Joel loves to read! Every year since 2023 (but, um, skipping 2024) he’s shared his reading list to show what he’s been interested in. Hopefully this will generate some interest in the next thing you decide to pull off the shelf. Read on!
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
By Haruki Murakami
Doubleday Canada
I’ve been a Murakami fan for decades. In part because I love the simplicity and cleanliness of Japanese literature, but mostly because he creates these alternate worlds where nearly anything can happen. In this story, the main character keeps experiencing a dream that isn’t really a dream. As he discovers, the girl he loved when he was a teenager is stuck in this dreamworld and he sees it as his duty to get her out. But once they escape, things become more and more strange. Love him, as always.
Tech Agnostic
By Greg Epstein
MIT Press
One of my handful of forays into non-fiction, this exploration at the intersection of technology, religion, and history discusses our addictions to our technology, looks to history for examples, and attempts to draw parallels between religions and the companies that claim to have all the answers. Given that we’re in a period of the AI curve known as the trough of disillusionment, which can also be considered the hangover that follows the hype cycle, this is a thought-provoking read and useful for us to make sense of the rapid change we continue to experience.
Pitch Dark
By Paul Doiron
St. Martin’s Publishing Group
I started reading the Mike Bowditch series a couple years ago, and I believe that at this point I’ve made my way all the way through the series — though not in order. This is the most recent, with Ranger Bowditch and his good friend (and father-in-law) taken hostage after witnessing a double murder in the wilds of upper Maine. And things only get harder from there. Another great outing with a surprise at the end for the future of the series.
Firekeeper’s Daughter
By Angeline Boulley
Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Native teen Daunis has just turned 18 and looks forward to attending Michigan University as a pre-med student. Then her best friend is murdered right in front of her. What results is an investigation that includes the CIA recruiting Daunis to be their eyes and ears, and ultimately throws everything Daunis believes into question. She’s no longer sure she can trust even her own family, which has always been the glue that holds her many webs together. Not only did we get a great mystery, but an insight into how native culture maintains its traditions while navigating everyday life in American and Canadian society.
American Rapture
By CJ Leede
Tor Publishing Group
Just like the title says, this is the rapture. Something’s turning the entire world into sex-crazed zombies (yes, really), and Catholic schoolgirl Sophie is doing what she can to survive. As she traverses the hellscape, she has to learn who she can trust, and hope that they don’t turn…then turn on her.
Service Model
By Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tor Publishing Group
The world’s a disaster. A war zone, to be exact. And humanity, well, let’s just say that humanity doesn’t have a lot going for it at the moment. So when a service robot’s code base goes haywire, it murders its owner (quite logically, to be sure) and embarks upon an odyssey to find itself a new, more useful owner. What results is an adventure as seen through the computed brain of the service robot and the robots (or maybe non-robots) it encounters and attempts to protect while hoping to find meaning in its own existence. A little bit tongue in cheek, a lot Armageddon, with a bit of philosophy thrown in. I’m not huge on this kind of speculative fiction, but if you are then it’s worth the read.
Eight Very Bad Nights
By Tod Goldberg
Soho Press
Eight very bad stories. Well, actually, I can’t confirm that because the couple I read were enough to prevent me from continuing on. Pass.
The Personal Librarian
By Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Penguin Publishing Group
Imagine, a century back, being hired by J.P. Morgan (yes, that J.P. Morgan) as his personal secretary to manage his art acquisitions. Imagine that this person, Bella, unbeknownst to anyone in these high-class circles, is actually Black. That’s the premise behind this work of historical fiction, based upon the real Bella. Pre-Depression Manhattan plays a big role in this story, as does the racism inherent in the society and the times.
Every Arc Bends Its Radian
By Sergio De La Pava
Simon & Schuster
Riv, a private investigator from New York, heads south to Colombia on a case, only to be sucked into another case that involves members of his family and a young woman who’s disappeared and presumed dead. What Riv discovers, and how he discovers the interconnectedness between the family he’s supposed to trust and the organized crime syndicate operating in his small city makes for a compelling read. Not a favourite for this year, but still worth the time.
