Book Review: THE PAPER PALACE by Miranda Cowley Heller

 

Title: THE PAPER PALACE

Author:  Miranda Cowley Heller

Read: August 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description (Goodreads):

 

It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at "The Paper Palace"—the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside.

Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives.

As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

My musings:

 

THE PAPER PALACE is a complex story about love in its many shapes and sizes: the sweet first love of youth, the enduring love of a happy marriage, the forbidden love between two people who have lost each other along the way and give in to the “what-could-have-been”. Taking place over the course of just 24-hours, the story explores what makes Elle, a fifty-something mother of three, cheat on her husband with her childhood sweetheart during a summer holiday in their family’s summer house. Don’t judge her to harshly, because by the end of the book you will understand the complex circumstances leading up to this fateful night.

I’m no longer sure what brought THE PAPER PALACE to my attention because I delved into it blindly without knowing anything about it, but I am so happy that it crossed my path – it was definitely one of my favourite books for 2024. Miranda Cowley Heller has a way of writing that brought the story and its characters to life for me, until I could picture it all as clearly as if I had lived in their midst.  If you usually shy away from romance, don’t dismiss this book quite yet, because this certainly wasn’t a happily-ever-after love story. Even the idyllic setting hinted of a darkness lurking, which wasn’t revealed until much later in the book and shook me to the core, as was intended. However, I love stories about family dynamics and dark secrets, and here the author’s keen observations about human nature offered a complex, well-told tale that kept me enthralled from beginning to end. 

It's final - DRUMROLL - my favourite for 2024 is: BLACK CAKE by Charmaine Wilkerson

 

Title: BLACK CAKE

Author:  Charmaine Wilkerson

Read: September 2024

My Rating: all the stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.

 

My musings:

 

Oh my aching heart! How I loved this book – such an emotional, well-written story about family and belonging, one I will remember for a long time to come. Reviews for favourite books are the hardest to write, but I will try to put into words how this story affected me. I will go as far as to say that it was my favourite book for 2024!

 

I love stories about family secrets and sibling relationships, so was instantly intrigued by Eleanor Bennett’s deathbed message to her children. Over an eight-hour recording, she confides aspects of her past that will change Byron and Benny’s lives in ways they could never have anticipated.

 

Wilkerson knows how to bring her characters to life, and it didn’t take long for them to worm their way into my mind and my heart. They all felt so real to me! There was so much to unwrap here: strong women, love, race, culture, belonging, sexuality, family dysfunction, and lots of secrets, all handled sensitively and with lots of heart. At the end, I felt happy and in tears at the same time, realising that these wonderful characters will stay in my mind for a while yet.

 

BLACK CAKE is a book to savour slowly and deliberately, getting to know the background of each character and what drives them. Like the cake the book is named after, this is a rich and flavoursome story steeped in love and a multitude of flavours that all blend together to form an amazing whole. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of a small Caribbean island, there was an element of armchair travel as well that made me want to jump on a plane and go there.

 

I’m really lost for words here – if only my heart could speak and express how much this book affected me. A truly wonderful story, very highly recommended!

Erin Kelly has a new book out - woohoo! THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS

I was super excited to hear Erin Kelly has just released her latest novel, THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS, which follows on from her earlier novel THE POISON TREE. Whilst it could potentially be read as a standalone, I thoroughly recommend reading them in order to get the most out of Kelly’s excellent character development. I will therefore give you a quick recap of both:

THE POISON TREE by Erin Kelly

Sometimes I really crave a slow-burning, character study of family secrets and relationships, and Erin Kelly does this so well! Whilst HE SAID / SHE SAID remains my all-time favourite by this author, I really enjoyed her portrayal of the friendships in THE POISON TREE.

One thing I love about Erin Kelly’s writing is the languid way in which she builds her spider’s web of growing tension that gradually entangles the reader and holds them in its spell. Just as Karen, the straight-A student and only child of conservative parents gradually falls under the spell of the bohemian Capel siblings and their rambling, tumble down English mansion. I could easily picture straight and slightly awkward Karen being bewitched by the outgoing siblings whose free and easy lifestyle must feel totally alien and enchanting to her. Biba Capel is the sort of character who blazes into people’s lives like a bright comet of destruction, dazzling them with her light but in the end only leaving smoking ruins behind. Rex, who is more subdued and stable than his sister, holds his own allure as the brooding, overprotective male counterpart to his vivacious sibling.

