Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: 3 Recommended Novels

As I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon, the snow is falling (we're up to about 3 inches now), and we're waiting for the Super Bowl to begin. It was great day to stay inside: we read a little, played some cards, and listened to music.

In case you couldn't guess, we're rooting for the Eagles in my house. I spent most of the weekend baking and preparing sinful snacks (read: fatty and salty) to go with the copious beer that I'm sure we and our friends are going to consume as we cheer our state's team on to victory. (By the time you read this, you'll know if we're smiling or crying.)

My busy editing season is creeping up, but I managed to finish three books and break up with a fourth.

I finally read the newest book in the Invisible Library series. In The Lost Plot (Ace, Jan. 9), Genevieve Cogman keeps the characters and plotting fresh and promises many more adventures to come. In this outing, Irene Winter and her assistant, Kai, must visit an alternate 1920s New York City to obtain a book that is being used by a dragon queen for her own political games. I loved the way Irene reaches into her bag of many skills and talents to outwit the mob, the crooked police, and warring dragons while protecting a fellow librarian and saving her own life. I also love the ending of this installment, which will take the series into new territory. The Invisible Library books breath new life into speculative fiction: part paranormal, part steampunk, part alternate history, part mystery plus adult characters in adult situations. I'm sad I have to wait another year for book five. A note on the audiobooks: As you know, I recently reread the first three Invisible Library books via audiobook. Susan Duerden narrates the series (produced by Audible Studios) and does a decent job. My only complaint is that her performance sometimes toes the line of overdramatic, making me forget these books are not middle grade fantasy but adult stories that often address adult themes. I'm not sorry to have listened to the audiobooks, but I was happy to return to print. (Thanks to the publisher for a review copy.)

Here's a book for your best of 2018 list: The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara (Ecco, Feb. 6). Set in New York at the dawn of the AIDS epidemic, the book focuses on four transgender or gay teens who escape their homes looking for acceptance, love, and a future. Cassara personalizes the Latino ball scene and exposes the indignities and cruelties suffered by this population of men and boys who want nothing more than to be themselves, some hoping to escape their birth gender. Undereducated, without resources, and finding it difficult to pass as straight, so many of these boys see prostitution as their only recourse. If they're lucky, they'll find shelter in a house run by a more experienced queen, who tries to protect them, feed them, and support their true natures. But even with friends and lovers, too many of these individuals succumb to disease, poverty, drugs, and violence before they've even had a chance to truly live. Angel, Venus, Juanito, and Daniel's stories broke my heart and opened my eyes. I'm so glad I took a chance on this book--based on true events--and I can't recommend it enough. I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Harper Audio; 15 hr, 35 min) read by Christian Barillas. My full audiobook review will be available from AudioFile magazine, but let me say here that Barillas's respectful and brilliant performance is unforgettable.

Set in 1879 Albany, New York, The Winter Sisters by Robin Oliveira (Viking, Feb. 27) is the story of two young girls who disappeared when trying to walk home from school after a massive spring blizzard. Readers learn the fate of the sisters fairly early on, so this complex mystery focuses less on the girls and more on the identities of the men who kidnapped them. Woven throughout the novel are feminist issues that still haven't been fully dealt with almost 140 years after this story takes place. Although the current #MeToo movement has given some women courage to speak out, teens, children, the poor, and women of color are still very much without a support system, and for them, rape trials haven't advanced much since the nineteenth century. One of the disturbing facts I learned from this book is that the age of consent at that time was 10 years old, and so a preteen girl could be blamed by a defense attorney for her own rape. The mystery was well done, and the ending wasn't completely predictable, though I had one of the bad guys pegged midway through. I also enjoyed revisiting Oliveira's previous character Mary Sutter, who has her own problems as one of the few licensed female physicians of the era. I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Penguin Random House Audio; 16 hr, 36 min), read by Tavia Gilbert. I'm a big fan of Gilbert's work, especially her characterizations and the way she has of completely drawing me into a story. Her performance here met my every expectation. She enhanced the drama of action scenes, found the emotional heart of the characters, and kept me glued to my earbuds during the courtroom scenes. Recommended in print or audio. (Thanks to the publishers for the review copy.)