Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 Marcellus is a Pacific octopus.  After a run-in with a wolf eel, he was captured and brought to the aquarium, where he has lived out his life in an exhibit.  Marcellus, who is quite smart, feels imprisoned and at night, gets out of his cage and visits the other parts of the aquarium and the other inhabitants, some of whom he eats, whoops!

Tova is the night cleaner.  She took the job after her husband passed away and she is meticulous in cleaning.  She lost her only son when he was eighteen in a boating accident.  She is the only one who knows Marcellus' secrets and they have become friendly.  

Cameron is a thirty year old who has drifted through life.  His mother was an addict and when he was little, took him to his aunt's house for a visit and never came back for him.  He never knew who his father was.  He is quite brilliant but has drifted from job to job.  When his best friends are prospective parents, he knows he needs to grow up.  He finds a clue that he thinks will lead him to his father and picks up stakes and moves sixteen hours north to the little town where the aquarium is.  The only job he can get is also cleaner at the aquarium, filling in for Tova after she falls.  The two become friends as Tova can't resist coming to the place even while on sick leave.  Marcellus knows a secret about them but can he find a way to let them know as well?

Shelby Van Pelt is an American author who was raised in the Pacific Northwest where the book is set.  This is her debut novel and it has gained a lot of praise and interest.  I was lucky enough to hear her speak at a book signing and the amount of research she did for this book was intensive and exhaustive.  Readers will also learn interesting facts about these amazing creatures.  There are plot twists, some of which are telegraphed too obviously but overall, the writing is breezy and this book is delightful, while emphasizing the need for having someone to love in our lives.  This book is recommended for women fiction readers.  

Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner

 

The time is the 1950's, the place London.  Bloomsbury Book Shop has been in existence for one hundred years but it is on the cusp of failure these days.  It is a male-ruled domain and the men mostly stock male authors and topics and men like to read about.  There is Lord Baskin whose family owns the shop and who drops by frequently.  Herbert Dutton runs things day to day and has come up with a list of fifty-one rules that govern the shop and its employees.  Alec McDonough is a young man who is head of fiction, while Master Mariner Simon Scott rules the second floor which is history.  He interprets history as maps and books about wars and battles.  The third floor is rare books and the domain of Frank Allen who is also the man who travels to estate sales and is often away from the store.  The basement is science and its head is Ashwin Ramaswamy, a recent immigrant from India.

There are three women who are expected to be subservient.  Vivian is the assistant in fiction and hopes to be an author herself.  Grace is Mr. Dutton's secretary and she handles much of the bookstore's paperwork.  Evie is the newest member of staff, a recent Cambridge graduate who takes a job cataloging the rare books after she misses out on a job at the university.  

When Mr. Dutton has to go out on sick leave for a month, things change.  Alec becomes the acting head and soon realizes he isn't that interested in business.  Vivian has tons of ideas for fiction and starts stocking female writers and having literary luncheons which are a huge success and introduces the women to famous women authors such as Daphne du Maurier and rich influential women such as Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair the widow of George Orwell, Peggy Guggenheim and Mimi Harrison, an actress.  The women dare to dream of a bookstore that is there for everyone and that encourages and supports women authors.

But when Mr. Dutton comes back, he expects everything to return to the old way.  Disgruntled, the women employees dream of buying out Lord Baskin's shares and owning the bookstore.  But how?  Evie has part of the answer.  She took her job hoping to find a rare book that she knows Frank bought at an estate sale and that has been lost in history but now there is interest in finding it.  Can she find it before someone else?

I loved this book and didn't expect to.  It was interesting to see how a bookstore works but even more interesting to see the women develop and bloom in their various strengths.  Their support of each other and their entry into a world of women that do the same is fascinating.  There are romances but the main theme is female empowerment.  This book is recommended for women's and literary fiction readers.  

Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky

 In this second book of the series Shadows Of The Apt, there is lots of action.  The Wasps of the Empire Of Black And Gold have decided to attack the various cities of the Lowlands.  Two separate armies are formed and each picks a separate city to attack.  One city belongs to the Ants, the other to the Beetles.  Their defense strategies vary but conform to their species characteristics.  The Ants form a single-minded organized battle in which they share a mind that has everyone in constant communication while the Beetles rely more on technology and various inventions to defend themselves against the Wasps.

