As I’m writing this 5 days before the election, I am hoping all of you will vote! Here are some books to take you through what will probably be a very long week:
The Coincidence Makers a novel by Yoav Blum—Did you ever wonder why, when you run into an old friend, suddenly a whole new part of your life opens? Was it just a coincidence or was there a secret organization, complete with a bureaucracy and special courses running these “coincidences”. Well, according to Blum’s new novel, there is.
Guy, Eric and Emily are the Coincidence Makers who make it their business for you to miss that bus, drop those papers or hear that song that will change your life. And they do a fine job. But that was not their only job. Guy’s first job was an Imaginary Friend, who stood by a child that needed help and only left when he didn’t need that help. And that is when Guy met Cas, another Imaginary Friend to a little girl. Guy was never supposed to fall in love, but he did.
Here is when the book gets interesting. Not only do we follow those people whose lives are affected by the Coincidence Makers, but the makers themselves. And what happens when they refuse their jobs? An interesting look at the behind the scenes that could affect us and them as well.
The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page—Janice is a house cleaner, and a very good one, but her real passion is collecting stories. She’s a good listener and learns a lot as a nearly invisible cleaner while her very busy clients talk about their lives. She makes friends with Mrs. B., a 90-year-old with a past and a passion for telling stories, and her new friend Ewan, a bus driver, who has picked up conversations on his bus routes.
But it is Janice’s story that is the most compelling, as the novel takes a dark turn when she talks about her own past. Can she reconcile her past with a possible future? Read on.
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill—Theodocia Benton arrived in Lawrence Kansas from Australia, giving up law to become a writer. She joined her brother, Gus, and looked forward to her new career, intending to finish her novel. But she had no idea the direction this new path would take. The first person she met was Dan Murdoch, a famous author, with no discernible past, who mentored her and the two developed the beginning of a relationship, that is, until she discovered his dead body, with his new manuscript missing.
Conspiracy theories abound in this page-turner, as more bodies appear. And Theo seems to be at the center of all the murders. With the help of her brother, a brilliant lawyer, and his friend Mac, a detective with a very strange family, the three try to figure out how the murders are connected.
Perhaps the writing wasn’t the best, but all these unanswered questions kept me reading. And Mac’s survivalist family could be a whole book by themselves.
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960’s by Doris Kearns Goodwin—I am a big DKG fan, from No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, through Wait Til Next Year, A Memoir about baseball, growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s and the Dodgers. In her books, she somehow makes history, politics and politicians come to life and reading about them feels like reading a novel.
But An Unfinished Love Story is personal. Her husband, Dick Goodwin, was a speech writer, starting out with John Kennedy, and transferring his skill to Lyndon B. Johnson, Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and back again to Bobby. His speeches were iconic, and he saved all the memorabilia about his political life in more than 300 boxes.
After 50 years, Doris and Dick decided to open these boxes, and with that, unpacked all the memories and arguments that came with them. For all the bittersweet memories that Dick had of Lyndon Johnson, Doris had more pleasant ones for she also worked for LBJ. The portrait of LBJ was very intimate and fascinating from both their perspectives.
The best part of the book for me though, was that I remembered it all, after all, I was child/student of the 60s.
The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson—As in any Joshilyn Jackson novel, you don’t know what you’re getting into (well maybe a little). And “The Opposite of Everyone” is no exception. Paula Vauss is a tough divorce attorney, but she is so much more.
She has a past. Growing up with Kai, her hippy mother who constantly shared tales of Indian mythology, Paula, born Kali Jae, never stayed in one place very long, or kept a name very long or got used to Kai’s boyfriends for very long. After their falling out, except for a check that she sent Kai every month, Paula was on her own. But when the last check was returned, with a short enigmatic note attached, Paula began a quest to find her mother. What she found was much more. Part romance, part suspense, but mostly about family, Jackson has once again written a novel that makes you love this very flawed heroine at its center.
GET LIT WITH LISA 