City of Girls

 

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert 496 pages

 

Before author Elzabeth Gilbert took the literary world by storm with her mega-hit, “Eat Pray Love,” she penned a most charming and fictional tale of a group of eccentric theater people who lived and worked at the Lily Playhouse. The story takes place in the 1940s.

 

When the narrator of the story, Vivian Morris, was nineteen, she flunked out of Vassar. Her parents didn’t know what to do with her. So, they sent her to live with her Aunt Peg in Manhattan. Aunt Peg owned the Lily, which put on shows twice a day. They weren’t particularly good, but the local audience loved them and bought tickets. I would call it off-off-off-off Broadway.

 

Gilbert uses the epistolary structure to tell this story. Vivian, now eighty-nine years old, is answering a letter to the daughter of a friend after her mother passes, wanting to know what Vivian was to her father. That’s a little complicated, but Gilbert pulls it off.

 

The Lily was as much a character as any of the humans. It was rambling. It was rundown. It was magical. And the people who lived there were much the same. Olive was the general manager and Peg’s best friend. They served together during World War I. Also inhabiting the theater are the actors, the showgirls, the playwright and the composer. Vivian finds her place in this cast as a costume designer; her grandmother had taught her to sew, and she was excellent at it.

 

Vivian becomes BFFs with Celia, one of the showgirls. Together, they nightly paint the town. Every night. Stumbling through the doors in the wee hours of the morning, smelling of booze and sex. Those two slept with a LOT of men. Warning: there are a couple of scenes that are X-rated.

 

During one of those nights on the town, Vivian makes a horrible mistake and is banished back to her hometown and life with her parents in upstate New York. But it is just foreshadowing for what it so come---the soldier who served on the same battleship as her late brother becoming her best friend after she returns to Manhattan.

 

Gilberts writes about Manhattan as if she too had lived in the 1940s---one of my favorite time periods. It was a helluva time and a helluva town. I wish I could visit, but then again, I have through Gilbert’s words.

 

I loved these characters and this time. And to be honest, I miss them. City of Girls received 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

What She Left Behind

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman 368 pages

 

For fans of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.”

 

After reading “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” I knew I wanted to read all of Wiseman’s novels. This was the first one of the five that preceded Lost Girls. It also centers upon do mental illness and insane asylums.

 

There are two points so view that tell the story. First is Clara Cartwright’s story from the late 1920s through the early 1930s. The other, Isabelle (Izzy) Stone’s story, is from the mid-to-late 1990s.

 

Clara is caught between two men. First, the man, James, her parents (Henry and Ruth) have chosen for her, and whom she finds dull and distasteful. They insist that she marry him, not for love, but because he is mind-boggling wealthy. The second man is an Italian immigrant with whom Clara falls madly in love, and he with her. When she becomes pregnant with Bruno’s baby, she completely rejects James, but her father sends her to a nervous asylum for girls. After the Crash, and Henry and Ruth lose everything, Clara is admitted to a public asylum that is as bad, if not worse, than the private institution.

 

Image what the living conditions were like in an overcrowded, short-staffed institution. Wiseman’s descriptions were enough to make me gag beside Clara.

 

Fast-forward to the 1990s. Izzy Stone is sent to foster care after her mother brutally murders her father with no apparent motive. Her foster parents work for a local museum and have been assigned to catalog the items that had been left behind in the now-shuttered asylum.

 

Izzy is fascinated by the things they find, but what really intrigues her is a stack of unopened letters and a journal. These items send her on a quest to determine her mother’s act of violence.

 

To me, this novel is almost as wonderful as “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” Comparing the two novels, “What She Left Behind” seems a little predictable. But given that “What She Left Behind,” is only Wiseman’s second novel, I will overlook that part. There were parts that me cringe, and parts where I was cheering on both young women.

 

Therefore, “What She Left Behind,” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Beyond that, the Sea

 

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash 368 pages

 

The Blitz was in high gear. Nightly the German bombs rained down upon London. Most Londoners felt as if bomb shelters were their new homes. Many families were sending their children to the English countryside or to America to keep them safe. Millie and Reginald Thompson decided to do the same for their eleven-year-old daughter Beatrix.

 

I can’t remember how, or if it was even mentioned in the story, but the Thompson’s chose America and a family in Boston. The voyage was hard on the girl, traveling alone. But the ship made it across the ocean and landed. Beatrix was relieved when her new family claimed her. She was welcomed with open arms.

