You Dreamed Of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue

 

This novel is about the clash of two cultures in the early 1500's.  One is the Aztec culture, centered in Mexico and specifically the capital city of Tenochititlan, today's Mexico City.  The emperor is Moctezuma.  The other culture is that of Spain, represented by Hernan Cortes, who has sailed to the New World with an army and horses to conquer the natives and establish a treasure pipeline.

Moctezuma is an absolute ruler.  No one is allowed to look him in the eye or speak until he gives permission.  He condemns those he perceives as crossing him or not showing enough respect to death offhandedly.  The Aztec gods demand human sacrifice and there is a constant need.  He is married to his sister who walks out of the welcome luncheon for the visitors.  The visitors have two things that are unique to the Aztecs and which they desire.  The first is the horse.  If the Aztecs had those in large amounts, their wars would be very different.  The other is the gun which is a weapon unimagined by the natives.  Cortes and Spain want to establish their Christian religion in place of the Aztec gods.  

Which culture will emerge successful?  We see the emperor toying with what he considers his captives, manipulating them in various ways and staying high on hallucinatory plants.  We see Cortes, lying also about his intentions, each planning in subtle ways to annihilate the other.  

Alvaro Enrigue is a Mexican novelist and this is his only novel translated into English.  The translator is Natasha Wimmer, known for her translation of Roberto Bolano's novels 2666 and The Savage Detectives.  The reader will learn about the Aztec culture and also that of the conquistadors who came to conquer and plunder for their king and treasure.  The clash between the two cultures and the mistaken assumptions each make about the other lead to the final confrontation between them.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and literary fiction.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

 

The time is centuries into the future and all the worlds of the universe are part of the Hegemony.  That is, except for some outriders such as Hyperion.  It has not yet been brought into the Hegemony due to the local inhabitants and the Shrike.  The Shrike is a monster that kills everything it sees and lives in the Valley of the Time Tombs where time moves backward.  After death, it hangs the souls of those it destroys on its trophy tree.

Seven pilgrims have been given the task of going to Hyperion, finding the Shrike and destroying it and figuring out how time can move backward at the Time Tombs location.  There is a famous general, a female private eye, a poet, a scholar, a priest, a government official and the captain of the ship.  They all know one thing; there is a spy among them dedicated to making sure their mission never succeeds.

On the trip, each tells a story.  The general tells of his female lover who shows up during and after battles.  The scholar has a baby with him, Rachel, but she was a grown woman before she visited the Time Tombs and started aging backwards.  The private investigator tells of her time with a cybrid who wants to become human.  The others tell their stories as well and each supplies a clue to the events currently taking place.

Dan Simmons is known as a master in the genres of science fiction and horror.  After he finished university, Simmons taught writing in the public schools for eighteen years.  Since then he has written full time and has won a Hugo, a Bram Stoker, a Locus, a World Fantasy and other awards.  This is the first novel in the four part Hyperion series and the novel he won the Hugo Award for.  The novel reminds me of the Canterbury tales, where seven strangers come together for a mission and each tells his or her individual story.  The stories merge together into the background of the mission and how to move forward.  This masterpiece is recommended for science fiction readers.    

What Happened To The McCrays? by Tracey Lange

 

When Kyle McCray finally checks his voicemail, he learns that his father has had a serious stroke two days ago.  Kyle left Potsdam, his hometown, almost three years ago after a tragedy.  He drifted for a long time but recently has set down some roots on the West Coast.  But he knows his father needs him now so he packs up and heads home.

Kyle had basically left without cutting ties, leaving his wife of sixteen years, Casey, behind because he thought that's what she needed.  He walked out on his business, his coaching, his friends and everything he loved trying to bring her peace.  But now he's back and he has to face the facts of what his leaving has done to everyone.

Kyle slowly starts working his way back into the life of the town.  He helps out in his former garage and helps his brother-in-law in his woodshop where he makes custom furniture.  He helps his father and finally starts to build a strong relationship there.  The local middle school ice hockey team is terrible and he agrees to coach them, building their skills and gaining their respect and affection.  But can he rebuild anything with Casey?

Tracey Lange's work explores family dynamics and how they can go terribly wrong.  The rifts in Kyle's life are almost all caused by miscommunication or no communication and the fact that everyone he knows blames themselves for the tragedy that drove Kyle away.  He and Casey are the worst in that regard and until they can hash out what happened, there's no chance at reconciliation.  The reader will find themselves falling a bit for Kyle who is a decent man trying to build his life back.  This book is recommended for women's fiction readers.  

