Land: A Novel

by Maggie O'Farrell

Knopf/PRH 

      This is such a brilliant novel - warm, magical, funny and heartbreaking. The horrors of the recent Famine and the occupation by the British begin the story of these amazing people who survive by helping each other as much as they can. People starve and others "go away" leaving a very small but strong group on this west Ireland peninsula. Family and land come together to produce something beautiful - a place and a time you'll want to return to often.

If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org. 

The Unicorn Hunters

by Katherine Arden

Del  Rey/PRH

    A lovely adult fairy tale vaguely based on history - featuring castles, knights, strong women, dead women and much sorcery. What the history of Brittany might have been if there had been a bit more enchantment around.

If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org. 

Murder at the Spirit Lounge

by Jess Kidd

Atria/S&S

    Jess Kidd has written several wonderful novels - Himself  is my favorite. She has also shown herself to be a very good mystery novelist. Nora Breen is a quietly believable ex-cloistered nun finding her way in a small seaside village. Murders do seem to abound in the area of Gore-on-Sea, with that name, of course.

   This is the second of what I hope will be many more. 

If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org. 

Ode to the Half-Broken

Suzanne Palmer

DAW/PRH

   Palmer creates a post-apocalyptic world that is perhaps too recognizable. She peoples it with wonderfully real humans, robots and cyborgs who develop strong feelings and manage to find ways to confront their loneliness and the horrors that surround them.

    And there's a retro-fit steam engine VW Bus!

    I am hoping for a sequel.

If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org. 

Cave Mountain: a Disappearance and a Reckoning in the Ozarks

by Benjamin Hale 

Harper Collins Publishers

    Benjamin Hale covers a great deal of ground - beginning with a missing child, segueing to a Christian cult murdering a different child and the lives of many of those involved in both occurrences. Hale manages to keep an open mind, while remaining a skeptic and allowing the people he's showing us to be themselves, in all their complexities. He writes beautifully of these people and the countryside, without ever making less of them than they so obviously are.

   If you are very religious, or bothered by profanities, you may find this a bit difficult. 

If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.