Good Reads & Views

Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght
Nonfiction

Why you should read it: For the blend of breathless adventure and riveting observations of landscape, animals, and people. This account of Slaght’s doctoral work studying the elusive Blakiston’s fish owl of eastern Russia is part natural history, part travelogue, and part personal account of meeting human and natural challenges. Lively and clear writing places the reader at the center of the action, whether it is a slapdash snowmobile ride down a river of dangerously thin spring ice, or a solitary night observing an owl for the first time.

What it’s about: The very real difficulties of scientific field study in the most remote locations--challenged by severe weather, limited funding, equipment failure, and rounds of hard drinking by hosts and guests alike while trying to study the world’s largest (and least studied) owl. The Blakiston’s fish owl shares its habitat with the Amur tiger and is equally elusive and in need of conservation.

Here’s a taste: “The nights dragged on; a deep winter stillness perforated by occasional firecracker-like pops: ice expanding in tree cracks as air temperatures plummeted after sunset. The adult female fish owl was like a ghost. We heard her vocalize with her mate almost every night, but she appeared onscreen only once, when she hit our snare but pulled the knot free before we reached her.”

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Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett
Fiction

What it’s about: Dayna’s acting career is over, and she is flat broke. The reward money for information about a hit and run Dayna may have witnessed looks like an easy way to save herself and to help her folks pay their mortgage. But turning private eye is more difficult and dangerous than she expected. Dayna and her friends—self-proclaimed reality star-in-training Sienna and online gamer Emme (identical twin to a bone-fide Hollywood star)—uncover a possible connection to a notorious Tinsel Town crime spree, and then someone tries to kill Dayna.

Why you might like it: This entertaining romp is a fresh take on the bumbling amateur sleuth, and is filled with lively, interesting characters. Smart and sassy, and full of insight about the Hollywood scene, this adventure will have you looking for more about Dayna and her besties.

Try this next: Travellin' Shoes by V. M. Burns, Broken Places by Tracy P. Clark, and The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka.

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Sheet Pan Suppers Meatless by Raquel Pelzel
Nonfiction

Why you should check it out: Those large, rimmed baking sheets can do more than bake a tasty batch of cookies—tossing the right ingredients together on a sheet pan and popping it in a hot oven can result in tasty and healthy meatless meals with the help of this cookbook. Three-time James Beard Award nominee Raquel Pelzel has written recipes for vegetarian and vegan meals, snacks, soups, salads, and more for those short on time and patience. Many recipes suggest variations, and there are tips on techniques, ingredients, and cooking with fewer dirty dishes.

Who’s it for: Busy cooks, anyone looking to spend less time in the kitchen, vegetarians, or anyone trying to ease into cooking with less meat.

Recipes included: Charred Tomatillo Salsa, Roasted Plum Salad with Fresh Grapefruit and Cardamom Syrup, Summer Tomato Slab Pie with Flaky Sage Crust, White Bean Ratatouille Over Roasted Eggplant, and Shaved Zucchini and Minty Pesto Pizza.

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Fiction

The elevator speech, short version: There is a library between life and death. The books shelved there represent an endless variety of possible lives—each one offers the reader a chance to live a different life.

Wait—what?? Nora Seed is unhappy with her life and decides to end it, but instead of dying she lands in the Midnight Library, where she has the chance to try different versions of her own life—like new books—until she finds a life she truly wants to live. Guided by a thoughtful librarian, Nora makes new choices with each attempt at an alternate life; which decision will lead to her best life? Haig’s playful tone approaches difficult subjects—suicide, mental illness, and the quantum physics that make the Midnight Library theoretically possible—with a gentle hand. An engaging and whimsical story about living a fulfilling life.

You may also enjoy: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, another thoughtful story featuring a character living multiple versions of their own life; and Or What You Will by Jo Walton, starring another protagonist that attempts to re-write their story while hovering between life and death.

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Crooked Hallelujah Kelli Jo Ford
Fiction

What it is: A novel in stories that focuses on four generations of Cherokee women—Granny Annie Mae, her daughter Lula, her granddaughter Justine, and great-granddaughter Reney—struggling to keep their family together as they cope with poverty, messy relationships, religious and social conflicts, and other hardships. Lula is a single mother barely held together by the strictures of her Holy Roller faith, which daughter Justine rails against. When Justine becomes pregnant with Reney at 15, she vows to have a different relationship with her own daughter, but unreliable men, bad choices, and devastating storms challenge that effort.

Why you might like it: Because it is beautifully written using simple, spare prose and exacting word choice, and is filled with small details of daily life that together signify a life worth living. And because despite the quirky structure that includes changing perspectives, time jumps, and characters who are introduced and dropped without explanation, the narrative still highlights the deeply connected relationships of the characters, the messiness of mother and daughter relationships, and survival despite the odds.

Critics say: “Ford’s storytelling is urgent, her characters achingly human and complex, and her language glittering and rugged. This is a stunner” (Publishers Weekly); “Ford unfolds Justine’s story without passing judgment, which is one of the great strengths of Crooked Hallelujah; she writes close to her characters, the narrative stripping away explanations, allowing readers to feel real involvement in the action” (Washington Post).

