Library Loans

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The Memo by Rachel Dodes, Lauren Meching
Published by Harper Perennial on June 18, 2024
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction

Goodreads

If you could rewrite your life story, would you dare? That’s the question at the heart of this charming and propulsive debut novel about love, life, and a woman finding herself and what it means to be happy and successful.

Do you ever feel like your life doesn’t measure up to everyone else’s—and wonder if you just didn’t get the memo helping you make the right choices?

Jenny Green dreads her upcoming college reunion. Once top of her class, the thirty-five-year-old finds herself stuck in a life that isn’t the one she expected. Her promising career has flamed out (literally) and her deadbeat boyfriend is cheating on her (again). All her friends seem to have it all figured it out, enjoying glittering lives and careers that she can only envy from the sidelines. Did she just not get the memo they all did?

As it turns out, she didn’t!

When she arrives at her alma mater for the festivities, she receives a text from an unlisted number.

“Jenny please collect your memo.”

Somewhere on campus, a discreet female-led organization provides comprehensive memos to select students, a set of instructions that are a blueprint for success.

The first time around, Jenny didn’t receive hers. Now, she’s being given the second chance she wants—an opportunity to relive her life and make all the right decisions this time around. But at what price?

Smart, addictive, bittersweet, and ultimately triumphant, The Memo will enchant readers of In Five Years and Cassandra in Reverse as well as fans of Emma Straub and Maria Semple.

Jenny's life didn't turn out they way she thought it would. As she prepared for her college reunion, she had a job she hated, a boyfriend who was mostly likely cheating on her, and a best friend who was fading from her life. At the reunion, she could not help but notice that she was the least successful woman among them. Apparently, she didn't get The Memo, but this was her second chance. What will Jenny do?

This was an interesting take on a time travel story. The Memo takes on those what-ifs with a twist. I think many people feel there is something they could have done better, made different choices, but Jenny was getting the opportunity to "fix" the past. How? My following The Memo to a tee. Her unmitigated success relied on her surrendering all her decisions to a group of very powerful women. But all the success would come at a price.

This was a smart and funny story that made me ponder things. What is success? Are you willing to give up friendships and shut people out of your life? Are you willing to give up on your dreams? I found it amusing and interesting, and the ending had a few surprises and was ultimately very satisfying.

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Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach
Published by Henry Holt and Co. on May 17, 2022
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction

Goodreads

For much of her life, Sally Holt has been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally’s questions about life, about love, and about Billy Barnes, a rising senior and local basketball star who mans the concession stand at the town pool. The girls have been fascinated by Billy ever since he jumped off the roof in elementary school, but Billy has never shown much interest in them until the summer before Sally begins eighth grade. By then, their mutual infatuation with Billy is one of the few things the increasingly different sisters have in common. Sally spends much of that summer at the pool, watching in confusion and excitement as her sister falls deeper in love with Billy—until a tragedy leaves Sally’s life forever intertwined with his.

Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.

This book has left me with the mixed feelings I often experience when I read literary fiction, but the story was compelling and kept me interested. I wanted to know what happened to Sally and cared about what happened to her. So, I easily pushed through. 

Sally loved and looked up to her big sister, Kathy. Her death left a huge hole in Sally's world, and in this story, Sally is telling her sister about how the years had been since her death. This was a very long journey through grief, and it was sad. There were humorous moments, but it was mostly somber. Not only was Sally's grief explored, but we also saw how other people were affected by Kathy's death.

Like I said, it was interesting especially since it spanned about 15 years and was peppered with relevant events from those years, but the ending was very frustrating for me. I finally did see a glimmer of hope, but it was a bit too open ended for my liking.

Would you take the memo?
Let us know in the comments!