I loved reading this one! It's a coming of age story focused on a first generation daughter and her very Italian family as she grows up in the Boston area and attends a K-12 Catholic school. I loved the development of Christina's character from primary grades to adulthood, especially her defiance as she rebels against both the strict nuns/the Catholic establishment as a whole and her surprisingly (and emphatically) non-papist Italian immigrant mother. The friendship she develops with an older retired showgirl after a chance meeting was thoughtfully explored. I especially loved the part of the story that is behind the book's title. Would read another work of fiction by Marianne Leone in a heartbeat.

I enjoyed The Summer We Ran. As someone familiar with Virginia politics it was interesting to read this book as the current campaign for VA governor takes place (it was also hard not to equate the male candidate with the current red-vested governor.) The characters were interesting, if not always likable, and I really didn't know how the events would play out until the last pages. I did not always love the back and forth between current day adults and their youthful counterparts. For some reason it felt a bit forced at times, and I didn't really feel connected to the book or invested in the fates of the characters until halfway through. I will definitely recommend this to friends. I am not in a book club currently, but feel like this would be a good one to talk about!

I was very excited by the concept of this book (yes, I bake, yes, I still maintain the sourdough starter I began in 2020) and I really did like the writing and the idea. That said, there was something I found off about the pictures that made it kind of off putting and when looking at the publishing page I saw that the illustrations, originally in colored pencil, had been “edited digitally and baked until golden brown.” I really wish they hadn’t made that choice because I think it took what would have been delightful images of families baking together and made them very muddled. The golden effect is actually kind of straining on my eyes, and I do wonder about how the muted, sepia color would go over with the targeted age group (I’m assuming this would work for kids ~3-6) I used to teach preK but work with upper elementary but will try this out one day with them to see how they like it!

Living in the DC metro area, Minor Threat is a huge part of the history of the punk music scene and so I was really excited to get this book. I don't know why I expected more writing pieces (there are just a few essays accompanying the photography, with the standout essay being from Zack de la Rocha) but the book didn’t really need a bunch of writing to hold up the photos. Reading it was fast and immersive, and while I’ve never been to a show quite like what I saw in these photos I definitely am able to imagine what it must’ve been like. I’ve also been torturing my children by blasting MT in the car… with luck it’ll grow on them someday!

My husband and I lived in Brooklyn about the same time as the rise of The Hold Steady and their music is a big part of the soundtrack of that time of our lives. We loved this book because it evoked many of those memories and also filled in gaps in our knowledge about the band. Yes we knew there was probably some deep issues with substance abuse based on lyrics, but the oral history certainly confirmed actual out-of control wasted-ness. Loved the photos, did find that certain formatting choices made a few pages a challenge to read. They have tons of dates in Brooklyn, but hoping they have a show pop up on the schedule of a venue in our area soon!

This was a cute story, but I found the plot to be a little too unbelievable (and I am generally not very picky when it comes to chick lit!) and the narrative dragged quite a bit in the second half of the book. I think I was comparing the Capri parts a little too much to One Italian Summer by Rebecca Searl (which I loved, and this book was recommended based on it) and to be completely honest the characters seemed flat and unlikeable. This one was not for me...

I don't know why I thought that this memoir would be more about Hollywood/film than NYC theater (maybe the the cover illustration?) but this was really more of an ode to the author's semi-successful passion projects on- and off-Broadway. Which was fine, although better done by two recent memoirs I've read by Billy Porter and Harvey Fierstein. I found that the anecdotes (sometimes more like snapshots) were repetitive and a lot like listening to the repeated stories of an older relative. And clearly I love a NY theater memoir, but I was surprised and disappointed by how little LGBTQIA+ influence/representation was mentioned - the straight, white, male gaze was strong in this one. That said, I once worked in hospitality near the Variety Arts Theater and his mention of shows there sent me down a rabbit hole of my time working opening/closing parties for at least one of the productions he mentioned. Overall a fine book, but would not recommend.

I really enjoyed this book and will recommend it on! I had just read The Swimmers, another book that deals with aging and memory. But this one seemed at first like it was going to be quite lighter- it was NOT. The cover of this book screams light-hearted (dare I say chick lit!) and so as the characters became more nuanced and the darker issues came to a head it was a little surprising. A good surprise, but some may want a content warning for trauma. Overall I am so glad I read this- I sped through it (it's only about 200 pages) in two days.

It took me a while to work through this book. As an educator I love the idea that anyone can be creative, and that it can be attained through certain practices. I enjoyed the forays into art history and the profiles of contemporary artists. I occasionally thought that the connections to business were a bit tenuous. Many seem extremely anecdotal. In general I enjoyed the book and may return to the Alchemy Lab portions in the future.

