Good Reads & Views

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Fiction

What it’s about: Edith is as sweet as pie, and has a loving marriage, but she struggles to make ends meet. Her estranged sister Helen can be manipulative, inherited the family farm, and built her own brewing empire. When Edith’s pregnant granddaughter Diana runs into trouble starting a craft brewery, Edith brings in her cadre of grandmother friends to help, but it isn’t enough—can she reconcile with Helen, and rescue the brewery?

Why you might like it: Sharp writing and delightful characters (beer-making grannies!) combine for a heartwarming and witty portrayal of Midwestern persistence.

You might also like: Try The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman for another heartwarming story about Midwestern families helping each other. American Pop by Snowden Wright is another family saga about entrepreneurs and familial conflict.

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Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Fiction

What it’s about: When the America’s First Son, Alex, is forced to make amends with his archnemesis Henry, Prince of Wales, their unlikely companionship blossoms into a secret romance. Framed by a royal wedding and a reelection campaign, this amusing romantic comedy is sweet and steamy.

Why you might like it: This funny and hopeful debut is set in a weird alternate reality that McQuiston calls “an escapist, trauma-soothing, alternate-but-realistic reality. Not a perfect world…just a little better, a little more optimistic.” The texting relationship between Alex and Henry is particularly witty, and the companionship of the three “White House kids” is comforting and reassuring.

You might also like: For another book about archrivals hiding an attraction, try the YA fantasy Carry On by Rainbow Rowell; for a different take on fake relationships, check out The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren; and for another royal romance, read A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole.

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Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Fiction

What it’s about: Queenie’s long-time boyfriend requests a break, and in her heartbreak she spins out of control, stumbling (literally) from one bad decision to the next as she tries to get over her breakup with Tom. As she navigates her newly single status, she makes choices that endanger her job, her friendships, and her self-worth. It sounds like typical chick lit—the book has been compared to Bridget Jones’ Diary—but Queenie is a frank yet funny examination of racial stereotypes and the female experience.

Why you might like it: The prose is vibrant, the situations are humorous but engender empathy, and you’ll fall in love with the characters—the disarming Queenie, her Jamaican-British family, and her friends, the Corgis (called so because they follow the Queen around).

You might also like: New People by Danzy Senna, Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie, and Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding.

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Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
Fiction

What it’s about: S.T., a domesticated crow, realizes something is wrong with his owner Big Jim when Big Jim’s eyeball falls out and then the guy tries to eat him. S.T., along with his good buddy Dennis, a sweet but dim-witted bloodhound, abandon the only life they’ve ever known to discover that the malady affecting Big Jim has struck all the humans of Seattle--they've become the raging undead, seeking only flesh and the bright glow of digital objects. S.T. and Dennis are in the fight of their lives as they struggle to survive and find purpose among the ruins of humanity. Fortunately, S.T. has acquired plenty of smarts from watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel.

Why you might like it: This quirky fantasy blends dark humor and horror, and features a sassy, plucky hero resulting in an exuberant read that’s full of heart.

Want a taste? Despite the snark, there are some surprisingly poignant and moving passages, like this: “Trust it turned out, was a very beautiful and fragile thing with a taste like wild raspberries and experienced only by the very brave.” And this: “Watching the sunrise.... what an act of beauty, of unwavering faith, something to look forward to each and every day.”

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Donna Has Left the Building by Susan Jane Gilman
Fiction

What it’s about: A married couple hits a midlife crisis when recovering alcoholic and suburban mom Donna stumbles on her husband in flagrante with his dominatrix. Donna sets off on a wild road trip to reclaim her lost self, touching back on some of her major life points along the way. Another family crisis changes the direction of Donna's trip, and she is forced to look at her own troubles from a world perspective.

Is it for you? It’s larger than life, outrageously bawdy, and over the top, but relatable. If you appreciate racy humor and characters that make bad decisions with the best of intentions, you’ll enjoy Donna’s crazy road trip.

For fans of: Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple and Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner.

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The River by Peter Heller
Fiction

What it’s about: A late summer wilderness canoe trip challenges the friendship and survival skills of two college friends as they attempt to avoid white-water hazards and outrace a wildfire. And then they encounter a man alone, who says he lost his wife in the fog. When the friends find her, she is so severely injured she can’t explain what happened. Was it the husband, or something else? Part heart-pounding adventure story, part lyrical and elegant nature writing, this is taut storytelling that will grip you to the very end.

