Here are a few new books I’ve enjoyed lately and shared with Good Day Alabama on WBRC Fox 6.. The fiction has waitlists at the local libraries. Go ahead and put your holds on now. The children’s books, from an author I met at the American Library Association conference, are science-based with a beautiful message.
by Rebecca Makkai
This mystery-thriller is a cleverly told, fast-paced page-turner. The narrator, Brodie Caine, is a podcaster (specializing in true crime) who is teaching a class at the same exclusive boarding school in New Hampshire she attended as a child. One of her students wants to focus her own podcast on a tragedy that happened at the school—the murder of Thalia Keith, who was Brodie’s roommate. Brodie, still obsessed with the murder (and her classmates) even after all these years, has her own ideas about who did it. And it’s not the Black sports trainer, Omar Evans, who was convicted of the murder and who has been in prison for years. No. She believes it was their music teacher whom she suspects of grooming young Thalia. Throughout the narrative are brief montages of women killed by violence: “Wasn’t it the one where she was stabbed?—no. The one where she got in a cab with—different girl. The one where she went to the frat party, the one where he used a stick, the one where he used a hammer….” And those will get the reader thinking of a bigger dark picture. When, thanks to Brodie’s students’ work, Omar is granted a new trial, Brodie and her old classmates reunite and relive some of their darkest days as teens.
By Mariana Enriquez
This is one scary book! It’s also a New York Times Editor’s Choice and one of Time, Esquire and Bookriot’s Best Books of 2023 (so far). And it’s the first novel to be translated into English by the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. A young father and his small son are on a road trip—both grieving the death of the wife and mother they loved. They are on their way to her ancestral home, which also is home to her extended family and to the Order, a maniacal cult that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality. Gaspar, the boy, is heir to this powerful and wealthy clan—and to the cult. But his father will do anything to keep them from him. The book ranges from London in the 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its tragic aftermath. This novel, unlike anything I’ve read in a long, long time, is a story of history as well as ghosts, the supernatural, family, love and longing.
By S. J. Russell and Lucy Noland
illustrated by Kaity Lacy
This book—as well as the previously published To Snail or Not to Snail—is absolutely delightful. And both are highly informative. In this newest book, a red-winged blackbird and a worm meet and take the time to get to know each other. They also wonder how different things would be if they couldn’t do what they do. Bird, with her magical poop, and Worm, with his soil aeration skills, are both part of something much larger than themselves. The other book is similar with a snail and a bee saying hello. Snail, with his strong-as-superglue slime, and Bee, with her ultraviolet vision, can do wonderful things, too. Both books show how every creature—no matter how small—has something to contribute to this world simply by being themselves. The same is true, of course, for each of us. Also, both books, at the end, have a wealth of facts about each of the starring players prompting further exploration of the natural world.
I link to Amazon to show you exactly what book I’m talking about, but I love to shop locally at Church Street Coffee and Books, The Alabama Booksmith, Little Professor, and Thank You Books in Crestwood. And I visit my local library often in person and online! Get to know Libby and Hoopla!
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