Biography & Nonfiction

To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower by Bret Baier
Very enjoyable biography on President Theodore Roosevelt -what a multi-faceted man he was! First and foremost, the author tells us that Roosevelt was raised by very service-oriented, upstanding parents to believe that the most important thing he could do in life was to adhere to a strong moral code, and so he did. Setting aside the sweet, playful tale about the teddy bear being named after him, we learn about his transformation from sickly child to robust boxer and soldier, war hero, and anti-corruption crusader. Add to that: governor of NY, 2 term President of the United States, supporter of Women's Suffrage, conservationist who protected and instituted our national park system, grew the U.S. Navy, contributor to the Museum of Natural History, explorer, cowboy, orator, prolific reader, negotiator, and father of 6 children. Where did he find the time and energy to do all that? You'd be hardpressed to read about someone with more accomplishments, who is more widely admired, than Theodore Roosevelt. I was disappointed that Baier didn't cover any of Roosevelt's connection with Maine, but this essay by TR pretty much covers it, My Debt to Maine .

Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton
Finally, something good to come out of the pandemic! When the world went to lockdown in 2020, Chloe Dalton retreated from her high octane political advisor job to her home in the English countryside. At first, she chafed under the isolation, but when she finds an orphaned leveret (baby hare), she rises to the challenge of keeping this most delicate of babies alive. Not only does 'Hare' live, but she thrives. Because Dalton resists the urge to make a pet of her, the hare remains wild and leaves at maturation -only to come back of her own accord repeatedly over the ensuing years. Hares are an elusive, undomesticated species (nothing like rabbits, despite the similarities in appearance) whose continued existence is thanks to its being the 6th fastest land mammal. Beautiful recounting of how living each moment, embracing home, and connecting with nature are all keys to a happier, healthier life.

Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means
When Dr. Means talks about the science of nuitrition and exercise, and how that leads to better health, better metabolism, and consequently, a better life, this book is a 5 star book. And, to be fair, most of the book is 5 stars. There is such a clear correlation between what we eat and what we do and the impact of those choices on quality of life. Dr. Means also talks at length about our health care system (sick care system?) and how modern medical interventions for chronic illness (the preponderance of health complaints are of a chronic nature) are subpar, at best. The good news is that diet and nuitrition, coupled with an active lifestyle, can elevate much of those diseases -type 2 diabetes, depression, metabolic disorder, dementia (type 3 diabetes), autoimmune issues, etc.
Where she kind of lost me is when she referred to these healthy practices as 'Good Energy', as if she were proselytizing for a new religion. Particularly towards the end of the book, the science got light and the new age recommendations got very, very heavy. Nevertheless, well worth the read if you're hoping to improve your health, life expectancy, and quality of life!

Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie
I had high expectations for this book, but the science was very weak. Some interesting anecdotes about bears (Paddington is a spectaculed bear!), and some fun facts (for example, there are 35 kinds of canines and 41 felines, compared to 8 species of bear). However, I could have found those things out through random googling. The author vacillated between scolding humanity for not doing more to protect bears and wanting to enchant us with how gosh darn lovable bears are. I found Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law to be much more edifying and engaging.

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
Not quite as captivating as Gulp, but Mary Roach's writing (including footnotes!) continues to be funny and enlightening. Between bears, birds, deer, and big cats (not to mention rodents of all kinds!), it's interesting to hear about how humans have tried to reconcile our lives with animals who don't want to follow our rules. Especially when we read about how often Nature Finds a Way. Adjacent to that: don't think you're ever going to eradicate a species that has a foothold somewhere, it's just not possible.  

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
Phew, 600 pages is a lot to take in about one person. But when that one person is Elon Musk, the verbiage is justified. Truly, Musk is the innovative genius of our time -and he's not done yet. Additionally, his personal life and proclivities add details that are enthralling (although I'm not sure they're particularly enlightening). Abrasive, abrupt, domineering, exacting, and inexhaustible, he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. Is Musk a nice guy? No. Is he a not-nice guy? Sometimes, but that doesn't equate to him being the villain that he is often made out to be.
However, only by reading in depth his list of (ever growing) accomplishments can one truly appreciate the impact Musk has had on the world. And, again -he's not done yet.
Walter Isaacson, a prestigious academic and former CEO of CNN, seems to feel equal parts disdain and grudging admiration for Musk. Should we be able to detect the author's personal feelings for the subject while reading a biography? I guess objectivity, like travel to Mars, remains elusive in 2024.

Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe by Steve Sheinkin
This nonfiction Holocaust survival story follows two courageous Slovakian teens through heinous tribulations during WWII. Rudy is a young Jewish man who attempts to slip through the Slovakia border into Hungary in 1942, in the hopes of making his way to the West and joining the British military to fight Nazis. Unfortunately, he has several setbacks before eventually ending up in Auschwitz. But in a stunning display of wiliness and guts, he formulates a plan to escape from the veritably inescapable camp. His mission isn't personal freedom, but a quest to share the full knowledge of the campaign to exterminate the Jews with the Allied forces. Astonishingly, the Vrba-Wetzler Report, one of the earliest descriptions of the gas chambers and concentration camps, comes from the testimony of Rudy and a fellow prisoner-two men barely out of their childhood.
Gerta is a schoolmate of Rudy's, and while she doesn't end up imprisoned, it's an amazing combination of luck, stealth, and wits that allows her to maintain her freedom, and also join up with the resistance.
Fans of Prisoner B-3087 and Alan Gratz's other historical fiction will find this book engrossing, with the added punch that Rudy and Gerta's story is all true. For more information on what they accomplished, see: The Vrba-Wetzler Report (Auschwitz Protocols).


Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance by Christopher McDougall
Although this was in many ways an astounding story, I could only give it 3/5 stars as it meandered here and there, interspered with anecdotes about distance runners, dieticians, fitness gurus, Teddy Roosevelt, Natural Movement, etc. Mr. McDougall had the right idea, linking the fabulously fit and resilient Cretan freedom fighters with our modern efforts to attain peak conditioning, but -wow. Fragmented and hard to get back into the initial story of British intelligence officers and Cretan freedom fighters kidnapping a Nazi general and crippling the German pivot point needed to reinforce the war effort in the Soviet Union.
I was gratified by the nuggets of information I picked up about strength and endurance training, but I felt like he was trying to cobble together a book-length historical recounting of something that he really only had enough information about to write a generous article.

Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv
 Although Rachel Aviv has found a fascinating assortment of case studies illustrating the pitfalls of modern psychiatry/pharmacology, this is one of those books where the line between fact and opinion is heavily blurred. She starts us with the jaw-dropping account of her psychiatric stay at the age of 7, diagnosed with anorexia. She goes on to include some fascinating statistics (one in 8 Americans is on some kind of psychiatric medication), but the book often feels like a really long article in a pop culture magazine ("Naomi self-identified as a curious person").
The most salient points seemed to be that, despite what might be trending in psychiatric treatment, be it analysis, counseling, or medication, there is not nor has there ever been a cure for mental illness, only a treatment of symptoms. More importantly, what does a 'cure' even look like? Are we all aiming to be shiny, happy people despite what our personality or life circumstances might dictate? Her descriptions of being on Lexapro sound a lot like the rationalizations that alcoholics give for their dependency, too.
Her most important observations seem to be that it's easy, after diagnosis, to become a 'career patient', someone who, even if they were troubled because of a temporary life setback, might see themselves through the lense of a DSM definition in perpetuity.

Running with Sherman by Christopher McDougall
Delightful memoir about a man, a neglected donkey, and an improbable race -and everyone and everything it took to get them there. Chris's narrative calmly sails along, incorporating lessons about the importance of a well-balanced life, appreciating nature and the unique contributions animals give us, and pushing our limits as a way to achieve a healthy and fulfilling life. There are some nuggets in here about Amish life, the Iceman (you'll want to google this guy!), and the beauty of reaching out to those who are struggling with mental or physical challenges. Makes me yearn for trail running, although I think I'll forego the donkey partner!

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again
by Johann Hari
The first half of this book was excellent as it outlined the factors leading to our present inattentive state, such as device addiction, surveillance capitalism and screen inferiority, and how they have effectively led our society (heck, the world) to a place where the average person doesn't have enough focus to sit down and read a book. The antidote comes in the form of Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist who introduces us to the focus state and why that's so important for life satisfaction (and diametrically opposed to social media.) Intriguingly, Hari imagines a future where the wealthier, more educated populace will find the ways and means to regain their focus, leading to a new definition of the haves and have-nots.
Unfortunately, Hari seems to have lost focus, himself, by the second half of the book and meandered into a treatise on socialism that wasn't particularly connected to the points made in the first half. Still, worth the read.

