On Broadway- The Ferryman

A few years ago I saw a production of Jez Butterworth's Jersusalem, starring perhaps the best stage actor on the planet, Mark Rylance. It was amazing. This past October, I got to chat with actor Brian d'Arcy James, a three-time Tony nominee, and we both confessed to our admiration for Rylance. (I recounted that I met Rylance walking his dog outside the theater and almost passed out with excitement). Brian told me I should go see The Ferryman, Butterworth's brilliant new play that just opened on Broadway.

The Ferryman

Other people I respect had also told me to go see it, but I never got around to it. Then I heard that Brian d'Arcy James was going to be in the cast of The Ferryman starting in February and that sealed the deal for me.

The Ferryman tells the story of a  Northern Irish farming family in 1981, right around the time when Irish prisoners (including Bobby Sands) were on a hunger strike, asking to be recognized as political prisoners, something Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was unwilling to do. There was a lot of violence between the IRA and the British forces.

The Carney family is preparing for the harvest, and the annual celebration that goes along with that. The huge household consists of Quinn and his wife Mary, their seven children, two aunts, an uncle, a sister-in-law and nephew. There is much joy and merriment, singing and dancing, until the local priest shows up.

Father Horrigan (a great performance from Charles Dale) has some troubling news for Quinn, news that once it gets out turns everything in the household upside down.

The Ferryman has 21 speaking parts (and a baby!) and Butterworth manages to make each character distinct, a remarkable feat. Quinn holds his boisterous family together, with the help of his brother's wife Caitlin, who cooks and cleans, as Quinn's wife Mary appears to be fragile. She spends much of her time in her room. (To be fair, she has seven children.)

Uncle Pat recounts humorous stories to the children, while his serious sister Aunt Pat monitors the hunger strike situation on the radio. Aunt Maggie gets wheeled in to sit fairly motionless in the corner, waking occasionally to speak to the children, telling them of the futures she sees for them.

Neighbor Tom Kettle (wonderfully portrayed by Shuler Hensley) is a large man who lives nearby and spends time with the family. Because he is English, some people are suspicious of him. But he is gentle giant, prone to pulling a stray rabbit of his pocket as a gift to people.

As the harvest continues, the Carneys' young cousins come to help, and as young men sometimes do,  get caught up in the situations over their head. When the local IRA boss comes to visit, things begin to unravel.

As I sat in the audience, I was wondering how this play was going to end. I truly had no idea, and when the end came, the shock of it deeply affected the audience, their gasps proof of that. (That being said, there is one plot point that pretty much everyone can guess at.)

Normally I would be wary of going to a play with a running time of three hours and fifteen minutes, but Butterworth has packed so much into this production I never once checked my watch. This is a show that I could imagine seeing more than once to go back and try and absorb things you missed the first time.

Brian d'Arcy James is perfection in the role of Quinn. He is a proud man, trying to keep all the balls in the air, keep everything together, all the while hinting at something simmering under the surface.

It is truly an ensemble production, and the young children in the cast are wonderful. They seem like young children, not actorly in any way. Emily Bergl (Mary), Holly Fain (Caitlin) and Fionnula Flanagan ( Aunt Maggie, who I fondly remember from TV's Rich Man, Poor Man) are particularly strong in their roles.

I think I would like to find the book of The Ferryman to truly get everything I can from this stunning play. It has rightly been lauded as one of the best plays of the year, and it will surely be up for many Tony awards in June, including for the brilliant direction of Sam Mendes. There are discount tickets available for this, including rush tickets. Go see it, this is a don't-miss play.

On Broadway- To Kill A Mockingbird

The hottest ticket on Broadway right now is To Kill A Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee's classic novel of the same novel. The novel was recently voted by the public as the Great American Read, and most Americans who have read the book read it in high school.

To Kill A Mockingbird

If you haven't read the novel, perhaps you saw the 1962 movie, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, the upright and moral  laywer who defends a black man accused of raping a young white woman in 1934 small town Maycomb, Alabama.

