The Whole Town's Talking by Fannie Flagg

A special thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been a fan of Fannie Flagg's writing and have read most of her books.  Her books are like comfort food, like tea and a duvet on a rainy day, or like a hug from an old friend.

The book started out delightful and charming, typical of Flagg, with (mostly) likeable characters with lots of appeal and just the right amount of quirkiness, but then it got silly...  I like the premise of the book, the birth of a town in the 1800s right through to 2021, but I could have done without the subplot in the cemetery—this was corny and unnecessary.

All-in-all, a fun read.

The Girl in the Garden by Melanie Wallace

A special thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The characters in this novel are isolated either by circumstance or by choice and yet they are all connected.  June is abandoned with Luke, her infant son at Mabel's seaside motel and it is her arrival that is the ripple effect for the story.  Mabel, a widower, is grieving for her husband, and takes on helping June and her son.  From here we meet Iris, a reclusive woman who is living out her days of humiliation at the hands of her husband; Iris' daughter Claire, a fiercely independent photographer; Sam, a disfigured war vet; Oldman, a wise older gentleman; Duncan, a trusted guardian.

Wallace's novel is a slow burn when revealing how these individual stories are related to one another. Each character is drawn out over the course of the narrative through June and Luke, who is an extension of June.  They help not only bring Iris out of her shell, but are a link to what is good in the world.  Told from multiple points of view, this beautiful novel would be an excellent choice for a book club.

Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer

A special thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel completely got away from me and I didn't want to continue with it.  I did eventually finish, but it took me a few months to get through this book.

Foer is a wonderful writer, he really is, which is why this novel threw me for such a loop.  I was enjoying the storyline of the dissolution of Jacob and Julia's marriage, well, I guess as much as you can enjoy being a witness to something so painful.  The writing was raw, tender, and so good.  It started to unravel anytime any of their three children came into the scene–are there really kids that are that precocious?

He introduces a natural disaster which is incredibly distracting.  Foer draws the reader's attention not only away from Jacob and Julia, but manages to draw the reader right out of the book.  He should have simply stuck with this storyline and left it at that.  Not only would he have greatly reduced the size of the novel (this is a whopping book at just shy of 600 pages), but the story would've flowed so much better—I literally felt like a dog chasing its tail.

Muslim Girl by Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

"The truth is that 9/11 never ended for us."  Read it again, and think about it...

This well-written coming-of-age story of a Muslim girl in a post-9/11 world is a quick, but thought-provoiking read.  Amani shares her feelings of alienation from American society, and her firsthand account of visiting her father's native homeland of Jordan.  It is here, in Jordan, where she both doubts and accepts herself by finally experiencing her culture in its purest form through a lens of freedom rather than through a trivialized stereotypical one.  

As a Muslim girl, Al-Khatahtbeh felt that her voice was insignificant and she founded MuslimGirl.com, a platform where Muslim girls/women would have a voice and could "talk back".  This forum gives Muslim women a place to openly discuss their unique problems and interests as well as talk about the fear for their lives, Islamophobia, stereotypes, and the blaming of all Muslims for the act of a few.      

This memoir is publishing at an opportune time and I highly recommend picking up a copy and making it a priority to read.  Al-Khatahtbeh is is changing and challenging the way Muslim women are viewed around the world.    

The Original Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Harlequin for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ginny Moon is a 14-year-old autistic girl that has found her "forever home" but she is trying to get kidnapped by her biological mother, Gloria, to ensure that her Baby Doll is safe.  Ginny was with her mother, a drug addict, for nine years and was neglected and abused not only by Gloria, but also her various boyfriends.  How can Ginny be so desperate to return to that life?  This life is all she has known, and as a person with autism, routine is paramount to existence—like Ginny having to eat nine grapes for breakfast.

This was a mixed bag for me.  Ginny is an obvious unreliable narrator which drives the events forward.  Described as being in the same vein as Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Ludwig is just as convincing a writer as Haddon.  Why I can't give it a higher rating is that is was just plain depressing and sad.  I do know that others will love this book, and it would be an excellent choice for a book club.