To borrow a phrase from my favorite chef/influencer Serena Wolf, this is the perfect “medium-trashy” read for those looking to get sucked into some small-town drama.
All in Fiction
THE CHAPERONE
A perfect historical fiction escape following a young dancer destined to be a movie star and her small-town chaperone who is searching for details of her past in 1920’s New York City.
CLOUD CUCKOO LAND
Anthony Doerr writes beautiful prose, and in Cloud Cuckoo Land he has perfected his craft. In the novel’s intricate structure Doerr develops three stories simultaneously, those of: Anna in 1439 Constantinople; Seymour and Zeno in 2020 Lakeport, Idaho; and Konstance on a spaceship sometime in the future.
THE KNOCKOUT QUEEN
Aptly titled, The Knockout Queen is indeed a knockout and an absolute must-read. In her two main characters, Bunny and Michael, Thorpe has created a relationship as unlikely and unusual as it is beautiful and compelling. Thorpe writes brilliantly, and I was so immersed in these two characters’ lives, I absolutely could not stop reading until I had finished the book.
ANXIOUS PEOPLE
I read Anxious People before the holidays and named it my favorite book of 2021 that I hadn’t yet reviewed. The only reason for that was timing, and I am thrilled to be reviewing and recommending it to you now.
THE GUEST LIST
I believe I picked up The Guest List after Reece Witherspoon chose it for her book club, which was a while ago. And although I’m not usually one for murder mysteries, Lucy Foley and Reece do not disappoint. Engaging and suspenseful as all top-notch mysteries are, Foley also writes well and develops characters I genuinely cared about.
INTO THE WATER
When I picked up Into The Water, I was looking for fluff—something that would keep me engaged and turning pages without challenging me to think about much except what might happen next. Based on having read and loved Hawkins’ previous smash hit, The Girl On The Train, I figured this would probably fit the bill.
A SLOW FIRE BURNING
Paula Hawkins’ latest psychological thriller A Slow Fire Burning rises to the amazing, disturbing, yet wonderful heights of her breakthrough novel, The Girl on the Train. In A Slow Fire Burning, Hawkins has developed three memorable main characters, all women who are deeply troubled by the tragedies they’ve experienced in their lives.
APPLES NEVER FALL
For someone who alleges not to enjoy mysteries, I find myself recommending two more this month! Apples Never Fall is Liane Moriarty’s latest novel and perhaps her best. Moriarty tells the story of the Delaney family: Stan and Joy, a seemingly perfect couple who have been happily married for 50 years and their four adult children, all successfully launched into their own lives. Life is good for the Delaneys until Joy disappears one day, leaving no note. After two weeks, foul play is suspected and all signs point to Stan as the guilty party.
BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU
Sally Rooney faced a huge challenge in writing her next book after Normal People, the bestseller published in 2018 that won the British Book Award for Book of the Year and was made into a mini-series on Hulu in 2020. I think Beautiful World, Where Are You is even better than Normal People.
MOTHER DAUGHTER WIDOW WIFE
Mother Daughter Widow Wife is another of this year’s Pen/Faulkner finalists for the fiction award. The novel is a tightly crafted story about a young woman, Lizzie Epstein, who wins a prestigious fellowship to the Meadowlark Institute, a multi-disciplinary lab working on memory research. In short order, Lizzie finds herself the favorite fellow of Dr. Benjamin Strauss, the Institute’s director.
EMERGENCY CONTACT
Emergency Contact is one of the first books I’ve read that successfully integrates texting into the narrative in a way that actually furthers the story and is believable, not gimmicky. I remember watching the first season of House of Cardsand feeling that finally someone had figured out how to integrate texting on tv. I felt a similar relief and excitement with this book.
DEAR EDWARD
Dear Edward’s premise is horrific and if you are afraid of flying, avoid it at all costs. But if you can stomach the trauma, this book is riveting, tragic and entertaining. The story is split into two alternating parts. The first details the lives of multiple passengers on a giant flight from New York to L.A. The second is the story of the twelve-year-old boy who is the sole survivor when that plane crashes.
THE NIGHT WATCHMAN
Louise Erdrich is a prolific American writer who really hits her stride in The Night Watchman.There’s a reason that this gem won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Louise Erdrich has filled her novel with a cast of memorable characters who live on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota in 1953. Their stories will stay with you long after you finish the novel.
HOMEGOING
Homegoing is Ya Gyasi’s stunning debut novel which begins in Ghana in the 18th century and follows two Ghanian half-sisters and their descendants through seven generations up to the present in the United States. (The sisters don’t know of each other’s existence.) From this description, you would expect a very long novel. In fact, Gyasi has structured her book so that each chapter is almost a distinct short story.
WHEN THE STARS GO DARK
If you’re a faithful reader of the L&L Review, then you know that crime novels and mysteries are not my go-to types of book. When the Stars Go Dark is both – and it is gripping. McLain’s novel reminded me of Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (reviewed June 17, 2021), perhaps because both books’ main characters work brilliantly to resolve the mystery of crimes, while dealing with the all-too-familiar, but very real, stresses of motherhood and family.
GREAT CIRCLE
There is no question that Great Circle requires a commitment—at 589 pages. And I read it at a pace slower than any book I can remember reading in my recent past. But while I was reading it, I had five weeks of the delightful company of my L&L co-editor and her two small children. Quiet times for reading were few and far between. Despite the slowness with which I read it, however, I found myself consciously slowing down as I came to the end of the book. I simply didn’t want it to end.
I, TITUBA, BLACK WITCH OF SALEM
Growing up outside Boston, the Salem witch trials were a staple of history classes, and I was obsessed for many years. Even more so after I found out I was descended from one of the accused on my Dad’s side. So to discover this book that strongly connected the historical facts and my childhood memories, but somehow also made relevant observations about race in America today, was a complete thrill.
THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES
If you read only one collection of short stories this year, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies should be the one. This group of nine stories is Philyaw’s debut publication and deserves all of the accolades that it has received, including winning the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
HOW TO LOVE A JAMAICAN
I have found in my limited reading of short story collections that when I find one I really enjoy, I tend to read them even faster than I would a novel. There is something about finishing a story and knowing that the next one holds an entirely new set of characters and problems that keeps me turning pages. Alexia Arthurs drew me in over and over, and I ended up reading the entire collection in about a day and a half.