Book Review: A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey

March 21, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 6 Comments

A Very Typical Family
by
Sierra Godfrey

I was looking for something quick and light to read and picked A Very Typical Family on a whim. I must admit, I liked the colorful cover! Superficial, I know. But I also love to read books that revolve around houses, especially old ones. This one fit the bill.

The story begins when Natalie Walker, who works for an architecture firm in Boston, receives a letter notifying her of an inheritance after her mother’s death. But she and her two estranged siblings can only take ownership of their childhood home in California, if they come together in Santa Cruz. Natalie has not spoken to Jake and Lynn in fifteen years. They can’t forgive her for what she did the night of the house party when their mom was away. Even her mother stopped talking to her. Can the three siblings work out their problems before the historic home is lost?

Both Natalie and Lynn show up, but Jake is nowhere to be found. Despite the chill between the sisters, it seems as if Lynn is open to working things out and they both want to find Jake. In addition to their estrangement, the sisters have major problems of their own. Natalie’s boyfriend, Paul has their lives planned out, but she’s not sure that’s what she wants, and he’s putting on the pressure. She also has a big problem at work. Lynn, who arrives with a teenage son, is very secretive about her life in New York and her temper flares when Natalie pushes to know more.

Despite the title, the premise of the book doesn’t seem very typical because the events that lead to their estrangement, and the years after the party, as well as other details are extreme. But what does seem typical to me is that their relationships follow the patterns of many family conflicts. I think the author does a good job showing the dynamics between Natalie and Lynn and how they need each other, especially to find Jake. As situations come up, we see how their typical sibling behaviors show realistic degrees of rivalry and power plays, but most importantly, love.

This is not a heavy book and I was glad to take a break from darker reads. Its uplifting resolution shows how even the most complicated relationship problems can be resolved. I recommend A Very Typical Family to readers who like stories about families and conflict.

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Book Review: Heartwood by Amity Gaige

March 20, 2026March 21, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 15 Comments

Heartwood
by
Amity Gaige

A few years ago, I discovered the author Amity Gage when I randomly selected Sea Wife from my library’s bookshelf, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Published in 2021, it was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. I’d describe Sea Wife as suspenseful literary fiction that looks at the complexities of marriage and parenthood (read my review here).

A few weeks ago, my book club friend recommended Heartwood (thanks S!). I didn’t make the connection right away, but when I realized it was the same author, I knew I was in for a good book.

Heartwood is about the search and rescue efforts in of a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail in Maine. The author combines the genres of a suspenseful police investigation with an in-depth look at marriage and family relationships and the story features several female characters who must face unresolved problems with their own mothers. Gage also explores the complex subjects of mental illness, substance abuse, suicide, gender discrimination, and racism, making Heartwood the kind of layered book I like!

Hiker Valerie Gillis, a nurse, is nearing the finish in Maine, but the last stretch goes through extremely difficult and dense terrain. State game warden Lieutenant Bev Miller is in charge of the search. She’s a veteran at missing hiker searches, with a high success rate. While her team of both park employees and volunteers comb the area, Bev and her assistants interview those close to Valerie, including her husband, Greg who has been following and meeting up with Valerie with supplies, and Valerie’s hiking friend, Santo. Meanwhile, Lena, a resident of an assisted-living community in another state, learns of the lost hiker and thinks it might be her estranged daughter. Now emotionally invested in the story, she follows the search closely. Lena, who is an expert forager, has an online forager friend named Terrible Silence and he, too, is interested in the story.

As the days pass, Bev and her team develop theories and suspicions and refuse to give up, despite the decreasing chances that Valerie could have survived an extended length of time. The author also includes Valerie’s journal entries, giving us a rounded-out understanding of what may be happening.

We also learn about the hiking community and the relationships that develop along the way, as well as the idea that many hikers are out there to work out personal problems, finding the solitude of nature and the camaraderie among hikers healing.

New discoveries and developments bring the story to a suspenseful finish at the same time as the characters face their own family crises. I tore through this book, both because of the suspense and the in-depth characters. I recommend Heartwood to readers who like literary thrillers like The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.

