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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #834, Celebrating Women’s History Month

by muffy

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City of Laughter, * * a debut novel (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) by a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award winner Temin Fruchter is “a wondrous intergenerational story of queerness and Jewish folklore.” (Publishers Weekly)

Called “brainy and richly textured (The New York Times) the novel opens in 18th century Ropshitz, Poland where a holy jester whose job is to make wedding guests laugh, receives a visitation from a mysterious stranger. In present day New York, 32-year old Shiva Margolin, reeling from the recent death of her father and the breakup with her girlfriend, Dani found among her father’s things, photos of her enigmatic maternal grandmother, Syl, and great-grandmother Mira. But her mother Hannah refuses to talk about them. 

Frustrated with the generational silence, Shiva starts studying the work of Jewish folklorist S. Ansky, and enrolls in a master's program which presents her with an opportunity to visit Warsaw, only hours away from Mira's small town of Ropshitz. She hopes her family's mysteries will make more sense if she walks in their footsteps.

“This novel, like Shiva’s work, is a collection of beautiful scraps—scraps of folktales and memory, hidden family histories, love letters, accounts of strange happenings in the past and present—all tangled together and rewoven into a whole that’s strange, lush, imaginative and pulsing with life…As Shiva becomes more deeply immersed in the lives of her foremothers, those foremothers become more vibrant and detailed, in prose that moves from shimmering and dreamlike to sharply funny to wonderfully contemplative.” (BookPage)

Readers might also enjoy The Thirty Names of Night * * * * by Zeyn Joukhadar (2020), and The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh (2022).

* * * * = 4 starred reviews

* * = 2 starred reviews

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #833, She investigates...

by muffy

murder_by_degreesMurder by Degrees * * * by Ritu Mukerji

Philadelphia, 1875. Dr. Lydia Weston teaches at the Woman's Medical College and attends to working-class patients at the city's Spruce Street Clinic where she first meets Anna Ward.  Hardworking, highly motivated and an eager learner, Anna works as a chambermaid for the wealthy Curtis family but shares Lydia’s love of literature.  During an appointment with Lydia, Anna is visibly troubled by something she won't explain, and abruptly disappears.  Soon her body is dredged out of the Schuylkill River, bloated beyond recognition, she is identified by her diary and clothes neatly folded by the river.

When the police rules Anna’s death as suicide, Lydia is suspicious, especially when her autopsy confirms otherwise. “Mukerji, like Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs, pulls the reader into fascinating and richly detailed forensic autopsies and blesses Weston with the instincts and determination to carry out a murder investigation as effectively as--or even better than--the police.” (Kirkus Reviews) 

“This well-researched, historical-mystery debut by a practicing physician will appeal to readers who enjoy strong female characters and graphic clinical details.” (Booklist)   For fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Charles Todd

dexpectant_detectivesThe Expectant Detectivesby Kat Ailes is the first in a new cozy mystery series, set in the sleepy village of Penton. Finding themselves unexpectedly expecting, Alice and her partner Joe move out of pricy London to embrace country life in the Cotswolds. With the baby coming in 2 weeks, they sign up for a prenatal class. When one of the women goes into labor during class, frenzy ensues until someone notices Mr. Oliver, owner of the herb shop downstairs, keels over dead, and they find themselves all suspects in the murder investigation. 

Together with her band of pregnant sleuths, Alice manages to suss out Mr. Oliver's many secrets, his connection to the hippie commune in the woods and the mysterious death in the village some years ago.  What’s most disturbing for Alice is how Joe has been acting strangely and someone tries to poison her goofy canine companion Helen.

In this The Thursday Murder Club meets Midsomer Murders, “readers of Darci Hannah will enjoy Helen’s spotlight in this series. The humor is akin to Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan series, and the relationship between Joe and Alice is reminiscent of Jules Capshaw’s romantic endeavors in Ellie Alexander’s “Bakeshop Mysteries.(Publishers Weekly) 

* * * = 3 starred reviews

* = Starred review

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #832, A little bit witchy, loads of magic, a touch of horror, in these retellings of the classics

by muffy

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The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch * Melina Taub’s (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), adult debut, examines Pride and Prejudice through a new lens, and offers a highly unexpected redemption for the wildest Bennet sister.

