One Death at Time wears its heart on its sleeve. The story opens into a group discussion where intimate details of personal struggles are brought forward in fits and starts, the propulsive beat of the plot begins to build momentum and never stops. In fact, half the action takes place racing around in classic cars and high-end vintage designer clothes with witty dialogue and Los Angeles as the backdrop. Abbi Waxman presents a funny, contemporary madcap romp with edge.

Irresistible characters dash across the page non-stop. When legendary Oscar winner Julia Mann offers temporary sponsor Natasha Mason a job as her as personal assistant it's clear there is more to both these women than meets the eye. An eclectic team of Hollywood writers, agents, and investigators race to find the killer who set up Julia Mann and there are more plot twists than impressive housekeeper Claudia can conjure in pastry. With side excursions to Palm Springs and the underside of burlesque theater, more characters are piled onto the investigative mayhem.

None of this would add up to much if not for the engaging intelligence and vulnerability of Mason and Julia. Mentor and mentee, sponsor and sponsee, they trade roles back and forth as they work together. There is no generational divide as they focus on finding the truth for Julia and saving others from injustice. This team is on a roll and we will hopefully read more of their investigative adventures.

Alexis Cole has a problem. She's on the verge of 30 and she's achieved everything she'd worked for, save one. On the night of her latest triumph, she experiences a moment of connection with a stranger that lifts the lid on the repressed trauma of her formative years.

Hough and Goodlett have shaped a seeker's tale into a journey of everywoman. As perfect as her life seems from the outside, their protagonist Alexis Cole knows she has achieved her initial adult life goals by shaping her outward success in response to society's demands. She has ignored aspects of her inner life and no longer feels authentic.

Honoring her own feelings and pursuing healing of her childhood trauma leads her into conflict with those she loves. She must weigh her need for acceptance by others against her self-acceptance. The choices she makes to address her inner conflict in turn impact her dearest relationships. As the novel reveals Alexis' inner struggle, she is also must face the turmoil of loved ones who feel betrayed and shaken by her actions.

Unintended consequences will affect well-intentioned people. Can Alexis make positive choices for herself and protect those she loves? Can loved ones look past their own needs and beliefs to offer her compassionate acceptance? Will her community reshape itself to accommodate change? Beyond the story of one woman's journey, the novel asks the reader larger questions of how to achieve reconciliation of individual and society.

Someone is going to be promoted at Town Square. When that happens, other positions will undoubtedly open in whichever department spawns the new store manager. In the warehouse department known as Movement the smart guess among team members is their manager, Meredith, will get the coveted spot. The question is, who from the team will then replace Meredith?

Adelle Waldman knowledgeably sets the scene behind the sleek sales floor of a major corporate retail chain. From the moment the doors hiss open revealing the gritty backside of the store we are in another realm entirely. Over four days leading up to the corporate visit to select the new store manager, we meet the members of the disparate backroom team: the old guys, the lead workers on the conveyer, the thrower, the newbies, and lower-level supervisors, all looking for a lucky break. They keep the sales flowing by unloading goods and stocking shelves in the early hours leading up to store opening. As Meredith positions herself to gain the coveted promotion, she pressures team members to complete each unload on tight time limitations. Tension mounts as they learn they will be interviewed by the corporate reps about their boss. Do they support Meredith or undermine her?

The opportunity to advance doesn't come along often. Chapter by chapter Waldman introduces the lead workers grappling with their individual hardships, hopes and dreams. The golden ticket of promotion could mean new stability in the lives of a lucky few. Workers become allies encouraging and coaching one another, while scheming for their own ends. Can they succeed?

Contemporary economic realities of profit and loss play out on multiple levels in Waldman's insightful novel. In her compassionate rendering, each character's desperation and motivation are foregrounded in contrast with that of the others. The formerly faceless workers behind the scenes become individuals we can invest in. Who will win promotion?

Suspense mounts as the decision day approaches. The numbers in columns on a spread sheet have become human chess pieces. Who will advance and who will be sacrificed? Waldman shows us how "making ends meet" for workers in the retail economy depends on more than hard work alone. Global market fluctuations, downturns that limit hiring and layoffs that bleed the remaining employees add up to business practices that impact individual workers and families every day.

If Town Square sounds like a national brand in your town, you are on target. Reminiscent of Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O'Nan's 2008 novel of employees at the closing of a Red Lobster restaurant, Help Wanted depicts the emotional life of a retail community that will rise or fall on the resilience of its members.

