Book Review of Such a Fun Age

I have mixed feelings about the Reese Witherspoon Book Club, which admittedly I do use for a lot of recommendations for light reading.  Sometimes you get an unexpectedly wonderful read like Where The Crawdads Sing, and other times they miss the mark.  I am not quite sure what attracted me to this one, but it wasn’t really one of my favourites.

It starts with an incident in a grocery store – in which an African American babysitter is accused to abducting the young white toddler she is with.  The promise thereafter is of deep social commentary – but it misses the mark for me instead focusing on a petty relationship and rivalry between two rather unlikeable characters – her new boyfriend and her boss. They just happened to be high school sweethearts who broke up badly.

Both profess to be “woke” but each use Emira for their own desires… and Emira really doesn’t need that.  As a 25-year-old babysitter amongst a group of friends starting to make their mark in life, she has enough to be working on.

This is one of the book club choices I would suggest giving a miss.  I persevered on audio largely to see if it would get any better – and while it isn’t bad by any means, it didn’t make much of an impact.

 

Impressed Book Review of The Giver of Stars

The Reese Witherspoon book club often provides me with ideas for light reads to listen to on audio, but my latest read, The Giver of Stars, is definitely better than most of what goes on her reading list.

Its starts with Alice, a young English bride who marries to escape a controlling family but finds herself spirited away to rural Kentucky by a handsome groom who has lied about his residence and about his desire for her.  Stranded and desperate in a big old house with his father, Alice impulsively decides to volunteer to help deliver books for the mobile library – which uses horses to distribute books to families in the remote mountains.  It’s a decision that alienates and eventually enrages her new family but changes her life completely – she finally forms real bonds with the women of the library for the first time in her life – women who defy societal rules and live with passion and gumption.  She also meets Fred – the man who teaches her about what love should be… outside of her marriage.

The librarians touch many lives with their books, but also challenge the established power in the town with their liberal ideas and lifestyles.  It’s a clash that the reader knows will come to a head at some point in the novel.

When her closest friend Marjorie, radical, outspoken and good-hearted, is accused of murder, Alice and her fellow librarians must use everything at their disposal to try to clear her name.

This is an epic story of love, friendship, sisterhood and the power of reading.  Thoroughly recommended.

Book Review of Conviction by Denise Mina

I’ll often pick up one of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club titles on Audible as a light read, and this month’s selection, Conviction by Denise Mina seemed like a solid choice.  In fact, it’s easy to see why Reese would have picked it – its a mystery that has topical elements including podcasting and feminist issues.

But Conviction left me a little wanting.  It was like there were three or four good storylines mashed together and none were fully explored.  I’ll do my best to summarise here.

It starts with the main character Anna, who is really Sophie Bukaran, a woman in hiding after being demonised by the media after an alleged rape.  A story in and of itself – as once discovered she is the recipient of many death threats.

And then there is the end of her marriage – when her husband runs off with her best friend.

And at the same time – she listens to a podcast – her favourite way of escaping reality – and comes across one that implicates an old friend.  With her life falling apart, it seems like an opportune time to go off and try to exonerate him.

And then there is her famous singer friend, troubled and anorexic, who comes along for the ride.  But his fame sees pictures of her posted on social media, which then outs her major secret.  Now Anna/Sophie has people after her not only because of the past, but because she is trying to uncover a mystery someone badly wants to keep hidden.

Any one of these makes an interesting story and certainly there was enough going on here to make me want to get to the end… but so much of this was worthy of further exploration it feels like opportunities were missed, and characters not quite fully fleshed out.