The Garden of Small Beginnings (Abbi Waxman)

My first impression of Abbi Waxman's The Garden of Small Beginnings was that it was trying too hard to get laughs. But as I settled in with it, I began to understand that humor was really the main character's coping mechanism for dealing with grief.

Lilian Gervan is an illustrator with two children who also watched her husband die in a car accident three years ago in front of her. After a complete breakdown, she tries to pick up the pieces of her life and move forward as best she can. When a new illustrating project opens up at work, Lillian is asked to take a Saturday gardening class for research. She grows close to her fellow classmates, and even finds herself attracted to the instructor. 

The Garden of Small Beginnings is really unique book. Waxman is not asking her readers to feel sorry for Lillian. Instead, we root for her as she gets a little stronger everyday. At times laugh-out-loud funny and other times heartbreaking, this is a great feel-good book for any time of year.

MY RATING - 4

Ghosts of Harvard (Francesca Serritella)

Francesca Serritella's Ghosts of Harvard has a premise that grabs you from the start -- a college freshman's quest to understand her brother's suicide. The problem is that there were so many other things stuffed into the book that it was hard to keep my interest.

Cady Archer enrolls in Harvard, the place where her brother, Eric, ended his life. She is desperate to find what she might have missed to save him. Along with normal college things that everyone goes through (like a grueling class schedule and living with roommates), Cady spends her time dissecting her brother's final year. She also begins to hear voices, which turn out to be ghosts from long ago. Is Cady developing the same mental illness that contributed to her brother's tragic end?

Serritella is certainly a talented writer, and Ghosts of Harvard clearly shows that she did her research. But it was at least 150 pages too long and could have benefitted from more editing. To me, it wasn't really clear how the ghosts fit in with the main theme of the story. Toward the end, the book began to try to fit in other themes like espionage and just became tiring to finish. I'm probably in the minority with this one though -- it seemed like many people liked it.

MY RATING - 2.5

The Dissidents: A Memoir of Working with the Resistance in Russia, 1960-1990 (Peter Reddaway)

Peter Reddaway's The Dissidents is his account of working with Soviet dissidents over a thirty year period. Reddaway is a professor emeritus of political science and international affairs who first visited the Soviet Union in the early 1960’s as a student. In this book, he chronicles his work in Soviet and Russian affairs and his relationships with those who spoke out against the Communist regime of the Soviet Union.

One of the most intriguing and interesting parts of the book is when Reddaway discusses how the Soviet Union treated dissenters in means that went beyond mere jail time. While one can easily assume that there were human rights abuses in the repressive Soviet state, The Dissidents goes into detail and depth on its effects on those who dared speak out for reform and democracy behind the Iron Curtain and how the Soviet regime would wax and wane between tolerance and crackdown depending on the balance of power in Moscow.

Reddaway’s work is solidly researched. It is not necessarily captivating but is very informative and detailed, especially for those who have an interest in or are doing work in the field of Russian and Soviet history. 

MY RATING - 3.5

The Education of John Adams (R.B. Bernstein)

John Adams is quickly becoming one of my favorite subjects of study in American history. Our nation’s second president is a lover of books (score one point), helped establish the Library of Congress (yay), and also was an avid writer of both broadsheets (the 18th Century of a Medium op-ed) and letters to most anyone and everyone. Adams’s life and educational journey are highlighted in R. B. Bernstein's The Education of John Adams.

Bernstein’s book is arguably not much different than other biographies in style. For instance, you find out about Adams’s career trajectory from attorney to politician during the American Revolution to diplomat back to politician to retirement. However, Bernstein's approach focuses on his evolution in thinking, which was grounded in respect to tradition in English law and classical Greek and Roman thought but also looking forward with regards to experimenting, reforming, and improving that within American legal thinking. We also see some of his political weaknesses at work throughout his career and how Adams coped and dealt with the struggles in helping shape a new nation.

