The Heron's Cry
Ann Cleeves

Do you know about the Matthew Venn series by Ann Cleeves? Heron's Cry is the second in the series. I listened to the audio book, which is an excellent way to experience this story. In The Heron's Cry, Matthew is called to the scene of a murder in which a man, Dr. Yeo, has been killed in an unusual way. A glass shard from a work of his artist daughter, has been lodged in his neck. Not long after, another victim dies in a similar manner. Matthew, his colleague Jen, and other detectives follow complicated social relationships and of course, the trails of money. Woven throughout is the personal life of Matthew, his struggle against his evangelical upbringing (and shunning), and there is a whole lot of Matthew's husband Jonathan in Heron's Cry. Trust me when I say you can't have too much Jonathan. If you haven't read the first book in the series, The Long Call, I recommend you start with it. 

If you tear through the first two (and love them!), you'll be glad to know the 3rd book in the series, The Raging Storm, will be out in September. 

Polar Star
Martin Cruz Smith

This is the second book in the Gorky Park/Arkady Renko series.

At the end of Gorky Park, the first book in the series, Renko finds himself rather adrift and the reader wonders not only what he'll do next, but maybe more pressing, where will he do whatever is next? To be honest, I did not suspect I would next find Renko on a fishing factory ship called Polar Star. Sufficed to say, Renko could not have sunk much lower. He is employed on the "Slime Line" and it's every bit as gross as it sounds. However, when a kitchen worker ends up in one of the nets of the boat, the ship's staff is hard-pressed to find someone to do a half-way decent investigation. Despite Renko being a lousy Party member, he is asked to investigate. Like Gorky Park, the book is filled with Soviet politics, as well as good mystery and adventure. While it's not entirely necessary to have read Gorky Park to read this one, I would recommend it. 

Tom Lake
Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett fans, rejoice! Her new book, Tom Lake, will be released August 1!

 A few years ago, Ann Patchett published a book of essays, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Her new book, Tom Lake, is fiction but it could also be called “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.” Lara and her husband run a cherry orchard in northern Michigan. During the pandemic, their three grown daughters return home to help with the harvest, since the seasonal workers who usually fill that role are not available. While picking cherries, the daughters pester their mother to tell them all the details of the time she spent at a summer theater called Tom Lake. While there, Lara had a summer fling with one of her fellow actors, and he went on to become famous. Lara’s accounts of those long past days are in juxtaposition with her long and happy marriage. Over the course of the book, Lara’s daughters realize they didn’t know their parents’ younger lives as well as they thought they did! Reading the book is like peeling an onion—there are many layers, and the story becomes richer as each is removed. Patchett has again written a compelling story with fully realized characters we come to care about. You’ll want to set aside time to immerse yourself in Tom Lake!

A Council of Dolls
Mona Susan Power

Like my mother before me, I was a girl who loved dolls. Dolls, their clothes, and their furniture shared my bedroom with me my entire childhood. They each had a name and a backstory. I played with them endlessly, changing their clothes, posing them, acting out their stories. They’re all gone now except Gretchen, a doll who belonged to my grandmother and her sister, my mother, and me. She sits on a shelf in my sewing room, quietly surveying her surroundings.

It's no wonder that I was drawn to a book with the title A Council of Dolls. However, the girls in the book and their dolls had lives very different from my own. The book moves in reverse. First are Sissy and her doll, Ethel, living in Chicago in the 1960’s. Sissy is Native American and Ethel has dark skin like hers. Sissy’s mother is volatile, loving sometimes, abusive other times. The second section of the book tells the story of Lillian, Sissy’s mother. Lillian was born in 1925 and forced to go to an Indian boarding school with her doll, Mae, and her sister, Blanche. Mae was by Lillian’s side during the abuse and tragedy she experienced at the school. The book moves on to the story of Cora, Lillian’s mother. As a child, she was sent to Carlisle, the Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania. The aim of the school was to civilize Cora, and her cherished buckskin doll, Winona, was burned as a way to separate her from her culture.

