Book Review Club - December 2022

I'm reviewing two books this month, this one being THE WIDOW by Kaira Rouda.  This book was offered as one of Amazon's First Read books for prime members in November.  One of the reasons I selected this as my book for the month was because it said she was also the author of a book I thought I had read (I haven't, or at least I can't find the title in any of my book histories - purchased or borrowed from the library).  Anyway . . . 

The story centers around Washington and the games people play to stay on top.  It's told, primarily, from the viewpoints of Jody and Martin Asher.  Martin is a House Representative for Ohio and Jody is his wife.

There is a reporter, Max Brown, who wants to interview Martin for an article he's writing but Martin is avoiding and ignoring him because the article is likely to make Martin look bad so he doesn't want to participate or contribute to that but Max is determined to get his story, one way or another.  Jody and Martin's daughter, Charlotte, is scheduled to get married "this weekend" and their goal is to just get through the wedding - which has cost a fortune so it's happening, no matter what! - and then they will deal with whatever else they have to, including sitting down with Max for an interview.

Jody believes Martin is a hardworking politician that has the best interests of his constituents at heart but truth told, she really doesn't care, so long as it doesn't interfere with her social standing within Washington society.  But as the wedding gets closer, the talk of scandals, investigations and subpoenas gets louder and Jody is upset that it will ruin "her" big day (really Charlotte's big day but Jody thinks of it as her own big day) and so she is angry with Martin.

A major event happens that changes the course of everything.  I would tell it here and it wouldn't really be a spoiler because it's disclosed in the amazon blurb and well, the title is a hint, but it's one of those things that I think the details are best read in the book, but things change when it happens.  And then towards the end of  the book several bombshell revelations occur that I didn't see coming.  It basically suggested that everyone in Washington has secrets and that they're stored up by others and used as leverage as needed.

I really enjoyed this book and found myself wanting to "read one more chapter" before I  . . . took the dog out, made dinner, etc.  Then I'd get to the end of the chapter and think "I can't stop now.  Just one more chapter."  In short, I read it pretty quickly because I wanted to see what happened next.  That said, I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable.  Martin wasn't too bad but there was the cloud of potential scandal hovering over him so I wasn't fully invested in him - I was reserving judgment, so to speak.  Everyone seemed to love Charlotte but she wasn't a fully developed character and didn't really factor into things in the story - other than she was getting married "this weekend".

Between each chapter there was a "tip" on surviving in Washington, which I also found interesting.  As I read them, I wondered how legitimate they might be.  Then I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book (as I always do) and discovered that the author's husband actually did serve two terms in the House.  Interesting side note, an article on him accused him of breaking the law for trading stocks early in the pandemic.  He's also changed parties - started as a republican, became an independent before ultimately running as a democrat.  But I digress.

In any event, I feel comfortable recommending this book as I found it interesting and I enjoyed it.  :)

For more book reviews go to https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html

Book Review Club - November 2022

 This month I will be reviewing Mad Money by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan.  This was a Good Morning America (GMA) book club recommendation that I listened to the audio book version of.

It's a story told from the perspectives of Olivia, who is Asher's mother, and Lily, who is Asher's girlfriend.  Olivia tells her story in chronological order but Lily tells hers in reverse order, which seemed a bit odd to me.  But considering Lily is found dead in Olivia's first chapter, I guess they had to decide how to tell her story and instead of starting two months prior to her death (where they ended), they started with the "day of" and worked backwards from there.

When the police arrived at Lily's house, after her death, Asher was there holding her body and there was evidence that he had moved her so he was a suspect in her death and that's what the bulk of the story revolves around.  Did Asher kill her?  Did he really just find her body as he says?  Was it just an accident?  We don't know.
 
Without giving too much away, there is a trial but here's the thing: a verdict is reached but that isn't the end of the story - there was actually still an hour left of audio to listen to AFTER the verdict.  That is to say, there is a plot twist.  I suspected that before the verdict came in but it went a different way than I expected (I think this option crossed my mind at one point but I was convinced of something else by the time I got to this point).

GMA had done an interview with the authors before I read it and at one point someone said "not to give away a plot point but . . . " and I just have to say, it definitely was a PLOT POINT - a pretty significant one, at that!  If they had not told it, it would've been a total shock when I got to that point in the book but, as it was, I was kind of like "oh, that's what they were talking about.  so?"

Overall it was a good story and I enjoyed listening to it but there were a few things (other than Lily's story being told in reverse order of occurrence) that took away from the story a bit.  For one, the language.  I'm not a particular fan of foul language so that bothered me.  Also, there was way too much information about what bees and beekeepers do.  It was like they did a deep dive in research into beekeeping and felt they didn't want to waste what they learned and dumped it into the book.  And it wasn't in a "to distract myself I . . . " with a detailed account of what she did.  It was a "the queen bee does this" and "the worker bee does that" in painstaking detail that added absolutely nothing to the story except length.  And this was done throughout the book.  Despite that, I still think it's worth a read / listen.  :)

For more book reviews, go to https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html