Jeanne Blasberg is a novelist, travel writer, and adventurer. She is a voracious reader and regularly reviews books on her blog, Goodreads, BookBub, LibraryThing, and Amazon.

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Day by Michael Cunningham

Day by Michael Cunningham

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This novel is wonderful for its in-depth character portrayals. Cunningham takes very authentic and simple domestic situations and makes them the subject of this beautifully paced work. A generation of young parents and their inquisitive children, the devotion of a brother and sister, an infatuation between brothers-in-law, all the struggles of childcare and childraising stress relationships…. and then there is COVID. The effect of the pandemic on a marriage, on the family members’ psyches and the aftermath of one of their deaths is written with tenderness and insight. This is a fabulous read depicting the new age in which we live.

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About Day:

As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, falling in and out of love, losing the things that are most precious—and learning to go on—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours

April 5, 2019 : In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are both a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, has created a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house—and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. Meanwhile Nathan, age ten, is taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents.

April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the brownstone is feeling more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe, while Nathan attempts to skirt her rules. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled jabs and frustrated sighs. And beloved Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts—and his secret Instagram life—for company.

April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality—with what they’ve learned, what they’ve lost, and how they might go on.

From the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Day is a searing, exquisitely crafted meditation on love and loss and the struggles and limitations of family life—how to live together and apart.

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur

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In Little Monsters, as in her memoir Wild Game, I loved Brodeur’s writing, especially the descriptions of Cape Cod. The portrayal of setting was my favorite thing about this book. My second favorite book was Adam’s character. He is bipolar and for most of the novel in a manic state. His interiority was masterful and I so appreciated that point of view character. My least favorite thing about the novel is the way it ends. It seems very unresolved with regard to some major plot points. Even so, a very worthwhile read, particularly for lovers of the Cape.

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About Little Monsters:

From the author of the bestselling memoir Wild Game comes a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families, and long-buried secrets.

Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small and they have been haunted by her absence ever since. Their father, Adam, a brilliant oceanographer, raised them mostly on his own in his remote home on Cape Cod, where the attachment between Ken and Abby deepened into something complicated–and as adults their relationship is strained. Now, years later, the siblings’ lives are still deeply entwined. Ken is a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family and Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on her brother’s goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works.

As the novel opens, Adam is approaching his seventieth birthday, staring down his mortality and fading relevance. He has always managed his bipolar disorder with medication, but he’s determined to make one last scientific breakthrough and so he has secretly stopped taking his pills, which he knows will infuriate his children. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harboring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family—Steph, who doesn’t make her connection known. As Adam grows more attuned to the frequencies of the deep sea and less so to the people around him, Ken and Abby each plan the elaborate gifts they will present to their father on his birthday, jostling for primacy in this small family unit.

Set in the fraught summer of 2016, Little Monsters is a “smart, page-flipping novel…[with] shades of Succession” (The Boston Globe) from a writer who knows Cape Cod inside and out–its Edenic lushness and its snakes.

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

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If you loved Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, this one is a bit of a let down. — dead sister’s intended husband. He is a cruel duke and she senses she is in danger in the palace. Little is known about the real Lucrezia except that her suspicious death was suspected to be at the hands of the duke. Maggie O’Farrell’s voice and writing were very engaging, however, the story in this case was long and predictable.

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About The Marriage Portrait:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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The Stark Beauty of Last Things by Celine Keating

The Stark Beauty of Last Things by Celine Keating

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The Stark Beauty of Last Things is a poetic novel that emphasizes the fragility of the worlds we occupy- relationships, lives, places – are all fleeting. The problem is that humans often fail to understand this until it is too late. Told from multiple points of view, this novel also provides an interesting history of Montauk.

