I have a stack of nonfiction books waiting for me to finish (or even begin), but when the news is heavy, facts are difficult to absorb, especially if the book is talking of the climate challenges ahead. At least, this fall’s election news brings optimism.
Meanwhile, here’s a listing of some of the novels I’ve read recently.
Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, 2022. Marcellus, a giant octopus nearing his end of life, acts as a narrator. I admit I was wary of a short-lived creature who knew so much about the humans looking into his tank, but I gradually got wrapped up in several lives, especially Tova’s, the aging aquarium cleaning lady. And so what if Marcellus acts the part of an 8-armed deus ex machina? He succeeds in making Tova happy.
Found in a library box at the park: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt. Winner of the 2005 Caldecott and Prinz awards. Schmidt sets the tale in 1912 Maine around an actual event. Young Turner stands up to his minister father while befriending a Black girl who lives on a nearby island that’s destined to be vacated of people. An often sad coming-of-age story.
I’ve always enjoyed Patchett’s books but never came across her first one until now: The Patron Saint of Liars, by Ann Patchett, 1992. Covering a long span of years in Kentucky, the reader moves through various points of view, while a healing spring attracts a fashionable hotel which in turn becomes a home for unwed mothers run by nuns after the spring dries up.
While browsing my public library’s ebook offerings, I was surprised to discover that Alexander McCall Smith had written a World War II novel. The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse; a novel of love and war, by Alexander McCall Smith, 2018. Peter Woodhouse is a dog who brings about connections between an American flyer and a British girl. Flying as an Air Force mascot, the dog survives a crash landing, wherein he is the catalyst in connecting a Dutch resistance fighter and a reluctant German soldier. Unlike many WWII tales, Smith’s tale takes us all the way to the Berlin Wall.
Moss’d in Space, by Rebecca Thorne, 2026. A cozy science fiction novel. about an abandoned, intelligent moss in charge of a space ship. Moss suffers abandonment issues when its pilot leaves it stuck in storage for many many years. A young woman, anxious to transport her sister to healthier air, purchases the ship, thereby freeing Moss from its prison and giving it a new outlook on life. A sequel is due out in 2027.
So what books have you enjoyed recently?
