Small Mercies | 
pickThe year was 1974. The place is Boston. This novel takes the reader on a “tour” of the South projects of the Irish American enclave. The main character Mary Pat Fennessy‘s daughter doesn‘t come home one night. Mary Pat vows to find the truth behind this. Filled with hatred and racism makes this difficult to read. Mary Pat versus Boston, it‘s not pretty. 4/5⭐️
pickThis audiobook is stellar. I'm going to have to look up the woman who narrated this because she was perfection. Such a gift to read this story the way she did.
This was a heartbreaking and complex book. To hear such ugly racist things was hard. But this was life in 1974 in Boston. The racial divide was extreme. Mary Pat was a ballsy brave woman. The lengths she went to find out what happened to her 17 year old daughter.. wow.
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Tackle the TBR 🤓📚
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#boleybooks #smallmercies #dennislehane #bookbeast #bookbuds #bookchat
pickWhew this book. All the trigger warnings, but I tore through it. My grandmother was born in Southie, but my family had moved to the South Shore by the time I was born. Still Mary Pat seemed real to me. Would it be weird to give this book to my mom for Mother‘s Day?
bailedBoston 1970‘s. Tough times. I can‘t go on with this one. It‘s too hard core. I understand Mary Pat and where‘s she‘s coming from. Her life is tragic. But where‘s she going to ? I won‘t find out as I bailed before half way. I started off engaging with the story. But I found it relentless. I wanted to stage an intervention. Get Mary Pat out of there. Maybe it‘s because of the terrible violence right now in the world, this hit me all the harder.
pickOne of my friends had to stop reading this because he couldn't take all of the racism. As in, we live in Boston so being reminded of how gross this is was a bit much. And the homophobia. Because this was set in the 70s, you'd hope it was better but Boston is pretty well known for this situation. If you liked Mystic River, and you can get through the halfway point, this really is very well written.
#DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks
pick⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️this was a tough read about tough people living in a tough area, Southie of Boston during bussing of kids to desegregate in the 70s. It was a difficult read living inside of people with such hatred and racism but FACTS! This is how it was. Although I was heartbroken for Mary Pat and her daughter, I despised their ugly nature. Lots of different feels!
pickOMG! That Mary Pat was a badass Southie Broad. I hadn‘t read any Lehane besides Mystic River, but this I may have to put him on my list of authors to look for at used book sales. Another pick from @CBee and her #auldlangspine list.
Just finished an excellent audio of Dennis Lehane‘s Small Mercies, he writes a gritty Boston. The story is told over the background of busing in an effort to end segregation of schools in Boston in the 70‘s. I enjoys the book so much and it got me thinking about the back story as well. I found this documentary on YouTube, well done and interesting. It‘s a good day for me when a fiction book brings historical awareness. Doc link in comments.
pickMary Pat Fennessy has learned two things from her Boston neighborhood— how to hate and how to fight. This compelling novel follows what happens as Mary Pat tries to find her daughter, and the city deals with the aftermath of suspicious death. It‘s very hard to read the explicit racism in this novel, but it was certainly true of the time and place. Lehane really brings her to life and she‘s a character I know I‘ll keep thinking about. ⬇️
Is there anything Dennis Lehane writes that doesn‘t completely wreck you?
Gritty, hard, bleak and so sad with just a nugget of hope.
First finished of ‘24 and I won‘t be surprised if it‘s one of my top reads of the year. #prediction
Fuuuuu🙌🏼k. FR. Super uncomfortable. Read the summaries & reviews, I have nothing new to add. Excellent narration.
pickMary Pat is the antihero in this book which shows Boston at its ugliest in the early 70s. With nothing less to lose she starts looking for the truth in a world filled with racism, hate, drugs and corruption. Although funny at times it‘s mostly sad. The explanation of the title however, felt like a little light in a dark read.
#TBRTarot
I am glad I‘m not the only one thinking this at times 😂😂
#WeeklyForecast 48/23
I am in the middle of The Rachel Incident for the #ToB longlist and it‘s quite funny. I am also reading For Your Own Good, a decent thriller. Next will be the tagged book.
🔎 I‘d say the tagged book, although it may be more of a thriller than a mystery. Is there a difference? 🤷🏻♀️
🔎Nothing specific on my radar at the moment but I‘m open to suggestions! And if Dennis Lehane or S.A. Cosby write more I‘ll be all over those.
🔎 I love a snarky, smart-ass detective. Or villain. Or sidekick. Basically snarkiness that makes me snort wins my heart every time.
#ihavequestions
@RaeLovesToRead
pickNo review I write can possibly do this book justice, so I‘ll just leave this quote: “I‘m not a person anymore, Bobby. I‘m a testament. That‘s what ghosts are - they‘re testaments to what never should have happened and must be fixed before their spirits leave this world.”
pickThe issue of desegregation in Boston is what the book begins with but ultimately it‘s about mob bosses (think Whitey Bulger) and the devastation and chaos they bring, about Southie - the area of South Boston - and Mary Pat, a mom who lives in the midst of murder and heartbreak. The writing was great and it brought me back in time to the area and those events. Mary Pat is a complex character and I cared for her from start to finish.
