Good Reads & Views

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
Fiction

Reviewers say: “Picoult’s fans will be more than ready for this puzzle of a novel. . . [They] will find heady themes to consider” (Booklist).

What’s it about: Dawn, a graduate student in Egyptology, is abruptly called back to Boston from a dig in Egypt due to a family emergency. For the next 15 years she lives a very different life than she had planned, taking care of her 13-year-old brother and working as a “death doula”, helping her clients tie up loose ends before their death. Her most recent client reminds Dawn of her longing for a lost love, Wyatt, an English earl she left behind in Egypt.   

You might also like: This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub or Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

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What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Fiction

What it’s about: Naomi and her two best friends are infamous for putting away a serial killer when they were kids, after an encounter in the woods. Only the girls were there that day, and the small community sees them as heroes, but they’re also liars. After learning the killer who attacked her has died in prison 22 years later, Naomi goes back to their small town of Chester, and she begins to question what she really saw that day in the woods.

Why you might like it: Marshall’s writing is powerfully descriptive in this novel, bringing even more darkness and magic to the woods. This dark thriller offers a look into a community full of secrets and webs of lies that cause many twists and reveals that leave readers feeling stranded in the woods just like Naomi.

Reviewers say: “Unexpected plot twists, deep psychological perspicacity, and an endlessly interesting dance between past and present...evokes the dread and intensity of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects” (NYT Book Review).

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A Traitor in Whitehall by Julia Kelly
Fiction

What it’s about: Evelyne Redfern is glad to leave her WWII factory job to work in Churchill’s underground Cabinet War Rooms. She’s been recruited to work in the typing pool to uncover who is leaking information to the Germans. On her very first day she discovers the body of one of her fellow typists. An avid mystery-reader, Evelyn is less than impressed by the pair of military police assigned to the case and decides to investigate herself. But David Poole from the Ministry of Information is also investigating, and Evelyne is eager to join forces with him. This feisty heroine will keep you turning the pages of this one.

Reviewers say: “Romance, feminism, and historical detail combine in an exciting new series” (Kirkus);  “Kelly's story, a cross between a Nancy Drew mystery and an Agatha Christie tale, sometimes requires leaps of logic, but its gentle humor, unexpected twists, clever heroine, and wartime setting make it a pleasurable read” (Booklist).

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The Dead Romantics by Ashely Poston
Fiction

What it’s about: Florence Day is a ghost writer for an older famous author. As a failed author herself, ghost writing has allowed her to do what she loves without the fear of rejection. Moving away from home after high school to New York, Florence separated herself from her family and their funeral home business. A tragedy brings Florence home and makes her confront her past and her ability to see ghosts.

Why you might like it: If you like romance with a paranormal/fantasy twist, this book is for you. Florence is a millennial so millennials will relate to her. If you enjoy eccentric characters then Florence’s family will not disappoint.

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The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
Fiction

About the Author: “Clare Pooley graduated from Cambridge University and then spent twenty years in the heady world of advertising before becoming a full-time writer. Her debut novel, The Authenticity Project, was a New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into 29 languages. Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting is her second novel; her third novel, How to Age Disgracefully, is forthcoming. Pooley lives in Fulham, London, with her husband, three children, and two border terriers” (Amazon).

Reviewers say: “An enjoyable, cozy novel that touches on tough topics” (Kirkus Reviews).

You might also like: Two from the Heart by James Patterson or My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman. 

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Exiles by Jane Harper
Fiction

What it’s about: In his third appearance in the series (after The Dry and Force of Nature), Agent Aaron Falk attends a christening that had to be cancelled the previous year. It coincided with a popular food & wine festival where a woman disappeared after leaving her baby unattended. Now, a year later, both the christening and the annual festival are once again back on the schedule and Aaron is having second thoughts about the assumed suicide of the woman a year earlier.

Scenery: Jane Harper’s books always have the various landscapes of the land down under as a backdrop. Here the setting is South Australia’s lush wine country.

