Quick Lit December 2016 Archives

A Deeper Darkness

by J.T. Ellison

When J.T. Ellison joined the MMD Book Club to talk about reading and writing psychological thrillers, I read this in preparation. (J.T.'s best advice for thriller-loving readers: Stop looking for the twist!) I loved this series opener for her Dr. Samantha Owens series and read it in just one night, and when I finally figured out the mystery it wasn't at all what I expected.

The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living

by Louise Miller

This was a fun, more-or-less lighthearted read about a Boston pastry chef who flees to the country after literally setting her workplace on fire with a flambéed dessert. Reviewers called this parts Jan Karon and parts Gilmore Girls. Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan's The Little Beach Street Bakery or Laura Dave's Eight Hundred Grapes.

What I Saw And How I Lied

by Judy Blundell

When Gretchen Rubin was on What Should I Read Next, she talked me into this modern YA classic that had somehow never made it on my radar, despite being a National Book Award winner in 2008. This was a dark kind of fun, easy to read and hard to put down. From the publisher: "When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But when movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two."

The Accidental Tourist

by Anne Tyler

If my memory is correct, this book—Tyler’s tenth—was my introduction to her work. I’ve come to learn that the combination of ordinary and absurd on display here is typical of her work. Case in point: her protagonist Macon Leary, a travel writer who despises travel. We meet him as he’s in the midst of a divorce; he and his wife are separating a year after their 12-year-old son died tragically. When he falls and breaks a leg, he and his naughty dog Edward move back into the family home with his adult siblings. When dog trainer Muriel sweeps into the picture, Macon is hopeful she’ll help Edward behave … but she ends up turning Macon’s entire life upside down. And to his great surprise, that turns out not to be entirely unwelcome.

The Sparrow

by Mary Doria Russell

This is on the favorite-books-EVER lists of some of my favorite readers. It took me a hundred pages to get into it but once I did I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. The New York Times Book Review calls this "A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction." Entertainment Weekly adds "Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them."

Quick Lit December 2016

A Deeper Darkness

The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living

What I Saw And How I Lied

The Accidental Tourist

The Sparrow

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