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

 

Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer are living a life of wealth as they start their marriage.  Salo comes from a wealthy family that donates Old Masters to various museum.  Salo doesn't really care; when the two of them meet he doesn't care about much of anything.  His life is overshadowed by a car wreck in which he was the driver and his girlfriend and best friend were killed.  One other girl survived but was hospitalized.  How can he go on after such an event?

But life must go on and Salo's does.  He married Johanna even if he doesn't exactly love her.  She is head over heels for him and devotes her life to him.  The two want children but it isn't happening.  Eventually they go the IVF route and end up with triplets; Sally, Lewyn and Harrison.  One would think the triplets would be close but they grow up sharing almost nothing; each one just wants to be a person on their own instead of part of a group.  Johanna devotes herself to her family while Salo's passion is art and he collects paintings that end up being worth a fortune.

The rest of the novel follows the lives of the Oppenheimers.  The twins grow up and head off to college.  Salo falls in love with  another woman from his past and for years he moves between the two women.  Johanna realizes his affair about the time the triplets are leaving the home and she decides to use the last fertilized egg that remains in storage and thus Phoebe is born.  Phoebe grows up and an only child due to the age difference and before she in turn leaves she is determined to get the entire family together and end all the family secrets.  Will that work?

This novel won much acclaim.  It was a New York Times Notable book, an NPR Best Book Of The Year and a Washington Post Notable Work Of Fiction.  Balancing the lives of all these characters and bringing all the secrets into the open is a difficult feat that Korelitz pulls off with grace.  The reader will cheer for some characters, dislike others and feel sorry for some.  The novel explores what is it that makes a family and why are family secrets left to fester and ruin lives?  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.  

Lady Tan's Circle Of Women by Lisa See

 

Tan Yunxian loses her mother at a young age when her bound feet become infected.  Tan is sent to be raised by her father's parents as his government position requires constant travel.  Tan loves her grandparents, especially her grandmother who is one of the few Chinese women doctors and who trains Tan in her profession.  She is also introduced to the best friend she will ever have, Meiling.  Meiling is the daughter of the local midwife and learning that profession.  While the two girls are of different social status, they develop a friendship that cannot be broken.

When Tan is fifteen, she is married to the man picked by her father, the son of a rich merchant family.  Once she is inside the gates there, she is not to leave.  She must do everything her mother-in-law says and her only purpose is to have a son that can carry on the family name.  Tan cannot give up her knowledge and slowly begins to treat some of the women in the household.  There are many as a rich family's women consists of all the wives of the family, the children, the concubines and the spinsters and widows of the family.

Lisa See is Chinese American and her books are based on extensive research.  In this book, Tan Yunxian was a real person and a real woman doctor.  The reader learns about Chinese medicine and culture, the practice of bound feet and their purpose, and the scheming and duplicity that often arose in the large group of women living in the inner chambers.  It focuses on the real love between Tan and Meiling as well as the love each woman had for her husband and children.  This book is recommended for readers of historical and women's fiction.

Little Threats by Emily Schultz

 

Kennedy Wynn is being released from prison.  Now thirty-one, she has been there since she was seventeen, convicted of killing her best friend, Haley.  The thing is, Kennedy doesn't know if she did it.  She and Haley and her boyfriend were doing drugs that night.  She knows that Haley was also in love with her boyfriend and that he was playing them both.  But did she kill Haley in the woods or did she just find her once her drugs had worn off?

The world hasn't stopped like Kennedy did in prison.  Her twin, Carter, had been Kennedy's biggest advocate but stopped coming to see in the months prior to her release and now seems distant.  Her father, Gerry, just wants everything to be the same and for his girls to be the same as they were as teenagers.  Haley's family used the tragedy to pull themselves out of poverty.  Since Kennedy pled guilty, Haley's family filed a civil suit against the Wynn's and won a huge settlement, increasing the animosity between the two families.  Except for Carter.  She has recently started an affair with Everett, Haley's brother and neither of them are sure where that is headed.  

Now that Kennedy is out, the secrets start to emerge.  Did Kennedy kill Haley?  Or was it someone else?

Emily Schultz is known for her writing in this genre.  She explores the relationships that surround a tragedy with a deft hand, leaving the reader to wonder what really happened.  She also explores family relationships and what we owe our birth family as we mature and become adults.  Should they always be our first responsibility?  Should we stand up for them over anyone outside that family?  Who can be sacrificed and why?  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rupi Thorpe

 

Adulting hasn't turned out like Margo expected.  When her English professor wanted to start an affair, she wasn't sure how to say no so agreed.  When she gets pregnant, he wants her not to have the baby but she decides to.  That's the good part of adulting; when Bodhi is born she finds a love that is more than anything she has ever experienced.  But being a single mom is no picnic.  Margo is broke and she gets fired from her waitressing job because she can't find child care and even if she did, it would cost as much as she could make.

Margo's parents never married.  Her mother, Shyanne, moves from one man to the next, looking for stability she never quite seems to find.  Her father, Jinx, is a former pro wrestler who had a wife and other family elsewhere.  He is a larger than life character but his life has been marred by his serial cheating and his opiate addiction caused by the injuries in wrestling.  

When Margo is about to get evicted, she knows something must change.  Two of her roommates are moving out leaving only Margo and Suzi to make the rent and Suzi is more broke than Margo.  Jinx comes to town, falls in love with Bodhi and decides to move in and help.  Margo finds a job online but it's porn adjacent, posting semi-nude photos of herself and gaining subscribers.  She has one subscriber, JB, who she starts an online relationship with that feels different than the rest.  But the professor has decided to file for custody and someone has turned her in to Social Services as an unfit mother.  Can Margo make everything work?

Rufi Thorpe has written a laugh out loud book in which the reader will fall in love with Margo.  No matter what the troubles that pile up, Margo faces them all heads on and refuses to give up.  She will do anything to make a better life for Bodhi and her intelligence and creativeness may take her far.  I loved so many of these characters.  Jinx is a larger than life character who loves Margo and Bodhi and does anything he can to protect them.  JB may be the perfect romance but can Margo afford the time for a committed relationship?  Margo herself is such a resilient, empathic character that one can't help but love her and root for her to make sense of it all.  This book is recommended for literary and women's fiction readers.  

Pro Bono by Thomas Perry

 

Charlie Warren is an attorney but it wasn't an easy road getting there.  Charlie's father died when he was young and his mother remarried.  Unfortunately, she married a con man and he took all of the family's money before he disappeared.  Charlie had to put himself through college and law school and the experience of his life molded his practice.  He has a civil practice and specializes in helping those who have experienced what his mother did.

His newest client fits the bill.  Vesper Ellis was widowed three years ago.  Her husband left her well off but after his death, she grieved him and then was busy with her own business.  She didn't track her investments but now that she has, she realizes that her accounts are missing money.  She comes to Charlie to see if he can help.  After investigating, he discovers that the malfeasance is concentrated at two different brokerages and that the managers of Vesper's accounts are related.  He notifies the brokerages that he will be filing a civil case on Vesper's account.  But that stirs up trouble.  Soon the two are being followed and there is even personal violence attempted.  

In the meantime, a strange thing occurs.  It turns out that there may be a way after all these years to salvage his mother's money.  Charlie is given evidence that reveals his stepfather's real name and a way to retrieve the money that was hidden in various accounts and taken over by the states he opened accounts in.  Charlie notifies his mother and she returns to Los Angeles to help Charlie.  Can he get justice for his mohter?

Thomas Perry is known for his intricately plotted mystery novels.  He has several successful series; the Jane Whitfield novels where she helps people disappear, the Butcher Boy series about a criminal family and The Old Man which is now a television series.  I've often thought if I needed to disappear and managed to do so successfully, it would be because of what I've learned from Thomas Perry's books.  In this novel, Charlie Warren opens up the world of legal practice, giving readers an inside look at the intricacies of civil cases.  I listened to this novel and the narrator had a clear voice that moved the action along.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Lazy Bones by Mark Billingham

 

Things are always changing with Tom Thorne's Major Crimes team.  There is a new female detective and transfer Andy Stone is there, at least for now and as needed. Holland and his girlfriend are about to have a baby.  Thorne's days are pretty much the same.  Work until all hours, check in on his dad when he could, sleep and then go at it again.  One thing never changes.  There are always new murders.

The newest ones are grisly.  Men are being lured to hotel rooms, where they are tortured and killed after being raped.  The victims are all men who have been convicted of rape and served time.  They emerge from prison sure they have paid their debt but someone thinks there is more to pay.  Another similarity is that the killer always calls and orders a floral wreath for the victim.  Thorne becomes involved with one of the florists, a woman called Evie Bloom.  Will she become a fixture in his life?

