Read: Vigil by George Saunders ★★★ 📚
Ghosts gather round a dying oil billionaire, trying both to make him understand the damage and ease his passage. The deceased are almost comic characters, a couple reminding me of the two old guys in the muppets.
Tag: ★★★
Read: Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen ★★★ 📚
Viva who works for corrupt philanthropists & her Eccentric millionaire partner take on said philanthropists, corrupt politicians & MAGA activists to stupid for the proud boys. Heavy satire, fun but feels a bit forced.
Read: Misinterpretion by Ledis Xhoga ★★★ 📚
An Albanian interpreter gets into a lot of communication difficulties. Set in New York & Albania Constantly surprising narrative as the narrator bounces from one complex situation to another.
Read: In the Woods by Tana French ★★★ 📚
Doorstop of a police procedural. Lots of psychological twist & turns. Vivid characters. Maybe too much horror in the crime, like most thriller books and movies nowadays.
Read: Same as it ever was by Claire Lombardo ★★★ 📚
but the strangest thing I remember about having young children is how interminably the time moves, just these days upon days upon days, and every single one of them feels a million years long, but then suddenly months have gone by, enough time for a new baby to be born or one of the kids to start kindergarten, or college for God’s sake
Took me a long a time to get into this one. The central character irritated at first. She did grow on me as I got further.
Read: The Violet Hour by James Cahill ★★★ 📚
Shenanigans in the Art World. Dealers, painters and some bad behaviour.
Read: Reconstruction by Mick Heron ★★★ 📚
he was Civil Service; they could take his life, but they'd never take his annual leave
Slough House adjacent novel. After a confusing start, where there seemed to be too many characters, it settled down to an exciting read where absolutely no one was what they first seemed.
Read: Watershead by Percival Everett ★★★ 📚
Geologist, Robert, becomes involved with fictional Native Americans exposing pollution plot. Mixed in with quotes about geology & legal treaties. Details of Robert childhood & his families involvement with the Black Panthers fits well with the Plata tribe fight for water rights. His awful relationship with a 'mad' girlfriend less so.
Read: Sandwich by Catherine Newman ★★★ 📚
3 Generation family holiday week on Cape Cod. A mix of comedy & more serious matters. Some LOL. Most of the serious was around termination & miscarriage. A bit of holocaust history added it seemed, to me, too much for the book to carry.
Read: Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson ★★★ 📚
Last summer there was a rogue patch of phosphorescence at Cloughkeel beach, a psychedelic wreath. Tonight, in the dark swell there is only the sound of a lone whale, and Danu above. How lonely to be always reaching out for someone who isn’t there.
An artist living on the island she was born on. Lots of intriguing ideas: the descriptions of her art work; a weird sound that not everyone hears; a colony of women who have left the world; a local lover; a dead whale & a visiting film star. Not all quite tied up.