Dear Great Book Guru, I was at the annual Barbara Pym conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts on St Patrick’s Day weekend. While there was much talk of Pym, some the attendees spoke of an Irish writer who had just written a new book set in rural Ireland that was highly acclaimed.  Are you familiar with this book?    Lover of All Things Pym and Irish

Dear Lover of All Things Pym and Irish,  Donal Ryan’s latest novel THE QUEEN OF DIRT ISLAND is a wonderful book to read as March comes to an end - the month of the Irish!  It is the tale of three women and three generations living in a small rural village in Tipperary. Mary, the grandmother, is a spinner of fantastical yarns. Eileen is her bookmaker daughter-in-law and the widowed mother of Saoirse (meaning freedom in Irish).  Most of the novel is told from the perspective of Saoirse who we meet as a newborn and follow throughout her life to adulthood.  The travails of all three are met with bravery and laughter while the men in their lives seem only to add to their daily trials. Within each short chapter, there lie tales of betrayal and cruelty, but also tales of great love and  redemption.  When mother and daughter are confronted with the truth of Dirt Island, we see the enormous strength each possesses.  A truly remarkable book and highly recommended! 

 

Dear Great Book Guru, Next Wednesday, March 15 at 8pm the Sea Cliff Civic Association will host its annual Meet the Candidates forum at St. Luke’s Parish / Community Center.  While it is an uncontested election, the forum gives residents an opportunity to hear candidates’ governmental philosophies and question them about ongoing Village issues. Before the event I’ll have time for a good book - perhaps a fast-moving mystery?  Fan of Village Politics

Dear Fan of Village Politics, I just finished a great book I’m sure you too will enjoy: I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU by Rebecca Makkai.  Mystery, psychological thriller, character study - this novel is all of these and more!  The narrator, Bodie Kane, is an academic at UCLA and, on a whim, agrees to teach a mini course on podcasting at Granby, the New Hampshire boarding school she attended.  Bodie is drawn back by her interest in a murder that took place there thirty years ago, when she was a senior. A young athletic trainer, Omar Evans, was found guilty of the crime and is serving a lengthy prison sentence.  Bodie suspects he has been falsely accused and works with her students to exonerate him using podcast techniques. Throughout, she addresses a person from her past who she feels is the likely murderer. Makkai intertwines real time stories of sexism, racism, bullying, and false confessions as we move back and forth starting in the 1990’s up until the present. Her accumulated facts are horrifying on many levels with the reader wondering if justice can ever prevail. This is a book whose powerful message will resonate with the reader for a very long time – highly recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru,  Next week I’m planning on going to the Mardi Gras Pancake Dinner at St. Luke’s. Sea Cliff has so many great events like this  throughout the year, so I was intrigued when a  friend mentioned a book about a community where events go very much awry.  Any thoughts?  Lover of a Good Story

 Dear Lover of a Good Story,  THE APPEAL by Janice Hallett is a wonderfully compelling read about a small  village  outside of London where things are not as they seem. The Fairway Players is a local theater group about to put on  Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” – a play in which a family is bound together by a dark secret.   In the opening pages of this novel, we learn that a murder has occurred on the night of the final rehearsal and there are fifteen possible suspects - all members of the troupe. The lead attorney on the case instructs his two young assistants to examine all the material he has gathered (emails, texts, recorded phone calls) and decide who is the murderer. We are introduced to each of the suspects through this correspondence - leading to a plethora of information but we are never sure if what we are presented is accurate. In effect we have fifteen unreliable narrators. There is a mingling of humor and horror as the story unfolds with a shocking albeit very satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru,  Now that February has arrived,  we are well into the new year and I have already broken my #1 resolution- read  at least two books a month. Do you have a short, compelling read for me to get me back on track? Desperate Reader

