NICKED by M.T. Anderson is unlike any historical novel you've ever read. Witty beyond belief, it tells the mostly true story of a group of Medieval thieves and monks who perform a daring heist to steal St. Nicholas's bones for their town, which is suffering from the pox! The writing is zippy and every single sentence is shined to perfection. It's as though Ken Follett, Terry Pratchett, and OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH had a literary baby. It's a great time!
NAVOLA bu Paolo Bacigalupi is something entirely new -- an epic fantasy based upon 15th Century Florence and the lives of the de Medicis. The fantastic elements are kept to a minimum, so it reads like historical fiction for the most part...historical fiction taking place in another world. The attention to detail in the world-building is truly mind-blowing, which makes it a slow burn at first, but once the action kicks in, it really moves! Fans of BABEL and the first GAME OF THRONES books will enjoy this palace-intrigue novel. I can't wait for Book Two!
ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK is -one of the very best books in years...possibly decades for me. I haven't been so moved by a novel since THE KITE RUNNER, and that's not hyperbole. What begins as a taut thriller of a boy who is kidnapped and the search his best friend embarks upon to find him evolves into an emotional bildungsroman about how these two characters grow up, each of them puppets of fate. Where their paths lead is the majority of the book, with a killer suspenseful ending that took my breath away...and then made me cry. It's utterly beautiful and humanistic. Whitaker obviously loves these characters as much as the reader does, and you can tell he is ripped apart by their trauma. It reads a bit like THE GOLDFINCH meets TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD meet SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, but I thought it was remarkably coherent and achingly, lyrically, beautifully written. Easily one of the best books of the year, and probably of the decade. I cannot praise it enough!
Don't be fooled by the cover and short length of SANDWICH, the new novel from Catherine Newman. It packs a real emotional whallop that sneaks up on you! When a middle-aged couple and their grown children (and later her parents) vacation for a week at Cape Cod, old secrets are revealed, leading to everyone questioning their place in their family. Middle age and menopause have rarely, if ever, been detailed so vividly and realistically. It starts slow, gains some speed, then the last fifty pages will blow your mind with how great the writing is and how deeply you come to care about these characters. It's terrific and also, very funny!
SWIFT RIVER by Essie Chambers is a heartfelt novel about generational trauma and how it affects familial bonds. In gorgeous writing, Chambers introduces us to one of the most strikingly original and fascinating characters in recent memory -- Diamond Newberry is a teenaged mixed-race girl who lives with her damaged white mother after her Black father disappeared when she was a child. When she attains letters from her grandmother to another family member, she learns about her New England town and how it was a 'Sundown town' where Black people fled for their lives, performing a sort of reverse migration back to the South. How the scars of the past haven't healed and help/prevent Diamond from growing up form the crux of the novel. The writing is Toni Morrison exceptional with passages you read aloud and try to commit to memory. This is a powerful book, one I will not soon forge
This charming, delightful sequel to THE GUNCLE shows that Stephen Rowley knows exactly howe to continue a story. instead of a retread, we get to see our favorite guncle, Patrick, fleeing from his own problems and forced to accompany his teen niece and younger nephew on a tour across Europe before their father gets married again. It's a story about how and why we love, the ways we protect ourselves from emotion and fear, and the powerful medicine of humor and love. A truly funny book should also get you right in the heartstrings, and this one does so without cruelty or meanness, and I loved every second of it. Only, now I desperately want to go to Italy!
History doesn't flow within our memories in a linear manner; it jumps around in spurts and eddies. And Claire Messud knows this as she demonstrates so beautifully in her new novel THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY. We follow three generations of a displaced French-Algerian family from 1940 to 2010 and across four continents as they work, love, grapple with their place in the world, and reckon with the most important thing of all to them -- family. Each chapter gives us a snapshot of a time, featuring life events big and small -- the Nazi invasion of France, a career imploding, a wild spring break trip from college, a wedding anniversary, the death of a parent, and so much more. It harkens back to the feel of sifting through an old photo album, or the first time I watched FANNY AND ALEXANDRA. This is a strong family, and these glimpses into their lives (loosely based upon Messud's own) show us that life, even when difficult or incomprehensible, is always worth living. It's a beautiful book, full of dense, Proustian language, and it's one of Claire Messud's best.
SIPSWORTH by Simon Van Booy took me by surprise! It's a charming little gem of a novel that delighted me on every page and completely warmed my cold heart by the lovely ending. It's the story of a lonely, elderly woman in England whose life is turned upside down when she accidentally lets a mouse (the titular Sipsworth) into her home. . . and possibly her heart. As the story progresses, the reader learns all about the woman's amazing life as she finally comes out of her self-imposed prison and has to interact with cast of eccentric characters. Fans of MRS. ARRIS GOES TO PARIS or the works of Claire Keegan are going to love this book!
