Fox: A Novel
by Joyce Carol Oates
Great concentration on characters but too wordy (10/11/2025)
FOX is about a pedophile. It is also about the 12- and 13-year-old girls, their parents, and, in one case, extended family whose lives are affected by the pedophile. It is not a spoiler to tell you that he dies in an apparent car accident.
Francis Fox has changed his name and come to another school to teach junior-high English. Descriptions of his secret life are accurate descriptions of a pedophile. He's such a nice, handsome fellow. Everyone loves him, especially his students, especially 12-year-old girls. His death devastates everyone, especially those 12-year-olds.
Then comes Part 2 and the police investigation.
Joyce Carol Oates gets five stars for her concentration on characters, their thoughts, especially as they are affected by Fox. Of course, one of her characters is Fox, himself. His secret thoughts, those that are so often the opposite of what he portrays, are not only hateful; they are also what he WANTS to think rather than what is real (which is also an accurate description of how a pedophile thinks).
But Oates is too wordy. This is her writing style. It was the same in another book of hers I read. This is a tiresome writing style, and for this I downgrade those five stars.
I was also unhappy with the inaccurate maturity levels of 12- and 13-year-old girls. They seemed more like 7-year-olds. I remember being 12 very well, and I remember my friends at that age. I know that, if a man I had trusted tried anything like Fox did, I would have known it was wrong, and I would have told my parents. And those girls' parents: most treat their 12- and 13-year-old daughters as if they are 7.
Another thing maybe someone can explain: Oates interjects her name into the Epilogue. Why? Just for the heck of it is the only reason I can come up with.
This book is saved from a three-star rating by its exceptionally good mystery: so many people had reason to want to murder Fox; but who did it?
I won this book through firstlookbookclub.com.
The Cold Millions
by Jess Walter
I appreciated and was glad to read this historical fiction (10/1/2025)
While I disliked THE COLD MILLIONS before I liked it, simply because I was bored by the first part of it, all in all, I appreciate it and am glad I read it. It is historical fiction about characters fighting for and against unionization, mostly in Washington state, during the early 20th century and the coming awareness of a 17-year-old boy who becomes involved.
Rye and his older brother, Gig, are hobos in 1909, tramping around the country looking for work. When they are in Spokane, Gig sides himself with the unionists while Rye couldn't care less. But when Gig gets in trouble, Rye does care. He thinks help will come from a very rich non-union man. In spite of myself, I enjoyed seeing how and why Rye becomes a union man.
Even though you may not agree that Jess Walter should call many of these characters progressives, you will sympathize with Rye and should even appreciate the necessity of what the unions were trying to do.
Verity
by Colleen Hoover
Not for Me (8/30/2025)
Colleen Hoover books were recommended to me by a friend whose taste in books is clearly not like my own. She suggested I start with VERITY because this is a mystery/thriller, which she knows I like, in addition to romance, which she knows I dislike. But I've heard from more than one person that Hoover's romances are unlike other romances. So I gave it a try even if only to satisfy my curiosity.
A man is married to a successful writer who is now unable to finish a series of books because she is in a coma. So her publisher finds another writer to finish the series. The rest of the book involves this other writer (female, of course) who comes to live in the man's home (thus the sex/romance) and becomes suspicious of Verity (thus the mystery/thriller).
I don't think I'm a prude, but the sex portions are explicit. If you enjoy this sort of thing, go for it. You'll be glad to know, the sex scenes are also numerous.
The mystery/thriller portions are good but get predictable near the end. I found it best to skim the sex and read only the mystery/thriller parts.
Hoover is not for me. This particular book is, I hear, her best. So I generously give VERITY three stars for its mystery/thriller portions and stop here.
Darling Girls: A Novel
by Sally Hepworth
Stick with this story (8/25/2025)
DARLING GIRLS is my fourth Sally Hepworth book; just as with the other three, I liked this book very much. So it seems I can count on Hepworth to be one of my go-to authors.
But it didn't look like DARLING GIRLS was going to be another winner at first. Miss Fairchild accumulates foster children over the years, three of them, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, permanent placements. Miss Fairchild is not only unfit in her role as foster mother; to these three children, in particular, she is darn right sadistic. And it is those chapters where Hepworth describes the sadism that almost made me put the book down.
Don't do it. Hepworth doesn't dwell on those awful parts; she establishes the fact that the woman was horrid. You don't want to miss this story. You want to meet Amy, who came after the three girls were barely in their teens. Then Amy disappeared one day. That was when the girls finally put their foot down. Years later they're adults when police notify them that human bones have been found buried beneath the house they grew up in.
