Book Review: The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond

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Title: The Frame-Up
Author: Gwenda Bond
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication date: February 13, 2024
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

A magically gifted con artist must gather her estranged mother’s old crew for a once-in-a-lifetime heist, from the New York Times bestselling author of Stranger Suspicious Minds.

Dani Poissant is the daughter and former accomplice of the world’s most famous art thief, as well as being an expert forger in her own right. The secret to their success? A little thing called magic, kept rigorously secret from the non-magical world. Dani’s mother possesses the power of persuasion, able to bend people to her will, whereas Dani has the ability to make any forgery she undertakes feel like the genuine article.

At seventeen, concerned about the corrupting influence of her mother’s shadowy partner, Archer, Dani impulsively sold her mother out to the FBI—an act she has always regretted. Ten years later, Archer seeks her out, asking her to steal a particular painting for him, since her mother’s still in jail. In return, he will reconcile her with her mother and reunite her with her mother’s old gang—including her former best friend, Mia, and Elliott, the love of her life.

The problem is, it’s a nearly impossible job—even with the magical talents of the people she once considered family backing her up. The painting is in the never-before-viewed private collection of deceased billionaire William Hackworth—otherwise known as the Fortress of Art. It’s a job that needs a year to plan, and Dani has just over one week. Worse, she’s not exactly gotten a warm welcome from her former colleagues—especially not from Elliott, who has grown from a weedy teen to a smoking-hot adult. And then there is the biggest puzzle of why Archer wants her to steal a portrait of himself, which clearly dates from the 1890s, instead of the much more valuable works by Vermeer or Rothko. Who is her mother’s partner, really, and what does he want?

The more Dani learns, the more she understands she may be in way over her head—and that there is far more at stake in this job than she ever realized.

I’m not entirely sure what this book was trying to be. A heist caper? A tale of generations of women with magical powers forced to serve a supernatural being? A contemporary romance, complete with love triangle? Perhaps the problem is that The Frame-Up tries to be all of these, and doesn’t quite hit the mark with any.

Dani Poissant has been estranged from her mother and her chosen family of art thieves ever since she turned her mother in to the FBI ten years earlier. Now, she lives and works alone, using her magical gifts to scam bad guys and restore a little bit of justice to their victims (and earn a paycheck for herself).

When her mother’s former associate, a mysterious man named Archer, tracks her down, she’s forced to confront her past. A billionaire art collector, who has never let anyone inside his well-named Fortress of Art, has died, and his family plans to open the collection to the public for the first time and auction it off. There’s a painting that Archer wants, and he wants Dani to get it for him.

For… reasons, Dani accepts, and heads back to her old home base to reunite with her former circle of thieves/family and plan one final heist, hoping to repair her connection to her mother and rid themselves of Archer once and for all.

I’ll be blunt. This book is a mess. Plot lines are all over the place, as is the tone. We’re supposed to feel Dani’s deep connection to the people she goes back to — Rabbit, Mia, Elliot — but none of it is fleshed out. We’re told about Dani’s thoughts and emotions, but none of it felt substantial to me.

The magical powers that enable them to control technology or create master forgeries or find anything lost are a convenient jumble, and the heist itself is nonsensical, as are the other magical art thieves who try to get in their way.

The storyline about Archer’s past with the women of the Poissant family is a little more interesting than the rest… but it doesn’t get explained until past the midway point of the book, and even then, it feels familiar. A supernatural being haunting/controlling generations of women in the same family? I could name at least two or three other books with the same theme.

Messy, jumbled plots and characters aren’t helped by messy writing. There are sentences that I had to stop and parse — just who are we talking about here? There’s even a scene where someone using an alias gets referred to by his real name — but it’s clearly not an intentional slip or a piece of the plot, just a place where more editing was needed. I can only hope that the errors and awkwardness I noticed in the ARC are cleaned up in the final published version.

I considered DNFing repeatedly throughout this book, but wanted to see it through in case something happened in the latter half to make me feel more invested. It didn’t. By the end, I was hate-reading. I was going to finish this book, dammit!

Such a disappointment. I read the author’s three previous books, which were all cheery, silly, supernaturally-infused adventure/romances. I hoped for a similar reading experience with The Frame-Up, but sadly, that was not the case.

