nothingforpomegranted's reviews
629 reviews

Table for Two by Amor Towles

5.0

I loved the short stories in this collection so much, and I have more detailed notes about each one in my journal entries, so one day when I have the energy, I’d like to go back and add those to my review. For the time being, I’m just in awe of Amor Towles’ ability to write characters who have stayed with me as if I had spent 500 pages with them, rather than 15 or so. The novella surprised me because I didn’t love Rules of Civility, and after I paused the book to listen to Rules of Civility, I wasn’t excited to read about Eve. I didn’t enjoy her character in the first book, but I connected to her more here (though I’m not sure I necessarily felt the connection). In any case, the mystery aspect of the novella really drew me in, and I loved the shifting perspectives that practically retold the entire story. This was a masterful collection. I certainly preferred some stories to others, but I loved them all and can’t wait for the next thing Towles writes. 

Cut & Thirst: A Short Story by Margaret Atwood

adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

This was incredibly fast-paced, and I also read it in a rush, so I didn’t allow everything to settle and wash over me as maybe I should have, but this just didn’t do it for me. I didn’t understand the women’s connection to each other or the drama that led up to their plan to murder a bunch of old men to avenge their old friend (and her literary reputation?). Furthermore, the denouement flew by, and the story just ended. No murder at all and the wrong person duped by a plate of laxative brownies, including one of the old ladies! I guess there was humor here, but I expected quite a bit more literary suspense and drama from Margaret Atwood, especially in a short story. 

The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey

emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

This was a very cute novel about a group of ex-pats living in Bordeaux who decide to start an English-language book club to help them all feel a little less alone. Each person is wrestling with their own brand of sadness—a dying mother, a husband who may be having an affair, fertility problems, post-partum depression—and they all feel lost. the class novels they choose to read and discuss bring them together in unexpected and meaningful ways. The entire book was wholesome, and at times, a bit too saccharine, but it was a perfect summer airplane read that went down easy. It reminded me of The Happiness Project, but I liked this one better. 

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Lillian Boxfish dreamed of New York as a child receiving postcards from her Manhattan-dwelling aunt, and she eagerly moved to New York City from Washington, D.C. in her twenties, remaining there for decades until, on New Year's Eve 1984/85, she embarks on a walk. the book begins with an afternoon phone call from her only son, explaining the plans for the funeral of her husband's second wife, the one he left her for. Unenthused, but always civil, Lillian hangs up the phone and dresses up for her standing five o'clock dinner reservation at Grimaldi's before realizing that, somehow, she has spoiled her own appetite by eating an entire sleeve of Oreo cookies while on the phone with her son, despite having no recollection of buying the cookies (and in fact a distinct distaste for them) in the first place. Nonetheless, Lillian heads out. She stops for a Negroni at a local bar, disappointed to see that they have installed a television, and distraught by the simplistic approach of modern advertisements, but finds that by the time she arrives at Grimaldi, she still isn't hungry enough for dinner. She sits for a few minutes with the owner and enjoys a glass of wine before stepping outside, suddenly realizing that, despite herself, she isn't tired at all; rather, she is energized, nostalgic, and determined to have a night, enjoying the streets of her favorite town and giving herself a chance to do-over and reflect on some of the key moments of her own life. Lillian, thus, walks to Delmonico's, with alternate chapters describing her years as the highest-paid woman advertiser in the country, her devotion to R.H. Macy's, her love for her husband, the dissolution of their marriage, and her struggles with addiction and mental health, all with trademark dry wit. From Delmonico's, where she is welcomed by a kind family with an extra seat at their table, Lillian continues to the West Side Elevated Highway, peering through the construction grates to see the water. She walks up town to a Chelsea party, hosted by a young photographer she met on a walk in the park, and eventually crosses town to return home to Murray Hill with pit stops in Times Square, where she encounters three Black teens from the South Bronx who agree to exchange coats in a bizarre mugging scenario, and at the R.H. Macy's flagship.

