Tag Archives: fiction

Huatulco, San Miguel de Allende

Books to Watch For

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By Carole Reedy—

Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
(publication date October 6, 2026)

The most anticipated fall read, without a doubt, is Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita.

Kingsolver’s previous novel, Demon Copperhead, entertained and educated readers with its smooth narrative of a remote and forgotten part of the US where the pharmaceutical industry introduced addictive drugs. (To understand the facts of this tragedy, read Patrick Radden Keefe’s The Empire Of Pain.) Kingsolver received accolades around the world for her depiction of a modern-day David Copperfield.

This new novel is the story of a farm girl and her unfulfilled musical talent, class barriers, and love. At the heart of the story, however, is the importance of art and beauty.

Kingsolver herself had the talent to pursue the piano as a career, but when faced with the practicality of a life in music changed her college major to biology. She also had aspirations as a writer and studied journalism. As a child she read Tolstoy and played Bach on the piano.

Noted author Ann Patchett, whose new novel Whistler has just arrived, accompanied by rave reviews, on bookshelves, says of Kingsolver’s latest “She means to save us by telling us stories…She comes closer than anyone else I know.”

Country People by Daniel Mason
(publication date July 7, 2026)

Mason’s North Woods, published in 2024, was, for me, a mesmerizing read covering centuries of the inhabitants of a yellow house in a remote part of Massachusetts.

His latest story takes us on a family voyage to Vermont from California.

It’s described by the publisher as a “joyous, absurd, gorgeously-drawn exploration of marriage, family, friendship, storytelling and how people find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.”

We know Mason as a consummate storyteller that can deliver a story in a masterfully fluent manner.

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Ply by Hernan Diaz
(publication date September 29, 2026)

How we loved Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Trust, the story of a “successful” man and his wife told in three parts, the last part putting in perspective the first two in a most shocking way.

Though his previous novels dealt with the past, this one takes us to the distant future and questions the role of technology in our lives. It is a Dickensian-style family drama in addition to being a scientific thriller.

The novel takes place in a US city where the protagonist, an orphan, steals energy to feed the city’s vibrant music scene. This high-risk life shifts when he becomes involved in a scientific project that could change reality itself.

The Dying Light by Anne Cleeves
(publication date October 8)

Few of us will forget the isolation of the pandemic of 2020 for the gift of time that allowed us hours more to read. During the following three years many of us discovered various book series and authors that entertained and allowed us to get through those difficult days.

One such author was Anne Cleeves. Cleeves is a prolific writer, but the most striking aspect of her writing is the characterizations she creates. These people become part of the reader’s life. It may sound corny, but during the pandemic I talked by phone to friends in the US about characters in the novels as though we were discussing our own friends.

Cleeves’ Shetland series became so popular that it was made into a television series. The lure of an unknown part of the world added mystery to the mysteries! Tourists started putting the Shetland Islands on their travel bucket lists.

Cleeves recently introduced the Matthew Venn series (also called the Two Rivers series), which takes place in Devon England, where detective Venn lives with his husband. Again, the magic of these books lies in their characters rather than the plots.

Cleeves knows and understands her characters so well that she seems to describe them from memory rather than imagination.

Agrippa by Robert Harris
(publication date August 27, 2026)

Harris has always been recognized for his ability to combine personal drama and political machinations. His Conclave gripped book lovers as well as movie fans.

In Agrippa we return to the Roman Empire, where there is plenty of drama for writers. After the death of Julius Caesar, the 17-year-old Octavius becomes heir to the throne. His closest friend is Agrippa. For 20 years they rule the empire together.

Agrippa stirs up the past in his memoirs, which he is writing at age 50. Power and friendship: can they coexist? That is the question and theme.

Robert Harris’ books are very readable and offer glimpses into the political yet personal aspects of the histories he writes. I have become a recent fan of this prestigious writer of histories. His Pompeii hooked me as a new fan and follower.

The French Illusion by John Grisham
(publication date September 29, 2026)

Faithful readers to the genre have been reading John Grisham’s legal thrillers since 1991 when The Firm became an overnight sensation, spending 47 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. I remember vividly when it hit the shelves, touted as different and sketching new material and characters for a novel. Law school admissions may have risen at this time.

Grisham’s latest veers a little off the legal thriller genre, being more an international suspense novel. It’s clear Grisham enjoys reading the spy stories of John Le Carre, Ken Follett, and Robert Ludlum. This is his first attempt in following the “craftsmanship of some of these international suspense novelists.”

This new plot starts with the kidnapping of a newlywed couple in the French countryside, which rapidly turns into an international espionage plot.

The Disappearers by Marlon James
(publication date September 1, 2026)

It would be difficult to forget James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings, which brought James the recognition he deserved when his novel won the Man Booker Prize in 2015. This new story continues in the genre. Again taking place in Jamaica, it begins with eight gay men in Jamaica during the 1980s.

These eight men, actors, are unfamiliar to each other but share the experience of being gay, including the hatred and bigotry they endure. How they handle it varies among them: some try to forget, others embrace their rage, and still others simply vanish.

James’ novels are enormous in every aspect.

Switzy by Emma Cline
(publication date October 9, 2026)

What is a life? What remains when your goals and accomplishments have been realized? These appear to be the unanswerable questions Cline explores in this story of an aging man.

It is quite an original story, probing the depths of human consciousness, “revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he’s relied on, vanish.”

The book follows its main character, David, with his thoughts and memories, as he flies to Zurich with stops in Paris, England, etc. The unusualness of the premise is alluring, especially when tackled by a writer as deft as Cline, who we remember for her novel The Girls, which was based on the Charles Manson entourage of the 70s.

