Cackle

I was in the mood for something a bit more frivolous and this book by Rachel Harrison certainly filled the bill. But there is also a strong flavor of feminism here. This is the review from Booklist:

"Annie's boyfriend was her world; then he dumped her. She can't afford to live in New York City without him paying half of the rent so she moves to a small town to teach. Right away, nothing is quite right. The town is magazine-perfect, but there are persistent spiders everywhere. Before she meets and befriends Sophie, Annie has no one, but then she quickly realizes there is something off about Sophie. The townspeople are terrified of Sophie, who talks as if she has lived quite some time. After she curses a boy in Annie's class, it is clear that Sophie is a witch. Still, Annie is not comfortable in her own company; if she's alone, she seeks solace in alcohol, texting her ex, and later on, a friendly spider. Annie is, at times, annoying, whiny, frustrating, endearing, and interesting. But she doesn't stay that way, with Sophie's help. Sophie's attention toward Annie is a psychological cat-and-mouse game as Sophie wants a witch friend. Annie's evolution from lonely teacher to witch will hypnotize readers." For an additional review, check out Publishers Weekly

Hurricane Girl

This short novel by Marcy Dermansky left me asking, what's the point? Here's the book blurb:

"Allison Brody is thirty-two and newly arrived on the East Coast after just managing to flee her [abusive] movie producer boyfriend. She has some money, saved up from years of writing and waitressing, and so she spends it, buying a small house on the beach. But then a Category 3 hurricane makes landfall and scatters her home up and down the shore, leaving Allison adrift. Should she go home from the bar with the strange cameraman and stay in his guest room? Is that a glass vase he smashed on her skull? Can she wipe the blood from her eyes, get in her car, and drive to her mother's? Does she really love the brain surgeon who saved her, or is she just using him for his swimming pool? And is it possible to ever truly heal without seeking some measure of revenge?"  None of these questions really seem to matter to me.

However, several reviewers liked the book, including my go-to source, Kirkus. They offer this assessment: "Small comic gems sparkle in their deadpan settings on every page. No matter how bad things get, Alison's running joke to herself—she still has her health—never ceases to amuse her, though at a certain point, 'she did not think anyone else would think it was funny.' She’s wrong about that. The only bad thing about this book is that you will likely finish it in one sitting." Library Journal says "The ending is satisfying, if unconventional." The New York Times says the book is "hilarious. Dermansky’s offbeat humor and spare prose make Allison’s mind a thrilling and wholly unusual place to be." and they go on to conclude, "This is a wickedly entertaining read from first to last."

On the other hand, Publishers Weekly agreed with me. "In Dermansky’s lackluster latest (after Very Nice), a young woman contends with a certain well-worn millennial malaise. Allison Brody, 32 [is]'sick of everybody and everything...There’s some deliciously dry humor...but the surreal aura doesn’t really develop into anything substantial or comprehensible. Readers are left with a Moshfegh-like vibe, but without a strong character or story. This one is safe to skip."

Two Nights in Lisbon

This twisty mystery by Chris Pavone was chosen by my mystery book group and had me guessing until the end. And the ending has made me and others in my book group feel like we need to re-read the book to see how the author tricked us about so many things. Kirkus Reviews delivers an admirable intro duction to the plot and provokes potential readers' curiosity. They conclude by saying, "This high-stakes drama grabs your attention and doesn’t let go." Publishers Weekly likewise gushes that the book is a "superior, elegantly crafted yarn."  The New York Times is more positive about the author than the book itself and concludes with these comments about Pavone and his writing: "this smart, calculating author remains many notches above others in his field. He is worldly and inviting when it comes to the book’s mostly European settings. His book captures a vacation’s escapism even as its heroine feels walls closing in."

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Based on my less than enthusiastic reaction to All the Light We Cannot See, I wasn't too excited about reading my book group's July pick--the new 600+ page novel of Anthony Doerr's. And in fact the first 300-400 pages were a real struggle to keep reading. I had heard several people say the first half of the book was hard but the 2nd half made it worth while; that wasn't my experience. Although well-crafted in many ways, it's not a book I would recommend or say that it added value to my life. It's like he did all this research on the three time frames (Turkey/ Ottoman Empire in the mid 15th C, more contemporary U.S., and the future. His characters are largely children and his explanation about why that is so from this interview with him is very enlightening. 

Of course, unlike me, many of my fellow book group members, as well as most of the major reviewers ( NYT,  NPR, The Guardian, Kirkus, etc.) were effusively positive about this book. But the Washington Post's review is more in line with my reaction. Here is their conclusion:

Any one of these stories — except the sci-fi tale, which has a moldy “Twilight Zone” funk — might have made a compelling novel. But Doerr has not only packed them together, he’s put them in a blender and then laid out the bits in a great scramble, as though his own book were a textual puzzle as complicated as the ancient Diogenes codex.