This was a perfect book for me, and Lillian's commentary on why she enjoys walking in New York was extremely resonant. I always love the nostalgia of old women who love New York, and these books bring me such pleasure. That Lillian particularly craved the experience of walking through the neighborhoods and observing her fellow city-dwellers and pedestrians contributed even more to my appreciation of the books. The alternating chapters and reflections on previous periods in Lillian's life were occasionally confusing, but overall, I thought the story was well-crafted, with a beautiful emphasis on the walking itself. This is a book that I would love to have a copy of on my own shelves because I think it is one I could return to semi-regularly as a comfort read. There are times in my life when this book would have made me cry. That wasn't my experience this time around, but I truly appreciated the paired grit and whimsy of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. 


Some Beautiful Quotations
If I am in a place with that many pigeons, then it is probably urban enough for me to want to live there and be satisfied with the quantity of urbanity. (40)

By now I have come to appreciate the Twin Towers, even though I thought them ugly at first, boxy and rectangular and needlessly huge. While they were being constructed, somebody, I can't remember who, called them soulless and inhospitable to human use: a pair of glass and metal filing cabinets on a colossal scale. In spite of myself, I have always found their gigantism majestic, and now I esteem them, too. If some latter-day Moses ever displaces them--their current tenants' arcane shifting of cash and commodities someday rendered as quaint as the radio scrappers' labor, supplanted by robots, satellites, who knows what--then I suppose I would feel their absence much as I do that of other already absented parts of my city. Dully but not quite fully gone. A pair of phantom limbs. (124)

The Orchard by David Hopen

challenging dark funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

I’ve had this one on my list for a long time because how could I not read a book with Modern Orthodox representation that hit the popular sphere? Overall, I thought the writing was beautiful and the pacing was strong. I was immersed in the characters and the story, and I understood them deeply. There were a few moments at which I felt the manuscript could have used another pass from an editor because there were references to scenes that may have been left on the cutting room floor (I don’t think we ever explicitly learned that Evan laced Ari’s drink with Xanax, nor did we ever see Ari break Shabbat, but both of those things were referenced as throwaways later in the book. This could be an effective unreliable narration strategy, but instead it just felt unfinished).

I also thought that the plot just went off a cliff at the end. Evan convinced his friends to join him on a so-called apology trip that actually was yet another of his experiments to see the face of God by lacing cupcakes with acid. We see them through their trip, which is bizarre and psychedelic and just too much for me, and then the final scenes are rushed: the next morning, they find Oliver blinded and Noah’s body. Perhaps the rush through the funeral and the end of the year reflects the overwhelmed, post-trauma reactions of the high schoolers processing this experience, but yet again, this just read as incomplete or even lazy writing by the author. We hardly got a glimpse at Rebecca, Noah’s girlfriend, and despite another dramatic moment of Evan launching himself into the fire, there was no real sense of closure. Hope could get away with it because Ari’s narration is so myopic to begin with, but I think the final third of the novel was just underdeveloped.

I also didn’t love the philosophizing debates with Rabbi Bloom. First of all, they were simply not interesting to me, and I skimmed most of those sections s. Second of all, I just didn’t believe that this is how a group of relatively delinquent, though bright, high schoolers would be engaging with texts, as an educator and as someone who has read and engaged with a fair share of the philosophical canon. Those scenes read as pretentious to a fault, and they took away from my enjoyment of the book, especially as they continued to make the same mistakes over and over again. Nonetheless, I can’t deny that the story totally pulled me in and had me staying up late two nights in a row to follow what would happen to these kids.

The Scandal of It All by Sophie Jordan

fast-paced

4.25

I really loved the drama and chemistry in this one, and I thought the connection between the characters and tensions were well-built and less “romance reasons-y” than most. 

After the first book, I was excited to read about Ella and Colin’s attraction, though I was expecting it to be a little bit more of pining hero vibe. Instead, the first moment is a super spicy scene in a sex club. Long-widowed Ella has finally agreed to accompany her friend Mary to the pleasure club for a night of adventure. To her surprise, she encounters her stepson’s best friend, Lord Colin Strickland. When it turns out her stepson himself is present at the club, Colin embraces her, and eventually she winds up on his lap, hiding from Marcus. 

