June Books

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen was described as "a fiendishly smart cat-and-mouse thriller" (NYT).  There’s the story of the young wife who realizes that she is losing the ‘perfect’ man to an even younger model of herself.  That sounds familiar, but people are often (always) more complicated that they appear and have secrets from the past that shape their behaviors. The psychological twists that shape a divorce and second marriage in this story are anything but what they seem. Reminiscent of Gone Girl, but not quite as good (to me). 

*It’s Better than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in a World of Fear by Gregg Easterbrook presents (lots of) compelling data to argue that despite the narrative of negative events the world is basically better than ever before. Esterbrook discusses how social media, personal biases, and political machinations have blurred our perspective and suggests practical ways to address our most intractable challenges.

*House Fire by Kamila Shamsie looks at the Pakistani experience in London with keen insights into the challenges of assimilation and maintaining cultural and family values.  An older daughter has postponed her own dreams to care for her teen-age twins after the death of their parents.  Even after escaping to Boston, she worries about the influence of a powerful politician's son who ultimately causes the family to choose between love and loyalty with devastating consequences for everyone. 

**Little Fires Everywhere by Celese Ng chronicles an ugly custody battle for a Chinese-American baby in Shaker Heights, a progressive Cleveland suburb.  The primary conflict is between the birth mother, a destitute former addict, and   a wealthy woman who is a desperate to adopt the child. Tensions between artistic tenant who has little regard for the strict rules of Shaker Heights and her proper landlord who becomes obsessed with exposing the tenant's past, only to trigger devastating consequences for everyone involved. . “A deftly woven plot that examines a multitude of issues, including class, wealth, artistic vision, abortion, race, prejudice and cultural privilege.”

*Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate is based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which the director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country. Upon learning that her grandmother was a victim of this corrupt practice, attorney and aspiring politician Avery Stafford delves into her family's past and begins to wonder if some things are best kept secret. Wingate skillfully captures the cruelty of the adoption group and the fear of impoverished children who had no sense of what was happening to  them into “an engaging story with feel-good ending can be seen from miles away, but does nothing to detract from this fantastic novel.”

April-May Books

*The Perfect Nanny by Lila Slimani  won France's prestigious Prix Goncourt and is her first book to be published in the U.S--  “a devastating, entrancing, literary psychological drama supported by absorbing character studies.” A working French-Moroccan couple finds a ‘too-good-to-be-true’ nanny, whose devotion to their children spirals into a psychologically charged cycle of jealousies, resentments and eventual violence.

* Manhattan Beach by Pulitzer Prize winner, Jennifer Egan, is “Immensely satisfying…an old-fashioned page-turner, tweaked by this witty and sophisticated writer” (NYTimes)   Years after accompanying her father to a meeting with Dexter Styles, nineteen-year-old Anna, who now works as one of the first women divers  at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, encounters Dexter and begins to understand her father's complex life and why he disappeared.

A Passage to India by E. M. Forester is an insightful critique of British imperialism during the early 20^th Century.  This once controversial novel focuses on two Englishwomen who experience misunderstanding and cultural conflict after they travel to India and provides insight into the perceptions and biases of the British and Indian people whom they meet. Historically significant, but dated and slow.

*Educated by Tara Westover is an insightful memoir about a young Mormon girl who, despite being kept away from public schools, medical care and TV, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. Her ability to make the transformation with so little guidance is only slightly less impressive than her skill in describing the difficulty of consciously ‘changing her mind.”

Happiness is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Spend Among the Oldest of the Old by John Leland of the NYT who reports on his assignment to study the fastest growing segment of our population. Probably a collection of columns with lessons that emphasize the extraordinary influence we wield over the quality of our lives. Brilliant and insightful at times, it is also simplistic and superficial at others.

The Immortalists by Benjamin Chloe is ““A captivating family saga.”  After sneaking out to get readings from a psychic who tells customers when they will die, four young siblings from NYC's Lower East Side experience decades of experiences shaped by their determination to control fate. Generally engaging, “The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion.”

March Books

*How to Stop Time by Matt Haig was described as a "wry, intriguing meditation on time and eternal human challenges."(People)  /tin Gazard us a 439 year old who has a rare condition call anageria which means he ages very,very slowly.  A fascinating exercise in thinking through the implication of love, friendship and history.  Although Haig gets a little too "Forest Gump" while encountering Scott & Zelda, Capt. Cook, and Shakespeare, it is still a " delightfully witty...poignant novel."(Wash.Post)  Oh, I understand that Benedict Cumberbach will star in the movie.


Moonglow by Michael Chabon received rhapsodic reviews from most critics who are doubtless more sophisticated readers than I.  This work of “fictional nonfiction” is a collection of stories supposedly told in 1989 by his dying grandfather. Parts of the book are also narrated by the author, and his mother and grandmother are also prominent characters.  There are many beautiful, elegant sentences and metaphors but the stories and narrative could have been more engaging and coordinated. 

**Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin describes the challenges and dreams of a seventy-four-year-old professor at Paris-Sorbonne.  Jules is also a cellist, widow, veteran of the Algerian war, and child of the Holocaust who must now confront his mortality, losses, unrealized potential and fashion the last refrain of his life. Eloquently written, with psychological and philosophical insight combined with humor and suspense.  This is the best book I’ve read  in 2018.

*The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks is a clever psychological thriller in the tradition of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. You may think you know this story: a powerful, controlling husband dumps a troubled first wife for a younger woman with whom the discarded spouse becomes obsessed. But that’s only part of the story. The myriad plot twists, red herrings, and unreliable narrators will keep the book from being considered good literature but insure its popularity and market success.

*Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly has Harry Bosch investigating a pharmacy shooting that leads him into the big-business world of pill mills and prescription-drug abuse. At the same time,  an old case from Bosch's days with the LAPD returns to threaten his reputation. Harry's half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer, 2005), joins the case,  adds humor and creative legal strategy to the story. Connelly is the best and most consistent of writers in this crowded genre.

*Enjoy Old Age by B. F. Skinner, the Father of Behaviorism, and his protégée M.E. Vaughn who turned his timely 1972 APA address into a still timely consideration about coping with the problems of aging and how to get the most out of one's later years.  The writing may be a bit dated, but the advice isn’t.