Quick Lit September 2024 Archives

Wahala

by Nikki May

May's debut has been patiently waiting for me since its January 2022 release on my "sounds good, maybe I'll read it soon" bookshelf. This month it vaulted to the top of my TBR for reasons I'll get to talk about soon. The story revolves around a tight-knit group of three Anglo-Nigerian best friends living in contemporary London—but then a fourth insinuates herself into their group, and though they don't yet know it, her explicit goal is to sow chaos in all their lives. With heaps of secrets, lies, and ultimately, betrayal, this tale of female friendship was a real pageturner. I listened to the audio version narrated by Natalie Simpson.

The Briar Club

by Kate Quinn

This historical fiction set during the McCarthy era in 1950 Washington, DC takes place almost entirely in the Briarwood House, a women's boardinghouse run by a parsimonious landlord. The structure is interesting: we hear from each of the house's residents in turn, but just once, and learn of her dreams, disappointments, and the secrets she's keeping from her housemates. But the house has its own opinions on what unfolds within its walls: we hear from the house itself repeatedly throughout the story, beginning in the opening chapter when it tells us two people have been murdered there. Beautifully constructed and highly entertaining. I definitely folded extra laundry so I could find out what happens next. If you opt for the audiobook narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, don't miss her conversation with Kate Quinn at the end.

Lost Man’s Lane

by Scott Carson

I was hooked by this intriguing premise: in 1999, Bloomington IN teenager Marshall is pulled over for speeding by a cranky police officer within hours of getting his driver's license. During the traffic stop he notices a pretty blonde girl sitting in the back of the police cruiser. Not long after, he discovers the girl is missing—but when he reports what he witnessed to the authorities, they tell him the officer that issued his speeding ticket doesn't exist and chide him for trying to mess up their case. Marshall knows what he saw, and is determined to get to the bottom of it. This turned out be a supernatural thriller in the vein of Stephen King's Fairy Tale that, while plotty, also featured well-developed characters that I loved and rooted hard for. (The Weller! Who's read this and knows what I'm talking about?) For those of us who were teens in the 90s, the nostalgia factor here is incredibly high.

By Any Other Name

by Jodi Picoult

Would you believe this is my first Jodi Picoult novel? I was intrigued by the historical angle: the premise is that the Elizabethan poet Emilia Bassano was actually the author of the body of work attributed to William Shakespeare. Meanwhile in our modern era, a contemporary female playwright finds herself embroiled in scandal from complications that ensue after she writes and produces (and lies about) a play asserting that same premise. I very much enjoyed the historical timeline of this novel, and the hours zoomed by as I listened to the audiobook narrated by a full cast including Jayne Entwistle, John Lee, and Simon Vance, with a particularly fascinating author's note read by Jodi Picoult.

Pink Slime

by Fernanda Trías

WSIRN alum Michelle Wilson first put this weird little novel in translation on my radar: Michelle chose it as one of her best books of summer for MMD Book Club; you may have heard me proceed to recommended it to Hunter on WSIRN Ep 445: Startlingly beautiful sentences and perfect last lines.. The novel has since been longlisted for the National Book Award for translated literature. In it, a woman weathers a pandemic in an unnamed South American coastal city. Because of a recent environmental disaster, a dangerous red fog is rolling in off the ocean and endangering those in its path; like many, she's too poor to flee inland to the cities, as the wealthy have done. As a squeamish reader, I did a fair amount of rapid skimming through the gruesome depictions of illness. But the unnamed narrator captured my attention, and there was much to linger on: the curious factoids accumulated in her work as a copywriter that she drops into the narrative, her urgent yet oddly detached navigation of impending doom, and especially her meta observations about narrative and the story she's unspooling here.

Quick Lit September 2024

Wahala

The Briar Club

Lost Man’s Lane

By Any Other Name

Pink Slime

Buckle Up!

summer reading starts May 16th