Tag: family

The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak

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“Every parent’s an unreliable narrator. We think we know our kids better than anyone. But none of us can see them objectively.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

Have you ever read a review quote that perfectly sums up a book? Grady Hendrix said the following about The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak: “The ultimate middle-class Dad battles the 1% for his daughter’s soul in the best thriller I’ve read all year.” This review quote captures my latest read perfectly!

Frank hasn’t talked to his daughter Maggie in three years, so he’s noticeably shocked and excited when she calls him out of the blue. His shock is even more amplified when Maggie announces that she is engaged and she wants Frank to come to her wedding in New Hampshire this upcoming summer. Full of dreams and hope, Frank eagerly accepts, envisioning a perfect future with Maggie and her new husband. He has a second chance to make things right.

Things starts to fall apart gradually. When Frank first meets Maggie’s fiance, he is shocked. Maggie is marrying into an incredibly wealthy family. Her husband-to-be is Aidan, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Aidan has no interest in meeting Frank however. He shows up late to dinner and spends the entire evening brooding and drinking as much as possible. Hoping his reaction is due to circumstances outside his control, Frank keeps attempting to bond with Aidan.

Months later, when Frank arrives at the wedding venue, he discovers that the wedding is taking place at a private estate. Osprey Cove is secluded, luxurious, and staffed by armed guards who patrol the perimeter fence. Staff swarm the grounds preparing for the pre-wedding activities. Feeling completely out of his depth, Frank decides that he is going to spend this time reconnecting with Maggie and working to learn more about her new family. This is increasingly difficult as Maggie has a million wedding tasks to complete, Aidan is constantly disappearing, and Aidan’s mother is locked in her bedroom recovering from a debilitating migraine. Frank is also confused as he discovers that the locals are hostile to the Gardners due to the disappearance of a local woman. Who is telling the truth? The more Frank starts to poke around, the more he realizes all the secrets that are hiding. His quest to learn more about the Gardners could cost him any relationship with Maggie. Should he keep searching? Or live in the dark? How far is he willing to go?

Hidden Pictures by this same author was my favorite book of 2022, so my expectations were high when I learned he had a new book coming out in October 2024. While I enjoyed The Last One at the Wedding, it didn’t live up to my Hidden Pictures expectations. That didn’t stop my deep enjoyment of all the twists and turns. This book is full of suspicions, red herrings, and plot changes that had me on the edge of my seat. Highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a domestic suspense thriller full of tension, family drama, and conspiracy.

“Everyone has a story. Some of us are better at telling it than others.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

This title is also available in large print.

The Singer Sisters by Sarah Seltzer

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I have noticed an uptick in historical fiction about music bands, something that I attribute to the popularity of Daisy Jones & The Six, both the book and television show. The latest band historical fiction hitting the new shelves is The Singer Sisters by Sarah Seltzer. This dual timeline follows Emma Cantor in 1996 and her mother Judie in the 1960s.

Emma is an alt-rocker desperate to make her name known on tour. She wants a record deal, but also struggles with performing against the legacy of the other famous singers in her family: her mother, aunt, and father(and her brother a little bit). Her mother Judie knows how hard it is to be on the road and wants to save Emma the heartbreak that path will bring, but Emma is determined to figure things out on her own, so she ignores her mother’s advice and heads out singing.

Flashback to the 1960s. Judie and her sister, Sylvia, want to have their own musical careers without their parents’ interventions. Eventually the two, with help from some others, become the famous Singer Sisters, a folk band that traveled, played, and wrote music everywhere.

Jodie and Emma’s relationships with each other and other members of their family and friend group shift throughout the years. Betrayals abound, family secrets are revealed, and loyalties are tested. While the premise of this book was great, I found myself not connecting to the characters as much as I expected. I finished The Singer Sisters because I wanted to see how each character ended up and was slightly invested, but there wasn’t much that pulled me in. Hopefully it’s a better experience for you all!

Brothers

- Bill Leave a comment

Entertain the Nazis, join them, or die.  Those were the options presented to professional clarinet and saxophone player Jan Van Halen during the German occupation of Holland. If he hadn’t opted for oom pa pa, his genetics tragically wouldn’t have propagated.  Post war, the Dutchman moved to colonial Indonesia for greener musical pastures.  His nascent family began with Eugenia before the two trekked to California with a shred of English and two grade school boys in tow.

