We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

Read by Becca Tobin

Published August 2021 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary:

Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice? 

Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life?

My Thoughts:

Some mystery/thriller books that hold up long after they're first published. Despite getting great reviews, I'm not sure this book will be one of those, although it's certainly a wild ride. 

Emily and Kristen become best friends in college and, because they both have families their in no rush to spend time with, they'll travel the world during breaks from school, trips that continue years after they've finished school. But as a trip to Chile devolves into burying a body in the middle of nowhere, Bartz gradually reveals that this is not the first time these two young women have found themselves getting rid of the body of a man who attacked one of them only a year earlier. And here's where I first started having problems with this book. 

If you'd found yourself hiding the body of a man because you felt certain that a foreign justice system wouldn't buy that it was self-defense, how quickly would you be willing to travel to another foreign country? Even if you're answer is a year, and even if you're not yet thirty-years-old, would you even remotely considering going to your room with a total stranger in yet another foreign country? Or even in the same city you live in, for that matter? 

The two young women head home, Emily to Milwaukee, Kristen to Australia WITH A FAIRLY LARGE PIECE OF EVIDENCE IN HER LUGGAGE!!! Ok, yeah, you don't want it lying around to implicate you. But maybe drop it in the trash in the airport? These are only a couple of the things that raised questions for me within the first 100 pages of the book. Even after the young ladies returned home, there were so many times I wanted to slap Emily to wake her up. 

Normally I'd feel bad if I gave away this much about a mystery novel, but the publisher's summary gets you well into the book before they decide they've finally given you enough to lure you in.

Here's the thing, though - even with all of the issues that I had with this book, I raced to make sure I finished it before it automatically was returned to the library because I really needed to know how Bartz was going to resolve this. Was Kristen gaslighting Emily? Had Kristen killed before? Or was Emily burying memories that would acquit Kristen? The tension ratchets up and up and there seems to be no way either of these young women is getting away with what they did in Chile. Bartz did manage to keep me wondering until the end and she managed to throw in a couple of surprises I did not see coming. 

The verdict? Despite all of the issues I had with this one, there was still enough here to keep me reading and there's certainly a lot that book clubs would find to talk about. 

Bonus for me: Emily lived in the very neighborhood that my son and his wife lived in when they were in Milwaukee, she went to a beach we'd been to, and Bartz described the city in very much the same way that I would describe the downtown. It's always good to find that kind of connection in a book. 

The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Read by Lisette Lecat

Published 1998

Publisher's Summary:

This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.

My Thoughts:

When Alexander McCall Smith first published The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency he was already a successful author, having published nine books before this one. I have no idea how successful those were; but I had the feeling, as I listened to this book, that he knew going in that there was a good chance that this might before a series. Smith gives readers the full background of Precious "Mma" Ramotswe and introduces us to a number of characters you can't help but feel you'll be seeing again. And while the book ties up all of the cases introduced here, Smith leaves readers with the impression that Mma Ramotswe is just starting to make a real success of the agency she's started and leaves her behind just as she's accepted a proposal from a man whose been pining over her for years. 

Precious has some history that makes her compassionate and interesting and a personality that can't help but appeal to readers. She's plenty smart but it's her common sense, observant nature, and quick thinking that really make her a success at the business she's used her father's inheritance to open. Even more appealing, for me, was that she was a fallible, middle-aged woman, heavy-set woman who people liked - in other words, she was relatable in a way so many mystery heroines are not. 

This book (and, I would assume, the series) leans more toward a cozy mystery while still touching on the darker side of people which makes it more appealing to me than your average cozy mystery. Smith gives readers good insight into life in Botswana, the culture, the landscape, the people. Lisette Lecat, who does a fantastic job giving each character a unique voice, also enhances the setting of the book. I can't recommend the audiobook version of this book highly enough. My coworker, who recommended this book to me, was absolutely correct on that score! Knowing that Lecat will continue reading the series, I'm certain that I will be picking up the next book in the series when next I need a break from heavier, longer books. 

