2023 Year End Survey and Top Picks List

 

I can't remember the last time I had such a great year of reading! And to think that every book in the above collage was a 5-star read is truly amazing. Was I more generous than usual with those gold stars? I like to rate my books quickly after reading because I my first reaction. As time passes, I question those early impressions, but as I look at those beautiful covers, I know those books all left a lasting imprint on me. The sign of an excellent book is that I want to own a copy in order to read it again, and while I already have most of these on my keeper shelf, I'm going to buy two that I borrowed from the library.

I surpassed my Goodreads goal of 60 books, reading 5 more than last year. June, July, and October were my slowest months, and not so coincidentally, the months we were traveling in our RV. November and December were very good with regard to numbers and quality, which surprises me since I'm usually too busy with holiday events, and reading typically falls by the wayside. Not so in 2023.

I gave up on more books than ever before, particularly audiobooks, but I reread more books from my keeper shelves, enjoying some, but finding others less impressive than the first time around.

Here are the fun stats:

Total Books Read: 65

Print Books: 52

Audiobooks: 13

ebooks: 0

Female Authors: 50

Male Authors: 15

New-To-Me Authors: 26

Fiction: 61

Nonfiction: 4

General Fiction: 33

Classics: 4

Poetry: 0

Historical Fiction: 4

Horror: 0

Travel/Food: 0

Science Fiction/Fantasy: 2

Time Travel: 1

Dystopia: 1

Mystery/Thrillers: 19

Westerns: 1

Childrens: 0

Memoir: 1

Essays: 2

Rereads: 8

Debuts: 7

Over 400  pages: 10

ARCs: 1

Borrowed: 20

Gift: 1

From My Stacks: 43

Total Pages Read: 17,565

Total Hours Listened: 171 hours, 54 minutes

Ratings:

5 stars: 13

4.5 stars: 9

4 stars: 23

3.5 stars: 8

3 stars: 10

2 stars: 2

Top Picks of 2023 (5 stars):

Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Foster by Claire Keegan

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Recursion by Blake Crouch

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark

Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

Honorable Mentions (4.5/5 stars):

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Maame by Jessica George

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

The Vows of Silence by Susan Hill

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult 

Forsaken Country by Allen Eskens

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Find my previous Year End Surveys and Top Pick lists here.

Saving Emma

 

Saving Emma by Allen Eskens

Boady Sanden #2

Mystery

2023 Mulholland Books

Finished on December 18, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A lawyer's race to reveal a wrongful conviction collides with the dark shadow of a murder in his own home in this propulsive and perfectly-plotted new thriller from award-winning writer Allen Eskens.

When Boady Sanden first receives the case of Elijah Matthews, he's certain there's not much he can do. Elijah, who believes himself to be a prophet, has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past four years, convicted of brutally murdering the pastor of a megachurch. But as a law professor working for the Innocence Project, Boady agrees to look into Elijah's file. When he does, he is alarmed to find threads that lead back to the death of his colleague and friend, Ben Pruitt, a man shot to death four years earlier in Boady's own home.

Ben's daughter, Emma, has lived with Boady and Boady's wife Dee ever since that awful night. Now fourteen years old, Emma has been growing distant, and soon makes a fateful choice that takes her far from the safety of her godparents. Desperate to bring her home, and to free an innocent man, Boady must do all he can to investigate Elijah's case while fighting to save the family he has deeply come to love.

Written with energy, propulsion, and his characteristic pathos and insight, Eskens delivers another pitch-perfect legal thriller that reveals a twisted murder and explores faith, love, family, and redemption along the way.

I can't remember the last time I read a book (and one with more than 300 pages) in a single day. I could not put this one down! Eskens' thrillers are the proverbial page-turners, and I'm hooked. It's tempting to read the remaining books on his backlist, but I'm going to try to spread them out, maybe reading one a month. This is another one of Eskens' that I've read out of order, but I don't mind. Not one bit. 

Forsaken Country

 

Forsaken Country by Allen Eskens

Detective Max Rupert #6

Mystery/Thriller

2022 Mulholland Books

Finished on December 17, 2023

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Max Rupert has left his position as a Minneapolis homicide detective to live in solitude. Mourning the tragic death of his wife, he’s also racked by guilt—he alone knows what happened to her killer. But then the former local sheriff, Lyle Voight, arrives with a desperate plea: Lyle’s daughter Sandy and his six-year-old grandson Pip have disappeared. Lyle’s certain Sandy’s ex-husband Reed is behind it, but the new sheriff is refusing to investigate.