 

It didn’t take long for Bea, as she was called, to make herself at home and fit into her new lifestyle. Really, the only difference was the Thompsons were upper lower class while the Gregorys were wealthy. One of the things that Bea loved most living with the Gregorys, Nancy and Ethan, and their two sons, Gerald and William, was the summers spent at their cabin in Maine. Oh, what fun they had!

 

When the war ended, Bea was sent back to London. While she had been gone, her father had died, her mother had remarried, and London was still in ruins. As she tried to pick up the pieces, her memories of the Gregorys lingered in the back of her mind. She had grown close to both boys. Nor did the Gregorys forget Bea.

 

What I really like about this story is the way it is told---in short vignettes told from seven viewpoints (those of the seven characters.) What I didn’t like was that the vignette style also allowed the author to gloss over some key moments. Regardless, I would recommend this book to others, and Beyond That, the Sea received 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Audrey Hepburn Estate

The Audrey Hepburn Estate by Brenda Janowitz 368 pages

 

One of my favorite movies of all-time is from 1954. Sabrina, starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. It is an important film, so much so that it “was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’”

Author Brenda Janowitz, in her eighth novel, has taken the essence of the movie and of Hepburn to craft a warm and surprisingly twisty work. The story is told with two narratives, “Now” and “Then.” 

“Now” is current time. Emma, Henry and Leo grew up on Henry’s grandparents’ Long Island estate, known as Rolling Hill.  The grand mansion has fallen into such disrepair that it is beyond saving. Or so says Leo, who has recently purchased the estate and plans to raze it. Emma has not seen Leo in almost seven years. It had been even longer since she had seen Henry. “Then” fills in the backstory, giving the reader insight into the characters as children and young adults.

Since Emma was eight years old, she knew that Henry was the one for her. They were childhood sweethearts. Janowitz reverses male roles. Think Henry in the Linus/Bogart role. Leo, the driver’s son, had been in love with Emma since they played together as children. Leo has the William Holden role. Since Leo first met Emma, he knew that she was the one for him. Who will Emma cling to in the turmoil that lies ahead.?

Emma returns to Rolling Hill for a trip down memory lane. What she didn’t know was that the house held more than one secret. She tried to get to Leo not to raze the house, but she was talking to deaf ears. She goes so far as to join the local historical society in the hopes of obtaining an injunction against Leo and his company.  Along the way, Janowitz throws in a few twists that turned the story in a different, yet same, direction.

Be sure to read the Appendix, “Finding Audrey Hepburn in ‘The Audrey Hepburn Estate.’”

The Audrey Hepburn Estate receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

 

 

The Book Haters' Book Club

The Book Haters’ Book Club by Gretchen Anthony 352 pages

Love the title of this book! I had to read it just to find out who would attend a book haters’ book club if the person hates books. That had to be an interesting group of people. Perplexing at the least.

Elliott, co-owner of Minneapolis’ Over the Rainbow Bridge, has recently passed away, leaving the other co-owner, Irma, in a pickle. Business is not good, and bills are piling up. Irma is also grieving the death of her longtime boyfriend, Nestor, from cancer.

Irma calls a meeting with her two daughters, Bree and Laney, and Elliott’s life partner, Thom, at the lawyer’s office. She has decided to sell to a developer who plans to raze it and replace it with high-rise condominiums.

As shocking as this decision is to the three, Bree has the most to lose. She works in the store and has assumed that she would take it over when Irma retired. Laney just wants to get back to her home in Oakland, California, and running a tire-repair shop with her husband. Thom is angry at Irma, but no one seems to know why, including Irma. The most infuriating part is that Irma won’t say why she so desperately wants to sell. This part of the plot dominates the first book’s first half.

The second half is about Irma coming clean with her secrets and what the three can do to save their relationships…and the bookstore.

The book’s title comes not from a fictional book club, but that is the name of the newsletter that Elliott sent out with reading recommendation to his customers. That title comes from Elliott’s belief that “all it takes is the right book to turn a book hater into a book lover.” He wasn’t actively trying to turn non-readers into readers, and, truthfully, I don’t get it. Readers are treated to a few of the newsletters. Cute and interesting, but they do not push the plot forward. And neither does periodic visits from Elliott in the form of the Forward, Commercial Breaks, Intermission, Curtain Call and One Last Thing…They’re creepy.

“The Book Haters’ Book Club” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Utter Catastrophe

The Utter Catastrophe by Sandra Hutchison (Book 3 in the Lawson Trilogy) 400 pages

Hutchison has done it again; she has written a book that sweeps the reader into its fictional world!

