The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

336 pages

Published September 2024 by Penguin Publishing Group 

Publisher's Summary: 

“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

My Thoughts: 

"A beautiful novel full of life-affirming wonder and imagination and, at its adventurous heart, a wry and tender love-letter to the best of being human.” —Benedict Cumberbatch

I don't usually put much credence into quotes about books from other authors. Publishers tend to pick authors for quotes who are prone to like the book and writers are likely to want to praise a book, in no small part because they'd like the same done for them. But Benedict Cumberbatch? I doubt he's hoping for a great review of his next film from Haig. 

Still not the reason I picked up this one. I picked this one because my book club read Haig's The Midnight Library and we all really liked it. Why not read his next novel as a club as well? Now I'm honestly question that decision. While The Midnight Library absolutely had a fantasy element, it worked for me as a device between chapters. But in this one the fantasy element is front and center and it's supernatural. I'm not sure how that's going to go over with my book club. I know I struggled with it throughout the book. 

"Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived the most boring life in the universe. 

That woman rarely left her bungalow, except to see the doctor, help at the charity shop, or visit the cemetery. She didn't garden any more. The grass was overgrown, and the flowerbeds were full of weeds. She ordered her weekly shopping. She lived in the Midlands. Lincoln, Lincolnshire. The same orange-bricked market town that she had stayed in - apart from a stint t Hull University centuries ago - all her adult life. 

You know the place."

Grace is a lonely woman, living with grief over the long-ago loss of her son and more recently her husband when she receives the notice that a long-ago acquaintance has left her a home. Grace once did a kindness for Christina, something that seems insignificant to Grace but changed Christina's life. Grace arrives in Ibiza only to discover that what she's inherited is a small, run-down house set far off from the city and has been left a list of things to do in her time on the island. Almost immediately warned to avoid Alberto Rios; but Grace, wanting to know what happened to Christina, soon realizes that Alberto is the only one who can help her find out. So to check something off of her list and because Alberto tells her he will show her what happened to Christina, Grace goes scuba diving with Alberto late one night. What happens leave Grace able to read minds, to have a far reaching knowledge, and the ability to move objects.  Now she must decide what to do with those "gifts" and if she can truly know what happened to Christina and stop the people who were trying to hurt her. 

All of which sounds like a crazy adventure novel. Which it is...kind of. But it is far more about how Grace, who has been battling anhedonia for years and living with the guilt of her son's death, find pleasure in life again and learns to forgive herself. And that is very much the kind of book I enjoy. Strangely, one of the things I really enjoyed about this book was all of the references to mathematics (Grace had been a math teacher) - Haig really uses math to explain how the magical elements in this book just might not be that implausible, but also to explain life. I liked that - I may have to rethink my opinion about math...and maybe magical realism. 

Life: It Goes On - April 27

Happy Sunday! It's been quite a dreary weekend here and it's resulted in my battling a headache off and on for a few days (which is always a frustrating way to spend time away from work). I did manage to power through and get quite a bit done and to head off Friday to enjoy one of Omaha's fun things - Junkstock. Found so many things there that I really wanted but talked myself out of, thanks to all of the work I've done to pare down the amount of stuff we  own. There was a part of me that was grateful to my brain being rewired to reject bringing too much home and another part of me that was annoyed that my rewired brain made me leave behind some really cool things. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished The Hitchcock Hotel and started Samantha Irby's We Are Never Meeting In Real Life, which I will finish in the next couple of days. Then it's on to Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl. 

Watched: Monday evening I had the t.v. to myself and watched The Life List, which I enjoyed - predictable but also sweet and funny and touching. Last night the Big Guy and I finally watched Glenn Powell in The Hitman. 

Read: I'm jumping back and forth between The Fairbanks Four and Peter Graham's Anne Perry And The Murder Of The Century. It's not often that I find myself reading two nonfiction books at the same time (plus listening to a nonfiction) and I'm not sure it's my best idea. May have to set one aside and read something light and fluffy to offset the heavier topics. 

