The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos

Hadley Vlahos is a nurse and a very popular TikToker, which is how I found her. A hospice nurse, she shares stories of what she's learned from her patients and demystifies the hospice process for her viewers. In The In-Between she writes about her experiences and the patients who have had the most impact on her.

We read about Sandra, the woman who lives in a gorgeous mansion who is dying of breast cancer, and of Albert, the man living in a tent under a bridge with kidney failure. We meet Reggie, a man with liver disease caused by a lifetime of alcohol abuse, and Elizabeth, a young yoga teacher with lung cancer despite never smoking a day in her life. There is a patient with dementia, one with skin cancer, one with heart disease, and two with brain cancer. We meet patients with lots of loving family to care for them and some with only one or none. Some of her patients are happy to receive her help and others don't see the point of her. Some she spends days or weeks caring for, and others only a few hours.

What does a "good death" look like to you? Hadley leads her readers to find those answers for themselves while giving some insight into the process of dying that some people may not have experienced. She's very young for a hospice nurse, a profession that typically attracts nurses looking for a change of pace after years in other nursing fields, but she falls in love with the connections she is able to make with her patients and the good she can do at one of the most important moments of their lives.

This book was very sad. And it was also sweet, and heartwarming, and comforting. Of course I cried. When don't I? But they were good tears. Hadley tells her stories in a very uplifting way that inspires hope. 

 

84, Charing Cross Road

Another in my quest to read short books and feel like I'm making reading progress is 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. An epistolary work of non-fiction, we are invited to read the corospondance between Helene Hanff, a writer in New York City, and Frank Doel, a clerk at an antiquarian bookshop in London. Helene is frequently in need of decent copies of old, out of print books and she develops a friendship with Mr. Doel and many of the other employees in this small bookshop. The book spans twenty years between 1949 and 1969.

I literally read this book in one afternoon. That may not be much of an accomplishment for some, but it was very quick for me. The humor expressed in Ms. Hanff's letters is endearing as are the relationships she develops over the years. This was super quick, and very sweet.

 

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

I went into Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire knowing only that it came highly recommended by someone I follow on social media. And I knew it was short. The last couple of years, I haven't been reading as much as I used to and sometimes a girl just needs to mark a few off the list to get going again. This book is 169 pages and took no time at all to read. Listed as YA Fiction and nominated for Best Fantasy in 2016, I was flipping those pages.

Nancy has been sent away to a boarding school for children who have experienced an unusual circumstance: they all went missing for a time and returned telling outlandish stories or refusing to say where they had been and what had happened to them at all. Nancy's parents hope that she will get the help she needs and go back to the daughter they remember, one who wore colorful clothes and who didn't freeze in place for no discernable reason. Where does Nancy say she was? Well, in the Underworld, of course. At this new school, she meets other children that the world doesn't understand and finds a broad cast of characters who believe her.

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't realize it was YA before I picked it up, and I haven't read as much YA lately, but I really liked it. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective, this is the first in a series that currently has eight installments. I don't usually like to get caught up in a lengthy series, but for this one, I'll at least give it a few more and see how it goes from there. I've already picked up the next one from the library! 

 

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

 

Someone I follow on TikTok loved and was frequently recommending Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney. I like to try new things so I thought, why not?

It begins with these three things you should know about the narrator:

1. I'm in a coma

2. My husband doesn't love me anymore.

3. Sometimes I lie.

So, we know going into it that we have an unreliable narrator. Some people love an unreliable narrator, but I'm not usually one of those. I feel like I spend so much time trying to figure out where the lies and secrets are that I miss out on the story. Of course, unraveling the mystery before getting to the end of the book is some people's favorite part of reading, so clearly, it is just personal preference.

In this book, we meet Amber Reynolds who is, as she said, in a coma. The interesting bit is that she can actually hear everything going on around her: the nurses, her husband, her sister. She also has plenty of time to tell the reader about how she got herself into this situation, even if she doesn't exactly remember the most important part of it. The story is told in two timelines, her current coma state, and the before, the few days leading up to the coma. We also read diary entries from 1992.

This book certainly kept my attention, but I wouldn't say it was all good attention. There were some very disturbing scenes, and it is impossible to know whom to trust. However, it did a good job of ending each scene in such a way that it felt nearly impossible to not keep reading. For me, it was okay. I liked that it was a speedy read, but mysteries/psychological thrillers aren't my favorite genre. If you like a twisty, turny tale of family drama and vendettas, you might like this one more than I did. 

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

 

Love & Saffron by Kim Fay is a sweet little book that the author intended to be read in one sitting. Consisting almost exclusively of letters back and forth between two women of very different circumstances, it is easy to rip through it. Joan is a young, single woman finding her way in the world and Imogen is the married, middle-aged columnist to whom Joan sends what is essentially a fan letter. Along with the letter, she sends a sample of saffron for Imogen to try. Thus begins a pen pal friendship that changes both of their lives.

I didn't quite read this in one sitting, but it was pretty fast for me. I have always had friends of various age groups and so I particularly enjoyed the way the women were able to relate to one another despite their very different lives. Joan is looking down the road at her future and Imogen is looking back, remembering, while also not giving up on a future of her own.

I really liked this darling story and I think you will, too.

The Spectacular by Fiona Davis

 

This month's book club pick is The Spectacular by Fiona Davis. In 2022, we read The Lions of New York, which was very good so I was happy we were revisiting her. Davis sets all her books focused on New York landmarks and this one stars Radio City Music Hall and The Rockettes in 1956. Marion is a dance teacher who still wants more and when she learns about auditions to join the famous Rockettes, she figures she has nothing to lose. Well, except maybe her father's approval. This also happens to be during a streak of bombings all around New York that the police haven't been able to solve.

I enjoyed this book even more than I did our previous choice. Davis does a wonderful job of researching actual events and tying them into her own story that it would be easy to believe it all really happened. The only frustration I had was at the very beginning of the book, the narrator is 36 years older and recalling her time as a dancer. When she mentions that she is 55 years old, it pulled me out of the story because everything up to that point had me believing she was in her 80s. The description makes her sound so old and perhaps it is showing my own advancing age, but 55 doesn't seem all that old to me, especially considering the 55-year-olds that I know.

Otherwise, the characters are compelling, there is both family and societal drama, and it is fun to learn about how such an elite performance group makes the magic happen. I think you'll like this one, SmartGirls!

The Rise of Magicks by Nora Roberts

 

I've just finished reading the third book in the Nora Roberts The One series, The Rise of Magicks. I think I've mentioned before that fantasy isn't really my favorite genre, but this series was easy to read. The characters were compelling enough to keep me turning the pages and I never felt like the story got bogged down with world-building. By the end of this book, I even stopped getting snagged on the superfluous K in the word magick.

I haven't ever read any other Nora Roberts, so I can't say how this compares to her other books, but it was enjoyable enough. If you are a fantasy reader, you might like to give this one a chance. The story wraps up nicely. Love is found, evil is vanquished, families and home are the best place to be. 

Now I'm off to put my nose to the grindstone, or actually, in a book. I have a huge stack that came in at the library all at once! Happy reading, Smart Girls!