The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

I was drawn to the latest entry in Brown's Robert Langdon series because of its setting in Prague. Prague is one of my favorite cities and Langdon explores so many of the high points of the city this thriller. 

As much a leading character as Langdon is one of his previous associates, Katherine Solomon. She is a noetic scientist and is in Prague to deliver a lecture about human consciousness and the exploration of neuroscience. She and Langdon have taken their relationship to the next level as they have confessed their love for each other. 

Katherine is about to have her scientific investigaions about the mind, cognitive functions, the realities of life and death, and neurochemistry published in a new book. However, it seems as though she struck a raw nerve with the CIA and highly secretive arms of the United States intelligence community. They all want her manuscript destroyed and in the process of trying to do this Langdon and Solomon's lives are also in danger. They have discovered a highly secretive lab that has been running experiments on the brains of epileptic patients. One of these patients is Sasha Vesna, whom Dr. Brigita Gessner has brought out of Russia for her experiments. 

The morning after her lecture, Langdon sets out for his morning swim and on the way back to the hotel encounters a strange figure on Charles Bridge -the Golěm of Prague. He has seen this figure before in his dream and rushes back to the hotel only to find Katherine gone. He suspects a bomb in the hotel, pulls the fire alarm, and jumps into the Vltava River. The Prague police become involved and he must explain him self to members of the Czech office for Foreign Relations. The U.S. Embassy gets involved with Ambassador Heide Nagel and her staff. 

Meanwhile, back in NYC, Penguin Random House editor, has been kidnapped and realizes that Katherine's manuscript has been deleted from the servers. He tries to escape to be able to recover the missing pages and warn Langdon and Solomon of the dangers. 

The mysterious Golěm, Sasha Vesna's safety,  the Threshold underground lab, and the interest in Solomon's book provide the mystery and peril in the novel. What consumes a lot of the 671 pages, however, are the scientific theories and discussion of the neuroscience, the dangers of technology and artificial intelligence, and the nature of human consciousness.  Those discussions bogged down the novel for me, and I did skip many of the extended conversations to get to the culmination of the actual plot line.

The descriptions of so many of Prague's beautiful areas were a plus and enhanced by the map that was provided on the end papers. It brought back memories of St. Vitus Cathedral when Langdon took the pulpit to explain to Katherine what he had known all along. 

St. Vitus Cathedral

Pulpit at St. Vitus Cathedral

 

 
 

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

It is rare that I stay up reading past 1:00 a.m. to finish a book, but that was the case with The Guest List. In the spirit of an Agatha Christie mystery, I just had to find out the ending and resolution. 

Set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, The Folly, a restored 15th century building is the site of the wedding of two prominent stars, Will, who has a Survival television show, and Jules, the publisher of a fashion magazine. The only access to the island is by boat. Their friends and relatives are gathering to celebrate the occasion and they provide the narrative. As in many Christie novels, it is a closed group of people who could possibly mastermind a murder. The island with its steep cliffs, haunting cemetery and cave is a character in itself. 

The novel begins the night of the wedding with the discovery of a blood-stained body. No clue is given as to who it is or who has committed the crime. The chapters are then flashbacks to the day before, the day of the wedding, and the wedding itself. Each player has his or her own perspective on the events and the background story. Jules finds a note, written anonymously,  that warns her not to marry Will because he is a cheat and liar. Olivia is the half sister,  Charlie is Jules' oldest friend, Hannah, Charlie's wife, is the Plus One, Johnno is Will's friend from boarding school and his best man and Aoife, the wedding planner. Each have his or her own secrets that all form part of the intriguing puzzle as to the victim and the murderer.

For the most part, this is the wedding from hell with copious amounts of alcohol and even some weed and cocaine. The groomsmen exhibit traits and actions that could really be characteristic of young boys despite them being in their thirties. There are tales of criminal acts at boarding school and horrible bullying at Will's stag party. It is also a story of addiction including self-harm, and alcoholism. Much of what motivates the characters is their familial relationships and the harm that has come to them.

Each player is developed by Foly and remains true to her depiction of them. The reader feels some degree of empathy, especially toward Hannah and Olivia,  but has a difficult time really liking many of the others. They seem to be self-serving, status-seeking, or even a bit vile. 

It was a suspenseful book that left the reader hurrying to get to the final chapters to have the criminal act revealed. Foley plants her clues with skill and after reflecting on all of them, the reader has clear understanding ast why and how the murder was committed, and wondering why no one had done it before. 

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Set on a fictional sub-Antarctica island, Wild Dark Shore is novel of many themes. It centers around the Salt family who are there to oversee the vast vault of seeds that are to be protected for the sustenance of life on earth. Each chapter of the book is narrated by one of the family members - Dominic the father, Fen, the 18 year old daughter, Raf, the 17 yearol old son and Orly, the youngest son who is 9 years old. The family moved to Shearwater Island shortly after Orly's birth and the death of Claire, wife and mother.

