Anne Hart

What would you do for your sibling?  In Keeper of the Night by Kylie Lee Baker, the love a brother has for his half-sister is out of this world, literally.  The dark fantasy/horror/thriller is set in 1890s Britain and Japan.  But the story gives insight into worldwide folklore surrounding death and the idea of Death personified.  Death is one thing every single person in this world has in common.  Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough is a tormented girl.  She’s unloved by her father and stepmother.  She’s bullied for being biracial.  And she’s harboring her secret magical powers.  She does know the amazing true love of her stepbrother Neven.  For all the torment and darkness in the story, Neven is hopeful, loving, and empathetic.  Ren flees Britain to go to Japan to find her mother.  Neven goes with her just because he loves her.  The venture to Yokohama.  They meet the Goddess of Death...

Have you read a WWII historical fiction from a German’s point of view?  The German Wife by Debbie Rix is a disturbing German perspective on World War II.  I loved the straight chronological narrative by Annaliese’s perspective of being a German around 1939.  Annaliese is a young woman who is swept off her feet by Hans. He’s a doctor wanting to do research.  He sees Hitler’s regime as a way to be able to further his medical research.  He wants to find a homeopathic cure for malaria.  He gets caught up in the violence and depravity that was the Nazis' goal.  Hans pressures Annaliese to be a good German hausfrau and have children.  Then a Russian prisoner named Alexander is sent from Dachau to work in their garden.  Anna’s story then takes a big twist and then after the war ends, yet an even bigger twist occurs.  Then in 1989 the past once again haunts Annaliese and her unknowing son.  We can’t ever escape the past.  Annali...

What would your stage name be if you were a stripper?  I’m going with Aquamarine since colors seems to be popular.  In Marie Rutkoski’s Real Easy we get to know the inner world of a strip club.  Samantha aka Ruby is a stripper in 1999 at the Lovely Lady.  She’s such an awesome person.  An amazing stepmom, loving girlfriend, adored daughter, and a caring coworker.  She also suffers from a medical condition in which she doesn’t have female hormones, so she takes medications to keep her more feminine qualities.  We get to know a handful of strippers who all have colorful lives which we get to appreciate through the chapters they narrate.  One of the strippers gets killed and another is missing.  In the investigation into the murder and disappearance, we also get to know, Detective Holly Meylin, an investigator whose son died when her husband leaves him in a hot car.  She’s traumatized but keeps going the best she can.  Holly see...

I didn’t want to finish this book about 1/3 of the way in, but I finished it for Bookclub.  Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn is a look at the folklore of Hawaii.  I loved learning about the different gods, their connection to the land, and the struggles of indigenous Hawaiians.  A family of 5 lives on Honoka struggles to make ends meet even though both Mom and Dad (Augie and Malia) work.  The three siblings (Dean, Kaui, and Nainoa) have the usual sibling rivalries.  Nainoa (Noa) has healing powers which the parents take advantage of by collecting payment from those who come to be healed.  Noa’s gift is also a curse for him though.  The story was just long and drawn out.  It had all sorts of intricacies on the 4 other family members' lives which were irrelevant to the ultimate storyline.  The mother’s story is told in the second person which was weird.  The book also has odd sex scenes.  It was interestin...

How do you know if a suicide was really a murder?  The Cage by Bonnie Kistler is part murder mystery, part legal thriller, and part human rights drama.  Shay Lambert has worked hard to go to college and law school.  She’s smart, married, career-oriented, and overall a perfectly flawed woman.  She works long hours wading through boxes of documents to produce in a shareholder lawsuit against the iconic fashion mogul she works for named CDMI.  Their corporate symbol is the dove complete with caged live doves in the corporate headquarters.  When leaving work late one Sunday, the corporate HR person, Lucy, gets on the elevator with her.  The lights go out and Lucy gets shot in the head.  Shay says it was suicide.  Detective Riley starts getting fed red herrings by corporate counsel Barrett to think it was actually murder.  The trap works and Shay is in jail charged with murder and unable to make bail.  The characters she meets in ...

