by Jed Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 10, 2023
A thoughtful, tender meditation on mortality and transformation.
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In Smith’s novel, a middle-aged man confronts a life of lies in the wake of his mother’s death.
An urgent call from Spencer House hospice doesn’t just summon Emory Harrell home to small-town Rushton, North Carolina—it upends his life altogether. There’s much he’s leaving behind, including a shot at securing senior partner at a prestigious Atlanta law firm and a gorgeous and brilliant fiancee. Most importantly, he must relinquish any sense of control. Within a day of his arrival in Rushton, Emory’s beloved mother is dead. Her last words to him: “Quit trying so hard.” When Emory begins to volunteer at Spencer House, he meets Agnes, the mysterious nurse’s aide who witnessed his mother’s final moments. Emory begins to interrogate both the restrictive perimeters of his secure lifestyle and the very boundary between the living and the dead. What ensues is a heartfelt chronicle of a man undoing the seams of his carefully crafted existence, resulting in a transcendental, if devastating rejection of 50 years living the life of the mind. Emory’s reckoning with his own illusions of control is chock-full of lessons for a 21st-century life in which every new iteration of reality seems like something to be protected against. As the narrative reaches a stunning and unexpected resolution, Emory and Agnes celebrate “the chance to die while [we’re] still livin’,” disrupting all we assume we know about ourselves and the basis of our connections with others. What emerges in its place is something richer, a glimpse of the proverbial path not traveled despite its enticing offerings. Earnest and thoughtfully executed, this book shines a light on all of the phantom lives that are merely assemblages of the ghosts of expectations; it is, at its simplest, a reminder that “livin’ for certainty just keeps life flat.”
A thoughtful, tender meditation on mortality and transformation.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2023
ISBN: 979-8891212992
Page Count: 311
Publisher: ISBN Services
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
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New York Times Bestseller
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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