The wildlife on the island and stark character of the topography are secondary characters as McConaghy depicts the interaction with the family. One evening in the midst of an horrendous storm as boat is shipwrecked on the island and the only survivor is a woman, Rowan. Her husband, Hank, was one of the men assigned to the island to protect the seeds and do research. She hadn't heard from him and was there to try to ascertain his whereabouts. The seed vault was being closed and all the men who  had been assigned to it had been sent home and that is what the Salt family has indicated to Rowan. 

She becomes an integral part of the family as they took care of her tattered body and nursed her back to health. The reader knows that there will be more to the story, but McConaghy develops it slowly. Fen's behavior of wanting to be alone, Raf's study of the whales, and Orly's fascination with the seeds reflect times in each of their pasts. When Rowan discovers Hank's passport and papers, the plot thickens and she is determined to discover exactly what happened to him. 

The resolution of the plot comes quickly in the last few chapters. The revelation of the Hank's situation and his relationship to the Salt family is too say the least, disturbing.Wild Dark Shore combines so many themes in one novel - grief, resilience, love and trust, the impact of climate change and the appreciation of wild life. For the reader, the ending encapsulates both despair and hope. It is up to that reader to decide which it really is. 

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

The Wilderness was not a book for the faint of heart or for those whose minds work in a linear fashion. Following the friendships of four women with distinct personalities through two and a half decades of their lives, the novel is craftily and creatively written. Flournoy is a master of that style and at times leaves the reader scratching his/her head. 

The first friend to whom we are introduced is Desiree, who is accompanying her grandfather to Switzerland because he has made plans to end his life in a dignified way. They spend a couple of days in Paris before the journey to Switzerland giving him a chance to live out some dreams before his death. Desiree has a sister, Danielle, who had been kept in the dark about those plans and as a physician was not pleased at all. 

The other friends are Nakia, who has climbed the ranks to become a chef with her own restaurant, January, who spends a good deal of her life trying to find some direcion and who becomes a graphic designer with a financial backgroud. Finally, there is Monique, a librarian who has turned blogger and who preaches against book banning. There are also myriad characters who come in and out of their lives.

The book's setting goes back and forth between New York and Los Angelos and the time periods span 2002 through 2027, an interesting look into the now not too distant future. The women support each other through life-changing highs and lows, and confront the changing world sometimes successfully and other times not. Flournoy does not hide her contempt for those who are not sympathetic to the conditions in American cities, medical care, or attitude toward the LGBTQ+ community or those whose skin color is black or brown.  

 Although those themes play out through the book, the theme of friendship is the paramount one Florunoy expounds upon. The women rally around through the birth of children, award ceremonies and marital relationships. The ending is totally unexpected as Flournoy moves her novel to 2027. It was worth re-reading to understand its compelling action. 

 It was interesting to hear Angela Flournoy on 23 March 2026 when she spoke to the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures audience. Her explanation of how her brain works and how she can write a book with so many shifts in time and place, was enlightening. It does baffle one whose mind travels along a more linear route. 

Angela Flournoy

 

Angela Flournoy autographing my book

 

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

Set in 1963, The Book Club for Troublesome Women, is one of those books that almost requires you to have some knowledge of time, place, mores, and cultural recognition. The four main characters, who live in the affluent community of Concordia, Maryland, are brought together as they form a book group. 

Bitsy is a 23 year old married to an older man who considers himself to be a very superior veterinarian. Charlotte is from a wealthy family and married to Howard, whom her father has selected as his son-in-law when Charlotte gets pregnant out of wedlock. Viv is a nurse with six children, married to Tony, a Pentagon official. Near the beginning of the book she discovers that she is pregnant with her 7th child. Finally, Margaret (Maggie) Ryan is really the main character of the book. Her husband, Walt, appears at first to be the patriarchal husband of the 1960's, but eventually has an epiphany after his father's death. 

Maggie's first pick for the book club is The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and the club becomes known as The Bettys. Their lives become interwoven and their support for their female friends is such a powerful part of the book. They see each other through life events like pregnancies, husband's affairs, addictive behavior, and problem children. All of this is set against the background of how women were viewed in the 1960's and their nascent struggle to assert themselves as equal partners in a marriage and in society. 

Bostwick has researched the time period and has included so many popular books, foods, music, and current events. For a married woman not to be able to get birth control pills without the signature of her husband, for a high school girl spurned because she wants to play the trombone, and for a woman who knows as much about horses as her husband to be dismissed are examples of the culture of the early 60s. It is hard to think about how it was, but also frightening to realize that woman could be relegated to that place in society again. 