The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew
Wab Kinew's touching memoir isn't really about him, it's about his father, an eloquent eulogy to the man who shaped his life and purpose. Tobasonakwut was an Anishinaabe child who grew up in an era when that meant he would be separated from his family and banished to residential school ('kill the Indian, save the child'). Horrific abuse resulted in Tobasonakwut becoming a very angry and violent young man. Beautifully, Wab doesn't focus on the damage done but on the journey to wellness and forgiveness that Tobasonakwut took for the rest of his life. Tobasonakwut was a very spiritual man and there are detailed passages about how they practice their religion, such as participating in sundances and sweat lodges, as well as their commitment to the Creator. The tremendous power of forgiveness allows Tobasonakwut to grow close enough to a Catholic archbishop to hold an adoption ceremony for him, a sacred Anishinaabe practice.
Wab explains that the title of his book comes from a ceremonial song, and it's one of the loveliest passages I've ever read about our relationship with God:
"Ndede had explained that there are four layers of meaning to these words. They are from the perspective of the Creator, as though God himself were singing to you. the first meaning of "I am the reason you walk" is "I have created you and therefore you walk." The second meaning is "I am your motivation." The third meaning is "I am that spark inside you call love, which animates you and allows you to live by the Anishinaabe values of kiizhewaatiziwin." The fourth and final meaning is "I am the destination at the end of your life that you are walking toward." On that day, the Creator spoke to us all, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, and reminded us of the reasons we walk."

The Ghost Garden: Inside the Lives of Schizophrenia's Feared and Forgotten
by Susan Doherty 

Doherty juxtaposes a running narrative on the life of a schizophrenic woman (Caroline is someone she grew up with) with small vignettes of other schizophrenic people she has come to know as a volunteer with the mentally ill community. A few things stand in the way of this flowing well. For one, it feels prurient to be reading the intimate details about someone's unsavory personal habits or violent actions, especially when they're so ill (this might have felt different if Doherty had more of a medical background). For another, it's impossible to make this an intimate look at a schizophrenic's life because, details aside, they are so far removed from the normal spectrum of life that there's a natural disconnect in trying to get inside their heads and understand them. I think the author tries to do too much here, and made the book a little disjointed. Points for obviously being a deeply caring person who gives much time and love to those inflicted with schizophrenia.

This Strange Wilderness: The Life and Art of John James Audubon by Nancy Plain

Don't you love it when a historical figure ends up being more interesting and quirky than you would have suspected? I chose this book because I have an enduring interest in the natural world, particularly birds, and also artistic depictions of the natural world. John James Audobon's seminal book "The Birds of America" has always perfectly represented that intersection, but I never knew much about Audobon himself. I was delighted to read about this self-taught artist, a paradox of cultured, handsome gentleman and buckskin wearing, rifle toting loner. This quick read highlights his revolutionary approach to cataloguing the birds of America (he managed to paint and describe 489 species) as well as his herculian efforts to be recognized as an expert in the scientific and international communities and share his knowledge and art with the world.

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

This narrative introduces us to the Galvins, a large family of ten boys and two girls in which schizophrenia unveils itself in six of the siblings. Simultaneously, it also chronicles the progress (or lack of progress) made towards identifying, treating, or curing this illness, certainly one of the most damaging diseases inflicting mankind. Kolker does a great job of presenting the family's saga without laying blame or erring on the side of the maudlin. The facts speak for themselves: schizophrenia and other family issues (including some abuse) can arouse nothing but a sense of empathy in the reader, while Kolker also lays out how science has been fluxxoed by the causation and treatment of this devastating mental illness. Although some of the Galvin boys have committed heinous acts, they are also victims. Certainly, we can see that incurable mental illness shreds everything and everyone in its path, from patients to family members to friends and acquaintances. Well written and engrossing account, including the passages outlining the neuroscience of schizophrenia.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

In this fantastic narrative nonfiction about the 1986 L.A. Public Library conflagration, Susan Orleans also weaves in the background of the library and all of its head librarians, as well as the pursuit of the supposed arsonist, Harry Peak. Jam packed with details about the epic burning of the building, history of the library, history of Los Angeles, and modern issues that the public library system must grapple with, my only gripe is that Orleans puts librarians into this quaint, quirky mold (aren't we precious?) instead of presenting us as educated professionals who work hard to be well-informed, organize herculean amounts of print and non-print materials on a daily basis, and manage a broad and often querulous customer base with unparalleled service.
Nevertheless, Orleans is on par with Erik Larson when it comes to telling fascinating, true stories that blend disparate times and events into an entertaining and seamless whole. If you read and enjoy The Library Book, be sure to pick up The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession

Women of the Dawn by Bunny McBride

A must-read if you reside in or visit Maine, this chronicle of four Wabanaki women draws a detailed picture of the lives of the people we usurped when colonialism hit the state of Maine. McBride is excellent at focusing the reader on the humanity beneath the stereotypes and broader societal misconceptions of American Indian culture. She also carefully reveals the unique role of the women in Wabanaki life, and particularly the effect of their loss of family, lifestyle, and land. If anything, seeing that someone quite different from myself (and the average Mainer) in terms of ethnicity and era, still feels the same urges for love and family, nature and connection, fame and success, as anyone else on the planet is a hopeful connection. And the strength of will and body exhibited by the 4 Mollys (Molly Mathilde, Molly Ockett, Molly Molasses, and Molly Dellis) is awe-inspiring. I was left with one question, however, and that is: how is the Maine educational system fulfilling the 2001 legislature requiring the incorporation of Wabanaki history into the k-12 curriculum?
Consider viewing the documentary Dawnland, addressing the removal of Wabanaki children from their homes by child welfare workers. 


The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esme Weijun Wang

I would stress to anyone picking up this book that 1)it is a collection of essays about Ms. Wang's experiences with schizoaffective disorder, not a memoir and 2)this is one person's perspective about life with mental illness, not the definitive guide to schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. As such, it is a fascinating, although somewhat fragmented accounting of how mental illness has impacted her life, and her successful efforts to lead a life filled with love and creativity despite her disease.
There were times when the essays seemed to sort of peter out without really going anywhere, and lots of sidelines about her battle with other illnesses, such as Lyme disease. Also, a pretty strong tangent about the occult, which she wasn't sure she believed in, but found the rituals to be somewhat soothing. The possibility that her delusions and hallucinations were the result of being thin-skinned and therefore receptive to the spiritual realm is a tentative stab at hoping there is a reason for the collected schizophrenias.
The biggest thing I will take away from reading Ms. Wang's account is that, should you be afflicted with a mental illness, it is better to be wealthy and intelligent with a large safety net than to be (as many poor souls experience) poor, homeless, and intellectually challenged.

Between the World and Me by Ta Nahisi Coates

I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. At times, I thought it was brilliant, a passionate discourse on what it's like to be black in America in the 21st century-not an easy road. Some of Coates' observations are revelatory, "Race is the child of racism, not the father" and some were originally attributed to Baldwin, “people who think they’re white", which fits in perfectly with what Coates is saying. Although race is a meaningless construct, when you have an entire segment of the population whose roots are slavery and oppression because someone deemed them property based on the color of their skin, that's not a wound that heals without thick scars. Whether you believe that there are different races or not, the horror of institutionalized murder, torture, and rape remains. As a Northerner who "believes she is white", neither I nor my family have history with slavery (although there are some abolitionists and Civil War soldiers in the family tree). I never worry about my 18 year old son being the victim of police brutality. But for us, the urban culture is as distant as the rise from slavery; I find my gratitude for our peaceful lives is juxtaposed with guilt and anxiety for all the mothers out there who MUST worry about their sons. And, after reading this book, I find myself feeling defensive: all white culture, it seems, must be cut down to size before the black culture can move past the fear and anger toward a more equal, less violent society. After absorbing Mr. Coates' intense rage at the Dreamers (i.e., the whites), I have no hope of this ever happening. Is this the point he intended to make?

Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman

Although this is billed as young adult nonfiction (and, indeed, it reads as a simplified version of the very complex relationship between Vincent and Theo), I would encourage you not to let that deter you from picking this up. It's almost as if Deborah Heiligman has boiled their brotherly interactions down to essentials, in much the same way that Vincent chose not to paint in a realistic fashion, but by emphasizing color and perspective to heighten the emotion within a scene or portrait. Vincent and Theo were united in their struggle to make the world a more beautiful place, whether through Vincent's artwork or by Theo promoting him and trying to bring the recognition that he thought was his brother's due. Interspersed in their journey are vignettes highlighting Vincent's keen intelligence coupled with mental instability, and Theo's fierce loyalty that was undercut by grim financial reality and burgeoning health problems of his own. Much as yellow was used continually by Vincent (it was his favorite color) to add vitality and freshness to his paintings, Heiligman again and again comes back to the selfless love and support that the brothers shared for one another. After you read this enchanting book, be sure to watch Loving Vincent, an animated film about the year after Vincent's death in which all 65,000 frames are painted in oils imitative of Van Gogh's style. Two beautiful odes to two beautiful souls!

