A CHANGE OF TIME by Ida Jessen

ARCHIPELAGO PRESS
Publishing date March 29, 2019

About

A penetrating study of a woman who, in the wake of her domineering husband's death, must embrace her newfound freedom and redefine herself.

Set in rural Denmark in the early 20th century, A Change of Time tells the story of a schoolteacher whose husband, the town doctor, has passed away. Her subsequent diary entries form an intimate portrait of a woman rebuilding her identity, and a small rural town whose path to modernity echoes her own path to joyful independence.

LITTLE by Edward Carey

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Personal copy

Recommend ed by WORD BY WORD

About

An amazing achievement...A compulsively readable novel, so canny and weird and surfeited with the reality of human capacity and ingenuity that I am stymied for comparison. Dickens and David Lynch? Defoe meets Margaret Atwood? Judge for yourself." --Gregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked
The wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud. 

In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and . . . at the wax museum, heads are what they do.

THE FARM by Joanne Ramos

5.5

Random House
Publishing date May 19, 2019

About

Would you trade nine months of freedom for a better life?

Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages--and all of it for free. In fact, you get paid big money--more than you've ever dreamed of--to spend a few seasons in this luxurious locale. The catch? For nine months, you belong to the Farm. You cannot leave the grounds; your every move is monitored. Your former life will seem a world away as you dedicate yourself to the all-consuming task of producing the perfect baby for your überwealthy clients.

Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines and a struggling single mother, is thrilled to make it through the highly competitive Host selection process at the Farm. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own young daughter's well-being, Jane grows desperate to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she'll receive on delivery--or worse.

Heartbreaking, suspenseful, provocative, The Farm pushes our thinking on motherhood, money, and merit to the extremes, and raises crucial questions about the trade-offs women will make to fortify their futures and the futures of those they love.

My View

The Farm is a futuristic novel taking us into a world easily imagined. It is also the story of immigrants leaving their homeland hoping a better future lays ahead for themselves and their loved ones left behind.

We meet Ate a Philipina working as a nanny for New York's elite, Jane her niece soon joins the ranks of nannies recommended by Ate, earning bonuses and travels to exotic places allows Jane some financial comfort, Ate however has even grander ideas for her niece.

Golden Oaks, a place were young women can increase their financial needs in luxury, a spa of sorts.
Ate arranges an interview for Jane with Miss Yu, the organiser of Golden Oaks. Jane readily signs a contract putting her trust in Ate.

Does Jane and the other young women at Golden Oaks fully understand what lies beyond carrying a rich woman's embryo? Will the the financial gain be worth the nine month stay at Golden Oaks? The silence each girl must keep, the monitored surveillance?

What could go wrong? Is Golden Oaks so far in the future....

I enjoyed this novel immensely, highly recommend

Thank you to Random House for this early arc
Thank you to NetGalley

IF, THEN by Kate Hope Day

4.5
Random House Publishing House
Publishing date March 12, 2019

About
In the quiet haven of Clearing, Oregon, four neighbors find their lives upended when they begin to see themselves in parallel realities. Ginny, a devoted surgeon whose work often takes precedence over her family, has a baffling vision of a beautiful coworker in Ginny’s own bed, and begins to doubt the solidity of her marriage. Ginny’s husband, Mark, a wildlife scientist, sees a vision that suggests impending devastation and grows increasingly paranoid, threatening the safety of his wife and son. Samara, a young woman desperately mourning the recent death of her mother and questioning why her father seems to be coping with such ease, witnesses an apparition of her mother healthy and vibrant and wonders about the secrets her parents may have kept from her. Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of new motherhood, catches a glimpse of herself pregnant again, just as she’s on the brink of returning to the project that could define her career.

At first the visions are relatively benign, but they grow increasingly disturbing—and, in some cases, frightening. When a natural disaster threatens Clearing, it becomes obvious that the visions were not what they first seemed and that the town will never be the same.

