Coal River

Coal River is the story of a small mining town of the same name during the early twentieth century. When New Yorker Emma Malloy is orphaned and forced to move in with her aunt and uncle in Coal River, she is appalled by what she sees. Both mine and town are run by owner Hazard Flint, a greedy, uncaring tyrant who doesn't seem to understand that the people who work for him are, well, people. The grinding poverty of the miners' families and the danger they face sicken Emma, but worst of all is the plight of the breaker boys. Boys as young as 6 are sent to work in the breaker sorting coal until their fingers bleed and interacting with machinery that maims and kills with a terrifying frequency.

Emma vows to help the breaker boys anyway she can, even if that means drawing the ire of her aunt and uncle (not to mention Flint) and putting herself in danger.

Ellen Marie Wiseman does an admirable job of reminding us of the horrors of the coal mining industry in the early twentieth century with this novel. She lost me a bit at the end though. Without giving away any spoilers, let's just say that the end of the book veers off into fairy tale land which is made even more jarring by how realistic the rest of the book was. Or perhaps that was Wiseman's aim? To make us think about how conditions were so deplorable back then that it would take a miracle to change them all at once? Or maybe some authors will just go to any length to create a happy ending for their characters, realism be damned. At any rate, though the ending was a miss for me, Coal River is an excellent book overall.

Coal River is a book that anyone who questions the need for unions and workplace regulations needs to read. It seems that the farther away from the days before these things existed in any meaningful form, the more we forget how necessary they are or how dangerous powerful people can be when they are purely motivated by greed. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Landline

Another day, another Rainbow Rowell review...

I am so happy to report that I have finally found a Rainbow Rowell book that I really liked! I still don't totally get the hype over this writer, but I am at least happy to learn that she can in fact create a plot and finish a story!

So, Landline is the story of a marriage in crisis. Georgie and Neal have been married for nearly 15 years and I think it's safe to say that Neal's pretty much over being the one to make all the sacrifices in the relationship. When Georgie decides that she has to work over Christmas, Neal takes their two daughters and flies home to Omaha without her. Georgie is left behind to figure out what's really important and to decide if she is willing to do what it takes to save her marriage.

Pretty straightforward, grown-up stuff, right? Well, the twist is that Georgie discovers that she has a magic phone that can somehow call 15-years-ago Neal and, using this phone over the course of a week, learns a lot about her husband, her marriage and herself. I don't know how to make that sentence not sound silly and insane, but trust me when I tell you that, somehow, it works.

Rowell does a great job with this book. I would love to see her apply this level of story-telling to her Young Adult novels as well. If she could do that, I could easily see her becoming a favorite.

Fangirl

So this is the part where I make some enemies.

You guys. I don't get Rainbow Rowell. I mean, I don't get the hype. She's an ok writer. She creates great characters, for sure. But where's the plot? Why don't her endings ever feel like endings? I swear, it's like she just lost interest after a few hundred pages and said, "Welp, that's enough. You can imagine the rest." There's not enough resolution.

I don't know. I don't hate her or anything. As a matter of fact, I just picked up another of her books (Landline) at the library today and fully intend to spend the afternoon reading it out on my patio.

I just finished Fangirl this week. It's been on my TBR shelf for a while, but I just hadn't gotten around to it. It was ok. A perfectly serviceable coming of age story about Cath, a girl who is really into writing fanfiction about a faux-Harry Potter series. At first I identified with Cath - she's pretty clearly got some anxiety issues that manifested in ways I could relate to. As the book went on though, Cath turned into something of a caricature. She's passive and reclusive and pushes the boundaries of what I can believe when it comes to being a late-bloomer. (she starts dating a guy she's already kissed and then doesn't let him so much as give her a peck on the cheek for over a month? really? really?)

The thing is, Fangirl didn't have much plot. Cath leaves home to go to college. Deals with her identical twin not wanting to room with her. Becomes friends with her somewhat intimidating roommate, gets a boyfriend, deals with family drama and bam. The book is over. There are enough loose ends to take up a whole second book. For instance: what's going to happen with Cath and Wren's mom? Is their dad really ok now? Or is he just going to continue an endless cycle of stable then manic then stable then manic periods for the rest of their lives? Is Wren going to be ok or is she going to turn into a full-on alcoholic?

