Truth in Advertising

Truth in Advertising by John Kenney (2013) 308 pages

Fin Dolan is 37 and works as a copywriter for a prominent ad agency in New York City. He didn't set out to work in advertising, but falling into things seems to be his way. 

Fin introduces the reader to his work colleagues‒several of whom are quite entertaining‒and puts us into the crazy world of advertising and the seriousness of selling Fritos or insurance or diapers.

It's just before Christmas and a petroleum company has invented a diaper that's supposedly biodegradable. They want to produce an ad for the Super Bowl, which squeezes a process that normally takes months into just a few weeks. Fin and some of his colleagues have to give up their holiday vacation time to work on the ad. 

Meanwhile, Fin hears from his oldest brother that their father is close to death in a hospital in Boston. None of Fin's siblings will go to visit their father: he had been horrible to live with, and left 25 years ago. Fin is torn about how to deal with the situation. He's still dealing with the death of his mother, who died not long after his father left. Fin has repressed a lot of emotion, and he has a lot of self-dialogue going on as a result.

This all sounds heavy‒and it is‒but the novel is interspersed with the humor and irony that won it the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Highly recommended.

The Seven O'Clock Club

The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland (2025) 354 pages

Genevieve is a counselor who has taken on a group of four grieving people: Victoria, a middle-aged hotshot lawyer; Callum, a rock star with a drug problem; Mischa, a young working woman in her late teens; and Freya, a 31-year-old woman who used to work in interior design.

None of these people were looking for Genevieve, but they (or someone they knew) aimed them towards her advertisement indicating that she was looking for people to participate in a new process for navigating the grief process, a process that uses a group setting rather than a one-on-one setting to move the clients forward.

The point-of-view changes to a different character each chapter. Larger sections are titled with stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, etc. At first, most of the characters do not really want to attend these sessions, but they return anyway, and as they get to know each others' stories, they bond.

If this were the whole point of the book, it's already good. However, the story takes a few very unexpected turns that I don't want to spoil. I had to see what happened. 

Gaytheist: Coming Out of My Orthodox Childhood

 

Gaytheist: Coming Out of My Orthodox Childhood by Lonnie Mann (2024) 256 pages

Lonnie recounts growing up in a strict Orthodox family. He's the youngest of three brothers, and he tries to be everything his parents want because of the turmoil that his older brothers put his parents through in their teenage years. But later, when when Lonnie realizes he is gay, he's torn between religion and his own autonomy: in Orthodox Judaism, being gay is not acceptable.

This graphic lit memoir is well-drawn and a fast read. Lonnie, his family, and his friends are realistically depicted. I learned a bit more about Orthodox Jewish traditions through this insider's view.

The Wishing Game

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer (2023) 286 pages

Lucy Hart has fallen for Christopher, a little boy whose parents have died, but she doesn't have the financial resources to adopt him or to even foster him. She sells crafts she makes online, in addition to having a job as a kindergarten teaching assistant. She has been saving for 2 years, but still has only $2,000, not enough to move to a better apartment or to get a used car, both required by the foster agency.

One of the things that Lucy and Christopher do together is to read books by Jack Masterson, a famous author of a children's series, the Clock Island books. He hasn't published a new book for 6 years, but then he announces a contest for those who can solve a riddle. The only people who can solve this riddle are children who actually ran away from home and found Jack Masterson on Clock Island, off the coast of Maine. Lucy is one of the four former children who found Jack and his grumpy illustrator, Hugo Reese, this way.

The four adults qualify, and are invited to Clock Island to compete in a series of games and puzzles, often related to the stories from the author's previous books. The first one to get ten points earns a prize: the only copy of Jack's new book, which the winner can keep or sell to the highest bidder. If Lucy wins, then she can afford to adopt Christopher.

Once I got past Lucy's bleak past and iffy future, and the tragedy of Christopher, as well, the story grabbed me and I loved the way it played out.

Lessons in Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (2022) (396 pages)

Elizabeth Zott is not your average graduate student in chemistry for the 1950s. For one thing, she's female. She's been undermined, underpaid, and sexually assaulted, but she is very, very smart. She meets her match when she goes to Calvin Evans' lab to obtain some beakers, because her own lab is severely under-resourced. Fast forward six years, and she's making a living on a television cooking show, insisting on doing it her way, not dressed in sexy clothing like the network wants. And she teaches the in-studio and television viewers the chemistry of cooking, with the viewers—mostly women—whipping out notebooks.

I don't want to add any spoilers for those who aren't aware of the storyline and/or are in the midst of watching the Apple TV series. But I need to say that this book is one of the most circulated books since it was published in April 2022. It's only now starting to find its way onto the library's shelves, rather than to constantly fill holds. I finally got my hands on it and it was so worth the wait!