My view

We have all heard of Parallel Universes, imagined how our alternate selves might live. 
Author Kate Hope Day takes us to a neighborhood close to Broken Mountain, an inactive volcano, were inhabitants of a small neighborhood will meet their alternate selves as they proceed with their individual lives.
The premise of multiverse is an interesting one, my only small regret, I wish the author delved deeper into this aspect of the novel, expending the protagonists meetings with 
their other worldly selves, engage them somehow deeper into the story line. Otherwise I really enjoyed this novel, the characters are well developed, the story line is cohesive. It is an interesting, enjoyable read.

I recommend it to anyone who loves an interesting, well written novel.

Thank you to Random House Publishing
for this enjoyable arc

Thank you NetGalley for the arc

GOLDEN CHILD by Claire Adam

5.5
Crown Publishing
Publishing date January 29, 2019

About

Rural Trinidad: a brick house on stilts surrounded by bush; a family, quietly surviving, just trying to live a decent life. Clyde, the father, works long, exhausting shifts at the petroleum plant in southern Trinidad; Joy, his wife, looks after the home. Their two sons, thirteen years old, wake early every morning to travel to the capital, Port of Spain, for school. They are twins but nothing alike: Paul has always been considered odd, while Peter is widely believed to be a genius, destined for greatness.

When Paul goes walking in the bush one afternoon and doesn't come home, Clyde is forced to go looking for him, this child who has caused him endless trouble already, and who he has never really understood. And as the hours turn to days, and Clyde begins to understand Paul’s fate, his world shatters—leaving him faced with a decision no parent should ever have to make.

Like the Trinidadian landscape itself, GOLDEN CHILD is both beautiful and unsettling; a resoundingly human story of aspiration, betrayal, and love.

My view

I just now finished GOLDEN Child by Claire Adam. Noticing 1 star ratings, I hesitated and put the book aside to read closer towards the publishing date.
Having a friend born in Trinidad changed my mind glad it did. 

The story of Paul and Peter, twins begins at their birth, Peter arrives in this world a healthy boy followed by Paul who's birth is overshadowed by a more difficult birth which will follow him throughout his life. 
Both boys are loved, by their mother and father, including a large extended family comprised of Aunts, Uncles differing in social status which will play a deciding role in Paul's and Peter's lives.
Although the story takes us deep into the underbelly of Trinidad, it is a tale easily imagined in places were crime infringes upon the innocent, a feeling I had throughout the novel.
Claire Adam's pen brings Paul and Peter right off the page into ones heart, crying while reading a novel doesn't happen often, I cared for these boys deeply.
Reality drives this story, its strength lies in the truth the author brings to the page, perhaps not quite comfortable for everyone...whence the 1 star ratings. For me this novel rates a solid 5 stars.


A must read

Thank you to Crown Publishing for giving me a chance to read this beautiful novel before being published.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc

A LADDER TO THE SKY by John Boyne

5.5
Crown Publishing
Hogarth
Publishing date November 13, 2018

Description

A seductive, unputdownable psycho drama following one brilliant, ruthless man who will stop at nothing in his pursuit of success
Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent – but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. 
 
Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiate's himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel. 

Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall…
 
Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling, and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso.

My  thought

A ladder to the sky is an extraordinary read. The writing flows, the prose is beautiful, the characters are well developed. 

Elegant comes to my mind, an elegant delivery of words.

The ruthless driven protagonist Maurice, is a joy to behold, watching him play his victims without scruples, helpless in his greedy youthful fingers. No doubts hinder his way to become the next literary genius. In a chapter which takes Maurice to La Rondinaia. an exchange between Gore Vidal and Maurice is pure genius in the hands of John Boyne author of A ladder To the Sky.

This is my first novel by this author and definitely not my last.

An absolute must read

Thank you to Crown Publishing for  allowing me the opportunity of an early read.

Thank you NetGalley for this advance copy

MAN BOOKER SHORT LIST 2018

GHOST WALL by Sarah Moss

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publishing date January 19, 2019
British Literature

Description

A taut, gripping tale of a young woman and an Iron Age reenactment trip that unearths frightening behavior

Ghost Wall takes place in the moody Northumberland countryside and follows 17 year old Silvie who, along with her mother and her abusive father, finds herself joining a professor and three of his students on an archaeological experiment to live how people lived in Iron Age Britain.

