Vesper Flights is a collection of essays by Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk. Macdonald has a keen eye for observation and writes about birds and nature in a way that is original, fully her own, always giving the reader a unique perspective and a new way of seeing the world. However, I am always left feeling slightly unsettled by her writing. Macdonald refers to herself an “amateur gothic naturalist” which in and of itself is interesting, but…
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is partly a science fiction/time travel novel and part historic African American fiction. Dana, a modern black woman in CA, is celebrating her 26th birthday when she is transported back in time more than 150 years to the antebellum South. There in the slave quarters she learns that she is in the home of her ancestors. Tied to a white boy whose life she saves, she is pulled back and forth through time over and…
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler follows the life of Willa Drake, focusing on defining moments in her life that should have been transformational, but never really were. Because it jumped decades forward at a time, I found it hard to truly get to know or care about Willa. The last section was the longest and in the later part of her life, Willa finally seemed to come into her own. Tyler is a very prolific writer and this is an…
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris was published in 2019 as Harris was about to make her run for President and before the start of the Pandemic and in some ways reads like a campaign book. I wanted to learn more about our now first woman Vice-President and Harris does give some stories of her childhood, specifically about her Mother and sister and where she grew up, along with some nice photos, but I found it…
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry is a novel set in Victorian England. When her husband dies, Cora, a natural scientist, leaves England with her son in tow and heads to Essex, searching for fossils and whatever else she might discover there. She finds herself in a small town full of rumors of the legendary Essex Serpent. She befriends a Vicar and his family and although science and religion clash, they have more in common than she would have thought….
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams is a funny and very clever debut novel following two story lines; Malory a young intern in present day England is working to digitize the dictionary and taxed with finding and eliminating any “Mountweazels” that might exist, while Peter, a Victorian lexicographer, is becoming increasingly disillusioned with his job and life and attempting to exert some artistic freedom into his work. Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference….
Inland by Tea Obreht is historical fiction based on the little known Army Camel Corps, when camels were brought from Turkey to the Western United States in the late 1800’s to explore the new territory and be used as pack animals. Two stories converge, Nora a frontierswoman dealing alone with a drought and unsure where the men in her life have gone, and Lurie a wanted man who forms an unusual bond as he travels across this desolate landscape. This…
Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline is the sequel to his book and movie Ready Player One in which Wade Watts, aka Parzival, and his friends, the high five, embark on an epic quest inside a virtual reality video game set in the not too distant future, when life in the real world has become overpopulated and miserable. I loved the first book for all its 80’s references and the feelings of nostalgia it created; if you didn’t grow up…
The Girl with the Louding Voice is the debut novel by Nigerian author Abi Dare. It tells the story of Adunni, a young teenage girl in rural Nigeria who is married off after her mother dies, but longs to escape her married life and return to school to get an education. Tragedy strikes often in young Adunni’s life and the obstacles in the way of her dream seem insurmountable, yet her indomitable spirit never allows her to give up. By…
Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah is set in a very small town on the edge of the Olympic National Forest. One day a young girl about 5 years old appears in town with wolf pup, she is wild and terrified, traumatized and speechless. From there the mystery begins to unfold. The town Police Chief and her sister, a child psychiatrist try to get her to talk and to find her family. What they discover is heartbreaking. Hannah is a prolific…