If you saw yesterday’s post, you might not be surprised to see me follow with a list of sea faring books! I’d love to include Moby Dick and some others, but I’d have to read them again to properly review them. So for now, here are the ones I’ve read more recently. I included Lord of the Flies because, even though it’s a plane crash that strands the boys on a deserted island, they still have to deal with being out in the middle of the ocean.
I didn’t know a lot about this book or the author, but I was drawn to the cover and the promise of a good story about relationships, one of my favorite fiction topics. Ebbott’s debut novel, Among Friends follows the long friendships of two couples, now in their fifties, and their two teenage daughters.
Set in New York, the story begins as Amos, Claire and their daughter, Anna drive upstate to spend the weekend with Emerson, Retsy and their daughter, Sophie, to celebrate Emerson’s fifty-second birthday. In the car, we get a glimpse of the undercurrents in Amos and Claire’s marriage when Claire, a doctor, discounts Amos’s worry about a toothache. These initial interactions set the tone of the novel, where internal dialogues dominate. No one seems happy, despite the great friendships and the comfortable, privileged lives they lead.
Right away, we get a look at their personalities when the four discuss a disturbing incident that is now being handled. Emerson, a lawyer, has a shrewd and often ruthless approach which spills into his personal relationships and can put people on edge. We also learn about the dynamics between Emerson and Amos, who were college roommates, and how they feed off each other. Emerson, a golden boy who comes from money, wants assurance that he’s actually a good guy and he gets that from Amos, whose family had no money. Amos, a sharp and insightful psychologist, seeks validation from Emerson. It often seems that this relationship is the most important one in their lives, which says something about their marriages.
Everything changes when something really bad happens and the two couples must confront the multitude of negative thoughts they have been cultivating, particularly when true personalities and selfishness come to light.
I thought this was an excellent conflict; however, the buildup was slow and the author’s writing style put me off. The excessive use of personification, metaphors and similes made the book seem more like an exercise in creative writing than an engaging novel. I was also frustrated with the lack of likable characters. The level of self-absorption and brooding analysis made me wonder how any of them accomplished anything during the day. I don’t like to be too picky, but a lot of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads say the same thing. In addition, I think it can be tricky for young authors to write about situations they may not have experienced yet. I found the author’s portrayal of the two couples to be unrealistic in many ways and the ending did not sit right with me.
So, an interesting plot and worthy of three stars for that, but maybe not a book for everyone.
What kind of book deserves a five-star rating? What it comes down to for me is how great I feel while I’m reading it, how deeply I relate to the characters, to the ideas they express and to the way these characters serve as symbols that represent multiple layers of themes.
Meg Wolitzer does all the things I love in The Interestings, a story that spans forty years and follows the lives of six talented teenagers who meet in 1974 at a summer camp for the arts. In the book, Wolitzer poses this central question: What is to be done with talent? And this story is how each of her characters struggles to balance talent with relationships, careers, family and happiness.
Wolitzer touches on many themes, particularly the complicated relationship between talent, success, money and happiness. At Spirit-in-the-Woods camp, Jules Jacobson is a newcomer to this precocious group. She soon discovers the niche of comedic acting. Ash Wolf is beautiful, a more serious actress. Her brother, Goodman, is big, handsome and charismatic, an aspiring architect, but he’s lazy. Cathy Kiplinger is a talented dancer. Jonah Bay is a gifted musician, the son of a famous folksinger. And at the core of these friends is Ethan Figman, awkward, heavy and unattractive. He’s a brilliant cartoonist who has a keen sense of what others are feeling and continues in that role throughout his life.
As the friends enter the adult world in New York, they start to understand that talent can only get them so far, that money and connections can be equally important. Some make it, some change course, some struggle desperately. Ethan’s Figland cartoon propels him to unimagined levels of success and the other characters watch with jaw-dropped amazement. But this isn’t just a story about six kids and their arty careers. It’s also a story about family, marriage, envy, depression, friendship and big secrets that threaten the ruin of everything they’ve built. It’s about work and the big machine of business. It’s about New York and “its unyielding surfaces.”
