We are the Light

This is my first read by Mr. Quick. 

It's a nice short listen, only six hours, though at the speed I listen to, it took even less. The story is told through a series of letters, which was unexpected, but worked well for the plot. The narrator is excellent. The characters are well formed and presented. 

There's a plot twist at the end, which I figured out early, but this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. 

AMAZON

Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero―everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas’s backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most importantly, themselves.

From Matthew Quick, whose work has been described by the Boston Herald as “like going to your favorite restaurant. You just know it is going to be good,” We Are the Light is an unforgettable novel about the quicksand of grief and the daily miracle of love. The humorous, soul-baring story of Lucas Goodgame offers an antidote to toxic masculinity and celebrates the healing power of art. In this tale that will stay with you long after the final page is turned, Quick reminds us that life is full of guardian angels.

Deep Point of View

Ms. Kennedy is very thorough in explanation and examples in this book to help the writer or novelist up their game with drawing the reader into the character's head and experience from their perspective. 

She's candid with a touch of humor. 

This is a useful book to add to your author tool box to up your game and supply your reader with an elevated experience. 

AMAZON 

Do you want readers to be so caught up in your book that they forget they’re reading?

Then you need deep POV.

Deep POV takes the reader and places them inside of our characters—hearing their thoughts, feeling their emotions, and living the story through them. Compared to other writing styles, it builds a stronger emotional connection between the reader and our characters, creates the feeling of a faster pace, and helps avoid point-of-view errors and telling rather than showing.

In Deep Point of View, writing instructor and fiction editor Marcy Kennedy brings her years of experience into showing you how to write deep POV. You’ll learn specific, practical things you can do immediately to take your fiction to the next level.

Each book in the Busy Writer’s Guide series is intended to give you enough theory so that you can understand why things work and why they don’t, but also enough examples to see how that theory looks in practice. In addition, they provide tips and exercises to help you take it to the pages of your own story, with an editor’s-eye view. Most importantly, they cut the fluff so that you have more time to write and to live your life.

The Sixth Extinction

This isn't my usual read. Non-fiction about the end of the world. 

I listened to it as an audiobook because my daughter needed to read it for her ecology class. 

The subject matter is fascinating. The focus is how we as humans are capable of destroying species of life throughout the globe while simultaneously being the only species capable of saving those that are endangered through our own recklessness. 

Ms. Kolbert takes us across the globe to examine amphibians, acidic oceans, and bats among so many others to show how humans impact is real and sadly, in many cases, our efforts to save those endangered are past saving. 

Ms. Kolbert, while giving proper names, doesn't get fussy with the scientific jargon which allows the average reader easy access to understanding what's happening to our earth. And how are the only ones who can slow down the process of ruination of our home planet. 

AMAZON 

A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino.

Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

The Lobotomist's Wife

Unsurprisingly, I read this for book club, otherwise I wouldn't have heard of this book, much less picked it up to read. Thank goodness for book club or I would've missed out on an excellent story. 

I do enjoy historical fiction, and this one even has a romantic thread, though this isn't a true romance. 

Ms. Woodruff does an excellent job of putting us in Ruth's shoes. I sympathized with her, cheered her on, and worried when her life took an unexpected dark turn. 

And I kept fact checking. Ms. Woodruff kept true to the historical details, while also bringing this story to life in her own way. Dr. Apter isn't the name of the man who champtioned lobotomy use in the US but is a deeply fashioned proxy to the original. 

Ms. Woodruff also described the process of the procedure without being gory, rather choosing to show the consequences of the thankfully shelved practice. 

I recommend this to anyone who wants a good look into the world of medicine regarding mental health during the post WWII period. 

AMAZON

An enthralling historical novel of a compassionate and relentless woman, a cutting-edge breakthrough in psychiatry, and a nightmare in the making.

Since her brother took his life after WWI, Ruth Emeraldine has had one goal: to help those suffering from mental illness. Then she falls in love with charismatic Robert Apter—a brilliant doctor championing a radical new treatment, the lobotomy. Ruth believes in it as a miracle treatment and in Robert as its genius pioneer. But as her husband spirals into deluded megalomania, Ruth can’t ignore her growing suspicions. Robert is operating on patients recklessly, often with horrific results. And a vulnerable young mother, Margaret Baxter, is poised to be his next victim.

