Author: noveltherapy

Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes

~ noveltherapy

This was a very entertaining and thought-provoking quick read about parent/teacher/student high school drama, and the collateral damage that it can cause. Liston Heights High School will seem very familiar to many: privileged but stressed-out students, over-involved parents, and teachers and administrators walking on egg shells.

I hate to admit it, but the high school theater angle hit very close to home, though I think that would be true if it had been about the volleyball team or the debate team, or any competitive endeavor. Both of my children have been involved in the arts (one in musical theater and the other as a classical ballet dancer) so I know this world well, and I know how hard it is to find the right level of involvement — you want to support your kid’s dream but you don’t want to become “that mom.” Also, our school, like most public schools, relies on the time and money provided by parents — it’s essential to the survival and viability of most programs. Yet, how do we balance that necessary involvement with being too involved and too invested? These are tough questions and I don’t have the answers, but as a parent I think it’s important to think about these things.

Recommended!

Crossings

~ noveltherapy

Available July 28, 2020

Thanks to Alex Landragin, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this astonishing novel. This book is a bit hard to describe so I’m going to quote the official description from Amazon, which probably sums it up best:

“On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence.

The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations.”

I was drawn in from the very first page and had trouble putting the book down until I finished. I chose to read the alternate pagination, which was interesting but sometimes confusing. Now that I’ve finished the novel, I’m inclined to read it again straight through.

I loved this story. The writing was captivating and the historical detail seemed authentic. My only complaint is that the ending left me hanging. I had hoped for a more definitive conclusion. Maybe there’s a sequel in the works? One can hope!

I highly recommend this inventive, wonderful novel. Put it on your list for Summer 2020!

The Topeka School

~ noveltherapy

This was a disappointing Did Not Finish for me. I had really looked forward to this novel due to all the good buzz — it made many best of 2019 lists — plus the high school debate angle intrigued me (at the risk of outing myself, I was a high school debater), but I found the writing too dense/confusing and ultimately, reading this just felt like work. I hate giving up on books, but a few years ago I decided that time is too precious to waste any of it on a book I’m not enjoying. Also, there are too many other good books waiting in the wings! So, I gave up on The Topeka School and moved on. As always, your mileage may vary.

Hard Cash Valley

~ noveltherapy

Available May, 2020

Thanks to Brian Panowich, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this novel.

Panowich’s previous novel, Bull Mountain, was one of my favorite books of 2016, and I also very much enjoyed his next novel, Like Lions, so I couldn’t wait to start Hard Cash Valley. While this novel is set in the same part of north Georgia and has some of the same characters as the previous two novels, it is very different. It features a new main character in GBI Agent Dane Kirby. I enjoyed Kirby’s complicated backstory and I liked him a lot as a character. However, I liked the plot of this novel less than the previous ones — the cockfighting angle and the very long list of bad actors in this novel left me kind of cold.

Overall, I would recommend this book but with a few caveats. I hope that Dane Kirby will be a recurring character in a future novel from Panowich and I look forward to reading his next work. If you have not yet read any of Panowich’s books, I highly recommend reading Bull Mountain.

Running Out of Road

~ noveltherapy

Available March 24, 2020

Thanks to Daniel Friedman, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this novel. In Running Out of Road, elderly retired Memphis detective Buck Schatz must come to terms with his own mortality, his wife’s serious illness, and the pending execution of Chester Marsh, a man he put on death row decades ago.

Buck’s story alternates with the transcript of a podcast by a journalist who is fighting to stop Marsh’s execution. The podcast attempts to investigate the circumstances of Marsh’s arrests and confessions, as well as to give a platform for his appellate attorney to detail his arguments against the death penalty. It’s an effective device that allows Friedman to show alternative opinions about justice and retribution.

I really enjoyed this novel, in part because Buck Schatz’s character is so irreverent and so cranky, but yet touching at the same time. The contrast between the earlier scenes with him as a young detective and those in the present, where he is physically and mentally frail, are poignant and sometimes heartbreaking. Friedman also does a good job here showing both sides of the death penalty debate, while at the same time telling an engaging story.

This is the first novel I’d read by Daniel Friedman, but it won’t be the last! I enjoyed this book so much that I’m planning to go back and read the earlier Buck Schatz books. I’m glad to have discovered this series.

The Girl from Widow Hills

~ noveltherapy

Available June 23, 2020

Thanks to Megan Miranda, Simon & Schuster, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this novel.