“'What really matters,' one of the many insightful children proclaims, 'is that the story gets passed on.' Yes, libraries are awesome, and we all love books. But the artificial convolutedness of “Cloud Cuckoo Land” is not enough to confer any additional depth on Doerr’s simple, belabored theme, a theme that thumps through the novel insisting that every character kneel in reverent submission.

What’s worse, julienning these disparate plots saps them of their natural drama, and no amount of grandiose narration can pump that tension back in. The fall of Constantinople inches forward so deliberately you’ll think you’re dragging the sultan’s great cannon along the ground by yourself.

That problem becomes even more acute in the contemporary sections. While Zeno and the children are practicing their theatrical adaptation of “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” an eco-terrorist slips into the library carrying a homemade bomb equipped with a cellphone trigger. It’s a terrifying setup, but the scenes are laboriously sliced almost into individual breaths. Had I known the cellphone number, I would have dialed it myself."

Sweet Revenge

Every once in a while, when I need a break from heavy duty or very dark books, I will pick up something like this book from Diane Mott Davidson--predictable yet fun mysteries featuring Goldy Schultz, caterer extraordinaire who lives in the mythical Denver bedroom community of Aspen Meadow. We jump into Goldy's life in the middle of the holiday season when her schedule is jam packed with the usual assortment of wealthy, demanding, and irascible customers. As usual, murder intervenes when former district attorney Drew Wellington is murdered at the public library while Goldy is setting up a staff holiday party.   

Kirkus gives this one a lukewarm review but notes that the recipes are worth investigating. Publishers Weekly, on the other hand, says that Davidson is "at the top of her form" in this 14th entry in the book series, concluding that "Readers will happily sink their teeth into Goldy's latest case and come away hungry for more."

Every Cloak Rolled in Blood

I have long been a fan of James Lee Burke, but haven't read anything in a while. This book is technically part of his "Holland Family" series. Burke conveniently offers a family tree so you can figure out where the protagonist of this book, 85-year-old Aaron Holland Broussard, fits into the scheme of things. Aaron is a successful author who has recently lost his daughter, Fannie Mae, and lives alone on his ranch in Montana. He is so bereft that he beckons his daughter back from the other side--and that's just the beginning of this ghost story. While his daughter is trying to protect him from both the living and dead, there are malevolent spirits that are committing horrendous crimes in the present day. Broussard teams up with a much younger Native American woman, Ruby Spotted Horse, who is also a state trooper and the keeper of a gate that is supposed to contain the evil spirits (the Old People). Much of the story revolves around the atrocities committed by certain cavalry commanders against Native Americans on the very land where Broussard's ranch now stands. But there is also corruption aplenty among the living. Kirkus concludes that the book is "Less mystery than history, less history than prophecy, and all the stronger for it." Publishers Weekly also recommends the book, saying "this is one of those extraordinary crime novels that feels more like real life, with incidents and people that aren’t obviously connected piling up in the protagonist’s life, rather than a neat set of clues pointing to a culprit. Once again, Burke uses genre fiction to plumb weighty issues, both social and emotional." Specifically, Booklist notes that "Burke rolls together the driving themes that have dominated his work--the inescapable presence of evil, the restorative power of love, the desecration of the planet, humanity's long slouch toward Armageddon--into an intensely, heartrendingly personal exploration of grief."

The Love of My Life

This book by Rosie Walsh will keep you guessing until the end. I felt like it dragged out the big reveal far too long. However, reviewers were much more complimentary. The Washington Post's Maureen Corrigan calls this a "masterful domestic thriller with a doozy of a plot,"  and I totally respect Ms. Corrigan's reviews. Corrigan goes on to say, "a classic example of the “I married a stranger” domestic suspense plot — with a twist. Usually, the partner with a secret triggers suspicion in us canny readers early on. ...But, Emma Merry Bigelow, the enigmatic heroine of Rosie Walsh’s “The Love of My Life,” seems so funny, warm, compassionate and kind that we readers root for her — even though we learn fairly quickly that she’s living under an assumed name and harbors a host of other secrets, something her adoring husband, Leo, doesn’t know about. Walsh just may have written the first domestic suspense novel in which the deceitful spouse is also a genuinely nice person. Maybe." Emma is an "intertidal biologist" and husband Leo is an obituary writer, which is how he discovers that the woman he is still madly in love with after 7 years of marriage isn't who he thought she was--at least not entirely.  He begins digging and fears he has uncovered infidelity and a criminal background. But it's not what he thinks.

Similarly, Kirkus calls the book "a propulsive thriller with heart that will keep readers guessing." Publishers Weekly calls it a "heartbreaking thriller" and agrees that it gets off to a slow start, but concludes  that it " builds to an emotionally raw yet satisfying conclusion."

