I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home

Finished February 3

I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore

This is a very unusual book. It is part letters from one sister to another, dating from the years shortly after the U.S. Civil War, and part modern day tale of a Chicago-area teacher struggling with loss. 

The book begins with a undated letter from Elizabeth to her unnamed sister. It tells of everyday events, include the nature that she witnesses, the male lodger in her home that is wooing her, the state of her finances, and visits from the local minister. She also invokes shared memories of earlier points in their lives. From the contents, and the words used, the reader can tell that this is a letter from a past time, and that it is not too long after the end of the Civil War. 

The next section is set in the present, as Finn moves through New York City to visit his older brother Max, who is in a hospice. We see not only what is happening as Finn sees it, but also his thoughts, which range from issues with his landlady and interactions with his Airbnb host to things he is reminded of by the sights and smells of the world around him. 

Once he gets in to his brother's room, the interaction between the brothers is also mingled with Finn's thoughts and observations. 

When Finn is called away by another crisis the book takes a turn for the surreal, and we begin to be unsure what is real and what isn't. We see Finn's personal issues, including the complicated love he has for Lily a woman he lived with for many years. 

Interspersed with Finn's story are the letters, and we eventually see the connections between them and his story. 

This is a novel of loss, of death, of how people deal with losing someone they care about, and about the uncertainty of life itself. 

Mrs. Nash's Ashes

Finished January 11

Mrs. Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler

This is a road trip novel, and a romance novel, with a fair bit of personal growth for both main characters. Millie Watts-Cohen is headed from her home in Washington, D.C. to Key West, Florida on a mission. She carries with her a small container of ashes set on bringing them to a specific person. But this mission is also one that is driven by several things: her friendship with Mrs. Nash across generations; Mrs. Nash's own story of loss and regret; and Millie's past relationships. One of Millie's barriers to love is her childhood acting career, which has brought her lasting fame, and a driving need to control her online presence. 

After meeting a man, Hollis, at the airport after an unpleasant interaction with a "fan," and recognizing him as someone she's met before, a technology glitch causes flights to be cancelled and a race among passengers to other forms of transportation. 

Millie ends up travelling with Hollis, on a journey fraught with setbacks. They disagree about many aspects of the journey, but also find themselves confiding some of their closest secrets with each other. 

With the interesting historical component of Mrs. Nash's story, this novel looks at issues of acceptance and identity across the generations.

Both characters have trauma around previous relationships that has led to trust issues, and this is a key element of their story. 

I had trouble putting this novel down, and ending up reading way past my usual time into the wee hours to see how it developed. Thoroughly engaging. 

Together We Will Go

Finished August 6

Together We Will Go by J. Michael Straczynski

This is a road trip novel with a twist. Mark Antonelli is a man who has tried to make a living as a writer and has been unable to do so. After the last rejection, he decides to use his savings to buy a used tour bus and do a road trip from his home in Florida across the United States, picking up passengers as he goes along, and ending up in San Francisco where they will find a cliff at sunset and drive over. He place an ad online for a short period and gets numerous responses and then removes the ad in case someone tries to trace it. 

He hires a driver, Dylan, who is ex-military, and while he is aware of the plan, does not want to die himself, and won't be taking the final drive. Mark has set up a system on board the bus that people can log into and tell their stories. There is a cloud backup. This is part of the plan, The participants will sign a form giving the rights to their stories, and after the end of the trip the texts will be automatically put on to the public for greater understanding of how people struggle with different issues.

The story is told through these diary-like entries that people make, including some that are voice-to-text, and through emails and texts exchanged between the participants and with a few people not part of this trip. This means that we see both interactions between the characters as well as their pasts that led them to this choice, and their thoughts that they record. 

The characters that join the bus make their choice for a wide variety of reasons, from chronic pain, medical issues that they haven't been able to afford to resolve (because this is the U.S. where healthcare isn't a given), addictions, mental health issues, social issues like being ostracized and bullied, and guilt over past actions. All of the characters feel their issues are significant enough that they don't want to go on, they don't want to continue the struggle, and being aware of their thought processes is quite eye-opening. 

As they go along, they interact with the outside world, and sometimes that has consequences that they haven't prepared themselves for. 

This is a moving story with an unexpected ending. And yes, that cat on the cover does have a meaning.

Unexpectedly Milo

Finished April 26

Unexpectedly Milo by Matthew Dicks

Milo is an engaging character. As the book opens he is living in an apartment, having separated from his wife Christine. Milo is a nurse. He worked in a care home for quite a while, but he now works in home health care, which means that his day is less structured. He has a number of regular clients that he sees, and he does a variety of tasks for them, some medical in nature, but also some more housekeeping, like raking a shag rug for one of his clients. 

