TRIGGER WARNING: This book addresses difficult topics including mental illness, suicide, abuse, violence, and trauma. Some scenes and references may be distressing for certain readers.
Gail Honeyman is a master of dry wit and understatement in Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. Eleanor is so unpleasant and awkward as to render her completely unlikeable at the beginning of the novel. I don’t want to see her bullied by her coworkers or strangers in public, but I could certainly see why they might. She invites side-glances with her oblivious rudeness and is a closed book. She doesn’t want anything to do with anybody and seems perfectly content in her isolation. Of course, it’s all a ruse and protective defenses, but those walls are tall and seem impenetrable.
The chance encounters, unusual incidents, and course of events that occur begin to bring about a soft opening of Eleanor. And the unfolding of her past, the development of some friendships, and her observations and realizations throughout the process are so endearing that I couldn’t help falling in love with her. She and her circle of people are everything that is wonderful about humanity, especially when coping with everything that is horrible with humanity.
Once again, I was disappointed by the rushed feel of the ending. I hoped for the same level of deep introspection at the end of the book that was delved into throughout the rest. What is with these authors rushing their endings? They need to be every bit as perfect as the beginnings and middles. But other than wanting more, I can find no fault with this witty, honest, hilarious look at a lovely woman who is absolutely NOT completely fine, but who will be. The author’s voice is refreshing, hilarious, and wonderful.
Honeyman, Gail, Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, Penguin Random House, 2017.
I loved the ideas and interwoven timelines that crossed generations, countries, and realities in The Midnight Library by Evie Woods. It is magical, mythical, fairy tale-ical (I made up that word), and beautiful. It is so beautiful that my main complaint is that I wanted more. The first half of the book is deeply fleshed out, letting us into the characters detailed inner lives and minute by minute adventures. The second half of the book feels rushed, almost like it should have been several more books in a series so the author could have gone deeper into the story lines and better tied together the threads she was so masterfully weaving.
I want to know so much more about the eccentric elderly woman Martha works for. Martha’s childhood is left untapped, so much potential for background to show how she might find herself trapped in such a terrible marriage. Her mother signs and does not speak, which opens the door to so many questions that could be answered and scenes that could be elaborated on. The events that occur around the World War II timeline are barely mentioned and could be so many chapters of fascinating detail. Giant chunks of time are skipped over that could be filled with story. And some of the puzzle pieces like the tattoos, living bookshelves, missing manuscripts, and love affairs feel like fragments that could be such an epic saga were we to have their stories told in many more chapters.
It would make a fabulous series on a streaming service, especially if they fleshed out more of the characters, their backgrounds, motivations, and dynamic growth. One thing is for certain; Woods does a great job of creating protagonists I want to root for, women who never give up no matter how many times they get knocked down.
Woods, Evie, The Lost Bookshop, Harper Collins Publisher, 2023.
TRIGGER WARNING: This novel addresses themes of teen pregnancy, substance abuse, addiction, death, sexuality, religious pressure, body image struggles, and family conflict. Some material may be sensitive for readers.
Isabel Quintero does a fabulous job in Gabi, A Girl in Pieces of making us fall in love with a messy, smart, creative, beautiful, real-sounding protagonist. Gabi is sharing her journal with us, along with poetry, artwork, letters to her drug-addicted father, and innermost secrets. We are there for the highs and the lows, and we laugh right along with her, just before we grab a box of tissues to sob along with her. It is her senior year, and she is a pale-skinned Mexican American girl proud of her culture and obsessed with her food. (This gordita can relate.)
She tackles relationships with boys, friendship, teen-pregnancy, religious pressure, family dynamics, sibling issues, senior year stress, college applications, drug abuse, death, sex, body image, and more. Her voice is sarcastic, tender, raw, and heartbreakingly vulnerable. Navigating the minefields of adolescence in the 21st century has never seemed more fraught nor more worth celebrating. It is full of issues that make it a commonly banned book in conservative states’ schools. I feel sad for young ladies who may never get the chance to meet Gabi because there are probably many who could find hope and courage from her example.
Quintero, Isabel, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, Cinco Puntos Press, 2014.
All images created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a lovely reality check for anyone struggling with wishing their life could be different. Some quantum theorists think every alternative reality possible happens simultaneously. In one reality, I’m here writing this book review. In another, I’m still in the middle of reading the book. In another, no one gave me this book as a gift, so I haven’t read it at all. And in yet another, heaven forbid, I don’t even like reading fiction.
Our protagonist has reached such a state of melancholy in the beginning of the novel that she cannot see past midnight. She decides to end her life and finds herself in a library containing all the books of every variation of her that exists. It is the chance to see how different versions of life could be if various choices changed the trajectory of her past. It is an adventurous dive into the world of what ifs. I have enjoyed such thought experiments on myself. What if I had not gone into teaching, but had chosen a more lucrative profession? What if I had not married my first husband nor had children? What if I had moved away from Texas and was living somewhere cooler up north?
