Reading Recommendations from the Northwoods

Small World---Jonathan Evison

 

Small World is a historical novel in the truest sense.    Through fascinating and admirable characters, Evison shows us many historical landscapes and time periods, all loosely connected to the transcontinental railroad.

The plot focuses mostly on two time periods, one with ancestors in about 1850 and the other with their descendents in the present.   Among the main characters in the 1850s are a twin brother and sister who have immigrated from Ireland; a Native American woman who is mistreated and hunted; a Chinese immigrant who becomes inexplicably wealthy from discoveries of gold; a couple of fugitive slaves; and the wealthy man who employs and then pursues them.

In the present, their family members include a basketball hero, an abused woman trying to escape, a train engineer, business owners, and many others.

If this sounds complicated, I didn't find it to be.  The characters and time periods are distinctive, and I found it easy to keep track as the author moved from time to place.   The novel is extremely well written, and the stories of each character are suspenseful but hopeful.   

If historical fiction should give us a true taste of many lives and historical periods, I can't think of another book where it has been done better.     Take your time and enjoy.

 

“The novel is easy to love in part because it deals in generosity and hope…Small World is ambitious, showing our interconnectedness across time, place and cultures.”—New York Times Book Review

"Riveting…Small World feels like a reminder that not a single one of us got here alone. We have inherited strengths from the individual tales of our ancestors, but we are still deeply dependent upon each other.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

A Little Hope--Ethan Joella

 

I discovered  A Little Hope on a list of "Up-lifting books for book clubs," and appreciated its other positive reviews.   But, when I started reading, the first chapter was about Greg Tyler, a young professional man facing multiple myeloma and how the diagnosis was affecting his family and his job.  That didn't seem too uplifting so far!

The second chapter jumps to Darcy, a widow who learns that her husband's much-loved car has just been vandalized.   Darcy is the owner of a dry cleaning business, which employs Greg's wife Frankie as a seamstress.   Darcy's struggling son Luke also loved that car.   

I began to appreciate how author Joella was constructing this novel of connecting relationships in small-town Connecticut.   Just like real life, each of the characters has "issues" to deal with, some larger than others, and some kept secret for years.   And although the problems can't vanish, they can feel diminished and even resolved in some cases through interactions with friends and neighbors.  

I liked Joella's style very much, as he connects lives of characters through simple encounters like seeing someone from your past at a toy store, or meeting someone new at a wedding.   His many characters were likable and well-developed and easily distinguishable.

As the title says, characters may not get much more than "a little hope," but isn't that sometimes all we need to keep going?    Clearly,  what led to the "uplifting" designation for this easy-reading book is the connections of supportive people in one another's lives, each doing their best to make decisions and carry on.    

A Little Hope was a pleasure to read, and I think it will be a pleasure to discuss.

 

“This soft-spoken debut is a surprising page-turner, as your hopes for the cast of beleaguered small-town characters build and burn bright. Its calm wisdom about bearing the toughest losses—sometimes lightened by unexpected gifts—makes this novel a comforting companion for difficult times.”
—People

 

Lessons in Chemistry---Bonnie Garmus

 

I liked this book so much that I was reluctant to have it end, and that hasn't happened for awhile.   Lessons in Chemistry seemed fresh, unusual and witty, and was so well-written that I could almost have started over to read it again.   

Lessons in Chemistry shows us a female scientist ahead of her time.  Elizabeth's colleagues don't take her seriously, except when they are stealing  from her research results.   Eventually, Elizabeth ends up in an unlikely career---hosting a very different cooking show in the early days of TV.    Along the way, she experiences true love, raises a precocious daughter, exercises in an untraditional method, and makes many unlikely friends.    And a mystery is also resolved at the end, about the parentage of Elizabeth's husband. 

Elizabeth is a straightforward, likable, unique character, and she manages successfully through all the ups and downs that come her way.    I enjoyed this book a lot, and hope you may also. 

 

“A fun, feminist charmer, Bonnie Garmus’s novel Lessons in Chemistry follows singular single mother Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist in a man’s world—1960s America—as she becomes an unlikely cooking-show host and the role model her daughter deserves.”

“Between the outrageous sexism and the bitter misfortune that thwart our heroine at every turn, this may not sound like a comic novel, but it is. Full of charm, energy and hope—and featuring a really great dog—it’s one to savor.” 

 

Wish You Were Here---Jodi Picoult

 

You know that Jodi Picoult writes popular fiction about timely topics.    In Wish You Were Here, she becomes one of the first to write a novel which takes place during the covid pandemic in March 2020.