Another focus of the book is the treatment of those with mixed parentage.  Tynesia is Mantis on her father's side while Beetle on her mother's.  She becomes closer to her father who she discovered in the first novel and takes steps to pledge herself to the Mantis world.  Totho and Salma attempt to spy on the Wasps and both are taken captive.  Totho who has had trouble fitting in at the Beetle world, agrees to stay with the Wasps and invent weapons for them if Salma is released.  Salma, who is a dragonfly prince, organizes a roughshod group of resistance fighters, determined to harry the Wasps and find a way to get Totho back.

This is a very complex series with multiple characters and action taking place in various locations.  I can see that in the future once I finish all ten novels in the series, I may start it again just to be sure I follow all the myriad threads and characters.  The series is unique in that each character's personality and motives, their backgrounds are spelled out and Tchaikovsky manages this balancing act with acumen and strength.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.  

Wizard And Glass by Stephen King

 

In this fourth volume of the Dark Tower series, Roland, Jake, Eddie and Susannah have escaped the deadly living train.  Now they wander through a version of Kansas and will have to face this land's version of the Wizard to continue.

Along the way, Roland tells his friends the story of his youth.  When he was only fourteen, he and his two friends, Alain and Cuthbert, were sent to a small town in the outer region.  Their alleged purpose was to count various items for the ruler but in reality they are there as scouts against the man who wants to bring down the government.  While there, Roland falls in love with Susan Delgado, his first love and his deepest one.  But the small town is about to erupt and there are gunslingers coming for Roland and his friends.  

This fourth volume is definitely my favorite so far.  We get Roland's backstory, the story of his first love which shaped him and his first battle and kills.  Even as a young man, he is the leader of his friends, the one who sees the most clearly and who has the ability to make strategic plans.  There are several villains, including the head of those opposed to Roland, Alain and Cuthbert, and a witch who holds a magic crystal ball that allows her to see what is happening anywhere.  This book is recommended for fantasy and horror readers.  

The Outcast by Sadie Jones

 

Lewis has a happy childhood in a small town a little outside London.  In his earliest years, his father is still away, fighting in World War II and it's just Lewis and his unconventional, loving mother.  When his father returns, he believes that Lewis is spoiled and indulged and their relationship is strained.  Lewis and his mother go on a picnic near the river near their house when Lewis is ten but only Lewis returns.  His mother has gotten caught up on refuse in the river and drowns.

Lewis retreats into himself; his loss so great that he cannot verbalize it.  His father thinks he needs to snap out of things and gets him no help.  Within a year, the father remarries a young woman who has no idea how to be a mother figure.  Lewis becomes more remote, pulling away from his family and friends who being children have no idea how to help him either.  

The Carmichael family lives nearby and Mr. Carmichael is Lewis' father's boss.  There are two daughters.  Tasmin is the older daughter, the town beauty who lives for admiration.  Kit is the younger sister and is drawn to Lewis who is always kind to her.  The Carmichael family hides a secret; Dicky Carmichael is an abusive husband and father.  

The book begins when Lewis is returning to the town at nineteen, having spent the last two years in prison.  He began drinking in his teen years and when the pressure got too great, he acted out in a way that led to charges against him.  Now he is back and is hoping to make amends but his father's opinion of him and that of the town has been set in concrete.  Dicky Carmichael in particular despises Lewis and is quick to tell him and everyone else.  But both the Carmichael daughters are attracted to Lewis and can't leave him alone.  Tension builds but what will be the resolution?

Sadie Jones is an English author and this was her debut novel.  It is hard to believe that as I was stunned by this novel.  It demonstrates how children need love and attention and how easily they can fall off the path when those things are not in their lives.  The reader is drawn to Lewis and develops hope for him, only to see him crushed over and over, yet there is some hope at the end.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson

 

Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir arrives at work in Reykjavik to discover that her supervisor is pushing her into early retirement so he can transfer in a younger man.  She is not ready to retire but is given no choice.  He gives her one week to try to solve one last case but his decision is final.