When Max reluctantly looks into their disappearance, he too becomes convinced something has gone very wrong. But the closer Max and Lyle get to finding proof, the more slippery Reed becomes, until he makes a break for the beautiful but formidable Boundary Waters wilderness with vulnerable Pip in tow.

Racing after the most dangerous kind of criminal—a desperate father—and with the ghosts of their own pasts never far behind, Max and Lyle go on the hunt within a treacherous landscape, determined to bring an evil man to justice, and to bring a terrified child home alive.

I was returning a book at the library last week and came across a new release by Allen Eskens. Up until now, I'd only read his first book, The Life We Bury, which I enjoyed quite a lot on audio. Over the years, I kept seeing his new releases, but never got around to reading any others. So, last week I snagged Eskens' latest book (Saving Emma) and headed over to the stacks to see if there were any more of his that I could borrow. I jumped onto Fantastic Fiction to ensure that I wasn't going to accidentally read one from his series, preferring to try a stand-alone. I got that wrong! (Or, should I say, Fantastic Fiction got it wrong. Sigh.) Forsaken Country is the sixth in the Max Rupert series. Oh, well. I know I read a major spoiler, but the book was so good, it was worth it. Honestly, I zipped through this thrilling crime novel in record speed, compulsively reading when I should have been sleeping.

Allen Eskens' stories and style remind me of Dennis Lehane's early books, but also of Peter Heller's, particularly with regard to his settings and characters. You can be sure I won't wait another half dozen years before I read more by Eskens. As a matter of fact, as soon as I finished Forsaken Country, I immediately started Saving Emma. 

Highly recommend!

French Braid

 

French Braid by Anne Tyler

Fiction

2022 Alfred A. Knopf

Finished on December 14, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author--a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family's foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild in our pandemic present.

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.

Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close--yet how unknowable--every family is to itself.

Anne Tyler's latest novel (I believe it's her twenty-fourth) took me by surprise. If asked, I would admit with a bit of embarrassment that I am not a fan of Tyler's books. She is so popular and everyone I know seems to love her novels, but I've tried several, and have only finished a handful. 

As I began reading French Braid, I recognized Tyler's familiar style of a domestic story peopled with quirky family members. The novel opens in 2010 with a young couple, Serena and James, who are catching a train from Philadelphia to Baltimore. They had been visiting James' parents, and while waiting for the train, Serena spots her cousin, Nicholas. After a brief conversation with Nicholas, the couple boards the train and spends the duration of their trip bickering about their visit.

Jump back to 1959 in the following chapter and we meet Serena's family, specifically her grandparents, who are taking their three children on their first (and last) family vacation. This sudden shift in the timeline took me by surprise, and we don't meet back up with Serena until much later in the book.

The Garretts are an odd bunch, even disregarding Tyler's unusual names such as Mercy and Candle (the latter is actually Kendall, but she couldn't pronounce her name when she was little and Candle stuck). There are also two grandchildren named after their grandfather, Robin. One is referred to as "Robby the Boy," since his cousin was born first and she is Robby the Girl. Oh, and there's even a dog named John! 

It wasn't until I reached the second half of the novel that I began to care about this strange family, and more specifically, the last chapter (set during the lockdown period of the pandemic), which won me over, tugging at my heartstrings, and tempting me to start reading the book again from the beginning. Spanning sixty years, French Braid is a tender and beautifully rendered story about family, warts and all. Highly recommend.

Click on the links below to read my reviews for other Anne Tyler books:

Noah's Compass 3/5 stars

A Spool of Blue Thread 2/5 stars

Back When We Were Grownups 3.5/5 stars

A Patchwork Planet 4/5 stars

Digging to America 4/5 stars

Ladder of Years 4/5 stars

Earthly Possessions 2/5 stars

Wrong Place Wrong Time

 

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Mystery/Thriller

2022 HarperAudio

Narrated by Lesley Sharp

Finished on December 11, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?

It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger.

She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered.

After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up… it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.

