Secret Historian by Justin Spring
This the biography of Samuel Steward, a man who would go by many other names in his life. Born in Southeast Ohio, Steward would attend Ohio State University, work as a university English professor, befriend Alfred Kinsey and Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder, collaborate and contribute to the work of the Kinsey Institute, begin working as a tattoo artist, be ousted from his university job, move to California, and write gay pulp novels. The story of his career is intertwined with his identity as a homosexual man and his intimate personal life. This book uses the treasure trove of personal letters and personal effects to give a frank depiction. An exploration of Pre-Stonewall and gay liberation that gives the reader a glimpse into this man’s world and life. Greg
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy is a girl coming of age in the late sixties. She is a free spirited, beautiful young woman with a fantastic voice. The Six is a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. Daisy and Billy eventually cross paths in the world of music, and a producer realizes that the key to massive success is to put the two together. What happens next is the story of rock legends. Mary
Chapters in the Course of My Life by Rudolf Steiner
Steiner was a 19th century Austrian philosopher and “Anthroposophist” – anthroposophy is a spiritual movement Steiner founded, that believed there was a spiritual world accessible to human experience. Steiner was also the founder of Waldorf education, which focuses on the child as a holistic being, with an emphasis on imagination and creativity. His autobiography is absolutely fascinating, both as a chronicle of his own intellectual and spiritual development, as well as a record of the amazing thinkers, poets, and artists that Steiner associated with and learned from. Andrew
Normal People by Sally Rooney
This book, often touted as a very Millennial love story, follows Connell and Marianne and their shifting relationship as they transition from adolescence to adulthood. During high school, Connell is a star athlete, popular and well liked while Marianne is an aloof loner. They begin to grow closer during the times Connell picks up his mother from her work as Marianne’s family’s housekeeper, eventually starting a secret relationship. As time passes, so does the nature of their relationship and personal circumstances. Both Connell and Marianne are relatable, though at times, unlikable characters, leading them to make upsettingly poor choices. A quick read with a lasting impact. Trent
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
In 2017 much was being written about the rediscovered classic Mrs. Caliban. That was the year Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water featured a similar story of love between a woman and an amphibious creature. Earlier this year the author died and I decided to add this to my reading list for something a little different. This novella moves along at a fast clip. Despite the character Dorothy’s unhappy marriage and humdrum domesticity in the suburbs, Ingalls writes with a droll voice. The creature goes by the human name Larry although the news reports warn people that he is a dangerous monster. I’ve read analysis that Larry could just be a figment of Dorothy’s imagination, a representation of an exciting liberation from her mundane mechanical life. I tend to think of Larry as real, but until I reach the end I have yet to fully make that determination. What do you think? Byron
Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander
This is the Russian story of Katya who inherits an old Bluthner piano in 1962. She loves music and her piano. Katya marries Mikhail, who becomes a violent drunk, and eventually settles in California. Sadly, the piano is gone. Years later Clara receives a Bluthner piano from her father on her 12th birthday. At 26 years old Clara, suddenly homeless, leases her piano to photographer Greg Zeldin who uses it for a photo series in Death Valley. Greg travels to places he remembers visiting with his mother. Clara follows the adventure ultimately making a connection with Greg, his mother, her father and the piano. This is a beautiful story with lots of attention to detail. Emma
Crimson Lake by Candice Fox
Set in a small town in Australia, this series opener stars a disgraced former cop trying to hide from his past and start over. On the advice of his lawyer he seeks out a local PI who has her own dark past. They make for an odd couple, but they are soon teamed up to work a case involving a missing author. As they work the case Ted and Amanda each start poking around the other’s past. One odd couple, three cases, and a box of geese all make for a fantastic series opener. Megan
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