To take this iconic book and movie and turn it into a Broadway play requires a certain amount of nerve, and the road to the stage was a rocky one, including litigation between the estate of Harper Lee and the producers. Once settled, playright and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (best known for creating TV's West Wing) wrote the script, and acclaimed actor Jeff Daniels took on the role of Atticus Finch.

Although everyone knows the story, Sorkin manages to create such tension in the courtroom scenes that you could hear a pin drop in the theater. He had previous success with another courtoom drama, A Few Good Men.

Sorkin also manages to include plenty of humor in this serious story, thanks mostly to the dialogue of the children, here played brilliantly by adults as children- Celia Keenan-Bolger is fabulous as Scout, our main narrator. She is a sure-fire Tony nominee this season. Will Pullen is also excellent as her older brother Jem, and Gideon Glick is a revelation as their friend Dill (a character Harper Lee reportedly based on her friend Truman Capote, whom she knew when they were children).  They break the fourth wall in this production with their narration.

Jeff Daniel's Atticus Finch is somewhat different than Gregory Peck's Finch. Daniels' Finch shows his temper and frustration more, and his interactions with the children is somewhat more playful. He gives new shades to his interpretation of Atticus Finch, not an easy task for a character so imbedded in the American psyche.

Gbenga Akinnagbe brings the accused Tom Robinson to life, and his courtroom testimony is absolutely riveting. You cannot take your eyes off him in that scene. Frederick Weller is also fantastic as the racist and menacing Bob Ewell, spouting language that made everyone in the audience cringe.

The biggest controversy in the show is the relationship between Atticus and Calpurnia, his black housekeeper who also cares for the children. Latanya Richardson Jackson's steely Calpurnia has a scene where she strongly shares her true feelings about the trial with Atticus, something than some people feel whould never have happened in 1934 Alabama between a white employer and his black employee. (This scene was not in the novel.) While I understand why people feel this way, I think the scene works very well for this production.

This production of To Kill A Mockingbird is a profoundly moving piece of theater, and although written in 1960 and set in 1934, sadly some of it still resonates in today's America. There is a short speech by Atticus about the danger of mob mentality that so affected much of the audience that you could hear murmurs of agreement and people catching their breath.

I'm happy to say that playwright Aaron Sorkin, director Bartlett Sher, Jeff Daniels and the rest of the cast have honored an American classic novel and movie, a Herculean task, with their unforgettable take on To Kill A Mockingbird. It is a production not to be missed at any ticket price.

Two Terrific Books for Winter's Long Days

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Winter’s long days and even longer dark nights are a great time to dig into a good book, and this month’s Book Report has an historical novel and a memoir to enjoy.

Fans of historical fiction know Marie Benedict’s novels. They feature women who are not necessarily well-known, but who have been involved with famous men, Carnegie’s Maid and The Other Einstein among her most recent.

In her latest novel, The Only Woman in the Room, it is the woman herself who is the famous person. Actress Hedy Lamarr’s story is fictionalized here, and it is fascinating. 

  

Born in Vienna, young Hedy Keisler is becoming a recognized stage actress. When an older man, a known arms manufacturer, becomes infatuated with Hedy, her parents reluctantly encourage her to date him. He is an important man, well-connected to the government, and in 1930s Austria with the threat of Hitler looming and Hedy’s family being Jewish, to make an enemy of him could be dangerous.

Her husband is violent and controlling, and quick to anger. He uses Hedy as an accessory as he attempts to ingratiate himself to Hitler and his Nazi party. Hedy uses this to her advantage, sitting in meetings and eavesdropping on plans about the various arms that the Nazis are using in war.

When Hedy discovers that Hitler plans to eliminate the Jewish population not only in Germany, but also in Austria, she carefully plots her escape. After one unsuccessful attempt leaves her a prisoner in her own home, she escapes to America, where she works her way up in Hollywood.

She becomes a famous actress, but is haunted by what is going on in Europe. Hedy’s father encouraged her to study, and she was fascinated by science. When she was held prisoner, she pored over her husband’s technical arms books, learning much from them.

Hedy teamed up with a music composer to create a system for torpedoes to change frequencies, enabling them to bypass attempts to jam them. They worked endlessly for months, perfecting it and eventually getting a patent and submitting it to the government for use in war.

