Shower Thoughts

Shower Thoughts

By David H. Pyle

David H. Pyle, 2024. Unpaged. Nonfiction.

Do crabs think fish can fly? Have you almost died without knowing it? Does a straw have one hole or two? From the thought-provoking, to the disturbing, to the downright ridiculous, this compilation of deep thoughts will have you pondering life's most profound and meaningless questions for hours at a time. Each turn of the page will bring a new revelation of the obvious truths you have never thought about before.

I absolutely loved reading this book! The 'thoughts' are in no particular order, so you can read it straight through, or just pick it up, flip to a random page, and prepare to think deeply about something you didn't even realize deserved a second thought! Each 'thought' in the book has its own page, which gives you the space to think about each one individually, instead of being bombarded by too many truths all at the same time. Almost every 'thought' in here would make a great conversation starter, as well. I highly recommend giving this one a look!

 

If you liked Shower Thoughts, you may also like:

All My Friends are Dead

By Avery Monson

Chronicle, 2010. Unpaged. Nonfiction.

All My Friends Are Dead is both the saddest funny book and the funniest sad book you'll ever read. Here, in accessible cartoon form are the amusing existential predicaments of clowns, cassette tapes, dinosaurs, zombies, snowmen, houseplants, and others as they each face the inevitable.

Strange Planet

By Nathan Pyle

Morrow Gift, 2019. Unpaged. Graphic Novel.

 

Strange Planet covers a full life cycle of the planet's inhabitants, including milestones such as: The emergence day, Being gains a sibling, the Being family attains a beast, and more. With dozens of never-before-seen illustrations to addition to old favorites, this book offers a sweet and hilarious look at a distant world not all that unlike our own.

ERB

The Witch's Heart

The Witch’s Heart 

By Genevieve Gornichec 

Penguin Audio, 2021. 359 pages. Fantasy 

    Angrboda is a witch so old and reborn so many times that even she doesn’t know her origin. She knows only that she possesses powerful prophetic powers. After her most recent burning, Angrboda runs away, physically stripped of heart. Loki, the Norse trickster god, returns her heart, and Angrboda in turn falls in love. Angrboda bears three children with Loki, and each one is as unique as their parents. But this isn’t a story of domicile bliss as Odin continues to hunt for Angrboda and her gift. When she foresees a grim future for her family, she devotes herself to protecting them, aided by the mighty huntress, Skadi. In this epic tale of love and loss, Genevieve Gornichec retells Norse myths that connect with modern readers for its inventive twists that center women’s stories. Fans of Norse folklore, fantasy, and LGBTQIA+ romance will love this book. 

    I love stories of women with unending potential who learn to embrace their uniqueness. I’ve found myself questioning why Angrboda isn’t included in every Norse tale since reading this book. I also enjoyed Gornichec’s re-imagining of Hel, the goddess of death popularized by Cate Blanchett’s portrayal in Thor: Ragnorok. The audiobook, narrated by Jayne Entwistle, is clear and compelling, allowing listeners to keep up with the many Norse characters and their mythical tales throughout the novel. 

If you like The Witch’s Heart, you might also like:

Kaikeyi 

By Vaishnavi Patel

Redhook, 2022. 478 pages. Fantasy

The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, Kaikeyi is raised on grand stories about the might and benevolence of the gods. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, her own worth measured by how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the ancient texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. She uses it to transform herself from overlooked princess into warrior, diplomat, and most-favored queen, determined to forge a better world for herself than the one that gods and men have granted.

Ithaca 

By Claire North 

 Redhook, 2022. 391 pages. Fantasy

This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before: On the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women—and their goddesses—that will change the course of the world. 

AB

One Perfect Couple

One Perfect Couple
by Ruth Ware
Scout Press, 2024. 383 pages. Fiction 

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she's pretty sure they won't extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren't going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples--Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana--in order to win a cash prize. But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. 

