December 2023
Dialogue with a Somnambulist by Chloe Aridjis
The fiction of the talented Aridjis is short and unsettling. These essays and stories are equally fine.
November 2023
Pete and Alice in Maine by Caitlin Shetterly
A fine debut novel about a marriage on the rocks and the debris that comes with it.
Moscow X by David McCloskey
This second novel by ex-CIA guy McCloskey runs longer and more convoluted than his first, but it still has plenty of tradecraft as covert agents go after Russian oligarchs and even Putin himself.
Larry McMurtry by Tracy Daugherty
McMurtry was a wonderful writer who also loved the tactile collectibility of books. What a great combination! Daugherty captures this vibrant Texan in all his many lives and quirks.
Wellness by Nathan Hill
Hill's debut novel The Nix was a good one. This is a bit more windy but may be even better.
American Gun by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson
Every USA mass shooting seems to involve the AR-15 as the weapon of choice. With this interesting history, McWhirter and Elinson have taken the mythology and machismo out of the discussion to expose why this killing machine even exists and how it gained such popularity.
Gangsters Don't Die by Tod Goldberg
This latest wild and funny Goldberg novel closes out his Gangster trilogy featuring a hitman disguised as a Rabbi and all sorts of Mafia goons, gamblers, and real estate crooks. Goldberg deserves a bigger audience. Maybe this one will get him one.
Eve by Cat Bohannon
Pretty dense at 500 much-footnoted pages; but after all, this is a history of humanity evolving from and centered on the complexity of female physiology...so many things I didn't know or understand. Clever and often amusing, this is well worth reading
October 2023
Mr. Texas by Lawrence Wright
Leave it to Texan Wright to craft a snazzy novel around the weird ways of Texas state politics.
Disease of Kings by Anders Carlson-Wee
A solid new collection of poems featuring those barely getting by in Los Angeles and the Twin Cities on repeat moving sales, fraudulent food stamps, dumpster diving, and stolen bicycles.
Emergency by Kathleen Alcott
A first-rate debut story collection from a writer on top of her game already.
The Last Ranger by Peter Heller
Heller is the real deal. A new novel is always welcome.
Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy
Joy's latest Southern noir novel is rich in the legacy of racial and familial discord in the Carolina mountains.
Onlookers by Ann Beattie
Beattie has been delivering spot-on short stories for decades. This new collection's title Onlookers reflects exactly what makes her fiction so good...she observes without taking sides. Her work might not change your life, but it will always open some windows.
The Good Ones by Polly Stewart
This twisty Southern noir novel touches all the bases.
Blue Skies by T. C. Boyle
Boyle's latest novel is a coastal family saga set in dystopian climate chaos filled with his typical humor, satire, and dead-on characters.
The Weight by Jeff Boyd
Boyd's debut novel features an aspiring black rock band drummer in white Portland.
September 2023
Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott
Edgy crime novelist Abbott ventures into Michigan's UP for this latest psychological thriller.
Code of the HIlls by Chris Offutt
Offutt has moved into the crime series world (probably to pump up some income that small Kentucky fiction books don't generate). This latest continues this interesting Kentucky series.
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
No one since George V. Higgins does Boston crime as well as Dennis Lehane. This new novel may be his best.
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
Few pack as much into a short story as Lorrie Moore. In this new spare novel, she packs a whole world.
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
A fun, sensitive novel from an Irish writer who gets the mind of a young woman navigating challenging relationships and family dynamics.
My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley
A wonderful little novel about a woman dealing with difficult parents...or as Philip Larkin wrote: "They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do."
I Do Everything I'm Told by Megan Fernandes
An excellent new poetry collection from a new talent.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Northern Michigan and cherry farming and theater and Wilder's Our Town make for a nice narrative stew in Patchett's latest.
Fearless by M. W. Craven
A new Craven thriller series featuring U.S. Marshal Ben Koenig on the loose in the Chihuahuan Desert.
The Tao of the Backup Catcher by Tim Brown and Erik Kratz
Every team in the bigs needs at least two catchers. If needed, few utility position players can step in behind the dish and call a decent game...much less throw out a runner humping to second for the steal in less than two seconds. Hence the backup catcher. Brown tells the enlightening story of these unsung journeymen as experienced by the solid backup Erik Kratz.
August 2023
Somebody's Fool by Richard Russo
Reading a Russo novel is an uncommon pleasure. His new one features more of his quirky, multi-generational characters of North Bath in what is now a "Fool Trilogy." May he never stop writing.
Stalking Shakespeare by Lee Durkee
Novelist Durkee became obsessed with finding a true image of the real Shakespeare. This lively memoir tells the entertaining story of his quest.
The Local by Joey Harstone
An L.A. screenwriter, Hartstone sets his debut novel in small-town east Texas with a fine piece of courtroom drama.
Rocky Mountain High by Finn Murphy
The talented Long Haul trucker Finn Murphy heads to Colorado to cash in on the hemp farming movement. He finds many restrictive regulations, distribution headaches, banking rules, and far too many hassles. Hemp and the CBD craze prove financially doomed for this entertaining writer and entrepreneur.
All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby
Crosby's third crime novel is his most graphic...and his best.
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
A juicy true crime story (without violence or personal victims).
Be Miine by Richard Ford
Ford is getting a little long in the tooth, as is his protagonist Frank Bascombe who ruminates on his life in this last of a quartet of Bascomb novels. Gray-haired, a southern white man, and no longer a young literary turk, Ford still has something to say...and often says it exceptionally well.
Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers
A watchmaker tells the story of timekeeping and jewelry...kind of like a farrier telling the history of horses and horseshoes.
The Farwell Tour by Stephanie Clifford
Clifford's new novel touches a lot of country music bases, but more insightfully explores a life looking backward while toting up the final score.
July 2023
Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams
Williams' songs often tell stories of our darker side. Her memoir tells where these stories originated in her life.
Imposter by Bradeigh Godfrey
A Utah physician's first novel, Imposter is an impressive debut. She should put down her stethoscope
Independence Square by Martin Cruz Smith
Smith's detective Renko remains a force in Russia's police world, and this latest in the series takes him to the post-Russian-invasion Crimea and Ukraine while Arkady struggles with early Parkinson's.
Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda
Pochoda's novels pack a Southern California-centric punch that is both entertaining and edgy...as if Jjoan Didion were to write a prison thriller set among LA's homeless.
The Overlooked Americans by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett
Currid-Halkett digs deep into the current states of dense urban centers versus more modestly populated rural centers. Her research, interviews across the country, and conclusions are refreshing and thoughtful. The USA is not as divided as the media presents it. We are not headed to Civil War. People in both centers agree that the USA constitutional republic system works pretty well.