The reaction at our book group was mixed. Some liked it, some were ok with it and a couple didn't like it at all. That is the beauty of book clubs. I was on the liked it side and would consider it a good read, if only for reminiscing about the time. 
 

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

 There are not too many books that we have read about society following World War I.The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club gives an interesting perspective into that time with its focus on women in a small seashore town in England. Poppy Wirrall is the owner of a motorcycle courier service who is staying at the Palm Court Hotel and accidentally meets Constance who is also at the hotel aiding Mrs. Fog who is recovering from influenza. Constance rescues Poppy from a serious faux pas (wearing trousers) and the two become friends, 

The novel introduces the reader to a plethora of characters, many of whom are members of the motorcyle club and also to the families of Poppy and her mother, the venerable Mrs. Wirrall. Poppy's brother, Harris, has returned home from the war in which he lost a leg. Constance grew up a farmer's daughter, but she is educated and would love to move on from being an elderly woman's companion. As such she has followed the social norms and acts with propriety and good taste. Poppy, on the other hand, is free wheeling and throughout the course of the novel tries to bring Constance out of her set ways. 

There are so many themes that permeate the book - racism, the thwarted role of women, disrespect for the disabled, and growth after grief. Mrs. Fog rekindles a romance with a man of mixed race and is virtually ostracized from her family by her daughter, Lady Mercer who has married a baron. Klaus, a waiter at the hotel is a naturalized citizen, but fears for his life because he is originally from Germany. The women fight desperately to maintain their business or get a job, but are stymied by the fact that jobs need to go to men. Harris is denied employment opportunities because he is disabled and remarks that his brain and hand are in full working order, despite his one leg. Harris' friend Jock, struggles to overcome the loss of his family to the flu epidemic and relies on his friends. 

The novel was hard to get into and seemed slow in spots, but the insight into the mores of the times and watching Constance's growth were worth it and make it a rewarding read.  

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

This book has gotten a lot of very good reviews and I was pleased that Walter was one of the authors for the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures series. So Far Gone's protagonist is Rhys Kinnick, a retired journalist, who takes to the woods and leads a very reclusive life after a major familial blowup in 2016 between him and his son-in-law. His life changed immensely when his grandchildren, Leah (13) and Asher (9) appear on the porch of his cabin in 2024. 

Rhys' daughter, Bethany, has seemingly abandoned her children and taken off. Even her husband, Shane, appears not to know where she has gone and Bethany was somewhat at odds with him because of his embracing the beliefs and practices of a right wing, religious extremist group, the Army of the Lord, a wing of the Church of the Blessed Fire. Shane had advocated moving the family to the compound known as The Rampart and had even tried to betroth Leah to the pastor's son who was nineteen. 

The children bring Rhys up-to-date with all that happened to the family in the eight years of his self-imposed exile, including the death of his ex-wife, Celia Asher was a good chess player and that evening Rhys got into his beat-up car and took him to his chess tournament in Spokane. However, they find out that the tournament is not that evening and when arriving at the abbey where the tournament was supposed to take place the children are kidnapped by Brother Dean Burris, one of the Army of the Lord members. He also breaks Rhys' jaw in the process. 

Through flashbacks and action in the present, the novel then focuses on the recovery of the children. It brings into view and motion a number of people from Rhys' past, including an old flame, Lucy Park, his retired police officer, Chuck Littlefield, and Brian and Joanie a Native American couple with whom Rhys reconciles as he asks for help in navigating some of the Native American lands around the area in an effort to find Bethany from a clue that Leah had given them. 

As the novel begins to come to a resolution, the reader is hit in the face with a WHAM bit of action. The characters are well developed in a style that is a bit unique with chapter titles What Happened to....? Rhys earns the readers' sympathy as he tries to reconnect with a world that seems to have left him behind, but Walter also adds a bit of wit and levity to the story. The themes of Christian Nationalism, the sorry state of journalism created by today's reliance on social media for news, and the abandonment of environmental protection initiatives resonate through the novel. Perhaps, Rhys foreshadows the novel in his preface in quoting Thoreau, "Not till we are lost… ‘till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves.”
 

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

I have followed Marie Benedict since her first novel. She is a native Yinzer and often speaks at events here in the 'burgh. In February she spoke about her latest book, The Queens of Crime. It was a fascinating lecture about how she became interested in the real life disappearance of an English nurse, May Daniels. With maps, photographs, and newspaper clippings, she detailed how she became invested in using the real life mystery as the basis of her fictional one. 

