Category: Makes You Think

Family, Historical, Makes You Think, Women

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Publisher Description

This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai’i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place—and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka’i. Here her life is supposed to end—but instead she discovers it is only just beginning. 

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka’i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that “few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel’s story” (mostlyfiction.com).

My Thoughts

GoodReads “Want to Read” #2

I recall reading about Father Damien of Moloka’i in grammar school and remember being shocked and so sad for the people with leprosy who were banished to Kalaupapa. I am sure that memory is what drew me to this book and led me to add it to my GoodReads list back in 2012.

This is an emotional and beautiful reading experience that demonstrates the wide range of human capacity for survival. From the people in Rachel’s community who, driven by fear and disgust, shunned her family to the cold and clinical treatment Rachel experienced in hospital to the warm and welcoming community on Kalaupapa to the vibrant but full-of-heartbreak life Rachel led – this book will make you feel all the emotions.

The author writes eloquently of this difficult topic and with tremendous compassion and grace for the characters affected by leprosy. The descriptions of Hawaii add a color to the narrative that helped this reader (who has never been there) envision the beauty of the landscape. Brennert is equally adept at writing characters, and there are several here that I will remember for a long time.

As I read, I was taken back just a few years to the beginning of the pandemic. I recognized many of the same panicky reactions in the community members and the devastating impact Rachel’s illness had on her family. I think this reading experience would have been much different pre-pandemic and I think this would make a very interesting book club discussion today.

Highly recommended.

Publication Date: September 9, 2004
Published By: Macmillan
Thanks to the Rochester Public Library Winton Branch for the book

Family, Makes You Think, Women

The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Great American novelist Julia Alvarez, bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, returns with a luminescent novel about storytelling that reads like an instant classic.

Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life and who still haunt her.

Alma wants her characters to rest in peace. But they have other ideas and soon begin to defy their author: they talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. Filomena, a local woman hired as the groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener to the secret tales unspooled by Alma’s characters. Among them, Bienvenida, dictator Rafael Trujillo’s abandoned wife who was erased from the official history, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground and escaped to the United States.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Finally, Alma finds the meaning she and her characters yearn for in the everlasting vitality of stories. Julia Alvarez reminds us that the stories of our lives are never truly finished, even at the end.

My Thoughts

This was a lovely palate cleanser for me between some historical romance and YA fantasy, but Julia Alvarez is so much more than a little lemon ice. The concept here may not be for everyone, but I loved the beginning of this set of stories that focus on Alma and her struggle with her father’s death and her place in the world.

A successful author, she finds her office full of unfinished stories which she feels the compulsion to bury. She regrets all the lost stories from her family, and wants to control her own unfinished and potentially lost stories by burying them where she began – in the Dominican Republic.

Alvarez explores the intricate family relationships that occur between Alma and her sisters, her parents, and even with the land in the Dominican Republic. The stories are complex and sometimes meandering, which requires attentive reading. This would make a thoughtful book club selection with discussion focusing on our own untold stories. What draws everything together is Alvarez’ beautiful prose. One of the best of the year.

Recommended.

“Only an alchemist as wise and sure as Alvarez could swirl the elements of folklore and the flavor of magical realism around her modern prose and make it all sing . . . Lively, joyous . . . often witty, occasionally somber and elegiac.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, The New York Times Book Review

“Engaging and written in a playful, crystal-clear prose, this novel explores friendship, love, sisterhood, living between cultures, and how people can be haunted by the things they don’t finish . . . Entertaining . . . Heartwarming.” —Gabino Iglesias, The Boston Globe

**Named a Most Anticipated Book by the New York Times, Washington Post, Today.com, Goodreads, B&N Reads, Literary Hub, HipLatina, BookPage, BBC.com, Zibby Mag, and more**

Publication Date: April 2, 2024
Published By: Algonquin Books
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Indie, Makes You Think, Suspense

The Nine Minute Diner by Grzegorz Kunowski

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Embark on a gripping journey through a 48,000-word narrative woven from diverse threads of drama, mystery, and human connection. From a web of small-town secrets to a diner robbery gone wrong, the text explores the profound impacts of choices on sixteen compelling characters. The Nine Minute Diner captures the haunting reverberations of their decisions, revealing the intricate dance between fate and human agency. Suspenseful twists and poignant reflections unravel a rich tapestry of lives colliding, creating an immersive experience that leaves readers spellbound. In this novella-length narrative, every word adds depth to a narrative that explores the profound consequences of a desperate act.

My Thoughts

Mr. Kunowski was kind enough to send me a pre-pub version of his latest novella, which does not seem to be available yet. However, I will tell you this book had me captivated from the start. Each chapter tells the personal story of an individual caught up in a horrendous mass shooting incident in a diner. I went into this thinking I knew how this would unfold, but Kunowski takes you in unexpected directions throughout the narrative.

