Independence
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

In December, the Beagle Women’s book group discussed Independence, and I’m so glad they chose it! Independence refers to the independence of India from British rule. The book is mostly set from about 1946–1948. (Spoiler: Gandhi is assassinated towards the end of the book.) A doctor in a rural village has three grown daughters: Priya, Deepa, and Jamini. The sisters differ in big ways, but all agree that their family is of top importance. Priya wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor, although India in the 1940s made it difficult for a woman to do so. Deepa plans to marry someone who will bring great pride/status to the family, but then falls in love with her father’s assistant, who is a Muslim (the sisters are devout Hindus.) Jamini has spent her life feeling a little less-than because of a visible physical limitation and devotes herself to the welfare of her mother. As neighbors turn against each other, the family struggles to stay connected. The characters are well drawn, the writing is good, the time and place of the book are historically interesting, and it’s just a dang good story. I’m a big fan of this author and I highly recommend the novel!

Cabin
Patrick Hutchison

You probably know someone like the young version of Patrick Hutchison, the author of Cabin—affable, easy-going, likely a great sports teammate, and might not be your first choice for say, Math League (or anything requiring precision.) This is what I'm calling a Coming-of-Adult rather than Coming-of-Age book. The author had graduated college, had a job (not one he enjoyed but it paid and had benefits), paid rent, and was adulting, mostly. However, he lacked a driving passion for anything. On a bit of a whim, he bought (if borrowing the money from his mom counts as buying) a 120 square foot cabin (yes one hundred twenty) that was likely listed as "handyman's dream", except Patrick wasn't a handyman. He fell in love with the cabin and the land though, and amazingly, had many friends willing to come and work on it. I won't spoil the ending for you, but you can probably see where this is going. The rare thing about this book is how many people I think it will appeal to—outdoorsy types (who will have many a laugh over the author's learning to do carpentry), aimless young people wondering what they should be doing, and basically anyone with friends and a sense of humor.

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust
Alan Bradley

I am a long-time fan of Alan Bradley’s series of mysteries featuring the precocious Flavia de Luce, a young self-taught chemist with a penchant for murder investigations. I thought the series concluded five years ago, so the recent publication of one more book was a real treat! Much has changed in Flavia’s world: her father has died, and she has inherited Buckshaw, the family estate; one of her sisters has married and the other is preparing to go to Oxford; and her obnoxious younger cousin, Undine, seems to be living permanently at Buckshaw.

At the same time, much is still the same: the local police still don’t welcome her presence in murder investigations; England is still emerging from the privations of WWII; Buckshaw is as shabby as ever; Mrs. Mullet and Dogger are stalwart companions; and Flavia is a comical blend of sophistication about chemistry and classical literature and naivete about the larger world. The murder in this book is of a Major Grayleigh, and Mrs. Mullet is suspected of poisoning him. While the plot is as engaging as ever, there’s a sobering twist near the end of the book. Flavia also engages in philosophical reflection and is alone in ways she wasn’t in earlier books. The book is an engaging and worthy addition to the series, even as the reader realizes that Flavia is moving toward adulthood in her own indomitable way.

The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America
Carrie Schuettpelz

What the Woods Took
Courtney Gould

What the Woods Took is a gripping survival story with unique horror elements and a complex protagonist. Devin is kidnapped late one night by people sanctioned by her foster parents to take her to a wilderness therapy program. Unceremoniously left in the woods, Devin meets a group of troubled teens and the chipper counselors there to keep them alive for 50 days. Devin immediately begins plotting her escape, until one morning the teens wake up to discover that the two counselors are missing. The inexperienced group must survive several weeks before anyone will suspect they are missing... and something is lurking amidst the trees. What I most enjoyed about this book was the horror ingrained in both the premise of the wilderness therapy camp—many people who experience those programs in real life report coming out traumatized—and the beings residing in the woods.

We Used to Live Here
 Marcus Kliewer

This is probably the best horror/thriller novel I read in 2024 and it starts with a deceptively simple premise: what would you do if a man came to your door saying he previously lived in your house and would like to give his family a tour of his childhood home? Eve is a people pleaser who agrees hesitantly to a quick visit, but the family doesn’t seem to understand when they start to outstay their welcome. I don’t want to detail more of the plot because this book is best enjoyed with little prior knowledge. I would describe this book as a psychological thriller with horror elements and it is best read physically because there are puzzle elements like morse code and “random” capitalization that would be hard to decipher on audio.

How to Say Babylon
Safiya Sinclair

This is a memoir of a poet raised by Rastafari parents in Jamaica. It’s a bit like Tara Westover’s Educated, but Sinclair’s coming of age is a mix of extreme control by her reggae musician father, rescues by her mother, siblings that are fellow sufferers, a solid education that allows her brilliant and disciplined mind to flourish, and fascinating insights into a society I knew only by “Don’t worry! Be happy!” And this memoir is written in the voice of a master poet, which shows in her prose. It’s a monumental book.

The Grey Wolf
Louise Penny

If you are in the Penny fan group already, all you need to hear is that she’s done it again. But let me add that this book revisits the scene and some characters from my favorite of the series, the beautiful and terrible The Beautiful Mystery.

And the ending of The Grey Wolf makes it clear that her next book is in process.

If you haven’t discovered Penny yet, don’t read this first. Read Still Life, the first book in the series.

The Book Swap
Tessa Bickers

Here’s a novel for book lovers who find the movie You’ve Got Mail charming. A man and a woman accidently open up a conversation using notes written in the margins of books left in a walk-in free library in London. In real life they know each other, but they don’t know who they’re pouring out their hearts to. The ending is more complicated than the movie’s. But the vibe is the same, and the conceit allows readers to enjoy lines from books we’ve all read.