It has been a busy reading month for me, as I finished five books. Here is what I thought of them all.
The Empty Nest by Sue Watson
Mystery/Suspense
Having a child go missing has got to be every mother’s worst nightmare, so as a mom myself, I was at once repelled by and attracted to the title and premise of this book. Kat’s daughter Amy, is her only child and her everything. Kat has been Amy’s protector, cheerleader, nurse, advocate and everything else that a mother is. Because of their closeness, Kat has a difficult time when Amy leaves to go to college, but Amy is coming home for a visit, and Kat can hardly wait to see her. Then, Amy doesn’t come home. She doesn’t call and she doesn’t text either. Amy goes silent. When Kat and her husband Richard go to Amy’s college campus to find out where she is, Amy seems to have disappeared without a trace. Is Amy’s disappearance the result of being a young adult sick of her mother’s over-protectiveness, or is something darker and more sinister going on?
This book was a slow start for me. The author is British, and I stumbled a bit, with some of the vocabulary and wordiness of the writing. By page 100, however, I was all in and completely absorbed in finding out what happened to Amy. There are a lot of plot twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, although some astute readers might figure out who the responsible party is well before the end of the book. The ending is a little unbelievable, but satisfying nonetheless. Over all this is a good, solid suspense/mystery. I rate it four stars. **** (Amazon purchase)
It Was Always Meant to Happen That Way by Brooke Castillo
Nonfiction/Self-help
There is much that is good in this book, just not enough of it. I understand that this is a collection of blog posts for the author’s life coaching practice so it is probably more of a marketing tool than an actual informative book. Some of the chapters are only a few sentences. I was already familiar with the author and her work when I purchased this book, but it did not give me the level of inspiration, information and satisfaction I was expecting. The book also felt like it was primarily aimed at The author’s weight loss clients. Very light and superficial reading. I rated it three stars *** on Goodreads. (Kindle purchase)
White Trash: The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America
by Nancy Isenberg
History
This book is a revealing and eye-opening look at class and poverty in America from the very beginning with John Winthrop's City on a Hill to present day working-class poor. This book is long, detailed and well-researched, and focuses, as the title suggests, on poor whites in America. What the book is interesting, and I learned a lot from it, it also comes across as negative and condescending. Isenberg seems to strip away any notion or hope of redemption and escape from the economic class to which white Americans are born. The author offers no solution to poverty and classism. As a reader, I was left wondering if Isenberg, believed that only a socialist or even communist system could solve the class divisions that came with colonists from Europe in the very beginning of our national history. Isenberg doesn't come right out and say it, but she leaves the reader feeling this nation was built on classism as well as racism and that the entire system is flawed and without hope. I learned a lot from the book, especially where certain colloquial terms like "white trash," "trailer trash" and "cracker" came from, but her continued use of the terms throughout the book, to describe poor white people, left me feeling that the author held strong white racist views, even though she is white (at least from the images I found of her on the internet). Overall, I had mixed feelings about the book, and while I was educated and even entertained by it, I am not sure I would recommend it. I gave the book three stars *** on Goodreads. (Library Libby audiobook)
The End of Normal by Stephanie Madoff Mack
Memoir
The author of this book, Stephanie Madoff Mack, is the widow of Bernie Madoff’s son, Mark, who took his own life two years after his father revealed that he had perpetrated an enormous fraud that wiped out over $65 billion of his investor’s funds, in a huge Ponzi scheme. The book tells the story of the fraud and its tragic aftermath from Madoff Mack’s perspective. The massive fraud wiped out investors from around the world, but perhaps most tragically, it resulted in the destruction of the Madoff family, including the death, by suicide of Madoff’s oldest son. His widow tells the tragic story that is at once maddening and heartbreaking. The book is powerful and compelling - a memoir of one woman’s survival and attempt to rebuild her life after one of the most horrific public scandals of our time. Madoff died in prison in April 2021 after destroying countless fortunes, nesteggs and lives. Madoff’s daughter-in-law was at the center of the storm that consumed and destroyed her family. Her step-father lost much of his retirement savings in the scandal, and even her young children were sued in an attempt to recover lost funds. Her husband maintained his innocence, but could no longer deal with the pain of what his father had done. He hung himself in their apartment while his wife was at Disney World with their Four-year-old and his infant son slept in another room.
Stephanie Madoff Mack does not restrain her own anger and sorrow as she tells the story, which is what makes the book so powerful. Her story and her strength in attempting to rebuild her life is heart-rending yet impressive. The book is highly recommended, if you can read about the devastation of Bernie Madoff’s crimes, including the suicide of his son. I gave this book five stars ***** on Goodreads, because of the impact it had on me as a reader, but it is a very tough read, especially the parts about Mark Madoff's suicide. (Salt Lake County Library)
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Nonfiction- Philosophy
This is a book with 366 one-page meditations on “wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living” based on the writings of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. I found some of the writings in this book interesting, some were hard to understand (even though the authors of the book wrote an explanation of each daily stoic quote), and many of them just fell flat for me as a believing and practicing Christian. Further research I did, after finishing the book, revealed that the Stoic philosophers did acknowledge the existence of God on the basis of reason alone. They also taught the Judeo-Christian values of virtue, honor, tranquility, and self-control and how to live them. Parts of the book were interesting, but it was not inspirational enough for me to reread - at least right away. I gave the book three stars *** on Goodreads. (Amazon purchase)