Deep Dark Blue by Polo Tate

Polo Tate recounts her journey from idealistic high school athlete to U.S. Air Force Academy recruit, to traumatized assault survivor. Polo had dreamed from a very young age of joining the Air Force, so it's with excitement and anticipation that she heads to the Academy for basic training and to become a member of their elite volleyball team. She's someone who is used to succeeding, both as a student and as an athlete, so when things start to go wrong, she assumes if she works harder, than things will be better. Unfortunately, harassment and abuse escalate to an assault. Compounding the injury, Polo is not believed by her peers, and a very large upperclassman works hard to break her spirit and prevent her from pursuing justice.
This is a great story of resilience and overcoming adversity. Since this is a book aimed at a younger audience, I wish that Polo had emphasized more how important it is to have people who support you, as nobody makes it through something like this on their own. However, this story will certainly resonate with high school girls, particularly athletes.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie

For 20-odd years, I have been a big Sherman Alexie fan. His particular formula, combining magical realism and humor with stark truths, produced contemplative, entertaining books. His themes of poverty and familial unrest transcend race (more so than I think he realizes) and I was somewhat undeterred by the current controversy surrounding his treatment of women because I think if we only valued artists with unblemished lives, it would be slim pickings, indeed.
Therefore, I was disappointed to read this book and find that Mr. Alexie, in his grief, comes across as a narcissistic grudge-holder, willing to publicly vilify his family for his own ends. Nobody in the book receives more than a crude outlining of their character or personality -except himself. He's angry at the white race who have destroyed his culture, and the Indian culture, which he seems to only reluctantly consider himself a part of. I understand that being relentlessly bullied must have been difficult. If anything, he might use those emotions to understand some of the feelings that his female accusers have expressed. Here's the saddest part: Sherman Alexie reveals himself to be a very unforgiving person, and in that portrait, shows us the value of being able to reconcile and move past old pains; for that we should thank him.

The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel

My attraction to this book wasn't limited to the fact that I'm from western Maine and therefore familiar with the area in which Christopher Knight lived in isolation for 27 years. As an introvert (extreme introvert), I was struck by the concept of withdrawing from society. How does one do that? And what might be the tipping point where one progresses from simply being a quiet homebody to walking away from everything and everyone -including creature comforts. Christopher certainly didn't make an easy decision, and while professionals toy with the idea that he might have some sort of mental disorder, perhaps he just wanted to be alone.
It's fascinating to read how Christopher eluded discovery for so long, despite committing 1000 burglaries. More interesting, still, is the conflict he felt knowing that stealing was wrong, but knew he needed supplies in order to survive. A moral man who is also a notorious felon.
Michael Finkel does a fine job of portraying Knight as he is: not a mystic or sage, but someone finding happiness outside the normal spectrum of social behaviors. I get the feeling that Finkel dances very close to that edge himself-a kindred spirit to Knight and also to me. 

Books to Screen (Movies, TV, Streaming)

The best movies always start out as books! Here's what to look for streaming and in theaters:

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden


I wasn't sure about this at first because it seemed very cliche and predictable, HOWEVER, the action picked up and the plot swung in several wildly different directions. Quite the compulsive read! 

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic story about a security bot who hacks its compliance program and goes rogue. Honestly, one of the most relatable and likeable protagonists I've come across in a while.
This is what happens when the humans it's assigned to protect discover that it's rogue:

"Gurathin hesitated. 'It's downloaded seven hundred hours of entertainment programming since we landed. Mostly serials. Mostly something called Sanctuary Moon.' He shook his head, dismissing it. 'It's probably using it to encode data for the company. It can't be watching it, not in that volume; we'd notice.'
I snorted. He underestimated me.
Ratthi said, 'The one where the colony's solicitor killed the terraforming supervisor who was the secondary donor for her implanted baby?'
Again, I couldn't help it. I said, 'She didn't kill him, that's a f**king lie.'
Ratthi turned Mensah. 'It's watching it.'"

We so often read about AI that is lofty and boringly, intellectually logical. Or out to dominate or extinguish all human life. But what about an AI who only wants to discover what it wants? And what if what it wants is sort of what we all want? I cannot wait to pick up book #2 in this series!

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
This beautiful novel, which explores every possible permutation of familial love, has no villains but plenty of tragedy. Beth and Frank are a young married couple who have seen the worst: loss of their 9 year old son to an accident on their farm. When Beth's first love, Gabriel, moves back into the family manor, freshly divorced and with his own young son in tow, the wheels are set in motion for life-changing events.
The story moves back and forth between Beth and Gabriel's youthful romance, Beth and Frank's current life together, and Before (life before the loss of Bobby). Oh, my heart! Clare Leslie Hall convincingly shows us that love will cause us plenty of pain but, in the end, it is the only thing that will save us. Perfect for a book club discussion!!!

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
I must admit, I haven't been reading many challenging books this fall. Instead, I've been going for the cozy, warm read. Remarkably Bright Creatures certainly fits that description as it features a tidy little woman in a tidy story with a very neat ending. Tova is an elderly woman, alone after the death of her husband from cancer, and mourning the disappearance of her son 30 years ago. She fills her extra time with a group of friends who call themselves the Knit-Wits and a job cleaning the local aquarium. Interspersed with Tova's story is a narrative by the aquarium's aging octopus, Marcellus. Marcellus is, of course, much cleverer than the humans give him credit for, and he is able to connect the dots on events unfolding around him much better than the oblivious and self-absorbed humans. The magical realism of Marcellus' voice is sweet and really helps pull Tova's story together. However, as I said, don't go looking for any revelatory concepts about life here, just be satisfied with getting to know some very endearing characters.

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
What does it mean to be an Expendable? It means that, when colonizing new planets, ships can only carry so many humans. They need biologists, doctors, botanists, security, pilots, etc. But, there are some dangerous jobs in space and when landing on unknown worlds, so each crew needs some...redundancy. A crew member that they don't mind losing. In Mickey's case, he is that redundancy. He has no usable job skills and so joins a crew as an Expendable-talk about dirty jobs! In case of death, his body has been mapped and his memory uploaded so that they can just print out a new Mickey and carry on. And the law is ironclad: there can only be one copy of each Expendable at one time, or they all get chucked down the corpse hole and a new copy is made.
You'd think he'd be used to dying by the time he wakes up as Mickey7, but you would be quite wrong. Even worse, when Mickey7 finds out that his death has been reported prematurely and there's already a Mickey8, that's when the trouble starts. Not to mention that the cause of his latest death are the inhabitants of the planet they're trying to colonize, and they don't play well with others. Fantastic book, soon to be a loosely adapted movie .

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Truly one of the best books I've read in a while, a lyrical chronicle of the life of Count Alexander Rostov after he is sentenced to house arrest at the Metropol Hotel by the new Soviet government following the Revolution of 1917.
Erudite and gentlemanly, Count Rostov "masters his circumstances so that they don't master him", showing an elegant adaptability that saves his life as well as his soul. Alexander is reprieved from a death sentence by a pro-Revolution poem he had published in his youth, but he is declared a non-person and is never again to leave the doors of the Metropol, a hotel that has always catered to the rich, powerful, and aristocratic. In his new situation, Rostov lives in the attic and leaves behind the perks of his earlier life, while retaining his decency, charm, and joie de vive. A wonderful and uplifting example of how to survive and even thrive under terrible circumstances, and also a beautiful story of how the love we share with others in any iteration-romantic, paternal, fraternal,etc-is our saving grace. 

 
American Animals: A True Crime Memoir by Eric Borsuk
A cautionary tale about the perils of being young, male, bored, and lacking a moral compass. Eric recounts his part in the heist of some rare books from the Transylvania College Library in Lexington Kentucky in 2004, and it's shocking how close they come to pulling off a relatively sophisticated crime. The four college students commit a fatal error in the execution, which is nothing compared with the errors in judgment they make in coming up with the plan in the first place. The deeper question is how and why a group of boys with promising futures and stable home lives took such a dark turn into felonious behavior.
Check out the excellent docudrama, now showing on Netflix: American Animals . 

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Richardsons are a family living in Shaker Heights, OH in the '90s. The suburb was originally built in the early 1900s to attain a black and white kind of perfectionism, based on rigid rules. Although life is fairly good here, it is also pedantic and predictable. Elena Richardson, the matriarch, is the living embodiment of everything that Shaker Heights stands for, which works out okay with her first three kids, but sets her at odds with her youngest, the impetuous and fiery Izzy.
A catalyst enters the picture when Elena rents an apartment to an artist named Mia, a tumbleweed of a person who brings with her a teenaged daughter, Pearl, and a past loaded with secrets. Pearl finds the Richardsons' lifestyle intoxicating after the ragtag existence she's accustomed to. Lexie, Moody, and Trip Richardson all become entangled with Pearl, Izzy is fascinated with Mia, Elena struggles to control everyone and everything, and the swirling mass of churned up emotion will result in huge life changes for all of them.
Desire, envy, and jealousy are well-expressed in this story, but there is very little true warmth or love between characters. A side story about a white couple attempting to adopt a Chinese baby who was abandoned by her mother is difficult to empathize with because the adoptive mother is cold and entitled and the biological mother seems unable to take care of herself, let alone an infant.
The point of the book seems to be to highlight the difficulties experienced in the mother-daughter relationship, and how sometimes those we are closest to are the ones we know the least. Perhaps a little of 'love conquers all' thrown in there, too. However, the story left me despairing for women everywhere, because if these are typical relationships for females, then we have a lot of work to do.
 

