I Remember You

 Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Brian Freeman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Hallie, a writer who lives in Las Vegas, is having a very bad day. Then her day gets worse, and she dies.

Good news though! She comes back, thanks to a quick-acting doctor with a defibrillator. But there's one problem: now she has a whole bunch of memories that aren't her own, even though they feel as if they are....

This was a really good thriller. I will look for more by this author.

I also read recently (for free!) by Amazon Prime Kindle: The Child Between Us

Missing Parts

 Fiction by Lucinda Berry

https://www.audible.com

Celeste has worked hard to construct the perfect family for herself after the lost-dad trauma of her upbringing: she pays the bills with her corporate job and her husband David stays home with their four-year-old daughter Rori. But she has only been able to do it by suppressing that trauma and denying the existence of anything negative. Then a series of events causes her carefully built barriers to break and it looks like she may lose it all.

The plot of this book was good with some surprise twists (and some predictable twists too) but it was hard to believe in the characters as real people. I felt like the author just moved them around the way they were supposed to go in the story but they had no realistic internal motivations for the drastic shifts that caused each plot change.

I also read recently by this author: A Welcome Reunion

Little Monsters

 Fiction by Adrienne Brodeur.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

As Dr. Adam Gardner, PhD, approaches his seventieth birthday, he doesn’t want to think about retirement.  In fact, he’s confident he has at least one more brilliant idea in him. The idea is out there, somewhere just out of reach; he can feel it. All he has to do is go off his bipolar medication and induce a manic episode. Wait, what?

Well, obviously this is a terrible idea, as either of his adult children could have told him if he’d let them in on his plan, but Adam has never considered anyone’s opinion besides his own. And now, just as his daughter Abby is gaining recognition for her art and his son Ken is gearing up for a congressional campaign, their father’s craziness is the last thing they need. Plus there’s a secret he’s never told them that is about to come to light…

This was a really good story with interesting characters. 

I also read by this author: Wild Game

The Case of the Felonious Faire

 Audible Original Fiction by Drew Hayes

https://www.audible.com

This is the third novel in the "Five-Minute Detective" Series (see below).

In this story, Sherman Holmes and his assistant Watson check out a mystery at a pretend medieval fair. Someone is cooking the books, but who? This one was fun but not quite as good as the first and second book.

I also read by this author: The Case of the Damaged Detective and The Case of the Haunted Haunted House

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Wild Game

Everything’s Fine

 Fiction by Cecilia Rabess

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Jess and Josh were (sort-of) enemies in college, but when they both start work at a New York investment firm they become (sort-of) friends. Then they become something more... But Jess is black and politically liberal, and Josh is white and politically conservative. Can they meet in the middle?

This is a straight romance with interesting characters. I enjoyed it.

The Berry Pickers

 Fiction by Amanda Peters

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Every year this Mi'kmaq native family goes down from Nova Scotia to Maine to pick berries: Ben, Charlie, Joe, Ruthie, and their mom and dad. The whole family works, kids and parents, same as always. But in 1962, five-year-old Ruthie disappears and nothing is the same ever again.

The reader knows that Ruthie has been "adopted" by a white couple and had her name changed to Norma, but the family just hopes she is still alive, knowing nothing of her whereabouts. They take it hard, especially Joe, her sibling who was closest to her in age and last to see her. Will they ever be reunited?

This book was picked by Barnes and Noble as their Discover Prize winner for 2023. I thought it was good but not great.

A Killer's Mind

 Fiction by Mike Omer

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

A serial killer is stalking Chicago, leaving his slain victims preserved in embalming fluid and posed in public. Ewwwwwww; am I right?

Now it's up to forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley and FBI agent Tatum Gray to find out who the killer is before there are any more victims! This is the beginning of series with those detectives; I think I'll look for the next one.

This was an exciting story with several surprises. It was pretty gory, though, so watch out. 

I also read by this author: Please Tell Me

You Can Trust Me

 Fiction by Wendy Heard

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Summer and Leo are best friends who share a nomadic lifestyle and live by their wits. By this I mean that they are a pair of pretty girls who sleep in a van and run small cons to pay the bills.

Then Leo sets her sights on a multi-billionaire tech-genius guy who may be worth a long-term con. She goes to visit him on his private island and doesn't come back. Has she decided to part ways with Summer and live off her new boyfriend? Or is there something more sinister going on?

This was an exciting thriller with several surprises.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

 Fiction by Zora Neale Hurston

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

At the beginning of the school year I saw that one of the high school classes was reading this; I realized that I'd never read it and reserved it at the library. Then when I got the book I found the dialect difficult to read. I remembered another dialect-heavy book that I'd read a while ago: The Girl with the Louding Voice. That one I had listened to on audiobook and hadn't even noticed the dialect until my sister-in-law pointed it out. So I figured I'd get this one on audiobook, and YAY! It was indeed more enjoyable that way.

All of that is a long way to say: I decided to read this book in August but didn't get it done until December.

This book was first published in 1937, but didn't get much recognition and went out of print. It was reissued in 1978 after Alice Walker was able to revive interest in the author, a "Harlem Renaissance" writer like the more well-known Langston Hughes.

The story is about a woman called Janie who dares to try to live as an independent woman in the 1930's, which earns her no admiration from anyone, unfortunately. By the end of the book I had really fallen in love with Janie and wanted to see her succeed, which was honestly pretty impossible for any woman in her time, let alone a black one. Still, this was a good book to listen to.

Timber

 Fiction by Ty Hutchison.

https://www.amazon.com

Mitzi is a life coach in Bodega Bay, California, seeing clients both online and in person and helping them achieve their goals. She gets a job offer to coach Timber Darkwood, an artist and rich psychiatrist's wife who has hit a rough patch in her life and needs help getting back on track. The only problem is that Mitzi has to move into Timber's eighteen-bedroom mansion on her Eureka estate in order to take the job. Wait, what? So Mitzi has to just forego all other work and go live in a weird giant house in the middle of nowhere for several months? Unlike any rational human being, Mitzi agrees.

The story unfolds predictably from there: Timber seems just fine one minute and nutty the next, Dr. Darkwood takes Mitzi's car keys and neglects to return them, the staff acts mysteriously and seems afraid of their employer, et cetera. The reader keeps wondering why Mitzi doesn't behave like a normal adult and exit this situation. She has no reasons beyond the service of the plot to sit through this craziness.

Well, there's a reason, and it's revealed at the surprise ending, but it was stupid in my opinion. I didn't buy this plot line at all. Sorry.

I also read recently by this author: The Friend Group

The Child Between Us

 Fiction by Alison Ragsdale

https://www.amazon.com

Cassie and Isla are Scottish identical twins who haven't spoken to each other for six years. Then Cassie gets a phone call from Isla's solicitor with unexpected news: Isla has drowned and left behind a five-year-old daughter for Cassie to take care of.

This story was okay but I didn't really connect with the characters.

I also read recently (for free!) from Amazon Prime Kindle: Please Tell Me

Wild Game

Subtitled: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me.
Nonfiction by Adrienne Brodeur

https://www.audible.com

The author begins her story when at age fourteen, her mother woke her up in the middle of the night on vacation to tell her an exciting news: Mommy's having an affair!

For the next decade, the author is embroiled in her mother's romance as a confidant and co-conspirator, loving the attention she gets from Mom and hating the lies she has to tell everyone else. It takes her many more years to understand the incredible damage she's taken on, and I'm not sure she completely has worked though it even at the end of the story.

I also listened to recently by Audible Originals: Dragon Heist

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

 Fiction by James McBride

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I read a memoir by this author years ago (see below) that I loved, but I actually didn't know he wrote fiction until my online reading recommendations started blowing up with this book title. Now I think I've written before about this, but to me Award-Winning Books are a mixed bag of Oh-my-gosh-so-good and I-don't-get-it and This-is the-most-pretentious-piece-of-bs-I've-ever-seen. So I never know what to expect with an award-winner. (See also my comments on "Smart Person Books" in Imagine Me Gone.)

This was a really really good novel with a weird-sounding title. The book begins with the discovery of some old bones under the street in 1972, and then steps back in time for the story of Moshe and Chona Ludlow's corner store (the one with the weird name) on Chicken Hill, a neighborhood of Jews and "coloreds" in the 1930's.

It's a beautiful character story, and the answer to the identity of the bones is almost peripheral. (Still I would have been super mad if the  mystery hadn't been revealed. It was, fortunately!)

I also read by this author: The Color of Water

The Friend Group

 Fiction by Ty Huntington 

https://www.amazon.com

At the beginning of this book Emily is an American new mother who tragically loses her baby, and maybe her mind for a while. Five years later, she and her husband Jake are moving to Thailand to start over, and hopefully try again for another baby.

But Emily gets involved in a new group of female friends, a glamorous trio who can introduce her to fun parties and exciting times IF she plays by their rules. But what are their rules? And what if she breaks one?

This was a good (but not great) thriller. Although it slipped a bit into over-the-top unbelievable, especially at the end, it was still a fun read.

A Child Called Hope

 Nonfiction by Mia Marconi

https://www.amazon.com

This was a short read about the author's first few experiences in foster care. She gives some interesting background about herself and why she began fostering, and then tells the story of her first two charges. The eponymous Hope is the second child.

I liked the story but I didn't love it. I'm not sure if I will read more by this author.

The Future

 Fiction by Naomi Alderman.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I went into this book completely cold, (not having read any synopses or reviews, and not having ever read anything by this author before) which was a risk for me. This time is was a good bet; the book was great!

In this not-too-distant future world, there are three people who control a huge portion of not only the world's money, but also the world's thoughts. Through each person's individual online platform, which are both rivals of each other and somehow bound together by mutual interest, everyone in the world views everyone and everything else in the world. Everyone's personal social media feed is controlled by at least one of these online giants, and each of those companies is controlled by a single person. 

In this story the media platforms are given fictional names, but it's obvious that the Big Three are some form of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, or whatever. The goal of each one is to captivate their audience as much as possible and keep them scrolling online longer and longer, and that goal is accomplished by making sure the most inflammatory and polarizing content is highlighted specifically for each user. (This definitely sounds familiar; am I right?)

The result of these money-grubbing tactics is that the whole world seems to be going down in flames. There's even an incredibly popular online forum called Name the Day that's all about surviving the coming apocalypse. (Wait, is this contemporary nonfiction? Not yet, we hope.) 

And in the face of the world's imminent destruction, the strategy of the Big Three is to make plans for the bunkers they will personally hide in when it all goes to heck.

Wow, huh?

The story actually begins with the three multi-billionaires getting The Text: "It's happening. Your loved ones and staff have been alerted. Quietly and calmly pack your stuff and board your private jet for your trip to your personally prepared survival bunker." Then it goes back in time a bit to let the reader know how we got here, and then....

What comes next? You'll have to read it, but let me say: Mind. Blown. What a great story!