Whoa! I don't remember who mentioned this book, but thank you! I spent two enjoyable weeks listening to this compelling story, not wanting it to end, but eager to find out what the heck was going on in Jen's world! Technically, it's a time travel tale, however Jen doesn't bounce back and forth between past and present, but rather continues traveling further back in time until she learns why the present day events occur. I guessed one of the twists early on, but there were plenty more to keep me entertained. The pacing is uneven at times, but Lesley Sharp's outstanding performance helped hold my interest, and I'll be on the lookout for more narrations by her. I also look forward to reading more by Gillian McAllister. Any suggestions as to what I should try next? Highly recommend.

A Question of Identity

 

A Question of Identity by Susan Hill

Simon Serrallier #7

Mystery

2012 Overlook Press

Finished on December 10, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A particularly unpleasant murder, that of a very old woman in a housing project, rocks the town of Lafferton. The murderer has left a distinctive "sign" on the body and at the scene of crime. A couple of weeks later, a similar murder occurs, and a month or so later, so does another.

Initial investigations discover that the mysterious "sign" left on the body was the calling card of a suspect who was charged with several murders in the northwest of the country, tried but acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. All indications suggest that this person has simply vanished. Or is he right under their noses? Simon Serrailler is obliged to delve deeper and scratch out answers, in this addictive mystery of surpassing darkness by the bestselling Susan Hill.

Another solid mystery in Susan Hill's Simon Serrallier series. I never did guess the killer, in spite of a few clues early on. This particular book felt a bit more intense than some of her others. Maybe the elderly victims, who appear so vulnerable and trusting, made me think of some of my friends and relatives who are living alone. I have the next two books in this series ready to go, but I think I'll hold off until after the holidays. I need to read something a little bit lighter!

Hello Beautiful

 

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Fiction

2023 The Dial Press

Finished on December 5, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it's a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family's artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia's new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.

But then darkness from William's past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia's carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters' unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what's possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

Told in alternating chapters, spanning nearly 50 years, Hello Beautiful is a character study, which guides us through the lives of William and the Padavano family. I enjoyed this novel, coming to care about the four sisters (and their daughters), but I never warmed to William. There isn't a lot of action, and there were moments when I felt impatient with the slow pace, but this is a quiet story, one to be savored and not rushed through. I looked forward to returning to the book every night, but it's not one that I loved or wish to read again.

Closer by Sea

 

Closer by Sea by Perry Chafe

Fiction

2023 Simon & Schuster

Finished on November 29, 2023

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the writer and producer of the hit TV shows Republic of Doyle and Son of a Critch, a poignant coming-of-age debut novel about the mysterious disappearance of a young girl and the fragility of childhood bonds, set against the backdrop of a small island community adapting to an ever-changing landscape.

In 1991, on a small, isolated island off the coast of Newfoundland, twelve-year-old Pierce Jacobs struggles to come to terms with the death of his father. It’s been three years since his dad, a fisherman, disappeared in the cold, unforgiving Atlantic, his body never recovered. Pierce is determined to save enough money to fix his father’s old boat and take it out to sea. But life on the island is quiet and hard. The local fishing industry is on the brink of collapse, threatening to take an ages-old way of life with it. The community is hit even harder when a young teen named Anna Tessier goes missing.

With the help of his three friends, Pierce sets out to find Anna, with whom he shared an unusual but special bond. They soon cross paths with Solomon Vickers, a mysterious, hermetic fisherman who may have something to do with the missing girl. Their search brings them into contact with unrelenting bullies, magnificent sea creatures, fierce storms, and glacial giants. But most of all, it brings them closer to the brutal reality of both the natural and the modern world.

Part coming-of-age story, part literary mystery, and part suspense thriller, Closer by Sea is a page-turning, poignant, and powerful novel about family, friendship, and community set at a pivotal time in modern Newfoundland history. It is an homage to a people and a place, and above all it captures that delicate and tender moment when the wonder of childhood innocence gives way to the harsh awakening of adult experience.