Hedy Lamarr’s role in this invention was relatively unknown until recently, and after reading The Only Woman in the Room, you’ll have an appreciation for her brains and work ethic, as well as her beauty and acting ability. Fans of Adriana Trigiani’s All the Stars in the Heavens will enjoy this one.

The first sentence in Stephanie Land’s memoir, Maid, is a memorable one: “My daughter learned to walk in a homeless shelter.” Land ended up there after her relationship with Mia’s father turned violent and she had to leave for their safety. 

She and Mia moved in with her father and stepmother, only to find that her father couldn’t cope, and became violent as well. With nowhere else to go, Stephanie was forced to move into a homeless shelter with Mia.

Stephanie gets a job as a part-time landscaper with her friend’s husband, and ends up working as a maid for a cleaning company. She takes us through the maze of government services that gave them a way to survive, but also tried to make her feel like she was lazy and shiftless.

She writes of an encounter with a horrible man in a grocery store. She is checking out using her benefits card when the man behind her in line follows her out of the store, screaming at her, “You’re welcome,” as if he personally paid for her groceries.

Land describes the backbreaking work as a maid, the sheer exhaustion and physicality of the job that left her in constant pain. She has to make every penny she earns count, and when she is in a car accident, you can feel her terror as she realizes her only means of getting to work is gone, but her daughter is safe.

Maid gives the reader a deeper understanding of the lives that many people in this country lead, people for whom every day is a struggle that leaves them emotionally as well as physically drained. I hope Land’s story will encourage people to be kinder and more empathetic to those who work at jobs most of us will never have to do.

Maid belongs on a reading list with Evicted and Nickel and Dimed, two other classic books about life for struggling Americans.

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

GRADE: B+

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks

COST: Hardcover $25.99

LENGTH: 272 pages

Maid by Stephanie Land

GRADE: A

PUBLISHER: Hachette

COST: Hardcover $27

LENGTH: 288 pages

Golden Child by Claire Adam

Golden Child by Claire Adams
Published by SJP/Hogarth ISBN 9780525572992
Hardcover, $26, 281 pages

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker's first book from her SJP Hogarth imprint at Penguin Random House is the brilliant debut novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza, A Place For Us (my review here). The second book from her imprint is also a debut novel, Golden Child, by Claire Adam, and it is another fantastic novel.

Set in Trinidad, we meet Clyde Deyalsingh, a hardworking man, and his wife Joy. They have twin thirteen year-old boys, Peter and Paul, and live in a modest home that they own in a rural area. The boys travel a long way daily to their Catholic school.

Peter is a brilliant young man, and his parents are very proud of him and hope to be able to send him to a good college. When the boys were born, the cord was wrapped around Paul's neck and it has resulted in him being considered mentally challenged by many.

Joy's brother Vishnu believes that Peter could do great things and encourages Clyde to support Peter, even giving him money to do so. Father Kavanagh from the boys' school does not believe that Paul is mentally challenged and is tutoring him.

One day Paul leaves home to go for a walk and doesn't come back. Did Paul wander off and get lost, did he run away, or has something nefarious happened to him, perhaps related to the recent incident when two men came into their home and robbed and tied up Joy, Peter and Paul?

Much of the book takes place as Clyde tries to discover what has happened to his son. Clyde has always been a strong husband and father, and has worked hard to make a good life for his family. As he pieces together what has happened to Paul, he is forced to confront an unimaginable choice, one that puts him at odds with his family.

Golden Child immerses the reader in the countryside of Trinidad. We meet the neighbors and family of the Deyalsinghs. The homes all have dogs and barred windows to protect them, and in the wealthier neighborhoods, (including where Joy's brother Philip, a judge, lives) security guards on site.
The reader senses the undercurrent of danger that surrounds them, where at any moment they may be accosted by someone looking for money.

There are some wonderful food passages here as well. Joy makes a simple dinner for Clyde of "melongene choka, with plenty of onion and garlic, the way he likes it, some cucumber salad, and some warm paratha roti wrapped up in dishcloth."

