A Good Neighborhood

 

A Good Neighborhood, by Therese Anne Fowler, is a very timely, quite thought-provoking novel that addresses the issues of what makes a good neighborhood and what makes a good neighbor. It factors in age, profession, women's roles, race, religion, environmental issues just to name a few. 

The narrator of the novel are "the neighbors," collectively. As if they are sitting down to tell you a story about something that happened in their neighborhood. It tells the tale of Xavier Alston-Holt and his mother, Valerie and their new neighbors, the Whitmans. The two families have absolutely nothing in common. 

Brad Whitman is a real blow-hard, new money, and a local celebrity because he's personable and does his own commercials for his HVAC business. His wife, Julia, just wants to fit in. Brad and Julia have two daughters, Juniper and Lily.

Valerie Alston-Holt is a single mom to graduating senior, Brad. They are both well-liked in the neighborhood.

Valerie doesn't like Brad, and Brad isn't crazy about Valerie, even though Julia so wants to have Valerie as a friend. It's a dying oak tree in the Alston-Holt's backyard that starts the serious friction between the two neighbors. At the same time that trouble is brewing between the adult members of the families, Xavier and Juniper are becoming friends.

The book was incredibly authentic and many of the story lines are along the lines of things that are pretty current in the news, although the book was written before these stories hit the news. It's just that timely. There's no reason that anything in this story could not possibly happen, especially not in the current climate of our country. The setting of the story is Oak Knoll, North Carolina, a southern small city. As a transplanted New Yorker living in the part of Florida that more closely associates with the south, it reminded me of just how southern the thoughts of many people who live here are. I was able to make a few uncomfortable connections.

I found the book a real page turner and think it would make a great book club book. Will definitely recommend it to my book club this afternoon.

After You (Me Before You, #2)

I read Me Before You by Jojo Moyes about 3 years ago with my community book club. I'd heard that they'd come out with a sequel. (I'd also heard that they'd come out with a movie, but movies, that's a whole 'nother story.) I figured I'd get around to reading the sequel one of these days.

Getting to know that a new neighbor loves to read (but doesn't like book clubs - imagine!), we started talking about books. This was back in November. She recommended a few books, some that I'd heard of and some that I hadn't. And she emphatically recommended this book. I came home that night and requested After You from the library. It finally became available in early January. Following my new norm, I waited until the latest Outlander expired off my iPad before starting to read After You.

This review includes spoilers for the first book, Me Before You. I highly recommend that book so if you haven't read it and want to, go read that first. And then come back...

I'm not sure why but I expected to pick up this book and love it. Quite the opposite. I picked up this book and thought, oh, this is horrible. Too many books, too little time? Is this something I even want to read. The characters were so whiny and annoying to me. This was the book I'd been looking forward to reading? I tried to remember what my neighbor said she liked about it so much. Was it a twist towards the end? Was it the ending? I knew she'd mentioned something specific and I remember her telling me she didn't want to share too much because she didn't want to ruin the story for me. I grumbled through a few more chapters. And then the book turned for me. I was hooked.

Me Before You is the story about a young woman, Louise, in a far out suburb of London whose live needs a kickstart. She's living at home with her parents, has a dead-end job and a dead beat boyfriend. She sees a job advertised for a caregiver, applies and gets the job. It's not at all what she expected. The man she will be caring for is Will, a wealthy former playboy (at least that's how he came across to me) and as a result of an accident, he's left a quadriplegic. So here we've got Lou, timid and not willing to create life on her terms, and Will, whose accident thrusts him into a whole different life. But is it a life worth living? That's the big question.

Will would like to end his life. He feels it isn't a life worth living. He's preparing for assisted suicide. He makes a deal with his mother that he won't do anything for six months. Those are the six months that Lou was hired for. She makes it her mission to change Will's mind. At first, Will is miserable towards her, trying to scare her away and trying to get her to leave him alone. Eventually, though, Will also has a mission. He wants Lou to become the type of woman to really live life, the way that he lived life prior to his accident. He wants her to have adventures and take risks and really L-I-V-E!

Will is more successful in his endeavor than Lou is. At the end of Me Before You, Will is dead and Lou is left with certain instructions and quite a bit of money.

After You picks up about 18 months later. Lou has spent time in Paris, she's bounced around a little bit. Now she's bought a flat on the edge of the city of London and she's working as a server at a bar at the airport. She knows that she's not doing what she promised Will she'd do. She's not really living but rather just going through the motions. She hasn't made her flat her own. The manager of the airport bar makes her working days miserable. Something has to change.

Then Lou has a rather bizarre accident where she is injured. Not as severely as Will had been injured. Not really life changing at all. But enough that she needs to go home and recuperate at her parents' house and making her wonder how she ended up back where she'd been just two years ago.

Once she's recovered enough, before heading back to London, Lou makes a promise to her father that she'll join a grief support group. She needs to get over Will's death. At the first meeting, Lou sits there wondering what she possible has in common with these other people. After all, her loss was so unique.

The group is pointless, her job gets worse and worse. She wonders what her life is all about. And then... as a result of the group she meets a man. And part of Will's past barges into her life. This is where I'll stop giving the details and just get on to the themes of the book.

Unlike the first novel which forces the reader to think about assisted suicide, this book takes on many more issues. It's about coming to terms with loss and learning how to live with the loss while still actually living. It's about family and all its strengths and weaknesses. It's about women's roles, even after they're in their 50s after years of being a stay-at-home mother. It's about what teens need. It's about love. Moyes covers all those themes - in the second half of the book - really well.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, I do. But don't pick it up expecting a second Me Before You. As a sequel, I'd only give this book 2 stars. But as a stand alone story about characters for whom we know the backstory, I give it 4 stars. Thank you, neighbor, for planting the bug in my head to read it... and for your words that kept me to stick with it even when I felt like giving it up.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

I discovered The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katrina Bivald quite by chance. It was delightful! Originally published in Swedish in 2013, it was published in English in 2015. It's the story of a reader, Sara, who prefers books to people and believes there is a book for every single person. That every single person can be a reader if given the right book to read.

Sara and Amy become pen pals, exchanging books and information about books. Sara, dissatisfied with her life in Sweden, is going to lose her job. Amy invites her to Iowa for a visit. Sara arrives in Broken Wheel, Iowa, just as Amy's funeral is coming to a conclusion. Now what is Sara supposed to do?

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is a love story. It's a love story between Sara and her books, between the dying town of Broken Wheel and Sara, and between Sara and Tom. It's not exactly chick lit. But if you like chick lit and you love reading books about books, this could be the book for you.

Lots of references are made to books and authors in the novel, most of which I have either read or am familiar with. There have been times in my life when I've preferred books to people. I'm sure you won't be surprised that I found Sara very easy to relate to. Living where I live, I also have a sense about what a dying town might look like and how a new business in town brings a new life to the place. After all the heavy historical fiction I've been reading, it was nice to read something contemporary and light.