Infinite Country

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is a book everyone should read. 

Talia, who is sixteen, has a week to get across Colombia back to Bogota to catch a plane to the United States. Her mother is finally sending for her to join her siblings in New Jersey.

Unfortunately, in order to get there, Talia has to break out of a school/prison and, with no money, get about one hundred miles.

Talia born in the US, but raised in Bogota by her grandmother and father. Her parents had traveled to the US for work and stayed past their visas - living in fear, taking underpaying and dangerous jobs with no protection from their employers. 

When her father was deported back to Columbia, there was no way for him to return to the US. Two of his three children born in a country he cannot visit, the third of who cannot come see him in Colombia.

Engel has written a family epic in a small book with a giant punch. This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of many families. Buy a copy today.

Engel, Patricia. (2021). Infinite Country. New York: Avid Reader Press.

The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is the tale of twin sisters and their diverging lives. 

Stella and Desiree Vignes were born in Mallard, Louisiana in the 1950s. Most people born there stay their whole lives. 

At sixteen, their mother takes them out of school so they can help support the family. That is when they leave and move to New Orleans. From there they separate, creating very different lives for themselves.

Ten years later, Desiree moves back home, bringing her daughter Jude. She has not seen or herd from Stella in years. Desiree hires someone to track Stella to find out what happened to her.

Spanning forty years and the width of the United States, Bennett explores the history of passing, racism and identity in this beautiful family epic. 

Bennett, Brit (2020). The Vanishing Half. New York: Riverhead Books.

The Russian Cage (Gunnie Rose #3)

The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris is her alternate history series featuring Gunnie Rose. Lizbeth Rose is a guard who, with a crew, guides people through the wilds of an altered United States.

Lizbeth gets a letter from her half-sister in the Holy Russian Empire (what we call California and Oregon) - a sister she only discovered months ago. On a second reading she notices a code.

Eli has been arrested. Eli's brother, a classmate of her sister, has been to see him but cannot find out why he is in jail. 

Lizbeth packs a bag, digs up some money and hops a train west. Once arriving in San Diego, she has to attempt to blend in - including not carrying her guns. 

Harris has created a wonderful genreblend - alternate history magic, western - which should surprise no one who is familiar with her Southern Vampire (aka True Blood) series. She is a great writer with an extra amount of imagination! I love this series!

Harris, Charlaine. (2021). The Russian Cage. New York: Saga Press.

The King's Justice (Maggie Hope #9)

The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal is her ninth book in the Maggie Hope series - an historical mystery / espionage series lead by a wonderful character. 

Maggie has had many jobs since she moved to London - from secretary to Mr. Churchill, to espionage work, to helping Scotland Yard catch a sequential murderer. Now she just wants a break. 

Of course her idea of a break from that previous work is to join a bomb disposal unit. Her role being defusing the UXBs before they can explode. 

The man from Scotland Yard has other ideas. He wants her help, and to get her away from the UXBs. She can choose her case - either a new sequential killer who is putting human bones in suitcases in the Thames, or the theft of a Stradivarius violin. 

MacNeal's series is one of my favorite in any genre. This and Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs are equally the best of historical mystery.  

MacNeal, Susan Elia. (2020). The King's Justice. New York: Bantam Books.

The Gods of Tango

The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis is a beautiful story of survival during the birth of tango in Argentina.

1913. Seventeen year old Leda is about to leave Italy to marry Dante who already migrated to Argentina. He went ahead to get settled before sending for her. Leda is taking her father's violin - it has been passed from father to son for generations. Though Leda knows how to play, tradition is tradition.

When Leda arrives in Buenos Aires, she is met by a stranger who tells her that her husband Dante has died. Money has been raised for her to have a room in their tenement for a couple of months while she decides what to do next.

Her family wants her to come home to Italy. There are few jobs open to a single woman. She can join the others in her building sewing, but it will only earn her enough to share a room with a bunch of other women. A man who comes to play the violin one afternoon tells her that women cannot play - tango is played in places unsafe for a woman.

But tango calls to Leda. And her husband's clothing is in a closet in her room. Could she pass as a man to play the violin? She would have to give up everyone she knows in Buenos Aires and move away in the night, cutting off her long hair...

