Mystery and Suspense

Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose
 I hated this book for the first 50 or 60 pages-let's just say this one isn't destined to join the classics section. I did warm up to the story, after a bit: three siblings reconvene at home after many long years apart when their mother dies. Their lives are as disparate as you can get, with one a drug addict, one stuck in the old hometown, not meeting her potential, and one fabulously successful and coming home for the first time in nearly a decade.
Keep in mind, this is not about family, or choices, or fleshed out characters, but strictly a whodunit. As such, it's a real page turner, and offers up some interesting choices for villains and heroes. I'm positive it could make the leap to Netflix series easily, so don't be surprised if it pops up on screen one day soon!

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
What I really enjoy about Liz Moore's books, as opposed to the many, currently circulating one-note mysteries, is that her stories have great depth and meaning beyond the traditional whodunit. The God of the Woods is a psychological thriller par excellence, juxtaposing the disappearances of two children into the woods of northern New York. Although the cases have disparities- one boy, one girl; one in 1961 and one in 1975; an 8 yr old on a walk with his grandfather and a 12 yr old girl from her summer camp; one seems to have gotten lost, one seems to have ran away-the startling similarities point to hidden nefarious deeds. The biggest of these parallels is that the children are brother and sister, and that the summer camp is located adjacent to the Van Laars, the wealthy family who the children belong to. A well drawn-out cast of characters leaves much for the reader to, by turns, despise, pity, and admire. I highly recommend!

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
I really feel like Rebecca Makkai is rising as one of the great authors of the last decade. Her previous book, The Great Believers, was nominated for the Pulitzer and the Nat'l Book Award. In my opinion, this one surpasses it.
While at first glance, this is a mystery about the murder of a girl in a New Hampshire boarding school in the 90s, it's also about the Me Too movement, the time we started canceling out human beings, the time we let someone get away with murder/rape/domestic violence/pedophilia, the time we put a (possibly) innocent man in prison, the time we thought the black guy did it/ the time high school students were horrible and bullying to each other.
Bodie is a successful podcaster and professor, so when she is hired to teach a short term class at the boarding school she herself attended as a teen, it's not surprising that she starts questioning what really happened during her senior year, when her ex-roommate's body showed up bludgeoned and drowned in the gym pool. At the time, all evidence seemed to point to Omar, the athletic trainer. But...did it? Makkai neatly draws multiple storylines together to make points far beyond whodunit. Well worth the read!

Deadline by Gerry Boyle
An oldie (1994) but a goodie, this Maine mystery series features a NYT reporter, Jack McMorrow, who's relocated up North for a simpler life. Ha! He's immediately enmeshed in unsolved murder, shady characters, and more than one beat down. Gerry Boyle doesn't scrimp on the realism, and it's always fun to read a book when you recognize the locales. Fun, quick read. 

The Maid by Nita Prose
For once, the hype is true -The Maid lives up to all expectations! With elements of Christie as well as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Nita Prose brings us a neuro-diverse heroine (who we can only hope pops up in another book) entangled in cold-blooded murder, illicit activities, exacting etiquette, and Olive Garden trysts.
Molly is a maid at the exclusive Grand Regency, an existence she finds to be perfection--if it weren't for the passing of her grandmother (her only living relative), the ensuing loneliness, her financial woes, and her ostracization by the other employees for her odd affect and behavior. Add to this that Molly utterly lacks the ability to read motives in other people and it's easy to see how a girl could end up framed for murder. But Molly has been seriously underestimated her whole life, and she's finally able to use that to her advantage (with the help of a few good friends!)

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Intense drama about a group of five young Chinese-American students who are pulled into a scheme to steal back looted Chinese art from the Summer Palace in Beijing that has found its way into American and European museums. I wouldn't have thought it plausible for anyone to plan heists of this magnitude in this day and age, and yet... Li paints a compelling tale that seems like it could actually happen. Adding another dimension are the back stories and interactions of the student- thieves, all members of the Chinese diaspora, all looking for their place in the world, trying to navigate the road to adulthood, to happiness, to success, and to love. Two thumbs up!

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
How to describe this book? The story, about a married couple who goes to a remote hideaway in Scotland in a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, is sort of dull and uninspired for the first 2/3 of the book, but then several unique and clever plot twists are thrown in that make for a fairly compulsive read. Just an amazing juxtaposition between story idea and execution. It's worth picking up if you love mysteries, not so much if you depend on character development or interesting turns of phrase.

Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
I didn't scan the fine print on the book jacket before I started reading and was completely fooled into thinking this was a real story, very cool! Chizmar does an outstanding job of crafting a fake 'true crime' story, complete with pictures of victims interspersed throughout. And, of course, he injects himself as the narrator in a completely believeable fashion.
Richard 'recounts' the summer after he graduated from college, when he went back to his hometown to start work on a magazine he wanted to publish called 'Cemetary Dance'(which is actually what he did in real life). In this alternative reality, the town became a hotbed of terror as a serial killer stalked, assaulted and murdered girl after girl after girl. Richard and his friend, another recent jouralism grad, follow the clues and are soon up to their necks in the case -including being shadowed by the Boogeyman, as the mystery killer is dubbed. A great piece of fiction for a true crime afficionado.

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
 Naomi Cottle is the Child Finder, an investigator who has dedicated her life to finding missing children -after being found herself at the age of 9 when she escaped from unknown captors. The alternating narratives in this book feature both Naomi's voice, and the voice of a missing child who she's seeking, and it's well done. Naomi is the female investigator we've been looking for since the Kinsey Milhone series A is for Alibi came to an end. If you like mysteries with tart, quirky, independent investigators, unrequited love interests, and clever plot lines, than you should try this series. Now, on to the next one!

The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Looking for a suspenseful YA with twists, ambiguity, and good people who do bad things? Or possibly, bad people who do good things? Our anti-hero, Delilah, is trapped in a home with her cowed mother and mom's very abusive boyfriend, who also happens to be a cop investigating her school for a drug dealer. Logan is her charismatic, handsome, and charming stalker, who also happens to be blackmailing her. Bad things happen, and it's hard to know when to cheer and when to cringe, which makes this a perfect suspenseful novel, action-packed right up to the last page.

Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Compelling mystery that is just as much a whodunit as it is a commentary on the opioid crisis. Two sisters, daughters of addicts, grow up to choose very different paths for themselves. Mickey becomes a police officer, Kacey is a heroin addict/prostitute. When Kacey goes missing, Mick's racheting up anxiety is compounded when it becomes clear that someone is killing vulnerable women in their section of Philadelphia. Can Mick find Kacey before it's too late, and how to deal with her own lifetime of memories, prejudices, and isolation so that they don't impede her search? Red herrings abound, and it's easy to empathize with the characters, even if you don't particularly like them.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
Reading this book is taking a trip to a whole other world, but it's not a wonderland. It's the harsh reality of a 9 year old boy named Jai, who lives in a basti (slum by a garbage dump) in India where children are suddenly going missing. Jai, who loves to watch crime dramas on the family's prized TV, is about to get a dose of reality as friends are disappearing and the police can't be bothered to investigate what's happening to this marginalized population.
Because Jai and his friends are so young and innocent, they suspect it might even be the work of a djinn, a magical creature who's eating his captives. Unfortunately, the truth isn't much better. The three little friends decide to become detectives and find the missing children, and through their eyes the reader is allowed into a world they might not have realized existed. It's a harsh life, albeit one full of love, family, laughter, and tradition, but sparse on material possessions or full bellies. This is a masterfully told tale that thrusts injustice and poverty into the limelight while giving us tiny heroes to root for.

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus
Karen McManus does it again-she's the queen of fast-paced YA mystery. The Cousins pits three likeable teen characters against conniving adults, shrouded family secrets, and enigmatic events that lead to a big reveal that you probably won't see coming. Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah are the aforementioned cousins, but they barely know each other as their very wealthy grandmother disinherited all their parents 24 years ago, and the whole family became more or less estranged. Surprisingly, the grandmother has issued an invitation for the three to visit her for the summer on Gull Cove Island, where she owns an exclusive resort. But, they're not vacationing, they are hired as staff, and when they finally meet their grandmother, it's as if she wasn't expecting them. Add to this the puzzling and painful events going on in each of the cousins' lives and there's some unraveling to do before anyone gets to anything close to the truth of why their family split apart. Oh, and dead bodies? There will be a few of those, too! There's great chemistry between Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah, which adds a lot of entertainment value. Highly recommended.

The Truants by Kate Weinberg
Be forewarned -this enigmatic novel isn't anything like an Agatha Christie mystery, although suspicious behavior and shadowy figures abound. Jess enters the University of East Anglia in the hopes of making a connection with one of the professors, a charismatic woman named Lorna who teaches a course on Christie and seems to have an unnatural fixation with the ethics of murder. Now, a naive student who develops a fascination for a woman who has a fascination for murder doesn't necessarily mean that death and mayhem will occur, but it doesn't hurt. Jess is a smart girl, but she is easily manipulated by flatterers and friends and finds herself in several relationship triangulations that prove destructive. The story highlights the persuasive pull that educators have on impressionable minds, and the layers of manipulation occurring on multiple fronts are mindboggling.

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
A real page-turner about a girl who has spent her entire childhood being poisoned by her mother, Patty. Now, Patty had no intention of killing Rose Gold. Rather, she has Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, which means that she needs the sympathy and admiration of others from taken care of a sick child. All the benefits of sainthood, none of the work. Meanwhile, Rose Gold has suffered very real pain, as well as ostracism by other kids, and lacks even basic social skills or a moral compass.
The story isn't about the poisoning, but follows Rose Gold's difficult transition to adulthood after Patty goes to prison when Rose Gold is 18. Quickly we see that not only is Patty not a saint, but Rose Gold isn't either. When Patty is released from prison after five years and Rose Gold invites her to live in her home, you can practically hear the ominous music start playing.
 

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Five years ago, Sal Singh murdered Andie Bell -allegedly. Pip remembers Sal's kindness to her when she was young, and can't believe that Sal was capable of such a thing. So, Pip decides for her senior capstone project to get to the bottom of things, solve the murder, and clear Sal's name. Things quickly veer out of control and suspects start to rack up. With the help of Sal's brother, Ravi, Pip starts to close in on the truth, and that is a very dangerous place to be.
If you love murder mysteries, you're in for a real treat with this one! Pip is a plausible detective, and the author has woven a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, with more than one explosive surprise waiting for you!
 

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

This novel is a mash up of suspense, romance, and family drama. When a Moroccan immigrant and local business owner is the victim of a hit and run in southern California, his daughter is convinced that it was a hate crime. Each chapter is voiced by a different involved party, from Driss, the dearly departed, to his suspicious daughter, Nora, to Coleman, the detective on the case. Add to that: his widow, his other daughter, a friend from Nora's past who's an Iraqi war vet, etc., and things quickly become overly complex. Unfortunately, there's simply too much story to tell, and it feels as if the thick soup of details overshadows Nora's budding romance and self-awakening. When a character reveals a substance abuse problem and it's only addressed in passing, it might be time to pare down. Nevertheless, Laila Lalami does have a beautiful way with words, and she paints a vivid picture of the life of immigrants in America. Her book, The Moor's Account is a fantastic fictionalization of the first Muslim to hit these shores (as a slave on a conquistador's ship), and was nominated for the Booker and Pulitzer. She doesn't quite hit that mark with The Other Americans, but still a worthwhile read. 


The Cellar by Minette Walters
Revenge is an ugly emotion, but as 14 yr old Muna, the illegal slave of the Songoli family, says, "I am what you have made me".  
Muna is taken under false pretenses from an African orphanage when she's only 8 years old.  Mrs. Songoli claims to be her aunt, and brings Muna back with her to Great Britain -to begin a horrible existence as the family's slave girl.  Not only is she regularly beaten by Mrs. Songoli and sexually molested by Mr. Songoli, but their two sons are starting to present an ominous threat to Muna's already diminished circumstances.  