Do you like to be alone or around other people?  I’m a people person.  In The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, the main character Nina likes to be alone.  She has severe anxiety.  Her life revolves around the bookstore, her cat, trivia competitions, and her planner.  She talks to her cat named Phil and she mimics him talking back.  Nina's planner is a character in itself.  She has two coworkers Polly and Liz who keep her in check with their witty banter.  The trivia competitions were hilarious.  She meets Tom.  She likes him but likes being alone also.  Her life is interrupted when She learns the identity of her father.  She was raised by her nanny, Lou, as her famous photographer mother traveled.  He has died leaving her innumerable sisters and brothers with ages ranging from fifty-nine to ten.  She also gains many nieces and nephews.  It was fun watching her and others learn the things they had ...

The admission of guilt from the outset of Helena (Lena) Gereghty set the stage for this creepy book.  Often when a book calls itself “gothic”, I find myself disappointed by the lack of darkness.  When I first started reading Lena’s story, I was worried I’d be disappointed.  I was not disappointed, I was blown away.  Lena descends into a darkness that was mesmerizing and inspirational at the same time.  She becomes a “physician’s assistant”  for the famous Verdeaus family empire.  Although she’s supposed to be helping care for the sickly son  Jonathan, her real job is to help the self-destructive party guests at Arrow’s Edge.  I loved the spooky aura created at Arrow’s Edge.  The secrets Lena learns not just about what occurs at Arrow’s Edge but also about the patriarch, Martin, help the darkness engulf Lena.  It makes Lena perfectly flawed, lovable, and frustrating.  The tie-in of Lena’s work with her Aunt in botany was...

How many years does a couple need to be married before throwing an anniversary party?  In Wildcat by Amelia Morris, the story begins with Leanne going to her friend Regina’s 4th Wedding Anniversary party.  It was so fun that Regina is the dramatic, privileged friend just like the character Regina George in the 2004 movie Mean Girls.  The dramatics just move on from there in an uproarious conglomeration of events.  These bougie women are fun to laugh at and shake your head at.  Leanne is a new mother who also has her first published book hitting the shelves soon.  She’s promoting her book and dealing with mundane middle-class issues.   It’s a fast read and pokes fun at social media in a way that made me laugh without feeling guilty.  I love social media, but it does have different effects on different people.  My favorite parts involved an author, Maxine.  Leanne admires her and it was so fun to see the connection between them of r...

This book is a neat look at art during WWII as the Nazi soldiers “invade”.  The story starts in Rome in 1943.  Art lover, Marina Tozzi, helps her father run an art gallery there.  Her father is killed for harboring a Jewish artist.  Marina flees to Florence’s Villa I Tatti, owned by her father’s friend, American Bernard Berenson. He has accumulated a collection of artwork that he wants to protect and eventually donate to Harvard.  Also at the villa is  Belle da Costa Greene, the famed librarian who curated J.P. Morgan’s library.   I read The Personal Librarian which is a book about Belle’s work at J.P. Morgan’s library.  The way I pictured Belle while reading The Personal was completely different than how I pictured her in A Girl During the War.  Belle works beside Marina as Bernard sneaks art pieces to Switzerland. The next-door neighbor Carlos becomes a love interest of Marina’s.  He disappears though.  At the end of the bo...

What behind-the-scenes woman do you think is the glue that keeps things together?  There are so many it’s hard to even list.  I have to start with my sisters: one is a speech pathologist for nonverbal autistic pediatric patients, one is a psychologist, and the other is a public health professor. International Woman’s Day is also the book birthday of Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo in which it is the women who are the true fabric of society.  The book is a beast, a book to be reckoned with just like all females.  It’s an allegorical tale inspired by Animal Farm to remind us that power corrupts and changes people with the best of intentions.   In the mythical nation of Jidada the Father of the Nation, Old Horse can’t even stay awake to give a speech.  Yet his wife, Dr. Sweet Mothe r stands by his side fearlessly.  Besides Dr. Sweet, there is the amazing character Destiny.  Destiny Lozikeyi Khumalo is a goat who returns to Jidada to face her traged...