The Peacock and the Sparrow by I. S. Berry
A debut international thriller by a former CIA officer that starts slow but builds to a no-surprise Arab Spring mess.
June 2023
Such Kindness by Andre Dubus, III
Dubus, III doesn't shy from heavy-lift novels about lives turned upside down. This new one, however, is a bit of a lightweight.
Drowning by T. J. Newman
Newman knows how to tell an airplane disaster tale that's as white-knuckling as a 737 engine flameout.
The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore
1500 dense pages of world history and the people who made it. A real reading commitment but fascinating...with lots of "who knew's."
Impossible People by Julia Wertz
A pretty funny NYC graphic memoir about recovery and all that precedes and follows it.
Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar
Grabar goes after our parking obsession with wit, data, and narrative flair.
Bruno Schulz by Benjamin Balint
A fascinating history of this somewhat unheralded Jewish intellectual, artist, writer, and victim of Hitler's regime.
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The latest easy-reading character-driven Napolitano novel won the heart of Oprah.
This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs
A funny (but a little choppy) debut novel by the co-founder of the Bangles.
There Will Be Fire by Rory Carroll
With a thriller pacing and a political mix of IRA culprits, Carroll tells the story of the 1984 Brighton bombing attempt on the life of Margaret Thatcher. Few in the USA remember or even were aware of this potential global threat to world order on a par with the USA 9/11 event.
True West by Robert Greenfield
There are plenty of biographies of the illusive icon Sam Shepard, but this is one of the best.
May 2023
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
Lacey pushes the boundaries of fiction, and this new novel pushes even further than her recent Pew.
A Stranger in Your Own City by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
If you don't know a Sunni from a Shia or Baghdad from Falluja, except in the context of the United States invasion, read this fine history and personal memoir by a man who really knows the territory and tells it like he sees it.
The Society of Shame by Jane Roper
Roper's second novel is entertaining, witty, and maybe a little over the top.
Life Sentence by Mark Bowden
Bowden finds his way to the most interesting stories around the world...and turns them into fascinating narrative books. This is yet another one.
City of Dreams by Don Winslow
A new Winslow is always a treat. This is the second in his Danny ("a leg-breaker, a stickup man and a killer") Ryan trilogy.
I'm Always So Serious by Karisma Price
Price's poems vary in style and structure but are steeped in her native New Orleans, her black experience, and artists from James Baldwin to James "Little" Booker.
Flatback Sally Country by Rachel Custer
Custer's new poetry collection sings the songs of country hollers, broke-down towns, and survivors like Flatback Sally and Tommy Two Fingers. The only hero may be the Wanderer: "But I'm the kind of man needs an escape. / A running truck, a woman I won't mind / bidding goodbye to in the rearview mirror. / Want a steady man? Try my brother."
The Things We Make by Bill Hammack
Hammack takes us on a global, historical tour of significant feats of human advancement...most brought to life by engineers who "figure things out" rather than scientists who have to test and verify over and over.
Gorilla by Lee Stockdale
The first collection of this fine well-traveled poet's work.
Wonder Boy by Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans
The inside biography of Zappos tech wunderkind Tony Hsieh who sadly went off the rails.
Commitment by Mona Simpson
Another smooth-reading family saga from Simpson who knows the territory well.
Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas
An excellent first novel of love and loss.
Eleutheria by Allegra Hyde
A disappointing novel about the inevitable failure of an idealistic protagonist set on finding utopia.
Tell Me One Thing by Kerri Schlottman
Schlottman's excellent first novel is a tale of the struggling NYC artist and the down-and-out subjects of her photographs.
Locust Lane by Stephen Amidon
Crime and punishment in the Boston burbs.
The Long Reckoning by George Black
Black captures both the salient events of the Vietnam War, and more importantly, the long recovery aftermath where the damage wreaked upon the people of Vietnam carries through generations. First-rate history of a second-rate war.
April 2023
City Walls by Lore Estleman
Why in the world would Estleman's Detroit-loving Amos Walker go to Cleveland for his next case? Follow the money.
Commitment by Mona Simpson
When Simpson gets her teeth into a cross-country family saga, cancel everything and dig in.
Take What You Need by Idra Novey
Like her previous novels, Novey's latest packs a lot in a small package. Take What You Need is a marvel!
The Weight by Jeff Boyd
A so-so first novel about a black musician in white Portland.
Picasso the Foreigner by Annie Cohen-Solal
In this time of mass migration across the world, Cohen-Solal's detailed biography of Picasso focuses on his place as a Spanish immigrant in France. Never turn away immigrants, for there may be Picassos among them.
My Nemesis by Charmaine Craig
Craig's new novel is a taut, tough story of how relationships go astray...with a Francis Bacon-like cover to boot.
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
A Booker nominee, Schwartz's first novel tells of early feminists carving identities for themselves and for the women who followed...all in the context of the works of Sappho.
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
I'm late to Korelitz's Latecomer, but this is a fine, long, rewarding novel.
What Have We Done by Alex Finlay
Finley's latest thriller rocks.
The Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
Wiener's workplace memoir tells of the not-so-happy life in the Silicon Valley fast lane.
The Maltese Iguana by Tim Dorsey
It's hard to believe that Dorsey is still backseat driving with those wacko sidekicks Serge and Coleman. After a couple dozen Florida adventures, our toked and rambling buddies now take a post-Covid romp through the swamp with the CIA on their tails.
March 2023
In Love by Amy Bloom
Few memoirs are really good. This is one of those that outshines the genre.
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
After her well-regarded novel The Great Believers, Makkai goes to prep school and into podcasts in this one.
Lapidarium by Hettie Judah
What a nice little book this is...chock full of rock lore from "Sacred Stones" to "Living Stones" (alas, no Rolling Stones).
Storm Watch by C. J. Box
Who doesn't like C J Box? A new Joe Pickett is not to be missed.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
If both Sarah and The New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner rave about this novel, you know it's got to be exceptional...and it is.
Unscripted by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams
While everyone compares the Redstone dynasty to Succession, it is wise to remember Tolstoy ("Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"). This is an in-depth and fascinating story of an entrepreneurial family and its public company's downfall, but I'm sure there is a similar story behind almost any company (large or small) and its founder's family.
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
Beagin's first two novels were a bit quirky, but in this one she goes bigger and funnier.
The Novelist by Jordan Castro
A slight, funny, wonderful debut novel about the perils of writing a novel among online distractions...and rife with numerous digressions. Castro is a writer to watch.
