Where We Belong

 

Where We Belong by Emily Giffin (2012) 372 pages

Marian had a child when she was eighteen and gave the baby up for adoption. She kept her address up-to-date at the adoption agency. Still, she is dumbfounded when the child, now eighteen herself, shows up unannounced at Marian's NYC apartment. Kirby is going through her own teenaged angst as a high school senior and feels that her adoptive parents don't understand her. When she finds Marion, she doesn't understand why her birth mother is avoiding talking about what really matters to Kirby, and instead, takes her shopping. Kirby finally learns the astounding information that her birth father doesn't even know that she exists at all.

The story shows the back and forth of emotions in such a fraught situation. Not only Kirby, but her parents, her birth mother, and her birth mother's parents are all finding their way through the changed world that results as Kirby goes on her quest to find the other important people in her life.

I thought the story was well-handled and riveting, with chapters alternating between Marion's and Kirby's points of view. As a bonus, Kirby lives in St. Louis and there's enough local color to make the story seem more real.

Maybe One Day

Maybe One Day by Debbie Johnson (2020) 367 pages

Jess grew up as a sheltered only child in a small city in England. Eventually, she gets her way about studying at a school about an hour's bus ride away from home, meeting Joe there. She eventually moves out of her parents' home and she and Joe have a child. A tragedy ensues and Jess ends up getting care in a mental facility, told by her parents that Joe has moved on from her.

It's seventeen years later. Jess's mother has just died. Her father has already been dead for years. Jess and her cousin Michael poke around in the attic and find a box of letters and postcards to Jess from Joe, that Jess had never been given. She decides to go on a journey to find Joe, enlisting her cousin, along with another friend, Belinda, who knows Joe. Instead of starting with the last place he had written from, Jess wants to follow the cities in order, in order to better understand Joe's own journey.

Will they find Joe? If so, will he have another partner? That's the risk of finding him. By the way, the characterizations of Michael and Belinda are great. The journey takes them to various cities in Ireland, England, and later, across the ocean. The relationships feel true and the uncertainty about whether they'll find Joe keeps one reading; I couldn't put this novel down.

Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants, by Sylvan Neuval, 304 pages.

The story of the discovery and examination of a large metal hand, and the subsequent search for the rest of the related metal body parts is told through documented conversations and reports between and to assorted scientists, helicopter pilots, lingusts, Presidential aides, and one super-secret, unamed agent. As the characters discover more about this massive piece of alien technology, the reader tries to figure out which of the very interesting characters is really pulling the strings. Intricate, engaging, and a joy to read or to listen to.