Thoughts 
by Rachel Khong, 2017, 208 pages
Challenge: Tournament of Books Genre: Contemporary Fiction Type/Source: eBook / Kindle Why I read this now: It’s Rooster Reading time once again.The endive truck is parked there, and the trucker is outside, sitting on the curb, eating a waxed paper–wrapped apple pie.
MOTIVATION for READING: I selected this one because it was short. What can I say, I want to read as many as I can. Plus it has mostly good reviews.
WHAT’s it ABOUT: I’m going to share the blurb at goodreads.com:
…the wry, beautifully observed story of a woman at a crossroads, as Ruth and her friends attempt to shore up her father’s career; she and her mother obsess over the ambiguous health benefits – in the absence of a cure – of dried jellyfish supplements and vitamin pills; and they all try to forge a new relationship with the brilliant, childlike, irascible man her father has become.
WHAT’s GOOD: I loved the tone; contemplative, searching, kind, honest. I think I might have expected whiny, but it isn’t at all.
FINAL THOUGHTS: All the characters were easy to cheer for. and LOTS of PIE! Actually, lots of food. This is one of those books that maybe nothing huge happens but there is so much going on. Very good story and told in an interesting way.
RATING: Four slices of pie: apple, chicken potpie, pecan with chocolate in it, and just pie.
At the bistro, our server struggled to remember the pie list.
Care's Books and Pie 
Well, sad to hear about jellyfish getting exploited that way! :–) And I love the rating!
With all that pie, it’s got to be good! 😉
Loved this one!
I liked this one a lot too.
I brought this home from the library in a pile of books I wanted to read around Christmastime, and didn’t read a single one of them. Now it’s overdue and I want to keep it and read it!
I also really liked this book. I think Kong got that balance between funny, quirky and sad, serious just about right.
I love the bright cover on this book. Glad to hear you liked it and looking forward to reading this one!
Is this an Alzheimer’s story? I want to read it and yet those hit way too close to home right now.
Yes, yes it is.
I’ve heard so many good things about this, I’m on the waiting list at the library.
I was going to pitch it to my book club last night but didn’t. I can’t get a good handle on what it’s about. It seems like there wouldn’t be enough to discuss. Am I wrong?
Well, there’s a 30 year old who is a bit lost but not quite in a whiny feeling sorry kind of way; she quit school to chase a boy and thought it was forever but alas. Now she feels guilt about not having visited her parents in a few years because she couldn’t deal with her parents’ marital problems and now he is suffering dementia. He was a professor and he was well-loved by the students but hated by the administration. I hope I haven’t given anything away and yet there really is a LOT going on. You could discuss family relations and miscommunications. You could talk about the causes of Alzheimers and the alternative medicine approach. You could talk about infidelity. Maybe discuss how friendships suffer when distracted by “true love” and how that “true love” done did her wrong. And how she can’t quite let it go. Her friend and her love life challenges could be a discussion on its own as well as the romance pace if we can call it that of our girl and her father’s assistant guy. (I forget what his ‘title’ is but you would know since you work in academia). Everyone would want to talk about the sad topic but also how much gentle humor was sprinkled well throughout. You could talk about the challenges her mother faces, did face, that mother-dot relationship. I would say this could be quite a fun book to talk about.
But I don’t know your club. I think it is one of those simple sounding books that packs a wallop.
One of the best things was the lovely lovely notes that her father wrote while she was growing up. They were all the great silly profound things kids say. Love these.
Let me know if you read this reply?