Clyde eats at the work canteen, "where they have all kinds of food: dhalpuri roti and buss-up-shut, chicken wings and drumsticks, pelau, corn-soup, callaloo." You'll definitely want to look all these dishes up online.

SJP has done it again with  Claire Adams' Golden Child- found a debut novel with a brilliant distinctive voice, one that takes the reader into a culture they may not be familiar with, yet deals with universal theme of what it means to be part of a family, and the joy and heartbreak that can bring. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Claire Adams' tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Instagram Tour:

Monday, January 28th: @hotcocoareads

Tuesday, January 29th: @prose_and_palate

Tuesday, January 29th: @bookstackedblonde

Tuesday, January 29th: @dropandgivemenerdy

Wednesday, January 30th: @jennblogsbooks

Thursday, January 31st: @readingbetweenthe_wines

Thursday, January 31st: @bookishmadeleine

Friday, February 1st: @tbretc

Saturday, February 2nd: @eternalbooks_

Sunday, February 3rd: @bookclubwithbite

Review Tour:

Monday, January 28th: A Bookish Affair

Tuesday, January 29th: Rockin’ Book Reviews

Wednesday, January 30th: BookNAround

Thursday, January 31st: Amy’s Book-et List

Monday, February 4th: Run Wright

Tuesday, February 5th: @booksandpolkadots

Wednesday, February 6th: Book by Book

Thursday, February 7th: Palmer’s Page Turners

Monday, February 11th: Bookchickdi

Tuesday, February 12th: Books and Cats and Coffee

Wednesday, February 13th: Kahakai Kitchen

Thursday, February 14th: Lit and Life

Friday, February 15th: Thoughts from a Highly Caffeinated Mind

Monday, February 18th: Booktimistic and @booktimistic

Tuesday, February 19th: Eliot’s Eats

Wednesday, February 20th: @worldswithinpages

Thursday, February 21st: Wining Wife

Monday, February 25th: Patricia’s Wisdom

Monday, February 25th: @wherethereadergrows

Tuesday, February 26th: Tar Heel Reader and @tarheelreader

Wednesday, February 27th: @thesaggingbookshelf

Friday, March 1st: Thoughts on This ‘n That

Courage Between Love and Death by Joseph Pillitteri

Courage Between Life and Death by Joseph Pillitteri
Published by Fireship Press ISBN 9781611793888
Trade paperback,  $21.95, 295 pages

Joseph Pillitteri's novel, Courage Between Life and Death, appealed to me for two reasons- it is set in Buffalo (I'm from down the road in central New York) during President McKinley's visit where he was assassinated, and the main character is from a large Irish family.

Elspeth Shaughnesshey is a young nurse who feels lucky to have found a job working at the hospital at the Pan-American Exposition. Tourists have flocked to the Pan (as it's called) and although much of the day is dealing with children who have fallen and need stitches, it's an exciting place to be.

From a poverty stricken Irish family, Elspeth has seven family members she has to help support since her Da died. He owned the bar they lived above, but the bar has fallen on hard times. Her mother sewed beautiful dresses for wealthy women, but made little money from it.

The family is facing eviction, and six-year-old Katie is very sick. While handling all that, Elspeth also has to deal with the many doctors at the hospital who treat the nurses poorly. Dr. Kingdom fancies himself to be the smartest, most stylish doctor around. He also verbally abuses the nurses.

Dr. Gunner is kinder to the nurses, and some of them have a crush on him, like Harriet, Elspeth's friend, and a very competent nurse.

There is a charming party scene where President McKinley dances with Elspeth. I didn't know much about McKinley, but the author imbues him with a kindness and sense of humor. His wife is also a wonderful character who loves her husband very much.

The hospital scene where the doctors and nurses are desperately trying to save McKinley is gripping, and reading about nursing and hospitals in 1901 is fascinating. The race against the loss of sunlight in the operating room to finish the surgery was a page-turner.

I always like to find one fact in a novel that is interesting and new to me. In this book, it's that women will often have their wedding dresses turned into bassinette covers for their babies. What a lovely way to reuse a wedding dress!

