Uncomfortable. In her debut novel titled, Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid makes readers laugh and experience just the right amount of discomfort. Protagonist Emira Tucker is an underemployed Black twenty-five-year-old who works part-time as a typist and does babysitting for a wealthy White family. Reid unveils the contrasts in contemporary life based on race, class, and age cohort. Emira navigates life’s challenges with great skill as she adapts and adjusts to both the familiar and the new when it comes to working, dating or being racially profiled. Most readers will finish this novel thinking about privilege and rethinking what constitutes complicity with structural racism.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Such a Fun Age from amazon.com.
Survey. I thought I read a lot of books about the rise of Donald Trump, the factors that led to his election, and his presidency. Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozado beat me by a mile with the 150 or so books that he consumed on this subject. In his engaging book titled, What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era, Lozado assembles what he read into themes and offers a survey of the books relating to those themes. While there have been many books on this subject, much of the history of this time will take time to be written. In the meantime, those readers interested in public policy will find this survey interesting to read while time passes, should any appetite for this subject remain.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase What Were We Thinking from amazon.com.
Mother. With each installment of Gregg Hurwitz’ series of novels featuring Orphan X, Evan Smoak, we learn more about this character and his depth and complexity evolves. In the sixth novel titled, Prodigal Son, Evan meets the woman who gave birth to him and gave him up for adoption. All of a sudden, Evan’s orderly world has turned upside down. The action and technology in this novel make for exciting reading, and a reader’s tension remains taut after the last page is read. Fans of the series are those most likely to enjoy this installment, and new readers can enjoy this as a standalone story, then devour the earlier novels to get to know this fascinating protagonist.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Prodigal Son from amazon.com.
Priest. Chances are readers have never met a priest quite like Father Dan, the protagonist of Daniel Hornsby’s debut novel titled, Via Negativa. Retired and no longer welcomed by the bishop of his Midwestern diocese, Father Dan points his Toyota Camry west and begins a journey with a few touchpoint connections to his past along the way. As if living in a car wasn’t enough, Dan sees a coyote hit by a minivan that doesn’t stop, so he patches up the wild animal, and secures the animal to the back car seat, adding to the malodorous ambience of life inside the Camry. His encounters along the road are full of interest for readers, and the whole nature of contemplation and reconciliation with one’s past gets played out for all to examine. There’s humor sitting beside tragedy in the vignettes of the journey, and we gradually gain insight into Father Dan and his demons.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Via Negativa from amazon.com.
Identity. David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s debut crime novel is titled, Winter Counts. Set on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the novel overflows with interesting and complex characters facing contemporary challenges. Drug cartels are making inroads in the area to the peril of the community. Protagonist Virgil Wounded Horse has struggled with life and his identity, often called half-breed. He is guardian for his nephew, a high school student facing similar challenges of identity. Weiden writes with great skill and insight into the life of this community while presenting all the key elements of a thrilling crime plot.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Winter Counts from amazon.com.
Spree. The third installment of Lynne Truss’ series featuring Constable Twitten is titled, Murder by Milk Bottle. Dead bodies are piling up in Brighton and Twitten and police station charwoman Mrs. Groynes are right in the middle of the madness of the summer of 1957. Truss keeps her wit sharp throughout this novel as we follow the quirky cast of characters through an engaging plot. Not quite a spoiler, but I almost choked while laughing at the transfer among characters of a complete list that identified each murder victim of a killing spree. Let’s tie all the pieces together, shall we?
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Murder by Milk Bottle from amazon.com.
Danger. The fifteenth novel by Walter Mosley to feature Los Angeles private detective Easy Rawlins is titled, Blood Grove. Fans of this series will delight in the return of a cast of endearing and complex characters, an interesting plot, and a clear-eyed and uncompromising view of what it is like to live as a Black man in L.A. in 1969. After Easy reluctantly takes on a client’s case, he finds himself in danger from which escape will be a close-run thing. Easy calls for help from reliable friends and navigates a path that involves justice and integrity. It comes as no surprise to fans that once Easy takes on a case, he will see it to some final resolution.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Blood Grove from amazon.com.