My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin
Florin's not-so-special coming-of-age first novel tracks romantic life at an elite college where privilege and power go hand in hand. The cover, however, is dynamite.
Couplets by Maggie Millner
A debut story about young-ish love in dramatic, sexy, funny rhymed couplets and intermittent step-back prose.
Blaze Me a Sun by Christoffer Carlsson
Not just another Swedish crime novel (all small town and snowy), Carlsson's USA debut displays a mastery of character and plot that rises above the limits of the genre.
February 2023
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Historical fiction is not my jam; but Harding's latest novel is an intriguing little gem.
Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
Harper's latest LA noir novel rivals her hot titled winner She Rides Shotgun.
Lech by Sara Lippmann
A first novel set in upstate New York by an award-winning short story writer. Lippmann deserves a bigger audience. Her writing startles, amuses, and makes one pause in wonder.
Ghost Season by Fatin Abbas
If you think the USA/Mexico border is troubled, take a look at the North Sudan/South Sudan border as deftly described in Abbas's first novel.
Foster by Claire Keegan
Keegan's latest novella set in Ireland is another masterpiece of precision and concision.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Keegan's Booker shortlist trim little novel is its own carefully worded, tight "small thing."
White Hot Light by Frank Huyler
This is a terrific collection of essays by a poet who also is a mid-career Emergency Department physician. It may not sound appealing, but this one is not to miss. True stories about all the ways the human body can fail while healthcare professionals do their thing tell us more about fragile life than much fiction does.
Small World by Laura Zigman
Zigman's fiction keeps getting tighter and better. This new one is excellent.
And Finally by Henry Marsh
Neurosurgeon Marsh has a flair for writing as seen in his memoir Do No Harm. This latest book is a thoughtful, personal look at how we approach death as illustrated by how he faces his own cancer diagnosis. This one's not for the TikTok generation still dancing into the future.
The Cloisters by Katy Hays
A solid first novel set among the treasures of Upper Manhattan's Cloisters Museum. It is a story about art and the ambition of a young woman freshly credentialed with a BA in Renaissance Art History.
The Hunter by Jennifer Herrera
A suspenseful debut thriller. Dig in.
Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder
Nobody explores a subject as incisively as Kidder, and this in-depth look at the life and work of Dr. Jim O'Connell caring for those living and dying on our streets is Kidder at his best.
This Afterlife by A. E. Stallings
A smartly selected overview of the somewhat formalist, intellectual but sensitive, sometimes amusing poems of a poet who continues to impress. "The glass does not break because it is glass...It breaks because / It is dropped, and falls hard, because it hits / Bottom, and because nobody catches it."
Lungfish by Meghan Gilliss
Gilliss's first novel is an innovatively written story set in Maine by a writer who lives in Portland. What's up with all these excellent writers from Maine?
The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley
A TV comedy show writer tries her hand at fiction in this first novel featuring a smart, snide black woman in Brooklyn.
The Edge of the Plain by James Crawford
While Frost suggested that "good fences make good neighbors," Crawford shows how the history of mutating borders made for warlike, antagonistic neighbors. Like dogs peeing on their trees, we humans are territorial animals.
January 2023
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami
A spare, incisive novel about a Tokyo copy editor who decides to become someone else in a city and country where becoming someone else is frowned upon.
Two Nurses, Smoking by David Means
Great title for a collection of great stories by the inimitable Means.
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
Toews' latest novel is a moving and funny tale of feisty women narrated by an equally feisty, precocious nine-year-old girl. This is one of Toew's very best novels.
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan
A fine, short horse novel for anyone who's ever mucked a stall.
Bub by Drew Bratcher
Hard to pass up this essay collection from the land of "Red Necks, White Sox, and Blue Ribbon Beer" with the compelling title Bub. Bratcher traces his musical evolution as he drifted from Nashville to Chicago (with a short stop in Wichita as Editor at the now long-gone Wichita magazine.)
Normal Distance by Elisa Gabbert
Poet Gabbert's new collection is quirky, funny, sad, and pensive to the extreme. From Desiderata: "I'll go gentle into that good night if I fucking want to."
The Midcoast by Adam White
A nicely done (if a bit overwrought) debut novel set on coastal, touristy quaint Maine. What is it with Maine and writers finding a welcome home there (e.g. Richard Russo, Stephen King, etc.)?
Bold Ventures by Charlotte Van den Broeck
In these absorbing essays, Belgian poet Van den Broeck muses on the buildings and tragic lives of thirteen architects whose creations became their downfalls. Woven into the narrative are autobiographical bits and pieces of the struggles of a creative life: "In the suicides of these architects, am I searching for false idols, forerunners, allies, to push me to a similar end when total failure hits me?"
The American Caliph by Shahan Mufti
Mufti's nonfiction history of a little-known 1977 Muslim attack in Washington, DC reads like a contemporary thriller streaming on Netflix.
Bloodbath Nation by Paul Auster
To his credit, the fine novelist Auster chooses to reflect on gun violence in these personal, pragmatic, compassionate essays rather than letting these thoughts and opinions clutter up a novel.
Tell Me I'm an Artist by Chelsea Martin
Martin brings to life a smart, funny, often confused Bay Area art student and her colleagues.
After Darke by Rick Gekoski
The third and final novel in Gekoski's wonderful Darke trilogy is a fine concluding tale of the late life of the curmudgeonly protagonist Dr. James Darke. With British erudition and wit, Darke is a mix of the unnamed narrator of Notes from the Underground and Melville's reluctant Bartleby. Sadly, Gegoski's Darke novels don't have the following in the USA that they deserve.
Beyond Measure by James Vincent
Norton does it again with this fascinating history of the human need to measure things...an inch is as good as a mile.
Desert Star by Michael Connelly
Connelly is so good that even when he's slightly off his A game (like here), he's still one of our best.
To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis
What a way to begin a new year of reading! And what a terrific collection of poetry and archival photos of a Louisiana black family's migration to California over a slice of the 20th century. Lewis opens doors for us all. "My poetry skipping, / My bells rung in hot haste-- / Engines fire all together. Fresh Sparks."
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Shapiro deserves all the rave reviews for this new novel. She's earned the kudos.
Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hamalainen
A professor at Oxford, Hamalainen elucidates the history of the United States colonizers' relationship with the indigenous Amerindian people who first roamed and ruled this country's vast lands. Perhaps it takes the curiosity and openmindedness (and sheer scholarly perseverance) of someone outside the United States to teach those of us inside what we were seldom taught. Must reading.