Ann Hood has outdone herself with her new novel, THE STOLEN CHILD. Three stories twirl around each other until they become one -- a grumpy, bitter dying man returns to Europe to right a wrong he committed during WW1; a young woman from Rhode Island decides to leave her tragic life and go to sunny Naples to meet a boy she barely knows at Pablo Nerudo's house; and an Italian man creates a Museum of Tears, finding tears in joy and hardship. It's a story of children and parents, of loss and love, of art and what we leave behind, and a story about tragedy and redemption. I blew through this book, unable to put it down as the parallel tales, told in a fractured timeline, coalesced into a lovely ending. I just adored it!
Victor Lodato's new novel, HONEY, is a big hug of a story... but beware of the prickly and delightfully weird edges! It's a character study of the daughter of the biggest mafioso in New Jersey, now 82 years old, and returning to her hometown and the family that wronged her. Is she there for revenge or something else? Wih the help of a kind, young next door neighbor and an artist who has the hots for her, she will navigate the past into her future... dressing gorgeously and slinging barbs all the way! i loved Honey, and her story affected me deeply as she tried to come to terms with where all the bodies were buried. Our past is always there, and it rears its ugly head at strange times. This novel evokes love and art and beauty as a balm for when things become ugly. And the book, itself, is a balm against everything out there. What a perfect and incredibly beautiful read. Lodato has outdone himself!
THE FELLOWSHIP OF PUZZLE MAKERS by Samuel Burr is a delightful charmer of a novel. When a baby left on the doorstep to a commune of elderly puzzle makers grows up, he is sent on a cryptic scavenger hunt to discover the identity of his mother. This is a comfort read, a bug hug and perfect for readers of VERY REMARKABLE CREATURES, HE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, or especially THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY. Plus, there are actually puzzles to solve in the book along the way that provide clues! Such good fun!
Don't let the cover fool you; BLESS YOUR HEART is an action-packed, blood-soaked horror novel about four generations of Southern women who run a funeral parlor. . . and every once in a while, stop the dead from rising. It's True Blood meets Steel Magnolias, and the results are a fast-paced page-turner that's a lot of fun if you are game. It honestly could have been longer to focus even more on family relationships, but it was so delightful and quick that I could forgive it anything. Even though I am a Yankee!
THE PRINCESS OF LAS VEGAS is a romp of a crime novel about a Princess Diana impersonator and her sister who get mixed up in cryptocurrency schemes, the mafia, and several murders. It's full of well-written characters and over-the-top bad guys, and it's near impossible to put down once you reach a certain point (you will know it when you hit it!) Bohjalian has decided to have fun, and the city of Las Vegas is as much a character as the sisters and their adopted precocious teenager. This one is a lot of fun and quite suspenseful.
RAINBOW BLACK is the new adult novel by Maggie Thrush, and wow! does it ever pack a punch! Satanic panic, murder, queer fugitives on the run! The character of Lacey Bond is so believable, sarcastic, snarky, lovable, and flawed that I fell completely head over heels for her. The book follows her psychological journey from victim to killer to redemption of a sort as she finds her way through the maze of life. I was charmed and delighted, even when the book dealt with serious, horrifying issues.
brilliant retelling of Huck Finn from Jim, the slave's, point of view. Only, Everett shows that James (he doesn't like to be called Jim) is so much more than Huck's compatriot and a slave to be utilized as a prop. He is definitely his own man -- intelligent, thoughtful, loving -- and Everett gets deeply into his head as we relive much of Twain's immortal novel. The action never stops for a breath as James and Huck run away, James to find a way to buy his family and prevent them from being sold downriver and Huck to escape from his terrifying father. It's wonderful in every way and I couldn't put it down until I knew the fates of the characters. Look for awards for this one, but it is also so well written and paced that I believe it will be very popular as well. Kudos to Everett! One of the best books of the year.
KING NYX is Kirsten Bakis's first novel since her cult success THE LIVES OF THE MONSTER DOGS, and it doesn't disappoint! This gothic mystery is based around the real writer Charles Forte (of The Fortean Times) and his meek wife, who has suffered mental health issues after an encounter with the unknown years before. Summoned to a mysterious island by a millionaire, they discover nothing is as it seems and young women have gone missing on the island. The chauffer wears gas masks and another couple summoned, a psychiatrist and his brash and bawdy wife, are there and the host is nowhere to be seen. But there are sounds in the woods and dreams bring foreboding warnings. It's an atmospheric romp that seems like a cross between JANE EYRE and MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, but it's also an examination of the fate of women and girls when surrounded by men who think they know it all. Sadly, much hasn't changed. This was a super quick read for me and a truly delightful tale.