With her quick-paced thrillers and engaging characters, Ruth Ware is a go-to author for me – anything she publishes, I’ll read. I was pleasantly surprised to find that One Perfect Couple deviated from her usual who done it style mysteries. While it starts out as a behind-the-scenes look at a Love Island style reality show, it quickly morphs into a survivalist story. The plot here is as much man against nature as it is man against man, and I was fascinated by how the different characters reacted to tragedy, danger, and deprivation. The strong focus on character and bonds forged between women reminded me in many ways of Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers. One Perfect Couple won’t necessarily leave you guessing about who the bad guy is, but it’s at its most interesting exploring the good, the evil, and the just plain petty in all its characters. 

If you like One Perfect Couple, you might also like: 

Nine Perfect Strangers
by Liane Moriarty
Flatiron Books, 2018. 453 pages. Fiction 

Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? In Liane Moriarty's latest page-turner, nine perfect strangers are about to find out. Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can't even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be. 

The Guest List
by Lucy Foley
William Morrow, 2020. 313 pages. Fiction 

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It's a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride's oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn't wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

SGR

The Rom-Commers

The Rom-Commers
by Katherine Center
St. Martin’s Press, 2024. 321 pages. Romance 

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She's spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies--good ones! That win contests! But she's also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates--The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!--it's a break too big to pass up. Emma's younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. 

But what is it they say? Don't meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn't want to write with anyone--much less "a failed, nobody screenwriter." Worse, the romantic comedy he's written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn't even care about the script--it's just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme. But Emma's not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter--even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. 

As much as I love an enemies-to-lovers romance, it's a tricky trope to pull off; too often authors stumble into making one or both protagonists irredeemably unlikeable. That’s never the case with The Rom-Commers, and I found myself rooting for Emma and Charlie throughout as individuals as well as a couple. Emma’s close and loving relationship with her father and sister, as well as the responsibility, pride, and resentment she feels acting as a full-time caregiver were particularly well-developed. Katherine Center always does a fine job balancing real-life struggles, cheer-worthy romance, and genuinely laugh out loud moments, and The Rom-Commers is my favorite of her books so far. She captures swoony chemistry between her characters without including explicit sexual content, making her a good choice for romance readers of all different spice preferences.

If you liked The Rom-Commers, you might also like: 

Beach Read
by Emily Henry 

Jove, 2020. 361 pages. Romance 

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They're polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. But as the summer stretches on, January discovers a gaping plot hole in the story she's been telling herself about her own life, and begins to wonder what other things she might have gotten wrong, including her ideas about the man next door.

Nora Goes Off Script
by Annabel Monaghan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2022. 260 pages. Romance 

Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it's her job. But when her too-good-to-work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage's collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it's picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive Leo Vance is cast as her ne'er do well husband Nora's life will never be the same.

SGR

Dwellings

Dwellings
By Jay Stephens

Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group, LLC, 2024. 271 pages. Graphic Novels

Welcome to Elwich—an oasis of small-town perfection, where the schools overflow with cheery-eyed children, lovingly adorned homes line the historic boulevards...and only the crows can see the deep, festering rot that lurks beneath the pristine surface. Murder. Demonology. Possession. Obsession. Elwich has them all on offer—and behind every dwelling awaits a horrifying new story to be told.

As someone just getting into the horror genre I absolutely loved the juxtaposition between the horror stories being told and cutesy cartoon style of the drawn characters.  Overall darkly humorous and more than a little disturbing, just be prepared to feel a little squeamish by the end--or beginning if you aren't a fan of the visual of crows holding (semi-?)detached eye-balls.  So much creepy fun.  

If you like Dwellings you might also like:

Boys Weekend

By Mattie Lubchansky

Pantheon Books, 2023. 229 pages. Graphic Novels

Newly-out trans artist’s assistant Sammie is invited to an old friend’s bachelor weekend in El Campo, think Las Vegas but with even fewer rules. Arriving at the swanky hotel, Sammie immediately questions their decision to come. Bad enough that they have to suffer through a torrent of passive-aggressive comments from the groom's pals—all met with zero pushback from supposed "nice guy" Adam. But also, they seem to be the only one who's noticed the mysterious cult that's also staying at the hotel, and is ritually dismembering guests and demanding fealty to their bloodthirsty god. 

