Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

It's been awhile since I have read a Jodi Picoult book. Years, in fact. This one took me by surprise. Jodi usually writes about controversial topics and this book is about a 29 year old woman, Diana, whose boyfriend, Finn, is in his residency at a hospital in New York. They had planned a trip to the Galapagos (where she believes he will propose to her since she accidently discovered the ring he had bought). This is March of 2020. So, as Covid-19 hits New York, Finn tells Diana that he can't go to the Galapagos because he's required to be at the hospital. He tells her to go on her own since it's an unrefundable trip.

The trip doesn't go as planned. Diana loses her luggage and she is stuck indefinitely on the island after it closes its borders. Internet access is sparce, to say the least. Everything is closed down on the island since tourists are not allowed to be there. She doesn't have a lot of money and has no way to get more; she has no place to stay since the hotel shut down; and she doesn't have any food. Oh, and she doesn't speak the language! Her only communication with Finn is the emails he sends her about how difficult it is to be a doctor trying to save the lives of the infected, who mostly die once they need to be on a ventilator. 

An older woman, "Abuela", gives her a place to stay and makes meals for her from time to time. Abuela's son, Gabriel, gives her fruit & vegetables that he grows on his farm. Gabriel's daughter, Beatriz, is a young troubled teen, who Diana befriends. She falls in with this family, which makes her start rethinking her own life and her life decisions. Why is she in the business of selling art rather than making art herself? She loves Finn, but is their relationship as perfect as she thought it was? Does she want to be in New York or would she rather stay in the Galapagos? "I have always believed we are the architects of our own fates - it's why I so carefully planned my career steps and why Finn and I dreamed in tandem about our future. It's is also why I could blame my mother for choosing her career over me - because it was just that: a decision she made. I have never really subscribed to the mantra that things happen for a reason. Until, maybe, now." At one point, Diana thinks, "Finn has always been my anchor. The problem is that anchors don't just keep you from floating away. Sometimes, they drag you down."

I went into this story blind. I had no idea what it was about. Going in blind is the best way to read this book, so I tried to just give a rough overview of the story, which goes much deeper. I will say that the brain is an amazing organ of the human body - and this book really makes you think. So it's more "Jodi Picoult" than you might think when you first start reading.

Wendy's Rating: ****

Out of the Corner by Jennifer Grey

It was refreshing to read a memoir where there was no sexual abuse involved! Certainly Jennifer had other issues while living in the limelight, but I had almost decided to take a break from reading memoirs because of all the rampant abuse. Jennifer talks about her life with a famous father, Joel Grey of Broadway fame (best known for his appearances in Cabaret), and her actress mother, Jo Wilder, who gave up her career to raise her children and support her husband (who seemed incredibly needy of her attention for someone who ended up being gay.) One thing her parents did for her was to make her wait until she was older before becoming an actress. This doesn't mean she was a goody two-shoes until then though! Probably because of the environment she grew up in, she had no qualms about losing her virginity to someone rather random, smoking pot with her father, trying a variety of drugs & alcohol, and being a longtime cigarette smoker.

One thing I admired about her is the confidence she had in herself, her body, and her looks as she was growing up. She liked that she had a unique appearance who didn't look like anyone else. It was her mother who initially encouraged her to get a nose job, which she put off for quite awhile. Obviously, she pretty much rocketed to fame starring in Dirty Dancing, and shortly before that, being Matthew Broderick's grumpy sister in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Ironically, she struggled to find roles after her nose job. She also had some relationships that ended up not being in her best interest, first with Matthew Broderick (I have a totally different opinion of him now!) and then with Johnny Depp. I know they were all young and shooting up to stardom, but Jennifer definitely got sucked into men behaving badly. When she was done with them though, she was done, which was good.

When she got married and finally had a child at 40 years old, she pretty much dropped out of the limelight to raise her daughter. She said that it's too hard to be partially out and partially in of show business with new people keep coming up the ranks - and existing people all still fighting for roles. I was surprised that when she was offered Dirty Dancing, they auditioned quite a few male dancers for the role of Johnny Castle. She absolutely did not want Patrick Swayze because of some issues they had performing together in Red Dawn. Patrick asked to meet with Jennifer privately and pretty much begged her to give him another chance and apologized for his behavior on Red Dawn. Obviously, they chose Patrick Swayze (thank goodness!) and the rest is history. Another interesting thing about starring in Dirty Dancing is that Jennifer Grey only earned $50,000. Having read several memoirs about movie & TV stars now, it's so surprising that so many stars really don't have that much money - or at least consistently so.