OURS by Phillip B. Williams reads as though Toni Morrison had rewritten ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLIITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez! The language and writing is as lush as anything written in the last decade as Williams relates the story of the establishment of a town, created by a conjure woman who kills the whites on plantations and frees the enslaved. Using African folklore stories as a backbone, the story unfolds slowly, allowing the reader to get to know the inhabitants of the town and utilizing magical realism to cast a spell. Spirits, demons, and the uncanny walks through this town, many of which are allegories for the African Enslaved Experience, and the entire question of 'What is Freedom really?' is suffused on every page. This is a smart, brilliant novel that challenges the reader while keeping them turning the pages for a week. A true accomplishment!
fThis excellent historical novel details one woman, a nurse, who goes to Vietnam, her trials there, her political awakening, and how she attempts to deal with the resulting trauma after her return. Although it sometimes dips into melodrama, it never becomes sappy or unbelievable, and Hannah shows the war in all it ugly perspectives. This is closer to BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY than PLATOON. The characters are all well-drawn, even though you will find yourself yelling at them when they do something stupid. This is a very good book!,
THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett is an unadulterated treat! A murder mystery set in an elaborately-imagined fantasy setting, it reads as though Nero Wolfe and Archie or Holmes and Watson were on a case in the middle of Game Of Thrones! Plus, Kaiju! The characters are beautifully drawn, and the world-building is first rate. I honestly cannot get over how much fun this book was to read; I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time. This could be a break-out fantasy hit!
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SPACE is the delightful new novel from Emily Austin. I was charmed by the lead character, a woman with some serious trauma issues from when she was young, a mother with severe depression, a tendency to hook up with other women then dump them because she is afraid of relationships, and an overwhelming fear of bald men. I rooted for her all the way, as well as her satellite society of friends/lovers, all of whom are lovingly portrayed. This is a real winner, especially for folks who enjoyed ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE or THE MAID.
I just finished THE BULLET SWALLOWER by Elizabeth Gonzalez James, and I can't wait to talk to people about it! Two parallel stories, each tinged with magical realism, that interconnect in such a beautiful way the reader can't but sing the praises of James. A Mexican bandit in the late 1800s loses everything and is deformed, followed by a shadow that might be his death. His ancestor, a movie star in Mexico City in the 1960s finds himself obsessed with making a film about his outlaw grandfather. It's beautifully written and tragic and comic in equal measures. History melds with dark fantasy in original and lovely ways. I adored it!
This is compelling sci-fi regarding the return of Mammoths to the steppes of Russia, the scientist whose mind is implanted into one mammoth to give them leadership, and the poachers after their ivory tusks. It's a fast-moving novella, yet it is chock full of ideas and conversations about how we should share the earth with animals. It's their world, too, and Nayler brilliantly brings that point across. Also, I am pleased to say that this is a novella that tells a whole story -- perhaps too swiftly -- but it is a whole story, not a fragment. I was impressed, but boy do I wish it had been longer!
MARTYR! by Kveh Akbar is a fantastic debut and a novel unlike any I have ever read. Integrating prose, poetry, fictional interviews, dreams, fables, and the story of a young alcoholic Persian American man and his obsession with a dying woman who has installed herself as an art exhibit in a museum -- this book should be confusing and too artsy. But it reads beautifully, quotable lines on nearly every page, and more insights than ten other so-called "literary novels." It's full of ideas about art, death, family, the power of literature, and our eternal search for meaning in life and death (thus, the title), but it never feels cluttered or too full of ideas. Instead, it's very funny and very tragic in equal parts, and the hope for our protagonist suffuses the pages. It's a wonderful book, perfect for fand of Elif Batuman or Kurt Vonnegut.
Wow! What a terrific, edge-of-your-seat thriller! WHERE YOU END details a pair of grown twins, one of which has lost her memory after a car accident. She begins to suspect that her sister isn't telling her the truth about their shared past. In alternating chapters, the reader sees the truth behind the lies, and it's so horrific, it is hard to read at times. Is the conscious twin protecting her sister from the truth or does she have a deeper, more sinister agenda? How deep does a filial bond go? This book is almost impossible to put down, and the truth slowly creeps up on you through precise and beautiful writing. It's dark, but it's also hopeful, and you will gasp at several parts!
THE FETISHIST is Katherine Min's final book, published posthumously, and it solidifies her position as one of the most brilliant wordsmiths of our time. What begins as a reverse LOLITA, in which a man who fetishizes Asian women is kidnapped by the punk rock daughter of a woman he wronged years earlier. Meanwhile, another woman he wronged is dying, nursed by her gay neighbor. This comic novel inverts every expectation, delving deep into why Asian women have been fetishized for so many years by whitre men, yet it also gets you to genuinely love these characters. they are wonderfully flawed and human, and Min fills them with so much heart that this short novel will bring many to tears...of happiness and sadness. It's a wonderful achievement, but it's also extremely sexy and erotic, so if you are ready for this journey, take Min's hand. She will get you through it with a book that feels like a prickly hug!
ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS by Araminta Hall will not only keep you on the edge of your seat for its entirety, but it will have you thinking for weeks afterwards! This thriller is cleverly divided into three parts: in part one, a good guy suffering after a nasty divorce from a cruel woman meets someone new but finds himself embroiled in the disappearance of two young women. In part two, we get the story of his marriage from the wife's point of view, throwing everything we believed into doubt. in the third, we see the drama play out on social media and TV news programs. It's so well structured you change your mind about the protagonist several times. It also acts as a brilliant look into how women can never feel safe in our world, no matter how many "good guys" there are. It's frank and eye-opening, and it will make for incredible book club fodder. This is suspense writing with a brain, and people are going to love it.
Karl Marlantes's new historical novel is set post WW2 in Finland, a highly unusual setting for a story. When dignitaries from Russia and America decide to have a friendly cross-country ski race, it explodes into a dangerous situation in which their wives must attempt to alter events to save their lives. From domestic drama to espionage to outright thriller, this novel takes your imagination on a wild ride. the ending is quite moving, and Marlantes does what he does so well -- exposing the reader to characters and worlds they have never imagined.
The Expectant Detectives is a delightful cozy mystery, full to the brim with British wit and humor. When Alice and her husband move to a small town to get out of London, she joins a group of pregnant women in a pre-natal class...only to have the owner of their meeting place get murdered while one is having her baby! The women are varied and diverse, and the mystery rolls along at a good clip. I admit it, I laughed several times aloud. Bring on the next book in the series -- "But don't bring Helen!"
YOU ONLY CALL WHEN YOU'RE IN TROUBLE is Stephen McCauley's new big hug of a novel, a continuation of his examinations into 21st Century family dynamics. Dorothy is a bit flighty and, in later middle age, is being taken advantage of by a self-help guru while exposing a family secret; her daughter, Cecily is having trouble with her boyfriend's mother-in-law and is being investigated in a Title IX examination about misconduct involving one of her students; Tom is her uncle, Dorothy's brother and great protector, who finds himself struggling with his own career and love life as he balances all the juggling balls of his family's troubles. It's warm, sweet-natured, and feels like Ann Tyler and Stephen Rowling had a literary baby. The pages turn ridiculously quickly, and you truly fall in love with the characters. A delight!
THE FROZEN RIVER is, simply, Ariel Lawhon's best novel to date. Based upon a true woman, a midwife in Maine in post-Revolutionary times, who never lost a mother in over 1000 births. Focusing on one brutal Winter, FROZEN RIVER tells the tale of Martha Ballard, the aforementioned midwife, and her trials during this time period, especially upon the murder of an accused rapist in the town. Part historical novel and part mystery, this is a compulsively readable book, and I found myself staying up until way past my bedtime to find out how it all ended. Extra points for the afterward that explains all the real history and what was fictional creation. I loved it!
THE MYSTERY GUEST is a delightful sequel to Nita Prose's THE MAID, and I couldn't have been more charmed. Molly has been promoted to Head Maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, but when a mystery writer drops dead in the tea room, her memories of man bring back her troubled past. It's a clever mystery, and it broadens Molly's scope s an amateur detective. I truly enjoyed every page and hope that there may be a third!
In DAY, author Michael Cunningham splits a story of a fragmentation of a family into three sections, morning, afternoon, and evening on Ap[ril 5th on three consecutive years. In 2019, this family -- a woman, her husband, her brother (who is also beloved by her husband), their two children, and the husband's younger brother, a shiftless artist -- find themselves drifting apart as the brother must move out of his attic apartment, removing a crucial tentpole to their family. In 2020, the pandemic hits and they are isolated apart from each other. In 2021, they must gather again for a heart-breaking ceremony. Cunningham subtly plays with time and the messiness caused by its relative order. He also brilliantly captures a family on the verge of falling apart from every vantage point of each character. It's a difficult high wire act, but the beauty of his prose and his adoration for his humans shines through and wraps this emotional story up (I was a wreck by the end!) with aplomb and a truly lovely denouement. This, like Cunninghams THE HOUIRS and A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD, is a book to reread and treasure.
Ed Park pulls off a Thomas Pynchon-esque tale in SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS. Combining everything from the history of Korea, Ronald Reagan, Friday the 13th, the movie, Betsy Palmer, Marilyn Monroe, Inchon!, Phillip K. Dick, and more guest appearances than you can count, he blends history with art to question the validity of our perceptions of said history. It's a heady mix, and a difficult read sometimes, but it's worth it in the end. I will be thinking about this novel for months and probably also dreaming about it.
ABSOLUTION may be Alice McDermott's greatest novel yet -- and with all due consideration to her other novels, that's truly saying something! Told through a long letter (and its response) from a young, naive wife of a man working in 1964 Vietnam to the daughter of the more worldly woman she becomes friends with, it reveals nuanced levels of characterization seldom seen in popular literature. The writing is stunning, and the fates of these women, lost amidst a culture and war not of their making, is gripping and emotional. One of the best and most subtlly moving of the year.
