The Three Lives of Cate Kay

Fiction by Kate Fagan

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Cate Kay is a pseudonym for the bestselling author who wrote THE trilogy, the books-turned hit-movies that everyone is talking about. But her identity is a big secret; only her lawyer Sidney knows her real name is Cass Ford, and it used to be Anne Marie Callahan. 

In this book, Cate Kay tells her own story with some input from others who know her, and some excerpts from her bestselling novel The Very Last. This was a good novel with believable characters and a few surprises.

Death of the Author

 Fiction by Nnedi Okorafor

https://www.audible.com

Zelu is a Nigerian-American woman who has been partly paralyzed since age 12. She is the second born of a large and loud family, and a child of parents from two different African tribes: Ibo and Yoruba. All of these things make up part of who she is, but none of them define her as much as this: Zelu is an author.

This book is about both Zelu and her writing, combining elements of her novel, scenes from her life, and interviews of her family and close friends about her. It has wonderful and believable characters, and I would give it a very high rating… except for the ending. 

Without resorting to spoilers, I can’t tell you the ending of course. Let me just say it was ambiguous and anti climactic. So this book is well written, and the narration on the audiobook is stellar, but it’s been demoted down to one thumb, or less. 

The Nothing Man

Fiction by Catherine Ryan Howard 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

"The Nothing Man" is the name given by the Irish press to a serial killer who foils police by leaving no traces of himself behind. Although he stopped killing over fifteen years ago, people still remember that name, so when a new book comes out with that title, it draws a lot of attention.

But it especially draws the attention of the Nothing Man himself, an old guy named Jim who works as a department store security guard and who is secretly pleased with himself for getting away with his crimes. Jim becomes obsessed with the book and its author, Eve Black, a woman whose whole family he had killed. He is desperate to know what Eve remembers about the night of the murders, although she had been only twelve at the time and was hiding in a bathroom.

This was an exciting premise and a great thriller story.

I also read recently by this author: The Liar's Girl

Tom Lake

 Fiction by Ann Patchett

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In mid-2020 Lara's three grown daughters Emily, Maisie, and Nell have come home to the family's cherry orchard to "quarantine" and pick cherries. To pass the time Lara tells the girls a story they have always wanted to hear: how she used to date the famous actor called "The Duke," before she met their father, of course.

This was a very interesting character story. It was good but not as fabulous as some others I have read by this author.

I also read recently by this author: Bel Canto

Life, Loss, and Puffins

Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is peripherally a story within a story; it begins with a woman called Ru telling a couple of teenaged girls about her life. The dates are ambiguous, and I don’t know how old Ru is supposed to be at the beginning, but I don’t think she’s an old lady. The point of the telling is not reveal until the very end of the book. 

Ru begins her story at age thirteen when she meets her best friend Gabriel, who is not her boyfriend. The events that unfold are interesting and surprising, and the reader will fall in love with both Gabriel and Ru herself. 

This was a really good book with great characters and a lot to think about, as I’ve come to expect from this author.

I also read recently by this author: Just a Regular Boy

Thief River Falls

Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Brian Freeman

https://www.amazon.com

Lisa Power is a bestselling author whose new mystery/thriller Thief River Falls is causing a stir in book clubs everywhere. But when she gets caught up in a mystery of her own, will she be able to handle it like the heroine in her book?

This was a pretty good thriller, but I didn't like the ending.

I also read recently by this author: The Deep Deep Snow

I also read recently (for free!) by Amazon Kindle Prime: An Unwanted Inheritance

Once Upon a Wardrobe

 Fiction by Patti Callahan Henry

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1950 Megs is a student of mathematics at Oxford University, and her little brother George is slowly dying. Since George has recently become fascinated by the new book The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Megs sets out to meet the author and answer her brother's questions about the story. She can't save George's life, but she can bring the story of Narnia to life for him.

This was a sweet book but also a sad one.

The Woman in the Library

 Fiction by Sulari Gentill

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

"Four people are sitting in Reading Room of the Boston Public Library when they hear a scream. Later it is discovered that a woman was murdered at that moment and the four begin to investigate the crime."

That's the story Australian mystery author Hannah Tigone is writing. She emails Leo, an acquaintance in Boston, for critique and local color. But maybe Leo is a little too interested in murder...

This was an interesting story within a story. I liked the plot but didn't love the characters.

The Plot

 Fiction by Jean Hanff Korelitz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Before Jacob Finch-Bonner turned twenty-five he had written a promising first novel. Unfortunately, after failing to write anything else, a few years later he ends up stuck teaching creative writing at a second-tier college. That's when he encounters a student called Evan Parker. Evan is an arrogant entitled jerk who insists he has the best plot for a thriller novel ever. It HAS to be a best seller, Evan says. And once Jacob hears the plot idea, he actually agrees.

Will Evan write this fabulous thriller? Will Jacob steal the plot and write it himself? Will the reader EVER find out the specifics of this fabulous plot?

This was partly a thriller and partly a novel slogging through writer's angst. I mostly enjoyed it but I didn't particularly care for the character of  Mr. Finch-Bonner, poor tortured artist.

I also read by this author: You Should Have Known

Magpie Murders

Fiction by Anthony Horowitz

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

This is a mystery story about a mystery story.

As in, the book begins with a publishing editor settling down to read a new manuscript, the latest installment in a successful detective novel series. And then you get so interested in the detective story (set in 1955) that you forget you started with a manuscript, until the story suddenly jumps back into the present.

This was a very interesting mystery --times two!!

The Wind Through The Keyhole

Fiction by Stephen King.


http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book belongs with Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, (which contains at least seven novels not including the Marvel Comics graphic versions) but according to the notes it can be read as a stand-alone story.

I have not read any of the Dark Tower books, but I took a chance and read this book. It was true; the book was a good story all on its own. It was a little different, with a story-within-a-story-within-a-story format, but it was still enjoyable to read.


I also read by this author: Finders Keepers, Mr. Mercedes, Dreamcatcher.

The Winter People

Fiction by Jennifer McMahon.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com

This novel tells a story that goes between two different times in the same (apparently haunted) house. Central to the narrative is a book entitled Visitors from the Other Side: The Secret Diary of Sara Harrison Shea. And that secret diary tells about Mrs. Shea's mysterious disappearance.

The Winter People was a good story and a page-turner as well. But it was also kind of horrifying.