Month: July 2025

Exploring Sisterhood in Julia Phillips’ Bear

by Stefani

Bear by Julia Phillips

Published: June 25, 2024 by Hogarth

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.

Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.

Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.

A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us — and within us — Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.

Rating:

Review:

At its heart this is a story about two sisters. They have spent their entire lives longing to get off their little island. They watched their mother struggle in bad relationships and care for her elderly mother and wished for more. They stayed up late at night to dream of the day that they would get on the ferry together and never return. Then their mother gets sick and those plans get sidelined. Now they have a new dream, care for their mother until she passes and then escape the island together. Or, do they still have that shared dream?

This story is about so much more than the bear. Yes there is a bear and the two sisters react in completely different ways to the bear. Sam is absolutely terrified and wants the beast removed from their island before something terrible happens. Elena is fascinated with the bear and finds herself looking for him and befriending him. But its not really about the bear. It’s about the fractured relationship between these two sisters. Their differing reactions to their mother’s imminent death. And their shared realization that they will have nothing tying them together once she’s gone.

I loved every minute of this book. I read the entire second half in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. And there is a singular moment, toward the end, that shocked me to my core. It’s not often that a book elicits an involuntary physical reaction from me. But this did. My jaw dropped, my hand clapped itself to my mouth and I audibly gasped. I didn’t expect it for a moment. And yet, it also made perfect sense. It was extraordinarily done.

Exploring Identity in ‘The Names’ by Florence Knapp

by Stefani

The Names by Florence Knapp

Published: May 6, 2025 by Pamela Dorman Books

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she’d like to call the child, Cora hesitates…

Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora’s and her young son’s lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.

Rating:

Review:

This boo was so interesting that I couldn’t put it down. We start the story with Cora. Her husband is terribly abusive and controlling. He instructs her to go into town and register the birth of their son, whom he wishes to have named after him. From there the story splits into three separate stories. In one story, Cora names her son after her husband as expected. In another, she names her son the name that she picked and wanted to name him. And in the third, she lets her daughter pick the baby’s name.

The entire rest of the story is about how this family changed over the years based on that singular choice that Cora makes. It was such a touching and moving story about autonomy and the power of a name. This story makes it clear that it’s not really about her son’s name, but about the choice of a name and the power and expectation that comes with each name.

This book was heartbreaking. It was fascinating. It was rich. It was beautiful. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars was that it was difficult to track which events happened to which name. I had to make some notes to keep it straight. But I think that was just part of the nature of the storyline. Also, be aware that this book contains a lot of spousal abuse and is quite graphic in some of those descriptions.

The Masks We Wear: Six Days in Bombay review

by Stefani

Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

Published: April 15, 2025 by MIRA

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

When renouned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she’s expected to make a quick recovery, and Sona is excited to spend time with the worldly woman who shares her half-Indian identity, even if that’s where their similarities end. Sona is enraptured by Mira’s stories of her travels, and shocked by accounts of the many lovers she’s left scattered through Europe. Over the course of a week, Mira befriends Sona, seeing in her something bigger than the small life she’s living with her mother. Mira is released from the hospital just in time to attend a lavish engagement party with all of Bombay society. But the next day, Mira is readmitted to the hospital in worse condition than before, and when she dies under mysterious circumstances, Sona immediately falls under suspicion.

Before leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sona is given a note Mira left for her, along with her four favorite paintings. But how could she have known to leave a note if she didn’t know she was going to die? The note sends Sona on a mission to deliver three of the paintings—the first to Petra, Mira’s childhood friend and first love in Prague; the second to her art dealer Josephine in Paris; the third to her first painting tutor, Paolo, with whom both Mira and her mother had affairs. As Sona uncovers Mira’s history, she learns that the charming facade she’d come to know was only one part of a complicated and sometimes cruel woman. But can she discover what really happened to Mira and exonerate herself?

Along the way, Sona also comes to terms with her own complex history and the English father who deserted her and her mother in India so many years ago. In the end, she’ll discover that we are all made up of pieces, and only by seeing the world do we learn to see ourselves.

Rating:

Review:

This book was just extraordinary! Truly I find myself at a loss for words to describe it. Historical fiction is sometimes a hit or miss for me, but this one knocked it out of the park. The first third of the book is spent on building the character of Sona and her relationship with Mira. But also giving us a very good background in what it was like to be half-Indian, half-English in 1937 India. A time when India is having a reckoning of the colonialism that they want to be free from and are starting to take back the power to cast out the English. But where does that leave people who have spent their entire lives in India, are half Indian and love India with all their hearts. This was absolutely fascinating and frankly I would have read an entire book about that topic alone.

After that primer on this time period in India, we are launched across the world with Sona. On a mission to deliver paintings and letters on behalf of her dear friend Mira. And along the way she realized that she didn’t know as much about Mira as she thought she had. Sona discovers that Mira was a different person to everyone she met. Everyone had a different memory of her and experience with her. Along the way Sona also learns a lot about herself and the English father who had abandoned her and her mother.

This book is exactly the kind of historical fiction that I love. This one will likely be on my short list for best book of the year.