lee’s past need to be buried while she grapples with her own dark fate.

The book is a juggernaut of ghost story, a Japanese fairy tale and a cosmic world where reality shifts and turns. The author interjects a Japanese folk/ fairy tale, The Legend of Urashima Tar? which tells of a magical world beneath the sea allows humans to live there but they eventually leave - leaving the Queen who welcomed them unhappy. This somewhat mirrors Lee and Sen in their worlds, forced to leave because life’s not forever. Frankly after a while, the hints like stains and the gore get a bit overwhelming.

I think I was a bit disappointed by this book. While I certainly got horror, gore, ghosts, strange noises in the night, I really felt the story was a bit overwhelmingly over the top, especially near the end when most of the action occurs. The themes of grief, honor, family duty resonate though. And the intertwining of the two story lines was interesting at times.

This is definitely a book for lovers of gothic horror thrillers.

Psychological thriller about a South Korean nursery owner meting out justice for the voiceless.

Yoohee has left her office job to start a nursery in the Dosan-gu district of Seoul. She has created a lush, peaceful environment filled with her favorite plants and offering customers solid advice on gardening and plants and maybe a little extra help for their personal lives. Interest in Yoohee’s shop comes to the attention of Detective Cha Dokyung when three men disappear in the vicinity of the shop. Yoohee and Dokyung play deft a cat and mouse game and you definitely side with Yoohee.

This is as one review stated “an exquisite female rage” book. The Author’s Note at the end is important to this book because so many women suffer from misogyny (with or without abuse) and painful discrimination. And it’s not just in South Korea, it’s everywhere. This book in its terse but strangely calming prose tells a story that while maybe not moral in the sense of right and wrong is definitely worthy of understanding.

Yoohee is a fascinating protagonist. I instantly felt her calmness - she loves and lives for her plants and is incredibly nurturing. I loved how she loved her shop, her customers and really only wanted the best for everyone. But betrayal and abuse are bitter seeds and being taken advantage of or ridiculed is a human crime of unkindness and inhumanity. Maybe vigilantism is warranted? Yoohee is just such a soothing character you cannot but appreciate her.

The book is told by an omniscient narrator who looks from afar and contrasts Yoohee’s warmth and tenderness with selfishness and wickedness of the men who invade her shop, her life and the life of others. The narrator’s distance helps the reader make up his/her/their mind. In this morally grey world of Yoohee, you cannot help but root for her.

I gave this book five stars for its theme of gender violence, for the calming way the story is told - little to no gore but horrific in its unique way, and for being such a delight read - and I liked the cover.

My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for granting me access to this ARC.

A poignant mother and daughter road trip that becomes a story of recapturing the past, defining the future and creating a new story.

A divorced mother and her twelve year old daughter take off on the mother’s European book tour eventually coming to Sicily to visit places where the author’s grandmother lived. This woman worked on an archeological dig and pocketed a tile with a picture of the shape-shifting Greek god Proteus. The tile has been passed down to the women for generations but the daughter believes it should be returned to the Villa Romana del Casale. While on Sicily, Mount Etna is erupting and wildfires emerge. They meet Middle Eastern refugees who are being scorned by the locals. The beauty of the land and sea - even the wind - is captured in the journey’s story. But in telling their story the mother and daughter use ancient classics like the Odyssey, voices from the past like Pliny, and ancient myths. These all blend into a lovely story.

The book has three parts: Levante (The First Part), Ponente (The Other Part), and Scirocco (The Last Part). The first two parts are told from the mother’s perspectives and the last from the daughter’s. The naming convention for the chapters relate to terms frequently used in the Mediterranean area either directionally or for weather. I found this interesting given the book is about a journey and the characters are seeking destinations for home - they want to visit the grandmother’s home in Philosophiana. There is a final chapter filled with pictures and postcards and while there is a reference to these all coming from the author’s personal collection, but which author?

It’s hard to describe this book or the story. The first two parts are told almost in vignettes around a named topic of theme. For instance there are whole section dedicated to different types of wind and storms and to the sea or geological elements of the island. In part three the story is more of an essay. This is my first novel by this author so her writing style I found most intriguing.

I concluded this was a multifaceted story. It’s about reinventing one’s self, reestablishing roots, devoting that we are all immigrants and that love binds us all.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for granting me access to this ARC.

