Mr Wilder and Me

by Jonathan Coe

Viking Press

   Billy Wilder is nearing the end of a fantastic career; Calista is a young Greek woman whose career as a film composer hasn't begun. She's hired as a translator for Wilder's latest production and becomes a small part of a big motion picture, meeting people who are kinder but not nearly as happy as she would have them.

    Told from Calista's much later perspective, there is much reminiscence of a simpler time for her, but also Wilder's own memories of the War and what the Holocaust took from him and the world.

   This is a deceptively straightforward story with many great layers.

If you would like to know more about this book, or own it, please try your local independent bookstore or bookshop.org

 The Lock-Up

by John Banville

Harper Collins

    John Banville is a literary, Booker prize winning author who also has written several wonderful mysteries. This is the latest. In his usual way, Banville brings together traditional mystery elements with much larger concerns and leaves the reader with much to think about, and his characters are delightfully difficult.

If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please visit your local independent bookstore or bookshop.org.

 A World Lit Only By Fire

by William Manchester

Hachette Book Group

    The answers to three of the recent Jeopardy Masters questions are in this book - Louis XV, Atlantis & Sir Thomas Malory. This is a fun history of a fascinating time - the transition from the darkness of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Renaissance. We sometimes think our era has a lock on corruption, but the Popes and the Holy Roman Empire knew their way around bribery, promiscuity and ever more horrendous ways of killing those who dared to disagree with them. And Magellan, poor Magellan.

   In an odd way, this is all a bit reassuring.

If you would like to know more about this book, or own it, please try your local independent bookstore or bookshop.org .

 Halcyon

by Elliott Ackerman

Knopf/PRH

May 23, 2023

    When does compromise become hypocrisy? 

    Faulkner said "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

    Halcyon is the stately Southern mansion owned by Robert Ableson - esteemed attorney, WW ll hero and recently dead. Ackerman brings Ableson and all around him to vibrant life. This novel manages to involve science, politics, Confederate monuments, family secrets, Civil War battles, much more, and still be fun.

If you would like to know more about or own this book, please contact your local independent bookstore or bookshop.org

Himself

by Jess Kidd

Simon & Schuster

    An Irish mixture of fantasy and murder in a small town with memorable characters swarming the pages. You have to root for Mahony, something of a rogue, who returns to his hometown to try to discover his roots. In doing so he sends the entire village into a completely ridiculous, but fun, chaos of their own making. Did I mention ghosts?

   Kidd has several other books, including Mr. Flood's Last Resort, Things in Jars  and The Night Ship - all very different, but greatly enjoyable.

If you would like to read or own this or any of Jess Kidd's books, please try your local independent bookstore or bookshop.org