Billy Summers by Stephen King

3/5 stars

What's it about? Veteran Billy Summers has one last job as a hired assassin before he gets out of the game. Of course, it’s his messiest assignment yet, and Billy starts to question how to tell the bad guys from the good. A well-written crime novel with momentum and heart.

How’d I find it? My aunt passed this along as “a good one.” She was right.

Who will enjoy this book? The HBO series Barry is the perfect companion to Billy Summers. Certain similarities make me wonder if King was inspired by the show.

What stood out? Billy’s alias as a writer provides the frame to learn more about his horrific childhood and deployments in Iraq. The novel within a novel schtick makes the timing in this book perfect. The arrival of Alice, who contributes much of the aforementioned heart, steers the story into sentimentality, but King is, as always, an able navigator. A nod to The Shining that comes out of nowhere gave this fan much joy.

Which line made me feel something? This had never occurred to me: “Billy thinks of telling her that dead, like unique, is a word that cannot, by its nature, be modified.”

The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier

3/5 stars

What's it about? After a terrifying bout of turbulence, Air France flight 006 touches down at JFK with all 243 passengers unscathed. Or does it? This speculative thriller runneth over with ideas about fate and the soul.

How’d I find it? This book was on the frontlist table at Solid State Books, and I heard positive feedback from readers that inspired me to get my own copy.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who appreciated Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility or How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu will enjoy the interconnected stories and gigantic cast.

What stood out? Le Tellier crams in everything but the kitchen sink. There’s child abuse, interracial relationships, a hitman for hire, closeted sexuality, suicide, terminal illness, and on and on. The first 150 pages are pure character introduction, with most chapters ending with the arrival of a federal agent, but the anticipation is worth the reveal. I recommend reading the English translation by Adriana Hunter, as she ably smooths over Le Tellier’s awkward attempts at relating American culture. Macy’s is not a supermarket, sir.

Which line made me feel something? At the point in the book where I’d simply had enough of new characters, Le Tellier drops this disarming bit of self-awareness: "He surrenders to the fascination of lives other than his own. He’d like to choose one, to find the right words to describe this creature, and succeed in believing that he has come close enough to it not to betray it. Then move on to another. And another. Three characters, seven, twenty? How many simultaneous stories would a reader consent to follow?"

Shit, Actually by Lindy West

3/5 stars

What's it about? Lindy West compiles her reviews of cinematic favorites both beloved and awesomely bad, scored in copies of DVDs of The Fugitive. Spot-on, irreverent, and hilariously petty.

How’d I find it? I loved Shrill and had to read West’s movie takedowns.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of the podcast How Did This Get Made?

What stood out? I reread the reviews of Love Actually, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Twilight several times to enjoy the laugh out loud moments. While West is talented and sharp as always, the quips about our current social/economic/political climate didn’t work for me in this book. Sometimes, I just want to read about movies.

Which line made me feel something? From “Never Boring, Always Horny:” "Of all the weird shit Stephanie Meyer wrote in this series, ‘all vampires love baseball’ is absolutely the weirdest. Did you know a vampire can smell a drop of baseball in a million gallons of old growth forest?"

Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma

3/5 stars

What's it about? Iris is losing her lifelong battle with depression. Her career as a digital brand strategist? Meaningless. The tense distance from her family? Overwhelming. Feeble attempts at love? Unfulfilling. There’s a way out: the reality show Life on Nyx is offering 100 Earthlings the chance to live on another planet for the rest of their lives. A wry and devastating book about how the trappings of civilization obscure what really matters.

How’d I find it? This bookstagrammer in the UK has the absolute best recommendations. She gets my taste exactly.

Who will enjoy this book? No book can overshadow my admiration for Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis, but Everything You Ever Wanted is certainly in the same family of novel with its reality TV in space backdrop.

What stood out? This narrative slipped in and out of realities in a way that left loose ends and kept me guessing. My interpretation of Iris’s fate may just be a reflection of my mood at the time, and I appreciate any book that immediately demands a reread. While hard to put down, Everything You Ever Wanted has its flaws. The mother trope pushed Iris’s story into clichéd territory, and we get too few breadcrumbs about the mystery of Nyx (what a setting though). The chapters titled “These Are the Things” and “Things,” which catalogue what Iris misses on Earth, offer sweet interludes.

