Book Review: "The Sideways Life of Denny Voss" by Holly Kennedy

This was such a wonderfully special book with one of the most memorable narrators I’ve found in a long while. I’m so thankful to my dearest friend Amy for putting this book on my radar!!

“I guess that’s just how life works. Some days it’s like a fast-moving TV show and some days it’s not, and when things go sideways—like they usually do for me—you might find yourself going in a whole new direction, and when you’re doing life, going in that whole new direction, some things will change, but some things will stay a lot the same.”

Thirty-year-old Denny lives in Minnesota with his elderly mother and their deaf and blind dog George. While an issue at birth left him with some developmental challenges, he’s always felt loved, even when he hasn’t made the right choices.

Sometimes Denny has the best of intentions, but things tend to go awry. This has led to his arrest after kidnapping a neighbor’s ornery goose, and another time he unwittingly helped a bank robber. His challenges with finding the right words or expressing his emotions often get him into trouble.

But now, Denny is under arrest for the murder of a businessman in town who is running for mayor. And it certainly didn’t help that he was found with a sled full of guns, including the murder weapon. He swears he’s innocent, but can that be proven?

This book is full of humor, emotion, and charm, and it’s very heartwarming. Denny may cause chaos, but he also can be so empathetic and sweet. Check out the world from his perspective.

Book Review: "Pony Confidential" by Christina Lynch

I was curious about this book but when a friend said it was her favorite book she read last month, I had to give it a try. Wow. Just wow.

Pony remembers the best part of his life, when he was owned by a girl named Penny, who vowed they’d always be together. But one day he was given away without a word from Penny and he never saw her again. He has thought about her every day since, his sadness turned to anger and acting out as he is passed from owner to owner. He vows revenge.

Penny is a teacher, raising a teenage daughter and experiencing marital problems. Her everyday life is shattered when she’s arrested for a murder that happened when she was 12. She is extradited across the country, back to upstate New York. As she waits for her trial and for someone to find out the truth of what happened all those years ago, she thinks about a time in her life when she was truly happy, her time with Pony.

When Pony, with the help of other animal friends he encounters, realizes that his anger toward Penny has been misplaced, he’s determined to find her. He begins a journey to where he last saw her, and in the process makes some interesting discoveries.

“Empathy is painful and inconvenient, but it also can bring us a much deeper joy than material things, even carrots.”

This book was incredible. There’s humor, sadness, love, mystery, and self-discovery. It’s part Toy Story, part The Incredible Journey, and yet immensely unique. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time.

Book Review: "How to Read a Book" by Monica Wood

I’ll admit this book was a bit different than I was expecting given the title but it was very special all the same.

“We are a continuum of human experience, neither the worst nor the best thing we have ever done. Or, more exactly, we are both the best thing and the worst thing we’ve ever done. We are all of it, all at once, all the time.”

Harriet is a retired teacher who volunteers to lead a book club for female inmates. It is there she meets Violet, a 22-year-old woman serving a nearly two-year term for killing a woman while driving drunk. The inmates all love Harriet (whom they call “Bookie”) and love the books she has them read, as well as the discussion that follows.

After Violet’s early release, she finds herself living in Portland, Maine. One day she goes to a bookstore to buy the book they were reading when she was released, and she not only encounters Harriet, but also Frank, the widower of the woman Violet killed. The encounter shakes all three of them in different ways.

This is a story about second chances. It’s about taking the next step in your life, whether it’s being released from prison, dealing with an empty nest, recovering from grief, even finding love. And of course, this is a story about how books affect us and change us, and help us find our own words.

I thought this was beautifully written and moving. There were a lot of moving parts, and some threads were introduced and never fully explored, but I really enjoyed the relationships at the book’s core. I’ve read one of Monica Wood’s previous books and loved it, so she’s definitely a storyteller I admire.

Book Review: "Madwoman" by Chelsea Bieker

Wow, this was so powerful!! I was really blown away by Chelsea Bieker’s new book. It reminded me a little of The Push by Ashley Audrain, but unique all the same.

“I’ll carry the burden of you and my father and everything that happened on the island for the rest of my life. But I vowed to carry it in silence. So many lies I’ve told to ensure it would be my secret forever. Mine to death. I really had things figured out.”

After her tumultuous childhood, Clove was determined she’d do everything differently. She found the right man—a safe husband who gave her the life she wanted. She loves her two young children, Nova and Lark, and if spending every moment with the kids may stress her out, she has places—and strategies—to help calm things down.

Clove (which may or may not be her real name) has some secrets about her life that she has kept hidden from nearly everyone. But when she receives a letter from a woman’s prison in California, her carefully built façade starts to crack. What will she do if her secrets are revealed? What will that mean for her marriage, her children, and their future?

Madwoman shifts between the present, as Clove’s anxiety about discovery mounts, and the moments from her childhood that lead to one crucial moment. She desperately wants to control the narrative but she’s having a hard enough time controlling her emotions.

Domestic violence is such an epidemic in our world and breaking the cycle of violence requires far more strength and support than many have. The book may be triggering for some, but Bieker does a fantastic job depicting the struggles and choices that those affected must make. Yes, I figured out the twists, but that didn’t really affect my love of the book.

Book Review: "Days of Wonder" by Caroline Leavitt

Ever since I stumbled upon her heartbreaking yet hopeful novel Pictures of You a number of years ago, Caroline Leavitt has been an author whose books I eagerly anticipate. Her books are often quite emotional but never maudlin, and they definitely are thought-provoking.

Ella was raised by Helen, a devoted single mother who always told her daughter it was them against the world. Yet when she met her boyfriend Jude, Ella fell completely—both of them did, in that all-consuming kind of love that often occurs in the teenage years. Jude began spending so much time in their home that Helen considered the three of them a type of family.

One bewildering night, Ella is accused of trying to murder Jude’s father. She was 15 years old and sentenced to 25 years in prison. She doesn’t understand what happened and can’t figure out why Jude hasn’t come to visit her. When she finds out she is pregnant shortly after arriving in prison, she is left with no choice but to give the baby up for adoption.

After serving only six years of her sentence, Ella is released. She knows she has a chance at a fresh start, but at the same time, she can’t let go of her past, and is determined to find her daughter. With only an address to go on, she decides to move to Ann Arbor to just get a glimpse of the girl, but of course, that doesn’t satisfy her.

Ella keeps her true identity and her past a secret from everyone she meets. She doesn’t know whom to trust and lives in a state of constant fear that she’ll be exposed and her secrets will be revealed. And when it happens in the most surprising of ways, both Ella and Helen must find a way forward.

This is a powerful book, one that would be perfect for discussion by a book club. It’s a story of family, sacrifice, love, hope, guilt, secrets, and fear, and in Leavitt’s hands, it’s definitely hard to put down.