Reviews

Sea of Tranquility is another haunting, elegiac novel from the gifted Emily St. John Mandel, that pairs well with her previous work, The Glass Hotel. But Sea of Tranquility, unlike some of her prior novels,  is a true science fiction work, with time travelers, hovercrafts, and moon colonies. It is also very much a novel of Covid-19, as the theme of epidemics recurs throughout the book.
As the author plays with the idea of the time/space continuum, we meet various characters in different centuries (including female author Olive Llewelyn who seems suspiciously like St. John Mandel herself). They are all connected by a disturbing, inexplicable event...and how this fits together unfolds quite brilliantly through the course of the novel.
Despite all the scientific and technological advances of the future, the novel focuses more on the frailty of humans. Diseases can still wipe out huge numbers of the population, mothers still imagine the unspeakable horror of losing a child, petty jealousies still exist between authors. And despite warnings from his shadowy employers, one time traveler with a conscience can decide to save a life, even if it can significantly alter the course of the future.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is a perfect gem of a novella that can easily be read in one sitting.  Bill Furlong is a coal merchant in 1980s Ireland, blessed with a wife and five daughters whom he adores. The country has hit extremely hard economic times, and Furlong witnesses the struggles in his community as he scrapes along to keep his business running. His wife Eileen chides Furlong for being "soft", taking pity on (and occasionally giving handouts to) the alcoholics and other less fortunate in their small town. 
But Furlong owes his own success to the charitable heart of his late mother's employer, Mrs. Wilson, a Protestant war widow. Furlong's mother was a teenage maid when she became pregnant with him, but Mrs. Wilson kept her on, allowing her to raise the boy in the household while taking the child under her own wing, helping to care and educate him, and eventually giving him the financial means to start his business.  
So when Furlong has a couple disturbing encounters with some of the unwed  pregnant girls working in the convent laundry, his conscience is troubled. Would this not have been his own mother's fate, had Mrs. Wilson not intervened?
This is a quiet story about a good person who must follow his own moral compass, despite the consequences. It is also a blistering attack on the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. 

Don't pick up this book looking for a thriller. While there is an element of mystery, and even some suspense in More Than You'll Ever Know, this novel is really more of a riveting character study of two women and their families.
The story unfolds in dual timelines, as struggling writer and true crime aficionado Cassie Bowman stumbles upon the decades-old case of Lore Rivera, a Laredo, Texas banker  and wife/mother whose shocking double life results in murder. Lore is a rare species in the true crime world; she is simultaneously married to both her high school sweetheart Fabian, with whom she has twin sons, and Andres Russo, a college professor she meets while attending a wedding in Mexico City. Such betrayals are usually associated with men, giving Lore and the surrounding murder another level of notoriety.
Debut novelist Katie Gutierrez does an excellent job in creating the relationship, and tension, between the two main characters. Can Cassie trust anything that Lore relays to her, or does she have far more to do with the murder than she is letting on? Lore depends on Cassie to reveal the truth of her life, but can any person really trust a reporter...knowing that the public will crave the most salacious details?
Not all of the novel is as well developed, notably Cassie's back story and her questionable treatment of her fiance. But the weaker points are overshadowed by the strengths, especially the strong psychological insights as both Lore and Cassie come to justify their behavior.

 Lessons in Chemistry, a charming debut novel by  Bonnie Garmus, is filled with great humor and occasional heartbreak. Chemist Elizabeth Zott is raising her young daughter Mad ("legally Mad") by herself while trying to pursue her career as a research scientist. It is the early 1960s, and few people will let Zott forget that a woman's place is in the home, not in a lab. The indignities (and worse) that Zott faces in her field, from her professors, bosses, and fellow scientists, are all too real...and a foreshadowing of the Me Too movement that will not occur for almost another 60 years.
Eventually forced to find work outside the lab, Zott comically becomes the unlikely star of Supper at Six, a cooking show on a local tv station. Refusing to pander to the stereotypes of housewives, she uses her show not only to give chemistry lessons to to her viewers through the science of cooking, but also to deliver feminist manifestos that are far ahead of their time.
Elizabeth Zott is one of those quirky characters you won't soon forget; smart, beautiful, yet extremely literal and socially awkward. Possibly on the spectrum, if such a label existed at the time. There is a colorful cast of supporting characters, including her neighbor, Harriet, imprisoned in a miserable marriage; Mrs. Mudforth, the world's nastiest kindergarten teacher; the preternaturally gifted Mad, who uncovers family secrets; and possibly the most memorable canine to ever grace the page, Six-Thirty, the dog who failed bomb detection school but is an expert in the human heart.
Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and A Man Called Ove should also delight in this ultimately life affirming novel. 