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry
(publication date September 8, 2026)

My book club in Mexico City, whose members represent a number of nationalities, enthusiastically embraces any book written by the Irish writer Sebastian Barry. His novels appeal to not only the Irish and Brits, but also to Americans and Mexicans.

Barry is a consummate storyteller. His newest takes place in the 19th century, starting in rural Tennessee where the main character, a Confederate soldier and wanted man, heads for Nashville but finds himself on a detour to Victorian England. It’s a story of how we survive and at what cost along the way.

Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
(publication date September 15, 2026)

This timely novel by the noteworthy author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility should gain widespread attention in the literary world this fall.

Starting out in Los Angeles 2031 with the collapse of the US, the story continues not only from a splintered America but also expanding to include Paris and Greece and a colony on the moon.

Story is the lifeblood of a novel, and this year appears to be packed with novels that are faithful to this premise.

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Huatulco, San Miguel de Allende

Sneak Peek Between the Pages: 2026’s New Novels

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By Carole Reedy—

The new year ignites excitement for passionate readers, but too often novels published at the year’s end don’t receive proper publicity. So first let’s look at a few scintillating novels that hit the shelves late in 2025.

The Predicament by William Boyd (November 2025)
Although I’m not typically drawn to spy novels, this book was a delightful exception.

William Boyd’s novels seldom disappoint. His range is broad, characterizations diverse, and plots compelling. This one takes the reader around the globe from London and Guatemala to Berlin and Dallas (not to worry, it’s a leisurely adventure). Gabriel Dax isn’t your stereotypic spy, making his experiences unpredictable.

Boyd’s collection of work is diverse in subject, but always focused and pristine in pace and local color. I’m a recent fan of his and eager to read anything he writes.

The Boleyn Traitor by Philippa Gregory (October 2025)
In 2001 I read The Other Boleyn Girl, at the time Gregory’s popular (with readers and critics alike) and well-researched novel about Anne Boleyn’s sister, Mary. In the ensuing years, readers have been ensconced in the Tudor and Plantagenet series, which has brought critical accolades. Gregory has more than 100 books to her credit.

Now, 24 years later we find ourselves still fascinated by the 16th century and the age of kings and queens. Praise from critics always focuses on Gregory’s detailed research and ability to bring to the 21st century an understanding of this distinct past.

The Boleyn Traitor tells the tale of Jane Boleyn, the wife of Anne Boleyn’s infamous brother George. The reviews tell us the magic endures, so it looks like another bestseller.

Queen Ester by John Irving ( November 2025)
Many of us look back to 1978 and the publication of John Irving’s popular breakout fourth novel, The World According to Garp. To date, Irving has published 16 novels, among them the popular The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Avenue of Mysteries, set in Oaxaca, Mexico.

In his latest, you will recognize the town of Penacook, New Hampshire, and nearby St. Cloud Orphanage from The Cider House Rules. The time is the early 20th century, and a young Jewish girl is adopted by a non-Jewish couple who wonder how they will handle this responsibility. We follow one of the characters to Israel and her political involvement there.

Irving recently stated: “The construction of this novel long predates the events of Oct. 7, 2023, and everything that’s happened in Israel since those terrorist attacks and the hostage-taking. With hindsight, it’s easy to say that what I saw and heard in Israel in the early 1980s serves as a precursor to what has developed since that time, but this is what historical fiction is for.”

Last Night in Brooklyn by Xóchitl Gonzalez (April 2026)
Two unforgettable novels by Gonzalez (also a staff writer at The Atlantic), published in 2022 and 2024, captured my mind and heart: Olga Dies Dreaming and Anita de Monte Laughs Last.

Both focus on women’s role in society and within their own lives. Gonzalez draws us deep into the characters’ worlds, exploring the psychological and philosophical forces that shape their way of living. These novels are unforgettable and beautifully rendered, the first delving into the lives of a Puerto Rican family in New York and the second centered on an aspiring artist.

Gonzalez describes her latest book as a retelling of the Gatsby story. It takes place in a rapidly changing Brooklyn neighborhood in the midst of a financial crisis and a significant presidential election.

Undoubtedly, she’ll be gracing us again with her finely tuned characters and intriguing plot, including lots of surprises in this novel about class, color, and gentrification.

Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh (January 2026)
The captivating subject of reincarnation forms the backbone of this novel by the beloved author of The Hungary Tide and the Ibis Trilogy (Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire).

From late 1960s Calcutta to present-day Brooklyn, Ghosh takes us on a reincarnation journey. It starts with a young girl, Varsha Gupta, who seems to remember other lives she’s lived. Her concerned parents take her to a psychologist, who investigates “cases of the reincarnation type.”

Jump to a half century later when Vasha’s case file is unearthed by a group of environmental activists who want to investigate more about Varsha’s memories.

Thus begins one of the long, luscious tales for which Ghosh is famous.

No Way Home by T C Boyle (April 2026)
In the early years of the 21st century I read a novel that to this day remains in the corners of my mind, occasionally sneaking into present consciousness. That book is The Tortilla Curtain, a powerful novel about the juxtaposition of poor Mexican immigrants and wealthy Los Angeles homeowners and the space they share. It takes a grand writer to engender in the reader a variety of emotions simultaneously. I’ve now read most of the fiction of T C Boyle, an author who has blessed us with novels and short stories to entertain and remind.

Pre-publication praise is no surprise to Boyle fans. This book is already receiving sparkling reviews. Set in the Nevada desert, it focuses on a Los Angeles physician, whose mother has just died, in the midst of a desiccating city in a remote desert. It is described as a “compulsive, obsessive, psychologically disturbing” novel.