The mystery: whose bones and who put them there?
I'm glad I read another Hepworth novel and look forward to more.
The Elements: A Novel
by John Boyne
Another excellent book from John Boyne (8/4/2025)
THE ELEMENTS is another truly excellent book from John Boyne. Although I normally would not be interested in a book of short stories, this was more than that. Each story is connected to the last by common characters. And they all have a common theme.
The first story is told by a woman who has enabled a sexual crime, although she didn't realize it at the time. She has come to an unnamed island off Ireland to escape all the people who are aware of this famous crime and to heal.
The second story is told by a former inhabitant of that island a few years later. He left the island for London, where he can be himself, a gay painter rather than a soccer star. But things don't turn out as planned. He becomes an accomplice to his friend's sexual crime and stands trial for it twice.
The third story is told by a member of the jury in the first of those trials. She is a doctor. She is also the perpetrator of sexual crimes.
The final story is told by a child psychologist who had interned with that doctor. He had also been one of her victims when he was 14. Now it's 15 years since his internship, and he has a son that age.
THE ELEMENTS is a book you won't want to put down. I admit, though, I found the third story the most unputdownable. How damaged that doctor was and how much damage she caused her victims!
I won an ARC of THE ELEMENTS through goodreads.com.
Hello Beautiful: A Novel
by Ann Napolitano
What an excellent Novel! (7/23/2025)
HELLO BEAUTIFUL is an excellent novel. If you liked DEAR EDWARD, another Ann Napalitano novel, you'll be happy to know that HELLO BEAUTIFUL is even better.
I know that HELLO BEAUTIFUL is compared to LITTLE WOMEN. But they aren't at all alike except, maybe, that both books are about close sisters, one who likes to write, another who is an artist, and another who dies early. Maybe I'm forgetting other similarities, but the stories are not alike.
HELLO BEAUTIFUL is told from the perspective of, mostly, three main characters: Sylvie, Julia, and William. Sylvie and Julia are two of four extremely close sisters.
Julia, the eldest sister, is a planner; she plans to hook up with William, a fellow college student, and she plans to marry him. When she does, she plans his career. He seems happy to comply.
But "happy" is the operative word because William isn't, really. He's been unhappy his whole life. His parents were, always, miserable people and made him miserable, even as an adult. He was a severely depressed person, and Julia didn't notice.
So how does Sylvie figure in here? She noticed. Telling you more than that would be a spoiler.
HELLO BEAUTIFUL is a book I didn't want to put down. But it did have one defect. Even after William's depression is under control, why did he never. . . . No, that would be a spoiler.
Alias Grace
by Margaret Atwood
Unputdownable after page 43 (7/18/2025)
If you haven’t read a Margaret Atwood novel before, as I hadn’t, you might be put off by ALIAS GRACE if you give up before page 43. I almost did. Luckily, I reminded myself to give it a few more pages. It becomes a page turner after page 43.
Grace Marks was a real person, as are some of the other characters in ALIAS GRACE. (Atwood discusses the fact and fiction of this book in the “Afterword.” I read it first.) Grace was accused of murder in 19th–century Canada. Atwood fills in where the facts are not known.
Even if Atwood’s writing about Grace’s life before she moves to Canada (when she lives in Ireland with her parents and siblings) sounds monotonous to you, stick with it. You’ll be glad you did.
The Ghostwriter: A Novel
by Julie Clark
This is a mystery but not a thriller (7/14/2025)
An author who is a highly experienced ghostwriter is so hard up for money that she takes a ghostwriting job with her father, a successful horror writer from whom she has been estranged for many years. For most of his life, he's carried around a mystery. Now, he says, he wants to finally come clean as he nears the end of his life.
Vincent Taylor has requested that Olivia, in particular, be his ghostwriter. He wants her to know the truth as to whether he really did kill his brother and sister when he was a teenager. But Olivia does not simply take his word for it. Plus, she finds that his own writings on this subject are unintelligible. So she really has her work cut out for her putting together all the pieces to this puzzle.
I wonder if this really is the job of a ghostwriter– –searching for the truth. I always thought a ghostwriter was at the mercy of his/her subject and looked no further for the truth of the matter.
If you think that, because this book is written by Julie Clark, it will be thrilling, please lower your expectations. This book is a mystery but not a thriller.