Audiobook Review: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

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Title: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Author: Matthew Perry
Narrator: Matthew Perry
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication date: November 1, 2022
Print length: 250 pages
Audio length: 8 hours, 49 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.

Reviewing a memoir often feels like a weirdly invasive endeavor. Who am I to praise or criticize the author? Sure, we can talk about how the book made us feel or what we think of of the writing, but a memoir is such a personal creation that it’s difficult to say much more than that.

In the case of Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, it’s an extraordinarily bizarre and uncomfortable experience to read this memoir — and especially, to listen to the audiobook narration by Matthew Perry himself — only a few short months after his tragic death.

As the synopsis shows, the opening lines of the book are eerie, and the following paragraph even more so:

If you like, you can consider what you’re about to read to be a message from the beyond, my beyond.

I was a big fan of Friends back in the day, and always adored Chandler. I knew very little about the actor behind the character, other than the gossip and scandals that cycled through the headlines over the decades — tales of addiction, destructive behavior, and rehab after rehab.

Here, in Matthew Perry’s memoir, we get a personal tour of his life, from childhood through his early 50s (just two years prior to his death) — and it’s profoundly sad in so many ways. Surprising too — I’d assumed that he was yet another example of someone destroyed by fame, but as we learn in this book, Perry’s drinking and addiction started many years before he became a break-out star.

Blending a recounting of his childhood and teens, his early years in the show biz industry, his phenomenal success in Friends, and beyond with interludes where we get uncomfortably up close and personal with the horrid details of the torment he inflicts on himself through his excessive use of drugs and alcohol, the memoir lets us inside his life and shows us the person behind the tabloid stories.

Perry comes across as smart, funny, and deeply wounded. His is a fascinating, tragic story told by someone living the addiction, and it’s not pretty (although he manages to inject his sense of humor even into the most harrowing of episodes).

I occasionally felt that it was all too much. I didn’t need to know quite that much about his ups and downs, the vast quantities of pills, the physical impact of his addictions, and his sex life. But then again, this is his truth that he’s sharing — as I said, it’s hard to criticize a memoir. Could he have toned it down or shared a bit less? Sure. But this is his story, and that’s what I signed up to experience.

I know he also got quite a bit of flak for some of his attempted jokes that fall flat in delivery, in particularly a passage where he laments the too-young deaths of brilliant talents like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger, then follows up by saying “but Keanu Reeves still walk among us.” And then repeats the Keanu Reeves line again later after talking about Chris Farley’s death. Dude, why do you have it in for Keanu Reeves? (Perry apparently apologized for this after the book came out and said the line would be removed from future editions… but it’s definitely there in the library book and audiobook I borrowed.)

I imagine that listening to this audiobook six months ago might have been a very different experience. Listening now, after Perry’s death, is truly like listening to a voice from beyond the grave. Every time he talks about barely surviving or how lucky he is not to be dead, it’s a shock.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an intimate look into the life and psyche of a complicated, troubled, unhealthy person who was also insanely talented, incredibly funny, and apparently, a person with a very loving heart. Hearing his voice sharing his story made me very sad for the loss of him as a person and as a talent. If only his next performance were still to come, rather than this book being his final good-bye.

I do recommend Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. It’s sad and difficult, but I’m glad that Matthew Perry chose to share himself with the world in this way. We’ll never know what else he might have done.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short

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snowy10

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short, which the host is defining as books under 150 pages.

For my list, I’m not paying too much attention to page counts; instead, I’m going with the general idea of shorter reads — basically, novellas.

I’ve been reading more novellas over the past few years — here are ten that I’ve loved:

1) Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky (review)

2) The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (review)

3) Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher (review)

4) Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth (review)

5) Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir (review)

6) To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (review)

7) A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers (yes, more Becky Chambers — her books are THAT good)

8) A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow (review)

9) Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar (and I do recommend the entire Gwendy trilogy) (review)

10) Rizzio by Denise Mina (review)

Do you have any favorite novellas?

If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

The Monday Check-In ~ 02/05/2024

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My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

We had a group of friends over for breakfast this past weekend, including a friend’s adult kids (whom we hadn’t seen in ages). Such fun catching up.

Other than that, it’s been a mostly quiet week — work, errands, reading…

But I can always take a moment to appreciate kitty cuteness:

Blogging.

