An original book.

Westerbeke is a full-time librarian who wrote this debut novel in his spare time.

Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death.

When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days—nor return to a place where she’s already been.

From the scorched dunes of the Calashino Sand Sea to the snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas; from a bottomless well in a Parisian courtyard, to the shelves of an infinite underground library, we follow Aubry as she learns what it takes to survive and ultimately, to truly live.

But the longer Aubry wanders and the more desperate she is to share her life with others, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s…

It was inspired by some of his favourite authors: Somerset Maugham, Thornton Wilder, Dostoyevsky, particularly The Brother’s Karamozov, Jack London. More recently Haruki Murakami, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Emily St. John Mandel.

Click PLAY or see the author explain the book on YouTube.

Disappointing.

A big fan, I downloaded the newest Reacher the day of publication.

29th in the series, it is very similar to the previous 28. 😀

A proven formula.

The same odd, somewhat stilted dialogue.

Plenty of Jack Reacher man handling the bad guys without knife or (aside from one case) gun.

The authors are still Lee Child & Andrew Child, though I assume Andrew is doing most of the writing now.

The recent books have been improved by making fun of Reacher being a luddite. He has no phone, so must keep borrowing phones. He barely knows how Uber works.

On the downside, the PLOT of this book might have looked good in outline. But — ultimately — it was way too complicated. Too many characters.

I lost interest.

I predict many fans will start the book excited, and finish underwhelmed.

That said, the worst Reacher book in the series is still better than almost anything else being published this year. If you don’t know these books, start back at beginning.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

An absurd premise … but it somehow weirdly works.

Details.

Holly is an Aussie game designer, now living in London. This is her 1st book. A hit.

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?

Audio book narrator Shaina Summerville made me want to quit the book about 5% of the way in …

BUT, I’d say her voice is very reflective of the flawed, weird character Dr. Nora.

This is an odd book, written in something of simplistic style. Yet I got hooked on that originality.

My Mom read it too. It’s memorable.

Some doors are locked for a reason….

While 11-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.

Until the day the police arrived at their front door.

Decades later, Nora’s father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.

Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.

Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.

As long as they don’t look in her basement.

Better written than The Plot, in my opinion.

But her storytelling is too slow for me. The book would be far better if it was half as long.

Not much happens.

I understand the very end of the LONG book gets better. But I quit at 50%. 😀

Critic love Jean Hanff Korelitz. This is her 8th book.

But it has all the characteristics of books I don’t like:

• rich people, inexplicably miserable
• ponderously TELLS instead of simply showing details
• no characters to cheer for
• everyone lies needlessly — resulting in the unneccessary conflicts

If you ignore plot and characters, there are some interesting discussions on:

• In vitro fertilization
• Jews
• Mormons
• College life
• Art
• mocking extreme liberal schools
• mocking extreme conservative thinking

I’d say Lucy Foley is one of our best contemporary authors.

Skillful.

For me this book was very good, but not “great“.

Most people consider The Guest List (2020) to be better.

She’s moved from historical fiction to “mysteries” over her career.

Midnight Feast is her 2024 book.

It’s the opening night of The Manor, the newest and hottest luxury resort, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And it’s not too long before the local police are called. …

This story is told over 3 time frames, yet isn’t confusing. She did that well.

Chapters are told from the first person point of view of a number of characters. This worked, keeping a somewhat complicated plot from getting mixed up.

It includes (possibly) a supernatural element. Also good.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.