New Fiction in October

 

Adams, Ellery  The Tattered Cover (Secret, Book, and Scone)

Albom, Mitch Twice

Andrews, Donna  Five Golden Wings (Meg Lanslow)

Armstrong, Kelley  The Haunting of Payne’s Hollow

Banville, John  Venetian Vespers

Beaton, M. C. Sugar and Spite (Agatha Raisin)

Brett, Simon Mrs. Pargeter’s Past

Briggs, Patricia  Blind Date with a Werewolf

Brunstetter, Richelle  The Amish Ballerina

Carr, Jack Cry Havoc (Tom Reece)

Child, Lee  Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories

Coben, Harlan & Reese Witherspoon  Gone Before Goodbye

Colgan, Jenny  The Secret Christmas Library

Connelly, Michael  The Proving Ground (Lincoln Lawyer)

Cornwell, Patricia  Sharp Force (Scarpetta)

DeMille, Nelson The Tin Men (Scott Brodie & Maggie Taylor)

Freeman, Brian  Photograph

Gish, Jen Bad Bad Girl

Graham, Heather The Sword of Light

Gregory, Philippa The Boleyn Traitor

Grisham, John  The Widow

Hannah, Sophie  The Last Death of the Year (Hercule Poirot)

Hannon, Irene  Out of Time

Hazelwood, Ali  Mate

Hill, Joe  King Sorrow

Hunter, Stephen  The Gun Man Jackson Swagger:  A Western

Karon, Jan  My Beloved (Mitford)

Kashiwai, Hisasi  Menu of Happiness (Kamogawa Food Detectives)

Kellerman, Jonathan & Jesse Coyote Hills (Clay Edison)

Klavan, Andrew  After That, the Dark (Cameron Winter)

Lee, Harper  The Land of Sweet Forever: Stories and Essays

Macomber, Debbie A Ferry Merry Christmas

Mackesy, Charlie  Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse, and the Storm

McFadden, Freida The Intruder

Mizushima, Margaret  Dying Cry (Timber Creek K-9)

Newman, Catherine  Wreck

Patterson, James  The Picasso Heist

Penny, Louise  The Black Wolf

Peterson, Tracie  A Moment to Love

Reich, Christopher  The Tourists

Rose, Jeneva  Dating After the End of the World

Sparks, Nicholas  Remain: A Supernatural Love Story

Stevens, Chevy The Hitchhikers

Nevermore: Better Man, Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West

 

Reported by Rita

A Better Man by Louise Penny is #15 in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. In this novel, Gamache helps a desperate father search for his missing daughter during the chaos of rising floodwaters and intense media scrutiny. Our reader is thoroughly enjoying the series although the last few books have been notably darker. VC

Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West by Katie Hickman tells the true story of women in the Wild West. Their experiences were often more gripping and unimaginable than movies or books portrayed them. Stories of resilience and strength that were at times difficult to read but very fascinating. WJ

Also mentioned:

We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work by Jimmy Carter

Nation of Victims by Vivek Ramaswamy

4000 Weeks by Robert Bosman

Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West by Katie Hickman

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

Seams Unlikely: The Inspiring True Life Story of Nancy Zieman by Nancy Zieman

A Better Man by Louise Penny

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Run by Ann Patchett

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman

 

New books:

 

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023 by Amor Towles

All You Have to Do is Call by Kerri Maher

After the Forest by Kell Woods

Dark Ride by Lou Berney

The Home Edit: Stay Organized: The Ultimate Guide to Making Systems Stick by Clea Shearer, Joanna Teplin

Nevermore: Waking Up White, Cloud Cuckoo Land, State of Terror, The Last Romantics

 

Reported by Garry

Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving was the first book mentioned this week, getting a conditional “thumbs up” from our reviewer. Our reader felt that while Irving was certainly honest about her experiences, her writing was on the “polite” side and never really delved deeply into the damage that racist thinking and processes do to society as a whole, and Black Americans in particular. Raised in a mainly White community in New England, Irving learned to avoid anything unpleasant, which included discussions of race and its socioeconomic effects on people of color. Our reader felt that Irving has done an admirable job of beginning to come to terms with her privilege and blind-spots, but still has a way to go.  SC

 

