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Kathryn Stockett

Fiction 2026 | 646 pages

Kathryn Stockett is a wizard with characters. Meg, Birdie, Frances, Charlie have such depth; such nuance; are so differentiated one from the other; wear their values on their sleeves; take action, each in their own profound way; love so differently. She makes me feel like I know each of them. No, better than that, she makes me WANT to know them! And then you add in her minor characters ... Esmerelda, Jack, Trixie and Dixie, Mrs. Tartt, Garnet Pittman ... and you have a roomful of people to invite over for homemade chocolate mouse and to spend the evening. What great visualizing and creating Stockett can do!

It is 1933 in Mississippi at the height of the Great Depression and Prohibition. Many, both rich and poor, are living day-to-day on the margin. Meg, 11, is one if the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, who fights each day to keep her spirit. The orphan's Director, Mrs. Pittman, really has it in for Meg. She isolated her in a mildewed room, gradually removing her "privileges" of eating meals with other girls snd attending classes.

Birdie jumps on a train to ask her sister Frances for some money to help tide her and her mother over, Her sister Birdie has married well. But not well enough to overcome the travails of the Depression. While there, she joins her sister in volunteering at the orphanage, meets and falls head-over-heels for Meg, trying to lift Meg's spirits and help her survive,

And Charlie, Meg's birth mom, is a woman with a past, running low on luck but driven by fire, fury, and grit. When their fates converge, they come up with an audacious plan to take back control of their lives. Together, they form an unlikely sisterhood at a very difficult time in in the world with lots of social, political, and emotional toil and upheaval.

Eventually, after sending Frances and their mom away to live in Birdie's home for a while, and to find Frances' husband Rory who wit absconded with all the valuables in the house, seemingly to get some money, for himself. Birdie gets it firmly in her mind to start a business, a Dime-a-Dance club. This is where Calamity Club gets a bit tedious, I think. Stockett repeats herself A LOT in this section. Even I know that Frances is the password, how and why to buy 99 widows, and what a mangle machine is. The business is interesting, and many of our minor characters come to fruition in this section. This ALMOST moved it a three-heart rating for me, but others found the business quite interesting, and it is, after all, a compelling venture.

Eventually, the wrap up is believable, though I wish we saw more of Meg in the end.

I recommend it. Yes, it is nearly 700 pages long. I recommend it for the fascinating characterizations and intriguing plot.

August 2026

Long Bright River

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Liz Moore

Fiction 2020 | 480 pages

Mickey (Michaela) Fitzpatrick is the star of One Bright River. She is a beat cop in Kensington, a less desirable location in Philadelphia. This is a part of Philly where people go to get heroine, OxyContin, and numerous other drugs. They wander the streets, the abandoned houses and storefronts in search of their next fix. Addiction and its deleterious effects are brutally on the pages of One Bright River. Not surprisingly, this is also a part of the city where prostitutes hang on every corner. Mickey tries to protect the most vulnerable of these sad people, and faces an uphill battle. Four young women are murdered on her watch over a period of a few weeks.

Mickey’s younger sister Kacey lives among the people of these neighborhoods. Of course, she has tried to get healthy and off the drugs many times, but it never lasts long. Mickey has not told many people that she attempts to keep an eye out for her sister while she does her police job.

Mickey and Kacey are estranged. Still, it seems it has been too long since Mickey saw Kacey, even from a distance, and begins a private search for her. She seems to have gone missing. In this novel, we search for Kacey, as well as whoever is perpetrating murder.

The storyline moves back and forth between “Then” and “Now.” “Then” is about the close and loving relationship Mickey and Kacey had as children, despite challenging circumstances. “Now” is about Mickey out on the streets, doing her job, and trying to care for her four-year-old son, Thomas.

Long Bright River is a well-written suspense novel. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it highly. Mickey and the other characters have depth, personality, values, morals, quirks, proclivities. Liz Moore is an excellent writer of the genre. She keeps you turning the page.