I was not familiar with either Perry Chafe or either of the TV shows he has written and produced, but when I heard about Closer by Sea, particularly the Newfoundland setting, I was intrigued. The friendship between three twelve-year-old boys and a new girl in town, a fishing village, and a missing teenager recall both Stephen King's novella, The Body, and Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. I was quickly drawn into Chafe's story, curious to learn more about the mysterious Solomon and what he might be hiding about Anna's disappearance. This coming-of-age tale reads like a screenplay, and I could easily envision the friends stumbling about the island, searching for clues (and evidence of a possible murder) in a creepy, dark, ramshackle of a building. Throw in a budding crush, a gang of bullies, teenage angst, and a mysterious stranger, and you've got what suddenly feels like a juvenile or YA novel. The narrative begins to lose momentum halfway in, but with less than a total of 300 pages, it wasn't a struggle to keep reading. Good, but not great literature.

The Silver Star

 

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

Fiction

2013 Scribner

Finished on November 26, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that’s been in Charlotte’s family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean soon discovers who her father was, and hears stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, and the sisters start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town, who bullies his workers, his tenants, his children, and his wife. Liz is whip-smart--an inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, nonconformist, but when school starts in the fall, it’s Bean who easily adjusts, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox.

Jeannette Walls has written a deeply moving novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love each other and the world, despite its flaws and injustices.

It's been a long time since I read Jeannette Walls' memoir, The Glass Castle. 18 years, to be precise. I thought the book was very good in spite of its depressing subject matter, but when Walls published her first novel (a "true-life novel" based on her grandmother's life), Half Broke Horses, and I read the publisher's blurb, I simply wasn't interested. And yet, when The Silver Star landed on my TBR stack, I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad that I did! I devoured this coming-of-age novel in two nights. Bean is one of those spunky, resourceful, wise-beyond-her-years protagonists that I love, and I was eager to see how she and her older sister would fare in their new community. The novel feels a bit like a YA story, but it held my interest from cover to cover, and now I'm eager to read Walls' most recent novel, Hang the Moon. I may even give Half Broke Horses a chance, too.

The Push

 

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Fiction/Psychological Thriller

2021 Penguin Audio

Narrated by Marin Ireland

Finished on November 25, 2023

Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family--and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for--and everything she feared.

Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter--she doesn't behave like most children do.

Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she's imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.

Then their son Sam is born--and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.

The Push is a tour de force, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed. 

Oh. My. Gosh. I could not stop listening to this suspenseful book, anxious to find out what was going to happen next. Marin Ireland does a superb job with the audio narration, and I was enthralled with the story. The further along I listened, the more I wondered if this was going to be another Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. Hearing only her side of the story, could I believe in the reliability of Blythe's account of events? 

Without revealing too much, The Push is a disturbing (and at times sinister) psychological drama, but it's also a smartly told narrative about motherhood (particularly that of a new mom), unconditional parental love, as well as the genetics of mental health, all posing the question of nature vs nurture. This is one to talk about and would make for a terrific book group discussion. Avoiding the usual tropes of this genre, Ashley Audrain knocks it out of the park with her debut novel. I can't wait to read her new book, The Whispers.

The Betrayal of Trust

 

The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill

Simon Serraillier #6

Mystery

2011 The Overlook Press

Finished on November 23, 2023

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Heavy rain falls on Lafferton, flooding the cathedral town and causing a landslip out on the moors. As the rain water slowly drains away, a shallow grave - and a skeleton - are revealed. 

It doesn't take long to identify the remains as those of missing teenager, Harriet Lowther, who was last seen sixteen years ago, waiting for a bus. But a cold case isn't a priority for a police force already struggling with staff shortages and cuts: if Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler is to solve the case, he will have to do it alone.

Meanwhile, his sister, Dr Cat Deerbon, is fighting for funding to prevent the closure of the local hospice that offers respite to so many of her patients.

The Betrayal of Trust is another entertaining installment in Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series, but it's not a favorite. In addition to the mystery, there are several subplots dealing with Parkinson's Disease, ALS, dementia, and assisted suicide. These, and Simon's new romantic interest (which I found rather hard to believe), overshadow the main story. And, to add to my frustration, when I came to the final sentence, I was sure there was more to come on the following page. I was wrong, not to mention shocked and annoyed! The conclusion was very abrupt, leaving several loose ends. My only hope is that my questions are answered in the next installment (A Question of Identity). 

Bella: An Appalachian Love Story & Jagged Dawn: Logan's Beginning

 

Bella-An Appalachian Love Story and Jagged Dawn-Logan's Beginnings by Valerie Davisson

Fiction - Novellas

2020 Vaughn House Publishing 

Finished on November 17, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

For the first time ever under one cover, enjoy these two companion stories-prequels to the Logan McKenna Mystery series.

