We've Always Got Books

 Books for givers and readers 

-from Susan

 

Every year, we Minds offer our personally curated lists of books we especially recommend and this year’s no different. I want to start by pointing readers to the new books by my colleagues here. Hard-boiled, police procedurals, cozies, amateur sleuths of all kinds, international settings, humor…You could fill a lot of stockings just with these wonderful books! I’m going to choose a few outside of our group’s creative work, even out of 2023 new releases, and to an extent outside of crime fiction, although there are crimes in all of these. Why? Because at the end of the year, I close my eyes and conjure up the characters and stories that resonate most strongly with me and that I passionately want everyone to read. My passions may not align with yours but each of these has enriched my life, expanded my thinking, or made me laugh out loud. So, here goes.

 

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN, Louise Erdrich (2020) There are a growing number of fine Native American writers inviting readers to know more about their communities and culture, but I thank Erdrich, who has been awarded the National Book Critics Award (twice), and who won the Pulitzer Prize for this moving, inspirational novel. I breathed with the characters who live tough lives within a strong and nourishing culture. At every moment, I was rooting for their successes, sharing their joy and sorrow. This is not a depressing book, I hasten to add. The fictional members of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa, Erdrich’s own, are not ever to be pitied and they do surmount the obstacles set in their path. Superb.

 

EVERGREEN, Naomi Hirahara (2023) Naomi herself is a perfect delight, and the first book in what looks like a series, Clark and Division (2021), stormed the crime fiction world. The new book continues the story of gentle but determined Aki Ito and her quest to re-integrate into a post WWII America that had incarcerated her family in an internment camp and that’s still hostile to Japanese Americans. It’s a viewpoint, like Erdich’s, that we don’t get to experience often enough.

 

A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, Deborah Crombie (2023) paired with her A Bitter Feast (2019). I added the previous novel in this long-running, masterful series because anyone who reads about Duncan and Gemma, his now wife, and their expanding, endearing family, must want to spend more time with them. Actually, if for some reason you haven’t read Deb’s books before (gasp), I encourage you to go right back to the first one! Deb lives in Texas and writes so convincingly about England that people who don’t know her invariably think she must be British.

 

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY, Bonnie Garmus (2022) I’m talking about the book. I haven’t watched the series but you won’t really get to know Six Thirty, for one thing, unless you read this very funny, very serious book. There’s crime in it for sure, the kind of crime professional women will understand and empathize with from the get go. Love, tragedy, and insipid daytime TV somehow come together to produce a chemical reaction in which the whole is greater than the parts.

 

TOM LAKE, Ann Patchett (2023) We live in hard times, in a world of chaos and confusion, and worse. If you ever feel you need a break, need to spend time with people who find peace in the ordinary rhythms of life beyond the headlines, read this novel by the talented and graceful writer, Ann Patchett. It’s not escapist literature, it’s more an oasis within which we can be reminded that there are ways to live good lives, productive lives, kind lives. The protagonist has seen and edged up to drama and turmoil, but like the character of Emily in “Our Town” she has played, she remains grounded. 

 

So, that’s my list, among so many good books I read this year. I wish each of you fabulous reading experiences in 2024 and hope you’ll be buying books (ours included) for everyone on your holiday gift list!