I Give You My Silence by Mario Vargas Llosa (February 2026)
The latest and final novel of Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-2025) is appropriately a love song to his native Peru as well as a statement about the power of art.

His was a life dedicated to writing. In 2010 he won the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature for “his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.”

The main character in his final novel is an expert in the vals, a genre of music descended from the European waltz but also rooted in Creole culture. He views the music as having a social function, as a means of uniting the people of Peru through their culture.

The book is dedicated to Llosa’s ex-wife of 50 years.

There’s much more to come in the eleven remaining months of 2026.

Huatulco, San Miguel de Allende

Turning the Pages of 2025: The Novels That Moved Us

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By Carole Reedy—

“By writing a novel one performs a revolutionary act. A novel is an act of hope. It allows us to imagine that things may be other than they are.”

Those are the words of Hilary Mantel, who more than accomplished the above in her many books over the years. Mantel’s brilliant mind discerned more than what could be readily seen.

From the dozens of novels I read this year, several revealed a new perspective or a deeper emotion. The feelings evoked by these books spontaneously pop into my mind at various times, offering perspective and contemplation.

My Friends by Frederick Backman

I always considered Backman to be a writer of “easy reads,” an author who enchanted his readers with compelling characters and entertaining plots. My Friends, however, breaks this mold to awaken in the reader a deeper sense of the meaning and significance of friendship and beauty, the twin pillars that make life worth living.

A painting, a lifetime of friendship, and a series of problem years filled with conflicting emotions drive the plot and shape the structure of the novel. Backman is a master storyteller and character developer.

The Washington Post said it well: “Backman captures the messy essence of being human.”

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

This is renowned writer Ian McEwan’s 18th novel. The New York Times called the book “the best thing McEwan has written in ages” and “entertainment of a high order.” I agree wholeheartedly.

The setting is 100 years from now, with continuing and not necessarily favorable references to the times in which we are living. McEwan refers to his book as “science fiction without the science.”

The storyline is compelling and entertaining despite McEwan’s discomfiting view of our future. Tucked between descriptions of the devastation of 100 years of climate change, wars, and general chaos and disruption of the planet is a delightful narrative of a young literary type who in 2119 is pursuing the location of a poem that was deliberately hidden more than 100 years previously.

The poem was written by a fictional esteemed literary figure of our current era. In addition, McEwan offers keen insights into this poet, his wife, their friends, and their lifestyles.

A formidable plot, complex characters, and sense of place drive the action. This novel has all the essentials required in a narrative about the future to create a novel I read almost nonstop!

You may also want to read these other gems by McEwan: Atonement, Saturday, Nutshell, and On Chesil Beach. All will satisfy your craving for fine writing and precision craftsmanship.

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabin Alameddine

Each page of this simultaneously comic and tragic novel flows like ice beneath a skater’s blade. This despite the fact that Lebanon, where the action takes place, usually would not be described this way.

These characters experience rough times in Lebanon, a country that has undergone many tragic phases. But Alameddine entertains us as the main characters take us through the dark side of the country’s history as well as through his and his mother’s personal struggles, met with determination and even a dash of joy.

This book offers so much easy enjoyment, much like his novel An Unnecessary Woman.

The House on Via Gemita by Domenico Starnone

Do you recognize this Italian author’s name as someone who was thought to be the ghost writer of the successful Elena Ferrante novels, specifically the Neapolitan series? Starnone has denied it, being an illustrious author in his own rite. His equally famous wife, Anita Raja, a translator and library director, has also been “accused” of the deception.

In the end, Ferrante has been accepted as a pseudonym for another Italian author who believes that books, “once they are written, have no need of their author.”

Many avid readers have enjoyed Starnone’s witty novels, Ties and Trick. The House on Via Gemita presents a new, darker side of Starnone. Not light and humorous as Ties and Trick, this novel places a cantankerous artist front and center.

1960s Naples, Italy, is the place where a frustrated railway worker is convinced he is a great artist, his family suffering the consequences of the obsession. The trials of the family are detailed and vivid, Starnone’s best talent clearly at work. The novel deservedly was long-listed for the International Booker prize.

Many avid readers have enjoyed Starnone’s witty novels, Ties and Trick. The House on Via Gemita presents a new, darker side of Starnone. Not light and humorous as Ties and Trick, this novel places a cantankerous artist front and center.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett is, simply put, a gem. I am listing his short novel as a favorite because it truly illuminates the joy of reading.

British-born, raised and educated at Oxford, Bennet is exceedingly accomplished, with a rich stock of stories, plays, and films in his repertoire. When I want to feel good and laugh, I pick up one of his works.

The Uncommon Reader is a novel for the book-addicted. The uncommon reader of the title is the Queen of England, and Bennet takes us merrily through her introductory, and eventually continuing, passion for the written word.

Novelist/writer Jennifer Kloester’s review calls it “brilliant on many levels, but also a delicious, edible morsel of a novel. And wait until you read the ending.”

My Final Read of the Year: The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag

At year’s end, I find myself thoroughly engaged in Susan Sontag’s radical novel of ideas, The Volcano Lover (1992), set largely in Naples Italy in the late 18th century. The gentle pace of her style in this unconventional historical narrative perfectly complements my year-end reflections. I will read it slowly through December in order to savor her luscious writing style.

Here’s to many provocative reading experiences in 2026!

