LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER
Susan Rieger
This is my first time reading Rieger. I enjoyed my time reading LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER. I found it to be both timely and prescient with us being on the dawn of this election season.
She being Grace, her being Lila, are daughter and mother.
There is no one she would rather be less like, and no one she resembles more. Their relationship is complicated. Full of disappointment and broken promises never given. Part of her is blood let to strangers that others interpret more as a willing donation.
There is a comfort in the river that runs between them. And loneliness resides in the current. Abandonment flows underneath. Constant and enduring.
She is reading the teleprompter and missing the message of the speech. The intention behind it, the driving force, is something she has never had the pleasure of knowing. For her, there is a lack of sincerity. A little bit of do as I say, not as I do. Her words do not match her walk; her heart ungiven. Because it was never hers to begin with.
I recommend this to those of you who found a home with the characters of SUCCESSION. It shows that women are as varied as their male counterparts. Men do not own the drive for success, and women have a place on boards other than the PTA. But nothing is without sacrifice.
The writing is smart, and the unflattering angles of Lila’s life are a reflection we can see ourselves in. Life is messy and we are intricate, delicate creatures. Splashing around in the mud and muck, trying to stay clean.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Random House | The Dial Press for the advanced copy!
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you liked this review…you might like:
Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight
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YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID
K. T. Nguyen
Do you have ghosts dead or living that haunt you in your waking hours? I have a new thriller for you.
YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID stars Annie, known to some intimately as Anh. Annie’s mother died recently, and Annie is having trouble moving on. She and her mom had a complicated relationship, and some issues may never be resolved.
Annie suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder and her days are spent managing her condition to varying degrees. Unfortunately, Annie spends a lot of her time trying to control things that are out of her control. Like how other people feel, behave, and respond to her. Sometimes her condition is manageable with medication and therapy and lots of patience and understanding. Some days her condition consumes her entirely.
One day, Annie finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery. We follow along as Annie goes through a difficult time with her condition in her grief and becomes a suspect in a murder case.
Will Annie find the resolve to keep her and her family safe or will everything she’s worked so hard for slip through her fingers?
We find out in K. T. Nguyen’s YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID.
Nguyen’s portrayal of obsessive-compulsive disorder and grief had a layer of truth running through it. I appreciated Annie as a character and the situation she found herself in. Annie’s condition is devastating and within the context of the book has real devastating consequences.
The writing is sharp and focused. The suspense was balanced, and the intrigue stayed high. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID is the first in a lineup of great early summer thrillers. Make sure you grab a copy the next time you’re in the bookstore and request it from your local library.
Thanks to Netgalley, PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, and Dutton for the advanced copy! It was a pleasure!!
YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID…⭐⭐⭐⭐
If you liked this review…you might like:
Alone in the Dark by Joanne Ryan
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Hi, welcome. Have I said THANK YOU recently for all of your support here and elsewhere?
Thank you!
Book of the Month sometimes affects my posting schedule. That is the case this month.
They have two of the books I’m planning on featuring this month available as main picks, and three available as add-ons.
Let’s do a quick summary of what’s to come and then I’ll give you the full review for MADWOMAN.
The full review of BLUE SISTERS by Coco Mellors will post today on Substack. Ensure you are following me over there to stay on top of other things I discuss.
You can also check my Linktree as that is your one-stop for everything I feature, everywhere.
I’m currently in the middle of HERE ONE MOMENT by Liane Moriarty. That review will post next Tuesday. I cannot go faster, I tried, and there is no reason to. It’s ok, not great. It’s long which I’m sure isn’t surprising if you’re acquainted with Moriarty. I’ll probably land between 3-4 stars but it may have a twist that hasn’t happened yet.
It may surprise me. I’ll never count a book out after my experience with ENLIGHTENMENT. Sarah Perry surprised me in the last fourth of the book. I read ENLIGHTENMENT so I could rank all of the Booker Longlisted titles. That ranking is due at the end of this week. I’m not sure where that will end up…most likely substack.
I heard a solid rumor that SLEEP TIGHT by J.H. Markert features a questionable disfigurement that is off-putting and not good for disability rep, so I would pass on that, and did.
Spoiler-alert, I gave BLUE SISTERS by Coco Mellors five stars so I’d probably pick that one if it were me. But not everyone is as impressed with it as I was. A trusted source said that it felt like a representation bingo board which is never a good feeling. I thought it represented and did it well. I’m still in the WE NEED ALL THE REPRESENTATION WE CAN GET camp, so if you’re anything like me, I think you’ll appreciate it.
My review for THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM by Laura Dave will come later this month. Big surprise for me there. Keep your eye out.
I’m personally looking forward to reading Matt Haig, and Sally Rooney this month. INTERMEZZO is under tight wraps and I have not heard a single thing about it pre-publication. That could be due to marketing efforts and it’s great or exactly the opposite and they’re trying to remove influencers impact on bad material.
Only time will tell. I have INTERMEZZO pre-ordered and will post my review as early as the 25th.
You can sign up for BOOK OF THE MONTH below. No matter which way you pay it $5 for a hardcover book is a good as you’re going to get it-EVER!
If you like getting a preview of Book of the Month titles, let me know in the comments.
My other question is: Are you ready for horror titles? They’re coming up! Some of them I’ve been saving all year. Because I read horror all year long, not just in October.
Stick around!
And now MADWOMAN!
MADWOMAN
Chelsea Bieker
MADWOMAN is about the madness of motherhood.
Clove receives a letter one day at the post office that upends her life. It’s a letter from an attorney representing her mom. Anything from her mother would be bad but this letter is the worst.
Moments after leaving the post office she gets into a fender bender with a woman who goes by the name of Jane. Jane will set Clove’s life even further off course but she’s too frazzled to realize how disruptive and disastrous she is.
We follow along as Clove and Jane forge a peculiar relationship that seems to be the only thing keeping Clove from becoming a MADWOMAN.
What is in the letter and what will Clove eventually do about it? All that and more in Chelsea Bieker’s summer drama MADWOMAN.
There are secret truths to motherhood that we mothers whisper into the wind so that other expectant mothers don’t hear and give up and end the human race as we know it. Bieker went to the place where all of those whispers go and came back with the material for this book.
Its honesty was enlightening.
The writing is sharp and a few pages in I was already a fan. There is a dryness to the wit and humor that I appreciated. The storyline was amusing and it kept my attention the entire time.
I’ll be sure to check out what Bieker publishes next and you should too. But start with MADWOMAN and let me know what you think in the comments.
Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown, and Company for the advanced copy!
MADWOMAN…⭐⭐⭐⭐
If you liked this review…you might like:
The Nursery by Szilvia Molnar
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