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The next installment of the series on Kingsbridge Cathedral deals with religion but doesn't focus on the cathedral. It is the 1770's and a battleground is forming in Europe as well as between two religions in England. The emergence of new machinery will change the labor industry and with it comes a shift of wealth. Social change, inventions and war on the horizon told in pure Follett magic. Deeply researched and masterfully told this is a history of England as seen through a handful of characters in one English town. The audiobook has the same fantastic narrator which continues the perfect storytelling. 4 stars (pub date: Sept 26) 
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A novel that feels like a true crime documentary script. Told by a journalist that is taking another look at a horrible crime ten years later to dissect testimony and interview the convicted and those in the small coastal town in Yorkshire. It is essentially mean girls on steroids - bullying and acting out their fear of being the ones not noticed or fitting in. In the end it would involve the torture and setting an outcast girl on fire. When we go back to the beginnings of those involved it is easy to see the powder keg that could ignite at any moment. Their teen years saw trouble at home and trouble at school with not knowing who to trust as well as a fascination with the dark, suicide and murder. This story didn't happen or did it? It is full of teen angst but does offer a complete picture of a small town full of hidden violence. 3 stars (pub date: Sept. 26)  Chuck Wendig has a wonderful way of quietly freaking you out. What begins as a tale of lost apple hybrids and overextended apple orchard farmers just trying to eke out a living morphs into a dark nightmare and you are fully committed. Dan Paton and his teen daughter Calla run an apple orchard. It is a hard life and one Calla really doesn't want to inherit. When Dan comes across what might be an extinct apple it seems to offer hope. Just like the Garden of Eden, one bite from this apple and you are addicted but it comes at a big price. You feel invincible and will do anything for more. As Dan begins to bring more people into his secret cult and shares the apple Calla and others sense something is very wrong. Soon a small band of unsung heroes are the only ones who can stop the legacy of this curse and the ultimate showdown begins. The stuff of nightmares that will keep me from apples or watching Snow White for a bit. 4 stars (pub date Sept 26)  Yet another brilliant installment of a fantasy world made up of alternative Londons where various types of magic rule. V.E. Schwab has created characters we care about and cheer on. This incorporates the main characters from A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC to start a spinoff adventure. Our favorite Antari magicians, worthy or not so worthy royals and one new voice who hopefully can bring them together to save the day encompass this new start to a series. Lush world building , witty banter between characters and plenty of magic await. 4 1/2 stars (pub date Sept 26)  Sarah and her husband have just bought a house in a swanky part of an Australian town. The house has some issues which is why they could afford it. Sarah is a social media influencer, blogger, best selling author and therapist, and happily married. LIE,LIE,LIE... She hopes to continue her success by blogging about their renovations of a murder house. But soon it is apparent that her husband hates the house, the cat hates the house and the neighbors hate that they bought the house. Sarah has a lot on her plate and she may have neglected to have taken her anxiety meds, had a bit too much wine to drink and is not getting enough sleep. While Sarah is not a likable character we still feel bad for her and don't want to see her murdered in her sleep, right? Kidding aside, this book does take a mental breakdown seriously as well as external threats in addition to the drama of living in a haunted house. Moves at a feverish pace with news clippings providing a bit of foreshadowing. 3 1/2 stars  The world is in freefall. Smog clogs the skies, drought creates barren wastelands killing plants and livestock leaving the world to find food where they can. For a select uber wealthy few a land exists hidden in Italy where animals have been saved and plants are grown. A chef has auditioned for the creator of this place and his grown daughter but with this job comes an obsessive list of requirements. She must act the part of his missing wife (in name only) and create fantastic food for their dinner parties. She learns to adapt and begins falling in love with the daughter. It is a surreal landscape - a love/hate relationship with the power of food and the wealth that now control it and her. A bit like a chef's journey to STATION ELEVEN. 3 1/2 stars (pub date: Sept. 26)  1660's Amsterdam women were not admitted to the trade guilds but did contribute on the sidelines. Anneke is a talented map colorist like her mother but longs to create the maps like her artist father and surveyor brother. Her artistic flair earns her a commission from a wealthy map collector. Anneke enjoys her time with Herr de Root and believes he can help her fulfill her dreams of including her original map in a premier atlas being printed. In Anneke we see an ambitious young woman hungering for the same chance that a man would have. She wants more than her mother and uses whatever means she has to make that dream a reality even with disastrous results. Readers of historical fiction involving strong women and THE MINIATURIST will savor this story based in fact. 3 1/2 stars (pub date Sept. 19)  From meeting in Chicago in the 90's through their history together well into the 2000's, Elizabeth and Jack have led a life much like most people. They are happy? with their life, their son and their jobs mostly. They have invested their entire savings in the construction of their "forever house" but are wondering if it will ever get built. As each of them dissects the marriage and their parent's marriages the search begins to find wellness in their lives whatever that means. This is a deep look at a marriage as well as a satire about a period of time in America when everyone was obsessed to look better, feel better, be better through whatever method, device or training that some crackpot on tv or the internet was hawking. Dry humor, great insight and many heavy sighs that will delight fans of his first book. I will be eagerly waiting for more. 4 stars (pub date Sept. 19)  Lou Berney's characters are not people who stand out in a crowd. They are just everyday people caught up in a situation that is out of their control but they have to try. Hardly is waiting to fix a ticket when he spies two little kids and their mom who seem off. A glimpse of fear in her eyes and a hastily covered cigarette burn on the kid's wrist sends him wanting to help those kids be safe. What can a guy who works at an amusement park horror house do? His friends say to leave it to the authorities but the more Hardly tries to report it the less confident that anyone will do anything. For the kids and their mom's sake he will take on a David and Goliath situation that is doomed from the start. Some authors make you feel too much and yet we willingly come back for more heart wrenching. His many fans will be happy as will fans of Willy Vlautin, Amor Towles and underdogs everywhere. 4 1/2 stars (pub. date Sept. 19)  Little is known about Thomas Smallwood, born a slave but as a free man risked everything to help slaves and others north to freedom in Canada. He coined the phrase - The Underground Railroad and worked tirelessly by attacking slavers and the people who chased runaway and free men and women holding them in jails before selling them again down south or making them purchase their freedom again. One of the worst was run by Hope Slatter in Baltimore. This very illegal business was carried out in plain sight of the law and rarely was Slatter slowed down by the court system. Smallwood also wrote (using a pen name) scalding editorials about slavery and these slave jails. This is another fine example of a brave man who did not receive credit as did the other abolitionists and is past due for his story to be told. The author shares much information , names and dates but keeps the writing interesting and flowing. 4 stars  |
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