In the third and final book (much to my dismay) of the Lawson Trilogy, the topics are much, much heavier—the opioid crisis, drug addiction and recovery—yet it is tempered by a romance.

It’s the summer of 2016. Winslow Jennings is now Lawson’s Chief of Police. He and the other chiefs in the nearby small towns are overwhelmed with drug-related deaths. Winslow doesn’t realize it, but the crisis is about to hit home.

Everyone in Lawson has noted that Winslow’s cousin, Dave Cantwell, and Dave’s wife, Peggy, have been acting strange. They seldom leave the house anymore, don’t interact with their old friends or their extended family. It’s been a bad year for them with Dave hurting his back at work. But they still manage to make it work. Or so they thought.

The Cantwell’s have three children: Megan, Mike and Zach. Megan, twenty-one and just home from college, has noticed that her parents were acting stranger than usual, but she shrugged it off as to her being away. When they overdose in a nearby town after making a buy, it is up to Megan to become the adult. Mike is in Afghanistan and Zach is a middle-schooler.

As Megan tries to sort out her parents’ financial affairs and save their farm, there is another problem looming on the horizon. Seems her first, and only so far, love, Noah, is back in Lawson. He has recently been discharged from a rehab center and is home to bury his wife and raise his daughter. But can Noah say clean? Megan still has feelings for him, but it would not be smart to get involved with a drug addict.

At times, “The Utter Catastrophe” was a tough book to read, but Hutchison managed it with compassion. I really liked that Hutchison focused on those left behind to clean up the mess(es) and muddle their way through life instead on the addicts themselves, and how they could not get off that road.

I also like that Winslow and Mary did not take center stage in this chapter, but they were strong supporting characters. The Somali refugee family (whose names I can no longer recall) are also supporting characters who help to frame the story of a small town in big trouble,

“The Utter Catastrophe” is another 5-star read in Julie’s world!

 

Carolina Moonset

Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman 272 pages 

Divorced dad, Joey Green, returns home to the small town of Beaufort, South Carolina, to help his mother look after his father for a while. Marshall Green is suffering from Lewy Body dementia*. His short-term memory has almost disappeared, but his long-term memory is strong. 

Marshall is not violent, except when it comes to the Hammond family. He has unexpected outbursts when the name is mentioned. Marshall has some old unresolved issues that come out when he talks with his old friend, Trip Patterson, who died decades ago, who appears in a hallucination. 

As Marshall’s long-term memories rise, so does the memory of his first love, Delphi, who was murdered because back then, in South Carolina, mixed-race couples were not tolerated. But even those memories are not exactly correct as readers discover. There is another murder and a probable murder after Delphi’s that sets the town on edge. 

In current time, Roy’s brother is murdered, down the street from the Green home. At first, the police are interested in Marshall as he cannot account for his whereabouts that evening.  

Joey, interested in clearing his father, wants to learn what happened to Trip, Delphi and Roy. At the same time, Joey’s mother, Carol, and the next-door neighbors are trying to set Joey up with their also-divorced daughter, Leela. Sparks flair, Joey and Leela turn investigators together. 

This book got off to a slow start for me, but I am glad I hung in there. It turned out to be a true page-turner. Once the new murder happens, the plotline sets off on a can't-put-down thrill ride full of secrets, scandals, lies, memories, romance and racism. “Carolina Moonset” received 4 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

*Lewy Body Dementia is “a progressive dementia that results from protein deposits in nerve cells of brain. It affects movement, thinking skills, mood, memory, and behavior” with frequent bouts of hallucinations. 

 

The Inheritance

The Inheritance by JoAnn Ross 384 pages

Wow, the cover of this book really fooled me and has more of disconnect than any book I’ve seen in a long time. It screams historical fiction with a touch of contemporary, but the actual story is the reverse. It’s a contemporary story with a dash of historical fiction.

Jackson “Jack” Swann is a conflict photographer. He goes anywhere the world is in crisis/chaos. It’s been a great profession, however with little time, or energy, for meaningful relationships.  The father of three daughter, each by a different woman, has come home to his family’s Oregon vineyard to die. Cancer is ravaging his body.

He changes his will so that the three half-sisters at least get to meet one time, and so the family business remains in the family. He hopes.

Jack’s oldest daughter is Tess. He was married her mother for a short time. He had bailed before she got to know him and she refers to him only as “the sperm donor.” A former child TV star (think Patty Duke), Tess is now a bestselling author of young adult books. She pissed at the sperm donor as now she feels she has lost him all over again. With a terrifying case of writer’s block, Tess thinks a trip to Oregon might be just what she needs to shake the cobwebs loose. She know about Charlotte, but has idea that Natalia exists.

