​By the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, this is a captivating read about Venice, particularly in the context of the fire that destroyed La Fenice Opera House in the late 1990s.  While to a large extent focused on who started the fire and why, this book branches out from the main storyline in interesting ways, painting a detailed portrait of a unique city. Filled with politics, culture, history, and, of course, an unsolved mystery, I loved not only the exquisite writing, but the interviews and depicts of people.  Instead of being a distraction, the side stories were just as interesting as the main fire plot.

Highly recommend.

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I have to say that I just love a good time travel book and this is a spectacularly good time travel book.  With a complicated plot, rich characters with depth, and a fairly believable world, the story is captivating and I did not want to take a break from it.  I particularly loved how much time I invested in trying to keep track of the loose ends and the satisfaction I had as they all came together as the story enfolded in an interconnected and unexpected way.

​The foreshadowing was there, so that the ending came together smoothly, but not so much so that it was predictable or trite.  I also love a book in which friendship is the at the center of the story and this book developed many storylines around friendships, some of them particularly sweet, though perhaps unconventional.  The relationship between the protagonist Cass and her grandfather is melancholic and haunting, but so endearing.  You'll need space in your life to really pay attention to the details, because there is a lot going on that you will want to keep track of as the story unfolds. 

And I have a soft spot for books that take place in bookstores and libraries and this has the added benefit of having both of those.

And extra bonus points for the unexpected Oregon connection.
 
Highly recommend.
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This has been an eclectic year of recommendations, with more horror than I have ever read, but also more really sweet novels that are just heart warming, lovely, light reads.  This is one of the latter. Even the book cover reflect the soft care that I felt when reading it.

A group of intertwining stories set in Japan in which people unhappy with their lives find themselves at the library getting lists of books from the quirk, eccentric librarian, who also felts small knickknacks that she gives away.  The book lists always include a recommendation that seems unrelated to the inquiry, but ends up being part of the recipe people need to transform their lives. 

It is a fun and delightful concept book. I found it to be slightly longer than was necessary to make and develop the project, such that I finished the book a little bit bored in a way that I wasn't through most of it. Like binge watching a good show that has a simplistic formula, if I had read it more slowly, I might have found this to be an endearing and comforting quality.

Not not recommended.

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Louise Erdrich does not disappoint in this sweet novel about a book lover with complex relationships, searching for family, while being haunted by her past and the past of others. It is complex, but I was easily drawn into the layers of stories.

And what booklover does love a book that talks about books and drops the names of titles like they are celebrities? Set in a bookstore to a large extend, I particularly loved that this was perhaps the first novel to incorporate the pandemic into its storyline and it was done exquisitely, with such emotional detail. 
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I just really loved this story.

Highly recommend.

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Set mostly in Edinburgh, this is a layered book with a multi-generational story that unfolds when the mental health facility where Esme has been living for decades is being closed.  Her great-niece, who was oblivious to her existence, is the next-of-kin contacted and the story to understand Esme's -- and by extension the whole family's--life history unfolds.  With themes addressing intergenerational family dysfunction and the control of rebellious women, I found the book engaging and charming.

Recommend.
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Written in 2015, I couldn't remember if I had read this years ago when it was released or if I had just heard about it and read excerpts, so I dug in and read it in its entirety and it holds up.  In fact, almost all of the main topics covered in this book about living beyond the gender binary and heteronormativity to which our systemic structures are beholden could have been written today.  These topics were not new in 2015, but this book was written at a time when the emerging, radical ideas from the era that preceded it had been academicalized and solidified with enduring language and a coherent world view that has stuck. 

This memoir is steeped in Queer theory and is well worth a read.

Recommend.

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Who needs an historicalized fictional novel when there are real life stories like this one?  This non-fiction book about the world's most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser, would not be believable if it were presented as a novel.

​At the end of the book, there is a short description of the research done to gather the facts for the story, but I left wanting more information about the author and how he managed to amass all of the details he included in the book because it is a fascinating read.  The thefts happened all of Europe, in plain sight of other visitors and guards, in all kinds of museums over the course of a few years in the late 1990's and early 2000's. 

I also left wishing there was more to say about the psychology of not only the main thief, but of his girlfriend and mother, both of whom had behaviors relating to the crimes that left me perplexed.  All told the art was likely worth more than a billion dollars and Breitwieser was an entirely self-taught art historian and aficionado.  The writing was solid enough, though it is definitely written as non-fiction, but the story itself is such that it carries the writing, which is almost certainly due to the research and interviews that went into the process. This even included the author being present when Breitwieser stole things.

Recommend.

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I have to say that I love a good story about friendship and this is a good story about friendships.  Two women at a point in life where they are each struggling with academic careers and family, grief and loneliness, their unlikely meeting becomes the backdrop for this sweet novel.  For me, the added bonus of being set in Oregon and Seattle adds a fun local flavor to the story. There are several subplots, including addiction and recovery and parenting a child with autism in the 1990's. 

The entire book is told in the context of bird facts. One of the women is an ornithologist, so her love of and connection to birds provide metaphors for human relationships, which I initially found gimmicky, but it grew on me as the plot of the story unfolded to be more complex than it initially seemed. Ultimately, I think it worked, particularly as birds were generally woven into the storyline in multiple ways.  It reminded me a bit of The Overstory in this way, but unlike that book where I felt like I just didn't like and appreciate trees enough to love the book, I didn't feel like my lack of love and appreciation for birds mattered.

I thought the writing here was well done and the story was well plotted, with lots of backstory overfolding in ways that did not distract from the current timeline.  I particularly loved how the flawed characters were presented with so much compassion, particularly around the topic of alcoholism.  

Recommend.

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Yet another story about Americans traveling to Scotland for a vacation read in Virtual Voice.  I need a setting that excludes these from view, although having now read three of these, I have definitely learned my lesson.  The Voice here isn't as horrendous as Valentine's Day In Venice, but it still takes away from the story, which is saying a lot since the story was nothing compelling to start with.  Retired, disgruntled cop and his wife housesit in Scotland for a change of scene and get asked to help solve a blackmailing mystery for a neighbor.  Predictable and bland.
Not recommended

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​This is billed as a "clean" romance and that is an understatement.  Not only is it read with a "Virtual Voice" that makes the dialogue sound like it is being delivered by a robot (as opposed to even an android), but every time the story heats up at all, it backs away from emotional intimacy in favor of bland and superficial interactions.  Moreover, once again this is a story about English characters living in and visiting Scotland so absolutely nothing opened up context for a trip there. Nothing to see here.

Not recommended.

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