Beartown
By Fredrik Backman
Atria Books
This small town in Sweden lives and breathes hockey. The kids play it, their parents follow it religiously, and just about everyone else in town has their hands or hearts somewhere in that hockey culture. So it would go without saying that the local high school team are considered heroes, and those heroes are put on pedestals. Sometimes those pedestals are too tall to hold the people who are placed upon them, and that’s what Beartown’s about. This is Backman at his best, with his style of interconnectedness that makes it so clear that everyone needs to rely upon everyone else to survive.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books
By Kirsten Miller
HarperCollins
I read this for my book club, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a fun romp through a small town that’s been roiled by the behaviours of uptight, prissy Lula Dean. Thankfully this one has a happy ending, but there are a lot of twists and turns to get there. More important, the story brings to light so many of the so-called activists who want to “protect the children” by banning books in public libraries — much to the detriment of everyone. Seattle peeps, read closely and you’ll find an easter egg related to the city’s most beloved librarian.
Rosenfeld
By Maya Kessler
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Most of the Israeli literature I’ve read has been the old guard: Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, and the like. This book is not them. Sexy, needy, angry, and far more international, this story of filmmaker Noa and the “relationship” she carries on with one of her clients is a deep dive into neuroticism and people’s darkest places. But the writing is strong, fresh, and packs a wallop. And like in life, these characters don’t always get what they want.
Martyr!
By Kaveh Akbar
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Nothing is as it seems. Cyrus’s mother was killed while attempting to escape Iran, and this motherless boy grew up with an emotionally absent father and no real direction in life. So as an adult, barely making a living in New York, when he connects with a dying artist and her gallery rep, Cyrus begins experiencing too many coincidences that take him back to his childhood. An interesting story with some twists and turns that make for a nice payoff at the end.
Creation Lake
By Rachel Kushner
Scribner
Sadie, as we’re told to call her, is a mystery. To the people around her, and to us as readers. She’s sent to wartime France, where she’s been given the assignment to keep tabs on an anarchist resistance leader. She seduces one of his followers, and becomes so embedded that she becomes sympathetic to the cause. Or does she? Kusher keeps us guessing as to every characters motives, and the dark sides of each.
The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster
By Shauna Robinson
Sourcebooks
Every family has its secrets. Mae has never learned about those secrets because for most of her life she’s not had access to her family. So when her long-lost grandmother dies, Mae decides to head to the South for the funeral. And finds herself in the midst of drama she could have had no idea was awaiting her. At the same time, Mae continues to embed herself in her family’s lives, whether they like it or not, so she can make her own peace.
The Serviceberry
By Robin Wall Kimmerer
Scribner
This musing on the serviceberry, also known as the Saskatoon berry, as a metaphor for how we can all live our lives was a bit more than I could wrap my head around. Weaving together the biology of this fruit, which can grow in the harshest of environments, and humans making their way in the world, is fine for some, but I just couldn’t get into it.
Darkly
By Marisha Pessl
Random House Children’s Books
Marisha Pessl is one of a couple authors who I took deep dives on this year. In this, her latest, teenager Dia has won a trip to the island headquarters of her favourite game off the coast of Britain. On this trip she meets the other teens who have also been chosen to take part in what is likely an adventure of a lifetime. Think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but much darker and without any Oompa Loompas. What Dia discovers are secrets that, ultimately, turn deadly.
Neverworld Wake
By Marisha Pessl
Random House Children’s Books
When Beatrice goes with her friends on a graduation trip, their car goes off the road and they narrowly escape death. Or do they? The five “survivors” are given an ultimatum, then keep repeating the accident until the group decides who the one actual survivor will be. Payback can be a bitch.
