Falling by T.J. Newman

In T.J. Newman's Falling, veteran airline captain Bill Hoffman boards his flight as usual. Nothing seems out of place except that his wife was upset he had picked up the trip when he was supposed to be at his son's baseball game. When he gets a call from her in-flight, the face time image that comes through doesn't make any sense: she is strapped to a suicide vest and she and their children are gagged. A terrorist has taken his family hostage and presented Bill with a choice: his family or the plane full of passengers.

This book was a thriller true to its name. I could NOT put it down. I had so many things to do yesterday, but I was convinced that if I stopped reading the plane would fall right out of the air. Newman is a flight attendant and her experience shows through in the details of this breath-catching adventure. I don't usually love thrillers, but this one really had me. The characters were wonderfully written and impossible not to love. As a reader, I was genuinely concerned for their survival. The whole time I kept thinking if they don't turn this into a movie they are just throwing money away. I was happy to read that the film rights have been awarded to Universal Pictures. I will be anxiously waiting with money in my hand at the box office window.

Read this book, but be sure to fasten your seatbelt first!

 

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

It's February and even here in the Sunny Southwest, it's a bit chilly and gray. What could be better for that than a super fun vacation read?! (Other than an actual vacation, obviously.) This month's book club pick is Emily Henry's People We Meet on Vacation and it was great! Poppy and Alex have been best friends since college, and they've built a tradition of going on summer trips. Some of those trips have been on a shoestring budget and some have been quite luxurious, but they've all been memorable and fun until the last one when something terrible happened and they didn't speak for nearly two years.

Henry makes us wait a really long time before revealing what happened, but the tension is well-woven throughout the story without being over the top. Poppy and Alex are both wonderfully drawn characters, and they are joined by a darling crew of people they meet along the way. Poppy is funny and sarcastic while Alex is tightly controlled but comes loose with Poppy's prodding.

I really liked this book. It was cute. It was fun. It got me through a few dreary winter days dreaming about how it is time to plan a Girls' Trip. This book would be great for reading by the pool or at the beach this summer, but there is really no need to wait. I really think you're going to like it no matter where you read it.

 

Dava Shastri's Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti

Oh, SmartGirls! I have just finished reading the most wonderful book! Dava Shastri's Last Day by Krithana Ramisetti is absolutely fantastic. Dava Shastri is a wealthy philanthropist whose life's purpose has been to make her own name synonymous with giving and making the world a better place. When the time comes for the end of her life, she gathers her family around her and reflects on whether or not she has been successful. Her four children, their spouses, and their children are all together on the family island in the year 2044. There is love, there is disagreement, there is grief.

These are the most wonderfully written characters. They are all beautifully flawed and all trying to live up to the extremely high expectations of Dava, herself included. Told in memories and flashbacks to the early twenty-first century that feel more like current events, the reader is pulled into an easily imaginable world that hasn't quite happened yet. This book is beautiful and thought-provoking, and it had me wondering what my own "going away party" might be like if I were given the opportunity to plan it someday. 

I know we are only midway through February, but this could easily be the best book I read all year. My only regret is that I didn't save this for a book club selection. The discussion among friends would be magnificent.

I love this book and I hope you will, too.

 

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

A friend at work had just finished reading Colleen Hoover's It Ends with Us, and she could not stop raving about how good it was. The Goodreads reviews were also out of this world, so when she brought it to me the day after she finished and said I needed to read it, too, I couldn't say no.

Lily is a thirty-year-old woman living in Boston and dreaming of opening her own business when she meets Ryle. Their chance encounter on the rooftop of a building where she does not live eventually leads to an unexpected relationship. This story alternates with Lily reading her own journals from when she was sixteen. We get to see both young Lily and grown Lily. She makes some of the same mistakes; she's learned a lot and become an independent woman. When things in her own relationship begin to mirror some of the dark parts of the home in which she grew up, it is hard for her to accept.