What is your favorite sister relationship portrayed in a book?  My old-time favorite was the sisters in Little Women.  Recently it was the sisters in The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth.  I love sister stories so I was excited for False Witness by Karin Slaughter.  I’ve read a few of her books but this one felt different.  I loved Leigh and Callie with their complicated sister relationship.  Callie is a drug addict employed part-time at a vet surgery.  She works there so she can get drugs.  Leigh is a criminal defense attorney.  While Leigh’s work is inundated with face masks or hand sanitizer, it’s as if they don’t exist in Callie’s.  Yet Callie is still suffering the after-effects of The virus.  There’s a constant internal dialogue going on because their past has come back to haunt them.  Callie was brutally raped and beaten by a monster named Buddy.  The times the scene is repeated in the book feels like hundreds....

Have you ever stood up for someone at work?  In When Darkness Comes by John Anthony Miller one of the main characters, Rachel does this not just to her boss but also to the French Police and the Nazi officers!  (the epic scene is on page 122) And she’s only 16!  I loved this historical fiction set in France during WWII.  Several things set this book apart from all the other historical fiction WWII books.  First, the dynamic duo cousins named Paul and Claire.  Not many books celebrate cousins and this one beautifully portrays their familial love from the time they were children romping in the fields to adults fighting the Nazi occupiers in France.  Second, not many books give you the perspective of the “bad guy” yet in When Darkness Comes we meet the astute businessman Julian Junot.  This deeply layered character will have you in tears.  Third, the strong heroine Rachel shows not just self-sacrifice but self-love.  She reminded me ...

The intrigue with words and how one simple word can change a story had me from the start.  In PANDORA’S JAR, @nataliehaynesauthor  takes a historical look at 10 women featured in Greek mythology.  I loved her book A Thousand Ships and I’m hoping the research in this book on Medusa inspired Natalie Haynes to write a book featuring the snake-headed femme fatale.  Thank you, Partner  @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial   Synopsis: In Pandora’s Jar, the broadcaster, writer, stand-up comedian, and passionate classicist turns the tables, putting the women of the Greek myths on an equal footing with the men. With wit, humor, and savvy, Haynes revolutionizes our understanding of epic poems, stories, and plays, resurrecting them from a woman’s perspective and tracing the origins of their mythic female characters. She considers Helen of Troy, whose marriage to Paris “caused” the Trojan war—a somewhat uneven response to her decision to leave her husba...

Do you name your cars/bikes/modes of transportation?  I named mine the White Knight.  In The Valley and the Flood, the main character Rose names her car Stanley.  I picked this book up purely because of the cover.  I didn’t realize it was YA fantasy.   Rose gets stranded in the desert thanks to Stanley breaking down.  She walks to a little town Lotus Valley.  It’s a year since Rose’s best friend Gaby died and all of a sudden Rose starts rehearing the last voicemail her friend left her.  The part of the story which takes place in Lotus Valley is weird thanks to several “prophets”.  One of them named Cassie has predicted Rose is going to cause their Valley to flood.  Rose starts seeing things within the landscape. Thanks to counseling, Rose has some methods to deal with her fears and the things she sees.  The book is weird and some things are so beautifully written that you appreciate the weirdness.  I enjoyed this odd lit...

  Did you stop and smell the roses today?  According to Gigi/Celeste, you should “always remember to stop and smell the roses”, p. 45.  Hello, Goodbye is a multi-generational story about loss, first love, family, and friendship.  15-year-old Hailey befriends her grandmother, Gigi in the summer she will never forget.  This read is for teens and adults alike who appreciate the lessons adults can learn from teens and the wisdom adults can impart to teens. Gigi and Hailey try to solve their family secrets that have caused trauma for three generations.  The wit and witticisms of Gigi are imparted in a way Hailey can appreciate.  This isn’t the type of young adult book written by an adult through rose-tinted glasses to tell teens to appreciate their family.  This is an emotional story written in retrospect by an adult who remembers exactly what it’s like to be a teenager.  Lovers of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzg...