CBR11 BINGO: Summer Read
Yep. It’s another of Reese’s Hello Sunshine picks for my book club this month. Again, I hate to admit that she really does make good selections. I’ve read seven of them so far and each of them was pretty darn good.
Susan Green is a very regimented, no nonsense woman with an overly organized life to show for it. Even her personal relationships verge on contractual. Her lack of sentimentality places a barrier firmly between her and her co-workers, boyfriends and family members alike. She sees her behavior as the hallmark of a rational person. Much like the cacti that she collects, most people find her prickly and often insulting. Only a thick skinned few can navigate their way around the spikes and find humor in her unfiltered righteousness.
When Susan’s tidy little universe is rocked by forces outside of her control, her perfectly aligned dominoes quickly crash down, one after another. Desperate to regain and maintain control, Susan finds herself beginning to question how others see her and how she sees herself.
This novel is constantly compared to “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” and it does have a lot in common. This may be why, the first 1/3 of the book was hard for me to get through. I feared it was heading for a much more simplistic look at a spectrum-y woman who couldn’t pick up on social cues; like Eleanor only without the devastatingly tragic childhood. Fortunately, it was much more than that and I ended up really enjoying the book, rooting for the characters and even getting a little teary eyed. Those are the hallmarks of a good summer read, right?