De Robertis's story following the growth of the tango. From it African roots, added to by other groups of migrants to Argentina - German, Italian - and influence by Paris in a cyclical loop. The music, the dancing, the characters, the whole book is a love story to both the tango and to finding you place no matter your initial circumstances. 

De Robertis, Carolina. (2015). The Gods of Tango. New York: Vintage Books.

Twice Shy

Twice Shy by Aurora Rey is her third book that takes place in a small town in upstate New York: The Last Place You Look and Built to Last.

Amanda Russo is the owner of the bakery, Bake My Day. Business is great. She just bought the neighboring space and is going to expand the bakery to twice the size. 

Quinn Sullivan is an architect. She is excited by the project she has next, a small bakery with a delicious reputation. 

Rey's books are well written and make living in a small town in the Finger Lake region of New York sound idea. Her characters are sweet and flawed, ready to take a second chance. She writes real-seeming, fully formed women who know what they want.

Rey, Aurora. (2020). Twice Shy. Valley Falls, NY: Bold Strokes Books.

Not Since You

Not Since You by Fiona Riley is a lesbian romance on a cruise ship.

Charlotte Southwick is taking her honeymoon cruise - alone and single. She is not letting her break up take away a week on a lesbian cruise ship and then a week on a tropical island.

Lexi Bronson has been working ships for almost ten years. She is a bartender and VIP handler. She has been roaming without a home since her father died, but is secretly saving up to buy a bar on a tropical beach.

When Lexi goes to the honeymoon suite cabin to welcome her new guests, she is shocked to she her high school sweetheart. Charlotte is equally shocked to see the love of her life when she is at her lowest. 

This is a perfect beach read - or when it is snowing outside and you want to be on a beach. 

Riley, Fiona. (2019). Not Since You. Valley Falls, NY: Bold Strokes Books.

You'll Never Believe What Happened To Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar is a funny but sad look at white people in the United States.

Filled with hilarious true stories from Lacey's life, many from work, this book presented by two sisters is not only a look at how far we have to go, but at a close sibling relationship. Amber tells the stories, Lacey interjects when necessary to keep her on track.

This project came about because so many white people have so many stupid, racist things to Lacey, that she started to keep a journal. She and Amber talk about them on the phone: Amber is in New York City and Lacey in in Omaha, Nebraska (their home town). 

This is a look at the crazy things that happen everyday if you are Black in America. Go buy a copy today, laugh while you learn what not to say to your Black coworkers and friends!

Ruffin, Amber & Lacey Lamar. (2021). You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

The Bookshop on the Shore (Kirrinfief #2)

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan is the second book in her romance series that takes place in Kirrinfief, Scotland.

Zoe lives in London with her four-year-old son Hari. Her ex-boyfriend Jaz rarely helps with living expenses or even sees his son. Zoe needs to do something to improve their situation.

When Zoe meets Jaz's sister for the first time, Surinder thinks she may have a solution that will help. Her friend Nina runs a mobile book van in Scotland and needs time off for maternity leave. 

This added to a man who needs a nanny for his three unruly children will be enough to live off of. Plus Hari will be able to play outside in beautiful Scotland. The only draw back is that the children are awful.

This second installment in the Kirrinfief series is just as endearing. The rotten children will grow on you!

Colgan, Jenny. (2019). The Bookshop on the Shore. New York: William Morrow.

Gods of Jade and Shadow

The Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the tale of a human young woman getting in the middle of a battle between the Mayan gods of death. 

Casiopea Tun and her mother live with her grandfather in the Yucatán. Though other relatives also live there, including her horrible cousin Martin, she and her mom do all of the cooking and cleaning. It has something to do with the fact that her mother married someone of whom her grandfather did not approve. 

Martin is always getting Casiopea in trouble. He resents her relationship with their grandfather. When she is left home from a trip to the beach, she sees her chance to find out what is in the trunk in her grandfather's room.

What she finds is a skeleton! And when she touches it, a shard stabs her finger and her blood brings it back to life. Soon she is looking at the god of Hun-Kamé, one of the twin Gods of Death. 

