Reprinted from auburnpub.com
Each year I set a goal to read 100 books. Out of those 100 books, the ones that stay in my mind- the ones with characters that I just can’t forget and want to know what they are doing now- make my list of the Most Compelling Books, and here I share them with you.
Beginning with A, Anna Quindlen’s emotional After Annie was one of my first reads of the year, and I find myself still thinking about Annie, a thirty-something mother who dies in her kitchen in the beginning of the story. How Annie’s grieving husband, eleven-year-old daughter, and Annie’s fragile best friend handle her death makes up the basis for this powerful novel.
Years after Colm Toibin gave us the brilliant Brooklyn about Eilis a young Irish immigrant who moves to the United States on her own, he follows up with Long Island. Eilis is still married to Tony, and lives in a cul-de-sac with Tony’s large Italian family on Long Island. After Tony betrays her, Eilis goes home to Ireland to visit and maybe rekindle her relationship with Jim, who now is set to marry Eilis’ best friend. Jim is torn, and the novel belongs to Jim as he must decide where his heart and future lies.
Jacqueline Winspear winds down her popular Maisie Dobbs series set in post-WWII England as Maisie and company get a most satisfactory send-off to this incredibly well-researched and well-written historical mystery series with The Comfort of Ghosts. It’s one of the few series in which I have read every book.
Kate Quinn moves from WWII novels (The Alice Network,The Rose Code) to Cold War Washington D.C. in The Briar Club about a group of women who live in a rooming house, and who each have a lot of secrets. Quinn tells each of the women’s stories with such clarity, and I loved how the women grew to support each when a murder or two happens at the house.
Writing in two different timelines can be tricky, but Lynda Cohen Loigman does it so well in
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern which tells the story of an 80 year-old pharmacist who is forced to retire, and when she moves to a retirement community in Florida, she reluctantly reconnects with a man who broke her heart years ago. Augusta Stern is one of my favorite characters of the year.
Rufi Thorpe’s debut novel, Margo’s Got Money Troubles has a unique set-up. Margo is a single mother raising her child on her own. Needing to make money, she turns to the internet and opens an Only Fans account. Her father, a former wrestling manager, turns up to help with child care and hilarity ensues. It’s humorous and heartwarming.
Another humorous novel is Steven Rowley’s The Guncle Abroad, his followup to
The Guncle. This time the gang is in Italy for Patrick’s brother’s wedding that Patrick’s niece is imploring him to stop. Once again, the dialogue sparkles and I laughed out loud many times.
On a more serious note, James by Percival Everett is cleaning up on the award circuit and for good cause. His intriguing retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the slave Jim is brilliant and thought-provoking. This is a must-read.
I like to read holiday-themed books, and Susan Mallory’s One Big Happy Family about a family gathering at cabin in the woods where the guest list includes Mom, her adult children, Mom’s new hot young boyfriend, his young children, their mother (whose engagement to a another man ended badly), coworkers from the family business, and the adult daughter’s on-again, off-again, currently off longtime boyfriend is a delightful addition to the canon. Merriment and misadventures ensue.
There were two great Nonfiction titles I loved. Ina Garten’s memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens shares her story of a painful childhood, her longtime loving marriage to her husband Jeffrey, and the part I found most interesting, how she came to own The Barefoot Contessa food shop in the Hamptons when she didn’t live in the Hamptons and had never worked in a restaurant or the food business before. She made it a megahit.
Francis S. Barry recounts his cross-country trip on the Lincoln Highway during the pandemic in an RV with his wife in Back Roads and Better Angels. Barry, a journalist, wanted to know if we are really as divided in this country as it seems. He shares stories of the interesting people they met and a lot of great historical facts about Abraham Lincoln.
