The Power by Naomi Alderman (★★★★☆)
Audiobook • Libby • Dystopian Fiction • 2016
Short synopsis: In this new world, teenage girls find out that they have immense power: they have an electrical current running through them that can cause agonizing pain to anyone who comes near them.
I had such an interesting experience with this book. First, I do not recommend the audiobook. I did not enjoy the narration and wish there had been different voices for each perspective (there were multiple perspectives). The narrator did some voices really well and some really terribly. Throughout most of the story, this was a 3-star read. I found it a bit difficult to get into and hard to keep the different storylines straight. But the ending of the book was so good and really helped me understand what the author was doing here, envisioning a matriarchal society where women are the ones with all of the power. What would that look like? And would it look all that different than our society today? Is power corrupt no matter what? This was our May book club pick, and we had a really good discussion about the book, feminism, and power.
The Swimmers by Julia Otsuka (★★★★☆)
Audiobook • Libby • Fiction • 2022
Short synopsis: A slim novel about a woman with dementia, the pool where she can escape her disease for an hour every day, and the woman’s daughter.
This is the kind of novel, or audiobook in my case, that can be zipped through in an afternoon. At just four hours on audio, it was a quick listen for me and an entirely depressing one, too. The story is mainly about Alice, a woman who has dementia and is trying to escape the reality of her disease by doing laps in the neighborhood pool. The story is told in vignettes: about the pool, about the people who swim in the pool, and about Alice. It’s an interesting way to tell a story, and ultimately, an impactful one. One of my greatest fears is watching a loved one deal with dementia/Alzheimers, and this book really hit me right in the feels. This is the kind of book I am hesitant to recommend because it has a very specific style that won’t appeal to everyone, but it really worked for me.
Happy Place by Emily Henry (★★★★☆)
Print • Owned (Tombolo Books) • Romance • 2023
Short synopsis: Harriet and her friends get together as often as they can, but it’s been a few years since their last get-together. They come together this year at Sabrina’s insistence. What Harriet doesn’t expect during this trip is to see Wyn, her ex-fiance and the man her friends still think she’s in a relationship with.
Emily Henry is not an auto-buy author for me. I liked Beach Read, loathed People We Meet on Vacation, and consider Book Lovers to be my all-time favorite romance. So she either really works for me, or really does not. But because I loved Book Lovers so much, I was excited to see what she was going to do with Happy Place. I started to see a lot of mixed reviews as I read it, which tempered my own expectations, and it ended up being a pretty good book for me. It was very clear from the start that Harriet is a classic enneagram 9—a people pleaser to her very core and someone who hates confrontation so much that she wouldn’t even tell her best friends that she was going through a horrific breakup. I, too, struggle with telling my best friends when bad things are happening or I’m dealing with something hard because I don’t want to bring them down. I don’t think I’ve ever connected to a character as much as I connected to Harriet. Did I have to suspend some of my belief in this novel? Yes, of course. But that’s romance novels for ya! They are not real life. But ultimately, I found myself really loving this story and how things turned out for Harriet and Wyn. I’d probably place this as my second-favorite novel of hers.
What are you reading?
I had mixed feelings about The Swimmers. At first, I loved it. But the heavy use of the same patterned writing felt stale and cumbersome after a while. I love random details in books, but this was FULL of that sort of thing and it felt a bit overworked by the end?? There was also a lot of thinly veiled imagery and I got tired of trying to read into things. My biggest issue was that the main character was named Alice which felt much too “on-the-nose” after Still Alice. Like, of all names you could have picked, did it have to be Alice? Still, I’m glad I read it and I can see why other people LOVED it! (And agreed that it was pretty sad, too).
The repetition was a little much, I agree. I wonder if listening to it on audio made a difference for me, as the writing was more lyrical in nature. I still haven’t read Still Alice so I can’t comment on that. I do agree that it’s a little too on-the-nose, though.
The Swimmers sounds good but I don’t think I could read it – dementia is too close to home for me and it would make me way too sad. It sounds really well done though!
The set up of Happy Place just did not work for me – I was way too impatient to find out why they broke up, lol! I still rated it 4 stars though. My order is Book Lovers, PWMOV, Happy Place, then Beach Read.
I am reading It Ends With Us.
