A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke

I got a lot of books on reserve at the library, so I put this book on my B&N wishlist.

https://ivereadthis.com/2024/07/09/book-review-a-short-walk-through-a-wide-world-by-douglas-westerbeke/

C.J. Tudor's THE GATHERING

It was no surprise that drug addicts and alcoholics found God during their recovery. They had to replace one addiction with another.

p. 262, chapter 48

BLUE LARD by Vladimir Sorokin

Looks like it's on order at library. I'll reserve later, since I currently have 10 reserves. Thanks, Publishers Weekly!

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/books/review/vladimir-sorokin-blue-lard.html

King Nyx by Kirsten Bakis

I put Lives of the Monster Dogs on my B&N wishlist after reading a review of her latest novel, King Nyx.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/books/review/king-nyx-kirsten-bakis.html

THE ANTIQUE HUNTER'S GUIDE TO MURDER by C.L. Miller

https://ivereadthis.com/2024/02/20/book-review-the-antique-hunters-guide-to-murder-by-c-l-miller/

CLOISTERED: MY YEARS AS A NUN by Catherine Coldstream

 

★ Cloistered: My Years as a Nun

Catherine Coldstream. St. Martin’s, $30 (352p) ISBN 978-1-250-32351-4

In this penetrating debut memoir, former nun Coldstream describes her 12 years in an English priory and the circumstances that led to her eventual departure. Raised in an emotionally chilly family, Coldstream became bereft at age 24 when her elderly father died. After involving herself with various religious groups in an effort to aid her "long passage… across [the] unfamiliar landscape" of grief, Coldstream found comfort in silent prayer at northern England’s Akenside Priory. Inspired by the discipline and ritual she encountered there, Coldstream joined the mostly silent nuns’ ranks. As time wore on, however, her "hospital for wounded souls" turned icy and toxic, with infighting, big egos, and power struggles troubling the waters in which Coldstream initially found solace. After her conflicts with her fellow nuns reached a fever pitch over the course of a decade, the author fled the cloister in the middle of the night. In lyrical, evocative prose ("Time passes in the monastery like ghosts that move through walls; it seeps through cell doors and stony archways, through bone and marrow, imprinting patience and endurance at every touch"), Coldstream opens a window into a reclusive culture, resolutely exposing its problems without losing sight of its virtues. The results will fascinate believers and non-believers alike. Agent: Patrick Walsh, PEW Literary. (Mar.)

GOODBYE GLOBALIZATION by Elisabeth Braw

Saw this in today's New York Times Book Review in the Newly Published section on page four, which isn't online: "A senior fellow at the Atlantic Council interviews policymakers and business leaders to maintain that globalization's decline will dramatically reshape our world."

CASCADE FAILURE by L.M. Sagas

Not at library (yet), so I put on my B&N wishlist. May not get the novel because it's part of the series, with the second entry dropping later this year.

Cascade Failure

L.M. Sagas. Tor, $17.99 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-1-250-87125-1

Sagas debuts with a fun romp through a faraway galaxy where three political powers’ jittery coexistence is threatened when a mysterious disaster strikes a terraformed planet. Trust wields corporate power, Union controls the labor necessary to exploit new worlds, and the paramilitary Guild tries to keep both factions honest. Former Guild ranger Jal Red, suspected of desertion, is lured aboard the old spacer Ambit, joining three other entertaining misfits: philosophical AI Captain Eoan; Nash, an augmented doctor-engineer who knits; and Saint, Ambit’s XO and Jal’s grumpy former battle buddy, who has plenty of unresolved issues with Jal. Answering an SOS from a planet stricken by a mysterious weapon, the crew brings aboard Anke, the lone survivor and a whiz-kid programmer who wants to stop what he calls the “Deadworld Code,” a high-tech, planet-destroying weapon developed by forces preferring profit to people. Rapid-fire adventures spiked with army jargon and balanced with touching resolutions of personal conflicts keep the pages turning. Add in a charming found family—and even a space-faring cat—and this spirited space opera is a resounding success. (Mar.)

