Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

 

Elin Hilderbrand can always be counted on for contemporary fiction, with complex female characters and a great beach read. The characters in Golden Girl don't disappoint, though they are extremely privileged. I wasn't happy to begin the book reading from the point of view of Vivi, a ghost, because I feel that's been done so many times. 

Still, I enjoyed the book. I liked that the underlying mystery of the "narrators" death gave us a logical timeline. I liked that even in Nantucket, a place that has come to represent the American Ideal, issues of racism, sexism and abuse must be confronted. I think Elin Hildebrand acknowledged the issues, without hitting her readers too hard with them... we don't pick up a self-described beach read to rehash the issues we deal with in our regular lives.

 Golden Girl did exactly what a good summer book should. I look forward to the next one!

 

Wish You Were Here by Jody Piccoult. Another great read!

I’ve long admired the way Jody Piccoult can take a controversial current event topic and make it engaging, readable and interesting. I go into her books thinking I understand an issue, only to be presented with other perspectives. Piccoult gives me an opportunity to think about issues and I always feel smarter when I finish her books.

 Wish You Were Here begins as a romance veering off course. The beauty of the Galápagos, the varied creatures, and an isolation few have experienced set the stage for Diana to explore everything she knows about art, relationships, and grief. As an art broker for Sotheby’s, she already knows a lot about art, but not how it can expand personal relationships. As a daughter of a doting father who died, and an absentee mother afflicted with Alzheimer’s, she must learn a new kind of grief. And as the almost fiancée of a doctor in the first wave of the COVID-19 wave in NYC, she has much to learn about relationships.

I won’t reveal the shift of the second half of the book, but I will say that this book continues the exploration of life and death begun in Piccoult’s last book, The Book of Two Ways, though Wish You Were here is an easier read with a totally different story. (Many of my reading friends didn't like the intense Egyptian explanations of that one, though I found them fascinating. My review of The book of two waysHer research is, as always, stellar, and fascinating. I did not think I was ready for a “Covid” book, written during the actual worst times of the virus in the USA, but I found much peace and healing here. I guess we really couldn’t be shocked any more than we were, and it’s nice to see our feelings given credence and respect. This is a don’t miss book for 2021 and beyond. 

Wish You Were Here will be released November 30, 2021, just in time to be a wonderful gift for reader friends. I appreciate being allowed to read an Advanced Readers Copy by the publisher, Penguin Random House and NetGalley. five plus stars!