15 narrators (Dion Graham) – Modern Mrs Darcy

The Circle

by Dave Eggers

A chilling cautionary tale about the internet, social media, and connectedness with echoes of Animal Farm. At 503 pages, the book felt a bit long-winded to me, but it nevertheless raises important and timely questions about connectedness, transparency, and the dark side of the internet. Published in October 2013, and I wonder what I would have thought if I had read it then.

Lovely War

by Julie Berry

This fun novel—and book club favorite—combines three unexpected elements to great effect: World War I, a love story, and Greek mythology. It begins with Aphrodite and Ares walking into a swanky Manhattan hotel during WWII, and soon enough Aphrodite's husband Hephaestus challenges her to show him what love really looks like. She obliges, and takes the reader back in time to meet four young lovers in 1917 Britain, showing her fellow gods how each couple fell in love, and what they mean to each other. It sounds unlikely but the interesting narrative structure totally works.

Washington Black

by Esi Edugyan

I have this downloaded and it has not only made the list of YOUR favorite audiobooks, but reviewers around the interwebs use words like "masterpiece," "artful," "epic," and "a rip-roaring tale." The story follows a young freed slave, George Washington Black, or "Wash," across the globe from the cane fields of the Caribbean to the Arctic to London to the Moroccan deserts as a manservant to Christopher, an abolitionist, explorer, and inventor. Wash accompanies him around a world where impossible things happen—flying machines carry men across the sky, and divided people can begin to see each other as human.