This is the third in the Tom Thorne series.  Thorne suffers a break-in at his apartment in this one and it is interesting to see how he reacts as a crime victim himself.  The usual other characters are here, the overbearing bosses who are only interested in clearance rates and Thorne's pathologist friend.  The plot slowly unfolds and is surprising.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

 Isobel Gamble is a Scottish immigrant who comes to the United States, specifically Salem, Massachusetts, in the early 1800's.  She is a seamstress and her family is known for that and for being the relatives of an infamous woman, the first Isobel in the family who was tried as a witch.  Isabel married Edward Gamble and suspects she made a mistake.  He is a gambler and an addict and her introduction to married life has not been pleasant.  On the trip over, he serves as the ship doctor and only a few days after they land, takes off again with the ship, leaving Isobel t make her way as she can.

She finds there is prejudice against the Scottish there but slowly she begins to settle in.  She finds friends in the black family the next farm over and with other serving girls and seamstresses.  She finds a job in a dress shop but the owner is cruel and claims Isobel's work as her own, making Isobel's dream of opening her own shop impossible.  Isobel is slowly being pulled under when she meets Nathaniel.

Nathaniel Hathorne is from one of the town's most famous families.  He feels pressure to live up to his family name and never bring disgrace to it although he disapproves of his forebears including a judge in the Salem witch trials.  He and Isobel are drawn together from their first glance and eventually start an affair.  When Isobel becomes pregnant, she must either get a commitment from Nathaniel or find a way to survive on her own.

This is a retelling of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  The author believes it may be possible that there was a real Hester in Hawthorne's life as the rest of his novels are based on his own life and has written a novel imaging what that relationship could have been like.  Along the way, the reader learns about slavery in the North with slave catchers, about fine embroidery in a time that all clothes were sewn by hand and about the mores of Colonial America.  The author is a novelist and journalist and those journalist features are demonstrated in the extensive research she has done for this novel which won many awards.  Readers will be drawn into Isobel's life and wonder what they would have done in her place.  This book is recommended for readers of historical, women and literary fiction.  

Bringer Of Dust by J.M. Miro

 

This is the second novel in the Talents trilogy.  At the end of the first novel, the Talents Institute was in flames, many of the children dead.  Some of the survivors have gone to France, some to London.  The orsine between the worlds which came open has been closed at great cost and little Marlowe has been trapped on the wrong side.  Charlie has lost his talent in the closing.

But there is word of a second orsine.  The survivors know if they are ever to get Marlowe back, they must find it and find a way to get Marlowe through it.  There are new characters introduced in the novel.  There is a bone witch who starts as an enemy of the survivors.  Clacker Jack rules the underground of London, many of whom are like him, a Talent who lost their powers.  He is determined to get back that power by any means.  He has three feral children, a brother and two sisters, who will do his bidding and are deadly.  

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite fantasy series.  The plotting and writing is dense and intricate like a Dickens novel.  There are many characters and the reader can't help but emphasize with Charlie and the others trying to save Marlowe.  Charlie becomes more prominent in this novel and the last is set up to be an epic battle between good and evil.  This book is highly recommended for fantasy readers.  

Assembly by Natasha Brown

 

We never learn the name of the narrator of this novel, but we know a lot about her and her life.  She is a black British woman, the daughter and granddaughter of Jamaican immigrants.  She is brilliant and worked to get scholarships that allowed her to graduate with high degrees.  She has worked in financial services and banking and has just gotten a huge promotion that she has worked for all her career.  She has a rich white boyfriend, one of the landed gentry.

But there's a flip side.  She feels the racism, mostly covert these days, in every action and conversation.  She is the one chosen to make the school presentations, the face of diversity.  She gets the automatic assumption that she has her job and position only because of a need to show evenhandedness in hiring and promotion.  Occasionally, the racism on the street is more overt.  

This weekend, she is to attend a huge garden party for the weekend at her boyfriend's parents' estate, the place he grew up.  But she has also gotten news of a health issue, one that is serious.  Is it worth the fight it will take to defeat it or is she just too tired of fighting?