THE REFORMATORY is a new supernatural historical novel from Tananarive Due is a nail-biting suspense story set in Jim Crow Florida (at the same real-life school as Colson Whitehead's THE NICKEL BOYS -- only Due had a relative killed there!). A young boy is rail-roaded into a boy's reformatory where he can see ghosts. While his sister tries to get him released through legal channels, the warden, a despicable man, sees the boy as an instrument to get rid of the phantoms haunting the school. Allegorical shivers ensue! The final hundred and fifty pages detailing a thrilling prison break will have you climbing the walls! This is an excellent book for readers of horror fiction, literary, or historical fiction, and I think it will please everyone!
THE BERRY PICKERS by Amanda Peters packs a true, honestly-earned emotional wallop! While a family of Mi'kmaq migrate to Maine to pick blueberries, the four year old daughter goes missing, never to be found, and her older brother is devastated by her loss. Wracked with guilt, he goes through life on the edge of fury while she grows up in an overprotective household with an unstable mother, dreaming of a past she doesn't understand. There's no mystery to if she is the kidnapped child, but the novel beautifully focuses on how childhood trauma can follow us through our lives and how we react in different manners to it. Every note rings true in this terrific book, and I can't wait to sell it to people!
Don't go in expecting a step by step chronological history; Mary Beard has shaken up the dusty old texts and given us a splendid overview of the Emperors of Rome. With each chapter featuring a different way of looking at them (feasts, the laws, successions), we get more of a broad, sociological look through the ages, full of tasty gossip and scandals. Beard once again makes history fun, and the stories ramble like you are sitting in the class of an excellent teacher!
STARS IN YOUR EYES is a compelling novel that, at first, appears to be a rom-com about two Black actors who hate each other being teamed up in a new remake of SAY ANYTHING. Then, it deep dives into childhood trauma and how it can psychologically harm you for the rest of your life...this time detailing the way young children are treated in Hollywood. Think of Corey Haim. It gets pretty dark, but it still manages to follow the typical beats of an opposites-attract romance. The characters are well drawn, and I enjoyed the bits of fan fiction and gossip tabloid journalism thrown in to demonstrate how people are often demonized or idol-worshipped on the internet when we do not know these people at all. A smart end-of-summer read! The audiobook features great readers for different parts and a nice use of sound effects.
STARLING HOUSE, the new modern fantasy from Alex E. Harrow, is a book that overachieves in every way. It's a terrific fantasy, a spooky horror novel, a fun look at how disturbing children's literature can be, and a delightful romance -- all rolled up in a beautifully written book. You have a charmingly eccentric female lead, a brooding, scarred hero (?), corporate baddies, and strange white beasts that lurk in the forest. What's not to love? It's so well paced and so much better than it has any right to be! I adored every page and wish it was even longer.
RED RABBIT by Alex Grecian is a rollicking supernatural adventure, a horror novel and a western all rolled into one crazy ball. When a bounty is placed upon a witch's head in post-Civil War Kansas, a ragtag group of misfits gather to take her on....or do they? On their journey to destroy the witch, they will run into cannibals, demons, and weird little kids, but it all comes together with a truly great ending, tied together with a bloody bow. Fans of horror will eat this up!
If Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams wrote a story for the Marvel Universe, and made it a bit raunchier, STARTER VILLAIN would be the result. This hilarious and heart-warming tale begins with a young man inheriting his late uncle's business -- only it happens to be the business of a supervillain, complete with volcano island lair and spy cats! Only, the dolphin sentries are unionizing, his home has been destroyed, and every other super-villain wants him dead. It's a rollicking romp and more fun than it has any right to be! Hugely enjoyable.
NORTH WOODS, the new novel by Daniel Mason, is an amazing achievement in literature. Two pilgrim lovers run away from their settlement and build a house in Western Massachusetts. We then follow the house through the centuries as each chapter details different owners, each written in an entirely different style, from a doctor's notes, to pulp detective fiction, to songs, poetry, and literary fiction. There are ghosts, murders, mental health issues, and, always, the effect of the surrounding nature and wilderness. This book does a beautiful job relating exposure to nature and its psychological benefits, but it is so much more than its many bits. The finale, which stretches from modern times and into the future, is a lovely epilogue on this stunning read. The photographs and maps are the icing o the cake, making this one of the best novels of the year.
THE GOLDEN GATE by Amy Chua is one of the best mysteries of the year. I was immediately caught up in the story of a murder in a hotel, the biracial police detective trying to solve it, and the three young women...one of whom is probably the killer. The character work is detailed and wonderful; the historical setting (1944 California) is both glamorous and chilling; and the mystery is a real banger! Fans of classic detective fiction -- Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler -- will find much to love here, but I think almost anyone would enjoy this book.