July 2026

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books

Kirsten Miller

Fiction 2024| 296 pages

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books is quirky. Perhaps implausible. One-third of the way into this book, I read some reviews. Two reviewers describe this book as hilarious satire. I missed this completely.. I found it very choppy and disjointed. Plus, there are 24 characters, making it challenging to follow. I do not read humor in it at all. I did not giggle once.

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on a mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books — none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need. But she has not read any of them.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome” dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch — including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA — all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town and change it forever.

The second half of the plot really centers around a statue of Augustus Wainwright in the town square (in front of a town landmark. Through a series of events, especially among the young people in town, people discover that Augustus, a slaveholder in his day, is Beverly’s great great great great great (four?) grandfather, which begins to explain why there are so many Blacks living in this southern bastion.

I cannot recommend Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. It us not terribly well-written and is simply a rather bizarre story.

July 2026

The City

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Dean Koontz

Fiction 2014 | 398 pages

The 57-year-old narrator in our story writes about his youth … mostly from age eight to age 11. Jonah Kirk lives in the city and we learn about the events and experiences that shape his life as a pianist, a lover of art, and ultimately a songwriter. The book introduces readers to Jonah’s complex family dynamics, his early recognition as a musical prodigy, and his encounters with various characters that deeply influence his life

But the city (New York City) is not just an ordinary city. Mixing some magic and surrealism into this tale makes the story intriguing, entertaining, a bit unbelievable. For “the city” is also A character whom Jonah names Miss Pearl. Miss Pearl plays a small, but very important, role. Jonah refers to her as his supernatural mentor. She is “the city.” As she comprises a tiny strand from each resident, Miss Pearl is literally the whole population of the city and provides Jonah with occasional insight and perspective.

Koontz’s writing is delicious. He draws you in, moves forward at a good pace, shares action as well as well-developed character insight, displays significant imagination. I borrowed this read from Brian when I ran out of books on our camping trip to the Tetons. I would not hesitate to read another Koontz, and yes, I surely recommend this one. You just may fall in love with Jonah.

July 2026

Pigs in Heaven

Barbara Kingsolver

Fiction 1993/ 343 pages

After finishing The Bean Trees, I immediately read the sequel, Pigs in Heaven. I didn't like it nearly as much. It picks up three years later, with the topic of how to arrange Turtle's legal adoption. given the morals and norms of the Cherokee nation. A lot of the book takes place with Alice, Turtle's grandmother, on Cherokee land.

I missed Lou Ann and preferred to read about the child characters versus adults.

However, it is still Barbara Kingsolver, and she is an astounding writer. I particularly enjoyed characters like Cash who is fascinated with weed birds ... what he calls pigeons ... and wants them killed off; and Lucky Buster, who has mental retardation and can't really tell home from the outside world and disappears often. Kingsolver presented fascinating insight into the Cherokee tribe.

It is worth reading this sequel, I was just a bit unenthused.

July 2026

The Bean Trees

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Barbara Kingsolver

Fiction 1988 | 242 pages

With confidence and self-reliance instilled in her by her loving mother, “Missy” Greer is able to buy a very rough VW Beetle and take off west from rural Kentucky to find her own path after she graduates high school. She has to start her Beetle with one foot on the ground, to get it rolling. She renames herself Taylor when she passes a road sign for Taylorsville.

When she stops for car repairs in Oklahoma, Taylor encounters a Cherokee woman, who gives her a “baby” and tells her that no one else can care for the child. Unsure what to do, Taylor takes the silent toddler to a motel. She discovers evidence that the child has been physically abused and molested. Sickened, Taylor resolves to take care of the child, naming her Turtle, and continues to drive west until two flat tires force a stop in Tucson, Arizona. Because Taylor can’t afford to replace the tires, she decides to stay in Tucson and look for work.