But, Muna is a clever, resourceful girl.  When the younger son mysteriously disappears on his way to school, she uses the opportunity to -finally-improve her life. But at what cost?  A terrific, thrilling read that will keep you spellbound right to the last page.


My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
In 1989 Baton Rouge, on a quiet, family friendly cul-de-sac, the unthinkable happens: a 15 year old is attacked and raped. Told from the perspective of another child living on the street, a story unfolds of how little we know those closest to us.
Our narrator is 14 and coming to grips with adolescent urges and crushes while in the midst of having his father leave home to live with a much younger woman. When the crime occurs, he watches the beautiful object of his affection crumble into a diminished version of herself as the police fail to solve the crime. He also evaluates the neighborhood and comes up with a strange crew of potential suspects-including himself. But who is the guilty party?
The author does a terrific job of building the suspense through until the end, because every one of the suspects seems as guilty as sin.


Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart
Jule and Imogen are unlikely bffs. Imogen is a beautiful young heiress who is very generous to her friends -until she isn't. She has no problem finding a boyfriend, but keeping a boyfriend is another matter. She's quit college and moved to a beach house with a revolving cast of guests, and she can change from kind to cruel in a split second.

 Jule is a self-sufficient orphan  who is strong, adaptive, and not above using a little violence to get what she wants. Her tough life has made her a very tough person; nobody that you should cross. When Jule stumbles into Imogen's life, a friendship is born. Both girls have secrets to keep, and both will do whatever it takes to survive. Whatever. It. Takes.
If you like Genuine Fraud, be sure to check out E. Lockhart's bestseller:
"We Were Liars "


Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Libby Day survived a murderous rampage (with Satanic overtones, no less) at the family farm when she was seven that took the lives of her mother and two sisters. Ben, the 15 year old brother who's fermented in gothic creepiness, is tried, convicted and sentenced -largely due to Libby's testimony.
Twenty-five years later, Libby is no noble heroine that Flynn wants you to root for. She's a vaguely unlikeable chronic depressive who continues to survive-but just barely. Libby at 32 is as wrung out as a damp, mildewy dishcloth, with no will to live but no particular desire to die, either. Only when she is confronted with the possibility that she may have been wrong (lied, been 'coached', mistaken, an idiot, whatever) does she show signs of life. What I love about Libby is, she's tough. A pissed off kleptomaniac with no visible means of income now that her trust fund has run out, when she's approached by a 'Kill Club' who believe her brother is innocent, she agrees to help them, if only to stave off her money woes. She hasn't spoken to her brother in 25 years, but she'll do whatever she has to to make it through another day. 
Artfully spinning between Libby's investigation and the day of the murder, Flynn successfully shows how ordinary life can devolve into something atrocious in the blink of an eye. As the story unravels, Flynn presents a host of characters that you have no trouble believing would slash, choke, and chop the life out of this family, if only for the thrill of it. With a bevy of suspects to choose from and Libby's increasingly spirited sleuth work, you'll be dying to know the gory details. Don't worry: you'll be tempted to wipe blood spatter off your face before you're done.
Gillian Flynn has a gift. She excels at portraying heinousness in ordinary people. The banality of evil, if you will, that lies all around us. Read this book -then look at your neighbors a little differently!

Historical Fiction

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Ariel Lawhon brings us the perfect blend of history, mystery, and Maine locale in The Frozen River. Martha Ballard is a midwife in Hallowell, Maine in the late 1700s, and in her role as medical professional, she gets drawn into two separate, ghastly crimes. An intelligent woman, she knows if she can put all the pieces together, justice might be done. But to just let it lie? A dangerous situation when one of the accused is a local judge who seems to be involved in shady enterprises on more than one front. A true bonus of reading this book in winter while living in Maine is that you can look out your window and easily imagine the unfolding drama that takes place over one very long, very cold season on the Kennebec River. Definitely worth 5 stars, and do be sure to read the Acknowledgements, they're brimming with interesting factoids about Martha, the real midwife whom this character is based on.

