Mad Honey by Jodie Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

 I have read Jodie Picoult books for many years and have enjoyed her writing device of presenting a moral dilemna for the reader because there are so many times in life we are faced with a problem with not one answer but many possible solutions.  For example, in her early book, My Sister’s Keeper, parents decide to have a baby in order to harvest a kidney to save their older daughter. Were they right to do this to the unwitting baby?  It is easy to argue for both sides.  In Mad Honey, Picoult has co authored with Jennifer Finney Boylan another novel that requires much self examination.  The story revolves around strong characters: Olivia, Lily and Asher.  Olivia has escaped an abusive marriage with her son, Asher, who is now a senior in high school.  They live a quiet life in a small community where Olivia is a bee keeper.  A new girl, Lily, arrives and immediately forms a bond with Asher.  All seems to be going well until one night when Lily is found dead in her home.  Asher is arrested and the remainder of the book revolves around the trial and the revelations that unfold.  The major and most significant disclosure in the trial is that Lily is a transgender girl who has undergone hormone replacement and surgical procedures that make it impossible for anyone, even a boyfriend, to tell that she has changed.  As you can imagine, there is much trauma and angst as this secret comes out.  But there are many more revelations that keep you guessing to the very end of the trial as to how Lily died.  Picoult and Boylan manage to interweave many societal issues to explore along with transgender children, such as abuse (both mental and physical), prejudice, parental rights and privacy rights to name a few.  One interesting fact that adds to the discussion is that Finney Boylan is a transgender woman who went through the surgical/hormonal operation when she was 40. Prior to that she was married to a woman and had two sons.  As with many books we read, the title Mad Honey was puzzling.  The bee keeper, Olivia, tells us much about a bee colony and its balanced culture which make it viable and productive.  In particular, we learn  that bees are able to change their sex or transform from one sex to another as is needed by the hive.  The debate is whether people should change and choose too. I learned so much about this highly charged subject concerning transgender children.  If for no other reason than to become better informed, I recommend this book.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

 I cannot say I enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Demon Copperhead, but I can say the book pushed me over the edge as far as anger and frustration directed toward the soul crushing greed and abuse we see coming from big business and government.   Let me step back and try to explain.  If you have read any review of this novel you know that it is a modern day retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield which may help many of you get a picture of the plot line.  Unfortunately, I never read Dickens book, so I went into this one totally unprepared for Kingsolver’s revelation of the heart wrenching misery of the people of Lee County Virginia and their young.  I was truly broken by the slow but inevitable devolving of all these folks whose lives were simply thrown away or destroyed by poverty and drug addiction.  The plight of these “hillbillies” is not a new revelation, but the abject cruelty of big business and government agencies just broke me.  I don’t generally choose books that are an obvious setup for face to face confrontation of the “war” between the haves and have nots because I cannot see any solution for the poor and even worse I cannot find solace in the idea of saving just one.  I found small comfort in the hint of resolution and happiness at the end for Demon.  

All that being said, I must say the writing was a pure pleasure.  Kingsolver truly is a wonderful writer who made the characters and the setting come alive.  The list of well developed, believable characters was long (Demon, Angus, Maggot, Fast Forward, Tommy, just to name a few).  Each of these players was beautifully drawn with so much detail you could really see them.  The few “savior” characters like Aunt June, the nurse practitioner,  and even the self sacrificing art teacher who worked valiantly to save at least one of these young people helped to lessen the overall pain.  We were encouraged by their goodness and the way they worked with and accepted theses people knowing full well they would probably not succeed.  

So, this is not my usual declaration of support.  I must say I was the lone person in our discussion who really could not see past the depressing situation these people found themselves in.  There is a chance that this is the goal for Kingsolver……she wants all of us to open our eyes and see the less fortunate and also to think about these people without judgement. It is always so easy to think that everyone can just pull themselves up if they just try hard enough.  Unfortunately, the world does not work that way for the vast majority.  

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

 Think back to your earliest memories of TV housewives.  Can’t you just see June Cleaver in her shirt waist dress and pearls setting the table for dinner? This picture was a normal family snapshot and all little girls were told as they grew up that their home should be just like this—we were to stay in the home, be happy housewives and raise the children.  Bonnie Garmus in her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, chucked that notion out the window for her main character Elizabeth Zott.  Brilliant and independent, Elizabeth was determined not be pigeoned holed into the patriarchal norm.  She spent her entire life fighting for her place in the world of renowned chemists.  Fighting the status quo and succeeding were two different things however, and faced with the reality of being a single mother who needed to support her child, Elizabeth acquiesced to taking a job as a TV cooking show hostess.  But “Supper at Six” was not your typical cooking show.  Elizabeth insisted on treating the women who watched her show as adults with actual brains.  Women were not inferior and Zott was determined to prove it. This revolt against the repressive role of women became the storyline of the book and revolved in and around all the people who shared life with Elizabeth.  Some characters were charming in very quirky ways and others depicted the ugliest types of chauvinistic back stabbers. Garmus treated us to a wonderful cast of characters such as Elizabeth’s daughter, Mad, her much harangued boss, Walter, her scrappy neighbor, Harriet, and most fun of all, Six Thirty, the family dog with a vocabulary of over 900 words.  All of the characters moved us to a nearly perfect outcome for Elizabeth and family.  This was just a wonderful read that I cannot recommend  highly enough. Garmus has given us a truly warm and entertaining book. I rarely think of rereading a novel, but this is one I might read again.  Just delightful.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick