Neurodiversity. Roy Richard Grinker writes about culture and mental illness from a place where he has lived at the intersection of both. In his book titled, Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness, Grinker explores changing attitudes about mental illness over time, and overlays his personal connection to the topic. As an anthropologist, Grinker brings an expertise about culture to the conversation. As the son and grandson of prominent psychiatrists, he knows the history of that profession from both an academic and personal perspective. Finally, as the father of a daughter with autism, he understands the spectrum that represents human neurodiversity. Grinker examines the aspect of stigma and examines the ways in which culture can transform.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Nobody’s Normal from amazon.com.
Horrors. Many of us who enjoy short stories want to go to unfamiliar places and see human behavior from fresh perspectives. In her collection titled, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez uses the backdrop of Argentina to open our eyes to look at the horrors she presents without flinching. Within a few sentences of each story, I found myself unsettled and uncomfortable. It was easy to become distracted by the tone which made everything presented seem typical and normal, which it is not. Perhaps when we receive the creepiness of someone else’s life in a place far away through fiction, we can put down the book and examine our own lives with joy and relief. In the time spent with these finely written stories, I was captivated by characters and situations that Enriquez presents with directness and compassion.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase The Dangers of Smoking in Bed from amazon.com.
Chickens. Could it really be that the meaning of life has everything to do with the chickens? Jackie Polzin’s debut novel titled, Brood, pulls readers into the story of a nameless narrator who wants to keep her four chickens alive through a brutal Minnesota winter. We have all the other building blocks of life in this novel: family, predators, and hope. We spend a year over the course of this book with interesting characters and chickens, laughing and grieving, in the cycles we experience in every well-lived life. Polzin’s fine writing will appeal to all readers who appreciate literary fiction.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Brood from amazon.com.
Home. After your everyday reality turns to crap, what will you do next? The characters in Rikki Ducornet’s finely written novel titled, Trafik, decide to f-it, and set their sights on an idyllic place and head in that direction. This becomes a journey toward that comfortable place we usually call home, but here is known as Trafik. On the journey toward Trafik, readers are treated by hundreds of finely crafted sentences that cry out to be read more than once. Sometimes, you just need to embrace the absurdity, and in reading this science fiction novel, the sooner you release all your moorings, the better the experience.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Trafik from amazon.com.
Insight. The stories in Lily Tuck’s collection titled, Heathcliff Redux: And Other Stories, reveal this fine writer’s insight into human nature and behavior. Tuck finds ways to jar us with these stories, often using just a few sentences to break open her characters for our examination. We find a cleareyed way of looking at ourselves in these stories, and not blinking at what we read. What we begin to feel might be a digression becomes the path to understanding. Fans of finely written literary fiction are those readers most likely to appreciate this collection.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase Heathcliff Redux from amazon.com.
Artist. I’m a newcomer to the Lydia Chin and Bill Smith mystery series by S.J. Rozan, so I’ve probably missed a lot of the color contained within the novel titled, The Art of Violence. Since I enjoyed the novel, let’s assume that it can stand alone for those who haven’t read other books in this series and fans of the series may find additional reasons to like it. A serial killer has been attacking women in New York City’s contemporary art scene. Lydia and Bill have been called in to look for answers, while the bodies continue to pile up. An artist can’t remember whether he committed these murders or not. Meeting this quirky artist in print is one good reason to give this mystery your time.
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase The Art of Violence from amazon.com.
Snapshots. Any reader whose summers were defined by leaving one’s regular house for a summer home will resonate with how much meaning and how many of life’s pivotal events can take place in such a setting. In her novel titled, The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller moves the narrative back and forth in time, slowly revealing, like flipping snapshots, the secrets of protagonist Ella’s summer home which was called the paper palace. Some of the snapshots reveal joy and humor while others display abuse. We find love and violence, fidelity and betrayal. Isn’t that the usual story at the summer house?
Rating: Four-star (I like it)
Click here to purchase The Paper Palace from amazon.com.
