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Jen Jen

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The Night Watchman

Louise Erdrich

I’ve been SO excited that this book is a Pulitzer winner! I’ve also been anxious to discuss a Louise Erdrich book with the Beagle Women’s book group! I admit, when I started reading The Night Watchman, it took me a bit to get into the story—I think because the cast of characters is so big. It was well worth sticking with and I’m SO glad I did! This has been one of my favorite reads this year. Louise Erdrich’s grandfather was a night watchman (which is exactly what it sounds like…basically, a guard) as well as a local/tribal political figure. During his lifetime, he was instrumental in squashing the United States’ intent to eliminate his tribe. The Night Watchman is a novel that is based during and around that history in the 1950s. While much of the novel is based on historical fact, the author fleshes out the community with great characters. One in particular is Patrice (who would rather not be called Pixie anymore thank you very much), a young woman who is working at a local factory. When her sister goes missing, she goes on a harrowing adventure to track her down and bring her home. She’s also in the time of life when questions about love, romance, and sex loom large. Wood Mountain is a local boxer with a very tender heart who does what he can to help Patrice and the community. The families and friends of Patrice, Thomas the night watchman, and Wood Mountain make for a rich, interesting, complex story. I highly recommend this one!

       


Sally Sally  

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Once There Were Wolves
Charlotte McConaghy

Inti Flynn is in Scotland to reintroduce wolves to the countryside in the hope that reforestation will follow. A simple statement but a complicated undertaking. But Inti and her twin, Aggie, are used to complicated lives. They spent their childhood shuttling between their mother, a police officer in Australia, and their father, a Canadian naturalist. Inti shares her father’s passion for the natural world. Trauma which is slowly revealed has left Aggie unable to speak, as well as suffering from severe depression.

As Inti and her team work with the wolves, they face opposition from local farmers, who fear the wolves will prey on their sheep. Inti acquires a horse, longs to rescue a woman she suspects is being battered by her husband, and in spite of herself, begins a relationship with the local police chief.

The story moves quickly and contains emotional and physical violence. It also has deep love and great tenderness. The language is beautifully lyrical. The novel has some themes in common with Migrations, McConaghy’s first book, but tells its own story—and what a story it is!

Read a Q&A with McConaghy.

 
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Damnation Springs
Ash Davidson

OSHA was signed into law on December 29, 1970, but by 1977 it still hadn’t affected the work of loggers in redwood forests along California’s coast. Rich came from a long line of loggers and, in his early 50’s, had lived longer than any of them. He dreamed of a better life for his young son, Chub, and secretly spent the family’s savings on the down payment for tract of land with huge redwoods that he planned to harvest and use to secure his family’s future.

But life is complicated for Rich and his wife, Colleen. People in their community are just scraping by, living under the dictates of the area’s only employer, the Sanderson Timber Company.

Colleen, who desperately wanted another child, had had eight miscarriages. As a midwife, she was aware of other women in the area whose children have been born with serious birth defects.

Outsiders have begun protesting the use of herbicides by Sanderson Timber Company, which has always been considered innocuous. One of the protestors is Colleen’s old boyfriend, and his presence is disruptive both in the community and in Colleen’s marriage.

Damnation Springs is told from the perspectives of Rich, Colleen, and Chub. It portrays a community whose traditional way of life has caused great damage to the environment as well as to their own health. As that way of life is threatened, there seem to be few alternatives. The relationships of people in the community are complicated. They care for one another, but they also betray one another.

On one level, the book is a great story about people we come to care about. On another level, issues related to stewardship of the earth have only intensified in the years since the setting of the book. Read it for the story. Be challenged by the issues it raises.

 
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Lightning Strike
William Kent Krueger

The latest book in the beloved series featuring Cork O’Connor is a prequel. In Lightning Strike, we see Cork in the summer of 1963, when he was a 12-year old boy. His life revolves around hanging out with his friends, his paper route, and working out his relationship with his dad, Liam O’Connor, the sheriff of their small town of Aurora. After Cork discovers a body hanging from a tree in an abandoned lumber camp, Liam investigates what seems to be a suicide. Cork, stunned by the death of a man he knew and respected, begins an investigation on his own. As is typical of this series, the characters are fully realized and multi-dimensional. Krueger shows us the tensions between town folk and the people living on the reservation, even between people of good will. Above all, this book sensitively captures Cork as a young adolescent—curious, passionate, caring, and still innocent in many ways. After reading Lightning Strike, you just may want to re-read the series, looking for ways the young Cork grew into the adult you’ve known for so long.