Despite the slow build-up, Kelly makes it very clear that nothing good can come from these dynamics. And whilst I did predict a major part of the “twist” (I read A LOT of these mysteries), I was still invested to watch the slow descend into disaster as both Karen and Rex act as if remote-controlled by Biba’s destructive hand. I love a good character study, and the way poor Karen gets drawn into the Capel siblings’ world was well executed. I related to some of Karen’s fascination with the Capel’s lives – “straight A student falls for more exciting personalities” is a theme that really does play out in real life. A wonderful premise for a novel that is part character study and part domestic thriller and will undoubtedly stun some readers with its twist.

All in all, THE POISON TREE should probably be avoided by readers who don’t enjoy a slow-burning mystery, because their attention may wane in the first half, when the interpersonal dynamics are being set up. However, lovers of a good character study will appreciate the way Kelly builds her characters’ relationships that ultimately lead to disaster. I felt like I was watching a train chugga-chugg towards the abyss, unable to stop it as it built momentum with its unsuspecting passengers still dazzled by Biba’s light. A well-written story simmering with an undercurrent of tension and menace. 

 

THE HOUSE OF MIRRORS by Erin Kelly

 

There is a good reason why Erin Kelly is one of my favourite authors, and her latest novel proves the point very well. I was excited to find out that in HOUSE OF MIRRORS we were going to continue the story of THE POISON TREE and find out what happened after that fateful ending. Once again, Kelly excelled in character development and dark family secrets and has delivered the most intriguing family saga that kept me enthralled from beginning to end.

 

Karen and Rex are now middle aged and have a grown-up daughter, Alice, who is as much a free spirit as her parents were at her age – and isn’t that usually a parent’s worst nightmare? She is engaged to climate activist Gabe, a man whose sheer presence annoys Karen and who she suspects of being controlling and emotionally abusive to her daughter. Alice, in the meantime, is intrigued by her family’s dark legacy, especially her aunt Biba’s fate. As usual, each of the book’s character has their own agenda, making for some surprising plot twists that kept me on my toes.

 

Whilst HOUSE OF MIRRORS follows on from THE POISON TREE, it could potentially be read as a standalone – though I thoroughly recommend reading them in order to get the most out of Kelly’s excellent character development. I loved delving into the Capel family’s secrets and dysfunctional dynamics, a fun escape from my own everyday life. Kelly seems to excel with everything she writes, and again, her latest book was a winner for me!

Book Review: CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS by Shankari Chandran

 

Title: CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS

Author:  Shankari Chandran

Read: July 2024

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description (Goodreads):

 

Welcome to Cinnamon Gardens, a home for those who are lost and the stories they treasure.

Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is nestled in the quiet suburb of Westgrove, Sydney – populated with residents with colourful histories, each with their own secrets, triumphs and failings. This is their safe place, an oasis of familiar delights – a beautiful garden, a busy kitchen and a bountiful recreation schedule.

But this ordinary neighbourhood is not without its prejudices. The serenity of Cinnamon Gardens is threatened by malignant forces more interested in what makes this refuge different rather than embracing the calm companionship that makes this place home to so many. As those who challenge the residents’ existence make their stand against the nursing home with devastating consequences, our characters are forced to reckon with a country divided.

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to story-telling and how our stories shape who we are.

My musings:

 

CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS is one of the best and most relevant books I have read so far this year! Don’t be fooled by the cosy cover and title, because this story is gritty and confronting in parts. It will touch your soul and break your heart.

Cinnamon Gardens is a nursing home, and if there is a similar place in real life, please sign me up! Started up by Sri Lankan immigrants, the place truly cares about its residents, taking not only their bodily needs but also their spiritual and cultural preferences into consideration. The food alone sounded divine, and the activities nurturing, provided by people who really care. I loved the concept so much! Exploring both the beginnings of the nursing home, going back into the early lives of its founders, as well as its current fate, was a journey I won’t soon forget.