Night Film
By Marisha Pessl
Random House Publishing Group
Investigative journalist Scott is taking his nighttime run through his favourite park when he catches a glimpse of a woman—a woman who the next morning is found dead. Naturally, Scott takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of her identity. Joined by two much younger accomplices with tenuous connections to the victim, the three navigate the back alleys of New York and the backcountry roads of the Northeast to find answers. The answers they get, as we find, are never as cut-and-dried as they seem. This one definitely kept me up at night.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
By Marisha Pessl
Penguin Publishing Group
The last of my deep Pessl dive, we meet Blue, a high school senior who’s been following her father around the country as he chases teaching jobs at third-rate universities. They finally land in a town where they can have some stability. That’s where Blue meets Hannah, a beautiful, mysterious film studies teacher who invites Blue to join her special cadre of prep school students, a tight clique that begrudgingly welcomes this interloper. Then, on a last-minute camping trip, Hannah gets murdered. Was it Blue? Or is her death related to the drowning of a former lover at a costume party she’d thrown? Too many things seem connected to be coincidence, and it’s now up to Blue to figure out what the heck’s going on. I really enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it.
Pariah
By Dan Fesperman
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
A tongue-in-cheek, romping, and ultimately forgettable novel about a famous actor whose womanizing and alcohol abuse combine for a “Me Too” moment that basically ends in his career. In a drunken fog, he agrees help what he thinks is the CIA to bring down an Eastern European dictator who just happens to be a fan of his films. Murder, mayhem, a little sex, and of course mistaken identity figure into the story, which ultimately becomes, of course, a story of redemption. Take it or leave it, but it was a fun diversion.
Polostan
By Neal Stephenson
HarperCollins
The first in what is intended to be a trilogy, we meet Dawn Rae: American-born, Soviet apologist, and all-around badass. Starting as a teen in the 1920s and following her through to the 1940s, her life is a true adventure. Wrangling horses for U.S. generals, suffering torture in a Siberian gulag, and that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to the next installment. I will say that breaking Dawn Rae’s story into three parts is a great idea. Having enjoyed Stephenson’s novels for years, his more recent ones have been, shall we say, doorstops badly in need of better editing. Hopefully this method will help.
Don’t Talk About Politics
By Sarah Stein Lubrano
Bloomsbury Publishing
I’ve been thinking about this book every time I see another protest against our provincial government or the U.S. government, such as the No Kings rallies. Namely, that research Lubrano has undertaken in her two home countries of the U.S. and the U.K. shows that millions of people can show up with their signs and their slogans, but the results will be disappointing. Why? Because the people being protested don’t care. They’ll turn off the TV and push forward with their agendas despite the anger. So what’s a frustrated populace to do? Lubrano’s got some ideas. It’s worth the read to find out what she suggests.
Dead Lions
By Mick Herron
Soho Press
I’ve been a fan of the Apple TV series Slow Horses, based upon Herron’s series of MI5’s band of rejects who’ve been sent to Slough House, led by the mercurial Jackson Lamb. This book is season 2, and actually stays quite faithful to the series (or perhaps the other way around). If you’re not British, you may miss some of the slang, but it’s a great ride.
Hello Beautiful
By Ann Napolitano
Dial Press
It’s a love story. But it’s also a story of loss, understanding who you are, and coming to terms with the imperfections of family. Will’s parents were never really parents to him—when his older sister died as a toddler, they became shells of themselves and left their baby son to his own devices. So when he makes it to college on a basketball scholarship, he immediately catches the eye of Julia, the oldest of four sisters from a raucous family living on the south side of Chicago. They marry, have a baby, and plan to live a life happily ever after. Until Will disappears, feeling unfit to parent this new little wonder. That’s just the beginning. What happens from there is a life-spanning story of a family with its joys, tragedies, and near misses. Definitely in my top five for the year.
Other Evolutions
By Rebecca Hirsch Garcia
ECW Press
Alma has always lived a simple life in her sheltered Ottawa neighbourhood. But a tragedy costs her her childhood crush—and her arm. An escape to Mexico, to visit her mother’s family, gives her insights into how to move forward, but doing so does not bring the results anyone would expect, least of all the mother of the boy who died. A bit philosophical, a bit metaphysical, a bit slow-paced. But around every corner is a mystery, which keeps the story going.