This book is a fictional depiction of the very real, very heinous Tennessee Children’s Home Society. Through alternating timelines we learn about one politically powerful family’s ties to this heartbreaking institution and how so many lives would forever be changed. Beth
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Marie Mitchell is working for the FBI during the 1980s Cold War when she’s recruited to travel to Burkina Faso as a spy to take-down their revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara. Black, female, French-speaking and repeatedly snubbed in her FBI career, she’s the ideal candidate for the job. Marie chose to be an FBI agent to pay tribute to her recently deceased sister, who died mysteriously. Now, still grieving, she’s heading to Africa, knowing she’d been chosen for her looks, not her talent, and questioning whether Thomas Sankara is as destructive as the U.S. claims him to be. Told as a letter she’s writing to her two young sons, American Spy is a fascinating look at espionage, the Cold War, African politics, race, gender and imperialism, with a dose of romance and suspense thrown in for good measure. Bahni Turpin does an incredible job narrating the audiobook! Dori
I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan
Cody Swift is doing a podcast with his girlfriend in an attempt to re-open an investigation into the deaths of his two best friends which occurred twenty years ago when the boys were only eleven years old. As Cody interviews old detectives, parents and witnesses, he frightens someone into threatening his and his girlfriend’s safety. It seems that no one told the whole truth about everything that happened that night. Told in the present, and also through the eyes of 11-year-old Cody in flashbacks, the book is an engaging, page turning read. I felt that the ending had a good twist to it that I did not anticipate, but it was a bit too rushed which made it somewhat anticlimactic. I still would recommend it. Sara
Things are starting to look up for Dix Steele. Looking for a new start in post-WWII Los Angeles he has found a swanky new apartment and reconnected with his old war buddy, now a homicide detective, Brub. All he needs now is to find love, and he has his eye on his alluring neighbor, an up-and-coming starlet, Laurel Gray. If he can have Laurel all to himself, he may not even strangle women walking alone at night anymore. Well that, and if Brub’s nosy wife Sylvia would stop being suspicious of Dix and find him charming and agreeable like everyone else. An excellent post-war noir that subverts some of the traditional misogynist motifs of the genre. Megan Abbott, an accomplished noir author in her own right, has written more knowledgeably on how In A Lonely Place accomplishes this in the 
This is the source material for the Disney animated movie The Sword in the Stone as well as the Broadway and movie musicals Camelot. It includes four books in one: The Sword in the Stone, The Witch in the Wood, The Ill-Made Knight, and The Candle in the Wind. I am still in the first book, so not very far into the story of King Arthur. The fantasy adventure has a comic tone that I was not expecting. I thought the Disney movie was responsible for the funny talking animals and Merlin’s absent-mindedness. However, those aspects are present in the novel. Merlin and the author as narrator make anachronistic references to appeal to readers of the 1950s and 1960s close to the time when the novel was published. In fact there are a couple satiric jabs at current society since it is suggested that Merlin has been to the future and is living backward through time. It is a massive medieval adventure, but so far the chapters move along quickly. At least while Arthur is known as a boy named The Wart in the first book it seems like it is aimed more at younger readers, but I wonder if the tone changes later when Arthur reaches adulthood. I’ll keep reading and find out. Byron
Frank Guidry, a charming, well-dressed gangster who works for a New Orleans mob boss, has just returned from Dallas after following orders to deliver a blue Eldorado, when he learns that JFK has been assassinated. When Frank receives orders to return to Texas to dump the car in the ocean, he knows that his involvement means he’s next to die and decides to run for his life, a ruthless hitman in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Charlotte, mother of two young girls, decides to leave her alcoholic husband in Oklahoma and travel to Los Angeles to find a better life. When these two meet on Route 66, sparks fly and Frank convinces Charlotte to travel with him – the perfect cover – but he soon realizes that he could grow to like this new role. Evocative and suspenseful, it’s got 60s sensibility, romance, a road trip, seedy motels, neon-lit Las Vegas, diners and Dylan. I listened to the fantastic audiobook version through Hoopla! Dori