WELLNESS confirms the masterful writing of Nathan Hill after his success with THE NIX. This new novel follows a relationship from its beginnings to marriage and children, but in a non-linear manner that requires attention to details. This isn't a book you can skin, as it's full of big ideas -- from children and parents, to health and mental wellness, responsibility and obligation, art and science, history and optimism. All of these concepts are tackled in the way of telling a simple (ha!) story of a boy and a girl who meet and fall and love and try to build a good life together. But what is a good life? Good for whom? What do we owe to ourselves and our partners? It's heady stuff, but the writing is always fluid and often very funny. It's challenging, but it's oh so worth it.
THE SQUARE OF SEVENS by Laura Shepherd-Robinson is the kind of epic, dreamy novel you get lost in, the kind that envelopes you so you forget everything around you. . . and then the author starts the twists and turns and the reader is left with their jaw dropped to floor in astonishment, wanting to read the whole thing again to see what clues they missed! It's an elegant historical mystery set in the mid 1700s in England, in which a young female fortune teller insinuates herself into a wealthy family in order to discover who her mother was and why she was abandoned. Thus begins a rollicking story of intrigue, sexual liaisons, family disputes, lies, and cartomancy. This is the most fun I have had reading a book this year (and maybe last year as well), and I cannot wait to sell it to customers. Please, S & S, bring more Laura She[herd-Robinson to American shores! I need to read them all now.
McBride brings us another beautifully crafted novel using his distinctive voice, and it's a true gem. When a Black deaf boy is accused of assault, the Jewish/African-American community of Pottsville, Pa. works together to free him from the asylum where he is being held. Tragic, sweet, very funny, and often heart-breaking, McBride brings a distinct voice to each character in the community . . . and these are some true characters! I loved it!
WHALEFALL is THE MARTIAN meets JAWS, and it's a full-throttle E-Ticket thrill ride from start to finish. A young scuba diver, searching for the remains of his father a year after his suicide, is swallowed accidentally by a sperm whale. He has one hour of oxygen left, and the whale could dive to terminal depths at any time. This is exciting and ultimately moving story of sons and fathers...and one amazing whale. This could be the sleeper hit of the summer!
Ann Patchett brings us another lovely look at family life with TOM LAKE. A mother on a farm relates the story of her summer playing Emily in OUR TOWN in a summer stock theater and the man she loved who would later become a film star. It's a beautiful tale about regret and the theater, as well as a reminder that we never know our parents as well as we should. They have so many stories to tell! Patchett loves her characters with a passion and it shows on every page. Just perfection!
MY FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR! SPEECH TEAM is the new novel from the author of Christadora, and it is a wildly different kind of book! 25 years after high school, the surviving members of a speech team are shocked by the suicide of one of their own. . . and even more shocked by the revelation that their coach/teacher had been viciously cruel to all of them, damaging each of them while still very younf and impressionable. They take to the road to where he has retiured in Florida (naturally) to confront him and achieve a sort of closure. The book is witty, funny, very sweet, and it never quite goes where you expect it to. this reads more like a whip-smart variant of The Breakfast Club than Christadora, but it retains Murphy's delicate touch with characters and his warm love of humanity. You will devour the book and enjoy every sweet moment!
SOMEBODY'S FOOL is Richard Russo's best novel in many years, keeping me reading until 3:00 AM and providing quite the Book Hangover the following day...but I just couldn't stop reading! Focusing on a lovable group of blue-collar workers, moms and dads, sons and daughters, this book revolves around the discovery of a suicide in an old warehouse and the mysterious visit of a young man to town. Stories weave in and out of these main tentpoles, and the book just gets better and better as all the tales begin to constrict into one main storyline. Russo really gets into the heads of these characters, and the reader loves them so much they want to reach into the pages to help them. r at least give them a big hug. This book is heart-breaking, funny, delightful and full of people I recognize and love. Chef's kiss!
THE ST AMBROSE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS is a not-to-be-missed new mystery from Jessica Ward, and, seriously, you don't want to miss this one! As much a novel about bullying and its results as a story about what it's like to struggle with mental health issues as a first-rate whodunnit, this one pleases on many levels. I seriously couldn't put it down!
In THE LIBRARIANIST by Patrick DeWitt, we meet Bob Comet, a man who loves to read, preferring the comfort of adventures in books to those in real life. When he begins helping out at a senior center, he makes discoveries about his own life, and the reader is graced with two adventures Bob experienced but never really understood -- when he ran away from home and joined a theater group and when his marriage collapsed when his wife ran away with his best friend. Poignant, sweet, and filled with gorgeous and quotable writing, this novel embraces the joys of a life lived on the sidelines, libraries and librarians, and the pleasures of experience vs. the pleasures of reading about those experiences. It's a delicious book, and I'm certain it will be discussed many years from now as a classic of its kind. It doesn't get much better than this.
THE ART THIEF is a fascinating look into the mind of one of the most successful art thieves in history, a young man with a backpack and a girlfriend who enables and helps him. It's a terrific psychological study of the mind of someone who loves art and beauty more than anything, a true aesthete. but it is also a look into how he was found and how laws changed because of him. A fascinating true crime/art history tale that is all the more compelling becuse it is true!