   
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The Madness of Crowds
Louise Penny

I recently spent time with an old friend, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, and his colleagues, family, and friends in the remote village of Three Pines. It was shortly after the pandemic, and everyone was adjusting to the return to “normal” life. Normal life for Gamache involves investigating murders, and of course there was a murder to investigate. It was related to a troubling lecture by a visiting academic, espousing a divisive idea which was abhorrent to Gamache, but appealed to some people. Passions ran high on each side of the issue. book coverBut, as in every Gamache book, the investigation only provides a starting point for a character whose humanity is both deep and appealing and whose life is grounded in reflection and literature. There is also gentle humor in the book and cultural references Boomers will appreciate. No spoilers here, but if you’re already acquainted with this series, you’ll want this book. If you have yet to meet Gamache, start at the beginning with Still Life.

   
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Owls of the Eastern Ice
Jonathan Slaght

This book is a combination of the familiar (the University of Minnesota, the Bell Museum and the Minnesota Raptor Center) and the exotic (field research into Fish Owls in eastern Russia.) The author spent parts of five years in remote areas of Russia searching for and monitoring Blakiston’s fish owls, an endangered species.

Slaght’s accounts of the birds themselves and his experiences studying them are fascinating reading. Blizzards, the dangers of the spring thaw, nearly impassable roads, rituals around the drinking of vodka, and locating fish owls in the wilderness were among the challenges he faced.

Slaght was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, and his study resulted not only in a doctorate and information about the fish owl, but a conservation plan designed to protect them. The book won the Minnesota Book Award for memoir and creative non-fiction in 2021.

I listened to the book on libro.fm, and highly recommend it.

         


Ann
Ann
 

 


Bob

 


The Saint Patrick’s Day Hero
Doug Mayfield

On St. Patrick’s Day 2010, a mass shooting takes place at Lathrup College in the fictional town of Chambliss, Minnesota, killing fifty-seven people. Professor William Kessler is considered a hero and becomes a local celebrity for his actions on that day. However, William harbors a secret that leads him to reject that description.

Following the shooting, William suffers a breakdown and struggles to regain some sense of normalcy in his life. Just as things appear to be improving, William stumbles onto evidence revealing that Lathrup College is withholding information regarding the shooting and a situation that may have caused unnecessary loss of lives. He is faced with a difficult decision that will affect the lives of many.

I read The Saint Patrick’s Day Hero in record time. It is a mystery, but it is also a love story. Yes, there’s romance, but also the love of family and friends. Guilt and redemption are also key themes. As a Minnesotan, I enjoyed Mayfield’s references to familiar venues and activities. I would not hesitate to recommend this book. 

     


Cascade
Cascade
 

 


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Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides

With bookseller Megan’s suggestion and high praises (you might remember her review from last month) I went into this book with expectations of greatness and it delivered. The Silent Patient recounts the story of Alicia after she is convicted of killing her husband. Alicia does not speak a word after she is discovered with his body and soon after she is institutionalized by reason of insanity. Alicia is seemingly the main focus of the book, but most of the narrative is actually through the lens of Theo, the psychotherapist who begins working with Alicia to try and get to the bottom of her silence and solve the murder in the process. I had a lot of theories as to how the ending would play out but the book managed to keep the answer out of reach until the big reveal, which made the story all the more captivating.

   
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and Dive into the Waters of the World (series)
Benjamin Alire Saenz

The first book in this series has been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for years and only recently, when I found an advance copy of the sequel, did I decide to finally crack it open. I knew this book was well-received by teenagers and has won several awards, but even with the hype I still managed to be blown away by the thoughtfulness with which this series was written. These books follow the life and thoughts of Aristotle who is an older teen who is starting to discover himself and become an adult. Aristotle considers himself mediocre and has no real ambitions for his future, that is until he meets a boy named Dante at the public pool one summer day. What the series mainly explores is Aristotle as he grows and works on coming to terms with his sexuality, his lack of close friends, his distant father, and the brother he barely remembers in prison. These young adult novels are some of very few that made me empathize and relate to a male main character and also included strong family involvement in these teenagers' lives. Saenz is a poet so the prose reads very lyrically, even though the book is not written in verse. These books provide fantastic queer, Hispanic representation that’s mostly positive which is so refreshing after the numerous queer tragedies I have read. 

   
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The Anthropocene Reviewed
John Green

This series of essays was written during lockdown in 2020 and is influenced by many of the thoughts and feelings from that time. Each essay explores one topic that is unique to the period in geologic history we are living in right now, the Anthropocene, which is primarily categorized by human activity and impact on the planet. Green reminisces and includes his personal connection to anything and everything from teddy bears to Monopoly to Viral Meningitis to the QWERTY keyboard. Every topic is also rated out of five stars at the end of the essay, making the collection one large review of the many samplings our world has to offer. John Green’s writing is very accessible and feels like reading a letter a friend wrote you about their ponderings. In the style of the essays, I give the whole collection 4.5 out of 5 stars.
 

