I had a weird feeling about this book as soon as one character saw a boy bleeding to death in a field and decided it was appropriate and normal to refer to him as the "beautiful boy." I kept going, and this book was just not entirely what I thought it was going to be. The expectation here would have been that this book was about finding whoever was responsible for hurting Karel, the boy left to die in the field, but that's really not the point at all. This is more a coming of age story about the three children who found him. Matthew is dealing with his new realization that the world has darkness and is unfair, and that sometimes finding answers doesn't bring you the closure you wanted in life. Zoe has just found out that one of her parents is involved in an affair that she can tell no one about, unless she wants to risk breaking apart her family. On the same vein, she's exploring the idea of love figuring out who she wants to be. Duncan, the youngest, has taken the trauma of finding a dying boy in a new direction - he has realization that, being adopted, now is the time for him to seek out his first mother, before something happens to her.

I actually enjoyed this more than I did The Silent Patient. It is a quick read with an interesting twist at the end. The Greek mythology and university society (“The Maidens”) make for an interesting plot as does the therapist who is the main character.

Behold the Dreamers gives a realistic picture of African immigrants struggling to make a life in New York City, and it feels timely even though it takes place in 2008. The best part of the book for me was getting to see things through the eyes of Jendi and Neni Jonga, with their dreams and expectations of life in America running up against a broken immigration system, cultural naivete and their own bad decision-making. I'm giving it 3.5 stars (rounded down here to 3) because some parts of the story fell flat for me, especially those involving the wealthy white family whose lives become intertwined with those of the Jongas after they hire Jendi as their chauffeur.

The amazing compilation of the writing of 80 writers and 10 poets spans four hundred years of the African American experience. Each of the ten sections includes 8 writers (each taking 5 years to cover) and one poet. The writers’ approaches are varied and well-known to little known stories emerge. I finished feeling angry but inspired.

I read this book but wish I had not wasted my time. It had a surprising ending but the whole story really annoyed me. It is taken from the point of view of two parents and the dilemma concerns one of their children and also a huge family party. I did not empathize with the characters and that is probably why I was not gripped.

It was good. It left me on a cliffhanger at the end

I'm clearly missing something with this book, because the entire time I read it all I kept thinking was "there is no way this author is an actual human being." The book takes place over the span of 11 years. In most chapters, we follow Kate and Meredith, two neighbors living in a town where a woman named Shelby has just gone missing. Meredith, a doula with two children named Delilah and Leo, has started receiving threatening text messages from an unknown number. Shortly after, her and her daughter disappear. The book centers around what was going on with Meredith prior to her disappearance, with Kate providing insight into what happened after she disappeared. Set eleven years later, there are also chapters from Leo's point of view, where we get to see what it's like to have your sister suddenly return after being gone for eleven years. There are just so many reasons why this book didn't work at all. The biggest of them all is that it is poorly written. As an example of what you can expect, this is how the author thinks someone would describe potentially seeing figures outside of a house a few weeks before the occupants went missing - "It was dark out," Cassandra says, "a moonless night. The streetlight outside has been out a month or two. My husband, Marty, called the city about it a while ago, but it still hasn't been fixed. Our tax dollars...hard at work. The only light came from whatever porch lights were left on overnight." Yeah. Because when my neighbor turns up missing and I think I may have seen some strange figures skulking about their house, I'm definitely going to be remembering that it was a moonless night. Everyone else in the book is just as poor at their job. The pathologist couldn't correctly figure out how someone died. The police openly lied about evidence and just sort of hoped no one would ever question them or figure it out. A woman running a daycare is completely unaware of the abuse happening there - and then the mother just doesn't even care?? Who finds out their kid is being abused and is just like "eh, I better send them back the next day or they'll get soft." Are there no other daycares?? The final thing I'll mention is that the ending is completely bonkers. I guess if you're going to commit murder, this is the town to do it in - apparently no one is ever around to watch people murder people and then drag their bodies into their cars.

We love love love Hippos at our house! This was such a fun book to read and learn through. And I always love the AV options to go online and learn even more!! I am so happy I found this book because before it I had no idea about hippos being able to close their noses and ears when going in the water!!!

This was just kind of boring? It's the story of real-life Belle da Costa Greene, who was hired by J. P. Morgan to be his personal librarian. She is in charge of finding and purchasing all of the rare books he wants for his collection, and in exchange he pays her a salary that is sufficient enough to keep her family comfortable. There's a lot of room for things to be stressful here - first, Belle is a woman, and it's not common for a woman to be hired for this position during the time period. She also deals with the stress of being the main income provider for her family, as her father left when she was a child. And, of course, Belle has to content with the fact that while on any official document she has been checking the "white," box, with enough digging, anyone would be able to find out she was lying - Belle's father is black. This is very much historical fiction, and is not at all a biography about Belle - however, with that in mind, I expected more to happen? It seems like a book where the character is constantly stressed, but nothing ever really seems to happen. There's no real tension or drama here to make the book compelling.

Elena Ferrante continues with themes of background, growth, and discovery. The story takes place again in Naples and explores the two worlds of the higher and lower classes. The protagonist, Giovanna, is torn between where she fits in and what is the truth.