CONFESSIONS – Catherine Airey

When I saw Catherine Airey’s Confessions (1.14.25 Mariner Books) being compared to The Goldfinch, I groaned.  I’m serious. I audibly groaned. I think The Goldfinch is one of the more overrated novels of my time, and I still hold the opinion that the story deserved to have someone different tell it, someone with a less pretentious style and more likeable characters. I’m pleased to say other than art, terrorism and drugs factoring heavily, the comparison is unfair. It’s sweeter, softer and more I’d say it’s more Jonathan Safran Foer meets Louise Kennedy meets The Rachel Incident, and with those comparisons in mind, it’s no wonder I loved it.

The novel is unapologetically a series of puzzle pieces, working together to a satisfying though far from neat conclusion.  It opens with Cora in New York in 2001. Her father works at the World Trade Center. Her mother has died by suicide. She’s a lost teen trying to find something to ground her – whether that’s with Kyle or drugs or both, she wants to be hollow and full at the same time. She is unmoored. Then 9/11 strikes and she finds herself an orphan. She receives a letter from Roisin, an aunt she didn’t know existed.

The novel then thrusts us back to 1974 where Roisin lives in her older sister’s shadow, craving her light and affection. Maire is a talented artist, and Roisin conspires with her sister’s boyfriend to get her into an artistic residency of sorts at the old schoolhouse that had longed served as the muse for both sisters. Perhaps this moment is when everything changed.

On the heels of Roisin’s section, we return to New York in 1979 with Maire and follow along as madness and brokenness bleed on the canvas. She is unmoored. Alone. Floundering.  A blink, and we’re back in Ireland, where Roisin is trying to ground herself without her sister, to find purpose and love. The distance between the two sisters a screaming abyss.

The last third of the book brings us to 2018 with Lyca, Cora’s daughter, and takes to both Ireland and New York as the pieces of the puzzle slowly fall into place.  The broken, jagged, infected pieces of the puzzle.

It’s a beautiful novel of sisterhood and secrets, with sparks of madness and imagination. Framed by Scream School, a “choose your own adventure” computer game about two sisters trying to escape a boarding school in County Donegal, the unique novel digs deep into the relationship between Roisin and Maire and the choices neither sister could change. It’s soft and heartbreaking and raw.

Read this book.

A huge thanks to the publisher for this advanced copy.

*I did note one British-ism that showed up in a New York hospital that hopefully was corrected prior to the final version as it was entirely out of place based on location and character speaking.  (Theatre was used instead of operating room.)

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS – Robin Wall Kimmerer

One of my 2025 resolutions is to read more non-fiction and to use mundane tasks as opportunities to be more intentional with my time.  Enter audiobooks (and laundry!).  My first read of the year was Robin Wall Kimmerer’s 2013 release, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions). Kimmerer, a poet and scientist, uses language, personal experiences, generational trauma, science, and oral traditions to echo a call to protect nature that has resounded since man decided to destroy it. The audio was narrated by Kimmerer, the warmth of her voice pulling the listener close, like children snuggled in bed awaiting fairytales or lit by the glow of a campfire breathlessly listening to ghost stories. And Braiding Sweetgrass certainly has its share of ghosts, villains, and heroes.  The question it raises, however, is what role you will play as the future of the planet is written in the destruction and desolation of the past and the indifference and continued devastation of the present.

Never overly preachy though at times redundant, Kimmerer reminds us that we are stewards of the land and not owners, differentiates between gifts and commercialism and how gifts can impact society, and stresses the importance of a good and thankful harvest – this is an area I would like to improve upon in my life. I want to nurture the earth and grow things that in turn nurture me.  I was raised to be grateful and thankful for the deer and fish that graced my table growing up as well as the butter beans in the pot and the hands that had shelled them. I was also taught the importance of sharing the harvest. That food was always far more delicious than what came from supermarket shelves. My thankfulness and appreciation were wrapped in faith and kissed by rural NC, but the concepts have the same sweetness.

My favorite section of the collection was “Witch Hazel,” which is a recollection of one of Kimmerer’s daughters about their time in Kentucky and Kimmerer’s friendship with a woman named Hazel. The descriptions of the abandoned home, with remnants of the lives that thrived there, and the connections with the people that were nurtured for years in that unspoken give and take of community were just beautifully depicted.

This is a call. A call of salamanders, geese, maple trees, and wild berries. A call to neither be a participant in the destruction nor a passive witness.  Remember, there is no planet B.