Reading this one now and I just keep thinking back to Michael Patrick MacDonald's book about Southie: All Souls: A Family Story from Southie. All Souls was written by a man who grew up there. He and his family lived through desegregation and the disintegration of his neighborhood as a result of drugs and Whitey Bulgher. I‘d link to my past review but can‘t figure out how. 😀
pickThis book is hard, this book is though. It's impressive how Lehane captures all the different point of views and lets his characters talk about their fears and thoughts. Dennis Lehane does not write lovable characters, but human ones. He gets deep into their souls. And into the soul of the city and the time. I'm glad I read this book. Once again I learned about history. A sad part, though...
#TitlesAndTunes #Blues @barbarabb @cinfhen
#BeachDay I actually forgot my physical book at home 🤦🏼♀️but luckily I I have this awesome audiobook on hand💜 I forgot how much I LOVE narration by Robin Miles. 🙌🏻 Shoutout to @Amiable who put this book on her #Top10Summer2023Reads #DoubleSpin
pickThriller set in Boston during the desegregation of 1974 in South Boston. Mary Pat is a bad ass and though her methods are morally questionable, it didn‘t make me like her any less. “Broken but unbreakable” might be one of my favorite quotes of the book.
I just finished my #TitlesAndTunes for September, so it fits perfectly to set up my next choices.
My book for #Blues was a preorder that just arrived when I started thinking about Octobers topic. I read the blurb and the decision was made. And when I think of #Blues I think of Aretha Franklin and of The Blues Brothers. So here you go. Hard choice between Respect and Think, but the latter just fits the book a little better.
@barbarabb @cinfhen
pick5⭐️ Mary Pat is LARGER than life and though she is most definitely a flawed problematic character, (as in rude, crude, & socially unacceptable) you can‘t help but root for her quest for justice.
Many painful truths & societal mirrors here and the dialogue is amazing.
Warning for profanity.
pickMary Pat Fennessy is…a…BADASS! A twisted up, angry, and violent woman living in the twisted up, angry, and violent world of South Boston in the 70‘s, she decides to take matters into her own hands when her daughter goes missing on the same night a young, black man is killed nearby. She refuses to backdown even when she‘s told in no uncertain terms to let it go and chaos ensues. Set against the desegregation of Boston schools the story ⬇️
pickSet in Boston during the first phase of the court mandated busing/desegregation. Two teens are dead. One black, killed by white students in an act of blind hatred, the other a young pregnant white woman who dared to call out the Irish mob for their sexual hypocrisy.
In ‘74 I was 19, and remember the visceral racial hatred in Boston. Lehane captures this period with real skill, reminding us that we share collective guilt for the forces at play.
My FICTION bracket for July. This book was set in Boston in 1974 when the city was embroiled in busing to desegregate its public schools. I lived in Boston in the ‘80s, not long after the events depicted in the book. What I love about Dennis Lehane is his ear for realistic dialogue. These characters sound like real people I knew. This book was a wild ride that I could not put down.
Reading Lehane's latest and loving it. Mary Pat is the most bad-ass female character I've seen in crime fiction in a real long time.
pickWhile the fictional story Itself is not great it is set alongside the real events that occurred during the desegregation of the Boston public schools in the 70s and 80s and it‘s wonderfully portrayed by Lehane. Always a consummate storyteller but I don‘t think it‘s his best novel. However he deals with the real life of the Southie women and gangs brilliantly and worth reading for that alone.
pickNot a comfortable read, but really good. Intense! Flawed, complicated characters. Well-paced, unflinching and quite violent. If you enjoy S. A. Cosby‘s books, I think you‘d get on with this. My B&N edition ended with a great author exclusive “End of Summer.” I‘ll include a few author interviews in the comments below which provide some of that same valuable context.
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#maystats
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Farewell Tour
Small Mercies
The Road to Roswell
Now You See Us
The Bandit Queens
Three Men in a Boat
⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Falcon Thief
Three Act Tragedy
Five Little Pigs
In a Dark, Dark Wood
⭐️⭐️
The Favor
The Turnout
Just started this last night & couldn't put it down! Great so far, even if the main character is hard to like at times. Can't wait to see where this is going. #mystery
pickIt has been years since I read a book by Lehane and after finishing this one I'm upset I've been missing out all these years.
This book isn't going to be for everyone, but I loved it. Although it's marketed as a thriller, it's also a look at relationships, neighbors, community, and how one person's actions can affect others.
Halfway through Small Mercies and all I can say is Wow! Dennis Lehane can WRITE.
pickPowerful, propulsive and deeply thought-provoking. Small Mercies succeeds not only as a tightly written thriller and an homage to a singular time and place, but as a searing exploration of what we gain - and what we give up - in the name of identity and community. Lehane‘s observations of how the powerful manipulate the vulnerable, pitting them against other vulnerable groups to cement their own power, feel incredibly relevant today.
“Change, for those who don‘t have a say in it, feels like a pretty word for death. Death to what you want, death to whatever plans you‘d been making, death to the life you‘ve always known.”
This book is sensational!
This week in bails! Reading this week has been a struggle, so it may be me and not them. Take with a grain of 🧂
Mercies…I hate when an author goes on with a person doing something and various other characters telling them not to do it. I just got tired of Mary asking about her daughter and the goons saying stop asking questions. 🤷🏻♀️
Passage…really don‘t need another gun story now. Overwhelming these days.
Chain ⬇️
pickNewest Lehane is set in Southie during the school desegregation busing of the 70s. He always gets the Boston elements right, even the ugly ones, and there are plenty of ugly characters here. There‘s plenty of action packed in. I‘m sure this will end up being a film at some point.
