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The Time Traveler’s Wife

Title: The Time Traveler’s Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Genre: magical realism

PopSugar Challenge Prompt: A book everyone but you has read (it has over 1 million ratings on Goodreads)

I have no idea why people latched on to this book. How in the world did this book earn over a million ratings? It’s a good book but nothing spectacular. I definitely don’t get the hype. It was creative, sure, but I won’t read it again and only gave it four stars. Honestly, the book creeped me out at times. An older man looking at a child (his future wife, but still….) with googly eyes. Eh, just didn’t work for me.

From Goodreads: Audrey Niffenegger’s innovative debut, The Time Traveler’s Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler’s Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

The concept was really interesting. Poor Henry, at any moment, will disappear leaving his clothes and any object (like a tooth filling) behind. Though, it’s quite convenient to the plot that he has to learn to steal clothes, pick locks, and turn into an escape artist. And he goes back in time to familiar locations, his childhood home, his work place, and his wife’s childhood home. He sees her throughout her entire life, starting when she’s six. Their love is one for the storybooks, and Clare is a great character. But this book was just good for me. I can’t really explain why I didn’t love it, but I’ve definitely read better love stories.

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The Dante Club

Title: The Dante Club

Author: Matthew Pearl

Genre: historical fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A DNF book from your TBR list

Whew. Well, this one was a DNF for a reason. My goodness, it was just so boring. Sadly, it’s the exact kind of book I’d want to read. I used to teach Inferno. I love reading it. I love teaching it. My students and I had so much fun laughing at Dante’s creative punishments. For example, those who were false flatterers are surrounded by excrement. Those full of shit are then surrounded by it for eternity. It’s also hilarious that Dante put his neighbors that angered him into hell. The Dante Club is also about trying to solve murders that are occurring around Boston. Dante? check! Murders? check. But, gah…. just so dull.

From Goodreads: In 1865 Boston, the literary geniuses of the Dante Club—poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields—are finishing America’s first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante’s remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at Harvard College are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of foreign superstitions into American minds will prove as corrupting as the immigrants arriving at Boston Harbor.

The members of the Dante Club fight to keep a sacred literary cause alive, but their plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realizes that the gruesome killings are modeled on the descriptions of Hell’s punishments from Dante’s Inferno. With the lives of the Boston elite and Dante’s literary future in America at stake, the Dante Club members must find the killer before the authorities discover their secret.

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and an outcast police officer named Nicholas Rey, the first black member of the Boston police department, must place their careers on the line to end the terror. Together, they discover that the source of the murders lies closer to home than they ever could have imagined.

The Dante Club is a magnificent blend of fact and fiction, a brilliantly realized paean to Dante’s continued grip on our imagination, and a captivating thriller that will surprise readers from beginning to end.

The concept of this book is the best thing about it. But the delivery is so badly done. The way the Black officer was referred to in the book by a white author bristled me. The style of writing was so much exposition, not enough action. The author clearly needs a lesson show, don’t tell. I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn’t care at all while reading it. With thirty pages left, I could have put the book down, walked away, and had been just fine. That’s a sign of a bummer book. Oh well.

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The Immortalists

Title: The Immortalists

Author: Chloe Benjamin

Genre: Literary Fiction

PopSugar Challenge Prompt: A book you’ve seen on someone’s bookshelf (in real life, on a Zoom call, in a TV show, etc)

I really shouldn’t judge a book by its title. I expected this book to be some sort of fantasy book. And it’s just not at all. I really wavered on whether or not I even wanted to read it, based on the title, but I’m so glad I gave it a go because I loved it. The characters are just so great and each one’s story is interesting. And although you don’t spend the entire book with all the characters, they are never far from the story.

From Goodreads: If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

It’s 1969 in New York City’s Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.

The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in ’80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

This book grapples with death a lot. When the kids get their predicted death dates, that knowledge greatly impacts them and how they live their lives. You follow one of the four kids at a time, but they weave in and out of each others’ stories that it feels like they are all in the same story together. I am so glad I read this one. I can’t say it was heart-warming, but the plot was interesting, and I was captivated by how the characters were so individually written and portrayed. I will definitely be thinking about them for quite awhile.

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Behind Her Eyes

Title: Behind Her Eyes

Author: Sarah Pinborough

Genre: thriller

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: book with a black and white cover

W. T. F. did I just read? That was the craziest book! But I loved it. Verity was pretty insane. But, unlike the characters in that one, I loved all these. Even though the characters here were pretty bonkers, they were so much fun. I just don’t even know where to begin with this one. Mostly, it’s about a love triangle, who knows what, who is tricking whom, but it’s more clever than that.

From Goodreads: Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.

So, the love triangle between David, Louise, and Adele is crazy. Louise befriends Adele, keeps the affair a secret, but keeps seeing David (her boss), things escalate, and secrets abound. Normally, this type of book wouldn’t be my thing. But it’s so much more than just a crazy love story. It’s still a thriller with the craziest ending to a book I’ve read in ages. I’m telling everyone I know to read this one, just so they can experience the ride of it.