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
by Bill Browder
A Book Everyone Should Read (7/6/2025)
RED NOTICE is nonfiction, and I know that nonfiction can often be dull. But please believe that this isn't. You need to read this. RED NOTICE is a book that everyone should read.
This is Bill Browder's story of his experiences with Russia since the Soviet Union. He invested in Russia as CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and became the country's largest foreign investor. Then the Russians charged him with stealing and tax evasion, all lies, all made up so that he would stop accusing Russian oligarchs of doing exactly that and proving it. He had to leave Russia for his own safety and soon realized that anyone he worked with had to get out, too. What he didn't know at first was that even his lawyer was not safe there, even the lawyer who worked with his lawyer.
Eventually, Browder was able to convince his lawyer to leave Russia. But Sergei Magnitsky, Browder's other lawyer, would not. He believed too strongly in the law, that the truth would eventually win. But this was Russia, is Russia. Magnitsky would not lie, and the Russians arrested, tortured, and murdered him as a result.
This is also Browder's story of convincing other countries to enact laws, in the name of Magnitsky, to sanction these human rights abusers. Browder has devoted most of his life to this since Magnitsky's death. This is how he could see that Magnitsky's murderers are made to pay.
Everyone should read this so we remember the evil of Russia. As you read RED NOTICE, remember the news stories he speaks of and how they were presented to us at the time. For example, remember the news story of Vladimir Putin's no longer allowing Americans to adopt Russian orphans. That was his way of punishing Americans for enacting the Magnitsky Act. Putin says he did this for the orphans' safety, and that's how the media presented the story, as if we should take Putin at his word.
Browder wrote RED NOTICE 10 years ago. He followed up with another book, FREEZING ORDER, more recently, in 2022. Believe me, you'll want to read it when you finish RED NOTICE.
I read FREEZING ORDER first because I won it. It interested me so much I was sorry I hadn't read RED NOTICE first. And now that I've read it, I want to reread FREEZING ORDER. It will be the only book I've reread since THE GATEWAY TO STORYLAND when I was five.
The Foundling: A Novel
by Ann Leary
Not for Me (6/28/2025)
Don't get me wrong--THE FOUNDLING is a good book, just not for me. So my criticism of it should not be taken as negative so much as the reasons it isn't for me.
The setting is Pennsylvania, 1927 and 1928. Mary was raised in a Catholic orphanage. Now she is secretary for a woman she greatly admires, Dr. Vogel, who runs the Nettleston State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. Just from the name of that institution, you should be able to predict what this book is about. And I found the story predictable throughout.
Yes, institutions with names like that really did exist at that time. The idea was, institutionalize feebleminded women until they can no longer get pregnant, ensuring they do not produce feebleminded children to be dependent on taxpayers.
Two of the many problems with that, as Mary found: many if not most of the institutionalized women were not feebleminded, and the institution was worse than a prison. A resident of Nettleston State Village was serving a life sentence when she had done nothing wrong or had already served her prison sentence. Mary took too long to figure out what should have been obvious to her during her first week on the job. She made the book infuriating.
As with all historical fiction I read, I wondered throughout THE FOUNDLING how accurate it was, how much was based on Ann Leary's imagination and how much was based on her research. I would have liked Leary's "Author's Note" to have expanded on this more than it did.
Although Leary did not intentionally write THE FOUNDLING as a young adult novel, that is the way it came across to me. The writing style is young adult. I'm not a young adult and, with rare exceptions, don't appreciate young adult books. I would have liked this book if it had been written from an adult point of view, perhaps from Mary's journalist boyfriend.
Out of The Easy
by Ruta Sepetys
A YA Novel (6/17/2025)
Ruta Sepetys writes young adult historical fiction. I normally do not care for YA, but I've found that her books work well as crossovers to adult fiction. OUT OF THE EASY, however, although excellent for young adults, does not come across to me as adult.
Josie is 17 years old in 1950 New Orleans, "the easy." As the daughter of a dishonest prostitute, she has been living on her own for years now in a city where she does not belong. She wants out.
So she dreams of going away to college in Massachusetts, and she does everything she can to make it really happen. Most of OUT OF THE EASY is about how she does that.
It's a storyline for young adults. And the situations Josie finds herself in would appeal to young adults. This adult found them predictable, sometimes even silly.
