End of Summer Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Summer is winding down and there’s still time to get in some last minute summer reads.

There are two books with unique storytelling. In both Patmeena Sabit’s Good People and Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters, the stories are narrated not by the main characters but by people in their orbit, family and friends, as well as strangers.

Good People is told in the format of interviews done by police departments in Fairfax County, Virginia and Fulton County, New York. 

The Sharaf family are refugees from Afghanistan who move to Virginia.The family came to America in 1998 and became part of a bigger Afghan community. Through hard work they became successful business owners, and were able to give their children, Omer and Zorah, everything that American teenagers wanted.

When Zorah became romantically involved with a young man who was not Afghan, she and her parents fought bitterly. Zorah went from a loving daughter and popular A student to a dropout.

On the way back from a family trip to Niagara Falls, a tragedy happens that changes the lives of the Sharaf family forever. What exactly happened is the subject of the police investigations.

Seeing the Sharaf family through the eyes of people who knew them well, and who only interacted with the briefly, makes the reader think more deeply about how well we know people in our own orbit. 

Even though we don’t hear directly from the Sharaf family, their story is vividly told and left to the reader to decide what happened. I highly recommend it, and readers of Megha Majumdar’ A Burning will want to read Good People.

Bobby Palmer’s Main Characters tells the story of Clara and Seb as they meet and fall in love. Clara is an artist who wants to be a filmmaker. Seb has modeled, acted a bit, and plays in a band with his childhood friends. 

While Clara has clear ambitions, Seb’s life goals are less defined. Clara becomes part of Seb’s close-knit friend group as well as his family. Watching them fall in love as seen by the people around them but not by Clara and Seb is a unique way to tell a love story. 

Their story is told by friends, family, strangers sitting next to them at a restaurant. After reading this, you may think twice about conversations you have in public.

Like all love stories between two people who are different from each other and want different things in life, the road is rocky. Clara works hard to become a film director and it can consume her. Seb desires to start a family. Can they make a compromise that works for them or does one have to give up their dream?

Main Characters is romantic, honest, and heartbreaking at times. It took me awhile to get into the story but once I did, I was all in. I highly recommend it.

In Chris Bohjalian’s new novel The Amateur, eighteen year-old Mira is a golf phenom, ready to head off to college on a golf scholarship in 1978. She golfs at the country club near her home in Westchester and can frequently beat the older male golfers. 

One day she is hitting golf balls into a practice net when her ball shoots through a hole in the net and strikes a young caddy in the head killing him instantly. 

Mira is devastated, and from that day forward refuses to pick up a golf club. She declines her college scholarship, much to the consternation of her parents. It was  accident, surely not her fault and she needs to move on with her life.

Soon is it revealed that Mira has been having an affair with a married man from the club since she was fifteen years old. Is it really an affair when a older married father pursues a teenage girl? The thoughts on consent in the late 1970s are markedly different than today.

Mira is decried as a homewrecker and becomes a pariah in her hometown and at the college she attends. To make matters worse, the caddy’s parents are suing the golf club and the net manufacturers, and Mira has to testify. Some people cast blame on Mira, accusing her of creating the hole in the net.

The story is told through Mira’s memoir (she has become a famous author), and fans of Chris Bohjalian will recognize that Mira’s novels hew closely to Bohjalian’s own previous novels-  little “Easter eggs” for his faithful readers.

The Amateur shows how one moment in your life, one single act, can change everything. Fans of Bohjalian’s The Flight Attendant will enjoy this one as well. I recommend it.

Good People by Patmeena Samit- A+

Published by Crown

Hardcover, $29, 386 pages

Main Characters by Bobby Palmer-A+

Published by Little, Brown

Hardcover, $29, 410 pages

The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian- A

Published by Doubleday

Hardcover,  $33, 319 pages

Friday 5ive- July 17, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post where I share five things that caught my attention during the week. Is it just me, or does every day seem like Groundhog Day (the movie with BIll Murray, not the furry creature)?

1)  First up is an update. My two sons and I signed up for Summer Around the Finger Lakes, a virtual bike ride around all eleven Finger Lakes. We had to ride 408.2 miles between June 1st and September 30th, the distance around all of the lakes combined. My sons finished a few weeks ago, and they came in 1st and 3rd place, out of 1400 riders. I finished this week in 11th place. I'm pretty proud of myself, as I have never done anything like this. We are lucky that we have our Peleton bikes so we can ride inside rain or shine. Thanks to my good friend Kelly, who suggested the ride to us. We had a blast!


2)  Another update: since it looks like indoor dining in NYC is on hold, restaurants have really spruced up their outdoor areas. I passed by two restaurants on First Ave., the tent and the lights are a nice touch at Sefton, but I am concerned about the servers who will have to cross the bike path to wait on customers. Necessity is the mother of invention they say.

3)  I watched author and bookstore owner Judy Blume interviewed on A Might Blaze's Facebook page this week. She is so delightful, and her enthusiasm for books and the bookstore she and her husband George Cooper founded in Key West is wonderful. They are such a lovely couple, and if you are a Judy Blume fan (who isn't?), take the time to watch this interview. It will brighten your day.


4) We finished season three of Netflix's Ozark,, and it is everything that people said it was. Tom Pelphry's role as Ben, Wendy's bipolar brother, is the star of the season and sure to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor at this year's Emmy Awards. He is phenomenal, and the second to last episode is one of the best hours on television that I have ever seen. If you liked Breaking Bad, you must watch Ozark.

5) It was another big week for reading. It began with Amy Poeppel's Musical Chairs, a comedic novel about Bridget, a woman looking forward to spending the summer with her boyfriend in her summer home in Litchfield. When he breaks up with her, her two adult children move in, and her best friend and musical partner Will falls in love with a woman in town, her summer is looking a lot different than she imagined. Musical Chairs is the book we need right now; it's funny and sweet and filled with characters you want to know. I felt like I was living in this delightfully witty book. Do yourself a favor and preorder it now so you can have it on July 21st, the day it publishes. You can thank me later.

I followed that up with a serious novel, Megha Majumdar's brilliant debut A Burning, about a young woman who lives in the slums of India. When she writes a Facebook post about a train attack, she is accused of being a terrorist and locked up. Her former teacher and a young person she has been tutoring both have to decide if they should support her or help themselves. It's a quick but profound read, and it's a Read With Jenna pick. I highly recommend it.

Robin Wasserman's Mother Daughter Widow Wife is another serious read. When a young woman is found bruised on a bus to Philadelphis, she has no memory of who she is. She ends up at an institute where a doctor and his young female associate try to help her. It's about the things we remember and why we remember some things but forget others. It's the kind of book you want to ponder.

Podcasts are all the rage, and Gretchen Anthony's novel, The Kids Are Gonna Ask, is about teenage twins, Thomas and Savannah, who start a podcast to discover who their father is. Their mother died in a car accident and they live with their grandmother Maggie, who doesn't know who their father is, but supports their quest to find him. As per usual with social media, things can go wrong, and they do. My full review will post on Tuesday.

Have a great week- stay safe and socially distant, wear a mask, and wash your hands.