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.
Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close
Bud and Rose Sullivan founded the family restaurant, JP Sullivans in 1979, and in 2016 on the cusp of a great upheaval in American politics and in the midst of another angst-ridden go at the World Series by their beloved Chicago Cubs, the elder Sullivans are ready to retire and pass on the restaurant to their children. But will they want it?
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.
Reeling by Sarah Stonich
Stonich has a gift for revealing vulnerability in the most unlikely places. RayAnne’s first interview in New Zealand is with Ellie Mann, a tough-talking, tuna trawler captain who puts her to work throwing bait out the back of the boat. Donning a helmet with a visor to protect her from the fish frenzy that follows, RayAnne feels an unfamiliar squeamishness at reaching into a pail of live bait.
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.
Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen
Carl Hiaasen has a long career as a journalist and his fiction has often reflected his concern about climate change and invasive species in Florida, but he coats his commentary with a huge dusting of comedy. Hiaasen’s books seem to pick the easy targets – cultural and social commentary on the outrageous extravagances of the twenty first century – whether that be reality television, politics, or overdevelopment and its impact on our environment – it is a truth to be acknowledged that you can’t make this stuff up. But yet, Hiaasen does. Mocking cultural icons and putting an air hose to the absurd— the President has a tanning bed tester instead of a taste tester, for example – Hiaasen knows how to make us laugh, so that we won’t cry.
Early Morning Riser
I cannot recommend EARLY MORNING RISER enough. EARLY MORNING RISER brims with love and hope and humor. Heiny redefines family in this enchanting novel and I felt my heart lifted from the heaviness of the past year. Her characters are complex and quirky – they’re your mother, your brother, or your neighbor – they are just like all those complicated people you encounter on a daily basis. Whether you live in a small town, or your village of people is in a big city, you’ll recognize them and after reading EARLY MORNING RISER, you’ll find the things that may have previously annoyed you, endearing. Heiny is like that – through her lens, you’ll see things differently.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
McBride shows deep affection for his characters – whether they be the Latinx or African American residents, the congregants of the Five Ends Baptist Church, the Italian mob, the cops investigating the crime, or King Kong- addled Sportcoat – under McBride’s watchful eye, they are all redeemable.
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
We Ride Upon Sticks is packed full of 80’s pop culture – from big hair to sugary breakfast cereals to blockbuster movies. The humor, the historical references, the creative plot, the empowerment of teenage girls, the push back against traditional gender roles . . . these things worked for me. Quan Barry is hilarious; her comedic timing is spot on. Her cultural references are the fun ones – the Kool Aid- dyed hair and shellacked bangs that defied gravity. One of the mothers sports shoulder pads “bigger than anything the New England Patriots’ offensive line ever wore.”
Fishing! by Sarah Stonich
Sarah Stonich is at the height of her powers, having fine-tuned her comedic voice with Vacationland and Laurentian Divide. Fishing is laugh-out-loud funny, but don’t be mistaken – Stonich will take you into the deep. Her understanding of the complexity of family, dysfunctional relationships, and difficult people make Fishing more than a feel-good read. The best part – we can expect book #2 in the series in the near future.
