Good Reads & Views

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Fiction

Read this if you like: Dungeons and dragons, found family, self-reinvention, good coffee and tasty snacks, and slow burn romance.

What it’s about: Viv has had enough of battles, blood, and bounty hunting—she’s ready to hang up her sword—literally. She sets out to fulfill her private dream to own a coffeehouse…problem is, no one in her new town has heard of coffee. But she has a secret, strange talisman that might bring the luck she needs to succeed, if only she can avoid the menacing adversary that threatens her burgeoning success and new-found circle of friends. A charming and heartwarming slice-of-life fantasy.

You might also like: For more cozy fantasy about found family and discovering romance, try The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

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Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
Fiction

What it’s about: Witty, tender, and highly entertaining—like the nightclubs she writes about—Atkinson’s literary novels meet her crime series in this historical romp about the bright young people of 1920s London and the criminal world that regales them. This cat-and-mouse tale features a lively cast of characters who mingle on multiple levels: the infamous and decidedly crooked nightclub owner Nellie Coker and her six children; John Frobisher, the new police detective who is determined to bring Nellie down; Gwendolen Kelling, a librarian and former battlefield nurse who agrees to go undercover for Frobisher; and Freda and Florence, two young runaways with dreams of being on the stage. When the young girls disappear without a trace, Gwendolen risks her undercover job working in one of Nellie’s nightclubs to track them down before they end up in the river like many other missing girls. A triumphant celebration of Jazz Age London.

Critics say: “If Dickens had lived to write about The Jazz Age, he would have produced a novel much like “Shrines of Gaiety” (The Washington Post); “There is the perfect balance throughout of sweetness and heartbreak ... And, as always, there is the unmistakable zest of Ms. Atkinson’s dry wit” (Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal).

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Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Fiction

What it’s about: A medical school dropout, Emma was born with the healing touch, but lost it while working in a nursing home. Feeling adrift, Emma returns to her small hometown to find herself and help her family. Emma's parents are on the verge of divorce, her father Clive is ill and haunted by a charming ghost, her brother Auggie is recovering from addiction, her mother Ingrid feels betrayed and disappointed, and her friend Crystal is an opioid addict and has gone missing. Emma eventually takes a substitute teaching job for a classroom of complicated, charming children, and spends her spare time aiding her father’s search for Crystal. Despite the difficult circumstances, this lovely story about coming to terms with loss and finding one's way in the world is hopeful, joyous, and witty.

Why you might like it: This tender and quirky tale is narrated by a chorus of the town's dead, who have an active interest in, and serve as a cheering section for, the living residents of this small town. Clive’s illness and his interest in the town history result in charming stories about a menagerie of historical, imagined, and real animals. Harnett’s second novel is a big-hearted, magical tale, layered with warmth and generosity.

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The Trees by Percival Everett
Fiction

For readers who enjoy: Jordan Peele’s films, Southern noir with an uncanny twist, dry humor, and spare prose.

What’s it about: Ed and Jim, Special Detectives ("that’s not just because we’re Black”) are called to the scene of a gruesome double murder in Money, Mississippi—two men are found horribly mutilated—one, a white man with a racist past, and across the room, a young Black man who bears a startling resemblance to Emmett Till. Then the body of the Black victim disappears, and reappears at a second murder scene, with a second white victim. The detectives soon learn that eerily similar murders are occurring all over the country. Short chapters, quick scene changes, and humor—punchlines, slapstick gags, and wordplay—move the action along. This satirical revenge novel is deeply tinged with horror and haunted by history.

Book buzz: Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, the nominating committee calls The Trees “an irresistible page-turner, hurtling headlong with swagger, humour, relish and rage.”

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Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Fiction

Read this if you like: Reuniting estranged siblings, family secrets, murder mysteries, and expert storytelling. 

What it’s about: Ocean scientist Byron and his sister Benny, a creative but lost soul, reluctantly reunite after their mother Eleanor’s death. She has left them an audio recording and a Caribbean black cake in the freezer, with instructions to listen to the recording together, and to “share the cake when the time is right. You’ll know when.”  Puzzled, confused, and grieving, they listen to their mother’s story—where she almost immediately reveals a deep secret, and then begins a tale of a young island woman, accused of murder, who escapes into the sea. This delectable family saga is told in tasty bites that change perspective and timelines. It is a rich and flavorful read, made with ingredients carefully chosen and mixed with care, like the black cake made by Eleanor. 

Book buzz: A Hulu TV series of Black Cake is in development by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment. 

