Meet Me in Another Life ~ Catriona Silvey Thora and Santi meet under a clock tower in central Cologne, and quickly feel a connection. They will be friends, they think, but then there is a tragic accident. Santi is a teacher who dreams of the stars, so when his young student, Thora, says she wants to be an astronaut, he does everything he can to encourage her. Santi is an infant, and Thora is close friends with his mother. Thora and Santi are lovers. Santi and Thora are enemies. Again and again, Thora and Santi come together in Cologne, near the clock tower, and eventually they start remembering these past…

Woodworking ~ Emily St. James Erica is a recently divorced 35 year old High School teacher who is trying to come to terms with her identity. She lives her life as a man, has a mustache, wears men’s clothing, all of that. She has never felt right as a man, and keeping that fact a secret succeeded in destroying her marriage. Her ex-wife is now married to a Trump lover, and is pregnant. Erica befriends Abigail, the only other trans person in their small South Dakota town. Abigail was kicked out of her parents’ house and lives with her older sister and her sister’s boyfriend. She is secretly hooking up…

The Adults ~ Alison Espach At the beginning of The Adults, we meet Emily Vidal, a teenaged girl from a wealthy Connecticut suburb. The setting is a 50th birthday party for Emily’s father, Victor, and the entire neighborhood is there. Emily is a wry sort, making all sorts of internal observations about how absolutely dull it must be to be an adult. Then she and her best friend Mark spy her father embracing Mark’s mother, Mrs. Resnick. Later that night, Emily’s parents tell her that they are divorcing, as Mr. Vidal’s job is taking him to Prague, and Mrs. Vidal doesn’t want to go. Also, the affair. A few weeks…

These Silent Woods ~ Kimi Cunningham Grant Cooper and his daughter, Finch, live in a remote cabin in the woods. Their only human contact is an annual visit from Cooper’s friend, Jake, who brings them supplies, and a nosy neighbor, Scotland, who spies on them with his binoculars. When Jake doesn’t arrive and supplies are low, Cooper is forced to go into town. He worries that he and Finch will be recognized, an occurrence that would bring devastating consequences for their secretive way of life. Why did Jake not come? Why is Cooper so afraid that they might be discovered? Why does Scotland keep such a close eye on them?…

The Bright Years ~ Sarah Damoff Ryan Brighton is a child from a broken home. His mother takes him away from his abusive, alcoholic father, and raises him on her own. Ryan vows that he will not be like his father, starting with abstaining from alcohol. Lillian Wright was orphaned young, one parent killed by a drunk driver, the other from cancer. When she learns she is pregnant as a young adult, she decides that she isn’t ready to become a parent, and gives her baby boy up for adoption, a decision that she hopes was the right one, even as she aches with the loss. Ryan and Lillian meet,…

Abide With Me ~ Elizabeth Strout Tyler Caskey, a young minister in West Annett, Maine, is mourning the loss of his wife. He has two daughters, Katherine and Jeannie. Katherine is in Kindergarten, and is acting up at school and church. Jeannie lives with Tyler’s mother while he figures things out. Connie Hatch works as a housekeeper and helps with Katherine as well. It’s late 1959, and Tyler is struggling to make sense of his loss, to help his daughter through her grief, to guide his congregation, even as the gossip around town turns mean. Charlie and Doris Austin are congregants in the church, and Doris is the organist during…

Pictures from the Little Free Libraries that I pass on my walks. The picture at the top of the post is of the children’s garden in a nearby park, which is right next to one of the LFL. I am enjoying using them for part of my decluttering project, though I will donate some to our library as well. Do you have many Little Free Libraries near you? Do you enjoy straightening them out and making them look better? Do you make deposits and withdrawals?

Orbital ~ Samantha Harvey YOU GUYS – I LOVED THIS BOOK. 6 astronauts/cosmonauts from various countries and continents are floating 250 miles above the earth, scientists on the International Space Station. The Space Station orbits Earth 16 times in 24 hours, and Orbital is a one day, 16 orbit slice of life. Is there a plot? Eh. There is shit going on down on Earth and there are astronauts heading to the Moon, but none if it affects them directly in the here and now. Does a lot happen? A couple of things. Is this a gorgeous, quiet, beautifully written love letter to our planet? Absolutely. The inhabitants of the…

I Who Have Never Known Men ~ Jacqueline Harpman, Translated from French by Ros Schwartz The unnamed protagonist of I Who Have Never Known Men has no memory of life outside of the underground bunker where she lives imprisoned with 39 other women. They were all adults when they were captured, but she was a baby and was raised by them. They have no idea why they are here, the only interaction with other human beings is with the harsh guards who watch over them, bring them food, and prevent them from breaking any of their arbitrary rules. Then one day, while the guard has the keys in the lock…

Good Dirt ~ Charmaine Wilkerson Ebony (Ebby) Freeman is 10 years old when she is witness to a home invasion gone wrong, where her 15 year old brother, Baz, is shot and killed. Because her family is one of very few wealthy Black families in a tony Connecticut neighborhood, the crime is the subject of a lot of media attention. Whenever Ebby meets someone new, she waits for that realization of who she is to dawn on them, for the pity and curiosity to make itself known. We first meet her almost 20 years later, when her (white) well to do fiancé ghosts her on their wedding day. 9 months later,…

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) ~ Jesse Sutanto Vera Wong is back in this sequel to Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, and I couldn’t be happier. A year after Vera came downstairs in her San Francisco Chinatown tea shop and found a dead man, her life has new meaning. She has a group of found family, young people who were actually her suspects in that murder, and her son Tilly is living with Selena, the detective who was working on that case. Her shop is bustling. But she is bored and needs a challenge. If only another person would end up dead so she could…

Go As A River ~ Shelley Read After Victoria “Torie” Nash’s mother, aunt, and cousin are killed in a car accident, she is left behind as the ‘woman of the house’ at her family peach orchard in Colorado with her father, her brother, and her uncle. Her father has changed since losing his wife, he is despondent and angry. Her brother, Seth, has always been a cruel bully, and without their mother’s stern discipline, he becomes more so. Her uncle is an angry man who came home from WWII in a wheel chair, and depends upon his family to care for him. Go As A River begins when Torie is…

Dream Count ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Dream Count is told from the point of view of four African women, three are wealthy and successful women from Nigeria, one is a hotel employee from Ghana. Chiamaka is a travel writer from a wealthy Nigerian family, and as the book begins she is in the lockdown part of the pandemic, and is considering her shitty taste in men. Zikora is a successful lawyer, and her section begins as she is in labor, attended by her mother, the baby’s father nowhere in sight. Omelogor is Chiamaka’s cousin, a former banker, now intellectual studying how pornography is currently teaching youth unrealistic lessons about sex.…

33 Place Brugmann ~ Alice Austin It is August, 1939, in a wealthy Brussels neighborhood. The residents of a prosperous apartment building include a Jewish art dealer, Leo Raphael, his wife Sophia, and their children, Julian and Esther; an architect, Francois Sauvin and his art student daughter, Charlotte; an army colonel; a lawyer; a seamstress; a notary; and a few other well-to-do tenants. The art dealer and his family emigrate to England, where Julian joins the Royal Air Force, and Esther becomes a war nurse. The remaining residents stay in Brussels and have to find their way under the increasing limitations and dangers of Nazi occupation. The story unfolds in…