A low-key goal in January was to do some blog clean-up… and I did, a bit. I went through my Book Blog Meme Directory page and checked all the links, deleted the ones that are no longer active, and updated wherever needed. That actually felt like an accomplishment!

I’m considering whether to revamp my review indexes (although I suspect no one actually refers to them except me). Right now, I have alphabetical listings by author and by title, but I was thinking about combining into one master list by author, with titles either alphabetically or chronologically for each. (I don’t think this actually matters in the slightest, but if I ever have a day with literally nothing else to do, I might tackle it.)

What did I read during the last week?

The Women by Kristin Hannah. Powerful and unforgettable. My review is here.

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez: Terrific audiobook. My review is here.

To Woo and To Wed (Regency Vows, #5) by Martha Waters: A very satisfying (and fun) conclusion to a terrific series. My review is here.

Read but not reviewed:

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher: I’ve loved just about everything I’ve read by this author so far, but What Feasts at Night was mainly a miss for me. It was fine; I’d give it a solid three stars. It simply didn’t make much of an impression, and I didn’t ever feel swept away by the story the way I usually do when reading a T. Kingfisher book.

Pop culture & TV:

I watched a couple of Oscar-nominated movies this week. First: Past Lives, nominated for Best Picture. It’s a quiet, lovely film, definitely not a typical Oscar-bait event film. I recommend it!

Second: Oppenheimer, which has “Oscar winner” written all over it. I was glad I watched at home vs at the movie theater (so nice be able to hit pause in the middle of a 3-hour movie to grab more snacks!). It really was a great movie, very powerful, and with an incredible cast.

As for other TV viewing, I bit the bullet and reactivated my Hulu account after a year without it, so now I’m busy catching up on a bunch of shows. This week, I watched season 3 of Reservation Dogs, which is excellent. I’m tempted to go back and watch the series from the beginning, to get the chance to view it as a whole.

Fresh Catch:

My hardcover of Heartsong arrived this week! I love this series so much, so I had to have the new edition as soon as it was released.

I also got an ARC in the mail for the upcoming new book in Seanan McGuire’s Incryptid series — yay!

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond: Just getting started. I liked the author’s three most recent books, so I’m looking forward to diving in.

Now playing via audiobook:

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry: This is a sad, strange listening experience. I should finish in the next few days.

Ongoing reads:

My current longer-term reads:

  • Outlander Book Club is doing a group re-read of Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2), reading and discussing two chapters per week. Coming up this week: Chapters 38 and 39 (of 49). Progress: 73%.
  • Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: My book group’s current classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 46%.
  • A Night to Remember by Walter Lord: My new Classics Club Spin book! I haven’t started it yet — I’m listing it here as a placeholder for now. The target date for this spin is March 3rd, so there’s still plenty of time.

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

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Book Review: To Woo and To Wed (The Regency Vows, #5) by Martha Waters

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Title: To Swoon and To Spar
Series: The Regency Vows, #5
Author: Martha Waters
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: February 6, 2024
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The final installment in the Regency Vows series follows the heir to a dukedom and a young widow, once very much in love, as they reunite years later to fake an engagement for the benefit of her sister.

West, the Marquess of Weston, and Sophie, Lady Fitzwilliam Bridewell, have lately been spending a considerable amount of time together. But West and Sophie are not new acquaintances. In fact, years ago, they had once been nearly engaged until West’s almost fatal curricle accident and his meddling father threw them off course.

Now recently widowed, Sophie has put aside all thoughts of romance. But when her widowed sister, Alexandra, mentions a fondness for an earl, Sophie realizes that she may be holding her sister back. Alexandra won’t move forward with an engagement until Sophie, too, settles down again, and so Sophie approaches West with a plan. They will announce their engagement and break things off once Alexandra is happily married. It’ll be simple. After all, it’s not like she is going to fall for West a second time, not when Sophie has sworn not to risk her heart again.

To Woo and To Wed is a fitting, satisfying wrap-up to a consistently entertaining series about love, friendship, and offbeat relationships. The series as a whole balances light-hearted romps and banter with some serious (but not too heavy) themes about family obligations and expectations. Book #5 ties the entire series together in a way that’s sure to please its faithful readers.