I’ll leave out the plot developments so you can enjoy The Interestings as much as I have. Instead, I’ll tell you why, in addition to what’s above, this is such a great read:
It’s extremely well-organized, with great early details that come into play much later.
It’s not a historical novel, but there are just enough historical references to anchor you to a certain period of time.
The social and political commentary is present, but not overbearing. I like knowing what the author thinks.
Many of the characters reach dramatic life-changing epiphanies and that really moved me.
There is a great payback scene that exceeded my expectations!
I love Ethan Figman, the way he thinks, feels and cares about his friends.
I also love the comparison between the marriages, how the roles change as situations shift.
Here are my favorite quotes from The Interestings:
This is Ethan talking to Jonah about the meaning of work and life:
Don’t be guided by some rigid philosophy. Make things. Play your guitar. Build robots. This is all we’ve really got, isn’t it? What else is there but basically building things until the day we die?
Here is a description of Ethan when he reaches his own epiphany:
Ethan had imagined his life was nearly perfect except for the flawed son; but the flaw was in the father.
This describes Jules as she thinks about how Ethan is her soulmate:
But she knew, you didn’t have to marry your soulmate, and you didn’t even have to marry an Interesting. You didn’t always need to be the dazzler, the firecracker…you could cease to be obsessed with the idea of being interesting…the definition could change; it had changed, for her.
And finally (warning – mild spoiler!), Jules and Dennis and how he comes back strong:
He willed the marriage back, and pulled his wife toward him. Dennis was present, still present, and this, she thought as she stayed landed against him, was no small talent.
This is my kind of book and I was so glad to finally read it. Have you already read The Interestings? Do you agree with me? I’ve read a lot of reviews and not all of them are positive. I’d love to hear what you think!
You may remember Ruth Ware’s 2016 bestseller, The Woman in Cabin 10, the suspenseful story about Lo Blacklock, a travel writer on an exclusive cruise, who witnesses a woman being thrown overboard. At least that’s what she thinks she sees. But she’s been drinking a lot and she’s suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. No one believes her.
The popular book was adapted into a Netflix film in 2025 and now Ware has written a follow-up. The Woman in Suite 11 picks up ten years later and follows a new plot in which Lo, now married with two children, attends a special grand opening of a luxury hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, hoping to get an interview with the Marcus Leidmann, CEO of the hotel’s owner, the Leidmann Group.
Everything seems great when Lo arrives at the Grand Hotel du Lac. What a strange surprise, however, to see several colleagues who were aboard the cruise ten years earlier. It took years of therapy to move past those tragic events and the last thing she wants is to rehash what happened with them. Still, a little networking after being out of the work force will be good. And even better if she sells her interview to the Financial Times.
But Lo is in for the shock of her life when she’s called into Suite 11 and sees the one person she hoped never to lay eyes on again. Get ready to watch Lo get pulled into a dangerous and twisty plot that places her at the center, fighting a murder charge, and hoping to get out alive. As you can see by the cover, the plot involves a bathtub with the water running. I’ll leave that to you to guess what it means!
As with the first book, Ware keeps the pages turning and I appreciated how she includes plenty of bad decisions and red herrings, wrapped up in conflicting loyalties and interesting moral questions. Lo knows that if she walks away from what she’s been asked to do, she could not live with herself. I also enjoyed reading about the luxury hotel, the beautiful setting, as well as a look inside a wealthy and powerful family and the inner workings of the Leidmann Group.
After ten years, I was pretty hazy on the details of The Woman in Cabin 10, but it didn’t matter. The author includes plenty of backstory in the second book, and even if you never read the first one, you will have no trouble following the story. Although I’ve liked some of Ware’s other books a little better,I found The Women in Suite 11 an entertaining and suspenseful read, something fun to look forward to at the end of the day.
