Books Set in the United States: New York City

The Nest, by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney (2016)

The Nest is a novel of a very dysfunctional family.  The four adult children believe they will inherit a very large sum of money when the youngest, Melody, turns 40.  On the eve of her 40th birthday, the oldest sibling, Leo, found himself in a compromising position when he crashed his car and his passenger, a 19-year-old undocumented waitress, was maimed.  The family matriarch decides to buy off the waitress to avoid a scandal.  The money used, however, was the "Nest".  The remaining sibling realize that their portion is greatly reduced, and they had been living a lifestyle that was relying on the funds.  All are in desperate financial straights.  Will Leo repay the Nest, so each sibling can receive the amount each believes they are owed?

I didn't find any of the characters particularly likable.  Although Leo promises to repay the Nest, he claims he needs three months to come up with a plan.  Will he come through with his promise?  Does the reader care?

Read:  October 9, 2017

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

The Winter People, by Jennifer McMahon (2014)

I picked up this novel solely because it was set in Vermont, my mother's home state.

The story follows the live of Sara Harrison Shea, who lived in West Hall, Vermont in the early 1900s, and jumps to present time with teenage Ruthie, who lives with her mother and young sister in Sara's old farmhouse.

Sara's young daughter, Gertie, died in 1908 during a brutal cold winter, when she ostensibly fell into a well.  Sara has a hard time overcoming her grief over losing her daughter.  Soon after Gertie's death, Sara is discovered brutally murdered ~ her mutilated body found in a field.

Jump to present day, where Ruthie has been out late and sneaks into her house hoping not to face the wrath of her mother, only to find her mother has gone missing.  Ruthie searches the house for a clue as to why her mother may simply have vanished.  She comes across copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden in the floorboards of the house.  In her diary, Sara discussed her dead daughter.  Critical pages, however, were missing.

Ruthie continues to search for her mother and runs across Katherine, a recent widow who moved to West Fall to discover why her dead husband was visiting the town on the day of his death.  (Really?  You suspect your husband is having an affair, so move to the "scene of the crime"?)

Katherine and Ruthie realize that Katherine's husband had met with Ruthie's mother on the day the husband died and the mother vanished.  Is this a coincidence?

The book was mildly interesting, but not one I could highly recommend.

Read:  October 3, 2017

2.5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New York City

The Swans of Fifth Avenue, by Melanie Benjamin (2016)

This book is pure gossip, but oh, what dish!  The Swans are the wealthy socialites who lead glamorous and perfect lives, or so it seemed.  Babe Paley, who was married to television mogul, William Paley, seemed to have it all.  She was beautiful and wealthy, and had influence on the social scene of New York.  Her friends included Slim Keith, Gloria Guinnes and Pamela Churchill, all of whom had their own secrets.

Truman Capote managed to enter their circle and befriend these woman.  He and Babe became especially close; he was the only person to see her without her make-up.  Even her husband had never seen her without her perfectly made-up face.  With Capote, Babe shared the details of her unhappy marriage.  She had a trust in Capote that was not warranted.  When he betrays her and her social circle, he seems at a loss to why he was suddenly shunned.

This book was a fun read.  The rich are, indeed, different.

Read: September 28, 2017

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New York City

The Fortune Teller's Kiss, by Brenda Serotte (2006)

Read:  July 27, 2017

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Spain and Portugal

The Mapmaker's Daughter, by Laurel Corona (2014)

Read: July 25, 2017

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States

Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America, by Will Haywood (2015)

Showdown, by Wil Haywood describes the nearly month-long confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the United States Supreme Court.  In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson was determined to appoint a Black man to the High Court.  Thurgood Marshall had made a name for himself as being a highly-talented attorney who had argued many civil rights cases before the High Court.

The Civil Rights were a hot button political issue in the United States in the 1960s.  As determined as Johnson was to appoint a Black to the Supreme Court, were the several Southern arch-segregationist senators equally as determined to keep Marshall off the Bench.  The Senate Judiciary Committee was headed by Mississippi Senator James Eastland.  Other senators recognized Marshall’s talents.  The battle by the segregationists, however, waged for nearly a month before Marshall was ultimately confirmed.

The author gives plenty of background into the players.  Several of the events that are recounted in the book occurred in Louisiana, although these are less well known than the bombings in Birmingham, and the sit-in in Greensboro.  The author also describes the events in Johnson’s life that led him to be a champion for civil rights.

I highly recommend this book as it gives a portrait not only of the events leading to the confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice, but of race relations in America during the 1960.

Read:  July 9, 2017

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Connecticut

Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult (2016)

Like so many of Jodi Picoult’s novels, this book tackles social issues that have been in the news.  This time the theme is racism and white supremacy.

Ruth Jefferson is a nurse in the maternity ward in a Connecticut hospital.  She is the daughter of a woman who was a domestic and the first in her family to go to college.  She worked her way through college to earn her nursing degree.  She has worked at the hospital for 20 years and is only African-American nurse on staff in the maternity ward.

While working in the hospital, she is also a widowed mother, raising a studious teenage son.  She is saving her money to send her son to college.

Enter Brittany and Turk, a couple of white supremacists.  Brittany has just given birth to a baby boy.  They name their son Davis in honor of Jefferson Davis.  Ruth meets the couple and performs a routine checkup of the newborn.  The parents are taken aback that a Black nurse would touch their son, so insist that that a note be included in the baby’s file stating that no African-Americans are to treat the baby.  The hospital agrees to the parent’s request and Ruth is ordered not to touch the baby.

Nearing the end of a double shift, and when the ward is short-staffed, Ruth is called in to monitor the baby.  When the baby goes into cardiac distress, Ruth is faced with the dilemma of whether to let her nursing instinct to take over or obey orders not to touch the baby.  Soon other medical personnel are called in and a doctor orders Ruth to perform CPR.  When the baby dies, Ruth is charged with murder of the baby.

Ruth is assigned a public defender (I am not convinced that she would be considered indigent for purpose of being assigned a public defender, but …), a well-intentioned white woman with a young daughter, with no concept of racial prejudice.  The prosecutor, however, is a Black woman.  How will this play out before a jury?

As with many of Picoult’s books, there is a twist near the end.  Maybe I have read enough of her writings to look for clues throughout the book.  At any rate, I guessed the twist.  That didn’t take away from the important conversation of this novel.

Small Great Things was a page-turner.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt the characters really came alive.

Read:  July 4, 2017

4.5 Stars