LUCKY RED by Claudia Cravens is a sensual novel in the best way, a feast for all the senses as she draws a meticulously created vision of the Wild West. This time, the viewpoint is of a woman, a prostitute, who falls in love with a female gunfighter. All the Western tropes are here, but they are skewed in such a way as to seem very new. And there are a couple of twists near the end that are bone-rattlingly good. You'll fall in love with Spartan Lee, just as Bridget does!
ALL THE SINNERS BLEED is S.A. Cosby's best thriller yet. . . and that's saying a lot coming from someone who loved RAZORBLADE TEARS as much as I did! This story of a Black sheriff in a town in Virginia -- a town ripped apart by a horrific crime -- is an edge-of-your-seat thrill fest and also a great character study and examination upon what it means to be Black in the American South. A shooter kills the most-beloved teacher in school before being shot by the police, but there are layers of secrets determining the young man's path to violence, and a lot of people don't want the sheriff to get too close to the truth. I was screaming at the book as I furiously turned the pages. This is absolutely incredible, and tied for first place for best mystery/thriller of the year for me.
Claire Fuller never writes the same book twice, and she also never disappoints! THE MEMORY OF ANIMALS follows a disgraced marine biologist, Neffy, who signs up for the human testing of a vaccine to stop a terrible pandemic. When she awakens from the test, she discovers a world where the virus mutated into something so virulent it kills most of the people in the world, leaving her and a few other people in the testing site building. With no future to look forward to, she escapes into the past via a prototype machine that triggers memories. With increasing tension and riveting suspense, Fuller ratchets up the plot as we dive into Neffy's psyche. This is a brilliant novel about what we sacrifice for others, why we sacrifice for others, and how our memories can change depending on circumstance. there are also octopi! Incredibly moving and one of the year's best.
The next time someone asks for something different, I will tell them all about OPEN THROAT by Henry Hoke. This novel tells the story of a mountain lion living beneath the Hollywood sign, protecting a tent community, who is forced down into the Valley of "ellay" to interact with humans and become domesticated. But can you ever really want to eliminate the bestial, animalistic side of an animal? Would you want to? The novel takes place over short thoughts of the mountain lion and bits of human dialogue overheard as it stays hidden, and this animal is one vividly drawn character! It's a precarious balancing act as Henry Hoke juggles humor, horror, and philosophical all in the air, never dropping a ball. This little book could be a huge cult novel!
THE WISHING GAME by Meg Shaffer is utterly delightful and completely charming in its tale of a reclusive childrens book writer inviting four contestants to his island to compete in riddles and games for exclusive rights to the final book in the series. All of the ingrediants are here for a good time:
1. Reclusive childrens book author
2. hot illustrator looking for meaning
3. a kindergarten teachers' aid trying to adopt a troubled child
4. A setting filled with humor, mystery, and tough mental competitions.
5. A beautiful Maine island
The story moves at a swift pace and the characters are immensely likable. For anyone who loved books by Matt Haig, TJ Klune, or Gabrielle Zevin, or Erin Morgenstern -- I have discovered your next obsession. this is the fun book of the summer!
BIG GAY WEDDING by Byron Lane feels like a big hug in the middle of a terrible time. It's the story of a gay wedding taking place on a farm for retired, elderly animals where the mother of one groom is a Louisiana farmer who wants to support her son but has issues with his being gay and the other Mom is a Manhattan socialite alcoholic. Will the mothers reconcile their differences in time for the wedding? Will protesters and vandals put a stop to the nuptials? Will that elderly goat named after a Seinfeld character stay alive until after the wedding happens? The novel is smart, fast-paced, sweet, funny as heck, and understanding of differences in viewpoints across the country. I really rooted for these people who seemed like family by the bittersweet and lovely ending
Anne Berest's mother received a postcard in the mail with four names written upon it -- the names of her maternal grandparents and her cousins who all died at Auschwitz. In her novelization of the true events that followed, Berest details the investigation she undertook to discover who sent the card and why, and it is gripping reading. It's not just the story of two women discovering their Jewish heritage and following clues to discover how one family member survived WW2, but it's also the story of a people and the horrors perpetuated upon them. It also reads as a forewarning to our current anti-Semitic climate. It can be a harrowing read, but there is also hope and, as the tale opens up and the focus shifts, a beautiful sense of familial love and tradition. This is, simply, a great and important novel.
Abraham Verghese returns with his new novel, THE COVENANT OF WATER, and it is a magnificent book, both personal and epic, but always enthralling. Following one family that is cursed to lose someone to drowning within each generation, the novel sweeps you up in the history of India as well as the evolving science of medicine that may cure the families of their 'condition.' Characters are vividly brought to life and their world --both sad and joyous -- is brought to life with exquisite prose. This one knocks it out of the ballpark!