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys 
When the U.S.S.R. took control over Lithuania, many thousands of 'political insurgents' were sentenced to imprisonment in Siberian Gulags.  Less well-known is that over 100,00 Lithuanian women and children were exiled to remote work camps under horrendous conditions.  This is the story of Lina, a girl whose father is arrested by the Soviets right before she, her mother, and brother are themselves deported to a work camp. Despairing of ever having a normal life again, Lina uses her unique artistic style to  creates pictures that she hopes will reach her father, wherever he is.  The descriptions of life in the camps is an eye-opener -there really seems to be no limits on what people will do to others who they perceive to be different than themselves.  More than that, this is a story about hope and love, and how very important they are, even when they are the hardest things to come by. The tragic cruelties dealt out behind the Iron Curtain by the Soviets in post-WWII  are starting to fade from memory, which is an excellent reason to read this book -lest such a horrible part of history be forgotten and repeated.
  "Ashes in the Snow"


 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
In the past, I have found Donna Tartt to be an uneven writer. The characters who inhabited "The Secret History" were so vile, pompous and self-important that I would not have picked up "The Goldfinch" if it weren't for the Pulitzer. According to critics who matter, for a novel to be deemed high literature, it must be authentic on all levels -emotional, intellectual, etc. While "The Goldfinch" is a fascinating story, venerated voices at, among others, The New Yorker, find it to be 'unconvincing'. This sentiment puzzles me greatly. Tartt's style of writing appears childish to them -but the story follows a boy from the age of 13 through young adulthood, so...of course it reeks of adolescent mindset. If a story captures something about another's life experience and can impart it in such a way that the reader inhabits that life, then that is great literature.

Having spouted off about THAT, let me say that Tartt allowed me to inhabit the life of a boy named Theo Decker. Theo lives with his mother in New York City when a fateful trip to the Museum to see a particular favorite painting of his mother's results in her death and his life being torn and reassembled in such a way as to make it unrecognizable. This event sets Theo off on a dissolute path as he mourns the loss of his mother. Where previously Theo was a boy who teetered on the edge of delinquency (he and his mother actually are stopping at the museum on their way to his school to discuss his imminent suspension), he evolves into a man who lives without moral absolutes, numbly swimming along in a sea of gray. Theo spends time looking for something good and true, but only finds it in a painting, the eponymous "Goldfinch".

Boris, a friend that Theo makes along the way, keenly discerns the edge between black and white -and invariably chooses the darker way. Fate seems to dictate that Theo's way will not be a smooth one, more so because he doesn't seem to understand the link between action and outcome. But Theo does understand love and beauty. In the end, is this enough? Also, the question: if you are true to yourself and follow your heart, as all the best axioms of the modern age urge us to do, what if your heart's desire leads you to dishonorable, self-destructive behavior? (Vanity Fair's review: It’s Tartt—But Is It Art?)

Coming in October 2019

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury     
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television 'family'. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.
Now Streaming

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

Released March 2018

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

Released March 2018 (as Love Simon)

Realistic Fiction

Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su
What can you say about a novel where a young woman finds a blob with eyes sitting in an alleyway, takes it home, and (upon discovering it is both sentient and malleable) shapes it into the ideal man? If you weren't simultaneously intrigued and amused by that description, forget it, this will allude you. However, if you were drawn in (and you should be! Why wouldn't you be??) then by all means pick up this delightful little tale. To flesh the story out (blob it out?), Vi is a college dropout, a scorned lover, and a quietly quitting hotel receptionist when she stumbles out of a drag show for some air and comes across...a blob. Because it has eyes, she thinks it might be some sort of animal or fish, and brings it home to rescue it. Much to her surprise, the blob starts eating and taking on a new shape, all while Vi's life is slowly falling to pieces.
The symbolism is heavy here, but Vi's (non-blob) experiences are very relatable, and despite her self-involvement, you'll be rooting for her to rise above her sadness and take a new shape, herself.

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie Jr.
I didn't love this book, but it wasn't without its merits. What can you say about a book with not one but two psychopaths? It certainly kept the action rolling along. It's always interesting when a male author chooses to write female protagonists (the best example would be I Know This Much Is True). Ron Currie gets some things right, but Babs often seems like your generic bad guy, emphasis on the 'guy'. Her daughter, Lore, is a good antihero, but something indefinable is missing, so not an antiheroine.
The best part was being able to hear my own memere's cigarette voice whenever Babs spoke. However, my memere (a huge reader), who could be quite harsh at times, was a law-abiding citizen who would have found all these women to be painful tropes substituting for Franco-Americans.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
I think you can ascertain from the book jacket that there's some weird stuff going on here. Namely, spontaneous combustion in small children, which isn't nearly as horrifying as you might think. Dare I say, it's actually endearing? The back story is that two girls meet at an exclusive private school. Lillian, the scholarship student, takes the rap for a misdeed that she didn't commit and gets the boot. Fast forward, and she's 28, still living at home, her once promising future squandered. Her roommate, Madison, somehow skates through the incident like Teflon and goes on to have a promising future with a college degree, a mansion, a Senator for a husband, and a small and perfect little boy, Timothy.
But then, Madison reaches out to Lillian. Can she come, quickly? She's needed. The story that unfolds from here is stunning. Madison needs a governess for the Senator's ten year old twins from a previous marriage, ASAP. And, as Lillian learns, the children burst into flame if they experience any kind of emotional turbulence (they're not physically harmed, but they endanger everyone and everything around them). How does one cope, especially a woman whose own life has gone 'up in flames'? The answer is a story that is oddly pleasing and says a lot more about the incendiary way our emotions lead us into danger than about physical fire.

Tilt by Emma Pattee
The Cascadia fault line, running from northern California to British Columbia, is set and primed for another huge earthquake. The last one, in 1700, was a 9.0 and caused the coastline to fall several feet, as well as a devastating tsunami. There is a 37% chance that another tremendous earthquake will occur in the next few decades, and that is what Emma Pattee writes about in Tilt. What I enjoyed about this novel was that it's not really about the earthquake, although it is as horrifying and thrilling to read about as you would expect. Rather, the story is about a very pregnant woman, Annie, who is far from home when the quake hits. Annie, on her first day of maternity leave, finds herself buried under a shelf of cribs at Ikea after the Big One hits, and thus begins a very long, hot, heartbreaking day of trying to get back home through the devastation of Portland.
This was a quick read, and I didn't think I liked it enough for it to stick with me, but Pattee painted such a vivid picture of Annie that I can still see her struggling along with her swollen feet jammed into Birkenstocks. Kudos to her for drawing such a realistic and sympathetic character.


Time of the Child by Niall Williams
This novel is slow, ponderous, and very Irish. At first, the pace made me impatient for some action, but I was drawn in by the descriptive language and sly humor tucked in the banality of the daily leadup to another Christmas in the small village of Faha, circa 1962.
Jack Troy is the village doctor, and as a widower with three daughters, two of whom have left for more exciting environs, he's glum and fixated on what might have been as he lumbers through his daily duties with the help of his remaining daughter, Ronnie. Phew-That was a long sentence! If your attention wandered at all, then forget about reading this book. There are sidebars and meandering observations, but I promise they all contribute crucial elements to the events unfolding in this little village, in a time when modernity is knocking at the door and all of a sudden, a baby shows up. Whose fates will be intertwined?

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
This quote from the acknowledgements page really sums up Annie Hartnett's writing, and underscores why I love her books so much, "Humor is how I have always coped with anxiety and fear and terror and discomfort, so I wanted to make it all terrible but also very funny. Things are so horrendously bad, let's laugh about it!"
In this funniest of books, prepare for: murder/suicide, alcoholism, accidental death, broken families, mental illness, hoarding, a pervert, and orphans. Ms. Hartnett writes such endearing characters that, despite their flaws and occasional criminal behavior, I didn't want the book to end.
In The Road to Tender Hearts, we meet PJ, an older man whose drinking has gone off the rails since his older daughter's death more than a decade before. His losses have been significant (divorced, fired, estranged from his surviving daughter), but so have his turns of good luck (he's a lottery winner! His ex-wife still looks out for him!) Suddenly, events conspire to change PJ's life significantly when he discovers that his high school crush (who lives on the other side of the country) is single for the first time in 45 years and he is also unexpectedly named guardian of his dead brother's grandchildren (who he didn't even know existed). A spontaneous road trip that includes PJ, the orphans, his surviving daughter, Sophie, and a cat who foretells death is a catalytic event with wide-ranging consequences for all the participants. Not to be missed!!

