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okiecozyreader's reviews
1081 reviews
The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
adventurous
mysterious
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
I read this to 5 classes this year and 3 classes last year.
This is a book about a young boy who lives with a former military officer. He missed his sister Adele, whom he was separated from as a young child, when she was a baby. He was told his whole family died.
One day, he visits a fortune teller who tells him his sister lives and an elephant will lead him to her. He tries to solve the mystery of what happened to his sister and what the truth really is.
Just fyi - the movie doesn’t really follow the book so much. Maybe 30%? There are whole scenes that are made up and others not included. The book is maybe just a quieter story than would make an action packed movie.
“Looking out over the city, Peter decided that it was a terrible and complicated thing to hope, and that it might be easier, instead, to despair.” Ch 4
“The longer he marched, the more convinced Peter became that things were indeed hopeless and that an elephant was a ridiculous answer to any question — but a particularly ridiculous answer to a question posed by the human heart.” Ch 4
“Magic is always impossible,” said the magician. “It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic.” Ch 14
“Why, it seems as if anything could happen, anything at all.” Ch 16
This is a book about a young boy who lives with a former military officer. He missed his sister Adele, whom he was separated from as a young child, when she was a baby. He was told his whole family died.
One day, he visits a fortune teller who tells him his sister lives and an elephant will lead him to her. He tries to solve the mystery of what happened to his sister and what the truth really is.
Just fyi - the movie doesn’t really follow the book so much. Maybe 30%? There are whole scenes that are made up and others not included. The book is maybe just a quieter story than would make an action packed movie.
“Looking out over the city, Peter decided that it was a terrible and complicated thing to hope, and that it might be easier, instead, to despair.” Ch 4
“The longer he marched, the more convinced Peter became that things were indeed hopeless and that an elephant was a ridiculous answer to any question — but a particularly ridiculous answer to a question posed by the human heart.” Ch 4
“Magic is always impossible,” said the magician. “It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic.” Ch 14
“Why, it seems as if anything could happen, anything at all.” Ch 16
Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
4.5
MKA returns to the summer read with the allure of a grand southern hotel, where a lot of mysterious things have happened and some odd / illegal things continue to happen. As Traci Eddings tries to staff the Saint for the summer, she makes some strides forward, yet there are some nightmarish steps back.
Summers at the Saint is a hard-to-put down summer read. This grand hotel had me aching for summer, and I’m glad I had this read to get me started.
Summers at the Saint is a hard-to-put down summer read. This grand hotel had me aching for summer, and I’m glad I had this read to get me started.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Gaslighting, and Drug use
Minor: Rape
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This book has the most fun idea - a woman has a magical attic. Every time she sends a husband to the attic, a different one comes down. She tries to figure out why it’s happening and understand how all the husbands are related.
So many husbands. Over 200. There were times I thought it was getting more interesting but it was just exhausting. I think it may have been a better short story.
“All of her husbands are men that some version of herself might have chosen to marry, and who might have chosen to marry her. None of them are going to be radically dissimilar from the husbands who have already visited.” Ch 9
“… she thinks about the cliché of people's sexual tastes, that everyone wants what they don't have in life, the CEOs tied up in expensive boudoirs and mocked by women in difficult boots, the shy bookworm who pounces with eager delight in bed, and she thinks: not always.” Ch 11
“But the pattern always falls apart, and returns to just: men she might have liked, and who might have liked her. Every husband, she's pretty sure, is someone that she might have met, somewhere, somehow, if she'd done things a little differently.
Every husband is someone she might have enjoyed spending time with, and who might have enjoyed spending time with her.
Every husband is someone that she might-if things had been just a little bit different, if she'd gone to a particular party or worn a particular coat or looked in a particular direction— have married. Which is not to say that all of them are men it was necessarily a good idea to marry.” Ch 22
“She doesn't always like the new versions of herself, but they help her understand the edges of who she might be.” Ch 30
So many husbands. Over 200. There were times I thought it was getting more interesting but it was just exhausting. I think it may have been a better short story.
“All of her husbands are men that some version of herself might have chosen to marry, and who might have chosen to marry her. None of them are going to be radically dissimilar from the husbands who have already visited.” Ch 9
“… she thinks about the cliché of people's sexual tastes, that everyone wants what they don't have in life, the CEOs tied up in expensive boudoirs and mocked by women in difficult boots, the shy bookworm who pounces with eager delight in bed, and she thinks: not always.” Ch 11
“But the pattern always falls apart, and returns to just: men she might have liked, and who might have liked her. Every husband, she's pretty sure, is someone that she might have met, somewhere, somehow, if she'd done things a little differently.