The Caretaker
By Paul Doiron
St. Martin’s Publishing Group
This short story from the author of the Mike Bowditch mystery series takes a different tack: it’s told instead from the point of view of Charley Stevens, Mike’s mentor and eventual father-in-law. This story would fall early in the canon, while Charley’s still on the job and Mike’s still a hot-headed rookie in the Maine Game Warden department. Some squatters have taken over a property, and things are about to hit a breaking point. As always, plenty of suspense. This one just comes in a smaller package.
The Last Chairlift
By John Irving
Simon & Schuster
Back in the day, when John Irving would come out with a book every couple years, I’d be like those people who used to wait overnight for concert tickets. I couldn’t get enough! As time has passed, his writing’s gotten more and more tedious, and the same old tropes keep getting reused. Enough so that after 100 or so pages of this one, I had to give up. Where was his editor? Why didn’t someone sit John down and let him know that he couldn’t coast on his reputation when the newest generation of readers has no idea who he even is? It’s sad, I know, when the great ones lose their magic touch.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
By Madeleine Thien
W. W. Norton & Company
If I have any literary regrets this year, it’s that I had the opportunity to see the author speak at the St. Albert (Alberta) Library’s book festival and didn’t act quickly enough to get tickets. Because this sprawling, fascinating story centers around a “Book of Names” that has been kept and added to by a single family for generations. Even as the original author’s descendants are displaced, imprisoned, separated, murdered, and eventually reunited, someone in the family knows where this book is and how to rescue it. Set in various cities in China through the Maoist revolution through Tianenman Square up to current times, we become spectators to the horrors and occasional moments of joy (such as a contraband jazz record). Brilliant book, goes on my top 5.
Daikon
By Samuel Hawley
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
The old saying goes that history is written by the victors. This history then, tells of the people who lost. Specifically, it’s about a Japanese air force grunt who comes across some kind of unexploded bomb left over from an air raid by the Americans, and the physicist who’s forced to figure out exactly what the thing is. As they attempt to maintain secrecy, the powers that be have other ideas. It’s not giving away too much to say that part of how they keep the secret is to name it after a daikon radish. I’d put this in my top 10, especially the philosophical arguments these two have, as well as the continued downward spiral of the colonels and generals who feel that though they’re losing the war, they must never surrender.
Julius Julius
By Aurora Stewart de Peña
McClelland & Stewart
So there’s this ad agency. What’s special about this agency is that it’s the oldest in the world—it’s been around since Pompeii. And like in almost any ad agency, you’ll find an army of young workers, both male and female, who are trained to live and breathe the brand. Many will move on. But not all of them. Those who haven’t moved on are now ghosts that haunt the halls (or the catacombs that hold all the old files). That’s the premise. The story, while somewhat circuitous, does gain some footing, and once it does we get what we came for: the satire that mocks an industry for all that it’s worth.
The Trial of Katterfelto
By Michael Redhill
Knopf Canada
At the tail end of the 18th century, a scrawny young man turned out by his family is somehow picked up and embraced by a traveling magician and snake oil salesman. The two travel the countryside, doing what they can to stay alive, when they find a strange metallic object in a streambed. That’s when things start to get interesting. This object, when held the right way, contains a voice. As readers, we know that this voice comes from a time not so far from our own. But the audiences that come from miles around believe that it’s a prophecy that only the magician, Dr. Katterfelto, can summon. The book is slow to start, but once we get into it things start moving. And fast. Perhaps not a top book for me, but worth the read.
The Humans
By Matt Haig
Simon & Schuster
Professor Andrew Martin’s been murdered. Unfortunately, nobody knows that Andrew’s been murdered because the alien who murdered him has taken on Andrew’s identity. His physical identity, at least. The dossier provided to the alien by its leaders, who have sent the alien to wipe out humanity, is unfortunately not comprehensive enough to help the alien understand how actual humans behave. Even worse, this new Andrew is actually a lot more likeable than the old Andrew. So as the alien Andrew learns more about humanity, the more ambivalent he becomes about killing the people he’s growing to love. A nice reminder that maybe most of us aren’t as bad as we think we are.
