Virgil Wander Leif Enger Grove Atlantic Press (October 2018) Virgil Wander (yes, that’s the main character’s name) thinks his “world began reorganizing itself” the day a stranger, Rune Eliassen, turned up in town–but I’m pretty sure the sea change in Virgil’s life really began when he found himself launched off Highway 61 on a snowy autumn …
Mr. & Mrs. American Pie Juliet McDaniel Inkshares (August 2018) Juliet McDaniel’s Mr. & Mrs. American Pie is chick lit turned on its head. Call it wacky. Call it madcap. But however you describe it, the novel is 172 pages of fun, largely because the characters and situations are larger-than-life. Here’s a run-down. Mrs. Maxine Hortence …
Three Things About Elsie Joanna Cannon Scribner (2018) “Everyone’s life has a secret, somethings they never talk about. Everyone has words they keep to themselves. It’s what you do with your secret that really matters. Do you drag it behind you forever, like a difficult suitcase, or do you find someone to tell?” Joanna Cannon’s …
The Forgotten Guide to Happiness Sophie Jenkins Avon (July 2018) Lana Green writes romance novels–or at least one, the best seller Love Crazy. Her second romance, Heartbreak, has just gotten a thumbs down from her publisher. The reason? It’s bleak and bitter, hardly the stuff of romance. Except Lana was just writing what she knew. And what …
Heaven Adjacent Catherine Ryan Hyde Lake Union Publishing June 2018 With over thirty books, Catherine Ryan Hyde’s fan base is deep. There are probably few who don’t remember the movie Pay It Forward which is based on her book by the same title; her novel Take Me With You is a favorite of mine. Hyde is a story-teller, …
The Pearl That Broke Its Shell Nadia Hashimi William Morrow Be honest. How much do you really know about Afghanistan? That it’s the site of one of the United States’ longest foreign wars. That it was the seat of Osama bin Laden and el Qaeda. Maybe you read The Kite Runner, so you have at least a better-than-average …
Hotel Silence Audur Ava Olafsdottir trans. Brian FitzGibbon Grove Atlantic Jonas Ebeneser built his life around the narrative of family: husband, wife, and child sustained by a Great Love. But then his wife reveals a secret that causes him to question everything. They divorce. Add to this the fact that nearly every day Jonas visits …
Paris By the Book Liam Callanan Dutton Paris By the Book is a love story, plain and simple. About a girl and her guy. A reader and the author. A bookseller and her shop. A mother and her children. An artist and Paris. Leah was trying to finish her masters thesis on Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 movie …
The Floating World C. Morgan Babst Algonquin Books October 15. Forty-seven days after landfall. The Boisdore family is collapsing, the levees of their carefully constructed life breached by the destruction that was Hurricane Katrina. The patriarch Vincent, once a renowned New Orleans furniture carver, drifts in and out of dementia, one moment clear-thinking, the next …
The Story of Arthur Truluv Elizabeth Berg Random House Elizabeth Berg’s new novel The Story of Arthur Truluv is, as the title suggests, a story about True Love–not necessarily the love you’ll find in sappy Valentine cards, but the kind of love that is even greater. Like the love that reaches across generations, old to …
This is my symphony 