Are any of us wanting to read more about life in the frightening early days of covid?   And yes, this book does capture the worries and distress and illness of that time.    But, like all of Picoult's books, it reads fast, and delivers much more than just horrid details of life during covid.

Diana is in love with Finn, a resident at a NYC hospital, and the couple are planning a getaway to the Galapagos Islands.   But, when Finn knows he must keep working at the hospital during the crisis, he encourages Diana to go ahead with their non-refundable holiday.   Of course, when she arrives, she learns tourism resources and internet access are unavailable, along with other countless frustrations.    

If you have read books by Picoult before, you know she often has a surprise for the reader in store, so I won't tell more about the plot. But I will tell you that you will keep reading and will have topics you will be eager to discuss when you have finished.  

Thanks to my sister-in-law Ann for the recommendation, with her assurance that I would speed through the book.

An Amazon Best Book of December 2021: Diana O’Toole is on the cusp of a huge professional coup, her surgical resident boyfriend is about to propose, and she’s all set to take off on a romantic trip to the Galapagos.  Then, the pandemic hits. Diana is suddenly stranded, alone, on her dream vacation. And all of her goals and milestones suddenly feel not so urgent.  Based on a true story of a traveler stranded on a remote island, Wish You Were Here is an early and triumphant addition to books trying to make sense of life in 2020, and beyond. 

 

Matrix---Lauren Groff

 

In 12th century Europe, Marie is clearly a misfit in the court of Eleanore of Aquataine.    She is large and awkward and unattractive; the queen doesn't know what to do with her.   The problem is solved by sending Marie to head a failing convent in England, where hopefully, no one will have to think of her again.

In Matrix, Marie gradually finds her own determination and skills for leadership, and makes the convent become more and more successful.    In this era when females are beneath notice, Marie provides opportunities for the women there to live good lives, as well as to enhance the community surrounding them.

Marie's story is based on an actual historical abbey in 1100's Europe, and I was interested in the comfortably included historical details about that era.    In addition to its interesting setting and characters, the book was short and easy to read.    And, it was definitely different from things I have read recently, and has stayed with me.

Reviewers are really positive about Groff's writing, and maybe this will be something you may also like.       (If I had been author or publisher, I may have looked for a different title, not one with a word that we see used in so many other ways.)

 

 

The Anomaly---Herve Le Tellier

 

The Anomaly is much different from what I usually read, but I thought it was fascinating.    The premise, described below better than I could, is that two plane-loads of passengers, landing in New York three months apart from one another, are identical.    The author focuses on several of those passengers from both the March flight and the June flight, as they try to comprehend who they are and what may have happened to them.

The book left me with more questions than answers, but I didn't feel compelled to puzzle out what had really happen and what it all meant.     Marianne and Marilyn reported that their book club felt much the way I had:   I'm not sure what it meant, but I am glad I read it.  

Maybe you will want to see what you think, too, and can give me some answers!

 

                A New York Times bestseller and a "Best Thriller of the Year"

Now an international phenomenon, this dizzying, whip-smart novel blends crime, fantasy, sci-fi, and thriller as it plumbs the mysteries surrounding a Paris-New York flight.

Who would we be if we had made different choices? Told that secret, left that relationship, written that book? We all wonder—the passengers of Air France 006 will find out. 

In their own way, they were all living double lives when they boarded the plane:
     Blake, a respectable family man who works as a contract killer.
     Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star who uses his womanizing image to hide that he’s gay.
     Joanna, a Black American lawyer pressured to play the good old boys’ game to succeed with her Big Pharma client.
     Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet largely obscure writer suddenly on the precipice of global fame.
    About to start their descent to JFK, they hit a shockingly violent patch of turbulence, emerging on the other side to a reality both perfectly familiar and utterly strange. As it charts the fallout of this logic-defying event, The Anomaly takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House and a top-secret hangar.
    In Hervé Le Tellier’s ambitious work, high literature follows the lead of a bingeable Netflix series, drawing on the best of genre fiction from “chick lit” to mystery, while also playfully critiquing their hallmarks. An ingenious, timely variation on the doppelgänger theme, it taps into the parts of ourselves that elude us most.

 

The Maid--Nita Prose

 

The Maid, a recent fiction book by Nita Prose, reminded me a bit of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, one of our successful discussion books.   

Main character Molly has lived with her grandmother who has now passed away, and takes great pride in her job as a maid in an elegant hotel.   However, she is naive and trusting and is aware that her social skills are different from others.   When she finds a wealthy guest dead in his room, for example, she still goes ahead and cleans his room immediately.   She then automatically becomes a suspect and must try to distinguish which hotel employees she can trust as the mystery unravels.  