As I was reading and experiencing the different emotions and reactions of the people in the diner, I kept thinking that this would make a fabulous on-stage production. The writing is evocative and emotional, conveying the fear, horror, shock, surprise, and inevitability experienced by the diners.

While Nine Minute Diner is not available on the author’s Amazon page yet, you can check out his other work at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Grzegorz-Kunowski/author/B082P9CGB9?

Makes You Think, New Releases, Psychological, Suspense, Women

Lilith by Eric Rickstad

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

From the internationally bestselling author of I Am Not Who You Think I Am—a New York Times Thriller of the Year—comes Lilith, an incendiary powerhouse of a novel that strikes straight at the wounded heart of America.

Mother. Hero. Villain. Killer. 

After her son Lydan suffers traumatic injuries in a school shooting, single mom Elisabeth Ross grows enraged at men in power. If they won’t do anything to help end this epidemic of violence, she will. Believing it’s her destiny, she sets out to awaken the world to the cowards these men are and commits her own shocking act of violence. 

Going by the name Lilith—the first wife of Adam who fled Eden rather than serve a man—she posts a video of her crime that reverberates throughout society.

Praised by some, demonized by others, and hunted by the FBI and vigilantes alike, Elisabeth must keep her identity a secret as she tries to care for her son.

As events take startling twists, Elisabeth begins to question her act of violence and the very roots and mythology of violence itself. Was her act justified or has she become the monster that the original Lilith was accused of being?

As the FBI draws closer, and Lydan starts to display odd, terrifying behavior, Elisabeth plots to avoid capture and keep her son safe at all costs, fearing she’ll never escape what she’s done without losing her son forever. 

Written with Rickstad’s singular command of language, human insight, and unnerving suspense, Lilith is a tale of our times. Tragic and profound, it echoes in the mind and lingers in the blood.

My Thoughts

This exploration of a mother’s response to her son being injured in a school shooting made me feel a lot of things. I don’t think there’s a parent out there who hasn’t thought about how they would respond if their child was injured or killed in a senseless act of violence like a mass shooting. The one reaction that no one talks about publicly is meeting violence with violence and exacting revenge on the people who make these mass killings possible. I’ve seen several reviews call this book a “punch to the gut.”

It certainly is that.

It is also a brilliant story of an anti-hero who does the things others only dream about in their darkest dreams. In the hands of a less-capable author, this would be a melodramatic mess but Rickstad turns this into an Everywoman story that tensely explores the journey of a mother who is hurt, terrified, and very, very angry.

I would describe my reaction to this book as a “hammer to the head and heart.” It challenges the reader’s belief system and prompts serious thinking about how we as individuals and collectively as a civilization respond to horrific violence. I am left conflicted and would welcome discussion with others. That’s saying A LOT because I am a solitary reader. I’ll be recommending this for book clubs for sure.

Publication Date: March 19, 2024
Published By: Blackstone Publishing
Thanks to Netgalley and the Blackstone for the review copy

Books About Books, Fantasy, Magical, Magical Realism, Makes You Think, Mystery, New Releases, Psychological, Suspense

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

A debut novel full of magic, adventure, and romance, The Book of Doors opens up a thrilling world of contemporary fantasy for readers of The Midnight Library, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, The Night Circus, and any modern story that mixes the wonder of the unknown with just a tinge of darkness.

Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.  

But this is no ordinary book…

It is the Book of Doors. 

Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.

Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them. 

Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there. 

But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.

My Thoughts

The early chapters in this mesmerizing book kept me glued to the pages. I was fascinated by the concept of the books, especially the Book of Doors. However, I put the book down after the introduction of “the woman” and the subsequent chapters that described her sociopathic, cruel behavior. The introduction of the woman and particularly what she did with the Book of Despair horrified me and I needed a break.

If you are a squeamish reader, this is your warning. The violence here is V.i.o.l.e.n.t.

When I came back, I waded through chapters that became increasingly challenging to keep straight. Make no mistake, this is a complex plot that requires close reading. The concept of the books was so intriguing that I was able to set aside several instances of irritating and insensitive dialog and description, which could be fixed with some editing. Considering I was reading an ARC, hopefully these things will be fixed in the final version.

There is some insight to the “why” of the cruelty and sociopathy at the end, but that part left me wondering if the final scene in NYC with Hugo and Rachel actually started the whole cycle all over again.

My prediction is that most readers will either love or hate this book. I’m in the middle – I am totally there for the Books, but less so for the humans in the story.

