Hi @Laurie_S1 Welcome to this bookish nook of the web. I read Flashlight and while I didn’t love it I did think the ending paid off enough for me to be satisfied. I totally understand you being conflicted about it.
Frozen River for Boook Club
I finished listening to The correspondent in my car- sitting in a parking lot crying! I loved Sybil, the letter-writer. I am buying stamps and will start writing again! She was so open with her thoughts and feelings and I admired her for it. I especially liked her letters to the college professor. Would I have the chutzpah to not let it go?
I want to respond to the person who kept falling asleep while reading Theo of Golden but I couldn’t find her comment. I want to let her know I did not get far either. Reading it was like someone scratching my arm in the same place over and over! Torture. I think this book is a love it or hate it thing.
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Thanks for your honesty @Cheryl_T. I have not even tried because I’m 99% certain Theo is not for me. That being said, I have both gifted and recommended it because I know it is the perfect balm for some readers.
Non-fiction feels like it is becoming more miss than hit for me lately. I tried (without knowing much about it) reading Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century by Ece Temelkuran. I could not get into the writing style and stopped at 32%. Sigh.
I have other books on my TBR list, like There Is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone which others have mentioned here, but the wait times are so loooong!
I have some freebies (fiction) on my Kindle to dive into – I always have something on standby to read, so it’s okay. 
***I’m 99.999999% purely a library (Libby) borrower unless a book is a gift, won as an ARC, or is a free e-book.
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The Widow by John Grisham. I hadn’t read a Grisham book in many years, so it was real joy to read his latest mystery centered on Simon Latch, a struggling small-town Virginia lawyer whose life is already fraying: his marriage is collapsing, he has money problems, and he is carrying gambling debts. Then an elderly client, Eleanor “Netty” Barnett, comes into his office asking for help revising her will. She claims to possess a secret fortune worth many millions of dollars. It held my attention and I kept turning the pages, wondering how it would all turn out for our protagonist.
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@Cheryl_T I’m the “sleeper”. I love your analogy to scratching the same spot over and over! I’m now about half way through it and nothing has changed. I went to my book club meeting last night and only 2 of the 6 attending had finished it. As one said, “It’s definitely not a page turner for me.”
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Sometimes I think books become number one and our Book Club choices because everyone knows someone is reading it but they don’t know that they couldn’t get through it. That’s happened with so many books with me. Word-of-mouth is sometimes not a good thing.
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@Lana_Maskus and @Cheryl_T, I think Theo of Golden is one of those books you need to be in the right mood for. I think that when I read it, just before Christmas, it was the kind of feel-good book I was looking for at the time (even though Theo dies in the end, of course!). I can see why it hit home for many. But I can also see how it would be a miss for some, too.
Do you remember many months ago we had a discussion topic that was along the lines of, “Name a book everyone loved but that you absolutely hated.” This book reminds me of that conversation.
Thank you, Anne. Your post prompted me to jump to the last chapter in Flashlight before deciding to DNF or not. And, yes, I did find the ending somehow “satisfying.” This book feels complete for me now.
I so glad you found closure with Flashlight @Laurie_S1. I sort of felt like I hate read the book until the end and then it was like: ok, still a slog but at least there was a purpose in it. Did it need to be so long though? 
Last week I finished reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. This is a “feel good story” which seemed far fetched but I stuck with it because you fall in love with Harold. Now reading On Harbor’s Edge about a marriage in early 20th century Maine. It’s one more novel about an abusive husband… iI’m not sure I can stick with this one! Our book club discussed Spectacular today about the Rockettes and a 1950’s bomber that terrorized NYC for 16 yrs. An ok story based on true events.
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