I recently loaded up my Kindle with library books so I would have a lot of choices while I was traveling last weekend. You need a certain kind of book when you’re on a trip. Nothing too heavy and something to keep you engaged while you’re waiting in the airport or during those random times between activities. I picked The Irish Goodbye because I have liked other Read with Jenna books. In addition, anything with a house on the cover attracts me!
Set in New York on a coastal Long Island town, The Irish Goodbye begins the day before Thanksgiving when the three adult Ryan sisters return to their parents’ large Victorian house. Twenty years earlier, an accident on their brother Topher’s boat shook the family, and that day on the water continues to haunt them. Cait ran away to London to escape the guilt for her role in the accident and rarely returns. Alice, the middle sister, stayed. And Maggie, the youngest sister, moved to Vermont. Now, each brings a personal crisis to the house. The family culture is the kind where they all pretend everything is okay. At first they try to hide their problems, but the past collides with the present when Cait invites an old friend to the house.
Several issues churn just below the surface: sibling resentments, their aging parents, the family home in need of major repairs, and their mother, Nora’s strong Catholic beliefs. And of course, the stress of being adults with family, relationship, and career demands. These simmering conflicts kept me reading.
The title refers to the act of leaving without saying goodbye and is a prominent theme throughout the book and the author connects several storylines to this idea.
I appreciated how easily the story developed and the larger problems that dominated the family. That made me happy with my choice for a travel book. I also liked the tie-in to the old house and the idea of keeping it in the family. But I didn’t connect much with the characters because I felt they were undeveloped, and I thought the author included too many issues for such a quick read. That was especially true as she worked to resolve everything at the end.
So all in all an engaging and modern read, but not something I will think about much now that I’ve finished it.
I first read Marjorie Morningstar about thirty-five years ago and, because I loved it the first time, I knew I wanted to read it again. At the time, I knew a little about Herman Wouk because I watched the 1970s miniseries The Winds of War, but I had never read his books, including The Caine Mutiny, winner of the 1952 Pulitzer Prize and Youngblood Hawke, which I would go on to read and also love!
Published in 1955, Marjorie Morningstar is a coming-of-age story about a young Jewish woman who wants to be a Broadway actress. Beginning in 1933, we follow Marjorie Morgenstern, a seventeen-year-old student at Hunter College, as she tries to break into acting. Her father, Arnold, has been working hard at his importing business and the family recently moved from the Bronx to Central Park West. Arnold wants the best for Marjorie, but he also wants to make sure she knows the value of money. And her mother, Rose wants nothing more than for Marjorie to marry a successful young man. Maybe that will happen. Marjorie’s active social life has already earned her many admirers.
From here we watch Marjorie as she acts in college productions and meets people connected to the acting business. There she makes friends with Marsha Zelenko who has lots of advice and convinces Marjorie to work at a camp across the lake from South Wind, an upstate resort that puts on productions. Although forbidden (Rose calls the place Sodom), they row over to South Wind and Marsha introduces her to the famed composer Noel Airman, ten years older than Marjorie. Their attraction to each other is electric and the two begin a long and tumultuous relationship. Noel is charming and clever, but he’s also unsettled and self-absorbed. Their relationship drives the story as Noel falters in his career and Marjorie realizes, despite her success in college, she will not make it on stage. The big question is if Marjorie and Noel will make it together.
Once again, I was fully engrossed in the story, but does it stand the test of time? There are some parts I didn’t like the second time around because of how dated they were, displaying prejudices and attitudes that do not fly in today’s world. But the psychology between Marjorie and Noel was great and I especially liked the family dynamics and conflicts, particularly between Noel and his father. I also liked reading about how Marjorie, and especially Noel, resisted family pressure to follow traditional roads to adulthood. Marjorie’s family was much more open to having her try acting, although they seemed to hope she would settle down and marry. But Noel felt pressure to follow in his father’s footsteps and he did everything he could to make sure that wouldn’t happen.
Not everyone appreciates long books, but I enjoy them because for me, they really show character development over time. This one was close to 600 pages, so be warned! Now, do I re-read Youngblood Hawke? Maybe this summer!
