Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
SPOILERS BOOK CLUB DON’T READ
“’Beer is God’s reward for an honest day’s toil.’”
“’You have to fool yourself into thinking you already are the thing you want to become.’”
“You can never change back once you’ve had a child, even if that child no longer exists.”
Broken Country is about Beth, her family, and her love interests. She meets and falls in love with Grabriel but then conflict occurs. They have a falling out and then Beth meets back up with Frank, who has been in love with her since he was 13. They become a family and live on a farm that has been in Frank’s family for a long time. One day a dog comes out of nowhere and starts to kill some livestock then is subsequently shot down. The owner is none other than Gabriel. We follow the story as it flips back and forth between the early days and the present. Beth’s son died when he was younger and they are still carrying grief. There is a brother Jimmy and Gabriel’s son, Leo. Their lives intertwine again and it gets complicated. Will Gabriel and Beth rekindle their love? Will Frank and Beth survive? How will life go down on this farm? This pastoral life isn’t as perfect as it may look.
Clare Leslie Hall wrote this book and one thing I liked was the short chapters. It made progress seem quicker. I read it pretty quickly despite the fact that I didn’t really get into it. It was sort of boring. The love and passion didn’t show through the words and pages for me. Within the first few chapters, I did have a distinct feeling that I was reading something akin to Little House on the Prairie. The setting did conjure vivid images of the countryside and set the tone. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and I don’t know if it is because of the HR effect or not. It is what it is though. Frank to me was a very good guy but was a doormat and didn’t lay down the law with his brother. Gabriel seemed like a player who never stood up to his mother. The mother was a b***h. I guess Bobby was probably the best character despite the fact he can’t listen and his death was just plain stupid. Tragic, I guess is the right word but it just didn’t come across as tragic. Jimmy was a drunk. I just didn’t like Beth. She messed everything up and I didn’t really believe her regret. She knew what she was doing was wrong but kept doing it anyways. Some words or phrases that I came across that I liked were acerbic dissident, fervency, and alacrity. “My whole life moving forward will be filled with people who never knew my son” and “seesaw of grief.” I did learn that the original phrase is another think coming instead of another thing coming. There was a twist towards the end but it seemed like a foregone conclusion. Overall, I didn’t jive with this book. This is exactly the type of book I wouldn’t read again or really recommend to anyone.
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Tag: family
Selling Coal And How to Save Your Soul By Helping People
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“To each was given days and chances which wouldn’t come back around. And wasn’t it sweet to be where you were and let it remind you of the past for once, despite the upset, instead of always looking on into the mechanics of the days and the trouble ahead, which might never come.”
“It seemed both proper and at the same time deeply unfair that so much of life was left to chance.”
“Why were the things that were closest so often the hardest to see?”
Small Things Like These is about a husband and father in Ireland. Bill has a wife and kids. He is a coal merchant and the story takes place around the Christmas holiday during the late 20th century. It seems to be a country town with a smaller population. Everyone seems to know each other and what is going on in their lives. We learn there is a place that unwanted women are taken to be hidden away. It is a religious institution. Bill has had some history with this as his mom was pregnant without a husband in the picture. Bill delivers coal to this place and discovers what is going on. What will he do? How will his and his family’s life change?
This is a short book by Claire Keegan. It had some good points that made you think. For example, when Bill is thinking “What was it all for?…The work and the constant worry…before waking in the dark to meet a version of the same thing, yet again. Might things never change or develop into something else, or new? Lately, he had begun to wonder what mattered apart from Eileen and the girls. He was touching forty but didn’t feel himself to be getting anywhere or making any kind of headway and could not but sometimes wonder what the days were for.” This is something that has cropped up in my brain a time or two before. It was nice to read on the page. There weren’t a lot of characters and even less that had speaking parts. You could only really get a sense of what Bill was about. His wife to a lesser degree. This story had a sort of It’s a Wonderful Life vibe to me, which I only realized after finishing it and now that I am looking back and thinking about it. The main character has a sort of moral quandary and thinks “was there any point in being alive without helping one another?” This book has a real Christmassy feel to it and not just because it takes place around the holiday. I liked how the book was prefaced by a mention of real places where unwed, pregnant women were taken. It is a shame that the attitudes were like that. The book was easy to read and follow. It was just a little boring to me though. It was really short and I don’t have a lot to talk about. I only took a few notes. There was only one word that I came across that I liked and pulled out. That was genuflecting. This is exactly the type of book that I would read if I want a book to finish it in one sitting, on Christmas Eve, while drinking a hot chocolate sitting in front of a fire.