BELLA: An Appalachian Love Story

Over fifty years ago, high in the hills of Appalachia, Bella's story begins. Norah, Logan McKenna's great-grandmother, falls in love with Giovanni, a young immigrant from Italy searching for his place in the world. Each must face trials they never expected, but from their love, Giovanni creates his masterpiece--Bella, a hand-crafted violin with unparalleled sound that accompanies each generation that follows.

JAGGED DAWN: Logan's Beginning

Unexpected events launch faithful wife and mother, Logan McKenna, battered and wounded, into an unknown future and a life she would never have predicted. A lesser woman wouldn't survive, but with inner strength grounded in the love of family and friends, Logan not only faces her problems head on, but also rediscovers the joy of living--including playing Bella, her beloved violin, and cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway in her gleaming, sapphire-blue '58 Corvette.

Easily read in a single sitting, I allowed myself to linger over these stories, which transport fans of Davisson's Logan McKenna mystery series back to both Red Sleeve, West Virginia and Irvine, California. The first novella alternates between past and present, with details about Logan's great-grandmother's youth, as well as the budding relationship between Norah and Giovanni, the talented craftsman from Italy. I found the second (contemporary) novella more engaging, most likely due to my familiarity with the location (I grew up in Southern California), as well as the dramatic turn of events and likeable main character. Both of these novellas present an engaging back story that makes the reader want to know more about Logan McKenna and what happens to her in the series to come. Valerie Davisson has written nine novels in this mystery series, and I look forward to reading the first installment, Shattered. 

Count the Ways

 

Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard

Fiction

2021 William Morrow

Finished on November 17, 2023

Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding!)

Publisher's Blurb:

In her most ambitious novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard returns to the themes that are the hallmarks of her most acclaimed work in a mesmerizing story of a family—from the hopeful early days of young marriage to parenthood, divorce, and the costly aftermath that ripples through all their lives.

Eleanor and Cam meet at a crafts fair in Vermont in the early 1970s. She’s an artist and writer, he makes wooden bowls. Within four years they are parents to three children, two daughters and a red-headed son who fills his pockets with rocks, plays the violin and talks to God. To Eleanor, their New Hampshire farm provides everything she always wanted—summer nights watching Cam’s softball games, snow days by the fire and the annual tradition of making paper boats and cork people to launch in the brook every spring. If Eleanor and Cam don’t make love as often as they used to, they have something that matters more. Their family.

Then comes a terrible accident, caused by Cam’s negligence. Unable to forgive him, Eleanor is consumed by bitterness, losing herself in her life as a mother, while Cam finds solace with a new young partner.

Over the decades that follow, the five members of this fractured family make surprising discoveries and decisions that occasionally bring them together, and often tear them apart. Tracing the course of their lives—through the gender transition of one child and another’s choice to completely break with her mother—Joyce Maynard captures a family forced to confront essential, painful truths of its past, and find redemption in its darkest hours.

A story of holding on and learning to let go, Count the Ways is an achingly beautiful, poignant, and deeply compassionate novel of home, parenthood, love, and forgiveness.

Oh, this was a hard one to read. As one who has experienced divorce (both as a child and as an adult with a young child), this novel hit far too close to home. It would be so easy to compare my life story with that of Eleanor's, but this platform is not intended for oversharing personal grievances or dredging up the past. Suffice it to say, Eleanor and I have much in common and my heart ached for her. Count the Ways is the proverbial train-wreck of a novel, and while heartbreaking to this reader, I couldn't pull my eyes away. I so wanted her to find happiness and bury the all-consuming bitterness (toward her ex-husband) that poisoned her relationships with her daughters. 

Joyce Maynard's attention to domestic detail is strong (some may say too strong or excessive) in all of her books, and I especially enjoyed and appreciated the historical and pop references in this latest work. A playlist from the book would include Joni Mitchell, CSN, the Stones, and Beatles, to name just a few. Maynard draws her audience into the home and heart of a woman who wants only to love and be loved by her family. As I read, I had to remind myself that Eleanor is a character in a story and not a real person who needs to be comforted and told that it does get better. 

