Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

I thought at first that this book was going to just be funny so I was not expecting feeling deeply about Eleanor and her welfare. But here we are.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine begins by letting the reader know just how fine Eleanor is. There's a total disconnect between how "fine" Eleanor is, and how not fine the reader can tell life is going for Eleanor. First, there is a odd and childish fascination with the lead singer of a rock band. Next there is some terribly hurtful things she overhears her coworkers saying about her without reaction. And then there is her mother. Wow. What a terrible person. 

And all of this would have eventually crushed Eleanor but for the simple act of kindness shown to her by Raymond, her office IT helper who happens to be walking sames ways with Eleanor after work when they witness an elderly man take a spill. Their act of helping the man connects Eleanor and Raymond and continues their acquaintance into the future. 

The friendship between Eleanor and Raymond is really quite beautiful in its simplicity and studied lack of sexual friction. It's actually quite refreshing to read a book where friendship and not attraction is deeply rooted in mutual regard and care without all the bodice ripping. What I mean to say, is that friendship can be really beautiful and I'm glad this book leaves it at that because it really allows the reader to focus on the things that Eleanor is missing out on by being so shut off. Just basic human affection and care. 

"No man is a failure who has friends." - It's a Wonderful Life

4/5 Stars. 

The Lying Game - Ruth Ware

There are five rules in the Lying Game:

1: Tell a Lie - looks like there is a big lie lurking at the center of this book. Like every Ware novel, this secret is teased out over the course of backflashes as we learn how the four main characters, Isa, Thea, Kate and Fatima get to know each other at an English boarding school in the town of Salten where they make up this silly game which makes everyone hate them.

2: Stick to Your Story - they're pretty good at this one since it's 17 years later and only a dog and the unstoppable reach of water has uncovered the secret they thought they buried in the marsh.

3: Don't Get Caught - Pretty clear someone is going to get caught here so when Kate sends a text simply saying "I need You", the other three drop everything to be at their side. Their cover story of attending a reunion at a school that Fatima and Isa attended for less than a year and never graduated from is just weird, but I chalked this up to never having attended boarding school myself.

4: Never Lie to Each Other - whoops, well what do you expect for rules set down by 15 year olds who haven't spoken to each other in years but somehow remain the best of friends. This rule gets broken a lot, and mostly within the first few chapters.

5: Know When to Stop Lying - this rule had me yelling at my dashboard listening to the audio. A lot of things could have been cleared up if the characters had stopped lying to each other (see Rule 4), partway through the book.

Other points:
- Ware knows how to draw up a spooky scene. Kate is still living in the ramshackle tide mill her father owned during their school years. It's falling apart and slowly sinking into the sea. But Kate, who has become an artist like her father, has refused to leave and has lived a life near the poverty line as a result.

ruthware.com Setting for the Lying Game

- The men in this book take a backseat to the female characters, but they are the biggest proponents of plot. Kate's father Ambrose draws pictures of the girls. Kate's brother Luc is the subject of Isa's teenage crush and when he shows up partway through the book, yells at Isa, who is holding a baby and seems sinister until, poof, off goes his shirt and all is forgiven. (Yeah I REALLY didn't understand what was happening here). And then there is Owen, Isa's partner who seems like a pretty decent guy, until Isa starts yelling at him and lying to him about... whatever, it's not important and she easily could have smoothed things over with him at any point in the book.
- All this baby does is breastfeed and nap. And Isa is obsessed with the baby until, whoops, (view spoiler)
- And (view spoiler)

So this book ended up a little uneven for me. But it was MUCH better than Woman in Cabin 10. Isa is a stronger character and is a good narrator even if she is a little slow-witted sometimes. And the big reveal of the secret is perplexing because the choices were sort of idiotic. But not a bad read and I liked the narration by Imogene Church.

3/5 Stars. 

Just Kids - Patti Smith

I have been sitting far too long on this review. It's not that I haven't wanted to. I've just been really swamped with other stuff. In any case, let me tell you how absolutely delightful Patti Smith is. 

Just Kids details the years Patti Smith spent with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe when they were LITERALLY starving artists in New York City. From rundown apartments in Brooklyn to the fabulous and tragic Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, Patti and Robert, supported and inspired each other to keep reaching and keep creating. 

