Shred Sisters - Betsy Learner

Genre - Contemporary Fiction

I have been blessed with a sister who is my best friend. My daughter, much to her dismay, wasn’t blessed with a sister at all. Some sister relationships are fraught with drama. Betsy Lerner explores a complex sister relationship in depth in her upcoming novel Shred Sisters. Amy is the younger of the Shred sisters, but because of Olivia’s mental illness and all of the chaos that results, she often feels like the older or the only sister. From a very young age Olivia fights against her sister and her parents. She is first a free spirit and later in spite of or even because of treatment mentally unstable. Olivia refuses to accept the different diagnoses and medicines. Ultimately she rolls in and out of her family’s life at will. Most of her life Amy feels overlooked or challenged.

Amy struggles to function in the world (don’t we all at times?), and the reader can easily see the impact of Olivia here. She longs to be a stable professional with a stable marriage and family and, perhaps, to get the attention and respect of her parents in the process. She just struggles to get there. She works hard to be a researcher and can’t advance; she chooses poorly in relationships; and always, always - Olivia shows up and wreaks havoc in her fragile world. She perseveres; she sees a therapist; she doesn’t even necessarily blame Olivia, but life feels difficult. Olivia has her own struggles. Beginning with family rebellion, bad mental health care scars her early. Her difficulties are heartbreaking as her family wants so badly to do the right things for her. Luckily, she doesn’t disappear altogether, but her returns home generally raise expectations and lead to further heartache. I often found myself scared for her. Amy and Olivia’s parents battle struggles of their own - ultimately unable to meet Olivia’s needs and often unaware of Amy’s - their marriage doesn’t survive the trauma.  Lerner creates complex, believable characters, and this reader felt their joys and sorrows. Through them she explores the impact of one difficult family member on them all. She creates a surrounding cast of folks who are also well developed and who help to highlight all that the Shreds have been through. Lerner is a compassionate writer as she shows us a world of broken people; she invites us to offer compassion. 

Ultimately, Lerner celebrates the strength of this pair of sisters - Amy and Olivia Shred. Without giving anything away, the novel does end on notes of hope for these two and their parents. Lerner doesn’t offer a magical resolution for anyone, but she allows for them to see that relationships, therapy, and sisterly love, can prevail over a host of sorrows. I am reminded to be grateful for my sister - for the love and support that she offers me when others cannot. I am reminded that everyone may be just a little bit broken inside. When you get the chance read Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner - she will challenge you perceptions in a very good way. Publishing October 1, 2924. Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

That Librarian - Amanda Jones

That Librarian - Amanda Jones

Genre: Memoir

As a retired high school librarian - That Librarian by Amanda Jones is a title that I couldn’t resist. And while I’m glad I did, in many respects I found it difficult to read. Amanda Jones, a public school librarian, showed up to speak at a board meeting about her reservations regarding book censorship. She was subsequently attacked via social meeting - dishonestly and inaccurately - in a clearly calculated movement. She experienced death threats, worried for her job, for her family, and for the patrons and readers she valued so highly.

Jones accomplishes several things in her sharing of this difficult experience. She illustrates well her vision as a librarian and as a parent for wanting all kids to be able to find themselves in her library collection. I love how she reviews her own history as a reader and also cites her training to make an effective case. She also depicts the power of abusing social media. Even though I know, I was stunned at how quickly the movement against her built on social media. The destruction was  profoundly difficult to read about. As a librarian who was often asked whether I had to really go to school to do my job, I appreciate how thoroughly Jones outlines how librarians are trained to fulfill the position. The lack of respect she receives is palpable, but it is balanced out with stories of respect. I also respect how Jones responds to the call to fight against censorship.  

As a school librarian, I had the privilege of working cooperatively with other teachers and their students on a variety of challenged and banned books projects and presentations. I found it one of the most eye opening projects for the students and one of the most fulfilling for me. I am stunned at how much the attitude toward censorship has changed so quickly. Newer teachers often avoided tackling the topic head on. For the first time in my 26 year career as a librarian, a parent requested a copy of my shelf list. Nothing came of it, but the request itself seemed portentous to one who has never had a book challenged. LIke Jones, I believe in the power of books and reading to change lives and that book banning has never historically lent itself to positive cultural changes. I appreciate Amanda Jones’  commitment to her patrons and her willingness to share her experiences in That Librarian in such an honest way to even further the cause. 

