Literary Fiction

I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue

I Hope This Finds You Well | Book Review | Natalie Sue

Plot Summary
The story of I Hope This Finds You Well revolves around a corporate employee Jolene, socially awkward and unable to gel with her office colleagues. The central characters being Rhonda, Caitlin, Armin as her coworkers and Gregory their creepy boss. Frustrated with their habits & whims, she vents it out to them through texts in emails that she hides out with white fonts. On one such occasion, she forgets to white out her rant to Caitlin and gets into deep trouble casting a shadow over her job.

As a result, she is put to a training course that she must pass to retain her job, wherein she comes close to the HR guy Clifford. In her bid to save her job, …

Leave a Comment

Filed under Contemporary Reads

The Berry Pickers

The Berry Pickers | Amanda Peters | Book Review

Plot Summary

Four-year-old Ruthie goes missing from the blueberry fields where the family works. On the other side, we have a young girl Norma growing up haunted by recurring dreams and faint memories which are hushed away by her parents as her imagination. This is the story of two families and two mothers, where one keeps losing child after child to some mishappening while the other loses them before birth. As it turns out, Ruthie and Norma are the same girl and it was the pain & suffering of the mother that led her to kidnap someone else’s child. The story brings life full circle when the grown woman Ruthie is reunited with her birth family and the instant bond she strikes with them. …

Leave a Comment

Filed under Contemporary Reads

The Five-Star Weekend

The perfect way to sum up The Five-Star Weekend is a phrase from the book itself – “Your Life Story In Friends”. Hollis Shaw, recently widowed, organizes a Five-Star Weekend inspired by another woman to overcome her grief and mourning. This entails inviting one best friend from each phase of her life at her childhood home in Nantucket. For this weekend, she invites her childhood friend Tatum, best friend from college Dru Ann, Brooke from their children’s growing up years and Gigi a recent online acquaintance from her blog.

As such, this idea felt extremely original and enticing. I loved this concept of a weekend with your best friends over the years. Each of these people have problems of …

Leave a Comment

Filed under Contemporary Reads

The Covenant Of Water

The Covenant Of Water | Book Review | Abraham Verghese

The Covenant Of Water is a story that spans 77 years and 3 generations of a South Indian family. Set in the village of Parambil in Kerala, the story endears you with this little girl – all of 12 years of age – being taken by her uncle & widowed mother to Parambil to marry her off to a much older man of an affluent family. The innocence of the child alongside inherent fears and sadness of separation from her mother comes across beautifully in the initial part of the book.

How the girl finds a mother and confidant in Thankamma – who eases her into the new household – is lovable. The story draws you effortlessly as …

Leave a Comment

Filed under Contemporary Reads

Maame

Maame | Book Review | Jessica George

Jessic George’s debut novel – Maame has been one of the most hyped books of 2023. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to read it after all. I wasn’t quite keen on stumbling upon yet another black, female protagonist fighting all odds of sexism & racism.

The book starts off quite well and is easy to read. You find yourself consuming chapter after chapter in no time. The plot of the book is quite interesting. The protagonist, Maddie – or Maame, is overly burdened with responsibilities – looking after her ill dad, managing expenses, the work front and a mother & brother who care the least.

Jessica George brings out this struggle of Maddie’s life quite wonderfully. You can feel …

Leave a Comment

Filed under Contemporary Reads

Deluge

Deluge | Charmaine Wilkerson | Book Review

Such a beautiful & moving tale. I became Charmaine Wilkerson’s fan for life ever since I read Black Cake. And I am so glad she carries forward the legacy of her debut novel with Deluge.

This is the story of a little girl, Dinara, who was taken by a woman – saving her life from a flood that took away her entire birth family. This woman, whom she calls ‘ma’ is the one who raises her and dotes on her. As Dinara gets older, she starts recalling vague incidents and things from the past.

As she ultimately discovers the reality after ma’s death, her heart is torn between conflicting emotions – between her birth mother & her ma. …

Leave a Comment

Filed under Contemporary Reads