May Books

*Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles concludes a best-selling trilogy and finds Natchez mayor, Penn Cage, forced to be a spectator as his revered physician father, is tried for murder in the wake of revelations about a mixed-race child and KKK associations. Iles is a great story teller,  but there is just too much here--at 692 pages, too many references to previous books, too many plot twists, too many amazing survival stories and too little nuance in character development...but still a fun read.

**The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis describes how Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of articles challenging assumptions about the decision-making process that won the Nobel prize in economics.  Not Lewis’ best work, but still engaging, informative and insightful.

*The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simseson, best-selling author of The Rosie Project has a 50-year-old man who compares his safe life choices and remembers a youthful affair with an exotic actress.  Then, she contacts him and suggests the possibility of a more exciting life. An engaging read with an excellent sound track (references to songs that fit the occasions of the narrative).

LaRose by National Book Award–winner Louise Erdrich immerses the reader into the tumultuous world of two Native American families bound together by culture and grief. Landreaux accidentally shoots and kills his best friend’s 5-year-old son. He  follows an ancient Ojibwe tradition and gives his own son to the bereaved parents, but complications mount.  The novel shifts between time and alternative realities in a way that made it hard for me to complete-- my bad.