The Passage Rouge Nation of Lake Superior Anishinaabe in Wisconsin is a microcosm of small-town politics with the added complications of being a sovereign nation. “What happens when the rez dog finally catches up with the car” is a question our main character, Mitch, asks himself a few times – with varying…
Rumors swirl around the abandoned orphanage, Coram House. It sits perched on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont – and it’s purported to be haunted by the ghosts of residents who may have been abused or killed by the very people who were there to care for them. Ghost-writer Alex Kelley comes to this…
Early reviews of Ariel Courage’s debut Bad Nature painted a portrait of a deeply flawed character, who, shortly after a terminal cancer diagnosis, embarks on a cross-country drive to kill her estranged father. The picture I had in my head of this story was much funnier than the book turned out to be. There are…
Love is in the air for the perfect couple in this debut domestic thriller, The Perfect Home. Dawn and Wyatt Decker seem to have it all; a hit remodeling show, a loving relationship and millions of adoring fans all across the county—but what fun would that be to read about? Cracks in the veneer begin…
In Rosarita, Booker Prize-shortlisted Anita Desai gives our heroine an uneven footing from the first, and the reader shares in the confusion (at least I sure did). Bonita is a young woman accosted one afternoon by a theatrical older woman. She is dropped into a situation that leaves both character and reader in the…
It might sound odd to close out 2024 with a deeply unsettling novel about a woman trying to solve the mystery of where she goes when she’s asleep, but I read this short novel in one sitting. While Knutsdottir’s The Night Guest appears slight at first glance (some chapters are just a few words…
Office politics are the subject of Natalie Sue’s debut dramedy novel, I Hope This Finds You Well. Jolene works at the corporate offices of a big box store, Supershops. Her desperate loneliness is as redolent as the smell of burnt popcorn in the staff room microwave. It is in fact, a smell that kicks…
Award-winning author Clare Chambers has set this story in 1964 England, when the effects of World War II are a not-so-distant memory, and social changes are rocking society. The author introduces us in alternating chapters to two seemingly disconnected characters: William, a bearded, mute man living with his elderly aunt, and Helen, a practitioner…
What begins as a group hike ends up as a rain-soaked, blister-packed meet cute. Michael and Marnie have a mutual friend who’s tired of hearing their love-lorn complaints and dire divorce stories so Cleo plans the trip of a lifetime trekking coast-to-coast along a rugged route in the north of England. In You Are Here,…
In my first iteration as a librarian, I worked in the Children’s Room and was lucky enough to order folk and fairy tales. I loved poring over the various versions of classics, and sought out esoteric tales and stories from other lands. Once I read a little-known Brothers Grimm story called “Bearskin.” It’s about a…