This retelling, in the form of a long letter, recounts how Lydia, being the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter discovers her magical powers as a witch (there had been three stillborns before Jane, Lizzy and Mary) and promptly turns the family cat into her human sister Kitty. As the novel opens, Lydia, living with Wickham in Newcastle, under much reduced circumstances, is dependent on her magic to get by. Then unexpectedly, she comes to the aid of the much hexed Georgiana Darcy.

But magic comes at a price here, and for every spell a witch casts she must offer up something in return. In order to spare her and Kitty's lives, she had foolishly made a promise to Lord Wormenheart, a dragon demon, and soon Wormenheart came to collect, sending Lydia on a dangerous adventure to procure the Jewel of Prophecy. 

“Full of spell-casting garden parties, demons, hidden jewels, vibrant dances, backstabbing, and societal slights, this is vividly descriptive, frothy fun.”(Library Journal)

“Taub breathes new life into classic characters in a novel that is carefully researched and surprisingly layered… A delight for both Austen lovers and fans of magical adventure stories.“ (Kirkus Reviews)

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After the Forest,* * *  Australian Kell Woods’ fantasy debut (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) picks up 20 years after Greta and Hans escaped from the witch in the gingerbread house. 

Back in their homestead in the Village of Lindenfeld, deep in the Black Forest, the siblings are relying on the mysteriously addictive gingerbread Greta bakes for income, and to pay off Han’s gambling debts.  In part because of the deliciousness of her goods (from a recipe she found in an old grimoire, a witch's handbook), rumors grow around town that Greta herself is a witch. And as dark magic is returning to the woods, Greta must learn to embrace her power, come into her own as a witch, and work together with new allies to save herself and her home. 

“Each chapter opens with a clever retelling of part of "Snow-White and Rose-Red," eventually linking that fairy tale with Greta's own neo-Grimm journey toward both emotional and magical maturity as, despite her initial distaste for witchcraft, she comes into her own and learns to wield her nascent powers to help the people she loves. The romantic subplot is similarly well-wrought and fantastical: Greta's lover Matthias, a stranger from the Tyrol, is a prince-charming-in-disguise. All of Woods's characters are drawn with exceptional sensitivity, and Greta's well-crafted struggle to thrive despite early suffering and ongoing societal prejudice resonates. Woods is a powerful new voice in speculative fiction.” (Publishers Weekly) 

“Offer this lyrical, character-rich fantasy to fans of Mary McMyne's The Book of Gothel (2022) and Genevieve Gornichec's The Weaver and the Witch Queen (2023).” (Booklist)

immortal_longingsInspired by Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Immortal Longings * * * *, Chloe Gong’s adult fantasy debut launches her Flesh and False Gods trilogy (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook).

Every year the twin cities of San-Er hold a set of gladiatorial-style games, a fight to the death with the promise of unimaginable riches for the victor. This year, among the 88 contestants is a disguised Princess Calla Tuoleimi of Talin, who disappeared after assassinating her parents five years ago. Her goal -  to finally bring down the brutal monarchy, inequality and poverty by killing her uncle, reclusive King Kasa who will be on hand to greet the winner. But first, she must win the game. 

Enter Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat, one of the best jumpers in the kingdom, flitting from body to body at will, who aims to use the winner’s take toward keeping his comatose lover alive. “As the games unfold, Calla and Anton strike an unlikely alliance that blossoms into a love affair--but only one can win, and to become victor, the star-crossed lovers will have to break their bond. Though this outing owes debts to both Shakespeare and The Hunger Games, the intricate magic system feels entirely fresh. Gong keeps the pages flying with pulse-pounding action, tension, and intrigue, creating an adventure that will linger in readers' minds long after the last page.” (Publishers Weekly)

* * * * = 4 starred reviews

* * * = 3 starred reviews

* = Starred review 

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #831

by muffy

rachel_incidentThe Rachel Incident, * * *  YA author Caroline O’Donoghue’s first adult novel and her US debut (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is a “brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three.” (USA Today) 

County Cork, Ireland. University student Rachel Murray counts on her hours at O’Conner Books to pay bills, ever since the financial crash has affected her family’s business. There she meets James Devlin, a Christmas temp - effervescent and insistently heterosexual, and soon, the two become roommates and fast friends. When Rachel develops a crush on her married professor Dr. Fred Byrne, James organizes a reading for him at the bookstore so Rachel could seduce him. To both of their surprises, Dr. Byrne has other (closeted) desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred's glamorous, well-connected, publisher wife, Deenie, who was once Fred’s student. 