Charlotte is the middle child, well woman now. Raised in Southern high society, Charlotte has a passion for interior design, which Jack encouraged. However, her mother has made eroded her confidence and she retreats into being the perfect wife for her politician husband, but it seems he also belittles everything she tries to do. Bad news usually comes in threes, but for Charlotte, two were a disaster. She learns about Jack’s death on the same day she learns her husband is cheating on her. And to top that off, she as no inkling that she has two sisters.

The youngest, Natalia, is the one who knows Jack the best. Her mother captured more of Jack’s heart than any other woman. Natalia has even inherited his talent for photography. She is aware of Tess and Charlotte, but doesn’t know if they know about her.

Not only Jack’s daughters inherit the vineyard, they also inherited a grandmother. Rocked by her only son’s death, she eagerly awaits the girls’ arrival so that she can get to know them. The historical fiction comes in with Grandmother Madeleine. She and her husband were French Resistance fighters during WWII.

“The Inheritance” is an interesting novel about families and receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Oh, William!

Oh, William! (Book 3 is the Amgash Series ) by Elizabeth Strout 256 pages

I have to admit that I’m a little late to the party; I’ve never read any of Pulitzer Prize winner’s Elizabeth Strout. And I’m a little late by reading Book 3 in a series, but that doesn’t matter. I didn’t feel list or confused by reading this novel. Strout did an amazing job in filling in the blanks for new readers.

I knew that Strout had written a book about the protagonist, Lucy Barton, but I didn’t know anything abou it.  But that didn’t stop me from enjoying this slim volume that packs a punch.

In this novel, Lucy is now in her sixties. There are two narratives happening simultaneously. First is Lucy’s trip dowm memory lane, ruminating on her life, her career, her daughters and escpecially her childhood. Her husband, David, has died, but she remains in close contact with her daughters’ father, her first husband, William. They still call each other by the pet names they used from their marriage.

William is married, happily I’m not so sure, with a daughter is approximately ten years old. HE is turning seventy, and seems lost in the world. When he stumbles on life-changing family secret, he seems to feel even more lost. I get the idea that William has always been a rather sad person, and this secret only exacerbates those feelings.

When William invites, pleads is  more like it, for Lucy to accompany him on a fact-finding mission to unlock the long-ago.

The story is told in caveats so readers can see both sides of the situation. However, what I didn’t like about the novel is the overuse of some statements. For example, she may say “This is what I meant…” or “This is what I meant to say…” several times in the same paragraph. That style would interrupt the story’s tension for me. Therefore, “Oh, William” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant  352 pages

Sophie Valroux is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. She’s got the chops to work in a Michelin-starred restaurant.  When this story opens, the New York restaurant where, Cendrillon, is waiting to hear that they have been awarded a third Michelin star.

Tensions are running high in the kitchen. Eric, the chef de cuisine, and Sophie’s former lover, are not exactly having a lover’s spat, but Eric is hard on her, making her re-season the Executive Chef Dan O’Shea’s recipe for roasted potimarron, a chestnut-flavored squash, soup.

When the call comes, it isn’t the one they are expecting. Not only was Cendrillon not awarded a third start, but one was taken away.  Imagine the disappointment in that kitchen.

Eric accuses Sophie of sabotaging the restaurant; O’Shea has no choice but to let her go. Sophie is crushed. It has been her dream to be part of the one percent of female chefs running a Michelin-starred restaurant. Word spreads through the city’s restaurants. Sophie has no chance of ever working in New York again…unless of course, she takes Eric up on going to work for him in the new restaurant he is planning to open.  Sophie would rather be homeless than that.

Sophie licks her wounds by returning to France where her grandmother lives. The grandmother she was exceptionally close to whom she has hardly talked to, much less visited in thirteen years.  Grand-mere has suffered a stroke.

Sophie learns that Grand-mere has been busy in Sophie’s absence---opening two restaurants in “the simple family home…is now luxurious chateau.”  Two highly regarded and highly successful restaurants.  Although Sophie’s confidence has been shaken to her core, she learns that while life isn’t fair, good can come of every betrayal and disappointment.

I fell in love with the opening paragraph…so beautifully written that I read it three times to savor the imagery. This novel is about family secret, learning to dream again and family is this people that can always be depended upon, even when there is disagreement. There is also a secondary plot line of romance. Between food (complete with recipes) and romance, this is the perfect escape novel and a way to see France without leaving your favorite chair.

