The Cloisters

 

The subtitle of this book should be "beware of the first time novelist."

There are good bones here, but the story needed some editing and tightening up. I think we could have knocked a hundred pages or so as well and maybe I wouldn't have been racing to finish, knowing it probably wasn't going to be satisfied.

The Cloisters is about a young woman from Walla Walla, Washington (the town so nice, they named it twice!) who goes east to NYC for a summer to study art. Her initial assignment falls through and she ends up working in an outpost called the Cloisters, where things are almost as creepy as the name sounds like it would be.

There's a love triangle, a super rich lady, some mystery, tarot cards? All of it is fine and sets up a potentially good story, but the lack of editing and the over emphasis on small details that didn't matter just really slowed the flow for me. 

Was there a twist? Yes. A couple. And because there was more than one, none of them were intriguing enough to go over with anything more than a sigh.

It had promise, but it never quite hit. 

We Are The Light

 

Oh, my goodness. What a magical, emotional, special book.

This morning, I had about 20 pages to go and I just could not stop reading. I held it in my lap on my drive to work and read at the stoplights. I've never wanted to be stuck in traffic more than this morning. I ended up getting to work and sitting in the parking lot for 15 minutes so I could read until the end. I did so with tears streaming down my face.

The book is told through a series of letters from a man named Lucas Goodgame to his therapist. As each letter passes, more of the heartbreaking story is revealed. 

Lucas and his therapist were among the survivors of a mass shooting in a movie theater, in which each man lost his wife. We don't know why Lucas's therapists won't answer his letters. We do know Lucas is slowly falling apart.

In an attempt to bring survivors together and make something good come from the tragedy, Lucas and another young man embark on a strange project to bring about that healing. They bring the survivors together to do so. But, as that project gets closer to completion, Lucas gets even closer to completely losing himself.

The book was intriguing and emotional the whole way through, but it really hit another gear in the last 1/4 of the story. I was riveted and worried and ultimately, felt some relief at where the journey ended up.

This is a beautiful story about grief - collective and individual grief. It's about family and friendships and tragedy and redemption. While the subject matter itself is hard to think about, this story - true to its name - provides some light as well.

Just an absolutely powerful read. 

Surrender : 40 Songs, One Story

"Songs are my prayers." 

When Bono threw this out there in the opening pages of his book, I thought I would fall under his poetic spell and re-emerge, changed, a few hundred pages later.

Instead, I bailed.

Did not finish.

Surrendered. Right around page 100.

I heard Bono on a podcast and thought I'd love this book. I almost did! Sort of. He writes it so beautifully and I love hearing about him forming U2 with some of his childhood friends. It's beautiful, the way he writes about meeting his wife. It's heartbreaking to read about the loss of his mom and how it changed his entire family.

Still. Still.

I found myself just begrudgingly turning the pages. It was just... taking too long.

Last night, a friend asked if I ever feel guilty not finishing a book. I told her - proudly - that I've let go of the shame that comes with a DNF. Then, I went home and saw this book on my nightstand and decided to watch Tik Tok instead. 

This morning, I pulled the bookmark out of this book and opened another.

I don't think Bono would mind. I think he'd want me to be happy.
 

Mad Honey

 

This book could have been about 150 pages shorter. Still, it kept my attention all the way through the 432 pages and that, my friends, is saying something.

I didn't really know anything about this book when I picked it up. It must have been on some "must read" lists. I do know Jodi Picoult is a readable author and I didn't notice at first that a second author helped write this book. Each of them took one storyline - a woman narrated some chapters, a teenage girl the others - but, there wasn't enough of a compelling difference in the writing to make you even take notice.

The plot: a single mom, who happens to be a beekeeper, is building a life with her teenage son after escaping domestic violence. The bees play a pretty big role in this book, as plotline and as metaphor. Was there a lot about bees? Yeah. Too much? Maybe. Either way, I learned a fair amount about bees.

Okay, back on track.

The beekeeper's son Asher is arrested for killing his girlfriend and his mom begins to question everything. The book jumps back and forth between timelines for multiple characters but doesn't get confusing. Then, about halfway through, there's a MASSIVE twist that really changes what the book is all about. I won't spoil it, but I can tell you - when that twist is revealed, we don't need any more about the bees to keep this going.

The characters are just flawed enough to keep this interesting and the murder storyline was pretty predictable, I think. Still, there was enough to keep me interested and I'd recommend this book if you have some patience to get through all the stuff about the bees... 

Matrix

 

This wasn't it. Not for me at least. You could stop reading now and just understand that I didn't like this book.

It wasn't for lack of trying. Though I thought about bailing several times, I did power through. I wasn't disappointed with the ending, per se, but the whole book just kind of fell flat.

It's about a convent in the 12th century, led by a woman who was the product of a royal rape. She managed to bring the abbey to wealth and power and I understand that it's a book about the power women yield - and don't yield - regardless of period of history.

Groff is a hell of a writer, which is why I read this book. The prose is beautiful, but the story didn't seem to go anywhere that had me excited to keep reading. 

Signal Fires

 The Wilf family moved onto Division Street, ready to build their lives together. Filled with hope, promise, a future planned for their two young children.

Division Street and what happened there defined them all.

It's hard to describe Signal Fires, other than to call it a slow burn. There's action, but not dramatically so. There are characters with whom you relate and root for and are disappointed in. Overall, even the main plot point that defines this family doesn't really define the book at all.

When they're young teenagers Sarah and Theo are in a terrible accident that leads to the death of a teenage girl. Without ever saying a word, the family buries the truth about that day and they live their lives trying to outrun the truth. 

That's a strong jumping off point for a book, but (spoiler alert), it's not like the past is haunting them with a secret, about to be exposed. Instead, this book is about family and the things that connect us and drive us apart. It's also about community and the way our lives are intertwined with others. It's about time and space, too, and the idea that we are never at the end or the beginning - just somewhere on a loop.

I'm not explaining this well, but I can tell you this is a book I got easily into and one I looked forward to reading every night. 

The Last Slave Ship

 

This book would be better as a NatGeo special. Maybe it already is one (see bottom of this post....) But, a book on what is a fascinating story just fell flat for me and I found myself urgently sneaking ahead.

The story of the Clotilda is a fascinating one on its own and the author of this book played a key role in bringing much of that story to the surface. Clotilda was considered to be the last slave ship that brought slaves from Africa to the United States. It happened long after that was legal and the descendants of that voyage have worked tirelessly to keep those stories alive.

Ben Raines is a journalist and local river guide, so maybe he was the best person equipped to find the wreck of this ship, which was burned and sank after the cargo of slaves was unloaded in Alabama. The story of the search, though, took up only the last quarter or so of the book. 

Raines spent much of the rest of the story telling the story of the voyage itself. That's a noble effort, to be sure. The problem is much of that story has already been told by people better equipped to do so.

The story of one of Clotilda's survivors was the subject of the fascinating book Barracoon. A man named Cudjo who was brutally taken from his home in a horrific raid lived to tell his story after the Middle Passage and after emancipation. He and the other survivors established Africatown and lived to tell their stories. That book, I read in an afternoon. I could not stop reading the story of this man and all he had been through - from his perspective. Slave Ship felt like a Cliff's Notes retelling of that story and the story of some of the other survivors. Because that book wasn't entirely about them, the most impactful messages fell flat. 

If you're interested in the personal stories and anguish of the slaves who survived the Clotilda, I recommend Barracoon. 

Note: I just discovered this story is the subject of a documentary called Descendant. 

One descendant says in the trailer, "It's not about the ship."

Perhaps start there instead.