   
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The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller

After reading and adoring Miller’s most recent book, Circe, last month, I decided to pick up this one—her first novel. The Song of Achilles tells the tragic story of Achilles through Patroclus’ perspective. Patroclus is the disgraced son of a king who is exiled and comes to live with Achilles' father, King Peleus. Achilles grows fond of awkward Patroclus and soon they become companions. As they grow up together and forces attempt to tear them apart, the two boys develop a relationship that is bittersweet from the start (everyone knows the fate of Achilles) but is such a treat to read. This queer retelling of the Trojan War is action-filled, sensual, and heartbreaking. I prefer this novel ever-so-slightly to Circe and that says a lot about the quality of both of these amazing Greek retellings.

   
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Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood

Does Margaret Atwood have any flops? So far, I think not. Oryx and Crake tells the story of a dystopian future where genetic modification mixes with greed and leads to the death of most, if not all, of the human population. Our narrator is Snowman (who was known as Jimmy before the collapse of humanity) who is barely hanging on to sanity and his life. Snowman has to sleep in a tree to survive the genetic hybrid animals that threaten to eat him, scavenge food and water, and take care of the human-like creatures known as Crakers. The novel travels back and forth in time to slowly reveal the process that led to the mass extinction of humans, all while Snowman must struggle to survive in the present. This novel can be bleak at times but provides an interesting commentary on genetic modification and weaves a thrilling story.

         


Gail
Gail
   
 

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Frontier Follies:
Adventures in Marriage and Motherhood in the Middle of Nowhere

Ree Drummond

This book is full of laughs about a city girl marrying a rancher in Oklahoma. They have two girls and then two boys. Ree writes about day to day happenings and says this is both a love letter and a laugh letter. Between laundry and getting the kids to all their activities, Ree has managed to write a number of cookbooks and has a cooking show called Pioneer Woman on the Food Network. From snakes to skunks, this collection of true incidents will help you get through the dog days of summer.

 


   
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Cold Betrayal
J.A. Jance

The story opens in rural Bemidji MN! Betsy, 80 plus years, lives alone with her dog Prince. One night she wakes, hearing the dog whining. Betsy discovers all the burners on the stove have been turned on. The sheriff thinks she probably has dementia. She calls her granddaughter, Athena. Athena says she'll call in Ali Reynolds to investigate. My husband recommended this mystery and I was not disappointed.

 

   
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The Weight of a Piano
Chris Cander

This novel is a portrait of two different women from different times and places. Through a very beautiful piano, their lives become intertwined. The story shows how art and music can bring together those who have suffered grievous loss. Having had a piano in my life since the second grade, this story resonated with me. I loved the very satisfying ending. If you feel your reading is in a rut, try this very different and intriguing book

 
   


Hannah
Hannah




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Parakeet
Marie-Helene Bertino

Reading this book is like looking at a surrealist painting, or maybe taking a hallucinatory drug. It opens with a bride who has come early to the hotel where she is to be married, because her husband wants her to “decompress” because “of late” she’s been a bit of a “nightmare.” (Quotation marks are from the book.) Her deceased grandmother appears in the form of a parakeet, one that shimmers and cannot fly or eat, but can offer advice and ruin the wedding gown with droppings. The novel jumps around in times and places, and the times and places do not adhere to the laws of physics. Halfway through I considered giving up following it all and almost quit reading Parakeet; three-quarters of the way through I decided to read it twice as I wanted to understand; in the end I breathed out and felt that it made its own strange sense and that I loved having read it. If you like a challenge, this one’s for you. It’s a wild ride to an ending that isn’t easy to predict but feels just right.

   
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Turbo Twenty-Three
Janet Evanovich

This is a Stephanie Plum novel, the perfect way to cleanse your brain-palette between books like Parakeet and The History of Love. You are not required to think. Stephanie Plum and the cast of characters never change. Well, ultra-cool Cuban Ranger’s business has skyrocketed, but Stephanie’s still tempted into steamy situations with him despite her bad-boy-turned-cop boyfriend Joe. Everyone else from her hamster Rex to her ex-ho' sidekick Lula and her put-upon parents stay just as they are. There is no arc of character development. There will be light sexiness and some violence, but always mitigated by comedy like that you find in Laurel and Hardy or a roadrunner cartoon. In the first chapter of Turbo Twenty-Three Stephanie and Lula sort of stumble on a corpse: frozen and covered in chocolate and nuts.

For a good time with no challenges, pick up any Stephanie Plum from One for the Money to Look Alive Twenty-Five. I haven’t read all of them, but enough to be confident that they’re all the same, and great fun.

   
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The History of Love
Nicole Krauss

This is a beautiful and important book, with a challenging structure. I almost gave up on it after a few chapters because I was confused, but by the end I loved it. It’s about writers and the impact their work can have. A book is written by a Jew in a Polish village just as the Nazis are taking over. The book is about his love for a girl named Alma. Decades later and half a world away, a girl named after the book’s Alma, goes searching for information because she thinks it can save her mother from life-long grieving for her lost husband. The novel skips among several characters and timelines and is all very complicated. However, in the end you are greatly rewarded when you experience the way the plot lines come together.

