Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed - Lori Gottlieb

Do I need therapy? Does everyone need therapy? I'm not sure but I feel like I want to go to therapy after reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. I suppose we are all carrying around pain and hurt in our lives. Perhaps childhood trauma or adolescent trauma or adult trauma. Maybe we're carrying around all these things and a therapist is there to help carry that load.

Now really, the author chose her poignant and successful patients here. Maybe therapy doesn't work out for everyone. But there's real heartbreak in this book and it is a heavy read at times. But also hopeful. Whether its the standoffish oaf who tries so hard to push everyone away, the elderly woman dealing with her loneliness, the terminal patient facing impending death, the lonely woman making all the wrong partner choices, or the author herself who faces a devastating breakup- all their stories author insight into the depths of our despair to where hope and growth might lie.

The book is well laid out between the author's own experience and that of her patients. Each patient grows and works along with the author to meet their goals. The cadence is well written and the patients are revealed to the reader as they become known to the author - slowly and through the building of trust.

4/5 Stars. 

Lions - Bonnie Nadzam

At some point in Lions, the residents of the town refer to it as a "living ghost town" and the description is hauntingly perfect. In fact, lots of things about this book are hauntingly perfect.

When a mysterious stranger and his dog walk into town, they have the fortune of meeting probably the kindest, most unassuming, three people to ever walk the dusty roads of Colorado. Georgiana and John Walker, and their son, Gordon, feed, clothe and give money to the man so that he can make it through another day or two. Unfortunately, the man takes the money and charity (not the same thing) and goes to the local watering hole where he meets other citizens of the town less likely to be friendly to a stranger. Small towns, small minds kind of thing. A fight ensues and the man ends up in the local jail for the night and his dog... well, a dog on its own in a strange town and dark roads...

And after the encounter, the town, which was already teetering on the brink of extinction, gets tipped over the edge into a downward spiral. And just as Gordon Walker's life is about to change and he's about to go off to college with his girlfriend Leigh, his father dies and Gordon enters a spiral of his own.

It's a jarring time in someone's life to lose a parent (I know only from watching others go through it - I'm blessed to still have both of mine). And Gordon seems to suffer more than most. On top of the normal grief is a way of life and a town that John Walker was not prepared to leave. And his son is tied to that way of life in a way that others may be free. John would take days at a time away from his welding work to travel north to where the Colorado roads become gravel and unpaved. What he did up there was a town mystery and source of gossip. And, it's a question that's never really answered in the book which adds to the entire feeling the book evokes.

It's so rare that a place serves as an extra character in a book, but Lions is certainly a main character here. It's really well done. I was uncomfortable with Gordon and his quietness as I think I was meant to be.

4/5 Stars. 

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

I think I've lost my objectivity when it comes to Donna Tartt. The Goldfinch was such a spectacular book (you can read that review here) - the best I've read in ages, that I'm willing to give her leeway on meandering plots or superfluous details. The Secret History is so wildly different from The Goldfinch, it's hard to know where to start.

The main protagonist is Richard Pappen, an unhappy California youth who does what many young people do, goes to college as far away from his parents and home as he can get. In this case, to Hampden Vermont. As a transfer student, he steps into established sociological webs and connections and tries to find a place for himself. The place he singles out is with an enigmatic and intriguing Classics professor who only takes a few students on each year. Julian hand picks and then guides each student personally through coursework he himself designs and teaches. 

Originally denied entry to this group, Richard seeks to impress the other five students - genius Henry Winter, twins Charles and Camilla, dashing Francis, and gregarious Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran. He succeeds and is soon admitted to their circle. But no matter how close he gets to the group, he remains slightly on the periphery. So it comes as quite a shock when he discovers a secret about the group and their extracurricular activities. In an effort to show he is part of the exclusive tribe, he agrees to hide their secret, even to the extent that it means killing Bunny Corcoran, who threatens to expose the others. 

Bunny becomes wildly unpredictable and unhinged and so the group believes Bunny must be taken care of. Even though Richard tells the reader early on that Bunny is killed, the series of events leading to Bunny's death are so intriguing that the dramatic tension still exists, even up to the point where Bunny tips over the edge of the ravine to his death. The aftermath and its effects on the group - through the eyes of Richard is fascinating. 

The one weird element is that it is never really clear why Richard is telling this story. The events he imparts are so volatile that naturally one would imagine Richard would never tell a soul, so playing the narrative device out to its fullest extent is inexplicable. This niggling detail detracts from some of the enjoyment of the book. But Tartt's writing carries the rest through.

4/5 Stars.