Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Each November, my book club reads indigenous fiction or history. This month, we chose to read this book. It was an excellent choice.

Daunis is an eighteen-year-old Chippewa living near the Ojibwe reservation in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. She feels like she doesn’t fit in either the while world or the native world despite belonging to both. She used to play on the high school hockey team and her half-brother is the captain of the local club team. When handsome newcomer Jamie joins the team and befriends her brother, he asks her to be his ambassador. As she gets closer to Jamie she finds out more than she expected and her world turns upside down.

This is a wonderful coming-of-age novel that explores all the feelings and issues without getting too sappy and deals with them realistically. I loved how immersed it is in Ojibwe culture and language. And it is so well-written. Hard to believe it is a debut novel!

My rating: 5/5

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

My book club selected this book as our read in October for horror/fantasy.

It is the story of a young girl (January) who struggles to be good in the eyes of her guardian while her father is out gathering objects for him. She finds a book that tells the story of a woman told by her husband. It tells of doorways to other worlds. January longs to find such doors through which she can escape.

I found the writing in this book beautiful without getting in the way of the storytelling. It was easy to read and touched on topics that mean a lot to me: feminism, misogyny, and self-determination. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4/5

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan

This was another thriller that my partner and I listened to on a recent road trip. We didn’t quite finish it by the time we got home. I finished it on my way to work the next day.

Lydia Smith works at a bookstore. Late one night at closing, I regular is discovered having hanged himself in the store. Lydia was close to this patron and finds that his effects have been left to her. In her effort to understand why she begins to uncover things in her past that she thought she left behind.

This was both a thriller and an exploration of relationships and dealing with the past. Better than most but nothing spectacular. A solid choice for a road trip.

My rating: 3/5

When These Mountains Burn by David Joy

My library book club members all read different books for each meeting. For our last meeting, the prompt was to read a book by a North Carolina author. Having read and enjoyed a previous novel by David Joy, I selected this audiobook for a recent road trip.

Raymond Mathis gets a call from a drug dealer. He says that unless he pays his son’s debt, he will kill him. He reluctantly bails his son out, warning the dealer to never sell to his son again. After his son relapses, Ray goes after the operation that poisoned his son.

What I loved most about this novel is that it takes place where I live. Once seen included a location I drive through every day. The author also does an amazing job of capturing the people and nature of the mountains of western North Carolina. Despite the depressing subject matter of this book, I thoroughly enjoyed how the community worked to overcome its own issues.

My rating: 4/5

Jaws by Peter Benchley

This being the 50th anniversary of the release of the movie, I have been hearing a lot of coverage about its making. This led me to want to read the book to see what all the fuss was about in the first place.

The plot of the novel is fairly similar to that of the movie. There are naturally other plot lines in the book that didn’t make it to the movie. These include the mayor of the town getting into trouble with local organized crime and the sheriff’s wife having an affair. The ending it also a bit different.

While I enjoyed this novel, I don’t really see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps it was one of those books that was a product of its time. It still holds up as a good novel, but I don’t think it would be the hit it was then if it was released today. This is the rare case where the movie was better than the book.

My rating: 3/5

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

My book club reads classics in September. We unanimously selected this one this year. One of our members had already read it and really enjoyed. It was just okay for me.

Rebecca is the dead wife of Maxim DeWinter. The narrator meets him in Monte Carlo and they are soon married. They return to Max’s home in England. This home is almost a character in the house. The home revolved around the previous Mrs. DeWinter and her presence is still felt. The narrator feels smothered by her until a revelation halfway through the book changes the entire perspective of the novel.

There is a really creepy, closed in feeling in this book. It almost feels like a haunted house book but it isn’t. The writing is excellent but I quickly found the narrator naive and irritating. Still, the story is unique and well-told.

My rating: 3/5

Beginning Before and After the End by Jake Stein

Once again, here a piece that isn’t exactly a story but is very effective for that very reason. It is a story that is being told by a narrator directly to you, consciously so. And the narrator has a very specific goal they are trying to achieve, something they are trying to get you to do. I won’t spoil it for you. It is quite short so I encourage you to go read it.

The writing here is clever in an effective way that draws the reader in. I’d love to talk about what it is saying, but, once again, that would spoil your experience.

Length: 759 words (< 5 minutes)

My rating: 4/5

City of One by Stephen S. Power

The author has used a number of unique tools in this excellent story. First, the story is in the second person, so it is speaking directly to the reader. I often find this distracting, but here it is used to devastating effect in drawing the reader in and immersing them in the narrative. Second, this isn’t really a story. It is more of a description of a video game told using a narrative style. Again, seems like it wouldn’t work very well, but it does. Without giving away too much, it describes a kind of hind and seek game that seems impossible to win and has existential consequences. And the second half describes a sequel that flips the script.

This one is dark and hits close to home. It shows the extremes of our internet, mobile phone culture and how unavoidable and futile it can feel. Read it.

Length: 885 words (< 5 minutes)

My rating: 4/5

The Girlfriend Experience by C.Z. Tacks

In a bleak, near future dystopia devastated by climate change, a sex worker is forced by her economic circumstances to entertain a client whose proclivity involves choking her. It’s okay, though. She has a “closet” she can use. This is a technology that allows for a sort of full body mask that subsumes her consciousness during the experience. But the technology seems to be on the fritz and something unexpected happens.

The world building here is detailed and deeply immersive without being expository, flowing organically as part of the storytelling. The best part of the story is exploring the idea I cannot reveal without spoiling the story. This is another piece of short fiction exploring ideas through story. Well done!

Length: 5,017 words (about 20 minutes)

My rating: 5/5

The Place I Came To by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko

This is a short, simple story of how the narrator moved to a new city that he at first didn’t really like but eventually came to appreciate and love. Despite its brevity, it does evoke a feeling for what it is like to move from feeling estranged in a new place to loving it despite, or even because of, all its apparent shortcomings.

Length: 982 words (about 5 minutes)

My rating: 3/5