Publication Date: February 13, 2024
Published By: William Morrow
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Biography, General, Lists, Makes You Think, Non Fiction

The Heirloomist by Shana Novak

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

A warm, inviting celebration of beloved keepsakes and the stories they hold.

A set of old apartment keys, a pair of worn running shoes, a declaration of love scribbled on a restaurant receipt. Beautiful stories that celebrate the power an object can hold are at the heart of The Heirloomist by photographer Shana Novak, creator of the project of the same name dedicated to documenting keepsakes and transforming them into uniquely meaningful works of art. The 100 objects featured here range from the everyday to the extraordinary. Treasured heirlooms to their owners, ordinary folks and cultural figures alike, they hold remarkable stories such as:

  • Nora McInerny on the fork that began her relationship with her late husband.
  • The sculpture that inspired Christy Turlington to fight for maternal healthcare.
  • The charm bracelet Nate Berkus gifted his daughter in stylish family tradition.
  • Rosanne Cash’s love for her children represented by baby shoes.
  • Andrew Zimmern’s inherited steel carving set that began a storied career in food.

Big or small, expensive or humble, we all have meaningful items with powerful messages behind them. Celebratory, sentimental, and bursting with heart, The Heirloomist offers a glimpse into the treasures we hold dear and how they inform the stories of our lives.

My Thoughts

The concept of heirlooms is something that has been top of mind for me in the last few years as my family has coped with multiple losses of our elders and kin. My home is currently filled with things that connect me to those who have gone before me, all of them keeping a story that is a thread of my past. Reading this incredibly tender and joyous work by Shana Novak has given me some ideas on how to share those stories with the younger generations in my family. While I understand that some of the things that have special meaning for me will not evoke the same memories for my children or nieces & nephews, many items hold the key to wonderful family stories.

Novak has carefully selected heirlooms and stories that reveal everything from secrets to prosaic moments in the past that shaped those featured in each section. This is a book to be savored and shared, and will undoubtedly get the reader to take stock of the memories and history they have shoved into the back of a long-forgotten closet. If anything, this book made me want to pull out my grandmother’s old silver, polish it up and place it in my every-day utensil drawer.

Highly recommended.

Publication Date: April 30, 2024
Published By: Chronicle Books
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Historical, Horror, Magical Realism, Makes You Think, Psychological, Women

Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging – or better left behind entirely.

My Thoughts

I’ve been a fan of Arden’s work since I first read her Winternight Trilogy, which I wrote about here and here. While her previous work has been some of the best fantasy and horror I’ve read, she stretches way beyond those genres here in a book I can only describe as quietly incandescent.

The utter horror of World War I has been documented in so many ways that Arden doesn’t feel obligated to give a history lesson here. Instead, she examines the humanity (and inhumanity) experienced by average people caught up in situations too big and too awful to comprehend without going mad. She beautifully renders the utter heartbreak and the paralyzing fear experienced by soldiers, nurses, and doctors, juxtaposed with love, affection, friendship and the human capacity to just get on with it and worry about details later.

In Winternight, Arden wrote about a place called Midnight and the struggle between Chaos and Order. I recognized some aspects of both those things in some scenes here. The character of Faland reminded me a bit of The Bear – the bringer of chaos, the eater of souls – but the character here was developed in such a way that made me cringe but also want more. The concept that the war was so horrific, that it was murdering the old world and making way for the new, was so carefully balanced with the idea that it was also changing the nature of evil itself is one that has kept me thinking long after finishing the book.

I’m not often completely surprised at twists in a story, but the twist near the end of this one left me entirely nonplussed and drained. Arden’s treatment of relationships – brother & sister, mother and child, friend & enemy – is so intricate and beautiful that some scenes made me cry. That doesn’t often happen.

Despite the chaos and horror, the threads that pull it all together are love and madness. How can humans endure utter madness yet still find their way back to those who love them? How much can one person endure before they give up and what lengths would you go to in order to bring your loved one back from the brink?

This book comes out in early 2024 and I predict it will be on all the “Best of 2024” lists. It is a triumph for Katherine Arden and a gift to us all.

Publication Date: February 13, 2024
Published By: Random House Publishing Group; Ballantine; Del Rey
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

British, Folktales, Magical, Makes You Think, Mythology, World Literature

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock is trying to make sense of the world. Living alone in an old house, he spends his time reading comic books, collecting birds’ eggs, and playing with marbles. When one day a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker appears on a horse and cart, offering a cure-all medicine, a mysterious friendship develops and the young boy is introduced to a world beyond his wildest imagination.

Luminous, evocative, and sparely told, Treacle Walker is a stunning fusion of myth, folklore, and the stories we tell ourselves.

