The Murder List is a new book out by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Ryan is a long time news reporter in the Boston market and has written many mystery novels and won many awards both for her TV career and for her writing.
I have read some of her books in the past, but must admit I never became a big fan of her characters or her mystery novels. But I was asked to read this new stand alone book for a discussion group.
It is a fun entertaining plot, with all the good details of this new mystery genre, the psychological thriller twist. Like the first in this genre, Gone Girl, you are led down the garden path, thinking you are headed in the correct direction to figure out who killed the young girl from the office, but you always wonder, "are you being led astray?" Now there have been so many that I began to realize that there was going to be a twist at the end and I knew we were heading the direction of The Girl on the Train or The Silent Patient. All books that follow this new formula.
This is the story that is based on the kind of experiences Ryan knows first hand, set in the Boston State House, situated in the neighborhoods and streets of Back Bay, Boston.
Rachel has left her job at the State House and gone back to law school. She is married to a top Boston, defense attorney, Jack Kirkland and is going to intern for his arch nemesis, Martha Gardiner, the top prosecutor for the state. The story starts as Rachel is working during the summer as Martha's intern and the case they are assigned to is an old unsolved case that may have new evidence coming to light. As we watch the current story unfolds Rachel and Jack also have some chapters of flashback experiences, that lead us up to and converge with present day events.
Well told and creative, Ryan does keep you in suspense until the end. Though I thought I knew what was coming there was a satisfying ending to the book. Those in the book group who had not read other books like this were completely surprised at the end. I enjoyed this Hank Phillippi Ryan novel.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Monday, June 8, 2020
A Ceiling Made of Eggshells
A Ceiling Made of Eggshells evokes such a clear, powerful image. The thought of an off white ceiling above you with many tiny cracks, that is so fragile and thin the light seeps through. When it was whole it protected the egg inside, but also was easily penetrated. All these thoughts run through your mind even before you have cracked the binding of this new book by the wonderful author, Gail Carson Levine.
Levine who brought us so many pre-teen fiction favorites like The Princess Tales series and Ella Enchanted and Dave At Night, now looks to the Spanish Inquisition and using historical accuracy weaves a tale of life in Spain for Jews leading up to the Expulsion in 1492.
Paloma is the main character in this book and we see the world through her eyes. She is a young girl living in the juderia of Alcala de Henares, Spain. Loma as she is known in her large family is only 12 years old when her beloved grandmother dies and as she reminds her grandfather of his lost wife, she becomes his favorite. Belo, grandfather, or Don Joseph as he is known to the many people he collects taxes from and to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella , who he works to befriend when he delivers the taxes, brings Loma along with him as he travels. Don Joseph along with a few other important men in the Jewish quarter are working to keep the Jewish people safe. They offer bribes and placate the royal family to protect the families around them.
Loma is watching and learning. The reader is also learning along with Loma the very dangers that face the Jewish people living in Spain at this time in history. The Inquisition is gearing up slowly and at first just seems to be a nuisance that can be lived with. But slowly it increases its tentacles and tries to draw in more and more people. There are the Old Cristians and the New Christians and the Jews. There is always pressure and danger. Loma grows up as we follow her traveling with her Belo across Spain and even when she is threatened or in life threatening situations she remains brave and always thinking quickly on her feet.
An interesting, captivating plot that will appeal to all readers who are interested in learning more about the Spanish Inquisition .
Levine who brought us so many pre-teen fiction favorites like The Princess Tales series and Ella Enchanted and Dave At Night, now looks to the Spanish Inquisition and using historical accuracy weaves a tale of life in Spain for Jews leading up to the Expulsion in 1492.
Paloma is the main character in this book and we see the world through her eyes. She is a young girl living in the juderia of Alcala de Henares, Spain. Loma as she is known in her large family is only 12 years old when her beloved grandmother dies and as she reminds her grandfather of his lost wife, she becomes his favorite. Belo, grandfather, or Don Joseph as he is known to the many people he collects taxes from and to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella , who he works to befriend when he delivers the taxes, brings Loma along with him as he travels. Don Joseph along with a few other important men in the Jewish quarter are working to keep the Jewish people safe. They offer bribes and placate the royal family to protect the families around them.
Loma is watching and learning. The reader is also learning along with Loma the very dangers that face the Jewish people living in Spain at this time in history. The Inquisition is gearing up slowly and at first just seems to be a nuisance that can be lived with. But slowly it increases its tentacles and tries to draw in more and more people. There are the Old Cristians and the New Christians and the Jews. There is always pressure and danger. Loma grows up as we follow her traveling with her Belo across Spain and even when she is threatened or in life threatening situations she remains brave and always thinking quickly on her feet.
An interesting, captivating plot that will appeal to all readers who are interested in learning more about the Spanish Inquisition .
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
On Division
Goldie Goldbloom has written a positive and comforting novel about the Chasidic community.
On Division gives the reader a view into this closed Williamsburg community, showing both positive and unpleasant sides. The reader can take away their own view in the end, but this is a book that wants to give the reader a change to appreciate how people who live in these kinds of communities and stay there are feeling.
In most of the books that come out about the very religious Jewish sects, the stories are about how these authors do not fit in and have left their families behind to find a new life in the secular world.
In this novel, that is written by a Chasidic woman who stays and works from within the Jewish religious world, we see a different perspective .
Suri is a mother, grandmother and is about to become a great-grandmother. She has gone through menopause and even is a breast cancer survivor. Her family has been a pillar in the community until the tragic death of her oldest son. Now when her latest daughter got married Suri feels the match was not as prestigious, that their standing the community has been lessened. If people were to find she was pregnant what would happen to their standing int he community then? She is also worried about what her family will think so she starts to keep it a secret from everyone including her husband.
She goes to the midwife and is convinced to start regular weekly visits to the hospital for checkups for health reasons. These she does in secret. She gets more and more involved in working with midwife to help other pregnant women coming to the hospital clinic. As the secret is kept and more secrets are kept, Suri starts to feel the power of having these parts of her that other people do not know about her. She also begins to understand how her son felt, that as a young gay man in a community that was not accepting of homosexuality, he was keeping a secret that hurt.
Suri realizes that she did not help her son enough. She finds a way int he end to come to peace with what happened and know that if she could have it to do over she would do things differently.
Suri comes to the realization that she is apart of the Chasidic life and she can see both the pros and cons of that life, but that it is the place she is comfortable. She invites the midwife to come to her home for a Purim celebration. Val the midwife is uncomfortable with all the noise and chaos. She is upset by the fact that everything in this Jewish home revolves around marriage and children. She wants to know why Suri doesn't want more of life for herself or for her daughters and granddaughters. Suri explains to her, "What else is there? The whole life of a Jew is devoted to family. There is no end to that cycle. Think of Dead Onyo, in another community she would be in a nursing home, alone. No one would know that she makes excellent poppy-seed jam. Instead, here, she is loved. Her great-grandchildren sit in her lap every day. She will never be moved to a nursing home because there will always be someone to rake care of her."
In the end isn't that what all of us want? To be loved and cared for and never alone? There is something to be said in favor of some of the rules that govern the Chasidic and other Orthodox sects of Judaism. This book helps point out that it is not all black and white. There are so many shades of gray, that there are good parts and restrictive parts to every experience in life. We all have to choose where on the spectrum we are most comfortable living.
On Division gives the reader a view into this closed Williamsburg community, showing both positive and unpleasant sides. The reader can take away their own view in the end, but this is a book that wants to give the reader a change to appreciate how people who live in these kinds of communities and stay there are feeling.
In most of the books that come out about the very religious Jewish sects, the stories are about how these authors do not fit in and have left their families behind to find a new life in the secular world.
In this novel, that is written by a Chasidic woman who stays and works from within the Jewish religious world, we see a different perspective .
Suri is a mother, grandmother and is about to become a great-grandmother. She has gone through menopause and even is a breast cancer survivor. Her family has been a pillar in the community until the tragic death of her oldest son. Now when her latest daughter got married Suri feels the match was not as prestigious, that their standing the community has been lessened. If people were to find she was pregnant what would happen to their standing int he community then? She is also worried about what her family will think so she starts to keep it a secret from everyone including her husband.
She goes to the midwife and is convinced to start regular weekly visits to the hospital for checkups for health reasons. These she does in secret. She gets more and more involved in working with midwife to help other pregnant women coming to the hospital clinic. As the secret is kept and more secrets are kept, Suri starts to feel the power of having these parts of her that other people do not know about her. She also begins to understand how her son felt, that as a young gay man in a community that was not accepting of homosexuality, he was keeping a secret that hurt.
Suri realizes that she did not help her son enough. She finds a way int he end to come to peace with what happened and know that if she could have it to do over she would do things differently.
Suri comes to the realization that she is apart of the Chasidic life and she can see both the pros and cons of that life, but that it is the place she is comfortable. She invites the midwife to come to her home for a Purim celebration. Val the midwife is uncomfortable with all the noise and chaos. She is upset by the fact that everything in this Jewish home revolves around marriage and children. She wants to know why Suri doesn't want more of life for herself or for her daughters and granddaughters. Suri explains to her, "What else is there? The whole life of a Jew is devoted to family. There is no end to that cycle. Think of Dead Onyo, in another community she would be in a nursing home, alone. No one would know that she makes excellent poppy-seed jam. Instead, here, she is loved. Her great-grandchildren sit in her lap every day. She will never be moved to a nursing home because there will always be someone to rake care of her."