The story is difficult and the book is moving. Generational trauma can be traced from mother to daughter to granddaughter. There is hope in the final section of the book as grown-up Sissy, now known as Jesse, writes as a way to deal with the damage of the trauma and achieve a measure of healing.

I sat quietly with Gretchen for a long time after finishing the book, grieving and reflecting.

Note: this book will be released in hardcover on August 8.

Lessons in Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus

One of the hot books of the summer, Lessons in Chemistry is the story of Elizabeth Zott, a gifted scientist. Unfortunately, science was not an area in which women in the early 60s were welcome or well regarded. Elizabeth experienced the misogyny and sexual discrimination typical of that time. Does this sound like an unlikely story line for an enormously popular book? Ah, you may not know that the book is also very, very funny. After losing her job as a researcher because she was unmarried and pregnant, Elizabeth eventually backs into employment as the host of a daytime cooking show. Elizabeth is a chemist, right? And cooking is chemistry, right? The cooking show is an unexpected success, appealing to women because it takes them seriously. While you’ll laugh your way through the book, you may also stop to consider the issues it raises about the role of women in the 60’s, and today. Elizabeth has a precocious daughter, an unusual dog, and relationships with a variety of peculiar people. You’ll enjoy the time you spend with all of them!

O Beautiful

Read Ann’s review in Youth Yak.

I loved the book Babel by this author and my interest in her newest novel, Yellowface, was piqued after a customer raved about it in the store. Yellowface tells the story of authors June and Athena, the former a white woman with a failing career and latter a Chinese American woman who is a thriving literary darling. After Athena’s untimely demise (don’t worry that isn’t a spoiler), June discreetly removes Athena’s recently finished manuscript about the little-known history of Chinese laborer’s involvement in WWI from her apartment with plans to read and edit it as a way to honor and grieve her friend. Knowing that no one had seen the manuscript due to Athena being secretive about her upcoming projects and wanting the attention that Athena’s books have always attracted, one thing leads to another and June convinces herself that after enough editing and changes, she might as well try to publish Athena’s work under her own name (kind of, she goes with her full first and middle names, the ethnically ambiguous Juniper Song). She put so much time and effort into this book, it’s basically her own writing and she only deserves it, right? This novel follows June through the process of publishing and keeping secrets in the social media age, while employing an equally satirical and critical tone towards her thought processes and appropriative actions. 

Note: Babel will be released in paperback on August 29.

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Lisa See

This novel follows the life of Tan Yunxian, a wealthy woman who lived in 15th-century China. It was inspired by the life of a real female doctor from the time. After her mother’s early death, Yunxian is raised by her grandparents and is taught the Chinese medicine to treat women that her grandmother has been practicing for years. Male doctors were not allowed to directly look at or touch women; while female doctors were not widely societally accepted, wealthier women could get away with practicing the medicine and they were often the only people who could help ailing women. When Yunxian comes of age, she enters an arranged marriage, joining a new home where her talents for medicine are rejected and ignored and her friendship with a young midwife is stifled. Secretly and slowly, Yunxian is able to establish her value as a doctor while learning how to become a respected female head of household and wife. I loved learning about traditional Chinese medicine, but I was especially fascinated and horrified by the depictions of foot binding, both how it was logistically done and how it changed the way women were able to function, as this was a highly sought after standard of beauty that kept women physically weaker and less agile than men.

Malibu Rising
Taylor Jenkins Reid

First I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, a delicious novel that explores the difference between tabloid celebrity gossip and what might really be happening behind closed doors. Then I followed it with Malibu Rising and found it even more entertaining. One of Evelyn Hugo’s husbands is Mick Riva, a famous singer but also rather a sap. Malibu Rising takes us into the world of his first wife, who runs a seafood restaurant; and their children, who surf and lead lives that personify California dreaming. The book builds toward a party where all sorts of mayhem threatens. Perfect beach reading, or reading when you wish you were on a beach.