LOST MAN'S LANE by Scott Carson

B&N reserve, for now.

★ Lost Man’s Lane

Scott Carson. Atria/Bestler, $28.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-9821-9145-0

Carson (Where They Wait) evokes the best of Stephen King in this exceptional coming-of-age tale about a young man confronting the supernatural menace that’s taken root in his hometown. In 1999 Bloomington, Ind., 16-year-old Marshall Miller gets pulled over by a cop on the same day he gets his driver’s license. While he’s waiting for a ticket, he notices a frightened teenage girl in the backseat of the officer’s car. Weeks later, Marshall spots the girl’s face on a missing person poster: her name is Meredith Sullivan, and she disappeared on the same day that Marshall was pulled over. He reports his encounter to law enforcement and discovers that the man who ticketed him was only impersonating a police officer. Determined to help find her, Marshall seeks out Noah Storm, the PI attached to Meredith’s case, who’s so impressed with the boy’s attention to detail that he offers Marshall an informal internship as his assistant. During their search, Marshall experiences strange recurring dreams, frequent snake sightings, and other seemingly unexplainable phenomena. The episodes gradually lead him to believe something ghostly has come to Bloomington, and it may be his job to stop it. Carson masterfully weaves threads about Marshall’s home and school life into the tantalizing central mystery, and populates the narrative’s margins with fully realized characters who help bring the setting to vivid life. This unique and intelligent crowd-pleaser is not to be missed. Agent: Richard Pine, InkWell Management. (Mar.)

THE STARS TURNED INSIDE OUT by Nova Jacobs

B&N reserve until library gets it in.

The Stars Turned Inside Out

Nova Jacobs. Atria, $27.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-6680-1854-5

Jacobs (The Last Equation of Isaac Severy) follows up her acclaimed debut with an engrossing whodunit revolving around Geneva’s Large Hadron Collider. After arriving for work one morning, CERN engineer Claude Touschard discovers the dead body of precocious young physicist Howard Anderby in one of the LHC’s tunnels. While it appears Anderby has been killed by radiation exposure, there’s no evidence the collider was turned on the night before, nor that anybody was in it. To keep the death from becoming public, CERN hires well-respected PI Sabine Leroux to investigate. As she speaks with Anderby’s colleagues, Sabine turns up copious evidence of professional rivalries and resentments, as well as Anderby’s potential involvement in a "geeky arms race" with the Chinese that may have put a target on his back. Meanwhile, researcher Eve Marsh, who harbored a crush on Anderby, frets about her recently published anonymous article considering whether particle physics can combat catastrophic climate change, which was based on her unauthorized use of the lab’s resources. Jacobs bestows even minor characters with such convincing motives that the plot’s momentum never slows, no matter how complex things get. Golden age mystery fans will love this. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, Bankoff Collaborative. (Mar.)

BECOMING MADAM SECRETARY by Stephanie Dray

library reserve

Becoming Madam Secretary

Stephanie Dray. Berkley, $29 (528p) ISBN 978-0-593-43705-6

Dray (The Women of Chateau Lafayette) delivers an insightful fictional biography of Frances Perkins (1880–1965), the first woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet. At the outset, Frances studies childhood malnutrition in 1909 New York City as part of her master’s thesis in economics and sociology. Determined to stop children from working in factories and to advocate for the rights of all workers, she takes a job as a lobbyist for the Consumers’ League of New York City. The next year, she meets attorney Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, and the two clash over their differing views on social justice initiatives (he’s circumspect, she’s strident). Frances also meets Paul Wilson, an economist and heir to the Marshall Fields fortune, whom she goes on to marry. Dray pulls off an exhaustive and stirring chronicle of Frances’s professional achievements as she struggles to raise a family with Paul, who is diagnosed as manic-depressive. As secretary of labor in FDR’s cabinet, Frances toils to gain support from the president and the public for the Social Security Act, which finally passes in 1935, and she draws on the example of the strong-willed Eleanor Roosevelt to persevere while Paul is institutionalized for his mental illness. Women’s historical fiction fans won’t want to miss this. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Mar.)

WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA? by Dervla McTiernan

Library reserve.

What Happened to Nina?

Dervla McTiernan. Morrow, $30 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-304225-4

The gripping latest from Australian crime writer McTiernan (The Murder Rule) examines a murder, its aftermath, and the impact of social media on the families involved. Twenty-year-old Nina Fraser sets out to go rock climbing with her wealthy boyfriend, Simon Jordan, near their New England homes one morning. That night, Simon returns to his family, but Nina does not. Nina’s parents suspect Simon is involved in her disappearance, but he maintains his innocence, insisting that Nina was alive when he left her behind at his parents’ house after a heated argument. The police find his vague explanation of the events suspicious, and he becomes a person of interest in the case. The Jordans then hire a respected publicity firm, which sets about painting Simon and Nina’s romance as fairy tale perfect while planting spurious information about Nina’s family online. Soon, journalists and true crime obsessives delve into the case, obscuring the truth in favor of sensational conspiracy theories that nearly tear Nina’s family apart and eventually lead to more violence. McTiernan makes the details of Nina’s disappearance clear early on, shifting the focus from whodunit to what happens in the court of public opinion. What emerges is a smart and unpredictable portrait of how the boundaries between tragedy and entertainment get blurred. It’s a disturbing treat for thriller fans. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (Mar.)

IT LASTS FOREVER AND THEN IT'S OVER by Anne de Marcken

B&N reserve, for now, until library gets it in.

It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over

Anne de Marcken. New Directions, $15.95 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-0-8112-3821-2

De Marcken debuts with an unsettling narrative of grief and zombies. The undead narrator, who has forgotten her real name, sets out from the hotel where she has been sheltering with other zombies, who are united in their hunger and divided over new religions cropping up among them, and heads west—"West because west is the direction of leaving behind. West because west is the last resort. I go west because west is where I remember you"—in a quest to remember who she once was, and to capture a sense of the person who loved her and made her life worth living. Along the way she says goodbye to her zombie friends, loses limbs, and acquires a dead crow as a companion. De Marcken never loses sight of the grand themes of life, death, and decay, as the narrator riffs cleverly on the nature of her condition ("Zombies used to be drug addicts, television watchers, videogame players. Now zombies are zombies. Consumers are consumers"). It amounts to a keen and weighty depiction of what does and doesn’t make someone human. (Mar.)

HELP WANTED by Adelle Waldman (library reserve)

Help Wanted

Adelle Waldman. Norton, $28.99 (278p) ISBN 978-1-324-02044-8

Waldman’s perceptive sophomore novel (after The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.) centers on the employees of a big-box store in Upstate New York. Nine of them are a part of the Movement team, arriving at four a.m. to unload trucks, unpack boxes, and stock the shelves before the store opens. Team manager Meredith, who’s under pressure from corporate headquarters to maintain the department’s budget, alienates the others by refusing requests for additional work hours or raises, contributing to their struggles to make ends meet. When the store manager announces he’s transferring to another location, and that corporate will be coming to interview employees to decide which team manager will take his role, Movement member Val sees an opportunity to get rid of Meredith by pushing to promote her. Val and the other team members put the plan in action, and several of them begin fantasizing about a promotion. Though Waldman touches only briefly on the employees’ personal lives, making it difficult to keep all the characters straight, the narrative builds to a satisfying and surprising conclusion. It’s a bracing and worthwhile glimpse of the high stakes faced by low-wage workers. (Mar.)

