Kin by Tayari Jones

Another great read - two in a row!  This book by an author I have read and liked before, tells the story of two "sisters" who really are not sisters at all - biologically. But they share a lot in common and feel like "kin."

Again, from Amazon:

Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother's death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life.

A novel about mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South,

The Elements by John Boyne

 

I really enjoyed this book even though the subject was tough. I actually like this summary posted on Amazon.

In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.

The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways. 

Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving investigation of why and how we allow crime to occur. With masterful, spellbinding prose, he navigates this complex subject with extraordinary empathy and unflinching honesty. The story resonates on a deeply emotional level, challenging readers to confront their own conceptions of guilt and innocence at every step. Amid the wildly engrossing storytelling, the book ultimately asks: What would you do when faced with the unthinkable?

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

 

I enjoyed this book (which was a book club pick) for its humor and message.  "A young Indian woman finds the false rumors that she killed her husband surprisingly useful—until other women in the village start asking for her help getting rid of their own husbands—in this razor-sharp debut."

There's a lot to be said for this author who can write such a funny and engaging book on a topic so serious.  

John of John by Douglas Stuart

Excellent literary fiction! I did not read Shuggie Bain, an earlier work that was on my TBR list but never made it to my real reading list.

This book was not a fast read, but it was a good read, mostly for the writing. His descriptions were amazing and describes a place I know little about - the Outer Hebrides.

The plot was slow but steady and the ending very compelling. It's a novel full of secrets.  It describes conflicted characters who are stuck and can't move out of their present stagnant lives, bound to duty. Family is important but the family relationships are strained.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves reading good literary fiction. But don't expect to be swept away by plot - expect to explore characters, settings, moods, and societal pressures.

Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta

 

Copied from NPR's Maureen Corrigan's review.

Tom Perrotta's latest novel is a memory piece set in the summer of 1974. Jay Perry, a once serious writer who has struck it rich with a kids book series-turned-TV show featuring a paranormal crusader called Ghost Teacher, is invited back to his suburban New Jersey hometown, which he left some 50 years earlier. Most of the novel follows the life of young "Jimmy" during the life-changing summer when he lost his mother, experimented with sex and a Ouija board, and learned the consequences of hanging out with the wrong guys. Perrotta's view of strip mall suburbs as places where banality, goofiness, grace and tragedy converge is singular. 

I enjoyed but did not think it was that compelling. 

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins-Reid

 

This was entertaining and kept my attention, but I think it was a bit too long.  I learned a lot about NASA and the space program and the challenges women faced in making it into the program.  It also dealt with LGBQT and how in the early days of the space program, astronauts had to be straight as an arrow, and even more so for women. So when two of the protagonists in the story discover that they are gay and in love with each other, they face yet another struggle to make it in the space program.

Enjoyable and relevant.

Lake Effect by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

I enjoyed reading this, and expecially enjoyed because if was set in Rochester! But as I write this post now, 4 - 6 weeks after finishing the book, I realize I don't know what happened to Clara in the end! I guess I have to borrow it again!

From Amazon, a summary:

It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible—but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.

Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humor and insight, Lake Effect is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most.