This is one of the more challenging books I’ve read this year, since there is a lot of information and, unfortunately, the font is small. I also have traditionally struggled with reading books on history, but I’m giving it another go. The book, at its best, is fascinating, and it can read like a novel – it is full of letters and speeches and ideas and characters and excerpts from socialist and nationalist literature. Much of the book is devoted to the Bund, the group of Jewish socialists, founded in Russia in the 19th century, that spread to Lithuania and Poland. Members of the Bund struggled with their cultural and political identities – how much were they Jews, and should be devoted to Jewish causes, and how much were they Russians, and should be devoted to Russian causes? The history of the Bund is in many ways a history of the Russian Revolutions in 1905 and 1917, seen from a Jewish perspective, and it’s been fascinating to see figures like Vladimir Lenin interact with prominent members of the Bund. It is also a history of Israel before Israel became a nation (the competing ideologies for Russian Jewry in the 19th century became nationalism, with roots in Palestine, and socialism, which had roots in Russia and America). A challenging but worthwhile read. Andrew
With only being 151 pages long this book packs quite a punch. The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of H. P. Lovecraft’s 
Every once in a while you need an action book with a good guy who you know will win. That is Amos Decker in this new Memory Man book, The Fallen. Amos and his journalist friend Alex take a vacation to visit Alex’s sister in a small, depressed Pennsylvania town. Even when he is not looking for trouble, trouble finds him, and Amos discovers two dead bodies in the neighbor’s house. It is soon apparent that something big is going on in this little town, and there’s no telling who is a part of it. After suffering a concussion, Amos’s infallible memory begins to get a little fuzzy and less reliable. Will he still be able to solve the case or was his memory the only thing that made him an amazing detective? A quick and easy read that is a bit predictable but enjoyable none the less. Sara
This novel is based on on actual events and centers around two of them. Anna Kayser’s husband has her committed to an insane asylum for the fourth time under false pretenses, and deputy Constance Kopp knows she doesn’t belong there. In 1916, Sheriff Robert Heath is running for congress and a new county sheriff will be elected. The new sheriff has no desire in keeping a woman deputy sheriff on board. He quickly dismisses Deputy Kopp. Robert Heath loses the election and Constance Kopp is unemployed. The fourth entry in the Kopp sisters series leaves lots of loose ends to be worked out, but it’s a quick fun read for fans of historical fiction. Emma
Emika Chen is a broke, orphaned eighteen-year-old with a criminal record – one she got from hacking computers. And, like the rest of the world, she’s obsessed with a virtual reality game called Warcross (think Quidditch meets Ready Player One). On the opening day of the International Warcross Championships, Emika is hurting for rent money. When she hacks into the game and attempts to steal an expensive item, she glitches herself into the action and reveals her identity. Emika thinks she’s going to be arrested, but instead, she’s pursued by the game’s creator, heartthrob Hideo Tanaka, to become a spy in next year’s tournament. But the sinister plot Emika uncovers could unravel the entire Warcross empire. I picked up this book because I wanted to be able to recommend more sci-fi to teens. I am really enjoying the pacing of the book (Marie Lu knows how to write a thriller!) and the diverse cast – Emika, like the author, is Chinese American, Hideo is Japanese, and Emika’s Warcross team captain, Asher, uses a wheelchair. Recommend this NYT Bestseller and its sequel, Wildcard, to fans of The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, and Divergent. Lyndsey
This story begins with two main characters who are widowed and have been acquaintances for many years. Addie Moore decides to make a bold move and pay an unexpected visit to her neighbor in Holt, Colorado, Louis Waters. Addie is having trouble sleeping and suggests to Louis that it would be a great help if he consented to sleep with her. What Addie desires is companionship, conversation, and quite simply, someone to share her day with. Louis decides to give it a try. What begins as awkward & unsure soon blossoms into a wonderful relationship. As Addie and Louis slowly begin to build a bond, the residents of Holt, and certain family members are taken aback by such an unconventional relationship for two elderly people. This is a truly beautiful short novel about late in life love and true companionship. The story is simple, yet leaves you thinking long after you’ve closed the book. Mary