“This deliciously complex set of entanglements lays the groundwork for the novel…and brings to mind the gossipy 19th-century novels Dr. Byrne might teach in class. But its true joys lie in the tremendously witty characters and their relationships: The real love story of this novel is not between James and Dr. Byrne, or Rachel and her own paramour, but between Rachel and James, whose codependent glee in each other's company will remind many readers of their own college friendships, especially those between women and queer men. A sensational new entry in the burgeoning millennial-novel genre.” (Kirkus Reviews) 

The Rachel Incident will appeal to fans of Sally Rooney and Michelle Gallen

 * * * = 3 starred reviews

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #830, Regency Cozies

by muffy

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The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies * * *  by Alison Goodman (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), the YA author’s first adult historical mystery, set in Regency London.

At 42, by all society standards, unmarried twins Lady Augusta Colebrook, "Gus," and Julia are well past their prime - yet with a secured income, a fashionable London address and well connected friends, they are far from docile, and in fact, they strain at all the rules society imposes on well-mannered ladies. 

When one of their friends is blackmailed for her indiscretions, they do not hesitate to confront the blackmailer in a secluded park after dark.  Soon, other women are seeking their services. On their way to rescue a young woman poisoned and imprisoned by her brute of a husband, Gus accidentally shots the highwayman holding up their carriage, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, charged with murder and exiled to the Colonies twenty years ago. Feeling responsible for his injuries, Gus takes him along on their mission. Before long, they become comrade-in-arms, and the chemistry between them is undeniable. .

“Fans of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels will savor this mystery…Well-developed characters, a touch of romance, and cases involving social issues of the period enhance the experience.”(Library Journal)

“Fierce, funny, and often dark, this is an eye-opening portrait of a colorful yet misogynistic period in English history. “ (Publishers Weekly)

most_agreeable_murderA Most Agreeable Murder * *  by screenwriter Julia Seales (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook).

Set in Swampshire, England, a respectable town located between London and Bath, this Regency murder mystery introduces 25 year-old Beatrice Steele, the eldest of three daughters born to a marriage-scheming mother and a prankster father. While she allows her family to think she is holding up in her turret room dreaming of romance, she is actually reading about solving crimes like her favorite "gentleman detective," Sir Huxley.

When the family is invited to the annual autumn ball at Stabmort Park, home of the Ashbrooks, to welcome eligible (and wealthy) bachelor Edmund Croaksworth, Mrs. Steele hopes that beautiful Louisa will steal his heart and save the family from ruin as Martin Grub, their disgusting cousin, is to eventually inherit the family’s estate. 

“By the end of the evening, secrets will have been revealed, false identities exposed, missing persons found, and murder committed (twice!). The character types are endearingly familiar to anyone who has ever read a Jane Austen novel, and the dialogue crackles with wit, outrage, subtext, and pluck. Beatrice, a true Sherlock Holmes within her restrictive social world, is a delight, and while the characters may be familiar, Seales' over-the-top caricatures succeed in being humorous rather than cliché…The result is a deliciously dark delve into a world that seems genteel on the surface and teems with sex and violence and greed just underneath--not so unlike Austen's but with a morbid, rather than domestic, bent. Irreverent, satirical, and oh so much fun! “ (Kirkus Reviews)

"A delightful cocktail that mixes elements of the Bridgerton series, Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries . . . The payoff is a wealth of wit, hilarity and suspense." (People)

* * * = 3 starred reviews

* *  = 2 starred reviews

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #829, Secrets of the Golden Age of Hollywood

by muffy

kitty_karrDid you Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook).