Throughout the series, West (Marquess of Weston, and future Duke) and Sophie (a lovely young widow) have been in the background — not driving the previous books’ plots, but factoring into the overarching storylines nonetheless. Over the course of these books, we’ve learned bits and pieces of their (mostly sad) history: At one point madly in love and on the verge of betrothal, West was in a tragic accident that killed his closest friend and left him severely injured, and upon his recovery, he discovered that Sophie had married another man. Widowed after three years of marriage, Sophie has carried an air of sadness with her, and she and West have kept their distance. More recently, however, West and Sophie have been thrown together much more frequently as their circle of friends and relatives have overlapped (in the four books of the Regency Vows series). Here in book #5, West and Sophie finally take center stage, and we learn much more about their backstory and how their lives continue to intersect.

In To Woo and To Wed, Sophie finds herself in a bind when her younger sister, also a widow, hints at being in love and ready to marry, but seems to be holding off out of concern for Sophie’s well-being. Sophie is perfectly fine on her own, yet doesn’t want to be responsible for delaying her sister’s happiness. Thrown together with West yet again due to their mutual social connections, she makes a startling proposal: She and West will announce their betrothal, ensuring her sister’s comfort in getting married. Once Alexandra is safely wed, she and West can break things off and go their separate ways.

West is amenable — he still loves Sophie, for one thing, and he’s also getting pressure from his awful, domineering father to marry and produce heirs. In fact, his father is now using outright extortion — if West doesn’t get married (and soon), his father will sell the property that once belonged to his late mother, the place that West most considers home.

Of course, a fake betrothal is bound to get complicated. First of all, their friends are rightfully skeptical, and even Alexandra seems suspicious, forcing ridiculous wedding plans (such as overly ruffled matching gowns, a double ceremony, and departure on horseback) on Sophie… in hopes of making her confess the truth?

And then there’s the undeniable fact that neither Sophie nor West has ever gotten over one another. All this forced proximity and pretend intimacy gets harder and harder to endure while denying feelings… and those feeling keep bubbling up each time they meet.

It’s quite lovely to see West and Sophie together at long last, and very satisfying to finally get their full backstory and understand just went wrong seven years earlier. They’re both great characters — smart, caring, and sensitive — and they deserve happiness. Getting there isn’t easy, but their ups and downs give us readers plenty of time to cheer them on.

All of the characters from the previous books participate in the events of To Woo and To Wed, and it’s extremely enjoyable to see them all come together, in various combinations to move the plot forward (and to meddle in Sophie and West’s romance).

The Regency Vows series is a lot of fun, and this 5th book is a terrific conclusion to the characters’ romantic adventures. Many romance series are only loosely connected, so a reader can jump in at any point. Here, there is so much involvement of other characters and winking references to past events that I can’t see the reading experience being nearly as enjoyable if someone started anywhere but with book #1, To Have and To Hoax. My recommendation? Start at the beginning, and enjoy the ride all the way through to the end!

Audiobook Review: Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

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Title: Part of Your World
Author: Abby Jimenez
Narrators:  Julia Whelan & Zachary Webber
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: April 19, 2022
Print length: 400 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 5 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.

While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere” ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

The New York Times bestselling author of Life’s Too Short delivers a refreshingly modern fairy tale perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Emily Henry.

After seeing rave reviews for Abby Jimenez’s books for a few years now, I decided to borrow Part of Your World when it popped up as “available now” in my library app. What a treat! Sometimes a spontaneous borrow is exactly right.

In Part of Your World, a driving mishap in the middle of nowhere (okay, not exactly nowhere — rural Minnesota, about two hours from Minneapolis) introduces Alexis to Daniel when he comes to her rescue and tows her car out of a ditch. Hungry and rather amused by this nice, charming guy, Alexis accepts his offer of grilled cheese, especially when there’s an opportunity to meet his “kid” (the baby goat he’s fostering). One thing leads to another… but then Alexis goes back to her regular life, never expecting to see him again.

Alexis is an ER doctor working at the hospital her family founded 125 years earlier. In the world of high-profile medicine, her family is royalty. A Montgomery has always led the hospital, and with her parents retired and her elder brother suddenly deciding to continue his medical work overseas, the mantle is passing to Alexis, whether she wants it or not.