James by Percival Everett
I usually don't care for adaptations of classical novels, it feels like cheating and rarely does the second author come close to touching on the genius that made the first author a classical writer in the first place. But Percival Everett's retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the slave Jim's point of view is nothing short of brilliant. In fact, reading both novels together would enhance the humor and dark injustice in both tales.
In Everett's version, Jim puts up a front to reassure the whites that he is harmless and simple minded, such as all slaves must do. His interior dialogue shows him to be erudite and well-read, a dignified man who identifies as James. When he runs away to avoid being sold, he links up with Huck Finn and the adventures begin. While the ensuing shenanigans mirror the action in Twain's book, James's perspective casts a pure light on what life in Mississippi must have really been like at that time. This book could revolutionize teaching American Literature!

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Considered ground-breaking at the time, Solzhenitsyn's fictionalized account of the daily horrors of life in the Soviet gulag opened the world's eyes to what was happening to the Russian people at the hands of their own government. (Solzhenitsyn, himself, was sentenced to 8 years in the gulag for writing a criticism of Stalin in a letter -this after serving with honors during WWII in the Soviet army!) In this novel, we meet Ivan Denisovich on a typical day during an endless sentence at a Siberian prison camp. His matter-of-fact delivery of injustices and depravations is a marvel of human endurance and a testimony to the vigors of the human spirit. Also, though, it's startling to read about the callousness and cruelty that people will dish out to each other -how many times do we need to see this illustrated for us, across the spectrum of human cultures, to understand that we are part of a very flawed race? To learn more about Solzhenistyn, his battle with cancer, his exile, his conversion to Christianity, his awesome 1978 commencement speech at Harvard, and his Nobel prize: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
There's something to be said for maintaining a sense of suspense throughout an entire book. One good way to do it is to be ruthless with your characters -but that rarely happens. I get it. If you go to the trouble of conjuring up this fascinating ensemble of folks to people the pages of your novel, you'd probably feel pretty protective of them. However, Bohjalian suffers no such compunction, which is what elevates this story.
When Katie Barstow, her new husband David, and a host of friends and family decide to go on photographic safari in Africa, it seems exciting, yet safe. The year is 1964, Katie is a wealthy actress, and no expense is spared on hiring the best guides available for the trip of a lifetime. However, when kidnappers descend on the party, there's no limit to how badly things can and do go wrong. And that plethora of challenges -scorching heat, predators, cold-blooded criminals-leave the reader biting their nails as you wonder if anyone will be left alive. And that's not even including a few deadly secrets that some of the members of their party are hiding... A mesmerizing read!

The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz
I wasn't sure about this being a 5 star book at first, but the story deepened in emotion and meaning as it progressed, until it totally captured my heart. Lena is a Polish girl who only wants to be a doctor, but with the advent of WWII and a series of other tragic events, her dreams go unfulfilled. Misery seems to beget misery, culminating in her family's exile to the harshness of a Siberian workcamp.
But throughout the story, Lichtarowicz has juxtaposed small chapters of Lena's future life, hints about what she has endured and what happiness is yet to come. The pastiche of memories holds the threads of a fairy tale ending, in that through the pain and desolation, there is always something or someone to rejoice about. The Snow Hare gives us a piece of history that is rarely written about, and shows us the importance of tenderness and memory amidst the harshness of life circumstances, and the incredible power of forgiveness and grace.

The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep by Allan Wolf
Allan Wolf is a great historical fiction author, and certainly the story of the Donner Party is compelling, but....BUT. I had to drag myself through the book because putting a humanized face on this cannibalistic tragedy made for a very difficult read. Most particularly, because Wolf used alternating narrators, and many of the voices were children. So. Well written but hard to categorize as 'enjoyable'.

 

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towle
Amor Towles' way of turning a phrase make his books true rare pleasures.  
"Time is that which God uses to separate the idle from the industrious. For time is a mountain and upon seeing its steep incline, the idle will lie down among the lilies of the field and hope that someone passes by with a pitcher of lemonade. What the worthy endeavor requires is planning, effort, attentiveness, and the willingness to clean up."
This story of two brothers (one recently out of juvenile lockup, one only 8 years old) undertaking an arduous trip to find their mother after their father has passed away is certainly on par with all the heroic journeys from antiquity -perils, betrayal, yearning, derring-do.  And like Greek myths of old, the story is less about the destination than it is about all the steps it takes to get there.  Also, as you get to know Emmett, Billy, and their assortment of friends and acquaintances (Woolly, Duchess, Sally, Ulysses, etc), the underlying theme that it's all just about living life resounds in their words and actions.
I would read anything by Towle because I enjoyed this novel and A Gentleman in Moscow so very much.