Jennifer & Matthew Broderick were in a serious car accident in Ireland towards the end of their relationship. Jennifer suffered whiplash, which caused her to have significant pain for decades after that. She was reluctant to participate in Dancing With the Stars, but eventually did after undergoing surgery. She ended up winning the Mirror Ball trophy, which is pretty impressive, especially since she was 50 years old and still suffering from chronic pain. I thought this was an interesting read and I learned a few things. I have also watched Dirty Dancing again at least 5 times since finishing this book! :)

Wendy's Rating: ****

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

I've said this before, but romance is not my favorite genre by any means. I did enjoy the first book of this trilogy (Part of Your World series) however, so I decided to continue it. The banter between the two main characters, Briana & Jacob, is engaging and I love their senses of humor. Briana is the best friend of Alexis from the first book, Part of Your World. This story evolves around Briana & Jacob pretending they are dating so that Jacob's family won't look at him with pity in their eyes when he attends the wedding of his brother to Jacob's former long-term girlfriend, Amy. On top of his ex-girlfriend marrying his brother, Jacob also experiences severe social anxiety with people he doesn't know, and certainly when he's forced to be around a lot of people at once. Jacob meets Briana after he transfers to the hospital that Briana works at. They are both doctors. Jacob transfers to a new hospital to get away from Amy & his brother Jeremiah, who both work at the hospital Jacob just left. Lots of medical personnel in this book!

Meanwhile, Briana is going through a divorce. Her husband had fallen in love with Briana's friend and they had been carrying on an affair behind her back for the last two years. Briana is devastated by this betrayal. She already had trust issues since her father left when she was a child and her mother had raised her and her brother, Benny, as a single mother. So, her trust of men was pretty much non-existent at this point. She had no plans to ever fall in love or marry someone ever again. She simply wanted "friends with benefits". Another curveball in her life is that her brother was on dialysis and needed a new kidney, but he had a rare blood type and no one in the family or any of their friends tested could donate to him. So his mental health was suffering greatly and he wasn't taking care of himself. Briana had to force him to move in with her so she could take care of him and he could do dialysis at home with her oversight.

Of course we know what happens next because this is a romance novel. Jacob ends up being a perfect match for Benny and altruistically decides to donate one of his kidney's to him. Jacob falls in love with Briana while they are "pretending" to date. Briana falls in love with Jacob too. This is where they lose me for awhile. Briana drives me completely nuts with her ruminations. She is SO incredibly focused on Jacob still being in love with Amy, that she doesn't see all of the signs that he actually loves HER. She goes on and on and on about her love for Jacob while he loves Amy. But THEN, when Jacob FINALLY tells her that he loves her and not Amy, Briana leaves him anyway because she doesn't trust that he will stay with her forever. Good grief. Obviously I knew how it would all end, but reading through Briana's emotional baggage almost sent me over the edge. Maybe this is why I need to limit my books in this genre. 

Wendy's Rating: ****

The Record Keeper by Charles Martin

This is the third book of a series and my favorite book of the series. The ending is not what I would have wanted, but all things considered, it's what had to happen. This story focuses on Bones, his childhood, and his history with his twin brother, Frank. We find out that Bones & Frank were abandoned at birth, but adopted by a loving couple. When their lives are interrupted by death, the boys are sent to live at a Monastery run by priests. They were young children when they arrived at the Monastery. For the next several years they are sexually abused by many priests, kept in dark dungeons, transferred to different sites to be abused by different priests. When they finally escaped their horrible lives, Bones was happy to be free and Frank had kept a record of all the men who had harmed him. At this point, Frank is "The Record Keeper". Franks goal was revenge and retaliation while Bones had a new mission to save others who were victims of sex trafficking. We get to see why Bones chose Murphy to work with him on this mission and how hard he trained Murphy so that Murphy would be able to handle any situation.