This story picks up where his book Beartown left off. The story is set in a small town nestled in the forest of Sweden which is trying to move past a scandal surrounding its beloved hockey team. The story weaves the rebuilding of the people in the town as they try to reclaim their roles and identity. This is a visceral mending of fences and coming-of-age plot which leave the reader to imagine the cold reality of life. You’ll walk away from the story feeling raw yet satisfied. Beth
This past month I finished my second book by Jason Miller regarding practical magic and enchantment. The Elements of Spellcrafting is a fun, informative read that has you look at your own spiritual practice and why you may not be getting the results you are looking for. Each chapter is presented with a humorous comic poking fun at the challenges one can face working with a magical practice. The biggest lesson Miller presents is to not let yourself or your ego get in your own way. Great for a seasoned individual or someone new to the practice. Greg
‘m reading a Star Trek book called Glass Empires. Multiple authors provide three stories in one novel set in the Star Trek Mirror Universe. Even though the Mirror version of Star Trek is about conquering through might rather than exploring the unknown and forming peaceful alliances, these stories still manage to have a humanistic message with certain characters finding the strength to make positive changes to their world. Also I’m nearing the end of the book on CD of Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. This has been an intriguing story and it is narrated very well by Edoardo Ballerini. It jumps back and forth between Italy in the early 60’s and modern day Hollywood. But it is even more nonlinear than that with a play, the first chapter of an unfinished novel, and the unpublished introduction to another character’s memoir thrown in to give the narrative variety. The cast of characters is fairly complex with more being introduced as the story unravels and many characters not turning out to be exactly who you thought they’d be at first glance. It is about Hollywood as Babylon, the sort of place that is dishonest and ruins lives, and the core group of characters who find themselves strangely thrown together in mostly temporary relationships just trying to make the best of their imperfect lives. Byron
Maisie Cothay was born with a strange curse–her touch brings dead things to life and makes living things die. She has been raised in seclusion with her father, commanded never to touch anything organic with her bare hands. When Maisie’s father disappears, she sets off to search for him in the woods that border her home. She has always been forbidden to enter this forest because of rumors and wild tales told by villagers of men gone missing or returning with addled minds and memories. Maisie discovers she is one of a long line of cursed women who have a special connection to the wood which claims them in their time of need; however, they are then doomed to live there forever with no hope of change, escape or death. Her ancestors in the wood know that she is the one that can save them, but will Maisie be able to rescue her father or will she be trapped forever in the wood that imprisons her forebears? A very creative tale, although it drags a bit in parts and ends somewhat abruptly. Sara
recently reread one of my favorite novels of all time, The Assistant by Bernard Malamud. Malamud was a master short-story writer, but he was also just a wonderful novelist. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, he helped to spark a renaissance in Jewish-American literature, along with novelists Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. The Assistant is about a Jewish grocer in Brooklyn, New York named Morris Bober, an older man with a lot of woes, who hires for unique reasons (no spoilers) a man named Frank Alpine to work for him. The novel follows what happens after Frank is hired. Morris’s wife, Ida, and daughter, Helen, are also main characters, and there are a lot of other lesser characters who are very memorable, vivid and alive. The novel is evocative of the early 1950’s in Brooklyn, and there is much autobiographical material, as Malamud’s own father was a grocer. The novel is also a profound and lyrical meditation on what it means to be a good person. Andrew
Clackton seemingly has very little going for him. His mother’s recent death left him alone with an abusive father and little prospects for peace or happiness. When a brutal accident severs the last tie he has to home, Jaxie is compelled to flee into the cruel wilds of Western Australia. In his rush to escape Jaxie leaves severely underprovisioned for what his trek through this desolate landscape will require. Though his past has taught him not to trust men, when he encounters Fintan MacGillis, another exile disconnected from the world, he is forced into a situation where his future depends on him. Together they forge a tenuous friendship as Fintan searches for absolution and Jaxie peace. Trent