Her father is mentally and physically abusive, and is obsessed with the brutality of the Iron Age. He thinks of that period history as a period before immigration – when everything was only British – despite the fact that the country was divided into various pre-Roman clans and cultures during this time, so ‘the good old days’ of Britain without immigration is a place that simply never existed at all. Naturally, he doesn’t quite see it this way.

He’s particularly fascinated by the idea of human sacrifice, something he’s taught Silvie about, and Silvie herself finds herself relating more and more to these ‘bog girls’ who were sacrificed by the people who were supposed to love them. There’s a heartbreaking moment in which Silvie justifies her father’s love for her through these sacrifices, because people only sacrifice, and therefore hurt, the things that they love.

My View 

Ghost Wall is my first experience reading author Sarah Moss and certainly not the last. The first few pages began a bit slow, describing Northumberland, Britain, where a professor and his three students, Molly, Pete and Dan set up an academic research study camp on the Iron Age. Near the students camping ground, a family on a two week vacation join in. The father, a brutal man, his wife, a woman long ago given into her husbands moods and Silvie seventeen year old overshadowed by her father.

The author's narration is  thight, every character is developed in depth, a real pleasure to read and become entwined within the tale.

It was hard to put the book down to the very end...and what an end...

A must read, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Thank you to NetGalley

2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS LONG LIST Fiction

Fiction Longlist

• Jamel Brinkley, A Lucky Man(Graywolf Press)
• Jennifer Clement, Gun Love(Hogarth / Penguin Random House)
• Lauren Groff, Florida(Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)
• Daniel Gumbiner, The Boatbuilder(McSweeney’s)
• Brandon Hobson, Where the Dead Sit Talking(Soho Press)
• Tayari Jones, An American Marriage(Algonquin Books / Workman Publishing)
• Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers(Viking Books / Penguin Random House)
• Sigrid Nunez, The Friend(Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)
• Tommy Orange, There There(Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House)
• Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Heads of the Colored People(Atria Books / 37 INK / Simon & Schuster)

2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS LONG LIST Translated Fiction

Translated Fiction

• Négar Djavadi, Disoriental
  Translated by Tina Kover
  (Europa Editions)
• Roque Larraquy, Comemadre
  Translated by Heather Cleary
  (Coffee House Press)
• Dunya Mikhail, The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq
  Translated by Max Weiss and Dunya Mikhail
  (New Directions Publishing)
• Perumal Murugan, One Part Woman
  Translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
  (Black Cat / Grove Atlantic)
• Hanne Ørstavik, Love
  Translated by Martin Aitken
  (Archipelago Books)
• Gunnhild Øyehaug, Wait, Blink: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life
  Translated by Kari Dickson
  (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers)
• Domenico Starnone, Trick
  Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri
  (Europa Editions)
• Yoko Tawada, The Emissary
  Translated by Margaret Mitsutani
  (New Directions Publishing)
• Olga Toka
• Flights
• Translated by Jennifer Croft
  (Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)
• Tatyana Tolstaya, Aetherial Worlds
  Translated by Anya Migdal
• (Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House)

MIRACLE SUBMARINE by Angie Kim

Farrar, STRAUS and Giroux
Pub. Date April 16, 2019
General Fiction

About

In rural Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine—a pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives” with the hopes of curing issues like autism or infertility. But when the Miracle Submarine mysteriously explodes, killing two people, a dramatic murder trial upends the Yoos’ small community.

Who or what caused the explosion? Was it the mother of one of the patients, who claimed to be sick that day but was smoking down by the creek? Or was it Young and Pak themselves, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? The ensuing trial uncovers unimaginable secrets from that night—trysts in the woods, mysterious notes, child-abuse charges—as well as tense rivalries and alliances among a group of people driven to extraordinary degrees of desperation and sacrifice.

