Discover Your Next Great Reads: Three Books That Will Take You Places ~ With Heart and Humor
“Duchess Reads” Book Reviews to Kick Off Your Summer
A trifecta of great reads is here for you ~ so get ready for some excellent beach/lake/reading nook ~ or wherever you devour your books, because I have three, five-star recommendations. I was wowed by three books I experienced both on my Kindle and as an audiobook. You know those books that you can’t wait to see what happens so you consume them and then are left feeling unmoored when you finish? That’s a good way to set the stage for these three must-reads. I loved them all so very much and I’m keen to tell you about these now-bestsellers. The talented authors created worlds that took me to different places and extraordinary eras. After all, this is what the art of reading is all about. Reading stories, falling in love with characters ~ whether we like or hate them 😏 and giving permission to the authors to take us on a journey. These three recommendations all share humor; are family and friend focused, a helping of some enemies; reconciliation, and oh-so-deftly, carry subtle, otherwise societal commentary. And while not chosen because all feature women writers, I’m thrilled that these bestsellers tell their stories through a female lens.
A novel about a mgical library where people can escape into their favorite books.
The Astral Library
Kate Quinn
Viewed from the movie lens of the Academy Awards, they say that Oscar too-often favors films about, well, Hollywood. So too it seems with literature. A quick online search to confirm my suspicions yielded this: “Yes, literary awards tend to favor novels about books, libraries, writing, and the power of storytelling—a genre often termed "bibliomemoir" or "metafiction.” All I can say is I’m a sucker for books about books and libraries, and writing, and books-adjacent, of which The Astral Library is a glorious example.
The Astral Library was a featured book by one of the literary podcasts I listen to and bought it straight away for my Kindle. This charming book is foremost, hilarious, a fun fantasy of where books can take us, yet grounding us too with its cautionary wisdom to allow libraries to provide books available to all readers. In a delightful, charming way, The Astral Library author, Kate Quinn, demonstrates how books and their worlds change people's lives. Sometimes saving people’s lives.
Books create worlds that we often want to live in. That’s the premise here. The protagonist, Alix Watson has a tough background: foster care ~ her mother left her when she was just a child, dismal jobs (yes several) but has no money and as the book opens, no home, and oh, she’s “overweight” so self esteem is in short supply. Her mother’s disappearance is heartbreaking. The only thing she left Alix with is a love of books. The story starts after a series of mishaps creates a platform of despair. She heads to the Boston Library where she’s a part timer. Before we know it, we are with Alix as she finds herself in a magical world where we are IN the books, along with the head librarian from antiquarian times, zooming from Pride & Prejudice to Tom Sawyer to Sherlock Holmes ~ all in order to help the character(s) who are tucked in there to escape the danger present in their “real world” lives.
Alix’s friend, a posh but poor fashion designer who is faking it till he makes it, is a sweet kind of partner when they team up and offer each other mutual support. He’s her crush, who also provides her with the sartorial support she needs for her book journeys.
There is drama, a showdown with the real world’s Library Board. Who will win?
This is a fun, compassionate tale of the magic of books and the importance of making stories ~ all kinds of stories ~ available to everyone; letting folks make their own decisions about what they want to read.
Thank you, Kate. This was a delightful fantasy romp, albeith with a potent message.
See you at the Library.
Historical fiction about friendship, shared loss, fate, & the true meaning of what is family love
Kin
Tayari Jones
I first heard about Kin on a New York Times book review podcast (Thank you Gilbert Cruz) and somehow managed to get the audiobook through the New York Public Library (NYPL). It is such a special, compassionate story told from the point of view of two women, best friends and neighbors from the time they were born ~ raised as sisters, really. As adults, their lives take two completely divergent paths. And therein the compelling drama and challenges are explored. Vernice is raised by her strong and sassy aunt (I won’t give away what happened to her mother but it’s a kind of touchstone that contrasts with Annie, raised by her grandmother, besotted by the trauma of the tragic relationship or lack thereof with her mother. Loss of blood mother is the foundation or platform that the very idea of Kin is anchored to: that we build families from the people who love and support us. It’s a thread /throughline in the story that each tells with her distinctive voice. Vernice’s life takes her to college and a marriage to a wealthy man and his influential affluent Atlanta family while Annie’s relentless search for her mother that seemed doomed from the start and all too soo, spins out of control. Vernice or Niecy, is the “good girl” and Annie is the wild rule-breaker. Annie’s journey eventually takes her back to Vernice. It’s a heartfelt novel about enduring friendship, mothers, and family. As a writer, I was so intrigued how she told the story with two protagonists, plus the writing is astonishing, world-class.
