Book Review: "Society of Lies" by Lauren Ling Brown

“How often, in the world, is silence what allows horrible people to get away with their crimes?”

Maya arrives at Princeton for her 10-year reunion, with her husband and young daughter in tow. She’s nervous and excited, but in addition to the reunion, her younger sister Naomi will be graduating as well. But not long after arriving, Maya learns that tragedy has struck: Naomi has been found dead.

While the police believe that Naomi’s death was an accident, Maya is immediately suspicious. And the more she talks to Naomi’s friends, the more questions arise about what could have happened to her. It’s not long before Maya realizes that her sister kept a lot of secrets from her.

Naomi looked up to her sister and wanted to follow in her footsteps. But that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Maya discovers that, like her, Naomi became a member of one of Princeton’s most exclusive eating clubs, as well as the secret society within the club, which could open doors to an incredible future of possibilities.

However, Naomi was also digging into some mysteries around the club and the powerful people involved, not to mention the death of a student 10 years ago. She discovered that her sister was somehow involved in that incident, but she’s determined to uncover the truth.

I’m a fan of dark academia stories. I enjoyed the discussion about privilege and prejudice, not to mention how racial and cultural differences strike at the heart of a purposely diverse group. For me, the book moved sooo slowly. While it’s told in multiple narratives, the voices are nearly identical so I had to keep reorienting myself to whose story each chapter was.

Book Review: "Miranda in Retrograde" by Lauren Layne

Over the past few years, Lauren Layne has become an auto-buy author for me. Her books are fun and funny, romantic and emotional, and I can’t seem to get enough of them.

Dr. Miranda Reed is an astronomer and a professor at Nova University in New York City. She’s a brilliant researcher and her classes are all well-loved. More than that, she’s become a bit of a celebrity, invited to provide scientific information on news programs, and she’s even guest hosted Jeopardy! a few times.

But Miranda is shocked when the university decides to deny her tenure. Has everything that she’s given her career to been a mistake? The administration encourages her to take a year-long sabbatical and then she can have a lesser position upon her return.

Miranda’s best friend tries to convince her to do something completely different, perhaps even life-changing. Why not study astrology and spend a year following the advice of her horoscope? It seems unfathomable for someone who once denounced astrology on television, but somehow she decided to give it a try. So she moves into her Aunt Lillian’s townhome for a year.

Her horoscope seems pretty spot-on a lot of the time. As she bonds with the grumpy artist who lives next door, she’s relieved that he’s not an astrological match, but the handsome father of a young girl she’s tutoring certainly is. But as her year progresses, has she just traded one set of rules for another? Is she capable of making her own decisions, based on her heart and not on science or the stars?

I really enjoyed this. I loved the banter between the characters, watching Miranda grow and change (or maybe not), and all the moments that made me smile. Did the stars make me read this?

Book Review: "Set for Life" by Andrew Ewell

TFW you read a book labeled “hilarious,” “wryly funny,” and “sharply witty,” but you find it is none of those things…

Our unnamed narrator is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at a college in upstate New York. The only reason he has a job is because his wife, also an assistant professor, is a well-regarded novelist who made his employment part of her agreement to work there.

He has just spent three months on a fellowship in Bordeaux. But instead of working on his second novel, which is needed for tenure, he spent a lot of time drinking to excess and doing everything but writing. This, of course, puts him under a great deal of pressure once he returns to work.

He tries to keep stalling everyone who wants to read his work in progress, including his wife. He has nothing to show for it. So what better way to compensate than embarking on an affair with one of your oldest friends, who happens to be your wife’s best friend?

There really were no particularly likable characters in this book. I then learned that this is the author’s fictionalized account of his marriage and divorce from the author Hannah Pittard. (She wrote about this in her memoir but changed all the names; he then wrote a novel about it, and basically had his character behave the way he did.)

I found this really disappointing but I wanted to see if it redeemed itself. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t.) This was marketed as an academic novel that was both funny and moving. While the author is a talented writer, this book fell completely flat for me.

Book Review: "Providence" by Craig Willse

“Before I completely destroyed my life, I taught English at Sawyer College in Ohio. I wasn’t the world’s greatest professor, but I also wasn’t the worst—although it’s possible I would become that.”

Mark is growing weary of teaching, of the pressure to publish and schmooze. He’s definitely one of those people who is happiest alone, which isn’t particularly satisfying for his boyfriend, a mathematics professor at Sawyer, or his fellow professors he considers his friends. He knows there’s got to be something better out there.

Two weeks into the semester, Tyler comes into his class. He’s a sophomore, a scholarship student among an immensely wealthy student body, yet he’s highly intelligent, as Mark witnesses when Tyler participates in a class lecture.

Little by little, Mark finds himself growing obsessed with Tyler, even though he knows pursuing a student is the last thing he should be doing. But one night, Tyler makes the first move, and they wind up having sex. It becomes a strange relationship, alternately attracting and repelling Mark, yet he starts losing sight of everything but Tyler.

Mark starts to realize Tyler hasn’t been entirely truthful with him. But while the red flags should be a sign to stay away, Mark winds up getting manipulated by Tyler into helping with something unspeakable. Can Mark take control of his life before it goes fully off the rails? Does he even care?

I loved the concept of Providence, and the idea of a teacher obsessed with a student. But while this book is marketed as a thriller, I didn’t find it particularly thrilling; while there is a bit of mystery, the pacing of the plot drags for three-quarters of the book and then leaves you hanging a bit at the end. While these issues dampened my enjoyment, I did like the intense mood of the book.