Sunday Salon: Three Book Reviews

 Books read and reviewed:

The Lincoln Highway 

Author: Amor Towles, October 2021, Viking 

Emmett, 18, and his eight year old brother Billie plan an epic trip from Nebraska to California, by car, to find their mother who had abandoned them years ago. They are joined by two other teens, runaways from a juvenile detention center, who want to go to New York before the Emmett and Billie take their car to California.

The journey becomes convoluted and much longer than expected, as Duchess and Wooley, the two runaway boys, make demands and have unfinished business in NY, unintentionally forcing Emmett and Billie to go along with their plans.

The themes are settling of accounts, for the boys, to give and to take, and the book takes the reader on a long, roundabout journey, along the roads as well as into the minds and hearts of the boys. A slow journey, literally and figuratively, but the book is well worth reading and savoring along the way.

The Caretakers by Amanda Bestor-Siegal, April 12, 2022, William Morrow

Genre: contemporary fiction, women's fiction, YA. Source NetGalley

The novel gives an in depth look at several international aupairs/ caretakers and their French host families. The book focuses on three American girls, their family backgrounds, their sometimes harrowing experiences in the French homes they are assigned to, and where they land up after their time looking after children is over.

Caretakers may or may not be fully suited for the job, and the host families may or may not be suited to have an au pair in their home. The book pointed out to me the situations that could occur - unsuitable caregivers and/or unsuitable host families or even dysfunctional families. The novel covers all of these, including a few normal families, with an excellent plot.

One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner, January 18, 2022, Dutton

Genre: thriller, adventure set in Wyoming

Frankie Elkin spends her life finding the lost and missing, successfully finding at least 16 so far. 

In One Step Too Far, she travels to the wild and rugged Popo Agie Wilderness, Shoshone National Park, to help search for Tim O'Day, a young man who disappeared on a camping trip five years ago. The trek was with three of his best friends, groomsmen for his upcoming wedding who later emerged from the wilderness, distraught over losing Tim on the trip.

Frankie joins the search party five years later, one organized yearly by Tim's persistent father, but this year's search turns out to be even more perilous and dangerous than the one that lost Tim. 

The party includes a cadaver dog and his female handler; three of the surviving four groomsmen; a seasoned outdoorsman; a Big Foot enthusiast and tracker, and Frankie, all led by Tim's father. 

This is a thriller with an excellent plot with equally excellent descriptions and dramatic action that gives you a feel of the Popo Agie, its challenges as well as its beauty and perils.

 

Currently reading:

Psychological suspense

 

Thriller set in Alaska

What are you reading this week? 

Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also,  It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Mailbox Monday, and Sunday Salon, Stacking the Shelves