America was not the touted land of plenty for Alex and little Edward. The patriarch perpetually struggled to make ends meet outside of the occasional gig. Decades before becoming gazillionaires, the family subsisted on his dishwashing and janitor shifts.  Eddie was initially the drummer of the duo while Alex opted for guitar in their hardscrabble Pasadena upbringing. The two found their musical grounding in the form of an exacting four-foot-tall piano instructor called “mom.” Listen to their biggest hit, “Jump” and you’ll see it paid off. The immigrants couldn’t afford cool effects pedals, so Eddie had to engineer sounds the old fashioned way…with his fingers and thousands of hours of practice. A few short months into budget guitars, Dave was already sanding down six-strings – mixing and matching components on the way to his first Frankenstrat.

So which version of the band is your poison? Dave or Sammy? Both? Does it even matter? Van Halen’s meteoric rise to stardom was strapped on the back of Eddie’s blinding speed and virtuoso innovation. Sorry, Dave.  This trajectory was accompanied by the usual occupational hazards – alcoholism, addiction, relapses, divorces, and death. Alex walks us through all 65 years’ worth.  Brothers had the proper amount of tawdry rock and roll tell-all without cheapening the work. The title says it all. The only lasting component of the forty-plus year musical ensemble was the nucleus of namesake Dutch-Indonesian immigrant boys, 6 and 8.  Alex and Ed were thick as thieves, around the world, from the cradle to the grave.  Or, as Ed said, they “fight more than anyone I know, but also get along better than anyone I know.”  Even their former lead singers would agree we’re better for it.

She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica

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“The truth is that social media is an optical illusion. It’s an unreality, it’s the very deliberate version of people’s lives that they want you to see.”
― Mary Kubica, She’s Not Sorry

Meghan Michaels is an ICU nurse and single mom to a teenage girl. Following the divorce from her ex-husband, Meghan and her daughter move to a small apartment relatively close to where she works.

One day, a new patient is admitted to the ICU. This wouldn’t normally be cause for concern except for the fact that this woman is plastered all over the news. Why? Caitlin is in a coma from a traumatic brain injury that she sustained after a fall from a bridge. Was this suicide? Or did someone push her? Meghan would normally keep her distance from her patients, but Caitlin’s actions, her family, and Meghan’s own past lure her in.

On top of dealing with Caitlin, Meghan is also struggling with fallout from her divorce. Looking for help, she heads to a divorce support group. Meghan runs into an old friend from high school who appears to be in an abusive relationship with her husband. Meghan will do anything to help her old friend. Her decision to help means adding another complication to her messy life. Add in someone terrorizing women in her neighborhood and Meghan is extra on edge. She must keep herself and her daughter safe, while also focus on her patient at work. When a witness steps forward saying they know what happened to Caitlin, police swarm the ICU, putting all the staff on edge as they now aren’t sure whether Caitlin jumped or was pushed.

Kubica has crafted a slow burn thriller that had me on the edge of my seat questioning how all the threads would tie together. As is true with most psychological thrillers, this is not a book where you can shift focus while reading. Every detail is important! I can’t wait to see what Mary Kubica comes up with next.

This title is also available in large print and a CD audiobook.

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

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“This world was a terrible place. It gave you people to love and then took them away before you stopped loving them. It made you mean and angry and cruel to those who needed you most. It ground you down until it was all you could do to get through the day. But most of all, it tried to convince you that you were alone in your suffering.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

Sloane Parker is a cheerful librarian in her small town. When she brushes up against Arthur McLachlan, an old man with the power to send the other librarians scurrying away, Sloane takes an instant liking to him. She looks forward to Arthur’s daily visits to the library when she can spar and listen to his insults. Arthur’s visits are consistent and regular every day at the same time. When he doesn’t show up one day, Sloane is instantly concerned. When his absence continues, Sloane is torn. She wants to check up on Arthur, but to do so would put her job in jeopardy. Desperate, Sloane decides to check on Arthur to put her anxiety at bay.

When Sloane arrives at Arthur’s house, she is shocked to see that Arthur has suffered from a medical emergency and is not happy with his care home staff. Sloane inserts herself into Arthur’s life and soon realizes that there are other misfits in her orbit and in Arthur’s life willing to intervene. Sloane starts a book club as a form of intervention for Arthur that eventually becomes a safe space for Sloane and her band of lonely misfits. This group of lonely hearts starts to bond, helping each other and making sure Arthur takes care of himself.