Hulda picks the case of a Russian immigrant who was found dead on the coast.  Her death was quickly ruled a suicide but after reading the file, Hulda sees that the investigation was shoddy and quick and believes it could have been a homicide instead.  After investigating further, she discovers that another Russian woman had disappeared as well and she was the friend of the other one.  Can Hulda solve the case and more importantly, can she face retirement?

Ragnar Jonasson is an Icelandic author who writes crime novels.  This is the first in his Hulda Hermannsdottir series.  Along with solving the crime, he talks with feeling about how it feels to age and realize that your time on Earth is getting shorter.  Hulda definitely doesn't want to retire but starts to see that it will give her more time to pursue her outside interests and even maybe find romance.  The mystery is satisfactory and Hulda is a tenacious character who readers will enjoy getting to know.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The White Crow by Michael Robotham

 

Philomena McCarthy is a part of the Metropolitan Police and has a new marriage with Henry, a city firefighter.  Being a policewoman is not something Philomena had ever thought she would be.  Her father is head of an organized crime group and the McCarthy Brothers are known widely as criminals.   But she was estranged from her family when she took the job and only recently has become reconciled to them.

On patrol one night, she finds a young girl, dressed in pajamas, on the street in the middle of the night.  The girl tells Philomena that she can't wake up her mother and sure enough, when Philomena checks, her mother is dead, tied to a kitchen chair and battered.  Her father, manager of a high end jewelry store, has been taken to the store by the gang that broke into their house and forced to open the safe there.

Philomena would do anything to be on the task force solving the crime, but a higher up supervisor is determined that he can use this crime to bring down her father's organization.  Philomena is scrutinized and suspended because of her family ties.  But she can't stop investigating the crime.  Can she solve it?

Michael Robotham is an Australian author.  He works mainly in the thriller/detective genre although he was also a ghostwriter for a while on famous people's autobiographies.  I've been a fan for years and this one didn't disappoint.  I loved Philomena's character and especially her husband Henry.  Her father is what he is, a man who has done terrible things but who always and forever puts family first.  There are lots of twists and turns in this novel and it is the second Philomena novel, the first being before she is married.  I immediately started that one when I realized I had missed it.  This series is a big hit for me and I can only hope that Robotham will give readers another chance to follow Philomena in her career.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

 

One weekend a woman comes to a convent in the rural Australia outback.  She is middle-aged and her marriage is dissolving.  A wildlife conservationist, her despair includes the hopelessness of a world with climate change.  She comes to the convent for a place to contemplate her life, to be alone with herself for a weekend to see what the rest of her life will be like.  She doesn't really believe in God and it's strange to be around women whose main focus in life is serving him.

Fast forward a few years and the narrator has returned to the convent, now a full time resident.  She doesn't know that her beliefs have changed but she values the quiet and the slowness of the life there.  But in a place where little occurs, any visitor looms large.  The first is very unwelcome.  An infestation of mice comes to plague the sisters.  Not a few but a tidal wave of mice who eat everything, get in shoes and beds and soil everything they touch.  Then the bones of a former Sister arrive and are kept in the parlour until the convent can get local permission to bury her on the site.  She had gone missing and was presumed murdered.  Instead, she had left and emigrated to the United States.  Accompanying the body is a Sister who the narrator had attended school with.  The woman had been the butt of everyone's jokes and bullying and the narrator still feels guilty that she didn't help her.  

Charlotte Wood is an Australian novelist and this novel is probably her most successful.  It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 and also got awards from such publications as the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.  While reading, one contemplates these lives of service and what one is doing oneself to help others.  In a time when organized religion is losing membership, it also emphasizes that there are many ways to be of service in this world.  It also explores the value of examining one's past life and finding ways to atone for times of hurting others.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Other Side Of Silence by Bill Pronzini

 

Rick Fallon is taking his two week vacation in the desert.  Every so often he just has to get away from everything and listen to the silence.  After camping for a few days, he comes upon a deserted car along a road.  He uses his binoculars and sees a woman lying near some rocks.  When he gets to her, she is almost dead from sun exposure and dehydration.  Fallon rescues her and when she is recovered hears her story.