This is the third installment in Laurie Gelman's Class Mom series. I was worried that the characters or set up would have been warn out by now (in each book the main character Jen is an irreverent and highly untraditional class parent, this time for her son's 5th grade class/final elementary school year), but I ended up really enjoying it. I liked the PTA tie-in (a huge fundraising ask) much more than the one in the previous book (a safety patrol that sounded unpleasant in general), and the family, work, and friendship situations were also more engaging. When I got to the end I actually wondered if there would be another book in the series! My only recommendation for readers is that you really do need to read the books in order, they are not stand-alones. The story builds upon what's happened in each previous book, and honestly your good-will for Jen only grows with each book (and I'm not sure that would happen if you read them out of order!)

I really liked this book, which was the perfect light read for the end of 2020. The premise was delightful, the characters all more or less likable and interesting, and even if it became a bit predictable toward the end I still enjoyed it to the very last chapter.

LOVED this book! The story follows sisters as they navigate the fall out from their father's unexpected death. Not quite middle aged women who nevertheless are all in very different circumstances (picture-perfect suburban mom, slightly unhinged vagabond artist, tightly wound NYC lawyer), they must work through messy revelations regarding his finances and personal life, all while trying to preserve his legacy as a revered literary legend.

Some elements of the book are trite (relationships that seemed to happen WAY too easily and conveniently) and while I loved that I knew well three of the settings (Western Connecticut and lower-upstate NY, NYC, and DC) it also made me realize how publishers should have readers with local knowledge of the places written about. In the DC section the author has inadvertently used the name of an historic and very high end DC hotel (the Hay-Adams) in place of the neighborhood (Adams Morgan) that she describes as the location of the cramped apartment of a broke grad student (or interns?) Totally would have been caught by a reader who knows DC well (and maybe they would have recommended a different neighborhood entirely- Adams Morgan has gotten really expensive in the past 2 decades!

On the whole, though, I devoured this book and have already recommended it to friends. I also am planning to check out the authors's podcast and see if I should add it to my listening rotation!

Hotbox originally interested me because my husband has been a restaurant chef for decades, but in the midst of reading the book he moved into a new position where he has additional banquet/catering responsibilities. So much of what the Lee brothers encounter in their journey through off-site catering rings true to his experiences. I was so interested in how the real masters of catering are the on-site staff who are masters of the proofers, working to make all the off-the-wall requests made by the party planners come off flawlessly. I don't know if this book would be quite as appealing to a reader less in tune with the industry, or one less familiar with the New York City settings (the neighborhoods, cultural landmarks, and surrounding bucolic escapes of the Hamptons and the Hudson Valley are all vibrant characters in this story) but I certainly enjoyed it. This advanced reader addition lacked much of the artwork and I'd be interested to check out those illustrations in the final edition.

It's unfortunate that a pretty intriguing story was marred by an awkward structure. The frequency (and seeming haphazardness) with which the narrative jumped between characters, time periods, and locations was exhausting, to the degree that I had to put the book away for a while because it hurt my brain to keep track of it all (I used the family tree extensively to help me keep track of who was who and when they lived.) It's too bad because I think I would have really enjoyed this if it had been a little less all over the place.

It took me a bit to get into in The Adults, but as I trudged through the unlikeable characters became slightly better liked, the story began to coalesce, and I began to become invested in the outcome. There was a moment, though, when one particular character became so unlikable I thought there would be no return- and I am still not sure this character ever fully redeemed themselves (I know I'm being vague here; other readers may find themselves in this position with any of the characters!) Overall I did end up enjoying this as a funny-ish holiday read.

This book was both too much and not enough. I didn't read the first novel (this is a sequel) and didn't realize it was a follow up book until fairly deep into the book. The main character seems fun enough at first, but quickly she wears on you, along with many of the other larger than life characters. I thought this would be a light, quick read but I didn't end up enjoying this book much at all, and would not recommend.

Read this as a read aloud with my 6 and 8 year old. I was hoping I could read it to myself while they read it to themselves and we could have a book talk in the end... but they weren't immediately grabbed by the subject matter. However, this became a great nightly read (short chapters for when we needed a quick read, but we also could read many chapters at a time) and we all enjoyed the story, a pretty straightforward friendship narrative except involving a talking bat. There was problem solving, logistically as well as emotionally, with a mostly satisfying ending. One qualm- I thought the bat's spoken language read as mildly, well, offensive? Almost playing off of a stereotypical Indian accent (read: Apu from the Simpsons.) That was probably the biggest turn off from the book. I did love the non-traditional animal romance though!

I truly wanted to love thIs book. It had so much going for it (family drama! Eastern European politics! Generations over time!) but I really never got hooked. Was it the translation or the the source text? I hesitate to blame the translation because it was the way the story jumped around that made it hard for me to get into. Sometimes this kind of construction gets me interested in solving whatever puzzle the author is crafting- but in this case it just exhausted me.

The novel follows the story of Sophia from her beginnings as recent college grad from northern California looking to kill a few years working in an office while she hunts for a husband to accomplished tech industry guru for high profile companies preparing for their IPOs. The characters and companies she interacts with are barely disguised versions of Steve Jobs, Apple, Pixar, Elon Musk, and Tesla. Sophia is not always the most likable, but I certainly loved some of the power moves she pulls at the end of the book. This was an easy read and would have been a good plane/vacation/beach book.