Reviewers say: “The real delight is the nature writing. The River is a fiction addition to the New Landscape writing of Robert Macfarlane and Rebecca Solnit, prose so vivid and engaging that a city-dwelling reviewer can feel the clammy cold of a fog over a river or the heat of subterranean tree roots burning underfoot in the aftermath of a fire.” Denise Mina, New York Times, 4-9-19

Want a taste? “Late August, a clear night becoming cold. There was no aurora borealis, just the dense sparks of the stars blown from their own ancient fire.” Or this, “And the eagles. They seemed to mark the canoe's progress from the gray spires of dead spruce, spaced downriver like watchmen on some lost frontier...”

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The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
Fiction

What it’s about: Toronto brain surgeon Jake Baker recalls one strange summer in the 1980s, when he was 12 years old, living in Niagara Falls. Timid, bookish, and bullied, Jake spends most of his free time at his Uncle Cal’s occult shop, where he befriends newcomers Billy Yellowbird and Billy’s older sister, Dove. Led by Uncle Cal and his friend Lex, the kids spend the summer exploring the local spooky places, investigating the truth behind these urban legends.

Why you might like it: Eccentric and colorful characters, whimsical and well-timed humor, and a quirky landscape contribute to a surprisingly tender and compassionate coming of age story dealing with first love, loss, and the secret lives of youth.

Reviewers say: “Immensely enjoyable, piercingly clever, and satisfyingly soulful, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is an exquisite little talisman of a book, one that doesn't flinch as it probes the dark underside of nostalgia.” Jason Heller for National Public Radio.

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Conviction by Denise Mina
Fiction

What it’s about: True-crime fan Anna MacDonald’s quiet life as a housewife implodes when her husband leaves her for her best friend, Estelle. Grieving over the betrayal, she sets out on a wild adventure to uncover the real story behind a new true-crime podcast, which may have connections to her own secret past. She is joined by Estelle’s has-been rock-star husband Fin on a wild, fast-moving road trip.

Why you might like it: Good storytelling features a pair of reluctant heroes whose give-and-take relationship adds humor and heart. Anna is tough and endearing, and her back story is compelling and relevant to today’s “me too” movement.

You might also like: The intricately plotted and suspenseful thriller, Let Me Lie, by Clare Mackintosh, also stars a strong female character trying to solve a crime. Humor marks Olga Tokarczuk’s mystery, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, in which a woman fixates on a mysterious death.

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Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
Fiction

Featuring: The return, after nine years, of private investigator Jackson Brodie—brooding, compassionate, and unable to resist rescuing others. In this case, Brodie stumbles on a murder that may be linked to a sex trafficking ring. Also featuring Jackson’s “protégé,” who reappears from When Will There Be Good News? If you are new to Jackson Brodie, start with the first book in the series—Case Histories.

Why you might like it: Atkinson excels at creating characters to care about—she really gets you inside their heads, revealing their inner lives and motivations. Her compelling storyline moves back and forth in time and is told from multiple perspectives, giving it depth and complexity. The multiple storylines intertwine in unlikely ways, but one of Brodie’s maxims is "A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen."

Reviewers say: Brodie “is not so much the central character as the grumpy, anxious, largehearted gravitational field that attracts a motley assortment of lost souls and love interests…. The deaths and disappearances that Jackson investigates change with every book, but the human heart remains the central mystery. The welcome return of an existential detective" (Kirkus Reviews).

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Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Fiction

What it is: This #ownvoices novel is a bittersweet prose-poem about childhood, friendship, race, love, and grief. August returns to Brooklyn to say goodbye to her dying father, and remembers her childhood spent adapting to a move from Tennessee to Brooklyn while her father tries to rebuild their family, haunted by an absent mother; longing to belong to the world she and her brother observe from the window of their Bushwick apartment. Despite her mother’s warnings about the treachery of women, more than anything young August wants to be friends with a trio of girls she has admired from the window. To August’s amazement, the girls befriend her, and the trio becomes four, "Sylvia, Angela and Gigi, the four of us sharing the weight of growing up Girl in Brooklyn, as though it was a bag of stones we passed among ourselves." But as the girls mature, each faces her own challenges that may not be carried by the others.

Reviewers say: “Woodson brings the reader so close to her young characters that you can smell the bubble gum on their breath and feel their lips as they brush against your ear. This is both the triumph and challenge of this powerfully insightful novel. ‘This is memory,’ we are reminded.” Tayari Jones for The New York Times. “Another Brooklyn is a short but complex story that arises from simmering grief. It lulls across the pages like a mournful whisper.” Ron Charles, The Washington Post

You might also like: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke, and The Burning Girl by Claire Messud.

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