Angie Kim’s Miracle Submarine is a thoroughly contemporary take on the courtroom drama, drawing on the author’s own life as a Korean immigrant, former trial lawyer, and mother of a real-life “submarine” patient. Both a compelling page-turner and an excavation of identity and the desire for connection, Miracle Submarine is a brilliant, empathetic debut from an exciting new voice.

ONCE UPON A RIVER by Diane Setterfield

Atria
Publishing date 12.4.2018

About

On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.

Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known.

What I thought

Diane Setterfield did not disappoint. I am a huge fan of hers. I loved THE THIRTEENTH TALE as I did BELLMAN  AND BLACK. In ONCE UPON A RIVER she expands her gifted storytelling even further to our delight.
We find ourselves along the Thames river, the year is 1887, the tale begins along the banks of the river in  a tavern named the Swan, where story telling is a traditional, important art. 
We will meet with with three little girls, Ann, Alice and Amelia among a wide cast of adults of various backgrounds as applies to any good tale.

Thank you Atria and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advance copy.

SNAP by Belinda Bauer

Grove Atlantic

About

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Jack’s in charge, said his mother as she disappeared up the road to get help. I won’t be long. Now eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters wait on the hard shoulder in their stifling, broken-down car, bickering and whining and playing I-Spy until she comes back.

But their mother doesn’t come back. She never comes back. And after that long, hot summer’s day, nothing will ever be the same again.

Three years later, Jack’s fifteen now and still in charge . . . alone in the house. Meanwhile across town, a young woman called Catherine While wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note readingI could of killed you. The police are tracking a mysterious burglar they call Goldilocks, for his habit of sleeping in the beds of the houses he robs, but Catherine doesn’t see the point of involving the police. And Jack, very suddenly, may be on the verge of finding out who killed his mother.

A twisty, masterfully written novel that will have readers on the edge of their seats,Snap is Belinda Bauer at the height of her powers.

DISORIENTAL by Négar Djavadi

2018, 
pp. 320, 
Paperback 
Translated by Tina Kover
France

Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future she has built for herself as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which come to her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them.

In this high-spirited, kaleidoscopic story, key moments of Iranian history, politics, and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph. Yet it is Kimiâ herself––punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own “disorientalization”––who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel.

WINNER: Le Prix du Roman News, Style Prize, Lire Best Debut Novel 2016, la Porte Dorée Prize

THE AIR YOU BREATHE by Frances De Pontes Peebles

❤❤❤❤❤



5.5
Penguin Riverhead
Pub date August 21, 2018


Skinny, nine-year-old orphaned Dores is working in the kitchen of a sugar plantation in 1930s Brazil when in walks a girl who changes everything. Graça, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron, is clever, well fed, pretty, and thrillingly ill behaved. Born to wildly different worlds, Dores and Graça quickly bond over shared mischief, and then, on a deeper level, over music. 

One has a voice like a songbird; the other feels melodies in her soul and composes lyrics to match. Music will become their shared passion, the source of their partnership and their rivalry, and for each, the only way out of the life to which each was born. But only one of the two is destined to be a star. Their intimate, volatile bond will determine each of their fortunes--and haunt their memories.

Traveling from Brazil's inland sugar plantations to the rowdy streets of Rio de Janeiro's famous Lapa neighborhood, from Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood back to the irresistible drumbeat of home, The Air You Breathe unfurls a moving portrait of a lifelong friendship--its unparalleled rewards and lasting losses--and considers what we owe to the relationships that shape our lives.

A must read

WASHINGTON BLACK by Way Edugyan

5.5
Knopf
Available September 18, 2018 

A stunning new novel of slavery and freedom by the author of the Man Booker and Orange Prize shortlisted Half Blood Blues

When two English brothers take the helm of a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington Black - an eleven year-old field slave - finds himself selected as personal servant to one of these men. The eccentric Christopher 'Titch' Wilde is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor and abolitionist, whose single-minded pursuit of the perfect aerial machine mystifies all around him.

