Upcoming ARC reads for me and reviews for you include:
* Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
* Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood
* The House of Lincoln by Nancy Horan
* The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood
ARC Review (c/0 NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. Publishing)
Usually we expect the book to come first, followed by the film, yet the idea for this novel is attributed to the 1993 film 'Falling Down' and knowing this helps to affix the plot and its troubled protagonist in place.
Grace Adams is a pitiful, mess of a mother and she says that of herself, swearing to herself, cursing at the troubles of her mental and physical state. The fact that she's meant to be perimenopausal is an embarrassing addition to the character's backstory and being a mid-40 year old mother myself, I'm not certain who the target reader is for this novel! At times, I empathised with Grace, wanting her to break away from the mundane normalitude of her existence, yet at other times, I felt like this representation of women at a most fragile and tumultuous stage of life is not supportive. It presented Grace Adams, in spite of the tragedies and external mishaps affecting her mid-life as unstable and perhaps a bit insane. Younger Grace is a great character. Mid-life Grace...not so much and this bothered me since I thought she was going to have more of a feisty older character, to make older females feel better about what lies ahead?
Nevertheless, there is excitement in the plot. There are memories of a younger, care-free self and the raw emotion of relationships experienced earlier in Grace's life. The story spans from 2002 to 2018 with a present and 'four months earlier' story too. This allows the reader to get to know Grace's husband Ben before they meet, during and after their marriage, as well as their teenage daughter Lotte who contributes a huge element to the plot.
The amalgamation of life revelations and incidents do come across as a little contrived in the second half of the novel, which is a weird thing to say since the story could almost be autobiographical in style as to how real each circumstance seems to be. It's as if the author has muddled up a number of family events from experiences she has come across in life to create a female protagonist with a lot of problems and troubles to deal with. Some elements of the story are incredibly sad and real, almost too real, so that the novel does not help in lightening the anticipation of perimenopause or menopause at all!
It's a capable debut novel and I enjoyed the opening chapters most. I reckon younger teens might enjoy this novel more than the perimenopausal mothers it might be targeting!
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
Earth's the Right Place for Love by Elizabeth Berg
ARC Review (c/0 NetGalley and Random House Publishing)
A charming title, inspired by Robert Frost's poem "Birches", and front cover to match a delightful, light read.
The brothers Arthur and Frank Moses have a wonderful partnership and their nighttime conversations at bedtime offer a youth's perspective on many interesting topics. Subjects like why you choose a particular partner, family relationships and connections, your reputation and life choices are gently explored from a teenager's perspective as Arthur looks to his older brother for advice.
The novel opens in 2016 with Arthur Moses, 85 years old, who is dying but awaits his time with a calm demeanour and embraces the small details and sounds of his human existence like doors opening and closing, snow falling, the stars and the whistle of a train.
From here the reader is welcomed to join a younger Arthur in 1947 in Mason, Missouri, as he follows Nola McCullum and falls in love with her. Their friendship, mislabelled as companionship but so clearly a shared love for one another is cute to follow, especially since it starts with Nora giving her phone number to Arthur to be given to his brother, Frank.
The boys tell us of their vulnerability at the hands of their unhappy maladjusted father's sporadic angry outbursts. Some of the brothers' observations about their flawed father's actions are sad to read and in places it is heartbreaking to hear of their pity and lack of respect for their father.
Yet, the characters grow throughout the novel in their thoughts about love and how to orientate the layers of emotion with which they will be faced in their lives. Some lovely moments in the novel are when Arthur and Frank vow to never deny love and another when Arthur sees his father in a different light, understanding more from his mother's adult point of view.
About halfway through the novel, the narrative continues dropping new and different incidents and plot shifts into the story, like a tornado and the shift in Frank's life plans, but if you've enjoyed the development of the love theme up to this point, you'll see how it works well to drive you towards the decorative and what I can probably describe best as a 'floral' but sad and heartwarming, ending.
Not a literary masterpiece, but adorable nonetheless!
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
#randomhouse #arcreview #elizabethberg #randomhousebooks #earthstherightplaceforlove #readingjourneys #netgalley
Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen
ARC Review (c/0 NetGalley and Atria Simon and Schuster)
Goodreads
This story is as bright as its cover.
It's told from five points of view, all members of the Tran family.
We first hear from Debbie, the mother whose refugee status sticks with her and we feel for her as she is treated as an outsider in many situations in the novel. However, she's also a feisty matriarchal figure and as a central voice in the novel, she's great. Combined with her gambling, naive husband, Jessica their unemployed daughter, no longer engaged, returned from LA, Dustin their workaholic son and their niece Thuy, who has recently immigrated to Canada and whose family in Vietnam depends on her sending money home, they form the Tran family. Their business and livelihood is in trouble catalysing some dramatic sabotage and re-alignment of life choices.
There's a lot of light comedy and some chapters which I didn't need, such as a scene on a nudist beach and some office sex drama but that's a matter of opinion!
What I enjoyed most was the central childlike, yet mature voice of Debbie. Her disappointment and self-deprecation at not having secured the better life she sought in the US, having sacrificed everything for her children is sad but an important story to hear.
Thank you to Mai Nguyen for her warming letter to the reader, explaining the background inspiration for her writing.
review by Christina Francis-Gilbert
#simonandschusteratria #arcreview #mainguyen #atria #sunshinenails #readingjourneys #netgalley