 

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
Although the narration of this story, undertaken by a ghost who haunts an orphanage, takes a bit of getting used to, the unfolding drama of Frankie Mazza's life from 1941-1946 is worth the extra effort. Frankie and her two siblings are sent to an orphanage after the death of their mother because their father isn't able to care for them. It's a rough life which grows lonelier when their father remarries and moves away, taking his son but leaving his daughters in the institution. Pearl, the aforementioned ghost, has quite a story of her own to recount as she tries to figure out why she hasn't passed on to the other side yet. Both tales are replete with courage, betrayal, grief, love, and friendship. Best line in the book, "Why does the world want girls to be beautiful, only to punish them for it?'

Lovely War by Julie Berry
If a tale that involves unrequited love, war, death, injury, infidelity, and racism could be called sweet and poignant, than this is the one. In 1942, Hephaestus catches his wife, Aphrodite (goddess of love) cheating with his brother, Ares (god of war) and decides to put them on trial to see what they have to say for themselves. Speaking in her own defense, Aphrodite weaves the story of Hazel and James, a pianist and a soon-to-be soldier who meet in 1917 only two days before he is shipped out to fight in the Great War to show that love and war are often intrinsically linked.
Shifting perspectives between the gods and the very human lives that they are impacting, the reader becomes captivated with the young lovers and some friends they meet along the way. Hazel goes to France to volunteer and meets a young Belgian girl, Colette, who has lost her whole family and village to the Germans. Aubrey is a member of the 369th, an American unit of all Black soldiers who also have the finest military band, led by one of the finest conductors in the U.S. Although all four of them encounter hardships, there is hope and joy in their stories. The trial of Aphrodite and Ares also brings some surprises of its own. I can see why Lovely War was listed in the Teens' Top Ten for 2020!

Deacon King Kong by James McBride
I love James McBride because he always writes about those things that bring us together instead of what separates us. This story, about love, intrigue, crime and passion in a NYC neighborhood circa 1969 is uplifting as well as funny. As President Obama said about the quality and worth of McBride's writing, he "humaniz(es) the complexities of discussing race in America.” 

The titular deacon is a handyman at an apartment complex in a NYC neighborhood, as well as a gardener for a mobster's aging mother, a baseball coach for the kids in the complex (an ex-player whom has chosen to deal drugs), and a pretty ardent drunk. One day, the deacon strolls up to (or drunkenly staggers up to) the dealer and shoots him for wasting his God given baseball talent, a chain of events is set off that involves organized crime, drug pipelines, revenge, and a hidden treasure secreted somewhere in the neighborhood.  The church and its congregation play a pivotal role in this disparate cast, and lots of humor is discovered in what could be a morbid and depressing situation.  Of course, unguessable outcomes are the best, and the twinklings of love that unexpectedly come to pass lend this story heart.



The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This is a really good piece of historical fiction about a man named Hiram, who is a slave in Virginia in the mid 1800s. Hiram has a photographic memory, but despite this he has managed to block out the last day he saw his mother. This is significant, because the day his mother was sold (when Hi was only 9), left him without family -except for his father, the plantation owner, and his brother, also White. Hi is buffeted by forces much more powerful than himself: a culture of slavery and White superiority/Black subjugation, a robust Underground that he is destined to cross paths with, and the mysterious power of Conduction that lies within him undiscovered.
Coates does an excellent job at tapping the emotions Hiram struggles with, as well as delicately conveying the horribleness that surrounded the practice of slavery. Moreover, he addresses the complications that arise when a slave owner takes advantage of a female slave, resulting in a child. How could anyone look at their son or daughter and consider them property, something from which they could glean financial gain? What kind of relationship could one possibly expect from such beginnings? Well done.


