Conviction (Denise Mina)

 

Well, after reading The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, this book was a nice change. I read it in a weekend....and I don't regret all the time at all. I quite enjoyed it. It was nice to have some candyesque to read. The premise of the story was entertaining. I don't think I've ever read a book where a podcast tells part of the story.

Both main characters, Anna and Fin, who are the ones whose spouses are cheating, have things they do to avoid life. I can see the negativity with anorexia, but reading? Hmmm...

• p. 132 I told him that I read to self-medicate. That I find the world a bit much sometimes. Podcasts are like reading when you need to use your eyes and hands, and he said, yeah, yeah, that's kind of what his eating was lie. Self-medicating. But then it took over and he couldn't stop. "It's a chemical spiral. It gets so that it feels like the only thing that matters. Controlling it. Eating isn't like a book though, you can't just put it down'. I didn't say so, but I've read books I couldn't put down, not always because they were good either, I just couldn't stop reading. Once I was reading a book and finished it by mistake (I hadn't noticed the last 140 pages were an index) and then had nothing to read. In a blind panic, I went back to the start and read it again.

Not sure the page number of this one...but it's interesting to think about/discuss:

• It's primal, the need to tell. It's not about the listener but the storyteller. In some cultures, not telling your story is regarded as a sign of mental illness.

Goodreads says:
It’s just a normal morning when Anna's husband announces that he's leaving her for her best friend and taking their two daughters with him.

With her safe, comfortable world shattered, Anna distracts herself with someone else's story: a true-crime podcast. That is until she recognises the name of one of the victims and becomes convinced that only she knows what really happened.

With nothing left to lose, she throws herself into investigating the case. But little does she know, Anna's past and present lives are about to collide, sending everything she has worked so hard to achieve into freefall.

Conviction is the compelling and unique new thriller from multiple award-winner, Denise Mina.

Mercy (Jodi Picoult)

 

I've read a few Jodi Picoult books and always enjoyed them. I can't say the same for this one. It's definitely her style - one story from many perspectives. She does a good job of that. I just didn't like the content.

Spoiler alert: I did not like Cam...he's a jerk who seems to resent his wife for loving him. Mia made no sense. She comes into town, gets hired immediately in Allie's flower shop and starts an affair with Cam. I kept thinking there'd be a back story that made it logical - that somehow they knew each other before and happen to cross paths again. Nope. The story of Jamie and his wife was the only redeeming part of this book. I'm glad he was found innocent.   I didn't understand why the bit about Cameron's Scottish family history mattered....except it seemed like he got the position as Chief of Police just because he was family? It seemed extra. There were a lot of seemingly unnecessary characters (like the old girlfriend who comes to town to do a book talk? Nothing came of that. Even the MIL....totally periphery to the story and irritatingly not willing to stand up to her son when is doing something so terrible...but she did spread around some healing herbs....eeesh)

I don't like stories about adultery. I kept reading it because it was a book club pick and I kept hoping Cam would wise up. I don't think he ever does. Mia leaves town. Allie sells everything that is his (even his uniforms) and he has to go around town trying to buy everything back. He's frustrated that it takes Allie so long to get over the affair. He's a jerk. She does forgive him though. She's nice like that. I can't really say I don't like her. I just think she's a woman who didn't deserve what she got. I did like that Graham, the unproven lawyer who works in his dad's law firm, wins the case. Good job Graham. May this be the beginning of something great for you. I hope Jamie marries again and finds happiness.

Characters:

• Allie - flowershop owner (located close to the police station to bind him to her), doting wife
• Cameron MacDonald - police chief, feels caged, reads travel magazines secretly
• Angus MacDonald - grandfather? uncle? To Cameron MacDonald
• James MacDonald - murderer (cousin?)
• Maggic MacDonald - murder victim
• Mia - works in flower shop suddenly, stranger but hired and sleeps at their house, somehow familiar to Cameron, presented as someone who's free to travel the world
• Casey McRae - patrolman
• Graham McPhee - lawyer, Cameron has dirt on him from when he was 18, Cameron secretly hires him to represent James
• Martha Sully - magistrate at the courthouse
• Cleo - paralegal secretary in Graham's office
• Verona McBean - author Damnation in the 90's "To Hell and Back" The Nature of Hell (this character is only mentioned and not developed at all, only appears in the beginning of the book
• Jock Farquhason - bank teller
• Ellen MacDonald - Cameron's mother, husband, Ian, died 8 years ago, naturopath (Mothers of Light, New Age Community School)
• Emily Kerr - 80 years old, 5'0", gets a gun permit
• judge (name?) - has some funny quirks
• Audra Campbell - lawyer for the crown in court case

Lots of secrets in chapter 4:

• Graham hired by Cameron to represent James
• Cam hired Gram
• Cam kissed Mia
• Allia visits James in jail

Goodreads says:

Police chief of a small Massachusetts town, Cameron McDonald makes the toughest arrest of his life when his own cousin Jamie comes to him and confesses outright that he has killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy.