Huatulco

Something For Everyone: An Eclectic Selection of Newly Published Books

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By Carole Reedy

This month we offer a variety of genres by noted authors to satisfy the full spectrum of our readers’ tastes. Perhaps a title outside your comfort zone will pique your interest too?

All books have been recently published except for the last two, which will be published in May.

EXOTIC AND DOMESTIC STORIES
The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux
From his books The Great Railway Bazaar (1975, my personal favorite) to Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (2008), Theroux has taken us along on his adventures across the globe.

Followers of this prestigious writer can’t get enough, and Theroux continues his commitment to the excitement and wonder of new places in this fresh collection of short stories. The title refers to “a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications.”

Theroux’s short stories are reminiscent of the styles of Maupassant and O. Henry, complete with surprise endings.

GAY FICTION
Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
The premise of the novel, as you may have guessed, is a reunion after many years of mother and son. Readers have been both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised by the trajectory the book takes, which should be no surprise coming from this established writer of fiction.

Haslett’s first book, a short-story collection titled You Are Not a Stranger Here (2002), and his second novel, Imagine Me Gone (2016), were both finalists for two major awards, the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Maybe the third time is the charm.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE
Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman
I can’t believe I’m writing this: Open Season is book number 40 of the popular and obviously compelling series starring the duo of psychologist Alex Delaware and homicide cop Milos Sturgis. The juxtaposition of classic crime procedures and the mysteries of human behavior make the series incomparable and compelling. In this title, the action takes place in Los Angeles where brutal and mystifying murders occur.

Kellerman’s novels consistently appear on The New York Times bestseller list, and Kellerman himself received a PhD in child psychology at age 24. His first published book was Psychological Aspects of Childhood Cancer (1980). In 1985 he published his first Alex Delaware book, When the Bough Breaks. And the rest is history.

MEMOIR
Source Code by Bill Gates
Memoirs, for me, are much more readable and interesting than autobiographies, which can tend to be self-aggrandizing. A review in The Guardian calls Gates’ memoir “refreshingly frank. There is general gratitude for influential mentors, and a wry self-deprecation throughout.”

This book takes us only through Gates’ childhood and adolescence. Stay tuned for later life discoveries in the next volume. Of his childhood, he writes that “if I were growing up today, I would probably be considered on the autism spectrum,” and now regrets some of his early behavior, though “I wouldn’t change the brain I was given for anything.”

ESTABLISHED WRITER
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
“Joyful” is the description The Guardian gives this latest novel from Tyler, prolific writer of books and short stories. Three Days in June is one of her shorter books, easily demonstrating her ability to bring us a “feel good” read without being insincere or unctuous.

A wedding is central to the story, the estranged parents of the bride the main players. Readers of Tyler know what she can do with this combination.

My favorite Anne Tyler novel is Breathing Lessons, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1989. In her review in The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani provides insight into Tyler’s talent, which continues to ensure her position as a best-selling writer:

“Tyler is able to examine the conflict, felt by nearly all her characters, between domesticity and freedom, between heredity and independence. In addition, she is able, with her usual grace and magnanimity, to chronicle the ever-shifting covenants made by parents and children, husbands and wives, and in doing so, to depict both the losses – and redemptions – wrought by the passage of time.”

LITERARY PUZZLE TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH
Death Take Me by Cristina Rivera Garza
This is listed as the most anticipated book of the year by The New York Times, Esquire, Ms Magazine, and Lit Hub. You may remember Rivera Garza won the Pulitzer Prize for Liliana’s Invincible Summer. She also is the head of the Spanish creative writing PhD program at the University of Houston.

The plot of this mystery crime novel seems topsy turvy in that the victims (a word ironically always feminine in the Spanish language) are always male. Castrated men are found accompanied by lines of verse at their sides. A professor and a detective are the investigators of these mysterious crimes.

Fellow author Yuri Herrera says “Cristina Rivera Garza does not respect what is expected of a writer, of a novel, of language. she is an agitator.” That comment may be enough to motivate one to read this mysterious novel.

SEX MEMOIR
The Loves of My Life by Edmund White
Of the hundreds of books I have read, one of my favorites is The Flaneur by Edmund White. Subtitled “A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris,” White takes us to little-known bookstores and cafes during the journey. You don’t have to be a Francophile to love this book. After reading it my friends and I started referring to our daily walks and meetings as “flaneuring.”

White has been a prominent writer for many years and has many bestsellers under his belt. He is known as a groundbreaking author of gay fiction and has been awarded many literary prizes, among them Lambda Literary’s Visionary Award, the National Book Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. France named him Chevalier (and later Officier) de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993.

Per the title, this book is obviously highly personal and honest, all written in his incomparable brilliant style.

CRIME FICTION
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Most readers are aware of King’s well-deserved success. From his early novels in the 1970s (The Shining, Carrie, Salem’s Lot and The Stand) to 50 years later (Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Flinch and You Like It Darker), King’s books have sold 350 million copies worldwide and provided tremendous reading pleasure. His oeuvre includes 60 novels and a plethora of short stories. On Writing, his 2010 book was called “part memoir, part masterclass” by amazon and a “one-of-a-kind classic” by the Wall Street Journal.

It appears that King’s most recent book will feature a new cast of characters and some old favorites such as Holly Gibney. There are two plot lines: one about a killer on a revenge mission and another about a vigilante who is targeting a celebrity speaker.

HISTORICAL NOVEL
My Name is Emilia de Valle by Isabella Allende
Allende, the most widely read living writer in the Spanish language, was born in Peru but raised in Chile. Her father was first cousin to President Salvador Allende of Chile.