As a young child, Arden Maynor was famously and miraculously rescued after being swept away into a storm drain. Years later, in a new town with a new name, she is trying to live an anonymous life, when she begins sleepwalking again. Suddenly, her life is thrown into chaos and she is in danger. What really happened to her all those years ago? And who is coming after her now?

The Girl from Widow Hills is a well-executed thriller which kept me eagerly turning the pages until the end. The plot is very well done — I was surprised throughout — and the writing is also quite good. I recommend this novel for readers who enjoy thrillers and I very much look forward to Miranda’s next book.

Running Against the Devil

~ noveltherapy

Running Against the Devil, by Rick Wilson

Rick Wilson had a highly successful, 30-year career as a Republican strategist, primarily specializing in ad creation and campaign messaging. This book is his attempt to lay out — in tough love style — what it is going to take to defeat Trump in 2020.

Let me say at the outset that this book is not for anyone in the “MAGA”-sphere. You are not going to like Wilson’s take on your candidate and you are not going to appreciate his humor. Even if you are not a Trump fan, this book is not for you if 1) you are not interested in hearing hard truths about what it’s going to take for a Democratic candidate to win in 2020 (I’m looking at you, Bernie Sanders fans) and/or 2) you are offended by profanity.

While Wilson does spend some time in this book discussing how we got here and making jokes at Trump’s expense, the bulk of the book is really a deep-in-the-weeds assessment of the politics at play on the ground. He uses math and polling data to make his case, as well as brutal revelations about what his former side (GOP political consultants) are willing to do to win. This is not a kumbaya narrative, but for anyone serious about defeating Trump at the ballot box, it is an essential one.

Recommended for political junkies/political science nerds (like me!) and for those looking to laugh while learning a lot about political campaigns in the age of Trump.

A Good Neighborhood

~ noveltherapy

Available March 10, 2020

Thanks to Therese Anne Flowler, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this novel.

Set in present day North Carolina, A Good Neighborhood follows the story of two families as their teenagers — one white and one bi-racial — fall in love. Each family makes decisions along the way that make sense to them in the moment but that ultimately lead to tragedy. A Good Neighborhood tackles very difficult topics, specifically racial prejudice, and I think largely succeeds in handling those topics with nuance and sensitivity.

Having said that, I didn’t love this novel. It started well, with interesting, well-drawn characters, but it took a long time to get going and then everything wrapped up VERY fast. It would have been nice to see some growth, redemption — something, as a result of the horrible things that happened in the story, but there seemed to be very little/none of that. Finally, I found the device of the unspecified neighbor “narrators” very distracting and ultimately, annoying. I’m not sure why that choice was made by the author, but every time the narrator intruded into the story, it took me out of the spell of the novel.

While there were things about this book that I didn’t love, I very much liked Fowler’s writing style. I look forward to reading her next novel.

Unspeakable Things

~ noveltherapy

Thanks to Jess Lourey, Thomas & Mercer, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this novel. As a someone who was in middle school and high school in the 1980s, who also loves mystery novels, I was very excited about the premise of this novel. Lourey does an excellent job narrating from the point of view of a young girl in the 80s, and the pop culture references (which were plentiful) were appreciated. She is also skillful at setting a very unsettling, creepy scene. I was creeped out by the second page!

That said, I did not love this book. As the book wore on, I found that I was skimming. I thought the ending/resolution was quite rushed and left too much hanging. Also, there was something about the overall tone of the novel that didn’t work for me — the fun 80s references and teenage/middle school social issues seemed jarring and almost inappropriate when set against such horrific subject matter. Perhaps that was the author’s intent, but for me, it just didn’t sit right. (This book deals with a laundry list of horrible subjects: incest, rape, murder, among others. Anyone reading this book should be aware of that before getting started.)

Still, there was a lot here that worked. I can’t really recommend this book but I’d be interested in reading more from this author in the future.

The Sun Down Motel

~ noveltherapy

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Available February 18

Two young women, thirty-five years apart, are caught up in the mystery surrounding a haunted, isolated road-side motel in Simone St. James’ The Sun Down Motel.

I very much enjoyed St. James’ previous novel, the Broken Girls, but I liked this one even more! Creepy ghosts, cold-case mysteries, and good pacing make this novel a real winner. I had a few nit-picks with it, which I won’t detail here because I don’t want to give away any of the plot, but they didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Highly recommend! Put it on your list!