An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy
A debut crime novel set in NYC's antiquarian book world. Old books and New York Lawyers...what can go wrong? Murphy's got a healthy Lawrence Block feel for NYC, and his protagonist has a wisp of Matt Scudder about him. Good stuff here.
December 2022
Paperback Jack by Loren D. Estleman
Estleman may have published more novels in more genres than anyone else still pounding a keyboard. This one sports a great title and tells a good historical noir paperback story.
Bravo Company by Ben Kesling
Kesling's extraordinary first book about the Afghan War is already a classic that compares favorably to Michael Herr's stunning exploration of the Vietnam War in Dispatches. I wish every high school junior would read it, and a good teacher could facilitate discussion of how the culture and "mission" of the military affect many of its participants forever.
Activities of Daily Living by Lisa Hsiao Chen
A quirky first novel about a reclusive, lonely artist in NYC and a world where making a life seems to require a succession of projects that give structure to our daily doings.
A History of Present Illness by Anna DeForest
A short first novel by a Neurologist/Palliative Care doc featuring a plucky, sometimes mouthy med student who takes patient care painfully seriously while many of her fellow students speculate about the best first luxury car to buy.
The Last Folk Hero by Jeff Pearlman
My reading jumps from Paul Newman to Bo Jackson...both icons in their fields with the usual foibles of the rest of us mere mortals. Jackson was so athletically gifted that his exploits have become word-of-mouth mythology by those who actually saw him in action.
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man by Paul Newman
Newman was not your usual Hollywood star, and this collection of taped interviews and thoughtful snippets tells why. Even superstars have their not-so-superstar doubts and demons.
The Last Chairlift by John Irving
I'm not sure that I'm ready for the latest Irving novel running over 900 pages; but he does tell a good story, and this one touches all his hot buttons and autobiographical fixations. Unfortunately, both the hefty size of the book itself and the hefty narrative baggage have caused me to abandon this one.
Long Corner by Alexander Maksik
A nice discovery, this sharp novel about art, contemporary life in NYC, and the cliched language of the consumption world is well worth taking a look.
First Love by Gwendoline Riley
A beautiful cover for an interesting novel about marriage, family, and stress set in the UK.
2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus
Kalfus's new novel tells of a man who's abandoned a future (?) unlivable United States to start over as an expat where he hopes to make sense of himself and to find a way of life more to his liking.
The Family Izquierdo by Ruben Degollado
Degollado's collection of stories traces a large McAllen, Texas family which crossed over from Reynosa, Mexico and built a life. It is a family with a complex life like everyone's but rooted in Mexican culture and the easily shifted languages of those who live on the border.
The Boys by Katie Hafner
What a wise and entertaining story! Hafner's first novel is one of my best new writer discoveries.
The Deceptions by Jill Bialosky
Bialosky is a wonder. Poet, novelist, memoirist, and long-time Executive Editor at Norton (the most respected publisher in the USA), she puts it all here in a new novel reflecting on art, marriage, love, parenthood, and the masks we wear.
Carnality by Lina Wolff
A Swedish author new to me, but this second novel set in Spain is a great discovery. More please.
November 2022
Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer
Two young women head to NYC in the late 90s and find everything they dreamed of...and much that they didn't.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout's fiction never misses, so don't miss this new novel featuring our friends Lucy Barton and her William.
Mexican Postcards by Carlos Monsivais
An older book, but there are few better overviews of the heart of Mexico.
Billie Starr's Book of Sorries by Deborah E. Kennedy
Kennedy's second novel of small-town Indiana intrigue is clever, entertaining, and downright funny.
A Grito Contest in the Afterlife by Vincent Antonio Rendoni
A great poetry collection selected by the talented Dorianne Laux for the 2022 Catamaran Prize.
Trickster by James W. Hall
Hall's crime series featuring Florida Keys private dick Thorn is better than Elmore Leonard's Florida stuff, but Hall doesn't get near the attention and acclaim. He deserves more.
The Unfolding by A. M. Homes
If you are not already overwhelmed by a nasty world where everything is sanctimoniously political, at least Homes takes a shot at being funny about it.
Bad Day Breaking by John Galligan
Galligan's rural Wisconsin Bad Axe crime series gets better and better.
Other People's Secrets by Meredith Hambrock
A first novel by a Canadian writer to watch.
The Bad Angel Brothers by Paul Theroux
The prolific Theroux really shines in his fiction. This one is a bit of a Brothers Karamazov for today.
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Escoffery's strong debut collection of stories set in a Miami Jamaican 'hood tells a similar tale of growing up on the fringes...a collection as rich as Bryan Washington's much-lauded debut Lot
October 2022
Hystopia by David Means
I'm coming late to Mean's 2016 debut (Booker long-listed) novel about the USA in all that 60s turmoil. Better late than never.
What's Prison For by Bill Keller
A brief well-reasoned analysis of the USA's prison system and its inherent failures.
Aug 9 - Fog by Kathryn Scanlan
Scanlan's spare collection of edited and selected 1968-1972 diary entries of a central Illinois woman in her late 80s may be the ultimate way to create poetry from life...and life out of poetry. It's hard to get these simple observations of sickness, weather, friendship, and death out of one's head.
The Wheel of Doll by Jonathan Ames
Ames's new Happy Doll noir tale of crime in Los Angeles is another winner.
Me and Paul by Willie Nelson
How can one not love Willie Nelson's stories about his wingman Paul English...especially if you've kicked around Texas a bit?
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell
Great title from Jelly Roll Morton and a great first novel with a little jazz, a little sex, and some fine writing.
If Walls Could Speak by Moshe Safdie
Safdie's illustrated memoir is a fascinating look into modern architecture and the vision of those who practice it...particularly, of course, Safdie himself. The man who apprenticed with Louis Kahn and brought us our own Exploration Place, Crystal Bridges Museum, and the iconic Singapore Marina Bay Sands is a thoughtful, interesting guy.
Beyond Belief by John Koethe
Koethe lives around a couple of corners from me, but I discovered his poetry quite by accident. Now I'm a big fan, and this new collection shows why.
Like a Rolling Stone by Jann S. Wenner
Before there was the internet, those of us who came of age in the 60s had The Whole Earth Catalog and Rolling Stone to tell us what was happening and how to live. For these cool resources we had Stewart Brand and Jann Wenner to thank. Of the two, Brand is the more rational and wise but Wenner may be the most entertaining...albeit perhaps not 600 pages of narcissistic memoir entertaining. Still, Rolling Stone chronicled the zeitgeist for a long time and Wenner's book shows why.
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
Barnes' new novel is concise but expansive...and a bit too heavy on the lives of historical kingpins of philosophy and religion.
