Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat

Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun, 320 pages

The Yeonnam-Dong neighborhood of Seoul is quickly being gentrified, and the neighborly feel of the area is evaporating. But with its signature scent, 24-hour warmth, and a mysterious community diary, the Smiley Laundromat has become a place for people to connect with strangers and create new friendships with their neighbors. Told in a series of loosely related vignettes, this book is a cozy, feel-good story of intergenerational neighborhood friends. It was lovely.

The Twilight Garden

The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams, 391 pages

In a small London neighborhood, two of those neighbors are at odds, as neighbors sometimes are. But these two also have the quirky complication of a shared garden, one that once used to be a cheerful gathering spot for the community but in the intervening years has become overgrown and neglected. Bouncing back and forth between the early days of the garden and the modern struggle, the book illustrates how a bit of dirt and hard work can create a community. It's a heartwarming story, and one that will certainly resonate with many readers.

The missing treasures of Amy Ashton

 

The missing treasures of Amy Ashton / Elanor Ray, 305 pgs.

Amy Ashton has had a tough 11 years or so.  Her boyfriend ran off with her best friend and she has not recovered.  In fact, she sank into a funk so deep, she became a bit of a hoarder and gave up on anything she enjoyed doing.  Now, some new neighbors have moved in and Amy is engaging in new social activities.  She finds something that might be a clue to the disappearance and is in touch again with the police and old friends who knew the situation.  Where will this lead?  Will she get closure?  Will she change her lifestyle?  Read and find out.

Cobble Hill

 

Cobble Hill by Cecily Von Ziegesar, read by Pete Simonelli , 307 pgs.  

It has been a long time since I started an audio book and did not ever want to stop it.  Of course I did have to stop it but I kept going back as soon as possible.  I found this to be absolutely hilarious and perfectly narrated.  A group of neighbors who are all goofy in one way or another eventually get to know each other.  I laughed often at their inner thoughts and feelings and just wanted to keep following this silly story. Kudos to Simonelli who did a great job bringing this crazy crew to life.

If I had your face

If I had your face / Frances Cha, 274 pgs.

Set in Korea, the four main characters each have very different lives and interests but all live in the same apartment building.  This "slice of life" novel gives a little back story on each character but is mostly a contemporary setting where they interact with each other and beyond.  They are trying to figure things out, live their lives, make progress.  I feel like there were interesting cultural differences but also reinforced how much people deal with the same issues.  There were great lines and situations. Cha has a gift to make the ordinary seem extraordinary.

Truly Madly Guilty

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty (2016) 415 pages

Australian author Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies, The Last Anniversary, Nine Perfect Strangers, and more, brings us three couples whose lives have changed because of an incident that occurred during a backyard barbecue. Clementine, a cellist preparing for an audition with the Sydney Royal Chamber Orchestra, is married to Sam, who has just gotten a new job marketing energy drinks. They have two small children. Erika and her husband Oliver are both accountants, enjoying the rigor of jobs that make up for the uncertainty they each experienced as children of dysfunctional parents. Vid and Tiffany love to entertain, and have plenty of money to do so with relish. The reader is kept in suspense about the barbecue for what seems like too long as Moriarty weaves the story, going back and forth through the past two months, with a few stops at the childhoods of Clementine and Erika, who've known each other for many years. But as the story unwinds, it turns out that all the details gleaned during the lead-up to the incident contribute strongly to the story's impact. Great multi-layered story incorporating marriages, friendships, children and secrets.

Ask again, Yes

Ask Again, Yes / Mary Beth Keane, 390 pages

I love a good dysfunctional family and this book hints about a couple of them.  Two cops are neighbors, one family seems to be thriving, the other is held down by the mentally ill wife who makes life hard for everyone.  The kids from the two houses are allies, best friends, future lovers?  Then tragedy strikes and their relationships are forever changed.  In the dysfunctional house, the mother is put away, the dad disappears and the kid ends up living with his uncle.  In the other house, the family is now coping with injury and trauma. 

This inter-generational story follows these two families and where they end up.  Everyone has some issues but not always the ones you would suspect.  Enjoyable, not too hard-core.