I've been reading the works of Joyce Maynard since the late 1980s when I first discovered her weekly syndicated column, Domestic Pleasures. Since then, I have read six of her novels, and up until now, my all-time favorite was The Usual Rules; Count the Ways has taken that honor. Highly recommend.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

 

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Nonfiction

2012 Random House Audio

Narrated by Kathe Mazur

Finished on November 16, 2023

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.

In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

After reading several glowing reviews, I picked up a copy of Susan Cain's latest book (Bittersweet) while traveling this past summer. (I'm always happy to support indie bookstores when we're on the road.) I've had Cain's previous bestseller (Quiet) on my TBR list for over a decade and decided to start with that book before reading Bittersweet.  

Quiet is well-researched and full of interesting anecdotes and examples. I found myself nodding in agreement, recognizing not only myself, but friends and family members who are classic introverts. I'm sure some would be surprised to learn that I consider myself an introvert. After all, I can lead a book group discussion, hand-sell my favorite books to complete strangers, and throw dinner parties. But I prefer small, casual gatherings over big events. I'm perfectly content spending time alone on my walks, shopping by myself rather than with a group of girlfriends, or relaxing on the weekend, curled up with a good book. Thankfully, my husband feels the same.

Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family. They listen more than they talk, think before they speak, and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror of small talk, but enjoy deep discussions.

It was nice reading a book that validated my feelings about my personality, and yet, I felt like the author was stating the obvious. There aren't a lot of "Ah-ha!" moments revealed in Cain's writing, and halfway in, my mind started to wander, but I was content to continue listening to Kathe Mazur's outstanding narration. 

I found the following quiz on the author's website. I answered yes to 17 of the statements. How about you?

1. I prefer one-on-one conversations to group activities.

2. I often prefer to express myself in writing.

3. I enjoy solitude.

4. I seem to care about wealth, fame, and status less than my peers.

5. I dislike small talk, but I enjoy talking in-depth about topics that matter to me.

6. People tell me that I'm a good listener.

7. I'm not a big risk-taker.

8. I enjoy work that allows me to "dive in" with few interruptions.

9. I like to celebrate birthdays on a small scale, with only one or two close friends or family members.

10. People describe me as "soft-spoken" or "mellow".

11. I prefer not to show or discuss my work with others until it's finished.

12. I dislike conflict.

13. I do my best work on my own.

14. I tend to think before I speak.

15. I feel drained after being out and about, even if I've enjoyed myself.

16. I often let calls go through to voice-mail.

17. If I had to choose, I'd prefer a weekend with absolutely nothing to do to one with too many things scheduled.

18. I don't enjoy multi-tasking.

19. I can concentrate easily.

20. In classroom situations, I prefer lectures to seminars.

Mad Honey

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Fiction

2022 Ballantine Books

Finished on November 10, 2023

Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)

Publisher's Blurb:

A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

Once again, Jodi Picoult has written a compelling and thought-provoking novel (really more of a mystery than general fiction) that grabbed me from the first page and never let go. I went into Mad Honey completely cold, not even tempted to read the publisher's blurb, confident that a book by Picoult is almost guaranteed to be a winner. I was a little hesitant to read a co-written work, but then I remembered that the Monkeewrench series was written by a mother-daughter writing duo (P.J. Tracy), and I loved those books. Picoult and Boylan have created a seamless story, never once did I feel jolted out of the narrative, their two voices blending into one. Unaware of the central theme of the story, I gasped out loud when the main secret was revealed. I knocked off half a point due to some of the teenage angst in Lily's chapters, pushing the story toward the YA genre, of which I'm not a huge fan. I also guessed the final outcome early on, but that didn't spoil my reading experience, and I'm eager to discuss the book with others. I plan to nominate it to my book group for our 2024 calendar. Fans of Defending Jacob will enjoy this dramatic story. Highly recommend!

Damnation Spring

 

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

Fiction

2021 Scribner

Finished on November 3, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A stunning novel about love, work, and marriage that asks how far one family and one community will go to protect their future.

Colleen and Rich Gundersen are raising their young son, Chub, on the rugged California coast. It’s 1977, and life in this Pacific Northwest logging town isn’t what it used to be. For generations, the community has lived and breathed timber; now that way of life is threatened.

