Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty

Themes for this book include female friendship; and the lies we tell - ourselves and others - can be so very B-I-G.  Sometimes, kids lie out of self-preservation. Or they're asked to lie; eg, by someone who has hurt them. When this happens, the lies come easier. Secret-keeping becomes a habit. 

First, just like with Moriarty's book, Nine Perfect Strangers, this book has a TON of characters and story lines. Each chapter begins with quotes by various characters, giving their views on this or that. Often, the views contradict. That's life. People misinterpret situations 10x a day. Then they gossip and drama ensues. 

The main three friends are Madeleine, Celeste, and Jane. Madeleine has a daughter by her 1st marriage (Abigail), plus 2 more with current husband Ed. Celeste is married to rich husband Perry; they have twin sons. Jane is new to town; a single mom, her son Ziggy enters kindergarten with Celeste's twin sons and Madeleine's daughter Chloe. And every single person, it seems, has a secret, including the kids.

Madeleine is boisterous, superficial, loyal, a good mom. She's also quite the gossip and loves drama. She's a bit immature about her eldest daughter's relationship with the dad that left them when Abigail was a baby. But we can see her point of view. He swoops in, 12 years too late, and gets to be the hero. Life's not fair. And that's another theme for this book -- much in life isn't fair. 

Celeste is the quiet nervous type. She's also described as stunningly beautiful. Honestly, this point was made at least 25 times throughout this book, and it got tiresome. And that's another theme of the book -- women's preoccupation with how they look, and society's focus on how all women look. Anyway, Celeste's marriage to Perry is not great, to put it lightly. No spoilers. 

Jane's son, Ziggy, has never had a dad as part of the picture. Ziggy gets accused of bullying at school -- and so "bullying" is another theme for this book. How the parents react and gossip, etc. 

This book was 450 pages and I read it in 2 days -- the result of being bedridden with Covid. I loved this book, but didn't recommend it to "L" because she likes to listen to books, and with the number of characters, I thought it might be too hard as an audio. 

So, 5 stars (of 5) as a printed book. The audio, I think, might be too hard. 

The Girl with No Name

Subtitle: The Incredible Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys

Authors: Marina Chapman (who is now 70, and was kidnapped at age "almost 5"); plus her daughter Vanessa James, and ghostwriter Lynn Barrett-Lee

Published in 2013, so it came out 10+ years ago. The book was fascinating for the first half. Then the second half, I skimmed quite a bit, because the book became too much about the agony Marina went through after she was "saved" from the jungle, and entered a hellish human world. 

In a nutshell, in Colombia, 1950s, it was common for kids to be kidnapped and sold into slavery. When Marina is snatched, she's thrown in the back of a pick-up truck with several other scared, crying kids. At some point, the kidnappers must have been in danger of getting caught, and they needed to get rid of the "evidence" (kids) -- maybe they'd already sold the others, because Marina was the only one that they run into the jungle with. They carried her deep into it, and left her there. 

It's a hard story to grasp-- that it's true. But she explains how she befriended a troop of monkeys, and she learned from them which foods were safe to eat. It seems that her young age was a sort of advantage, in that, she was willing to see the monkeys as a family, and she was able to let go of her formative years, and...be a monkey. Naked. Pottying wherever. Having bugs all over her. 

The 2nd half of book deals with life in Colombia for this girl, and so many unwanted kids -- kids whose poverty-stricken families kick out the older ones because there's no food. Many end up as "street kids."  

I found this book in a free pile, and will donate it back; I just needed a filler while convalescing. I give it 3 stars (out of 5).