Rowell spends hundreds of pages building this world and creating these characters and then just walks away from them. I don't get it. Why do people love her so much?

October Wrap-Up and November TBR

I'm a little late on this so I'm going to combine what would have been two posts into one.

I didn't get through my whole October TBR list - priorities and review deadlines kept shifting, along with my interests. I  ended up reading One Hundred Names, Coal River, Hollie Porter Builds a Raft, Ghostly, Firsts, Mrs. John Doe, The Girl on the Train, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne's House of Dreams.Whew!

My favorites for October were definitely the Anne books. It's been such a joy to go back and re-read these stories that had such an impact on me in childhood and find that, for the most part, they've held up wonderfully. My favorite new book for October was Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (and I'm not just saying that because Flynn thanked me for my review when I posted about it on Instagram!). Sadly, it's not out until January, but I'm telling you, it'll be worth the wait.

Now, on to November... This month I've been blessed with an absolute TON of advance copies for review so I'll be a busy bee! Look for reviews on Coal River, by Ellen Marie Wiseman; Avenue of Mysteries, by John Irving; and Now That She's Gone, by Gregg Olsen. I'll also be attempting to finish off the rest of the Anne books. I'm most of the way through Anne of Ingleside now, so I don't think it's going to be much of a problem.

I started Now That She's Gone last night and I'm really enjoying it so far. I read Coal River in October and can't wait to tell you all about it. It publishes on 11/24 so look for my review in the next few weeks. As for Avenue of Mysteries... John Irving is one of my all-time favorites so I cannot wait to get started on that one.

Ghostly

Ghostly is a wonderful little collection of spooky stories edited and illustrated by Audrey Niffeneger (The Time Traveler's Wife).

There's something for everyone in this collection - from creepy stories to funny ones. There are tales that are heartbreaking and others that are just plain odd. Standouts for me were The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe, Honeysuckle Cottage by P.G. Wodehouse, The Mezzotint by M.R. James, The Open Window by Saki and August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

One Hundred Names

Cecelia Ahern is one of those hit-or-miss authors for me. Sometimes she's fantastic (PS I Love You, Love, Rosie) sometimes... not so much (The Book of Tomorrow, If You Could See Me Now) and sometimes she's in-between (The Gift).

One Hundred Names is a definite hit for Ahern's resume, as far as I'm concerned. It's the story of Kitty Logan, a journalist who's hitting rock bottom. She's just epically blown her first major story, she's about to be kicked out of her apartment and her best friend and mentor, Constance, has just died.

Just before Constance's death, she tells Kitty about the story she never wrote, the one that got away, so to speak. She directs Kitty to a file that contains a list of one hundred names and nothing else. Kitty instinctively feels that this will be the story that brings her career back - if she can only figure out what it is.

One Hundred Names is a beautiful and fun book about the story that lives in each of us, no matter how boring and everyday we may seem to the casual observer.

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

Dahlia Moss has issues - she's a broke, unemployed, directionless mess. She's that annoying, whiny millennial stereotype we all love to hate and yet... there's something kind of adorable about her. When she bites off way more than she can chew and goes off looking for The Bejeweled Spear of Infinite Piercing, you can't help but root for her, even as you roll your eyes and groan at her impulsive stupidity.

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss is not a serious book. It does not contain the answers to any of life's big questions and it will not leave you thinking deep, existential thoughts. What it does contain is a lot of humor and a LOT of fantastically geeky references and in-jokes.

Max Wirestone has done a great job creating the characters of Dahlia Moss's world and I hope my hunch that this is the first in a series is right - I would love love love to read more stories about Dahlia and her insane roommate Charice. Also, (spoiler alert) some resolution on the guy front would be nice too!

I really have to thank Redhook Books for providing me with an advance reader copy of this one - the timing could not have been better. I had to rush back home recently for a funeral and this was the perfect book to bring along - it was light and funny and just plain goofy. It absolutely took my mind off of all the sad stuff I had to deal with and kept me distracted through drama with my flight(s) on my trip from hell.