Set in 1931, the novel features the 5 Queens of Mystery writers from the Golden Age: Dorothy and Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. They are a part of a London group known as the Detection Club, made up mostly of men. They feel that they are just as able to write and solve mysteries as their male counterparts and so embark on solving a real life one. The actual disappearance and investigation was actually reported by Sayers and her journalist husband. Nurse May Daniels and her friend Cecelia traveled to Bourgoune, France. They traveled by ferry from Brighton England, intending to take advantage of French shops and food. However, Daniels mysteriously disappears, after seemingly having an upset stomach, and being approached by an unknown man while sitting on a park bench. She does not return with her friend. Her body is found months later in a pool of blood.

The five queens of crime travel to France to retrace her journey and interview those who might have come into contact with Daniels. The police seem reluctant to pursue the case that they believe is one of a drug addict. In their investigation the women began to piece together another woman's disappearance that is connected with London men, the Williams father and son, and a theatre producer, Alfred Chapman. When they establish an hypothesis as to what actually happened, they concoct a plan to entrap the murderer. 

With a cavalcade of characters, the mystery unfolds to its conclusion, complete with red herrings. I had to keep myself from finding newspaper articles about the real mystery so that I didn't spoil the end of this tome.  This was a delightful read that combined mystery and historical fiction. The personalities of the mystery writers shines through as they each have a different tack to solve the case. I have not read any of Marsh, Allingham, or Sayers' works previously, but the novel has given me a new set of detectives to read. 
 

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

Books that span generations are intriguing to me.  The Last Garden in England was just that type of book. The central character in the novel was the garden in Highbury, England. Although fictitious in the story, Highbury is an actual location out side of London that seems to be the inspiration for the mansion that is depicted within the pages.   

The three sections of the book are the stories of those women who are connected to the garden - Venetia Smith in 1907 whose creativity designed the garden,  Diana Symonds, who inherits the home and is living there during World War II, and Emma Lovell who was hired to restore the gardens in 2021. There were a multitude of characters that became associated with those women. This somewhat was puzzling to the reader because Kelly would use a woman's maiden name at times and it wasn't until about a third of the way into the novel that you could put this together. 

As a characteristic of those generational novels, it becomes part of the mystery to determine how the main players become connected. Kelly does a magnificent job in creating the mystery and then solving it in the end. There is a part of the gardens, The Winter Garden, that is locked with an iron gate. The only way Emma and her crew can work on it is to scale the walls. They do not want to break the lock thereby seemingly breach the work of a previous generation. The mystery of the lost key becomes a central part. Yet another mystery is the name Celeste that is found on one of the original Smith drawings of the garden plans. 

The women in this novel are strong-willed and for the most part trying to discover who they really are and what their place in the world is. When Venetia embarks upon a love affair with the brother of the owner of the garden, Mrs. Melancourt, she finds herself in a position where she must make some very difficult decisions about her life. She becomes a person who socially is well ahead of her generation. 

Diana Symond is the mistress of Highbury house at a time when it has been overtaken as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the war. Her husband, a prominent doctor, was killed in the fighting and she is left to run the manor, much to the dismay of her sister-in-law, Cynthia who is put in charge of the hospital. She has a little son, Robin, who develops a strong bond with the nephew of Stella Adderton, a cook in the service of Symonds. Also a strong character in the time of Symonds, s Beth Pedley. The three strive to find themselves as the war progresses and tragedy befalls them.

 Emma wishes to be a self-sufficient woman of the 21st century, asserting herself as a different person that what her mother thinks she should be. She has founded her own company and it is through that move that she begins work on restoring the garden for Andrew and Sydney Wilcox. Sydney is the heir to the property and is set on restoring it to its glory. As Emma decides that the garden work is more dear than a glitzy office job, she opens herself up to that permanent lifestyle.

This was just a wonderful read watching the characters develop and change and allowing the reader to immerse oneself in the beauty of the English landscape.  

The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel

There are some books that grab you from the first page on. The Book of Lost Names was that kind of book for me. It was intriguing that the central character, Eva Traube Abrams, was a librarian and the opening of the book was set in the Winter Park, FL library in 2005. She sees an article in the New York Times that takes her back six decades to her life in Paris during the war and a book that had special meaning to her. Otto Kühn, a Berlin librarian, was attempting to return books that had been stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners. Eva knew that she had to immediately fly to Berlin to try to retrieve it. 

The novel then shifts to her time as a young woman studying at the Sorbonne in 1942 when Paris was under siege by the Germans. She lives with her parents when her father, a Jewish typewriter repair person, is kidnapped by the Nazis, leaving she and her mother, Mamusia, alone. They are warned about the danger of staying in Paris and so with the help of a family friend who shows her how to forge papers, they escape to the countryside and the village of Aurignon in free France. They happen upon a boarding house where Madame Barbier takes them in and gives them advise on being safe. Shortly after Eva goes into a bookstore to purchase pens to help her with the writing she needs to do to forge papers for her father's release. She is introduced to Père Clément, a priest who is also secretly forging papers. Eva becomes part of the resistance and meets Rémy, a very handsome man, who is also part of the resistance and devoted to helping others even if it causes him harm and possible death. In Aurignon, Eva also is reacquainted with Joseph Pelletier with whom she had gone to school in Paris. He would be the perfect husband according to her mother, although Eva is not really attracted to him. He insinuates himself into their lives with the pretense for helping them. As Gérard Faucon, his alias, he becomes involved with another talented forger, Geneviève. 

