Fiction by Simon Van Booy
In the beginning of this story, 83-year-old Helen Cartwright has returned to the English village of her birth after more than six decades spent in Australia. She has come back to die alone, thinking that she has nor more purpose left in life after the death of her husband and her son. But she may be wrong about that...
This was a sweet little story. I liked it, although it was a little slow.
This book is literally what the subtitle says: Registered Nurse Theresa Brown meticulously describes one of her twelve-hour shifts at the hospital inpatient oncology ward.
It was both less boring and less dramatic than I expected. The writing style made it interesting even though it was a lot of mundane details, but I expected her to choose a shift where someone died, or was dramatically saved, or something like that. Instead it was a pretty normal shift, which I assume was the author's goal.
Fiction by Ingrid Hill
At the beginning of this story, two-year-old Ursula Wong is on a picnic with her parents in the woods when she falls down an old disused well, or mineshaft, or something. Her parents Annie and Justin are frantic and immediately call for help.
While little Ursula waits for rescue, the reader is taken back in time, WAY back, to visit Ursula's ancestors in ancient China, and long-ago Finland, and many other places and times. All those people who lived and died over many centuries have led to this one little girl, who is the apple of her parents' eyes and now in grave danger. The idea I think is that Ursula Wong, like every child, is a miracle and incredibly irreplaceable.
This was a strange book and a long one, but still worth reading, I think.
Fiction by Saratoga Schaefer
Cyra Griffin is searching for her sister Mira's killer, and she somehow manages to infiltrate a so-called Serial Killer Support Group, seven men who connected on the Dark Web and meet in secret. Cyra has to pretend to be one of them in order to find out which man murdered her sister.
Okay, so this book requires some serious suspension of disbelief. I really don't buy the idea that serial killers would meet regularly like this to discuss their activities, but for the sake of the story I was willing to let that go. Mostly.
If you can swallow the premise, this is a pretty good story with a surprise ending.
This is a memoir by Jeannie Gaffigan, co-writer with and wife of comedian Jim Gaffigan. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor shaped like a pear (hence the title) in 2017, and here tells her own story.
This was a pretty good memoir, funny in some parts and touching in others. It was a little longer than it needed to be.
Fiction by Megan Church
This book begins with 1950's housewife Lulu Mayfield in a mental hospital, and then goes back in time to show how she got there.
Honestly, it was almost too upsetting for me to read at times. (Interestingly, the author's note at the beginning states that the reader might want to take a break from the novel if the subject matter is too triggering. Well, it was, and I did.) It is all too easy for me to imagine myself in the place of the overwhelmed Lulu.
It is a well-written story with believable characters and I did like the ending, but it was a difficult read.