Heartwood by Amity Gaige
This seems like an adventure/suspense kind of novel, and by those merits, it was very good. A woman, Valerie, goes missing while hiking the Maine portion of the Appalachian Trail, and it's all hands on deck to try to find her before it's too late. The search party helmed by Beverly, a lieutenant game warden, simply can't find any traces of her. There are grounds to suspect malfeasance -she just told her husband that she wanted to end their marriage, she befriended a man on the trail, she got lost near a super-secret military training camp. There's also an elderly woman (Lena) in assisted living in Connecticut who has connected with someone online who may or may not be helpful.
The real story here, though, is what gives us the will or the character to continue on when all seems lost. As we become acquainted with Valerie, Bev, and Lena and discover how their mother/daughter relationships have impacted who they are, the story deepens and becomes more literary, more touching, and more unforgettable. Much like other authors I enjoy (Karen Joy Fowler, Amor Towles), Amity Gaige is eminently quotable,
"That real mother, the mother that you get, you've got to love her, there's no choice. She is the mother you needed. She gave you strength, either because she loved you well or because she loved you poorly She gave you your mission."
Thus, Amity Gaige just become one of my favorite authors!
Also, as I began this book, the circumstances sounded familiar; it turns out that Ms. Gaige was inspired to write this by a real incident that happened not far from where I live. I suggest not checking out the story until you've had a chance to read the book! Lost Hiker

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
This beautiful novel, which explores every possible permutation of familial love, has no villains but plenty of tragedy. Beth and Frank are a young married couple who have seen the worst: loss of their 9 year old son to an accident on their farm. When Beth's first love, Gabriel, moves back into the family manor, freshly divorced and with his own young son in tow, the wheels are set in motion for life-changing events.
The story moves back and forth between Beth and Gabriel's youthful romance, Beth and Frank's current life together, and Before (life before the loss of Bobby). Oh, my heart! Clare Leslie Hall convincingly shows us that love will cause us plenty of pain but, in the end, it is the only thing that will save us. Perfect for a book club discussion!!!

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
At first this story, which opens with a woman suffering a fatal stroke, felt unnecessarily grim and quotidian, and I regretted picking it up. Essentially, Jeanie and Julius, 51 year old twins in rural England, are left bereft when their mother dies. As they live in abject poverty, Jeanie has a heart condition, and Julius is unemployed, there's no hope in sight. Sigh. But it is so worth reading past this, because there are secrets, lies, gunshots, illicit love, and other twists awaiting you. Every life, it seems, no matter how banal it might look from the outside, is a kaleidoscope of emotions and events that only really make sense to that person. A beautiful glimpse into the resilience of the human spirit.

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
I originally picked this book up solely because it was by a Maine author, but -oh my!- what a lovely book it is, by any measure. Three people know of each other because a terrible act was committed. Violet killed Frank's wife while drinking and driving. Harriet is the retired teacher who runs Violet's prison book group, and Frank has seen Harriet in the bookstore where he has worked part-time since retiring as an engineer.
Violet gets released early, and with little else to do with her time, she goes to the bookstore to get a copy of the book that she was reading with Harriet. As fate would have it, both Harriet (a lonely widow) and Frank (who feels his heart flutter every time he sees Harriet) are there. An initial cataclysmic encounter slowly evolves into healing relationships for all three. A gentle, optimistic book, with the bonus of parrots thrown in (sorry, you have to read that part for yourself!), enhanced by the familiar landscape of Portland.

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
I loved this book because I'm a real fan of Jason Pargin's New Weird SciFi (such as Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. It's not only the storyline, although that's very good. He also has a lovely sense of the absurd, and a flare with dialogue. Abbott, a twitch streamer/uber driver, is offered $200k by a mysterious girl to drive her and eponymous 'black box of doom' cross country to the DC area by July 4th. Abbott is not allowed to bring his phone or computer, and doesn't even have time to refill his anxiety prescription (uh-oh!) before they set out -with a tattooed goon in full pursuit. Abbott streams one final message before he leaves, but doesn't know that it has gone viral. Thousands of online users repost, conspiracy theorize (what's in the box? nuclear bomb, dead body, the next pandemic?), and decide it's time to get involved IRL to hilarious results.

What really sends this novel over the top is the spot-on commentary about how we live in an online society that is slowly driving humans further and further apart, while simultaneously driving us all mad.
Pargin writes, "After several minutes of searching, Tanisha found what seemed like a good place to ask about the fugitive couple: a secion of Angry Nerd Internet specifically devoted to cracking the case. She had to create a Reddit account to post the photo she'd secretly snapped of the pair, adding a second pic she'd taken just moments ago of their fancy SUV. She waited, refreshed, then was flattened by the ferocity of the response. The commmenters acted like she'd captured the second coming of Jesus Christ on film. She was inundated with questions, accusations of having faked it, and criticism that she hadn't taken some kind of action to keep the couple from leaving the store. Within 6 minutes of the post, a reply told her that if a bomb detonated in Washington, every drop of blood would be on her hands."

The Secrets We Keep by Cassie Gustafson
 I don't often find YA books that are really well written these days, so I was pleasantly surprised to be totally engrossed in the story of Emma Clark, a high school freshman who is desperately grasping at the fraying edges of her life, all while attempting to hold in a big, ugly secret.
Emma, an excellent student and attentive big sister to 6 year old Kyle, abruptly is told that her father has been arrested -because of an accusation from her best friend, Hannah. Although the attentive reader can immediately guess where this is going, Ms. Gustafson fills in the details slowly and without sensationalism. Emma's relationship to her father and mother, as well as Hannah and Kyle, rings true. Mom is an angry, hostile woman with a disappointing marriage, dad is glib, charming(until he isn't anymore), and untrustworthy. The friendship between the two intellectually gifted teens is sweet and lacking in pretension, even as they navigate the schism that has erupted between them. Realistic, dark, yet hopeful. I would highly recommend!

Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth
 This is an intriguing premise -wildly successful and reclusive children's author Libby Weeks (a la J.K. Rowling) suffers writer's block and memory issues as she tries to finish the last book in her hit series, "The Falling Children". She desperately reaches out to a superfan for help, but what possible aid could a confused and socially awkward 11 year old offer? Also, a million dollar prize is offered to whomever can reveal Libby's secret identity and her huge fan base is impatient for the book to finally get published, so the pressure is building.
There's a lot going on, but the pieces eventually come together (more or less). I guess my reservations with the book are that while the characters are supposed to be odd but lovable, they're more odd and less lovable. Too many complex problems, too few believable solutions.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Phoebe and Lila are about to become best friends, but they don't know each other yet. Lila has booked the Cornwall Inn for the wedding week to end all wedding weeks, and Phoebe is the lone guest at the inn who isn't one of the wedding people. When she gets pulled into Lila's (bridal) wake, it proves to be a life-changing event for all kinds of people. This book is dense with so many genuinely charming characters, but I particularly was rooting for Phoebe to overcome her hurdles. The Wedding People is an intriguing commentary about how we are possibly most ourselves when we have nothing left to lose, and how devastating loss doesn't have to mean the end of happiness in our lives.

Pet by Catherine Chidgey
Extraordinary story from Catherine Chidgey- I highly recommend for anyone who likes psychological twists and an unexpected ending!! Justine is a 12 year old girl navigating her last year of school before hitting high school. As if it weren't difficult enough to puzzle your way through puberty and first crushes, Justine must do so without her mother, who died of cancer less than a year before.
Now, add a new element to the story. Mrs. Price, her teacher, is beautiful and charismatic and all the students (including Justine) are constantly vying to be her favorite. But..is Mrs. Price a savior or a manipulative demon, casting her net of persuasion and division over Justine and her classmates? Put it this way: when items are stolen from the classroom, Mrs. Price gives each student a slip of paper and encourages them to write the name of the student who they think is responsible so she can out them. Diabolical! And not, by far, the worst thing that Mrs. Price will do. Did I mention that Justine's father was an eligible widower????

Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Ian's family has fallen on tough times, and he and his mother struggle with getting by. Things are about to get much worse for them, but what should enter into Ian's life but a gigantic stray dog? Why is this pertinent to the situation, or even to this book? Gather, the eponymous dog, is the one thing Ian can rely on, and Gather is also totally reliant on Ian. Their friendship provides a warm center to a tragic story, one that will, unfortunately, resonate with many young adult readers. Other points that will sound familiar to rural kids (this story takes place in Vermont) are family farms, hunting, solace in nature, and (I hope) finding a compassionate adult at school to provide assistance. I very much look forward to recommending this coming of age story to reluctant readers in my school!


Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
I must admit, I haven't been reading many challenging books this fall. Instead, I've been going for the cozy, warm read. Remarkably Bright Creatures certainly fits that description as it features a tidy little woman in a tidy story with a very neat ending. Tova is an elderly woman, alone after the death of her husband from cancer, and mourning the disappearance of her son 30 years ago. She fills her extra time with a group of friends who call themselves the Knit-Wits, and a job cleaning the local aquarium. Interspersed with Tova's story is a narrative by the aquarium's aging octopus, Marcellus. Marcellus is, of course, much cleverer than the humans give him credit for, and he is able to connect the dots on events unfolding around him much better than the oblivious and self-absorbed humans. The magical realism of Marcellus' voice is sweet and really helps pull Tova's story together. However, as I said, don't go looking for any revelatory concepts about life here, just be satisfied with getting to know some very endearing characters.

The Dog of the North by Elizabeth Mckenzie
Don't let Elizabeth McKenzie's whimsical writing style and superb wordsmithery distract you from the poignancy of the deeper issues she addresses. Although this highly recommended read was laugh-out-loud funny, it also dealt with deeper issues of loss, divorce, isolation, childhood trauma, and illness. Does that sound incompatible? Meet Penny, our heroine (for whom the bizarre is also quotidian), "..I took careful hold of the bloated milk carton and chucked it into the dumpster, wherein it exploded like a stink bomb. Peering over the side, I observed a spray of curds in a halo around the ruptured vessel. What a relief that it hadn't erupted in the van during the night! That I had avoided being covered with sour curds surely counted as the day's first success."
Penny needs all the help she can get as she navigates her divorce, her parents' disappearance, a new friend who might or might not resemble a hedgehog, and a grandmother who is suspected of sociopathic activity. 5 Stars all the way!!


The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Phenomenal story about a girl named Tiffany (self-named Blandine, after a Catholic female mystic) who is struggling to make sense of her life, especially a toxic encounter that has derailed her future and unmade her. Blandine lives in a decrepit apartment complex called La Lapiniere -the Rabbit Hutch. And, much like a real hutch, the building is packed with a host of mindless individuals in various stages of life and various states of apathy, depression, and violence. There are definitely shades of Watership Down here, as well as Ian McEwan.
Aside from the artistry required to entertwine so many different stories and metaphors into one cohesive whole, Tess Gunty couldn't have written about more timely themes, as seen in this fabulous article from Iain McGilchrist: Left-brain thinking will destroy civilisation. At the heart of it, though, Gunty writes beautifully about intentions, actions, misgivings, and transcendence. She definitely earned the Nat'l Book Award!

Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
It's nice to have an Indigenous writer from the Northeast join the pantheon of celebrated Native voices currently out there: (Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, Stephen Graham Jones, Joy Harjo. In this series of short stories, we see life in a Maine Indigenous family through the eyes of a boy and a young man. It's not perfectly clear that these are the same person, but I think we can assume they are.
In any case, we are introduced to a community that not many are privy to -in fact, most readers will not have heard of the Wabanaki before. Some of the issues will have a familiar ring to them, such as substance abuse and poverty. But Talty liberally sprinkles in the details of what makes his character's experience unique to a Penobscot. Language, family dynamics, and customs are fleshed out with the vivid descriptions of life on Indian Island. An excellent companion piece would be Women of the Dawn, particularly the chapter on Molly Dellis.
*Talty won the National Book Critic Circle Award for John Leonard Prize, 2022

Beneficence by Meredith Hall
 Eloquently written story about a Maine farm family in the 1950s who experience a divisive, tragic event and their arduous efforts to get back to their previously good and happy life. Tup and Doris run the family farm and have three children; the narration swings between the two of them and their daughter, Dodie. Each individual blames themselves for the incident, and each navigates a very different pathway to recovery. Tup struggles to think of himself as a 'good man'. Doris cannot seem to connect with the world anymore and drifts through, mired in the past. Dodie's determination to experience a good life again, 'beneficence', is heroic. Essentially, a prototype of how different perspective colors our memories of the past, our hopes for the future, and our ability to fully engage in the present.
It's a rarity to come across an author who writes so poignantly and whose words become so translatable into the reader's daily life. I'm grateful to have never gone through an ordeal like the Senter family's, yet I find Meredith Hall's observances and descriptions to be fully applicable to my own setbacks and struggles. I would liken her style to Amor Towles, another fabulous author who encapsulates his characters' thoughts and feelings in a universal way. As Ms Hall writes, "We will ourselves to live this day grateful and unguarded. We decide. We make ourselves ready to participate in beneficence and goodness. There is no peace outside that."

Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor
 A surprisingly complex YA book that tackles child abuse, addiction, accountability, and the pull and power of high school athletics in small town America. Billy is a very talented running back on the local football team -but can he keep his rage and violent tendencies in check? Trent is the coach, and while he truly does his best to live a Christian life, will he be able to when it counts the most? These questions will both beg for answers when a life is snuffed out, either by accident, negligence, or murder. Very, very suspenseful, and enough sports references to keep the athletically minded fully engaged. 

Other People's Clothes by Calla Henkel
Another book exploring the vacuity and self-serving behavior of the morally hollow, narcissistic young? Well, kinda. But also an examination of the dangers of being impressionable and directionless, which is Zoe's achilles' heel. Zoe, a college student who has just lost her best friend to murder, is adrift for several reasons. One of which is that she was so attached to Ivy that she often imitated her style of hair and dress -and even ends up dating Ivy's ex-boyfriend. Not the most psychologically stable person, Zoe's escape from reality via exchange year as art student in Berlin morphs into her forming other unnatural attachments, and when unstability meets unstability meets unstability, it's an explosive combination of carnage that results. Ostensibly a tale of two girls immersed in a hedonistic year abroad, this is also very much a murder mystery and the last third of the book draws many elements together for a surprising ending. Excellent!

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
This is a really intriguing coming-of-age story, mostly because it presents the events that happened one summer to 16 year old Frankie in a completely nonjudgmental, unbiased way. Sort of, here, this happened, then that happened, and we're not going to decide whether it's good or bad. The jist is that Frankie and her new friend, Zeke, decide to make a poster with a curious and meaningless phrase layered over an equally curious and meaningless drawing. They then surreptitiously paper the town with hundreds and hundreds of photocopies of this image, and it takes off like wildfire. No one can figure out who did it, and it leaps into the national press. Is it the work of a cult? A political movement? What does it mean? Unfortunately, the fever drives some people to bad choices, and there are consequences, including the irrevocable rending of Frankie and Zeke's fledgling friendship.
Flash forward 2o years, and the secret is finally about to be exposed. Is this a good thing for Frankie, or will it spell disaster? A great YA novel about keeping your perspective in life when all about you are losing theirs.

Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
Delicate, descriptive, and metaphorical, Winter in Sokcho speaks volumes about loneliness, desolation, and suffering.
A young Korean-French girl works at a tatty guesthouse in Sokcho, right on the border with North Korea. The winter setting, her absentee and vacuous boyfriend, and the yearning she feels when a French artist comes to the guesthouse for a stay are a melancholic feast of words. Beautifully done. 

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Annie Hartnett has cemented her place on my list of favorite authors with this humorous and poignant novel about a New Hampshire family dealing with brain disease, failed potential, missing persons, and the opioid crisis. Doesn't sound very funny, does it? Annie's light touch and whimsical take on serious issues is her magic touch. Speaking of which, let's talk about the story. Emma heads for home to help take care of her dad, afflicted with hallucinations and memory issues, which seems like a natural fit, since as far as her family knows, Emma is in med school. Also, Emma was born with 'the charm', the ability to heal with her touch, albeit only minor illnesses. What her family is about to discover is that Emma never went to med school, she's lost the charm, and she doesn't particularly want to come home as she's nursing a grudge against her father and doesn't want to deal with her brother -a recovering addict.
Add to the mix that her dad is obsessed with finding Emma's missing ex-best friend, another opioid addict. Her mother has had it with her dad's shenanigans, Emma's status as golden girl is tarnished, her brother is resentful, and yet..it all comes together with a beautiful mix of wryness, loveliness to each other, and the surprise life-changing event of Emma subbing for a 5th grade class. Absolutely 5 stars!

Building Stories by Chris Ware
I had this on my to-read list for years, so I was very excited when I finally picked it up.  If you're not familiar, this is a box full of graphic stories that are interrelated, the common denominator being residence by several protagonists in a particular Chicago apartment building.
Cool concept, but absolute maelstrom of material, in no discernable order. I would donate it to my library, but random inappropriate drawings, not particularly apropos to the story lines, abound. I feel like I tried to read this while on the teacup ride at Disney!