But she can’t get Daniel out of her mind, and he can’t stop thinking of her either. Daniel runs a B&B in his small town (where he’s also mayor), works as a carpenter/woodcrafter as a passion, and is deeply embedded in the lives of his neighbors. His life is in Wakan; hers is in Minneapolis. They’re incredibly different. There’s no way they fit together… and yet, as Alexis visits again and again, their chemistry is undeniable, and it’s soon clear that their connection goes well beyond physical.

While this may sound like a sweetness-and-light romance (and parts of it certainly are), there are heavier, more serious themes running through Part of Your World. Most significantly, the book deals substantially with abusive relationships. While there’s a background storyline involving domestic violence woven into the plot, the piece that most severely affects Alexis and her self-esteem, her outlook on life, and her self-criticism and stress is the emotional abuse she suffered for years in her relationship with her ex-boyfriend. It was never overt and certainly never in public, but the consistent demeaning and gaslighting left Alexis with deep wounds and insecurities that color how she moves through the world. Also, importantly, the behavior she lives with for years is both affected by how she interacts with her father and the burden of expectations she places on herself in order to fulfill her parents’ wishes, and this also severely impacts her relationship with Daniel.

In a nutshell, the pressures on Alexis to be what her family expects narrows her worldview to such an extent that she can’t even imagine doing anything but what’s demanded of her — and with that limitation, she can’t envision any possible world in which Daniel fits into her life. I ached for Daniel, who — not understanding Alexis’s experiences or knowing her history — is left feeling that he’s an embarrassment and not good enough for her. I often felt angry with Alexis, but that’s not really fair either. The abuse she lived with scarred her, and while Daniel is hot and kind and amazing, that doesn’t automatically erase everything that came before.

There’s a touch of magical realism in Part of Your World which startled me at first, but I ended up really loving. Nasty people who treat Daniel shamefully are suddenly pelted by acorns falling from the trees in the yard, despite it being the wrong season. A lightning strike, seemingly out of nowhere, knocks a branch from a tree and prevents Alexis from leaving in a moment when she feels all is hopeless. It’s not so frequent as to feel heavy-handed, just a nice, subtle touch that lends a bit of a “forces of nature” element to the love story.

One reason I was eager to listen to this audiobook, once I stumbled across is, is that Julia Whelan is the narrator for the Alexis chapters, and she’s as amazing here as always. Zachary Webber voices Daniel, and he captures his sensitivity and sense of fun to a T.

Part of Your World is romantic and full of small-town charm, but there’s plenty of heartache and sorrow too. The light and dark elements work together very well, and overall, this is a lovely, relatable, and uplifting novel. Highly recommended — and if you’re an audiobook listener, don’t miss out on these terrific narrators!

There’s a companion book set in the same fictional world, with Alexis’s best friend as main character. Can’t wait to read it!

Book Review: The Women by Kristin Hannah

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Title: The Women
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: February 6, 2024
Length: 480 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

I’ll put it simply: Kristin Hannah’s new book is a stunner. In this dramatic story of a young woman’s experiences as a nurse during the Vietnam War and the wrenchingly difficult life she comes home to, we live through hell and then some with the sympathetic, compelling main character.

Frances McGrath is a child of privilege, a lovely young woman fresh out of nursing school, the daughter of a wealth family living on San Diego’s Coronado Island. She comes from a family of military heroes — her father even has a “hero wall” in his study, with framed photos of the generations of men who served their country. That’s right — men. It’s not until her beloved only brother ships out to begin his naval tour, after a fancy family party, that Frankie realizes that women can be heroes too. Feeling a bit lost without her big brother and wanting to share some of her father’s admiration, she joins the Army Nurse Corps — the only branch that will allow a nurse with so little real-world experience to head to Vietnam.

Frankie is in for many rude awakenings, starting with her parents’ reaction. It turns out, she’s misinterpreted everything. Military service is something to be proud of only in the case of sons, not daughters. Frankie is an embarrassment, nothing more.

Still, she excels at basic training, but finds herself completely out of her depth when she arrives in Vietnam, where she quickly realizes that her quiet hospital rounds back home did nothing to prepare her for the horrors of Vietnam’s reality. Fortunately, she’s taken under the wings of her two roommates, Barb and Ethel, women whose experience and guidance help Frankie survive her first few weeks of war. Eventually, Frankie rises to the occasion, becoming a skilled, brave, and compassionate surgical nurse.

