March 2024

Some good stuff this month and some disappointments.

Fiction:

Float Up, Sing Down by Hunt, Laird

Nice collection of linked short stories set in small town Indiana. Fun to meet up again with some characters from Hunt's earlier books.

Extinction of Irena Rey by Croft, Jennifer 

Eight translators go to a retreat at their author's home by a forest on the border of Poland and Belarus. The author disappears and confusion reigns. Really good.

Strega by Holm, Johanne Lykke; tramslated from the Swedish by Vogel, Saskia

Atmospheric and boring tale about a maid in a hotel with no guests. Not very good.

In Case We're Separated : Connected Stories by Mattison, Alice

Stroies of a Jewish family in America. Good

The Underground Library by Ryan, Jennifer 

Good. but not as good as Ryan's earlier books. Things wrapped up a little too neatly.

The Newton Letter by Banville, John 

Meh

River Mumma by Reid-Benta, Zalika

Jamacians in Toronto. Very good

How to Find Your Way in the Dark by Miller, Derek B. 

Jewish boy set on avenging his father's death comes of age.  Set mostly in Hartford, CT and the Catskills.  Very good

The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West by Ackerman, Sara

A female pilot in a 1927 air race from Oakland California to Hawaii. Not bad

A Fire So Wild by Grossman, Sarah Ruiz

Wild fire in the Berkeley Hills. A fine debut novel.

Piglet by Hazell, Lottie

A mess of a wedding, the groom to be has a terrible secret, and the bride likes to cook and eat.  Another good debut novel.

Green Dot by Gray, Madeline

Millennial has affair with older, married man. Coming of age in Sidney. Another well written first novel.

She Started It by Gilbert, Sian

Four stupid twenty something women accept an invitation to a hen party on a remote island. Their hostess ia someone they bullied ten years ago in school. Dumb, dumber, dumbest.

Nonfiction (all good):

Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Blackstock, Uché

Whiskey Tender: a memoir by Taffa, Deborah Jackson

2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed by Klinenberg, Eric 

Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War by Nicholson, Virginia 

Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets by Dittrich, Luke 

Online:

The Manor by Cox, Tom

The writer explores the abandoned house of a book collector.