Carol Dunbar is desperate.  Four months ago her ex-husband had kidnapped their eight year old son and disappeared with him.  Carol has tried everything to find them and now her money is gone.  The last detective she hired was able to track them to Las Vegas but when Carol got close, all she found was a man hired by her ex to beat her up and tell her to forget her search.  

Fall works security and was an MP in the military.  He understands the pain of losing a child as his own son was killed in an accident.  He decides to use the rest of his vacation to help Carol find her son and retrieve him.  Was it a good decision?

Bill Pronzini writes in the mystery genre, typically stories of hard men facing harder choices.  Fallon is an interesting character and I'd love to see a whole series focusing on him.  The mystery has lots of twists and turns and ends in a way that is unexpected.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen

 

Maggie Bird is a former spy as strange as that may seem.  She left the Agency almost two decades ago after her marriage collapsed.  For years she roamed the world, wondering where she might find a new life.  When she heard from other Agency friends about the small Maine town where they had all decided to retire, she visited and then bought an old farm.  Now she raises chickens and fills her days with farm tasks.  Her social life is her neighbor and his granddaughter and her friends from Agency days, Declan, Ben and married couple Ingrid and Lloyd.

All that changes when an Agency employee shows up at Maggie's farm asking her help to find another employee, Diana. Maggie hasn't seen Diana since that failed mission and has no information or interest in finding her.  The next day the woman's body is left in Maggie's driveway, bringing the interest of Jo Thibodeau, the local police chief.  When Maggie realizes that the last mission is now back in play and that everyone involved is in danger, she calls on her friends to help her find whoever is gunning for her.

Tess Gerritson is a mystery writer best known for her Rizzoli and Isles series.  This is the first entry in a new series and will receive a wide readership as younger readers will be drawn by the action and plots while older readers will resonate with the theme of older, wiser protagonists.  Maggie has been a lone wolf for many years but seems to be ready to perhaps find something more than friendship.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Women And Other Animals by Bonnie Jo Campbell

 

In this anthology of sixteen stories, Bonnie Jo Campbell explores the lives of those in poverty.  Some work jobs that grind them down or put them in danger, others do anything they can, including injuring themselves, to save what they have.  My favorite story was probably The Smallest Man In The World.  A circus has come through town and those who work there have come to a bar afterwards to drink.  Already there is a beautiful woman, a woman who realizes that her beauty is just a twist of fate and that in many ways she is another freak of nature just as the smallest man is.  

Bonnie Jo Campbell is an American author.  This was her debut work of short stories and my favorite from this collection won the AWP prize.  I always think of her as a Southern author as she writes about people close to the land and farming but she isn't.  Another theme she uses quite a bit are rivers and how they impact the lives of people who live along them.  She was a Guggenheim Fellow and her ability to get into the lives of those who are often ignored by society and the media is her true talent.  This book is recommended for anthology readers.  

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

 

Richard Flanagan is one of my favorite authors and this latest novel is one I'll think about for a long time.  It is a mix of memoir, biography, historical novel and philosophy.  He covers topics such as the development of the atomic bomb and the men who conceived it, an affair between H.G. Wells and Rebecca West, Japanese labor camps during World War II and whitewater rafting.  

Flanagan's father was a laborer in a Japanese labor camp at the end of World War II, skeletal and sure he wouldn't survive another winter.  He was saved when Japan surrendered after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Flanagan ponders the ethics of the decision to drop the bomb and the fact that he would not exist were it not for those events.

I found the biography of H.G. Wells fascinating as I had not known he was such a ladies' man.  I knew of the affair with Rebecca West but didn't realize it was just one of many.  The ability of Wells to write about topics and inventions that were foretelling but later came to fruition is the reason so many science fiction and fantasy writers revere him.  One of my reading goals is to read West's masterpiece, Black Lamb and Gray Falcon.  

Finally, I read Flanagan's wonderful Death Of A River Guide but I hadn't realized that it was grounded in his own life.  He had a job as a whitewater rafting guide and on one trip his craft flipped and he was trapped in a small air bubble, his legs trapped in rocks for over an hour.  He discusses this event in great detail, telling of the man who saved his life at great cost but whom he lost touch with later.  

