Fiction
To Kill a Mockingbird: 50th Anniversary Edition
The Toss of a Lemon
Transatlantic by Colum McCann. "Interwoven stories over generations from Frederick Douglas to George Mitchell's involvement in the Good Friday Peace Accord."
The Transit of Venus
The Trespasser by Tana French. “Tana French is the best of both worlds - consistently good writing and consistently good stories. That said, I was a little disappointed in The Secret Place, which came out immediately prior to The Trespasser. I'm happy to report she is back in form." "If you haven’t read any of the other novels in French's Dublin Detective series, you are missing out. This is the sixth. It isn’t necessary to read them in order, however. She’s a fantastic writer." [Ed: If you're just starting out with Tana French, I recommend reading Faithful Place first].
Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch is back and this installment is a good one. Moody, noir-ish, California-ish - I love this series.
Two Lives
Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion. A newly widowed woman travels to France to visit an old college friend, and decides on a whim to walk the 2000km Camino trail that runs from France to Spain. Along the way she meets other pilgrims, both religious and vacationing, looking for their own answers as they trek. Both fun and somber at times. Mildly based on the author’s own trek along the route.
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri.“BEAUTIFULLY written, loved this book, although a bit tragic/dark like her other books.” "Almost as good as her first book of short stories.” “subtle prose masks rich, intricate family relations.”
Under Heaven
Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer "…A fascinating discussion about the Mormon religion. (I think it may be one side of the argument and I am dying to read the other side of the argument.) Talks about the founder of the religion, the subsequent leaders of the church, the fundamentalist groups which have spun out, and some gruesome murders which were the doings of some fundamentalist -- God told them to do it."
Underdogs by Marcus Zusak. “Three novels bundled together by the author of The Book Thief (if you have not read that yet, you MUST! One of the best books of all times). The novels are narrated by Cameron Wolfe, a hardscrabble teen who tries to be tough like his older brother, but is a sensitive poet on the inside. Cameron and his brother Ruben are constantly getting into trouble, but really want to be better and more helpful to their parents. Together, the trilogy is a testament to brotherly loyalty and the desires of everyone to belong and be accepted.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. "Won the Pulitzer, the National Book Award and countless other prizes - and deserves it. Whitehead retells the hero's journey in this book, and the unlikely hero is an escaped slave named Cora. She runs from her abusive master and her broken kinspeople and discovers that the vaunted Underground Railroad is actually a real railroad, built underground by hands unknown. On her journey, she experiences the varied treatment of African Americans - the violence of her home in Georgia and the dark municipal experiments of South Carolina. The lily whitewash of North Carolina. The unmet promise of Indiana. Like Odysseus, she encounters white people who are ogres and white people who are kind, and hears the siren song of black activists and the laments of blacks who have given up to the oppressive system of slavery. The writing is elegaic at times, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez-like at others. It's an important, thoughtful book, and I'm glad I read it."
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D by Nichole Bernier. Brand spanking new fiction by a friend of one of our contributors. From Amazon: “Summer vacation on Great Rock Island was supposed to be a restorative time for Kate, who’d lost her close friend Elizabeth in a sudden accident. But when she inherits a trunk of Elizabeth's journals, they reveal a woman far different than the cheerful wife and mother Kate thought she knew.” Sounds like a great summer read.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
The Unlikely Spy and other titles by Dan Silva. “These are great beach reads if you like fast-paced, historical mysteries. My husband and I both read them – but honestly we’ve read them a few times and are always surprised (again) by the ending. They don’t stick, but they are good.”
Unmarriagable by Soniah Kamal. Pride and Prejudice in contemporary Pakistan. The author grafts Austen’s wonderful characters and their social milieu onto modern-day Pakistani culture. It’s an interesting lens into gender roles and customs in Pakistan, and it’s great fun, even for those of us who have read Pride & Prejudice (and all the many send-ups thereof) too many times to count.
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine. “A book lover's book! This is about a reclusive woman in Beirut who translates her favorite books into Arabic. It provides wonderful musings on literature and the time period gives us a great historical look at the Lebanese Civil war. Excellent book club book but I read it at the beach and loved it.”
The Unseen World by Liz Moore. This book shook me to the core. It’s a long read. I took a break in the middle of it to absorb a major twist, and came back to it a few days later to finish. Its story is detailed, delicate, prodigious, thoughtful, and careful in its telling. Secret identities, mental illness, academia, family history, science/math/tech, and longing for truth and family.
The Vacationers by Emma Straub. “A very fun read about a family visiting Mallorca on vacation. Franny, the family's matriarch, has rented a house in the hopes of reconstructing her family's fractured life. Her husband's infidelity and subsequent firing has left the marriage in a perilous state. Their daughter who is about to leave for college, is hoping for a romance of her own before she leaves. The arrival of another couple, two gay men, one of them Franny's confidants, adds a welcome mismatch to the domestic scene. If you liked Beautiful Ruins, you will like this."