The Book of Records
By Madeleine Thien
W. W. Norton & Company
If you see Ms. Thien’s other book below, you can be excused for thinking that this one would be that book. It’s not. But this, Thien’s most recent, takes place in a dystopian-ish near future that’s in our world but not of our world, at a way station on the ocean for people to leave the country they’re in so they can become refugees elsewhere. One family, a father and his teen daughter, have been stuck in this place for years. They’ve built a community for themselves, in part through this book of records that reaches back to ancient China and Baruch Spinoza, among others, yet ties directly back into the situation these lonely souls are all in. Again, highly inventive and beautifully written.
Skin and Bones
By Paul Doiron
St. Martin’s Publishing Group
As I await Doiron’s next full-length installment of his Mike Bowditch series, I had to make do with these eight short stories that he pulled together under a single cover. A lot of these stories feel like backstories that get us deeper into the head of Mike, as well as push us toward the motivations of the people in his orbit. And I continue to await the next…
The Four Winds
By Kristin Hannah
St. Martin’s Publishing Group
I read “The Women” last year and loved it. So when I saw this one from a few years back, I knew I had to give it a try. While I wasn’t as dazzled by this Depression-era novel as I was by the Vietnam war portrayed in “The Women,” with such strong writing I could feel the blowing gusts of soil and dust in Oklahoma; experience the extreme flooding and mud running through the Hooverville she and her family settle in when they reach California; experience the anger and heartbreak as the company that employs the fruit pickers in the Central Valley forces their reliance upon the company store while stealing their wages. In real life this was a story without a happy ending. “The Four Winds” pulled no punches about how hope can quickly turn to heartbreak, again and again.
That Librarian
By Amanda Jones
Bloomsbury Publishing
Amanda Jones is a librarian in a small Southern town, doing a job she loved and made her happy. Until one day, when she spoke up at a town council meeting about a book ban issue at her public library. After that, her life changed almost immediately—and not for the better. In this book, Jones tells her story of what she suffered as anti-everything fundamentalists with no ties to her community turned her into a pariah. And then, what she did to fight back. As we see book bans occur across communities like hers, both in the U.S. and in my own province of Alberta, Jones gives a prescription of what we citizens can do to take back our libraries and give everyone, kids and adults alike, the ability to read what we want to read.
There Are Reasons for This
By Nini Berndt
Zando
I believe there were reasons for writing this book. I’m just not entirely sure what they were. In yet another near-future dystopian setting, Lucy, a teen girl from a small town moves to the big city to find her brother. As much as he would tell her he loved her, the town and their abusive family was slowly killing him, so he went as far away as he could. And died. So Lucy pieces together where he was and what he was doing, and embeds herself into the lives of the people he met so she can get closure. I wouldn’t highly recommend this book, but it has rated highly among LGBTQ+ fiction lovers.
Winter Garden
By Kristin Hannah
St. Martin’s Publishing Group
Meredith and her father have always had a special bond. Her mother, however, has always been a different story—for as long as she can remember, her mother’s been cold, aloof, and seemingly hiding something. So when Meredith’s father dies of a sudden heart attack, it’s up to Meredith and her semi-estranged sister to pull her family back together. As the three women fight and make peace one another, their mother’s story eventually comes out, and we all learn about the sacrifices people had to make for love. The end has some coincidences that are perhaps a little too tidy for the story, but it’s a great read nonetheless.