My Roommate is a Vampire

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine (2023) 

I got caught by the catchy title while I was looking for some light reading, and I found it in this romance novel. Cassie has a Master's degree in art, but her specialty is creating art using trash, which doesn't attract the job she wants as an art teacher. She has pieced together an existence with a couple of part-time gigs, but living in Chicago is expensive and she's about to be evicted when she decides to consider an sharing an apartment with very cheap rent. What's wrong with the place? Nothing, if you don't mind living with a vampire named Frederick J. Fitzwilliam, who had spent the last one hundred years in a coma and now wants to learn how to fit in in the modern world. It was fun to see where the author went with this idea in her debut novel.

If We're Being Honest

If We're Being Honest by Cat Shook (2023) 297 pages

In small town Georgia, a beloved old man, Gerry, has died. His family members, who have gathered for the funeral, are staying in town for a week since they were going to come for a dear neighbor's wedding anyway. And what a week it is! Gerry's best friend, Fred, makes a startling announcement at the funeral while giving the eulogy. As the bereaved deal with that and all the regular issues a close extended family can have — unexpected pregnancy, drama queens, heartbreak, identity issues, clueless spouse issues, etc. — it is as if we're watching real people live and try to figure out what they're doing throughout the ups and downs.

The cast of characters includes Gerry's wife and three children and four adult grandchildren, along with significant others. I really got wrapped up in the story.

Nothing But the Truth

Nothing But the Truth by Holy James (2022) 294 pages

We meet Lucy Green just before her thirtieth birthday. She's hoping to land a new client for her publicity agency, while vying for a promotion, and also hoping her boyfriend of two years will propose. Instead, her boyfriend stands her up at a bar the evening before her birthday, which leads to Lucy talking to Adam, the bartender. He fixes her a special birthday drink before she leaves. The next morning, she finds that she cannot tell a lie, which leads to panic. Her job depends on her massaging the truth in order to work with her bosses and to save the careers of her clients. Not to mention getting along with her mother.

Was the drink magical? Maybe?? Most of the book flies past in the course of this one day – her birthday – and shows what happens when Lucy tells only the truth. This includes allowing her body to show its own truths by not subjecting herself to uncomfortable clothes and too much makeup in order to fit some ideal of how a person in her position should look (despite the social discomfort it causes).

I had to bat away my disbelief a few times, but once I decided to accept a bit of magic, I found the story to be a fast, fun trip.

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective by Katie Siegel (2023) 367 pages

Charlotte Illes was renowned as a child for the mysteries that she solved. As a teenager, she chose to leave behind her detective career and try something else. However, that "something else" didn't really thrill her, and at the beginning of this story, she's 25, out of work, living with her mother, and trying to find suitable women to date. Her success in the dating world is stymied by Google: each potential date she meets just wants to talk about her fame as a child detective, which she finds extremely off-putting.

Her brother and her best friend try to get her interested in detective work again since she was so good at it, and after resisting the impulse, Charlotte finally starts to look into a case for them: her brother's girlfriend works for a company that has some of its employees trying to join a union. One of the people has just disappeared. Not long ago, another was found dead. Charlotte works in conjunction with her brother's girlfriend, along with Charlotte's own childhood friends who had helped her solve mysteries years ago.

The camaraderie and banter of Charlotte and her friends is entertaining, as is watching Charlotte get back into her detective work – she's a bit rusty at it since it's been a while. She makes a few really cringey mistakes, but once she gets past them, it's smooth sailing. Or is it?!

Hestia Strikes a Match

Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo (2023) 386 pages

With the second American Civil War as a backdrop to the story, we meet Hestia (named after a Greek goddess by her classics-educated parents). She is 42. The year is 2023 and the setting is Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States of America. The New Confederated States of America is comprised of 12 States which have seceded from the U.S. Rather than the Civil War being a military operation, more often it is a series of terrorist attacks of movie theaters and grocery stores, along with sabotage of water, sewer and power systems. The U.S. residents live with nightly curfews and U.N. Peacekeepers watching over them.

Hestia's husband, a Unionist like herself, has abandoned her to join a paramilitary group to fight against the confederates. He's been gone a while, and Hestia is finally thinking about trying to get a divorce.

Oddly, against the uncertainty of everyday life, Hestia's life is somewhat ordinary. She's a writer who works in a retirement community, where she is tasked with growing the community's online presence. She finds friends there, including her boss and her office mate, and with one of the residents in particular, a thrice-widowed woman named Mildred, who is a bit of a wild child. Mildred is always trying to get the details about the men that Hestia is dating or considering dating. Mildred is part of a group of residents that Hestia meets with regularly, to write out memories and opinions in answer to historical questions. As a bonus, we see the questions and their answers to the questions interspersed throughout the book.

Perhaps this book's storyline sounds depressing, but I thought it worked, and includes fine character-development and a slew of great details regarding war, dating, and life in general.