The most difficult reviews are those of books that are so well written that my words will do them an injustice, and CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS definitely falls into that category. Chandran manages to pack a lot of content into the book’s 384 pages, all relevant in Australia today. I learned so much about Sri Lankan culture and the country’s troubled history, and reflected on parallels drawn between its colonial history and Australia. The theme of the migrant experience and racism features prominently and also offered a unique angle from the author’s family’s own experience. I loved the way Chandran brought her characters to life, they all felt very real and dear to me.

CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS was a bookclub choice, and there was so much to discuss! As stated before, my words feel totally inadequate summing up my reading experience and the reflection it prompted. I feel that everyone living in Australia today needs to read this book! It both warmed my heart and broke it and I shed many tears over the fates of its characters. Highly recommended!

 

Book Review: THE BELL IN THE LAKE and THE REINDEER HUNTERS by Lars Mytting

 

Every now and then you stumble across a book that just takes your breath away, and THE BELL IN THE LAKE and its sequel THE REINDEER HUNTERS fell into that category for me! I loved everything about this story, even though it also broke my heart into a million pieces.

 

Set in a small remote village in Norway in the late 1800’s, we get to meet the unforgettable characters that will soon worm their way into our hearts and minds. Astrid Hekne, the beautiful and clever daughter of a local landholder, who yearns to get out of the confines of her village and a different life. Kai Schweigaard, the young pastor who has just been posted to the village and has ambitious plans for the town, hoping that his progressive ideas will elevate his status and give him a ticket to grander locations. And Gerhard Schoenauer, the young German architect who has been sent to draw up plans of the church before it gets sold, dismantled and moved all the way to Germany. Butangen’s stave church features like a character itself, with its myth about the “sister bells” and its strong connection to the community, so it’s little wonder that its fate is strongly tied to that of its parishioners.

 

With a strong sense of place and time and a setting so vivid that I thought I was in Norway, the book took me on one unforgettable journey I only came out of reluctantly, dazed and completely emotionally wrung out. Mytting tells his tale so convincingly that his characters came to life for me, and I remember them as flesh and blood people whose fate touched me in ways only few fictional characters can. A heads up: have some tissues ready because I cried floods of tears!

 

Despite being 400 pages long, the story came to an end way too soon, but the good news was that there is a sequel! THE REINDEER HUNTERS takes the story up where THE BELL IN THE LAKE ended, with a new, younger generation of Butangen residents now in the forefront of the novel. Myttings trilogy (I can’t wait for the third instalment, which hasn’t been released yet) is deeply steeped in history and folklore, making it an interesting as well as educational read. Be prepared to spend hours googling “stave churches” after reading it. I was also fascinated by the details about midwifery and the knowledge of the midwives in the late 1900’s, with so many challenges to overcome, distance and poverty amongst them. Mytting’s keen observations of human behaviour fill his novels with tales of love & hate, jealousy & forgiveness, kindness and compassion and greed and the dynamics of a small remote community steeped in tradition and folklore. Here the progressive ideas of a young pastor may not be kindly received by all, and the ideas of the church often clash against more traditional views.

 

There is so much more I could say about these wonderful novels but I will leave it at that and urge you to pick them up for yourself. You will be rewarded with a story that will stay with you for a long time, and some magnificent armchair travel to Norway (which makes me want to go out and buy a ticket right now to explore it for myself). I can’t wait for the release of the third book in the trilogy to find out more about the fate of the sister bells and the sisters’ weaving depicting Skrapanatta.

Book Review: TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett

 

Title: TOM LAKE

Author:  Ann Patchett

Read: February 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

My musings:

 

Every now and then a book comes out of left field and totally steals your hear. TOM LAKE was that type of novel for me, jumping from a random book exchange find ("If I don't like it I just bring it back") to my first 5 star read of the year.