The novel is consumed with the work the forgers accomplished in providing documents for persons to escape to Switzerland, especially orphans. It becomes a page-turner, when the group is compromised by someone who is leaking information to the Germans. Tragic deaths occur as they are uncovered. The reader has some comfort in knowing that Eva survives at least until 2005.

With the themes of resilience, bravery, love and kindness The Book of Lost Names provides the reader with a few hours of inspired writing. The characters are well-developed and exhibit the full range of human emotions. It is engaging and captures the reader from the get-go. One of the gems that portray the horrors of the Holocaust. 

 

 

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Having read Gone Girl by Flynn, one should expect more than the run of the mill murder mystery. Sharp Objects is a triple murder mystery that is also a psychological thriller with so many other themes thrown in. It is disturbing, exciting, thought provoking, and a page-turner.

Camille Preaker is a journalist for a small Chicago newspaper who is assigned to report on a double murder in her hometown of Wind Gap. Her editor, Frank Curry, thought she would have some insight into what was happening in that village and would give her an opportunity to go back home for a bit. Two young girls were brutally murdered within a couple of weeks of each other and there were only a few leads as to who the perpetrator was. Curry was unaware of the cold relationship Camille had with her mother and her step-father, Alan. Her family life was dysfunctional to say the least. She had been born to her young mother, Adora, and never knew her father. Her sister Marian had died at a young age and then another sister, Amma, born when she was a teenager and 13 when the story commences. 

Adora inherited her family's hog farm and was independently wealthy. She suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy for the way she needed to be in control and garner attention from the townspeople. Her sheer indifference to Camille made it difficult for her to return home. Likewise, how so many people and the town itself hadn't changed hearkened a time from which Camille had escaped. She meets Richard Willis who is in town to help with the murder investigation and the tow become close as they work to solve the murders. Upon discovering that Camille was a cutter and had scars over her body, he removed himself from her company, but not after helping to solve the mystery. 

Amma is a central character to the case and transforms from the perfect daughter playing with her dollhouse and dolls, when Adora is around, to a vile drug-dealing, and promiscuous teenager when away from home. Camille tries to reconcile their relationship, but it is difficult. 

As the facts about the murders become clearer, so does Camille's internal struggles and the horrible truth that emerges. The character development is one of Flynn's hallmark written qualities. From beginning to end the novel will keep you on the edge of your seat as you deal with the psychological struggles, the reactions and personalities of the townspeople, and the familial relationships. 
 

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

This novel immediately grabs the reader with the sudden death of a young author as another author friend looks on. Athena Liu was a trending Asian author whose death gave June Hayward, aka Juniper Song, the opportunity to steal Liu's manuscript and embellish the story of the contributions of Chinese Laborers during World War I. 

June convinces her publisher and the reading world that she is the author of the book and assumes the persona of an Asian woman to make it more convincing. The book, The Last Front, becomes a NYT Best Seller and June reaps all the rewards of editing the book in which she skews the actions of the white people in the book to make them more sympathetic. She fears that if she tells the real story she may alienate those white readers on whom books depend for success. 

With the success of the book, attention is drawn to the origin of the manuscript. June finds herself defending her authorship as well as struggling with her inner sense of morality. She endures criticism from social media that haunts her, even as her publishers stand behind her. To thwart this she undertakes the publishing of another book, the premise of which also comes from Liu's notebooks.


The fact that she may be a white woman writing about the experiences of Asians is a platform for racism. Kuang's point comes across with satiric vitriol of the publishing world as she is an Asian writing a white woman's story. 

This was a gripping novel with depth beyond the stories of June and Juniper. The lecture by R.F. Kuang was erudite as she explained the role the publishing world has played in racism, diversity, and cultural appropriateness.

April 28, 2025  - R.F. Kuang

April 28, 2025  - R.F. Kuang

April 28, 2025  - R.F. Kuang signing my book

James by Percival Everett

As the novel that has been perched at the top of the New York Times reading list for weeks on end, James has been on my TBR shelf since its publication. As part of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures Ten Evenings series and also a selection for the Gables Book Club, it was time to move from TBR to Reading.