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The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
Fiction 

What it’s about: Indie rock darling Greta James hasn’t been able to make music since she had an onstage meltdown after the sudden death of her mother. She reluctantly agrees to take her mother’s place on an Alaskan cruise with her father, hoping to mend their broken relationship and recover her lost creative drive. She doesn’t expect to connect with the ship’s guest lecturer, but the erudite and charming Ben Wilder might be just the balm she needs. 

Why you might like it: This is a warm and tender examination of parent/child relationships, resolving differences, and coping with grief—all tempered with a little light romance. The writing is thoughtful, and the story is sentimental in a good way and is filled with characters to care about. The descriptions of the Alaskan scenery are vivid. You may not be surprised by the ending, but it is handled with delicacy and grace.  

You might also like: One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle, Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes, and Float Plan by Trish Doller 

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Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
Fiction

Read this if you like: Masterful writing about broken families, a gutted community, toxic masculinity, innocence lost, and the redemptive power of love.

What it’s about: First love between two 1990s Glasgow boys—one Protestant, the other Catholic—what could go wrong? Mungo and James should be sworn enemies. Mungo’s older brother is the brutal leader of a Protestant gang, his mother is a drunk, and his older sister fills in for his mother as best as she can. Mungo is isolated and lonely, unable to fit in anywhere. James’s mother is dead and his father away working on an oil rig. They meet when Mungo wanders into Catholic territory and stumbles across James’s dovecote, where he raises pigeons. Their friendship grows into intimacy—they have much to share. But when his family finds out about James, Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip into the Scottish wilds with two men she knows from her AA meetings “to make a man of him.” Again, what could go wrong? Suspenseful, gut-wrenching, horrifying, tender and bittersweet, and ultimately hopeful.

You might also like: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow.

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Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Fiction

For readers who enjoy: Heart-warming, relationship focused reads; stories about family, community, and overcoming loneliness and loss; and charming and wise characters.

What it’s about: Marcellus is a misanthrope, but after 1299 days of captivity, who could blame him? Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus, an unwilling resident of a small-town aquarium in Washington state, a keen observer of the humans around him, and one of the narrators of this quirky and heartwarming first novel. The one person Marcellus does like is Tova, the grieving widow who cleans the aquarium every night—she shares her deepest thoughts with him, and on more than one occasion has rescued him when his secret nightly raids on other tanks have gotten him into trouble. Tova is mourning the recent loss of her husband as well as the disappearance of her son more than 30 years earlier. When newcomer Cameron—in town seeking his long-lost father—joins Tova on the night shift, Marcellus realizes that his two human friends may be able to help one another.

Reviewers say: “Van Pelt has written an irresistibly wonderful, warm, funny, heartbreaking first novel, full of gentle people (and one octopus) bravely powering through their individual scars” (Library Journal).

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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Fiction

For readers who like: Space operas, the TV show Firefly, found family, and ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

What it’s about: Loner Rosemary Harper joins the motley crew of the Wayfarer, an aging and patched-up spaceship tasked with constructing wormholes for interstellar travel. When the rag tag crew members—who are wildly and imaginatively diverse—are offered the job of a lifetime, they agree to take on the challenge, despite the enormous risks involved. Narrated by multiple characters, this warm-hearted debut novel is a delight and a joy to read.

Series alert: This is the first book in the Hugo award-winning Wayfarers series. Titles can be read in any order—each title also works as a stand-alone. The follow-up titles—A Closed and Common Orbit and Record of a Spaceborn Few, and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within—are equally focused on character, complex relationships, and asking tough questions.

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The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Fiction 

What it’s about: Ghosts, turbulent times, and a love of books and bookselling are key to this darkly humorous literary novel. Tookie—convicted of a bungled attempt at body snatching and released from prison only to marry the cop who arrested her—is now, much to her surprise, working in a bookstore. Like many people, Tookie is haunted by her past (both personal and ancestral), but she is also haunted by a very real ghost who is becoming increasingly intrusive and aggressive. Set in Minneapolis beginning in the fall of 2019—just at the onset of the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and a year of protests and unrest.

Starring: Tookie—prickly and tough on the outside but learning to open up; her husband, Pollux—a natural leader who is challenged by his own mistakes; and the ghost, Flora—the bookstore’s most annoying customer.

Critics say: “More than a gripping ghost story, this offers profound insights into the effects of the global pandemic and the collateral damage of systemic racism. It adds up to one of Erdrich’s most sprawling and illuminating works to date” (Publishers Weekly); “Rising from last summer’s ashes and honoring its ghosts, The Sentence is the perfect book to read right now, an unpolished, intense, politically passionate, sorrowful, comic masterpiece” (Julie Phillips, 4Columns).

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