This sets them off on a clandestine affair that Ella resists at every turn while Collin pushes the attraction with enthusiasm. When it turns out Ella is pregnant from their first assignation, the drama really begins. Collin insists on marrying, Marcus runs away, Enid confesses her own feelings, and Collin’s uptight grandmother pushes Ella down the stairs to get Collin out of the marriage, nearly leading to miscarriage. Collin, for his part, refuses fo give up, and they conclude the novel very sweetly with the birth of twins! 

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

dark informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

In the first chapter, Eli receives an unexpected letter from her estranged childhood friend Homa. The framing of this chapter is perfect, and I actually listened to it again after finishing the entire book, and it is beautiful how many little clues and motifs are present already in that prologue before the story jumps backs decades to the 1950s in Iran, when Eli and Homa first meet. After the death of her father, Eli and her mother are forced to move downtown, away from their friends, their servants, their family. Eli’s mother refuses to work, claiming her royal ancestry, and constantly judges their new neighbors, fearful of the evil eye and the consequences of their certain jealousy. On the other hand, 7-year-old Eli is overjoyed to be welcomed as a friend by Homa, who teases her in a matter-of-fact tone and invites her to play hopscotch, cementing an inseparable childhood friendship. The girls cook and study and one day skip school to eat ice cream in the Grand Bazaar until one day, Eli catches her mother in bed with Uncle Masood (her late father’s brother). The two quickly marry, enabling Eli and her mother to return to the wealthy classes. After just a few months, Eli and Homa lose touch until Homa appears in Eli’s class senior year. She is just as brash as ever, and Eli, despite her embarrassment about Homa’s lack of social knowledge, cannot help but to be drawn to her old friend. Indeed, they quickly become inseparable again, and Eli, despite herself, finds herself seeking Homa’s approval of the boy she is seeing. Homa, for her part, is a devoted student and committed political activist, determined to be the nation’s first female judge.
At the end of the year, several classmates get married, but Homa and Eli, as well as Merdad (the boy) elect to go to Tehran university, the most prestigious university in Iran. Here, their friendship solidifies even more as they grow into adults together. Eli struggles continuously with jealousy, from her childhood envy of Homa’s living father to her suspicion that Homa is flirting with Merdad at a party. Nonetheless, the two young women are deeply connected to each other, fighting and forgiving, until Eli makes a grave mistake, confiding about Homa’s communist political engagement to someone who can pull exactly the strings that lead to Homa’s arrest. 

The rest of the book follows the women as adults, despite their estrangement. While we remain primarily in Eli’s perspective, we also get tidbits from Homa’s perspective, reflecting briefly on the abuse she faced in prison, the relief she felt with Abdoul, à college classmate who was smitten with her from the outset but whom she only agreed to marry out of desperation and necessity to raise her daughter. It is this period during which Homa and Eli have entirely lost touch, except for one chance encounter at the Grand Bazaar, until Homa’s strange message: a request to harbor her now-teenage daughter at their home in New York to help her escape from the trauma of the war with Iraq. Having never succeeded in having children of their own, Eli and Merdad agree, forging their own bond with teenage Behar and reconnecting with still-politically-active Homa.

This was a beautifully told story and well-narrated on audio. The characters were so well-developed, with hints dropped in meaningfully and subtly throughout the novel, building consistent personalities even as the characters matured. I loved each of the women, as well as the men they loved. The focus on female friendship, though, made this story stand out, placing it in a camp with Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan Novels. 