The Other Mother by Matthew Dicks
There is a logical explanation for why Michael Parsons believes his mother has been replaced by an identical imposter -but is it the correct one? This marvelous novel really captures the voice of Michael, an extremely likeable (albeit troubled) 14 year old boy, and explores this very issue. Michael obviously has some deep-seated emotional issues stemming from the early death of his father,his mother's subsequent quick remarriage, the grind of adolescence, and a lot of responsibility for his younger siblings. When Michael finds one day that he no longer believes that his mother is his real mother, he sets off on a quest to find some answers -and ends up affecting some of the lives around him in unexpected ways. A very enjoyable read.

 

Girl A by Abigail Dean
Loosely based on (I'm assuming) the nauseating case of the Turgeon Family , Girl A is the story of Lex, a survivor of horrendous abuse and neglect. In a family ruled by an insane, violent father and a traumatized and passive mother, seven siblings are reduced to starving near-corpses, wallowing in filth, until Lex at 15 years of age somehow makes a break for it and goes for help. After rescue, the children are all referred by pseudonyms to protect their anonymity, and thus Lex becomes Girl A.

Flashing back and forth between her nightmare of a childhood and the current day, Lex tries to act as the executor of their parents' estate after her mother dies in prison-while also grappling with memories she doesn't want to relive, and contact with siblings she would just as soon forget.

This isn't a true crime recounting, but a perching inside the headspace of someone so traumatized that it's hard to know when details are exaggerated or perhaps even glossed over. Really excellent writing that leaves lots of unanswered questions about whether one could ever truly recover from something like this.

Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff
This book is an emotional investment in two ten year old boys, Fish (Fischer) and Bread (Dale), caught up in the grip of a situation that is bigger than they are. Bread is the victim of abuse at the hand of his father, but things come to a head when Fish steps in and takes action. A shot rings out, and events inexorably cascade until the boys find themselves on the run in 90 miles of Wisconsin wilderness. Graff effectively brings these boys to life without either making them precious or wise and capable beyond their years.
Equally compelling are the adults who spring into action to rescue the boys. Fish's mother and grandfather are joined by Cal, the sheriff, and Tiff, whose connections to the others is vague but plausible. They are flawed but ferocious in their determination to find these boys before it's too late. No kidding, a real page turner!

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
A captivating story about a young orphan, Beth Harmon, who turns out to be a chess prodigy. Told in a starkly clear style, Beth moves through a somewhat troubled life with one focus: becoming a grandmaster. I don't play chess myself, so I didn't make much of an effort to understand the passages that detailed the games she played. Nevertheless, this was an insightful glimpse into the mind of a savant, and so therefore fascinating.

 

The Boy in the Field by Margot Livesey
Excellent novel about the repercussions that result after a trio of siblings find the victim of an attack lying in a field. Naturally we would expect that anyone who has been assaulted would have their life upended, but what about those on the periphery? For Duncan (13 yrs old), Zoe (16), and Matthew (17), their perspective on the world around them shifts slightly when they spot an injured and bleeding boy on their way home from school one day. In the aftermath, they each begin questioning their views on love, the future, and family. One thing that remains solid is the affectionate and respectful relationship that the three share with each other -it's a beautiful thing to read. Themes of mother/child bonding, beauty, and passion thread through the story, lending a warm patina.

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
Reading a book depicting a plane crash with 191 fatalities and 1 survivor is probably not the best way to begin the bleak month of March. I couldn't tell if Napolitano's writing was compulsively easy to glide through or if I was just deperate to make the sadness end. In either case, a well-done, albeit grief-filled story about 12-year old Edward picking up the pieces of his life after his family is killed in the accident and he incomprehensively survives. Juxtoposing Edward's passage toward emotional and physical healing in the aftermath with an hour by hour narrative of the flight through different passengers' eyes, the reader gets a full sense of the tragedy that has occurred. Your heart will be heavy, but all hope is not lost. A testament to our ability to mend, rebuild, and continue on, even when the future seems insurmountable.

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
 There's something so haunting about children who are older than their years, who are forced by circumstance to become parents to themselves, their siblings, or perhaps even their own parents. In this book, we meet a large coalition of such children, narrated through the voice of Evie, a precocious teenager whose world-weariness is earned honestly from parents who are profligate in their indulgences. The situation at first seems idyllic: a group of old friends rent out a magnificent mansion on the coast for a summerlong, hedonistic reunion. Dubbed a 'multi-family vacation', the dozen or so children are quickly relegated to the periphery whilst the parents party down. The kids resort to their own devices, but are still clearly far more mature in their antics than any of the older generation.
And then: the world falls apart. A horrific hurricane, fueled by the unstable climate, leads the kids to make a life-changing decision to flee their neglectful parents and strike out for parts unknown, all in the interest of finding safety and relieving themelves of the burdensome adults. Evie focuses on saving her little brother, Jack, whose copy of A Children's Bible(fraught with its own series of apocalyptic events) provides solace of a kind.
There are some interesting parallels that form between the kids' circumstances and events in the Bible, if you are familiar enough to pick them out. Really, I believe that Millet, an ardent environmentalist, is trying to point out that whether you believe God placed us here on Earth or not, we have but one home and our self-centeredness is breaking the world as we know it. Highly recommended!!
 

Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump

A frank and sincere portrayal of an African-American boy named Claude, growing up on the South Side of Chicago. Claude is not: a gang member, drug user, victim of unspeakable crime, superior athlete, or chess protege. He is, in fact, just a guy trying to live his life. Sometimes that means parents leaving, sometimes that means narrowly escaping a riot, sometimes it means falling in love or leaving for college. Always, it means that, black or white, kids deserve the opportunity to find out who they are and what they're made of. There's a lot of humor and sorrow in Claude's well-written tale, underscored by this stark truth:
"Of course, I knew. I understood the difference between how society treats misbehaving white teenagers and misbehaving black teenagers. Those parties on frat row-just turn it down, bring it inside; those black kids arrested for smoking weed in a parking lot. Those cashiers in the campus grocery store looking at me walking down the candy aisle; those white students pocketing beer cans without hesitation." Highly recommended for high school readers. 

 

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Reid relies so heavily on stereotypes that it was hard to think of her characters as having real lives. Her somewhat wooden descriptions about their pasts didn't help, "Kelley Copeland was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He had an older sister who had one child, and two younger brothers who worked in the same post office (as) his father. Kelley made a huge effort to avoid screens after ten p.m."
Nevertheless, she does a great job of showcasing that we can make such assumptions about the motives, emotions, and desires of the people we know that it makes it very hard to discern who we're really dealing with. Although this has been marketed as a book that addresses the racial divide, it also confronts differences in social classes, upbringings, and Millennial mindset, and how our own experiences color the interactions we have with others.

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Taking place in the '8o's at a performing arts high school, this is the story of a group of teenagers dealing with love, passion, and adolescence, exacerbated by the high drama of their involvement in the theatre program. Or is it?
While the first half of the book depicts a tumultuous romance between sophomores Sarah and David (with some pretty tawdry and unnecessary sex scenes), An abrupt shift midway reveals that the first half was a novel written by the now adult Sarah, and her frienemy "Karen", as she is named in the novel, has a bone or two to pick with her about the veracity of the tale. Namely, Karen feels that the story somehow glosses over a few devastating events that shift the tone from young love to victimhood, narcissism, and tragic aftermath.
Honestly, I thought the first half of the book was fine as it was, but didn't necessarily see the story's worth as a National Book Award winner until the voice changed to Karen's, and we start to understand all that we didn't previously comprehend. This book leaves a lot up to the reader's interpretation and would yield a fantastic discussion for a book group.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
The starkest contrast between this book and Lolita is the point of view. Although there is still a predatory man and a vulnerable girl, it is an entirely different scenario when witnessed through her eyes instead of his. I never could make it through Lolita without tasting bile in my mouth, but Vanessa conjures up a different feeling, one of sadness and pity instead of pure revulsion.
Vanessa is a girl/woman with a joyless, loveless life.  As an awkward, angry 15 year old, she had trouble feeling love for herself, and that made her ripe for the plucking by Strane.  Strane's claims of loving her and being pulled into a relationship by her are utter B.S.  He carefully gleans her from the other students in order to get what he wants-innocence, trust,dependence, malleability.  He didn't love her, he loved that he had absolutely control over her -body and mind.  He brainwashed her into protecting him at all costs, and she thought that was what love felt like, because her understanding of love was so sparse.  Ah, that's heart-wrenching. Mostly, these are two people who don't like or love themselves very much and are seeking validation from outside sources, which never ends well. Vanessa at 32 is a shadow of who she might have become, frozen in time and unable to come to grips with what she has anesthetized herself into believing was her first romance.
Reading this has helped me to understand more why this story replays itself over and over again between adolescent girls or boys and pedophiles all over the world.  This story is so well written, you would swear it was autobiographical, although Russell takes pains in the foreword to assure us that it is not.