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.

 The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
Oaths and blood feuds, shield walls and raiding, this 12th century depiction of a fledgling Norway is so adventurous and exciting, you'll wonder how anyone survived to tell tales of the Vikings. Ragnvald is a young sailor/raider who barely escapes a murder attempt by his captain, only to find he must fight to regain his lands from his treacherous stepfather, all while the legendary Harold struggles to become the first king of a united Norway. Alliances shift on a dime, and the plight of being a woman is sharply brought into focus by Ragnvald's sister, Svanhild, who refuses to be tucked away safely and ends up in the clutches of Ragnvald's archenemy. A compelling read that reminds me of the excellent show The Last Kingdom about the Dane invasion of the British Isles and Alfred the Great's rise to power.

A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
The juxtaposition of two Palestinian-Americans, a mother and daughter, who are both caught between the old world devaluation of women and their desire for freedom and happiness. In 1990, 17 year old Isra is given in marriage to Adam and finds herself relocating to Brooklyn from Palestine, dispossessed of all that she knows -except for the devout Muslim view that she is to quietly stay at home, serve the men and her mother-in-law, and have (hopefully) male babies. There is no room in Isra's life for love, desire, dreams, or joy.
Moving forward to 2008, Deya at 18 is the oldest of Isra's four girls. Untenably, she is also expected to conform to an arranged marriage, with no possibility of college, career, or romance. Both Adam and Isra died when Deya was only seven, so she is denied the understanding and compassion that her mother would surely have given her. However, Deya is determined to rebel, and thus finds that there is a secret shrouding the circumstances of her parents' deaths.
The lifestyle that Isra and Deya experience would be anathema to most American women; codes of silence and shame, subservience and honor. The missing component is love, which isn't to say that all women in their circumstances are deprived of it; this family is a tangled up knot of obligation and anger. A novel that gives a voice to those who desperately need to be heard.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
In ancient Greece, women were portrayed by male voices as either beautiful prizes or evil witches, or simply and anonymously as slaves and drudges.  In this retelling of the siege of Troy, the story is flipped to focus strictly on the story through the eyes of a woman -Queen Briseis, who is enslaved to Achilles after her city is overtaken by the Greeks.  The manly heroes might shine gloriously on the battlefield, but as witnessed by the women in the camps, they are beastly, demanding, and self-obsessed.  Many are rapists, and a scant few are worthy of love. Briseis is obedient to Achilles, and even finds some things to admire about him, but refuses to soften to the man who killed her brothers and father.
Achilles does value Briseis, though, and when Agememnon demands her 'company', Achilles refuses to go to battle -with dire consequences.  Though Briseis is a pawn in a man's game, her voice comes through strongly as she struggles to survive.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Imagine a world so cruel that people are arbitrarily forced into labor and tortured, raped, and murdered if they don't comply. That part is (unfortunately) a matter of historical truth. Colson Whitehead intriguingly melds fact with fiction as he explores the pre-Civil War South through the eyes of Cora, a slave escaping from the Georgia plantation where she is in imminent peril from her new master. Where he chooses to weave new fictional details into this terrible time is an underground railroad that is actually underground -hidden tunnels squirreled away and managed by conductors who assist runaways to freedom. The railroad is a saving grace for Cora more than once, as a dogged slave catcher named Ridgeway is obsessed with seizing her and bringing her back to captivity. What he doesn't count on is her truly indomitable spirit -Cora is an epic heroine who bears the souls, hopes, and dreams of many as she makes her way, inch by inch, toward freedom.
(Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2017, National Book Award 2016)

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
In 1849, Leah Westfall and her gold miner parents reside in a panned-out Georgia when the news comes: prospectors are getting lucky out in California, and a new Gold Rush is about to commence.  Leah possesses a secret ability: she can 'sense' when gold is near.  Before she and her parents can consider what this means for them, tragedy strikes and Leah is on her own.  Forced to flee malevolent forces, Leah becomes Lee and decides to travel out West alone, disguised as a boy, hoping to meet up with her best friend, Jefferson.
At first I was a little put off by the 'girl disguised as boy' trope, and the magical gold-sensing ability.  But this is actually a very well-written and plausible book that captures the pioneering spirit of the mid-1800s.  Leah is a sensible girl who is more likely to rescue someone else than be in need of rescuing. The trek to California is full of pitfalls and threatening situations, especially for a teen-aged girl, which makes for an engrossing read. (Longlisted for the National Book Award)

