The Guncle

 

What a wonderful novel by Steven Rowley! The Guncle is the story of the summer that Gay Uncle Patrick (called GUP by the kids) ia minding his niece and nephew, Maisie and Grant. Their mother, Sarah, a college friend of Patrick's, has recently died and their father, Greg, who is also Patrick's brother, has just admitted to the family that during Sarah's illness he had become addicted to pills. Greg will spend the summer in rehab near Patrick's Palm Springs home while the kids stay with Patrick.

Patrick, in addition to grieving the loss of Sarah, is grieving the loss of his partner, Joe, who died several years earlier in a car accident. As a result, Patrick has stepped out of life as an actor, has stopped driving, and mostly just sticks to his home in Palm Springs. He feels very ill-equipped to be a substitute parent for Maisie and Grant.

The threesome, with some bumps, makes it through the 90 days of Greg's rehab. The characters were so well-developed and so real. This issues were authentic. And the book just makes you think about life and about the importance of living every day.

I started by listening to The Guncle while out walking. The author reads the text and he does a great job of that. I had one and a half tracks left to listen to on a flight from Denver to Tampa. I was afraid I'd dose off while listening and would miss a little something. Of course that was the case. And of course the audio book expired the day after I returned to Florida. I was lucky that I was able to withdraw the e-book from the library and went back to read the last few chapters of the book. I realized that I'd barely dozed, had heard most of it, but was pleased to listen to the final chapters again.

I expected this to be a light-hearted read. It was, but it was also quite deep. I'd highly recommend.

The Maid

The Maid popped up on several lists I follow and had many positive posts in Renee's Reading Club on Facebook. When I was between books, browsing the library catalog and it was available, I thought it was a good book to pick up.

This is Nita Prose's debut novel. It was engaging and gave a warm feeling. (Is that a cozy mystery is supposed to do? I'm not even sure what exactly a cozy mystery is, but I've seen this described as one.)

Molly, the maid, is somewhere on the autistic scale. She is very regimented in her actions, requiring strict adherence to routine. She also has difficulty with social cues of almost any kind. She's a maid at a posh hotel in what I believe is London. Her grandmother has recently died and she's navigating life on her own. Things are going along more or less fine after a  bump from a "bad egg." Until... Molly walks into the hotel room of a VIP and finds the man dead on his bed.

Of course, Molly is the prime suspect. Help for Molly comes from some of her friends at the hotel. And they all live happily ever after. Ha ha. Not exactly. But rest assured, things work out well in the end.

This was a great in-between book. Not too heavy, easy to read, entertaining, and of course you're rooting for Molly the whole time.
 

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World

I was looking for a Fredrik Backman novel to read for July's book club author study and Things My Son Needs to Know about the World was available right now. So I took it out. It definitely helped to acquaint me more with Fredrik Backman. And to know him better as a parent.

Things My Son Needs to Know about the World is a series of missives to Backman's son as a newborn and a toddler with lessons that the author himself is learning about life as a new father, what he hopes will make him a good enough father and what his son, later on, should take from his experiences. We learn about how Backman ended up with a woman who is his exact opposite who is a wonderful mom to their son. And we learn about unconditional love.

This is a good book to read as a parent of adult children, reminding me of when my kids were little. Why I might have held a child's hand too tightly. When I struggled with the question of whether I was a good enough parent. This would also be a good book to read as a new parent, to know you are not alone... and perhaps to learn a few lessons yourself.
 

Our Country Friends

I really wanted to love Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart. I loved the premise. A couple owns a country home with several guests houses (bungalows) and invites some friends and a work associate to hang out with them during the early part of the pandemic, in March 2020, when things were first getting serious.

I enjoyed parts of the novel, but other parts just dragged on. The characters were interesting. In reflecting, I enjoyed the interactions between most of the characters and sometimes it seemed as though there wasn't enough of the interactions that I liked. The writing style reminded me of a Russian novel... like Doctor Zhivago... which I couldn't get through. But at least here, the names were familiar enough so I could keep everyone straight.

I loved the character of Nat, the young, precocious daughter of the "landowner" and his wife. And I really enjoyed the relationship that Karen, one of the guests and the landowner's old friend, was able to develop with Nat.

I wouldn't deter anyone who has this on their radar from reading this. But I'm not sure I can truly recommend it.