Since he was a child Milo has had urges that come to him, things he needs to do or hear or feel. After giving in to the first time this urge struck him as a child in front of another child and having that go badly, he has hidden these urges from others. He has found a way of coping. Some of these urges have come and gone, other are more longstanding and pop up on a regular basis. He is aware that stress makes them worse, especially when more than one of them come up at a time. 

Because no one else knows about these urges, not his parents or his wife, or any of his D and D friends, he doesn't feel seen, and is a lonely man. 

Near the beginning of the book Milo comes across a bag containing a video camera and several tapes sitting beside a park bench. He sits there with it for a time, but no one returns, so he takes that bag and after finding no clue to the owner in the bag decides to watch the tapes in the hope that he will find out something from them that will let him return these things to the owner. 

This is how the mystery portion of the book begins. He finds the tapes are numbered and contain a video diary by a woman close to him in age. As she begins to reveal her secrets, Milo empathizes with her, and feels protective towards her. He feels bad watching them himself and is determined to stop when he finds enough information to locate her. He certainly doesn't want to share them with anyone else. One of the secrets he learns on the tape leads him in a new direction, trying to find a way to take away the guilt from the woman's past act of protecting a friend. 

Alongside the mystery, we have Milo's interactions with his clients and see their quirks. We also see his relationship with his wife, through their therapy sessions and encounters beyond that. 

Milo is asking questions about his life, his future relationships, while still hiding his OCD from everyone. 

This is a story of a man who cares deeply and feels extraordinarily lonely in his life. As a reader I cared about him and also found it fascinating how he finds ways to cope with these urges of his and how he characterizes them, ascribing them to a inner voice with its own identity. 

I really enjoyed this book and was hoping for the character to find a true connection with someone and some happiness in his own life. 

I Was Told It Would Get Easier

Finished May 1

I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman

This is a road trip novel, with a mother and daughter travelling in the eastern U.S. on a college tour. Jessica is a single mom, 45, and a partner in her law firm. She has mentored younger women lawyers for years, and is currently mentoring Valentina, who is up for partner. She has had a live-in nanny for her daughter Emily from the beginning, and Anna is more like a member of the family than an employee. 

Jessica is looking forward to the trip to spend time with Emily and get some quality mother-daughter time. But to add to the reasons, one of the lead partners has told her that he doesn't intend to make either of the women who qualify for partner this year a partner, for not very good reasons. Jessica has had enough of this attitude and has issued an ultimatum of quitting if he doesn't, which makes her a little nervous. 

Emily is also looking forward to going away, but not because she particularly wants to spend time with Jessica, or because she wants to explore colleges, but because something has happened at school, something that she has had a role in, and she wants the dust to settle before she returns to school and before her mother finds out. 

Emily isn't sure what she wants to do with her life, but she doesn't feel that college is the right choice for her. She is, however, having trouble convincing Jessica that this is a good move. 

As the two of them visit a number of colleges from Washingon, D.C. to New York City, there are many encounters, between them, the problems they left back in California, and other people on the tour. Some of these encounters are ones that may change their lives. 

I liked that the viewpoint changed between the characters of Emily and Jessica, so you got to see and experience both viewpoints, and see some of the underlying tensions of their relationship, as well as other worries that are in their heads. They are both good people, with strong ethical foundations, and this comes through during the course of the book. They are also very capable people in their own right and their own sphere, and while those spheres are different, they both grow to acknowledge the other's worth beyond their relationship. 

There are many other interesting characters that have small but important roles here, including the other parents and teens on the trip, the young woman who is leading the tour, and people they meet along the way. I really enjoyed this read, and seeing the characters grow. 

Road Signs That Say West

Finished August 1
Road Signs That Say West by Sylvia Gunnery

This teen novel has three sisters at the center. The oldest is Hanna. Hanna started university, but quit part way through her first year, and went to Europe to work as a nanny. That didn't work out well for her, and she is home now. The girls are supposed to be looking after the house while their parents travel in Europe. But Hanna has the brilliant idea to do a road trip together while they have the chance, all the way from their home in Nova Scotia to Vancouver.
The youngest sister Claire is game right away. She's been having a hard time since a close friend of hers committed suicide earlier in the year. She's always been game for whatever Hanna wants to do. The middle sister, Megan, takes more convincing. She has a summer job lined up, and needs to keep up her swimming practice to stay competitive.
As the girls journey across the country, they encounter other young people, some they like, others they don't. They get invited to a wedding and find themselves offering to help paint a house. They have fights, and get scared. They get hurt, and share secrets and fears.
This is a tale of sisters, with all the messiness that relationship brings. A tale of love despite differences, as they all prepare for what the future may bring them.