Reading | Book Chatter

Sunday Matters, a latte on a wooden tray against greenery.

Hey there, friends. Wow. Hospitalizations, multiple times, work challenges and a heavier time-sensitive work load, mean that I’ve had a hard time managing this space and reading.

Although the reading has started to turn around. It’s weird how when you are really sick you cannot read. I mean, I spent hours in a hospital room and all I could do was stare at the wall or watch South Park. Seriously.

Right Now:

As you are reading this, I am preparing to head out the door to be with my students and leaders at church. That new format, three services back to back makes the day fly by. Post church naps have become a must.

This Week:

We are headed into the second week of classes at the university. It’s different this time around. Warnings involving ICE and preparations in place to deal with them should they approach anyone on campus. We are living in a police state. Straight-up 1984.

As of this writing, Garcia was kidnapped again. Again. While a certain someone gets away with everything. Absolutely no consequences. I don’t often mix politics with this space but it’s impossible to ignore.

In other news. My daughter returned to stay with us for a bit. After that shoot she did, she’s had to turn down some jobs because they wouldn’t pay for travel. She still needs her equity card so getting roles that require travel become costly, fast.

This Tuesday she heads to NYC for three weeks to find an apartment and to audition for a few shows. Then she will return to us only to leave again. Her cat Jinx is just started to come around. She’s feisty! And she will be leaving soon.

Here she is. She’s watching me work. Sweet, right? Then she will launch herself and attack me!! My daughter says she’s playing. Ha! She is very sweet and gentle with the senior Otter Pup, though. Follows her around to make sure she gets to where she wants to go.

Jinx, tabby cat hanging on the stairs.

My son got a new job working for the City of Bellevue!! This is what we’ve been praying for. It’s double what he was making and although he misses the kids at The Boys and Girls Club, this city beautification job is what he does with his non-profit so it’s really what he wants to focus on.

Reading:

Ok. Reading. All sorts of good stuff. I recently reviewed Finding Grace. Read it. What a sucker-punch of a read that was.

Still reading Infinite Jest. I’m ready to be done with it. It’s very weird but it’s over 1000 pages. Slow going.

Just finished The Wasp Trap. Review coming this week. Comes out 9/16.

Just started Havoc for September book club.

I received Ian McEwan’s new one, What We Can Know. Comes out 9/23.

Watching:

This absolutely stupid show for laughs, My Strange Arrest.

Grateful for:

You know, I thought my kidney failure and blockage came out of nowhere but now that I am where I am today, I see that it was a long time coming. I had been feeling pretty miserable for weeks. Swollen ankle, pain in side. It wasn’t until I got that high fever that I went in. Sepsis is a real B.

Here’s what I am grateful for besides the obvious. When I had my brain surgery 18 months ago, yep, can you believe it? They touched my hypothalamus by accident and said that I will probably never have a fever again. It’s the fever that sent me in, so praise Jesus for the 104 fever.

I know this was long but there was a lot to update you on. I hope you are all well. Thanks for the emails and comments. I read them while recovering and I loved every one.

The Homemade God
By Rachel Joyce
The Dial Press, July 2025, 336pp.

The Short of It:

Complex families always hold my attention.

The Rest of It:

There is a heatwave across Europe, and four siblings have gathered at their family’s lake house to seek answers about their father, a famous artist, who recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his long-awaited masterpiece.

Now he is dead. And there is no sign of his final painting. ~ the publisher

Rachel Joyce. I’ve enjoyed every book she’s ever written and this one was no exception. The story unfurled. I like that word. It started off kind of funny and silly and then got real serious.

These siblings believe that their father has lost his mind. Marrying a woman much younger, losing weight, being even more eccentric that usual, which is saying a lot. And what about his last big painting? His work of art that he keeps bellowing about? Where is it? What’s happened to it?

The new love interest calls all the shots. No wedding. Siblings not included. They just head to the family lake house in Italy and the siblings decide it’s time to meet this new woman. I mean, she is their stepmother after all.

This is where the story gets interesting because this woman who has taken over their father’s life, doesn’t seem to be all that bad. As the siblings get to know her, all in different ways, they begin to question her motives and frankly his. But then he’s found dead.

At the house, the siblings all have their own theories as to what happened. There’s no way their father drowned in a lake that he literally grew up on. He was a fine swimmer. What gives?

This story is built on sibling interaction. They agree, they disagree, they argue over motive and all the logistical stuff like the house, the remains, the investigation. But Netta, the eldest, is convinced that her father was murdered. So much so that they all just throw up their hands and become even more divided.

This is not a predictable story. I want to say that upfront. Many times I thought I knew where the story was going and then was pleasantly re-directed. I really enjoyed this story and this family. If you like Joyce’s writing, you will enjoy this new one as well.

Recommend.

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

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