Life: It Goes On - September 26

Happy Sunday! It's definitely feeling like fall in Omaha this past week but I think we're headed back to summer temps this week. I love that this time of year - the mornings are still cool and it cools back off pretty early in the evening. Plus it keeps my flowers blooming; my cosmos decided just this past week to finally start blooming and it's going to be so pretty on my patio in the coming few weeks if the weather holds. 

We're headed off to have lunch with my dad soon and there's not much to report from here so I'll be brief today!

Last Week I: 

 Listened To: I finished We Were Never Here and started Nathan Harris' The Sweetness of Water. 

Watched: Football. Lots of football. Yesterday I was back to have college football on in the background all day as I got things done around the house. 

Read: Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle which is so good. I need to get that finished up because I picked up a library hold Friday. 

Made: A couple of Molly Yeh's (Girl Meets Farm) recipes - Funeral Hot Dish (what a terrible name!) and a romaine salad. The hot dish was good but neither of us was a fan of the dressing on the salad. 

Enjoyed: Book club Tuesday. We had such a good conversation about the book (You'll Never Believe What Happened To Lacey) and racism. 

This Week I’m:  

Planning: More laundry stripping, more deep cleaning, more putting the house back in order. 

Thinking About: What to read for RIP XVI. It started in September but I'm always late to that party. I'm thinking it's finally time to pick up Wilke Collins' The Woman In White, 

Feeling: Relaxed. I got a lot done around the house yesterday so I'm feeling less weighed down by the to-do list today. 

Looking forward to: A friend who lives in Arizona is coming to town this week and I'm looking forward to seeing her for the first time in three years. 

Question of the week: Do you have any Halloween, spooky-type read recommendations for me? 

Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Sian Evans

Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Sian Evans

Published August 2021 by St. Martin's Press

Publisher's Summary:

During the early twentieth century, transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners. It was an extraordinary undertaking made by many women, whose lives were changed forever by their journeys between the Old World and the New. Some traveled for leisure, some for work; others to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. They were celebrities, migrants and millionaires, refugees, aristocrats and crew members whose stories have mostly remained untold—until now.

Maiden Voyages is a fascinating portrait of these women as they crossed the Atlantic. The ocean liner was a microcosm of contemporary society, divided by class: from the luxury of the upper deck, playground for the rich and famous, to the cramped conditions of steerage or third class travel. In first class you’ll meet A-listers like Marlene Dietrich, Wallis Simpson, and Josephine Baker; the second class carried a new generation of professional and independent women, like pioneering interior designer Sibyl Colefax. Down in steerage, you’ll follow the journey of émigré Maria Riffelmacher as she escapes poverty in Europe. Bustling between decks is a crew of female workers, including Violet “The Unsinkable Stewardess” Jessop, who survived the Titanic disaster.

Entertaining and informative, Maiden Voyages captures the golden age of ocean liners through the stories of the women whose transatlantic journeys changed the shape of society on both sides of the globe.

Cunard's RMS Aquitania

My Thoughts:

I made a mistake when I began reading this book. I took it to be a story primarily about the women who worked and traveled on the ocean liners that ferried people back and forth between the New World and the Old. I was expecting it to the be stories of particular women, especially those who worked on the ships, and about the ocean liners as well. 

Cunard's RMS Laconia

That's some of what I got. I got a lot of information about ships. So much information that I began to wonder if Evans was padding the book due to a lack of information about the women. Eventually, I understood that to be background to set up the period between the wars. I also got a lot of history. About World Wars and prohibition and the ways the shipping industry helped change the lives of women, from taking them across the ocean for new opportunities to providing them jobs they'd never been eligible for before during wartime. On those floating microcosms of society, we learn about the various roles the female employees of the ship lines served. In first class, one woman might work as a secretary or dresser for a single customer. In third class, there might be only one woman to ensure the welfare of all of the people desperately looking for a new beginning. One woman was so desperate that she hid in one of the ballast containers, burying herself under a layer of gravel to avoid detection during inspection and staying in that container until she estimated that the ship was more than half way to America, too far to turn back.

