Book List: The Boy by Tami Hoag

In Book List, ordinary reader Linda McDonald, shares book reviews of her latest reads. She has read her entire life and is a writer, who wishes now she’d kept a list all her life of the books she’s read.

I’ve read Tami Hoag’s books for years, although it had been a while since the last one. As I hurried into the library a week or so ago to pick up a book on hold, The Boy, was marked as a “Lucky Day Book.” Something our library does with newer or popular books. You’re in luck – here’s one you can check out, but you cannot renew it. They still gave me three weeks to ready … which I did not need because this is such a ‘page turner’!

Spoiler alert: Hoag knows how to weave a story, and this one has several subplots. It is fiction but still a sad story because it involves children. The outcomes aren’t good for several of them.

The story is set in a small Louisiana parish and of course she included the requisite corruption. In this story, rather than elected officials, it’s a couple of law enforcement officers who go rogue. The hero and heroine of the book, however, are good, trustworthy law enforcement officers, which pleased me.

Hoag also showcases the impeccable manners of a true Southern belle. Louisiana is as deep south as anywhere, and her depiction is accurate. The only thing missing was the sugar-wrapped, insincere, “Bless her/his little heart.”

One of my favorite parts was the brief glossary of French expressions and words that Cajuns apparently still use down in the bayou. French is a beautiful language that makes even swear words glamorous. Blend it with a good ol’ Louisiana boy’s Cajun dialect and you can feel the Gulf’s humidity as you read.

It’s long, nearly 480 pages, but an easy read. Purely entertainment. If you seek literature, this isn’t the book for you. A good book for a vacation or summer weekend by a lake or pool, this is the one for you.

Book Details

Book:	The Boy
Author:	Tami Hoag
Published:	2018
Publisher:	Dutton, and imprint of Penguin Random House
ISBN:	ISBN: 9781101985397
Read:	June 2019

 

Book List: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

In Book List, ordinary reader Linda McDonald, shares book reviews of her latest reads. She has read her entire life and is a writer, who wishes now she’d kept a list all her life of the books she’s read.

It may be that I just don’t get this book. I know it’s all the buzz now, thanks in part to the Hulu TV series that I haven’t yet seen. I thought I followed and understood the book’s premise, but the ending threw me. I didn’t care for the ending, which of course then spoiled the entire book for me. I found it a bit slow to get into in the beginning, which may prevent some people from reading on.

Somewhat on the heels of my read of “VOX,” (which I’ll review soon), this one scared me, too. We have heard about the abortion rights protests where women dressed in the Handmaid’s garb. This story, like “VOX,” almost foreshadows today’s political happenings related to women’s rights. The frightening aspect to me of each book was the parallel I saw between these works of fiction and how the fiction could become reality for women in the US if we don’t rein in these moronic men (mostly) who continue to legislate away women’s rights.

Alas, I digress; however, that perspective is what kept me in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” It is told in the voice of one Handmaid, Offred – as in Of Fred, the Commander with whom she’s been paired to produce a baby for him and his wife. As Atwood writes, the Commanders f**k the Handmaids. It is supposed to be mechanical and meant only to procreate after some disastrous acts that aren’t ever outlined, nearly wiped out women. At least as I understood it.

Offred remembers the way it used to be, which other girls soon won’t. She longs for love with her paramour from the past and their daughter. Soon she discovers that these men, the Commanders, who led the way to build this lunacy, miss the old ways, too. They miss the ‘ladies of the night,’ conversations and time with women, women who adorn themselves in alluring attire and make up. All now outlawed, yet, Offred’s Commander shows her – lets her experience – that it all still exists. None of that screams ‘women’s rights’ either.

No spoiler alerts so I won’t opine about what happened in the end. My interpretation could be quite wrong and far from what Atwood intended. Nonetheless, I was disappointed.

She has gained much acclaim and it is not my place to diminish that. According to Wikipedia and Amazon, Atwood’s sequel novel, The Testaments, will be out Sept. 19, 2019. I suppose I will need to read it to see if puzzle pieces fall in place for me.

Not a book club person, nor really interested in one, I believe this would be a stimulating book to read and discuss in a religion/philosophy/literature/all the above class. Both it and “VOX” have clobbered me on the head to turn my attention to what’s happening around me in the US. The two stories are extreme, I hope and pray, yet we must not sit back and let a small group of egotistical, hypocritical prigs send women’s rights backward by a century or more.

Book Details

Book:	The Handmaid’s Tale
Author:	Margaret Atwood
Published:	1986
Publisher:	McClelland & Stewart
ISBN:	ISBN-10: 038549081X; ISBN-13: 978-0385490818
Read:	June 2019

#handmaidstale

#margaretatwood

#offred

#womensrights