I argued with myself about this but decided my last blog entry would be the November LibraryReads list. There is something for everyone on here I think and some pretty well known authors. I've enjoyed writing this. It seemed to put some order to my selections. But here we go.
First on the list is Artemis by Andy Weir. His debut novel was The Martian - a runaway hit and movie. This is his second book and according to reviewers, people either loved it and highly praised it or hated it. In this story the main character is a young woman, Jazz. Jazz lives a struggling, not always legal life in Artemis, a city on the moon. She takes on a major job which will have gigantic rewards but it involves her in a plot to overturn the current civilization. Jazz is a sarcastic, jokey personality. Some people found that annoying. If you liked his first book, I would definitely give this a try.
And the rest in no particular order:
The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. This is Chakraborty's first novel and it is also the first in the Daevabad Trilogy. It is about Nahri, a trickster living in Cairo making money by preying on gullible wealthy people. She can detect illness just by looking at people. However, she herself does not believe in magic. That is until she summons a djinn warrior who leads her to the magical city of Daevabad, the city of brass. Here she becomes involved in court politics while trying to find out who she actually is. Reviewers universally praise the world building and prose and although a large book, could not put it down. If you like fantasy, give it a try.
Next, by one of my favorite authors, The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg. This is definitely 'women's fiction' but I don't care, she writes great characters. Arthur is a widower who takes his lunch everyday to the cemetery to eat by his wife's grave and discuss his thoughts.There he meets Maddy, a high school senior avoiding school. The two of them along with Arthur's nosy next door neighbor are three lonely people who become a family. Sappy - maybe - but if the characters are real enough, it sounds like real life.
Felicity Hayes-McCoy has The Library At the Edge of the World on the list. Hanna Casey is around 50 when she leaves her cheating husband and moves in with her cranky mother in a town in Ireland where she grew up. She takes a job as a librarian driving the mobile library (bookmobile) through the town's farms and villages. When the local library is threatened with closure, Hanna is forced into leading the force to keep it open. It forces her into a personal interaction with the community and changes her life.
Mary Balogh, a popular roman author, has Someone to Wed, on the list. This is the third in her Regency era Wescott series. Wren Heyden has a birthmark on her face which she has hidden under a veil all of her 30 years. In that time though, she has become an accomplished business woman and is quite wealthy. Alexander Wescott becomes the new Earl of Riverdale and with that came heavy debt.
He needs a wealthy wife and Wren is willing to buy a husband to provide her with children. Can they become more than a convenience?
Moving to a different genre, Lee Child's new Jack Reacher title made the list. The Midnight Line has Reacher hunting for the owner of a small West Point class ring. He noticed it in a pawn shop window and could not imagine why a woman would have given it up, as a West Point graduate himself, he knew what she had gone through to get it. His search for it's owner takes him into the wilds of Wyoming. He tells himself he will walk away if she is alright. Chances are in a Reacher novel, she isn't.
Louise Erdrich has Future Home of the Living God on the list. Erdrich is a wonderful literary novelist and this title is wonderful dystopian fiction. Erdrich, part Native American herself, makes her main character, 32 year old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a Native American who had been adopted by white upper class liberals. At this time, she becomes pregnant and after a sonogram, her doctor tells her to run away. Society is breaking down and evolution is reversing with women giving birth to less than human fetuses. Cedar, tries to reconnect with her Ojibwe mother and writes diary entries or letters to her unborn cild. Very effecting fiction.
Next comes Matthew Weiner's Heather, The Totality. Weiner was the creator and producer of Mad Men on television. This is his debut novel. I am kind of surprised that it made it to the list. The reviewers I read were not impressed. Perhaps it made the list because they thought people would want to see what the creator of Mad Men came up with. Anyhow, it is about a upper class couple with an apartment on Park Ave. and the perfect daughter (beautiful, compassionate and intelligent) and a boy who has none of those benefits.
Caroline Fraser's Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This nonfiction work is a biography of both Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose.For those who loved the Little House on the Prairie books and show.
Lastly, The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indridason is on the list. Indridason writes Nordic Noire but this is the beginning of a new series for him. One of the reviews I read made a really good point. This is a mystery - not a thriller meaning that the pace might seem slow to those use to holding their breath. The new lead in this series is a retired detective, Konrad. It connects two crimes in two different eras. First, a woman is found strangled in 'the Shadow District' (the petty crime ridden part of town). The crime is investigated by Konrad in wartime Reykjavik. In present day, a 90 year old man is found dead and it wasn't from natural causes. In his apartment they found newspaper copies about the original crime. Could there be a connection? Had they imprisoned the wrong man?
OK - that is it for me. I hope you have many happy reading days in your future. May you always find just the right book.
