What I Read in August 2021

It's been a hot minute since I last wrote about what I've been reading and what's on my reading radar. Today, I'm sharing what I read in August.

I struggled a bit last month and had trouble becoming totally invested in the books I chose. The books are presented here in the order in which I read them; I've also posted these thoughts on Goodreads. Here's hoping September treats me better!

Thanks to the publishers and/or Libro.fm for review copies (digital, print, and/or audio).

The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican (Grand Central Publishing): Hourican focused on the Guinness sisters as a way to examine the post-World War I years in England and the changing rules and social life of the privileged in both Ireland and England. Because this is historical fiction based on real people, other famous individuals of the era make appearances (such as the Mitford sisters). The time span is from 1918 to 1930 and is told through the eyes of a fictional character, a poorish cousin who comes to live with the sisters and be their companion. The author examines the elaborate rules of courting and having a season, the education of girls, women's changing opportunities, marriage, sisters, politics, labor, and the effects of the stock market crash. Worth the read. The audiobook is read by Roisin Rankin, who uses light, believable accents and captures the emotions and moods of the fictional cousin and the sisters.

Noyln by Michael J. Sullivan (Grim Oak Press): I just can't get enough of Sullivan and the universe he has created. I love the characters, the way the different series are linked, the world building, the action, the heartbreak, and the relationships. This book begins a new series that takes place after the "age of" books. I loved meeting new characters, visiting with a few familiar friends, and hearing how others became the stuff of legend. I can't recommend these books more highly for readers who like sagas, fantasy, great characters, and solid plotting. Note that if you're new to Sullivan, you can start at the beginning of any of the series and not be lost. I read the books in order of publication date, but you could also read chronologically, starting with the Age series. If you're an audiobook fan, you'll be happy to learn that Tim Gerard Reynolds is back as narrator. Truly, no one else could possibly be the voice for Sullivan's work. I bought both an audiobook copy and a print copy.

Home Waters by John N. Maclean (Custom House): This is more than the story of a family; it's a tribute to Montana, especially the big waters and the men who influenced both John and his father, Norman Maclean, the author of the novella "A River Runs Through It." In this well-crafted memoir, John tells the true story behind his father's fictionalized account of the Reverend Maclean and his sons, Norman and Paul. He also introduces us to his mother's family, the Burnses. John looks back at his family's history and recounts how he learned to fly fish, how five generations of Macleans have maintained the cabin built by his grandfather on the shores of Seeley Lake, and how Montana itself--with its wildness, waters, and beauty, shaped them all. For fans of his father's famous story, John writes about how the book came to be published by the University of Chicago Press, the factual account of his uncle Paul's death, and behind-the-scenes glimpses at how the movie was made. A beautiful book. For my thoughts on the audiobook, please see my review for AudioFile Magazine.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarity (Holt): This story of a missing sixty-something woman set in contemporary Sydney has some of the hallmarks of Moriarty's earlier work. The book starts with the disappearance of Joy Delaney on Valentine's Day 2020. Then the story looks into to the past, starting with the day about 6 months earlier that Joy and her husband answer their door to a young woman, clearly hurt and in distress. The present and past are revealed by introducing us to the four grown Delaney children and their father. We learn about their youth, their family dynamics, their relationships, their ambitions, and their connection to the sport of tennis. While the mystery of Joy's disappearance (a murder? a kidnapping? a running away?) and who may have been responsible is at the core of the novel, this is really the story of a family. For me, this was only okay. I didn't really connect to any of the characters and never got caught up in finding out what happened to Joy. The audiobook was read by Caroline Lee, who has narrated several of Liane Moriarty's books. Her performance was very good in terms of characterizations and expressive delivery.

Forestborn by Elayne Audrey Becker (Tor Teen): I really wanted to love this book, but it didn't hold my interest in either print or audiobook format. It took forever for the action to pick up, though we know quite early on that this will be a quest / journey type of story. And even when that quest starts, the drama wasn't really there for me. The author drummed home & overemphasized some of the bigger issues of the story instead of allowing us to experience and feel them along with the characters. I quit reading at about 56% in. The book has gotten good reviews and praise from both print/professional sources and consumer/social media reviewers. I'm in the minority.

All's Well by Mona Awad (Simon & Schuster): I picked this up because the audiobook is read by Sophie Amoss, who is one of my go-to audiobook performers. I should have known better, however, because I had mixed feelings about Awad's previous two novels (13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl & Bunny). Awad excels at creating strange situations and unique characters. Miranda, the main character in All's Well, is an actor-turned-drama professor who has been in horrible pain after sustaining an injury that ended her acting career. The plot revolves around pain, Miranda's relationship with her students, a little magical realism ... and I just couldn't take it anymore! I DNF'd at about halfway. Sophie Amoss was *brilliant* -- she absolutely understands where Awad is going and is the perfect narrator for the book. I doubt I'll give Awad another chance, no matter who is performing her next novel.

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead): Hawkins's latest thriller / mystery starts with the murder of a young man who lived in a shabby narrowboat. The larger concern of who killed Daniel and why is revealed through the stories of nosy neighbors, relatives, a one-night stand, and others. Everyone has something to hide or has survived a previous traumatic event. Family relationships are strained at best. Too many unbelievable connections and coincidences and too many characters with too many problems bog down the plot. For my thoughts on the audiobook, see AudioFile Magazine.

The Turnout by Megan Abbott (Putnam): I love Megan Abbott's work and I danced well into my 30s, so I had high hopes going into this thriller centered around two sisters who inherited a well-respected dance school from their mother. Sisters Marie and Dara Durant and Dara's husband, Charlie, grew up together and, in fact, lived together in the Durant family home until a few months before the story opens, when Marie moved out to live in a room above the dance school. It's fall, just weeks before the annual Nutcracker performance, when disaster strikes: there's a major fire in one of the practice studios. Enter a smooth-talking contractor who infiltrates the trio's lives, eventually threatening to expose their secrets and destroy all they hold dear.

The descriptions of the dance studio, the rehearsals, the jealousies, and the competition ring true. The relationship among Marie, Dara, and Charlie was formed when they were still children, all living with the Durant parents and all dancing under the tutelage of the girls' mother. The contractor is creepy and sleazy. It isn't easy to tell who is bad and who is good; you wonder whom to trust. The novel has the bones of a good thriller and held my attention, but I don't think is Abbott's strongest work. The tension gets derailed by too much description and I found it hard to root for any of the characters. The audiobook is read by Cassandra Campbell, who captures the characters' feelings and voices.

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (William Morrow): Set in north London, the story is told from the viewpoints of two very different people. As they get to know each other over their newly discovered love of reading, they provide mutual support and stability at a much needed time. Seventeen-year-old Aleisha takes a summer job at the library only as a means to help her overworked brother and to bring extra money to the household while their mother is experiencing a particularly bad bout of depression. Mukesh turns to reading as a way to keep his connection to beloved late-wife and to forge a connection with one of his grandchildren. When Mukesh gets his first library card, he asks Aleisha for a book recommendation. She doesn't have one until she discovers a reading list tucked inside a returned library book. As the pair reads each of the books on the list, they discover how much reading has to offer and how important it is to let others into one's life. Sweet without being cloying; escape with some good messages. Recommended. The audiobook is performed by Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, and Paul Panting -- there are no weak links here; each narrator delivered on expression, characterizations, and emotions.

Invisible Years by Daphne Geismar (David R. Godine; my personal collection): An important and moving true story of the fate of an extended family during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. Told via letters, interviews, photographs, and more, this is an incredible book. Sometimes emotionally difficult to read. This family story is made all the more important as eyewitnesses to the horrors of the Holocaust are aging and dying. It's nonfiction books like this that keep the true history alive and help prevent revisionist accounts.

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21 Books: Catching Up with Reviews

Here's what I've read since my last check-in. All books were received for review or for a freelance assignment unless otherwise indicated. Where you see "AFM," please check out my full audiobook review on the AudioFile Magazine website. Also note that I've given fuller treatment to some of these titles over on Goodreads.

• Age of Empyre by Michael J. Sullivan (Grim Oak Press, June 2020): This is the final installment of the Legends of the First Empire series. If you like great characters, terrific world building, and good action in your epic fantasies, then you need to read everything Sullivan has written. Better yet, listen to the audiobooks brilliantly read by Tim Gerard Reynolds. (personal collection)
• Pile of Bones by Michael J. Sullivan (Audible Studios, Jan. 2020): This short story takes place in the same universe as the Legends of the First Empire series. If you're a fan, you need to listen to this, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds. (personal collection)
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, May 2020): This is a prequel to the Hunger Games series. I enjoyed seeing something of the background to the games and to Snow. AFM

• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner (St. Martin's Press, May 2020): Set in post-World War II England, a group of very different and differently broken people come together to help preserve Jane Austen's cottage and legacy in Chawton. Deserves the buzz; you don't have to be familiar with Austen to like this book.
• Red Sky over Hawaii by Sara Ackerman (Mira, June 9): This book starts just a day before the attack on Pearl Harbor and is set on the Big Island of Hawaii. It's both a story of young woman trying to understand her late father as well as a tale of doing the right thing and protecting those in your care. It also has some romance.
• Unreconciled by W. Michael Gear (Daw, May 2020): This is the fourth in the Donovan series set on a remote planet in the distant future. I love so much about these books, including the characters and the world building. Even more, though, I like the way Gear explores several issues connected to colonization of a "new" world and the connections between the colonizers and their motherland. As always for this series, I part read and part listen. Alyssa Bresnahan does a great job with the narration.

• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Riverhead, June 2): An excellent novel that tells the story of teenage very light-skinned Black twins who run away from their small Louisiana town to NOLA. From there they lose track of each other as one disappears again, this time to marry a white man and pass into a new world of the rich and comfortable; the other marries an abusive man, whom she leaves to return to her childhood home. The story follows them and their daughters and focuses on the consequences of each woman's decisions. #OwnVoices AFM
• The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon (Forever, June 9): A fun rom-com featuring three Black women who meet when they realize they've all been two-timed by the same guy. Humor and romance mixed with feminist issues. #OwnVoices AFM
• What I'm Looking For by Karen Grey (Home Cooked Books, June 2020): Another fun rom-com, this one set in Boston in the 1980s. A female financial analyst who is trying to make it in a man's world meets a Shakespeare actor who is unsure about his ambitions. Good period details. Well-done audiobook (see Goodreads for more).

• The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson (Ecco, May 2020): A beautiful book that is partly about the natural life of the eel and partly a moving tribute to the author's father. I was surprised and fascinated by what I learned about the eel and loved hearing the stories of Svensson's father. Give this book in translation a try. AFM
• Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev (William Morrow, May 2020): An enjoyable take on Austen's classic novel featuring a chef, a soccer star, and a reality cooking show. #OwnVoices AFM
• Mirgations by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron, Aug. 2020): I wrote about this on Instagram and Goodreads. Set in the not too distant future, this book explores relationships, climate change, and the Arctic tern. One of my favorites of the year. Narrator Barrie Kreinik tapped into the emotional core of the story.

• Death of a Chimney Sweep by M.C. Beaton (Grand Central, 2012): The 26th in a fun, light mystery series featuring a village copper who solves all the cases in a small Highland town. Love the characters, the Scottish setting, and the mysteries. Narrator Graeme Malcolm is a pleasure to listen to. (personal collection)
• The Bothers York by Thomas Penn (Simon & Schuster, June 2020): My favorite way to learn history is to combine listening with reading, which is what I did here. Penn makes the complexities of the War of the Roses accessible, and I'm beginning to get a handle on this period of British history. Roy McMillan held my attention with his expression and sense of pacing, though he could have more clearly distinguished direct quotations from the narrative.
• The Wedding Thief by Mary Simses (Back Bay Books, July 2020): A rom-com on the surface with some deeper themes of family, sisters, forgiveness, and understanding. Some of the characters went a little too far in their antics for my tastes, but all in all fine summer read.

• Killer Chardonnay by Kate Lansing (Berkley, May 2020): Good start to a new cozy mystery series. I liked the details of the Boulder, Colorado, setting as well as the introduction to the characters and premise of the series. The mystery was well presented with good red herrings. AFM
• The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni (William Morrow, April 2020): I read this earlier in the year and forgot to write about it. A Gothic story of a young woman who inherits land and a castle in the Italian Alps from a relative she never knew she had. A dream come true? Not necessarily. Can't say more without spoiling it, but this is one of my favorites of the year.
• When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald (Gallery, Jan. 2020): This is by far my favorite book of the the year right now.  A super coming-of-age story about a young woman who has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Narrator Phoebe Strole's performance is amazing. (See Instagram and Goodreads for details.)

• Death of a Kingfisher by M.C. Beaton (Grand Central, 2012): The 27th Hamish Macbeth mystery gave me all I expect from this series. Graeme Malcolm narrated. (personal collection)
• The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton (Berkley, June 2020): Three women who need change cross paths during the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, which caused much damage and many deaths in the Florida Keys. Loved the period details and was fooled by a couple of twists. AFM
• The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi (Flatiron, Aug. 2020): I had mixed feelings about this book about three women and their children, set in the late nineteenth century in Germany along the shores of the North Sea. Maybe a little too unreal for me? AFM

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10 Books for Your June Wish List

June marks the official start of summer, which means we can look forward to vacations (or staycation, as the case may be), lazy days on the deck or porch, and maybe even some afternoons at the pool or beach. Hand in hand with warmer weather comes more time for reading.

Throughout this month I will be sharing my picks for the week's new book releases. For the most part, the books on my lists are for summer escape reading, though you'll also find a few nonfiction titles mixed in. I also include a few books in translation.

Note: For a variety of reasons, publishers have changed the release dates of many of this season's titles. When I wrote this post, the following books were all set to publish on June 2; check dates before ordering. [This list was postponed from last week; look for the second post on Thursday or Friday.]

Head to the Beach

• The House on Fripp Island by Rebecca Kauffman (Mariner) Setting: South Carolina. What happens? Two families on different sides of the economic divide vacation together. The adults have secrets, and the children are on the brink of change. Before the trip is over, one person has been killed. The novel is introduced by the ghost of the victim, leaving the reader to figure out the clues as the story progresses.
• The View from Here by Hannah McKinnon (Atria) Setting: Connecticut. What happens? Three adult siblings and their families reunite at the family lake house to celebrate their grandmother's 97th birthday. One brother and the sister have led conventional lives, but the other brother has been distant. His arrival, with a woman and her daughter in tow, foreshadows change for the family dynamics--but what kind of change is uncertain.

Read with the Lights On

• Seven Years of Darkness by You-Jeong Jeong (Penguin) Setting: South Korea. What happens? Sowon was only 11 when his father was sent to prison for killing his wife, a young girl, the girl's father, and two security guards before opening a dam and flooding an entire village. Sowon grows up under the shadow of his father's crimes, until seven years later he receives information that could clear his father's name. This promises to be a complex thriller. (in translation)
• The Guest List by Lucy Foley (William Morrow) Setting: Ireland. What happens? What could possibly go wrong at an opulent celebrity wedding held on an island with with iffy cell service? Long-festering jealousies, too much alcohol, and exposed secrets lead to murder. This is a twisty closed-room-type mystery/thriller.

Prepare to Discuss

• The Choice by Gillian McAllister (Putnam) Setting: London. What happens? The choice making up the book's title is multilayered. First, a woman chooses to believe the man walking behind her is up to no good. Second, she decides to strike first by turning around and pushing him. Third, she must choose what to do when she realizes she may have killed him: call for help and face the consequences of her actions or keep walking and live the rest of her life as if nothing happened. What does she do? What would you do?
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Riverhead) Setting: United States; last half of 20th century. What happens? Twin sisters grow up in a small Louisiana town where the black community has been consciously self-selecting for lighter skin tones. After running away from home as teens, the girls make very different choices to escape their past: Stella runs a second time, this time to live in the white world, disappearing from her family forever; Desiree marries the darkest man she can, though ends up back at her mother's house. The paths of the twins may have diverged, but those of their daughters intertwine in unexpected ways. Race, socioeconomics, transgender, love, family, self-identity, and many more themes to think about.
• An Elegant Woman by Martha McPhee (Scribner) Setting: United States; 20th century. What happens? How four generations of women coped with their differing circumstances, reinventing themselves as necessary and informing the lives of their children and their grandchildren to follow. This family saga takes us from the East Coast to the upper Plains, from richer to poorer, from supportive to indifferent as a set of sisters in contemporary times try to understand the lives of the women who came before them.
• Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan (Ecco) Setting: Hong Kong. What Happens? A contemporary Irish expat living in Hong Kong must decide who she really is. While eking out a living teaching English to the wealthy, Ava meets a rich male banker and soon allows herself to become a kept woman, entering a social stratum she could never afford. When he is transferred to London, Ava meets a powerful female lawyer and is soon attracted to her and her lifestyle. When the banker returns to Hong Kong, Ava must decide who she is and what she wants.

Pick Fantasy or Reality

• The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant (Knopf BYR) Setting: alternate Paris; 1828. What happens? After the failed French revolution, Paris is ruled by two courts: that of Louis XVII, which remains indifferent as ever to the plight of the poor, and that of the underworld guilds, who control the people. Nina has found a place in the Thieves Court, building her reputation as a skilled burglar, but when her BFF attracts the attention of the Guild of Flesh, Nina becomes determined to save her friend and the others enslaved by that guild. Action and adventure mixed with themes of class, race, and human trafficking.
• The Inner Coast by Donovan Hohn (Norton) Setting: United States What happens? This collection of 10 previously published essays explores our relationship with the landscape, with our past, and with some of our literary heroes. Several essays focus on water, ranging from ice canoeing to scuba diving, droughts, and the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. In some pieces, Hohn turns to his family, writing about his mother's struggles with mental health and his uncle's passion for collecting antique tools. His discussions of literature include Henry David Thoreau, Adrienne Rich, and even the Bible. Put these though-provoking, prize-winning essays on your reading list.

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5 Coming-of-Age Stories to Read This Month

When deciding which books to add to your reading list, are there themes, genres, or settings you just can't say no to? One of mine is coming-of-age stories. I love following a character as he or she transitions from innocence to reality. There is something about the arc of personal growth that appeals to me, whether the protagonist is a child, a teen, or an adult.

If you're like me, then January is going to be a great month. Here are five books with coming-of-age elements that made it onto my teetering book stack. I hope you plan to add at least one to your own reading list.

The Truants by Kate Weinberg (Putnam, Jan. 28) follows the transformation of Jess, a small town girl who discovers diversity through the friends she makes freshman year at a college in East Anglia. Although billed primarily as a thriller with literary themes (Agatha Christie looms large), this is also a story of how little we really know about other people and what happens when we begin to see them without our rose-colored glasses. First lines:

It’s hard to say who I fell in love with first. Because it was love, I think you’ll agree, when I’ve finished telling you.

Audiobook: Read by Olivia Dowd (Penguin Audio; 9 hr, 36 min)

The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick (Park Row, Jan. 7) is set in New York just over a hundred years ago. Two sisters from a well-off family hardly notice the girls living in the nearby anything-but House of Mercy for the wayward, until the older Luella disappears. Young Effie checks herself into the House of Mercy to look for her sister, only to find that she's alone and that life isn't full of fun for everyone living in the city. First lines:

I lay with my cheek pressed to the floor, the cement cool against my spent rage. I’d screamed. I’d bitten and scratched. Now I was paying for it, but I didn’t care. I’d do it again.

Audiobook: Read by Emily Lawrence, Nancy Peterson, and Amy McFadden (Harlequin Audio; 12 hr, 24 min)

The God Game by Danny Tobey (St. Martin's Press, Jan. 7) is a mix of techno-thriller and mystery as a group of nerdy high school seniors discover a cool game hidden in back reaches of the internet. The more involved they get with the game, the more powerful the consequences, until at least one of them has to begin to balance AI with reality and deal with issues of theology, ethics, and friendship. First lines:

The blue light of the computer screen was flickering on Charlie’s and Peter’s faces, making them look like astronauts lit by the cosmos.

Audiobook: Read by Andrew Eiden (Macmillan Audio; 13 hr, 31 min)

Creatures by Crissy Van Meter (Algonquin, Jan. 7) begins as a young women prepares for her wedding on an island off the coast of Southern California. The story is told partly through her memories and partly in real time, as she comes to terms both with her childhood (raised by a charming though drug-dealing father) and with her present (dead whale on the beach, sudden appearance of her long-absent mother, and fisherman groom possibly lost at sea). First lines:

There is a dead whale. It rolls idly in the warm shallows of this island, among cartoonish sea animals with tentacles, suction cups, and goopy eyes.

Audiobook: Read by Piper Goodeve (Highbridge; 5 hr, 58 min)

We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan (Riverhead, Jan. 14) follows a trio of graduate students enrolled in a low-residency MFA writing program at a prestigious college. During one of the on-campus sessions, their famous-author advisor goes a step too far in the critique of their work, and the students are left with the stark truths of power, art, competitiveness, and love. First lines:

There is no train ride in the world prettier than the one from Penn Station to Albany. Ten of the seventeen people in our class took that train up to the first June residency.

Audiobook: Read by Kristen Sieh (Penguin Audio; 7 hr, 27 min)

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10 best books of 2019

December is almost over and we're heading quickly to Christmas, family time, and the new beginnings that January offers. It's also the time when I share my top ten books of the year.

This year I was surprised by the variety of books that made my list: fantasy, historical fiction, literary fiction, and nonfiction. One book was published in 2013, but all the rest came out in 2019.

How did I pick my top ten? These are books I still remember and still think about. They are the books I connected with, I recommended to family and friends, and I've talked about in real life.

I present them here in what was supposed to be alphabetical order (but oops on the graphic). Links lead to my full reviews (all books provided by the publishers).

• Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (Knopf, May 14): Set on Kamchatka peninsula, this genre-bending novel starts with the disappearance of two young girls and fans out to focus on how a number of other women and girls are affected by the event as well as on life in the remote northern regions of Russia. Audiobook: wonderfully read by Ilyana Kadushin (Random House Audio)
• The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea (Harper, Sept. 3): Set in late-17th-century Iceland, this haunting novel—infused with a bleak landscape and focusing on the edge of change or maybe the edge of changing states—examines the choices a young woman makes after her father suddenly dies and her mother becomes sick. Audiobook: nicely read by Heiða Reed and Smari Gunn (Harper Audio).
• The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life by Doug Bock Clark (Little, Brown, Jan. 8): Written by an investigative journalist, this is a fascinating look into a vanishing culture and how the members of a small Indonesian whaling community balance their age-old traditions with the life in the 21st century. Audiobook: beautifully read by Jay Snyder (Hachette Audio).
• This Much Country by Kristin Knight Pace (Grand Central, March 5): In this memoir, Pace, a photojournalist and one of the few women to complete both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod sled dog races, shares the beauty and harshness of Alaska, her incredible relationship with her dogs, and the emotional journey that has given her a life fully led. Audiobook: nicely read by the author (Hachette Audio).
• Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens (Mulholland, Nov. 12): Set in a small town in the Ozarks, this novel is about the summer a teenage boy learns just how far white men will go to protect the status quo and is everything I love in a coming-of-age story. Audiobook: wonderfully read by Kevin Stillwell (Hachette Audio).
• A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar (Riverhead; July 9): Haunting in its truths, this nonchronologically told novel, set in the Nevada desert, is presented through the eyes of a new adult who is determined to find her friend and fellow waitress, who disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Audiobook: expertly read by Sophie Amoss (Penguin Audio)
• The River by Peter Heller (Knopf, March 5): Set on a river in Canada, this outdoorsy thriller about two college friends on a late-summer canoe trip demonstrates that Heller is a master at creating a creeping buildup of danger, holding it just out of sight so you never quite know where and when or if it will manifest.
• Tin Heart by Shivaun Plozza (Flatiron, March 12). This sometimes rough but realistic novel explores a slice of contemporary life that we rarely read about—life after a heart transplant for teenage girl who tries to find a new normality after a year-long recovery from her major surgery.
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Sept. 10): This historical fantasy combines adventure, intrigue, and a strong female protagonist to create a memorable story of friendship, young and lasting love, coming of age, and betrayals. Audiobook: mind-blowingly read by January LaVoy (Hachette Audio). My top audiobook of the year.
• The Thicket by Joe R. Landsdale (Mulholland, Sept. 2013): Set in turn-of-the-20th-century rural east Texas, this engrossing coming-of-age story shines a light on the dying days of the Old West and follows a teenager determined to rescue his younger sister who has been kidnapped by bank robbers. Audiobook: perfectly performed by Will Collyer (Hachette Audio). My top novel of the year.

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Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: Books I Loved, Books I Didn't

It was the best of two weeks and it was the worst of two weeks. I had to DNF two books in a row, but I listened to what is probably going to be my favorite audiobook (and book) of the year. Ditching books always puts a damper on my reading mojo, plus I’ve been really busy with work.

On a better note, we managed to get to the county fair (and eat all the junk food! Yay!). Plus the weather finally shifted. It’s downright chilly in the evening, and I’ve worn jeans twice during the day. I’m not at all sad, because I love fall and soup and sweater weather. Bring it on!

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Sept. 10). If you like fantasy, adventure, historical and imaginary settings, and a strong female protagonist and if you like stories of female friendship, young and lasting love, coming of age, and betrayals, you must put this book on your list. And if you’re an audiobook fan, then make sure you listen to January LaVoy’s mind-blowing performance (Hachette Audio; 12 hr, 20 min). If this audiobook doesn’t win a million awards, I’ll be very upset. You need all the Januaries in your life. Trust me. At this moment, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is my favorite audiobook of the year and is on my all-time top ten list.

At the turn of the last century, young January Scaller lives in a big mansion in Vermont, where she is more or less treated as a daughter by her guardian Mr. Locke. January’s mother died when the girl was quite young, and her father is rarely home, because he’s an explorer and seeker of the exotic in the employ of Locke. Despite her beautiful surroundings, January’s life isn’t easy, being biracial and raised in isolation. She is strong willed and learns early that the way to Locke’s heart is through obedience. One day, while looking through some of Locke’s priceless collections, she finds a book filled with stories of love, adventure, and magical doors that open into other worlds. The book implies that all is not well, however, because someone is destroying the doors, trapping people in the wrong worlds and isolating the realms. Once a door is lost, it seems that it’s lost forever. What happens when January finds herself believing the stories?

I don’t want to say much more because the less you know, the better. This book has so many levels and such great characters. I was sorry when it ended, but (excuse the pun), I think Harrow might have left the door open for more January adventures. One can only hope. (audio and digital review copies provided by the publisher)

A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar (Riverhead; July 9). I wasn't at all sure what to expect when I started this audiobook (for a freelance assignment). The audiobook starts out with a note telling the listener (1) that the chapters are purposely out of order and (2) that you really do need to download the accompanying PDF. Set in contemporary times in a tiny town in the Nevada desert, the story is told through the eyes of Cale Lambert, abandoned shortly after birth by her mother to be raised by her widowed grandfather. Cale is a studious girl, and her grandfather does his best for her. After high school graduation, Cale gets a waitressing job at the roadside diner, where she befriends Penny, who is a couple years older. Penny is one of those girls who attracts men’s attention and who is a little too worldly for her own good. Cale is still surprisingly naive and quickly comes under Penny’s spell. After an ill-fated night, Penny disappears, and Cale cannot let it go. She is determined to find her friend—dead or alive—no matter what it takes.

As I said, the book’s chapters are all out of order, and though you’d think this would be confusing (especially in audio), the device works and works well. You get hints of the past and future as the story winds through time, from lazy, hot nights watching the stars to dodgy deals and dangerous encounters. The girls ache for something, but what that something is, is hard to say: connection? a get of town free card? a desire to be left alone? A Prayer for Travelers is haunting in its truths, and Tomar has a promising future.

The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel (Gallery Books; Aug. 13). I often say I’m done with World War II books, but I thought this dual-time-period story set in Champagne on a vineyard would be good. In the past, Inès, an orphan from Lille, meets and marries the slightly older Michel, a major champagne maker. Inès feels totally out of her element at the vineyard and in the chateau, but fortunately her best friend from childhood, Edith, lives in nearby Reims. In the present day, Edith’s granddaughter, Liv, lives in New York, is newly divorced, and is at loose ends. When she joins Edith in Paris and then on a trip to Champagne, the stories of past and present collide.

The book is peppered with real events and real people and accurately relates the struggles and dangers of the German occupation. The main driving point of the novel is the relationships among Inés, Edith, and the wine master’s wife (Céline) and Liv’s discovery of the secrets and sacrifices of the past. I enjoyed the story for the most part, but many of the secrets were not all that difficult to figure out, Inés's behavior drove me nuts, and there were parts of the ending that were a little out there. If you’ve read The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah (William Morrow, June 2018), then some of the plot lines (hiding wine in the caves, for example) will seem familiar. Still, this kept my attention to the end. (digital and audiobook copies provided by the publisher)

When You Read This by Mary Adkins (Harper; Feb. 2019). This novel was billed as being perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Rainbow Rowell and is told through blog posts, emails, texts, and other media. It is a story of friendship and family, loss and redemption, and seemed liked something I would like, especially because it involves publishing a memoir. Sadly, I got about 40 pages in and realized I wasn’t connecting with the characters or the plot line. (print review copy provided by the publisher)

The Reckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood (Putnam; Aug 20). This novel is about Zee, who is just trying to heal and find a future after her boyfriend left and she was in a motorcycle accident. While at physical therapy, she meets a young man who claims to be her knight in shining armor—not for romance but for protection. He even talks in Middle English. This is supposed to be a quirky modern-day fairy tale and has received a zillion starred reviews. The audiobook is read by a winning cast, and their performances (the little I heard) were great. However, I barely made it 90 min before I had to bail. The audiobook itself was not to blame; I just didn’t care about any of the characters. (digital and audiobook copies provided by the publisher)

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Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: Fiction and Nonfiction to Read Right Now

Good morning! I hope your week is already off to a good start. I love the cooler temperatures and blue skies of late, even though I'm in a work crunch until after Labor Day and can't get outside much.

The county fair is starting soon, and I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibits (quilts, photography, farm products) and animals (including the horse show). The best part, though, is eating our way through the fair. All the really bad for you but so, so delicious food. We never miss the fair.

As far as reading, I realized the other day that I totally failed on my goal of reading a short story every week this year. Thus I'm not quite sure why I'm starting a new goal, but here goes. I was going through my bookshelves and book piles and saw so many books I really, really wanted to read but never got to. My new goal is to try to read at least two books a month from my personal back list -- whether it's a print book, a digital book, or an audiobook.

Do you also get drawn in by the new and shiny? I hope I'm not alone.

Marilou Is Everywhere by Sara Elaine Smith (Riverhead, July 30). I was attracted to this book because it takes place in Pennsylvania and features socioeconomic issues that are often overlooked in contemporary fiction. Cindy and her older brothers are on their own after their mother abandons them (yet again), leaving no word of her whereabouts. The family didn't have much to begin with, but now food is scarce and the electricity is turned off. When her brother Virgil's girlfriend fails to return after a girls' camping weekend, everyone assumes she simply ran away, leaving behind her half-crazy, alcoholic mother (Bernadette) and rural, nowhere town. Cindy gets her first glance at another kind of life, when she starts to look after the wealthy Bernadette. Soon Cindy begins to feel more at home at the big house--enjoying hot baths, fancy foods, good music, and a full home library--than she does around her brothers. At 14, though, Cindy's choices are self-serving, and she eventually must face the consequences of her behavior. Marilou Is Everywhere is about a young girl who is ultimately forced to do the right thing and the surprising things she learns about herself, her family, and the possibilities of the world. If you like coming-age-stories, you'll like this. The unabridged audiobook (Penguin Audio; 6 hr, 45 min) is wonderfully read by Kristen Sieh, a new-to-me narrator. Her expressive delivery nicely captures all of Cindy's moods, from her dreams to her fears to her everyday getting on with a hard life. (digital and audiobook editions provided by the publisher)

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal (Pamela Dorman; July 23). I don't what I expected when I started this story of two Minnesota sisters who stopped speaking to each other when their widowed father left his entire farm to Helen (the younger), who sold the land to fund her dream of starting a brewery. Helen and her husband grew rich producing light beer in the typical American style, though the company has a hard go of it in the new millennium, as the big producers merge, as the economy sags, and as the craft beer movement takes hold. Edith (the elder) struggled all her life, along with her husband, to make ends meet and raise their children. Edith finds a little success when the pies she bakes for a nursing home win statewide acclaim. However, after her husband dies, and then her daughter, she struggles once again to feed and raise her orphaned granddaughter, Diana. Thanks to the generosity and faith of an IPA brewer, Diana is saved from a juvenile criminal record and discovers her true passion and talent. The story is about how the three women carve out a place for themselves, find redemption and hope, and stay true to their very different natures. Despite the heavy-sounding themes of loss, grief, ambition, and betrayals, The Lager Queen of Minnesota is, ultimately a charming and engaging novel with believable characters whom you want to help and root for. I highly recommend it, even if you aren't a beer lover or a pie eater. The unabridged audiobook (Penguin Audio; 11 hr, 13 min) was read by Judith Ivey, whose performance is terrific. I loved her characterizations and subtle Minnesota accent. (digital copy provided by the publisher; audiobook provided for a freelance review)

The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott (Crown; Aug. 6). Jazz Age, bootlegging, and true crime? Yes, please. Abbott's newest nonfiction account is primarily set in southern Ohio and begins with the Volstead Act and how George Remus, a one-time lawyer, positioned himself to be one of the major dealers in the whiskey trade, making millions selling booze all over America to day laborers, famous politicians, and everyone in between. The story of Remus and his double-crossing wife goes well beyond a single marriage. Their story (and that of the Prohibition Era in general) had far-reaching effects on the U.S. attorney general's office, government agents, law enforcement, criminal justice, plea bargains, and criminal defense. I was surprised to learn that much of what happened to Remus foreshadowed the fates of more famous Prohibition mobsters of later years. The Ghosts of Eden Park introduces us to a host of real-life characters, including U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the highest-ranking woman in the federal government at the time; a young J. Edgar Hoover; and several presidents and their families. Abbott's sense of drama, accessible writing style, and natural storytelling ability brings this well-researched account of Remus's rise and fall to life. I read this book practically in one go.  As a side note: I had a great-uncle who served in Leavenworth for rum running. I got a small thrill when I read that Remus had runners from Toledo. I wonder if my great-uncle (who, I'm told, drove a yellow Cadillac convertible in the early 1920s) was one of Remus's boys. (copy provided by the author)

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6 Coming-of-Age Stories to Read in July

I have a soft spot for coming-of-age stories (don’t we all?). They tend to tease out those strong emotions, as our protagonist comes hard against the end of childhood (or new adult) innocence. As I was looking through my eReader for my next book, I spotted a half dozen novels coming out this month classified as coming-of-age. I’m not completely sure which one I’ll read first, but here are my choices.