The author's note at the end gives the reader some factual information that adds to the reality of the novel, including a photo of the head of the Pan hospital, Dr. Roswell Park, who went on to found Rosewell Park Hospital, a reknowned cancer hospital in Buffalo.

If you are a fan of historical fiction, Courage Between Love and Death is one to put on your to-be-read list. So many books cover WWI and WWII, this 1901 western New York setting is a refreshing change of pace. Anyone who is a nurse will enjoy reading about Elspeth's days at the hospital and what nursing was like back then. Fans of Charles Todd and Jacqueline Winspear will like this one.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Joseph Pillitteri's tour. The rest of his stops are here:

Monday, January 28th: Jessicamap Reviews and @jessicamap

Wednesday, January 30th: A Holland Reads

Thursday, January 31st: Patricia’s Wisdom

Monday, February 4th: Bookchickdi

Wednesday, February 6th: Amy’s Book-et List

Friday, February 8th: Rockin’ Book Reviews

Monday, February 11th: Broken Teepee

Wednesday, February 13th: Laura’s Reviews

Monday, February 19th: Blooming With Books

Wednesday, February 21st: Thoughts on This ‘n That

Thursday, February 22nd: Lori’s Reading Corner – guest post from Adele Pilitteri

Two Southern Novels

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Setting can such an important part of a novel, it can almost be considered a character in the story. This month’s Book Report takes a look at two books with a distinctive Southern setting- Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing and Lisa Patton’s Rush. 

Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing has garnered much critical praise, ending up on many 2018 best of the year books, and is currently on the best seller list. Reese Witherspoon not only chose it as one of her book club picks, she is also producing a movie based on the book. 

Kya is just six years old in 1952 when her mother puts on her best dress and walks out their house, and away from her family. Soon after, Kya’s older siblings leave one by one, and when her beloved brother Jodie leaves, it is just Kya and her violent, drunken father.

They live in a shack near a marsh on the North Carolina coast. Her father eventually disappears too, leaving the young child to fend for herself. She eats greens and whatever she can forage, and sometimes trades mussels for gas for her boat with Jumpin, who owns a small store. Jumpin and his wife Mabel are the only people to show her any kindness.

The rest of the town call her Marsh Girl, and she is subjected to teasing and torment from other children. She doesn’t attend school, and when she is fourteen, Tate, a young man a few years older than her, befriends her and offers to teach her to read.

Kya is a quick and eager student, and she and Tate bond over their love of nature and the marsh. When Tate goes away to college Kya is devastated, and soon falls under the spell of another man from the town- Chase Andrews, the town’s golden boy. He begins a secret relationship with Kya, one she mistakes for love.

When Chase falls to his death from a fire tower, Kya is suspected of killing him and she is arrested. The subsequent trial causes a huge sensation in the town, and fills the story with incredible tension.

Where the Crawdads Sing”is a stunning novel. Owens has written three nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa, but this is her debut novel. She imbues Kya with such humanity, and because of her nature background, she writes the marsh as a living, breathing character. You will find yourself lost in this beautiful story, and Kya is truly unforgettable. 

Lisa Patton’s Rush is set in 2016, on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Mississippi. Pearl is a 44-year old black woman who has worked as a housekeeper for 25 years at the Alpha Delta Beta sorority house, along side her Aunt Fee, the house cook. After 25 years, she earns just $11.50 an hour, and barely makes it on unemployment during the three summer months when school is out. 

She loves her job, but it is hard work, cleaning and caring for the young girls who live in the house, and the four hundred girls who belong to the sorority but live elsewhere on campus. Pearl is the heart of the house, and the girls turn to her when they have a problem and need sage advice or a shoulder to cry on.

Lilith Whitmore is a former Alpha Delta Beta, now is scheming to make sure that her daughter gets invited to join the house during rush week. Lilith and her husband are beyond wealthy and use their money to get whatever they want.

Lilith contacts Wilda, a former sorority sister whose daughter Ellie is also going to Ole Miss and pledging the sorority. Wilda and her husband are upper middle class, and when Lilith hires a dorm room designer that costs $20,000, she bullies Wilda into sharing the cost, which is more than Wilda can afford.

