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.