A Season of Perfect Happiness - Maribeth Fischer

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Would you? Could you? Choose a season of perfect happiness if you knew it was going to end and that you wouldn’t remember? This question is the premise of Maribeth Fischer’s upcoming A Season of Perfect Happiness. She explores answers beautifully through the life of Claire. Claire is clearly reeling from her former life in Rehoboth Beach as the book opens in Wisconsin.  We learn of her sorrow - the loss of a child and then a marriage. Her move to Wisconsin is one of survival. At first she doesn’t even dream of a new life. As she finds one first with Erik and then with his friends, she lives it in a constant kind of fear waiting for her past to catch up with her. The reader is equally unsettled in the way that the content is structured - we feel suspense and fear, joy and sorrow right beside Claire. 

Those feelings are what largely makes the novel such a success for me.I would not necessarily describe this as a book of suspense, and yet, I was on edge the entire time I was reading. What had Claire done? What will happen? Why on earth were so many secrets kept? Structurally, the novel is divided into parts and introduced with parts of a play that is part of the story. With Claire we come to know Erik, his children, his ex wife Annabelle, Eva, and Gabe. Together they create a season of happiness - one of best friends, but secrets abound. Through this template and flashbacks and glimpses forward, Fischer explores several things: the power of art - through Claire’s collages and the theater, friendship, a neurodivergent child and the power of family. She explores mental illness (I’d be more specific, but spoilers would definitely lessen the impact of the novel.) 

And ultimately, very skillfully and compassionately, Fischer explores a woman finding her voice. For me this through line was the strength of the novel. Claire’s growth is powerful. I think as I am reading that she is stronger than I could ever be, and then, she grows stronger. Her development challenges me to accept no less than the best in terms of my own willingness to accept some of what life brings. I feel like in some ways life consists of seasons of happiness interspersed with times of anger and sorrow where we forget happiness for a while. So even while the circumstances of Maribeth Fischer’s A Season of Perfect Happiness may seem extreme to some - all can relate to its rhythm - an excellent and thought provoking read. Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton, and imprint of Penguin Randomhouse for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Our Narrow Hiding Places - Kristopher Jansma

Genre - Historical Fiction

Our Narrow Hiding Places by Kristopher Jansma is a gorgeous book. Rooted in his own family history, Jansma tells the story of Mieke and Rod - two children trying to survive the Hunger Winter with their families in  Holland at the end of World War II. Mieke is reliving and recounting the story for her grown grandson as they each deal with their own reckonings. She is still looking for the story of her lost father in law who disappears during that time. He is battling issues personally and professionally that could be traced back to his grandparents’ suffering that winter. I am reminded again about the horror of war and evil in this book. I am also reminded about the beauty of love and hope. Jansma creates these side by side in this upcoming publication.

The novel is punctuated by vignettes narrated by eels and signed with mysterious initials. These vignettes are beautiful and poetic and speak to the power of language. I can’t share quotes as evidence, but please believe me. They further speak to mystery, quiet strength and survival. No spoilers, but the role these interludes fulfill is profound - felt reminiscent of an ancient Greek drama’s chorus. These eels have a more physical and practical role in Mieke’s childhood and survival during this time - I love the connection. Through Mieke and her grandson primarily, Jansma explores the impact of war on victims and on the generations that follow them. I feel helplessness in the face of this motif. And again, Jansma notes that these descendents are often, then, caught up in wars of their own. I appreciate the sensitive and respectful exploration of mental health. Mieke has to deal with the mental illness of her son and perhaps that of her grandson Will. Through Will we learn of his wife Teru’s ancestral connections to the bombing in Japan and her own struggles. In the midst of all of the horror, Jansma explores the fine line between good and evil, hope and despair. Mieke often sees only the darkness in her hungry and freezing world - she becomes tempted to join the evil forces just to survive, but she chooses to remain loving and good and fair, and is able to appreciate that in the others she sees trying to do the same. These moments of hope are so striking in the winter landscape. I also noted how often Jansma contrasted winter and storms and flooding with color and sparkle and fairy tales and joy. Even when connected with death, imprisonment, and mental illness these moments are beautifully written - again, the power of language. 