Vietnam also provides Frankie with romantic entanglements, and suffice it to say that the outcome is as tragic as you’d expect in a war zone. Frankie’s time in-country comprises the first half or so of the book. It’s harrowing, tragic, upsetting, and yet, gorgeously written. It’s so visceral that we feel we’re there with Frankie, and she herself is given space to grow, feel, and experience everything around her. Readers will walk away feeling that they truly know this person.

Frankie’s return to the States is yet another awful shock. As we know from history, returning vets were spat at, reviled, and called baby killers. Frankie is emotionally drained, distraught, and has nowhere to turn. In low moments, when she seeks help at the VA and tries to join a veterans’ “rap” group, she’s turned away by male vets who inform her that, despite what she tries to tell them, there were no woman in Vietnam.

Her downward spiral is awful, compounded by some shady people in her life, but even with the love and support of her close friends, she’s mainly alone in a very, very dark place. Frankie’s experiences are heartbreaking. Even as we see her making terrible decisions and using very bad judgment, we can sympathize and understand how hopeless and out of place she feels.

It’s probably obvious that The Women is not an easy book to read, but it’s absolutely worth the emotional investment. The writing is fantastic, descriptive and personal while also plunging us headlong into the scenes of wartime hell — but what really elevates this book is the in-depth look into the heart and soul of such a fascinating and complex woman.

The Women is also quite informative, relaying the experiences of women serving in Vietnam in a way that doesn’t often get the spotlight. The author’s notes at the end are very helpful, as are the reference books and additional sources she lists. (In fact, one of the books she recommends is A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam, which I read many years ago, but am now tempted to read again.)

The book also brought back memories of the TV series China Beach, which I loved… and which (sadly) does not appear to be available to stream anywhere. Bring back China Beach!

But back to The Women: It’s a beautiful, sad, disturbing, powerful read. After finishing the book a few days ago, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Another don’t-miss book from a talented author — highly recommended.

Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023.

I always love this TTT topic — it’s fun to look back and appreciate how many new authors I’ve tried, especially when there are more of their books for me still to read!

I actually “met” more than 10 new-to-me authors in 2023, and it’s hard for me to narrow down the list… but here are ten whose books I really enjoyed.

1) Author: Trish Doller. Books read:

2) Author: Elissa Sussman. Books read:

3) Author: Victor LaValle. Book read:

4) Author: Elizabeth Acevedo. Books read:

5) Author: Travis Baldree. Books read:

6) Author: Heather Fawcett. Books read:

7) Author: Annabel Monaghan. Books read:

8) Author: Paul Tremblay. Book read:

9) Author: Colleen Oakley. Book read:

10) Author: Sara Goodman Confino. Book read:

Have you read other books by these authors? Do you have any recommendations?

If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

The Monday Check-In ~ 01/29/2024

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

cooltext1850356879

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

It’s been a busy week (as usual), but things finally… maybe… are starting to lighten up a bit at work.

On the homefront, we’ve had some nice family time, play time with the kitty, and even sunny weather!

Blogging.

I’ve been doing bits and pieces of clean-up behind the scenes on my blog, just tidying up some directories, trying to eliminate incorrect tags, etc.

One of my pages is my Book Blog Meme Directory, which I’ve let slip a bit — I realize that I haven’t gone through and checked the links and made updates in about a year. Which makes me wonder… should I even bother? I’m honestly not sure how useful it is at this point, so maybe it’s time to just deactivate it.

What did I read during the last week?

The Guncle by Steven Rowley: Loved this so much! My review is here.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys: Very dark, very compelling. My review is here.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears: Honest and powerful. My review is here.

Pop culture & TV:

I finished season 2 of Dark Winds. It was great! Can’t wait for season 3.

My husband and I are continuing our (very slow) watching of All the Light You Cannot See, and I also watched the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears (on Hulu).

I have a long list of series and movies to watch — the hard part is deciding where to start! And I’ve just reactivated my Hulu subscription after a year without it, so there’s plenty to choose from.

Meanwhile, with the Oscars coming soon, I’m trying to get through the handful of nominated movies and performances that interest me — I’m not planning to watch every single movie just for the sake of watching them, but there are a bunch I do want to see before the awards are given out. I got started over the weekend by watching Rustin (Netflix), and highly recommend it! It’s easy to see why Colman Domingo was nominated for Best Actor for this role.