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
This is a tricky book to describe, but let me start with 'bardo'.  The bardo is a Tibetan Buddhist term for the state the soul enters after death, before rebirth. In Western cultures we might be more familiar with the idea of 'purgatory'.  The death in question is that of Willie Lincoln, who tragically died of Typhoid Fever when he was 11 and his father was President of the United States. There are a plenitude of stories that talk about Lincoln's presidency, and others that touch on the effect his child's untimely death had on him -this is not one of those stories (not exactly).  First we are introduced to the souls currently residing at the cemetery where Willie is laid to rest -conflicted beings who don't understand that they are, in fact, dead.  Their stories are interspersed with chapters that contain snippets from books and historical documents -some of which are real, some of which were concocted by the author.  Put everything together and you get a multiverse of the events surrounding Willie's death: his bewilderment at his new situation, his father's grief, the purgatorial remnants who try to assist Willie on his journey, and a nation caught in a bloodbath of a war that is sure to fill the bardo to the brim.  This story reminded me of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, another intriguing look at life after death. George Saunders has a unique voice, humorous and kind to his characters, even when they are very flawed. An intriguing look at how Lincoln might have been influenced in some of the choices he made. (Winner of the Man Booker prize)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Werner is an orphan growing up in German mining country in the '40s. Despite an impressive aptitude for science (radios in particular), his outlook is bleak until he catches the eye of a Nazi officer. Marie-Laure is a girl in France, living with her beloved father, who is the locksmith and key maker for the National Museum of Natural History. Despite going blind at 6, Marie-Laure has a rich life and her father devises ways to circumvent her disability. Primarily, he constructs a miniature version of Paris so that Marie-Laure can feel her way around the model city, learning the routes before venturing out to into the real world. As Werner and Marie-Laure grow into young adulthood, their paths will collide in wholly unexpected ways. 
This book reminded me of "The Book Thief" (another excellent read) in that these children growing up in war-torn Europe are warmly and richly brought to life. Doerr paints so vividly with words that the reader feels as if they themselves have fled to St. Malo, as if they are being conscripted by the Hitler Youth, as if they are charged with saving a 133 carat diamond from the greedy hands of the Nazis. When Marie-Laure cups a shell in her hands, you will feel the cool, smooth curves for yourself. Truly deserving of the Pulitzer.

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
I didn't realize until after I had finished this that the two main characters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, were actual historical figures. The Grimke sisters were outspoken abolitionists in the 1820s and 30s whose impassioned pleas to end slavery came from the dark reality that they grew up in a prominent South Carolinian home with slaves and were both strongly affected by the cruelty and injustice of the 'peculiar institution'.
In this fictionalized account, the story switches between Sarah's voice and that of a slave, Handful, who is gifted to Sarah on her 11th birthday by her rather coldhearted mother. Sarah rejects the idea of owning another human, but she is told that she will and she'd better accept the situation. Sarah counters by secretly teaching Handful how to read (in real life, Sarah actually did teach her handmaid reading and writing), an unlawful act that brings dreadful retribution on both of them when it is discovered. Sarah never does accept her place in Charleston society, but finds her calling as a Quaker in Philadelphia, and eventually as a voice crying out for freedom.
Although Handful is purely fictional, her unflinching character is brought wholly to life by Ms. Kidd, and it is her story that really touched my heart. Handful endures so much loss, humiliation, pain, and yet she never gives up and never accepts that she is lesser than the whites merely because of the color of her skin. Her devotion to her family and her intelligence highlight the absurdity, the hubris of anyone daring to claim another human being as their property.
I would highly recommend this novel, followed by reading the actual pamphlet Angelina Grimke wrote as a plea to the women of the South to end slavery: An Appeal to Christian Women of the South