A Guest in the House
By Emily Carroll
First Second, 2023. 240 pages. Graphic Novels

A young woman marries a kind dentist only to realize that there’s a dark mystery surrounding his former wife’s death.

RBL

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
by Zoulfa Katouh 
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022. 417 pages. Young Adult

This book tells the gripping story of Salama Kassab, a young pharmacy student in Syria whose life is upended by the civil unrest and protests demanding freedom. Salama becomes deeply involved in the conflict when she volunteers at a hospital to aid the wounded. Amid the chaos, she grapples with her desire to escape the violence before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth, a concern manifested in the form of Khawf, an imagined companion symbolizing her fears. Salama's journey is not just a physical one, but a deeply internal struggle.

 Despite the urging of Khawf, her imagined companion, to leave, she wrestles with conflicting loyalties—to her country and to her own survival. She is forced to confront the harsh realities of war: bullets, bombs, and moral dilemmas, all the while questioning her resolve to flee. Her path intertwines with the fate of Syria itself, as she encounters pivotal moments and reunites with a significant figure from her past, prompting her to reevaluate her intentions. Zoulfa Katouh's novel captures the intense emotional and psychological turmoil of individuals caught amid conflict, offering a poignant exploration of courage, sacrifice, and the quest for freedom in a war-torn land. 

I absolutely loved this story because it immersed me in a slice of history that was new to me. Salama's challenges resonated deeply, pulling me into her world with each turn of the page. The narrative's swift pace kept me anticipating what would unfold next, my curiosity never failing. Both the internal and external struggles felt authentic and profound, bringing an emotional response that lingered long after I finished reading. This book profoundly impacted me, teaching valuable lessons on resilience and the enduring importance of faith, family, and hope in the face of adversity. It serves as a moving testament to the determined human spirit and the universal pursuit of freedom.

If you like As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, you might also like:

Before We Were Free

by Julia Alvarez

Laurel Leaf, 2004, 192 pages. Young Adult

"In the book 'Before We Were Free' by Julia Alvarez, Anita de la Torre's life in the Dominican Republic undergoes a dramatic shift as political turmoil grips her country in 1960. What was once a life of unquestioned freedom is quickly shattered: her relatives flee to the United States, her uncle disappears mysteriously, and her family faces constant fear from the oppressive secret police under the dictatorship of el Trujillo. Anita, just turning twelve, finds herself navigating a world where her family's actions could mean life or death. With the support and courage of her loved ones, she must confront her deepest fears and make a daring escape to the United States, leaving behind everything familiar. Julia Alvarez paints a poignant portrait of adolescence and resilience in 'Before We Were Free,' showcasing one girl's quest for liberty amidst political oppression. Through Anita's journey, Alvarez explores themes of courage, family bonds, and the pursuit of freedom in the face of adversity." 

The Stationary Shop
by Marjan Kamali
Gallery Books, 2019. 312 pages. Young Adult

In 1953 Tehran, amidst political turmoil, Roya discovers solace in Mr. Fakhri’s stationery shop—a haven of books and colorful inks. Introduced by Mr. Fakhri, she falls deeply for Bahman, drawn to his passion for justice and love for Rumi's poetry. Their romance flourishes until the eve of their wedding, when a coup disrupts everything. Bahman fails to appear, leaving Roya devastated. Despite futile attempts to find him, she eventually moves on with her life in America.

Over sixty years later, fate reunites Roya and Bahman, prompting her to confront the lingering questions that have haunted her for decades: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How could you forget me?

Yellow Butterfly
by  Thanhhà Lai 
Harper Collins, 2019. 304 pages. Young Adult

During the final days of the Vietnam War, Hằng takes her little brother Linh to the airport to flee to safety in America. In a sudden moment, Linh is taken from her—and Hằng is left behind in their war-torn country.