Day: A Novel delivers on so many levels it seems to effortlessly fall onto the page. With poetry and skill Michael Cunningham's writing draws the reader into the extended family of Isabel and Dan, revealing the intimate concerns of each family member. Navigating the space of the home shared with their two children and Isabel's twin brother Rob we absorb one innocuous April day, in the before times. There are undertones of change within the family group, unsettled rumblings that manifest in unexpected change the following year, the pandemic year of lockdown, and in the hopeful emergence in 2021. Through changes and choices within one extended family, Cunningham depicts the rippling effects of pandemic life in sentences unfolding with of the ache of love and longing. Unforgettable.

Following on her successful debut, "Tangerine", Mangan writes another mashup of brooding characters, literary references, exotic locales with sweeping vistas, and the lurking menace of evil intent.

Within the confines of prolonged overland travel, antiheroes Louise, enigmatic and cold, and Henri, emotionally adrift and wary, are suspended in a state of heightened anticipation. They eye each other like poker players hedging their bets, both with nothing to lose and going all in on a barely articulated cat and mouse chase. Mangan's slow-paced thriller toys with tropes of romantic suspense.

Agonizing mid-20th century ennui is reflected in their attempts to escape former lives. Louise discards her life as a drudge caring for her invalid WW2 veteran father in an unremarkable English village and Henri acts as courier for a criminal gang after suffering disillusionment with his role of French colonial policeman in Algiers.

Are they kindred spirits? Both seek a way out of the confinement of circumstances and expectations thrust on them by their parents and post-war society. Their desire to break the bonds of the quiet desperation they endure leads to transgressive actions in the shadows as they travel across Europe.

Moody and atmospheric, seething with repressed rage and the trauma of a "dirty" war, the novel discomfits with its notions of free will and fate between star-crossed souls.

A great choice for book groups.

The latest serial installment of the adventures of Thomas Grey delivers on all counts. Impeccable historical research shapes the escapades of the Crown secret agent with high seas encounters in the Age of Sail. Grey is a naval marine captain attached to the War Department where his talent in foreign affairs makes him a valued asset. At his English home he is well supported by an indomitable housekeeper and a wise stable master. He walks out with an intriguing local widow. The stage is set for a comfortable pause from action, so we know that won't last.

Concerns of the Empire propel Grey from a forced sabbatical at home in England to ports of Tripoli in North Africa (Libya) on the Mediterranean and then Montevideo in South America (Uruguay) on the South Atlantic. In the early 1800s British and American interests are allied, engaging with pirates and French opponents. In a few years the tide will turn, with the War of 1812. For now, the focus is on a budding Spanish/French alliance. Will Grey fulfill his mission and save the Empire? The camaraderie of common cause fuels multiple hand-to-hand skirmishes on both land and sea. Readers are propelled by the action to a conclusion which neatly sets up the next installment.
No words are wasted in this perfect action-adventure story detailing life under sail with a dashing and appealing protagonist.

A jewel of a book, Dinosaurs is a novel of a carefully shaped life. Gil keeps a low profile, calling little attention to himself amidst a showboat culture. He uses his powers for good, and therefore has the leisure to notice. He makes a quiet study of the life around him. Gil is an observer of birds and animals, even the insects. What he notices in his new home in the desert is the flora and fauna, acquainting himself with a landscape nothing like the NYC he left behind. When new neighbors move in he observes them too, through the aquarium-like view of their window wall.

Much has happened offstage and is loosely recounted. Building his new life cautiously, the reader learns along with Gil about the human inhabitants of the landscape.There are subtle dangers and challenges to be navigated. A community of connections grows around him. He survives and he begins to evolve. Beyond the final page, his story, and yours, is waiting to unfold.

In the near future when societies are further stratified by genetic engineering, parents are compelled to make decisions about medical invention to alter their children. With the delicacy of a skillfully wielded scalpel Ishiguru extracts a tale from myriad tangles of social malignancy. Despite evidence of a brilliant work performance made redundant (her husband) and failure to thrive (her older daughter), the Mother dares (a second time) to intervene on behalf of her younger daughter Josie, a child on the verge of coming of age, to insure her a lifetime of engineered success. Because the procedure results in a life-threatening illness, the Mother purchases an emotional support for Josie. Klara, Artificial Friend (AF), is calibrated for emotional intelligence far beyond what the current society can muster. As Klara recounts her life story embedded into Josie’s family, her actions demonstrate her objective- to apply her observations to better serve Josie. Her exquisite empathy, combined with her poise and single-minded support of Josie, wins the admiration of various members of the household. Her heartfelt devotion to her caregiving task is poignant and disturbing.