Readers around the world are awaiting the publication of this, her latest book. Here is a plot summary from the author:

“Eager to prove herself as a young writer and journalist, Emilia Del Valle seizes an opportunity to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. While there, Emilia meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie. As she discovers more about Chile and falls in love with a fellow journalist, the war escalates and Emilia finds herself in extreme danger, fearing for her life and questioning her identity and her destiny. I can’t wait for you to meet Emilia.”

DYSTOPIAN FICTION
Gliff by Ali Smith
What is a gliff? Smith dedicates a page and a half to describing the various meanings. Judge for yourself which is intended when reading the book.

Smith speculates a near future in which the world is experiencing authoritarian control. The book is filled with philosophical conundrums such as meaning and meaningless.

One reader reflects: “GLIFF is a treat for the reader who enjoys wordplay, and absurdity that invokes madness and heartbreak.”

Huatulco

The Thrill of Anticipation – 2024: Ten Books Guaranteed to Quench your Literary Thirst

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By Carole Reedy

If, like Julian Barnes and Gustave Flaubert, you believe that anticipation is the greatest form of pleasure, then (like me) you love looking forward to the new year’s forthcoming selection of novels and non-fiction, when we meet new authors and continue to treasure our trusted favorites. To whet your literary appetite, here are ten new books ready for publication in the first six months of 2024.
January
The Promised Party: Kahlo, Basquiat and Me, by Jennifer Clement
Clement, former president of Pen International, is especially familiar to expats and dual citizens in Mexico. Clement was born in the US but has lived between the US and Mexico during different life stages, as many of us have.

The latest novel from this highly respected international figure reflects the cultures of the grand old Mexico City of the 1970s – filled with artists and communists – and the equally scintillating New York of the 1980s, where Clement rubbed elbows with the likes of Jean Basquiat and William Burroughs.

In Mexico, Clement lived next door to the Casa Azul, the blue house lived in by Frida Kahlo, the iconic figure of the bohemian neighborhood of Coyoacán. From there Clement moved to New York. This is her memoir of the two majestic cities.

Clement has captivated us in the past with a disturbing young girl’s story of Mexico in Prayers for the Stolen (2012, film version 2021), as well as in the New York saga of the Widow Basquiat: A Love Story (2014).

February
Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange
Avid readers discovered a new voice in 2018 when Orange wrote his well-regarded and eye-opening novel, There There.

As a young man, Orange played roller hockey at the national level for ten years. He was also a musician, receiving his bachelor’s degree in sound arts. His passion for reading, and thus writing, evolved when he began working at Greywolf Books in California, but the idea to tell stories about his Native American heritage grew out of his work at a digital storytelling sound booth and at a story center at the University of California at Berkeley.

Orange’s newest novel continues relating the history and stories of the Native American community. Wandering Stars traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 through three generations of a family, and includes some of the characters we met in his debut novel.
March
James, by Percival Everett
Move over Barbara Kingsolver, author of blockbuster Demon Copperhead (2022), the successful takeoff of Dickens’ beloved David Copperfield. Now with his latest novel, James, Percival Everett has turned Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) topsy turvy.

We reveled in Huck’s and Jim’s adventures in that classic novel, but this time the story is told by Jim, the slave’s point of view replacing Huck’s entertaining vision. Action-filled as well as humorous, any lover of literature will be delighted by this innovative work by a prestigious figure of modern literature.

Everett is the author of Dr. No: A Novel (2022), finalist for two awards – NBCC Award for Fiction, PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; The Trees: A Novel (2021), finalist for five book awards, including the Booker Prize, and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; and Telephone: A Novel (2004), finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last, by Xóchitl Gonzalez
In the December 2023 issue of The Eye, I listed Xóchitl Gonzalez’s brilliant novel Olga Dies Dreaming (2021) as one of my top-ten reads of the year.

Her latest novel offers a glimpse into the art world of two women, one present and one past. The rising artist Anita de Monte of the title is found dead in 1985 in New York City, where her death is the talk of the town. The event is forgotten for a while, but years later another young artist, Rachel, stumbles on the story, which proves to be similar to her own.

The storyline straddles the lives of both women with, I’m sure, the same intensity Gonzalez told the story of the Puerto Rican family in her first novel, Olga Dies Dreaming. If so, it also should be memorable.

American Spirits, by Russell Banks
Russell Banks was an admired author of novels and short stories that address the social dilemmas and moral struggles of American society. The most popular of his many creations are Rules of the Bone (1995) and Continental Drift (1985).
He died early in 2023 of cancer before this latest collection was published.

American Spirits consists of three novellas that take place in a rural American town, three dark stories about the comings and goings and undercurrents in our communities.

Writing in the Journal of American Studies, University of Nottingham Lecturer Anthony Hutchison argues that, “Aside from William Faulkner, it is difficult to think of a white twentieth-century American writer who has negotiated the issue of race in as sustained, unflinching and intelligent a fashion as Russell Banks.”

April
Table for Two, by Amor Towles
Towles’ diversity is evident in his novels, from the entertaining romp that takes place in the United States, The Lincoln Highway: A Novel (2021), to the historical Russian tale of A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel (2016).

In his latest we are entertained by six short stories that take place at the turn of the millennium in New York City and a novella set in Los Angles.
All of Towles’ books prove to be best sellers, and I imagine the same for Table for Two.

Mania, by Lionel Shriver
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003), Shriver’s most memorable book and winner of the Orange Prize in 2005, was made into an equally popular film in 2011. Since then, Shriver has written many significant novels, my favorites being the recent Should We Stay or Should We Go: A Novel (2021), sorting through decisions surrounding dying with dignity, and So Much for That: A Novel, a rant on the American medical system.