Read this book.

SONGBIRDS – Christy Lefteri

“One day, Nisha vanished and turned to gold. She turned to gold in the eyes of the creature that stood before me. She turned to gold in the morning sky and in the music of the birds.”

I ended my 2024 having read 68 books – far less than my goal, but considering the way my apple cart was upset, I’m happy with it.  The last read of the year was a devastating beautiful read that left me a bit conflicted with my thoughts.  I should have loved Christy Lefteri’s Songbirds, and there were moments that made me remember why I love reading, but there were also moments where I thought things fell just a touch short for me. 

Short story long – this is a story of immigrant domestic workers, the lives they touch, and how unseen and undervalued they are. Set in Cyprus, the novel opens just after Nisha, a Sri Lankan domestic, has vanished. She worked for Petra, a widow, and has cared for Petra’s daughter, Aliki, since she was born – having left her own daughter in Sri Lanka in order to work. Aliki’s connection with Nisha is stronger than with her mother – the food, the warmth, the stories, the laughter – they all came from Nisha.

Nisha’s lover rents the space above them from Petra.  Petra has no idea he’s been seeing her maid.  (And would have undoubtedly forbidden it.) Only after Nisha disappears does Petra begin to see how her maid had touched those around her, and Yiannis is no exception.  Yiannis, a former banker turned forager who is actually a poacher, captures and kills songbirds during their migration, selling the illegal delicacies to restaurants and bars and down back allies.  High risk means high reward, and folks pay a killing for the small birds, but Yiannis wants out of the criminal enterprise.  It’s not that easy though.  The sections depicting poaching animals are devastatingly brutal yet exquisitely written. While I found the sections unsettling, they’re ultimately not what created conflict or fell flat – my issue lies with the character of Petra and her “woe is me. I never saw my maid as a person before now” song and dance, and the weight her voice carries in the story.  How I wish other domestics or even Aliki carried those sections.

It’s a wonderfully crafted novel and the writing is much like a songbird, gorgeously haunting in spite of the plot, but wasn’t quite that five star read.

SOMEONE LIKE US – Dinaw Mengestus

“You look for ruin. And if you can’t find it, you make it.”

My top read of the year came as a surprise right at the tail end of December. I was gifted Dinaw Mengestu’s Someone Like Us (Knopf 2024)  by the publisher earlier this year. With life in the way, I didn’t get around to it as quickly as I had wanted, but I picked it up just after Christmas. Boy, am I glad I did. Certain books just tick all my boxes, and this one did.

Meet Mamush, our extremely unreliable narrator, born in the US to a single woman who’d fled her Ethiopian home and now living in Paris with his wife and infant son, unable to chase the demons that are generational. He’s on his way back to the States to visit his mother and Samuel, the father figure who undoubtedly shares his DNA but doesn’t get the title, and decides to detour to Chicago, where they’d all lived before moving to DC. The novel takes us along his journey, as he walks into the past and his memories, and Samuel’s life unfurls, mingling into Mamush’s memories, like the flag of a country Samuel can’t bring himself to return to.

We know from the first few pages that Samuel has been found dead in the garage before Mamush arrives.  Someone Like Us is brilliantly woven, taxis and maps continuously grounding us and Mamush as he struggles with the present, the past, and escaping them both while trying to find answers as to why Samuel was found dead in the garage, an apparent death by suicide.

I’ve seen no buzz for this book, and I am floored. I’ve read a lot of prize winners and nominees for various literary awards this year, and this novel, by leaps and bounds, is my top read.  Everyone should read this book. 

I’LL COME TO YOU – Rebecca Kauffman

I’m trying to get a bit better at getting my reviews in for ARCS before the book is published, and I’m patting myself on the back with this one because Rebecca Kauffman’s I’ll Come to You (Counterpoint 2024) has an expected publication date of 1/7/2025. (Thank you to the publisher for gifting me this finished copy!)  If family sagas and domestic fiction are your jam, go ahead and preorder or put your library holds in.  It’s a slim volume of intertwined stories of one family, but it is so beautifully and intricately told.

The novel spans from January 1995 to December 1995, following recently divorced Ellen as she tries to juggle her continued confusion over the divorce, figuring how holidays will work, hoping for grandchildren, and entering the dating scene; her son, Paul and daughter-in-law, Corinne, who are juggling fertility issues followed by pregnancy and parenthood in addition to family drama; Corinne’s parents, Janet and Bruce, who are juggling aging, the early stages of dementia, and regrets; and Corinne’s brother, Rob, a divorced middle aged man who has a difficult relationship with the truth but who is drowning in loss following the custody order.