Set on a cherry orchard in those first few surreal early months of the pandemic, it tells the story of a family thrown together in lockdown, trying to make sense of the past and the present. I loved the concept of Lara telling her three grown daughters about her youth and musing about how her life was irrevocably changed by the events of one long ago summer. Tackling themes like first love, betrayal, friendship, dreams, loss and the choices we make, its underlying message is that life can turn in a heartbeat and derail the track we're on. Lara has long learned the wisdom some people never achieve: to see what's really important in the big picture and to live the moments. If there is one thing that the pandemic showed us, it's the importance of family and those little snatched joyful moments we often take for granted.

Just as Lara brings her character Emily to life, Pratchett presents us with a cast of unforgettable people who seemed as alive to me as someone I've known for years. Lara muses that she will grow too old to play Emily, and yet her fictional character spoke to me across the ages. I related as much to the younger Lara as to the mother telling her life story to her three grown daughters, trying to make them understand. Written with insight and a lot of heart, the story touched some deep sentimental core in me, making me feel warm and fuzzy one minute and sobbing my heart out the next. What a wonderful read this was! I am so sad to leave this story and am experiencing the biggest book hangover right now.

Book Review: BEYOND THAT, THE SEA by Laura Spence-Ash

 

Title: BEYOND THAT, THE SEA

Author:  Laura Spence-Ash

Read: March 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.

Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.

As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life—summers on the coast in Maine, new friends clamoring to hear about life across the sea—the girl she had been begins to fade away, until, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends.

Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.

As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.

My musings:

 

BEYOND THAT, THE SEA is one of those rare books that come out of nowhere and totally steal your heart. Taking part over a time span of thirty years, the book tells the story of eleven year old Beatrix, who has been evacuated from war torn London to live with a family in America until the end of WWII. Whilst her parents had hoped that the separation would be a short one, it’s five long years until Beatrix can return home again, and then she has been fundamentally changed by her time with the Gregory family.

It’s hard to believe that BEYOND THAT, THE SEA is a debut novel because it is not only insightful and wise, but also written with such skill that the characters immediately came to life for me. As someone who has left my country of birth at a young age to live far away from my origins, I could relate to Beatrix’s sense of estrangement when returning to London after spending her formative years in a place where the culture was significantly different from that of her homeland. I also found it heartbreaking that she was expected to let go of the bond she had formed with her foster family during those early adolescent years, when she was especially vulnerable and far from her own family. In the time of snapchat and facebook it is sometimes hard to remember that not all that long ago it was a lot more difficult to stay in touch, even though I loved the concept of a chess game playing out through “snail-mail” postcards.

BEYOND THAT, THE SEA made me feel warm and fuzzy and teary in equal measure. I shed may tears when I though of Mrs G’s grief of losing the foster daughter she had taken in with such generosity and had come to love as her own. On the other hand, I understood the grief, resentment and jealousy Bea’s mother is experiencing, having to let her child go to another family, who are fortunate enough to escape the horror of war through the sheer luck of fate. One passage where Bea’s mother lashes out at the Gregory family for “living such a good life and eating lots of food” whilst people in London live in daily fear of bombs and have to survive on hard rations resonated with me – especially how the lottery of where you are born determines so much of your fate.

BEYOND THAT, THE SEA is a slow, character driven story exploring the meaning of family and belonging. It also reminded me of my own privilege and to be grateful that I raised my own children in peace and never had to make those terrible choices Bea's parents were forced to contamplate, out of love for their child. Written with a wisdom that will resonate through all ages, this book deeply touched me and will stay in my mind for a long time to come.

Book Review: TAKE ME APART by Sara Sligar

 

Title: TAKE ME APART

Author:  Sara Sligar

Read:  November 2023

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

A young archivist's obsession with her subject's mysterious death threatens to destroy her fragile grasp on sanity, in a riveting debut novel of psychological suspense.

My musings:

 

I love it when I come across a new author whose book totally blew me away and TAKE ME APART fell into that category. Both an intriguing and captivating as well as a contemplative and somewhat sad mystery, once I started, I couldn’t tear myself away!