A mystery writer's club made up of six elite crime writers experience a death of one of their members in the 1930s historical mystery based on Agatha Christie's real-life detection club.

Lucy Hubbard has been invited by Horace Hazelmoor, probably Britain's most famous detective novelist and leader of the elite Cloak and Dagger Club. She'd make the seventh member and she's coming off a huge success with her first book but she's really nervous.

Unbeknownst to the other members of the club is Lucy's arrival, especially Frank Murray, Lucy's former fiancé, and Countess Andrassy, Christine Wong and Graham Lockhart and his secretary, Jonathan Kraus.

Hazelmoor is a Machiavellian character - so his death while shocking is not a surprise. When Inspector Naughton arrives to take charge of the case Frank and Lucy are at the crosshairs for being the prime suspects.

While having a small group of suspects, the book offers a fair amount of motives. Hazelmoor's "dirt" on each of the club members lends itself to giving background on the members. The romantic element of former lovers, Frank and Lucy, gives motivation for them to forgive and to work together, adding another dimension to the book, though it probably for me was the least interesting part of the story.

This was a charming mystery in the manner of the great detective stories of the 30s. I liked Lucy - she's no push over, loves her dad and is resilient. The author did a great job with six suspects - but I was really surprised by that ending! The book is worth the read just for that!

My thanks to BookBrowse and Berkeley Publishing for granting me a Hardcopy ARC to this book. I enjoyed the hard copy read.

Historical fiction dealing with four generations of a Japanese American family but focusing on the impact of the Japanese interment camps in WWII.

The book starts with an unassuming teacher, Murano, inheriting an unpublished journal from his great uncle, Benjiro. Murano (only identified by his last name) is of mixed race and knows little to nothing of his father’s side. The journal opens a lot of things unknown to him about his family like the Muranos were successful farmers in Southern California and a great grandfather pioneered a multiracial labor union. But after Pearl Harbor the family was forced to give up their farm on Mikan Road and were then interned in a concentration camp. Benjiro escaped the camp because he said he was enrolled in college. As Murano reads he learns important information on why his family silenced their past.

The book is told in alternating chapters of past and present. It exposes the cruelty and hardships the Japanese who were American citizens endured - shades of present day America. Overall this is a very poignant read. Like all good historical fiction, it tells an important story in our history that should be remembered. The Japanese American who came to this country pre WWII made significant contributions and should never have been treated so inhumanly.

My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for granting me access to this fine ARC.

A “lightweight” coming-of-age story about relationships and obsession.

Astrid Duffy is pursuing a PhD in Russian literature at Harvard obsessed by the Russian writer, Sofiya Sova, whose life seems “to parallel” Astrid’s and whose writing seems to”to encompass every anxious thought” of Astrid’s. Astrid’s sole desire is to “embody the ethos” of Sofiya’s novel. Astrid has long believed that parallels between the Russian novelist and herself gave some deep intrinsic meaning for her. When her boyfriend, Charlie, breaks up with her, Astrid is thrown into a panic as her love life was supposed to be following Sofiya’s. Astrid, however, finds Elijah, a Sofiya Sova obsessor himself, and feels likes back on track until that relationship crumbles. Where is she going?

The book posits that relationships have to be grounded on two sides - that is, parasocial relationships offer little in terms of emotional reciprocity and connection to the individual seeking to be loved. Astrid’s obsession is one-sided - even her relationships with Charlie and Elijah because they fulfill Sofiya’s book. I think this was the best part of the story; that is, obsession gains nothing for the obsessor.

I was a bit underwhelmed in the read. As noted above, writing about one-sided relationships was a great theme. I just felt Astrid could have been developed more and the story be a little deeper. But the writing is very good.

My thanks to NetGalley and G. P. Putnam’s Sons for allowing me access to this ARC.

Exploring loyalty and love, a young housewife’s coming-of-age becomes a confrontation with the harmful effects of America’s entry into the Atomic Age in this fine historical fiction novel.

After her brother’s death in Vietnam, Eileen O’Malley is sweep up in a whirlwind romance with Paul Archer, a dashing young man on a trajectory for success in the US Navy. In 1974 Paul is stationed in Italy and they move to La Maddalena, an island in the Mediterranean near Sardinia, where Paul is in charge of a submarine’s nuclear containment. Eileen is having a hard time fitting into her new role as a naval wife plus she’s aligned herself with the residents of the island who are angered by the presence of nuclear pollution. And then she meets Teo, a journalist investigating the Navy’s clandestine operations. Eileen’s romantic entanglement with Teo may not bode well for her marriage.