When the three St. Johns sisters, Elise, Giovanni, and Noele find themselves heirs to Kitty Karr Tate’s immense fortune, they were as surprised as the rest of Hollywood. The St. Johns, a prominent Bel Air family is Kitty’s neighbor as well as a mentor to Elise who is up for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Apart from planning Kitty’s memorial services, navigating the contentious dynamics between her sisters and their mother,  Elise is tasked with sorting out Kitty’s affairs, and among her journals, what Elise discovers will rock her world and might explain why a successful white actress would bestow her immense inheritance on three Black girls.

The narrative winds back to Kitty's hardships in 1930s North Carolina; and mid-century Hollywood glamor; the harshness of the studio system, with all of its attendant misogyny and racism.

“What is less obvious, by design, are the steps many people took to create new lives for themselves once they reached LA from less hospitable places. Against an origin story of sexual violence and systemic roadblocks, Kitty and her California cohort survive a series of excruciating trials in order to live their dreams. The results of their choices, made in order to succeed and survive in the Hollywood machine, echo for generations throughout Paul's meandering yet page-turning narrative…With a plot worthy of a miniseries, an extensive cast, and a historical sweep, Paul succeeds in entertaining as well as enlightening.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Piper Huguley will be enthralled.” (Booklist)

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Do Tell (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) by debut novelist Lindsay Lynch,  is “(g)amorous, tawdry, and human. A rich portrait of the lives of early Hollywood's beautiful puppets and those holding their strings." ~ Emma Straub  

1940s, Los Angeles. Edie O'Dare‘s contract with FWM Studios is about to end and with renewal unlikely, she needs to find a new gig.  While her career in pictures has been undistinguished at best, she is a fixture at all the parties and premiers and has long supplemented her income by passing on salacious dirt to the reigning gossip columnist. When a small kindness to 16-year-old rising starlet Sophie Melrose at a party gives her an exclusive to Sophie’s claim of being sexually assaulted by one of the biggest names in the industry, Freddy Clarke. The subsequent tabloid coverage lands Edie her own column at The Los Angeles Times (christened as "Do Tell”), Freddy being charged, and eventually strains her relationships with everyone she once considers a friend. 

“Although the plot lags when Lynch describes clothing, hairstyles, and makeup in too much detail, she doesn't lose sight of a salient theme: Edie's success depends on others' vulnerability. Lynch's characters--clad in designer gowns, inhabiting sumptuous mansions, and drinking champagne at lavish parties--are replaceable cogs in a powerful industry. An intimate look at Hollywood's dark secrets.” (Kirkus Reviews) 

BONUS FEATURE

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The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook). This historical novel is based on the life of Anna May Wong - the first and only Asian American woman to gain stardom in the early days of Hollywood.  Born Wong Liu Tsong, to Chinese immigrants who own a laundry, she was taunted and bullied growing up, finding joy only at the local nickelodeons. At 16, she left home to pursue her Hollywood dream. “She longed to play characters who weren't concubines, prostitutes, or evil dragon ladies. As one of the first Chinese American actresses, she often struggled to get movie roles for two reasons: Hollywood protocols and anti-miscegenation laws prevented her from starring as a love interest to a white man, and Asian roles often went to white actors in yellowface. She was determined to take the roles she could get and never give up on acting.” (Library Journal) 

“For greater freedom, Anna travels to Europe, where she befriends Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker. With its rich supporting cast, the novel emphasizes the friendships and family relationships that help Anna thrive, while her many disappointments (like losing a leading role in The Good Earth to a German actress in "yellowface") catch at the heart.” (Booklist)  

 

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #828, “Piecing together a murder was much more difficult than piecing together a cake.” ~ Ellie Alexander

by muffy

golden_spoonThe Golden Spoon * * * by Jessa Maxwell (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), an “outstanding debut, where (b)yzantine chicanery seasoned with a dash of revenge greets six contestants gathered for Bake Week on the property of a crumbling Vermont manse.” (Library Journal)

“Sabotage starts slow but early. A refrigerator door is left open; salt is replaced with sugar; a burner is turned up to high; gasoline replaces orange essence in a pie. By day three, it's clear someone isn't playing by the rules… Everything escalates to an extremely dark and stormy night (including a blackout), leading to startling revelations and a jaw-dropping confession. Sweet and savory turns deadly sour in this fast-paced, entertaining romp scheduled for a Hulu miniseries. Maxwell is off to a great start.” (Publishers Weekly) 

