The Splendid and the Vile by Eric Larson

 Winston Churchill as you may never have seen him before.  In typical Larson fashion, he has managed to unearth details of of the man and how he was able, during the horrendous bombardment of the blitz, say what was needed to keep the faith to stand alone against Hitler.  As often as I read about that one fact, I still struggle to understand the courage of that small island. This story of Churchhill ends when the Americans finally enter the war and we will never know what might have happened had we not finally come to the fight. No matter, Larson has managed to reveal how this funny, pudgy, cigar smoking character was a true hero. Fascinating read.

susan,linda,nina, & cokie by Lisa Napoli

 As an NPR fanatic, I was excited to get a glimpse of these women working together, blazing trails. Unfortunately you had to tease those moments out of a "too much information" text.  The amount of research was impressive but there was no genuine feeling of the importance of their group effort - no story - just a journalistic report.  What was behind their nickname, the "Fallopian Jungle"? Would that have been acceptable now? They certainly supported each other but did they really like what seemed to be an assigned lane? I am sure journalism is a competitive business but I wanted to see that somehow this was different. Lots of interesting NPR history which seemed to interrupt their story. Glad I read it but wanted a different perspective. Wonder what the 3 women who are still alive thought of the book?

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

 Salahudin and Noor are a part of a small Pakistani community in Juniper, CA. Both  extremely bright, neither has the kind of life that means college after graduation but still they dream. Salahudin is busy being the adult to his often drunk father. He is trying to keep the Cloud Rest Inn Motel afloat - an immigrant dream of his late mother.  Noor is living with an abusive uncle forever in his debt for saving her from the rubble of an earthquake in Pakistan. They have been friends forever and seem destined to be a couple but life history and secrets get in the way.  When Salahudin makes a decision he believes necessary to save his mother's dream, their lives are forever altered.  Although classified as a Young Adult novel because of the age of the main characters, it is a reminder both of the struggles of many immigrant families and our tendency to accept the "I'm fine" response to avoid the responsibility of addressing a real pain in those we meet. 

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

 This story of a not so perfect marriage would make great film noire. Marissa and Matthew seem to have it all - successful careers, a lovely home in the suburbs of D.C. a charming little boy. Then Marissa has an affair. Matthew seems distraught. Marissa still loves him. They seek family counseling from Avery who has lost her license because of her unorthodox methods. It's all so desperate - and all soooo not what it appears. Not quite sure how this got on the book group list.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

 It has been a while since a book seemed so destined to fall in my hands at just the right time. Tom Lake is a small community in Michigan with a very active community theater. Years ago, Lara Nelson played Emily in a production of Our Town there opposite Peter Duke who went on to be a famous actor. Now it is 2020 and Lara and her husband own a cherry orchard not far fromTom Lake. Her three daughters have returned home to wait out the pandemic and help harvest the fruit. In the hours spent picking cherries, the four women revisit, question, examine the time Lara spent at Tom Lake.  As I regret not having asked my parents or grandparents questions about their life before me and ponder if there will be a time when my own children have those same regrets, there is the question of what would I share and what I would not. What record do we leave behind? What are the defining moments in our life? I loved every moment spent with this family - the story, the writing, the connection - all of it.

Kill Switch by Adam Jentleson

 Subtitle: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.

 Simply put, the Kill Switch references Rule 22 which was devised to bring a filibuster to an end. Back in the day when being a Senator carried with it a responsibility to reasonably debate and debate and debate..., it kept the southern group from blocking Civil Rights legislation through the filibuster. It comes with a need for a super majority (currently 60) to end the filibuster. In a ferociously divided Senate, whose job it seems to be just to keep the other side from getting what it wants, it means that just a small few can keep something from even being voted on - even if the country has made it clear that they want something done. It is what  kept universal background checks from being passed after the Newtown shootings. 55 Senators wanted to vote yes but not 60 - not enough to stop the filibuster.  It never came to a vote.  There is a lot of fascinating history about the Senate and disturbing revelations about the current cast of bad actors. It is frightening but Jentleson does offer some hope for a fundamental change.

Hello Beautiful

I understood that this book was intended to pay homage to Little Women. And it kinda does - there are four sisters who are very close and one does die. There is a male who disrupts the equilibrium of their relationship. There is a father who adores them but it is his hapless nature that forces their rigidly Catholic mother to demand that each one go to college to be self supporting. When one of them becomes pregnant with no father in sight and is determined to keep the child - well it all starts to drift far from Little Women at some point. It is a story of family and how it can become dysfunctional - although not all family members or readers would agree on where the dysfunction lies. It came highly recommended and led to a good book group discussion about family in general and Louisa May Alcott in particular but most of the group considered it an elevated kind of chick lit.