After years, he can get revenge on his brother Vucub-Kamé who stole his throne. But when gods fight, it is often the humans who are at risk.

Moreno-Garcia has brought the mythology of the Mayan Popol Vuh to life in this fantastic novel set in the roaring twenties. 

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. (2019). Gods of Jade and Shadow. New York: Del Rey.

The Bookshop on the Corner (Kirrinfief #1)

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan is the first book in her romance series that takes place in Kirrinfief, Scotland. (First published under the name The Little Shop of Happily-Ever-After.)

Nina Redmond is a librarian. Her job and calling in life is to find the right book for each person. But when her library branch is downsized she doesn't know what she is going to do. The library sends them to a training where they are encouraged to find some other job, as there will only be a few open spots for the many employees being displaced.

The workshop leader asks Nina what she would do if she could do anything in the world. She says open a bookstore. Her roommate agrees - there are so many books in their flat she is concerned the floors will give out soon!

Because she doesn't want the overhead of a shop, it is suggested to her to find a van and create a mobile shop. Taking a risk she travels from London to a village in Scotland where someone is selling a bread van. 

Colgan has created romance series set in the beautiful but start land of Kirrinfief, near Loch Ness. Her book is funny, sweet and endearing. A perfect vacation read.

Colgan, Jenny. (2016). The Bookshop on the Corner. New York: William Morrow.

Cantoras

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis is an historic novel of military governed Uruguay in the late 1970s and a group of lesbians who find each other and create a beach hideaway that helps them survive their circumstances.

In 1977 Uruguay is run by "the Process" which is little spoken of - it is too dangerous to say anything about the current dictatorship - but controls most aspects of daily life. 

Flaca, the daughter of a butcher in Montevideo, invites her friend and ex-girlfriend Romina and a couple of other women to a beach escape. Cabo Polonio is an isolated cape with only a tiny fishing village. 

Here, out of the eyes of others, the women can be themselves. A break they desperately need in their oppressive time. 

This trip leads to returns, until the (now five women) pool their money and buy a rundown beach shack This is the setting for the epic tale of the next decades of their lives and the changes that come to Uruguay. 

De Robertis is a wonderful writer who captures a difficult period in history and how those whose very nature went against the rules survived until a better time. I love this book. I am already making my way through everything else she writes. A must read for queer women everywhere!

De Robertis, Carolina. (2019). Cantoras. New York: Knoph. 

Tremontaine

Tremontaine is the latest book in the Swords of Riverside series - this volume written by authors who are fans of the original three books. It takes place fifteen years before Swordspoint. 

Ixbaab Balam is a spy from across the sea. She is in a London-like city with her family who import chocolate. They are the only source of chocolate, a fad that has taken the upper classes by storm.

Micha is a farm girl, in the city with her cousin to sell vegetables. She is dressed as a boy to make her work easier. She is a math genius. When she meets Rafe, a university student, on a delivery she joins him in class.

Tess lives in Riverside, a lower class neighborhood where the regular people live. Although there is nothing common about Tess - as Ixkaab notices on first glance.

Diane, Duchess Tremontaine, is a member of the ton. Anything she does is to be copied. She is in the process of trying to save the Tremontaine name in spite of some bad investments. 

This series is a fun, swashbuckling tale of Regency times. The authors of this volume have captured the feel and tone of the originals by Kushner. A must read for fantasy fans.

Kushner, Ellen. (2017), Tremontaine. New York: Saga Press.

The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra

The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra by Alex Messenger is a harrowing tale set in a beautiful topography. 

After growing up going to kayaking camp each summer, Alex Messenger joins four other high school seniors and one adult for a six hundred mile trek / paddle across the Canadian taiga, tundra and lakes in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. 

The group is transported by small plane to Wholdia Lake to start their adventure. The planed route is forty-two days long. They will not likely see any other humans until they overlap with a group of young women doing a different path that leads to the same final village. 

The trip is gorgeous. It is land that few people see. The lakes and portages are beautifully described. It is the trip of a lifetime.