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Book Review: The Witch Elm by Tana French

March 19, 2026March 19, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 17 Comments

The Witch Elm
by
Tana French

I’ve read and liked three other books by Tana French, so I knew I would enjoy another one. Many of French’s books are from two series: the Dublin Murder Squad and the Cal Hooper books, but The Witch Elm is a standalone psychological crime novel set in Dublin. In this story, the effects of post traumatic stress disorder influence the main character’s ability to remember key events relating to a murder.

In his late twenties, Toby Hennessy had enjoyed a life of wealth, privilege, and luck and his friends liked to point that out. He had a great PR job at an art gallery and a girlfriend he hoped to marry. Even when he got caught up in an art scandal, he managed to talk his boss out of firing him. But Toby’s luck is about to change. When he discovers two men in his apartment, they brutally beat him and leave him for dead. Now he’s dealing with the aftermath of brain injury, including memory loss, a language disorder, and other physical weaknesses.

Out of the hospital, but still unsteady, Toby and his girlfriend, Melissa move in with his uncle, Hugo, who has terminal brain cancer. The Ivy House, in the family for generations, and a place where Toby and his cousins, Leon and Susanna spent summers while their parents traveled, continues to be a family gathering place. What Toby hoped would be a period of recovery and reconnection with Hugo during his uncle’s final months becomes a criminal investigation when a young family member unearths a human skull in the yard.

Detectives quickly identify the victim and, as they investigate, they delve into Toby and his cousins’ high school years. They uncover conflicting versions of the past, depending on who they ask. It doesn’t help that Toby has memory issues, and he thinks Leon and Susanna are holding back information. Soon Toby becomes a prime suspect, even to himself.

The mystery is what really happened to the victim and who is responsible. Along with Toby and the detectives, we untangle events and relationships from ten years earlier. While Toby insists these were happy times for him and his friends, his cousins tell a different story, underscoring Toby’s lucky life, but also showing how he has never understood how other people feel. The author takes us through a complex series of events that show who murdered the victim and why. The final chapters end in a shocking conclusion making you see the full effects of Toby’s PTSD.

I enjoyed this book, but at 526 pages, I thought it was overly long. But as with many books after I’ve had a chance to think about them, I thought Toby’s dilemma was original and interesting and that the author showed how peoples’ perspectives are different.

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Check out my reviews of these other books by Tana French:

The Likeness
The Searcher
In the Woods

Book Review: We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

March 12, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 27 Comments

We Begin at the End
by
Chris Whitaker

Once I read All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (read my review here), I knew I wanted to read another book by the author, so I selected We Begin at the End, a terrific story about complex characters who must navigate the challenges of love, family, grief, trauma, and moral decisions.

Set in the coastal town of Cape Haven, California, the story begins when Vincent King is released from prison, after serving time for the hit-and-run death of young Sissy Radley, his girlfriend, Star’s little sister.

Vincent was only fifteen when he went to prison, and he served additional time for a prison fight that ended in the death of another inmate. He has spent his life hating himself for what he did. Now in his forties, he returns to Cape Haven hoping to make a life for himself. Vincent has few friends, but his childhood friend Francis Walker (Walk) has stood by him. But Walk is now the chief of police and will soon face conflicting feelings about loyalty and the law.

A central character in the story is thirteen-year-old Duchess Radley, Star’s daughter, who calls herself an outlaw. She seems to live up the characterization, but as the story develops, we see a vulnerable child underneath, doing her best to act like she doesn’t need anyone. She takes care of her little brother, Robin and covers up for their mother, Star, whose alcohol addiction, job as a stripper, and string of boyfriends provide zero stability.

Whitaker tells the story through both Walk and Duchess, offering insight into two people whose unique impressions and feelings show how one situation or problem looks different to every person involved.

The author places his characters against the backdrop of the ever-changing town of Cape Haven, whose eroding coastline and economic downturn have created new pressures for the community. And when tragedy strikes, each must try to untangle the events to make it through. The story later moves to the wide expanse of Montana, where we hope for good things.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the idea that no one fully understands another person or a situation, how people make a lot of assumptions about who people are, only to discover how different they are beneath the surface. That sounds depressing, but I found it enlightening!