At first, Happy Place started feeling too much like PWMOV because that’s what frustrated me about that book, too! I just hate when authors keep things hidden for so long. Just tell us!
The Swimmers was REALLY difficult. I don’t think I could have read it if I knew someone with dementia. It would be too much for sure.
I also enjoyed The Swimmers but it’s not something I’d broadly recommend either. My FIL died from Alzheimer’s so the book touched close to home for me and I wondered how my MIL would feel if she read the book.
As you know from our text exchange, I didn’t love Happy Place. I think it’s probably my least favorite of her novels. Being an enneagram 1, I could not understand the decisions she made!
I just finished “Dinners with Ruth” which is about the friendship between NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg (who I wasn’t familiar with) and RBG. It was a really interesting memoir as they were both pioneers in their industries. And it emphasized the importance of female friendship. Next I’ll read “We Should Not Be Friends” by Will Schwalbe. I did not intend to read books about friendships back-to-back but it’s the way my library holds worked out.
I loved discussing Happy Place with you! I think our own personalities played a lot into our enjoyment of the book, which is the way it goes sometimes. Happy Place could be frustrating at times, but overall, I connected so well to Harriet.
When I hear Julie Otsuka’s name… Buddha in the Attic?… I’ve added the Swimmers to my list. I DNF the Power, struggled to get into it.
Currently: two non-fiction books: Poverty, by America (M Desmond, also Evicted by him) and The Power of Fun by C. Price (she also wrote How to Break Up with Your iPhone).
Poverty is dense, lots of numbers and policy descriptions that I just skim over. Fun – fluff with some good snippets. Could have been a blog post.
I have Poverty on my TBR list! I really loved Evicted by him, so I’m hoping to get around to Poverty soon. But coming off a very dense nonfiction book, I need to take some time away from that!
We read The Power as a book club book a couple of summers ago. Most people in my club liked this book a lot more than I did (shocker!). I thought the idea was interesting, but the actual story was a bit lackluster. However, despite any misgivings I have about this book, it sparked a really interesting discussion about small town politics in our small town. It definitely was a good choice for book club and I’m glad you found that to be the case, too.
As you know, I found Happy Place to be quite lackluster. But I liked People We Meet on Vacation the most out of her books, so we’re opposites, as usual.
I have to do a lot of driving next weekend and I thought maybe I’d grab The Swimmers as an audiobook for my trip, but it’s a several months wait. Hm. I’ll add it to my TBR, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to it!
Oh wow, The Swimmers was available for immediate download for me. That’s so interesting that there’s such a long wait for you. Maybe everyone wants to read a book about swimming for the summer, haha. (They will be disappointed, if so.)
I definitely don’t know if I would have pushed through the rather boring beginning of The Power if not for book club. (And I most definitely would have abandoned the audiobook! Blech.)
I just read Lisa’s review of Happy Place! She mentioned you liked it. I am going to read it and report back.
I just finished Yellowface, which was excellent. I’m now reading Where The Apricots Bloom which is decent so far, but not super grabby. I mean, I did just finish Yellowface, which was totally grabby, so *shrug* you know how it goes.
Oh, fun! Right now, it appears in our blogging circle there are two loves (me and Sarah of Harry Times) and two dislikes (Engie and Lisa). Interested to see where you fall!
These all sound really good! I am especially intrigued by The Power. Sounds like a great book to read as a book club.
It’s an excellent book club selection! There’s so much you want to discuss during and after reading it.
I read The Power, rather than listening to the audiobook, but I, too, had mixed feelings about it that changed as I went. For a lot of it, it felt like a slog; I was curious, but not into it, if that makes sense? But then the ending took hold of me in a way that somehow made me forget how I’d forgotten about the rest of it!
I read your review on Goodreads of The Power as I started the book, so I was holding out hope that the ending would make a big impact – and it totally did! It really made the whole book come together.
As usual, I’m waaay far behind the times. I honest to Pete do not think I’ve read any Emily Henry. Huh. And now I find out that one of her books is your favorite romance novel! I may have to remedy that.
I cannot listen to fiction on audio. I can do nonfiction, but only if there is a story, or if it’s about something like history. Books that are more conceptual/deep in nature – I need the e-book or the print book, for sure. (Sometimes both!)