 

Why is it that mysteries revolving around family secrets are so irresistible? I guess almost everyone has found an intriguing nameless photo in an old family album at some stage and wondered about the story behind it. Mirand Brand doesn’t only feature in photographs, she is also the artist behind them, with herself as the subject delivering her subtle messages through her art. Like many artists, Miranda is as brilliant as she is troubled, suffering a tragic untimely death when her only son Theo is only eleven years old. A grown man now, Theo has inherited the family home with all its clutter and its secrets. He hires Kate, a former journalist and now archivist to sort through the vast collection of papers and photos and separate the wheat from the chaff. Due to Miranda’s fame, even some of her old photos and notes could bring in a small fortune if sold to collectors. As Kate makes her way through mountains of paperwork, she becomes intrigued – and then obsessed – with Miranda’s tragic life and vows to find out when really led to her death ….

 

Sligar uses a variety of styles to unravel her mystery. Whilst the main perspective is Kate’s voice, we also get to read snippets out of Miranda’s diary, old correspondences, newspaper articles, receipts and other pieces of her life left behind. It was this aspect of the story I found most fascinating, and as I tried to piece together the details of Miranda’s life I myself became a little bit obsessed with learning more about her. Because Theo is less than forthcoming, the mystery took on a sense of urgency and ominous foreboding that would otherwise have been absent, a very clever way to keep the reader engaged.

 

There are many tragic themes that urge reflection, from domestic violence to mental health, the hidden scars we hide from the world, the driving forces behind art and the fine line between brilliance and madness. Miranda was such a fascinating, complex character! I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Miranda’s art, which isn’t easy to convey with words but which the author pulled off beautifully here. Kate also made a perfect protagonist with just enough secrets of her own to make her story compelling and her character well rounded and enigmatic.

 

I think that labelling TAKE ME APART a thriller may be doing it a bit of a disservice because the story was more slow burning intrigue than action, character rather than plot driven. Yes, there are the questions surrounding Miranda’s death, but it is by far not the driving force here. Rather, we want to get to know Miranda Brand, the real person behind her public profile, which is slowly revealed through debris left from her everyday life. I could have spent many more chapters reading excerpts from her diary or getting glimpses of her art. Readers who are looking for a twisty thriller with murder and mayhem may find themselves disappointed, but anyone who enjoys a beautifully written character study of a troubled mind should grab this book ASAP. I picked it up without any expectations and without even reading the blurb, and was blown away by the story. It’s definitely going on my favourites list this year and I hope we will see a lot more stories from Sara Sligar in future.

Book Review: HAPPINESS FALLS by Angie Kim

 Title: HAPPINESS FALLS

Author:  Angie Kim

Read: September 2023

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

  

"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.

My musings:

 

I absolutely adored Angie Kim’s debut novel MIRACLE CREEK and couldn’t wait to read her latest book – and it was wonderful!

 

As in her debut, Kim’s latest story focuses on a Korean-American family whose youngest member is neuro-diverse and non-verbal. It is also a mystery of sorts, revolving around the disappearance of a father, but pigeonholing it into that genre would be a mistake, because it is so much more! Mia, the missing man’s highly intelligent, hyper-analytical 20-year old daughter is the first one to notice that something is wrong when her non-verbal brother Eugene comes running back from a walk with their father, visibly distressed and alone. But because he is unable to communicate, it takes the family a while to work out that Mia’s father Adam is missing. As Mia starts looking for clues that may lead to locating her father, she discovers that he has been keeping secrets from his family for a while – but what exactly was he hiding, and will the answers help them find him?

 

There were so many thought-provoking and intriguing themes in this story. Firstly, I had never heard of Angelman Syndrome, Eugene’s rare neurogenetic disorder that makes him unable to verbally communicate. Secondly, I found Adam’s theories about the happiness quotient simply fascinating – it all made so much sense! I had never thought about happiness and disappointment from such an analytical, logical viewpoint before. The little “experiments” Adam undertook to prove his point opened up endless possibilities and scenarios I pondered long after finishing the book, and I am still intrigued.

 

However, at the centre of the story lies family, and the love that binds us and will make us pull together to protect the weaker of the pack. Sometimes this can work against us, as in the case of Eugene, who is closely protected by his parents and siblings to a point where …. sorry, I can’t go there without giving spoilers! Let’s just say that it’s not until Adam tries something different that things drastically change for Eugene.