In the end isn't that what all of us want? To be loved and cared for and never alone? There is something to be said in favor of some of the rules that govern the Chasidic and other Orthodox sects of Judaism. This book helps point out that it is not all black and white. There are so many shades of gray, that there are good parts and restrictive parts to every experience in life. We all have to choose where on the spectrum we are most comfortable living.
The Matzo Ball Heiress
The Matzo Ball Heiress, written by Lauren Gwen Shapiro is a fun light fully story about Heather Greenblotz, the heiress to the Greenblotz family fortune and part owner of the number one selling matzo company, under the family name. She shares the running of the company with her cousins, the third generation of Greenblotz to control the company started by their grandfather Izzy.
Of course Passover is upon us as the story begins and Heather has been recruited to take a news reporter on a tour of the matzo factory. As she guides the reporter, Steve Myers and his crew through the factory she is thinking of how she can impress Steve and Jared the cameraman with her own film experience and whether she finds either of them attractive. This becomes a romantic plot with a bit of tension as Heather first goes on a date with Steve and then finding him narcissistic finds Jared much more likable.
Steve it turns out is interested in using Greenblotz matzo and the Greenblotz family to further his career. He offers to film the Greenblotz seder asa publicity move for the company and a career move for himself. Of course the family agrees even though all the members of the family have been estranged for years and have not held a family seder in all that time. It is a family secret that threatens to come out and possibly ruin the business. Who wants to buy Passover food from a family that does not know how to throw their own seder.
As the plot thickens characters are developed who interact with Heather and her cousin Jake, who will be called on to participate in a seder. We learn who is Jewish and who is not. Who is religious and who has no knowledge about the religion they were born into. There is fun dialog about Judaism and references to social and religious topics. There are definitely stereotypical statements and misconceptions about Kashrut and other Jewish symbols and people.
In all it is entertaining and humorous ... not offending, but reminiscent of an earlier time...
Of course Passover is upon us as the story begins and Heather has been recruited to take a news reporter on a tour of the matzo factory. As she guides the reporter, Steve Myers and his crew through the factory she is thinking of how she can impress Steve and Jared the cameraman with her own film experience and whether she finds either of them attractive. This becomes a romantic plot with a bit of tension as Heather first goes on a date with Steve and then finding him narcissistic finds Jared much more likable.
Steve it turns out is interested in using Greenblotz matzo and the Greenblotz family to further his career. He offers to film the Greenblotz seder asa publicity move for the company and a career move for himself. Of course the family agrees even though all the members of the family have been estranged for years and have not held a family seder in all that time. It is a family secret that threatens to come out and possibly ruin the business. Who wants to buy Passover food from a family that does not know how to throw their own seder.
As the plot thickens characters are developed who interact with Heather and her cousin Jake, who will be called on to participate in a seder. We learn who is Jewish and who is not. Who is religious and who has no knowledge about the religion they were born into. There is fun dialog about Judaism and references to social and religious topics. There are definitely stereotypical statements and misconceptions about Kashrut and other Jewish symbols and people.
In all it is entertaining and humorous ... not offending, but reminiscent of an earlier time...
I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti
I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti , written by Giulia Melucci is a fun entertaining book for a sunny afternoon. Then go into the kitchen and cook up all the recipes in the book.
Wha a fun entertaining book to read and I marked so many fo the recipes that scattered throughout the book.
This is a food memoir. Melucci goes through her adult life chronicling her social life. The men she has dated and the even eventually the single women get togethers. With each boyfriend she talks about their relationship and the role food plays in the relationship. Each date involves at least a dinner. Some of the relationships last for a while and then more meals are described.
The recipes look easy and delicious. It is hard to image any of the relationships not working out when there is so much delicious food being shared. One of the boyfriends that lasts three years she thinks is just based on their common interest in food. Most of their conversations and entertainment revolve around meals, the discussion of menus, the shopping for ingredients, the cooking and eating of the meal. In the end even that connection is not enough for marriage.
I have earmarked many of the pages in the hopes that someday soon I will make some of these recipes. Luckily I know that my husband did not marry me for my cooking, so however they turn out I will still have my husband asleep next to me every night.
Some of the fun recipe titles are; Pear Cake for Friends with Benefits, First Date Butterflies, and Morning After Pumpkin Bread.
