A mashup of true crime, memoir and history, the story is more glossy magazine feature than stodgy tome and stands as a love letter to libraries, and the crucial role these institutions play in building healthy communities and safeguarding democracy.
All in Audiobook
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
Expectation: An immersive story about one family’s experiences navigating the shifting social and political changes of a fictional Latin American village.
Reality: Some of the narrative choices — structure and naming of characters, mainly — made this difficult to follow, but the beauty of Gabriel García Márquez’s prose still shone through.
Fellow Travelers – Thomas Mallon
Expectation: A steamy political thriller about two up and coming politicos balancing a clandestine, queer love affair under the specter of the Lavender Scare.
Reality: Essentially a nonfiction novel with unlikable characters and flat development. Do yourself a favor and skip it in favor of the limited television series.
North Woods – Daniel Mason
Expectation: A straightforward historical fiction journey through a remote area of New England.
Reality: A dark, but accessible fairytale filled with ghosts – both literal and figurative – that excels at making the reader care about the dozen or so characters we meet. It was one of the more creative novels I read this year.
Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano
Expectation: A richly-layered tearjerker that tracks the ups and downs of four sisters and the people in their orbit.
Reality: Too many characters without development and repetitive sections showed the author couldn’t scale her storytelling ambition.
A Fever in the Heartland – Timothy Egan
Paced like a thriller – there’s short chapters and each has a clear focus – Egan stays rooted in basics and not minutiae. There’s detail on the inner workings of the KKK, state and national politics, “Roaring 20s” culture and immigration panic to provide a contextual foundation, but the author keeps everything aligned to his thesis: how Indiana served as a microcosm for a growing wave of racism in northern states, and the resisters who fought it.
A Conversation About “The Woman in Me” by Britney Spears
For a generation of Millennial readers, the release of Britney Spears’ memoir was a landmark moment: the opportunity for our beloved superstar to say her piece after more than a decade of forced silence. As a lifelong fan, it is difficult for me to be unbiased in my assessment of the narrative crafted with ghostwriter Sam Lansky, so I once again invited my friend Heather to discuss it.
We Could Be So Good – Cat Sebastian
Expectation: Gay love overcoming the odds in 1950s America!
Reality: Incredibly repetitive and too saccharine, the historical fiction element is almost an afterthought to typical romance genre tropes.
Holly – Stephen King
Expectation: The author’s best character in recent years tackles another supernatural mystery.
Reality: Somewhat sidelined by an infusion of current events, it still represents a satisfying entry into King’s recent forays into crime procedurals.
The Last Ranger – Peter Heller
Expectation: A “John Wick” revenge fantasy about a national park ranger seeking out an illegal wolf poaching ring.
Reality: The plot drowns in unrelated minutiae. Had I not been trapped in a car for six hours, I probably would’ve given up on it.
Tom Lake – Ann Patchett
Expectation: The lauded writer swapping complex family dramas for a gauzy faux-Hollywood story.
Reality: Sentimental and affecting, it felt like a warm hug every time I revisited Lara’s past, even though not every memory is rose-colored.
Big Swiss – Jen Beagin
Expectation: A quirky comedy about voyeurism and self-discovery.
Reality: The epitome of dark comedy, the back half is chock full of sex, lies and violence, which makes it sound a lot more intriguing than it ultimately was.
Chlorine – Jade Song
Expectation: A horror story of a high school swimmer turning into a bloodthirsty mermaid in an act of rage.
Reality: Aimless and boring, a few body gore sections weren’t enough to keep me interested before throwing in the towel.
Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories – Leigh Newman
Expectation: A companion to Kristin Hannah’s “The Great Alone,” with a focus on women taming the last frontier and the men around them.
Reality: Highly nuanced character studies that are more intimate than adventurous. Alaska looms large, but these probably aren't the stories you expect them to be.
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
Expectation: A classic whodunit of misdirection, mystery and murder.
Reality: An expertly plotted slow burn that holds up nearly 100 years after its publication.
What Moves the Dead – T. Kingfisher
Expectation: A queer retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of House of Usher.”
Reality: Shortcomings of the gothic horror genre aside (for this reader anyway), there was nothing “moving” about this uninspired novella.
Our Wives Under the Sea – Julia Armfield
Expectation: A supernatural horror story focused on a lesbian couple navigating the devastating aftermath of an extended trip under the sea.
Reality: Slowly plotted and more literary than mindless, this is for people who like their horror light and their emotions heavy.
Chain-Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Expectation: A dark dystopian view of mass incarceration as blood sport entertainment.
Reality: While crammed a little too full of characters and plots, a highly creative concept, four stellar characters and a fantastic audiobook narration made this an engrossing read.
Elegy for the Undead – Matthew Vesely
Expectation: A survival story about husbands navigating life before one of them turns into a zombie.
Reality: Come for the mediocre zombies but stay for the love story. The strongest aspects of this novella focus on the relationship of the main characters, not their circumstances.
Yes, Daddy – Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Expectation: A queer #MeToo revenge thriller rooted in the worlds of BDSM, wealth and privilege.
Reality: B-movie sensibilities that feel incoherent and for shock value pivot to an engrossing exploration of repercussions from religious and sexual trauma.