Review: Us

Us by David Nicholls
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to the audio of this exceptional book. It starts with Connie and Douglas, a married couple and Connie telling him that she thinks she is going to leave him. This is out of the blue for him and especially more so since Connie has planned a month long trip to visit the capitals of Europe. They have a teenaged son named Albie who is planning on going off to college in the fall.

Regardless of Connie's announcement, they decide to go on their trip as planned as it will be the last family trip together seeing as how Albie will be out on his own very soon.

So the story begins. Douglas starts a thorough dissection of their whole life together, all the highs and lows right from the time that he met Connie. The story is intertwined with what is happening on their vacation and the trials and tribulations of being the parents of a teenager who is just starting to spread his wings.

I know that people have problems with them still going off on their holiday after the announcement from Connie and also allowing Albie to do everything he did and financing his misadventures. However, I felt it was a modern family situation.

I loved the locations around Europe where they visited. It did feel like I was there. My dream (at the moment) is to travel to Barcelona and the family stayed there while Douglas was having medical problems and it did inspire me.


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Review: Homegoing

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I will say right up front that this is the best book that I have read in many years. The story begins with two girls, Effia and Esi who are born in Ghana in the 18th century. It is the story of their successors and sweeps through centuries up to present times.

Each chapter could be a book in itself as each character is given full attention. We come out of the immersion of the chapters feeling like we truly know each character personally.

Books of this subject, the slave trade in particular, dredge up almost every emotion that I have on my personal menu ranging from frustration, shame, hatred, humility, fear. I can count on two fingers the number of books that have moved me in this way.

The ending was phenomenal.


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Review: The Girl From the Train

The Girl From the Train by Irma Joubert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a book that could knock your socks off. It was the kind of story that from the very beginning you were immersed in and it was very difficult to put down.

A full train is headed for Auschwitz when there is an explosion killing most aboard. A young six year old girl, Gretl, is thrown clear and found by Yakob, a 21 year old that was in the underground resistance movement in Poland. He takes her to his home and his family cares for her for four years, until he is told to take her to an orphanage as they don't have enough room or food to keep her.

Gretl is a very clever little girl and mature for her age. She seems to always make the best of her situation.

It was a book about the war but from a different perspective. A thoroughly enjoyable read.




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Review: Voyager

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an absolutely unputdownable third installment of the Outlander Series featuring Claire and Jamie Fraser. In this part of the series Claire discovers that Jamie didn't die at Coloden and she decides to return to the Scotland of the 1760's. It is a terrifying and painful experience to go through the stones to the past and Claire is quite sure that she will not be able to return.

Jamie and Claire's daughter, Brianna, is now grown enough, as Claire decides, to be on her own. Claire tells her everything and leaves as much information about their lives and heredity as she possibly can for her.

And so she sets off to find Jamie, twenty years after he made her go back in order to save herself and the unborn baby.

What follows is an absolutely gripping novel of suspense, intrigue, murder, mystery and love, not to
mention kidnapping and forces of evil.

How could you not give this book five stars. Absolutely incredible!

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Review: Did You Ever Have A Family

Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beautifully written heartbreaking story. June has lost her whole family the day before her daughter's wedding. She is so overcome that she gets into her car and drives aimlessly. This story takes each person in her life and unfolds their story bit by bit.

Eventually she stops at a motel on the Pacific Ocean and settles into a form of twilight life.

An excellent read.

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Review: Cocaine Blues

Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Hon. Miss Phryne Fisher solves crimes in London. An amateur, but very ambitious. She "collects"people as she goes because she is so kind and generous. There is nothing too good for the good people that she comes across.

One of her society friends has asked her to go to Australia and have a look at what might be happening to his daughter as she seemed very ill when she visited. So off she goes and in her travels finds a lot more than just an ailing wealthy lady.

A very good beginning to a new series that I would like to read more of.

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Review: A Kiss Before Dying

A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This had everything you want in a murder/crime novel. A poor guy, just returning from the war, meets a girl from a wealthy family and decides this is what he wants. However, this girl is at odds with her father and his carefully planned scheme backfires. There are other daughters in this family!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable novel that kept you engaged right up to the very end. It was written in the early 1950's when forensics were still a dream and cell phones were completely out of the realm of thought. Smoking was still all the rage and it seemed that everyone did it and it was accepted everywhere.

I loved this book and I would love to ask Ira Levin what made him portray all the females as completely and utterly unintelligent. Every woman fell for this guy's line, but then again, I guess that is what made the story so fascinating. He was a ladies' man.

A great read.




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