I found this an enjoyable read. It’s not groundbreaking in any sense given the volume of material written about Adams, but the reader will get a sense of Adams the thinker, the reformer, and activist. The reader will also learn about how those who wrote about Adams in recent decades perceived him...aman whose political beliefs could run in conflict with many in both Federalist and anti-Federalist circles but whose ideas and theories helped shape much of our country today. Adams’s complexity and convictions are worth learning about, and this book provides a well-grounded view on a man who was more than a mere four-year blip between Washington and Jefferson.

MY RATING - 4

The Bookshop of Yesterdays (Amy Meyerson)

I have always loved books about bookshops. There's just something so cozy about curling up with one and settling into the story (see Veronica Henry's fabulous How to Find Love in a Bookshop for a great example in this sub-genre). Amy Meyerson's The Bookshop of Yesterdays does not quite give off that cozy feel. There's too much mystery and drama for that, and not all of it fits in well with the story.

Miranda Brooks is a history teacher in Philadelphia living with her boyfriend. But she grew up in California, where she spent a large amount of time in her Uncle Billy's bookshop, Prospero Books. When Miranda turns twelve, Uncle Billy has a fight with Miranda's mother, and Miranda never hears from him again. But when Billy dies many years later, he unexpectedly leaves Miranda the now-almost-bankrupt bookshop, along with a literary scavenger hunt to tell her his secrets.

Throughout the book, I didn't think the characters were fleshed out as much as I would have liked them to be (with the exception of Miranda and her mother). The ending also felt a little flat and unrealistic. And as I said, when I read a book about a bookshop, I love to get that cozy feeling, and I didn't really get that with The Bookshop of Yesterdays. However, if you like your bookshop books to have a little mystery and drama in them, you may just enjoy this one.

MY RATING - 3.5

Behind Every Lie (Christina McDonald)

I really enjoyed Christina's McDonald's suspenseful The Night Olivia Fell, so I was excited to read Behind Every Lie. While it didn't pull me in quite as much as the other, I still couldn't wait to find out what would happen.

Eva Hansen wakes up in a hospital, having no memory of being struck by lightning. A detective is also eager to talk to her about something else that happened that same night: the murder of her mother (Kat). Eva cannot remember anything of the tragic incident, but she was found unconscious just down the street. She soon becomes the prime suspect in the case.

Eva flees to London, where her mother is from, to uncover answers to her mother's many secrets and, at the same time, to try to clear her own name. McDonald wisely tells the story in Eva's and Kat's alternating perspectives. And because Eva is suffering from memory loss, the reader finds out what really happened to her mother right when Eva does.

Just like in The Night Olivia Fell, McDonald's writing is again superb, and the story itself is filled with twists and turns. The ending fell a little flat for me, though. Also, in an effort to make the reader feel sympathy for Eva, McDonald throws everything bad she possibly can at her, which in the end, feels unrealistic. But I still love this author's work and will continue to seek it out.

MY RATING - 3.5

The Wife Who Knew Too Much (Michele Campbell)

I started reading Michele Campbell back in 2018 when I picked up It's Always the Husband. I found that one very addictive and so I couldn't wait to read her other books as they came out -- She Was the Quiet One and A Stranger on the Beach. I can't say that her thrillers have much of anything new in them, but they are very difficult to put down. This continues in her latest, The Wife Who Knew Too Much.

Long ago, Tabitha Girard and Connor Ford were an item. She worked at the pool at his country club, and he was just rich and handsome. They go their separate ways until, one day, Connor comes back into Tabitha's life as she is waiting tables. He is now unhappily married to filthy rich Nina but wants to stay in the marriage so he can get some of her money. Tabitha and Connor hook up, of course, and when Nina takes her own life, they seem to be free to be together....until the police begin to suspect Nina's death was the result of foul play.

The Wife Who Knew Too Much begins with Nina's diary account of right before she died. This hooks the reader right away. The ending fizzles out a bit, but as is usually the case with books by Michele Campbell, it is awfully fun to get there.

MY RATING - 3.5

Available July 28, 2020