Six years later, Hằng has journeyed to Texas as a refugee from Vietnam. Unsure of how to find her lost brother, she meets LeeRoy, a city boy with dreams of rodeo success, who decides to help her.

Hằng is thrilled to reunite with Linh, but her heart breaks when she realizes he doesn't remember her, their family, or Vietnam. Despite feeling more distant than ever, Hằng is determined to bridge the gap between them no matter what it takes.

BWW

Hula

Hula
By Jasmin 'Iolani Hakes
HarperVia, 2023. 387 pages. Fiction

Hi'i is proud to be a Naupaka, a family renowned for its contributions to hula and her hometown of Hilo, Hawaii, but there's a lot she doesn't understand. She's never met her legendary grandmother and her mother has never revealed the identity of her father. Worse, unspoken divides within her tight-knit community have started to grow, creating fractures whose origins are somehow entangled with her own family history. In hula, Hi'i sees a chance to live up to her name and solidify her place within her family legacy. But in order to win the next Miss Aloha Hula competition, she will have to turn her back on everything she had ever been taught, and maybe even lose the very thing she was fighting for. 

This book is written in multiple perspectives.  The most expected of those are the three Naupaka women the story follows.  The other main perspective, unexpected but absolutely delightful, is the collective voice of the Hawaiian community in Hilo. This style, while new to me, so perfectly captures the spirit of Hawaii and it's people. In a book that is very character-driven, I'm glad the author made the surrounding community a character as well.  The writing overall was lyrical, which is a word that I usually use to say that the sentences were pretty.  However, with this book I use it to say that the tempo and the cadence of each sentence felt intentional.  It is clear that Hakes uses the writing reflect the linguistic patterns these characters would use during actual speech.  Because of the way the author outlines the concrete and emotional effects of colonization, I think anyone who has ties to Hawaii should read this book. I would also recommend it to anyone who, like me, felt their AAPI month of May was missing Polynesian representation.

If you like Hula, you might also like: 

Caul Baby

By Morgan Jerkins

HarperCollins, 2021. 342 pages. Fiction

Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn't know is that a baby will soon be delivered in her family - by her niece, Amara, an ambitious college student - and delivered to the Melancons to raise as one of their own. Hallow is special: she's born with a caul, and their matriarch, Maman, predicts the girl will restore the family's prosperity. Growing up, Hallow feels that something in her life is not right. Did Josephine, the woman she calls mother, really bring her into the world? Why does her cousin Helena get to go to school and roam the streets of New York freely while she's confined to the family's decrepit brownstone? As the Melancons' thirst to maintain their status grows, Amara, now a successful lawyer running for district attorney, looks for a way to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family. When mother and daughter cross paths, Hallow will be forced to decide where she truly belongs. 

Book of the Little Axe

By Lauren Francis-Sharma

Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020. 388 pages. Fiction

In 1796 Trinidad, young Rosa Rendón quietly but purposefully rebels against the life others expect her to lead. Bright, competitive, and opinionated, Rosa sees no reason she should learn to cook and keep house, for it is obvious her talents lie in running the farm she, alone, views as her birthright. But when her homeland changes from Spanish to British rule, it becomes increasingly unclear whether its free black property owners--Rosa's family among them--will be allowed to keep their assets, their land, and ultimately, their freedom. By 1830, Rosa is living among the Crow Nation in Bighorn, Montana, with her children and her husband, Edward Rose, a Crow chief. Her son Victor is of the age where he must seek his vision and become a man. But his path forward is blocked by secrets Rosa has kept from him. So Rosa must take him to where his story began and, in turn, retrace her own roots, acknowledging along the way the painful events that forced her from the middle of an ocean to the rugged terrain of a far-away land.