Every husband is someone she might have enjoyed spending time with, and who might have enjoyed spending time with her.
Every husband is someone that she might-if things had been just a little bit different, if she'd gone to a particular party or worn a particular coat or looked in a particular direction— have married. Which is not to say that all of them are men it was necessarily a good idea to marry.” Ch 22
“She doesn't always like the new versions of herself, but they help her understand the edges of who she might be.” Ch 30
The Outlaw Noble Salt by Amy Harmon
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
In a chat with the author, Harmon mentioned this story fits into a place in Butch Cassidy’s life in which not much is known about where he is. So in this fictional insert into that time, he meets a talented opera singer and works to rescue her from a miserable life. In her research, Harmon noted that people noted Cassidy “was good even though he did bad things. He was honest even though he was a thief. He was foolish even though he was wise.” And she felt that the feeling she got from his story was “genuine regret.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
4.5 ⭐️ rounded up
I have so much appreciation for the way Kathleen Grissom writes a fictional story based on the life of Crow Mary, a Crow woman who married a white (“yellow eyed”) man. Her father basically traded her for guns and she willingly left after her Crow husband, who she adored” was killed by animals. The first third of the book tells this story and the rest of the book tells about her marriage and what it was like to be a Crow woman in a white world.
This story is endorsed by Crow Mary’s great-granddaughter. Grissom also worked with Crow elders and scholars to tell this story in an authentic way.
I especially loved how she tells the passage of time by the number of winters or the number of moons.
I have so much appreciation for the way Kathleen Grissom writes a fictional story based on the life of Crow Mary, a Crow woman who married a white (“yellow eyed”) man. Her father basically traded her for guns and she willingly left after her Crow husband, who she adored” was killed by animals. The first third of the book tells this story and the rest of the book tells about her marriage and what it was like to be a Crow woman in a white world.
This story is endorsed by Crow Mary’s great-granddaughter. Grissom also worked with Crow elders and scholars to tell this story in an authentic way.
I especially loved how she tells the passage of time by the number of winters or the number of moons.
James by Percival Everett
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
I think it would be 4.5 stars for me. I didn’t love it like a 5 star book but I think it is such an important look at a classic. I love how he took the pov of Jim from Huck Finn and made him into James, a runaway slave on this adventure, who we see as a full human being. I think if you like Huck Finn, you would love this even more. It has all of the great storytelling and adventure on the river, but with more modern storytelling. It’s interesting reading “classics” and seeing how they stand up to books we read today. Some do better than others.
“The boy was highly excited by the adventure of it all. I admired that, was envious of it, to tell the truth, to be able to feel that in a world without fear of being hanged to death, or worse.” Ch 10
“White people often spent time admiring their survival of one thing or another. I imagined it was because so often they had no need to survive, but only to live.” Ch 4
“IF ONE KNOWS hell as home, as home, then is returning to hell a homecoming? Even in hell, were there such a place, one would know where the fires were just a little cooler, where the rocks just a little less jagged.
And so it was in my hell.” Ch 5
“I wanted to feel the anger. I was befriending my anger, learning not only how to feel it, but perhaps how to use it.” Ch 6
“The boy was highly excited by the adventure of it all. I admired that, was envious of it, to tell the truth, to be able to feel that in a world without fear of being hanged to death, or worse.” Ch 10
“White people often spent time admiring their survival of one thing or another. I imagined it was because so often they had no need to survive, but only to live.” Ch 4
“IF ONE KNOWS hell as home, as home, then is returning to hell a homecoming? Even in hell, were there such a place, one would know where the fires were just a little cooler, where the rocks just a little less jagged.
And so it was in my hell.” Ch 5
“I wanted to feel the anger. I was befriending my anger, learning not only how to feel it, but perhaps how to use it.” Ch 6
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Slavery, and Violence
Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
KFM KFY was as twisty and good as everyone said. I am so glad that #chapterchat2 is discussing it tonight because now I need to talk with someone about it.
This book alternates mostly from the viewpoints of two women, Amanda and Ruth. We do hear from investigators and Amanda’s husband Scott a few times. Amanda has lost a child and is obsessed with the man who she thinks killed the child. She follows the man and almost murders him. Ruth is almost murdered one night herself by a man with blue eyes. She fears everywhere she goes and wants justice for him.