Richard Flanagan is an Australian author from Tasmania.  He is considered one of the best authors of our time and I read everything he writes.  This work won the Bailie Gillie Prize which is for nonfiction writing and was named a Top Ten Notable Book by the Washington Post.   I appreciated it not only for the things I discovered I hadn't known but for a more in-depth look into the life of an amazing author.  This book is recommended for nonfiction and literary fiction readers.  

The Stepson by Jane Renshaw

 

Lulu and Nick are newlyweds.  They met on a Greek island while on vacation and after a whirlwind romance married.  Lulu is a counselor while Nick is a hugely successful broker.  They live in London.  Lulu grew up in Australia while Nick grew up in the English countryside.  He has a tragedy in his background that he hates to talk about but Lulu knows until he comes to terms with it he will always be troubled.

Nick's mother died while he was a teenager after a fall down the stairs in their home.  Nick found her.  While he was still grieving, his father Duncan brought home a new wife and stepmother for Nick.  Maggie had been a troubled teen when she met Duncan in the organization he ran for teenagers who need help.  Now years later, the two meet again and fall in love.  Nick and Maggie are at odds immediately.  Nick has the ability to make Maggie look bad, that she is lying when she tells Duncan what Nick says and does when its just the two of them.  Maggie and Duncan have a baby and when Maggie sees that Nick will hurt his stepsister, she and Duncan make a decision.  One day Nick comes home to find nobody there.  Duncan, Maggie and the baby are gone and there is no trace of them in the years after.  Nick is sent to boarding school to finish growing up.

Maggie sees Nick as a strong male who is kind and loving.  But when they go to his home to visit, she gets differing opinions.  His aunt openly despises him.  His former best friend believes Nick is evil.  Who is right and what happened to his family all those years before?

Jane Renshaw is a British author who works in the suspense genre.  This novel goes back and forth in time between the present and the past around the time of Nick's family's disappearance.  At one point, he seems evil, at another he seems misunderstood and done hard by.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did an excellent job.  One of my favorite parts was the epilogue when the reader finds out what happens after the novel's climatic end.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Trespass by Rose Tremain

 

This is the story of two brother-sister relationships, set in the South of France.  The first set of siblings are French.  Aramon is the brother and Audrun the sister.  They grew up in wealth but without a mother who died while they were young.  Aramon was always the favored one.  When the father died, he inherited everything except for some woods which Audrun inherited and on which she had a small cottage built.  Audrun was abused by both her father and brother.  It left her introverted and unable to form an adult relationship while it left Aramon so wracked with guilt that he is now an alcoholic, drinking to forget the horrific things he did.

The other siblings are English.  Anthony is a very successful antique dealer in London but as the times have changed, so have tastes and his business is now failing.  He decides to go visit his sister, Veronica, who lives in France with her partner.  Veronica and Anthony have a loving relationship and after a few days, Anthony starts to think about retiring to a house near Veronica.  

The house Anthony is interested in is Aramon's, who had decided to sell his house while the market was hot.  But Anthony wants a spectacular view and Audrun's dilapidated cottage ruins it so he moves on.  But nothing else he sees appeals to him like this property.  He sets off one day to view more properties and never returns.  Has he gotten lost?  Did he go hiking and have a misadventure?  

Rose Tremain is an English author who writes both contemporary and historical fiction.  She has been nominated for both the Booker and Women's Fiction awards and won the Woman's Fiction award.  This book is particularly interesting as it delves into the relationships we have as we get older and often the strongest are with our original family.  Conversely, those relationships may also be our earliest and strongest personality shapers of abuse and rejection.  This novel is recommended for readers of literary fiction. 

Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen

 

This is a story of the relationship between the author and her mother.  It is a memoir and a biography and a history of China as the old ways crumbled and the Communists took over.  It is an expose, a love letter and an attempt by the author to make sense of her life and that of her mother.

Jen's mother was born to a wealthy family with many servants and a huge mansion.  She was raised until she was six or seven by a nanny who was the person who provided the love and comfort every child needs.  Then the woman was abruptly sent away and Jen was expected to become a dutiful Chinese daughter.  Her mother was cold to her, openly favoring her brother.  For Jen, her most often phrase was 'Bad bad girl, you don't know how to talk!'.