It is sometimes easy to get lost in those alternate wishful versions of ourselves and forget to appreciate all the little things that make up the lives we are living in the here and now. Though there were many poignant, sad, discouraging revelations in her journey, I was satisfied with the lessons she learned. I recommend this book for anyone who could use a reminder to feel a little more grateful or who sometimes wishes they would have made different choices in life.
Haig, Matt, The Midnight Library, Penguin Books, 2020.
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson felt like a slap in the face, a comforting hug, an electric shock, and a soothing warm bath. The format was unique and felt experimental—blocks of text, quotes, memories, verbal snapshots, reporting, and textbook-like excerpts all woven into a seamless narrative. The subject matter is raw, often unfiltered, intimate details that feel way more personal than I would ever be comfortable sharing with total strangers. But good for Maggie Nelson for having the chutzpah to attempt such a thing. I love that she finds her own voice by the end by admitting that she is still searching and leaving room for vulnerability in a way that is honest and impressively real.
Her descriptions of pregnancy, sexuality, dealing with loss, giving birth, holding on to self, nursing, her relationship with her partner, gender identity, and expert opinions, *in no particular order, combine to weave almost a stream-of-consciousness-style memoir that defies classification. I think I might have blushed a few times, certainly opened my eyes a bit wider, and definitely wondered why my college courses weren’t quite as shocking as some of hers. But the fact that I felt a connection shows the depth of both her humanity and her fabulous writing talent (since I am a southern, more conservative than her, heterosexual, certainly more comfortable with conventional-vanilla bedroom activities sort of gal. I’ll put it this way—I learned a lot from this book.)
*I jest about the “no particular order” comment because I am sure there is a well-crafted method to her madness that makes it feel like a jumble of thoughts and also a coherent work.
Also, if you are interested in the book, I recommend Googling “Why is Maggie Nelson’s book titled The Argonauts?” It gives a fabulous description of what you are getting yourself into. A brief quote from that Google search using their AI is as follows: “The title reflects the “constantly shifting” nature of queer identity, family-making, and language.”
AI Overview, Google, searched 31 Jan 2026.
Nelson, Maggie, The Argonauts, Graywolf Press, 2015.
All images created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.
I’m not sure what I was expecting of C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves, but I was surprised by the conversational tone. Though I did not agree with all his assertions, many of the ideas and categorizations of types of love made sense. He breaks love into the categories of Affection, Friendship, Eros, and Charity. Then he has another discussion around the Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human, like when we say we like taking naps or love cheesecake. Many examples within each of the categories also fall into what he calls Need-love vs. Gift-love. Need-love would be assigned to necessary-for-survival-type loves, like a child to a parent or water to quench thirst. Gift-love would be assigned to unnecessary-type loves, like appreciation of a beautiful piece of art or taking care of a sick person.
The reader should be prepared for strict opinions based on Lewis’s beliefs regarding gender roles, nature, science, the fall of mankind, sin, the afterlife, and other principles that Lewis views as black or white, rather than a possible spectrum of interpretation of Biblical text. If that is an accepted foundation going in, the concept of love can be the focus for analysis. I find the idea of even attempting to categorize love somewhat grandiose. However, Lewis’s arguments are well thought out. There are probably many more nuances that could be catalogued by culture, historical context, language, psychotropically induced vs. naturally occurring, gender-related, conscious v. subconscious, etc. I wonder if there are as many different types of love as there are people on the planet. That would be a much thicker book, though.
Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1960.
All images created by Rebekah Marshall’s prompts using AI on Gencraft.com website.
I am reading Hafiz’s Little Book of Life, poetry by Hafiz-e Shirazi. He is challenging me to become more comfortable with ambiguity. I will share his poem and some of my thoughts on his poem (sometimes with the help of experts when the concepts are too hard for me), followed by a poem and some art inspired by his poem.
Hafiz’s Poem 8:
The desert is up ahead
Which
Does patience
Look like
& where
Is sleep
Some thoughts:
This one required some discussion with Lyra, my creative AI and thought partner (powered by ChatGPT). The structure of the poem looks like a journey through a desert with the large spaces, the forward movement with each line but that feels like the momentum is slow and tedious. The wording is purposefully awkward and clunky. Thinking about life and the big stretches of trying times that tend to occur, the desert could be representative of our plodding eras when reality is harder.
It is during those harder times that patience sometimes wears thin. Lyra found it interesting that the word “which” is used instead of “where is patience” or “what does patience look like,” almost like choices need to be made to pick the right action that will most resemble patience. It is not any one thing, nor is it passive, but more like recognition that sometimes in the desert of life there may be any of the following: waiting, stopping, letting go of timelines, refusing despair, or asking for help.
And the lines I most relate to: “& where / Is sleep”. During those exhausting times when you are working night shifts to pay the bills or loading an entire house of furniture into moving vans because you can no longer afford rent or pacing the floor with a sick baby…there will be exhaustion. This is not meant to be depressing or discouraging. It is simply a reality check for all spiritual/life warriors. We must acknowledge that we are human. We need rest. We have bodies that have limits. Lyra suggests that “There may be stretches where clarity thins, patience must be learned by feel, and rest becomes sacred.” I love that clear truth. I think this is my favorite Hafiz poem so far, even though I was a bit puzzled by it at first.
