*Lila by Marilynne Robinson is a “powerful, profound, and
positively radiant… depiction of a child reared by drifters who finds a kindred
soul in 'a big, silvery old man,' the Rev. John Ames whom she is afraid to love”. . and still does.
Robinson deals with the big issues: existence, faith, abject poverty, life, death, joy, fear, doubt,
love, violence, kindness— and more. “A book…already for the ages” but not always easy going for rapid reading.
Best Brothers by Daniel MacIvor is “a
bittersweet comedy from one of Canada's most beloved playwrights” that explores the ways people grieve and find love in unexpected places. Bunny’s two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of
arranging her funeral and caring for her most beloved companion, a troublesome
Italian greyhound named Enzo. The obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, dog-sitting,
and sibling rivalry quickly unearths
years of buried contentions.
*Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove imagines what
might happen if a band of white supremacists traveled back through time to
alter the outcome of the Civil War by providing AK-47s to the CSA. A master storyteller with the scrupulous accuracy
of a trained historian, Turtledove creates a believable, meticulously detailed world
inhabited by plausible characters both
historical and fictional.
*The Son by Philipp Meyer is “part Texas, part
classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching portrait of the bloody price of
power.” Kidnapped by Comanche after seeing his mother and sister brutally
murdered, 13-year-old Eli McCullough
adapts to Comanche life until the tribe is decimated by armed Americans
whereupon he marries and founds a family and financial dynasty. The novel traces the legacy of violence in
the American West through three generations of McCulloughs with Intertwined narratives from his son, Peter, who
bears the emotional cost of his father's drive for power, and Eli's great-granddaughter who must fight
hardened rivals to succeed in a man's world.