The Great Man Theory by Teddy Wayne
Whiting Award-winner Wayne's new novel tracks an ironic, over-thinking, angry, unpleasant, and untethered Brooklyn academic protagonist...a pretty real-world observation of the species.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I'm late to this popular debut novel. Better late than never.
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
Green's new southern crime novel is all about Savannah...its history and its secretive families.
On Java Road by Lawrence Osborne
Hong Kong itself is a mystery; but in the able hands of Osborne, it breeds even more mysteries among its expat citizens.
September 2022
The New Neighbor by Karen Cleveland
Former CIA analyst Cleveland continues her fiction streak of domestic drama among those doing the down and dirty for the US government. However, this latest is a bit lame.
Do No Harm by Robert Pobi
When it comes to thriller/crime novels, few write them better than Pobi. Tricked out in prosthetics, his astrophysicist protagonist Lucas Page is the most unique investigator since Parker's Spenser and Block's NYC-roaming Matt Scudder.
Sugar Street by Jonathan Dee
Dee's smart new novel skewers the United States in a scary, funny story of a hapless guy who tries to go off the grid.
The Deal Goes Down by Larry Beinhart
In this latest Tony Casella crime novel, Beinhart sends his crusty old detective back into trouble despite his quiet life in Woodstock, NY.
Kiki Man Ray by Mark Braude
Art, romance, and living large in Paris in the 1920s...who else but the model, muse, wild and crazy Kiki.
All That Moves Us by Jay Wellons
A pediatric neurosurgeon writes with heart, style, and wit about life and death in one of the most challenging health care specialties.
The Catch by Alison Fairbrother
A debut novel where a confused Washington DC millennial wannbe journalist confronts the real world and her real family history.
Avalon by Nell Zink
Zink can tell a good story about interesting mostly good characters.
August 2022
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor
In her tight new novel, Mexican novelist Melchor writes with beautiful never-ending sentences about two people of very different classes working and living in a gated community in the state of Veracruz.
Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman
Perhaps Fesperman's best thriller set in Berlin in the late 70s and early 80s.
The Odyssey by Lara Williams
The NYT's Molly Young describes this funny novel best: " Read if you like: Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, artificial flavors, avoidant behavior, wondering what a 'lifestyle' is and whether you have one."
Yell, Sam, If You Still Can by Maylis Besserie
A wonderful first novel imaging the last year of the great Samuel Beckett stuck in a Paris nursing home. If you love Beckett, you'll love this. If you don't know Beckett, Besserie's novel will send you to learn everything Beckett that you can...plays, novels, and four tomes of letters. But regardless, read this one if only to learn about the indignities and challenges of end-of-life care.
The Forgery by Ave Barrera
A fascinating novel in translation centered on the historical Mexican architects and artists of Guadalajara.
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb
Nothomb's slight novel in translation is an amusing story of a gaijin white woman working a one year contract at a giant Japanese corporation.
The Goldenacre by Philip Miller
A wonderful novel about Scottish artists, curators, and museums with a mystery to boot. Miller is a great new find for me.
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
A real-life bittersweet septuagenarian rom-com/health care-angst memoir by a queen of rom-coms with a familial run of bad health luck.
The Khan by Saima Mir
An excellent crime novel featuring the Pakistani community on the streets of London.
The Not Yet Fallen World by Stephen Dunn
Although I've read many of these poems before, Dunn is always worth re-reading and the new ones are excellent. Alas, with his recent death, this is the last we'll hear from this fine poet.
Circus of Dreams by John Walsh
Former Sunday Times literary editor Walsh, chronicles the effervescence and excess of literary London in the 80s when the likes of Martin Amis and Graham Swift became the UK version of the USA literary "brat pack." He had a seat at the pub with most of all of them...and, alas, is a little too much pleased with himself for it.
Because Our Fathers Lied by Craig McNamara
While U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was orchestrating the Vietnam War, his son was caught in the 1960s war between the young and the old. This memoir captures that troubled time in U.S. history that was perhaps even more divisive than today's political Red vs Blue skirmishes...battlegrounds were real for many, not just social media snits and political rancor.
July 2022
Bitch by Lucy Cooke
Cooke's latest is funny zoology and biology that follows the female through evolution rather than the male. As Harry Belafonte wrote and sang:
"Ah, ever since the world began
Woman was always teaching man
And if you listen to my bid attentively
I goin' tell you how she smarter than he"
Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress
Angress's fine first novel follows a quartet of young artists in a prestigious New England art school as they compete, connect, romance, and quarrel with each other.
A Secret about a Secret by Peter Spiegelman
I need a summer thriller, and Spiegelman's latest is just the thing.
The Church of Baseball by Ron Shelton
The inside scoop of how Shelton came to make perhaps the best baseball movie of all time against all odds...and his first as writer/director. Talk about a rookie making it to the bigs with so-so stuff but throwing a no-no.
Husbandry by Matthew Dickman
Dickman's new collection confirms his respected place among contemporary poets...even though these couplets are the troubling thoughts of a single dad of small kids after his wife left him. Bummer, maybe, but a fair amount of sunlight peaks through the clouds.
Lucky Turtle by Bill Roorbach
Roorbach is a great storyteller, and this new novel is one of his best.
Valleyesque by Fernando A. Flores
A short collection of strange stories by a Tex/Mex author unafraid to name his first two books Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas and Tears of the Trufflepig. As one critic describes these new stories, they are "psychedelic, dazzling stories set in the cracks of the Texas-Mexico borderlands."
Also a Poet by Ada Calhoun
Calhoun's first book (St. Mark's Is Dead) was a street level memoir of growing up in her corner of lower Manhattan. This new book is also memoirish, but this time focused on her art critic father Peter Schjeldahl and his aborted biography of Frank O'Hara.
Friend of the Devil by Stephen Lloyd
Great cover on this new thriller; however a few too many incantations, demons, and cults for my taste.
The Last Days of Roger Federer by Geoff Dyer
Dyer's collection of musings about coming to the end is classic Dyer: funny, warm, personal, and perceptive.
The Red Arrow by William Brewer
An ambitious first novel featuring a pensive depressive by a one-book poet (albeit, a bit of a paragaphy novel). I respect Brewer's bravery.
June 2022
Companion Piece by Ali Smith
After her extraordinary Seasonal Quartet of novels, Smith's new one is equally dynamic. She's a wonder.
Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer by Philip Watson
Six hundred pages of biography about the life of the low-key jazz guitarist Bill Frisell may seem like overkill, but to followers of modern jazz, Frisell is all she wrote about making the guitar an integral part of jazz ensembles and solos. He can shred with the rock guitarist gods and goddesses, but quietly and uniquely.