Cali is a smart, ambitious young lady whose ultimate goal is to become governor of the state. She was raised by her grandparents, and she and Ellie become good friends. Cali wants to pledge a sorority as well, but Lilith intends to thwart those plans.

Rush tackles racism, class, tradition, mother/daughter relationships and the broken healthcare system. Even though I felt the ending was bit too tidy, I loved the characters (especially Pearl and Cali) and being dropped into this sometimes foreign world of sororities.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens- A+

Published by Putnam

Hardcover, 346 pages, $26

Rush by Lisa Patton- B+

Published by St. Martin’s Press

Hardcover, 410 pages, $26.99

What to Eat When by Michael F. Roizen MD & Michael Crupain MD, MPH

What to Eat When by Michael F. Roizen MD & Miachael Crupain MD, MPH
Published by National Geographic ISBN 9781426220111
Hardcover, $28, 352 pages

January is the month when people make their resolutions, and many people choose to get healthier as their top one. Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Michael Crupain (both of who have worked with Dr. Oz) have a new book What to Eat When to help achieve that goal.

What to Eat When gives the reader a 31-day plan to work on, as many other diet books do. What makes this book unique is that is also has chapters that deal with eating in specific situations- what to eat when you are stressed, experiencing grief, when you get a lot of headaches or when you are in pain.

They also have chapters on what to eat when you are taking a big test, going for a job interview, when you are on a first date, or on vacation. If you're  going to a party or a baseball stadium, they recommend making the rounds of all the food at the party or stadium before making a food choice. That way you'll be able to make the healthiest choice. They also suggest eating a healthy snack and drinking water before you go.

There are chapters for women on what to eat when you're trying to get pregnant or nursing, have PMS, or hot flashes. Men have chapters on what to eat to boost testosterone and improve fertility.
If you want to protect your heart, have healthy lungs, or reduce inflammation, they have chapters on that as well.

The most helpful advice I found was to eat within a 12 hour period each day, which means fasting for 12 hours a day. They do suggest to eat only when the sun is up, but as someone who grew up in a cold, snowy environment where it gets dark at 4pm during the winter, that is hard to do.

They also suggest eating three-quarters of your entire day's calories before 2pm, meaning a big breakfast and lunch, and only consuming 20% of your day's calories at dinner. That is a radical change for most of us. I did find that some of their suggestions would be difficult for many people to strictly follow.

There were many foods that popped up frequently on most of their menus- salmon, walnuts, extra-virgin olive oil, and avocado are tops on their list of the best foods. Unfortunately for many people, those foods are expensive. But their suggestion to drink more water is one that everyone can easily achieve (they also like coffee). They also recommend making a plan for healthy eating, stating that "planning is kryptonite to temptation."

At the end of each chapter is a chart that gives you healthy substitutions.- guacamole for cheese dip, whole citrus fruits for juice, extra-virgin olive oil for butter, corn on the cob instead of nachos or fries at the stadium- that will train you to think more carefully about your food choices.

What to Eat When has lots of good advice for those looking to get healthier, although following it strictly may be difficult for many people. Just making a few of their suggested changes though, will certainly help.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on this tour. The rest of the stops are here:

Tour Stops

Wednesday, January 16th: bookchickdi

Thursday, January 17th: Eliot’s Eats

Friday, January 18th: Instagram: @thebookishsisters

Saturday, January 19th: Beth Fish Reads

Monday, January 21st: Instagram: @jordys.book.club

Tuesday, January 22nd: Literary Quicksand

Tuesday, January 22nd: Instagram: @thehappyhungryyogi

Wednesday, January 23rd: Instagram: @megabunnyreads

Thursday, January 24th: I Wish I Lived in a Library

Friday, January 25th: Instagram: @thelastbiteblog

Monday, January 28th: Instagram: @ladyofthelibrary

Thursday, January 31st: What Is That Book About

Thursday, January 31st: Instagram: @giuliland

The Most Compelling Books of 2018

Reprinted from the Citizen:

At the end of each year, I reflect upon the books that affected me the most, the books that I can’t get out of my head. There are unforgettable characters, fascinating storylines and inspirational true stories. And so I present my list of the 12 most compelling books I read in 2018.