Puzzle of the week:

I had fun with this one over the weekend:

I did get a little tired of all the sky and sea by the end… but otherwise, it was a good challenge!

Fresh Catch:

No new books this week.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

The Women by Kristin Hannah: I’m at about 50% at this point, and I’m very, very invested! I just wish I had a day to myself to do nothing but read. Hoping to wrap up in the next day or so.

Now playing via audiobook:

Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez: I’ve never read anything by this author before, but after seeing so many great reviews over the last couple of years, I decided to give this book a try. I’m totally hooked! Can’t wait to see how it all works out.

Ongoing reads:

My current longer-term reads:

  • Outlander Book Club is doing a group re-read of Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2), reading and discussing two chapters per week. Coming up this week: Chapters 36 and 37 (of 49). Progress: 62%.
  • Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: My book group’s current classic read! We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. I’m enjoying the book, although reading at this pace makes it feel like it’ll take forever to finish. Progress: 43%.
  • A Night to Remember by Walter Lord: My new Classics Club Spin book! I haven’t started it yet — I’m listing it here as a placeholder for now. The target date for this spin is March 3rd, so there’s still plenty of time.

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

boy1

Audiobook Review: The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

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Title: The Woman in Me
Author: Britney Spears
Narrator: Michelle Williams
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication date: October 24, 2023
Print length: 277 pages
Audio length: 5 hours, 31 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

The Woman in Me needs little introduction — I can’t imagine there’s anyone unaware of Britney Spears and her deeply personal memoir, published in the fall of 2023.

In her memoir, Britney takes us through her childhood memories, her early years as a performer, and her rise to pop stardom. But as she describes so clearly and powerfully, there was an obsession with her — her body, her behavior, her sexuality — that plagued her from the start of her massive popularity, objectifying her in ways that are shocking yet sadly not terribly surprising.

A young woman of huge talent, she was subjected to endless questions about inappropriate topics — are her breasts real? is she a virgin? what did she do to poor Justin? — from a very young age, and in a way that was never applied to the male stars associated with her. The paparazzi hounding is scary, and as she explains her experiences having two babies within a year of one another, then being pressure to perform when she was still in the throes of post-partum exhaustion, it’s easy to see that this is a woman who was pushed to the edge.

Britney is candid about her struggles and mental health crises, but it’s also clear that she was never incapacitated to the extent that a permanent conservatorship would have been justified. As The Woman in Me makes perfectly plain, the same people who controlled Britney because she was supposedly incapable of managing her health, body, and finances profited hugely from her during the thirteen years of conservatorship — and it’s amazing to think about the fact that throughout all these years (again, while she was supposedly incapacitated), she performed in sold-out Las Vegas shows and world tours, released new material and new albums, and and made millions of dollars.

Britney reads a short introduction to the audiobook (explaining that it’s all too painful for her to narrate fully); Michelle Williams narrates the book itself, and does a very good job of conveying Britney’s words — so much so that I often forgot that I wasn’t listening to Britney herself. This can be a tough listen. There’s a lot of raw honesty here, and the manipulation, abuse, sexism, and outright misogyny inflicted on Britney is awful to hear about, even while most of it isn’t new, considering how much media coverage (and gossip) the star has always generated.

The Woman in Me is a powerful, emotional book, and I applaud the author for sharing so much of herself. After years of being controlled — physically, emotionally, financially — it’s wonderful to see her taking back her own power and her own voice. All I can say is — I wish Britney Spears joy and health, whatever she decides to do next… and hope the world will someday finally realize how poisonous the media and paparazzi frenzy can become, especially for young women.

A final note: After finishing The Woman in Me, I watched the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears (available to stream via Hulu). The documentary was produced prior to the end of the conservatorship, and there’s a follow-up (Controlling Britney Spears) that I have not watched yet. It was interesting to watch, especially for the sake of seeing archival footage of some of the interviews, performances, and incidents that Britney describes in the book.

(Around the same time the NYT documentary was released, a Netflix documentary (Britney vs. Spears) was also released. This one has pretty harsh reviews and seems to be consider exploitative. I haven’t watched it, but I believe this is the documentary that Britney is upset by in her book, as it involves people she’d confided in spilling secrets and private correspondence, among other betrayals. (Again, I haven’t watched it, so I’m basing this on reviews and commentary by those who have). )