Upgrade: A Novel
by Blake Crouch
It's not nice to fool Mother Nature (6/12/2025)
Blake Crouch is the only science-fiction writer I will read with any regularity. That is because his plots and subject matter are never ridiculous. That is more true of UPGRADE than of any of his other books that I've read. He succeeds in making his main character and narrator sound like a scientist when he talks about genealogy and DNA.
Logan lives happily with his wife and child and never wishes for more. He is a scientist but now works as a special agent for the Gene Protection Agency. It is his job to find and arrest anyone who tries to modify genes.
On one of Logan's raids of a "dark gene lab," he is impaled with a virus that will upgrade his own genes and make him an almost superhuman. He discovers that this was a deliberate plan of his previously-thought-dead mother, also a scientist but far more brilliant than he is.
What follows is Logan's adventures as he attempts to prevent his mother and then his sister from infecting the world with this virus. They feel that the human species can only be saved by this upgrade. But Logan knows that he can't stand by and watch millions die from the virus's negative effects.
This all happens in the 21st century, only a few years from now. Crouch could be implying that this is something we need to worry about but warns that "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature" (which you may remember if you're old enough). He could also be saying that our intelligence doesn't need to be upgraded. Maybe his final letter to his wife and daughter explains it.
The House We Grew Up In
by Lisa Jewell
Growing Up in the House of a Hoarder (6/5/2025)
Lisa Jewell has outdone herself with THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN. Although I normally prefer thrillers, which Jewell excels at writing and which I mistakenly thought this was, THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN is riveting and had me glued to the pages as much as any thriller.
The house is beautiful in a beautiful neighborhood with other beautiful houses. But Lorelei loves things: bright things, colorful things, potentially useful things, things in bulk, all sorts of things. And all are things she just can't throw out.
Lorelei and Colin have four kids who grow up in this house of more and more things that their mother can't throw out. Each of their lives is examined over the years, and we see how the house they grew up in and their mother's madness affected them and their decisions.
I highly recommend this book.
The Hunting Party: A Novel
by Lucy Foley
Locked-Room Mystery That Bored Me (5/30/2025)
If you like locked-room mysteries, THE HUNTING PARTY should interest you. The characters are not exactly in a locked room, but they're all stuck on the remote grounds of a hunting lodge where a snowstorm prevents anyone from getting in or out. You will know from the beginning that someone is murdered. But you won't know who that is or who is the murderer, except that each is someone stuck at the lodging grounds. So the whole book is pretty much character study, as each gives first-person accounts, flashbacks, of what led to the murder.
This format usually bores me. That's why I've never been an Agatha Christie lover.
Clark and Division (A Japantown Mystery)
by Naomi Hirahara
Historical Mystery (5/25/2025)
Yes, I was late getting to CLARK AND DIVISION, and anything I say about it has probably been said already. But did I like it? Yes--mostly.
CLARK AND DIVISION is a historical mystery. In my opinion, that makes it better than most historical fiction. Plus, apparently, Naomi Hirahara based her characters on real people and their stories. And her mystery was based on a real case. That's why I liked it.
it is 1944. A Japanese American family was finally allowed to leave the concentration camp where they had been incarcerated in California. They are now in Chicago and soon learn that the eldest daughter, Rose, who went to Chicago ahead of her parents and sister, is dead, run over by a subway. Her 20-year-old sister, Aki, investigates this "accident" throughout the book. Was this really an accident? Aki doubts it. But was the official finding, that Rose committed suicide, correct? Aki is sure that's not right. Could someone have pushed Rose? That's the mystery.
Even more than the mystery, though, CLARK AND DIVISION is about the Japanese American experience postdetainment. This historical fiction is the reason, I'm sure, the book won so many awards.
H Is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
Both Wonderful and Depressing (5/16/2025)
H IS FOR HAWK is Helen Macdonald's book about herself and her hawk, a goshawk. This is why I wanted to read it. I didn't realize that it is also about her mourning over the death of her father and about T.H. White, writer of, among other well-known books, THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING and THE SWORD IN THE STONE. I enjoyed Macdonald's wonderful descriptions of her goshawk, Mabel, and her need for Mabel upon her father's death. But I could have done without all her critique of T.H. White's training of his own goshawk, which he described in THE GOSHAWK.
White's training of his goshawk was mostly failure. It was difficult to read Macdonald's retelling of the failures because White unknowingly tortured his goshawk. Plus, it sounded to me like he was full of psychological problems. H IS FOR HAWK devotes too much time and space to White.
I found this book depressing. At least, unlike most books about animals, Macdonald doesn't end H IS FOR HAWK with death.