 

But I digress. Thirdly, there is the immigrant theme that Kim revisits in her latest book. Mia’s mother, a linguist, explains to her daughter how stupid she felt when she first moved to America, because she couldn’t adequately communicate in the foreign language. Whereas she was regarded as highly intelligent in her own country, her inadequacy in verbal fluency in English automatically marked her as dim-witted. How about people who, like her youngest child, are unable to communicate verbally?

 

Mia’s voice isn’t always an easy one to follow – she often comes across as bristly and abrasive, and her flights of thought can be tiring. And yet she makes the perfect protagonist to tell this story. There are footnotes to give us some background and context, and lots of foreshadowing warning us of things to come, but most compelling were Mia’s own interpretations of the clues her father left behind.

 

 Summary:

 

Thought provoking, emotionally charged and beautifully written, HAPPINESS FALLS kept me enthralled from the beginning to its heart-wrenching, powerful finale. And even though I felt completely emotionally wrung out at the end, I was sorry that it ended! Some of the themes will stay with me for a long time to come and I can’t wait to see what Angie Kim will come up with next.

 

Introducing my favorite book of 2022: THE WINNERS by Fredrik Backman (BEARTOWN #3)

 

Title: THE WINNERS (BEARTOWN # 3)

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Read: November 2022

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

My musings:

 

I would give this book 100 stars if I could!

 

If I thought that Beartown ripped out my heart and broke it into a million pieces, then Backman’s latest instalment in the series just ground them to fine dust. At least now I know to stock up on tissues before starting any of his books!

 

I don’t even know where to begin with a review because it’s difficult to express how much I loved this book. After the three Beartown novels, I almost feel part of the community. I’m not sure how Backman does it, but his characters are so well drawn that they are totally real to me. Often, characters remain a hazy outline, but this cast is as vivid in my mind as people I have known all my life.

 

With the Beartown themes of community, parenthood, coming of age, friendships and the fine threads that connect us all to one another, there wasn’t many tissues left in the box by the time I finished reading. Backman’s writing resonates deeply with me, as do his characters.

 

THE WINNERS is set 2 years after the events in BEARTOWN, and we get to find out how all our favourite characters have fared in that time. There are a few surprises in store, but one thing has not changed – the rivalry between the two hockey clubs of Beartown and Hed. As someone who knows nothing about hockey and isn’t particularly sports orientated, even I soon realised how much the sport reflected the hopes and dreams of the community, and was swept away by their love for the sport. As hockey gets embroiled in the political power games of influential people trying to make Beartown and Hed’s animosity work in their favour, the simmering tension is about to erupt into violence. With the constant foreshadowing in the story, I knew that something terrible was about to happen, which had me torn between reading quickly to find the answers and savouring the story. Backman injects so many snippets of insight and wisdom into his stories that touched me deeply, drawing out emotions that are often repressed or overlooked.

 

I can confidently say that THE WINNERS is my favourite book for 2022 and one that I will revisit again when the open wounds in my heart are no longer so raw and I can savour the fine details I may have overlooked. Please note that this is not a stand-alone novel and needs to be read in the right order of the Beartown series to make sense and to get the full value out of this wonderful tale. I loved every minute of it and was sad to say good-bye to characters who feel like good old friends – I will miss them. A truly wonderful book! If you haven’t discovered this series yet, what are you waiting for?

Book Review: ALL THAT’S LEFT UNSAID by Tracey Lien

 

Title: ALL THAT’S LEFT UNSAID

Author:  Tracey Lien

Publisher:  Harlequin Australia

Read: July 2022

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

 

Book Description:

 

Just let him go. These are the words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny—optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny—is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.

Returning home to Cabramatta for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by Denny’s case: a dozen people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.

Desperately hoping that understanding what happened might ease her suffocating guilt, Ky sets aside her grief and determines to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels back another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing trauma and seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive.

Alternating between Ky’s voice and the perspectives of the witnesses, Tracey Lien’s extraordinary debut is at once heart-pounding and heart-rending as it probes the intricate bonds of friendship, family, and community through an unforgettable cast of characters, all connected by a devastating crime. Combining evocative family drama and gripping suspense, All That’s Left Unsaid is a profound and moving page turner, perfect for readers of Liz Moore, Brit Bennett, and Celeste Ng.

