An unpretentious story of community and finding one’s purpose.
In Paik’s literary debut, an aimless man’s life is changed when he coaches a softball team.
Brad doesn’t have a ton going on in his life since he quit his job in biotech, taking the fall for something he didn’t do. Now he mostly gardens and tries to figure out what the future holds. While raking leaves, he gets a call from his ex-wife, Stephanie, with a strange request: Her boyfriend backed out of a commitment to coach a Little League softball team, so can Brad do it? Brad’s coaching experience extends only to a single season of his nephew’s hockey team—and he was only the assistant coach. Yet for reasons he can’t explain, he says yes. As the new coach of the Marlins, he’s responsible for a dozen tween girls of various skill levels, each looking for something different from the season. He soon finds himself invested in their success, both on and off the field. He’s forced to contend with rival coaches—including his frenemy, Mike—helicopter parents, and volunteer assistant coach Diane, the mother of Kelli, one of the players. To help his players win, Brad will have to master something he’s never been very good at: playing ball. Paik’s prose is elegantly understated, succinctly capturing not only Brad’s point of view, but those of the players, as well. Here, for example, young Meghan identifies what she likes about softball: “Nobody has been mean to her in softball. There are no bad grades. When she bats, she can hear other girls—even popular girls—yelling ‘you can do it, Meghan, let’s go Meghan, you can do it!’ ” The premise that kicks off the narrative is somewhat trite; however, the novel features rich character work as well as the earnest questions about trivial pursuits that maybe aren’t so trivial, after all. The story also manages to be moving without delving too much into the sentimental, and as a result, readers may be forgiven if their first instinct after reading it is to volunteer for a local youth softball league.
An unpretentious story of community and finding one’s purpose.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63988-240-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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