Meg's Picks: July 2019, part 1

History, humor, and heart. These are just some of the bounty of July's new novels.

Dragonfly, by Leila Meacham. At the height of World War II, a group of young Americans receive a mysterious summons from their government, asking if they willing to fight for their country. While they are from very different backgrounds, each heeds the call for their own personal reasons. The group, code name Dragonfly, bond immediately. This is war, however, and the stakes in the cat-and-mouse game they're playing are incredibly high. One or more of them will have to pay the ultimate price... For fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, most definitely. 

The Chelsea Girls, by Fiona Davis. Hazel and Maxine meet as USO performers in Italy at the end of World War II, one a sheltered daughter of a renowned theater family, the other facing discrimination owing to a German-born grandfather. Following the war, Hazel pens a Broadway-bound play based on her experiences during the war, and Maxine comes from Hollywood to star...but a secret will threaten to tear their friendship apart. Davis has been developing quite a fan-base with novels like The Dollhouse and The Address--this latest is sure to be in demand.

You've Been Volunteered, by Laurie Gelman. Gelman's debut, Class Mom (2017), introduced snarky 40-something mom Jen Dixon whose appointment to kindergarten class mom put her smack in the middle of PTA drama with hilarious results. In this follow-up, Jen's son Max is now in third grade and Jen is once again catapulted into the role of class mom, even as her family life gets pulled in a dozen different directions. If your perfect summer read is a laugh-out-loud speed read, this is for you!

The Lager Queen of Minnesota, by J. Ryan Stradal. I adored Stradal's 2015 debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, and I've been anxiously awaiting her new novel, inspired by true events in Stradal's own family. Once upon a time, Helen Blotz inherited the family farm, which alienated her sister Edith. Helen used the proceeds from the sale of the farm to invest in her husband's family soda business, helping to turn it into the hottest brewery in Minnesota. Two generations later, the brewery's success is waning, though Edith's granddaughter's brewpub may bring family together again. Stradal's characters are deftly drawn and are deeply memorable. Have I mentioned I can't wait?

Meg's Picks: March 2019, part 2

Want to know what's on my list next month? Here we go!

My Lovely Wife, by Samantha Downing. The couple in Downing's taut debut thriller have found a way to keep their marriage interesting after 15 years together: getting away with murder. As their hobby gains traction, however, they find themselves keeping secrets from one another, secrets that might just get one or both of them caught. If you're looking for a new thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat, this should absolutely be on your list.

White Elephant, by Julie Langsdorf. The titular 'white elephant' is an architectural monstrosity in Willard Park, D.C., a suburban neighborhood that prides itself on its trees and its friendly community. The house in question is loathed by most of the neighbors, but all out war is declared among residents when the owner cuts down a neighbor's maple tree to make his house more enticing to prospective buyers. Dysfunction abounds as residents out each other on tattle-tale local bulletin boards and start airing dirty laundry. If you're a fan of Meg Wolitzer (The Female Persuasion, etc.) or Ann Patchett (Commonwealth, etc.), you can't miss Langsdorf's darkly humorous debut.

Me for You, by Lolly Winston. Winston returns after more than a decade away (Good Grief, etc.), bringing readers the story of Rudy, a 54 year old widower who has been recently downsized out his job in finance. Returning to his first love, the piano, Rudy finds himself a temporary gig playing at Nordstrom's, though he stays on beyond the initial temp position. There he meets Sasha, a woman contending with losses of her own. As their friendship develops, Rudy is slightly alarmed to find himself falling for Sasha, uncertain whether he is willing or ready for another relationship. Just as Rudy may be finding a way back from grief, however, he's dealt another blow he never saw coming. Winston's style is gently poignant, and I adore her work.

Meg's Picks: January 2019, part 2

What's on my must-read list this winter? Read on to find out!

Freefall, by Jessica Barry. In Maine, Maggie Carpenter receives news that her daughter, Allison, is presumed dead following the crash of a private plane in the Colorado Rockies, though Allison's body has not yet been recovered. The deceased pilot has been identified as Allison's fiance, a pharmaceutical company CEO. After two years estrangement from her daughter, Maggie didn't even know that Allison was engaged, and as she begins to dig into the last two years of her daughter's life, Maggie discovers that she barely knew her daughter anymore, least of all why Allison might want the authorities to believe she died in the crash...