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The Whisper Man

Title: The Whisper Man

Author: Alex North

Genre: thriller

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: book published anonymously

For the reading challenge, I needed to read a book published anonymously. After scrolling through several lists, none sounded all that interesting. So, I fudged a bit and went with a book that is technically published anonymously but has a pseudonym attached. Alex North’s real identity is unknown. So, good enough for me. I read The Shadows last year and thought it was pretty good, so I figured why not just use this one for the challenge. And I’m so glad I did. This one was excellent.

From Goodreads: After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town: Featherbank.

But Featherbank has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed “The Whisper Man,” for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.

Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter’s crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man. And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window. 

This book was just great in every department: characters, plot, writing, etc. I fully understood character motivations, plot points made sense, and it was tightly written. Jake and Tom are struggling, but your heart goes out to them both. They are trying as best they can, but adjusting has been difficult. The story is told sometimes in 3rd person and sometimes 1st. It’s a bit tricky, but once you get the idea, it’s not too bad. But I definitely appreciated North’s ability to write both in the same book. Overall, this one was a lot better than The Shadows. But because both were really well done, I’ll be looking for more of North’s books.

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X

Title: X

Authors: Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon

Genre: YA fiction/historical fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A book whose title starts with Q X or Z

Back when I was teaching middle school, I handed my students two excerpts of pieces of writing: “The Ballot or the Bullet” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” I didn’t tell the kids the authors of either. After they read them, we had a discussion about which was more powerful, better written, more persuasive, etc. Hands-down, they selected “Ballot or the Bullet” as the piece they gravitated toward. Then, I played an audio recording of both authors. I can’t remember if it was the same pieces of writing or not, but the kids immediately switched sides. As powerful of a writer as Malcolm X was, Dr. King’s speaking ability was second to none. The lesson was a really great way to compare the written word vs. spoken word, not to mention how different Malcolm X’s and Dr. King’s beliefs were.

I bought this book on my kindle ages ago but never got around to reading it….story of my life. And I had completely forgotten what it was even about. But since it fit the prompt and was one I already had, it was an easy decision to select this one. I’m so glad I did. Co-written by Malcolm X’s daughter, this book is a fictionalized (based on facts, of course) account of Malcolm’s childhood and teenage years. He’s arrested and incarcerated toward the end of the book, and his prison time is briefly described. At the end of the book, he abandons his last name and changes to X.

From Goodreads: Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s nothing but a pack of lies—after all, his father’s been murdered, his mother’s been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer.

X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory when what starts as some small-time hustling quickly spins out of control. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and that he can’t run forever.

This book is fantastic. I don’t know much about Malcolm X’s background, let alone details of his childhood. I’ve never read his autobiography (for no particular reason…just never have). As much as I try to educate myself of important Black authors and activists, I am seriously lacking. I’ve never read James Baldwin, Richard Wright, or WEB DuBois. I am making a point to read more current Black authors, learning their stories, listening to their voices, but the formative authors are ones I need to investigate. And this book is an excellent way for young people, as well as for me, to do that.

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Bad Marie

Title: Bad Marie

Author: Marcy Dermansky

Genre: domestic thriller

PopSugar Reading Challenge Prompt: The book that’s been on your TBR list for the longest amount of time (according to my Goodreads “to read” shelf)

It’s no joke that Marie is bad. But I didn’t hate her at all. She makes some terrible decisions, but it’s pretty clear that she isn’t intending to physically harm anyone. She’s selfish more than anything. Her background was pretty rough, but that doesn’t justify her actions. But by the end of the book, I mostly felt sorry for her. She is just lost.

From Goodreads: Bad Marie is the story of Marie, tall, voluptuous, beautiful, thirty years old, and fresh from six years in prison for being an accessory to murder and armed robbery. The only job Marie can get on the outside is as a nanny for her childhood friend Ellen Kendall, an upwardly mobile Manhattan executive whose mother employed Marie’s mother as a housekeeper. After Marie moves in with Ellen, Ellen’s angelic baby Caitlin, and Ellen’s husband, a very attractive French novelist named Benoit Doniel, things get complicated, and almost before she knows what she’s doing, Marie has absconded to Paris with both Caitlin and Benoit Doniel. On the run and out of her depth, Marie will travel to distant shores and experience the highs and lows of foreign culture, lawless living, and motherhood as she figures out how to be an adult; how deeply she can love; and what it truly means to be “bad.”

When the trio escapes to Paris, the story really picks up. The entire time, Marie is taking care of Caitlin as best as she can. She’s a great “mother” for her. The one person in the entire world that she loves is this little girl who doesn’t belong to her. And that, at least, motivates her to make some better decisions. While they are on the run, Marie begins to run out of money, but luckily finds a way to get more, but that leads to more bad decisions. As impulsive as she is, she still has Caitlin’s best interest at heart, aside from keeping her from her mother, of course. This book was really compelling, and I kept reading to see what mess Marie would get into next.

