I remember what a momentous day it was in 2015 when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Now this book Love Wins traces through all the details and the people who fought so hard through decades of legal battles that finally made same-sex marriage the law of the land. It's a wonderful, emotional, inspirational story of probably the biggest civil rights decision of my lifetime. I like that this book focuses on personal stories of the plaintiffs and their families, in addition to containing loads of legal details on the wins and losses that happened along the way. Really, it's a great book if you want to learn more about what went into making same-sex marriage a reality in this country.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

Lilac Girls follows the intersecting lives of three women, one in New York, one in Poland, and one in Germany, as one of them is sent to the notorious all-women concentration camp Ravensbrück. It's a harrowing tale, but one that needs to be told so it's never forgotten. Not only is this a page-turning narrative, but it also imparts a lot of carefully researched details about the atrocities of World War II. Even though the story tells of dark times, it's uplifting as well because it shows that the human spirit is full of courage and bravery. It's amazing that this is the author's debut novel; I look forward to reading more from her.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

I'm a little conflicted after reading The Woman in Cabin 10. On the one hand, it's a decently interesting mystery. On the other hand, did the main character have to be such a dimwitted lush?

Lo is a travel writer, and she's thrilled to be invited on a small luxury cruise as part of her job. But her fun soon comes to an end when she witnesses what seems to be a woman being pushed overboard. The problem is that no passenger is missing, so her alarm is met with mostly indifference. If she wants to find out what happened, she'll have to do it herself.

Sounds promising, right? Except Lo is the most annoying character I've come across in a long time. Throughout the story, she is incredibly tired from lack of sleep (we're told this like 50 times), perpetually verging on drunkenness, hungry (she hardly eats), unfriendly, argumentative, defensive, and just plain dumb. She doesn't seem to know simple things about the cruise even though she's there to cover it as part of her job. Whenever she sees anyone, she freezes up and doesn't know what to say.

And we're supposed to believe that not only is she a journalist with 10 years of experience, but that she can also solve a mystery, mainly by blundering around, poking into and blurting out things she shouldn't, and drinking like a fish whenever there is alcohol around? Nope, not possible. My disbeliefs can only be suspended so far, I tell you.

What baffles me is that the main character didn't have to be written this way. It doesn't advance the plot or play into some idiot-person narrative. The mystery would have been just as good, if not better, had Lo been sharp and shrewd.

Thankfully, in the last third of the book, Lo finally starts using her wits (hurray!), and the pacing picks up. The mystery unfolds, and becomes fun and twisty. And when the solution is presented, it's an interesting one. It's just too bad the enjoyment wasn't even all the way through and we had to wait until the end to get the main character this story deserves.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Not sure how this book got such good reviews, because it didn't do anything for me. The plot is boring and predictable, the dialog is uninteresting, and the characters are silly and unlikable.

The police officer in charge of figuring out who killed the husband is terribly incompetent. His way of solving the crime is to stop by every day and ask the wives repeatedly if they'd killed him, as if asking enough times would lead him to solve the crime. He also flirted and struck up a relationship with one of the wives (also a prime suspect) during the investigation.

The youngest wife has trouble believing that her husband had been married to two other women before he married her, and spends a lot of time sticking her head in the sand and hoping God would straighten it all out and take care of her.

Also, I'm guessing the author seems to think having kids and grand-kids is the epitome of life's worth. Every child in the book is treated with reverence (with endless comments about how beautiful and delightful they are), and the one wife without children spent the entire book wishing she had them. At one point, one of the characters even called an ex-wife selfish for not wanting kids.

Just no.

Readaroo Rating: 1 star

While the concept of the dystopian society of Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale is interesting enough, I don't think the book delivers on its potential. What should have been an epic and thought-provoking book is severely held back by its rambling over-the-top writing style, and lack of necessary details on how Gilead came to be.

The author likes to use lots of commas, so that, in case you were reading this, you would feel, instead of natural sentence flow, that it's, really, very choppy. See what I did there? It takes me as a reader out of the story because I'm so busy trying to parse the sentences. Quotation marks are also a thing of rarity, showing up only part of the time. Lots of minute details are included on completely unimportant things (like eggs and chairs), which caused my eyes to glaze over from reading it all.

In addition, I feel like the author got lazy and glossed over the crucial details of how Gilead became the way it is. If this is to serve as a warning and as social commentary, we the readers need these details. Otherwise, it just feels like the author waved her hands and voila, everything became Gilead.

Still, I'm giving it 3 stars because it's worth at least a read for some interesting ideas.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Lab Girl is a fascinating memoir of Hope Jahren's journey from a young girl discovering her love of botany to a research scientist of geobiology. Along the way, she details the years of grinding hard work, the difficulty of being accepted as a female scientist, and her deep friendship with her lab mate Bill. Her prose is honest, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny. Her love and exuberance for plants and her work is evident in every chapter and it's so thrilling to be swept along in her narrative. This book will change the way you look at plants... I know it has for me!

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

This murder mystery reminds me a lot of Nancy Drew books I read as a kid, where everything is a bit silly and hammed up. Anyone who's ever had a disagreement with the murder victim is automatically a suspect (as if one's only choice in a disagreement is to kill the other person), the murderer goes around leaving threatening notes that just gives away who they are/what they are up to, and everything wraps up a little too neatly at the end. Unfortunately, it's not a mystery where you the reader can follow along and solve since the given clues aren't enough to lead to an answer, so that takes some of the fun out of it. Still, it's an entertaining read if you're looking for something light and simple.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

I love this book! It's a sweet and poignant look at growing old, losing all that you love, and then finding joy and meaning again in the most unexpected ways. The main character is Ove, a curmudgeon old man who just wants to be left alone, but his neighbors have other plans. The author does such an amazing job giving the main character depth and dimension that I almost feel like he's a real person I know and love. The book starts a little slow, but I really got it into it not long after. As the story progresses, it hits all the right notes: endearing, funny, and at times sad. I'm so glad I picked this book up!

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!