Wha a fun entertaining book to read and I marked so many fo the recipes that scattered throughout the book.
This is a food memoir. Melucci goes through her adult life chronicling her social life. The men she has dated and the even eventually the single women get togethers. With each boyfriend she talks about their relationship and the role food plays in the relationship. Each date involves at least a dinner. Some of the relationships last for a while and then more meals are described.
The recipes look easy and delicious. It is hard to image any of the relationships not working out when there is so much delicious food being shared. One of the boyfriends that lasts three years she thinks is just based on their common interest in food. Most of their conversations and entertainment revolve around meals, the discussion of menus, the shopping for ingredients, the cooking and eating of the meal. In the end even that connection is not enough for marriage.
I have earmarked many of the pages in the hopes that someday soon I will make some of these recipes. Luckily I know that my husband did not marry me for my cooking, so however they turn out I will still have my husband asleep next to me every night.
Some of the fun recipe titles are; Pear Cake for Friends with Benefits, First Date Butterflies, and Morning After Pumpkin Bread.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Lift and Separate
Clever, funny and entertaining, Lift and Separate, by Marilyn Simon Rothstein. This is such a fun light novel about as woman who is on the precipice of her new life, as her husband throws a match to their marriage. Marcy is facing herself in the mirror as she reevaluates the importance of marriage and the years she devoted to her husband and children ignoring her own desires. Now as her husband betrays her, having an affair with a young woman, Marcy must decide whether to take him back or move forward without him.
There are so many experiences in this book any woman and especially mothers can relate to. One is the feelings is the empty nest when your children have all grown and off living their own lives. It is hard to accept that they will not be home for dinner or dropping by to visit. You keep thinking of them as you shop for groceries. Marcy explains what happens when she is reminded that the kids are gone, "True, but I tend to forget that. I enjoyed their growing up so much that even though I know they're adults, I cling to whatever I can. Besides, it's tough to think about only yourself when you've spent your whole life thinking about everybody else. Until a few weeks ago, I still went to the supermarket and bought their favorite things. But I have to say, I'm trying to get over that. I restrict myself to the ten-items of less checkout."
Married at a young age to her first boyfriend, Harvey, Marcy has been married longer than she was single. She has devoted her life to being Harvey's wife and making him look good in his business. He is head of a global brassiere empire, working to out do Victoria's Secret. He can tell what size and design bra would be best on any woman just by looking at her. He brings home every new design in Marcy's size. She has so many bras she will never be able to wear them all.
When Harvey admits that he had a short term affair she throws him out. Then she starts to work through how to move on with the help of her friend, Dana. Then her mother has a fall and ends up in the hospital. There she runs into an old acquaintance, Candy, whose father is also in the hospital.
Marcy and Candy build strong friendship as they lean on each other through their parent's slow decline.
Candy also has a marriage that is in trouble. Dana is on her third marriage. This book takes a long hard look at relationships, trust and dependence. It also in a funny lighthearted way looks at independence, and resolve.
There are so many experiences in this book any woman and especially mothers can relate to. One is the feelings is the empty nest when your children have all grown and off living their own lives. It is hard to accept that they will not be home for dinner or dropping by to visit. You keep thinking of them as you shop for groceries. Marcy explains what happens when she is reminded that the kids are gone, "True, but I tend to forget that. I enjoyed their growing up so much that even though I know they're adults, I cling to whatever I can. Besides, it's tough to think about only yourself when you've spent your whole life thinking about everybody else. Until a few weeks ago, I still went to the supermarket and bought their favorite things. But I have to say, I'm trying to get over that. I restrict myself to the ten-items of less checkout."
Married at a young age to her first boyfriend, Harvey, Marcy has been married longer than she was single. She has devoted her life to being Harvey's wife and making him look good in his business. He is head of a global brassiere empire, working to out do Victoria's Secret. He can tell what size and design bra would be best on any woman just by looking at her. He brings home every new design in Marcy's size. She has so many bras she will never be able to wear them all.
When Harvey admits that he had a short term affair she throws him out. Then she starts to work through how to move on with the help of her friend, Dana. Then her mother has a fall and ends up in the hospital. There she runs into an old acquaintance, Candy, whose father is also in the hospital.
Marcy and Candy build strong friendship as they lean on each other through their parent's slow decline.
Candy also has a marriage that is in trouble. Dana is on her third marriage. This book takes a long hard look at relationships, trust and dependence. It also in a funny lighthearted way looks at independence, and resolve.
Thursday, May 7, 2020
The Guest Book
Author Sarah Blake has developed into a wonderful writer with new book, building on her success and further developing the world of World War II Europe and post war United States.