Titch's idealistic plans are soon shattered and Washington finds himself in mortal danger. They escape the island together, but then then Titch disappears and Washington must make his way alone, following the promise of freedom further than he ever dreamed possible.From the blistering cane fields of Barbados to the icy wastes of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-drowned streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black teems with all the strangeness and mystery of life.

Inspired by a true story, Washington Black is the extraordinary tale of a world destroyed and made whole again.

ELSEWHERE, HOME by Leila Aboulela

Grove Atlantic
Grove Press Black Cat
Literary Fiction
Pub date 22nd of February 2019

#Elsewherehome

#NetGalley

Description

Since her award-winning debut novel,Minaret, Leila Aboulela has been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith, Aminatta Forna, and Anthony Marra among others for her rich and nuanced depictions of Islamic spiritual and political life. Her latest collection,Elsewhere, Home, draws us ineluctably into the lives of immigrants at home and abroad as they forge new identities and reshape old ones.

A young woman’s encounter with a former classmate elicits painful reminders of her former life in Khartoum. A wealthy young Sudanese woman studying in Aberdeen begins an unlikely friendship with one of her Scottish classmates. A woman experiences an evolving relationship to her favorite writer, whose portrait of their shared culture both reflects and conflicts with her own sense of identity.

Shuttling between the dusty, sun-baked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London,Elsewhere, Homeexplores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss, and alienation that come with leaving one’s homeland in pursuit of a different life.

My thoughts coming up soon

CLOCK DANCE by Anne Tyler

5.5
Penguin
First to read
Pub.date July 10, 2018

About
Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother's sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother but isn't sure she ever will be. Then, one day, Willa receives a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to look after a young woman she's never met, her nine-year-old daughter, and their dog, Airplane. This impulsive decision will lead Willa into uncharted territory--surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places. A bewitching novel of hope, self-discovery, and second chances, Clock Dance gives us Anne Tyler at the height of her powers.

I absolutely love this novel, well done Anne Tyler !

WHILE THE WOMEN ARE SLEEPING by Javier Marias

5.5
Personal copy
About

Mirroring, ghosts, and doubles are all present in these haunting short stories by the celebrated Spanish author Javier Marías.He asks for the reader's kindness towards "The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga" as it was written when he was 14 – but this is disingenuous on his part as it is a wonderful short story about a man talking after his death. Marías's narrators are usually male and experiencing some kind of identity crisis. In the title story, a man films his beautiful young girlfriend every day on the beach, while she preens herself in a mirror; in "Gualta", a man spots his double and instantly loathes him; in "A Kind of Nostalgia Perhaps", an old woman waits for the ghost of a national hero. Superb.I

I loved these short stories 

THE MERE WIFE by Maria Dahvana Headley

FSG
Pub date July 17, 2018



About

New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothers—a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran—fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife.

From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings—high and gabled—and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside—in lawns and on playgrounds—wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall’s periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights.

For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn’t want Gren, didn’t plan Gren, and doesn’t know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana’s and Willa’s worlds collide.

My view
What an engaging read.
I am not particularly familiar with the literary classic Beowulf, although I did look up a synopsis to get a general idea.
This story takes us into modern days. The  protagonists Dana and her son Gren make their home in a cave, while Willa and her son Dylan inhabit the modern gated community Herot Hall. Other characters are Roger, husband  to Willa, father of Dylan.

The story kept me engaged from the very beginning to the very end. As the story progresses, prejudice, hate, delusion takes hold of the characters. Reality becomes blurred, through preconceived ideas which lead to violence, murder.

Who are the villains? Dana a former Marine? Willa the young housewife of Herot Hall? Any one of the many characters?

I highly recommend THE MERE WIFE.
It matters not that you are or not familiar with the classic literary work Beowulf, 
This novel will take you on a wild ride...

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG

KINTU by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

One world
Pages 432
Personal copy

About

The year is 1750. As he makes his way to the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda Kingdom, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. As the centuries pass, the tale moves down the bloodline, exploring the lives of four of Kintu Kidda's descendants. Although the family members all have their own stories and live in very different circumstances, they are united by one thing - the struggle to break free from the curse and escape the burden of their family's past.