ORBITAL by Samantha Harvey

library reserve

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html

BEAUTYLAND by Marie-Helene Bertino

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/books/review/beautyland-marie-helene-bertino.html

possbile PW reserves

The Other Valley

Scott Alexander Howard. Atria, $27.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-66801-547-6

Howard debuts with a moving tale of time travel and teen friendship. Odile, 16, grows up in an unnamed valley town that serves as a kind of administrative buffer zone between the past and the future. Bordering to the west is an identical town that is 20 years behind her own, and to the east, Odile’s same town 20 years ahead. Residents of each iteration are only allowed to visit another timespace if they get approval from a governing body called the Conseil, which only grants permission to those grieving a loved one’s untimely death, so they can view the person from a distance while the person is still alive. Odile’s school offers an apprentice program for various trades, and she is vying for a coveted spot in the Conseil. One day on the schoolyard, she sees three masked people in the distance, looking at her classmate Edme, and realizes they are time travelers, which means that Edme will prematurely die. An unexpected friendship forms between the two, but when the Conseil learns of Odile’s discovery, they urge her not to intervene in Edme’s fate. She can’t help herself, however, and her actions lead to startling and heartrending results. This will leave readers with plenty to chew on. Agent: Roz Foster, Frances Goldin Literary. (Feb.)

Almost Surely Dead

Amina Akhtar. Mindy’s Book Studio, $28.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-66250-757-1

In this inventive blend of fantasy and psychological thriller from Akhtar (Kismet), New York City pharmacist Dunia Ahmed is severely shaken when a stranger tries to push her in front of an oncoming subway train. After bystanders save Dunia by wrestling her assailant to the ground, the man breaks free; mouths the words, "I’m sorry," to Dunia; and throws himself in front of a different train. Several more attempts on Dunia’s life follow, and she becomes convinced that someone is targeting her. Flashbacks to Dunia’s childhood reveal details of the Pakistani folklore she grew up with, and before long, she begins to suspect that her pursuer may be paranormal. Eventually, Dunia goes missing and is presumed dead. Akhtar builds to her protagonist’s disappearance in chapters that alternate Dunia’s perspective with transcripts of a true crime podcast that has spawned an obsessive "Find Dunia" movement. Mystery readers may quarrel with a few minor plot holes, but for the most part, Akhtar delivers a surprising and suspenseful ride. This is a winner. Agent: Chris Bucci, Aevitas Creative Management. (Feb.)

Your Shadow Half Remains

Sunny Moraine. Nightfire, $16.99 trade paper (176p) ISBN 978-1-250-89220-1

Moraine (Casting the Bones) sets this sharp, tension-filled psychological thriller in a world stricken by a strange and violent pandemic that is transmitted through eye contact and triggers the urge to kill both others and, eventually, oneself. Riley has been isolated in a house in the woods by a lake for so long that time has become fluid and her connection to reality is fading. At the start of the book, she encounters the first human she’s seen in who-knows-how-long: Ellis, who seems kind and well-intentioned, but may be hiding something sinister. The rules of the eye-contact-killing disease are at times hard to grasp, with the characters just as unclear on its mechanics as the reader (the failure of technology has caused a near-total disconnection between Riley, Ellis, and whatever’s left of the world, leaving them unaware of any discoveries or mutations that may have occurred). As the bite-size novel progresses, it becomes clear that Riley, too, cannot be trusted: her version of events hides the macabre truth of her past. The result is a freaky and masterfully constructed tale, whose strength most often comes from what Moraine leaves to the imagination. Read this one with all the lights on. (Feb.)

B&N wishlist

Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html

Possible library reserve (from Publisher's Weekly, 12/11/23)

 

★ Twice Lived

Joma West. Tordotcom, $26.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-250-81032-8

West (Face) uses parallel worlds to explore the pain of coming of age in this deeply emotional fantasy. Lily and Canna alternately share one body that randomly shifts between two alternate Earths. Shifters normally settle into one or the other in their toddler years but Lily/Canna is 16 and still shifting. As each identity begins to feel uncomfortable in her own skin and the duo’s memories become increasingly blurred, they learn that if they don’t settle soon, they risk psychological fracturing. Racing against time, Lily and Canna each fight to stay in their own world yet prepare their separate families for the worst-case scenario. West does an admirable job portraying the tug-of-war between individuals as they grapple with issues of family, identity, and friendship. Readers young and old will appreciate the notes of tenderness amid the conflict and will find it difficult to choose a side. Replete with a shocking yet satisfying ending that showcases West’s cleverness, this is an impressive feat. (Feb.)