But Jen's mother was not willing to live the life she was expected to.  She always excelled in school and managed to get a scholarship to go to the United States to university.  She was to live with friends of her parents and her father gave her some money to go on.  That was the last money she was to see from her parents and pretty much the last time she would speak with her mother.  Her mother didn't come to the phone when Jen called home and rarely wrote.  When the Communists took over, her family lost most of their money and their property, moving from the large house they inhabited to some rooms in another house shared with other families.  Jen's mother, who had married another Chinese student in America,  rarely replied to their pleas for help and money and even when her mother broke down and wrote, she didn't change her ways.

In the meantime Gish Jen was born.  She was strong willed like her mother and soon her mother was repeating the words she had been raised on, 'Bad Bad Girl'.  But it is evident how much the author loved and respected her parents.  The telling of their last days and the little personal services that she would provide for each of them, spoiling them as best she could, were poignant.  I can only hope that my children will do the same for me when my time comes.

Gish Jen has written several novels and books that explore the Chinese culture, it's modern history and its relationship with the United States.  Her short fiction has been widely used in magazines and anthologies.  In this book, she creates a look inside Chinese families and in particular, the mother-daughter relationship.  Most of what she writes about this relationship portrays that relationship in many cultures as our parents are our world at first and the first love relationships we will have.  Along the way, we learn history, stories about Gish Jen's own life, and the questions about how we ourselves will parent.  This book is recommended for literary fiction and memoir readers.  

The Miracle Life Of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

 

Edgar Mint has a mixed parentage; his mother is Apache and his father a white guy who came west to try to be a cowboy and who moved on when he found out his girlfriend was going to have a baby.  He is raised for the first seven years of his life on the reservation with a mother who only wanted to drink.  When Edgar is seven, he is in an accident and the postman runs over him.  The postman and everyone else think that with the horrific head injury he has that Edgar is dead but he miraculously survives.

Edgar spends months in the hospital, recovering from the head wound and learning again how to walk and other physical movements.  He is the favorite of the hospital and makes friends with the men who are on his ward.  When he is considered ready to leave, he is sent to his great uncle who is a janitor at an Indian school and Edgar is put in the dormitories where he will live for years.  He makes one true friend and deals with bullies there.

From the school, Edgar is adopted by a Mormon family when he is a teenager.  He stays with them for a while then moves on into his adult life.  His mission is to find the postman who ran him over to let him know that he is still alive.  Will Edgar ever find a home and family?

Readers will become engaged with Edgar.  Although most would consider his life nothing but a series of miserable conditions, he remains an optimist and sees the best in everyone.  Edgar is life affirming and one of my favorite characters I've encountered.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

The Demands by Mark Billingham

 

When he is overwhelmed by his life, a Muslim shopowner in London takes two hostages.  One is a young man, recently married, who works in a bank.  The other is a policewoman.  When the police are able to speak with him, he demands to speak with DC Tom Thorne.  The man's son was recently killed in prison, a prison he was sent to for a harsh sentence when he and a friend were attacked on the street and in the ensuing fight, a man was killed.  The prison says the son's death is a suicide but the family doesn't believe it.  

Thorne remembers the case well.  He and others were shocked at the sentence handed down to the young man, who was a stellar youth bound for university and great things.  He hadn't heard about his death and he knows he only has a short period of time to investigate before tempers flare in the shop and the hostages are harmed.  Is the man right or is he deluded by grief?

This is number ten in the Tom Thorne series.  It is one of my favorites.  There is so much tension as Thorne fights the clock to find out what really happened, both at the initial crime and at the prison where the young man lost his life.  Thorne also starts a new relationship with the hostage negotiator who is in charge of talking with the hostages and their captor at the scene.  There are many twists and turns and the resolution is satisfactory.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Lula Dean's Little Library Of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

 

Every town has one and you're lucky if your town only has one.  Troy, Georgia, has Lula Dean.  Lula's husband has passed away, her children grown and gone.  She spends her time spying on her neighbors and spreading rumors, still trying to make up for not being chosen to be a cheerleader in high school.  Her arch enemy is Beverly Underwood who is popular in the town and who was the person who denied Lula high school fame.