Unclaimed Baggage by Jen Doll
This is a sweet story about three kids: Doris, Nell, and Grant. They work together at a store called Unclaimed Baggage, which sells the contents of lost luggage that the airlines auction off when it goes unclaimed for too long. The deeper story is that all three of the teens have their own baggage: Doris has unexpectedly lost a beloved aunt, and she is also dealing with an issue that occurred when she was twelve. Nell was forced to move to Alabama from Chicago after her mother takes a new job, and has left behind a boyfriend she loves and misses greatly. Grant's story is the one that ties it all together; he is a star football player who is grappling with the fact that he's probably an alcoholic. Although sometimes it feels like the girls are a little too good to be true, and the loose ends tie up maybe a little too easily, this is a beautiful story of the power of friendship and understanding.
 

Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkings
This is a heartwarming story about a group of high school kids going to Kolkata, India for 10 weeks over their summer break to work with a group who helps victims of human trafficking. Handled very delicately, the scenario highlights not only the tragedy of sex slavery that is pervasive worldwide, but also the issues each of the students brings with them. Robin 'Ravi' Thornton was adopted by white American parents after being abandoned in Kolkata. This is his first time back, and he's hoping to find his birth mother. Katina, a jiu jitsu student, is struggling in the aftermath of an assault that makes her very leery of any males. Gracie is looking for a change from her life of often being the caregiver to her younger siblings. They all find a deeper understanding of their place in the world, even if they don't always find what they were looking for. Nicely done.



Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Pick a family and you'll find a set of incidences that have shaken it to its core: illness, poverty, substance abuse, violence, loss. And a truism that follows family dysfunction is, as Keane writes, "We repeat what we don't repair". In this soulful novel, two neighboring families are linked initially because the husbands are both NYC cops, then because two of their children become inseparable friends. A long simmering problem erupts in a spasm of violence that leaves both families shattered and estranged. Until...Kate and Peter, the aforementioned friends, find their way back to each other in young adulthood, drawn together by a love that each refused to give up on.
This isn't a simple love story by any means. This novel beautifully demonstrates the way love, forgiveness, and perspective provide the tools to overcome almost anything. I particularly enjoyed the way different characters were able to grow beyond the adversity of the past, not because of any spectacular insight or awakening, but simply because (as in real life) they endured and came out of their hardships stronger, and more cognizant of the frailty of those around them. Truly an inspiring read. 

The Overstory by Richard Powers
I wanted to love this book: Trees! Environmental Warriors! The Pulitzer! Forgive the pun, but this is a book I can only describe as 'wooden'. The first half introduces us to no less than nine separate protagonists, and if that's not enough, the nine different trees that profoundly affected them and led them on their inevitable path to activism. The stories are as slow growing as a white cedar. By the way, the white cedar is the slowest growing tree, and that's just the kind of scintillating fact that's sprinkled throughout the tales of the humans. I get it, the point is that we are all intrinsically intertwined and dependent on each other for the health and future of our planet.
The pace continues to decelerate in the second half of the novel -just as the characters are coming together and the action, such as it is, starts to happen. If long, drawn-out futility sounds like a fun read to you, by all means dive in. If you're interested in a story that uses magical realism to more effectively underscore the way all of nature is related and connected, maybe try Sweet Lamb of Heaven



Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong
Skye's life fell apart after her brother was killed in a school shooting. But Luka wasn't a victim, he was a shooter, and one of the students gunned down was the brother of her best friend/crush, Jesse. Flash forward three years and Skye is moving back to the town that her family fled in the aftermath of the tragedy. Her Dad is gone, Mom is clinically depressed, her grandmother is very ill, and she hasn't seen or spoken to Jesse since the incident-but she's still convinced that her brother was innocent.
Skye is shocked to find that Jesse -previously a straight A student-is troubled and struggling. When she finds herself the victim of a series of cruel pranks and bullying at school, she and Jesse team up to find out what really happened that day, but it seems that someone will do anything to keep the past buried.
This is a timely subject for a mystery, and highlights how an act of violence victimizes many people, including the family of the shooter.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Richardsons are a family living in Shaker Heights, OH in the '90s.  The suburb was originally built in the early 1900s to attain a black and white kind of perfectionism, based on rigid rules.  Although life is fairly good here, it is also pedantic and predictable.  Elena Richardson, the matriarch, is the living embodiment of everything that Shaker Heights stands for, which works out okay with her first three kids, but sets her at odds with her youngest, the impetuous and fiery Izzy.
A catalyst enters the picture when Elena rents an apartment to an artist named Mia, a tumbleweed of a person who brings with her a teenaged daughter, Pearl, and a past loaded with secrets.  Pearl finds the Richardsons'  lifestyle intoxicating after the ragtag existence she's accustomed to.  Lexie, Moody, and Trip Richardson all become entangled with Pearl, Izzy is fascinated with Mia, Elena struggles to control everyone and everything, and the swirling mass of churned up emotion will result in huge life changes for all of them.
Desire, envy, and jealousy are well-expressed in this story, but there is very little true warmth or love between characters.  A side story about a white couple attempting to adopt a Chinese baby who was abandoned by her mother is difficult to empathize with because the adoptive mother is cold and entitled and the biological mother seems unable to take care of herself, let alone an infant. 
The point of the book seems to be to highlight the difficulties experienced in the mother-daughter relationship, and how sometimes those we are closest to are the ones we know the least. Perhaps a little of 'love conquers all' thrown in there, too.  However, the story left me despairing for women everywhere, because if these are typical relationships for females, then we have a lot of work to do.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Jojo is a 13 year old boy in Mississippi who's trying diligently to figure out how to grow into a man of substance.   His elderly black grandfather, whom he lives with, is working hard to make ends meet while taking care of his cancer-stricken wife. Pop is a good man, but he struggles with the accidental death of his own son, and chaotic life of his meth-addicted daughter Leonie, Jojo's mother.
His white grandfather despises him for his color and has never acknowledged his existence. Jojo's father, who is also white, is currently serving time in a state penitentiary for drugs. Things come to a head when Michael is released from the pen and Leonie decides that the family (she, Jojo, and his younger sister, Kayla) will go upstate and pick him up -a happy reunion that will turn out to be anything but.  The story gets a little complicated when a ghost enters the picture.  This 13 year old boy was actually imprisoned with Pop, back when they were kids.  Their only crime, a ugly reality of life in the South, was being black.  This magical twist blends well with Jojo's awakening sense of who he is, and who he wants to be.



Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
Since a benefit of reading fiction books is gaining empathy and understanding of others' lives, this would certainly help someone who is confused about what it means to be transgender.  Handled sensitively, but not with any pat answers, Brian Katcher gives us a snippet of the life of a teen who feels she is a girl despite having been born male.  A precarious situation occasionally tips to a dangerous place when a straight male friend falls for Sage before learning that she is still anatomically male.  I'm not sure that many straight teen guys would be as open to the relationship that takes place between these two star-crossed kids, but perhaps.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Better than anticipated...Billy Lynn is an war hero, one of the few to survive a brutal assault on his unit when it's stationed in Iraq. Their 'reward' is a media-blitz Victory Tour that ends at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium. There is a gaping contrast between what civilians at home celebrate as 'heroic' and what soldiers in the field have experienced. Excellent book!







Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
This book was very cute, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Lots of young adult fiction tries to be cutting edge, writing about the issues, using 'teen' language, and it often turns into a bit of a sludge, and feels false. Dumpling addresses some real life concerns (body image, loss, relationships) and it feels authentic.  Willowdean, is a happy girl who is trying to figure out why a cute, popular boy has a crush on her when she is self-described as fat. She decides the way to break through her self-doubt is to enter the beauty pageant (run by her mother, a former beauty queen who's obsessed with looking 'perfect'). Read this book only if you're prepared to smile to yourself while doing so.
Soon to hit the movie theatre: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4878482/

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Eleanor might be a social misfit, but her wry observations about manners, conventions, and the inexplicable ways people relate to each other all bear the seeds of truth. Her isolated and damaged childhood has left her a stranger in a strange land, until a friendship springs up between herself and Raymond, the IT guy at her office. This is a vast oversimplification, because I don't really want to recount the plot (although it was marvelous), but I want to focus on Honeyman's wit and beautiful use of language. You will see words used in this book (tagine, numerate, epistolary) that have disappeared from the common vernacular, and gems of wisdom ("weak people fear solitude") as well as pithy descriptions (people dancing at a party appear to Eleanor to be "free-form jigging") that will result in laughing out loud. I would compare Honeyman to another favorite author, Karen Joy Fowler. If you enjoyed "Eleanor Oliphant", be sure to pick up We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Kudos for all the Sense and Sensibility allusions!


Maybe I Will by Laurie Gray
Very quick read, about a student who is violently victimized and doesn't know where to seek help. I'm not sure the rapidity with which the victim sank into alcohol abuse was plausible, but very, very, very clever twist by not letting the reader know if the main character was male or female. Especially in light of the fact that s/he is the victim of a sexual assault. This unique feature has quickly becoming a talking point between me and the several students I have recommended the book to -provocative!