Oh, good! I have both The Five Wounds and Olympus, Texas on hold at the library.
I also really liked One, Two, Three by Laurie Frankel and The Paper Palace by Miranda Heller.
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I just finished Jess Walterâs The Cold Millions. Itâs about the Wobbly strikes in Spokane at the start of the 20th century, told in multiple points of view. Itâs kind of a dark book but it does have a happy ending for the one character, teenage drifter Rye, who emerges as the main focus. What I found interesting about it was the sheer awfulness of life for vast numbers of nameless people (the âcold millionsâ) who literally lived hand to mouth and had nothing but their own individual sense of dignity to carry them. They also had the individual kindnesses of people they came across who didnât have to help them, but did. We think things are bad now but we forget how truly random, deprived, and cruel life used to be. Millions of people making next to nothing to enrich a tiny number of oligarchs. Sound familiar?
It has an interesting perspective on the development of unions. I grew up in a thoroughly bourgeois household and my parents saw unions as obsolete protections for the lazy and incompetent. The book reminded me why labor unions came into being and what the world looks like when they donât exist. Plus itâs just a beautifully written story of brotherly love.
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Love Jess Walter and havenât gotten to that book yet. Thanks for reminding me!
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Two very different suggestions!
âLife after Lifeâ (the one by Jill McCorkle, not the one by Kate Atkinson, which I didnât know about until today, but will probably go read nowâŠ). It seems as if it will be a lightweight beach-type read, but punches well above its weight. Unusually well done flipping between characterâs present (most of them in a nursing home) and their backstory. Kind but not syrupy. Quick read.
âSay Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Irelandâ by Patrick Radden Keefe. IMO I am middlng familiar with recent history in Northern Ireland (I was at university in the Republic during some of the period covered, and have spent lived there twice since then). So, not an expert, but reasonably well informed, The book is a tour de force in narrative non-fiction: it sets the stage, profiles the leading characters who are only recently moving off center stage, and shapes a reasonably balanced line of sight through a complex nest of relationships. It reads fast- you get caught up in the narrative and the enormous amount of underlying research doesnât slow down the pacing. Just got to it after @katliamomâs 2020 rec!
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Pachinko (National Book Award Finalist)
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I am a huge fan of Jill McCorkleâsheâs definitely not lightweight to me. Very respected in the literary world. I adore her short stories especially.
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Just discovered a new fantasy author name A.J. Lancaster. I whipped through her four book series starting with The Lord of Stariel. Stariel is a faeland set in the mortal world. Fae and mortals have been in mostly separate world for ages, but things are changing. But first the new lord of Stariel has to be chosen. All the potential heirs show up and there is a ceremony up at the standing stones and things do not go quite as expected. The large extended family is delightful, the semi-steampunk world is intriguing. Thereâs a lot of upstairs-downstairs stuff going on and just imagine what Downton Abbey would be like if the land were sentient. The series just gets better, social commentary, a bit of romance, nice world building and very hard to put down.
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We liked that book. Lots,to,talk about. Read it for bookclub
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Bonus: if you have Amazon Prime, Lord of Stariel is free 
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Thank you @mathmom for the suggestion and thank you @collegemom3717 for the tip:
I just orderedLord of Stariel.
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@NJSue I walked into the library this morning and âThe Cold Millionsâ was on the 7 day hot pick shelf. Based on your post I checked it out and will start it today. Thanks!
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SoâŠI just could not get into âThe Cold Millionsâ. I tried and the plot sounded interesting but I didnât care for how the book was written.
Thatâs why Iâm glad the e-library exists, so I can try out books without investing in them!
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Yellow Bird
Pachinko
The Removed
Carry - Toni Jensen
I also was floored by Hidden Valley Road, but wow it is disturbing stuff and a rare book I had to read in small sections because you just canât cope with more.
Carry is a memoir of many things; feminist-forward, Native perspective, guns in America. It is amazingly written essays, which I didnât realize until maybe halfway through (I assumed it was narrative and continuous, this is what I get for never reading the jacket notes)
I loved Cold Millions. Loved it. Made me gasp aloud at several points, but yes, it is at times pretty disjointed.
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I absolutely loved The Arsonistsâ City. Beautifully written, multigenerational family drama taking place in the U.S, Beirut and Damascus. It was fantastic
I just finished We Begin at the End and sent it to my MIL. I thought the writing and story development at the beginning was better than the plot-driven ending, but I loved this book.
Iâm waiting on some non-fiction from the libraryâThe Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride and Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and The Birth of The FBI.
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Killers of the Flower Moon was terrific!
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Movie in the works for Killers of the Flower MoonâŠ
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Yes, itâs a Martin Scorcese movie starring De Niro and de Caprio.
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