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California Grieving And The Edu-gay-tion Of Family
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Do not punch a child, do not punch a child.”
“Guncle Rule number five: If a gay man hands you his phone, look only at what he’s showing you. If it’s a photo, don’t swipe. And for god’s sake, don’t open any unfamiliar apps.”
“Boys can do girl things and girls can do boy things. That’s not even a Guncle Rule, there shouldn’t even be boy things and girl things to begin with. People should just do what they want.”
The Guncle is about an actor, who was on a popular show but who has been hiding away in Palm Spring, who loses his best friend/sister-in-law and must take care of her/his brother’s kids. Patrick is the guncle. He lost his partner and is still in the grieving process. Maisie, his niece, and Grant, his nephew, lost their mother (Sara) and subsequently spend the summer with their GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick). Their dad is dealing with his own personal health issue. How will Patrick be able to handle taking care of kids for 3 whole months without going crazy? Will the kids start their grieving process and what will they learn from their GUP? If Patrick moves on with this life, how will he do it?
Steven Rowley wrote such a fun and enjoyable book! I laughed out loud so many times and wanted to devour it. “’We don’t eat bacon…Bacon is pigs and pigs are our friends. Do you want to eat your friends?’ (Patrick) Without hesitation. ‘If they taste like bacon.’” (Grant). I was excited to find out there was a sequel too! The Guncle Rules that permeated the book were perfect. It matched caring, humor, and a gay sensibility all in a simple, helpful rule. For example, when Patrick gave his niece his phone to record him in a video. “’Higher…Honestly, its like you want me to have four chins. Guncle Rule – What number are we on? Know your angles. Everyone has a good side. Even children, who should be photographable from all sides but aren’t.’” There was so much gay culture sprinkled in such a natural way that it would be easy to miss if you weren’t well versed. Right away Grease, Grease 2, Olivia Newton-John, and Stockard Channing were mentioned when GUP was trying to make a point. So much wit. Patrick gave them an ‘edu-gay-tion.” The messaging is something I thought was much needed but not too heavy handed. I found myself agreeing and wishing society as a whole felt the same way. Whatever you like or want, you do you. “What do you think gay people do? Have done for generations? We adopt a safe version of ourselves for the public, for protection, and then as adults we excavate our true selves from the parts we’ve invented to protect us.” Things like this felt true and hit home. It is the story of a lot of gay people. There are conversations around grief and the way the book approached it was nice. It was described well. “Grief orbits the heart. Some days the circle is greater. Those are the good days. You have room to move and dance and breathe. Some days the circle is tighter. Those are the hard ones.” A word that stuck out to me in this book was maudlin. Steven filled this book with so many witticisms. This is exactly the type of book that I will pick up whenever I need a smile and laugh.
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Best Friends Discover Love And Sultry Scenes Of Sex
Him by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Good thing he’s not a traffic cop, because he’s sending enough mixed signals to cause a ten-car pileup.”
Him is about two friends who meet at hockey camp and become friends. They made a bet on a shootout which caused one to cut the other off for years. Now a chance encounter at the Frozen Four brings them back into each other’s lives. They quickly become friends again and have six weeks to figure out what is going on between them. They are coaching teenagers to improve their hockey skills while navigating their own relationship. One is on his way to Toronto to play in the NHL and one is supposed to be headed for Detroit. This is a fun will they/won’t they book that keeps you enthralled from beginning to end.
I plowed through this book in a single day. I kept wanting to read more and more. There were plenty of hot scenes. It was well written, and this is the second gay romance I have read recently written by two female authors. I don’t know how they do it but they do an excellent job at describing things in a way that makes you feel like you are the one participating. One thing that I found myself doing throughout though, is trying to keep track of which name belonged to which character. I wrote it down but I still found myself flipping back to when the chapter started to remember if it was Wes or Jamie. Wes was the forward and Jamie was the goalie. Wes is gay and Jamie is straight. Wes has tattoos and breaks rules. Jamie has a huge family and loves coaching. The difference between each of their families is vast and it makes you feel for each of them. I loved how the book was written from both viewpoints, and it really helped to build the tension and see it from each perspective. The sex scenes were very sultry and provocative. I found myself frustrated at times with each of them and wanted them to just get over their hangups. I kept putting it down needing to move on to do something else but I found myself reaching for the book again and again so I can see what happens. I bet you could easily finish this in a single day. I cannot wait to read the next one.