Sharply drawn character studies are interwoven in the The Latinist with mutual desire, intense ambition, and dangerous obsessions. The refined life of Oxford dons and their PhD proteges is an object of scrutiny as much as the fragments of ancient words and the bones of ancient bodies. Rising above tropes of the kind littering the machinations of protagonists and antagonists in an Inspector Morse (or Lewis or Endeavor) mystery series, or the effete vampires in The Discovery of Witches, author Prins bends the lens so the reader is privileged to view the dark violence of the most beneficial of relationships, the mentor and mentee.

As the ground shifts under assumptions made in past and present, the reader is treated to a delicious unveiling of facts—the young and old, modern and ancient plunder the work of one another to further their own aims. Beautiful locales and perfectly rendered details are eclipsed by the intricate twists of word and action in this tale of lust for the life of the mind, the triumph of ambition, and double-edged sword of love.

Leila and her brother Chia are on their own from young age despite living with their parents. The preoccupations of daily oppression of society force each family member to preserve their own survival his family. As a child Leila learns the rules of female behavior inside and outside the home in very overt ways. There is nothing subtle about life in Iran. Only in their thoughts can Leila and Chia explore possibilities beyond the example of their parents' struggles. Engaging as child pushing boundaries, Leila struggles to have a voice of her own as she dons the veil. Strong female friendship and role models figure prominently in Leila's flight from childhood to womanhood.
Her father Alan's activism has made the family a target in the past and caused him endless suffering. Will his children escape his fate?
Ava Homa presents a story of survival that goes beyond the barest semblance of a life to living your truth. In a repressive society that extends privilege to the male majority and genocide of the Kurdish minority, this is no small challenge and can cost you your life. Their family story represents the history of the Kurdish people throughout the region and across national borders; within country each they are a stateless people.

Romance and danger are locked into Chanel Cleeton's travel-case for the Labor Day Special to Key West. The glamour of train travel is interlaced with the desperation of late Depression-era politics. Danger lurks at every turn as we meet 3 plucky heroines who rise to the challenge of survival. The women must apply their powers of threat assessment- are the men in their path dangerous and/or trustworthy? The heroines' dramatic arcs are deftly rolled out in short order as easily as they appeared on the cinema screens of the 1930s.
Readers will see the danger ahead and know who the good guys are long before the denouement. It's a taut ride with thoughtful signposts along the way. Historical vignettes of the political injustice of unemployed ex-servicemen and the rapidly evolving Cuban regimes are dwarfed by the power of a hurricane and the faulty forecasting techniques of the day. Gruesome details of the storm's aftermath should resonate for some, while most readers will enjoy a quick weekend escape. Just remember, paradise has an underbelly.

Here's another multigenerational novel from Katarina Bivald whose The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend championed community spirit and reinvigoration. In her latest tale four friends are reunited in their hometown after many years apart. The story of their friendship drives the community into confrontation with attitudes of tolerance. What makes some friends stick close to home while others leave? Is it the nature of community to define who are acceptable members or instead to make a place for anyone who chooses to live there? It's not simply a generational divide that influences one's answer to these questions, as Bivald narrative makes clear. She creates an omniscient narrator who provides an emotional distance for the reader to view events with a bit of perspective. Bivald's strength is in the evenhanded presentation of viewpoints. Book group discussion might revolve around the author's choice for resolving the tension in the narrative.

Evoking the Eisenhower years in the writers' colony that was Greenwich Village of 1955 NYC, the reader is quickly drawn into a nightmare. Our television writer heroine is struggling to be taken seriously in her profession and pay her way, while also shouldering responsibility for her sister's medical bills. This is burden enough, but when Phoebe Adler comes to the top of the blacklist she is driven from home. The women-in-peril thriller scenario rises to the fore when Adler jumps onto a ship bound for London. After the breakneck pace of escape, the reader breathes in the rain-soaked London air with momentary relief.

The expat community of London is deftly drawn and their community of support provides a safety net for the desperate. The more civilized Brits think the Red hysteria in the States is a bit of joke, until they realize their own livelihoods are indirectly impacted. Will the American Congress realize the error of their ways?
Author Stratford drives the action to the brink and beyond in this thought-provoking depiction of political persecution and manipulation of public opinion. Is it difficult to imagine neighbors informing on each other when Stratford draws clear parallels to our uncertain present? Savvy book groups will compare the rarity of "career gals," the stigma of divorce and the anomaly of women at the helm with present day struggles for equal pay, justice for domestic violence and the low percentage of women in top tier management.