Now, a heated murder trial plunges the town into upheaval, and drives a wedge into a contented marriage: Cameron, aiding the prosecution in their case against Jamie, is suddenly at odds with his devoted wife, Allie -- seduced by the idea of a man so in love with his wife that he'd grant all her wishes, even her wish to end her life. And when an inexplicable attraction leads to a shocking betrayal, Allie faces the hardest questions of the heart: when does love cross the line of moral obligation? And what does it mean to truly love another?

Praised for her "personal, detail-rich style" (Glamour), Jodi Picoult infuses this page-turning novel with heart, warmth, and startling candor, taking readers on an unforgettable emotional journey.

The Probability of Everything (Sarah Everett)

 

This could be the best book I've  read all year. In the first 200 pages it was okay and then there was a twist that changed everything. I had 100 pages to go until book club tonight and I thought I'd get up early and finish the rest of the book. I didn't quite finish before school started so I had to steal time here and there. I finished it during DEAR time while everyone was reading and when DEAR was over I said to my class, "Can we just sit still and be sad for a moment?" Of course they wanted to know why....and it wasn't something I could even explain. I think the fact that there is so much math involved in the storyline caused me to suspend any idea that it was nothing but realistic fiction....only to realize I had been totally fooled! 

I just loved this book. It is one I'd read again. It would be interesting to read it a second time to see what subtle hints were given that I totally missed. It isn't one I'd read aloud to my students though. There are some tough topics. However, it would be great for middle and high school, for sure.

Everyone in book club loved it too. 

It made me wonder what I would put in a time capsule to represent myself. This is going to take some thought! 

The author is from Edmonton too! Pam H sent the author a message saying, "This would make an AMAZING one act play! Let's collaborate!"

Favorite quotes:

p. 254 As you grow up, you're going to hear a lot of opinions about the right way to be Black. A lot of people will tell you to turn the other cheek or stay in our lane or just be quiet, stay in the neighborhood where everyone looks like you. But you deserve a world where the way you're treated is based on your character and not your  skin color. And you're allowed to fight for that world; you're allowed to make waves.

...if I'm being honest with you, Grit, I'm tired. I'm tired of the way we've been treated in Pineview. I'm tired of the odd looks and the suspicion and the disrespect. I'm even more tired of turning on the news and seeing the way Black people are treated everywhere. I'm tired of making a political statement just by existing, just by being black. And I think that's okay. Tired is okay. I don't have to Make A Statement every minute of every day. I can love myself and love my family and be a human and that's enough. 

p. 293 I nod, because I will do anything for him. Becaause he is my favorite person in the universe. Because if fathers  can be friends, he is mine, and even if they can't, he is mind.

p. 294 on losing someone through death:

....I'll always be one of you, but I can't be here the way I want to be. Remember what I s aid that day when we looked at the stars? People get closer or farther away, so you have to be strong and wonderful and wise and silly and everything you are without me. You have to be that Statgirl. That's what will make me happiest of all.

I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my dress.

p. 305 Now, Mom says something I don't expect. "I'm more than just sad. I'm determined. I'm resilient. I'm angry too. Angry as heck that someone would hurt your afther for such a stupid reason or for absolutely no reason at all. Because he never thought we belonged there, so of course we were in his house. I'm angry that whatever happens to the man who did this will not be nearly as bad as what has happened to us. I'm not going to tell yo uthat it will get any less painful or any less hard, but we will get through it.

p. 307....she whispers, "You don't have to be strong, baby. We'll do it weak. We'll limp and hurt and take everything one day at a time....

Setting
Neighborhood called Pineview - the "nice" part of Elderton (p. 7)

Characters

Mom (Bim)

Dad (Jar p. 131)

Lo (little sister)

Baby Z (baby due in  months)

Jeremiah Woods (Dad's BFF)

Mrs. Sorensen (neighbor who always just walks right in p. 14)

Kemi (cousin)

Dia (Chinese American friend)

Grandma (speaks Yoruba....Nigerian language)

Aunt Miriam - a feelings doctor (psychologist?)

Ty - Kemi's twin who died (p. 55)

Lois! (waitress at Patricia's diner) p. 90

Uncle Jere - surgeon

Uncle Steve

Jen - oldest cousin

Goodreads says:

A heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever.

Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5 .5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out.

But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84. 7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi’s life as she knows it will end.

But over the course of the four days, even facts don’t feel true to Kemi anymore. The new town she moved to that was supposed to be “better for her family” isn’t very welcoming. And Amplus-68 is taking over her life, but others are still going to school and eating at their favorite diner like nothing has changed. Is Kemi the only one who feels like the world is ending?