Natasha Brown knows the life she writes about.  She was the British girl with the great education and she worked in financial services.  This novel won acclaim and it should have.  It was the Foyles Book Of The Year and won a Betty Trask award.  I don't think I've ever read a book that made it clearer the life that POC live, the way that every conversation can be loaded with racist assumptions and how true accomplishments are waved aside as things that had to be done for appearance's sake.  It is a short novel but it hits extremely hard.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Kill All The Judges by William Deverell

 

Arthur Beauchamp's retirement isn't going as he thought it would.  His grandson is visiting for the summer and he likes that.  But his wife Margaret has declared for the Green Party seat and he's not sure he likes that.  Several judges in the area have been killed in the past year and he knows he doesn't like that.

The one getting the most notice is the one in which Arthur's nemesis, Cudworth Brown, is charged.  Cudworth had spent a week or so on a platform up a tree with Margaret in a forestry protest and rumors had flown.  This time, Cud, a poet and ladies' man, had gone to an authors' dinner at a judge's residence.  He and the judge's wife got frisky during dinner and had a rendezvous afterwards.  Sometime during the night, the judge went over the balcony and died and Cud was arrested.  In spectacularly bad timing, Cud's lawyer has had a breakdown due to his divorce and is hospitalized and everyone wants Arthur to take Cud's case.  Arthur surely doesn't want to but feels the pressure.  Can he save the day?

This is the third Arthur Beauchamp novel.  Readers will learn about the Canadian government and courts as well as the British Columbian province.  There are plenty of eccentric characters to round out the cast. Arthur has a new lawyer for an assistant, there's a legal secretary from Hong Kong who seems mysterious, the local mechanic is full of schemes and Margaret's candidacy isn't helping his marriage.  The plot is twisty but tight and the reader will enjoy the unraveling of the crime.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was perfect for Arthur's character, understated but at the top of his game just like Arthur.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

 Vic McQueen has a secret.  When she is on her bike and riding as fast as she can, a bridge appears and when she crosses it, on the other side is a world in which she can find lost items.  Maybe it's a bracelet her mother left in a restaurant.  Maybe it's money.  Maybe it's a new friend.  But Vic doesn't tell anyone in this world about her other one.

There is evil in both worlds.  When Vic is seventeen, she is kidnapped by Charlie Manx, who takes children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce with the license plate of NOS4A2, a play on the European vampire's name.  He takes the children to a place he calls Christmasland where the rides are free and everyone eats as much candy as they want.  But they also play dark games and over time the children become vampires as well.  They never return to their parents.  

Vic manages to escape, burning down Manx's house and given a ride out of that world by Lou, a teenager who happens to be riding by on his motorcycle.  She and Lou become an item, Charlie Manx is arrested and charged with her kidnapping.  She testifies against him and he is sent to jail.

Years later, Vic is grown but her life hasn't turned out to be a fairy tale.  She is still with Lou, off and on, and they had a child, Wayne, who mostly lives with Lou.  Vic has been in and out of mental institutions as no one believes her story of another world and convince her that it is the hallucination of a diseased mind.  Manx dies in prison after being in a five year coma.  Vic is trying to put her life back together with Wayne spending the summer with her when he is kidnapped and she knows by who.  She sees Charlie and his sidekick in that Rolls-Royce as they drive away with Wayne and she knows no one can save him but her.  

Joe Hill has written some of the best horror/mystery that I've read.  I loved his book The Fireman and I loved this one.  The villain is scary and powerful, the horrors are believable and Vic is a damaged hero that the reader can't help but love.  Her love for her child and Lou are unmistakable and she is brave enough to do anything to save them.  This book is recommended for horror readers.

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

 

There's a place where disgraced spies go.  It's called Slough House and it's ruled by Jackson Lamb, a former top spy.  If you're a spy, several things can get you assigned to Slough House.  Maybe you messed up an assignment so badly that no one trusts you to ever get it right.  Maybe you slept with the wrong person.  Maybe you were done in by a coworker who wanted that promotion you were about to get and sabotaged you.  Regardless, once you're there, you're not leaving.

In London, everyone is transfixed to their television or laptops.  A young man has been kidnapped and a group of men say they are going to behead him online.  Who could he be and who are the group behind the kidnapping?  The young man is named Hassan and he is from a Pakistani immigrant family; his uncle who stayed behind is high up in the government.  As to who kidnapped him, the group claiming credit is called Sons Of Albion but who are they?