The Dreamers, by Karen Thompson Walker. I was a huge fan of Walker's 2012 debut, The Age of Miracles, and her new novel is already creating a lot of pre-publication buzz, so this is right at the top of my January reading list. It all starts in on the campus of a small California college, where a student falls asleep and cannot be awakened. Then another, and another, the sleeping sickness (which occasionally ends in death) spreading across campus and the nearby town, which are quickly quarantined. Cue students inside the quarantine zone planning their escapes, others volunteering to care for their stricken friends as the number of infected continue to climb. Shifting seamlessly among multiple characters, Walker has written what early reviews are calling a "provocative, hypnotic" and "skillful" novel. I can't wait.

The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man, by Jonas Jonasson. In this sequel to Jonasson's best-selling The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2012), centenarian Allan Karlsson and his sidekick, petty thief Julius Jonasson, are back and as uproariously funny as ever as they fly in a hot air balloon well-stocked with champagne, only to crash land into the sea. Then they're rescued by a North Korean ship carrying contraband uranium, and things really start to get interesting!

Happy Holidays and Happy Reading! I'll be back with my 2018 wrap-up next week!

What I've Been Reading: September 2018

It's that time again!

Sweet Little Lies, by Caz Frear. D.C. Cat Kinsella is hesitant as she investigates the murder of a young Islington housewife. The woman's body was found not far from the pub run by Cat's estranged father. When the woman turns out to be a girl the Kinsellas had met on holiday years earlier, Cat finds herself torn between loyalty to her dysfunctional family and dedication to her job. Full of twists and turns, this was a riveting procedural.

The Moth Presents: All These Wonders, edited by Catherine Burns. I am hopelessly in love with The Moth podcast. For those of you who are unfamiliar, The Moth is a non-profit group based out of New York City that is dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. The group presents a wide range of themed storytelling events across the country--many of which have been recorded for the long-running podcast, which was my introduction. Celebrating their 20th anniversary (The Moth was founded in 1997), this collection of 45 stories culled from their events focuses on stories about risk, courage, and facing the unknown. I read this collection over two days, so enthralled was I in these people's stories. I very highly recommend both the book and the podcast--they are honest, wise, insightful, life-changing.

On Call in the Arctic, by Thomas J. Sims. As Sims was finishing his residency and on the cusp of beginning his career as a pediatric surgeon, he was alerted to the impending change in his life: he was going to be drafted as a M.A.S.H. surgeon and sent to Vietnam. His alternative was accepting a commission in the U.S. Public Health Service for an assignment in Anchorage, Alaska--he took it, and brought along his very pregnant wife and young daughter when the moved days later. His life changed again when he was reassigned: instead of being Chief of Pediatrics in Anchorage, he would now be serving as the sole physician in Nome, providing medical care to not only Nome's residents, but also those of thirteen surrounding Eskimo villages, with very little support and in archaic conditions. The stories he relates in this memoir are truly amazing, by turns spine-tingling, jaw-dropping, and heart-warming. I'm recommending this to readers who also liked The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel.

Leverage in Death, by J.D. Robb. When a marketing executive walks into a board meeting wearing a suicide vest and takes out friends and coworkers on the day his company was set to sign a significant merger, NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas is puzzled. She soon finds that the man's family was held hostage as collateral, forcing the man to commit this unthinkable act. But who would do such a thing? And why? The motive seems murky, only slowly clearing as the case progresses. I have to say, this was not one of my favorites in this long-running series--the pacing was off, there was a huge amount of stock market information that I personally found tedious. Your mileage may vary.

Today Will Be Different, by Maria Semple. This morning, Eleanor will take small actions to get her life in order. She will follow through. She will be a responsible adult, a good wife, an attentive mother, a patient friend. This ordinary, responsible day begins a slow-but-sure nosedive after her son finagles his way out of school for the day and then she finds that her husband, Joe, has told his office (but not her) that he's on vacation for the week. Eleanor abandons all of her best intentions in favor of unraveling the mysteries before her, because how is a person supposed to be a responsible adult when everything you counted on being true may not be? This second novel by Semple, author of the best-selling Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, was everything I needed it to be: introspective, funny, irreverent, and deeply relatable.

The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule. Ann Rule, former policewoman, crime journalist, was volunteering at a crisis call center in Seattle as a series of murders occurred in the area. Then the crimes stopped as quickly as they started. Several years later, a man in Florida was arrested after a horrific multiple murder in a sorority house. The man was Ted Bundy, and man who was eventually linked to more than thirty murders across the country, and a man who had once been a fellow volunteer in the same crisis center as Ann Rule. This is her story, both of the crimes and of the man who committed them. I'm a true crime buff, and this really is the ultimate true crime story.