With the days numbered, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule that will capture her family’s truth: how creative her mother is, how inquisitive her little sister can be, and how much Kemi's whole world revolves around her father. But no time capsule can change the truth behind all of it, that Kemi must face the most inevitable and hardest part of life: saying goodbye.

The Lying Game (Ruth Ware)

 

I really enjoyed this book. I'm going to keep this author in mind for when I need a book to sink into and basically get lost in. 

Characters:
Isa (rhymes with nicer) Wilde
Freys (Isa's child)
Owen (Isa's husband)
Fatima Quereshy) - doctor
Ali and Nadia (Farima's children)
Samir (Fatima's husband)
Kate Atagon - sent the text "I need you" and everyone immediately came. Has a white German Shepherd named Shadow
Thea - works at a casino
Luc - Katie's step-brother, from France
Mark Wren - sargeant
Mary Wren (Mark's mother)
Teachers: Miss Rourke, Miss Farqueharson, Miss Weatherby, Ambrose Atagon (Kate's father and the art teacher)
Other students: Connie, Letitia, Helen

p. 17...the tally sheet Kate kept above her bed, covered with cryptic marks for her elaborate scoring system. This much for a new victim. That much for a complete belief. the extras awarded for elaborate detail or managing to rehook someone who had almost called your bluff. I haven't thought of it for so many years, but in a way, I've been playing it all this time 

P. 46 Lie to everyone else - yes. But to each other - never. 

Rule #1 Tell a lie

Rule #2 Stick to your story

Rule #3 Don't get caught

Rule #4 Never lie to each other

Rule #5 Know when to stop lying

Goodreads says:

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 comes Ruth Ware’s chilling new novel.

On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...

The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).

Coronation Year (Jennifer Robson)

 

I am a big Jennifer Robson fan. I've read all her books and so I was happy to hear about this one coming out and amazed at the timing! King Charles' coronation was just last Saturday. I started it before his coronation and finished it today and have enjoyed it immensely! I've always been a fan of the royal family. I cut out the newspaper clippings from Charles' and Diana's wedding, watched carefully when Fergie and Andrew married and have continued on with the others. This story isn't so much about the royal family as it is about the regular people and their lives during the pending coronation. Having grown up in a family in the hotel industry, I really felt a connection! I love learning about history through historical fiction. As it says in Coronation Year:

London has changed so much since the coronation of the first Elizabeth. I thought that by telling the story of this one place, the sort of place most people pass by without ever knowing its history, we might also tell the story of London.
- Stella

Goodreads says:

The USA Today bestselling author of The Gown returns with another enthralling and royal-adjacent historical novel—as the lives of three very different residents of London’s historic Blue Lion hotel converge in a potentially explosive climax on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation.

It is Coronation Year, 1953, and a new queen is about to be crowned. The people of London are in a mood to celebrate, none more so than the residents of the Blue Lion hotel.

Edie Howard, owner and operator of the floundering Blue Lion, has found the miracle she needs: on Coronation Day, Queen Elizabeth in her gold coach will pass by the hotel’s front door, allowing Edie to charge a fortune for rooms and, barring disaster, save her beloved home from financial ruin. Edie’s luck might just be turning, all thanks to a young queen about her own age.

Stella Donati, a young Italian photographer and Holocaust survivor, has come to live at the Blue Lion while she takes up a coveted position at Picture Weekly magazine. London in celebration mode feels like a different world to her. As she learns the ins and outs of her new profession, Stella discovers a purpose and direction that honor her past and bring hope for her future.

James Geddes, a war hero and gifted artist, has struggled to make his mark in a world that disdains his Indian ancestry. At the Blue Lion, though, he is made to feel welcome and worthy. Yet even as his friendship with Edie deepens, he begins to suspect that something is badly amiss at his new home.

When anonymous threats focused on Coronation Day, the Blue Lion, and even the queen herself disrupt their mood of happy optimism, Edie and her friends must race to uncover the truth, save their home, and expose those who seek to erase the joy and promise of Coronation Year.

Ordinary Grace (William Kent Krueger)

 

It took me a while to get into this book. Too long, in fact. I was busy with work and ended up skipping book club because I felt like I hadn't read enough of it, let alone finish it. However, once I got past about 100 pages, it got quite interesting! I wish I had read it quicker so I could discuss it. This would be a great one to discuss. 

The story is told from the perspective of a young boy watching, spying on and listening to adult conversations. 

Goodreads says:

“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.”

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family— which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother— he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.

