If you found Where’d You Go, Bernadette entertaining, you will probably enjoy Semple’s newest novel.  Like Bernadette, it takes place in Seattle, has a female protagonist who is smart and funny but doesn’t fit in, is married to a wonderful man, and has a young child(this time it’s a son) who is wise and insightful beyond his years. Eleanor Flood Wallace is married to a successful hand surgeon, and before moving to Seattle, she was part of a team that created a hugely successful animated television show.  However, Eleanor is not pleased with herself; mainly because she is estranged from her sister who she was exceptionally close to.

Semple writes with the same witty, ironic prose, but in some parts Eleanor speaks in first person and in others she doesn’t.  For me, this was a distraction and a literary flaw.  I also felt that in some ways Today Will Be Different is too similar to Bernadette.  Semple is a good writer; she needs to stretch more.

This gem of a novel is long-listed for the 2016 National Book Award.  It is a fictionalized homage to the author’s great aunt who was born in rural Mississippi in the early 20th century with a condition that made her unable to bear children or control her bowel and bladder.  In spite of this, Jane makes the most of her situation.  Although she only has a few months of formal education, because she is bright and good with numbers, she is able to education herself.  With the help of the neighborhood doctor, who becomes her good friend, she learns about her condition as well as the world around her.

Watson has written a lovely book about such an admirable women who epitomizes dignity and strength. It’s one of those books, I didn’t want to end.

I love the way Tracy Kidder writes-simple, concise and engaging.  His newest work is a biography about an extraordinary man similar to Mountains Beyond Mountains and Strength in What Remains.  This time his focus is on Paul English.  English grew up in a large, blue collar, Irish-Catholic home in Boston.  He often got in trouble as a teenage, did not take school seriously although he was way off the charts intellectually, but was always fascinated with computers.  When he was a young adult, he learned that the sensation he felt that he described as similar to a fire brewing inside, was the mania half of his bipolarism.  Despite this setback,  English co-founded the travel website kayak.com, sold it for millions, and earnestly tried to donate most of his money to worthwhile causes.  He also invented numerous apps and started several other business ventures.  A Truck Full of Money is an inspiring biography about a unique man who never stops dreaming of doing more.

If you are a McEwan fan, you will not be disappointed.  The narrator is an eight month old male fetus,  and the plot is a take-off on Hamlet.  Claude, the uncle and Trudy, the pregnant mother want to murder John Cairncross(the name may sound familiar to some), the unnamed baby’s father.  Scattered throughout this short novel are allusions galore, mostly Shakespearean.  McEwan’s intellect is on display throughout-I went to the dictionary and Google often.  His knowledge of literature, science and even wine are to be highly admired.  And while Nutshell is a learning experience, it is far more fun than educational.  Sit back, suspend belief and enjoy the ride!

I picked this book up because I am planning a trip next month to Monticello.  I was pleasantly surprised how interesting and readable this work of historical fiction is.  This novel is mainly the adult life of Martha Jefferson Randolph, oldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson and mother of eleven children.  Martha, according to Monticello,  was an amazing woman who took care of all of her children, supervised her father’s home when he was President in Washington D.C.,  and tried to be a good wife to her husband, Tom, even when he was in the throes of depression and deeply in debt.  Although Martha, like her husband and father, understood the evils of slavery, for economic reasons they could never free their slaves.  Martha also denied until her father’s death that Sally Hemings was his mistress and bore his children. For Martha to admit this, would take Thomas Jefferson off the pedestal she had place him on.

 

Commonwealth is the story of a blended family.  Fix and Beverly Keating have two daughters, Caroline and Franny.  Bert and Teresa Cousins have four children, Cal, Holly, Jeanette and Albie.  Bert and Beverly divorce their spouses, marry, and all six children then spend summers together at their home in Virginia.  Patchett deftly describes each of these characters’ and their relationships to each other.  All four parents and their children have their own personalities which evolve while they are explored through five decades.

Commonwealth is a readable and entertaining novel which is sure to be another bestseller for the ubiquitous Ann Patchett.

Main character, Jacob Bloch, is a husband, son, grandson and father.  He has been searching throughout his adult life, but is never exactly sure what he is trying to find.  When his marriage is in trouble,  Israel suffers an earthquake which results in a catastrophic war, and Bloch is asked to come aid his “homeland,” he is forced to look more deeply into himself and his effect on those he loves.

Here I Am depicts a man, a marriage, the Mideast and American Judaism in crisis.  Much of the repartee is enormously clever, but the entire Bloch family is too smart and quick witted to be true, including Jacob’s three young sons.

Cora, a slave on a plantation in Georgia, escapes with another slave named Caesar.  With the help of the underground railroad, which, in this novel, is actually a railroad, Cora travels through several states, each with its own peculiar laws and treatments of blacks.   Always in pursuit of her is Ridgeway, a slave catcher who is zealously trying to capture Cora and take her back to Georgia.

Whitehead’s novel has gotten many accolades and is this month’s selection for Oprah’s Book Club.  Quite frankly, I don’t get it.  At times the prose is awkward and the blending of historical fiction with blatant inaccuracies, even if they are meant to be literary tools, didn’t work for me.  I much preferred James McBride’s Song Yet Sung, also about a runaway female slave and the underground railroad.

On February 4th, 1974, Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper mogul, William Randolph Hearst, was forcibly taken from her San Francisco apartment by members of The Symbionese Liberation Army, a group of eight young radicals.  Two months after her abduction, she had joined the “army,” taken on a new name, learned to expertly handle fire arms, and robbed a bank.  Was Hearst brain washed, did she suffer Stockholm Syndrome or was this an act she put on to save her life?  Toobin, in objective, straight forward prose, looks at all the angles and makes it pretty clear what he believes really happened to her.

If, like me, you are curious what the real story was or if you just want to read a true story that is often more unbelievable than a work of fiction, you will want to read American Heiress.

Finally, a book about immigrants that is not horribly depressing.  Jende Jonga leaves Cameroon for New York City.  Several years later he is able to send for his wife, Neni, and their young son.  A successful cousin helps him land a job as a chauffeur for the Edwards family while Neni works as a caregiver and attends school part-time, hoping someday to become a pharmacist.  Their life is better than they ever dreamed it could be until Mr. Edwards’ company, Lehman Brothers, is destroyed.

Behold the Dreamers is a fine debut novel with engaging characters.  It is a tale of strength, resourcefulness and optimism.