I don't want to give any spoilers, but I do want to give a warning that there is a fair amount of physical domestic abuse portrayed in this book. It was hard to read those parts, but they felt very real rather than dramatized for the reader's entertainment. 

Overall, I thought this was a good book. I was worried at the beginning because the writing felt a little superficial. The first half of the book could be categorized as a romance which isn't a genre I usually enjoy. And I know I'm going to catch flack for this, but Ryle... is a stupid name. Why do books like this always have characters will stupid names? I know- I'm no fun, but I stand by this statement. Names aside, the characters were well developed and really likable. I was especially fond of Lily's new best friend Alyssa. This was a very fast read and if you think you can handle reading the scenes with violence, it will be worth your time.

 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

If you enjoyed reading The Martian by Andy Weir, I think you will really like Project Hail Mary. Ryland Grace is all alone in space and he has no idea how he got there, where he's going, or even his own name. Slowly the memories return and he realizes he has a mission vital to the survival of the human race. Alternating between his current situation and the brief clips of memories, we learn all about this project at which the whole Earth has thrown everything they have. Light years from home, and completely on his own, Grace has to solve the possibly unsolvable.

I really enjoyed the adventure in this book. The storyline was great, but I thought some of the science could have been edited down a bit. I'm not suggesting removing it all, but it felt like unnecessary exposition that was left in purely to prove the calculations had been done. I love science and I am fascinated by all the things I don't know, but I will admit to skimming a fair few pages of this book.

I liked the way the story was told with flashbacks to the leadup to outer space. If it had been told linearly, it may have gotten boring, but not so with the alternating timeline. I am reluctant to say more about what I loved in this book for fear of spoilers, so I'll just recommend you read it on your own. Also, I am so excited that a film version is already in the works and starring Ryan Gosling. That is a movie I'll definitely want to see. I really hope they do a good job with it!

 

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

Being brutally honest about oneself is rarely easy, but that is the requirement in The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley. Monica owns a struggling cafe in London and when she finds a small notebook left behind on one of her tables, she opens it to determine the owner. What she finds is a journal entry outlining the Authenticity Project: write your story, be completely honest, then leave it for the next person. The eclectic group of people who end up adding to the notebook are fantastic. We have an elderly artist, a mommy blogger, a gorgeous traveler, a tired nanny, and a few others thrown in for fun.

Would you do it? Would you write out your truest story of yourself and then pass it on for someone else to read? Some people do it every day on social media. Some people are anonymous about it and others stand smack in the middle of the spotlight and never fear the opinions of others. Then the question is: who reads it? Total strangers who will never know you in real life are very different than the neighbor who lives down the street.

I really liked this book. The characters were flawed, but aren't we all? There was love and kindness and a sense of community I crave, especially in these times of social distance. I know some people struggle with a book with multiple points of view, but I think this one is handled well and the voices are distinct enough that it isn't difficult to keep up with the narrators. I hope you like it!

 

The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson was a sweet book to start 2022. It follows June who has worked at the local village library for years. June is a quiet young woman who took over her mother's job at the library and lives in the home her mother left behind when she died. She gave up her dreams of university and a career as a writer when her mother was sick, and she's never gone back. Now, her beloved library is threatened by bureaucracy. The council wants to close the library and sell the building; a mobile library will have to suffice. June is heartbroken, as are her many library patrons who have come to depend on the innumerable services the library provides. Encouraged by these people who have become her makeshift family, June begins to fight for the library's future, but it may cost her job in the process.

This book is darling. June is a sheltered, sad character, and it is sweet to watch her grow. The assorted characters that join with her, and the few that fight on the other side, are fun to read and full of heart. I love how well this book highlights the many functions libraries perform. It's not all about checking out books. There are so many forms of media that people find useful as well as help with government forms, the use of technology, and a sense of community. I love my library and I've missed being able to spend more time in it the last two years. Libraries are a wonderful resource and a gift to our communities that I fully support. I hope you will do the same.