My musings:

 

ALL THAT’S LEFT UNSAID is one of those books that starts off as a mystery but then ends up being so much more, leaving you emotionally exhausted at the end of it. If a book haunts my thoughts long after I turned the last page, I know that it has struck some deep emotion with me somewhere.

Ky, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, returns to her childhood home in Cabramatta after the violent death of her younger brother Denny Tran, killed at a local restaurant. Even though the murder happened in front of dozens of witnesses, everyone claims not to have seen anything, and the police investigation has come to a dead end so far. Dealing with her own grief and the heartbreak Denny’s death has caused her parents, Ky starts asking questions – someone just had to have seen who killed her brother. So why is no one talking?

Even though ALL THAT’S LEFT UNSAID centres around a murder, it is more than just a mystery. In her debut novel, Lien explores what it’s like to be an immigrant in Australia – and to be the child of immigrant parents. It is also an exploration of grief and guilt that transcends race and culture – because parents grieving for their child speak a universal language that is understood with the heart rather than words. The mark Denny’s death left on his parents broke my heart, especially as they are trying to get answers and find justice in a culture that is foreign to them, with many barriers standing in their way. Ky, on the other hand, also has burdens only a child of immigrant parents can understand. On top of her own grief, she juggles her parents’ expectations, the role of the “good child” she was cast into, the problem solver and translator, the one that got out and made a better life for herself.

The social commentary on immigrant life in Cabramatta thirty years ago was an eye opener for me, and added a lot of depth to the mystery. I loved the way Lien included other narrators in addition to the voice of Ky, our main protagonist. One character in particular really spoke to me and made me forge a deeper emotional connection to the story than I would have otherwise done.

 

Summary:

 

In summary, dealing with the struggles of immigrant life in Australia, inter-generational trauma, grief, guilt and the way children of immigrant parents feel torn between two cultures, ALL THAT’S LEFT UNSAID was a mystery with a powerful message that really touched my heart. If you love Celeste Ng’s or Amy Tan’s books, then you should definitely read this one.

 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Reading from my TBR pile: 5 star books

 

MALIBU RISING by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Not much actually happens in this book. Four siblings prepare for a big party the eldest sister is holding in her grand house on the cliffs at Malibu. In between those chapters, we get an insight into their relationships by flashbacks into the past from the moment of their parents' first meeting. That's it. There isn't much action, no surprise twists or big reveals. And yet it's one of the best books I've read this year.

Why? Because of the characters. Within a few chapters, Nina, Jay, Hudson and Kit and their parents became as real to me as people I'd known all my life. In each of their chapters, I BECAME them. I cried their tears, felt their pain, was elated with their joy and most of all, understood the bond that cemented them together in an indestructible bond.

MALIBU RISING was one of those rare gems that stole a piece of my heart whilst I was reading it and made me grieve for its characters when they were no longer part of my life. The vibes of a Malibu summer in the early 80s made this a perfect holiday read with all the feels. It's not often that a book so perfectly captures my imagination, no, my entire soul. I loved every minute of it and it's a definitive highlight of this year for me. The hype is real!

BLACK RABBIT HALL by Eve Chase

 

If I had to choose my favourite book by Eve Chase, it would be BLACK RABBIT HALL. I adored everything about the story, from its atmospheric setting of Black Rabbit Hall to its characters, who all came to life for me. I especially loved the Alton children - Toby, Amber, Kitty and Barney – who immediately captured my heart and kept me eagerly reading on. Their strong bond, a theme that features strongly in all of Chase’s novels, warmed my heart and ultimately broke it.

The dual timeline worked well for me in this story, even though I had brief concerns that I would not find Lorna’s story as interesting as the rest. Unfounded fears, as it turned out. The family secrets that drove this mystery had me totally intrigued and the setting was so vivid that I can still picture it long after finishing the book.

BLACK RABBIT HALL is one of those rare stories that not only rolled out like a movie in my head, but also totally captured my heart and my imagination. I savoured this book and loved every minute of it. If you haven’t read any of Chase’s books yet, I recommend you start with this one!