“There's a delightful balance of baking details and intrigue as the bakers compete through different challenges and we become privy to their secret motives and how far each is willing to go to win. The contestants hit all the character types: the beautiful ingénue, the neurotic scientist, the fluffy old woman, the bored millionaire, the anxious newbie, and the rustic craftsman. We are treated to their backstories and to some of their internal dialogue, but this is a novel that also rests comfortably, nostalgically, in its sense of formula. Despite the American setting, it’s not hard to imagine these characters creeping around the halls and grounds of a moldering British manor in the tradition of the best locked-room mysteries. A delicious concoction: two shakes Agatha Christie and a cup of Great British Bake Off.” (Kirkus Reviews)

mastering_the_artMastering the art of French Murder *  by Colleen Cambridge (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), is the first in An American in Paris Mystery Series that features Tabitha Knight and her best friend Julia Child, a student at the Le Cordon Bleu. 

With the return of able-bodied men to the homefront at the end of World War II, airplane machinist Tabitha lost her job at WIllow Run and decided to make her home with her French grandfather,  Grandpère and her Oncle Rafe in Paris. Fixing a broken radio led to fast friendship with neighbor Julia, another expat, whose husband Paul worked at the Embassy. Tutoring Americans in French during the day, Tabitha socialized with Dort, Julia’s younger sister, who ran a local theater. It was after one of these boozy parties at the Childs that the body of the theater’s hatcheck girl Thérèse Lognon, was found in Julia’s basement and the murder weapon - Julia’s prized chef’s knife. 

“Tabitha is eager to help the investigation, but is shocked when Inspector Merveille reveals that a note, in Tabitha's handwriting, was found in the dead woman's pocket. Is this murder a case of international intrigue, or something far more personal? From the shadows of the Tour Eiffel at midnight, to the tiny third-floor Child kitchen, to the grungy streets of Montmartre, Tabitha navigates through the city hoping to find the real killer before she or one of her friends ends up in prison . . . or worse. Certain to appeal to a broad readership, especially fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Rhys Bowen, and Cambridge's own Phyllida Bright series."  (Publishers Weekly) 

The Michigan Connection (from the author’s note): Colleen Cambridge grew up less than 2 miles from Willow Run where our protagonist Tabitha worked as a Rosie the Riveter, a job Cambridge’s aunt took on during the war. Additional mention of Faygo pop, Vernos, Boblo Island and all things Detroit, will delight Michiganians.

BONUS FEATURE

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Murder at an Irish Bakery,*  the latest in the cozy series featuring Garda Siobhan O'Sullivan, by Carlene O’Connor (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook)

Kilbane, County Cork. Anticipation is high for a reality baking show is about to be filmed at Pie Pie Love, the best bakery in town, housed in a historic flour mill. Asides from the expectations of free samples, the locals, including Siobhan, are eager to get on camera, and to watch Aoife McBride (aka "the Queen baker of Ireland") at work as one of the 6 contestants.

Tension mounts as one of the anti-sugar protestors collapses and dies on site, and shenanigans among the contestants on the first day of filming put everyone on edge, but that's nothing compared to day two, when the first round ends and the top contestant is found face-down in her signature pie.

“Two accidental deaths seem a bit much, and the solicitor, who might have provided answers, has vanished. Siobhán’s husband, DS Macdara Flannery, who’s even more addicted to sweets than she is, takes over the case. The show goes on, if only to keep all the suspects in town while the married sleuths look to the past and present for motives.  Plenty of likely prospects and an endless supply of sweet treats brighten the path to the solution. “ (Kirkus Reviews) 

* * *  = 3 starred reviews

* = Starred reveiw

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #827, Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? ~ “Pretty Woman” (1990)

by muffy

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The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, * a debut novel by Tom Hanks, who needs no introduction, is about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film and the comic books that inspire it. 

This is one title that you could do no wrong with either the print, eBook, or the audiobook format. 