Check out these links for more about Herman Wouk and his books:
If you like domestic thrillers, check out Behind Closed Doors, a story about a woman who seems to have the perfect marriage, but the truth of their relationship is locked inside their beautiful home.
Set outside London, we first meet Grace Harrington as a single woman in her early thirties. A successful buyer for Harrod’s, she has dedicated her life to raising her little sister, Millie, who was born with Down’s Syndrome. It’s a dream come true when she meets her future husband, Jack Angel, forty-one, smart, successful, and handsome. A lawyer specializing in protecting battered women, he’s never lost a case and is passionate about his job.
In the beginning, their courtship is like a fairy tale and they quickly become serious. Grace was nervous about how her sister would fit into their relationship, but Jack has been wonderful with Millie. Millie will soon turn eighteen and graduate from her school, and be Grace’s full responsibility. When Jack proposes three months later, he tells her, “I just want you to know that wherever we live, there will always be a place for Millie.”
From the beginning, something is off. Red flags are everywhere, even at their wedding and on their honeymoon. And now Grace is fully dependent on her new husband because Jack insisted that Grace quit her job. Together, they host dinners, go out to lunch with Jack’s friends, and visit Millie. Grace is never alone, until she’s behind closed doors…
I won’t include spoilers, but this is a very readable and fast-moving suspense novel that checks the boxes for domestic thrillers. I watched Grace get into a dangerous relationship and wondered how she didn’t see the warning signs! Blinded by infatuation, and vulnerable because of her situation with Millie, she makes mistakes that trap her in their home. With almost no resources, I hoped she would find an opportunity to break out of a dangerous marriage.
Like many books in this genre, you’re going to need to accept the facts as they’re given, and not question things that don’t make complete sense. Behind Closed Doors is a solid thriller with a story that keeps moving, a book you can read on a plane or the beach and not have to concentrate too much! But readers sensitive to violence with twisted, evil characters and storylines might not enjoy the story.
B. A. Paris is a Franco-Irish author who lives in England and is the author of eight novels. Behind Closed Doors was her debut novel, published in 2016. Learn more about Paris and her books here.
Ask ten people who come to the library what they are reading, have just read, or are waiting to read, and chances are five of them will say The Correspondent, Virginia Evans’s debut novel. The book is getting a lot of hype.
It’s an epistolary novel, so the only way you get to know the characters is through letters, emails, and notes. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but after a few correspondences between Sybil Van Antwerp and her family, friends, former colleagues, a neighbor, and a young boy, I had no problem with the format.
Set in Annapolis, Maryland, the book begins in 2012. Sybil, divorced and in her early 70s, is a stubborn and crochety sort. She wants to be connected to others, but bristles at close contact. In addition to her active correspondence, she’s writing an ongoing letter to someone named Colt. By writing letters, she’s able to keep her distance and protect a vulnerable side that we only fully understand by the end of the story.
We learn early on that Sybil is a bit of an unreliable narrator because she glosses over events that would raise concern with her family and friends if they knew the whole story. Although she divorced her husband, she remains close to his sister and frequently writes to her about books she’s read. She also writes to authors, including Ann Patchett and Joan Didion. So, a lot of different types of correspondence! Another important person in her life is Harry, her colleague’s son. He suffers in school because of his neurodevelopmental differences. He also has a hard time socially and is often bullied at school.
Several pressing events force Sybil to confront the thing that’s at the core of her difficulties, including an icy relationship with her daughter. By the end of the story, Sybil and the reader has a much more open understanding of her life.
I read The Correspondent for a book club and thought it was just okay. That’s despite the fact that I tore through it because I was very interested in the circumstances of Sybil’s life. It wasn’t until later that I started to feel like the story, despite the somewhat original format (although epistolary novels have been around for a long time), was contrived, driving home the message that we need to slow down and reach out to others. In addition, Sybil’s character didn’t ring true to me and she seemed much older than a woman in her seventies! I also felt that her letters to Ann Patchett and Joan Didon were a force. Sometimes I feel like publishers and editors know what will be popular and get writers to put together a story that will sell.