Marlene Dietrich

The book is loaded with who's who of famous women of the area and we learn about how hard the liners worked to make these women feel comfortable and safe, outfitting the ships to feel more like hotels than ships. Those are the kinds of stories, of course, that make readers see a summary and decide to read a book. But it's the stories of the women in third class and the women who worked tirelessly on these ship, all in a bid for a better life, such as Violet Jessop who served as a stewardess, who really caught my attention. 

Violet Jessop, who survived the Titanic

Oh, William ! by Elizabeth Strout

Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout

Published October 2021 by Random House

Source: courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:

I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William. 

Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. 

So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. What happens next is nothing less than another example of what Hilary Mantel has called Elizabeth Strout’s “perfect attunement to the human condition.” There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart. 

At the heart of this story is the indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. “This is the way of life,” Lucy says: “the many things we do not know until it is too late.”

My Thoughts:

In The New York Times' review of Elizabeth Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton, Claire Messud called Strout's vision of the world "Protestant and flinty." In Strout's return to Lucy Barton, Protestant and flinty are, again, apt descriptions of her writing. 

"I feel invisible, is what I mean. But I mean it in the deepest way. It is very hard to explain. And I cannot explain it except to say - oh, I don't know what to say! Truly, it is as if I do not exist, I guess is the closest thing I can say. I mean I do not exist in the world. It could be as simple as the fact that we had no mirrors in our house when I was growing up except for a very small one high above the bathroom sink. I really do not know what I mean, except to say that on some very fundamental level, I feel invisible in the world."

Despite being a successful author, Lucy Barton continues to feel invisible and to find it surprisingly difficult to put her feelings into words. Except for when it isn't:

"A tulip stem inside me snapped. This is what I felt. It has stayed snapped, it never grew back. I began to write more truthfully after that."

A childhood of poverty and abuse has led Lucy to live her life feeling "less than," a feeling that was reinforced by a mother-in-law she simultaneously loved and resented. Catherine asked Lucy to call her "Mom" when Lucy married Catherine's son, William. But she found any number of ways to make Lucy feel out of place and beneath her, from giving Lucy hand-me-down nightgowns to giving her a set of golf clubs knowing that Lucy didn't enjoy golfing. So Lucy was as surprised as William when he discovered that Catherine's childhood was not all that different from Lucy's own. 

"How is it that some people know how to do this [cross the lines in our world], and others, like me, still give off the faint smell of what we came from? I would like to know. I will never know. Catherine, with her own scent that she always wore. My point is that there is a cultural blank spot that never ever leaves, only it is not a spot, it is a huge blank canvas and it makes life very frightening."

In Oh, William! Strout explores the ways we never completely escape our upbringing and that cost that trying to do so takes. In her quiet, spare way, she also, as always, explores the lasting relationships between parents and children and spouses, even after divorce. William and Lucy have a complicated relationship that is only underscored by the wonderful relationship Lucy had with her second husband who only recently died. 

I'm a huge fan of Strout's and I love the way she comes back to characters again and again (this is her third book that includes Lucy), even working characters from other books into her stories (here characters from The Burgess Boys show up). While some readers may read this book and feel that they are missing something by not having read My Name Is Lucy Barton (and I kept wondering if I was forgetting things from that book), in looking back at my review, and others, of that book, I find that Strout left somethings to the readers' imaginations before as she does again here. You're getting all you need to have to understand Lucy. This one crept up on me and my appreciation of it grows even after I finished reading it. If you're a fan of Strout's, you'll enjoy this one. If you're new to her work, understand that this is a quiet, slow-paced book that is filled with introspection. It will make you think, if you have patience. I'm glad I did.