Lucy Gilmore has written complex characters with deep storylines and even deeper issues. This story is heartwarming highlighting quality character development and superb writing quality. The Lonely Hearts Book Club is split into multiple points of view which allows readers to learn more about characters’ actions. This book pulled on my heart strings with its incredible insight, easy readability, and sharp wit. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena

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Do you keep a list of what you’re reading? I do! When looking over my list recently, I noticed that it’s been a while since I read a psychological thriller. For my latest read, I turned to Shari Lapena, a psychological thriller writer, and her 2023 book, Everyone Here is Lying. This domestic suspense title is quickly paced, well-written, and ripe with suspicion. The author switches between multiple points-of-view which adds layers to this book, making readers unsure of who is actually telling the truth and what their true motivations are. While some parts of this book had me rolling my eyes, the twist caught me out of nowhere and I didn’t see the ending coming!

Stanhope is a safe neighborhood where nothing bad ever happens. Saying that practically guarantees that something bad is going to happen immediately and destroy many families. Well, the residents of Stanhope are about to have their worlds shattered on the afternoon of a normal Tuesday.

William Wooler is a stand-up guy. He’s a family man, a practicing doctor, but he’s also been having a torrid affair. Every Tuesday for months he’s been meeting his mistress at a motel in town. He thought they would leave their spouses and start a new life. Those plans are shattered when the affair ends horribly at the at motel. Left shattered and angry, William returns home, hoping for silence. His bad mood only worsens when he walks into the house to find his nine-year-old daughter Avery in the kitchen, sent home early from choir practice. Avery is difficult. Their conversation soon turns testy and William lashes out, losing his temper.

Flash forward a couple hours and Avery is declared missing. The community rallies around the Wooler family as they are united in grief over the missing Avery. When the detectives start poking around, they soon realize that Avery’s disappearance isn’t what they thought it was. William isn’t the only one lying. Others in their neighborhood are keeping secrets. When witnesses start coming forward, the detectives must wade through their stories to determine who is telling the truth. They all want the same thing after all. They all want to know who took Avery. They all want Avery to come home safely. Right?

As always, Lapena ends this book leaving you wanting more, yet sadly she writes standalone. You’ll have to come to your own conclusions about what happens to the characters after the book ends!

This title is also available in large print, CD audiobook, and Playaway audiobook.

The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

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“Always know your own weaknesses,” her father told her. “Know them better than your worst enemy and no one will be able to pull the wool over your eyes.”
― Jean Kwok, The Leftover Woman

Two women from vastly different circumstances face impossible choices in Jean Kwok’s newest novel, The Leftover Woman.

Jasmine has arrived in New York City with little money, no family support, and no plan. All she knows is that she needs to get money together to pay off her smugglers so she won’t be forced into servitude. Jasmine escaped her rural Chinese village after learning that her controlling husband had lied to her about her stillborn daughter. Her daughter is actually alive, was taken from Jasmine at birth and sent away. When Jasmine finally finds a steady way to make money in New York City, she knows that her freedom is limited. It’s only a matter of time before her husband tracks her down and drags her back home with him. If she hopes to find her daughter, she must act fast.

Rebecca Whitney is a publishing executive whose high-powered career, adoring husband, and adopted Chinese daughter keep her beyond busy. To help her family stay on track, they have hired a Chinese nanny to make sure their daughter is immersed in her birth culture and to give them some free time. Rebecca is grateful for the nanny, especially when she finds herself part of a publishing scandal that could destroy her career, her family, and the business her father worked so hard to secure. Her family name won’t be enough to shield Rebecca and her family from the disaster lurking in the shadows.

Though Rebecca and Jasmine couldn’t be more different, they face similar issues. Running from their problems won’t work forever, forcing the two to confront their issues in order to move forward. This book is full of unreliable narrators, a staple of this author’s writing style. The characters explore issues of identity, belonging, family, and what it means to be a mother. Economic and cultural differences may separate them, but the issues they face are all similar deep down.

Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice by Eddie Ahn

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Eddie Ahn has crafted Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community and the Fight for Environmental Justice as a way to highlight his life from childhood to adulthood and all the steps in between that led to his work as an environmental justice lawyer and activist.

Eddie was born in Texas to Korean immigrants. His parents opened a store where Eddie grew up working behind the counter and stocking shelves. As he went through school, his parents outlined their expectations for his future. They wanted him to achieve the “American Dream”. Eddie wasn’t sure what he wanted, but he knew that what they wanted for him was different than what he wanted for himself. Eddie eventually moved to San Francisco and earned his law degree. After graduating with his law degree, he had difficulty finding a job in the legal field. He chose instead to opt for experience and entered into the world of nonprofits where he currently still works.