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris is a brilliant debut novel, set in rural Georgia at the end of the Civil War as the emancipation of slaves is being enforced throughout the South.  This historical novel reads like a gripping page turner, while also telling  a more intimate tale of family, friendship, and forbidden love. Two recently freed slaves, brothers Prentiss and Landry, are found hiding in the woods by white landowner George Walker, who is grieving after receiving news that his son Caleb had died fighting for the Confederate Army. The men eventually overcome their distrust of one another, and George hires the brothers to help farm his land. George’s wife Isabelle slowly grows to trust the brothers as well, as she emerges from the debilitating depression caused by death of her son. The fact that the Walkers have employed freed slaves is met with fierce hostility by the townspeople of Old Ox, especially former slave owners who refuse to accept that these newly freed slaves are no longer their “property”. There is also a hidden homosexual relationship between two soldiers, the discovery of which sets off a series of tragic events that will impact pretty much every person in the town.  

The tension in the book is palbable, as the safety of Prentiss and Landry is in constant jeopardy. One doesn't have to be a Civil War buff to find the time period fascinating as well. Slaves are literally freed overnight, but without a cent to their name or any sort of roadmap. literal or figurative, to guide them into an unknown future. But ultimately it is the richly drawn characters  that make The Sweetness of Water such an  incredibly compelling novel, as the reader can't help but care for them. 

Refugee High: Coming of Age in America chronicles a year in the life of staff and students at Chicago's Sullivan High School on the far northside of the city. Originally written in part as an article for Chicago Magazine, journalist Elly Fishman spent hundreds of hours at the school and in the community during 2017-2018, as anti immigration rhetoric continues following the recent presidential election.  Fishman focuses her reporting on four of Sullivan's immigrant students, whose families have all escaped violence in their home countries of Iraq, Myanmar, the Congo, and Guatemala. These young people must navigate a new country, language, and culture...in addition to surviving the normal hormonal teenage angst. The teens are often at odds with their parents, who still cling to the old beliefs of their homelands as their kids become "Americanized" by YouTube, rap music, Snapchat, and fast food. 

While Fishman shares some of the horrific and heartbreaking events that have forced these families to flee their native countries, she is clear to point out that Chicago also suffers from gun violence and gangs. These teens must take great caution to avoid the all to present danger that lurks right outside the school doors. The staff at Sullivan are truly heroic, especially Ms. Q, a no nonsense teacher who heads the ELL program on a shoestring budget that is always at risk of even further cutbacks. Despite the crumbling walls and broken furniture of the converted library that now houses the Newcomer program, it is a safe haven for these teens who are in desperate need of one, as well as a place where they can just hang out and be typical kids. 

This is an inspiring account of the modern immigrant experience in America. I was personally drawn to this book as I too am a graduate of Sullivan High School, which even decades earlier was a wonderful melting pot of different cultures and languages. 
 

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Crosby is a moving, but brutally violent novel about revenge and redemption, as two ex-cons set out to get justice for their murdered sons. Ike is Black, a former gang member who now lives a respectable life; married and owning his own landscape business and home. Buddy Lee is a Cracker, self-proclaimed white trailer trash and barely functioning alcoholic, who nevertheless manages to have a charismatic sense of humor. The men officially meet after the joint funeral for their sons, Isaiah and Derek, who had married and had a young daughter, but were gunned down execution style on their anniversary.

The riveting plot takes second place to the evolving relationship between Ike and Buddy Lee, who must both come to grips with their mutual grief, magnified a thousand times over by the crippling guilt and regret of not accepting their sons while they were alive. The men must confront their shared homophobia, and Buddy Lee his inherent racism, just as the city of Richmond, VA slowly shifts from an old South town to a more modern city where two gay men can have an interracial marriage and raise a child together.

Each scene in the novel is so vividly drawn and described that it feels cinematic, and the dramatic tension carries through to the very end. I'd be very surprised if the movie rights haven't already been snapped up. Again, a warning that this novel is graphically violent (which is never my thing ). But the writing, emotional weight, and witty banter between the two men made it possible for me to push through the gore.