I read her first novel The Postmistress and found it interesting and entertaining. A great book group discussion followed. People either loved or disliked the book. There were strong feelings about individual characters. We agreed that most interesting character was the young woman, American radio gal Frankie Bard is working with Edward R. Murrow, who has traveled to Europe as a young journalist to find and share the news happening during the Blitz with the United States. She finds out so much more than she expected.
Now we move to Blake's newest book, The Guest Book. With a start during the War and a main character, Ogden Milton traveling to Germany for business during the war. He and his young bride Kitty are part of the wealthy old money class in America. They are starting out life with their young children in New York City. After a family tragedy, Ogden takes the family on a trip to Maine. There they discover an island for sale and purchase it as the family compound. Every summer they leave the heat of the City and travel to their island in Maine.
The book covers the generations of Miltons as they grow, marry have children, then grandchildren always following the tradition of WASP customs to keep secrets and shrouding tragedy in silence.
They spend their summers with family gatherings living a life of privilege eating lobsters, swimming and boating. Each generation holding their secrets until Kitty's grandchildren are faced with financial debt and a house that needs major repairs. Evie, Kitty's granddaughter who has spent her life as an historian is having trouble letting go of the house and begins to realize there are some family secrets that need to be uncovered. She needs to find out the truth before she can let go of the Maine house and the past.
This novel weaves it way through time from pre war Germany through the war, into the 1950s as the world is changing each generation brings new ideas with it. As Kitty's son Moss grows into adulthood, he wants something different the gold spoon. He does not want to go into the family business and he feels called to be an artist, write music that has the beat of a changing time. He meets with a young black man who is also ready to challenge the status quo and they talk over drinks in a bar in New York. As they sit at a table a black man and a white man, in a room full of dockworkers, writers, and "cool cats", he explains, that things are changing, "The room, man. Us in the room." Moss leaned toward him. "Here we are, talking. All of us in the same room, unimaginable to my parents, my grandparents. But we are here now. New notes."
This is a long volume with many characters. I looked for a family tree on the inside cover numerous times. Working to keep them all straight is a challenge but it is worth it. The book explores so many topics, love, loss, family dynamics, prejudice and desire.
This is one of those sweeping sagas that pulls you in and keeps you engaged until the very end.
Sarah Blake has found her stride and I look forward to following for a while.
I read her first novel The Postmistress and found it interesting and entertaining. A great book group discussion followed. People either loved or disliked the book. There were strong feelings about individual characters. We agreed that most interesting character was the young woman, American radio gal Frankie Bard is working with Edward R. Murrow, who has traveled to Europe as a young journalist to find and share the news happening during the Blitz with the United States. She finds out so much more than she expected.
Now we move to Blake's newest book, The Guest Book. With a start during the War and a main character, Ogden Milton traveling to Germany for business during the war. He and his young bride Kitty are part of the wealthy old money class in America. They are starting out life with their young children in New York City. After a family tragedy, Ogden takes the family on a trip to Maine. There they discover an island for sale and purchase it as the family compound. Every summer they leave the heat of the City and travel to their island in Maine.
The book covers the generations of Miltons as they grow, marry have children, then grandchildren always following the tradition of WASP customs to keep secrets and shrouding tragedy in silence.
They spend their summers with family gatherings living a life of privilege eating lobsters, swimming and boating. Each generation holding their secrets until Kitty's grandchildren are faced with financial debt and a house that needs major repairs. Evie, Kitty's granddaughter who has spent her life as an historian is having trouble letting go of the house and begins to realize there are some family secrets that need to be uncovered. She needs to find out the truth before she can let go of the Maine house and the past.
This novel weaves it way through time from pre war Germany through the war, into the 1950s as the world is changing each generation brings new ideas with it. As Kitty's son Moss grows into adulthood, he wants something different the gold spoon. He does not want to go into the family business and he feels called to be an artist, write music that has the beat of a changing time. He meets with a young black man who is also ready to challenge the status quo and they talk over drinks in a bar in New York. As they sit at a table a black man and a white man, in a room full of dockworkers, writers, and "cool cats", he explains, that things are changing, "The room, man. Us in the room." Moss leaned toward him. "Here we are, talking. All of us in the same room, unimaginable to my parents, my grandparents. But we are here now. New notes."
This is a long volume with many characters. I looked for a family tree on the inside cover numerous times. Working to keep them all straight is a challenge but it is worth it. The book explores so many topics, love, loss, family dynamics, prejudice and desire.
This is one of those sweeping sagas that pulls you in and keeps you engaged until the very end.
Sarah Blake has found her stride and I look forward to following for a while.
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