James by Percival Everett

This retelling of Tom Saywer and Huckleberry Finn from the points of view of Jim, who becomes James, is as satisfying as I could have wanted. Definitely recommended.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

The Premise of The Lost Apothecary is lovely. Penner doesn’t realize the potential of the parallels in any spectacular fashion, and the voice work—especially of the modern day narrator—is particularly thin. Nonetheless, it is a serviceable airplane book. 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Despite this being recommended to me in a thousand ways, I avoided reading it until it got the resounding endorsement from a band-family member. 

I was hooked by the end of the first chapter.

This is wonderful. Don't miss out on one of the best books in decades.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

I received The Alice Network as a Valentine's Day gift from Geo, part of a pair of wrapped up Blind Date With A Book selections. I was intrigued by the description of "Queen of Spies" and WWI/WWII, and the first chapter had me hooked.

This is a beautifully rendered novel. The sotry that Quinn overlays onto the history is everything you want in found family and self-discovery. I don't even mind the happy ending. 

The backdrop of WWI and the Alice Network is just riveting.Quinn gives voice and shape to the past in a way that feels true, never schmaltzy or pat. The details of history are revealed with care and precision; I swear I could feel the texture of the prison robes, or smell the coffee wafting up in the cafe.

This novel introduced me to the concept of a morally questionable hat, and now I must own one.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

Much has been made of Hamnet, including a movie that is out just now. I haven’t seen the film (yet; I might catch it on streaming eventually), and I purchased an electronic copy after a band-parent friend raved about it (while we watched the football game) in 2022. It languished on my kindle since then, and made for a perfect selection as I work through my e-book backlog.

I don’t think I would rate it as highly as my band-parent friend did—I am certainly not raving about it or anything—but I thoroughly enjoyed O’Farrell’s imaginings. She is excellent at taking a small detail and teasing it out into a process, a whole series of sensations and interwoven events that coalesce into a single moment. 

It’s a good story, well told, and love and loss, family and the ties that bind (and gag) are the core elements, here. It’s a very introspective story and I can’t imagine how the elements that make this novel work so well could possibly translate to the silver screen. I liked this immersion into sixteenth century daily life, and into the very personal and intimate ways in which our characters navigate daily life, love, loss, and being who they are.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life unfolds like origami, shaping and reshaping along unseen lines of small decisions—chasing a dog, talking with a stranger, spending an afternoon in a field—exploring all the many ways that a life is constructed. I loved this, of course. 

In the end, what matters most in being true to ourselves and to the relationships that ground us, hold us, shape who and what we are in the world. Beautifully rendered.

The Midnight Library By Matt Haig

I’ve bought a physical copy of The Midnight Library no fewer than three times, and ended up losing it during a move each time. I kept meaning to read it, and then bought an e-book version a few days before I ended up getting a new contract, one that consumed all my time, and I forgot about reading it.

This is a lovely book about how we live, how we love, and how we come to diminish our selves and our lives. Highly recommended, and you don’t have to be a philosophy major to love everything about Nora Seed and her exploration of the meaning of life.