A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2012) 337 pages

Get into the mind of a grumpy Swedish man named Ove. He's 59, widowed six months ago, and just was laid off at work to make room for the next generation. Patroling his neighborhood, looking for people who disobey the parking (and other) rules, is no longer going to occupy him enough now that everything else he once did has ended. However, a young family moves in nearby, breaking the rules for bringing a trailer into an area where it shouldn't be, which causes Ove to crab at them, which in turn starts a relationship that the old man can't really extricate himself from. This starts a mass of changes in the way he relates to the rest of the people he interacts with. Interesting writing style which really flows.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good

An elderly lady is up to no good / Helene Tursten, read by Suzanne Toren, 171 pgs.

Maud is a quiet and unassuming neighbor but also be aware that crossing her can be deadly.  One of her neighbors had an eye on switching apartments and Maud took care of the problem as a solution presented itself...crushing her with one of her own sculptures.  This isn't the only person dispatched by Maud.  She is never a suspect because she is old and knows when to act frail.  I loved hearing about Maud's exploits.  You probably don't want to get to know her too well but respect her space and she will respect yours.  The narrator does a great job conveying Maud in all her moods.

Good riddance

Good riddance / Elinor Lipman, read by Mia Barron, 290 pgs.

Newly divorced Daphne never really understood her mom's obsession with an old yearbook from her first year of teaching.  Sure, she was the year book adviser and the book was dedicated to her.  She used it to keep notes on the class whose reunions she attended.  When the yearbook is left to Daphne when her mom dies, she keeps it for a year then throws it in the recycle bin in her apartment.  The neighbor down the hall is a documentary film maker, she finds the yearbook, decodes some of the notes and decides it would make a great story for her to research.  Now, with her mom's reputation on the line (turns out some of those notes were a bit catty), Daphne needs to figure out how to put the brakes on this project. A bit of hilarity ensues as Daphne makes things up on the fly, deals with her widowed dad moving from New Hampshire to an apartment 5 blocks away, and discovering something very interesting about one of her mother's ex-students.  Luckily, the neighbor across the way is available for a romantic interlude.  Fun to read and not take too seriously.  The audio is excellently narrated by Mia Barron.

A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, 337 pages.

Ove's beloved wife has died and he doesn't see any reason to hang around anymore. As he readies himself and his house for his suicide, his neighbors keep interrupting him. I listened to the audio version of this months and months ago and then re-read it for book group. I was really surprised that Ove, his wife who had died after years of ill-health, and his neighbors who are facing involuntary removal to a nursing home, are all seemingly in their fifties. Seems a little odd, but other than Ove, none of their ages are given. I was left with the impression that they were all about the same age. Maybe I missed something. I will look for it on my third reading. Anyway, a nice gentle book, despite all the death.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman  372 pp.

Elsa is a bright seven year old who people call "different." She is bullied at school and tries to hide it from her parents and her grandmother. Elsa's grandmother is her best friend, companion, and protector. Grandmother is also quite bonkers and does things like climbing the zoo fence after hours and throwing poo at a policeman and shooting people with a paintball gun from her balcony. She has also led an amazing life that Elsa knows nothing about. Grandmother also regales Elsa with tales of a mysterious land where everyone is "different" and no on has to act normal. When Grandmother dies she leaves Elsa a mission to deliver letters to people she has wronged in some way. While delivering these letters Elsa learns much about the people who live in their apartment building and how they are connected to her, her grandmother, and each other. There is sadness, humor, and much that is touching in this story that mostly turns out well.

A man called Ove

A man called Ove / Fredrik Backman, 337 pgs.

Ove is a guy who knows the way things are supposed to be done.  He knows that rules are to be followed.  He is the neighborhood curmudgeon who really likes telling people off.  Ove is dealing with overwhelming grief.  His beloved wife has died and Ove wants to follow her.  New neighbors move in and manage to flatten Ove's mailbox.  He has to help them back up a trailer because the new couple can't manage to do it right.  A friendship forms.  Ove ends up helping them out here and there and soon he is helping everyone. Ove is the type of neighbor that keeps you on your toes but also knows how to fix everything so not a bad guy to have around.  Heartwarming.

The Invaders

The Invaders by Karolina Waclawiak, 239 pages

The community of Little Neck Cove is your typical upper-middle class neighborhood, with a lovely golf course, beautiful flowers in every garden, and a bevy of pastel polo shirts adorning the residents as they drive their golf carts between the tennis courts and marina. But not all is as it seems. Neighborhood busybody Lori and Cheryl, a second wife who doesn't quite fit in (and one of our two narrators) witness a man who obviously doesn't live in the neighborhood urinating on a fence, getting the neighborhood up in arms and starting Lori on a crusade to build a fence and put up signs to keep the riff raff out. Meanwhile, Teddy (Cheryl's stepson and our other narrator) gets kicked out of college and comes home to wallow in a summer filled with prescription drug abuse, booze, and ogling the younger moms at the pool.