Lula has limited success until she hits on the idea of banning books.  It's getting news everywhere and she's sure it will work in Troy as well.  Soon she has created a committee to list all the books that should be banned and then swooped into the school library and carted off any book that talks about sex, being gay, or race relations.  But what can people read instead?

Lula comes up with the idea of setting up a free library in her yard.  She fills its with books on how to crochet, how a Southern woman should behave and other boring tomes.  She is proud of her little library but she doesn't know the secret.  Beverly's daughter has snuck over one night and replaced the books inside the covers with books about sex and the truth about slavery and Jim Crow.  Soon the books taken from the library are wildly popular and the townspeople are showing signs of standing up to Lula.

Kirsten Miller is known for her ability to write humorous books about topics that create conflict.  She started as a writer of children's books about female detectives that solve mysteries but recently is taking on more serious topics.  In this novel, not only is the controversy of banning books discussed but the idea of removing statues of men who were complicit in enslaving and treating minorities badly but who were wealthy and powerful enough to seem like role models at the time.  The people in Troy find ways to come together and own their shared histories while defeating the narrow minded individuals that would limit reading material.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

Little Face by Sophie Hannah

 

Motherhood is all Alice thought it would be.  She had her daughter two weeks ago and fell in love immediately.  Other things she thought would be wonderful are now questionable.  Like living with her husband's mother on her large estate.  Like having her mother-in-law control her husband, Alice and now expecting to make all the decisions for the baby.  She has already put her down for the school she expects Alice and David to send their daughter to.

Alice goes out for a short visit with a friend, leaving the baby at home sleeping with David watching.  She comes home to an open front door and David asleep.  Alice runs to the baby and there is a baby in the crib.  But Alice insists it's not HER baby but that someone has swapped this child for hers.  David is adamant that Alice is wrong but she insists on calling the police.

The case is given to Charlie Zailer and her DC Simon Waterhouse.  Simon is sympathetic to Alice's obvious belief and upset while Charlie believes it is some sort of delusion brought on by postpartum distress.  This differing belief causes tension between the two police, increasing what was already there as Charlie has a crush on Simon and he rejected her.  When the police are informed that David's first wife was murdered at the estate several years ago, the tension is racheted even higher.  Charlie had worked on that case and now there are suspicions that she got it wrong and an innocent man has been imprisoned.  

This is the first book in what is currently a nine novel series featuring the two detectives.  I read one of the others a few weeks ago and immediately decided to go back and read them in order.  Charlie is an interesting female lead, great at her job but failing at romance.  Simon seems introverted yet confident that he is the best detective in the force.  The mystery is appealing and the change in David as Alice continues to insist her baby is missing is astounding.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

To The Bright Edge Of The World by Eowyn Ivey

 

This novel is told in both modern times and in the late 1800's.  In 1885, Colonel Allen Forester leads an expedition into Alaska to open up the Wolverine River and the vast territory that has been unexplored.  He leaves behind his wife, Sophie.  The two write letters to each other about his journey and her studies of photography and birds.  Forrester also writes a journal, hoping that it will somehow survive and tell the story of the journey.

Sophie is not the typical wife of the 1880's.  Left behind on a military base, she scandalizes the other wives by refusing to take part in the established social life of military wives.  Instead, her best friend is the young girl hired to do the housework and the two spend their days out in the wilds, learning about photography and documenting the birds of the area.  

In modern times, one of the Colonel's descendants sends the material he finds in his attic to the curator of the Alaskan museum closest to where the expedition took place.  The two men form a friendship through their exchange of material and information and the museum plans to mount an exhibition.

Eowyn Ivey is an American writer who was brought up in Alaska and lives there now.  She uses Alaska as the location of many of her novels, one of which won the Pulitzer Prize.  In this novel, the reader learns about the Alaskan wilderness and the difficulties encountered opening it up.  They also learn about the Native Americans that lived there along with some of their culture.  The beginnings of photography and the difficulty of taking pictures in that time are covered along with the social mores that constricted women whose every move was prescribed.  The love between Sophie and Allen is warm and gives the book its stable base.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.