A History of Burning
By Janika Oza
Grand Central Publishing, 2023. 393 pages. Ficiton

At the turn of the twentieth century, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor on the East African Railway for the British. One day Pirbhai commits an act to ensure his survival that will haunt him forever and reverberate across his family's future for years to come. Pirbhai's children are born and raised under the jacaranda trees and searing sun of Kampala during the waning days of British colonial rule. As Uganda moves towards independence and military dictatorship, Pirbhai's granddaughters, Latika, Mayuri, and Kiya, are three sisters coming of age in a divided nation. As they each forge their own path for a future, they must carry the silence of the history they've inherited. In 1972, under Idi Amin's brutal regime and the South Asian expulsion, the family has no choice but to flee, and in the chaos, they leave something devastating behind. As Pirbhai's grandchildren, scattered across the world, find their way back to each other in exile in Toronto, a letter arrives that stokes the flames of the fire that haunts the family. It makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy to secure their own place in the world.

KJ

The Paradise Problem

The Paradise Problem

By Christina Lauren

Gallery Books, 2024. 340 pages. Romance 

Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam "West" Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she'd signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed. Three years later, Anna is a starving artist while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of the heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There's just one catch. Liam won't see a penny until he's been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he's in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he's afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents - his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife. But in the presence of his family, Liam's fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. 

This was such a heartwarming and uplifting read! The tropical setting makes it a perfect vacation or beach read. Liam and Anna are a rare opposites-attract couple who, while so vastly different, respect and never try to change each other. While Anna has a glow up of sorts, it was such a breath of fresh air that Liam didn’t expect her to conform to his rich family’s expectations. There was just enough conflict and drama to keep the story interesting while this couple’s attraction grew. Overall, The Paradise Problem is a fast-paced, romantic comedy to add to your summer read list. 

If you like The Paradise Problem, you might also like:

How to End a Love Story

By Yulin Kuang

Avon, 2024. 372 pages. Romance 

Helen Zhang hasn't seen Grant Shepard once in the 13 years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever. Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She's even scored a coveted spot in the writers' room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer's block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he's well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn't have taken the job on Helen's show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can't pass up. Grant's exactly as Helen remembers him: charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she's never been. And Helen's exactly as Grant remembers too: brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen's parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he's in the picture at all. When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet the key to making peace with their past, and themselves, might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.

Happily Never After

By Lynn Painter

Berkley Romance, 2024. 292 pages. Romance

When Sophie Steinbeck finds out just before her wedding that her fiancé has cheated yet again, she desperately wants to call it off. But because her future father-in-law is her dad's cutthroat boss, she doesn't want to be the one to do it. Her savior comes in the form of a professional objector, whose purpose is to show up at weddings and proclaim the words no couple (usually) wants to hear at their wedding: "I object!" During anti-wedding festivities that night, Sophie learns more about Max the Objector's job. It makes perfect sense to her: he saves people from wasting their lives, from hurting each other. He's a modern-day hero. And Sophie wants in. Max and Sophie start working together, the two love cynics going from wedding to wedding, and she's having more fun than she's had in ages. Sophie looks forward to every nerve-racking ceremony, where she gets to save the lovesick souls of the betrothed masses. As they spend more time together, however, they realize their physical chemistry is off the charts, leading them to dabble in a little hookup session or two, but it's totally fine because they definitely do not have feelings for each other. Love doesn't exist, after all. And then everything changes. A groom-to-be hires Sophie to object, but his fiancée is the woman who broke Max's heart. As Max wrestles with whether he can be a party to her getting hurt, Sophie grapples with the sudden realization that she may have fallen hard for her partner in crime.

BW

The Rachel Incident

The Rachel Incident

By Caroline O’Donoghue

Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. 289 pages. Fiction.

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So, begins a series of secrets that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous bourgeois wife. 

I’m such a sucker for relationship fiction and The Rachel Incident knocks it out of the park. This coming of age, character driven story takes place in Cork, Ireland starting in 2009. O’Donoghue’s writing style is engaging and witty. Love triangles and secrets abound but the true love story lies in the friendship of roommates and co-workers, Rachel and James. I’ll admit, in one scene my jaw dropped with the unexpected twist! Reading this book made me feel like I was a young person in my early 20’s again, trying to figure out my life while desperately wanting to be taken seriously.