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Ghostly Tea And Learning To Live A Deathly Life
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“If we worry about the little things all the time, we run the risk of missing the bigger things.”
Under the Whispering Door is about death, life, and relationships. We are introduced to Wallace, a self-important ass of a lawyer, at the start of the story and we quickly learn what he is all about. He then dies and this is where the story really starts. We follow his journey through all his anger, grief, and acceptance while learning about this group of people (living and dead) that inhabit his life. It mostly takes place in this tea shop in the middle of the woods that seems cozy and such a perfect place to hang out. There are plenty of characters to love and also a few to have other strong feelings about. I was unsure how it was going to finish but it ended up surprising me how well it was wrapped up.
I started out very wary about this book as I was not sure the direction it would take or how it was finally going to end. In the beginning I got a sense of the idea feeling similar to A Christmas Carol which in small ways it did, yes. We do have this curmudgeonly man who endures a journey not of his choosing and is given a chance to reflect. Wallace did grate on me and I found myself losing patience with him initially. The story could have been a copy and paste but TJ Klune did a good job of setting it apart and making it his own. First off, this is a queer story and I am here for it. You aren’t sure when the story starts off because of the mention of an ex-wife but then subtle hints are dropped like having the same taste in men. There are multiple points where it was mentioned and just outright queer love is completely transparent. A sign in the shop reads “Guys, Gals, & Our Nonbinary Pals.” We definitely need more of these stories. There was also this sitcom-like quality to a lot of the scenes. There was quippy responses and slapstick like occurrences and it felt like just pure fun. I did laugh out loud at several points, especially reading a scene where a séance unfolds. There was heart and soul to this novel as well. There were sad moments that were touching. There were heartwarming and uplifting parts too. In general, I do not like stories that involve ghosts but this one was an exception. It was a beautiful story and I do recommend people read it.
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A Slicing Piece Of Commentary And Heartfelt Musings On Love
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Knife relays the brutal attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022, the journey afterwards, and the history behind his experience with hatred. It recounts in detail the multiple stabbings, his road to recovery, and the love and support he received from those closest to him as well as from around the world. It is a book about love and survival. The author, Salman Rushdie himself, conveys what he was going through after the release of The Satanic Verses and how it kept going throughout the years culminating with this attack. There is a greater message about religion, violence, and freedom of speech that is presented alongside the minutiae of Salman’s life.
I have not read any of Salman Rushdie’s works before, so this was my introduction and man, can he write. I loved his turn of phrases and how he wrote in such a relatable way. He would write about normal everyday things like using the bathroom or writing or going out to dinner. Each wound/body part that was violated was talked about and each felt like its own epic tale. You would think describing all the medical stuff would be boring but it is not. It is so vivid and real. I loved his use of knife and cutting metaphors as well. He wielded them well such as when “the knife had severed me from my world” and “language, too, was a knife.” He used language in a quotidian way but made it sound beautiful and insightful like describing his eye as “an absence with an immensely powerful presence.” The book had moments of humor and levity interspersed amongst the horror of the attack. “I’m here because of a knife attack, but let’s check the prostate, sure.” The writing was raw and I got emotional at points. Relating the reactions of his family and those that loved him was heartbreaking. Shock and sadness were the ones that showed up in myself most often. References to pop culture like the Mandalorian are sprinkled throughout as well. He focuses on this one extreme event but conveys everyday living while nodding to big-picture life and humanity. Those grandiose topics are brought in seamlessly and tied closely to certain aspects of the story. For example, talking about the best and worst of humanity on display in one single situation or how freedom of speech is under attack. He brings huge topics and distills them beautifully. Salman Rushdie is a storyteller and this came through even in this nonfiction work. I cannot wait to read some of his other work.
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Gay Amnesia And Losing Your Job While Gaining Family
10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
10 Things That Never Happened is such a good book. It is about this guy who works at a bathroom retailer and his boss who owns it. It takes place in England and it follows some hijinks as they navigate an ever-changing relationship. There is amnesia, family drama, Christmas, and one unique looking cat. It is not deep but it is a very fun read. I laughed out loud and found it quick to get through. It was easy, bitchy, gay, and cheeky. I loved the humor and found it real. There were a few things that bothered me though including a couple of the side characters. First off, if someone is that inept, they should have a very stern taking too or be let go. The amount of damage that one person could do and still be employed there was never established. He should have been gone a long time ago. It was infuriating. There was also a young employee that I found annoying as well. All but the first, clown of an employee grew on me throughout the book though. There were also a few editing errors but overall I would recommend this.
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