Among Friends by Hal Ebbott

I LOVED his writing! Very elegant and lyrical. Reminded me of John Banville or someone like him. The story kept my attention, too. It was a powerful book.

From Amazon:

It’s an autumn weekend at a comfortable New York country house where two deeply intertwined families have gathered to mark the host’s fifty-second birthday.

Together, the group forms an enviable portrait of middle age. The wives and husbands have been friends for over thirty years, their teenage daughters have grown up together, and the dinners, games, and rituals forming their days all reflect the rich bonds between them.

This weekend, however, something is different. An unforeseen curdling of envy and resentment will erupt in an unspeakable act, the aftermath of which exposes treacherous fault lines upon which they have long dwelt.

Written with hypnotic elegance and molten precision, and announcing the arrival of a major literary talent, Hal Ebbott’s Among Friends examines betrayal within the sanctuary of a defining relationship, as well as themes of class, marriage, friendship, power, and the things we tell ourselves to preserve our finely made worlds.

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

This stated out strong for me. I was listening while walking and the audio version was great. Then it ran out and I got the hard copy book. The experience was different. I did not enjoy the book as much. Interesting. 

It was a good, fun read. Characters are quirky and interesting. Plot line is a caper.  Enjoyable summer read.  Not as literary as his book Beautiful Ruins, which I read long ago and loved.

Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh

I was drawn to this book because of the author; she wrote Mercy Street, a favorite book of mine.  This book drew me in instantly and I found the narrative compelling but disturbing. Basically, a young American woman gets hit (a hit and run) in Shanghai and is in a coma in a Chinese hospital. Her parents (divorced and estranged) come to China to try to unravel the story.  And a story it is! There's a younger sister, Grace, who adores her older sister Lindsay, and Grace was adopted during the period of time when Chinese couples were restricted to the "one child rule." Many gave up their daughters in favor of trying again for a male.

I will say that the last 50 pages or so were a bit hard to handle. I was surprised at a development that occurred in the story at this point and I was therefore distracted, or unengaged a bit for the last 50 pages. I think this was a mistake on my part, however, and if I did not have 4 or 5 books waiting for me at the Library, I may have gone back and re-read these pages again.

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

Great reading!

Here's a good review. 

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

I liked this. Many others loved it.

Amazon's write-up:
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan―which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

A brilliant book!

From Westchester Libraries:

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

 

“A touching and generous romp of a novel . . . Wilson makes a bold and convincing case that every real family is one you have to find and, at some point, choose, even if it’s the one you’re born into.” — New York Times Book Review