A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

The Swift family is an ancient family with generations that have been named by opening to a random page in the revered family dictionary. The idea is that the name speaks to the character and destiny of the person, so Shenanigan Swift, the youngest of three daughters, is constantly getting into trouble and irritating her siblings. When Inheritance, the family archivist, arrives just after the latest rehearsal for Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude's funeral, with an announcement that it's time for the next family reunion, relatives appear from all across the globe to search for ancestor Vile's treasure. Suddenly, Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude is found at the bottom of the stairs, victim to a suspected attempted murder, which kicks off the exciting mystery element of the story. Shenanigan and her scientist sister Phenomena, along with their non-binary cousin Erf and twin relatives Flora and Fauna, investigate every clue, much to the disdain of Inheritance, who is concerned with the implications for the family archives and treasure. The sisters initially suspect Daisy, the hopeful fiancee of cousin Candour, who had been denied Matriach Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude's blessing of marriage, and plenty of clues point in her direction throughout the book. Ultimately, though, it turns out that Candour himself was the guilty party, and his shame is revealed at the end of the book, complete with Shenanigan's analysis of the definition of his name.

This was fun and adventurous, and I loved the wordplay, which was reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth. I thought some of the gender stuff felt a bit forced, but most of it was natural and important representation. I likely won't go out of my way to read the next book in the series, but I definitely enjoyed this. 

As Husbands Go by Isaacs

lighthearted mysterious sad fast-paced

4.0

I have been loving these cozy mysteries with New York as a strong starts with Susie, who is Morris, and her husband, Jonah, who is successful plastic surgeon. They have three triplets, all boys, and the marvel begins with Susie‘s first person reflection on what went wrong. it is obvious from the beginning that something bad has happened to Jonah; however, I wasn’t expecting him to be murdered, except that I accidentally had the back of the book while I was not quite far enough into it. Susie, sarcastic tone and engaging and lighthearted, despite the heavy subject matter. I am still finding it challenging to read about spouses dying, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed this and I really enjoy Susan Isaac writing. This was in a nostalgic New York 2010, and most of the plot features Susie going around the recommendation of the police department in Long Island and New York in order to solve her husband‘s murder herself.  she never believes that she was the victim of the hooker whose apartment he was found in, and she was reluctant to believe that he, always a devoted husband and father would have gone to a prostitute in the first place. ultimately, she is vindicated, and her research determines that in fact, Jonah did not go to this prostitute for the purposes of sex; rather he was conducting his own internal investigation into one of the partners at his private plastic surgery practice. The ending happened a bit too fast in my opinion and so much suspense, the conclusion was a little bit clean and the nose, and we didn’t actually get to see Susie finalize her discovery. We jumped right to Dr. confession. I also would have liked to see a little bit more closure with Grandma, parents and in-laws, as well as the triplet boys.

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

adventurous challenging emotional informative slow-paced

4.25

Higginbotham’s account of the Challenger explosion and the personal stories of the astronauts aboard the Shuttle was informative and heartbreaking. He struck an impressive balance between sharing technical information and cultivating the personal connections. 

The book begins with the live reporting of the launch and explosion of the Challenger before jumping back in time to the explosion of Apollo during a pre-launch test in 1967. From there, Higginbotham explains the history of space travel, the boredom of American civilians, and the origins of the Space Shuttle program, as well as details of spacecraft machinery and engineering, specifically those aspects that failed in the Challenger launch. 

It was painful and chilling to read about failure after failure, error after error, bad decision after bad decision. The imagery of this book was profound, as Higginbotham described the structure of the O-rings, the arrangement of the seats, the icicles forming out the outside of the Shuttle. The pressure put on NASA and thusly on Morton Thiokol to launch was repulsive and resonant of so many analyses of acceptable risk that politicians and organizations have to engage in now, and it is harrowing to accept that so many factors contribute to a decision, beyond the risk to human life. 

I think Higginbotham did an excellent job of summarizing the events and the decisions, including where things went wrong, without wholly villainizing those who made those choices. He described the human elements of despair and pain, which felt especially significant because he built up the characters of the astronauts and their families throughout the book. I was also impressed with the way that he incorporated the language of Ronald Reagan and other political pundits throughout the development of the space programs and the devastation of this crash. 

Some of the technical detail was challenging for me to follow, and there were points where I felt that the narrative was a bit disorganized, poorly integrating the information. I especially found it difficult to keep track of some of the families. In addition, there were quite a few grammatical and spelling errors in this copy, which irritated me.