This was such a fascinating story and the exploration of America’s beginnings with nuclear submarines and nuclear contamination were most interesting topics for a novel - this is why I so firmly believe in the importance of books that give insights into history we may know nothing about. I loved the descriptions of the island, they are magical - who cannot love the beauty of the Mediterranean. This is part due to book reflecting the author’s actual experiences on the island growing up when her own father was stationed there.

I enjoyed Beanland’s previous book, Florence Adler Swims Forever. She knows how to capture emotions so well as she did in this book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me access to this ARC.

Propulsive nonfiction book that read like a spy thriller. While all the details of Trotsky’s assassination are known, the details behind it may not be as it was the culmination of a major intelligence operation that took years of planning and spanned the globe to complete.

I listened to this fascinating and well narrated book. It’s not an exploration of motivation - no analysis of Stalin’s craziness - or examination of the power struggle after Lenin’s death. It’s not about Trotsky’s worldview on communism either. Younger flavors of these rather it’s straightforward look into what it took to kill Trotsky and about those who killed him. Most of the background preceding Trotsky’s expulsion from the party and his trial as an enemy of the state details the instant visceral dislike the two men had upon meeting in 1907 in London, Stalin’s eradication of the Trotsky family and others who opposed him - if you think Hitler was bad, think again. Stalin was psycho. At one point in the book, the author notes that Russian NJVD agents knew they would be killed by Stalin but felt there was little they could do to it.

The main part of the story is the ten year period from 1929 when Trotsky left Russia through the years Stalin’s men searched for him and ultimately found him in Mexico City and then to the men and women who played a part in planning and executing the murder in 1940. Ramón Mercader, the assassin, gets heavy focus in explaining his character and motivation in the book. Mercader spent years infiltrating Trotsky’s world. The book painstakingly documents this and other players in Trotsky’s world - pro and cons.

The book is well researched and provides glimpses into Trotsky’s life in exile. For instance it also details Trotsky’s friendship with Freda Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The friendship turned into a revenge love affair. For Trotsky is was an escape from the tension and isolation of his exile. Trotsky cared for rabbits and he was a stickler for rules. Vain and selfish, he was also beloved by many of his followers.

I gave this book five stars for providing a well researched exploration of the assassination of Leon Trotsky, for telling the story of this assassination through the eyes of the people involved, and for being a finely paced read that held my attention throughout .

Contemporary fiction that reads like a propulsive thriller! Tackling the topic of the “butterfly effect” of globalization through nine linked “parables,” the book entertains while it educates the reader on how the financial world works.

The book starts and finishes with a hostage takeover at a globalization conference in New York. Each of the hostages has a story to tell of their part in the 2000s boom and bust era that crossed borders and affected ordinary lives. The parables are a series of handoffs. It starts with a Chinese factory needing a miracle for an American company to shift manufacturing to their plant. It then crosses to America where an American plant will close down because those jobs will go to China. The handoffs continue down to a Norwegian fishing village buying mortgages. Each parable is a separate story - all showing the real world people live in. There are the greedy people who are in for the money and there are the simple people from a Japanese woman trying not to be subservient and forging her own financial independence or the illegal immigrant being taken by scam or to a woman fighting to keep the Amazon safe. Regardless of where the person fits, everyone is a part of globalization.

This is a fascinating way to tell an important story. We are all bound together in the search for profit. Some are more rapacious than others - and the authors get that through in clear, simple language without having to use adjectives to get the message across that these characters are not the nice guys. Tomoko Watanabe’s story is perhaps the best in my opinion. Her reasons for profit are not so much greed as to get her family out of its financial crisis due to her husband losing his pension. And then there is the stunning irony of the ending - you have to read this book to find out what I mean; you will not be disappointed.

My thanks to BookBrowse and the publisher, Regalo Press for granting me access to this marvelous book. Highly recommend.

A provocative exploration into the meaning of the stories we tell showing who we are and what we choose to believe.