Shriver always entertains, with her sharp eye on society, so her newest book, which shows us a world filled with absolute equality of intelligence, is no surprise.

Her publisher writes: “With echoes of Philip Roth’s The Human Stain [2000], told in Lionel Shriver’s inimitable and iconoclastic voice, Mania is a sharp, acerbic, and ruthlessly funny book about the road to a delusional, self-destructive egalitarianism that our society is already on.”

The Cemetery of Untold Stories, by Julia Alvarez
Many of us remember Alvarez’s most popular book, In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its Big Read program. In 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.

Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the US when she was just 10, but she continues to write about the place she spent her youth.

Her newest is a tribute to books and storytelling. On a plot of inherited land, the protagonist buries her untold stories, only for their characters to return to tell their tales.

Books, stories, and magical realism: a satisfying buffet!

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, by Salmon Rushdie
Salman Rushdie stands as an icon of bravery. Despite living through threats and a brutal physical attack on his life, he continues to exercise his freedom to write and entertain for a worldwide public.

Rushdie has survived a 20-year fatwa imposed by religious leader, revolutionary, and politician Ayatollah Khomeini, as well as a recent brutal knife attack that almost took his life. Since the attack, which left him blind in one eye and unable to use one hand, he has said he feels that until he writes about the incident, he will not be able to return to creating the marvelous fictions we so love.

In Knife, Rushdie recounts enduring the attack and surviving afterwards. By February 6, 2023, Rushdie had recovered enough do an interview with The New Yorker, in which he said, “I’m lucky. What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude.”

The literary world hopes that this book will contribute to the spiritual healing Rushdie needs to continue creating his insightful, entertaining works of art.

June

Parade, by Rachel Cusk
Rachel Cusk’s publisher describes her new novel, Parade, as one that “expands the notion of what a novel can be and do. She turns language upside down to show us our world as it really is.”

The main character, G, is an artist who has lived many lives, as many of us have.

Avid readers will remember Cusk’s recent Outline trilogy: Outline (2014), Transit (2016), and Kudos: A Novel (2018). We look forward to Cusk’s new creation, in which she tosses away the reins of perception in her writing.

There will be countless new books for this year’s reading. On that happy note, enjoy these with the promise of more to come.

Huatulco

Anticipation: Fall 2022 Fiction

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By Carole Reedy

Tis the season for anticipation, which according to Balzac is the most reliable form of pleasure. The creative efforts of our favorite writers will fill bookstore shelves and Kindle apps starting this September – here they are!

Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel, by Kate Atkinson (September 27)
Devoted readers of Atkinson have followed the adventures of Jackson Brody with each selection in this series, but Atkinson has given us so much more. Her best-selling and highly acclaimed novel of 2013, Life After Life, followed the various alternate lives of protagonist Ursula Todd throughout the 20th century. A God in Ruins came in 2016 as a kind of sequel that brings to life Todd’s deceased brother.

This time the year is 1926, the place London and its Soho jazz clubs. We’re taken into both the world of the glitterati and the contrasting underworld of the era. This book is unlike anything Atkinson has done before, which is what keeps us coming back.

I Walk Between the Raindrops, by TC Boyle (September 13)
Short stories are TC Boyle’s niche, although over the past 25 years I’ve found his novels to be among the best I have read. In fact, The Tortilla Curtain (1995) remains among my top 10 novels.

I Walk Between the Raindrops is the name of a short story as well as the title of this new collection. You can get a sneak preview of his writing by reading the story version, which appears in The New Yorker magazine July 30, 2018, fiction issue.

Each one of the engaging stories in this collection is filled with Boyle’s usual satire and wit.

Lucy by the Sea: A Novel, by Elizabeth Strout (September 20)
Strout set a high bar for herself and her readers with her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Olive Kitteridge (actually 13 short stories, 2008) about the life of a retired schoolteacher. Olive Kitteridge (the protagonist) hails from the fictional, apparently nowhere, town of Crosby, Maine, and her ruthless honesty permeates each chapter. The book captivated readers worldwide.

A miniseries starring the versatile Frances McDormand received mixed reviews, with accusations that the character was portrayed as one-dimensional, though I thought it quite satisfying.

Strout also has been lauded, although with less enthusiasm, for her series of books based on her other protagonist, Lucy Barton. Strout’s latest takes place during the recent pandemic lockdown, Lucy quarantined with her ex-husband in a small house by the sea. It has been described as “poignant and pitch-perfect,” with human connection at the heart of the story.

Best of Friends: A Novel, by Kamila Shamsie (September 27)
Shamsie’s newest novel examines the different worlds and friendship of two women raised in Karachi in the first years of Benazir Bhutto’s reign and continues over three decades, when they both live in London. Loyalty and principle are guideposts woven into their lives, causing conflict and reconciliation.

Best of Friends is probably Shamsie’s most intriguing novel to date, even though Burnt Shadows (2009) and Home Fire (2017) are major achievements. In Best of Friends, we travel with her characters across the globe and live through significant world events. These provide vehicles for the actions of her complex characters. You’ll find it hard to put down.

Bad Angel Brothers, by Paul Theroux (September 6)
Over the years we’ve been the fortunate recipients of Theroux’s adventure tales via his fiction and nonfiction writing, all based on the many miles he’s traversed on our planet. From The Old Patagonian Express, The Mosquito Coast, and The Great Railway Bazaar of the 1970s to his recent Mother Land (2017) and On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey (2019), Theroux has dedicated his life to observing, experiencing, and writing.

