Recent Reviews

DUE IN JULY: The desert strips people’s souls bare, especially a desert in a warming climate. It makes the most sensitive of them into writers yearning to understand both the things it has taken from them and all it has given. Reminiscent of Terry Tempest Williams’ memoir Refuge, Kendra Atleework’s book, Miracle County, weaves natural history, history, and memoir with elegy for a mother’s life cut short by cancer. We view most elements in Atleework’s narrative through their absence: water, indigenous people, her mother, the one-time stability of a now-shattered family. She makes exquisite beauty of loss. Recommended by Kelly

DUE IN JUNE: Nothing will convince you to stay home and read all day like an elegant, gritty Ferrante novel.  Her latest, dripping with richness and complexity, features Giovanna. In the unforgettable opening sequence, her powerful father declares her ugly, comparing her face to that of his estranged sister, who repulses him.  Giovanna tracks down the source of her ugliness—this unknown relative—as her body’s uncontrollable blossoming into womanhood leaves her disgusted and ashamed. With intense fury and hunger at odds, Giovanna burns through her life, uncovering a web of lies whose epicenter is an object as beautiful and ugly as herself.  Ferrante’s work is so good I could cry.  Recommended by Mary.

DUE IN JUNE: Bill Clegg’s The End of the Day is a tightly crafted novel. In elegant prose, he gradually reveals the intertwining of the lives of his complex characters. Each chapter is devoted to one of the six central players, and through their disparate perspectives, we learn the truths of their lives, none fully known to any of the others. With a forceful, ambiguous ending, Clegg leaves us pondering its meaning and his characters and their fateful decisions. These decisions, from youth through late adulthood, carry both intentional and unanticipated consequences, some predictable and some surprising to the reader. Recommended by Nancy

Zoe loves to bake. She wants to be a professional pastry chef when she grows up, and her mom landed her an internship at a local bakery this summer! But when she receives a letter from her birth father in prison on her 12th birthday, everything changes. Marcus sounds very nice in his letter, but he's in jail for murder. Zoe's not sure at first, but as she writes back and forth with Marcus (secretly—her mom would never allow it), she sees that he's really a good person. Could innocent people go to prison? With friendship challenges, cupcake creations, and a fight for justice—not to mention Bahni Turpin's peppy narration—From the Desk of Zoe Washington is an absolute delight to listen to. Recommended by Maryt