It’s a beautiful novel, with each voice inherently unique.  At times delicate and devastating, it is quite the perfect read for right after the holidays.

Read this book.

A NOVEL LOVE STORY – Ashley Poston

I’m likely not the best person to listen to when it comes to reviewing romance.  That said, I tried really hard to like Ashley Poston’s A Novel Love Story (Berkley 2024), but it fell way flat for me.  The premise is cute enough – a woman who loves romance novels heads to a cabin for a weeklong of reading by herself, takes a wrong turn, and ends up in the fictional town of her favorite book series. The potential of the setup was so exciting.  The execution, however, was meh.

Elsy winds up in Eloraton, the fictional town of her favorite romance series.  The author of the series had tragically and unexpectedly died, and the characters are a bit in a rut.  (Much like Elsy.) There is one character, Anders, that Elsy cannot place in any of the books.  They have instant hate followed by almost instant love, and it annoyed the mess out of me.

There are lovely moments and some delicious descriptions, but overall, this missed every mark. The magical realism aspect seemed half-assed, the romance was only used out of convenience and to pivot the plot or create drama, which is fine, I guess, if there is at least chemistry that can read on the page.  The failing of the novel is, honestly, that it’s a romance.  If this had more of a Big Fish-esque feel of Elsy finding her spark and her identity again in this fictional town through helping these fictional characters whose author had died before finishing their plotlines, and ended with her leaving Anders and the town behind to live her life, I’d likely have enjoyed it far more. (Provided the magical realism aspect was handled correctly.)

Spoiler to come.

I actually thought the set up was to have Elsy take on the series, especially when she found the area with the drafts and bits and pieces of stories. She could have given them all a HEA and Anders never had to be “real” for her to do it. In addition to a plot that had me groan, the writing is repetitive and often dull, not enchanting and whimsical, and there are only so many descriptions I need of his green eyes.

Things I like: The cover. I also enjoyed the description of the town, and the actual set up of the fictional romance series.  I would have likely enjoyed reading about that damn possum instead of this.  This novel seems a bit of a love letter to readers, but I think it falls a bit flat.  Ally Carter hit that note a bit sweeter in The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.

If you typically like romances, give it a go, I guess.

THE MOST WONDERFUL CRIME OF THE YEAR – Ally Carter

While heading home for Christmas, I decided to listen to an audio book.  (I usually get one or two audio books in a year, but it’s really not my reading preference.) I settled on Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (Avon 2024), and I’m so glad I did.  What a delicious holiday candy book this was.  And I mean delicious.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year is an enemies-to-lovers, cozy , locked room mystery that is a heck of a lot of fun. Imagine playing a real-life game of CLUE with a coworker you loathe at a gorgeous and mysterious mansion in the English countryside, and you get the idea.  Now make the coworkers mystery and big thrill authors and the owner of the home  the most famous author of their publishing imprint –  Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death. Near perfection.

Cozy mystery writer Maggie Chase is in a bit of slump. Recently divorced after she found out her husband and best friend were having a long-term affair, she’s not in the most festive of moods. Her editor convinces her to take an invite to spend the holidays with “her biggest fan.” She finds out too late her arch nemesis, author Ethan Wyatt, a thriller author with a huge social media presence and throngs of adoring female fans, is also invited. Ethan refuses to learn her name, calling her Marcie regardless of the fact they’re both published at the same company, and they’ve met numerous times. Maggie is not amused and dreading this holiday until she realizes the “fan” is none other than Eleanor Ashley.  Surrounded by Eleanor’s family, all with questionable motives, Eleanor vanishes from a locked room. Is it part of the game or is she truly in danger?

What unfolds is a closed room mystery that throws Maggie and Ethan together in an attempt to solve the case of the missing Duchess of Death.  It’s just fun and was the perfect read for me leading up to Christmas. It’s also the perfect read for folks who find friendships and lifelines in the books they read.

Things I didn’t like? The cover, when the male narrator uses his “Maggie” voice, and Maggie’s repeated proclamation that they hate each other. Things I liked?  Everything else.  It really is a fun read.

Read this book.

THE NIGHT TIGER – Yangsze Choo

While I have all three Yangsze Choo novels on my TBR, I opted to read The Night Tiger (Flatiron 2019) first.  As the story of the ghost bride is referenced in this novel, I should have likely read Choo’s debut before The Night Tiger, but I don’t think it was necessary.  (That may change once I read The Ghost Bride.) I took a gamble that I’d like Choo’s writing and bought all three works at the same time. If The Night Tiger is any indication, that gamble paid off.