Plunder

This book by Mary Anna Evans is the 7th installment in the Faye Longchamps series and, as such, there's a lot of background on the characters that I don't know. Faye is an archaeologist who, in this book, has been married for some time to Joe Wolf Mantooth (Native American) and has a toddler named Michael. They have come along with her, from their home on Joyeaux Island off the coast of Florida, to the Mississippi delta to provide a survey of archaeological sites that are in the line of fire from the recently exploded Deepwater Horizon oil platform. While there, she meets precocious 16-year-old amateur treasure hunter Amande Landreneau, who lives on a decrepit houseboat with her voodoo mambo grandmother. Amande is equally fascinated with ancient artifacts and shows Faye some of the ones she has found in the area. But within days, both an uncle who Amande has never met and her grandmother are murdered, throwing Amande's future into question. Her mother disappeared when Amande was a baby, and the father has never been in the picture, but the vultures quickly descend trying to take the houseboat and what little income might come to Amande through some oil shares her mother had. Faye and Joe want to protect Amande but must also get this enormous survey done before the oil covers everything and may even begin to threaten their home in Florida. I would gladly read more in this series and agree with Publishers Weekly that I "hope to see more of Amande in the sequel." Great characters (Booklist calls then "strong" and "sympathetic"), tight plotting, and colorful settings.

As the New York Journal of Books notes, the threat of the impending oil pollution provides as much tension in the story as do the murders. The reviewer goes on to say that "Strong heroines are always a pleasure to read about and both Faye and Amande fit that bill," and go on to say "highly recommended."

Scythe

This is the first book in Neal Shusterman's "Arc of a Scythe" trilogy and it took home a Prinz Honor award. Set in a "post-mortal" world, disease has been conquered, pain has been eliminated, everyone is guaranteed a comfortable living, and death is a thing of the past. All human knowledge has been gathered in an AI called the Thunderhead, which manages all human affairs optimally. The main problem is that the population keeps growing faster than the Thunderhead can optimize production to support them. Hence the Schythes were created to randomly "glean" a certain number of humans every year. They must follow 10 commandments that are supposed to safeguard them from human follies, but it isn't working. And the Thunderhead has no jurisdiction over the affairs of Scythedom so it cannot intervene to correct the corruption that is eroding the moral order. Two teens, Citra and Rowan, have been selected to be apprentices to Scythe Faraday, one of the Old Guard who still believes that scythes should be compassionate and never want to kill. But a new cohort of scythes, led by Scythe Goddard, seek fame and relish killing; they have become infamous for massacres of dozens or hundreds of people at a time. Since all scythes still abide by a quota, in between their murderous events, they party. When Goddard's clan orchestrates a terrible verdict on the two apprentices, Scythe Faraday ostensibly kills himself to set them free, but Citra and Rowan's troubles are just beginning.

Shusterman raises all sorts of philosophical questions about what makes life worth living in the interspersed entries of the scythes' journals. Chapters are told either from the perspective of Citra or Rowan. Characters are well-developed and the ending was a satisfying one, so it was worth the read and I will eventually get to Thunderhead, the sequel. Kirkus's review concluded: "A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning." School Library Journal says, "A brilliant and gripping sci-fi thriller that acutely explores the consequences of worldwide immortality and asks readers to think critically about the nature of morality." And Publishers Weekly says the story "is guaranteed to make readers think deeply."

The Nature of Fragile Things

This book by Susan Meissner is set primarily in and around SanFrancisco in the year leading up and following the earthquake that destroyed most of the city in 1906. Protagonist Sophie Whalen, a young Irish immigrant desperate to escape the tenements of New York City, answers an ad for a mail order bride to a supposedly widowed man with a young daughter. When she arrives, she finds a charismatically handsome man who seems totally uninterested in her, but also his mute child of 5, Katherine (Kat) with whom Sophie falls in love. Sophie has never lived in such a nice house, with enough food to eat but almost no freedom. She is discouraged from making friends with the neighbors by her husband, Martin Hocking; most of the neighbors are wealthier anyway and only one shows interest in Sophie and Kat, although it is more of the condescending rich helping the poor sort of attention. Martin supposedly travels for his work as an insurance assessor and is often gone for days at a time, offering Sophie neither the name of his employer, or a schedule of where and when he will be gone. One night a knock at the door brings Sophie's world to an astounding implosion. A young pregnant woman, Belinda, is looking for her husband, having found Sophie's address in his coat pocket. When she sees Sophie's wedding picture on the mantel, she breaks down, swearing the picture is of her husband, James Bigelow.  Martin/James shows up before dawn the next morning and, when he finds Belinda there, he advances toward the women in a threatening manner. But the earthquake's first tremors start and the world is literally upended. Martin ends up at the bottom of the stairs and Sophie drags him to the kitchen, barely conscious as she, Belinda and Kat endeavor to escape the falling buildings and raging fires. Sophie discovers that Kat's mother is not, in fact, dead, but in a sanitorium in Arizona and she makes the painful decision to reunite the two. When Sophie institutes a missing persons report for her husband six weeks after the quake in order to cover herself, a whole new chain of events threatens to put her in prison. 

Publishers Weekly says "The plucky and principled Sophie (who is hiding a few secrets of her own) captivates from the first page, while naive Belinda and sensitive Kat are standouts. Ingeniously plotted and perfectly structured, this captivates from beginning to end." Booklist calls it "an ultimately uplifting story of strong women and found family."