QUOZ: A FINANCIAL THRILLER by Mel Mattison

From Publisher's Weekly, 11/27/23:

Fintech executive Mattison puts his cryptocurrency expertise to good use in his chilling debut, which imagines a near-future threat to the global economy. In 2027, financial experts have developed "a groundbreaking quantum AI platform": the International, Central, and Automated Regulation of the Universe of Securities, or ICARUS. During its brief existence, ICARUS has delivered on its promise to create a more stable global economy and made "bank runs, bailouts, and volatile share prices" things of the past. But just before the platform’s latest upgrade goes live, Kota Nakazawa, one of ICARUS’s chief designers, detects some disturbing anomalies in market trading patterns. He seeks advice from his disgraced former colleague, Rory O’Connor, who’s lived in Caribbean exile since he suffered a breakdown a year earlier. As the two dig into the anomalies, they unearth a vast financial conspiracy orchestrated by America’s foreign enemies that’s designed to collapse global markets. Mattison heightens suspense by cluing in readers to certain details of the book’s central conspiracy before his characters unearth them, and his knowledge of international finance lends weight and authenticity. Joseph Finder fans should check this out. (Jan.)

THE QUIET TENANT by Clémence Michallon

Read about this novel months ago. For some reason, it just popped in my head this morning, even though the reviews (I think one was in The New York Times) didn't sell it well. Memory is so weird.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/92508-pw-picks-books-of-the-week-june-12-2023.html

THE HELSINKI AFFAIR by Anna Pitoniak

library reserve: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/11/11/helsinki-affair-thriller-review/

AND THEN SHE FELL by Alicia Elliott

library reserve: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/books/review/im-a-fan-sheena-patel-candelaria-melissa-lozada-oliva-and-then-she-fell-alicia-elliott.html

A MORBID TASTE OF BONES by Ellis Peters

 Reserved at library because it's in Molly Young's Read Like the Wind newsletter:

“A Morbid Taste for Bones,” by Ellis Peters

Fiction, 1977

The place: Shrewsbury Abbey. The time: late spring of the year 1137. The person: Brother Cadfael, a monk with a torrid past, a penchant for herb-gardening and a knack for solving crimes.

This is the first book in a once wildly popular series that follows the adventures of a shrewd yet pious amateur sleuth. As plotlines go, the one driving this novel is almost comically boring in summary, so I’ll cover the basics quickly; you’ll just have to trust me on its spine-tingling potential:

A chief administrative monk becomes upset that his abbey doesn’t have any cool relics or miracle-working saints that he can leverage to draw visitors. (The abbey lacks an “It factor,” you could say.) Soon the greedy monk discovers the existence of a neglected martyr in a faraway town and — thinking, “I can work with this” — sends a crew of flunkies to fetch the martyr’s body and claim it for their own. Brother Cadfael, having a bad feeling about the whole business, gets himself conscripted for the journey and thus finds himself on the scene when a dead body shows up! His holy mission, which he indeed chooses to accept, is to puzzle out whodunnit.

Read if you like: Porridge, cozy (or “cosy”) mysteries, herbaria, the British television series “Prime Suspect” starring Helen Mirren, wholesome fun Available from: Also currently free to borrow from the Internet Archive — and check bargain bins and libraries near you. (Or eBay.)