Now in his 81st year, he brings us yet another psychological thriller involving two brothers at odds and the prospecting of gold and precious metals in the mines of Mexico, Alaska, Africa, and Colombia. Another feather in Theroux’s cap. Although his early books are my favorites, I’m eager to read his latest.

The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell (September 6)
After transporting us to Shakespeare’s world in her previous novel, Hamnet (the story of The Bard’s young son, 2020), versatile wordsmith O’Farrell now takes us to the 1550s and the royalty of Renaissance Italy, exploring the life of a young woman forced into an unwanted royal marriage. Loyal followers of O’Farrell are accustomed to her ability to envelop us in different worlds and centuries. This is my most anticipated book of the season, along with the Barbara Kingsolver novel next on the list.

One reason the novels of O’Farrell are favorites among avid readers is her versatility. The places, themes, and characters vary book to book, as does her style and tempo. My personal favorite is This Must Be the Place (2016).

Demon Copperhead: A Novel, by Barbara Kingsolver (October 18)
Move over Charles Dickens! Popular 21st century author Kingsolver has created a modern David Copperfield, called Damon Fields, whose life parallels our favorite Victorian boy. He is mockingly called Demon and Copperhead for the golden locks inherited from his father.

When I first saw the title of Kingsolver’s new novel, I thought she had returned to the theme of biodiversity so popular in some of her previous works. But I was pleasantly surprised to see it’s actually a retelling of perhaps the most loved work in English literature. Yes, it’s a tome, 560 pages to match Charles Dickens’ creation, whose first edition counted out at 624 pages. Some of our favorite delightful Dickens’ characters are also reimagined for a savory touch.

Kingsolver has taken on the challenge of showing us how little progress has been made in addressing socioeconomic poverty over the past 172 years (the autobiographical David Copperfield was published in book form in 1850, a year after the magazine serialization).

Kingsolver’s version also explores the dark world of poverty, this time in rural Appalachia where Damon grows up in an atmosphere of abuse, addiction, child labor, and foster care, though eventually he finds the kinder side of humanity.

A sense of humor and a talent for artistic expression, with the mandatory bit o’ luck, seem to save both David and Damon. True heroes both, as also could be said of their creators.

Nights of Plague, by Orhan Pamuk (October 5)
The Nobel Prize winner of 2006 is publishing his latest novel this October after controversy in Turkey upon its publication there in 2021. Pamuk was accused of “insulting Turkishness.” But, he says, “In Nights of Plague, which I worked on for five years, there is no disrespect for the heroic founders of the nation states founded from the ashes of empires or for Atatürk. On the contrary, the novel was written with respect and admiration for these libertarian and heroic leaders.”

According to The Guardian, PEN America has reported that at least 25 writers were jailed last year by the Turkish government, the third-highest number globally.

The story takes place on the imaginary island of Mingheria (between Crete and Cyprus), the 29th state of the Ottoman Empire, where Muslims and Orthodox Greeks struggle to live together. Conflict, plague, and murder merge to make this century-old story too close for comfort.

The Passenger (October 25); Stella María (November), by Cormac McCarthy (Boxed set of the two novels available December 6)
I admit to not being a fan of McCarthy, but feel it’s my duty to list his new books due to his extreme popularity. He has been named one of the best American writers by reliable critics, in the company of Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and Thomas Pynchon. McCarthy, however, has stated he prefers the company of scientists to writers.

The books tell the story of siblings Bobby and Alicia Western. Their stories are told eight years apart, first Bobby’s and then Alicia’s.

The publisher says “These extraordinary novels are unlike anything Cormac McCarthy has written before, and while both should be read and experienced separately, they represent two sides of the same narrative coin. We are extremely proud to be publishing the remarkable, inimitable work of Cormac McCarthy.”

Said to be the publishing event of the year – perhaps I will give McCarthy another chance.

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A Year of Reading: Ten New Books for Post-Pandemic 2021

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By Carole Reedy

Among the many worlds that man did not receive as a gift from nature but created out of his own mind, the world of books is the greatest. …Without the word, without the writing of books, there is no history, there is no concept of humanity.
— Hermann Hesse

We’re reading now more than ever, and not just because of the pandemic. A new Gallup Poll indicates that more Americans went to libraries in pre-pandemic 2019 than to the movies; 2020 has also revealed a return of readers to independent bookshops.

If you’re already pondering books for 2021, there are numerous new titles from which to choose. Here I present ten I think The Eye audience will want to read (based on your past most-welcome comments). May each of the following new books, by many of our favorite old authors, brighten spirits that perhaps have been dimmed by life during a pandemic.

Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World, by Simon Winchester (2021)

A new book by British/American author Simon Winchester cannot go unnoticed. He’s given us many hours not only of enjoyment, but also of pertinenent and often hidden information and analysis about our world, present and past. His two books about creating, of all things, a massive dictionary (The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary [2005] and The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary [2004]) are truly, believe it or not, compelling reading that will keep you on the edge of your seat. With his in-depth research, Winchester has created a plethora of books on various subjects, including the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Krakatoa, and Calcutta. This newest book, Land, explores a subject dear to the hearts of humans, past and present: ownership and property, its history and our future.

Double Blind: A Novel, by Edward St. Aubyn (Anticipated March [U.K.], June [U.S.] 2021)

I think the author Anne Enright says it best when she describes St. Aubyn’s writings: “Everything St. Aubyn writes is worth reading for the cleansing rancor of his intelligence and the fierce elegance of his prose.” Certainly, we saw that in the Patrick Melrose novels/series that he wrote few years back. Art, science, and philosophy are interwoven with psychoanalysis, ecology, love, fear, and all that is human in this new novel, which follows three friends for a year in London, Cap d’Antibes, Oxford, and Big Sur. St. Aubyn’s ability to be blunt yet delicately introspective makes this author one of the most respected and admired in Britain and the world.

