Category: Book Summaries

Book summaries are my own opinion and I do not receive payment for my thoughts. My intention is to always promote reading and public libraries.

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The Librarianist

Author: Patrick DeWitt

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 352

Setting:

Tone/Mood:

Subject headings:

Bob Comet, a retired librarian, is 71 and has lived an unremarkable life in Portland, Oregon, in a house that belonged to his late mother. Bob has no friends, his phone does not ring, and he has no family left. Upon one of his daily walks, he comes upon an elderly woman who appears confused.  He helps her get back to her senior living center and while there, he becomes intrigued with the residents and decides that he should donate his time at the center to feel more productive and to fill the emptiness in his life. As we get to know Bob, he reveals that he was once married and had a best friend. The year was 1959, the same year Bob becomes a librarian. AS we listen to Bob tell his story we find out that the women he helped get back to the Senior Center is his divorced wife.  

This novel has worth and provides keen insight into the narrator’s life.  Although the story moves slowly, and my interest was not peaked. I would only suggest this title if the Book Club is looking for a good example of a character study.  

This book is available in your Public Library!

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The House of Eve

Author: Sadequ Johnson

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 369

Setting: Philadelphia, 1948

Tone/Mood: thought-provoking, dark, heart-breaking

Subject headings: motherhood, single mothers, adoption, racism, social classes, African American

In Philadelphia, we first meet Ruby as she is trying desperately to get to Saturday school- she needs bus fair and has only a few minutes to find it, or else risk being late for school and losing out on a 4-year full- ride scholarship.  Ruby has been selected to participate in a program for gifted students and she has been warned numerous times about her tardiness.  The opening chapters reveal the hardship Rudy (15-year-old) suffers as a child of a single mother shacking up with a string of ruthless men. 

In Washington DC, Elenore is preparing for her College sophomore year at Howard University while working in a library as an archivist apprentice. One day in the library, she meets the man of her dreams, although as she gets to know him and falls in love, she realizes she will never fit into his family picture.

Both Rudy and Elenore share experiences of Racism and Sexism, different cites, different ages and yet their paths cross in a remarkable way. Told in authentic voices while each chapter alternates between both characters. Both characters find love and heartbreak while enduring racism in the 1950’s. 

Very good storytelling with a painful story to be told, one I would recommend for book clubs.  

Available in your public library!

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Peony In Love

  • Author: Lisa See
  • Genre: Historical fiction, love stories
  • Pages: 304
  • Setting: China, Ming Dynasty
  • Subject headings: Chinese women, Operas, Happiness in women, expectations of young women, arranged marriages

If you were to ask me what is my favorite book of all time that I have enjoyed, I would say Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  Why?  Because I loved the historical aspects of the story, and the characters came alive on the page.  I have gifted the book to so many of my friends.  Anyway, Lisa See has given us another beautiful story in Peony in Love.  

Peony, a dutiful 15-year-old daughter of a wealthy Chen family is quickly approaching the age of marriage.  Her family has arranged for her to be married in a few short months.  On a summer evening just months before her impending marriage, Peony wanders into the family garden and accidently comes upon a man. Peony has never been alone with a man, and while it is a beach of etiquette and could possibly disgrace her family it anyone were to find out, she stays and talks. They end up discussing many topics such as love, free will and the opera The Peony Pavilion. They agree to meet the next evening at the same place. 

After several meetings, Peony realizes that she has fallen in love with the stranger and now cannot fathom the idea of marrying anyone else.  She quickly descends into a dark place and becomes very depressed.  She becomes Lovesick.  The novel’s plot mirrors that of The Peony Pavilion Opera, where young lovesick maidens starve themselves as a revolt against expected norms. 

This book is available at your public library.

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Our Missing Hearts

  • Author: Celeste Ng
  • Genre:  Dystopian Fiction
  • Pages: 352
  • Setting: New York
  • Tone/Mood: Moving, thought provoking
  • Subject headings: Mothers and sons, family relationships, Chinese Americans, hate crimes

Bird Gardner (12) lives with his father, a former college professor who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to keep his head low and be very quiet when out in public, standing out is only asking for trouble. The prevailing thought in America is to preserve American culture, thereby arresting those who do not look like or act like the typical American, particularly people of Asian dissent.  The government has also started to clear out books from schools and libraries that glorify unpatriotic themes.  It’s been years since Bird saw his mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who wrote a series of poems that were eventually withdrawn from public and university libraries due to its content which focused on the injustices of society.  She is now in hiding trying to stay alive.  As Bird gets older and remembers his mother, he begins to miss her terribly and begins a quest to find her.  

Our Missing Hearts is a story that is relevant and too close to the realities of today. I was struck by the themes of racism, police brutality and Anti-Asian hate crimes that are easily found in the news today.

A must read for book clubs!

Available in your public library!

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Demon Copperhead

  • Author: Barbara Kingsolver
  • Genre: Realistic fiction, coming-of-age story
  • Pages: 560
  • Setting: Appalachian region, Virginia 
  • Tone/Mood: Thought provoking, compelling, dark at times
  • Subject headings: Children of single parents, foster care system, child-labor laws, addiction, poverty, opioid epidemic

My thoughts…

Based loosely on Dickens’s David Copperfield, Barbara Kingsolver has given us a story to remember. 11-year-old Demon Copperhead is the star of this novel, and boy, does his star shine brightly. Born in a trailer to a single mother in impoverished Appalachia’s Lee County and experiencing a somewhat good childhood, until his mother makes a disastrous decision to marry the abusive Murrell Stone (Stoner). Demon’s mother, not a very stable woman, dies of an opioid overdose, and Stoner has no intention of raising Demon on his own. Demon is handed over to foster services. As he navigates life in his new surroundings, he is challenged with hunger, poverty, child abuse, and child labor infractions. Even though Demon has no control over his life, he finds solace in his cartoonish drawings. Eventually Demon ends up with a guardian who cares and offers to train Demon on the football field. Playing high-school football finds Demon the attention he craves, and the high-school art classes offered- he excels in. All is going well until Demon is injured in a game and meets a doctor who prescribes opioids to numb the pain. This is when Demon’s star begins to fade. He is addicted to opioids and is now living with a girlfriend who is also addicted. Kingsolver writes with such clarity; allowing the reader to experience the pain and suffering of addiction while continuing to hope Demon can find a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. 

Do not let the page numbers scare you into not picking up this book. I promise you will not regret the time you devote to reading this one. Kingsolver introduces an unforgettable character with strength and grit while highlighting the devastation of opioids in a small rural community.

You can find this title in your public library!

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Books on my radar…

So many good books and so little time…I love and hate this.  If I could, I would read all day with the fireplace lit and an Afghan thrown over me.  In fact, last Friday I had a rare day off and I did just that…I read for five solid hours wrapped in a cozy blanket!  Every so often, I would look up and feel guilty- like I should be doing something more productive.  But then I put my head back in my book and continue reading.  Honestly, I loved that day. Life is short, read a good book! (My new motto) 🙂 The book I was so engrossed in is the hot title Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver.  I’m telling you; I could not put it down.  My thoughts on the book will come later this week but for today I thought I would give you a list of what is on the nightstand now.  

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