‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ The unnamed narrator of “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” has one goal in mind: to remain asleep for as much of the day as possible. She accomplishes this goal by finding a quack psychiatrist who is willing to prescribe her an elaborate mix of sleeping and antianxiety medication. With
Read More →‘Leave No Trace’ Following her critically acclaimed novel, “Everything You Want Me to Be,” Mindy Mejia has proven to be deserving of comparisons to Gilian Flynn and Paula Hawkins. With “Leave No Trace,” she gives us another character-driven, suspenseful, can’t-put-it-down adventure. Set in northern Minnesota, near the vast expanse of
Read More →‘Circe’ New takes on these ancient stories have been done so many times that it takes something extraordinary to bring back the spark of interest to a jaded public. Madeline Miller has more than succeeded in bringing a new facet to Greek Mythology with her new book, “Circe.” Miller takes
Read More →‘Ordinary People’ Ordinary People, like the title would suggest, tells the story of ordinary people and their ordinary problems. Diana Evans tells the story of two couples. Melissa and Michael, who have just had their second child together, are struggling with the roles they find themselves in. The second couple is Damian and Stephanie, who have been
Read More →‘The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies’ The focus of a recent episode of a missing history program was on William Friedman, a groundbreaking cryptologist. It said nothing about Elizebeth Friedman, his wife, who was also an important cryptologist. The story of their role
Read More →‘The Best We Could Do’ Thi Bui’s memoir beautifully illustrates the story of her family as they escaped the terror of South Vietnam in the 1970s. Presented in a graphic novel format, her gorgeous, masterful drawings narrate their harrowing journey to California and provide an unflinching look into their lives
Read More →‘There There’ “There There” is an incredible debut novel by Tommy Orange. It follows a dozen different Native American perspectives all coalescing around a powwow taking place in Oakland, California. Tommy Orange breathes life into each of these characters and paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to be
Read More →‘The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism’ During World War I, the city of Halifax was a prominent shipping port for military supplies, as crossings from North America to Europe became increasingly perilous. The French freighter Mont-Blanc sailed from New York in
Read More →‘Beaut’ Award-winning author Donald Morrill presents his first novel, “Beaut,” a gorgeously written tale of family and motherhood, love and heartbreak, and the possibilities and failures in life. We learn about Jill Lundgrove through her writing to an as-yet unnamed person. Through fits and starts as she writes, stops and
Read More →‘Waiting for Tomorrow’ Nathacha Appanah’s “Waiting for Tomorrow” is a slim novel that packs a powerful punch. It tells the story of Anita and Adam. They met at school in Paris where they both felt like outsiders. Anita is from the island of Mauritius, and Adam is from the French
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