Tuesday's Top 5 New Releases
Bethanne's fave releases of the week, each summed up in five lines
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny takes Inspector Armand Gamache and his son-in-law Jean-Guy de Beauvoir back to a remote monastery where they once faced a terrible choice. This time, they fear they’ll be too late to stop someone else’s terrible choice from affecting their entire country, and all they have to go on is a strangely written recipe for chartreuse liqueur. It’s one of the best in the series; get your copy quickly.
Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger opens with the death of Lila Pereira, recently retired as executive editor of an important Washington newspaper. But it’s Lila’s daughter Grace who must come to terms with Lila’s history as well as the previously unknown fate of Lila’s mother Zelda. Somehow Rieger infuses all of this family lore with humor and energy, demonstrating that few of us truly understand our parents.
Gather Me by Glory Edim shows how the founder of the Well-Read Black Girl community (which has millions of followers) learned to love reading as a child in Virginia, when her Nigerian-born mother encouraged Edim to read as widely and deeply as possible. When the Howard University alum experienced deep depression, she learned that “reading is reparative,” and hopes others will find it so, too.
Roman Year by Andre Aciman covers the acclaimed author’s adolescent time in Italy with his family, a year in which he learned both the benefits and costs of being a refugee (the Acimans, as Jews, were exiled from Nasser’s Egypt). Ultimately Aciman, his deaf mother, and younger brother would move across the ocean—but when in Rome, he did as the Romans did and appreciated every luscious bite of that city.
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins is so different from The Girl on the Train that readers might take a minute to settle in, and they’ll be glad they did. Set on a tiny Scottish island, Eris, that can only be reached by low tide, the whodunnit takes a backseat to the whydunnit; it’s a work of psychological suspense as capricious as the sea levels. The lagniappe is the backstory about the world of high art and finance. Chilling.