What Does It Feel Like?

What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella (2024), 129 pgs. 

One day Eve is the luckiest girl in the world, walking the red carpet with her family. The next day, she wakes up in a hospital bed without the ability to walk. Even as she recovers from a surgery of which she has no recollection, Eve is surrounded by love. Perhaps she is still lucky.

This book, while short, is jam-packed with emotion. Jodie Picoult writes that this is "the bravest book you'll read all year," and that it is. Sophie Kinsella writes this semi-fictionalized version of her real-life experiences bravely, honestly, and with so much love for her family. I highly recommend to anyone looking for a good cry (sad and uplifting both). 

The Heart Principle

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang, 338 pages

Violinist Anna Sun has been dealing with some serious artistic challenges recently, so much so that she's had to leave her job with an orchestra and delay a tour and record deal. Her longtime boyfriend hasn't really helped matters either, as he decides that they need to date some other people for a bit before settling down. Anna's not OK with that, but in the interest of keeping him happy, she agrees, and takes the opportunity to set up a one-night stand with tattooed biker Quan (who's also dealing with some complicated feelings toward dating since his bout with testicular cancer a few years earlier). Well, when the first attempt at a date fails disastrously, Anna and Quan agree to try again...and fail again. But they're both determined to have a one-night stand one of these attempts.

Much like The Charm Offensive (which I just blogged about before this and LOVED), this book brings a refreshing and compassionate look on neurodiversity, mental health, and self-realization. It's so nice to see these elements popping up in romance novels!

Don't Make Me Turn This Life Around

Don't Make Me Turn This Life Around by Camille Pagan, 238 pages

Eternal optimist Libby Ross has just found out that she's officially 10 years cancer-free. She's had a rough year, with her father's death, followed closely by her daughter's diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, and now a lackluster relationship with her husband, so some good news should make her jump for joy. So why can't she get excited about it? Perhaps a long-overdue visit to Puerto Rico, where she first met her husband, will help out. But as that trip devolves into an escalating series of disasters, Libby starts to question her optimistic outlook, as well as the choices she's made in the past.

I flat-out LOVED Pagan's 2020 novel, This Won't End Well, so I had pretty high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, it fell flat, with a protagonist who felt more whiny than anything, and a series of problems that could easily be solved by characters just talking to each other. Granted, part of the block to the talk-it-out solution is Libby's grief over her father's death, but holy cow it took her a long time to figure that out. Meh.

The neuroscientist who lost her mind

The neuroscientist who lost her mind: my tale of madness and recovery / Barbara K. Lipska w/ Elaine McArdle, read by Emma Powell, 199 pgs.

A neuroscientist who studies mental illness gets cancer and suddenly her personality changes so much that she can reflect on it later and be amazed.  At the time, however, she didn't notice the change and her family and co-workers struggled to act like it was stress from her illness rather than the illness itself.  I like medical memoirs and this one is interesting, the author was raised and educated in Poland, coming to the U.S. as an adult to work in her field.  How, I have to ask, did she and her circle not see that her personality changes were related to her illness?  It sort of defies logic.  Still, the science and medical stuff is very interesting.  The audio version irritated because the narrator's accent seemed all wrong to me.  I finished the book in print.

I'm just a person

I'm just a person / Tig Notaro 240 pgs.

Comedian Tig Notaro's career was going well and she was steadily gaining popularity when a crisis hit her.  She ended up in the hospital with pneumonia and then a clostridium difficile infection.  As she was just coming home to recuperate, her mother died very unexpectedly.  About four weeks after that, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Talk about a whammy of a year, how do your bad days compare with THAT?  Tig ended up doing the performance of a lifetime, getting a book deal, finding love and figuring it out.  Hard to imagine what it takes to make it through so many tragedies but at the same time, what choice do you have?

I listened to the audio book which is read by the author.  At first I was a little put off by her bland telling of her story but then I realized it was an insightful way to recount a time that was difficult to the degree that hopefully most of us will never know in our own lives.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, 318 pages, YA

This was an excellent book, very sad, but never maudlin.
Kara wrote an excellent review a few months, ago, and it's late on the last day of the month and I'm falling asleep (and then I actually did fall asleep but the blog post counted. Hah!).
I don't even want to talk about it. I had to stop reading it on the plane back from Seattle, cuz no one wants a really large librarian weeping near them on a 737. I know that's true, I've asked
This is a beautiful story about Hazel and Augustus, the love they find, and how they and their families and friends deal with serious illness. Augustus's parents turn to their faith, famed author Peter Van Houten drinks a lot, Isaac eggs his ex-girlfriend's house, and Hazel and Gus turn to an angry and honest form of humor.
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My Mother Was Nuts

My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir by Penny Marshall  326 pp.

My first memories of Penny Marshall were from the "Laverne & Shirley" television show. Marshall's first memories are of the dancing school run by her quirky mother who believed everyone deserved entertainment. She taught hundreds of kids how to tap in her basement dancing school, including her three children: Garry, Ronny, and Penny. Marshall is brutally honest about her life including the mistakes and successes, drug use, her failures as a mother, her love life & marriages, and the entertainment industry where she was a reluctant and unintentional pioneer movie director. She is often abrasive but also sincere when she tells about her family and the incredible number of friends she has had in "the business." And she never fails to give her brother, writer/director/producer Garry Marshall, credit for her successful start in Hollywood. There were a number of things about her I didn't know, like her decades old friendship with Carrie Fisher, her relationship with Art Garfunkel who took her on a motorcycle tour of Europe, charity work, and giving unknown actors their first big break.  I enjoyed her honesty, bluntness, and humor.

I listened to the audio version of the book, read by the author. The cadence of Marshall's reading was occasionally an issue, especially her pauses at odd moments in sentences. But you can always tell the subjects that are close to her heart when she frequently chokes up while speaking. You can hear the tears when she talks of her mother's declining health and the deaths of good friends.

Life Itself, a memoir by Roger Ebert 436 pages

Before I moved to St Louis from Chicago I adopted Roger Ebert as my personal film critic. He wrote film reviews for my favorite newspaper, The Chicago Daily News (after its death he wrote for The Chicago Sun Times) and soon became featured as half of the famous televised debating critics Siskel and Ebert at the Movies. They gave their takes on current and classic films and concluded with their iconic thumbs up in approval or thumbs down in condemnation. After Siskel died, Ebert continued with his syndicated column and television show until he developed major health problems. Besides sharing Chicago as home for many years, we also shared the same alma mater, The University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana. He also introduced me to his favorite restaurant, Steak and Shake. (You might notice his praise prominently printed on their advertising posters the next time you stop by for one of the best malts in town). I opted for the audioversion of the biography read by Edward Herrmann. It is a fascinating biography not just as his personal story, but also as a history of film criticism. He was one of the pioneer critics, whose favorable review could help generate box office success. He includes anecdotes about film directors, actors and other reviewers. Anyone who appreciates film, would enjoy this gem. Those not interested in film would still be interested in his story as a cancer survivor who is still vital and creative although his body does not allow him to travel or communicate without computer technology.