Dear Desperate Reader, I have a truly wonderful, 128 page book for you - FOSTER  by Claire Keegan. The story is set in rural Ireland in 1981.  A young child – eight years old - is brought to live indefinitely with distant relatives while her overworked pregnant mother and hapless father try to get their lives together.  She and her many siblings - while not abused - are certainly neglected. So, when she arrives at the Kinsellas’ farm, she feels like she has entered Paradise.  The couple dote on her with new clothes, warm baths, and delicious meals.  She observes the Kinsellas’ loving, equal relationship, their orderly home and many friends. There is a sadness about the couple that she senses. but as time goes on that too seems to lift as the three of them form a close family unit.  Throughout there is a sense of foreboding – can this idyllic existence last?  This is a beautifully written story that captures the joys and sorrows of reinvention.  Highly recommended!

 

Dear Great Book Guru, My friends and I are looking for some good books to read over the next few months- preferably novels that will help us learn something about the world beyond our borders.  February seems like a good month to start on this project - any thoughts?  Eager to Learn

Dear Eager to Learn, I recently read a book  that I found both moving and enlightening: AMERICAN DIRT  by Jeanine Cummins. The narrator Lydia Perez owns a small bookstore in Acapulco, Mexico. She is married to Sebastian - a journalist - and they have a young son, Luca. Her life takes on a level of danger when she discovers that this new friend is a notorious and violent drug cartel leader.  Moments later we are witness to a horrific massacre at a birthday party Lydia is hosting - the only survivors are Lydia and her son. Sixteen family members are killed including her husband, and it is clear she and Luca are in mortal danger.  Thus begins her terror-filled journey north to the United States. Along the way we meet an array of characters – some extraordinarily kind, some craven and evil - all colorfully described.  Each new encounter is filled with dread as we wonder will she be able to survive and hopefully prosper.  The plight of the migrant is portrayed in excruciating detail, and we are confronted with the thought throughout: “there but for fortune go you or I.” Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, I was at a family reunion in Point Lookout last weekend and lots of my cousins were talking about a novel set on Long Island and particularly Garden City.  Are you familiar with the book and-if so- would you recommend it?  Fan of Local Locales

Dear Friend of Local Locales, GOOD NEIGHBORS by Sarah Langan, was a delightful find, indeed.  It opens on Maple Avenue in Garden City, in a kind of cul-de-sac where all the neighbors know all there is to know about each other…or so it seems. Block parties, cookie swaps, baseball pickup games - all these things and more unite the families.  When Arlo and Gertie Wilde move from Brooklyn, they are embraced by all, especially Rhea Schroeder – the acknowledged neighborhood leader.  A few months after their move, the newcomers are suddenly shunned, first by Rhea and then eventually all the residents of Maple Avenue. Mysteriously a sinkhole then develops in a nearby park; a sense of dread envelops all the families and reaches a climax when Rhea’s daughter Shelly falls into this muddy abyss.  We know from the opening pages set twenty years in the future that a murder has occurred but who and how is not revealed until the closing pages. Throughout, we see this veneer of utopian, civilized life gradually stripped away to reveal an underbelly of hypocrisy, greed, and hatred in wildly improbable ways. Definitely a page-turner and a great start to the new year - highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru,  Now that we are into 2023, I was wondering if you have compiled a list of your favorite books from 2022?  It’s been a busy year and I’m afraid I might have missed some good books. Looking Back on 2022

 Dear Looking Back on 2022,  So happy you asked-  I just made up my annual list of ten favorite books.  It was hard to choose because I had so many I really liked, but here goes (in no particular order):

TRUST by Herman Diaz

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan

THE LIONESS by Chris Bohjalian

APPLES NEVER FALL by Lianne Moriarty

MARRYING THE KETCHUPS by Jennifer Close

FRENCH BRAID by Anne Tyler

COUNTERFEIT by Kristen Chen

THIS TIME TOMORROW by Emma Straub

SOOLEY by John Grisham

56 DAYS by Catherine Ryan Howard