I was disappointed that author Verant used so many French words that I could not put into context, but they added authenticity to the story that I would experience if I was in France.

 The Secret French Recipes of Sophie receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Threads: A Depression Era Tale

Threads: A Depression Era Tale by Charlotte Whitney 327 pages

I was excited when I won this book in the giveaway section of the Shelf Awareness newsletter. I was dismayed when the book opened with “A Note on Mid-Michigan Farm Dialect.”  Ninety-five percent of the books I read with dialogue aren’t very good—the dialect gets in the way. Not so with this intriguing tale of three sisters over the course of 1934. It sort of got in my way in the beginning, but it soon evened out. 

To tell a story with three different narrators is challenging, even for a seasoned writer, which Whitney is not.  But she does it superbly!  And to keep the voices clear and recognizable to each sister is quite the feat!  I never had a problem knowing which sister was talking at any given time.

This is the story of three sisters:  Nellie, seven; Irene, eleven, and Flora, 17.  Remember the old adage that there are three sides to every story?  Two who tell the story and the truth.  Here we get three sides of each story, as each sister gives her account of what is happening.

And there is a lot happening.  The girls live on a farm in mid-Michigan, and reads are treated to what life is like in this hardscrabble time. 

Nellie is still too young to really know how the Depression is affecting the family.  She visits the farm animals every day, especially the cows that stand under the cherry blossom trees. She even has an imaginary friend, ZeeZee, who is an alien.  But one day, Nellie finds a shallow grave of a dead baby.  Whose it is and how the discovery affects the little girl runs through the entire novel.

The middle sister, Irene, seems to have more faults than good qualities. She finds faults with the world in general and especially with her sisters.

The oldest sister, Flora, wants to get go on dates and get married.  She eyes a schoolmate and fellow church member, Henry, as her savior from spinsterhood.  But when rumors start to fly that the dead baby Nellie found is Flora’s, well her chances to wed seem to disappear.

There are a lot of other interesting characters that the readers meet in the small farming community. By the end I felt as if I had been part of the lives of these people.  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, always looking forward to my reading time every evening. 

As I read,  wondered how on earth could Whitney without leaving the readers hanging. Easy-peasy---an epilogue that thakes place forty years later.

 “Threads: A Depression Era Tale” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Inheritance

 

 Inheritance  by Evelyn Toynton   272 pages

"Inheritance" in this novel is not what readers may assume it is; there’r nothing to do with physical assets.

When Annie Devereaux’s husband suddenly dies she then has the opportunity to follow her wildest dreams.  She leaves New York and moves to London with no plan but to live like the Brits do.

Shortly after her arrival, she meets Julian and moves in with him. As their relationship drags on, he becomes more and more abusive.

Then the narrative shifts. Annie has made friends with Julian’s sister, Isabel. While this section is mostly about Isabel, reads get to learn more about what makes Julian Julian.

The narrative shifts again, but I didn’t get it.  I’m not sure where the author was going, or even what she was talking about. Section Three did not tie into Sections One and Two, leaving me lost and dazed. Therefore, “Inheritance” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Story of Arthur Truluv

The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg    270 pages

This is perhaps one of the sweetest stories I’ve read in a long time, and one of Berg’s best.

Eighty-two-year-old Arthur Moses lost his wife, his everything, six months ago. To combat his loneliness, he takes the bus to the cemetery to have lunch with her. Every day. Regardless of the weather.

Lucille, Arthur’s next-door neighbor, is dealing with her own loneliness. A spinster and retired teacher, Lucille has little to keep herself occupied, other than pay attention to what’s going on in the neighborhood. She is also an avid baker, always with a sweet treat for Arthur.

Maddy Harris is an eighteen-year-old girl who is depressed and hangs out in the cemetery. Her classmates bully her; her father is still absorbed in his grief over Maddy’s mom, who died two weeks after she was born. The cemetery is the only place she feels comfortable. She has dreams of becoming a photographer, but doesn’t see how it would be feasible.

Arthur and Maddy strike up a rather unusual friendship. Maddy nicknames him Arthur Truluv because of his devotion to his late wife, the love of his life, Nola. Arthur and Nola never had kids, and before he realizes, Arthur begins to feel parently toward the lonely young woman. One rainy afternoon, Arthur invites Maddy over to his home. That could either be creepy or sweet, depending on the writer. If this story was penned by say, Stephen King, then YIKES! But as it is penned by a bestselling author who is known for her sweet, intimate stories, this story is sure to touch the hearts of every reader who opens its covers.