Green Dot

By Madeleine Gray 

Henry Holt and Company, 2024. 304 pages. Fiction

 At 24, Hera is a clump of unmet potential. To her, the future is nothing but an exhausting thought exercise, one depressing hypothetical after another. She's sharp in more ways than one, adrift in her own smug malaise, until her new job moderating the comments section of an online news outlet--a role even more mind-numbing than it sounds--introduces her to Arthur, a middle-aged journalist. Though she's preferred women to men for years now, she soon finds herself falling into an all-consuming affair with him. She is coming apart with want and loving every second of it! Well, except for the tiny hiccup of Arthur's wife--and that said wife has no idea Hera exists. 

 

Conversations with Friends 

By Sally Rooney 

Hogarth, 2017. 309 Pages. Fiction.

Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. However amusing and ironic Frances and Nick's flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy, and Frances's friendship with Bobbi begins to fracture. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally, terribly, with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile her inner life to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment. Written with gem-like precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth, and the messy edges of female friendship.

JK

The Ministry of Time

The Ministry of Time

by Kaliane Bradley

Avid Reader Press, 2024. 339 pages. Science Fiction

In the near future, a British civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams to work on a top-secret project. A recently established government ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a "bridge": living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as "1847" or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he's a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as "washing machines," "Spotify," and "the collapse of the British Empire." But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry's project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined.

This time travel novel of a different sort focuses on the time traveler's experience of adjusting to a new reality instead on the thrill of travelling to a new place. The story starts a little slowly, but the plot builds with humor, swoon-worthy romance, and intrigue. I personally loved the overarching message that looking to the future doesn't necessarily require time travel: forgiveness and a willingness to move forward from past mistakes is a type of time travel of its own.

If you like The Ministry of Time you might also like:

This Is How You Lose the Time War

by Amal El-Mohtar

Saga Press, 2019. 198 pages. Science Fiction

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival time travelling agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. What begins as a taunt, a battlefield boast, slowly grows into something more.

How to Stop Time

by Matt Haig

Viking, 2018. 325 pages. Science Fiction

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history—performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life. So Tom moves back to London to become a high school history teacher, and begins to fall for the school's French teacher. But the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him.

MB

First Person Singular: Stories

First Person Singular: Stories 

By Haruki Murakami 

Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. 245 pages. Fiction. 

A riveting new collection of short stories from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami. The eight masterful stories in this new collection are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator: a lonely man. Some of them (like "With the Beatles," "Cream," and "On a Stone Pillow") are nostalgic looks back at youth. Others are set in adulthood--"Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova," "Carnaval," "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey" and the stunning title story. Occasionally, a narrator who may or may not be Haruki himself is present, as in "The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection." Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides. The stories all touch beautifully on love and loss, childhood and death . . . all with a signature Murakami twist. 

I originally picked up this book because I wanted to read more short story collections, and Murakami did not disappoint. Murakami is one of the most influential writers in the magical realism space. The stories mainly center around mundane day-to-day with little hints and not-so-little hints of magic – like a talking monkey that works in a bath house and literally steals women’s names. Some stories, could be true stories that Murakami experienced, others are obviously not, and others? Well, it’s impossible to tell. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the ambiguity of the stories, but I can see how that would be frustrating to some readers. There are no solid answers in this collection. There are a lot of references to jazz, classical piano music, and baseball, none of which I am particularly interested in so I’m sure some of the meaning flew right over my head. Out of all the stories, “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey” and “With the Beatles” are my particular favorites. 

If you like First Person Singular, you might also like:

 

Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories 

By Gabriel García Márquez 

Vintage Books, 2006. 188 pages. Fiction. 

