When a barnacle covered bag washes ashore on a small island in British Columbia, Ruth is immediately drawn into the narrative of Nao, a 16-year-old from an ocean away in Tokyo, Japan. Nao lived with her parents in California, where Silicon Valley and the California sun held nothing but hope and happiness for the Japanese family. But her father’s job loss returned Nao’s family to Japan, where she went from happy well-adjusted teenager, to a bullied outcast. Escaping the constant pinching, stalking, and even fake […]
Never, ever house sit for a friend.
Care of Wooden Floors was recommended to me by Mr Smith (@changeist), and for that I will be eternally grateful. While it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, Will Wiles’ first novel was one of the best books I read this year. Told mostly through interior monologues and observation, Wiles’ nameless protagonist sets off on a journey to hell by agreeing to housesit for an orchestra conductor friend, (who’s not really a friend) as he must leave his East European home country to begin […]
A Love triangle tale of neurotic mind vigilantes
Justine suffers from near-incapacitating hypochondriac whose mother died from a rare disease everyone refused to believe she had. Damn good reason to have health anxieties, I say. She struggles through each day as if it’s her last in case that elusive vein will explode in her brain. But living on edge is almost too much for her hunky, yet simple-minded boyfriend, Cubby. That is until she meets Packard, a mysterious Turkish restaurant owner, who says he can save her hypochondriac self-implosion. Justine (and myself!) is skeptical to say the […]
Millennials are so screwed if this is our future.
I was surprised to find California by Edan Lepucki on several “Best” lists this year. While I did find it to be an easy, quick read I didn’t find the story itself to be as entertaining or engrossing as many of the reviews lead me to believe it would be. I didn’t regret reading California, but I certainly wouldn’t credit Lepucki with having written “a gripping and provocative debut novel” either. Frida and Cal live in the woods. Alone. In a shack. Apparently the […]
When in Rome…
Rabid fandom is one reason I’ve yet to watch Titanic and never got into Friends, Lost, among many other highly successful films and TV shows. Instead, I tend to dedicate my viewing time to the underdogs, which is to say that a lot of the shows that I do like tend to get cancelled, i.e. Arrested Development, Life, Chicago Code, Human Target, Men of a Certain Age. To date, The Good Wife is the only one of my faves to have escaped that fate. With that said, you can imagine how resistant […]
“Our youth is wasted, We will not waste it…”
We Were Liars is about a very rich family, the Sinclairs. The oldest grandchild, Cadence, is one of the Liars, her cousins and a family friend. They spend wonderful summers on the family’s private island, with their big houses and golden retrievers. One summer is marred by a terrible accident. Cadence can’t remember the details, but the next time she returns to the island, everything has changed. It’s a bit of a mystery, and the ending has a big twist. I thought We Were Liars […]
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