SHAKESPEARE WAS A WOMAN AND OTHER HERESIES by Elizabeth Winkler

For centuries, Christianity had exerted a pacifying influence on the population, encouraging values of meekness and self-sacrifice, and unifying all classes, from the richest congregant to the pious peasant, under a single ideology.

p. 147

SAHA by Cho Nam-joo, translated by Jamie Chang

B&N wish list.

Town, a city-state that is “not quite company or country,” enforces a multi-tiered class system. Laboring under it are the citizenship-less, referred to by the name of the decrepit apartment complex where they live. The Saha Estates are where authorities turn when a doctor is murdered, and where Jin-kyung decides to fight back, for her missing brother, her neighbors and herself.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/13/books/new-paperbacks-nam-joo.html

LAND OF MILK AND HONEY by C Pam Zhang

<<There’s an ornateness to this prose that is missing from much contemporary fiction, which is arguably obsessed with holding the attention of a “typical” reader, one often imagined to have a short attention span and an interest only in the progression of plot.>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/books/review/c-pam-zhang-land-of-milk-and-honey.html

https://newrepublic.com/article/176022/chef-end-world-c-pam-zhang-land-milk-honey

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/05/land-of-milk-and-honey-by-c-pam-zhang-review-an-intriguing-tale-of-post-apocalyptic-cuisine

PEOPLE COLLIDE by Isle McElroy

B&N wishlist because not available yet at library.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/books/people-collide-isle-mcelroy.html

TECHNOFEUDALISM: WHAT KILLED CAPITALISM by Yanis Varoufakis

B&N wishlist

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/24/yanis-varoufakis-technofeudalism-capitalism-ukraine-interview

DIFFICULT MEN: BEHIND THE SCENES OF A CREATIVE REVOLUION by Brett Martin

10th anniversary edition. B&N wishlist.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/arts/television/difficult-men.html

REYKJAVIK by Ragnar Jonasson & Katrin Jacobsdottir; and BEYOND THE WALL: A HISTORY OF EAST GERMANY by Katja Hoyer

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/books/review/9-new-books-we-recommend-this-week.html

Though, I also saw reviews of Beyond the Wall a week or two ago. Can't remember if it was in The New York Times, The Guardian, and/or The Washington Post.

BLISS & BLUNDER by Victoria Gosling

 B&N wishlist

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/18/bliss-blunder-by-victoria-gosling-review-an-arthurian-legend-for-our-times

PINK SLIME by Fernanda Trías

B&N wishlist

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/11/the-best-recent-science-fiction-fantasy-and-horror-reviews-roundup

FEVER HOUSE by Keith Rosson

B&N wishlist, since library doesn't list it.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/92951-pw-picks-books-of-the-week-aug-14-2023.html

SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Emily St. John Mandel

Edwin is capable of action but prone to inertia.

p. 5

There are words you encounter all your life without knowing what they mean.
p. 137

.

PROPHET by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché

B&N wishlist

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/92916-pw-picks-books-of-the-week-aug-7-2023.html

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/04/our-book-is-barbie-meets-oppenheimer-why-we-wrote-about-nostalgia-in-an-era-of-crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/20/prophet-by-helen-macdonald-and-sin-blache-review-an-enjoyable-homage-to-the-x-files

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/23/prophet-by-helen-macdonald-and-sin-blache-review-fun-high-octane-sci-fi-thriller

A GOOD HOUSE FOR CHILDREN by Kate Collins

 B&N wishlist

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/28/books/review/a-good-house-for-children-kate-collins-i-will-greet-the-sun-again-khashayar-j-khabushani-all-night-pharmacy-ruth-madievsky.html

BIG SWISS by Jen Beagin

B&N wishlist

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/27/books/new-paperbacks-kenan.html

WHAT REMAINS by Wendy Walker

library reserve

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/books/review/new-books-recommendations.html

AUGUST BLUE by Deborah Levy

...some of us are creators...and the rest of us are performers.

p. 18

Nietzsche rightly believed...that music was the highest art, the essence of being.

p.19