Then on the twenty-ninth day, a day of rest, Alex takes a short walk on an island in the middle of a huge lake. He has napped and missed the rest of the group who have just returned from their walk. He plans to climb the hill and get some photographs of the landscape.  

It is rate to even see a grizzly bear. The team had seen two already on the trail - both a safe distance away. But this day Alex surprises one. He fights back, using his hard-sided camera case to swing at the bear. But he is badly hurt. When he comes to, with no idea how long he was unconscious, he can see the bear leaving from the corner of his eye. 

Once the bear is out of site, Alex used his last adrenaline to get back to camp. Then he has to decide if his injuries can be taken care of in the wild, or a helicopter or plane should pick him up. The next part of the trek includes daily check ins on the satellite phone, consulting with doctors in Minnesota, where the guys live. Each day is a balance between staying (thought to be better for PTS) or getting medical attention from an actual doctor. 

Messenger used his journals and the input of his trip mates to put together his incredible story. Even in spite of the attack, after reading this, I would jump at the chance to canoe though Canada! Read this book for an amazing, real-life, adventure. 

Messenger, Alex. (2019). The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra. Oregon: Blackstone Publishing.

Leave the World Behind

 Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam is a different kind of dystopian or apocalyptical novel as it takes place during the event - when no one yet knows what is happening. 

Amanda and Clay, and their children Rose and Archie, are taking a vacation from NYC. They rented an Airbnb on Long Island where they plan to spend a quiet week of rest and relaxation.

On their second or third night, there is a late night knock at the door. A couple is there saying it is their house and that something has happened in the city. GH and Ruth drove the couple of hours instead of returning to their city apartment. 

They cannot say what, exactly, has happened. Radios, cell phones, cable and internet are out. They request to stay in the downstairs bedroom until someone can figure out what is going on.

At first the couples are focused on small things. Ruth feels strange having people in her home - usually the house is cleaned and put back together before she and GH return. Clay and Amanda feel strange having the owners there - should be get their money back, should they leave or stay?

The chaos and uncertainty come across in the writing, making readers on edge as they hope to find out what caused the terror. But like the characters, we will never know. 

Alam has taken a popular genre and created a story that others often gloss over - the onset of the change. It is an effective and unsettling tale.

Alam, Rumaan. (2020). Leave the World Behind. New York: Ecco.

Storm the Earth (Shatter the Sky #2)

Storm the Earth by Rebecca Kim Wells is the sequel to her young adult fantasy book Shatter the Sky.

Maren is on the run with a baby dragon. She is still trying to get to Kaia and rescue her. However, the resistance to the emperor is growing and keeps pulling at her attention.

This series has a strong female protagonist who changes everything in her lift to rescue her girlfriend and try to free the dragons that were captured by the emperor and his Talons. 

Wells has written a fun, fast-paced young adult fantasy series. The heroine sets off on a personal quest only to ultimately give her all to free a race of ancient, majestic creatures that her people used to worship. 

Wells, Rebecca Kim. (2020). Storm the Earth. New York: Simon & Schuster.

The Office of Historical Corrections

The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella & Short Stories by Danielle Evans is a book of powerful stories. These amazingly well written stories vary but all have aspects of race or racism. They are smart, timely and haunting.

Included:

Happily Ever After

Richard of Your Gave Battle in Vain

Boys Go To Jupiter

Alcatraz

Why Won't Women Just Say What They Want

Anything Could Disappear

The Office of Historical Corrections

After reading this collection, I will be reading everything else that Danielle Evans has or does publish! I just ordered her collection titled, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self.

Evans, Danielle. (2020). The Office of Historical Corrections. New York: Riverhead. 

Piranesi

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is one of my favorite books of the last few years. It is a story that can be read a philosophy, a look at the human condition, or just a beautiful story of the awe people see in the world around them.

The House has hundreds of rooms and vestibules, all filled with statures. All room's statues are different than those of the other rooms. And the House makes up the entirety of the world.

A few rooms have collapse into the sea and become the Drowned Rooms where you can fish, collect seaweed and watch the birds.

Piranesi knows the house. He has explored and mapped his world. He knows the tides that sometimes close off sections. He has made a life with what his world has to offer.