Margaret can barely get out of bed, let alone care for her infant. When Dr. Apter diagnoses her with the baby blues and proposes a lobotomy, she believes the procedure is her only hope. Only Ruth can save her—and scores of others—from the harrowing consequences of Robert’s ambitions.

Inspired by a shocking chapter in medical history, The Lobotomist’s Wife is a galvanizing novel of a woman fighting against the most grievous odds, of ego, and of the best intentions gone horribly awry.

Grape Seed Falls

So much fun to watch how this series unfolds, meet all the characters, see how they interconnect, and of course watch cowboys fall in love with their counterparts as they overcome both internal and external struggles. 

AMAZON

Seven cowboys, from billionaires to brothers, and the women who tame their hearts and make romance happen in Texas Hill Country... The complete Grape Seed Falls Romance collection in one boxed set!

Book 1: Choosing the Cowboy: Maggie Duffin is all set to inherit her father's farm supply store in Amarillo, Texas. With only girls in her family, and Heidi now married and living at Three Rivers Ranch, she feels a sense of duty and family loyalty. Which is honorable—if it wasn't for her boyfriend, cowboy Chase Carver. So he sets out on a quest to find his own ranch. But with financial trouble and personal issues around every corner, both Maggie and Chase will have to rely on their faith to find their happily-ever-after.

Book 2: Craving the Cowboy: A ranch owner in Texas Hill Country, a horse trainer, and a romance for the ages...

Book 3: Charming the Cowboy: A cowboy billionaire bachelor, the woman who's been crushing on him, and a fateful accident at his boarding stable...

Book 4: Courting the Cowboy: A restaurant heiress, a dating app, and the cowboy just down the street she's sworn off...

Book 5: Claiming the Cowboy: A cowboy with a chip on his shoulder, a farrier who's got no roots, and their second chance at making a life together...

Book 6: Catching the Cowboy: A cowboy who can't get off the ranch to meet anyone, a stylist who hasn't been on a second date in a year, and the relationship that starts when they're stranded in a cabin together...

Book 7: Cheering the Cowboy: A cowboy with anger management issues, the woman whose ranch he "stole," and their chance to get everything they want for Christmas...including each other.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

This was a book club pick. Good thing too or I wouldn't likely have read it. Not because it isn't well written. It's simply not my go-to genre. 

I admit I was skeptical when I read the premise. An octopus solves the mystery of a long lost son and restores joy to the night cleaning lady in an aquarium?

But it works. Really it does. In fact, the octopus might even be my favorite character. 

There are several threads to follow but as the book matures, the threads weave tighter forming a beautiful picture of the characters' lives and how they blend together and form attachments. An excellent tapestry with heartfelt humor. 

AMAZON

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late. 

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

The Letter Carrier

Ms Lewis is a master storyteller and researcher. 

Following Michelle's story is like looking through a window in time and being transported into her young body and mind and watching the golden moments sprinkled through her life help her perservere through the atrocitites she witness as WWII steals her homelife and homeland. 

Knowing this was based on a woman's real life experience in France made the impact of the story even more powerful. 

For a reader who struggles to read about accounts about WWII, I found a beautiful portrait painted in words that helped me understand to an extent how lives were affected without having to put the book down due to graphic content or a sensationalized version of the truth. 

This should be required reading in any history or literature class. 

A stunning tribute to the real woman behind the story and the author who meticulously cobbled it together. 

AMAZON

A WWII coming-of age story based on three years of interviews with Michelle Naget, whose family members spent four years as captives in their own home after it was commandeered by the Nazis.

When the German march across Europe reaches France, young Michelle Naget and her family join the throngs fleeing for safety. But their flight ends in capture by the Nazis, with one member of the family taken, while the rest of the family is sent back to their village of Braquis, France, to serve the enemy who has commandeered their home.

For the next four years, the Nagets live in the crosshairs of the enemy living under their roof and of the neighbors who question the family's loyalties. Every day becomes a test of faith for Michelle-in God, in family, in the hope that the Allies will come, and in the letters from a young French rebel named Légère who promises Michelle that she will be free again.

But when the Nazis' torment increases, and the razor-thin line between life and death narrows for the Nagets, the family's motto, "We do what must be done," and Michelle's faith in God, give her the courage to face her enemy and do whatever she must to protect the family she loves.