The latest novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land, encompasses three intertwined timelines spanning over five hundred years. The strings are tied together by the story of Aethon, a young man who wishes to become a bird to fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Starting in Constantinople during the 15^th century with Anna, who lives in a house of women who embroider robes for priests; continuing with Zeno, an octogenarian in present time who is teaching children in Idaho the story of Aethon; and then Konstance, a young lady on a futuristic interstellar ship who is copying down the story of Aethon as told to her by her father. Our reader (who doesn’t usually like stories that jump around in time,) enjoyed this book immensely and found the writing to be especially notable for its clarity and imagination.  MH

 

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny have teamed up again to write another international thriller: State of Terror. Ellen Adams is the former head of a multinational media conglomerate who is appointed U.S. Secretary of State to a president whom she has harshly criticized. Anahita Dahir is a young Foreign Services Officer whose specialty is Pakistan and the Middle East. Dahir receives a coded warning via text of a series of imminent terrorist attacks. It is up to Dahir, Adams, and a dedicated journalist to unravel a web of nuclear bombs, terrorist organizations, and Russian mobsters. Our reader enjoyed this book and commented on not only how good the story was, but how easy it is to tell which author had written which parts, especially as she has been a Louise Penny fan for many years. ML

 

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin is a novel about a family and the events that both tie them together and push them apart from one another. Renee, Caroline, Joe, and Fiona are all children when their father dies of a heart attack at the age of 30.  Their mother sinks into a three year long depression which the children call the “pause,” leaving the children to fend for themselves. The youngest, Fiona, grows up to be a world-renowned poet and writer, and this book is a “story within a story” of the four siblings and how their lives were shaped by their childhood traumas. Our reader explained that she was drawn into the book through the writing and premise, and strongly recommends this book to anyone who likes family dramas.  MR

 

Also mentioned:

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

The Joy and Light Bus Company by Alexander McCall Smith

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds by Huma Abedin

The Overstory by Richard Powers

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

The Pure Land by Alan Spence

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Penny: A Graphic Memoir by Karl Stevens

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Penny, as is obvious from the cover, is a tortoiseshell cat with lots of dreams—of herself, mostly, since she is the center of the universe. I was captivated by the expressions on the cat’s face, so I had to pick this book up without really knowing what it was about except, well, a cat.

The opening panels tell briefly of Penny’s origin, born outside to a stray (or feral) mother, becoming aware of the beauty around her, before being kidnapped by humans and taken to their place.  The wet food is plentiful but there isn’t much to do except eat, sleep, and think. Or as Penny puts it, “So much thinking.  So so much thinking.”

Which is actually pretty lucky for us, because Penny’s thoughts are most entertaining even when she is suffering an existential crisis. She questions reality. She seeks meaning.  She catches a mouse. The humans think she is dense and demanding, never dreaming of the philosophical musing going on beside them, intense thoughts only derailed by the thought of food, or a nap.

She definitely has her priorities in order.

There’s not much in the way of a narrative, expect for a couple of episodes such as “The Vacation” where the people have gone away and it has gotten dark and light and dark again (“I must accept that they are dead”) and “Penny’s Escape,” in which she steps through the magic portal into another world, i.e., she gets outside the apartment building. Most of the scenes are one or two page thoughts, self-contained moments as if they had run individually in a magazine or online post, but that doesn’t make them less wonderful.

Otherwise, this book is a bit hard to explain.  All I can say is that I love it. The tone of the book reminds me a great deal of Henri, Le Chat Noir of blessed memory.  If you have seen any of those videos, you’ll know the type of dead pan, overly serious humor I mean. 

The expressions on Penny’s face are perfection.  Stevens is the author of other graphic novels and his work has appeared in the New Yorker and The Village Voice, according to his bio.  From my perspective, he is a close observer of the feline condition and an artist sensitive to nuance of expression. I think this work is brilliant. It's beautifully realistic and detailed-- well, except for the times Penny goes into the Portal-- and the color palate is lovely.

Kristin says that this book is really about her cat PB, but I am sure that this is my judgmental looking Tessa, who could have been the model for “Resting Cat Face.” The cat thoughts ring true.  I am sure this is what Tessa is thinking and am grateful for the insight. I have no doubt that other cat servants will think the same thing.

I am buying my own copy of this book.  I may have Tessa autograph it.

Highly recommended!

 Tessa is not amused.