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Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald
Nonfiction

Who’s it for: Bird watchers, wanna-be bird watchers, and anyone who wants to read a thoughtful examination of how humans interact with the natural world.

Tell me more: MacDonald’s collection of more than 3 dozen essays, many short enough to be read in quick chunks, include observations made over the period of her lifetime, from childhood to the present. She often shares how her initial observations may have been missed, or how new knowledge imparts a different perspective on a topic. The deep shadow of the climate crisis colors all the essays, imparting a melancholy tone to much that she observes. She makes visible what is unseen and unnoticed by so many of us—and urges us to hurry and notice it before it is gone.

But I want details: Many of the essays are about birds—swifts that spend most of their lives in flight, swans that belong to royalty and are counted annually in a practice known as swan upping, murmurations of starlings, cuckoos in the house, bird (and insect) flights in the upper skies observed by radar (far above city high-rises) at 10 to 12,000 feet. But she also shares thoughts and observations of “flying ant day,” deer and automobile collisions, development of childhood paradises, glowworms, and total solar eclipses. This beautifully written, poignant, and sobering collection will inspire you to get outside, now.

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The Resisters by Gish Jen
Fiction

Read this if you: Like your dystopian fiction served up with a healthy dose of humor, think that a good game of baseball solves everything (can you say underground baseball league?), and believe anything can represent the Resistance, even knitting.

What it’s about: Imagine a future America—AutoAmerica—flooded due to climate change and watched over by an artificial intelligence known as “Aunt Nettie.” Society is divided into the “Netted”—those who live on dry land, and have work and college opportunities and privileges, and the Surplus—mostly people of color, or who aren’t Christian, or who are “odd-bodied,” eking out a living on soggy ground or on water. The story focuses on a Surplus family—former teacher Grant, activist Eleanor, and their baby daughter Gwen, who displays amazing baseball pitching ability from her crib. What gifts or consequences will Gwen’s golden arm bring to her family in an unequal society? Sensitive and thought-provoking yet charming.

What critics say: “The magic of Gish Jen’s latest novel, The Resisters, is that, amid a dark and cautionary tale, there’s a story also filled with electricity and humor.... Rippling with action, suspense and lovingly detailed baseball play-by-plays, there’s a sense throughout the book of both celebration and danger” (Diana Abu-Jaber, The Washington Post); “Jen has too much humor and heart as a writer to do a full-out futuristic nightmare. Instead, the feel of The Resisters is more like that noir sequence embedded within It's a Wonderful Life....” (Maureen Corrigan, NPR).

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The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Fiction 

If you like: Stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, found families, and quirky fantasies, read this now!

What it’s about: Offbeat and heartwarming, this tale is set in a highly bureaucratic dystopian society where magical beings exist under the strict scrutiny of the bureaucracy. Linus Baker is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth whose life is changed forever when he is given a classified assignment to observe an island orphanage housing dangerous magical children. When he opens the top-secret case file and learns the secret of the first of these children, Linus faints with fear. But under the guidance of Arthur, their caretaker, these little monsters have the potential to become their best selves; as Linus learns, a case file can’t tell the whole story. A whimsical and surprisingly delightful story about celebrating differences.

You might also like: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, and Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

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The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz
Fiction

 

What it’s about: This engaging story about multiple generations of a working-class family living in the rust belt begins in 1957, with top student Ellie, who dreams of nursing school and marriage to her high school sweetheart. Brick McGinty is the school’s star athlete, who wins a scholarship that would make him the first in his family to attend college. An unplanned pregnancy dashes their dreams of further education, so Ellie and Brick elope and vow to make the best of their new life. Filled with old-fashioned charm and deep empathy for even the less appealing characters, this sweeping family saga is a heartfelt and comforting read.

Reviewers say: “This quiet, Anne Tyler-esque novel is also a reminder that gentler times were not always gentle, that life is filled with hardship even without existential threats” (The Washington Post); “While Schultz’s compelling narrative and realistic characters will keep readers turning pages into the night, her eye and ear for real-life details set this novel apart from other domestic sagas” (Bookpage).

About the author: This is a fiction debut by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Schultz. Formerly with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, she is a nationally syndicated columnist, and teaches journalism at Kent State University.

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The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Fiction

Who it’s for: Readers who enjoy rich historical details, fully fleshed characters, and luminous, vibrant storytelling that’s firmly set in a different time and place. 

What it’s about: Thomas is a factory night watchman and Council leader who heads a fight against Native dispossession by Congress—an attempt to force his people away from their homes and into the city. Meanwhile, his 19-year-old niece Patrice (Pixie) searches for her older sister Vera, who has disappeared into the dark backstreets of Minneapolis. When Pixie fails at her mission, she joins forces with Thomas to travel to Washington, D.C. to save her family’s way of life.

The story behind the story: Much of the narrative is based on the life of Erdrich’s grandfather, a Chippewa Council leader who traveled to Washington to speak against the 1953 Native Termination Act.

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