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TV Series Review: My Brilliant Friend Season 1

March 9, 2026March 12, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 20 Comments

After reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, I checked out Season 1 of the HBO series. Created by Saverio Costanzo, the coming-of-age series is based on the author’s four Neapolitan novels and stars, Gaia Girace, Margherita Mazzucco, Alba Rohrwacher, and Irene Maiorino. The show is in Italian with English subtitles.

The show begins during the 1950s in an impoverished neighborhood of Naples. Season 1 closely follows the first book and depicts the lives of two friends, Elena and Lina, first as childhood playmates and later as teenagers and young women.

Lina’s genius and their close relationship, as the title suggests, is one of main subjects of the story, especially as the friendship changes. A key turning point occurs when Lina leaves school to work at the family shoe repair business. Elena and her teacher convince Elena’s parents to let her continue her studies and this becomes a source of tension between the friends. In addition, they must navigate generations-long feuds between families in the neighborhood, causing complex conflicts and alliances. The season concludes when Lina marries a man with ties to organized crime and we’re left wondering if the marriage will last.

I enjoyed seeing the book brought to life and thought the portrayal was excellent. I liked being able to see what the neighborhood and living conditions were like. I would describe the style of the series as slow-moving, but engrossing. There are also moments of violence, cruelty, and abuse that make it clear how difficult life was in the neighborhood. People were used to tragedy and loss and violence was part of their lives. A New Year’s Eve scene full of chaotic fireworks was particularly dramatic, emphasizing the fierce divides between the neighborhood.

I was sorry to see the season end and hope to watch the rest of the series. Do I read the next books first? I haven’t decided!

Click here to read my review of the book My Brilliant Friend.

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Catching up

March 9, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 26 Comments

Today I decided to catch up on reviews of a couple of books I’ve read (plus a show I watched) and when I looked through my notes, I discovered that it’s more than just a couple books: I have read six books since my last review! I need to break the habit of moving right into a new book before posting a review because now I’m faced with having to remember what I read.

I take good notes so I’ll be able to catch up, but it’s not going to happen in a day!

This post is just a check-in so you know I’m still out there and to tell you what’s coming up soon:

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
The Best Lies by David Ellis
The Witch Elm by Tana French
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Heartwood by Amity Gage
A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey

Thank you all for your patience while I work on a better schedule for reading blogs and writing posts. And even though I have a new book in the queue, I’m going to force myself to post these before I start!

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What’s That Movie? Youngblood Hawke

February 24, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 11 Comments

I finally got around to watching the movie Youngblood Hawke! You would think I’d watched it a long time ago, since the book is my all-time favorite book, but after a snafu in the nineties when we tried to record it on our VCR (haha!), life got busy and I forgot about it. I wasn’t sure it was even going to be good. But I was wrong: it was very good!

The 1964 drama film, directed by Delmer Daves, starring James Franciscus, Suzanne Pleshette, and Geneviève Page, and written by Daves and Herman Wouk, tells the story of Youngblood Hawke, a truck driver from the Kentucky coal mines who writes a novel and makes it big in New York. Wouk’s novel is loosely based on author Thomas Wolfe, an American novelist and short story writer.

Soon after Hawke arrives in New York, everyone wants a piece of him. He’s in love with his editor, Jeanne Green, but he can’t resist the lure of Frieda Winter, an attractive older married woman, who is eager to set him up in the Plaza and manage his affairs. The movie also features Hawke’s mother, played by Mildred Dunnock, who is obsessed with a lawsuit about mining rights, convinced she was bilked out of a huge sum of money by her dead husband’s unfriendly relatives.

The whole time we were watching it, actors with familiar faces kept appearing, including Mark Miller, the dad from the TV show Please Don’t Eat the Daisies and Werner Klempererfrom Hogan’s Heroes!

I only knew Suzanne Pleshette from The Bob Newhart Show and thought she was very good in her role as Hawke’s editor. As Jeanne, a woman who worked her way up in the publishing world and didn’t have a lot of money, she was a great contrast to her rival, Frieda, who came from money and lived a luxurious life.

The movie follows the main events of the book most of the time, but its Hollywood ending was different. I was a little disappointed by that, but it makes sense now that I’ve thought about it.

If you’re into old black-and-white movies, I recommend you try it out!