Tucked into a corner of Exmoor in South West England, Dan's workshop is full of exquisite harps. Ellie writes poetry and carries her journal on walks in the forest. Their chance encounter is classic girl meets boy. In this tale of lost souls, children who are dreamy and introspective or upset by crowds and happiest in Nature are tricked into adult lives of narrowness and control. Mutual empathy and compassionate understanding unlock their potential and send dangerous ripples out into their relationships. They dare to ask for more.

Have patience with these unconventional protagonists, they will reward you with their courage to grow. The novel soars on the subject of harps like notes plucked from their strings. The glimpses of Exmoor are tantalizing and an intrigued reader will feel the tug of the seasonally unfolding forest and the gentle surprises it holds.

When the deeply felt friendship of teenage girlhood is challenged by the circumstances of global war, adult responsibilities to family and country become a crucible. Meissner skillfully guides the reader through the historical reality of internment and repatriation, highlighting the powerful interplay of family bonds and generational struggle for independent identity. Teenagers without autonomy convey the powerlessness of individuals caught in circumstances outside their control. The untold story of repatriation is brought to light against the backdrop of desperate yearning for connection and home. Meissner's delicate narrative guides the reader towards the much anticipated emotional reunion. The teenage quest of fulfilling one's life purpose is hitched to achieving the American dream. Book groups will be enlivened by a discussion of the dual story line and the question of what constitutes a life well-lived.

In the multi-layered Paris Echoes the reader is immersed in the lives of past and present generations, their intersection aided by the visual spectacle of the storied City of Lights, redolent with the life of its occupants. Temporary residents, Hannah and Tariq, participate and touch the lives of lifelong inhabitants in ways both nostalgic and new. Faulkes' fine hand on the historical memory of world wars is strong and sure, his characters either absorbed or indifferent to the past. The mythic story of Echo is a poetic silent partner in the story of two souls who don't know they have lost their way. For readers with a love of history and an open mind to the considerable contrasting views of contemporary life, the novel introduces us to multiple ways of constructing a life with purpose and suggests to the reader why doing so is redemptive. A rewarding choice for book groups that enjoy delving beneath the surface reading of novels.

The cat-human bond challenges old notions of the aloofness and even indifference of cats. In this charming tale of cat and man, each have lessons to teach and learn together. They pass their lessons on to those whose lives they touch in gentle prose to soothe the soul. Readers who seek a mindful way of living will appreciate the values reinforced in these pages. Japanese culture is full of examples of kindness to stray cats in contemporary life and this book makes a case for respect and care for feral cats as well as pet ownership.

This is a novel of deep interiority. The characters June and Jameson are avoiding their past and have a detached relationship with their present reality. Trauma can do that. A fog of gloom hangs like the grayness of the Pacific Northwest that permeates the senses of the characters, described in lush prose by author Reed. Readers with a regional interest will particularly relate to the environmental influence exerted over the story. Those who find inspiration in novels of redemption will appreciate June and Jameson's move at an achingly slow pace from guilt and grief to an uncertain yet hopeful future.

Words are wrapped around the heart of Clara Winter, sometimes they squeeze her so hard her heart races dangerously, threatening to tear her apart. Tamar Winter says little, explains less and is determined to do things her way, keeping her reasons to herself. How can a mother and daughter resolve misunderstandings of the past when they are engaged in a classic standoff? Coming of age is not a one-time process and it's not accomplished by ritual passages alone. The give and take of the mother-daughter relationship has new urgency as Clara faces the terrifying progress of her mother's disease.

The pulse of Clara's regular visits to Tamar acts like a metronome on the narrative, confining the action as surely as the mother and daughter are restrained by their life choices. With exquisite delicacy author McGhee reveals the emotional glue of these two eccentric, introverted and self-sufficient women. The small cast of intimate characters matches the spare nature of the Winters' lives and the Adirondack setting is true to isolated mountain life.

When the act of living is peeled back to its essence, then we hold on to what truly gives us meaning. What is that for Clara, for Tamar? Book group members will have much to discuss and ample opportunity for personal reflection as well.

Author Hornak is a sharp observer of everyday modern life, as her popular column in the Sunday times attests. In Seven Days of Us her focused lens is pointed at each member of the Birch family in turn. Enforced togetherness, a component of any popular holiday, will resonate with readers wherever they live. Each family member has the opportunity for intimate communication with the others in a cherished country home. Grappling with the bonds of family makes for emotional struggles and revelations that will engage fans of family drama. The contemporary storylines, reflecting the conflicts of self-serving vs. self sacrifice and the caring for immediate family vs. caring for the global village, artfully unfold and draw the reader in. Sympathies for one character over another will stimulate book group discussion. Fans of Penelope Lively take note: Hornak crafts a country house novel for our times that begs comparisons with Lively's 2009 Family Album.