“…trying to look upon her pain. She kept that to herself. It was her grief. Her loss. Her pain. And she wanted it hot and private. So she could use it. Make it her secret weapon.” Ch 6
“Mourning is sometimes a dull ache that won’t leave, and other times it’s like pricking your finger on a needle hidden in a shopping bag.” Ch 13
“Amanda was coming around to the view that what was legal and what was right were often two different things.” Ch 24
Interestingly, all these quotes are from the POV of Amanda.
This book alternates mostly from the viewpoints of two women, Amanda and Ruth. We do hear from investigators and Amanda’s husband Scott a few times. Amanda has lost a child and is obsessed with the man who she thinks killed the child. She follows the man and almost murders him. Ruth is almost murdered one night herself by a man with blue eyes. She fears everywhere she goes and wants justice for him.
“…trying to look upon her pain. She kept that to herself. It was her grief. Her loss. Her pain. And she wanted it hot and private. So she could use it. Make it her secret weapon.” Ch 6
“Mourning is sometimes a dull ache that won’t leave, and other times it’s like pricking your finger on a needle hidden in a shopping bag.” Ch 13
“Amanda was coming around to the view that what was legal and what was right were often two different things.” Ch 24
Interestingly, all these quotes are from the POV of Amanda.
Love, Me by Jessica Saunders
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
Rachel has been married to Dan for several years and they have young children. One day, her ex, now a famous movie star Jack, makes a statement:
“does he ever think about what life might have been like if he’d become, say, a teacher?
“And married my high school sweetheart?” he responds with a laugh.
“Honestly, all the time.” In true Jack Bellow fashion, that’s all I can get him to say.” (Prologue)
When their correspondence gets leaked to a tabloid, Rachel and Jack become front page news.
All of this leads Rachel to wonder if her marriage is worth saving.
I thought there were good parent conversations with boundaries.
“This conversation is not particularly helpful for me,” Rachel finally interjected. “I appreciate your opinion of my marriage and my kids’ mental health.” Ch 26
“How she ignored how unhappy he was, because yes, she saw that now. So they pretended things were good between them until one of them did something destructive, shattering the false veneer, and leaving them crumbled.” Ch 27
“… sometimes we don’t see people for who they really are until they hurt us.” Ch 27
“does he ever think about what life might have been like if he’d become, say, a teacher?
“And married my high school sweetheart?” he responds with a laugh.
“Honestly, all the time.” In true Jack Bellow fashion, that’s all I can get him to say.” (Prologue)
When their correspondence gets leaked to a tabloid, Rachel and Jack become front page news.
All of this leads Rachel to wonder if her marriage is worth saving.
I thought there were good parent conversations with boundaries.
“This conversation is not particularly helpful for me,” Rachel finally interjected. “I appreciate your opinion of my marriage and my kids’ mental health.” Ch 26
“How she ignored how unhappy he was, because yes, she saw that now. So they pretended things were good between them until one of them did something destructive, shattering the false veneer, and leaving them crumbled.” Ch 27
“… sometimes we don’t see people for who they really are until they hurt us.” Ch 27
Content Warnings
Divorce
Cheating / affair
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I really loved Olga Dies Dreaming and I was so excited that Anita de Monte Laughs Last was so much fun to listen to. I highly recommend the audio with multiple narrators. Jessica Pimentel does an incredible job as Anita de Monte in the 1980s. She adds so much to the reading, it truly is like listening to a movie.
Anita de Monte is based on the life of Ana Mendieta who was an artist who died in 1985 when she fell or was pushed out of an apartment window (and was married to sculptor Carl Andre). As someone who loves art, this book (and others like Still Life by Sarah Winman) make you think about how few women artists we really know. Author Xochitl Gonzalez found Ana Mendieta in an art history class.
Anita de Monte tells her story as a ghost, recalling the event that caused her death and moments with her husband Jack after her death.
In another timeline, Raquel is in art history classes at Brown studying Jack and and discovers Anita de Monte. We find similarities between their relationships and the way women artists are treated and valued.
There is also some magical realism woven into this story as she tells it from a ghost’s perspective and her interactions with her husband (iykyk).
“And, from what I was eavesdropping in the gallery that night, most of these men not only hated feminist art, but I suspected, hated women as well.”