The 12 stories in this shimmering collection poignantly depict South Americans adrift in Europe. Combining terror and nostalgia, surreal comedy and the poetry of the commonplace, Strange Pilgrims is a triumph of narrative sorcery by the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The Houseguest and Other Stories 

By Amparo Dávila 

New Directions Paperbook Original, 2018. 122 pages. Fiction. 

Like those of Kafka, Poe, or Shirley Jackson, Amparo Dávila's stories are terrifying, mesmerizing, and expertly crafted you'll finish each one gasping for air. With acute psychological insight, Dávila follows her characters to the limits of desire, paranoia, insomnia, and fear. She is a writer obsessed with obsession, who makes nightmares come to life through the everyday: loneliness sinks in easily like a razor-sharp knife, some sort of evil lurks in every shadow, delusion takes the form of strange and very real creatures. After reading Dávila's debut collection in English you'll wonder how this secret was kept for so long. 

Interpreter of Maladies: Stories 

By Jhumpa Lahiri 

Houghton Mifflin, c1999. 198 pages. Fiction. 

Stories about Indians in India and America. The story, A Temporary Matter, is on mixed marriage, Mrs. Sen's is on the adaptation of an immigrant to the U.S., and in the title story an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors.

El Príncipe y la Coyote

El Príncipe y la Coyote
Por David Bowles
Ediciones LQ, 2024. 443 páginas. Ficción

México. 1418. Les presentamos al príncipe Acolmiztli. Puma de la gente Acolhua. Heredero al trono de su padre. Mitad Acolhua, mitad Mexica. Cantante. Guerrero. Poeta. Dieciséis años de edad. Y ahora, traicionado. Una conspiración en el palacio, planeada por el letal imperio Tepaneca, mata a su madre y hermanos, pone al ejército de su padre en retirada, y manda al príncipe Acolmiztli a un exilio pernicioso. Enfrentándose al hambre, las montañas nevadas, y las maquinaciones de los reinos a su alrededor, el príncipe Acolmiztli jura venganza. Le tomará años, pero regresará buscando justicia. Y lo hará con un nuevo nombre: Nezahualcóyotl, el coyote en ayuno, una de las figuras más ilustres en la historia.

Si le gusta «El Príncipe y la Coyote» le recomendamos:

Un Lobo Dentro
Por Pedro Mañas
Nube de Tinta, 2023. 250 páginas. Ficción

Una broma, una burla, un mote, un rumor, un mensaje anónimo, una amenaza, un golpe, una paliza. Así empieza todo, y no como en las películas. Una historia que sucede todos los días, en todas partes, a un montón de personas distintas. Víctimas que ya no saben si se meten con ellas por ser como son o si son así porque se meten con ellas. Hasta que, un día, una de esas víctimas decide que, si no puede dejar de sentir miedo, será quien lo infunda. La historia de cómo Jacob se convirtió en Lobo. De cómo ambos crecieron a la vez, pero no del mismo modo. La historia sobre el monstruo en que cualquiera puede convertirse. Incluso, la víctima.

Lobizona
Por Romina Garber
Urano, 2021. 379 páginas. Ficción

Algunas personas son ilegales. Las lobizonas no existen. Estas dos afirmaciones son falsas. Manuela Azul se encuentra atrapada en una existencia que resulta demasiado pequeña para ella. Como inmigrante indocumentada que debe huir de la familia criminal de su padre en la Argentina, Manu se ve confinada a un pequeño apartamento y a una vida discreta en Miami, Florida. Hasta que la burbuja que la protegía estalla. Atacan a su abuela adoptiva. Muchas mentiras salen a la luz. El Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas arresta a su madre. Manu se queda sin hogar, sin respuestas y, ahora, sin cadenas que la aten. Investigará la única pista que tiene sobre su pasado: un misterioso emblema con forma de Z, que la guiará a un mundo secreto oculto en el nuestro. Un mundo conectado con su padre muerto y su pasado criminal. Un mundo sacado del folclore argentino, en el que la séptima hija consecutiva es una bruja y el séptimo hijo, un lobizón.


MEB

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