Reviewers say: “Writing at the top of her game, Harper effectively uses whodunit tropes to explore her characters’ hidden lives. Readers interested in literate and nuanced mysteries will be eager to see more of Falk” (Publishers Weekly); “For those who enjoy a slow burn with a satisfying conclusion” (LibraryReads).

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Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn 
Fiction 

What it’s about: This novel is a romance story with vulnerability and growth at its heart. Georgie is a young woman who is lost. With no longer having a secure job and no idea what she wants in life, she decides to move back to her hometown in Virginia to help her best friend prepare for her new baby. With this new task she hopes everything will fall into place, until she realizes her childhood home is now occupied by a temporary roommate, Levi, a retired bad boy and local grump. In order to find direction again in her life, she consults an old “friendfic” diary from high school and begins to cross off a bucket list of items with the help, to her surprise, of Levi. Clayborn seemingly refreshes the forced proximity and sunshine/grumpy tropes by welcoming us into this duo’s world as the pair benefits from each other and the unlikely situation they find themselves in.  

Reviewers say: “This is a book for plunging into, a river of feelings with an inescapable current. Even as you are swept away, you know Clayborn’s hand is safely on the tiller, steering you expertly through the rapids” (New York Times). 

You might also like: Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson or Great and Precious Things by Rebecca Yarros. 

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The Ex-Hex (#1) by Erin Sterling
Fiction

What it's about: Vivienne Jones is a witch with a broken heart. To get back at her ex (Rhys), she puts a curse on him. Nine years later, that curse has come back to haunt her, Rhys, and her town of Graves Glen, Georgia. Rhys Penhallow is a descendant of a family of witches who are in charge of protecting and recharging Graves Glen’s key lines. This is done every year during the town’s Fall Festival. Not knowing he has been hexed, Rhys has done damage to the key lines which cause a lot of things to go awry for the town. Vivienne and Rhys must put their differences aside in order to break the hex and restore the town.

Good to know: This book has been described as Hocus Pocus but with spice! A Perfect goofy/spooky book to read during October. Nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in the Best Romance category of 2021.

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Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn
Fiction

What it’s about: Newly widowed Loretta Plansky is beset by relatives’ demands for money, so when she receives a phone call in the middle of the night from someone claiming to be her grandson Will, she doesn’t blink. What she does do is give him the password to her checking account. Next morning she wakes up three million dollars poorer, the victim of a scam. The FBI can only tell her the money went to a little town in Romania, and there’s no way to recover it. Not what Mrs. Plansky wants to hear, so she hops a plane to Romania and sets about recovering her lost wealth. This rollicking story is a treat you won’t want to miss! 

Reviewers say: “Readers will root for 71-year-old Loretta as she stumbles onto clues and, despite a less-than-stellar memory, finds the gumption to follow them” (Booklist); “Fans of Richard Osman's "Thursday Murder Club" series will appreciate the latest addition to the ranks of older sleuths” (Library Journal). 

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Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
Fiction

What it’s about: This historical novel, spanning World War II from D-day to the liberation of Buchenwald, is based in part on the experiences of Urrea's mother, revealing the little-told story of the women of the American Red Cross Clubmobile Corps service. It’s a loving portrait of two of the “Donut Dollies” (but don’t call them that!) —Irene Woodward, a city girl escaping an abusive fiancée and Dorothy Dunford, a farm girl who lost her family and home—supporting the men on the battlefront, serving coffee, donuts, smiles, and a last word of encouragement before they enter the fray. Irene and Dorothy go where they are most needed, and that can land them in harrowing and dangerous situations—in the middle of a village bombing, running from foxhole to foxhole delivering mail, being chased by a German with a bayonet. There are also moments of quiet as the women’s friendship deepens, and as they develop friendships with the servicemen who flit in and out of the story. Powerful, uplifting, and heartfelt.

Reviewers say: “WWII fiction fans, who have an abundance of options, should embrace Urrea's vivid, hard-hitting novel about the valiant achievements of these unsung wartime heroines” (Booklist); “there’s plenty of grit, detail, and twists that make for both a fine page-turner and an evocation of war’s often cruel randomness. Top-shelf historical fiction delivered with wit and compassion” (Kirkus).

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