Back at Slough House, several of the agents get caught up in the event.  River Cartwright has a family history of working for the government as a spy but failed his assessment and ended up stealing trash of a character of interest and going through it for clues.  Sid shares an office with him and there are some sparks between her and River.  Catherine is the oldest resident of Slough House and is the former secretary of the former head of MI5 before he was disgraced and she became an alcoholic.  There is a computer whiz and an agent who left classified material on a train.  But all see the event as a chance to make good and maybe make it back into the ranks of MI5.

Except Lamb.  He sees through the plot to what is really going on behind the scenes.  Although he hates to get involved, he hasn't forgotten his skills or his ability to protect himself and those around him when he can be bothered to.  

This is the first in the Slough House series of which there are currently nine novels.  In this one, we are introduced to the series characters, especially Lamb and Cartwright.  The plotting is tight and the language is spot on and full of wry reserved English humor.  Readers who read this one will turn the last page determined to start the next in the series and find out what's in store for the Slough House characters.  This book is recommended for spy and thriller readers.  

Scaredy Cat by Mark Billingham

 

Tom Thorne has a new member on his team now that the crime divisions have been reorganized.  Sarah McEnvoy is new to the team and the area but seems to be fitting in to the Serious Crime team.  But fitting in has to happen fast because crime is never in short supply.  The most recent case is one that hits Thorne hard.  A woman is killed, strangled to death in her home and in front of her son, barely more than a toddler.  In a coincidence, another woman is found the same day, killed the same way and left in a tube station.

As the team investigates, they find another pairing of murders several months back.  Those two women were both stabbed.  Although the methods are different, the chances of pairs of murders, done the same way, on the same day, just doesn't seem likely to happen by chance.  The team realizes that they have a pair of murderers.

Although the murderers are killing at the same time, one is much more savage than the other.  Thorne realizes that like most pairs of killers, there is one who is leading the way and planning the murders and another who is doing his job according to instructions from the leader.  Is this a male/female pair as many of these duel killers are?  Are they men who recently found each other and created a new past time, or men who might have been friends from childhood, when the roles of leader and follower are created in friendships?  Even more important, can Thorne and his team find them before they kill again?

This is the second novel in the Tom Thorne series.   While this series has been a huge hit in England, where Billingham lives, it is not as well known in the United States, although it should be.  This is an intricate police procedural that delivers twists and turns.  The book explores the relationships between the various members of the team and the hierarchy that is concerned with numbers and the press.  There are now nineteen books in this series and I can't wait to continue to read about Thorne and his team.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

All Fours by Miranda July

 When a female artist receives an unexpected payment of twenty thousand dollars, she decides to go to New York for a week with her friends.  Her husband is supportive and can handle home and their child.  After he makes a comment about those who dare to try new things, she decides that rather than flying, she will drive cross country.  Since she lives in California, that will extend the trip from a week to three weeks but soon it's all arranged and she departs.

But she never makes it there.  Half an hour from home, she stops to get gas and makes eye contact with a man there.  She goes to eat and he is there also.  Seeing it as a sign, she checks into a motel, fairly seedy.  She knows that the room isn't what she wants for a sexual encounter so instead of going to New York, she spends the twenty thousand turning the motel room into a luxury suite, new wall coverings, carpet, furniture, bed, towels, everything is new and luxurious.  She connects with the man who is about fifteen years younger than her and the two have a two week relationship; no sex but love and total intimacy.

When she returns home, she knows things can't go back to normal.  Over the next few months, she and her husband fight and reconcile, hammering out a new relationship in which each of them can be free and unconstrained by anything except their overriding obligation to provide a safe and loving home for their child.  

This book gained a lot of buzz.  It was a National Book Award Finalist and gained top honors at NPR, the Washington Post, Time Magazine and other publications.  Miranda July is an author and filmmaker, born to parents who were both authors.  The novel explores the complicated relationships we enter and what to do when our relationships no longer nurture us and support us in our own journey to live the life that best supports our dreams.  It started as a series of discussions with other women by July who then combined what she was hearing from other women with what she herself was feeling as she lived her life.  Who do we owe the most to, our partners who have certain expectations of us, or ourselves as we live our only life?  This book is recommended for women's and literary fiction readers.  

1414 Degrees by Paul Bradley Carr

 

Lou McCarthy is a journalist in San Francisco, her beat business, technology and the Silicon Valley.  She is about to break a huge story about the biggest business and it's upcoming IPO.  Unfortunately, the company is so enmeshed in the 'bro' culture that it has to keep a slush fund to pay off the women their executives mistreat.  Lou breaks the story of its CTO's latest mishap only to find that she has been rooked and the story is not true.  Even worse, that night at the company's gala, the man she wrote about leaps to his death in front of everyone.

