LaBarbera is a psychotherapist and professor, and this is her first published novel about growing up and overcoming trauma. It was a thoughtful book, which I appreciated since I’m very interested in psychology, although I did struggle with some aspects of it.  Kai is a young girl when the story begins; she describes herself as fearless, particularly compared to her sensitive and artistic twin brother Kade.  Her family spends every vacation with the Tylers, and Kai is best friends with their daughter and obsessively in love with the oldest son Josh. Her life starts out idyllic b ..read more

There are books you feel “meh” about, and then there are books you feel strongly conflicted about.  This one was the latter.  I tore through it while on vacation and I really got into this generational family drama. But I also felt the violence was excessive and even glorified. Unlike Hard By a Great Forest, which was violent in a devastating way, this book seemed to equate violence with manhood.   The story is set in North Carolina, where patriarch King has just passed away. His last words to his son are “Don’t let white men get the house.” His four children, Junior, Mance, Ce ..read more

I first read this book about 30 years ago when I was in college, and it blew me away. I’ve carried that paperback from house to house for years, but this was the year I picked it back up again. I was nervous I wouldn’t love it the way I did. I definitely experienced it differently, but I wasn’t disappointed.  This is one of Kingsolver’s earliest novels, published in 1990. She lived in Tucson for two decades before moving to Virginia. When I was an English major at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Kingsolver was a celebrated local author. In those days she wrote about the Southwest, m ..read more

This was a fascinating book about three generations of a Chinese-American family (with an absolutely gorgeous cover).  The relationships between each generation are both loving and deeply troubled.  May is a woman who flees Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China to come to the U.S. She’s a brilliant scientist (a researcher of biogenetics) but struggles to form a close relationship with her daughter, Lily. Lily wants the loving relationships she sees in other American families but her mother can barely say “I love you”.  Struggling in her career pursuits after college, Lily fal ..read more

I really enjoyed this novel about three friends in China. Lulu is engaged to a man she doesn’t want to marry, Jane is saving up for plastic surgery because she hates the way she looks, and Rina wants to freeze her eggs so she doesn’t miss out on motherhood. They decide to steal the wedding gift money, a heist that will get each of them what they want most.  I thought this book might be more comedic, like the Aunties books by Jesse Q. Sutanto. And while similar, this book was not laugh-out-loud funny, and in fact really dealt with serious issues, like the pressure on young women in China ..read more

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday (at That Artsy Reader Girl) is a “love freebie” for Valentine’s Day. I should say up front I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day, a holiday that leaves a lot of people out and is designed mostly to sell a lot of chocolate that many people don’t even want. That said, last week’s post got me thinking about the things I love in romances, and the things I don’t. Romance reading is so personal.  Of course I want good dialogue and characters, but then the things I like and dislike are also influenced by my own personality and experiences, like how I met Mr. CG. So here a ..read more

I’ve always been a romance reader, but I’ve only recently “fallen in love” with contemporary romances. I love that there’s so many to choose from, and they are so much more diverse than they used to be. With Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought I’d write a short review of two books I read recently by new-to-me authors, both great in different ways, though with some elements I didn’t care for. These were both published in 2022, so should be readily available if you’re a library borrower like me (also good for backlist reading challenges). Kiss Her Once for Me by Allison Cochrun My favorite Chr ..read more

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did, although the book does have a lot of strong points. It’s a story of a mother and daughter living together in Brooklyn, both still grieving the loss of Martin, Paula’s husband and Flores’ father.  It’s a story of their complicated relationship as they struggle to move on with their lives. Monica Flores, in her thirties, is putting all of her energy into her job at a company that sells aquariums. The company has grand dreams but poor financial management, and as one of their financial managers, Flores is in a precarious position. If she ..read more

I’ve read many books by T.C. Boyle, and I always enjoy his pointed humor and his way of delving deep into history and science, while also building very realistic, imperfect characters  In Blue Skies, his latest, he explores the impacts of global warming in Florida and California.  I should say this probably isn’t my favorite Boyle but I did enjoy it.  The main characters are Cat, Cooper, and their mother and father. Cooper is a scientist, and he persuades his parents to prepare for climate change by giving up meat and eating insects instead. His mother gamely teachers herself t ..read more

If there’s a book I’ve recommended over and over again, it’s Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her new book. Despite its similar name, Happiness Falls is not a sequel. But it is similar in many ways. Once again, Kim weaves a complex mystery around interesting, sympathetic characters. And again, her focus is on family relationships and the unique needs of individuals on the autism spectrum. The story begins in a Northern Virginia suburb when a father, Adam, takes his severely disabled teenage son Eugene out for their usual hike. The son returns, agitated but si ..read more