All in Fiction
I had never heard of How to Read a Book or its author, Monica Wood when my friend Pam recommended that I read it. I am so glad that she did. Wood has a great premise for her novel and she develops her characters beautifully. But it is her clear, straightforward writing style that really stands out.
You all know from our many reviews of the Hogarth series and others (read reviews here) how much we love a Shakespeare adaptation. So when I saw Lady Macbeth at the checkout of a bookstore in Stratford, Ontario, it wasn’t just the hot pink-edged pages that caught my eye.
Continuing with my all-Irish-author reviews this month, I want to praise Tana French’s The Hunter, which is absolutely riveting. French’s genre is entirely different from Williams’: The Hunter is a mystery that may or may not involve a murder. Where she and Williams are alike is in setting their books in small Irish towns and creating memorable characters who are so authentic and believable that they add to the sense of place the authors so expertly develop.
My husband Rufus and I just took an amazing trip to Ireland—a place I have wanted to visit my entire life. Given how I fell in love with the country and my current fascination with Irish authors, it makes sense that I keep reading Irish books. Niall Williams’ This Is Happiness (read review here) and The Time of the Child are two of the best books I’ve read in the past few years. So, I decided to dip into some of his earlier books. History of the Rain (2014) is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read.
Let me start by saying this was definitely not the right book to read a week after I signed up my daughter for her first-ever sleepaway camp. Yet despite the circumstances, I couldn’t put it down.
The much anticipated sequel to Fortune’s breakout hit Every Summer After (read review here), One Golden Summer is the sentimental, sexy summer read we all needed this year. And rather than just extending the story of her first protagonists, she introduces Alice, a lonely photographer taking care of her grandmother for the summer in Barry’s Bay, Ontario. (Lily)
Perhaps not a completely typical beach read due to its darker subject matter, I nevertheless found myself unable to put The Pilot’s Wife down for the three days it took me to binge read it. The story begins with a knock at the door in the middle of the night, which is never good news for anyone, but especially not for the wife of an airline pilot.
I borrowed Sea Wife from my mom the minute she finished reading it because she strongly endorsed Gaige as a writer (read review of Heartwood here) and particularly this book. Gaige drew me in immediately with her premise of a family of four leaving their lives behind to sail around the Caribbean for a year.
I loved Charlotte McConaghy’s Migrations which was published in 2020. So, when my friend Jane told me I would love her latest book, Wild Dark Shore, I got right on it. And, although quite different than her first book, Wild Dark Shore is a must-read. The novel is set on a very remote island close to Antarctica with nothing else around it for thousands of miles.
The most astonishing feature of The Names isn’t Knapp’s beautifully written story of one woman’s decision about what to name her son and how that decision affects the rest of his life and the lives of the other members of his family. What is truly remarkable is that Knapp has written three different captivating stories about the same family, each one different from the others because the name she chooses for her son is different.
Heartwood gripped me from its first page and I was spellbound until the end. I didn’t want to stop reading even to sleep at night. I’ve been recommending it to everyone and now recommend it to you our L&L readers!
Eddie Winston is 90 years old and volunteers at a second-hand store, sorting through donations, assigning prices and occasionally pilfering items for himself that he finds particularly touching or tender. One day, he accepts a donation from Bella, a 20-something woman, who has suffered the loss of her boyfriend.
Although my daughter Charlotte has become a voracious reader in her own right, I am holding on tight to our read-aloud bedtime routine that we established when she was a baby. Our book choices vary widely from classics like Mr. Popper’s Penguins and The Little Princess to newer books that we get to experience for the first time together. Polly Horvath’s Library Girl jumped off the shelf at our local bookstore, and Charlotte and I agree that it is one of our favorite stories we’ve ever read together.
At 1152 pages, London is easily one of the longest books I have ever read. And although it took me almost a month to finish, I think it was worth the time and effort. London takes an in-depth look at the geographical, cultural and societal developments in and around London, England starting in the 4th century and continuing to the present day.
Eve Chase sets The Daughters of Foxcote Manor in England in two time periods. She tells the story of the Harrington family who leave their London home in the early 1970s after it sustains a fire. They relocate to their deteriorating country manor for the summer.
Over the past several months, I repeatedly heard All the Colors of the Dark praised highly. I don’t know why it took me so long to read it. Let me spare you from making the same mistake: Read it as soon as you can. This book is a masterpiece. An unforgettable love story that spans 25 years, it is also a mystery that crosses over into a psychological thriller. Chris Whitaker drew me in immediately and kept me turning the pages late into the night.
I want to warn you first thing that this book is incredibly disturbing but also extremely good. Ng sets it in a not-so-distant, dystopian future that seems to be transpiring in many ways even since Ng published in 2022. She observes history and social change with a keen eye. Her predictions feel terrifying but are just a hair's breadth away from the current administration's agenda at this moment.
In Sweetness in the Skin, Ishi Robinson tells one of the most original and compelling coming-of-age stories that I’ve read in a long time. Robinson, who was born and raised in Jamaica, sets the story of Pumkin Patterson in the city of Kingston. At eleven-years-old, Pumkin lives in a small apartment with her grandmother, mother and Aunt Sophie.
When my friend Gevvie recommended Good Dirt, I was excited to learn that Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Black Cake (read review here) had a new novel out. Then when I saw it on display at my local library branch, I knew it was time to scoop it up and dive in. As much as I loved Black Cake, I think Good Dirt is even better.
Real Americans starts out as a better-than-average love story between Lily Chen, a young, unpaid intern at a media company in New York City, and Matthew Allen, a successful, slightly older man. Despite their vastly different backgrounds—she was born in America but her parents are from China and she struggles to get a financial foothold, and his family is wealthy and waspy—they end up marrying and having a child.