So definitely readable and good for a book club, but not a book I loved.
I was looking for something quick and light to read and picked A Very Typical Family on a whim. I must admit, I liked the colorful cover! Superficial, I know. But I also love to read books that revolve around houses, especially old ones. This one fit the bill.
The story begins when Natalie Walker, who works for an architecture firm in Boston, receives a letter notifying her of an inheritance after her mother’s death. But she and her two estranged siblings can only take ownership of their childhood home in California, if they come together in Santa Cruz. Natalie has not spoken to Jake and Lynn in fifteen years. They can’t forgive her for what she did the night of the house party when their mom was away. Even her mother stopped talking to her. Can the three siblings work out their problems before the historic home is lost?
Both Natalie and Lynn show up, but Jake is nowhere to be found. Despite the chill between the sisters, it seems as if Lynn is open to working things out and they both want to find Jake. In addition to their estrangement, the sisters have major problems of their own. Natalie’s boyfriend, Paul has their lives planned out, but she’s not sure that’s what she wants, and he’s putting on the pressure. She also has a big problem at work. Lynn, who arrives with a teenage son, is very secretive about her life in New York and her temper flares when Natalie pushes to know more.
Despite the title, the premise of the book doesn’t seem very typical because the events that lead to their estrangement, and the years after the party, as well as other details are extreme. But what does seem typical to me is that their relationships follow the patterns of many family conflicts. I think the author does a good job showing the dynamics between Natalie and Lynn and how they need each other, especially to find Jake. As situations come up, we see how their typical sibling behaviors show realistic degrees of rivalry and power plays, but most importantly, love.
This is not a heavy book and I was glad to take a break from darker reads. Its uplifting resolution shows how even the most complicated relationship problems can be resolved. I recommend A Very Typical Family to readers who like stories about families and conflict.
A few years ago, I discovered the author Amity Gage when I randomly selected Sea Wife from my library’s bookshelf, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Published in 2021, it was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. I’d describe Sea Wife as suspenseful literary fiction that looks at the complexities of marriage and parenthood (read my review here).
A few weeks ago, my book club friend recommended Heartwood (thanks S!). I didn’t make the connection right away, but when I realized it was the same author, I knew I was in for a good book.
Heartwood is about the search and rescue efforts in of a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail in Maine. The author combines the genres of a suspenseful police investigation with an in-depth look at marriage and family relationships and the story features several female characters who must face unresolved problems with their own mothers. Gage also explores the complex subjects of mental illness, substance abuse, suicide, gender discrimination, and racism, making Heartwood the kind of layered book I like!
Hiker Valerie Gillis, a nurse, is nearing the finish in Maine, but the last stretch goes through extremely difficult and dense terrain. State game warden Lieutenant Bev Miller is in charge of the search. She’s a veteran at missing hiker searches, with a high success rate. While her team of both park employees and volunteers comb the area, Bev and her assistants interview those close to Valerie, including her husband, Greg who has been following and meeting up with Valerie with supplies, and Valerie’s hiking friend, Santo. Meanwhile, Lena, a resident of an assisted-living community in another state, learns of the lost hiker and thinks it might be her estranged daughter. Now emotionally invested in the story, she follows the search closely. Lena, who is an expert forager, has an online forager friend named Terrible Silence and he, too, is interested in the story.
As the days pass, Bev and her team develop theories and suspicions and refuse to give up, despite the decreasing chances that Valerie could have survived an extended length of time. The author also includes Valerie’s journal entries, giving us a rounded-out understanding of what may be happening.
We also learn about the hiking community and the relationships that develop along the way, as well as the idea that many hikers are out there to work out personal problems, finding the solitude of nature and the camaraderie among hikers healing.
New discoveries and developments bring the story to a suspenseful finish at the same time as the characters face their own family crises. I tore through this book, both because of the suspense and the in-depth characters. I recommend Heartwood to readers who like literary thrillers like The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.
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