Which line made me feel something? This cracked me up: “The other night, she dreamed she was in a corner shop, and as she unfolded a twenty-pound note it released a whiff of papery, cocaine bitterness. Did banknotes smell of cocaine, or did cocaine smell of banknotes?”

The Material by Camille Bordas

3/5 stars

What's it about? The Material follows an MFA stand-up program in Chicago as the students and faculty prepare for a set competing against Second City. A novel of rich inner monologues, the competitive nature of fame, and even a school shooter.

How’d I find it? An excerpt of this book in Harper’s assured me that I needed to read the whole darn thing.

Who will enjoy this book? A readalike if you appreciate an ensemble of characters and time in their psyches? The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty.

What stood out? I can’t help but applaud this novel’s ambition. Writing about the art of stand-up comedy requires crafting performances for the page, and Bordas does just this, delivering not only the sets of her famous and would-be comics, but also their riffing creative minds, the forge where jokes are made. She writes bits that work and others that flop, lending authenticity to the story. It seems Bordas composed her first novels in French, and if English is not her first language, I’m all the more impressed by her comedic ear. Dorothy, the professor who has a new special coming out, enticed me the most; her thoughts on aging as a single woman were memorable and well-written.

Which line made me feel something? As Olivia, one of our aspiring comics, approaches the microphone: “It was almost a game at this point, testing how many unrelated-to-comedy thoughts she could hold in her head up to the last second—the more there were, the greater the relief would be at seeing them fly away with her first line, like a flock of scared-off birds after a gunshot.”

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

3/5 stars

What's it about? Kaling's second collection of essays muses on fame, work, and love. A light-hearted, delightful read.

How’d I find it? I’m a millennial who has seen every episode of The Office more times than she can count.

Who will enjoy this book? The bottom line: if you like Mindy and celebrity memoirs, you'll enjoy this book. Looking for a read-alike? Try You Can't Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson.

What stood out? Kaling's essay on weddings (and why being a bridesmaid stinks) is a hilarious and touching reflection on female friendship. "A Perfect Courtship in My Alternate Life" imagines Kaling's life if she'd ended up as a Latin teacher at a Manhattan private school, told via email exchanges.

Which line made me feel something? A loud cackle escaped from me at the following description of a certain sorority: "Their finely toned arms replace a finely honed sense of irony."

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

3/5 stars

What's it about? Half of a Yellow Sun takes place in 1960s Nigeria, when the eastern part of the country seceded to form Biafra. The novel follows beautiful Olanna, academic and activist Odenigbo, their young houseboy Ugwu, Olanna’s estranged twin Kainene, and her British lover Richard. A richly told account of the ravages of civil war.

How’d I find it? Adichie’s writing talents make me interested to read anything she’s published. This particular copy was a Christmas present my husband received.

Who will enjoy this book? For similar themes, check out the short story collection Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan or the film Blood Diamond.

What stood out? Adichie paints every scene painstakingly so that reading this novel is a transportive experience. Take just three sentences from a whole paragraph describing a dining table: “Master’s plate was always the most rice-strewn, as if he ate distractedly so that the grains eluded his fork. Olanna’s glass had crescent-shaped lipstick marks. Okeoma ate everything with a spoon, his fork and knife pushed aside.” And so on. This level of description bloats the novel by at least 150 pages that could have been trimmed to rev up the pace. Half of a Yellow Sun also suffers from occasional toggling between the early and late sixties, a device more successful in jarring the reader than in building anticipation.

The novel’s great success is its luxurious detail about Igbo language and culture and Nigerian politics. I enjoyed learning from the characters, so thoroughly lovable (yes, even Richard with his passive racism) that there’s always someone to root for amidst the violence and grief.

Which line made me feel something? This possible definition of hell gave me pause: “The bumpy ride lying in the backseat of the Peugeot 404 and the fierce sun that sparkled the windscreen made Ugwu wonder if he had died and this was what happened at death: an unending journey in a car.”

God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas

3/5 stars

What's it about? Former army medic Joseph juggles doctoral work, family demands and worries, and the workplace drama of a fast-paced Philadelphia hospital in this stream of consciousness novel that follows Joseph through one seemingly neverending shift where people in his life are constantly showing up as patients. Can someone please get Joe some lunch?

