June 2.0

Recursion by Blake Crouch
Was your mind blown by Dark Matter back in 2016? I remember reading that book in just one day, trying to figure out where in the world this story would end? The big question with his latest book is...can Crouch hit it out of the park again? The answer is YES, he can and he did. This time around the plot focuses on the idea of memory - how are memories made, can they be copied and replanted, and what happens if there's a massive F-up as these people experiment with our memories? The plot begins as Helena is a Stanford scientist, trying desperately to create a chair that when all hooked up, will be able to help her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, recover her life memories. A stranger enters her lab and offers to fund her project but yes, there is a price. The parallel story line involves Barry, a NYC police detective, grieving the death of his daughter after all these years and trying to talk a jumper off a high rise building. How are these two connected? Just jump on this roller coaster of a book and enjoy the screaming, thrilling, hold-onto-the-safety-bar ride.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
I am not sure why it took me so long to read this highly acclaimed novel that uses the AIDS epidemic as the wheel its characters turn around and the interplay amongst them. Set in two time periods, Chicago in the mid-1980's and Paris in 2015, the characters of Yale and Fiona resonate with all of us who have loved, who have felt marginalized, who have grieved loss, and who have watched a country turn its back on its own people. Yale is the focal point of the 1980's. As a young gay man in Chicago, he is surrounded by an eclectic social group: the intellectual magazine editor who is his live-in partner, the wild partier who dares AIDS to get him, the shy and quiet artist who dies young and is the pivot on which the entire group turns; the older artist who provides the home, the philosophy, and the model for the youngsters; the lawyer who fights for their legal rights; and the little sister, who nurses, protects, and watches these beautiful young men slowly die off. As Fiona looks back on these years in 2015, as she searches for her estranged daughter in Paris, we the reader also begin to discover the depth of her pain and the consequences of her sacrifice decades ago. This is a heart-wrenching, tragic, hopeful, and ultimately beautiful book about who our family is, how history impacts our entire life, and how we redeem ourselves. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson
Wow, a 490-page book read in just two days...yep, this one is good and here's why. First, Gibson has done her research. After interviewing dozens of current and previous West Point cadets, she has written an extremely authentic book; the details of student life, experiences of active duty assignments post-graduation, deployment, and non-military life for a former cadet all ring true. The three main characters are basketball players brought together at West Point. In the beginning, I was fascinated with the details of cadet life - I mean wow, who can withstand that first year???? Each woman is uniquely herself: Dani, who is bi-racial, a perfectionist, a natural leader; Hannah, the soft-spoken Texan, who has her faith and her family West Point lineage; and Avery, the rebellious one who is whip smart but has demons in her past. Did the writing knock my socks off? No - too many metaphors that did not work and sentence structure that was choppy at times, yet...this is just a crackin' good story of faith, honor, duty, friendship, and ties that go as deep as I have ever seen.

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Ostensibly a YA thriller, I found it to be much more compelling than I would have thought going into it. It reminded me of an adult-version of Encylopedia Brown...five students go into detention, one ends of dead, whodunnit? The story trades voices amongst the young people accused of murder: the stereotypical bad kid who deals drugs, the goody-two shoes who gets straight A's and wants to go to Yale, the baseball star who is beloved by all, and the quirky girl who is part of the IN crowd due to her jock boyfriend. It is definitely a page-turner with lots of twists and turns and the cover is pretty awesome:)

The Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future by Pete Buttigieg
If you follow the news, if you are nauseous over the current Oval Office occupant, if you are looking for someone new to give you hope in America again, then I highly recommend picking up Mayor Pete's life story and seeing what he has to offer this country; you won't be disappointed by him. Pete is the current mayor of South Bend, Indianan, and yes, he is running for President. Do his experiences qualify him for the job? How did his childhood in this college town shape him? What are the ideas that push him to do more? Why did he join the military? How has his marriage to Chasten and going public with being gay directed his future? And most importantly, can he lead America back to a place of respect? If we want to be a functioning democracy, I believe in our fundamental duty to gather information and become an informed voter; this book will help you do just that. And yes, I'm a huuuuuge Mayor Pete fan:)

Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold
This is the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner in General Non-Fiction and it is worth every minute you will spend in the towns of Amity and Prosperity. Deep in the Appalachian hills of Pennsylvania, reporter Eliza Griswold spends years here, documenting, research, and interviewing all the people that corporate fracking is impacting. Yes, we hear all the time about the dangers of fracking, but I never truly realized the depth of the damage until listening to Griswold's book. She focuses on two families whose homes are destroyed, as well as the health of their children and themselves, but she also looks deeply into the impact on the town's economy, the sacrifices made to attain any justice in the courts, and the truly reprehensible corruption within the EPA as they cozy up to the oil and gas companies. It is an enlightening, fascinating read and a darn good 'listen' as the narrator unveils the towns of Amity and Prosperity in a dramatic fashion.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
I'm a little late to the dance on this one, as it was the 'hot' book last year, but as always, I work on opposites and was determined not to follow the lemmings. However, I can see why people loved this book - I liked it, but it was a bit forgettable for me. Very reminiscent of The Rosie Project, Eleanor is a quirky, rude, rather unlikeable worker in a London office. She is friendless, pet-less, and has lived in the same flat for many years. However, Eleanor has a past that the author slowly reveals as this quirky woman warms up to life and to a co-worker, as well as to the readers. It is a delightful book, worth the short time it took me to read. I am curious to see if it will give our book club much to discuss?