Alicia, a Spanish woman living and working as a translator for a company called WorldTrans is required to work one week a month in Edinburgh. Boarding a train for her monthly trip, she meets Terence Milton, an American professor traveling with his student, Mick “Bo” Boulder, to Edinburgh to speak about his recently published book, Rocco, a fictionalized version of his friendship with a Swiss actor, Hans Haig. The critics have panned the book in America which is devastating to Milton. As he shares his story with Alicia and Bo, Alicia shares one as well about a haunting and cruel breakup with Daniel, her botanist boyfriend.

While the novel is written as a book within a book, the author has a concern about the reality we live and the reality we share with others. Alicia identifies with Hans Haig who feels betrayed by what Milton wrote about him. She feels there is more to Milton’s story than he is telling. The book ends with Alicia trying to find out what happened to Hans and his version of events.

This was a strangely beautiful read - that is, the author blends Milton’s fictional story of Hans with Alicia’s story. They sort of alternate in the telling but you sense there is a lack of honesty in one - Milton’s takes long to tell but Alicia’s is terse. In the structure the author has created - almost a stream of consciousness - I found myself getting confused at times. I think that’s my biggest criticism of the book. But the mystery surrounding Rocco’s terrible critical reception takes hold and as the reader you want to understand what happened.

My thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead Books for allowing me access to this ARC.

A propulsive story of family set in 2018 amid the collapse of the Chavez government in Venezuela and Maduro’s takeover.

First, this book is the first English translation for this authors - kudos too to the translator, Madeleine Jones (I always forget to give recognition to the translator who is probably the most instrumental in my reading life for translated book) is a short but complex novel because of its brevity - lyrical but precise language - and structure. That is, the story is narrated from multiple points of view all interwoven as the story is told - no chapters with the heading of whose POV it is.

Nina has left her mother, Graciela, and daughter, Elisa, to work in Brazil (4500 miles from her home in Maracaibo) where she experiences homeliness and discrimination. Meanwhile Graciela talks to her dead husband, Raul, as she grieves his death ( and it would appear he likes talking g to her). Then Camilo, Nina’s ex-husband and the father of Elisa, sweeps in to take Elisa to Houston to live with him and his rich parents. Nina is determined to bring her daughter home - a reversal to the dubious American dream. Note: There are untranslated Spanish and Portuguese words which I learned were left this way to emphasis I believe the cultural differences that underpin this novel.

The book offers insight into politics of Venezuela, its immigration crisis and the desperation that drives people to survive. I admit at times I got lost in the narration but what rang through clearly to me at least was that immigrants are so devalued - it’s the zero sum equation. Camilo represents this the best in the novel. Nina’s love for her daughter is intense and deep - very moving.

Whenever I read a novel that deals with the ferocity of separation, the will to reconnect and the resiliency of those in these situations, I’m struck with the reality that this has never happened to me. This is why novels like this are so important. We need to remember our humanity in these times of thinking “as long as it doesn’t affect me”and this book does that. Bravo to Morán and Jones.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for allowing me to read this ARC.

As the author writes in her notes at the end of this book: this is romance story but also a story of grief. Indeed, in this coming-of-age story, the budding romance of two young Hawaiians comes apart when a devastating tsunami strikes Hilo, separates them as they deal with the grief and loss, but in restoring their home, the two are reunited.

Jane Ito is an architectural student when she meets Kenji Lee. A summer romance ensues but Jane is determined to return to school when a tsunami strikes Hilo causing death and destruction. In sour if this Jane leaves and Benji stays to help rebuild his home. Seven years later Jane is an architect at a prestigious San Francisco firm that’s invoked with Hilo’s rebirth. Thrown together again, Jane and Benji delicately work together to renew themselves, their live, their home and their identity.

The both is divided into four parts. Part I focuses on Jane and how she sees herself and deals with the impact of the tsunami on herself and her family. Part II focuses on Benji and his reaction to the tsunami and his determination to stay and help his community rebuild. Parts III and IV deal with Jane and Benji’s reunion and renewal told in alternating POVs.

This is really a very simple story - and a character-driven one. It focuses on an eight year period in the lives of two young people and how they handle loss. There is such poignancy but intense resilience that emerges in the telling of how two young lovers are able to find their inner selves, forgive the other and renew not only their home but their love for each other.

This is a perfect book for people interested in a coming-of-age second chance romance that’s more about the love of home and community than the passion love engenders. Such a deeply moving book.

My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for granting me access to this ARC.