Lessons From the Edge provides another perfect example of why I love being in a book club. I would never have read this book on my own. But because it was a selection for my Boston Bates Alumnae Book Club, I read it and found it fascinating.
THE MOTHERS
Previously mentioned as a must-read by my mom in her review of Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (read review here), I am here to chime in with an enthusiastic full review of this engrossing and heart-wrenching book. Set in southern California, Bennett uses the older women of a local church, “the mothers,” as a kind of Greek chorus to narrate throughout the story and tease out the secrets that are slowly revealed.
LUCY BY THE SEA
Elizabeth Strout’s gorgeous new novel Lucy by the Sea brings back her iconic characters Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William who we first met in My Name Is Lucy Barton and then saw again in Oh, William! (read review here) Lucy and William have been amicably divorced for a while and as Lucy by the Sea begins, William, who is a biologist, convinces Lucy to leave her New York City apartment and join him at a rented Victorian house in a small town in Maine
HARLEM SHUFFLE
If there was any doubt that Colson Whitehead is one of the greatest US writers living today, Harlem Shuffle should erase it. One of few authors to have won two Pulitzer Prizes (Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys), Whitehead once again has published a superb novel.
INVISIBLE WOMEN
Invisible Women delivers on the promise of its title and will open your eyes to the millions of tiny (and sometimes enormous) ways in which women are left out of the functional design of our world today. It is a very statistics-heavy book and the ultimate conclusion is right there in the title, but the details are shocking and myriad.
BOOTH
Fowler’s previous book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was one of the best books I have ever read. When I saw that she’d written a new book, I couldn’t wait to read it. Very different from her previous book, Booth is equally stunning.
WHAT STRANGE PARADISE
What Strange Paradise is an incredibly difficult read emotionally, but one I have to recommend for its tragic portrayal of the hope we all harbor as humans and what good can come from reaching out to one another.
THE HOTEL NANTUCKET
Elin Hilderbrand has perfected her trademark Nantucket summer story in this gem of a book. There are many reasons why it sat in the number one spot for weeks on The New York Times Fiction Bestseller list. The Hotel Nantucket follows protagonist, Lizbet Keaton, after she breaks up with her longtime boyfriend and leaves the restaurant where they both worked.
THE MUSEUM OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS
The second book I’ve read by Alice Hoffman (review of The Marriage of Opposites here), I am once again impressed by her ability to weave factual historical events with a fantastical love story that borders on magical.
HORSE
A newly published book by Geraldine Brooks will always make my “Must Read” list. And Horse surpassed all of my expectations. Based on an actual mid-nineteenth century racehorse, named Lexington, Brooks deftly weaves three stories together.
SEA OF TRANQUILITY
I truly believe that Emily St. John Mandel is well on her way to Margaret Atwood status in terms of Canadian authors we (yes, I’m Canadian-ish now) delight in bragging about. My only caveat to demanding that you run out and buy this book and then read it immediately is that if time travel annoys or confuses you, maybe give this a pass.
THE SENTENCE
In The Sentence, Louise Erdrich has written another compelling novel, this time about a Native American woman named Tookie, who is working in an independent bookstore in Minneapolis after being released from a long prison sentence.
CRYING IN H MART
Appearing on many recommended reading lists in the past year, I definitely found that Crying in H Mart lived up to the hype. Although Zauner might not be the most skilled writer, she presents her story so truthfully and vulnerably I found I couldn't help but be drawn in.
WEST WITH GIRAFFES
In West with Giraffes, Lynda Rutledge has written the best story I can remember reading since Great Circle by Maggie Showstead (reviewed here). Thank you, Karen, for recommending it! At age 105, our protagonist, Woodrow Wilson Nickel, learns that giraffes may be going extinct. In response, he feels compelled to write down his story from 1938, when as a 17-year-old with plenty of real-life problems of his own, he became part of a caravan that transported two giraffes across country from New York City to the San Diego Zoo.
HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD
Here’s a fact not many people know about me: In addition to studying theater during my undergrad years, I was also a psychology major with a focus in developmental psychology. I often say theater and psychology are two different ways of studying the same thing–how the human brain works and how we interact with other humans. Hidden Valley Road dives deeply into the history, biology and treatment of schizophrenia, but it also has a large helping of drama.
BEWILDERMENT
I was really looking forward to reading Richard Powers’ Bewilderment, his newest book since The Overstory, which is one of the best books I’ve ever read – and which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. But, I postponed reading it for a while after learning what the story was about because I was afraid it would be too depressing. Despite the book’s subject matter, though, I found it a beautifully written story about a father and a son and I encourage everyone to read it.
THE WIDOW
The Widow is definitely what celebrity chef and influencer Serena Wolf would call a “medium trashy novel.” She often reviews and recommends books of this type on her instagram. I think Wolf would define “medium trashy” as not requiring much effort to read, with a plot that may be somewhat silly, but the writing is good and you thoroughly enjoy yourself. That definition fits The Widow perfectly.
HOMEGOING
Reading a story this brilliant and beautiful is so rare that I want to start my review by saying I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone and everyone looking for an amazing summer book. Not only is the story complex and epic, but Gyasi creates characters with whom the reader feels intimately connected.
BRAIDING SWEETGRASS
With an absolutely stunning originality, Robin Wall Kimmerer takes her vast knowledge of plants from her scientific viewpoint as a PhD and Professor of Environmental Biology, and combines it with her perspective as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation to offer an alternate view on how we might look at the world and our place in it.
THE BOOK OF JOY
he Book of Joy came out of an amazing one-week meeting in 2015 when Archbishop Tutu traveled to India to celebrate his good friend, the Dalai Lama’s, eightieth birthday. With the author Douglas Abrams as witness and scribe, these two iconic figures reflected on the question: How can we find joy given life’s inevitable suffering?