“And then. And then I was sent to America, and rendered invisible. Rendered lifeless. Alone.”
“Well, it felt like even when I bury myself in your f*ing soil, I’m still not American enough. … To prostrate myself, in some way, for having gone to such pains to become one with a place that rejected me over and over and over again.”
“ presume her to be grateful for it, even - was only possible because he had told her, in ways great and small, that he knew best and she had signaled that he was correct.”
“She realized that so much of what she thought as good art had simply been that which had been elevated by John Temple, because it was understood by and spoke to and created by men just like John. And that in the omission of things that were made by or understood by or in conversation with people like her, Raquel had, unconsciously, begun to see those things as lesser. And that revelation sparked one that was even more painful: the reason that Raquel subconsciously believed that Nick knew “better” than her was that it was Nick’s point of view had been affirmed and internalized by the white walls of every museum or gallery that had ever been told was worth looking at.”
“…she had firmly placed them behind a wall called her past; a section of her mind she didn’t like to visit much.”
Anita de Monte is based on the life of Ana Mendieta who was an artist who died in 1985 when she fell or was pushed out of an apartment window (and was married to sculptor Carl Andre). As someone who loves art, this book (and others like Still Life by Sarah Winman) make you think about how few women artists we really know. Author Xochitl Gonzalez found Ana Mendieta in an art history class.
Anita de Monte tells her story as a ghost, recalling the event that caused her death and moments with her husband Jack after her death.
In another timeline, Raquel is in art history classes at Brown studying Jack and and discovers Anita de Monte. We find similarities between their relationships and the way women artists are treated and valued.
There is also some magical realism woven into this story as she tells it from a ghost’s perspective and her interactions with her husband (iykyk).
“And, from what I was eavesdropping in the gallery that night, most of these men not only hated feminist art, but I suspected, hated women as well.”
“And then. And then I was sent to America, and rendered invisible. Rendered lifeless. Alone.”
“Well, it felt like even when I bury myself in your f*ing soil, I’m still not American enough. … To prostrate myself, in some way, for having gone to such pains to become one with a place that rejected me over and over and over again.”
“ presume her to be grateful for it, even - was only possible because he had told her, in ways great and small, that he knew best and she had signaled that he was correct.”
“She realized that so much of what she thought as good art had simply been that which had been elevated by John Temple, because it was understood by and spoke to and created by men just like John. And that in the omission of things that were made by or understood by or in conversation with people like her, Raquel had, unconsciously, begun to see those things as lesser. And that revelation sparked one that was even more painful: the reason that Raquel subconsciously believed that Nick knew “better” than her was that it was Nick’s point of view had been affirmed and internalized by the white walls of every museum or gallery that had ever been told was worth looking at.”
“…she had firmly placed them behind a wall called her past; a section of her mind she didn’t like to visit much.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
I really enjoyed this memoir from a daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant who owned a nail salon. Her mother died young during plastic surgery and she spent a lot of her young years working on figuring herself out. She attended an Ivy League school, participated in a cult (disguised as a yoga, self-help program), and returned to Vietnam to know her family and her mother better.
“How could I become a mother if I never knew my own?” Vengeance
“I wanted to belong, I had to obey Má, which meant I had to abandon my own inner knowing.” Squid and Chives
“Don’t work so hard. We get to experience life on earth because of the heavens. When you live a life always resisting, life becomes a struggle,…” Packing
“I became so obsessed with the past that I kept everyone else frozen in time too. I became attached to old stories of how we’d hurt one another and didn’t allow my family to change even when they did.” Part 6, persimmons
“My name is Susan Liễu. I come from a line of courageous nail salon workers who are my heroes. Má was a manicurist, and Ba was a manicurist too. I am the manicurists’ daughter and, this is just the beginning.”
“How could I become a mother if I never knew my own?” Vengeance
“I wanted to belong, I had to obey Má, which meant I had to abandon my own inner knowing.” Squid and Chives
“Don’t work so hard. We get to experience life on earth because of the heavens. When you live a life always resisting, life becomes a struggle,…” Packing
“I became so obsessed with the past that I kept everyone else frozen in time too. I became attached to old stories of how we’d hurt one another and didn’t allow my family to change even when they did.” Part 6, persimmons
“My name is Susan Liễu. I come from a line of courageous nail salon workers who are my heroes. Má was a manicurist, and Ba was a manicurist too. I am the manicurists’ daughter and, this is just the beginning.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Grief