Seventeen-year-old Linsey Hart disappears the day before she’s due to leave for college. As her neighbors piece together what they saw and what they think they know about the missing girl, their long-held secrets, prejudices, and entanglements become rudely evident.
There’s Linsey’s mother, Abigail, whose door-to-door searching makes her social outcast status painfully obvious; stay-at-home mom Reeva, whose primary concern is covering up the affair she’s been having with the Starbucks barista; Mr. Leonard, a reclusive retired piano teacher—and the last person to see Linsey alive; George, an eleven year-old gifted loner who is determined to find out what happened to Linsey; and
Timmy, Linsey’s ex-boyfriend, who is left grieving as he embarks on his own college career.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Without hearing from Linsey’s point of view, the main character in this book, we instead hear from a fabulous cast of characters and their actions during the 5 days that Linsey “was gone”. This title leads you to believe this is more a mystery genre than what it actually is. This is a wonderful microscopic look into the lives of the family and neighbors who knew or saw Linsey in some capacity. Secrets are kept and sometimes unveiled during this tumultuous time. It’s interesting to see what happens behind closed doors especially with the excellent descriptive writing from this author. I felt the wrap to the mystery was not realistic although that was what kept the pages turning. Great, quick summer read!
Quotes I liked:
She wasn’t in love with this boy, she told herself, she couldn’t be, but she wanted to eat his history, suck him up, be a girlfriend.”
– “Until high school, I thought she was a snob, but she was just busy doing, while I was busy thinking. Wasteful. Mental masturbation.”
– “…his parents bought him a used Nikon camera he’d coveted from the camera shop in town. Its silvery body was an empty notebook awaiting possible poetry.”
– “He wasn’t even listening. She could open her mouth and birds could spill out onto the table, mockingbirds, crows, raptors, and he’d just get up and leave his dish on the counter and go sit down in his permanently pleated work pants and beige cashmere sweater reading a travel magazine and she’d never know what he was thinking-because he could never know what she was thinking.”
– “…it was as though he walked inside parentheses, keeping him from other words of the sentence, just a bit off from everyone else.”
– “ -maybe there was something about this queen bee she could rely on. Or maybe she was just being lulled by the honey and the wing beats.”
Review:The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is a moving and powerful novel about community, our differences, and having each other ‘s back. I listened to this on audio which was narrated amazingly well by Dominic Hoffman.Although James McBride is probably most well-known for his first book, The Color of Water, which I adored, this too will make a mark on readers everywhere. Although I thought this would be a plot driven book based on the very first scenes, I could not have been more wrong. This story is driven solely on these perfectly flawed and nuanced characters. I adored Shona and Moshe, Nate and Addi and of course, Dodo, who the town is trying to save from the “school” he’s been sent too.I don’t want to give spoilers but know that the heart of this book is about humanity and connectivity to one another no matter your religion, color or ethnicity. @jamesmcbrideauthor @riverheadbooks @prhaudio 📘: When is last time you wrote a letter? #bookrecs#newbookreview#igbookreview#igbookreviews #TBR #addtoTBR #historicalfiction#histfic #jamesmcbride #readersmatter #booksmaatter#goodbookfairybookreviews #goodbookfairy... See MoreSee Less
Reading cookbooks is one of my favorite ways to relax. As an empty nester, I don't cook as much as I'd like to, but I still love to read new recipes. I made these amazing Mashed Potato, Kale and Feta cheese pancakes. It was easy, delicious and I cut the recipe in half!Copy and paste this link to purchase: amzn.to/48L0xxR{affiliate purchase}📘: What's your favorite thing to cook? (besides re#cookbookreader##cookbooke#cookbookreadersc#NewRecipese#cookinge#recipeso#goodbookfairy #goodbookfairy ... See MoreSee Less
