RETURN OF THE TRICKSTER

Eden Robinson. RETURN OF THE TRICKSTER. Vintage, 2021.

Jared needs help from stronger tricksters to fix a mess he has landed himself in. Third in the Trickster trilogy. 

WOMEN TALKING

Miriam Toews. WOMEN TALKING. Knopf, 2018.

Women in a Mennonite colony in South America ask a returned teacher to take notes at their meeting when they debate what to do to respond to the abuse from males in the colony. The women cannot read or write, but they can think and talk.

EDUCATED: A Memoir

Tara Westover. EDUCATED: A Memoir. HarperCollins, 2018.

An uplifting story of an horrific childhood, in a Mormon family in Idaho. Physical violence. Blind denial, on the part of victims, abusers, witnesses, parents. And how escaping to an education helps the narrator see the mental health issues behind the extremist ranting and negativity. How it took her years to free herself because the convoluted logic of the ties that bound her were knotted with love. A story of hope hiding in the form of friends, boyfriends, roommates, professors, tutor/mentors, reading, writing, and travel. And the sadness of shunning and character assassination from those still trapped in the lies.

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW

 Amor Towles. A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW. Penguin, 2016.

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, because of his aristocratic heritage, lives imprisoned in Moscow's Metropol Hotel from 1922 until 1954. Interesting. Amusing. Entertaining.