Meg's Picks: August 2018, part 1

Want to know what I can't wait to read next month? Here are a couple that have made my short list!

The Other Woman, by Sandie Jones. This debut thriller features one of a woman's worst nightmares--the evil mother-in-law, on steroids. When Emily and Adam start dating, everything is perfect between them. But that all changes when Adam introduces Emily to the other woman in his life: his mother, Pammie. Pammie takes an instant dislike to Emily, but as Emily and Adam seem to be fated for happily ever after, Pammie is having none of it and it seems she will stop at nothing, not even violence, to put an end to the relationship. If you love a plot-twisting thriller, I highly recommend adding this to your list.

This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us, by Edgar Cantero. I adored Cantero's last novel, 2017's Meddling Kids, which was a genius homage to the old Scooby-Doo cartoon. So I cannot wait to read his new novel, which features twin private eyes Adrian and Zooey, who just happen to inhabit one androgynous body and go by A.Z. Kimrean. She's creative, he's highly cerebral with a photographic memory, and together they're going to need all the skills they both possess to find the person responsible for a series of murders, recuse an undercover cop, and avert a major gang war. If you like your detective stories quirky, highly entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny, Cantero is your man.

Meg's Picks: July 2017, part 3

Today I have a variety of fiction picked for your perusal. Humor, heart, thrills, we have it all!

Swimming with Bridgeport Girls, by Anthony Tambakis. Ray Parisi had it all, but is in the process of losing everything. He was an ESPN personality, but he's been fired. He's addicted to gambling. He's living in a cheap motel and hiding from the cops and from his bookie. He's never gotten over his ex-wife. His chance at redemption comes in the form of an inheritance from his estranged father, but rather than investing, Ray heads to Vegas with plans of hitting it big and begging his ex for one more shot. This goes about as well as you'd expect. Humor and hope and mayhem. Fans of Carl Hiaasen should try out this debut novel.

The Captain's Daughter, by Meg Mitchell Moore. Fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Emma Straub, here's one for you. Eliza Barnes is a stay-at-home mom in a society of yacht and country clubs in Massachusetts, a life at odds with her upbringing working lobster boats in a small coastal town in Maine. In truth, she's never been completely at ease with the lifestyle she married into. When her father receives a deadly diagnosis, Eliza begins to split time between Maine and Massachussetts, attempting to navigate issues of class, loyalty and what it means to be a parent in the process.

The Breakdown, by B.A. Paris. A new novel from the author of Behind Closed Doors (2016). One stormy night, Cass takes a short-cut home, and sees a woman sitting in a car on her way. Later, the woman has been reported as murdered. Cass, wracked with guilt at not having stopped, begins to suffer memory lapses. And then she begins receiving phone calls, the line silent each time. For fans of Paris's debut, or of other psychological thrillers like S.J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep.

What I've Been Reading: May 2017

It has been an interesting month for me, book-wise. Several fast-paced thrillers, some dense historical fiction, a dystopian classic, and something a little light and fun to break things up a little.

The Killing Floor & Die Trying, by Lee Child. These are the first two books in Child's long-running and best-selling Jack Reacher series. Hard to believe I'd never read any of them before! But if I'm going to read a series, I've got to start at the beginning, and so I have. In the first title, we meet Jack Reacher who has recently become a civilian after a lifetime in the military, first as an army brat, later as military police. Living off of his savings and traveling the US, he decides to run down an old story about a Georgia musician, only to find himself caught up in a case of mistaken identity that has deadly consequences. In the second, Reacher has ambled along to Chicago and in a moment of good samaritanism, gets himself caught up in the kidnapping of an FBI agent, only to find himself a thousand miles away and at the mercy of a cult leader. These novels are full of plot twists and fraught with tension--great reading.

Villa America, by Liza Klaussman. This was my book club's pick for our May meeting. Klaussmann (who happens to be Herman Melville's great-great-great-granddaughter) won critical acclaim for her 2012 debut, Tigers in Red Weather, a family saga set in the early part of the last century about a moment of possibility buried in lies. Her ambitious second novel, Villa America (2016), follows the story of Sara and Gerald Murphy, American expatriots living on the Riviera with famous figures like F. Scott Fitzgerald and wife Zelda, Ernest Hemingway and others. What seems like an opportunity to build their own utopia in the aftermath of World War I slowly dissolves amid scandal, debauchery and personal tragedy. It made for excellent discussion!