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About The Stark Beauty of Last Things:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

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A well done biography that allowed the reader into the room. An intimate portrayal of the whole man, trying to get at the root of what makes him tick, displaying his wounds and obsessions. It was made even more fascinating as the subject matter seems to reach all the way to the present day. I was listening to the audiobook, and would pause it to listen to NPR in the car where there were reports of a Space X launch. So amazing to learn about the figure who’s risk-taking personality has allwoed him to amass the worlds biggest fortune, but more fascinating was his desire to spend his time effecting the future of humanity. Sort of inspirational to hear about the higher purpose he attaches to everything. Even Twitter. It might be a stretch and all ego, but still fascinating to not only feel like you’ve been invited into the room, but also into the man’s head.

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About Elon Musk:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Wellness by Nathan Hill

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I loved The Nix and when I heard Nathan Hill had a new novel coming out, I preordered. I toggled between reading and listening to the audiobook because it is narrated by Ari Fliakos who is my all time favorite reader. His tone captures the wry wit of Hill’s characters so well. But onto Wellness—All I can say is that I have been recommending it to everyone and Nathan Hill has become my favorite author. He writes with the wisdom and life knowledge of a person much older but with the funny, dry cutting language of a person who is younger. His observations about diets and tech to name just two societal staples are hysterical. And yet while being funny and amusing, the book is also so heartbreakingly poignant. I loved it, couldn’t put it down and now while my husband is reading, I am constantly asking him what part he is up to and to read it aloud to me so we can have a good laugh. The best kind of book.

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About Wellness:

The New York Times best-selling author of The Nix is back with a poignant and witty novel about a modern marriage and the bonds that keep people together. Mining the absurdities of contemporary society, Wellness reimagines the love story with a healthy dose of insight, irony, and heart.

“A stunning novel about the stories that we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time—it’s beyond remarkable, both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.” —NPR

When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty ’90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.

For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

ministry-for-the-future-kim-stanley-robinson-book-review-jeanne-blasbergThis is a work of science fiction that reads like it could be true. It is very long book that offers many thread lines and points of view as well as the ministry for the future’s ideas with regard to advocating for beings that can’t speak for themselves. It was educational, inspiring but also filled me with dread.

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About The Ministry for the Future:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Tom Lake By Ann Patchett

tom-lake-ann-patchett-book-review-jeanne-blasbergI listened to this on audio, such a delight as Meryl Streep was the narrator. Her performative and soothing voice combined with Ann Patchett’s writing resulted in a most pleasurable experience. The story was well done too. Well suited for me as a mother who had three grown children at home during the pandemic and also as the mother of a daughter. I am finding it very interesting to read the pandemic novels of great writers BTW. This is a novel about what we share with our children and what we hold back, about their insatiable desire for stories about us before they were born, and about how much changes and how much stays the same between the generations of women. This is a love story to Northern Michigan and a life dedicated to farming orchards. The point of view may be that of a grown woman in her fifties, but as she recounts one summer and one love affair to her children, she is also telling her own coming-of-age. The structure of this novel was quite pleasurable to follow.

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About Tom Lake:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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The Twenty: by Marianne C. Bohr

The Twenty: One Woman’s Trek Across Corsica on the GR20 Trail by Marianne C. Bohr

the-twenty-one-woman's-trek-across-corsica-g20-trail-marianne-c-bohr-book-review-jeanne-blasbergA great read which will inspire you to get out of the chair. Bohr does an excellent job of honestly telling recounting the ups and downs of completing one of the world’s iconic hikes with her husband Joe, both in their 60’s. A reminder that one is never too old to take on a challenge, whether physical or otherwise, I loved reading this book and felt like the author was giving all of us a gentle nudge to get going!!

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About The Twenty:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org

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Trust by Hernan Diaz

Trust by Hernan Diaz

trust-Hernan-Dåiaz-book-review-jeanne-blasbergAfter learning this work shared the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction with Demon Copperhead, I had to read. I listened to the Audio which was narrated by four different voices, amplifying this novel’s theme of perception. Indeed a story changes so much based on who is telling it and Diaz makes this clear with regard to a marriage, mental health, wealth, and power. Who’s version do you trust? This novel is entertaining but important in that it provokes introspection around narration and point of view, reliability and inherent bias. Highly recommend.

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About Trust:

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org