Monthly Archives: December 2017

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

29 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Fiction, Humor

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This book really made me laugh. Graham and Audra are a married couple living in New York with their son. There’s not too much more to the plot than that, as they navigate their son’s needs and interact with Graham’s first wife, Audra’s friends, and the origami club their son joins. What I loved about this book is the humor, much of it related to Audra, who is one of the most unique characters I have encountered in a while.

“Audra Daltry is a singular creation—a character so funny, so appealing, so sure that she can change the world for her family that she will jump right off the page and take up permanent residence in your heart. Standard Deviation is a marvel.” —Kate Atkinson, author of Life After Life 

“Warmhearted… Dishes up amusing riffs on marriage, misfits, and finicky eaters, plus some wonderfully on-target descriptions… Explores the complexities and ambivalences that color even our most central relationships… This book is about a marriage under stress—though Heiny keeps it bubbly, evoking the smart, stylish wit of Laurie Colwin, Nora Ephron, and Maria Semple… [She] clearly has what it takes to join the elite coterie of witty social satirists who turn out smart, lively charmers.” —Heller McAlpin, NPR

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Murder in the Marais (An Aimée Leduc Investigation) by Cara Black

22 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Fiction, murder, mystery

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This title is the first in a series featuring female sleuth Aimee Leduc. The story is set in 1990’s Paris with flashbacks to the early 1940’s.  The author’s writing style makes for a quick, absorbing read and her inclusion of details about life in France during the German Occupation are revealing. The story hinges on the murder of Lili Stein, the proprietor of a small grocery store in a Jewish neighborhood. When she is discovered strangled in her bedroom, forehead marked by a Swastika, Aimee sets about unraveling long held secrets that lead ultimately to a present day election.\

“Literate prose, intricate plotting, and multifaceted and unusual characters mark this excellent first mystery.” –Library Journal

“The charm of this series comes from the character and a vividly rendered setting. Aimée rides her pink scooter through the streets of Paris, roller skates through the Louvre after closing time, and tears through dark tunnels under the Palais Royal wearing peep-toe shoes or vintage Valentino boots, her eyes ringed with kohl, trying to figure out who is out to get her . . . Zut alors! It’s quite a ride.”
—The Boston Globe

“Forever young, forever stylish, forever in love with Paris—forever Aimée.”
—New York Times Book Review 

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On Beauty by Zadie Smith

13 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Fiction

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An English professor moves his family to a Boston suburb to teach at a university, where they are each drawn into relationships, friendships, and conflicts, particularly with another academic family. This book is funny, insightful, and poignant, loosely based on E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End.

“In this sharp, engaging satire, beauty’s only skin-deep, but funny cuts to the bone.” —Kirkus Reviews

“…[A] thoroughly original tale about families and generational change, about race and multiculturalism in millennial America, about love and identity and the ways they are affected by the passage of time. Ms. Smith possesses a captivating authorial voice—at once authoritative and nonchalant, and capacious enough to accommodate high moral seriousness, laid-back humor and virtually everything in between—and in these pages, she uses that voice to enormous effect, giving us that rare thing: a novel that is as affecting as it is entertaining, as provocative as it is humane.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

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Odd Child Out by Gilly MacMillan

06 Wednesday Dec 2017

Posted by in England, Fiction, mystery

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This is a new writer for me.  Best friends Noah Sadler and Abdi Mahad have always been inseparable.  But when Noah is found floating unconscious in Bristol’s Feeder Canal, Abdi can’t–or won’t–tell anyone what happened.  Noah is British.  Abdi is a Somali refugee.   And social tensions have been rising rapidly in Bristol, England. The writer keeps the tension at high pitch, a real page turner. Against this background of fear and fury two families fight for their sons and for the truth. The writer’s empathy for her characters is spot-on. (Includes reading discussion questions.)

“Macmillan captivates readers with a story just as addictive as her first… [and] shines when exploring the intricacies of relationships… Fans of Tana French, Ruth Ware, and Gillian Flynn will become completely entrenched in the unfolding details.” (BookPage)

“With lovely prose, depth of character and an intelligent narrative, Macmillan lifts the level of suspense with stiletto-like precision: a tiny graze here, a shallow cut there and, eventually, a thrust into the heart. At once profoundly unsettling and richly rewarding.” (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

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