I Cheerfully Refuse
by Leif Enger
I didn't get it (4/27/2025)
Leif Enger wrote two of the best books I ever read: PEACE LIKE A RIVER and VIRGIL WANDER. So I expected that I CHEERFULLY REFUSE would be another winner. But I didn't get it.
This book confused me. It's mostly doom and gloom in the near future. But it felt like Enger was trying to make a point; I just could not tell what the point was. At the same time, though, I was enjoying the way he writes, his sly humor and his remarks that were so like those in his books I loved.
I CHEERFULLY REFUSE starts out in Minnesota and ends up in Canada by way of Lake Superior. The main character, Rainy, meets bad guys all along the way but meets good guys in Canada.
Is that a message? If so, Enger would be insulting most of his readers, and I doubt he would do that. I'm just searching for a point.
Another possible point could be his "astronauts." These were the bad guys who made life hell for everyone else because they had most of the money and, therefore, all of the power. Nowadays I hear lots of complaints about the dangerous oligarchy we live in. Could that be what this is, a complaint about oligarchy?
Whatever the point is with I CHEERFULLY REFUSE, I did enjoy Enger's sentences, i.e., I love the way he writes. He's working on another book, and I know I'll want to read it.
All the Broken Places: A Novel
by John Boyne
Another outstanding novel (4/18/2025)
No surprise, ALL THE BROKEN PLACES is an outstanding novel from John Boyne. This book is another example of why he is one of my go-to authors. Plus, although this is a standalone novel, if you read Boyne's THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS, you should notice and may like meeting again some characters the two books have in common.
This is Gretel's story. She is 91 years old. She tells of her life in a luxury "flat" in 2022 London with her neighbors: Heidi across the hall and Alex and Madelyn and their little boy Henry downstairs. Every other chapter Gretel tells of her past.
She was born in Germany. Her unnamed father was an officer in the German army and was, in large part, responsible for the atrocities during the Holocoaust. Gretel and her family lived quite a nice life. But at the end of the war, when she was 12 years old, her father and brother were gone, and she and her mother escaped to France under assumed names.
Gretel spends the rest of her life feeling guilty and hiding her past.
In 2022 London, she befriends young Henry and does her best to prevent his evil father from ruining his life or even killing him. Because of Gretel's ongoing guilt, she is not afraid to do what she knows will hurt her.
I've read several of Boyne's books. All, including this one, are unputdownable.
Once There Were Wolves
by Charlotte McConaghy
You really do want to read this (4/13/2025)
I need to write this review well enough that it convinces you to read ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES. You really do want to. I read quite often, but I haven't read such a good book in at least a year, maybe five years.
This book has already been summarized so often, I only say that Inti (female) leads a team to reintroduce wolves into the Highlands in Scottland. Of course they deal with resistance. Eventually, it does appear that a wolf has killed two people.
Two other characters who play major roles are Inti's psychologically-troubled twin sister, Aggie, and Dunkin, the chief of police. Turns out, the book is not only about wolves. There are also mysteries about what happened to Aggie and whether Dunkin or a wolf killed a man.
Although I didn't read ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES in one sitting, as so many reviewers claim, I did have to force myself not to.
West with Giraffes: A Novel
by Lynda Rutledge
I didn't think it would, but this book hooked me in (4/1/2025)
The writing style of the first 100 or so pages of WEST WITH GIRAFFES reads, I think, like a young adult novel, which I wouldn't normally care for. But I knew that this historical fiction is based on an actual story: in 1938 two giraffes really did live through a hurricane on board a ship to arrive at the coast of New York, where they were then put in crates and transported by truck all the way across the country to the San Diego Zoo. So I kept reading.
This book is a fictionalized story of their 12-day journey with their zookeeper (whose name has been changed to Riley Jones for this story) and two others who are pure fiction, the 17-year-old driver, Woody Nickel, a Dust Bowl orphan from the Texas Panhandle, and Augusta "Red," the redheaded photographer who follows the giraffes' journey. Together, including the giraffes, they deal with one adventure after another along their way. And it is these adventures that kept me reading until late at night. The book hooked me in, after all.
One problem I have with historical fiction is my need to know what is fiction and what is fact. Sometimes the authors include a note with the book to explain which parts they made up. Most often, they don't do that to my satisfaction, and that is the case with WEST WITH GIRAFFES. At least nowadays we have the Internet, so we can look it up. So far, I know that the zookeeper's name was really Charlie Smith.
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