The author, Tayari Jones, is a brilliant wordsmith, creating worlds and characters that transport you ~ here to the American South in the 1960’s she brings us, the reader, to the heart of being black in a time of fading Jim Crow, weaving in the triumphs and struggles of that period, the wellspring of a burgeoning civil rights as backdrop and how all this complexity impacts the two women, struggling in their lives to find themselves with help from mother figures they’ve embraced while searching, creating, pursuing their self discovery. They are vulnerable, honest, and we can relate to them just being young women finding their power and place, while trying to honor and revere their elders and the bonds of their friendship. No matter the divergent paths. Kin proves that family is not only blood but the people who love you unconditionally. The story is a quilt woven with a rich, nuanced, beautiful emotion and insight. It’s heartbreaking in its realistic rendering of the times. You will feel the heat of Atlanta and breathe in the intoxicating honeysuckle, in their hometown of Honeysuckle, Louisiana.
I highly recommend Kin, especially as an audio book, The readings by the narrators Angel Peam and Ashley J. Hobbs are so lovely, with that Southern cadence that makes you feel all the more in the story. Like you’re rocking on the front porch, on a languid summer evening, lemonade in hand, listening to a favorite aunt recount days gone by, loves, and loss.., It’s a haunting narration that will stay with you.
A touching, often humorous story about marriage, parent~child relationships, betrayal, & familyreconciliation in the late 1970’s & 1990’s
Lake Effect
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Lake Effect was the April recommendation by “Get Lit With All of It Book Club,” the literature and reading project from WNYC’s All of It radio show, hosted by Alison Stewart, in partnership with The New York Public Library. Which is fabulous if you don’t already participate, btw. I adore Alison's selected books (and her full-throated laugh.) The Get Lit program “features live author talks at the Library that you can participate in via YouTube, on-air discussions, and free access to e-books,” as explained by Get Lit. The NY Public Library offers books to participants, which is a lucky charm for the high-demand books that one often has to wait eons for.
I got the audio book of The Lake Effect and couldn't stop listening because I found the story and the characters and the dialogue so compelling.
I see on Goodreads now that the book has received mainly 5 and 4 star ratings as it surely deserves.
The two-generation family and cast of characters is so real, one need not have actually lived in 1977 suburban Rochester ~ and by extension all of suburban white America, to really feel like you're living in that world because the author creates such a detailed and compelling world. The book is a family saga about love, divorce, messy-but-real situations told with pathos and humor that the world at that time offered.
The book opens with the main character Nina, (which I’ve always harbored the moniker as the protagonist for one of my books… ) who is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her recently-divorced neighbor and friend. (Why sex and divorce seem to be joined like peanut butter and jelly deserves to be further explored at some point 🤭) I thought from that focus point it was going to set the stage for a different kind of narrative.
But it’s a kind of Trojan Horse meaning when Nina reads about the Sex, she confronts the lack of it in her own marriage which in turn, leads her to make a life-altering decision. With two daughters who she adores and a husband who it turns out wasn’t meant for a traditional male/female marriage she confronts the lack of intimacy that she craves; she has a midlife awakening and begins an affair with a successful man of the neighborhood, who is having a kind of tandem frustration in his marriage. Hey, it takes two to tango.
I don’t want to share any spoilers here but from there, awkward situations ensue, relationships unravel, the fabric of their community struggles, and the next generation grapples with the demons they inherited.
The story is told from multiple family perspectives, which in a less accomplished writer’s pen might have been confusing. Instead, the author, Sweeney, enriches the narrative as she deftly describes her character’s emotions and we feel the drama and pain from each of their perspectives as they navigate the consequences of their shared situation ~ that of divorce in a small community.
You will be particularly drawn to Clara, Nina’s oldest daughter, Clara, and how the scandalous drama impacted her own love life and also that of her mother' s influence on her career in NYC. Food is what tethers them most closely. As a food enthusiasm I liked this story element very much. Nina is a food writer and hostess ~ today we’d refer to her as a lifestyle influencer ~ and Clara becomes a food stylist in New York.
There’s tension, family anger, wrestling with reality and messy, authentic family matters.
There is daring-for-its-time divorce (Sweeney weaves in how, in the 70’s, traveling to Vegas or the Dominican Republic was pretty much the only way to secure a clean, quick divorce); a coming out (of sorts ~ and the pain of how to navigate that once-taboo lifestyle crashing into a more modern and accepting culture; and a coming of age for the children. There are a few twists and an ending I didn't see coming but it is one that possesses such deep emotion, tapping into our compassion with a firm grip on our heart . It’s touching, honest and memorable.
I loved this book and its exploration into family, love, loss, grief, and hope…
I know you will enjoy all my Duchess Reads recommendations for the summer ~ no matter where you find your reading nook. And we’re just getting started. So many good books, and the summer is so short. Please share your thoughts about the books when you finish. Happy reading.
You can find these great reads wherever you get your books ~ The Library, or your Independent or Indie Book store (both Libraries and Independents, regrettably most need our support), and at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