Since Murphy nearly died at the end of The Letter Keeper, he wasn't ready to get back to work with Bones. He wanted to stay in Freetown with his wife (Summer) and daughter (Ellie). He wanted to heal, both inside and out. He considered dropping out of Bones' mission altogether. Then Bones shares his story with Murphy and they are back at it. What's different about this story is that Bones & Murphy need to figure out a way to take down Frank and his organization. Frank had become the powerful leader of a worldwide sex trafficking organization. He had the intelligence, the power, the money, and the surveillance equipment to watch every corner of the earth basically. He actually knew what was happening in Freetown and he was always one or more steps ahead of Bones & Murphy. When Frank started attacking Freetown, Murphy & Bones assembled a team of hackers to figure out how Frank had so much control.

The beginning of the end was when Frank took Bones and Murphy couldn't find him. Frank continuously beat and tortured Bones. Bones wouldn't give Frank what he wanted: his birth certificate. Frank wanted to know where he came from. Frank then turned to Murphy, saying he would release Bones after Murphy found his birth certificate. When Murphy finds Bones, he finally understands that it's actually Bones who is "The Record Keeper". The life that Bones chose to live after his own childhood trauma demonstrates that, "From the beginning of time, light has shone into the darkness, and since that first spark, darkness - no matter how hard it tried, no matter what sword it wields or scheme it perpetrates - has not been able to overcome it. Ever." Bones was the light; Frank was the darkness. Bones held the flashlight for all those he had rescued, so they could see beyond the darkness. "Bones kept a record of hope imprinted on his heart."

This book was emotional and heart wrenching. Bones truly walked in the steps of Jesus, following his lead and sharing his message.

Wendy's Rating: *****

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith

This is my favorite detective series of all time and I am super sad that it's winding down. The Hallmarked Man is book 8 out of a series of 10 (from what I understand). Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are my favorite "partners" couple, right behind Mulder & Scully! :)

Strike & Robin meet with a woman (Decima) who wants them to confirm that the unidentified - or misidentified - man found brutally murdered in the safe of a silver shop is her boyfriend and father or her baby. The silver shop specializes in Masonic silver and is located next to a Freemasons' Hall. The murdered man is missing all the parts of a body that could help authorities accurately identify him, which is part of the problem. Decima believes that the man murdered is her boyfriend because he had recently stolen a large piece of silver from her father, which is another story in and of itself. She doesn't believe that he would ever leave her or their child and can only believe that he must be dead. Strike & Robin reluctantly take on her case.

Meanwhile, the detective agency's latest hire, Kim, is causing a stir at the office. She's a player and she has her sights set on Strike. This actually bothers both Strike and Robin, but for different reasons of course. Robin's afraid that Strike will sleep with her and Strike simply finds her annoying. Robin doesn't understand that of course. Then there is Robin's kind, handsome boyfriend, Ryan Murphy, who loves Robin and wants to marry her, but also resents the time and energy that Robin spends with Strike. To add to all of these relationship "issues", Ryan makes a grave error in his own job which sends him spiraling down - which in turn affects Robin who doesn't want to abandon him.

The agency is busy with a variety of cases they are working on. The story is complex with a lot of different people, names, places, events to keep track of. It's not always easy to remember who everyone is and how they are connected. I think I've commented on this before but Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling must have a HUGE storyboard to keep track of everyone when she's writing. The main story is the murder in the silver shop, but that story alone leads Strike & Robin to several different people and groups of people, which in turn leads to several different theories of what really happened and why. Add in their "regular" cases of tracking cheating spouses; exposing the underbelly of the seedier parts of life; relationship issues; lack of upfront communication between Strike & Robin; the reappearance of Strike's past girlfriends, which always cause problems; the lies of the media; Strike's famous father; Robin's family; Robin's relationship with Ryan; and Strike & Robins unending "pining" for each other but not wanting to destroy their friendship; well, it's a lot. And I loved every single minute of it!

Wendy's Rating: *****

Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

This may be the saddest book I have ever read. There are so many tragic events in Virginia's life that at times I simply had to put it down and breathe deeply. This book, and Virginia's life, is the result of early childhood betrayal trauma. Betrayal trauma is when someone that you love and trust, like a parent, violates the trust that they will take care of you. I cannot stop thinking about how Virginia's life could have turned out if she had not been betrayed by her parents. It makes me sick to my stomach. Her father started sexually abusing Virginia in the bathtub by the time she was 6 or 7 years old. (Both ages are mentioned in the book.) Her mother was completely aware of what was going on and she let it happen. They are both disgusting human beings. Her father then "swapped" her with another man's daughter. This "friend" of her fathers continued the sexual abuse. It sickens me. What's even worse, Virginia wanted to try to have a relationship with each of her parents (divorced) long into her adulthood. That's what betrayal trauma does to the brain. It changes the brain chemistry at such an early age that it can't ever be repaired.