As the three main characters try to make their way in the world, they begin to lean and depend upon each other.  A truly sweet story. “The Story of Arthur Truluv” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America

Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America by Alissa Quart   Audio Book:  9 hours     Hardback Book:  320 pages        

Very good book, well written and gets to the heart of every topic covered in an informative and conversational way.    The author cuts right to the point without candy covering any thing.  With laser precision she analyzes the problems middle class families face today and believe me she covers the gamut and then some.   Why people today live less comfortable lives than their parents did just one generation prior.    While technology advances it also thwarts.   With the competiton of robots being introduced to take over everything from factory jobs to the service industry ie. robots or A.I. artificial intelligence machines being introduced into the service sector to assist the elderly in nursing homes and doing many tasks formerly the responsibility of nurses or aides to public relations in grocery stores assisting customers, etc. many trend followers are skeptical.   They wonder just how far mankind will go in investing in robots to change the course of society.   While arguments can be made, robots don’t have to have set hours, they don’t call in sick, technically they can go 24/7 without a break or having to leave work to take care of a sick child.    While still in its infancy, A.I. assistants are becoming more accepted for the mainstream of society who still for the most part find A.I. amusing and cute but is putting too much trust in this non-human workforce really reliable?  Currently the cost of setting up robots to do the work of several humans is prohibitive.   For the price of one robot even with paying insurance and benefits it still comes out ahead for businesses to hire humans.   Humans get sick and have home lives to deal with but there is no guarantee a machine won’t break down and when a robot/automaton/high tech set up costs in the millions of dollars as opposed to a minimum wage part-time or full-time worker even with cost of living increases this can still make humans look the better choice, plus in medical care environments the human touch can do so much to assuage the fears of the elderly while a robot might be good at telling a person when to take their meds, but not so much being sympathetic to their feelings and emotions.   Even highly advanced robots while offering comforting words do not have the empathy of a fellow human being.    She talks about the disparity in wages to this day of women and minorities and how many people are choosing not to have children because it would interfere with their being able to work long hours or more than one job even as they are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck.   She discusses the debt most Americans find themselves drowning in and how those struggling paycheck to paycheck often suffer at the hands of high interest loans or credit cards just to try to make ends meet and live as they should be.   She sites many examples throughout of how people both men and women often are paying one bill with a credit card sometimes more than one then when the interest kicks in they cannot get ahead because now they not only owe the bill they owe interest and if they can’t come up with the next payment late fees begin to accrue then their credit rating suffers and they become worse off than they were.   Previous generations leery of buying on credit and living within their means until they could afford to save up and buy something are a dying breed.   Media and Marketing feed the senses that Americans must have more to be more setting up false images and false expectations and sadly piles of debt with little to show for it – debt that won’t go away becomes an all consuming monster that just grows while mankind makes minimum payments that do little to lessen the debt but feed the greed of corporations extending that credit.   Working parents find a huge chunk of their income is paid out for childcare so they can continue to work.   Many women leave the work force because they come out ahead staying home and not having to pay childcare though this puts strain on the other parent who’s income then has to cover all their fundamental needs.   A never ending circle with little hope of escape.   Hence why the lottery is so popular with the poor trying to win their dream life while struggling to come up with the money to buy that magic ticket that might just take them there except more often, it doesn’t.   Attaining the standard of living our parents had is a thing of the past for most Americans.   As many people forego parenting because they simply can’t afford it.    She does offer hopeful ideas so it isn’t all gloom and doom just reality and how it could be possible to fix it.     Really well done. 

Other people's houses

Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman 352 pages

"At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...

*record scratch*"

Frances Bloom is the neighborhood's carpool mom and and such, is privy to some of her neighbors' private lives. She has enough to worry about with her own husband and children, but when she accidentally glimpses one of her neighbors, Anne, engaged in an amorous act with a man, Frances thinks it's Anne's husband. However, two seconds later, Frances realizes that no, that wasn't Anne's husband. Frances keeps that secret and vows to keep to herself, concentrating on her own family. However, when Anne's husband throws her out a few days later, the repercussions of the affair ripple through the four carpool families.

I liked this story. Frances is our main viewpoint, but you also get viewpoints of other characters so it feels like the story isn't lopsided. Waxman also writes her characters so realistically that you can imagine these people and practically hear them, as if you're sitting in their kitchens listening to them. The dynamics between people also feel very realistic so even when there's drama (and there's plenty of that here) it doesn't feel over the top.