The only other living person in this life, simply called the Other, meets with him twice per week. He is researching a Great and Secret Knowledge. He and Piranesi could not be more different in their approach to life.

This is all I can say without giving too much away. I absolutely love this book. Buy a copy today from your favorite local bookshop. 

Clarke, Susanna. (2020). Piranesi. New York: Bloomsbury.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix is about the people who keep our reality as we know it.

The right-handed booksellers are the intellectuals. The left-handed are the weapons. 

Susan Arkshaw just moved to London. She will be starting art school in three months. She has come early to research her father. She has no name, only a small silver case and a reading room ticket from the 1970s. 

Susan's first stop is at Uncle Frank's. He is not really her uncle, but her only clue. When she gets here, Merlin (a left-handed bookseller) has turned Frank to dust. 

Since Susan can see this, it means she has some magic in her. This becomes more evident when thing keep hunting her.

Nix is one of my favorite authors. His imagination leads to wonderful stories, many which combine magic, myth and the Old World. This is no exception!

Nix, Garth. (2020). The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. New York: Katherine Tegan Books.

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1)

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse is a great book and the first in her Between Earth and Sky series. 

Celestial prophesies say that on the day of the black sun there will be a reckoning. In the city of Tova the solstice is a time of celebration and renewal as the sun completes the year and comes back for a new one. The Sun Priest will lead the ceremony to ensure that it does.

Captain Xiala, a Teek sailor whose song can calm the waters and call a breeze, is hired to get a blind man to the city of Tova. He must arrive before the convergence. This will require cutting across the sea instead of following the shoreline. 

Serapio, the blind man, is anything but harmless. He has been training almost since birth to perform one act.; It has to be done as the sky darkens - before the sun can be brought back for a new year.

Roanhorse has created a wonderful fantasy series set in the pre-Colombian Americas. This is one of the best books I read in 2020!

Roanhorse, Rebecca. (2020). Black Sun. New York: Saga Press.

A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1)

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is the first book in her fantasy series The Scholomance - imagine if Hogwarts killed more students that it graduated! 

El, short for Galadriel, is a magic high school that eats about half of the students, or rather mals get them. It is dangerous to make friends, but also necessary to form alliances by the last year. 

Some of the other students belong to magical families who have joined an enclave. These students are used to getting their way, have access to the best spells and use the unaffiliated as serfs with the promise to consider them for membership in their enclave if they live through graduation. 

El is a dark wizard, born to the sweetest healer in Europe. She refused to embrace her darkness, but the school keeps giving her assignments based on her evil talent.

Novik has created a wonderful series. I love this book and cannot wait for the next. Buy a copy today.

Novik, Naomi. (2020). A Deadly Education. New York: DelRey.

The Lost Shtetl

The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross is the story of what happens to an isolated village when the modern world encroaches. 

A small Jewish village in the forests of Poland has been living the same way for generations. It has been lost to time by the rest of the world.

When two different people go missing in a short amount of time, the village chooses someone to walk to the city - a three-day walk - to inform the police. 

Just before Yankel Lewinkopf leave for the city, the Gypsy caravan that comes to trade twice a year stops by. They agree to take Yankel to the city.

Speaking little Polish and having little money, Yankel has a difficult time explaining what he needs. He is overwhelmed by a modern city and is eventually taken to be hallucinating, and taken to the hospital for help.

Gross's book is a look at the differences between tradition and the modern world - in a creative setting. 

Groos, Max, (2020). The Lost Shtetl. New York: Harper Via.

Daoism: A Beginner's Guide

Daoism: A Beginner's Guide by James Miller is a great introduction to a philosophy and religion of balance.

This is a great introduction to Daoism, from its creation through the main three schools of thought today, including the philosophies, Tai Chi, and meditation.

Beginning in China, spanning centuries and almost every part of the globe, this guide is beautifully organized some of the main concepts in Daoism. Miller also explores how Daoism and Buddhism influenced each other over the ages.

This is a beautiful book whose timeliness in the current pandemic may give you some ways to refocus your mind.

Miller, James. (2014). Daoism: A Beginner's Guide. London: Oneworld.