I have to admit, other than a colleague I worked with over a decade ago who was a bit of an aging hippy, I'd never even really heard of Patti Smith before. "Because the Night" was a Natalie Merchant song from VH1 (I'm so embarrassed). In any case, I saw a reference to this book and decided to listen to the audio. After I started listening, Patti and Robert references were popping up everywhere, like in Little Fires Everywhere which I read earlier this month. 

So I took a deep Wiki dive on these two remarkable people and knew before I got to the end that Robert was going to die of AIDS related complications and that I would be really heartbroken for Patti who always held him in her heart even after they grew apart. What can you say about young love and young lovers who aside from being incredibly cool nerds were creative about life and the universe. Robert Mapplethorpe went on to stretch and challenge the definition of art. His provocative photos tested the boundaries of what could be available to the public. 

Just look at these incredibly cool humans.

And I loved all the ways Patti describes him and their life together. They may have been Just Kids, but they loved and created for a lifetime. It was wonderful to get a glimpse of such a powerful friendship.

4/5 Stars. 

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds - Michael Lewis

Yeah Yeah behavioral economics has been around for a couple decades. But it's NEW to me! I listened to The Undoing Project about the friendship between psychologists Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky and there were times when I wished I was reading it because the concepts are something I needed to see and mull over. All the while alarm bells are ringing in my head about how I can apply these concepts to my own job and work. Why does cross-discipline happen so slowly or so happenstance? 

In any event, these two amazing brilliant people somehow had the good fortune (for us) to meet at Hebrew University in the early 70s/late 60s and change how we understand how people make decisions. Until Kahneman and Tversky, everyone assumed that people are rational creatures who make decisions loosely aligned to statistical probabilities and sound logic. But guess what?! We're not. We're crazy emotional beings who make decisions against logic and failing to account for this was causing economists to miss wildly in predictions. 

So behavioral economics comes along and takes Kahneman and Tversky's theories and findings and blows apart all the traditional thinking about decision making and now it's a whole field and gah when can I get in on this and where can I find out more? 

I love the story of two brilliant people creating very lovely mind expanding theories based on the combined strengths of the group. This was well written (of course it was it's Michael Lewis FGS). And while the science could get a little heavy it was still accessible. Loved this book and the way it made my brain want more.

4/5 Stars. 

A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman

A Man Called Ove is a thoroughly entertaining of a lonely curmudgeon who is really actually a good person. The writing is humorous and swift. There is a lot of detail but it doesn't bog the story down unnecessarily. This is a story of big sweeping themes about love and loss, friendship and family, told through small details about one individual person. 

The story starts with Ove attempting to buy an iPad and slowly through the story in various back flashes and limited description from other characters, we get to see what has brought Ove to be the person he is, and why he is so desperately unhappy. 

I liked this book so much that I went home after finishing it and stayed up way too late watching the Swedish language version of the film (apparently a Tom Hanks version is in the works but no real facts on that yet) and I cried even though I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen. The movie doesn't have some of the lightness of the book, but it's extremely well done. Highly recommend.

4.5/5 Stars. 

City of Thieves - David Benioff

This was can't put down good. The premise is a grandson asking his grandfather about the war. You know, THE war, WWII. The grandfather was a Soviet citizen in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) at the time and the grandson wants to know what his grandfather did during the war.

So we get the grandfather's version of what he did. Lev Beniov lives in The Kirov, an apartment building in the outer ring of Leningrad. He serves on the building's fire brigade, there to put out any fires should the building get shelled during the Nazi siege of Leningrad. One evening, while standing watch on the top of his building with his friends, Lev spots a dead German paratrooper falling from the sky. As the city has been starving for months and people are dying from starvation daily, the youths figure the German paratrooper may have food on his person and decide to be the first ones there to investigate the possibility. Except, as an enemy soldier in Leningrad, the dead body is now government property and taking anything from the body would be considered "looting" and stealing of government property. 

When he pauses to help a friend running from the police, Lev is caught and taken to a Leningrad prison. Sometime in the night he is joined by an army deserter, Kolya. The head of the NKVD gives them the task of finding 12 eggs in the next five days for his daughter's wedding cake. Lev and Kolya then go about the impossible task of procuring a dozen eggs in a food wasteland. 

It is Kolya's indomitable spirit through the Lev's pessimistic lens, that carries this story from horror to humor and back again in endless and glorious cycles as the two undertake their quest. I didn't want this book to end.

5/5 Stars.