Book Review | Book Chatter

The Music Shop
By Rachel Joyce
Random House, 9780812996685, January 2018, 320pp.

The Short of It:

If you like sweet, quirky characters and have an appreciation for music, you’ll love this story.

The Rest of It:

Frank owns a music shop and stocks only vinyl, which causes him a great deal of trouble when the vendors refuse to keep him stocked unless he agrees to also carry CDs. But Frank is not just a record seller, he knows exactly what you need to hear and when you need to hear it. His music “prescriptions” have made him a well-loved member of the community but his inability to move with the times threatens to ruin everything he has. One day, a strange, beautiful woman faints right outside his shop and his safe, predictable life is turned upside down.

I really enjoyed The Music Shop. It has a fabulous cast of characters. Do you remember the movie Notting Hill? Well, this story has a very similar group of characters who are really more of a family to Frank that just fellow business owners. They are quirky and lovable and well-meaning. Delightful, really.

As Frank learns more about Ilse, the woman who faints outside his shop, we also learn about Frank’s relationship with his mother and how he came to love music so much. As I was reading this story I compiled a Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned, only to find out that the publisher already did it for me!

This story is sweet and funny and a real feel-good book. If you enjoyed her other book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, you will not be disappointed with this one.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher via Library Thing.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Future Home of the Living God
By Louise Erdrich
Harper, 9780062694058, November 2017, 288pp.

The Short of It:

This book is the perfect example of why you sometimes need to give a book a little more than fifty pages to work its magic.

The Rest of It:

The story opens with the world going to hell in a handbasket but it’s ever so subtle. Parts of the world are okay but some parts have discovered a problem with how babies are developing in the womb. Although the markets still have food available and many seem to notice little in the way of change, there is an uncomfortable need to grab what you can and go.

Cedar, watching all of this unfold on the news is in a delicate situation. She’s pregnant and she’s beginning to realize that pregnant woman are being taken in for “examination” and it’s during this point in the story that I suddenly realized that some of the babies in question have reverted to their original state of primate. Erdrich never once comes out and says it but in between the lines, you know what’s going on.

The story revolves around Cedar, her birth mother and her adopted mother and how all three of them play a role in her survival. As the government closes in, they are forced to hide in order to protect the baby and in doing so, become part of a larger movement to save these women and their babies.

This was a suspenseful read with some interesting supporting characters. Once the story got going, I had a really hard time putting the book down. I HAD to know how it all turned out and anytime someone steps in to control a woman’s body, you can bet that there’s plenty of content to discuss.

If you’ve read Erdrich before you’ll recognize her style right away but this book will also remind you of The Handmaid’s Tale and Brave New World.

This would make an excellent book club read.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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