What an incredible novel Percival Everett has crafted. James is the re-imagination of Mark Twain’s Hucleberry Finn told from the point of view of Jim, Huck’s runaway slave companion. Jim is a husband to Sadie and father to Lizzie and is well respected among the other slave s to Judge Thatcher and Miss Watson because he can read and write. When he learns that he is going to be sold and shipped to New Orleans, he runs away. Huck is being abused by his alcoholic father and fakes his death and likewise runs away. The two meet up serendipitously on an island and from there the adventures begin as they encounter a couple of con artists, a minstrel group who appear with black face, One of that group, Norman, has been passing escapes with Jim. The two concoct a plan for Norman to sell Jim and help him escape and sell him over and over again. The owner of a mill, Old Mr. Henderson, buys Jim, and he escapes with another slave, Sammy, whom he witnesses being raped.

The adventures are harrowing, the cruelty and violence are disturbing, but it is history told through fiction. It is difficult to pinpoint what is the most outstanding feature of this novel. It is remarkable for the point of view and language from which Jim relates it. It is told in the first person by Jim who is trying to define what freedom is and how it can be gained outside enslavement. Everett uses a code switching technique, that Everett ini his lecture, sometime questions. When talking to superiors, he uses the “slave filter” and when he is talking with those on equal ground, uses an erudite proper language. He steals a leather notebook where he records his thoughts and where he develops a sense of self. Words are important to him.  During his lecture he read a part of the novel where James was instructing children on the way to talk to the enslavers 

The children said together, “And the better they feel, the safer we are.” “February, translate that.” “Da mo’ betta dey feels, da mo’ safer we be.”

Throughout James the overlying motive for his actions to to get back to Hannibal to free his family and move to where they can enjoy their life. It is what keeps him going. He came to the realization that if he didn’t have them in his life, freedom was meaningless.

Sadness, irony, humor, the myth of racial identity and so many other attributes come together to make this a book for all ages. It should be taught along its companion, Huckleberry Finn in all English curricula. I am not sure that would happen in Florida, After all, as Everett said, “Reading is subversive.”

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

The Thursday Murder Club was a series recommended by a friend and since I love a series that involves the same characters, I thought I would give it a try. By no means was this book a straightforward, solvable mystery. 

Set in a retirement community in England, the Thursday Murder Club is comprised of residents who get together to try to solve mysteries that have stumped the local police. While working on murder that involved a stabbing, the community is thrown into a situation where a couple of murders are committed that are directly related to their retirement home. Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Bernard, Ron, and Joyce work with detective Chris Hudson and Donna De Freitas to solve the murder of Tony Curran, the construction foreman for Ian Ventham, a real estate developer who is in the process of buying the retirement community and its adjacent cemetery. From that situation, other murders are committed, new identities are discovered, and a surprising confession from an unsuspicious character are paraded before the reader. 

Joyce recaps daily events in the the investigation as she writes in her diary. Some may consider this as a repetition of the the actual narration, but it is a good way to maker sure one hasn't missed something because there is a lot that could be overlooked. 

True to English mysteries, this isn't a book for those who want an easy solve. There are no less than 4 plots that with twists and turns all come together at the denouement. I hope to read the next in the series when there is a break in my required book club and P & AL books!
 

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes

This novel by Moyes was a bit different than her previous trilogy, Me before You, in that it really explores the relationships among women. The issue that gives the title its context is that a very middle class London women mistakenly picks up the wrong bag at the gym that belonged to a very wealthy New Yorker. Nisha, the American has a pair of very expensive Christian Louboutin red heelsin her bag, which Sam, the Londoner, discovers when she reaches for her shoes as she changes out of her flip flops on her way to a work meeting. The event sets into motion the moves that both try to recover their own bag and the shoes that were in them.

Despite their differences in background and monetary status, it becomes obvious that both women are desperately trying to hold their lives together. Nisha is a trophy wife whom her husband, Carl, is trying to shove out of their marriage and Sam is trying to hold it all together with a husband who is living in a depressed state and who, as breadwinner, is fighting a misogynistic boss who is looking for every reason to fire her. In addition she is a supporting friend to Andrea, who has been battling cancer and mother to Cat, a nineteen year old who has maturity beyond her age and can give a voice to her mother. 

After the mix-up at the gym, Nisha returns to the luxury hotel penthouse where she finds that Carl has locked her out holding her clothes, credit card, and passport hostage and is served divorce papers. As she is ejected from the hotel, she is befriended by Jasmine, a housekeeper there and is given a chance for employment. She has to clean toilets, which is a foul task to a woman used to the finer things in life. When Nisha is evicted from the budget hotel in which she had been staying, she moves in with Jasmine and her daughter, Gracie. A cold, self-centered woman, when confronted with her present circumstances, Nisha begins to soften a bit as she has to rely on others. 