First, the audiobook… narrated by the author and joined by an accomplished ensemble cast is simply delightful, at times laugh-out-loud funny. In the print (and eBook) formats, interspersed throughout are three comic books that are featured in the story, all created by Tom Hanks himself, including the one that becomes the official tie-in for “Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall, a mashup of Marvel-esque superhero fare, war story, and artsy melodrama “ (Kirkus Reviews)

1947, Bob Falls, the World War II vet who served as a flamethrower in the Pacific theater, returns home to Lone Butte, California and meets his nephew Robby Andersen, then disappears for the next 23 years. 

In 1970, Robby, now an underground comic books author in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and creates a comic book series titled The Legend of Firefall, inspired by his uncle's wartime experiences. 

In the present day, Bill Johnson, a successful Hollywood director acquires the Firefall property and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie, and charges his small army of actors, assistants, and technicians with shooting the film in Lone Butte, to help him meet deadlines and stay on budget.  

“The writing is spot-on, bringing to the novel all the passion Hanks feels about his profession: 'Making movies is complicated, maddening, highly technical at times, ephemeral and gossamer at others, slow as molasses on a Wednesday but with a gun-to-the-head deadline on a Friday.' The whole book is like that: lovingly crafted, a wildly entertaining story beautifully told. If you love movies, you'll love this book.” (Booklist) 

* = Starred review

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #826, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ~ Oscar Wilde

by muffy

all_this_could_bedifferent2022 National Book Award finalist, and The New York TIme Book Review Editors’ Choice, All This Could be Different * * * *  by Sarah Thankam Mathews (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook), is a “darkly witty and finely wrought exploration of the struggle to embrace one's identity, this debut also illuminates the hardships of immigrant life, the elusiveness of lasting romantic love - and ultimately the joy and belonging that can come from a 'family' of friends.” (People Magazine) 

During the mid-2000s recession, 22 year-old Indian immigrant Sneha, a recent college graduate, is fortunate to land an entry-level job in Milwaukee, “where she tries on adulthood like an ill-fitting suit.” (Kirkus Reviews)  No longer under the watchful eyes of her traditional parents, Sneha scours online dating apps for other queer women, befriends (An)Tig(one) Clay, a philosophy student, and develops a burning crush on Marina, a beguiling and beautiful older white dancer. 

But before long, trouble arrives - her boss stops paying her, the landlord threatens eviction, and a childhood trauma demands to be reckoned with. It's then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all.

“Recounting this heady time a decade or so later, Sneha is a magnetic teller of her tale of finding love, growing up, and summoning the power to change--and choose--her life. Kindred to Brandon Taylor's stellar Real Life (2020), this novel burrows deep.” (Booklist)

skin_and_its_girlThe Skin and its Girl * *  by Sarah Cypher (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook).

Elspeth Noura Rummani is born in a Pacific Northwest hospital, the very day her Palestinian family’s centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike by the Israeli military. An infant with impossibly cobalt-blue skin, she is refused by the lesbian couple intent on adopting her. 

With her neuroscientist mother, Tashi, emotional fragile and battling mental illness, great-aunt Nuha, the matriarch and keeper of the family lore, raises her as Betty, believing that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love. 

Decades later, Betty returns to Aunt Nuha's gravestone, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she's ever known, or should she follow her heart and the woman she loves, perpetuating her family's cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt's complex life and struggle with her own sexuality. The Skin and Its Girl is a searing, poetic tale about desire and identity, and a provocative exploration of how we let stories divide, unite, and define us--and wield even the power to restore a broken family.

endpapers

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook).  Frustrated artist Dawn Levit works as a conservator/ bookbinder at the Metropolitan Museum of Art while spending most of her time scouting the city’s street art for inspiration. Genderfluid, she presents as female at work and is concerned that her musician boyfriend Lukas increasingly seems to be attracted to her when she's at her most masculine.

Then, one day at work, Dawn finds something hidden behind the endpaper of an old book she is restoring - the torn-off cover of a '50s lesbian pulp novel, Turn Her About, with what appears to be a  love letter in German written on the back.