Where The Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)

 

Kya is a girl who grows up alone because she is abandoned by everyone. Her father is abusive and this affects her mother so that she eventually leaves. She doesn't ever really recover from having her mother leave her, and eventually we find out that her mother never recovers from abandoning her children. No one really knows Kya. Even the people who do get close to her don't know her. She protects herself because of all the people that leave her. People make judgments about her and don't really ever give her a chance. It's heartbreaking to watch her endure the scorn from other people. Her ability to make sense of people through connections to her understanding of nature and animals is amazing. She has enough skills to survive on her own, but growing up so isolated really becomes a problem for her that she never really gets over. This was particularly interesting to think about in the midst of the pandemic right now where maintaining connections with people is not easy.

The wonderful thing about Kya is she really teaches that we can all do so much more than we think we can do. When things get really difficult, we usually find out we can do way more than we realize we can do. Kya pulls off everything she needs to do. She's witty and gritty and she gets it done.

When I finished this book I had just had to sit with the feeling it left me. The ending is a surprise and made me feel like I needed to sit and be in it for a while longer. 

This book reminded me of so many other books. It's a little bit like Hatchet because she has to survive on her own. It's a little bit like Tara Westover in Educated because her father is abusive and her family abandons her and even though she never goes to school, she learns to read, one day writes books and earns an honorary degree. It also reminded me of Looks Like Daylight, which was full of stories of First Nations kids and their connection to the land. It also has a murder trial just like To Kill A Mockingbird.

Meaning of the title: when Tate and Kya are looking for a place to hang out, her friend, Tate, suggests that they go somewhere “where the crawdads sing.” He explains to Kya that it means “far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.”

Goodreads says:

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps. 

Spoiler alert:

Why did Kya keep the shell necklace?

The shell necklace that Kya gives to Chase becomes a manifestation of the dissonance between her desire to be loved and her wariness to let other people into her life. ... However, Kya ends up putting the shell on a necklace that she later gives to Chase as a gift.

The Chalk Man (C.J. Tudor)

I don't actually read mysteries that often. This one really drew me in after about 100 pages. I thought the way it is told, by going back to 1986 and then continuing with today (2016 in this book) it was quite effective and definitely kept me wanting to read just one more chapter.

So many secrets…

“Everyone has secrets, things they know they shouldn’t do but do anyway. Mine was……

There were some nasty scenes: rape of a young boy and murder. If you're sensitive, those will be pages to skip. The details of them aren't that important anyway.

I was surprised to learn this was the author's first book. It's a good start to a writing career, for sure!

Quotes:

p. 9 There's nothing better than doing something you shouldn't and getting one over on an adult while doing it.

p. 88 Teachers should be nice and friendly, but they should also be a bit apart. Mr. Haloran and I shared a secret now and, although that was cool in one way, it also made me feel awkward around him, like we had seen each other naked or something.

p. 151 That's the point, Eddie. The thing you have to understand is that being a good person isn't about singing hymns, or praying to some mythical god. It isn't about wearing across or going to church every Sunday. Being a good person is about how you treat others. A good person doesn't need a religion, because they are content with themselves that they are doing the right thing. (Eddie's mom, to Eddie)


I think this is a book I should read again and see what hints I missed as I read it the first time. There must have been some. I'm too unsuspecting a reader though. I need to hone my mystery reading skills!

Characters:
Eddie
Eddie's parents
Fat Gav
Metal Mickey
Nicky
Nicky's father (vicar)
Hoppo
The Pale Man (Mr Halloran)
Waltzer girl
Blond friend
Sean Cooper
Chloe

Goodreads says:

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he's put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

That's when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago. 

Hold Tight (Harlan Coben)

This was a book club pick for me. It took me a little while to get into it. I was fascinated by the premise of parents concerned about their teenager and monitoring his on-line activity - but I was also a little afraid to get too into it and find out what was going on. I think partially, I know I don't monitor my teenager's online activity very well and I was afraid to read about awful stuff happening and having to wonder if that could happen to my kid. Once I got into the story though, it was hard to put down. It was definitely a page turner.

I had trouble keeping all the characters straight. There are A LOT of characters in this book. I should have written them all down. Instead I kept them in this loose net in my mind, with some slipping through.

It made for a great discussion at book club. There were so many difficult and controversial topics: perfectionism, teenage suicide, teenage privacy versus monitoring, family secrets, etc.

I should probably read it again and see if I see hints dropped here and there that I didn't see the first time around.


Goodreads says:

Harlan Coben delivers a #1 New York Times bestseller that asks how well parents really know their children—and puts them on a technological roller coaster of their worst fears.

“We’re losing him.” With those words, Mike and Tia Baye decide to spy on their sixteen-year-old son Adam, who has become increasingly moody and withdrawn since the suicide of his best friend. The software they install on his computer shows them every Web site visited, every e-mail sent or received, every instant message. And each keystroke draws them deeper and deeper into a maze of mayhem and violence that could destroy them all...