The Trouble With You - Ellen Feldman

Genre: Historical Fiction

The Trouble With You by Ellen Feldman begins with a family wedding on a snowy night. Dad is dazzled by his beautiful daughter and wife. Celebration and dancing abound followed by a treacherous drive home. The tension and foreshadow created here are some of the finest I’ve read recently (and I read sooo much!). When Fanny loses her husband just after his safe return from duty in WWII, she is faced with profound grief and what seem to be impossible decisions in the living of her life and the raising of her daughter. 

Feldman evokes the 1950s setting in a remarkable way. She captures the spirit of the wives and husbands in the wake of World War II. She explores the unique challenges of being a widow in this time period. Poor Mimi…Poor Fanny…these women become a sort of caricature in their communities after losing their husbands. The job that Fanny takes - as a typist for a radio serial illustrates the entertainment industry of the time. The characters - actors and writers are fully fleshed out - and their dialogue resonates with the time.Ultimately, we are exposed to the red scare of the 1950s led by Senator McCartney and see its impact not only in the entertainment industry but also in the personal life of Fanny. I love the glimpse into this time period through this novel.  The people surrounding Fanny are as well developed as the setting. Mimi, Fanny’s cousin, represents the conservative view of woman hood. Rose, Fanny’s aunt, represents a more nontraditional forward thinking view of woman hood. Both women love and support her, but both also create conflict for her. The men in her life are thoughtful and complex as well. I am not a huge fan of the triangle trope, but this one is well done and quite believable. We even get glimpses of her daughter and how she felt about her father and feels about her life without him. Fanny’s success for me as a character is in her struggle. I appreciate her thoughtful consideration - her concern for her daughter - her indecision. 

I wrestle with change…and with decisions. I’ve had a great deal of both lately.  I guess that is part of why I appreciate Fanny’s struggle. I am always just a bit surprised when I am reading about the limited options women had in my mom’s lifetime (very nearly mine!) I know the facts intellectually of course, but Feldman brings the struggle alive in The Trouble With You. If you’ve read my reviews, you know that I can get frustrated with characters - but even though she wavers - for a long time - and changes her mind, I am not frustrated with Fanny. Her journey feels real and complicated and one with which I can empathize. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I will say that I can continue to work toward being the kind of woman who makes a decision with certainty and presses forward. From the incredibly engaging start to the epilogue, I thoroughly enjoyed The Trouble With You by Ellen Feldman. Thank you to NetGalley and Griffin Publishing for the ARC In exchange for an honest review. Grab your copy on publication day, February 20, 2024.

The Faculty Lounge - Jennifer Mathieu

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

This newly retired teacher librarian couldn’t resist the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Faculty Lounge by one of her favorite YA authors - Jennifer Mathieu. Mathieu did not disappoint with this adult title. Mathieu gives her readers a glimpse into the lives of teachers, counselors, and administrators in a Texas public school. The novel begins with the unfortunate death of a retired substitute (in the faculty lounge, of course). A series of events that follows allows Mathieu to explore day to day life in the public school system. 

Mathieu creates what almost reads to me like a series of short stories expertly woven together with the overarching narrative. In my experience, this structure is not unlike the school experience. Teachers remain in their spaces much of the day - doing their job with few breaks, but the overall operation of the building creates camaraderie, friendships, and tensions that are shared. Through these chapters she addresses much of what creates the tension and the need for camaraderie. Educationally - she covers standardized testing, teacher evaluation, mandatory trainings, book challenges, helicopter parents and so on… I was amazed at the accuracy with which she captured most teachers’ responses to most of these. I can remember thinking that if it weren’t teachers reading the book, they might not believe it. Additionally - she covers topics like abortion, immigration, alcoholism, and so on…tying each carefully to the educational system, clearly illustrating the effects of issues that may not seem at first blush to be tied to education on our children. 

Perhaps most fascinating to me, among all of this she creates a huge cast of characters with joys and sorrows, successes and failures, dreams and fears  - just like anyone. We get to know them well - just spectacular characterization. These folks were like my friends. Mathieu beautifully communicates the passion that sends lifelong teachers into the classroom each day. She captures the love of a subject, the joy of creating understanding in a student, the satisfaction of a lesson well taught. She articulates these right alongside the stresses of the job. I was not surprised when I read in her bio that she is, in fact, a teacher herself. 

Possibly I visited the faculty lounge a bit too soon after retiring. I felt maybe a smidge of PTSD in several places throughout the book which ultimately speaks to its excellence. But as I’ve been reflecting on my career, I appreciate being reminded of the joys of teaching that can be chipped away over time. I guess unsettled best sums up how I felt. Ultimately, I think, perhaps at some level - unsettled might be exactly Mathieu’s intent for her readers. If we are unsettled we are more likely to advocate for change. A friend sent me a graphic last night that illustrates the increase in teacher resignations from 2019 to 2023. Change will have to happen to keep our schools well staffed to create students ready to deal with 21st century challenges. I find The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu to be an important novel and also a lovely introduction to an engaging group of people. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for an advance copy of this book - publishing July 24, 2024.

The Faculty Lounge, Jennifer Mathieu, Book Cover

Field Notes for the Wilderness: A Guided Journal - Sarah Bessey

Genre: Nonfiction, Self Help Companion

If your faith is changing…and you are thinking deeply… and writing helps you clarify your feelings and make better decisions, the combination of Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith reviewed here and Field Notes for the Wilderness: A Guided Journal both by Sarah Bessey will delight you. 

