When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another–both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.
“We didn’t call the police right away.” Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.
Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything–which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.
What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.
HAPPINESS FALLS
Angie Kim
I really enjoyed listening to HAPPINESS FALLS this month and highly recommend it!
In HAPPINESS FALLS we are following Mia. Well, we are following Mia’s family but we’re seeing through the eye of our narrator, Mia. Mia’s dad is missing. The last person to see him and the only person who knows where he is cannot bear witness. And truly, that is just the beginning of what we’re talking about in HAPPINESS FALLS. It’s about much more.
As the search begins and time goes on, with Mia’s dad still missing you as the reader, go through level after level of understanding. At first, you know little, and by the end, you know more, but not quite as much as you want.
My first thoughts were…wow- this is easy to read and listen to. The narrator’s performance in HAPPINESS FALLS is flawless. Mia’s character is narrated by Shannon Tyo, who has narrated a plethora of audiobooks. The narrator’s performances were a big part of my enjoyment of the book. I highly recommend the audiobook format if you decide to pick it up.
The suspense for most of the time reading was high. I couldn’t stop listening and several times lost track of time and other responsibilities because I had to keep reading. The concepts in HAPPINESS FALLS were very interesting. I felt like reading this book was lighting up more pathways in my brain than usual.
I was rapidly taking notes, proposing theories to myself, and collecting clues and data to confirm my theories. It was such a fun escape.
Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced listening copy!
HAPPINESS FALLS…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises—especially to ourselves—by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle.
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
THE CELEBRANTS
Steven Rowley
I had so much fun with Jordan and friends while reading Rowley’s latest contemporary fiction title, THE CELEBRANTS. Out now!
A group of friends: Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle have known each other for decades. They meet to give one of their members a “living funeral” whenever someone needs it. Something they have done over the years as a tribute to their friendship and each other.
They meet and eulogize each other in life before death. This year one of the members of their friend group has a secret. And it’s going to change everything as they’ve always known it.
This book is a celebration of life and friendship, the ties that bind, what endures through the years, and what changes. I loved the idea of celebrating those you love in life when you still have the chance.
This is my first time reading Rowley and now that I know what to expect I’ll reach for his books when I’m looking for a feel-good book with great friendship dynamics.
Thanks to Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced copies!
THE CELEBRANTS…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own.
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.
Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.
CHAIN GANG ALL-STARS
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Reading this book turned my reading sessions into LIVE events.
I’d grab a snack, get something cool to drink and find a cozy spot, turn on the audiobook, and see who was doing what.
THIS IS A MOVIE!
I’m not saying they should turn this into a movie, I’m saying they will turn this into a movie.
Read it first!
CHAIN GANG ALL-STARS stars STAXXX and Thurwar. Actually, it has a whole cast of characters but STAXXX and Thurwar reign supreme.
The CHAIN GANG ALL-STARS are a chain gang serving time in one of America’s deadliest and most exploited prisons. The prisons are made to compete like gladiators in a chance to win their freedom.
But that is really an oversimplification of what the book is.
The book in its purest light is about the legal system. Who is in charge, who is inside, whom it helps, and whom it doesn’t, and it talks about the legal system’s intended purpose.
It’s also about two prisoners on a convergent path. The journeys they took to get where they were and the eventual path they will find themselves on.
The reading experience is multidimensional in a couple of different ways. There is an exciting and tense story and woven throughout are highlights of why the story matters.
It feels like no matter what path you take or which side of the coin you land you’ll end up at a place of better understanding.
The audiobook is done by a magnificent cast of narrators. Including Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch, and Lee Osorio. This lent to the cinematic quality of the audiobook. I really enjoyed their performances.
I did feel it was a bit long and sometimes the heaviness of the message was a lot to take in. It elicits emotions of a dual nature. In one aspect I was saddened and angered and in the other, I was raptured by the story and excited to see how it played out.
That conflict felt purposeful and effective. So much to think about. So much to discuss. Powerful and important, it’s definitely worth your time and worth the read.
Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for the advanced copy and the opportunity to provide feedback!
CHAIN GANG ALL-STARS…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Out today!