Mattie, who owns the tire shop, offers her a job which Taylor accepts, as she hasn’t a penny to her name. Taylor meets Lou Ann, who becomes her roommate and best friend. Lou Ann has a young son, Dwayne Ray. Mattie eventually reveals that she provides sanctuary to migrants from Central America who seek political asylum in the US. She introduces Taylor to Estevan and Esperanza, a young couple from Guatemala who were forced to enter the country without authorized documents. These characters eventually form their own small family.

It takes her a long while, but eventually, Turtle begins to open up and interact with the world. She’s fascinated by vegetables and plants, starting to speak by pointing out beans in the garden. Her first vocabulary words are bean, “tato,” and carrot. Taylor grows to love Turtle like a daughter and is encouraged by the child’s resiliency despite the terrible situation she endured early in her life.

The story picks up from there as we watch the evolving and fascinating characters of Taylor, Lou Ann, Turtle, Mattie, Estevan and Esperanza. Kingsolver is a master at producing richly-nuanced characters as well as intriguing plots.

The Bean Trees (first published in 1988) is the first novel by Barbara Kingsolver. No wonder she went on to become a renowned author with seventeen published books.

I decided to read the sequel to The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven. I highly recommend The Bean Trees.

July 2026

Down the Wild River North

Constance Helmericks

Memoir 1969/ 303 pages

I kept thinking it was coming, but when I turned to page 124 and started chapter 8, all the air left me and I collapsed like a spent balloon and realized I could not go on. I SO wanted to like this book, recommended by a friend. The author talks extensively about the geography, the river, their camps, all the mud from big floods, people they meet along the way. This is a memoir. The author, Constance Hemericks, took her daughters, Ann (12) and Jean (14) up the Peace River to the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole (yes, the Peace River flows north) in summer, 1964. Such an adventure!

However I ended my journey because ALL she writes about is the geography and writes very little about the three women. I don't read about their personalities, their emotions. I wanted to know what happened when the hair curlers floated to the top of the canoe. I wanted to know about their periods and if they synced. I wanted to know how they dealt with trash. I wanted to know what was in the mail when they received a bundle. I wanted to know how Constance dealt with loosing her shoe in the mud and if she really wet barefoot. Or what they ate for breakfast. Or how they bear-proofed their food stash. Or any teenage angst. These sort of daily acts of living were not included in the writing. How disappointing! For me, she misses a very important part of the story. In some ways, the essence of her memoir.

Unfortunately, I do not recommend Down the Wild River North.

And so I am moving on to whatever is next on my shelf.

July 2026

A Cold Day in Paradise

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Steve Hamilton

Fiction 1998/ 277 pages

I was searching around for a mystery series … at least to read a few. Two of my friends suggested Steve Hamilton, and the first book in his series is A Cold Day in Paradise. The setting was very appealing to, as I was born and raised in Detroit. But the setting alone would not have made it a good read. It needed some good authorship, too, and this book was a page turner! I am definitely going on to the second book in the series.

Alex McKnight was a cop in Detroit when he was shot three times, and his partner was killed. Alex still carries a bullet in his body, too close to his heart to be removed. That was 14 years ago. Since then, Alex has taken his 3/4 disability pay and moved to Paradise to be a private investigator. Paradise is a small town on the shore of Lake Superior, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

So how is it that Maximillian Rose, who is still in prison for his crimes against McKnight and his partner, had decided now is the time to seek revenge? We really don’t know how the timing came about, but clearly the effort was being put forth, with a couple of seemingly unrelated murders as the non-Rose perpetrator gets closer to McKnight. Actually, I thought the explanation of the conclusion was a bit unclear. At least it was to me.

My major issue with Hamilton’s work is his total lack of women characters. The only one with any part to play at all in the novel was Sylvia, the woman Alex has/had an affair with. I don’t know if Hamilton is sexist and doesn’t think a cop or a technician can be a woman, or if he just has no capacity to develop and write women characters. That will be my litmus test in the second book of his that I read.

Yes, I recommend A Cold Day in Paradise for its pure fun as a mystery.

July 2026

The Little Prince

June 2026