The Invaders is an odd book that finds the cracks in a privileged life and scratches at the veneer until the secrets of the community are laid bare. I'm not entirely sure what I thought of this book, though I'll be mulling it over for a long time. Because it definitely sticks with you.

Chestnut Street

Chestnut Street / Maeve Binchy 384 pgs.

In this series of short stories, all set somehow on Chestnut Street in Dublin, neighbors and acquaintances cross paths but each story stands on its own.  The relationships on display here vary from family, friends, neighbors, and even enemies.  All are trademark Binchy, some people have problems and often they are solved...some problems go unresolved.  Most of the stories are uplifting and positive but not sappy.  Binchy has a way of making you think you really KNOW the character even though the details are light.

I listened to this on audio and loved the reader's accent.  Very pleasurable audio.

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Infinite Home

Infinite Home / Kathleen Alcott 315 pgs.

Edith has been a good landlady to a group of misfit renters for many years.  But now Edith is the one with the issues.  She is sinking into dementia and her evil son is trying to evict everyone and take over the property.  The various tenants are all dealing with their own problems.  Adeleine is agoraphobic and hasn't been out of house in months, Thomas is an artist recovering from a stroke.  Paulie is developmentally disabled, Edward is a depressed former stand-up comic...none of them have any place else to go but how can they stand up to the evil Owen and save Edith and their home?

This book follow the interesting stories of each character and how they work together to save an old lady and a life worth living.


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A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman  337 pp.

I liked this book so much. It has a little bit of everything, humor, romance, conflict, drama, tragedy all packed in a very readable package. Ove is a very grumpy man, set in his ways, and dedicated to his principles which put him in conflict with just about everyone. He is determined to kill himself because he's had enough of life and wants to join his beloved late wife Sonja. But every suicide attempt is interrupted, by the hook falling out of the ceiling, a nearly frozen cat, a neighbor falling off a ladder, another neighbor needing radiators bled, and so on. In between these episodes the story of Ove's life is told. Eventually a crisis brings together Ove and his neighbors to right a wrong against the man who was once Ove's friend. The result changes Ove in ways he never imagined. 

The Fried Twinkie Manifesto

The Fried Twinkie Manifesto & Other Tales of Disaster & Damnation by Ryan Moehring  224pp.

This is a lighthearted collection of essays and short stories that covers a myriad of topics, some serious but most not. Let's just say it runs from marriage prenuptial agreements through talking twinkies to a Biblical discussion of uses for foreskins. With a bit of thought provoking material and some laugh-out-loud funny parts, it's an enjoyable light read especially as a $2 Kindle book.

Cash Out

Cash Out/Greg Bardsley  392 pgs.

I grabbed this book based on the cover blurb that mentioned “nine kinds of twisted and funny as hell” which sounds pretty good to me.  This turned out to be pretty accurate.  Some of the characters in this book will stay with me.  Larry, the “odd” neighbor who proves to have some pretty important kidnap and “extraction” skills when it comes down to it, and Calhoun who presents as the “special” neighbor living in a 300 square foot mother-in-law apartment who later turns out to be a multi-millionaire early employee of Microsoft in addition to being the annoying busy body is also entertaining.  But really, the story revolves around Dan, a speechwriter working at a high tech company who is trying to make it for 3 more days until his stocks vest and then he is cashing out and running for the hills.  Unfortunately, there are some people out there who are making this task difficult.  The bitter ex-IT group who is blackmailing Dan to do something for them that he doesn’t even understand, the shady board members who have a lot of money in the game and Dan himself who has made a few spectacularly bad choices lately that put it all at risk.  Very entertaining book but the author may focus a little too much on poor Dan getting nailed in the family jewels…over and over again. 

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Triburbia

Triburbia/Karl Taro Greenfeld 253 pgs.

This is one of those novels where every chapter focuses a different character but so many of them intersect and "see" each other in the book that it isn't really anyone's story.  The common link to is the neighborhood in Tribeca and school that many of the character's offspring attend.  This book was a pleasure to read and even though short, I felt like I got to know several of the characters well.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

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