Either / Or by Elif Batuman
If you enjoy Batuman's New Yorker pieces but haven't tried her fiction, check out this new novel (memoir?) for its wisdom and laughs...then go back and read about the same characters in her first novel The Idiot.
Someday the Plan of a Town by Todd Boss
A new collection of poems after Boss had some troubles, chucked it all, and wandered the world letting his poetry calm the personal waters.
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone
Pavone's international thrillers rumble down the runways of the world with a cast of characters snarled in escapades that don't untangle until the last page. This one is the dope and perhaps his best.
Fans First by Jesse Cole
The Savannah Bananas ballclub is the Grateful Dead of baseball. Their exuberant owner follows the Dead's fan first approach providing entertainment and free stuff that their competition chooses to rigorously control. The Bananas don't have a free TikTok tapers section in the box seats, but who knows, maybe that is their next move.
The Guardian Angel of Lawyers by Laura Chalar
I mistakingly thought the title was "The Guardian Angel from Lawyers" and got all excited. Instead, this is a fine collection of stories translated by the Montevideo author herself (who is, alas, also a lawyer).
Graceland by Chris Abani
Poet, novelist, exile...Abani tells a rambling tale of growing up in rambling Lagos.
Revenge of the Scapegoat by Caren Beilin
You can't pass up this smart, funny, raw novel by the author of the awesomely titled nonfiction work: Blackfishing the IUD.
City on Fire by Don Winslow
Winslow is good. With the lowlife street-savvy of George V. Higgins, this latest sweeping novel features the mobbed-up Irish and Italians of Providence, Rhode Island who, like the Trojans, go to war over a beautiful woman.
Ferlinghetti by Neeli Cherkovski
I missed this 1979 biography of the poet, beat, and founder of City Lights bookstore and publisher. He died at 102 last year, so it seems a good time to read this now updated story of his extraordinary life.
On Quality by Robert Pirsig
Pirsig had a troubled, scattered life except for his one masterpiece: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. His widow has decided that now is the time for this posthumous collection of odds and ends that he wrote over the years. Sadly, there is nothing new or interesting here. Read Zen again if you want to feed a Pirsig jones.
Hourglass by Keiran Goddard
A lyrical, funny, concise first novel of love and loss.
Post-traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson
A bit rambling first novel but with a great cover.
May 2022
Liar by Jessica Cuello
A new Cuello collection of excellent poems
This Old Man by Roger Angell
Recently deceased premier sportswriter Angell provides a "dog's breakfast" of his work over decades and decades of first-rate sports journalism...and etc. Well worth a re-read!
The Dark Flood by Deon Meyer
Like all his crime novels featuring Cape Town detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido, Meyer's latest is terrific. Other than the sprawling Cape setting, they remind me of K.C. Constantine's Mario Balzac novels...strong praise indeed.
Homesickness by Colin Barrett
After an award-winning debut novel, Barrett's new collection of stories may be even better.
Passersthrough by Peter Rock
Rock's latest novel transcends its ghost story backdrop to become a solid story of families and their generations.
Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves
A strong second collection from Whiting Award-winning poet Reeves.
Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon
Chaon's new novel is a little bit dystopia, a little bit crime thriller, and a lot of entertainment.
Shine Bright by Danyel Smith
Growing up in the 70s in Oakland, Smith cut her teeth on black women pop singers and groups. She knows what's what right up to the present and gives these women their due.
Search by Michelle Huneven
What better place for the talented Huneven to have her way with the world than in this new novel's church pastor search committee setting?
One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips
Phillips' crime novel set in 1960s L.A. is unfortunately too much Civil Rights movement and not enough crime.
A Dream Life by Claire Messud
A nice little gem of a new novel by the critic and much-admired novelist Messud.
April 2022
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
Why have I never read any McKinty? Don Winslow and several other crime novelists whom I like swear he is the best, so I've decided to start with this 2019 McKinty novel of a kidnapping chain.
Berg by Ann Quinn
Just recently, I read about this mid-century experimental British writer, so I'm happy that this novel has been reprinted. Dostoevsky comes to Great Britain.
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
A solid first novel that's part heist thriller, part art history, and part Chinese diaspora cultural conflicts.
Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe
McCabe's long new novel in verse is full-on Irish mania. Comparisons with Joyce and Beckett are not out of line.
Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor
Former college and pro footballer, Cranor's debut is a tight thriller set, where else, on a small-town Arkansas high school football field.
Snow Approaching on the Hudson by August Klenzahler
I'm just catching up on the latest Kleinzahler collection of this great, but unfortunately little-known, poet.
Mecca by Susan Straight
Straight's new novel takes some time to get rolling, but once going, it is a deep take on Southern California's central valley, deserts and arroyos, and the history of those from elsewhere who labor to make it what it is.
Heat and Light by Jennifer Haigh
I liked Haigh's Mercy Street so much that I went back to this earlier novel about rural Pennsylvania's sad history of fossil fuel drilling and mining. A bit more political than Mercy, its strength is a similar nuanced description of the people who work in the trenches of the modern USA.
The Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger
A great sports biography of the Mav's one and only 7-foot baller.
Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse by William Neuman
There are lessons in oil-rich, once hip Venezuela's fall into chaos and economic stagnation. Neuman's top-shelf narrative prose illustrates them with style, wisdom, and a bit of strong story-telling. He's also chosen a title exactly fitting to the current global morass.
An Island by Karen Jennings
I was lucky to get an early read of this South African writer's very good, Booker longlisted new novel.
March 2022
Tides by Sara Freeman
Another exceptional first novel - this one featuring an unhinged woman on the lam from family, friends, and the past and told in concise, lyrical, and alert prose.
Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades
A not bad first novel set in NYC's Queens borough among multi-ethnic girls finding their way to middle age with laughs, struggle, and dreams.
Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett
No sophomore slump, Bennett's second novel after the extraordinary Pond is of equal quality. She's special.
Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh
Haigh's excellent new novel covers the comings and goings of a Boston abortion clinic where life and death are really about life and death.
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
Hallett's first novel is told in an unspooling giant file of trial and discovery documents that gradually reveal character flaws and the path to resolving on appeal who really did the crime. What fun.
Shadows Reel by C. J. Box
After twenty-two novels featuring Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett, you might think Box would run out of gas (or mountain ranges or poachers or sociopaths); but no, this latest is as entertaining as his first Open Season. Marybeth and the Pickett girls are again in trouble and Joe's buddy Nate is intent on another falconry adventure. Good stuff.
MacArthur Park by Judith Freeman
Freeman is a pro who has honed her fiction voice to tell a good story, create interesting characters, and prod one's thinking.
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
Poet Garcia's first novel is about motherhood, immigration, women's choices, and all the salty seas, tears, and superstitious over-the-shoulder tosses that come with them.
Free Love by Tessa Hadley
The title of Hadley's new novel echoes her 2012 story collection Married Love, but it has a more freewheeling vigor to it...much like the era in which it is set.
How High? -- That High by Diane Williams
Much awarded short story writer, Williams squeezes the whole everyday world of relationships into these new very short stories (minimalism to the max) that are funny, edgy, a little off plumb with a drift into the absurd.
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
Another smart and funny debut novel that transcends Jonas's MFA background.
That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry
Irishman Barry's latest story collection is fresh, fine, funny, wise, and concise.
Duende by Quincy Troupe
Poet, biographer, music dude...Troupe has done it all. This collection nicely covers his 50 years of poetry.
Mermaid Confidential by Tim Dorsey
Like the Rolling Stones, Serge and Coleman should be getting too old for Dorsey's screwing around. But it's hard not to bop and slop when Jumpin' Jack Flash comes on your stream or hoot and holler as Coleman rolls a fatty while Serge explains the history of Florida condo life.
Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
Wang's first novel Chemistry was terrific. This second lives up to the first.
February 2022
Indigo by Padgett Powell
A collection of Powell's best over the last three decades. He is a star in our writing universe who needs more acclaim. Even if you've read some of these, read them again.
Brood by Jackie Polzin
A first novel focused on the care and comfort of chickens and the art of chicken farming and marriage. Well done, Polzin!
Bad Moon Rising by John Galligan
This third in Galligan's Heidi Kick Wisconsin crime series has a cast of bad guys that are hard to follow and too far over the edge.
The Things They Fancied by Molly Young
Newest New York Times book reviewer Young is as funny and smart in this small press zine about how the rich spent their money through the ages as she is in her reviews. Find it. Buy it. Read it.
All the Water I've Seen Is Running by Elias Rodriques
Rodriques's debut novel is a coming-of-age story of young mixed-race boys on Florida's north coast.
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
Nothing like a short novel that packs a punch. This is one of the recent best.
Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby
A debut story collection that has its moments...but mostly doesn't.
Sea State by Tabitha Lasley
Lasley's memoir and a first book is both a profile of the men who work on and off the North Sea oil rigs and her own personal romantic vulnerability.
little scratch by Rebecca Watson
A year old now, Watson's excellent debut novel is a Joycean day-in-the-life, word-scattered picture (literally) of a young London woman's workday at a newspaper.
God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
I'm not sure why I decided I needed to read this 450-page history of the concept of God, but I'm glad I did. The consistently laudatory reviews by those I trust were right. This is a quite remarkable book.
Cutthroat Dogs by Loren D. Estleman
It's hard to believe how many books Estleman has written; they take up four of my bookshelves. The best are his Page Murdock westerns and those featuring Detroit's Amos Walker. This latest Walker shows that the old gumshoe may have lost a step, but he gets his man.
Literary Alchemist by Steve Paul
It's great to have Kansas City's book critic and writer Steve Paul taking on the life story of perhaps the least famous but best novelist to come out of Kansas City (take that Hemingway!).
The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard
A new Mitchard novel usually warms a cold, cold winter. Unfortunately, this one is a little slow and melodramatic.
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Kitamura just keeps getting better. This new novel is a reader's treat.
Bad Axe by James W. Hall
Hall's Florida Keys crime novels featuring the volatile but chill Thorn moves across the country in this latest.
Secrets of Happiness by Joan Silber
Silber's new novel is one of her best.
January 2022
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer
Wolitzer's extraordinary fiction history is exemplified in this collection of her stories over the years. Now in her nineties, she's a wonder.
Walking Through Needles by Heather Levy
Levy's first novel is psychological family noir set in dusty Oklahoma. A good premise that fails a bit in the telling.
Lean Fall Stand by Jon Mcgregor
Multi-award winner Mcgregor's new novel is a masterful, innovative story opening with a dangerous polar gale in the nowhere of Antarctica and closing with a family back in England struggling to manage its patriarch's rehab from a storm-induced stroke.
Skinship by Yoon Choi
A much-awarded debut story collection about Korean immigrant customs and families.
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
Askaripour's first novel is funny, hopping, Bed-Stuy storytelling about a savvy black man taking on the money guys at their own game...and paying a personal price.
Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn
St. Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels are a tough act to follow, but this new novel may be the one to relaunch his mojo.
Site Fidelity by Claire Boyles
Just when you might think Boyle's debut story collection is getting strangled in her environmental zeal, her writing talent and sense of character save her. I'm excited to see where her talent takes her next.
Some People Let You Down by Mike Alberti
Alberti's debut story collection is first-rate fiction set in the dying small towns of the USA. Keep your eyes on him...he's going to write something even more remarkable in the future.
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Moreno-Garcia's latest novel is Mexican noir set among the unsettled 1970s youth in Mexico City.
A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan
Morgan's debut novel casts a wry eye on social media, celebrity, and how we do what we do these days.
Godspeed by Nickolas Butler
Our sage of the upper Midwest, Butler looks to Wyoming for this excellent new novel about mostly men at work and play. Drugs, money, mountains, and hot springs envelope some plain old hammer and saw contractors.
The Pledge by Kathleen Kent
Kent's third crime novel featuring Dallas cop Betty Rhyzyk is the best one yet.
Burning Boy by Paul Auster
I've been postponing this 700 page Auster biography of Stephen Crane. But it's Auster, and I'll read anything he writes...even if it is a very long tribute to a writer who lived a very short life. Perhaps there is some kind of literary rule that the shorter the life, the longer the biography (e.g. John Keats, Rupert Brooke, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, etc).
The Field by Robert Seethaler
Austrian actor, screenwriter, and novelist Seethaler's moving fictional tale of characters reflecting on their lives from beyond the grave has won numerous international awards...kind of a German Our Town.
We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins
A first book chronicle of the digital network of news sleuths and scoop-posters by Bellingcat's founder. A taste of journalism as it evolves and probably will soon be everywhere.
Double Solitaire by Craig Nova
Under the popular radar, veteran novelist Nova enters the crime genre with this first in a series featuring Los Angeles "fixer" Quinn Farrell. Maybe this excellent novel will bring him the audience he deserves.
The Gilded Edge by Catherine Prendergast
In her first book, Prendergast chronicles the fascinating lives, shenanigans, and suicides of early 1900 bohemians in northern California...well before the mid-century beats, hippies, and deadhead made it their playground.
Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson
This second novel by Johnson is even more entertaining than her first Be Frank with Me.
December 2021
The Loft Generation by Edith Schloss
Artist and critic Schloss hobnobbed with all these NYC mid-century geniuses, bad boys and girls, and urban legends. Her memoir is an entertaining look at all the goings-on among them.
Born in Blackness by Howard W. French
With bold flair French rewrites modern history to upend the notion that white Western Europeans drove the innovation and "discovery" bus. Instead, the history of Africa and enslaved Africans suggests that they may have been the real engine of global modernism. This comprehensive study is not to be missed.
The Guide by Peter Heller
Another great novel by an evolving master.
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Whitehead's fiction cuts a wide swath. This new novel marries a crime novel with the history of Harlem.
Dark Harvest by Joseph Millar
Millar's a true pro, and this new volume highlights his best poems of the past and several strong new ones.
The Despair of Monkeys and Other Trifles by Francoise Hardy
There was a time when all the cool kids sat around smoking Gauloises and listening to beautiful Francoise Hardy's sexy, sultry voice. This 2018 somewhat pedestrian chronological memoir suggests that she was just a regular woman of her time...albeit a knock-out whom even Mick Jagger could hardly resist.
Ways to Beg by T. J. Sandella
Sandella's debut poetry collection roams from viewers of teen slasher movies whom he advises "that if you live long enough life is mostly washing dishes" to a long detailed meditation on the painful, awkward stages of the seven-day process of his mother's death. Only when he dabbles in the political do his poems lose their edge and swim in the zeitgeist.
The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly
Connelly remains in top form with this latest Renee and Harry novel. He just plain never misses.
Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout
Every Strout novel is a treat. This new one is no exception. Once again, she visits previous characters as they age and deal with the inevitable slings and arrows.
The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish
A solid new novel about coming of age in Boston by a writer growing his chops.
Always Crashing in the Same Car by Matthew Specktor
Entertaining essays about life in LA by a long-time native journalist and writer.
November 2021
The Every by Dave Eggers
Eggers' latest novel takes over where his The Circle left off. His version of the ubiquitous metaversal monopoly called The Every combines good storytelling with his usual satiric twist...but he does go on and on.
I Take My Coffee Black by Tyler Merritt
Merritt is a "Renaissance Man" who also is very funny, thoughtful, optimistic...and a black man who cuts to the quick about being a black man in the USA.
Damascus Station by David McCloskey
The new debut international thriller that everyone is talking about...and rightly so. McCloskey knows his spycraft shit, and more importantly, writes a helluva story.
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
Franzen's newest hefty novel is the first of a planned trilogy. Let's hope he lives long enough to finish it.
The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski
At 900 pages and $40, Posnanski's mini-bios of his picks for the 100 best ballplayers ever is a big commitment for a baseball book. But it is so worth it. Posnanski did his homework, has a great sense of humor, turns stats into on-field action, and loves the game...showboating, PEDs, sign-stealing, and all. This is the one baseball book you have to have.
Play Nice But Win by Michael Dell
Michael Dell's life is fascinating. His mano-a-mano dust-up with Carl Icahn to take his company private and rebuild it according to his vision of a multi-channel tech world is even more fascinating.
Outlawed by Anna North
North's new novel takes us to the old west where a band of barren women and their charismatic leader ride the range as a new Hole in the Wall gang.
October 2021
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Considerably shorter than his blockbuster The Overstory, Powers' new novel tells a good story but buries it too much in esoteric astro-fantasy.
When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash
Another crime novel set in Cash's always complicated South.
A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris
A new novel from the inventive, funny, and slightly sentimental Ferris.
Beauty Mark by Suzanne Cleary
More contemporary poetry from the fringes.
Bones: Inside and Out by Roy A. Meals
Not a clever pseudonym, Meals surname fits this interesting dive into our skeletal frame.
Dublinesque by Enrique Vila-Matas
A bit meta-fictiony, but this is a great little novel about books, publishing, marriage, death, and the intellectual life...European-style.
About Time by David Rooney
Another great Norton nonfiction narrative. Rooney knows (and loves) his clocks...something our kids consider in the same class as typewriters, payphones, stick shifts.
Survival Expo by Caki Wilkinson
And Wilkinson's new collection is as good as the old one.
The Wynona Stone Poems by Caki Wilkinson
I've found another good poet that passed me by. This collection covers the imagined hard luck life of Wynona Stone in a variety of forms, rhythms, and voices. Wilkinson is for real.
The Turnout by Megan Abbott
Abbott's new novel probes the darkness in the world of ballet, blisters, and bulimia...and sisters.
September 2021
The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden by Peter L. Bergen
Now that the USA has run up the white flag on its questionable escapade in Afghanistan, Bergen's biography of bin Laden provides some perspective on the chief target of our two-decade misadventure.
Should We Stay or Should We Go by Lionel Shriver
Shriver's superb fiction doesn't shy from the tough questions, and her latest is a wry, thoughtful take on growing old...and, of course, passing on.
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby
With another drop-dead title after his much-awarded debut Blacktop Wasteland, Cosby continues to explore the lives of blacks navigating the South and its violence and crime.
The Dope by Benjamin T. Smith
Another Norton publishing winner: for perhaps the first time, a serious historian gives us the straight dope on the Mexican dope biz from a humble family farming sideline to a literal cutthroat behemoth protected and skimmed by governments on both sides of the river. Smith covers it all.
The Last Usable Hour by Deborah Landau
I just discovered Deborah Landau with this ten-year-old poetry collection. I want more.
The Bachelor by Andrew Palmer
A clever, haunting, and well-written first novel by a writer to keep an eye on.
Hollywood Eden by Joel Selvin
Longtime SF Chronicle music critic who dissected the Grateful Dead in Fare Thee Well now takes us through those Surfin' Safari - California Dreamin' days that weren't as euphoric as the music implied.
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan
Tasmanian and Booker Prize-winning Flanagan's new novel is a masterpiece about the threads binding family in an age when everything is unraveling.
Skunk Works by Leo Janos and Ben Rich
My entrepreneur/engineer 30-year-old son convinced me that this 1994 book is a great read. He's right.
Second Place by Rachel Cusk
Cusk's latest short novel is a moody story of a woman coming to grips.
The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt
The well-regarded novelist Offutt is going after the crime genre to make a few bucks this time. It turns out that this may be his best novel yet...a hillbilly noir story with poignancy and superb characters.