My Thoughts

I picked this book and put it down twice before I decided to really dig in. It’s a short book – 152 pages – it should be a quick read, right?

Nope.

Treacle Walker is a captivating blend of myth & folklore, and a thought-provoking treatment of sight (and all it means), healing, and age. But this is not an easy book to read. For starters, it’s written in dialect which took me some time to understand. (I was reminded of the first time I read A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh.) And this is not a superficial book. It is layer upon layer of story and observation, which takes some concentrated reading.

I’m finishing a year of mostly soft reading where I’ve read stories with linear plots that end with positive resolutions. It’s been that kind of year where reading was an escape. This one is anything but soft.

The thing that pulled me in and kept me reading was when I realized the catalyst to the action was derived from one of my favorite childhood folktales involving ointment that when applied to human eyes allows you to see the faerie world all around you.

The concept of a person seeing things that “aren’t there” is something I’ve struggled with especially in my professional life over the last few years as we’ve seen more and more library visitors experiencing mental health crises. People seeing the world in different ways is a real thing and Garner beautifully communicates all the emotions Joseph experiences as this happens to him – his fear, frustration, confusion, and curiosity drive the story.

This is especially poignant as we reach the end, where Joseph becomes the one to make the world a’right again. He says tearfully “I’m only little. I’m only little.” But he has done a thing that is really big. He’s changed and grown despite the challenges.

There’s so much to unpack in this book. I haven’t even talked about Treacle Walker himself, who is certainly an allegory for time and aging. This would make a fabulous book discussion selection for a group really willing to bite into the text and chew on it.

Publication Date: 2021
Published By: 4th Estate London

Action Adventure, Horror, Makes You Think, Mystery, Suspense

Tides of Fire by James Rollins

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

In the latest riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, an international research station in the Coral Sea comes under siege during a geological disaster that triggers massive quakes, deadly tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. To stop the world from burning, it’s up to Sigma Force to uncover a secret buried at the heart of our planet.

The Titan Project—an international research station off the coast of Australia—discovers a thriving zone of life in an otherwise dead sea. The area teems with a strange bioluminescent coral that defies science, yet holds great promise for the future. But the loss of a military submarine in the area triggers a brutal attack and sets in motion a geological disaster that destabilizes an entire region.

Massive quakes, volcanic eruptions, and deadly tsunamis herald a greater cataclysm to come—for something is stirring miles under the ocean, a threat hidden for millennia. 

As seas turn toxic and coastlines burn, can Sigma Force stop what has been let loose—especially as an old adversary returns, hunting them and thwarting their every move? For any hope of success, Commander Gray Pierce must search for a key buried in the past, hidden deep in Aboriginal mythology. But what Sigma could uncover is even more frightening—something that will shake the very foundations of humanity.

My Thoughts

I’ve been reading Rollin’s work for a long time and he is one of the few authors out there whose work never gets stale. While every book has the basic plot of “save the world from catastrophe,” Rollins continually serves up wildly inventive and interesting plots. In Tides of Fire, he blends extraterrestrial mysteries with the just-as-mysterious deep ocean environment on earth to spin as captivating a tale as I’ve ever read.

I always learn new things as I read Rollins’ work, and this round I learned a heck of a lot about deep ocean creatures and the early existence of our planet. Could the Dumbo Octopus be any cuter or the Viper Fish any more terrifying?

Rollins peoples Tides of Fire with the usual cast of characters, including one we all thought was a goner after his adventures in previous books. The relationship between Gray and Seichan continues to evolve, and we get a glimpse of her mysterious past here, which is a nice addition to the series. There is non-stop action from the first chapter straight through to the end.

And that epilogue! Mr. Rollins, get that next book out as soon as possible. Please!

Publication Date: August 15, 2023
Published By: William Morrow
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Fantasy, Ghosties, Horror, Magical, Makes You Think, Mystery, New Releases, Psychological

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothiccomes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film—and awakens one woman’s hidden powers.

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

My Thoughts

Moreno-Garcia keeps turning out macabre, nightmarish stories that explore the darkest reaches of the human psyche. Silver Nitrate explores the needs and desires of two flawed friends who move through life dodging memories and resentments. Their shared love of old horror movies and their own skills in acting and sound editing open a door to a true nightmare.

The exploration of film as the vehicle for possession and magic is such an apt allegory of the Hollywood experience. Moreno-Garcia lays bare the superficiality of the film business combined with the insatiable desire of those in that industry for power, love, money, and youth.

I’d love to see this as a film directed by Quentin Tarantino because Moreno-Garcia writes like he directs.

What a wild ride.

Publication Date: July 18, 2023
Published By: Random House Publishing Group; Ballantine, Del Rey
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy