The Midnight News by Jo Baker
The Midnight News is unlike any other World War II era novel I’ve read. Part love story and part mystery, I found Jo Baker’s plot intriguing, her characters engrossing, and the twist at the end of the novel masterful. A riveting story about resiliency and survival.
The Art Thief, A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel
The Art Thief, A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession is a propulsive read, meticulously researched and compellingly told. I look forward to Finkel’s future books.
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J Ryan Stradal
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE LAKESIDE SUPPER CLUB will feel like home to Midwesterners – grab a stool at the bar and settle in for a warm and witty read.
The Other Family Doctor; A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life, and Mortality by Karen Fine, DVM
Brimful of touching, joyful, heartbreaking, and life affirming tales, THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR is a must-read for animal lovers and pet owners.
Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
BROTHERLESS NIGHTS is an engrossing and heartrending read, and Sashi is a heroine for the ages. Ganeshananthan writes brilliantly about a complex subject, casting a spotlight on the forgotten heroes and victims of war.
The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be by Shannon Gibney
Transracial adoption is never tidy, and cannot be encapsulated in an individual story, but Gibney does a masterful job of helping the reader understand the complexities of identity and the machinations of the adoption industrial complex. A writer with courage and heart, Gibney lays bare her experience for the benefit of us all.
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
THE WHALEBONE THEATRE is a stunning debut – full of adventure and intrigue, Dickensian characters, and a mildewed mansion on the seaside. Joanna Quinn sets the stage for an immersive read, an escape from the doldrums of winter.
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Whether Dani Shapiro is writing fiction or memoir, her writing is always reflective and wise. Signal Fires, her first novel in fifteen years, follows on the heels of her poignant memoir, Inheritance, and, like that memoir, examines the complexities of family relationships and the secrets that bind them together or tear them apart.
Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman
When Joey Green returns to North Carolina to take care of his father who suffers from dementia, his father’s long-lost memories of a murdered friend may implicate him in a murder.
The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar
Dunbar’s writing is evocative and as lush as the forest. Structured in four segments: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer, we watch Elsa flail and falter and then grow in strength and confidence as each season passes. THE NET BENEATH US is about the promises we make and keep – to ourselves and to others – and the profound work of grief – how it cleaves us in two and yet, we live, allowing the days and months and years that pass bind us back together, the two halves of a split trunk like the before times and the after times, joined in the middle by the heartwood.
When Women were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS is an evocative tale about gender, gender roles, and the politicization of history. Barnhill has written a cautionary tale about what happens when women are silenced and their human right to make their own choices is taken from them.
Seven Aunts by Staci Lola Drouillard
Reading SEVEN AUNTS, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for these women and the author’s commitment to truth telling. Drouillard writes with such integrity. I cared deeply about the aunties, and I didn’t want to leave them. Extraordinary women leading ordinary lives; they lived in a world that did not recognize their contributions, but the lessons of their lives changed the world for future generations.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Bonnie Garmus has created characters that mock convention. Elizabeth Zott defies authority, not on principal, but on practicality. She sees the world through safety goggles while her male counterparts just wish she’d put on the rose-colored glasses, form-fitting Donna-Reed dress, and sell the canned soup on Supper at Six. But everything in Elizabeth’s world boils down to science – including making her coffee at home with a Bunsen burner and turning her home kitchen into a lab. You’ll fall in love with her dog, Six-Thirty, one of the most astute and intelligent four-legged narrators in fiction today; Mad, her precocious daughter, who reads Nabokov at the age of five, and interrupts show and tell to ask her kindergarten teacher how she can join the Freedom Fighters in Nashville; and her friend and neighbor Harriet, whom after watching Elizabeth stand up to injustice, finds the courage to leave her alcoholic and abusive husband.
Groundskeeping by Lee Cole
GROUNDSKEEPING is about that messy time in young adulthood when you are deciding what to pack up from your old life to bring into your new life. Cole’s writing belies that of a debut novelist. His characters are complicated and nuanced; their relationships are messy and there are no easy answers. Just like in real life.
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
From the award-winning author of WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE and THE BHUDDA IN THE ATTIC, comes a slim, powerhouse of a novel about loss of identity. In shifting points of view, Julie Otsuka gives us an intuitive look at what it means to lose someone you love to dementia. Brilliant, reflective, compressed, nuanced, empathetic, and global yet intimate, THE SWIMMERS tells the story of a group of obsessed recreational swimmers and what happens to them when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool.
The Leopard is Loose by Stephen Harrigan
In Stephen Harrigan’s big-hearted coming-of-age novel, LEOPARD IS LOOSE, five-year-old Grady’s tranquil world is upended when a leopard escapes from the nearby zoo. It’s 1952 and Grady and his 7-year-old brother Danny live with their widowed mother, Bethie, in a two-bedroom backyard apartment across a small patch of yard from her parents and siblings. For most of Grady’s life, the family compound has created a sanctuary where they could each heal from the devastating trauma of the war.
Opioid Reckoning - Love, Loss, and Redemption in the Rehab State by Amy C. Sullivan, PhD
Dr. Sullivan’s work on behalf of addiction and treatment is remarkable and Opioid Reckoning offers a glimpse into the faces of the epidemic. With heart and soul and considerable scholarship, Sullivan has written a book that offers hope and help for anyone affected by addiction.
A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti
Chakrabarti has a keen sense of timing – oscillating the storyline backward and forward to reveal Jaryk’s motivation, his heart-wrenching past, and his fear of moving into a future as a sole survivor of the orphanage where his story began.
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
In her profoundly moving first novel, THE SEED KEEPER, Diane Wilson tells the story of Rosalie Iron Wing and her family’s struggle to preserve their cultural heritage. Flashing back and forth in time from Rosalie’s present day, to her early childhood, to the lives of her ancestors, Wilson reveals the devastation wreaked by white settlers on the family’s way of life.
Are We There Yet? by Kathleen West
Alice Sullivan has it all – two perfect children, a handsome and successful husband, and a booming interior design business – until suddenly, she doesn’t. In a conflagration of events, Alice learns that her second grade daughter, Adrian, is reading below grade level, her seventh grade son, Teddy, has been suspended for bullying another student, and her job is on the line as she ricochets between parent/teacher conferences and meetings with the principal. Alice’s husband, Patrick, is away on business all week long and only home on the weekends, but her mother Evelyn, a child psychologist, is on hand with advice and unfortunately, a long-held secret that threatens to further unravel Alice’s carefully curated life.