Working in a preschool where we try to bring science into everything, I was looking forward to this book giving me more ideas of activities to do with my 3 and 4 year olds. I don't think my classroom is the target audience for this book, however. I could modify some of the activities, but a lot of the follow up is worksheet based (more academic and geared toward readers and writers.) I would recommend this book more for teachers of 1st or 2nd grader rather than preschoolers.

I want to echo a review I just read about this book, that there is a handy appendix with all of the characters who are "interviewed" or even just mentioned at the back of the book- this should very much be in the front of the book. When describing this book to friends, I would say that it is like reading a bunch of oral histories about a famous band (let's just say The Clash) except you have NO prior knowledge about the band at all- not about the members, their music, NOTHING. Which makes it a very confusing book to read. It took me months to read this book, mostly because it was so hard to get into. I was never quite sure who was talking about whom, what the time period was... I am considering re-reading the book, with special attention to that appendix I mentioned. But it's frustrating to think that I would have to read a book twice just to get the general gist of it, even if it would probably be a very good read the second time around. Who has time for that? Not me, usually.

I enjoyed An American Marriage, as sad as it was in so many parts. I was riveted by the way it cycled through multiple narrators to illustrate how a promising marriage is tested by wrongful imprisonment- although I didn't always like the characters themselves, and sometimes the story veered a little too sharply into cliché. Would recommend.

Such a funny book! I loved the author's voice and it cracked me up how the main character interacted with her fellow parents in person and over email. Would certainly read another book by this author, and have already recommended this one around.

This book was lovely. Although Karen is dying of ovarian cancer, she continues to be a mother, sister, daughter, a savvy political consultant- and most of all she carries on living in the world even though she knows she is not long for it. The "advice" book she is writing for her son Jacob felt like she was hiding nothing from him- not her pain (both physical and emotional) and her hopes and dreams for him. When he requests to meet his never involved father, Karen is incredibly resistant. I think it is her first glimpse into future where there will be huge parts of Jacob's life in which she will have no involvement.

As someone who's father died when I was 5, books like this and Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air give me a window into what it may have been like when my own father was confronting terminal cancer. What I wouldn't give to have an idea of what my father was going through as he faced his own death and the fact that he was leaving his young family behind.

I recommend this book highly.

Woman No. 17 was such a great read. The protagonists felt real, their relationships felt real, and added to the mix was a healthy dose of deception - and an ending that didn't feel contrived, or worse, wrapped up in a neat bow. This is a book I will recommend without reservation.

White Fur is set in the near-past (mid 1980's), mostly in New Haven and New York. While is it billed as a Romeo and Juliet scenario, I feel like there were far deeper elements at play (severe poverty, mental illness.) It gets dark, and there is a lot of graphic sex that may not sit well with some readers. Though I enjoyed this book, it will not be one I recommend widely only because the content is a little on the heavy side.

I loved this! With so many characters to keep track of and so many leaps through time, I thought it might become confusing or even annoying to keep track. In the end, though, every character was well developed, interesting if not likable, and I enjoyed up until the very last page. In fact, this was a book that was a quick read, but also a leisurely one. I never felt the need to rush through parts, I really just enjoyed the glimpse into this family's life. Will recommend.

Lotus: A Novel was inspired by the author's discovery that her grandmother had at one point in her youth been a prostitute. She parlayed that into a novel about prostitutes in Shenzhen at the turn of the twentieth century. The book gives the reader a glimpse behind the curtains of the women who sell their bodies to migrants and rich businessmen alike. It tries for more than that, but I thought that the characters being stilted and un-relatable got in the way of telling any deeper story. While the subject matter made me interested in reading more Chinese/Chinese ex-pat fiction, I was not very impressed with the execution of this particular novel.

The author grew up in a lower middle class New York City family, and in the Clancys of Queens she tells a story that is generally untold- the native New Yorker, whose life is not glamorized in other histories, novels, and memoir. So many books recount the lives of the rich and famous from birth, or the rich or famous who moved to New York to become so. Tara Clancy is neither rich nor famous, and her story is really quite interesting. What I didn't care for is how distracting her writing is. I recognize that her voice is an important part of telling the story (conveying her personality, her roots, etc.) but for me it lessened the enjoyment of the story.

I got off to a rough start with The Lesser Bohemians. McBride's writing style took a while to get used to, but once it became less about being just in the protagonist's thoughts and there was more interaction with other characters it became easier to follow along and get caught up in the story.

The story itself... well it was not what I expected. The two main characters are actors in different parts of their careers and lives, which would have been enough to give their romance issues. But things keep getting more and more... and MORE... everything. To the point where in another book it may have been too much, but as I finished reading last night I was so glad to have been with these characters through the end. I would recommend this book with the caveat that it takes a decent amount of time to get adjusted to style.