Audiobook Review: The Friends We Keep by Jane Green

The Friends We Keep by Jane Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Published: June 2019
 

Evie, Topher, and Maggie come from very different backgrounds, but they immediately become friends as soon as they start University in England. They spend the next three years living together and taking care of each other. When it is time for graduation, again they each go their separate ways vowing to always be in touch. As we all know as we get older, it gets harder and harder to stay in touch. Each doing their own things and they make a vow that if they are all single in their 60's then they will live together as they did in college. Will they be able to keep this vow, or will events from their adulthood upset the friendship that they have had for so many years?

I have always enjoyed Jane Green's books. This one was not exception. The story got away from me at different times since I was listening to it, but I was intrigued to find out what was going to happen with these three friends.

We all know that as we get older, it is harder to make and maintain friendships as we did when we were younger. We all live different lives growing in different directions. Keeping in touch isn't always as easy as it seems. With today's modern technologies and social media, it makes it a bit easier to keep in touch, but it's still hard.

As Evie, Topher and Maggie grow older and grow farther apart we see each of their lives individually and how they intersect. When they are finally able to be together once more, the times and secrets of their younger years, will come back to haunt them and may destroy their friendship forever.


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Review: All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published: September 2015
 

Rashad was just stopping by the corner store to pick up some chips before hanging out with his friends. A lady trips over his bag and the chips fly out of his hands, and the next thing you know he is accused of stealing and beaten by the police.
Quinn is about to walk into the same corner store to find someone to buy him and his friends beer. As he rounds the corner, he sees Rashad getting beat up by the cop. A cop he knows. The entire town is split about who and what to believe.
Told from the perspective of both boys, we hear how one incident can affect so many people in different ways.

Even though this story was written nearly five years ago, the incidents in it still ring true today. Young black boys are being beaten and gunned down in our streets for mostly unknown reasons. It's hurt first, ask questions later. As a mother of a young black boy, who also has a disability, I worry for his safety every day.

Quinn and Rashad didn't know each other in school. They had mutual friends and hung out in the same places, but they really didn't know each other. Quinn was on the basketball team and Rashad was in ROTC. Quinn was more deeply affected by the incident then he thought he was going to be especially after seeing his friends feelings towards it.

Rashad spent several days in the hospital watching himself on the television and trying to decide how he was going to carry out the rest of this week and the rest of his life. This is the type of incident that will change various people in various ways. The lady in the store, the store owner, Rashad, the police officer that beat him, the person who shot the video, Rashad's parents and brother, kids at the school, Quinn, the police officers family. And these are just people directly involved.

Too many times we hear these stories and it's time for them to come to an end. Reading the statistics in this book about the difference in policing in other countries is very enlightening. We need to take a stand to make sure our black boys are protected.

#RashadisAbsentAgaintoday



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Review--Local Girls by Caroline Zancan

Three friends walk into their favorite dive bar, The Shamrock, and are shocked to see their favorite actor, Sam Decker there.  When he joins their table and starts buying drinks, the conversation turns to each others pasts and how their lives got to be  at the point they are.  This night will change everyone's lives forever.

From the beginning of the book, we know that someone is going to die.  And now I am just trying to figure out the when and how.  The book flips between present day and the past when the group of three girls used to be a foursome.

Something about this book that I liked is that you get to see how the girl get to this point in their life.  I liked the flashbacks and it transported me back to my high school days.  I could see me and my friends in this same situation although my friends and I were not quite as wild as these girls.

One part that really struck me was a reference to Virginia Woolf and her suicide note.  In the note she says, "I don't think any two people could have been happier than we have been."  The character reading this mentions that this phrase is said twice in her short suicide note.  I find it ironic that the author mentions a phrase twice in this book, "Only boring people get bored."  I think deep down these girls were bored, but used the antics they pulled help to add some excitement to their lives.  Another interesting thing about this book, is that we are never really introduced to the narrator.  I can only recall her name being mentioned twice in the book.

**I received an uncorrected proof of this book through Goodreads Giveaways and this review is based on that copy.**