Made: An adaptation of Ree Drummond's Chocolate Cereal Treats (she uses three kinds of cereal but we were never going to finish the three boxes of unfinished chocolate cereals so I only used one and I didn't include extra marshmallows). They're very tasty but I also got the ingredients to make traditional Rice Krispie treats, which I think I may actually like better. 

Enjoyed: Book club on Tuesday. Seeing some of "kids" at Junkstock, one of whom is the creator of the jewelry I'm addicted to (I may have splurged on another pair of earrings while I was there!) on Friday. Dinner out with friends on Saturday night. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On getting to the greenhouse(s) this week so I can start getting my hands in the dirt!

Thinking About: Monday evening a 16yo died at the entrance to our neighborhood when a man ran a redlight. I heard the sirens that night and it reminded me of all of those years when I'd hear sirens and run a mental checklist of where all of my people were, trying to make sure that siren didn't involve any of them. I can't help but wonder if that girl's mother heard those sirens and did the same thing. My heart just breaks for her family. 

Feeling: Tired of grey days and cool temperatures. 

Looking forward to: Higher temps this week and time to starting bringing our outdoors back to life. 

Question of the week: I'm seeing a lot of people starting to bemoan the spring and the pollen and the approaching of summer. Whereas, I, of course, cannot wait for these seasons. How about you? Are you more of a cool weather or warm weather person? 

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Read by Clare Corbett, Daphne Kouma, Julia Winwood, Sope Dirisu, Sofia Zervudachi

12 hours, 53 minutes

Published February 2022 by HarperCollins

Publisher's Summary: 

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

My Thoughts: 

Sometimes when I finish an audiobook, I look at what's available from what's on my TBR list. Sometimes I'm just looking for something that will suit the reading mood I'm in. Which is a pretty good way to increase your chances of enjoying a book, especially when you're familiar with the author. I'm certain picking this one because of my reading mood increased my enjoyment of it. Even though I had some issues with it, in the end, it gave me just what I was hoping to get. 

Jess has had a tough life. As a young girl, she found her addict mother dead. Her half-brother Ben, the only person she has ever really been attached to, is taken into a well-to-do family and lives a life that has no room for Jess. Still, Ben is the person she turns to when she's done something really stupid and needs to leave England and when she calls him as she arrives in Paris, he agrees to let her stay with him for a while. Yet when she arrives at the apartment building, Ben isn't answering his phone and isn't in the apartment she can't believe he can possibly afford. 

There are only a few apartments in the building and Jess soon gets to know all of the residents, including the caretaker, and all of the nooks and crannies of the building, including a hidden stairwell. Only Nick, who was Ben's friend, feels like someone Jess can trust and she needs an ally. But as we bounce back and forth between narrators, we soon learn that Jess doesn't know the first thing about any of the people who live in that building and finding Ben is going to be dangerous. 

I'm glad I listened to this one; the multiple readers really worked well. I did wonder, at times, if Jess wasn't a little too quick to trust, for a girl who had grown up on the rougher side of life. But I really like the "locked-room" feel of this one and was completely taken by surprise by the two big twists toward the end of the book. My biggest issue with the book was the "tying up the knots" ending - it felt a little too easy for me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this one a lot. 

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George

The Little Village of Book Lovers

272 pages

Published July 2023 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

In Nina George’s New York Times bestseller The Little Paris Bookshop, beloved literary apothecary Jean Perdu is inspired to create a floating bookstore after reading a seminal pseudonymous novel about a young woman with a remarkable gift. The Little Village of Book Lovers is that novel.

“Everyone knows me, but none can see me. I’m that thing you call love.”

In a little town in the south of France in the 1960s, a dazzling encounter with Love itself changes the life of infant orphan Marie-Jeanne forever.

As a girl, Marie-Jeanne realizes that she can see the marks Love has left on the people around her—tiny glowing lights on the faces and hands that shimmer more brightly when the one meant for them is near. Before long, Marie-Jeanne is playing matchmaker, bringing true loves together in her village.

As she grows up, Marie-Jeanne helps her foster father, Francis, begin a mobile library that travels throughout the many small mountain towns in the region of Nyons. She finds herself bringing soulmates together every place they go—and there are always books that play a pivotal role in that quest. However, the only person that Marie-Jeanne can’t seem to find a soulmate for is herself. She has no glow of her own, though she waits and waits for it to appear. Everyone must have a soulmate, surely—but will Marie-Jeanne be able to recognize hers when Love finally comes her way?

My Thoughts: 

Last fall my book club read Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop and it was a big hit. So when I was putting together this year's reading list and found that this book is meant to be the book referenced in that book, Southern Lights, I thought it would be a great follow up that we would surely enjoy. 

We did not. In fact, one member said she hated this book. I have never heard her say that about any book we've read; she is generally the one we count on to find the humorous bits and the highlights of books. She began with the book in print and finished with the audiobook version, which I think may have been the problem. On Goodreads, I noticed that a lot of the people who didn't like this book had listened to it and found it confusing. I can definitely see that; a lot of people who read it in print found it confusing as well. There is a lot of back and forth in the narration and Love as a narrator and a talking (although not literally) olive tree are tough for a lot of people to buy into. 

To be fair, having not that long ago read The Little Paris Bookshop and having been told throughout that book that Southern Lights was the perfect book, George set readers up with very high expectations that were all but impossible to live up to. Further, in that book we were promised that this book would explore all kinds of love but when it came down to it, this one is all about romantic love between men and women. Very traditional love, even if told through a magical voice. Then, too, the title tells us that this is a book about book lovers, which would seem to be a different book entirely than a book about all kinds of love. Honestly, books only brought these people together tangentially - Francis' book mobile was more of a way to introduce us to a big cast of characters instead of a way for the characters to come together organically. 

I think my book club agreed that a book that was primarily about Marie-Jeanne's gift and her being able to help people find each other would have made a better book. Or a book strictly about how the book mobile makes true book lovers out of all kinds of people and how they learn about each other would have been a good read. It just didn't work for us to pull the two stories together. 

For most of us the ending of a book can make or break a book and this one might well have been saved by a different ending. We spent the entire book waiting for the sainted Marie-Jeanne to be rewarded for all of the good she did with love of her own. And we waited. And we waited. It was not until there were only five pages left that George gave us the slightest hint that Marie-Jeanne might finally find love. The lesson from that? Love is cruel. Which seems a strange way to come to the end of a book all about love. 

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl 

288 pages

Published April 2024 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head, and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean. Oysters, she thought. Where have they been all my life?

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store, where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and for the first time in her life Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress—and embarks on an adventure.

Her first stop: the iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces Stella to a veritable who’s who of the Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, she begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed” at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.

My Thoughts: 

I've thoroughly enjoyed Ruth Reichl's nonfiction work and was really looking forward to seeing what she would do with a work of fiction. Of course, it's not a surprise that she would choose Paris for a setting, nor is it a surprise that food plays a major role. I chose this one for my book club to read and it was, by and large, a hit. In fact, I think everyone else liked it much more than I did. 

I had a lot of issues with it, to be honest. There's a scene, very early on, that should have come with a trigger warning. Given that she chose to include it, I expected it to play a much bigger role later in the book, but when I finished the book, I felt it could have, very easily, been left out entirely or at least have been minimized. 

Then there's the fact that once Stella, who has never had any real interest in food and prefers a plain meal, can suddenly discern all the flavors in a dish once she's introduced to food by a real Parisian. I know that some people are born with the ability to taste many more flavors than others of us can, but for her to be able to name them without ever having had them was a stretch. In fact, a lot of the book required a lot of suspension of disbelief. Like Stella having a boss that was ok with her extending her stay by months. 

Despite all of that, the writing about food was, as you would expect, divine and Reichl's love of fashion also comes front and center. As someone who studied fashion merchandising in college, I was familiar with the designers, the fabrics, the styles and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And, I will admit, I did come to long for Stella to find happiness and the family she had never really had (which, of course, we know she will, eventually, even when we can't figure out how she'll get there).