Now jobless and homeless as the company bought her apartment building and tore it down to build their new headquarters, Lou is targeted by a group of online vigilantes who protect the misbehaving men of technology.  They can't target Lou but they find her mother back in Georgia and target her, breaking into her health records, banking and putting her address and phone number online.  Lou meets Helen, a high flying corporate fixer and she hires Lou to help her discover what is going on.

When the two women get to the bottom, it is to find that the huge new company is based on an algorithm that was stolen from a woman more than ten years ago.  The two work to restore the woman's work to her and to bring the company's executives to heel.  That won't be easy as a Saudi prince is on the board of trustees and the rest of the board are influential individuals as well.  But the two don't give up.

This is Paul Bradley's debut novel.  He is British but has lived in the United States for many years, working as a journalist similar to Lou, covering the Silicon Valley beat.  His inside knowledge of the work and culture is evident.  The insistence on the 'bro' culture is a bit heavy handed to me, as I worked in the IT industry for most of my career and while I saw some of that, I didn't encounter it in the same degree that it is shown here.  The book is exciting and Lou is a character who seems a bit naïve for a reporter in a big city.  She seems to be easily manipulated by those around her but smart enough to figure out what is going on.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.   

White Dog Fell From The Sky by Eleanor Morse

 

Oscar Muthethe had planned to be a doctor and was in medical school in South Africa.  But when he witnessed a crime by the South African police, he knew his life was in danger and he fled to Botswana.  There he had nothing, but on his first day there, he ran into an old acquaintance from home and offered lodging.  He also found a dog who he claimed as his after naming him White Dog.

Oscar searched for work, asking at every house in the white area of the city.  Eventually, he finds work as a gardener at the home of Alice who followed her husband to Botswana and now works for a government agency.  Oscar and Alice form a friendship and she gives him money to send home for his remaining brothers and sisters.  But when Alice goes out of town on a work trip, disaster strikes.  The house where Oscar has been staying is raided as his acquaintance is believed to be in the revolutionaries fighting against the South African government.  The wife is killed and Oscar's belongings are left there.  When he tries to sneak back to get them, he is arrested and deported back to South Africa where he is imprisoned in a jail known for torture and murder.

When Alice returns, she does what she can to find Oscar and get him freed but she knows she has little chance of doing so.  She has her own troubles and is in the process of working those out as well.  What will happen to these two individuals who have formed such an unlikely friendship?

Eleanor Morse has lived in South Africa where she taught.  In this novel, she highlights how unstable life can be there, how everything can change in one day with a mine cave in or notice by the police and suspicion of crimes with torture until confessions are gained.  But it also offers hope in the finding of friendship, of love of children and in doing the work that makes life better for others.  This book is recommended for literary fiction and multicultural readers.  

Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning

 

When the Pelletier family comes to Moonstone, Colorado, it is with high hopes.  They have come so Jack, the father, can work in the marble mines as he is a skilled explosive worker.  But things do not work out.  It turns out that the mine work is full of danger, work that isn't paid for, required overtime and other things.  The Padgetts who own the mine, are extremely wealthy but they gained that wealth exploiting workers and they don't plan to change anytime soon.

Sylvie is the oldest girl.  She does whatever she can to help out, taking what load she can from her mother and working odd jobs when she can.  She gets a job working on the local newspaper and then one summer, a dream job.  She will be working and living at the Padgett estate, being a secretary and companion to Padgett's second wife.  While there, she meets Jasper, the Padgett son and heir and they begin a relationship.

But Moonstone is about to explode and Sylvie is there for all of it.  A union organizer comes and sets up a union and soon the workers are on strike and living in tents in the frigid Colorado winter.  The mine owners and bosses bring in the Pinkertons, not as detectives but as enforcers and bullies.  Even Mother Jones comes to talk with the union men, and Sylvie meets her.  But things explode and soon Moonstone isn't a safe place to be.

This book is written on true events and uses some true historical figures like Mother Jones, the Pinkertons and King Leopold of Belgium.  But the story belongs to Sylvie and the miners and the book's sympathies are with them.  Sylvie is a brave individual and the twists and turns of her life make interesting reading.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.