Sarah is so careful throughout the entirety of her book to be clear that she is offering notes and suggestions - sharing practices built on her own difficult experiences as her faith evolves, but that the wilderness traveler must find their own way through the wilderness. Her wisdom, combined with the thoughtful reflection provided through journaling responses to the guided prompts will prove an invaluable help to the traveler. How to word this properly? When moving from a faith built on fairly inflexible and prescribed belief systems, the joy of having freedom to make choices and move from “againsts” to “fors,” through study and writing is a gift.

Please - if you are struggling - if you’re not but your faith is transforming - do yourself a favor and get to know Sarah Bessey. Read her letters to you in Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith. Reflect on the ideas in her Guided Journal. Publishes on 2/20/2024. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith - Sarah Bessey

Genre - nonfiction, self help, inspiration

Sarah Bessey has been a guide and mentor for me on my own journey through the wilderness - through social media and her other books. She doesn’t know me, but I feel like I do her. Her creation of Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith in the epistolary form does nothing to lessen that. Her conversational tone (eh?) welcomes the reader lovingly. Sarah taps into her most difficult life and faith experiences and creates a guide for others, creating a beautiful metaphor of a journey through the wilderness. She creates a  conversation using these metaphors that elevate her words to a kind of poetry. She doesn’t offer certainty, but rather gently suggests practices that might help others who find their faith changing as well - just like a friend might. 

Along with the letter style, I appreciate how Sarah uses each chapter to reclaim the aspects of faith that many whose faith may be changing feel that they might be losing. She focuses on peace, love, hope, lament, sacrament, and repentance among other things. Often, it seems, when people are finding a new way to experience worship, others will tell them they are less worthy, perhaps, to receive love and experience hope - that perhaps they are in more need of repentance than ever.  Words and ideas that have been woven into the fabric of faith are being torn away or abused. For me, I love how Sarah helps the wanderer reclaim these. Sarah’s assurances are rooted in scripture and study. As a retired English teaching librarian, I love a book supported with a good set of research and references.

She challenges the reader to move through the journey even while recognizing that the journey might never end. I think even before this book, I was grateful to Sarah for meeting me there. I could easily stop in a world where I am focused on what I am against. I value the profound reminder to remember to be for something. Such a reminder requires forward progress. 

Sarah focuses on faith, but offers insight for all kinds of changes. I am navigating many right now, and her words bring me comfort as I walk. Field Notes for the Wilderness is a book to read, mark up, and reread. Publishes on 2/20/2024. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

The Wedding People - Alison Espach

Genre - Contemporary/Literary Fiction

Trigger Warning - Suicide

Phoebe decides that she is done. Post pandemic her husband abruptly announces that he is in love with another woman (their friend) and leaves her. She struggles to return to face to face teaching as an English adjunct. She can’t write - she has been trying and failing to convert her PhD thesis into a book for years, and so she can’t land a full professorship. After a long and discouraging day she returns home to find her cat dead. Phoebe books an outrageously expensive room in the Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Isand and intends to end her life there. Instead she finds the rest of the Inn booked for Lila’s wedding. Lila is appalled at her presence there and her plans for suicide - how that would ruin her perfect wedding! What follows is touching and funny.

I have all kinds of reasons to love this book. Like Phoebe I was an English teacher. All the literary references, metaphors, etc. were spot on for me and added another level to my reading. But note - if you are not a lover of the classics, the book would read just as well, and who knows, Espach might just lure you into some additional reading. I love a good wedding, reading about them, seeing them on TV, and so on.  Quite honestly I am fascinated with the setting. I have long been fascinated by the Vanderbilts and the gilded age, so much here to read and wonder about. I have never really stayed at such a swanky place and the depiction of it is just so funny…someday. I love character driven novels, and Phoebe is just so incredibly illustrated here. The author does a remarkable job of showing not telling. I find Phoebe’s journey 100% believable. Espach creates a lovely cast of wedding people to surround her. Lila is so annoying, but hard not to love. Her family and friends are well drawn. We even get to know the inn staff just a bit. She juggles a number of people with ease, and I began to feel like I knew them all by the  time I was done. I also appreciated the incredible tightline Espach walked on between sorrowful angst and humorous ironies.

Phoebe’s journey just absolutely touched something in me. While my marriage is intact, I can relate to much of what Phoebe struggles with in the sense that she has lost her way. She has been a people pleaser and is just exhausted with it and finding that such behavior has not really brought her to her goals or to a sense of happiness. Anybody who has made big changes will appreciate her sadness and rejoice in the changes her experience at the inn and with these people bring. I am in the middle of big changes. Sometimes I feel so stuck in my patterns and the place where my choices brought me…not unhappy, just a bit unsettled. As I work to change, the example of Phoebe’s growth is a gift. And for me - her analyses in light of the literature that she loved (used to love? still loves in a different way?) was a delightful bonus for me. And certainly the idea that the literature we love can shape our point of view resonates with me. I have to explore that further in my own life to be sure. If you are in a place of change - forced or needed - give The Wedding People by Alison Espach a read. You will appreciate the insight and the hope. If you just love a good book that will make you chuckle and introduce you to some fine fictional folks, give it a read - publishes on July 30, 2024. Thanks Netgalley for the ARC to review.