Dinosaurs
Lydia Millet

In the beginning of this book, Gil sees some drone footage of Arizona and decides to move there from New York. The arresting thing about this is that he decides to walk instead of flying or driving, because he wants to “feel the distance in his bones and skin.” This is something I would never ever have considered doing, but the idea captures me. 

He arrives and finds the house he had purchased unseen is like a castle. It overlooks a house with the wall entirely made of glass: a family moves in. This is when his true journey begins.

I loved spending time in Gil’s head. I want him to be my friend! I was sad that I had to leave him when I finished the novel. 

About the title: it’s quite misleading as the story is not about dinosaurs. But it makes perfect sense in the end.

Golem Girl: A Memoir 
Riva Lehrer

Lehrer was born with a severe form of spinal bifida in 1958, when the attitudes and knowledge about disabilities were relatively primitive. Her mother had previous miscarriages so treasured her, refusing to put her into an institution and fighting to get her the best medical care and education then available. The first part of the book tells this inspiring but heart-breaking story. 

Then we learn about Lehrer’s adult life, her struggles to learn about and communicate the essence of being human when living as a person divergent from the expected, average body, senses, or mind. She’s a masterful artist who draws and paints portraits like none in the western tradition, but employs the same skills. 

This book made a big impact on me and on how I see other people who should be more wisely seen. I was at first intimidated by the size and weight of the book, but it’s actually only 408 pages and went really fast. It’s just bulky because it was printed on a stock that allows good reproduction of the many paintings included.

Note: The TED group will discuss Golem Girl this month.

The River We Remember
William Kent Krueger

The old adage is, "You can never enter the same river twice.” It refers to the passage of time, events, and changes wrought by its passing. Krueger's story is set in a small town in southwestern Minnesota. The town sits near a river and massive hills of glacially deposited soil. Each of these is an indicator of the speed and scope of change: moment to moment, generation to generation and geologic age to geologic age. The story begins a few years after the end of World War II, and the town is desperate to get back to its half remembered pre-war self. But there have been losses: of loved ones, of time, of innocence, and of patience. The story opens with the discovery of a body found in the river. Accident or murder? Krueger writes with such smooth assurance and skill, you know you're in the hands of an experienced writer, swept right along as the story unfolds. This is the first Krueger book I've read, and I'm hooked.

We will host William Kent Krueger on September 2 at the Armory at 1:00.

The Most Fun We Ever Had
Claire Lombardo

This is the book I wish I'd read when I was 20 years old, but with my present life experience (or lack of it.) David and Marilyn fell in love young and never really looked back. But no relationship is perfect. We all know this, right? Priorities are identified, sacrifices are made, and while we're pretty confident we've done our best (for ourself, for our lover, for our children) things change and you change. David and Marilyn have four daughters, all different, and now you have six lives that intermingle and bump up against each other and life. Claire Lombardo has written skillfully drawn characters, neither good or bad, but real. You know these people because you are, and have been, these people. The very best part of this book is that amid all the bumps, brushes, scars, and sweet satisfactions, there may be a future.

The Writing of the Gods: the Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone
Edward Dolnick

Another branch of humanoids has been discovered and has been in the news recently. Wonder of wonders, there is evidence they scratched rudimentary figures on the walls of their caves. What was their intent? Was there intent? Will we ever know for sure?
 
Ancient Egypt had a civilization that lasted over 3,000 years. Sooooooo long! Did you know that Cleopatra (yes, THAT Cleopatra!) is closer to us on history's timeline, than she is to the building of the Pyramids? The Egyptian system of writing using hieroglyphs is so old that its use and meaning was forgotten for 1,500 years. No one was even sure the pictures and figures weren't simply decorative. That is until 1799, when a broken slab of stone was unearthed by some of Napoleon's soldiers, at Rosetta, Egypt. Edward Dolnick, has written the account of the race between two men: Jean-Francois Champollion and Thomas Young, to re-discover an entirely dead language and system of writing. Along the way Dolnick explores this curios development, writing, by humans. Absolutely fascinating! It will change the way you think, read, and write. And that's a 'determinative', adding context and meaning.