“The discovery leads to unexpected adventures as she becomes obsessed with tracking down the mysterious note's elusive author even as she questions her own complicated identity. A bookbinder herself, Savran Kelly is also a fine writer, and her debut novel is smooth and involving." (Booklist)

Endpapers will appeal to readers of queer, nonbinary, or trans fiction like Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby as well as anyone who loves character-driven, setting-rich stories like Tell the Wolves I'm Home or The Immortalists.

* * * * = 4 starred reviews

* * = 2 starred reviews

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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #825, Spotlight on the Michigan Connection

by muffy

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Wade in the Water * (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) by Nyaneba Nkrumah (MFA, University of Michigan) is the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in rural, segregated Ricksville, Mississippi in the early 1980s. 

11 year-old Ella, the product of a fling between her mother and a black man is ignored by her mother, abused by her stepfather - her only friend being the blind old Mr. McCade. Love-starved but wise beyond her years, she is fascinated by Katherine St. James, a white graduate student, newly arrived from Princeton on a research project, who chooses to rent in the Black half of town. Curious and suspicious, most of the Black folks stay away except for Ella who eagerly befriends Katherine.

In a series of flashbacks, we learn that Katherine St. James used to be Kate Summerville, daughter of a notorious Mississippi Ku Klux Klan leader in nearby Philadelphia, Mississippi, in the early 1960s. The family fled north after the killings of three voting-rights activists, and the case remains unsolved. 

“What looks like it could be a narrative of atonement and redemption is turned completely on its head in the final chapters, as more details on Katherine's involvement with her father are presented - some to the community, some only to the reader. Nkrumah seems to agree with Faulkner, who said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past…. A furious look at the long tail of Jim Crow, with lively writing and a well-drawn setting. A promising debut.” (Kirkus Reviews) 

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Moonrise Over New Jessup * (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) by Jamila Minnicks (UM), the winner of the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, is a period novel set in the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, and “brilliantly presents the Black struggle through an anti-integration lens that is equally powerful and persuasive.” (Booklist) 

1957. Alice Young steps off the bus in New Jessup, on the way to Chicago to reunite with her sister, in hope of starting a new life. In this unique settlement founded by a coalition of Black families who believed in the ideas of separation espoused by Booker T. Washington, Alice finds warm welcome, lodging, and a job sewing in a dress shop, and soon falls in love with Raymond Campbell, son of one of the town’s founders. 

As they marry and raise a family, Alice becomes aware of Raymonds clandestine involvement with National Negro Advancement Society, ideals that the town frown upon, believing it will draw unwanted and dangerous attention from the white side of town and the law.  Alice must find a way to balance her undying support for Raymond’s underground work with her desire to protect New Jessup from the rising pressure of upheaval.

Based on the history of the many Black towns and settlements established across the country, “(a)n outstanding writer, Minnicks excels at capturing the atmosphere and issues of a specific locale at a particular time, the Deep South at the dawn of the civil rights era.” (Library Journal)

the_one

The One by Julia Argy (MFA in fiction from the UM Helen Zell Writers' Program, 2021) (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is a razor-sharp and seductively hypnotic debut novel about the very fantasy of falling in love.

20-something Emily Boylan just lost her job as an adm. assistant, never mind she does maybe 10 mins of real work every day, and she is determined to move forward. So when she is approached on a Boston street by Miranda, a TV producer for the hit reality dating show The One, to join the cast after a contestant backed out at the last minute, she's on board. But the moment Emily arrives on location, it becomes clear she's been tapped to win it all, after meeting Dylan Walter and the other 29 women vying for his proposal.  And as Emily's fascination with another contestant grows, both Emily and Miranda are forced to decide what it is they really want--and what they are willing to do to get it. A brilliant send-up of our cultural mythology around romance, The One examines the reality of love and desire set against a world of ultimate artifice and manipulation. 

“Fans of reality TV will appreciate the insider feel first-time novelist Argy creates for her version of a very famous dating show, with the addition of cheeky suggestions of the secret motivations of some contestants that have nothing to do with love or marriage. The characters are flawed and likable, utterly convinced of the rightness of their participating in the unhealthy behaviors encouraged by the producers…A pop-culture send-up bound to inspire lively discussions.” (Booklist)  

 * = Starred review