Review: Ordinary Hazards

Ordinary Hazards, by Anna Bruno (Atria Books 2020)

First line: “The Final Final is the kind of bar that doesn’t exist in cities, a peculiarity of a small town that has seen better days.”

This book caught me by surprise.

Not the ending, that I had somewhat surmised as the climax approached, but I think that was Bruno’s intent.

What took me by surprise was how much I ended up caring about these characters. Told over the course of one long night at the dingy townie bar in upstate New York, Ordinary Hazards is about Emma and her marriage to Lucas. We start the evening off with Emma alone but not alone at the Final Final, meaning she’s not there with anyone, but all the usual suspects are around, people she’s known for years, people who Lucas introduced her to and became a part of her daily life. We quickly realize that she and Lucas are no longer together, and over the next nine hours, we figure out why. The story frequently flashes back to Emma’s childhood, to her college years, and primarily to her relationship with Lucas. And from these glimpses, we piece together what devastation eventually tore them apart.

Now, this all sounds right up my alley, right? The time hops, the foreshadowing, the hints and flashes along the way… The problem was, that for the first 25 percent of the book, Emma made me crazy. In fact, I almost set it down and decided it would become my second NetGalley DNF. She was abrasive, pessimistic, arrogant, and gave off the energy that she was better than everyone around her. I didn’t like many of the regular crowd at the Final Final either, so there wasn’t much going for it. But I stuck it out a little longer, and somewhere along the way, it hooked me.

What resulted was an overwhelming and heart-wrenching story that left me emotionally exhausted and fully feeling along with these characters. I had to put my Kindle down with an hour left in it, because I knew I would not be able to finish reading it at night. I could see the climax coming and knew I would need to finish it in daylight hours so I could snuggle my toddler and let the sun shine on my face. I was grateful for the epilogue especially, that left us with a glimmer of hope at the end of a truly emotional train wreck. I think Bruno’s debut novel is beautifully crafted and will tug at the heart strings of many, many readers. Ordinary Hazards hits shelves August 18!

Many thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Year of Yes

Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person, by Shonda Rhimes (Simon Schuster Audio, 2015)

First line: “I am a liar. And I don’t care who knows it.”

I’ve been watching Shonda’s shows since the beginning. Yes, I still watch Grey’s. Yes, I watched all of Private Practice. Yes, I watched all of Scandal. (Okay, no, I didn’t watch How to Get Away With Murder. I have no idea why.) I love her shows. I love her characters. I love her dialogue. So I hoped I’d at least like her book, and specifically, her audiobook. And friends, I did. I truly did.

Those of you familiar with her shows, with their loud and charismatic and loquacious characters, might be surprised to learn that Shonda herself is a shy person. In fact, in the heyday of TGIT Shondaland Thursdays, Shonda found herself so closed off from interviews, press tours, public appearances, and speeches, that when her sister called her out on it, she realized she was in fact miserable. Miserable, despite her crazy successful shows which allowed her to hone the craft she loves and provide for her financially. Despite her three beautiful children. When this realization struck her, she made the decision to stop turning away from things. To do those things she had her characters do, which is how she came to the Year of Yes.

Now, that’s not to say that she literally said “yes” to everything asked of her. She’s clear about that in her text. But she did say “yes” to things that were going to make her a happier, healthier person. This book chronicles that year, and beyond it.

Things that I loved about Year of Yes:

• I loved that she narrates her own audiobook. Shonda has a great voice, and is obviously a writer who writes for her words to be heard aloud. I’ve taken to listening to my audiobooks at 1.25x speed, which gives me a little satisfaction at being able to finish a book before it says I will. But NOT for this one! Shonda is a fast talker, and at parts sounded like a crazy wind-up mouse at 1.25x. I had to slow this sucker down, but for Shonda, it was worth it.
• I loved all the insider information about her shows. All her references to Ellen and Kerry and Viola. (I mean, obviously she’s on a first name basis with her lead actresses, but it still felt elite and exciting.) Also, her devotion to Cristina Yang (the character).
• I loved the writing. She’s a very clever writer, which we’ve known for years and years. But it’s fun to see it in a different context. She’s snappy and funny and honest and vulnerable.

Overall, I thought this was an engaging and surprisingly refreshing memoir. It was unexpected in a lot of ways, and those are the parts I appreciated most. Can’t wait to see where Shondaland takes us next.

 

Review: Chirp

Chirp, by Kate Messner (2020)

First line: “Mia hadn’t realized how much she missed the mountains.”

After several years away, Mia and her family are moving back to her hometown to be closer to her grandmother as she recovers from a stroke and prepares to sell her business. At least, that’s what they thought the plan was. In reality, Gram has no intention of selling her cricket farm, not if she can help it. Despite the fact that Mia would prefer to spend her summer just helping Gram at the farm, Mia’s mother insists she join a couple camps to keep busy. Mia begrudgingly enrolls in Launch Camp, where participants work on developing their own inventions or business plans like her favorite show Deal with the Sharks, and Warrior Camp, where kids get to work out at a special training gym for her other favorite show, American Warrior Challenge. Warrior Camp happens to be in the same warehouse as Gram’s farm, so she’ll be close by to help out. It also shares warehouse space with a gymnastics gym, a fact that makes Mia very uncomfortable when she discovers its proximity.

Until an accident last year that severely broke her arm, Mia was an avid gymnast with Olympic dreams. But all that changed when she fell off the beam. She tries to push down all memory of that day and what happened, but it becomes harder and harder as the summer goes on. Fortunately, she does make friends with a girl who happens to be at both her camps, and they decide to use their time at Launch Camp to come up with ways to save Gram’s cricket farm. The problems seem stacked against her: even though she seems to be recovering well from her stroke, things keep happening at the farm that have Gram talking about sabotage. If one more thing goes wrong, she will be forced to sell… unless Mia and her friend can figure out who is behind it.

As their investigation picks up, Mia is forced to confront some secrets she’s kept buried for the last year. Secrets that are very much connected to why she finds it difficult to trust and why she cringes passing the gymnastics gym.

The story here is fine – the mystery is fairly predictable, and the friendships seem a bit too easy from my experience of middle school girls. But where this book shines is in Messner’s portrayal of Mia’s real and complicated internal life. Mia has a lot pent up inside her and these feelings feel incredibly authentic – at times heartbreaking:

“Even though she was older and taller now, she felt smaller somehow. As if her body was growing like it was supposed to, but inside, the rest of her was shrinking.”

Further, she has smart, strong, inspirational women around and behind her that give her the safety to express those feelings:

“‘Sometimes courage is quiet,’ Gram said. ‘You were brave to speak up today, Mia. But you were brave before that, too. Sometimes getting up in the morning and being you, no matter what’s happened to you and no matter what anybody says, is the bravest, most defiant thing a woman can do.'”

I think this book will touch many of its readers and will provide them with the courage to express things they’ve been burying. That’s what literature is meant to do for its readers, and this does it so well.

This book comes out next week, February 4th! Go order yours now!

Thanks to Bloomsbury Children’s Books via NetGalley for the eGalley in exchange for an honest review.