Sam is beyond wit's end as she tries to deal with her boss and her husband as she is watching her marriage deteriorate. When Nisha confronts her at work and accuses her of stealing the shoes, Sam's boss has the ammunition that he needs to fire her. Eventually, the two become set on finding the shoes that Cat has delivered to a charity shop and alliances and friendships are formed as Andrea, Jasmine join the alliance. 

This was a complex novel that had at its heart many themes that are so important to the women - friendship, treatment of women, and contrition and change. The characters are well developed and layered. The reader witnesses how they change and how they influence change around them. It is complex and even thought there are some predictable and implausible happenstances, it is a great read.

Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson

One of my friends introduced me to Heather Cox Richardson a couple of years ago and I have become one of her most ardent fans. Her Letters from an American each morning is one piece to which I look forward before doing most anything else. I was ecstatic when it was announced that she would be speaking at the Ten Evenings programs of Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures. 

Democracy Awakening is a fascinating history of the United States in terms of how we have viewed and practiced democracy since the Founding Fathers gathered all their thoughts and expressed them in the documents that have formed the basis of our laws and culture. She contends that throughout our history there have been crossroads between authoritarianism and pluralism. As we approach this Presidential election, it has become even more obvious and she feels that we are "teetering on the brink" of authoritarianism if the election of Republicans comes to pass. 

Richardson is a scholar and professor of U.S. History at Boston University. Her research for this book traces the rise in the right wing ideology back to the New Deal of the 1930s through the Nixon presidency, Reagan and most recently most outstandingly personified by Donald Trump. There are no fewer than 10 chapters that delineate how he has moved to secure the position which sets him in direct comparison to the leaders of European fascism and Nazi Germany. She describes how in his term as President, one of the first actions were executive orders that began to dismantle the government and install his cronies and family members into interim positions to avoid needing Congressional approval. Of course his installing 3 ultra conservatives on the Supreme court has lead to the repeal of Roe v. Wade and the eradication of a women's right to have control over health decisions. 

Richardson has such an incredible way of writing that is learned and academic, but truly understandable by the non-academic. Her explanations illustrate give the lay reader a means to understand not only the past, but also the what is happening now and how we need to heed the warning signs that have been posted by the vile rhetoric of the evangelical conservative wing of the Republican Party. A must read for every citizen who does not want to be accused of having his or her head buried in the sand. 

I cannot wait to hear her speak.

Long Island by Colm Tóibín

Long Island  is the sequel to Tóibín's Brooklyn. At the end of that novel Eilis Lacey had decided to leave her native Ireland at the end of a sojourn there from Brooklyn.This was despite the fact that she would miss her mother, her best friend, Nancy, and the man with whom she had rekindled romance despite the fact that she was secretly married.

Nearly twenty years later Tóibín's latest novel picks up her life in New York with husband, Tony, in their Lindenhurst home on Long Island. They are the parents of two teenagers, Rosella and Larry. But then Tóibín drops the bomb that will change the course of her life. A man appears at her home alleging that while on a plumbing job at his home, Tony has had an encounter with his wife who is now pregnant with his child. It is the man's intention that when the baby is born, he will be dropping it on the doorstep of her home. Eilis will have not part of this and the scheme that her mother-in-law and Tony have devised. 

She needs time to mull over this situation and decides to head back to Ireland and the comfort of Enniscorthy. It will be time to spend with her mother and after a few weeks to bring Larry and Rosella over to meet their Irish grandmother. In that time she reconnects with Nancy and Nancy's planning of her daughter's wedding. And of course in that vein, she also rekindles her friendship with Jim Farrell, owner of a local pub. Long Island actually becomes a novel, not only about Eilis, but of her friends and the people of Enniscorthy. There are secrets that are exposed and secrets that are kept. At times we know their innermost thoughts and at other times, we can only guess.

The novel engages the reader from the get-go and doesn't let go until the end. It was a read that immerses a person in a place faraway with people who struggle with ordinary life and tragedy. It is one of those books that a reader can't wait to see the plot resolved, but at the same time does not want it to end. It bodes well that there might be another Eilis Lacey work to come.

 What a delightful evening it was on 16 September when Colm spoke. He has an incredible sense of humor and really gave insight into his books. 

 

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

 

Ann Patchett has been one of my favorite authors since I read Bel Canto. Tom Lake has been on my TBR list since it was published. I was glad when we selected it as a Book Club choice. I wasn't disappointed. 

Told in the first person by Lara Nelson during the pandemic, the novel toggles back and forth between the present and Lara's past. She and Joe's daughters have come home to the family farm in Michigan to spend the pandemic lock down with their parents. Emily is the oldest and has a degree in horticulture with an eye on taking over the farm. Maisie is in vet school and Nell was about to move to NYC to pursue an acting career before COVID-19 hit. Each has a distinctive personality that comes through in their reaction to their mother's story. 

