You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue is part historical novel (the reimagined meeting of Cortes and Montezuma) and part satire, presented in a hallucinatory maze of magic mushrooms. The book got rave reviews from literary critics, but at times I had trouble sorting out the Aztec names and politics. The book is meta and self-consciously clever. Here’s a collection of reviews in Book Marks:

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray is a BFB – literally, being 643 pages, and metaphorically in the sense of how deeply the author takes us into the characters of an Irish family in a small town whose prosperous life falls apart due to an economic depression and the unraveling of their own inner lives which, themselves, have tragic origins. Some reviewers call it “rollicking” and a “tragi-comedy,” but, to me, it’s tragedy all the way, epic and intimate, told by an author who cares about his characters and makes us care about them, too. This novel was nominated for the Booker Prize, which was won by fellow Irish writer Paul Lynch for Prophet Song, but I think The Bee Sting is better. The writing is both “literary” and accessible and of even, high quality throughout. Each family member has a well-developed plot arc strong enough to carry a book of its own. I’d like to see The Bee Sting made into to a multi-season Netflix series. The Washington Post calls it an instant classic:

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray is a BFB – literally, being 643 pages, and metaphorically in the sense of how deeply the author takes us into the characters of an Irish family in a small town whose prosperous life falls apart due to an economic depression and the unraveling of their own inner lives which, themselves, have tragic origins. Some reviewers call it “rollicking” and a “tragi-comedy,” but, to me, it’s tragedy all the way, epic and intimate, told by an author who cares about his characters and makes us care about them, too. This novel was nominated for the Booker Prize, which was won by fellow Irish writer Paul Lynch for Prophet Song, but I think The Bee Sting is better. The writing is both “literary” and accessible and of even, high quality throughout. Each family member has a well-developed plot arc strong enough to carry a book of its own. I’d like to see The Bee Sting made into to a multi-season Netflix series. The Washington Post calls it an instant classic:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/08/22/bee-sting-booker-prize-longlist-review

Western Lane is a short debut novel by Chetna Maroo, winner of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize for Fiction in 2022. Eleven-year-old Gopi has been trained by her father to be an excellent squash player. When her mother dies, her father ramps up the training, and the absence of her mother is ever-present. Other characters include Gopi’s two sisters and extended family members, as well as Ged, a boy who plays squash (upon whom Gopi has a crush), and Ged’s mother (upon whom the father may have a crush). The interactions between the characters is so understated that the nuances of it become overwhelming. Delicate, powerful writing in this coming-of-age story that culminates in a squash tournament. I recommend it. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/chetna-maroo/western-lane

The protagonist in Holly, by Stephen King, is a private detective who was a popular minor character in other King work who has earned her own novel. Holly is a private detective hired to find a missing girl. The investigation leads to other disappearances, but not bodies. Turns out the bad guys are husband and wife professors with medical conditions. She has sciatica, he has arthritis and early-onset dementia, and they believe consuming human flesh will make them better. (There has to be a joke about academia hidden somewhere in there). The action picked up during the last 100 pages of the book, but you have to wade through the first 350 pages to get there. Kirkus Reviews says the narrative is framed as a mystery without delivering the pleasures of a mystery.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stephen-king/holly-king/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwv-2pBhB-EiwAtsQZFGtuSkIo28RF4isDOZ5TKlZrBprDK7nlJ-tZyaFLn74bPsNgJnuN8RoC4JQQAvD_BwE

Loved and Missed is British author Susie Boyt’s story of Ruth, the mother of Eleanor, a drug addict, and the de facto mother of Eleanor’s daughter, Lily. This is a beautiful and sad novel about mothers and daughters, estrangement, dependency and desperation passing from generation to generation. The tale is told through the voice of Ruth, except for the last chapter, which is told from a different point of view. The title has a double meaning, but I won’t spoil it with a reveal. Kirkus Reviews warns that readers averse to crying in public should read this book at home:https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/susie-boyt/loved-and-missed-boyt/

Independence Square is the latest Arkady Renko detective thriller by Martin Cruz Smith, a series that began with Gorky Park in 1981. This novel is set in 2021 as Putin is preparing to invade Ukraine and takes place in Moscow, Kyiv, and Crimea. It has intrigue, romance, oligarchs, the FSB, and an aging hero, Arkady, who’s in the beginning stages of Parkinson’s disease. The whodunit part is great and the context, Russia’s campaign of racist nationalism driving the invasion is an important part of the Ukraine war most Americans don’t understand. Fun page-turner I recommend. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/martin-cruz-smith/independence-square-smith/

Democracy Awakening by professor of history and podcaster Heather Cox Richardson, traces the history of anti-democratic tendencies in America that culminate in Trump and his fellow travelers. For those of you concerned about the future of democracy, this book is helpful in stringing together series of events, most of which were noted at the time they occurred but are not seen always seen as a progression, given our world of headlines and 24-hour news cycles. The author’s view is America has long been fighting to be a true democracy with actual equality. Famous documentary filmmaker Ken Burns says of the author and her book, “No one understands the warp and woof of the complicated tapestry that is the United States, no one apprehends the undertow and disparate forces that have directed the tides of American politics, no one forges the connections between then and now better than Heather Cox Richardson does. The result is a cogent, challenging, thoughtful, riveting , and beautiful narrative. Bravo!”

Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/heather-cox-richardson/democracy-awakening/

The Best Short Stories 2023: The O. Henry Prize Winners, was judged and edited by Lauren Goff, who says that when selecting the twenty winning stories in the introduction that each of the stories selected had to pass rigorous tests, “the first and most important of which was that they had to show some sort of thrill or risk in terms of language or structure or plot or enigma…” All but a handful of the stories are surreal, fabulist, or magical realist. Short story writers take note.

The Archivists is a collection of short stories by award-winning writer Daphne Kalotay.

The stories are hard to categorize or summarize thematically. All of them capture subtle emotions and uncanny perceptions that can only be evoked in context that the author creates brilliantly. This is excellent writing. Foreword calls the stories both triumphant and transcendent:

https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/the-archivists/

City of Dreams is the second book of a trilogy by Don Winslow that, he says, will conclude his writing career. The story picks up from the end of the last book, City on Fire, with Danny Ryan on the run from mafia rivals and law enforcement alike. He runs to California. Through various maneuverings and machinations he seems to make a deal that will ensure a comfortable and relatively safe life outside crime. Then he and and his crew get caught up in the making of a Hollywood movie based on the story of their own criminal gang, Ryan falls in love with the lead actress, and everything goes to hell. Fast-paced, lots of mob stuff, noir sex, and impulsive, reckless action. If you like the last one, you’ll like this one. Kirkus Reviews calls it enjoyable but dark:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/don-winslow/city-of-dreams-winslow/