A whisper of magical realism sings throughout the pages of this historical fiction, set in the 1930s in colonial Malaysia – and when done correctly, those magical realism whispers will always be my favorite. I loved this novel.

Ji Lin, brilliant and beautiful, is forced into an “acceptable” career as a dressmaker. In secret, she works as a dance-hall girl to help pay off her mother’s mahjong debt. While her stepfather has plenty of money to pay off the debts, he also has a violent temper, and she has no desire to see her mother at the receiving end of his abuse.  Life gets a bit interesting when a client drops a vial with a preserved human finger inside.

                Ji confides in her stepbrother, Shin, who is studying to be a doctor, the course of study she’d longed for but been denied. Shin is of no blood relation, but they were born on the same day, both named for one of the five Confucian Virtues. After he confirms it is human, she decides it must be returned to the man’s family. The patron has unexpectedly died, and she intends to attend his funeral to return it.

                Meanwhile, Ren (another Confucian Virtue) is frantically trying to find the finger of the man he had worked for. When Dr. MacFarlane was dying, he made Ren promise to find the finger and bury it in his grave before the end of the 49-day period. Dr. MacFarlane believed he turned into the night tiger towards the end, and Ren was afraid of his mad ramblings but he is committed to finding the finger and keeping his promise.

Ren is a twin, but his brother, Yi (the fourth Confucian virtue), died. Sometimes, Ren still feels a connection to him. Ji Lin has a strong connection to both Yi and Ren, seeing Yi in her dreams.  Yi tells her of his brother and tells her to be aware of the person whose name is the fifth Confucian Virtue.

Ren’s quest to find Dr. MacFarlene’s finger crosses paths with Ji Len’s quest to return the finger dropped in the dance hall to its rightful owner, and the fifth Confucian value, the one Yi warned Ji of, is revealed. As the story unfolds, colonialism, local legends and folktales, and forbidden love intertwine with a story of grief, loyalty, human trafficking and murder.                                                                                                   

The Night Tiger is an absolute delight of a read, beautifully and magically told – hitting so many of the things that are my favorites.  Read this book.

THE DAVENPORTS: MORE THAN THIS – Krystal Marquis

I really thought The Davenports was going to be a continued series, with each subsequent novel a deep dive into one of the Davenport siblings (with a branch out for Amy-Rose and Ruby Tremaine), but it would seem the second installment, The Davenports: More than This (Dial Books 2024) seems to wrap all the story lines up.  (What follows is pulled nearly word for word from my review of the first novel.)

Inspired by the real-life Patterson family, Krystal Marquis’s The Davenports books is a young adult, Bridgerton-esque romance duology set in Chicago in 1910.  The Davenports are an extremely wealthy Black family, and that fortune has placed them in a very small section of the American population.  William Davenport, a former slave, built his empire from the dirt up, and his children have lived lives of opulence. Olivia, the eldest daughter, continues to involve herself in politics, finding her voice and publishing articles anon. She’s also found herself falling for another lawyer, a man her parents are trying to set her up with.  But what happens when the dashing civil rights attorney Washington DeWight returns, and she finds herself torn between two men?  Helen, heartbroken after Jacob Lawrence left, continues to be more comfortable in the garage. She and her brother, John, will convince their father to add automobiles to the company, and they’ll snag handsome race car driver, Ransom Swift, to help them. Helen finds herself falling for the exciting man when Jacob returns. Much like her sister, she finds herself torn between two men.  Ruby Tremaine is happily engaged but dealing with rumors concerning her purity that may have lost her father his run for mayor.  And Amy-Rose, the daughter of a slave-owner and maid, has thrown herself into her hair care line and salon thanks to a generous benefactor who believed in her, but John Davenport is never far from her thoughts.  Like the first, the novel alternates between Olivia, Helen, Ruby, and Amy-Rose’s POVs.

Despite all the romance, the duology is truly a young adult series and there is no spice other than a few stolen kisses and petting.  But intertwined with the romance and choices, there is also racism, political demonstrations, classism, the Progressive Era, feminism, etc. It’s a fascinating time in American history, even more fascinating for wealthy Black families.

Bridgerton fans, this may be a series for you to check out.  Young adult historical fiction and romance fans, this is a must.  The Davenports duology is a delight.