How’d I find it? I have yet to read a review of a book as sparkling as this one in Kirkus Reviews and requested a copy immediately.

Who will enjoy this book? Though Thomas showcases a style all his own, similar themes and approaches to humor can be found in Jamel Brinkley’s A Lucky Man and in Bryan Washington’s work.

What stood out? Thomas’s debut novel feels contemporary in a way so few novels do: the language, the disillusionment with military service, the way systemic racism infects who and how people are treated in our healthcare system, and the complexities of American family life. It’s all there, though God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer is more snapshot than investigation. I could read a whole book just about Joe’s relationship with his mother or his best friend Ray. While jarring, the dips in and out of Joseph’s present align with breaks in his train of thought and maintain the lightning pace set on the first page. The hospital setting didn’t read wholly authentic to me, but I’m a nurse in Portland, Oregon and recognize that things may work differently in Philly.

Which line made me feel something? If this gorgeous sentence doesn’t draw you in, nothing will: “Folks online always thought he was older, though I could never see what they saw, his text always sounding the way he looked as a baby, his avatar, an older black woman with white locs exemplifying the too-familiar and impossible amalgam of mother and lover most of us longed for, coaxing it out of the women in our sphere or otherwise overrepresenting our imaginations as reality, a consequence of our unfinished forebears and that necessary love, that forceful love, that elegant and deeply painful love otherwise foreclosed to us by the world.”

Two Nurses, Smoking by David Means

3/5 stars

What's it about? In these sometimes connected stories, people grapple with anguish, loss, and choices. David Means writes an earnest collection that wants us to feel something.

How’d I find it? I read in Harper's “Stopping Distance,” in which a man and woman connect through a bereavement group for parents who have lost children, and went out to pick up the book that contained it. Politics and Prose always has the goods.

Who will enjoy this book? This read strongly reminded me of The Sadness of Beautiful Things and will appeal to fans of Simon Van Booy. Dog lovers, the story “Clementine, Carmelita, Dog” will bring you to tears and make your day. Means did well to lead the collection with this stunner.

What stood out? Aside from the aforementioned Homeward Bound-esque tale, I enjoyed the two Harper’s stories best, the other being "The Red Dot,” about a local restaurateur who questions everything when he sees his ex-wife kayaking. “The Depletion Prompts” closes the collection, an interesting take on craft that offers context for the preceding stories. The book’s Achilles’ heel is forced sentiment that occasionally shouts from the page. I couldn’t always buy in.

Which line made me feel something? Means sure loves a long sentence, and this snippet from “The Red Dot” is a beaut: “We were both thinking, I’m sure, about the dangerous currents that ran all the way up the estuary, dug deep by retreating glaciers, or volcanic activity, a ridge meeting the sea so that the sea and the river battled each other twice a day, if you want to look at it that way, or, better yet, lovingly embraced each other in a mutual, moon-drawn embrace, running silently through the darkness of night and in the heat of day past all the human folly and abject sadness we create when we’re here, as it would when we were long gone—just bones and earth”.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

3/5 stars

What's it about? In a violent America, Lauren Olamina knows her community exists on borrowed time, its protective walls no match for murderers, fire-crazed drug addicts, hungry dogs, and thieves. As Lauren prepares for a life outside, including managing her secret ability to feel others’ pain, she develops her own spiritual philosophy and ambitions to spread it to others. A book about the journey, survival, and found families.

How’d I find it? The legacy of Octavia Butler means this read has been on my radar for years. I picked up a copy at Powell’s.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who liked the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin should appreciate.

What stood out? Parable of the Sower takes the form of Lauren’s diary, which contains the reader within Lauren’s steadfast, no-nonsense worldview and obscures some of the book’s more interesting characters, like Bankole and Grayson Mora. Butler does not hold back in hammering home the bleak nature of the book’s reality; death, rape, and loss lap like waves. The ramifications of Lauren’s pain-sharing abilities don’t come through, but perhaps this plot point is more important in the next installment.

Which line made me feel something? While many of Lauren’s philosophical writings can come off as Instapoetry, the opening verse offers much to chew on: “Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all.”