Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: A Mixed Reading Week

It was another slow reading week for me, but this time it was for a good reason. I took some time off work to visit my mother and to plan her 90th birthday celebration (coming up soon) with one of my brothers.

The long weekend was filled with fun and chores: getting my mother's patio ready for summer, running errands, doing minor house repairs, cooking, eating, and gabbing.

My brother and I organized a holiday lunch for Mother's Day, and it was wonderful to see my cousins and niece and nephew, and it's always great to catch up on everyone's life. I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon, and my mom and I are looking forward to a quiet evening and watching the first episode of the new Little Women series.

What I Read Last Week

Mars Room by Rachel Kushner (Scribner, May 1): I had mixed feelings about this much-buzzed novel about a twenty-something woman, Romy, who is sentenced to two life terms (plus six years) after being convicted of killing a stalker. The women inmates' stories and the descriptions of prison culture and the California justice system, especially for the poor and resourceless, are vivid and heartbreaking. There were no real surprises here (see: Orange Is the New Black), and Kusher pulls no punches when portraying life with no backup or safety net. I had two issues with the book. First, Kushner periodically turns away from Romy to concentrate on several men, including a prison teacher and a dirty cop. Not all of the tangents tied back to the main plot, and thus I found them distracting. Second, is the ending. I won’t spoil the novel, but the last few pages were unsatisfying and too inconclusive. I don’t know what I was expecting to happen, but it wasn’t what I was given. The Mars Room has been getting quite a bit of attention, so you may want to check it out for yourself. I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Simon & Schuster Audio; 9 hr, 41 min), read by the author, for a freelance assignment. While there was nothing really wrong with Rachel Kushner's delivery, I didn't totally buy into her performance. Details will be available through AudioFile magazine.

The High Season by Judy Blundell (Random House, May 22): Based on the publisher's summary, I expected The High Season to be a light beach read with some thriller elements. I was partly wrong. Set on the North Fork (the un-Hampshires) of Long Island, the novel focuses on the transforming summer of Ruthie and Jemma, a mother–daughter pair who live in a beautiful beach house, which they can afford only by renting it out to vacationers from Memorial Day to Labor Day. After a wealthy young widow moves into the house, the threads of Ruthie and Jemma’s life begin to unravel. Coincidence? This is a surprisingly complex novel about changing culture, the infiltration of the Instagramable set into a small community, the dark undercurrent of the art world, coming of age (for Jemma), and forced and welcome new beginnings (for the adults and for the town). I found quite a lot to love here, such as a cast of fully realized, believable characters facing real-life situations and a diverse range of relationship and family issues. The High Season will bring depth and thought to your summer reading list; you won't want to miss it. I haven't read any of Blundell's YA fiction, but I now plan to explore her entire back list. (Print review copy provided by the publisher.)