Philip Roth: The Biography, by Blake Bailey (Anticipated April 2021)

With an emphasis on “The,” this has been a book years in the making. Bailey was given complete and independent access to Roth’s archives and was actually appointed by Roth, before his death, as his official biographer, so this is the book to read for fans of one of America’s greatest chroniclers. It will always be a bone of contention among those of us who idolize Roth that he never was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Letters to Camondo, by Edmund de Waal (Anticipated April [U.K.], May [U.S.] 2021)

The Hare with the Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance (2010) was a memoir that elicited extreme emotions, either love or strong dislike, in response to style and content. It was, for me at least, a fascinating depiction of the decline and fall of the Ephrussi family dynasty in the banking empires of Europe, specifically Paris, Vienna, and Odessa. It also delights with a side story about netsuke, tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings. This newest by de Waal spins a similar tale in a different style, this time a Jewish banker and art collector who loses his family in the Holocaust. This “memoir” is a series of 50 imaginary letters that the author writes to Moise de Camondo after he’s invited to make an exhibition of his well-regarded ceramics at the Camondo mansion.

Whereabouts: A Novel, by Jhumpa Lahiri (Anticipated May 2021)

Several years ago, Lahiri decided to learn the Italian language not only for her lifestyle (she relocated her family to Rome in 2011), but also for the voice in her books. This new novel was written in Italian and translated into English. Well-known for her award-winning book of short selections Interpreter of Maladies: Stories (1999) and for the novel (and movie) The Namesake (2003, 2019 [2 ed.]), Lahiri is the recipient of many literary prizes, including the Pulitzer. Whereabouts is her first book in a decade. It will be most interesting to analyze the difference between this novel, written originally in Italian, and those that emerged from her English tongue.

Should We Stay or Should We Go: A Novel, by Lionel Shriver (Anticipated May 2021)

The Queen of Sarcasm is the way I think of this witty, spot-on observer of modern-day life in our confused world. In each of her novels Shriver dissects a new fad, lifestyle, and even the tragedies that permeate our 21st century lives. This latest novel looks at old age and the attitudes toward and self-realization of our older population. Always humorous, yet serious, and clever, yet practical, Shriver weaves her stories with silk thread. Although she is known for her award-winning novel (also a movie) We Need to Talk about Kevin: A Novel (2003), her other novels equal and even surpass that honor, among them So Much for That: A Novel (2010 – my personal favorite), Big Brother: A Novel (2013), The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047 (2016), and Property: Stories between Two Novellas (2018).

Light Perpetual: A Novel, by Francis Spufford (Anticipated May 2021)

Although I’m utterly unfamiliar with this writer, my interest sparked when I read the style of this newest compared to Kate’s Atkinson’s Life After Life: A Novel (2013) and Paul Auster’s 4321: A Novel (2017), both using the parallel-lives device, which can be so effective for writers and readers alike. The novel creates stories for five working-class children in England in a moment best described as “what if they hadn’t died from a bomb that hit a Woolworth’s shop in 1944, killing 168 people instantly.” It also gives us a glimpse of and new perspective on London and England in the 40s and beyond. Spufford’s first book, Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York (2016), was well-received by critics and won the Costa Award for best first novel. Spufford hopes that this book “has the fascination of following out strands in the lives where everything makes sense when you look backwards, but you are constantly surprised going forwards.”

Harlem Shuffle: A Novel, by Colson Whitehead (Anticipated September 2021)

A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (2017, 2020), Harvard-educated Whitehead has left quite an impression on our planet. With this, his eighth novel, a crime story, he takes us to the world of Harlem in the 1960s. It’s a novel he conceived some time ago, but has just completed, in bits and pieces, during the COVID quarantine period this past year. We know Whitehead for his fiction, specifically The Underground Railroad (2016) and The Nickel Boys: A Novel (2019), but his larger career is impressive and diverse. Not only does he write works of fiction and non-fiction, but he has written for the most notable of newspapers and magazines, taught at Princeton University, been a writer-in-residence at Vassar, and received the MacArthur Fellowship (aka the “Genius Grant”).

Crossroads, A Novel (“A Key to All Mythologies,” Book 1), by Jonathan Franzen (Anticipated October 2021)

In my world, this is the literary announcement of the year. In his first book in six years (since Purity: A Novel, in 2015), Franzen has written not one, but three new novels, a trilogy to anticipate over the next several years. Chicago 1971 is the setting and the romp will carry us along with the Hildebrandt family as they “navigate the political, intellectual and social cross-currents of the past 50 years.” Franzen, a passionate birder, outspoken critic of social media, and the leading novelist of his generation, is gifting us, according to his publisher, “a tour-de-force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense.” If this is correct, I, for one, cannot wait!

Something to Hide, by Elizabeth George (Anticipated October 2021)

Are you a devoted fan of the Lynley detective series? If so, this is book 21, and I’m sure you’ve read the previous 20, as have I. Others may have watched the PBS television series created from the books. I’ve refused to watch it given what I view as the abhorrent misrepresentation of the character Detective Barbara Havers, one of the brilliant creations of Elizabeth George in the book series. You’ll have to wait until October to find out what snags Barbara creates while honing her fine detective skills under the direction, and often to the distress, of Inspector Lynley.

And thus we move in 2021, led and encouraged by our favorite authors and new artists on the horizon.