Fugitive Pieces
By Anne Michaels
McClelland & Stewart
Such an interesting piece of storytelling in this debut novel that moves between war-torn Greece and Toronto. It’s not widely known that the Nazis invaded as far south as Greece, and decimated the Jewish population all across the country, even its islands. Jakob, the story’s protagonist, is hiding under a cabinet as he hears his family, including his beloved older sister, murdered. Jakob is eventually rescued and taken under the wing of a bachelor who protects Jakob until the war’s end, and ultimately becomes a father figure. As Jakob grows older, he continues to search for more news about his family while fighting his own demons. The book moves slowly, but ultimately becomes rewarding as we follow Jakob through the remainder of his life.
Aliens on the Moon
By Thomas King
HarperCollins Canada
This had been on my list before it came out that Thomas King was not indigenous, as he had assumed his entire life. This very public revelation has resulted in a lot of cancelled speaking dates and a rethinking of his catalog, but I’d never him. So I did. The biggest takeaway I took from his laissez-faire writing style is “write like you don’t give a shit.” And for him, it works. About the book: A number of top scientists have it on good authority that aliens have landed on the moon. The world goes crazy, in particular the residents of a small Canadian town that can blame the invasion for all that’s been going wrong. Like the man whose new Subaru can’t keep the battery charged. Like the guy who sold him the car, who’s left his wife for the sales manager. Like the real estate agent who’s begun to resort to some less-than-above-the-board tactics to stay afloat. Like the old woman who’s mad that her son has stuck her in assisted living. In the meantime, nobody’s seen the aliens and the aliens haven’t made any demands. So there’s that.
Atlas of AI
By Kate Crawford
Yale University Press
I’ve been reading this book for a course I’m designing, and it’s truly fascinating. We hear about AI on the news—mostly about issues with language models having positive or negative effects on society, the financial aspects, and the environmental costs. Crawford, a professor at USC and principal researcher at Microsoft goes much deeper to talk about the overall human costs and where things both go wrong and go right. It is somewhat academic, but she uses good storytelling examples to help the reader understand the questions we all should be asking about our machine-based future.
Endling
By Maria Reva
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Taking us into modern Ukraine, specifically the days running up to and immediately following Russia’s invasion of the country in 2022, the main characters of the book are “dates,” three women who signed up to entertain Western men and perhaps even end up as brides. But these women have ulterior motives, which takes them on a road trip with 13 of these men held hostage in the back of their trailer. An interesting take on the road trip, especially when the reason for one of these characters’ antics is to rescue an endangered snail. The author inserts herself in various points of the story, which makes for some interesting interludes.
The Great Believers
By Rebecca Makkai
Penguin Publishing Group
This book was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2018, and there’s good reason. I couldn’t put it down. Taking place in both the mid-1980s and 2015, it follows Chicago’s gay community through the early days of the AIDS crisis, and the sister of one of the early casualties of that time 30 years later. That character, Fiona, lost so much during that time, which created even greater loss in the ensuing years. Yet everything comes full circle. Tear-jerking, but so well written and so much depth into that community that had not been well-documented to this point.
The Hundred-Year House
By Rebecca Makkai
Penguin Publishing Group
This one I haven’t finished. Yet. But it’s the fourth I’ve read from this author this year because I am on a bit of a binge. So far we’ve met two couples who due to bad timing have ended up sharing the coach house of the house that’s been protagonist(ish) Zee’s family for a century or so. I am beginning to sense some supernatural will enter the equation soon. Stay tuned.
My Friends
By Fredrik Backman
Simon & Schuster
I really wanted to like this book. I really did. But this is Backman at his worst, with his style of interconnectedness that makes it so clear that everyone needs to rely upon everyone else to survive falling flat. Too many coincidences, too many chance meetings, too much repetition of both concept and phrase made this read just plain tedious. The biggest issue I had was the constant baiting and switching. We think the story’s going to go in one direction, but then another detail gets tossed in out of nowhere, pushing us in a completely different direction. It’s meant to be cute, and meant to provide better depth of the characters, but for me it didn’t work. This book, sadly, was a chore.
The Payback
By Kashana Cauley
Atria Books
Not so far into the future, in a time when the gap between the haves and have-nots has grown to a point that debt police will arrest people who haven’t paid their bills on time, Jada has just been fired for theft. That’s right after her boss died on the sales floor of the clothing store she works in. From there, the debt police start coming after her and that’s about when I got bored and gave up.
