January 2021!

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

Outrageous, satirical, hilarious, provocative, farcical, mind-blowing, brilliant - this book looks to be the first huge hit of 2021. The premise is straight forward: a young Black man is plucked from his barista job at Starbucks to be groomed, trained, and set loose in the world of NYC sales. We encounter racist bosses, abusive training methods, questionable decisions, socioeconomic disparity, unequal friendships, white privilege, neighborhood gentrification, racial bias to the nth degree; in other words, ALL the problems in America today. Darren (aka Buck) is one of the most compelling characters I have ever encountered. As he tells his tale of how to succeed in sales, I found myself inspired, infuriated, perplexed, appalled, hopeful, you name it, with his behavior and actions. This book will turn your brain upside down, and could provide the best book club discussion of the year. In other words, do not miss reading this book.

The Mystery of Mrs Christie by Marie Benedict 

Author Marie Benedict (The Other Einstein, The Only Woman in the Room, Carnegie's Maid, Lady Clementine) has shown herself to be the master of finding the 'smaller' stories of history, the pieces that might have made famous people a little wiser, or more meaningful, or more important to our future. As a lifetime lover of mysteries and detective novels, I could not wait to get my hands on this story of the ultimate writer of whodunnits, the eponymous Agatha Christie. Taking a slice of history, Benedict looks at the eleven days in 1926 when Mrs. Christie went missing: the massive manhunt, the lurid headlines, the hidden love affair, and the police investigation into her husband. Written in a unique manner, of seeing the story through two sets of eyes and two time periods, the denouement at the end wreaks of a classic Hercule Poirot ending with everyone in the room, ready to unmask the culprit. I thoroughly enjoyed this mix of history + mystery.

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

Having read six of Benjamin's previous books, I am obviously a huge fan. While this one was factually interesting, I did not find it as gripping as her other stories. Based on the famous Great Plains blizzard of 1888, this time around the focus is on an event, not a famous person, and the story moves around amongst the main characters: Raina who teaches in a Nebraska schoolhouse, trapped in an abusive boarding situation; her sister, Gerda, entranced by a beau yet responsible also for a room full of school children; Annette, a girl given away by her mother, abused and lonely; Anna, a young mother, resentful of her prairie life; and the newspaper reporter who makes them all famous.. The story jumped around a bit too much for my me, though others may like the varied viewpoints, and the plotting seemed thin, as if this storm could not sustain such a long book. I found this one good, not great.

Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab

Did you fall in love with Addie LaRue in 2020? If so, you’re gonna want to grab this older series by Schwab. This is Quentin Tarantino meets Harry Potter. Don’t play drinking games every time someone dies - you’ll be drunk in just a few chapters. I mean, this series is dark and violent and scary, and utterly obsessively AMAZING. Think about a sheaf of paper stacked together, with Black London, White London, Red London, and Grey London stacked on top of one another, with only a few rare magical travelers able to journey amongst the varied cities. Some Londons have more magic than others, some have ordinary lives, some have some really dark shit. Amongst this setting live some amazing characters: Kell, Lila, and Holland, the magician, the thief, and the prisoner; Rye, the prince; and Alucard, the pirate. Sounds so simple and straight forward doesn’t it?! In the hands of a master writer like VE Schwab, this is storytelling at its finest. Characters are richly and deeply drawn, with complexities a mile deep and relationships that morph over time. The plot is stomach churning tense, especially in the finale, and yes, the themes of family, power, corruption, and love are beautifully woven through all three books.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Not much more I can say about this book that everyone else hasn't said. Yes, you'll want to read it. Yes, do the audio - his voice is sublime. Yes, it's long and occasionally gets stuck in the weeds - listen to all of it anyway. This book is an excellent reminder of what it feels like to have a talented, intelligent, compassionate, focused human being in charge of our government (I had forgotten during these last four years). And yes, I will preorder the next book in this series:)