Three nonfiction titles made my list, starting with former first lady Michelle Obama’s “Becoming.” Mrs. Obama’s voice is so strong as she vividly recounts her childhood growing up in on Chicago’s South Side, where her parents instilled in her a strong desire for a good education as a pathway to success. Hers is an American success story. 

Becoming

There have been many books written by former Obama administration officials, but Beck Dorey-Stein’s “From the Corner of the Oval” stands out. She got a job as a stenographer for the White House through Craigslist, and she takes us along as she rides on Air Force One and has an ill-advised affair with a man who strings her along. 

From the Corner of the Oval

Tara Westover’s “Educated” has made many best of 2018 lists, and it is clear why. Westover and her seven siblings grew up with her survivalist parents, working at dangerous jobs helping her father. After never having attended school, Westover takes the GED, gets into college and eventually earns a Ph.D. It is a remarkable achievement and a brilliant book. 

Educated

A good fictional companion piece to “Educated” is Kristin Hannah’s novel “The Great Alone.” Set in 1974, teenage Leni Albright moves to a remote area of Alaska and lives off the grid as her father grapples with his experiences in Vietnam, and she and her mother struggle with his increasingly violent behavior. 

The Great Alone

Leah Franqui’s brilliant debut novel “America for Beginners” takes us along on a road trip taken by Pival, an Indian widow looking for answers about her son’s life, the struggling actress who acts as her chaperone, and a young Bangladeshi immigrant on his first solo trip as their tour guide. Pival is an unforgettable character. 

America for Beginners

Amy Poeppel’s humorous “Limelight” tells the story of a recently transplanted Dallas mom of three who has to deal with her children’s anxieties, living in a crazy new city, and finding a job when she hits a car belonging to a Justin Bieber-like singer. Somehow she ends up as his personal assistant as he readies to star on Broadway. It is a laugh-out-loud funny story with a lot of heart. 

Limelight

For something more thought-provoking, Jodi Picoult’s “A Spark of Light” is one of her best books yet, about people trapped in a woman’s health clinic by a gunman who has a grudge against the people who run the clinic. Picoult takes an issue that has divided this country and gives empathy to all involved with great skill. 

Spark of Light

There are two mysteries that made my list. The first is Laura Lippman’s “Sunburn.” Polly abandons her husband and 3-year-old daughter, changes her name, and takes a job working in a bar when she meets Adam and embarks on a torrid affair with him. But Adam is not who he says he is. Polly is an indelible character, and the ending is a corker. 

Sunburn

The second mystery is Lisa Scottoline’s “One Perfect Lie” about a high school teacher and baseball coach who appears to be up to something nefarious, recruiting his players for something much more dangerous than winning the sectionals. This one made the list for the brilliant twist in the middle of the book that upends everything. 

One Perfect Lie

Barbara Kingsolver is back with “Unsheltered,” a novel about a middle-aged couple who inherit a dilapidated house in New Jersey. They deal with unemployment, under-employment, parental health issues, the return of a prodigal daughter, and a son who drops his newborn baby off with them. It’s a big, meaty book you’ll want to savor as you read. 

Unsheltered

Anne Tyler’s “Clock Dance” is quieter, but no less affecting. Sixty-one-year-old Willa gets a phone call to come and care for the young daughter of her son’s ex-girlfriend. She has never met the girl, but going there to care for her profoundly changes Willa. 

Clock Dance

And finally, the book that everyone from Oprah to Michelle Obama has been talking about: Tayari Jones’ “An American Marriage.” It’s the story of Celestial and Roy, married for a short time when Roy is falsely imprisoned. It’s about loyalty, love and faithfulness set against the subject of mass incarceration. It’s better than everyone says it is, a true American story. 

An American Marriage

Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. You can follow her on Twitter @bookchickdi, and she can be emailed at laruediane2000@yahoo.com.