This decision is confusing for his parents, especially after they lose their store and end up divorcing. Describing his work to his parents is time consuming and a let-down as they struggle to understand what exactly he does for work, focusing instead on his monetary wealth. Eddie works hard to make a life for himself, but finds that he may be doing too much. He has too many balls in the air: family expectations, community dreams, professional goals, racial prejudice, burnouts, and economic inequality, amongst a plethora of others. Eddie knows he wants to live a life of service, helping his community with whatever they need. In his nonprofit work as an environmental justice attorney, Eddie spends his days fighting immediate issues as they pop up, ones that have consequences for all from ravaging wildfires to economic and social inequality.

This graphic memoir was profound. Eddie weaves together a narrative involving his personal life and family history with the historical and present fights for environmental justice in communities across the globe, but specifically his work in his local California area. The artwork is incredibly detailed. I appreciated the humorous bits mixed with moments of sadness and victory. All in all, this graphic memoir left me thinking about what more I could be doing with my life.

Continental Drifter by Kathy MacLeod

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Kathy MacLeod talks about belonging in her new middle grade graphic memoir, Continental Drifter.

Kathy has spent most of her life feeling like she’s stuck between two different worlds. Kathy has a Thai mother and an American father, so she’s always felt like she doesn’t quite belong 100% with either group of people. Kathy and her family spend most of the year living in Bangkok. Her father, mother, older sister, and herself all have their own separate corners of the house, seldom spending time together as a family. Her mother works long hours, while her father is retired from the military, but set in his ways. Kathy has a secret though: she’s counting down the days until summer vacation! They are heading back to Maine for the summer to a tiny seaside town where they will visit family, eat local delicacies, and travel the area. Kathy is most excited about going to her first summer camp this year!

Kathy has big hopes that this summer will be when she finally fits in and makes friends. Writing in her diary, she outlines everything she wants to do as well as how she wants her summer to happen. As she and her family leave Bangkok for the twenty-four hour travel journey to Maine, Kathy finds herself getting nervous, but also excited to see what the summer has to offer.

When Kathy arrives at summer camp, she realizes it is nothing what she expected. No matter what she does. she struggles to fit in. She doesn’t look like the other kids and doesn’t know all the pop culture references. Kathy desperately wants to find a place where she fits in. Having pinned all her hopes on this summer camp, she is devastated when she doesn’t instantly click or feel that sense of belonging. If she doesn’t belong in America or Thailand, where will she find her place?

This graphic memoir captures the uneasiness of identity that almost all middle grade children go through. Adding on top of that summer camp insecurities and the challenges of making new friends, both at home and abroad, and the author has written a relatable heart-rending story of how feeling like you don’t belong can impact your life. The art style was also very cute and relatable to the life of an 11-year-old girl. This was a thoughtful read that walks readers trough feelings of ‘otherness’. Continental Drifter doesn’t end perfectly with everyone miraculously fixed and places found, instead it gives readers roads through which to go on their own journey of self-discovery.

The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

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Are you an adult who likes to read young adult books? If so, join the See YA Book Club! In June, we met to discuss The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White. More information about See YA can be found at the bottom of this blog post. Let’s get back to The Chaos of Stars!

Isadora is a normal teen. Well, except for the fact that she is the mortal human daughter of the immortal ancient Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. As a sixteen-year-old, Isadora is annoyed with the drama from her family who can’t even remember her name. When Isis starts having dark dreams that portend deadly chaos in the future, she offers Isadora the opportunity to move to California to live with her brother. Isadora is ecstatic to finally escape her family. California, however, turns out to be more complicated and menacing than anyone expected. While in California, Isadora finds friends, meets a boy she really likes, and confronts her ideas of what she wants out of life vs what her parents expect. She spends her time working, hanging with her friends, and hating her family. As much as Isadora wishes she could escape her family and hopes she has done so by living in California, Egypt continually calls to her. The trouble she thought she left behind comes back deadlier than ever, forcing Isadora to decide what she really wants out of life.

I adored all the tidbits of mythology dropped in the story, which left me hoping for a sequel (sadly, this is a stand-alone title). Isadora is angry and angsty and at times heartless and annoying, but if you step back, you see that she is going through normal teenage growing pains on top of having to deal with a family of gods and goddesses.

This was a relaxing, easy read for me, but I was left wanting more: more information about the Egyptian gods and mythology, more character development. Isadora also adapted very quickly to the modern world, which I felt was unrealistic, but also interesting to watch her learn more about the world outside her family. I also recognize that as an adult, I am not the target audience for this book. While adult Stephanie wanted more, teen Stephanie would have adored and devoured this book.

More Information about See YA

Join our adult book club with a teen book twist. See why so many teen books are being turned into movies and are taking over the best seller lists.

Books are available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Eastern Branch. We meet the first Wednesday of the month at Eastern at 6:30pm.