I was attracted to Lara Williams’s Supper Club (Putnam, July 9) because it’s the coming-of-age story of a twenty-something woman who is facing body image issues, loneliness, and a love of cooking and eating food. When Roberta meets her new best friend—who’s as outgoing as Roberta is introverted—they start an after-hours, eat-till-you-drop, women-only club in which members are encouraged to lose themselves in their passions. It’s wild, it’s fun . . . until, for Roberta, it isn’t. What happens when she truly faces herself? Set in contemporary London, the novel tackles eating, bodies, indulgence, women’s friendship, and (of course) hunger.

I like the way Bianca Marais focuses on tough, real-life issues in her novels. Her newest book, If You Want to Make God Laugh (Putnam, July 16), is about three very different women looking for healing and redemption in post-Apartheid South Africa. Two middle-aged white sisters—one an ex-nun, one an ex-free spirit—reunite on their failed family farm, each running from her past. Meanwhile in a camp for the homeless, a black teenager is trying to find a way out of her pregnancy. When a dark-skinned baby boy is left on the sisters’ doorstep and the girl later shows up seeking a job, the women’s complex emotions surrounding motherhood, choices, the future, and race converge.

I could not resist Alexi Zentner’s Copperhead (Viking; July 9) because it combines two of my favorite fiction elements: how life can change in the second it takes to make a decision and a coming-of-age experience for a teen. Jessup, a high school senior and star football player, has one dream: accept a football scholarship and escape his small-town, white-trash life. Even though his brother is in jail for killing two black men and his stepfather is being released from jail for the same crime, he has hope for his future, until he’s in a car accident and turns to his family’s white supremacist church for help. Just how much can the liberal teen take and can he be pushed far enough to stand up for himself and his own mistakes? Set in upstate New York.

Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells (Simon & Schuster BYR, July 30) takes a different tack. In this new epic fantasy, a quiet young girl must find the strength and wherewithal to rescue her kidnapped girlfriend. Although she’s never seen herself as a fighter, Maren comes up with a scheme to steal one of the emperor’s dragons, but first she must apprentice herself to the dragon trainer. Mixed with familiar fantasy elements (dragons, prophecies, rebellion) are themes of love, growing up, and facing our demons. Set in a fictional world with LGBTQ+ characters. This novel is an Indie Next pick for July, though not every reviewer was enthusiastic.

I love the cover of Goodnight Stranger by Miciah Bay Gault (Park Row, July 30), but that’s not the only reason I want to read this book. This is another novel that mixes some of my favorite themes: family story, thriller, and coming-of-age. A brother and sister live a fairly isolated life in their beach-side home on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts. Their parents are gone and a brother died in infancy, but the pair is doing okay, even if ultra-shy Lucas seems incapable of taking care of himself. When a stranger arrives on the island who seems to know way too much about the siblings and their family, twenty-something Lydia has questions: Who is this man, what does want, and can he be trusted? His presence forces Lydia to reassess the past, risk her relationship with Lucas, face her long-held fears, and confront the stranger with what she learns before it's too late to save herself and her brother.

Now for something a little more traditional in a coming-of-age story, take a look at Sarah Elaine Smith’s Marilou Is Everywhere (Riverhead, July 30).  Cindy and her brothers have, once again, been abandoned by their mother. Although the boys keep half an eye on her, Cindy's mostly on her own. So when her brother’s middle-class girlfriend goes missing, Cindy slips into her place, tending to the girlfriend's ailing and delusional mother, who mistakes Cindy for her own daughter. At first, the teen loves having a stable home, feeling a mother’s love, and discovering how the other half lives. But even at only fourteen, Cindy soon realizes she must take stock of what she’s doing and assess the pull and meaning of her birth family. Set in rural Pennsylvania, this is the story of a neglected girl who finds a home, but at what cost?

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10 Thrillers to Look Forward to (or Find at BookExpo 2019)

Last week I talked about the general fiction I'd look for if I were attending BookExpo this year (starting in just a few days!). Today is all about some of the crime fiction I added to my wish list when I was reading BookExpo buzz and looking through publishers' catalogs.

As you know, I'm a series addict, and I found one or twenty new mysteries to look forward to in the coming months. Today, however, I decided to feature thrillers that can be read as standalones. Like last week, I'll tell you why I want to read each book and then quote from the publisher's summary.

Great Location

To the Lions by Holly Watt (Dutton, Sept.). Why: Features a journalist, includes a conspiracy theory, and takes us to Saint-Tropez and Africa

Casey Benedict, star reporter at the Post, has infiltrated the lives and exposed the lies of countless politicians and power players. Using her network of contacts, and her ability to slip into whatever identity suits the situation, Casey is always on the search for the next big story, no matter how much danger this might place her in, or what the cost might be, emotionally.

Tipped off by an overheard conversation at an exclusive London nightclub, she begins to investigate the apparent suicide of a wealthy young British man whose death has left his fiancée and family devastated. The young man’s death, however, is only the tipping point of a much more sinister and dangerous scandal involving the world’s most powerful leaders and magnates—men who are gathering in Northern African for an extreme and secret hunt. With fellow reporter Miranda and former soldier Ed by her side, Casey’s determined hunt for the truth will take her from the glitz of St Tropez to the deserts of Libya and on to the very darkest corners of the human mind.

The Accomplice by Joseph Kanon (Atria, Nov.). Why: I'm curious about a World War II-based story that's set in South America

Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, Max Weill has never forgotten the atrocities he saw as a prisoner at Auschwitz—nor the face of Dr. Otto Schramm, a camp doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers. As the war came to a close, Schramm was one of the many Nazi officers who escaped  Germany for new lives in South America, where leaders like Argentina’s Juan Perón gave them safe harbor and new identities. With his life nearing its end, Max asks his nephew Aaron Wiley—an American CIA desk analyst—to complete the task Max never could: to track down Otto in Argentina, capture him, and bring him back to Germany to stand trial.

Unable to deny Max, Aaron travels to Buenos Aires and discovers a city where Nazis thrive in plain sight, mingling with Argentine high society. He ingratiates himself with Otto’s alluring but wounded daughter, whom he’s convinced is hiding her father. Enlisting the help of a German newspaper reporter, an Israeli agent, and the obliging CIA station chief in Buenos Aires, he hunts for Otto—a complicated monster, unexpectedly human but still capable of murder if cornered. Unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron will ultimately have to discover not only Otto, but the boundaries of his own personal morality, how far he is prepared to go to render justice.

The Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson (Ecco, Dec.) Why: I like the setting; addresses child abuse in the Church, and super cover

A young nun is sent by the Vatican to investigate allegations of misconduct at a Catholic school in Iceland. During her time there, on a gray winter’s day, a young student at the school watches the school’s headmaster, Father August Franz, fall to his death from the church tower.

Two decades later, the child—now a grown man, haunted by the past—calls the nun back to the scene of the crime. Seeking peace and calm in her twilight years at a convent in France, she has no choice to make a trip to Iceland again, a trip that brings her former visit, as well as her years as a young woman in Paris, powerfully and sometimes painfully to life. In Paris, she met an Icelandic girl who she has not seen since, but whose acquaintance changed her life, a relationship she relives all while reckoning with the mystery of August Franz’s death and the abuses of power that may have brought it on.

Authors I Like

The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld (Harper, Oct.). Why: I loved her first two novels; addresses important issue of homeless children

A year ago, Naomi, the investigator with an uncanny ability for finding missing children, made a promise that she would not take another case until she finds the younger sister who has been missing for years. Naomi has no picture, not even a name. All she has is a vague memory of a strawberry field at night, black dirt under her bare feet as she ran for her life.

The search takes her to Portland, Oregon, where scores of homeless children wander the streets like ghosts, searching for money, food, and companionship. The sharp-eyed investigator soon discovers that young girls have been going missing for months, many later found in the dirty waters of the river.

Though she does not want to get involved, Naomi is unable to resist the pull of children in need—and the fear she sees in the eyes of a twelve-year old girl named Celia. Running from an abusive stepfather and an addict mother, Celia has nothing but hope in the butterflies—her guides and guardians on the dangerous streets. She sees them all around her, tiny iridescent wisps of hope that soften the edges of this hard world and illuminate a cherished memory from her childhood—the Butterfly Museum, a place where everything is safe and nothing can hurt her.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (Atria, Oct.). Why: I'm always attracted to books with family secrets; Jewell is great at suspense

Gifted musician Clemency Thompson is playing for tourists on the streets of southern France when she receives an urgent text message. Her childhood friend, Lucy, is demanding her immediate return to London.

It’s happening, says the message. The baby is back.

Libby Jones was only six months old when she became an orphan. Now twenty-five, she’s astounded to learn of an inheritance that will change her life. A gorgeous, dilapidated townhouse in one of London’s poshest neighborhoods has been held in a trust for her all these years. Now it’s hers.

As Libby investigates the story of her birth parents and the dark legacy of her new home, Clemency and Lucy are headed her way to uncover, and possibly protect, secrets of their own. What really happened in that rambling Chelsea mansion when they were children?

Long Bright River by Liz Moore (Riverhead, Jan. 2020). Why: I've enjoyed her other novels; address the opioid crisis

Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn’t be more different. Then one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don’t speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey’s district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit—and her sister—before it’s too late.

Debuts

Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin (Celadon, Feb. 2020). Why: Uncovering past secrets, understanding the truth of family stories

Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found in a remote spot on a nearby cay, and two local men—employees at the resort—are arrested. But the evidence is slim, the timeline against it, and the men are soon released. It turns into national tabloid news, a lurid mystery that will go unsolved. For Claire and her parents, there is only the sad return home to broken lives.

Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth—not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister? . . . Claire doggedly shadows Clive, hoping to gain his trust, waiting for the slip that will uncover the truth.

All That's Bright and Gone by Eliza Nellums (Crooked Lane Books, Dec.). Why: child protagonist, the Detroit setting

I know my brother is dead. But sometimes Mama gets confused.

There’s plenty about the grownup world that six-year-old Aoife doesn’t understand. Like what happened to her big brother Theo and why her mama is in the hospital instead of home where she belongs. Uncle Donny says she just needs to be patient, but Aoife’s sure her mama won’t be able to come home until Aoife learns what really happened to her brother. The trouble is no one wants to talk about Theo because he was murdered. But by whom?

With her imaginary friend Teddy by her side and the detecting skills of her nosy next door neighbor, Aoife sets out to uncover the truth. But as her search takes her from the banks of Theo’s secret hideout by the river to the rooftops overlooking Detroit, Aoife will learn that some secrets can’t stay hidden forever and sometimes the pain we bury is the biggest secret of them all.

TV Connection

Just Watch Me by Jeff Lindsay (Dutton, Dec.). Why: Lindsay is the author of the Dexter novels, unique setting

A masterful thief plots an impossible crime—stealing the Iranian Crown Jewels.

Riley Wolfe is an expert at disguise and violent when he needs to be. It’s no accident, though, that Riley targets only the .1% and is willing to kill when necessary: He despises the degenerate and immoral possessors of the objects that he steals.

In this series launch, Riley targets an extraordinary set of crown jewels, a heist that will hopefully land him with a sensational collection of heirlooms and leave their owners bereft and embarrassed—or worse. Yes, these jewels are worth millions, but the true attraction for grabbing the jewels comes down to one simple fact: These jewels are absolutely unstealable. There is just no way anyone could get past the airtight security and dream of getting away with even a single diamond from the Imperial Collection. Riley Wolfe has always liked a challenge.

The Chestnut May by Soren Sveistrup; trans. Caroline Waight (Harper, Sept.). Why: Sveistrup is the author of the show The Killing; set in Denmark

If you find one, he’s already found you.

A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a “chestnut man”—a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts—which he leaves at each bloody crime scene.

Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery—a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago. A tragic coincidence—or something more twisted?

To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues. Because it’s clear that the madman is on a mission that is far from over. And no one is safe.

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13 Novels for Your Wish List; Or What to Look for at Book Expo (2019)

For the second year in a row I will not be able to attend Book Expo in New York. I'm not all that upset because the real-life trade-offs I made are well worth it. On the downside, I hate missing the chance to visit with friends, see the city, and eat some good food. I'm also sorry to miss out on learning about all the new books coming out in the second half of the year.

I can't do anything about compensating for missed face-to-face conversations with friends, but I can do something about the books. I've been paying attention to the Book Expo buzz and looking through publishers' catalogues to discover the upcoming titles that I would have looked for when at Book Expo.

I found many good books to look forward to, and I want to share some of my discoveries with you. I'm going to save the thrillers, mysteries, and other crime fiction titles for next week, and I think I'll wait until closer to publishing dates to talk about speculative fiction and nonfiction.

Today, I'm featuring 13 novels that caught my eye. These are nowhere near the only books that interest me, but I'm making a start on my fall reading wish list. In the descriptions that follow, I tell you why I want to read each book and then provide the publisher's summary.

Authors I Like

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday, Nov. 5) Why: mysterious book, puzzle to be solved, non-reality

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.

What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

The Innocents by Michael Crummey (Doubleday, Nov. 12): Why: setting (Newfoundland), the premise

A brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland’s northern coastline. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity. Still children with only the barest notion of the outside world, they have nothing but the family’s boat and the little knowledge passed on haphazardly by their mother and father to keep them.

Muddling though the severe round of the seasons, through years of meager catches and storms and ravaging illness, it is their fierce loyalty to each other that motivates and sustains them. But as seasons pass and they wade deeper into the mystery of their own natures, even that loyalty will be tested.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson (Riverhead, Sept. 17): Why: I'll read anything Woodson writes.

As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody’s coming of age ceremony in her grandparents’ Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the soundtrack of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody’s mother, for her own ceremony—a celebration that ultimately never took place.

Unfurling the history of Melody’s parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they’ve paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives—even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (Ecco, Nov. 5): Why: humor, themes (families, twins)

Lillian and Madison were the unlikeliest of roommates at their elite boarding school: Madison, the daughter of a prominent Atlanta family, being groomed for greatness; Lillian, a scholarship student, plucked out of nowhere based solely on her intellect and athletic prowess. The two were as tight as could be, reveling in their unique weirdnesses, until Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly.

Years later, the two have lost touch, but Madison writes and begs Lillian for help. Her husband’s twin stepkids are moving in with them and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: the twins can spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a disturbing but beautiful way.

Disbelieving at first but ultimately too intrigued by these strange children, Lillian agrees. And as they hunker down in the pool house, Lillian and the twins learn to trust each other—and stay cool—just as Madison’s family is bracing for a major announcement. It all seems impossible to manage, but Lillian soon accepts that she and the children need each other, urgently and fiercely.With a white-hot wit and a big, tender heart, Kevin Wilson has written a most unusual story of deep parental love that proves to be his best book yet.

Diversifying My Reading List

On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl (Riverhead, Nov. 5): Why: setting (American West, 1950s), themes (including LGBTQ+).

Muriel is newly married and restless, transplanted from her rural Kansas hometown to life in a dusty bungalow in San Diego. The air is rich with the tang of salt and citrus, but the limits of her new life seem to be closing in: She misses her freethinking mother, dead before Muriel’s nineteenth birthday, and her sly, itinerant brother-in-law, Julius, who made the world feel bigger than she had imagined. And so she begins slipping off to the Del Mar racetrack to bet and eavesdrop, learning the language of horses and risk. Meanwhile, Julius is testing his fate in Las Vegas, working at a local casino where tourists watch atomic tests from the roof, and falling in love with Henry, a young card cheat. When Henry is eventually discovered and run out of town, Julius takes off to search for him in the plazas and dives of Tijuana, trading one city of dangerous illusions and indiscretions for another.

Dominicana by Angie Cruz (Flatiron, Sept. 3): Why: themes (immigration, feminism. POC), setting (1960s New York)

Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn’t matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.

As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (Putnam, Jan. 7, 2020): Why: themes (race, class, social media), setting (Philadelphia)

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. A mother to two small girls, she started out as a blogger and has quickly built herself into a confidence-driven brand. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night. Seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, a security guard at their local high-end supermarket accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make it right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (Ecco, Oct. 15): Why: themes (race, police violence), setting (LA)

In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it’s been since the unrest of the early 1990s. Protests and vigils are being staged all over the city. It’s in this dangerous tinderbox that two families must finally confront their pasts.

Grace Park lives a sheltered existence: living at home with her Korean-immigrant parents, working at the family pharmacy, and trying her best to understand why her sister Miriam hasn’t spoken to their mother in years. The chasm in her family is growing wider by the day and Grace is desperate for reconciliation, and frustrated by the feeling that her sister and parents are shielding her from the true cause of the falling out.

Shawn Matthews is dealing with a fractured family of his own. His sister, Ava, was murdered as a teenager back in 1991, and this new shooting is bringing up painful memories. Plus, his cousin Ray is just released from prison and needs to reconnect with their family after so many years away. While Shawn is trying his best to keep his demons at bay, he’s not sure Ray can do the same.

When another shocking crime hits LA, the Parks and the Matthewses collide in ways they never could have expected. After decades of loss, violence, and injustice, tensions come to a head and force a reckoning that could clear the air or lead to more violence.

My Kind of Book

Call Upon the Water by Stella Tillyard (Atria, Sept. 17): Why: time period (1600s), themes (engineering, New World, love/hate, women)

In 1649, Jan Brunt arrives in Great Britain from the Netherlands to work on draining and developing an expanse of marshy wetlands known as the Great Level. It is here in this wild country that he meets Eliza, a local woman whose love overturns his ordered vision. Determined to help her strive beyond her situation, Jan is heedless of her devotion to her home and way of life. When she uses the education Jan has given her to sabotage his work, Eliza is brutally punished, and Jan flees to the New World.

In the American colonies, profiteers on Manatus Eyland are hungry for viable land to develop, and Jan’s skills as an engineer are highly prized. His prosperous new life is rattled, however, on a spring morning when a boy delivers a note that prompts him to remember the Great Level, and confront all that was lost there. Eliza has made it to the New World and is once again using the education Jan gave her to bend the landscape—this time to find her own place of freedom.

The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine (Sarah Crichton, Sept. 3): Why: themes (language, twins), other (copyeditor, dictionaries, language)

An enchanting, comic love letter to sibling rivalry and the English language

The Grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret “twin” tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but this love, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Daphne, copy editor and grammar columnist, devotes herself to preserving the dignity and elegance of Standard English. Laurel, who gives up teaching kindergarten to write poetry, is drawn, instead, to the polymorphous, chameleon nature of the written and spoken word. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war, absurdly but passionately, over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition.

The Truants by Kate Weinberg (Putnam, Jan 28, 2020): Why: descriptions (obsession, coming of age, deceit, first love)

People disappear when they most want to be seen.

Jess Walker has come to a concrete campus under the flat grey skies of East Anglia for one reason: To be taught by the mesmerizing and rebellious Dr Lorna Clay, whose seminars soon transform Jess’s thinking on life, love, and Agatha Christie. Swept up in Lorna’s thrall, Jess falls in with a tightly-knit group of rule-breakers—Alec, a courageous South African journalist with a nihilistic streak; Georgie, a seductive, pill-popping aristocrat; and Nick, a handsome geologist with layers of his own.

But when tragedy strikes the group, Jess turns to Lorna. Together, the two seek refuge on a remote Italian island, where Jess tastes the life she’s long dreamed of—and uncovers a shocking secret that will challenge everything she’s learned.

Still Loving Dystopian

The Bear by Andrew Krivak (Bellevue Literary Press, Feb. 11, 2020): themes (nature takes over, father/daughter, survival)

A gorgeous fable of Earth’s last two human inhabitants, and a girl’s journey home

In an Edenic future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They possess a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches the girl how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can only learn to listen.

A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature’s dominion.

The Divers' Game by Jesse Ball (Ecco, Sept. 10): Why: themes (class divide, future, power)

The old-fashioned struggle for fairness has finally been abandoned. It was a misguided endeavor. The world is divided into two groups, pats and quads. The pats may kill the quads as they like, and do. The quads have no recourse but to continue with their lives.

The Divers’ Game is a thinly veiled description of our society, an extreme case that demonstrates a truth: we must change or our world will collapse.

What is the effect of constant fear on a life, or on a culture? The Divers’ Game explores the consequences of violence through two festivals, and through the dramatic and excruciating examination of a woman’s final moments.

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