Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Nine guests come to relax and detox for 10 days at the remote and lovely Tranquillum House.  All have arrived at some difficult time in their lives and are anxious to return to a blissful existence. Although pricey, Tranquilly House comes highly recommended to solve their problems.  Their luggage is searched and all alcohol, chocolate and contraband is confiscated much to the dismay of the guests.  Cellphones and iPads are also locked up out of reach.

The novel begins with the near death experience of Masha, the owner of the spa.  She's turned her health around and now tries to help others do the same.  She sets the rules, the meals and the contents of their daily smoothie.  Frances, a successful romance writer who is haunted by the rejection of her latest manuscript, is the corner stone of the novel.  She befriends all of the participants at some point in their journey.  But let's just say Masha has more sinister plans for everyone's recovery.

I love Liane Moriarty.  The Husband's Secret is my favorite but Truly, Madly Guilty was a huge disappointment.  I found Nine Perfect Strangers an interesting and enjoyable read.  The characters were diverse in age and background and each had a very different reason for being there.   They all interacted in a very believable way.  And I hope this isn't a spoiler, but the end made me smile.  The Nine Perfect Strangers each found a way back from the depths of despair when  no one thought they ever could.

In The Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

In The Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

As the book club leader I picked this book for January.  It's winter.  Winter is in the title.  Why not?  I've read other Isabel Allende novels in the past and always found them to be interesting and enjoyable.

I'm just not sure what to say about In The Midst of Winter.  Richard Bowmaster is a sixty-ish college professor, set in his ways, living in Brooklyn.  Lucia, is his basement tenant also a college professor whose expertise is in the political upheavals of the seventies in her native Chile. They are both looking for a love to mend the tragedies of their pasts.

Evelyn is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. In the midst of the worst blizzard in memory, Richard rear ends her in a traffic accident.  He hands her his business card and says to call him to file the insurance claim.  When she shows up at his door, he calls Lucia to translate.

What unfolds is each character's tragic story of persecution in south and central American countries.  Woven in is the current story set in motion by the car accident.  I'm not going to spoil what that story is about but I thought the decisions the trio made together were bizarre.  And they made them in what seemed to me to be a very nonchalant manner.  But as I continued to read their stories, I realized the past guided their present and their future in a very profound way.

I wouldn't say In The Midst of Winter is Allende's best novel but in the current state of immigration in the United States, there is a lot to be learned from the stories within these pages. Book club is next week.  I can't wait to hear what they think.

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated came highly recommended since I too am writing a memoir.  Where all memoirs focus on some aspect of the family, mine seem to be a pussycat in relationship to Tara's.

Tara grew up on an isolated mountain in Idaho in a Mormon family.  Her father created an even more narrow view of the world by his anti establishment views of government, schools, doctors and hospitals.  Tara and her siblings were home schooled but that term is used loosely.  She learned to read from the Book of Mormon.  There wasn't any structured schooling going on at home.

As Tara grew to be a teenager, an older brother begins a pattern of tormenting her on a regular basis escalating to violent abuse. When confronting her parents about it, they determined she was lying. The abuse continued unanswered.  Women had no status in this family.

That Tara was able to rise above the dysfunction at home is amazing to me.  When she arrived at BYU, she knew so little about the world but also nothing about how to care for herself or fit in to society.  It was heartbreaking to read.  She succeeded however, even when her parents and siblings harassed and bullied her.  But it wasn't until she became truly educated that she broke the grip that they held on her.

Educated is a gut wrenching and eye opening story. You will stop taking what you have for granted after reading this book.