The Wonder, by Emma Donoghue. By the bestselling author of Room. Donoghue never writes the same thing twice. What she does, however, is write stories and characters that haunt her readers for years after finishing the last page. I found that to be true of Room, of Frog Music, and of Slammerkin, which I read over fifteen years ago--I can guarantee that The Wonder will be the same for me. Tourists flock to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, who believes herself to be living off manna from heaven, and a journalist is sent to cover the sensation. Lib Wright, a veteran of Florence Nightingale's Crimean campaign, is hired to keep watch over the girl. The resulting tale is one of psychology, theology and love. I couldn't help but keep reading to find out what happened!

Deep Storm, by Lincoln Child. Having read most of Lincoln Child's books co-written with Douglas Preston, I decided it was high time I tried some of his solo work. This is the first of his Jeremy Logan series. When an oil rig operator, working on a drilling platform over the Atlantic, makes an unusual observation during routine maintenance, everything changes in an instant. The military descends, scientists set up camp, and the secrets deepen. It is rumored to be the lost city of Atlantis. But could it be something more sinister...and dangerous? This was a great thriller, I'm looking forward to picking up the next in the series.

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. This is a novel I've meant to re-read for quite some time, having read it in college...a number of years ago. Given the popularity of the series on Hulu (though I haven't seen it yet), it seemed like a good time to reread it. (I should also note that I'm a huge Atwood fan in general--Alias Grace is one of my all-time favorite novels.) What was once the United States  is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population. The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. By turns wry, tender, and despairing, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade. Chilling.

Seating Arrangements, by Maggie Shipstead. And now for something completely different. The Van Meters have gathered at their family retreat on the island of Waskeke to celebrate the marriage of daughter Daphne to the impeccably appropriate Greyson Duff. The weekend is full of champagne, salt air and practiced bonhomie, but long-buried discontent and simmering lust stir beneath the surface. When everything that could go wrong seems to do just that, a wedding which should have gone off with military precision threatens to become a spectacle of misbehavior. I found this laugh-out-loud funny and look forward to discussing it with my book club--it's our June selection.

If you're keeping track (and I am, over at GoodReads.com), that's 44 books read so far in 2017, and if I keep it up, I may finally make my ultimate goal of 100 books in a year!

Meg's Pick: December 2016

Fun, light, easy reading can be just the ticket when you need to unwind. If you're finding your holidays a little (or a lot) on the stressful side, this is my pick for a little down-time next month.


Small Admissions, by Amy Poeppel. For fans of The Nanny Diaries or Sophie Kinsella, Poeppel's debut has gotten great reviews--critics have been calling it a smart, laugh-out-loud page-turner. Despite her innate ambition and Summa Cum Laude smarts, Kate Pearson has turned into a major slacker. After being unceremoniously dumped by her handsome French boyfriend, Kate ditches her grad-school plans in favor of binge-watching Sex and the City on her couch, only leaving her apartment for her dog-walking gigs.When she miraculously manages to land a job in the admissions department at the prestigious Hudson Day School, Kate finds herself in the thick of admissions season, which her new co-workers refer to as "the dark time." As the process revs up, Kate meets smart kids who are unlikable, likeable kids who aren’t very smart, and Park Avenue parents who refuse to take no for an answer...

Reading Ahead: September 2016, part 6

Yes, part 6. I don't think I've ever reached a part 6 before! There are just so many delectable titles being published next month, I couldn't weed it down any further than I have!

Razor Girl, by Carl Hiaasen. As with all things Hiaasen, everything ordinary is anything but in this wildly hilarious and entertaining novel. When Lane Coolman's car is bashed by the eponymous Razor Girl, Merry Mansfield, nothing is as it seems. The crash scam sets in motion one of the funniest, craziest Hiaasen tales yet--one that will thrill fans even as it defies description, foiling every reviewer I've consulted!

Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett. I adore Patchett's work, like State of Wonder and Bel Canto, so every new title she puts out is cause for celebration, as far as I'm concerned!One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

Here I Am, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Foer has made a huge impact with readers in past works like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated. I'm expecting his new work to have a similar effect. Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks in present-day Washington, D.C., Here I Am is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis. As Jacob and Julia Bloch and their three sons are forced to confront the distances between the lives they think they want and the lives they are living, a catastrophic earthquake sets in motion a quickly escalating conflict in the Middle East. At stake is the meaning of home―and the fundamental question of how much aliveness one can bear.