Enshittification
By Cory Doctorow
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Have you noticed that our digital lives have gotten progressively worse? Noted futurist and tech writer Cory Doctorow has. So he went to work, and found patterns in how the technologies we use every day from companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and others, started out with a promise to make our lives better, easier, and more open. But the deeper we’ve gone, the more data they’ve taken from us and used not to help society but to get richer. The costs have been democracy, increases in mental health issues and addiction, and in the worst cases loss of life. So how do we take back control of our digital lives? Doctorow thinks he may have the answers. I’m still working my way through this, so I don’t know yet, either.
Property
By Kate Cayley
Coach House Books
You never know what goes on behind closed doors. The perfectly dressed and manicured young mom secretly hates her husband and pines for the immigrant workman who’s been working on a renovation next door for what seems like years. Her 10-year-old daughter is caught in a toxic relationship with the neighbour girl who’s just mature enough to manipulate her friend into mischief that she’ll never have to answer for. The neighbour’s older brother is in a power struggle with his moms, who themselves are struggling to keep their relationship together. Meanwhile, the immigrant workman is still suffering the effects as the lone survivor of a tragic building accident. And has anybody seen the dog? Through this drama, the rats are just under the surface, taking all they can to survive.
I Have Some Questions for You
By Rebecca Makkai
Penguin Publishing Group
Midway through her senior year at an exclusive prep school, Bodie’s roommate died by apparent suicide. Thalia’s death served as a code on an otherwise miserable childhood. As an adult with a successful investigative podcast, Bodie’s been invited back to the school to teach a couple courses, including one on podcasting. Her students reopen the case of the Thalia’s death, and things spin out of control from there. This is my first Rebecca Makkai read, and it’s quite a great introduction to a clearly amazing author. Don’t miss this one.
Pick a Color
By Souvankham Thammavongsa
Little, Brown and Company
I know this is a finalist for the Booker Prize, and it’s gotten a lot of kudos and press. But hard as I looked, I could not find a plot, or a story, or anything happening. Perhaps I should have stuck it out for a little longer, but I just couldn’t do it.
Benbecula
By Graeme Macrae Burnet
Biblioasis
This short read, taking place in 19th-century Scotland, is about as rough as it gets. Everyone’s experiencing hard times, but the MacPhee family’s got it especially bad. Angus, the second son, returns from a tough work situation of his own making, and murders his parents and aunt. The surviving family members, Angus’s two brothers and a sister, are of course now the pariahs of the distant island of Benbecula. Malcolm, the eldest, has nowhere else to go or nothing else to do, so he remains on the land and relying upon the goodness of strangers to help keep him alive. It’s hardly an existence, and he continues to wear out his welcome, because he doesn’t know any different. Depressing, yes, but also riveting.
Dead Money
By Jakob Kerr
Random House Publishing Group
Mackenzie is the special investigator for Silicon Valley’s most powerful venture capitalist. Unfortunately, the CEO of one of his prized projects has been found murdered in his office. The local police have screwed things up, and now the FBI’s coming in. Mackenzie is supposed to be a fly on the wall in the investigation, but her connections are proving valuable as they attempt to solve the case. There are a number of twists and turns, including a shoot-out at Burning Man, but it makes for a fun story and when we figure out whodunnit, at least I was taken by surprise.
The Borrower
By Rebecca Makkai
Penguin Publishing Group
My second Makkai read, this one is the story of a lonely librarian, Lucy, who pays too close attention to a young boy who appears to at odds with his fundamentalist parents. And she wants to help, despite pleas from everyone around her to leave the situation alone. So when she discovers the kid sleeping in the library one night, she packs him up in his car and the two take an unplanned journey across the Midwest and New England, and learn a lot about themselves along the way—with a few obstacles thrown in, naturally. A great read and not your typical road trip novel.
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