THE FERRYMAN by Justin Cronin further cements the author's sterling reputation for literary genre fiction. In a world where everyone lives on an island and the poor tend to the needs of the rich, everyone is removed to a nursery when they become old or sick and surgically altered into sixteen-year-olds with the minds of children. Some f these "newborns" begin to remember past lives as dreams and the poor are growing resentful toward the wealthy...and soon, rebellion breaks out. It's extremely weird and odd at first, but once the reader begins to understand what is really happening, it becomes one of the smartest, most exciting sci-fi novels in ages. It's really that good! Fans of the film INCEPTION or the series ALTERED CARBON are going to love this new, literary event novel!
GONE TO THE WOLVES reminds me a lot of TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW if you took the small group of friends obsessed with video games and replaced their interest with heavy metal music. And went way more hardcore with it! We follow three young people from broken and or abusive homes as they discover their shared love of heavy metal and attempt to live within that subculture. The characters are beautifully drawn, there is humor amongst the despair, and the author has a real knack for bringing the reader into that world. I could feel the bass in my chest at moments! The third act may veer into thriller territory, but it's still a wonderful read that will surprise many people with its depth.
SMALL MERCIES is, to put it simply, Dennis Lehane's best novel to date. It transcends everything he's done before it, and it's destined to be a best-seller. Mary Pat is a Southie resident, Irish, a mother, and a racist. When her daughter disappears on the same night a young black man is found dead on the Columbia Station train tracks, she launches an investigation and leaves a trail of vengeance as she discovers her life -- and her child's life -- has been built on a web of lies. At the same time, a young cop investigating the death of the man on the tracks, crosses path with the force of nature that is Mary Pat. This is a tale of racism and hatred, of family and parental love, of violence and the blind eye we turn towards the evil men can do if they are 'one of our own.' And you cannot put it down! I read through my New Year's Eve to finish it, and the final half simply took my breath away with its action and its lucid, clear-eyed view of our clouded world. The writing is the kind you stop people and read passages aloud to them, but this never slows down this perfectly paced novel. All I can say is, "What a book to start this new year!"
HE WAGER is a new narrative history from David Grann, and it's a gripping read! Detailing the story of a shipwreck, a mutiny, and murder, this book reads like fiction, like a terrific Hollywood blockbuster (move-makers, are you listening?) A raft of survivors sweep onto the shore of Brazil in 1742, claiming to be the last 30 men left alive after a shipwreck and being marooned on an island. They are declared heroes and return to England...until another raft washes ashore in Chile. These survivors claim there was a mutiny, and the heroes are actually the villains! It's a fantastic forgotten bit of history full of colorful characters right out of a Patrickl O'Brien book! This one is great for anyone who enjoys history or sea stories...or even true crime!
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.Victor LaValle brings us another brilliant genre mash-up with LONE WOMEN, an historical noel/horror novel/dark fantasy/ feminist Western! When a woman burns down her parents' farm along with her dead parents inside it, she takes only a large trunk as she becomes a homesteader in Montana. What's in the trunk and why do people tend to disappear wherever she goes? My lips are sealed, but noy is it a surprise! Lavalle introduces so many vividly drawn characters that it's hard to pick a favorite, and the story is exciting and violent, yet still sensitive and respectful. i loved every page!
I just finished reading Eleanor Catton's second novel (after her Booker prize winning THE LUMINARIES), BIRNAM WOOD, and I may not sleep tonight, as my breath has just been whooshed right out of me. This is the story of an anarchist group of activist gardeners who make a deal with a billionaire green capitalist...and one of the most vile and despicable people who ever lived. Catton really gets into the heads of her characters, slowly allowing the reader into their thoughts and hopes and aspirations. She also somehow, despite the philosophical manner of her writing, tells a truly gripping story as the plans all start to unravel and people start dying. I dare you to stop reading during the final 100 pages! It's also laced with morbid humor and barbed jabs at both capitalist society and the young people who want to bring it down. This one is thoughtful, suspenseful, scary, funny...a world of emotions in one book. I thought I was reading a great novel as I proceeded, but then, when I reached the startling, horrifying climax of the novel, I knew I was reading a future classic. You can't miss his one, folks. It will have you talking for weeks.
The best thriller of 2023 has arrived only ten days into the year! EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper sings with blistering violence and energy and you will stay up all night until its breath-taking conclusion. I've never read anything quite like it, some love child of James Ellroy, Andrew Vachss, Michael Connolly, and Joe Lansdale...and yet entirely new. We meet Mae, a black-ops PR Rep who takes crae of Hollywood's dirty work. If someone O.D.s in your house; if you are discovered with underaged lovers; if you have a kid who likes to burn things...Mae and her team will cover it all up, bury it in lies and viral social media half-truths. Only, Mae is growing a conscience and she can't do it anymore when a young girl becomes the focus of her bosses. It's a brilliant, twisty plot and nothing goes as expected. the writing is as sharp as a blade and the dialogue is advanced Noir-speak. It will take your beath away!
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