The plot is comfortably complex; the characters are interesting; and the ending is very welcome, as Molly of course finds support from unlikely sources and lands on her feet.  

The Maid was Amazon's book of the month for January 2022, and it appears that it is already getting word-of-mouth attention.

     

The delight of reading The Maid lies partly in watching a hectic cast of characters unravel as the crime is properly solved.   It also lies in seeing Molly learn that thinking differently does not equal giving up friendship or high standards. What begins as a sprightly murder mystery turns into a meaningful, and at times even delicate, portrait of growth.

 

Billy Summers--Stephen King

 

As Stephen King promoted his newest book Billy Summers, he was interviewed frequently.  From those conversations, I learned this recent book is not a horror novel like many of his earlier novels, but a thriller with loads of other things going on too.  

Basically, Billy is a successful hit man, with one last bad guy to kill before he retires.   Along the way, Billy begins to write his life story, including his time serving as a sniper in Iraq.   And about midway through the 500 pages of Billy Summers,  the main character befriends Alice, a young woman who has been victimized, leading to an additional plot to find justice for her.   

Whatever he takes on, King writes fast-moving plots and believable characters.   He writes terrific sentences and paragraphs, and even a long book like this is easy to read.    It's a good "curl up" book and one that I sped through.    

 

Named a Best Book of 2021 by BookBub, Booklist, Esquire, Goodreads Choice Awards, Kirkus, Parade, Apple Books, Tampa Bay Times, and The Wall Street Journal! 

“Billy Summers is an ambitious, controlled and compelling shapeshifter of a book: combat novel, platonic romance, noir caper, portrait of an artist coming of belated age. Its pleasures are numerous, and it touches the mind, heart and nervous system in equal measure."
—The Wall Street Journal

"King has multiple novels in play here—thriller, at least two coming-of-age stories, and a knockout road novel—and he knits them together beautifully, never missing a stitch ... King has never been better than he is here at wrapping readers into a propulsive, many-tentacled narrative—complete with a perfectly orchestrated, moving ending."
—Booklist, starred 

 

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections---Eva Jurczyk

 

I am definitely not the only reader attracted to fiction about books and book stores and libraries, judging by the number of titles in the last few years including those key words.  

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections takes place in a university library, a much different setting than small town libraries.     Here, Liesl has recently been made acting director of the university library, when the long-time director lies unconscious from a stroke.   She becomes immediately involved in a crisis, when generous donors want to see a $500,000 recent rare acquisition, but the safe holding the book is found empty.   

The answer to this mystery is revealed only near the end of the book.  Along the way, the reader sees the various characters who staff the library, the conniving university president, various large donors, as well as Liesl's husband and daughter.    

Interesting topics to discuss might be:  an older woman who has been passed over for promotions; characters coping with mental illness; how our pasts can follow us years into the present; politics in a work place; people driven by greed for possessions and for recognition.     All those were interesting to me, including the information about rare books and the question of why they are of such value.

Some reviews of Department of Rare Books were not terrific, actually, and I can see why some thought it moved slowly.   I enjoyed the book very much, though, and think many readers would like this different take on books and their value, combined with a mystery.  

(I would have given it a shorter and snappier title, as this one seems too long to remember, and thus to recommend to someone.)

 

These Precious Days---Ann Patchett

 

 Since you are a fiction reader, you will be familiar with many of Ann Patchett's books, beginning with Bel Canto and most recently, The Dutch House.    Here Patchett steps away from her fiction, and publishes a collection of interesting and touching essays.

I read this book (thanks for the recommendation, Caryl) at a time that required some waiting.   The essays were engrossing and positive, both of which I appreciated.   But they were also easy to pick up and put down, and a pleasure to return to.

Patchett writes about a wide variety of topics:   trying to clean out her home; about her three fathers, with a photo of them together; about book publishing and owning a book store; about pets and about travel; and of course, about writing.  The final and best essay, about a deep covid friendship that arrived unexpectedly, is touching and shows Patchett's humanity.  

In addition to enjoying Patchett's writing, you will enjoy the cover art every time you pick the book up.   The front shows her cute and cuddly dog, and the back, an equally colorful pileated woodpecker.     

These Precious Days is a beautiful book, just as the title leads you to expect.  

 

"The elegance of Patchett’s prose is seductive and inviting: with Patchett as a guide, readers will really get to grips with the power of struggles, failures, and triumphs alike." -- Publishers Weekly(starred review)

"An enviable life shared with candor, emotion, and knockout storytelling power." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)