Quick Lit May 2023 Archives

Hula: A Novel

by Jasmin Iolani Hakes

Three generations of women tell their story through dance on the Big Island. One daughter dreams of proving herself by becoming Miss Aloha Hula, but the harder she tries, the more things fall apart. Secrets erupt and the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement is explored through the lens of one fractured family.

Practice Makes Perfect

by Sarah Adams

Real talk: My native Kentucky doesn't get a lot of love in literature, so when I saw this was set in the fictional small town of Rome, Kentucky, I snapped it right up. The fact that I'd heard good things about Sarah Adams's work bolstered my confidence, plus the protagonists are named Anne (okay, Annie) and Will! This is the second in the When in Rome series, but I read that it could stand alone and I found that to be the case. Annie is a 30-year-old small town florist who dreams of getting married and having children, but fears her social awkwardness may prevent that dream from coming true. Will is the badass bodyguard to pop star Rae Rose, also known as Annie's soon-to-be sister-in-law Amelia. Nobody expects "angel Annie" and bad boy Will to belong together, but sparks fly whenever they're together. This is actually a fake dating story, the idea being that Annie needs lessons from the more experienced Will if she's ever going to have a successful date. That premise strained credulity, but that's okay: I liked this for its small town setting, ongoing conversations about Annie's cherished pirate romances and their tropes, and thoughtful examination of family dynamics.

The Nigerwife

by Vanessa Walters

From the publisher: "'White Lotus meets Big Little Lies' (Good Morning America) in this twisty and electrifying debut novel about a young woman who goes missing in Lagos, Nigeria, and her estranged auntie who will stop at nothing to find the truth behind her disappearance. Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband; a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria; and a glamorous group of friends. But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. An inventively told and keenly observant thriller where nothing is as it seems, The Nigerwife offers a razor-sharp look at the bonds of family, the echoing consequences of secrets, and whether we can ever truly outrun our past."

Barbara Isn’t Dying

by Alina Bronsky

I minored in German in college, and so didn't think twice about trying this contemporary German novel from Europa Editions. (Although I read Tim Mohr's new translation; I shudder to think what my experience with the original German would be after all these years!) In this tragicomic tale, Herr Schmidt wakes one morning to discover nobody has made the coffee yet—and his immediate thought must be that his wife has died in the night, because what other explanation could there be? Barbara is in fact alive, but unwell, and as the story progresses, we see this curmudgeonly husband learn to do things he's never thought twice about doing for himself, let alone someone else, in all his long decades of married life: purchase ground coffee, cook a potato, run the vacuum. And that's just the beginning of the adaptations this couple will have to make to their relationship as they enter a challenging new stage. Bronsky covers a lot of emotional ground in just 182 pages; I recommend Fredrik Backman fans take a look.

With My Little Eye

by Joshilyn Jackson

Jackson has long been an auto-read author for me: I’ll read whatever she writes. Here she once again pulls together things she loves and knows well: Atlanta, the theater, human nature, and autism, combining to tell a story that had me continually going WAIT, WHAT?! The plot of this new thriller revolves around an actress who was in a hugely popular show when she was 23. Now, twenty years later, she’s moved back to Atlanta with her daughter to get away from a scary stalker back in L.A. But when the stalker’s letters start showing up at her new address, she has to find a way to protect herself and her child. I loved this for its delicious misdirection, well-drawn child characters, and breathless conclusion. (Lots of content warnings here, including children in peril.)

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma

by Claire Dederer

I was previously unfamiliar with Dederer's work but picked this up because I was interested in the topic: how can we reconcile our love for art with the biographies of its creators? Gone are the days when fans knew little about the real people who created the art they consumed; Dederer writes of how things are different in the internet era: "Biography used to be something you sought out, yearned for, actively pursued. Now it falls on your head all day long." She frames her case from the jarring (and somewhat graphic) opening: she has long loved the films of Roman Polanski—Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist—yet Polanski committed objectively terrible crimes. What is the fan to make of this? How can the fan think about their relationship to art made by always imperfect and sometimes monstrous people? I found this a thoughtful and thought-provoking treatment, which covered questions I knew I wanted to hear more about and also topics I didn't expect to enter the conversation, like capitalism. (So fascinating!) I listened to the audio (narrated by the author), and found Dederer's conversational style worked well in that format.

Quick Lit May 2023