This month, I’m catching up with Reese’s Book Club.
As you recall, the March book was The Club by Ellery Lloyd, but I got sidetracked by six other books. I did make it through The Club AND have read Reese’s April book, True Biz by Sara Nović. You’ll find my thoughts on these two books, plus three more below. Keep reading!
March Pick:
The Club by Ellery Lloyd. This book is categorized as both Contemporary Women’s Fiction and Women’s Detective Fiction.
Description from Kobo.com
Everyone’s Dying to Join . . .
The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members’ clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites, far from the prying eyes of fans and the media.
The most spectacular of all is Island Home—a closely-guarded, ultraluxurious resort, just off the English coast—and its three-day launch party is easily the most coveted A-list invite of the decade.
But behind the scenes, tensions are at breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group’s CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide—and that’s before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island.
As tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home’s members will begin to wish they’d never made the guest list.
Because at this club, if your name’s on the list, you’re not getting out.
My Take:
This multi-person point-of-view novel takes the reader inside an exclusive club and shows how money can’t buy happiness. Neither can murder, but I digress.
I’m a sucker for mini plot stories, that is a story containing multiple point-of-view characters, has an open ending and focuses on the character’s internal conflict. (The best movie example I can give you is Love, Actually. And not just because of its stellar cast!)
The Club was a smooth read that kept me guessing. It wasn’t hard to figure out who did what, but there were a few twists that left me envious of the author’s plotting ability.
Even if you don’t like mysteries, The Club offers an inside look at what exclusivity can do to the most well-meaning of people.
April Pick:
True Biz by Sara Nović. This book is in the Coming of Age category. The main protagonist is a deaf, high school girl who sees both her life and her understanding of life change during the story.
Description from Kobo.com
True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk
True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the hearing headmistress, a CODA (child of deaf adult(s)) who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another—and changed forever.
This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.
My Take:
Wow. This book opens your eyes. If you haven’t been exposed to the deaf world, then you will be surprised at what the hearing impaired deal with, now and historically.
Not only was it enlightening, it was also a good story. Charlie’s journey was a page turner. And the various subplots and side characters kept the pace moving. I got through this book in one weekend!
Other Books I Read
- The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (audiobook) – My daughter read this for her English class and thought I would enjoy it. Quinn brought the female spy network of WWI alive in this book.
- Sourdough by Robin Sloan – I read Sloan’s previous book, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and enjoyed it, but Sourdough is my favorite.
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman – I watched the 2015 Swedish film version of this book a few years ago, but didn’t read it until now. I can happily report the book is as good as the movie. Tom Hanks is set to star in a remake of the movie (no release date as of now). Not sure I can visualize Hanks as Ove, but I’ll probably give it a watch when it comes out.
If there is a book you think I should read, drop me an email at carole@carolewolfe.com.
Until next time…
Photo by Lacie Slezak on Unsplash