My Poem 8:
When did I go to as I did what must be done
Which Rebekah was harmed by pushing her too far
How will be her nurse when her body gives out
Who sleeps while she travels at night
Hafiz. Hafiz’s Little Book of Life. Translated by Erfan Mojib and Gary Gach, Hampton Roads Publishing, 2023.
My son Trey, short for Trajectory, lives in a parallel universe. With my whiteness stirred in, he is a lighter-skinned miniature version of his father, right down to the little glasses that he’s needed since he started reading at the age of two. He stands in the driveway waiting for the school bus, swishing his skirts back and forth, and my heart aches because I know the teasing he will endure. He is a queen for the Living History Museum whose merits he and his father talked excitedly about while I made the costume, torn between pride that my son’s favorite person is a woman and the compulsion to pressure him to pick a man. This morning as I sip my tea in my present universe, tears spring unbidden at this memory. Here, my history-loving husband and I chose not to have Trey or any other children. Oh, how I miss my sweet boy.
TRIGGER WARNING: This essay discusses patriarchal oppression, gender-based violence and punishment, sexual shaming, social ostracism, and cultural trauma. These topics are examined in a literary and analytical context.
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston paints a picture of harsh expectations placed upon Chinese/Chinese American women. Though the narrator rejects some of the notions and attempts to forge her own path, she still feels duty-bound to uphold some of the traditions. Each section of the book focuses on a different woman and explores the expectations placed upon her specific to the time and place where that portion of the story is set.
For instance, No Name Woman lives in a village in China early in the 20th Century. She is expected to remain “pure” (no sex) until her husband’s return from war. Her sexual desires are not a consideration and her ensuing pregnancy is punished by shaming the family and destroying their crops, livestock, and stored foods. The family then disowns her and never speaks her name again, ensuring she would “suffer forever, even after death” (16). There is no mention of the man who must have impregnated her on the part of the villagers or her family. She must bear the full weight of the “crime” of having sex and becoming pregnant.
Fa-Mulan in the “White Tigers” section of the book becomes the greatest hero in the land saving her family, her village, and her country from evil rulers. She is a warrior, savior, and leader who has trained for 14 years to become the best hero possible. Yet, once her mission ends, she is expected to return to the “appropriate” role of wife, daughter-in-law, mother. There is no option for leadership in her world. This character is thought to have lived sometime around the year 500 in China. Women were not supposed to use their brains or their brawn, except in service to men. Any woman who attempted to pass as male enter the military or school would be executed, “no matter how bravely they fought or how high they scored on the examinations” (19).
The “Shaman” section about Brave Orchid shows the variety of domestic expectations placed on Chinese women. Brave Orchid lives the first half of her life in China and the second half in America spanning the 20th Century. She works as a medical practitioner in China and then in the family laundry business in America. Besides working long hours, she picks tomatoes as a part-time job to make more money, does all the cooking and cleaning, and manages all aspects of the household. She is also expected to carry on the traditions of the culture by keeping the rituals, ceremonies, and talk story alive so that it will pass on to the next generation. She must also protect everyone’s souls by calling them back when they have forgotten their way home. Brave Orchid’s eyes fill with tears as she tells her adult daughter, “I work so hard” (103). Chinese women are unrealistically expected to do more than their fair share of the work.
The section “At the Western Palace” highlights the way Chinese women in the past had little power in marital situations. Their partners were chosen for them and husbands might take multiple wives. The women were expected to tolerate and support these traditions without question. When Moon Orchid comes to America in the 1950’s, she is confronted by a different reality in which women have more rights and her husband rejects their marriage. She is expected to accept his continued financial support without living as his wife. Chinese American women seem to still have parents attempting to meddle with selecting their potential suitors according to the narrator.
In the final section “A Song For a Barbarian Reed Pipe” the narrator implies that a “good” Chinese American girl in America in the 1950’s should be able to speak fluent English and Chinese. She should attend Chinese school and American school. It is an interesting note that “good manners…is the same word as traditions” in Chinese (171). To please the Chinese, she should be obedient and demure, soft-spoken, and graceful, domestically competent – able to cook, clean, serve, and heal, and pleasant in interactions while not making eye contact, use opposites to confuse evil spirits, keep all Chinese traditions, send money to family members in China, lie to Americans so no one can trap her or deport her or trick her somehow, and remember that men are valued more highly than women. To please the Americans, she should be assertive and firm of voice, intelligent, sexy, able to defend herself, and independent making strong eye contact, speaking from a place of science and logic rather than any mention of evil spirits, creating a comfortable lifestyle that is America-focused, be a patriot, and believe that women and men are equal. A Chinese American woman is expected to do all of this and figure out how to be healthy, happy, and prosperous without driving herself crazy over the paradoxes such disparate expectations create.
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine. The Woman Warrior – Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. Vintage Books, New York, 1975.