It's this early childhood abuse/trauma that led Virginia to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She simply didn't think she deserved better. Epstein and Maxwell started sexually abusing Virginia at their first "massage" when she was a young teenager. They used her body; sold it; abused it; encouraged other men to use it and abuse it; while telling her how special she was. She was Epstein's "special girl" and Ghislaine was the "mother figure" in her life. All Virginia wanted is to be safe and loved. She wanted to be protected and feel like she had a place in this world. They gave her that, in her traumatized mind.

Now let's make Virginia's life even worse after she finally feels empowered enough (after years of therapy) to report what happened to her. She put herself out there to try to take down very powerful men and women so that they couldn't continue to harm the innocent. She was raked over the coals by lawyers, the media, and Epstein supporters. It's appalling. She was called a liar, a gold digger, an attention-seeker. What is WRONG with people. 

Finally, the "cherry on top" of this tragic life: her husband physically abused her. In the book, she talked about him like he was her hero. She couldn't say enough about how wonderful he was; what a great, supportive husband; what a wonderful father. This is the final proof that childhood betrayal trauma lasts a lifetime. She simply could not admit that after everything she had lived through; everything that she had suffered through; she was still an abused woman who believed that she didn't deserve more. Dead by suicide at age 41.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre: You. Deserved. More.

Wendy's Rating: *****

A Hymn to Life by Gisele Pelicot

The book is astounding in how disturbing it is. Gisele Pelicot is shockingly honest and bold when she talks about her upbringing and her life/marriage with her husband of 50 years, Dominique. I had heard about her court case of course, since it made the world news, but her personal narrative makes her final statement all the more powerful.

Gisele's wonderful, kind mother died young. Her father, who was also very supportive and kind, remarried a woman who was anything but. It definitely makes me wonder who Gisele would have been had her mother not died, or if her father had not remarried, or if he had remarried someone as kind as him. It would have changed the trajectory of her life - and her sights would not have fallen to Dominique.

Dominique had an awful childhood full of abuse: sexual (including the idea that incest was "normal"), physical, and emotional. When Gisele & Dominique meet each other and connect on a deeply personal level, she feels like the connection between them will allow them to escape their horrible pasts. And maybe they did for awhile. Dominique certainly must have loved his family (Gisele and their three children and eventually grandchildren) enough for them all to feel his love of them so deeply. No one who grows up in a loving household with two attentive parents would ever think of something so degrading and horrible as Dominique's depraved actions bubbling up beneath the surface. In hindsight of course, Gisele had signs along the way that Dominique's sexual preferences were changing. But nothing prepared her for the true horror of her life.

Gisele was deeply worried about her own health for a number of years, and that seemed to be her focus. She was experiencing blackouts, memory loss, dental issues, and other health issues. She thought she was dying at times, but no doctor she visited could identify what was going on with her. Why would she ever think that her husband of 40-50 years would be drugging her, and for what purpose? When she gets that life shattering phone call from the police department - the one that tears apart her life and the life of her adult children - she is stunned. The man she loved so deeply; the man that she shared her life with for 50 years; was a deeply disturbed sexual predator, rapist, and suspected murderer. Dominique had been drugging her for over 10 years so that her lifeless body could be raped repeatedly over 200 times by Dominique himself and the strange men that he brought into their home.

Gisele has to process her happy memories with Dominique and see how they fit into the monster she finds out that he is. Her emotional evolution is remarkable. In the four years since that original phone call, she becomes a strong, brave advocate for women against sexual violence. She forces herself to look at the photos and videos of her being raped vaginally and orally and being brutally sodomized; she sits in court every day during her four month trial and listens to over 50 rapists try to "prove" that she was a willing participant; she fights back against the idea that she "knew" what was happening to her; she fights for her daughter's sanity (who believes that she was also raped by her father when pictures turn up of her sleeping soundly in her bed, although he adamantly denied that he did anything to his children & grandchildren). The depravity of some human beings sickens me to no end.

I hope Gisele finds her happy ending. She deserves it.

Wendy's Rating: ****