Colleen is an amateur midwife. Rich is a tree-topper. It’s a dangerous job that requires him to scale trees hundreds of feet tall—a job that both his father and grandfather died doing. Colleen and Rich want a better life for their son—and they take steps to assure their future. Rich secretly spends their savings on a swath of ancient Redwoods. Colleen, desperate to have a second baby, challenges the logging company’s use of herbicides that she believes are responsible for the many miscarriages in the community—including her own. Colleen and Rich find themselves on opposite sides of a budding conflict that threatens the very thing they are trying to protect: their family.

Told in prose as clear as a spring-fed creek, Damnation Spring is an intimate, compassionate portrait of a family whose bonds are tested and a community clinging to a vanishing way of life. An extraordinary story of the transcendent, enduring power of love—between husband and wife, mother and child, and longtime neighbors. An essential novel for our times.

I read Damnation Spring in mid-2022 and thought it was outstanding. I enjoyed the story and writing so much that I decided to recommend it to my book group, and we are discussing it later this month. I wish I could say that I loved it as much the second time around, but it didn't pull me in until about halfway in. Maybe it was simply too soon for a full reread. I dropped my original 5-star rating down to 4 stars.

I won't repost my original thoughts about the book, since that review is pretty long, but you can find it here.

The Shadows in the Street

 

The Shadows in the Street by Susan Hill

Simon Serrailler #5

Mystery

2010 Chatto & Windus

Finished on October 22, 2023

Rating: 4/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

Simon Serrailler has just wrapped up a particularly exhausting and difficult case for SIFT – Special Incident Flying Taskforce – and is on a sabbatical on a Scottish island when he is recalled to Lafferton. Two local prostitutes have vanished and are subsequently found strangled. By the time he gets back, another girl has disappeared. Is this a vendetta against prostitutes by someone with a warped mind? Or a series of killings by an angry punter? But then one of the Cathedral wives goes missing, followed by another young married woman, on her way to work.

Serrailler follows lead after lead, all of which become dead-ends. The fear is that more women will be killed, and that the murderer is right under their noses; meanwhile the public grow more angry and afraid. It is only through a piece of luck, a chance meeting and a life put in grave danger that he finally gets a result…

Susan Hill has a genius for evoking atmosphere and suspense, and her characters are so real that the reader is caught up not only in the mystery but in the drama of their lives.

It's been ten years since I read this fifth installment in the Serrailler series, but after a decade, most of the details were long forgotten. I thought it was very good, and almost gave it the same rating as I did in 2013, but in comparison to some recent 4.5/5 reads, it wasn't quite as good so I bumped it down to an even 4-star rating. I don't have much new to add to my original review, so I'll simply share that below. 

2013 Review (4.5/5):

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery, which kept me on the edge of my seat (and reading late into the night) for most of the second half. Hill kept me guessing and it was only at the very end that I finally sorted out the clues, threw out the red herrings, and worked out the identity of the killer. I rarely ever read a series out of order, but I had this book in my stacks and decided to give it a try without realizing there were four others leading up to this one. My only complaint is that the lack of substantial backstory forced me to flip back and forth between the early chapters, trying to piece together the relationships among the main characters. The introduction of new characters throughout the mystery also added to my confusion, making me stop and question their importance to the narrative. As I’ve discovered in other crime novels I’ve recently read (especially those set specifically in Great Britain and Ireland), I came upon quite a few abbreviations (PC, DCD, DI, DS, DCS, DCI, CID, OIOC), but eventually was able to sort them out, pretty much in time to realize their lack of importance. However, initially their presence disrupted the flow of the narrative. I guess that’s more than one complaint, but they’re very minor quibbles and I’m quite anxious to read the other titles in this series, as well Hill’s stand-alones.

On life after loss:

Ordinary things, Cat thought gratefully. Washing up the coffee cups. Making a lamb stew. Chopping vegetables. Ordinary life. That’s what saves us.

Final Thoughts: Susan Hill, where have you been all my life?! I loved this mystery! Readers who enjoy Tana French and Mo Hayder will likely concur.

2023 Additional Thoughts:

Of course, now that I've read the earlier books in the series, I'm familiar with the main cast of characters and wasn't confused by their relationships or the lack of backstory. An extensive backstory would have revealed too much should someone read the books out of order, as I did originally. I'm very happy that there are seven more books in this series (as well as four novellas) to look forward to.