Blending Ganda oral tradition, myth, folktale and history, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi has brought to life an extraordinarily colourful cast of characters to produce a powerful epic - a modern classic.

A PLACE FOR US by Fatima Farheen Mirza

Crown Publishing
Publishing date June 12, 2018

About

 A Place for Us unfolds the lives of an Indian-American Muslim family, gathered together in their Californian hometown to celebrate the eldest daughter, Hadia’s, wedding – a match of love rather than tradition. It is here, on this momentous day, that Amar, the youngest of the siblings, reunites with his family for the first time in three years. Rafiq and Layla must now contend with the choices and betrayals that lead to their son’s estrangement – the reckoning of parents who strove to pass on their cultures and traditions to their children; and of children who in turn struggle to balance authenticity in themselves with loyalty to the home they came from. 
 
In a narrative that spans decades and sees family life through the eyes of each member, A Place For Us charts the crucial moments in the family's past, from the bonds that bring them together to the differences that pull them apart. And as siblings Hadia, Huda, and Amar attempt to carve out a life for themselves, they must reconcile their present culture with their parent's faith, to tread a path between the old world and the new, and learn how the smallest decisions can lead to the deepest of betrayals.
 
A deeply affecting and resonant story, A Place for Us is truly a book for our times: a moving portrait of what it means to be an American family today, a novel of love, identity and belonging that eloquently examines what it means to be both American and Muslim -- and announces Fatima Farheen Mirza as a major new literary talent.

My view

To come

ALL THE NAMES THEY USED FOR GOD by Anjali Sachdeva

5.5

Random House
Spiegel & Brau
Literary fiction
North American Literature
Short Stories

About
Spanning centuries, continents, and a diverse set of characters, these alluringly strange stories are united by each character’s struggle with fate. In a secret, subterranean world beneath the prairie of the Old West, a homesteader risks her life in search of a safe haven. A workman in Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills is turned into a medical oddity by the brutal power of the furnaces—and is eventually revitalized by his condition. A young woman created through genetic manipulation is destroyed by the same force that gave her life.

Anjali Sachdeva demonstrates a preternatural ability to laser in on our fears, our hopes, and our longings in order to point out intrinsic truths about society and humanity. “Killer of Kings” starts with John Milton writing Paradise Lost and questions the very nature of power—and the ability to see any hero as a tyrant with just a change in perspective. The title story presents a stirring imagining of the aftermath of the kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram that leaves us pondering what is lost when we survive the unsurvivable. And in “Pleiades,” genetically modified septuplets are struck by a mysterious illness that tests their parents’ unwavering belief in the power of science.

Like many of us, the characters in this collection are in pursuit of the sublime, and find themselves looking not just to divinity but to science, nature, psychology, and industry, forgetting that their new, logical deities are no more trustworthy than the tempestuous gods of the past. Along the way, they walk the knife-edge between wonder and terror, salvation and destruction. All the Names They Used for God is an entrancing work of speculative fiction that heralds Anjali Sachdeva as an invigorating, incomparable new voice.

My view
"ALL THE NAMES THEY USED FOR GOD" consists of twelve short stories. 
Anjali Sachdeva is an author with a tremendous gift, the gift of story telling.

Short stories are not my preferred read, yet I enjoyed her immense talent, wishing for one more story. I will certainty keep an eye on this author, be it Short Stories or a Novel should she decide this direction.

I have no favoured story, all shine!
"THE WORLD BY NIGHT" 5.5
"GLASS LUNG" 5.5
"LOGGING LAKE" 5.5
"Killer OF KINGS" 5.5
"ALL THE NAMES FOR GOD"
"ROBERT GREENMAN AND THE MERMAID" 5.5
"ANYTHING YOU MIGHT WANT" 5.5
"MANUS" 4.5
"PLAIADS" 5.5

I underlined much throughout every story, however until I have the the final copy I am unable to add to this review as requested by publisher.

Thank you NetGalley and Spiegel & Brau ( Random House) for a chance to read this advance reader copy.