When Lara (originally Laura, but she removed the u after reading Dr. Zhivago), was a teenager, she was volunteering at a community theater's auditions for a production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. After seeing so many trying out for Emily who were less than stellar, she tries out and is selected. This starts her on her acting career and she becomes hooked. During the course of her life, she takes on that role numerous times. During one of these times, she meets a Ripley, a talent scout who encourages her to go to Los Angeles to audition for a movie role. Lara recounts her meeting Peter Duke, a famous actor and their summer stock experience at Tom Lake, her return to New Hampshire that leads her to NYC where she rekindles her friendship and eventually her marriage to Joe Nelson. 

The cherry orchard provides the backdrop for this novel and the memories that Lara shares. It is also a cathartic journey for her as she puts her life in perspective for her daughters. It is especially telling as she remembers her time with Peter Duke, during which Emily is convinced that she was conceived. By recounting the time at Tom Lake, she realizes that love at 24 years old is so totally different that the love she feels for Joe. It is then that she is at peace with her life. 

 Thoroughly enjoyed this book with its style and the emotions that it elicited. Another great Ann Patchett experience.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Winner of the 2023 Man Booker Prize, Prophet Song is a dystopian novel set in Dublin in an unspecified time period, but fairly contemporary with its mobile phone technology and vague references to the pandemic. Beginning with the introduction to a fairly typical family, the novel quickly takes the reader on a journey through upheaval and frenzy.

The Stack family consists of  father, Larry, a teacher and head of the teachers' union, Ellish, the mother and microbiologist, and their children, Mark, Molly, Bailey, and Ben. The National Alliance Party (NAP) has seized the government of the country and has virtually stripped its citizens of their liberties. Larry is arrested for his participation in union activities and has not further contact with his family. Ellish is convinced that he will at some point in the near future return home to his family. She works hard at trying to contact him, but to no avail. This leaves her as the head of the family and, as such, she does her best in keeping things as normal as possible for her children. As news of her husband's arrest becomes known, Ellish loses her job as well. 

With tensions at a breaking point, war eventually breaks out between the state and rebels. Mark is drafted by the army, but joins up with the rebel forces. With airstrikes and government checkpoints the Stack home is in the midst of the conflict. Her sister, Áine, reaches out and tries to convince her to leave Dublin, but she does not want to leave feeling that it will resolve and Larry and Mark will be found. When Bailey is wounded, Ellish begins to reconsider her choice. 

As most dystopian novels, Prophet Song is most disturbing. It is not hard to envision a political party coming to power that is intent on doing away with civil liberties, eg the tenets of Project 2025. This theme resonated for me as I read the book. As the government expands its power, the citizens lose power over their lives. It is not hard to comprehend this as we watch freedom and autonomy being stripped from many citizens today. 

A powerful read that is a cautionary tale of a spiral into darkness if a citizenry is complicit and silent. 
 

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

This was a book that had been on my TBR list since it was published. I enjoy James McBride's writing style. I was excited that we had chosen it for our Gable Book Club. Then I was dismayed that I was going to be out of town for our discussion. 

In 1972 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, a skeleton is discovered in a well while workers were clearing land for a townhouse development. McBride sets the stage as he then flashes back to 1925 and begins the story of Moshe and Chona Ludlow. Moshe is the proprietor of a theatre who books musical acts and Chona runs the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. They live on Chicken Hill, which has traditionally been home to Jewish immigrants. They are a charming couple and in love. Chona suffered an injury to her foot in childhood and is fairly dependent on Moshe taking care of her. The grocery store is a haven and and frequented by immigrants from Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. Likewise, Moshe welcomes Negro acts to the theatre, signaling how inclusive and accepting they are of ethnic and diverse populations. 

Throughout the novel, McBride introduces the reader to a slew of characters who are so well-developed and interesting. Two in particular are Nate and Addie Timblin. Addie helps Chona with the store and takes care or her with her illness. Nate and Addie approach the Ludlow's to take care of Dodo, a deaf black boy whose mother dies. His observance of a vicious act on Chona sends him to an institution where he is treated in a low-functioning ward. Much of the movel is focused on trying to get his release from Pennhurst. 

Add to the mix the nefarious activity of a town council member who is siphoning water away from the shul in order to provide water to his dairy farm. Repairing the pipeline, freeing Dodo, and a celebratory parade provide a unique culmination for the story and solves the mystery that McBride sets up at the beginning of the novel.

This was an incredible read because of the plot layers and the development of all the characters. It is most difficult to summarize in a few words because of the interactions of all the characters and the complicated plot lines.  If one had unlimited time, it is definitely worth another read.