Our Narrow Hiding Places by Kristoper Jansma appeals to me on so many levels. The writing is beautiful. The motifs are powerful. The connection between past and present is complex and fascinating. We must think more about war, family, mental illness and determine where and how we can influence culture and do better for our people. I am grateful for Jansma allowing for hope and the power of love to transform people and families. I am further grateful for how he illustrates that healing can be in friendship or the hope of a new baby or other daily joys. If you are still reading, please know that I could go on and on…even more than I have. I have just begun to touch on what Kristopher Jansma accomplishes. Please read Our Narrow Hiding Places. Thank you NetGalley and Ecco Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

By Any Other Name - Jodi Picoult

Genre - Contemporary and Historical Fiction

Sometimes I feel as if the more the world changes the more it stays the same. Such seems to be the case in the world of theater as illustrated by Jodi Picoult’s upcoming novel By Any Other Name. Picoult explores through fiction set in the present and in the time of Shakespeare that William Shakespeare was not, in fact, the writer of the plays and poems credited to him. In the modern setting Melina Green feels she has been burned as a woman aspiring to write for the theater. An early experience of being dismissed by a harsh male critic has left her shy of trying again. When she researches and discovers that her ancestor Emilia Bassano may have written some of the plays of Shakespeare, she tries her hand again at a new play. In the Elizabethan times we follow the life of Emilia Bassano - courtesan, playwright, wife, and mother, learning of the struggle of women to work independently in this time. Her life is for this “modern” woman often horrifying. 

I love Jodi Picoult’s character development - her people never disappoint. Melina is certainly not perfect, but that is the beauty of Picoult’s writing. She consistently challenges us with complexity and a refusal to provide an easy answer. So here’s the thing. I understood her frustration and her response to her evaluation by theater critic Jasper Tolle; I can even relate to how she allows that one incident to shape her writing career moving forward. Her decisions seem perfectly logical and are in many respects. The evidence that women are not treated fairly in the theater world seems clear. I was able to feel her angst. But the implications of allowing the world to believe that Andre, her best friend, is the playwright added a layer for which I was not prepared. In many ways I learned right alongside Melina about the gravity of what she asked of a member of another marginalized group. Tolle himself who should be easy to hate - struggles with social cues and has to learn his own lessons and face his own negative role in Melina’s and other stories. The use of Melina’s play structurally to transition us into the Elizabethan age and Emilia’s life works beautifully and creates the comparison and perhaps the illustration that not enough has changed in the intervening years. But my visceral hatred of how Emilia is treated is proof enough that change has happened. How she is bartered to and by men, how she becomes a courtesan, her inability to escape abuse, her inability to utilize her talents - so painful to read. Along with excellence in character development, Picoult expertly crafts these two timelines - so differently, yet painfully similar. Her research is impeccable - says the old lady retired librarian. 

And says the old lady retired literature teacher, you don’t have to love Shakespeare’s (?) work to love this book, but the layers my years of teaching and reading Shakespeare added in terms of plotting and dialogue was for me a delight. I enjoyed reading the very words I have admired for so long in this novel as part of Emilia’s life. So I am left with two primary impacts. The first is, I’d like to teach Shakespeare just one more time with a more thorough look at the scholarship challenging him as the author. I just know - I can picture the students - that the discussion of the works would be so much more enriched and lively. Up until now, I didn’t take the scholarship surrounding anti-Stratfordians so very seriously, and I now feel compelled to give it all another look. While we may never know for sure - wow, credit should be given where credit is due and removed where it is not. I know Picoult had access to sources that I could likely never touch, and she used them well. The second is - my word - we should be very careful to safeguard our rights as women. I think I have been in danger of taking them for granted - because I wasn’t a part of the fight for them. I think that attitude is even more prevalent in women who are 10-30 years younger than I am. I won’t do politics here, but recent developments have dampened my assurance. A cursory google search will remind us that women have only been voting in the United States since 1920 - in spite of Abigail Adams’ impassioned pleas in the 1700s. Only since 1974, (I was 8!) have women been allowed to get a credit card or a mortgage in their own names without a man cosigning. My mom couldn’t get a credit card. My. Mom. In By Any Other Name, Jodi Picoult does what she does very well. She writes a novel to make her readers think - about a variety of issues - in this case about the rights of women and the marginalized. Progress does not equal a finished job; nor does any right seem to be guaranteed. She does give us hope but without providing easy answers. She provides a call to action even. I am a long time fan of Jodi Picoult’s books and her August 20 release is stunning. I will be recommending By Any Other Name far and wide. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for allowing me to review an advance reader copy.