And if you want to read more about the book, check out my review here.

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Ten books I’m waiting to read

February 23, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 22 Comments

Today is a snow day where I live and what better thing to do than spend the morning browsing the library catalog for books I want to read. Now I have 10 on hold and will need to juggle them as they become available!

I’m particularly interested in reading these:

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan because I love World War II historical fiction
A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst because I can’t get enough of the boats-in-a-storm books
Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk because I read it a long time ago, loved it, and want to read it again
The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware because I liked The Woman in Cabin 10 and I think her books are a cut above the typical thriller.

Here’s my future haul: All descriptions are from Goodreads.

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff: One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. A Texas family is met with losses and surprises of inheritance, but they’re unable to shake the pull back toward each other in this big-hearted family saga

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan: In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift: She is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those they’ve lost. Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving on a Navy cargo ship, out of harm’s way—until a telegram suggests that the unthinkable might have happened.

Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams: From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition—and the dark truth of what happens deep underground.

The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill: In this debut, three adult sisters grapple with a shared tragedy over a Thanksgiving weekend spent in their childhood home, navigating complex relationships and old tensions.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave: Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother. My coworker recommended this and the next one. And since I enjoyed The Night We Lost Him (read my review here), they made it to my list!

The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave: Five years after her husband Owen disappeared, Hannah and her stepdaughter Bailey have settled into a new life in Southern California. Together they’ve forged a relationship with Bailey’s grandfather Nicholas, and are putting the past behind them. But when Owen shows up at Hannah’s new exhibition, Hannah knows that she and Bailey are in danger.

Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk: Marjorie Morningstar is a love story. It presents one of the greatest characters in modern Marjorie, the pretty 17-year-old who left the respectability of New York’s Central Park West to join the theater, live in the teeming streets of Greenwich Village, and seek love in the arms of a brilliant, enigmatic writer. You know this is by the author of my #1 favorite book, Youngblood Hawke, right? Check out my review here.

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst: The electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits.

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins: St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984. I liked another of her books, The Heiress and you can read my review here.

The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware: In this follow-up to the multi-million copy mega-hit The Woman in Cabin 10 from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware, Lo Blacklock returns to attend the opening of a luxury hotel, only to find herself in a white-knuckled race across Europe.

I’ve also read these books by Ruth Ware. Click on the links to read my reviews:

The It Girl
One by One
The Turn of the Key
The Woman in Cabin 10

While I’m waiting all these books, I won’t be idle because I have plenty of others waiting for me!

What’s up next on your reading list? Leave a comment!

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How well read are you? Take this quiz and find out!

February 20, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 39 Comments

Every year I take this quiz, but I’ve lost the record of my scores. I think I did a little better this year, but I’d have to dedicate the rest of my life to read them all. There are some books on this list I would never read, but I suppose if I did, that would make me a more well-rounded reader.

Want to see your rating? Take this quiz and feel free to leave a comment!

https://www.listchallenges.com/if-youve-read-10-of-these-books-youre-very

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Blog views and other obsessions: a bot scraped my website!

February 18, 2026 ~ Book Club Mom ~ 73 Comments

Last week I noticed an increase in views on my blog. At first, because the increase was nice, but not outrageous, I thought, “That’s great!” But as the days went on, my stats weren’t just booming. They had broken into the stratosphere! As much as I wanted to believe that tens of thousands of people were enjoying my posts every day, it seemed unlikely.

What was happening? I have the free version, so my stat insights are limited, but my first clue was that the number of referrers was way out of sync with the number of views. In addition, there were no likes or comments. I jumped on the WordPress chatbot (I know, ironic, right?) and figured out that the traffic was caused by aggressive scraping bots, programs copying blog content for AI training, spam sites, content farms, and SEO data mining.

I did more digging. There’s not much you can do except wait it out. My research tells me that sooner or later, most websites will experience scraping. And no one is trying to log in to my account. I have no spam. I have received no security alerts. My site isn’t slow loading and the traffic is focused on hundreds of posts, not just one. Those are the warning signs.

The storm is over. I’m back to my regular views. Phew!

Has anyone else experienced a huge uptick in stats? Give me a like or leave a comment to show me you’re human!

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