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The Lost Apothecary

Title: The Lost Apothecary

Author: Sarah Penner

Genre: historical fiction, mystery

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a book with a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover (look at the top of the vial)

This book was a choice for Book of the Month club, but I’m not really a historical fiction fan, so I didn’t select it. But enough people told me that I needed to check it out anyway because it was really good. And I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed this one, even though a couple parts were predictable. Told in both present and past plot lines, the book gives you a good idea of what life was like back in the late 1700s for the apothecary, Nella and her reluctantly-taken-on apprentice, Eliza. I enjoyed the past story more than the present day, oddly enough. Caroline’s story wasn’t as interesting to me, although I thought she was a great character.

From Goodreads:

A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them—setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman. Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose—selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

Writing two timelines is really tricky. But Penner did a great job uncovering details in the past timeline that became important in the next chapter of the present timeline. I’m always impressed with authors who can do this. Some authors can’t even get one timeline straight, let alone two. The present day story was a bit dull for me. Caroline is dealing with a cheating husband, an unhappy marriage, a desire for children, which is real, but it just isn’t one that appeals to me. Overall, this book was really great. I read it in just a couple days. Nella and Eliza were great characters, and I would love to see more of them.

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Darling Rose Gold

Title: Darling Rose Gold

Author: Stephanie Wrobel

Genre: Psychological fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge: a book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title

I’m not a big fan of ripped from the headlines plots in books. This story clearly was inspired by that of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. However, I couldn’t put this book down. The story was different enough that I had no idea where it was going. Rose Gold was such a great character. You never really knew her true motivations because the story is told out of order. You have a present day storyline where Patty gets out of jail and lives with Rose Gold. But then you back and forth between past and Rose Gold is trying to navigate life after the deceptions are revealed and the present day of living with her mother. This book was cleverly crafted so the true plot isn’t revealed until the very end.

From Goodreads: For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.

After serving five years in prison, Patty begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes. And Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling… And she’s waited such a long time for her mother to come home.

I couldn’t stop reading this book. And I was so nervous while doing so. Patty really is the worst. Very early on after her release, you realize she hasn’t changed at all. She still has no remorse for what she did, and she didn’t learn anything from her incarceration. So, when Rose Gold takes her back, you immediately cringe because you fully expect the worst to happen. I flew through this book. It is a tough read because it deals with some pretty awful stuff regarding children, but it’s definitely worth it in the end.

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Let’s Talk About Hard Things

Title: Let’s Talk About Hard Things

Author: Anna Sale

Genre: conversation etiquette guide, social skills, interpersonal relations

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: a book by a blogger, vlogger, YouTube video creator, or other online personality

I don’t follow any blogs of people who have published books, and instead of just picking one at random, this book was one I knew I wanted to read. So, I’m considering Anna Sale an “online personality” because she hosts a podcast. I don’t think that’s a far reach at all. She is the host of Death, Sex, and Money, which is one of my favorite podcasts. Sale has just a lovely speaking voice (critical when you’re a radio/podcast person) and asks such great questions. Clearly, some are prepared because you can tell she has done her research and put a lot of thought into them, but also she responds so well to her guests’ answers. I love that she covers difficult topics with grace. The “sex” aspect might be a turn-off (pun intended!) to some people, but it’s not graphic, and Sale doesn’t really dig into personal details. It’s not salacious in any way. A lot of the sex part is about relationships, intimacy, and connection. I highly recommend you check it out.

From Goodreads: Anna Sale wants you to have that conversation. You know the one. The one that you’ve been avoiding or putting off, maybe for years. The one that you’ve thought “they’ll never understand” or “do I really want to bring that up?” or “it’s not going to go well, so why even try?”

Sale is the founder and host of WNYC’s popular, award-winning podcast Death, Sex, & Money, or as the New York Times dubbed her, “a therapist at happy hour.” She and her guests have direct and thought-provoking conversations, discussing topics that most of us are too squeamish, polite, or nervous to bring up. But Sale argues that we all experience these hard things, and by not talking to one another, we cut ourselves off, leading us to feel isolated and disconnected from the people who can help us most.

In Let’s Talk About Hard Things, Sale uses the best of what she’s learned from her podcast to reveal that when we have the courage to talk about hard things, we learn about ourselves, others, and the world that we make together. Diving into five of the most fraught conversation topics—death, sex, money, family, and identity—she moves between memoir, fascinating snapshots of a variety of Americans opening up about their lives, and expert opinions to show why having tough conversations is important and how to do them in a thoughtful and generous way. She uncovers that listening may be the most important part of a tough conversation, that the end goal should be understanding without the pressure of reconciliation, and that there are some things that words can’t fix (and why that’s actually okay).

Touching, personal, and inspiring, Let’s Talk About Hard Things is a profound meditation on why communication can connect us instead of divide us and how we can all do it better.

It’s funny because Sale writes exactly how she talks. The same phrasing, the same word choice, which was so comforting. I read the entire book hearing her voice in my mind. What I loved best about this book is that it didn’t feel at all like a self-help book, but even though it was, of sorts. It wasn’t preachy at all. I’m sure people read this to learn how to be a better person or to understand other people who are different from them, which is why I mostly read it. It’s the same reason I listen to the podcast. To hear other stories, see how I relate to them, see how I can learn from them. I cannot recommend the podcast and this book enough.