 
   


Lee
Lee
 


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Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr

The novel stretches from 15th Century Constantinople and Bulgaria to the middle of the 22nd Century in Qaanaaq, Greenland. What ties it all together? A single Greek manuscript describing the journey of Aethon, who “lived 80 Years a Man, 1 Year a Donkey, 1 Year a Sea Bass, 1 Year a Crow.” (And, yes, I have instructed my children to use that in my obituary.)

The main characters are Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance... all dreamers and survivors. Each person, with their own motivations, does everything in their power to keep the story from extinction.

This is not light reading. It is 640 pages, and the ties between the characters ... and the manuscript and its tale ... are developed with care and detail. Even so, I never felt that the novel was plodding.

The book’s dedication is:

For the librarian, then, now, and in the years to come.

This is so appropriate because at every turn we can see how a story can just disappear forever.

Even though very much different than All the Light We Cannot See, the characters and their stories are just as marvelous.

Note: this book, which is being touted as one of the big books of the fall season, will be released on September 28. It may be preordered now.

 


Megan
Megan
 

 

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The Maidens
Alex Michaelides

I recently read The Silent Patient by this author and loved it, so I was super excited to read this book. It is such a good and fun read! I was worried near the beginning that I wasn’t going to like it as much as The Silent Patient, but after the first few chapters it really grasped me. The book is about Mariana trying to solve the mystery of who killed her niece's friend. Upon meeting Edward Fosca, Mariana is 100% certain that he is the killer, but he is somehow getting away with every attempt she makes to prove it was him. I tried to guess how the book ended in Alex Michaelides’ other book as well as this one, and I recommend trying to do this. These two books are in my top 5 favorites, I really really enjoyed both of them A LOT! If you are a fan of mysteries, I would tell you to definitely give Alex’s books a try! The Maidens is a 10/10 book in my opinion because the story is beautifully written. I would recommend it to anyone who is 16 years old or older.

   
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Poison for Breakfast
Lemony Snicket

This humorous mystery book is about the author. The story starts out by talking about bewilderment and how Lemony Snicket had poison for breakfast. There is a note underneath Mr. Snicket's door, and after seeing this note, Mr. Snicket tries to solve the mystery of who poisoned his breakfast by following clues. The reader is led through Mr. Snicket’s thought process, while also getting lots of side stories that relate to the main one. Lemony Snicket is known for writing strange books, but this one was even more odd. I was a fan of “The Series of Unfortunate Events” books when I was a kid, so I was prepared for the book to be more on the strange side. If I had not read those books as a kid, I think that I would have been super confused. I would give this book a 7/10 and would recommend it to any adult.

   
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All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Bryn Greenwood

This is a book that shows a different perspective on appropriate relationships. It’s not a book for everyone, and anyone who reads this book should go into it with an open mind. While I consider myself an open-minded person, I was still taken aback by the events in the story, even after I received a warning. What I enjoyed about this book was that it made me think about and re-evaluate where my moral beliefs stand. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things follows the story of a girl named Wavy. The reader finds out within the first few pages that Wavy’s home life isn’t the greatest, and she isn’t quick to trust anyone. I’m fond of authors who do multiple character perspectives throughout books, and this is one where I particularly really liked having those multiple perspectives. This book is definitely different from all of the other books I have read, but I think it's good to step out of your comfort zone sometimes. I’m glad that I read this book because of the different perspective it gave me, and how much it made me stop and think about my moral beliefs.

   


PamPam
 


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Traitors Among Us
Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Based on real events, this fictional work tells the story of two sisters trying to flee the Soviet army during World War II. After the fall of the Nazi Army, Kristina and Maria believe the worst is over until they are taken further into the Soviet Occupation Zone by the Soviet Army. They are believed to be working with the Ukranian Insurgent Army. The two sisters have to work together and depend on each other’s strengths to get themselves freed and to the American Zone. I really enjoyed this book. I learned more about the Occupation Zones and how they operated after the war.


         
Tim
Tim
 

 


 



People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks

For those of us fascinated by the early making of books, People of the Book is a continuation of stories about these first repositories of thought, beyond that of memory. Not long ago, the act of reading and writing was seen as something near magical. We can still see vestiges of this attitude in our contemporary story telling. For instance: the frequency of a 'book of magic or spells' appearing, or the feeling that sacred texts are divinely inspired. Surrounding the creation of books there have been, and still are, customs and prohibitions.

In People of the Book, Hannah Heath is a book conservator of international reputation. She is engaged to stabilize a rare handmade Jewish Haggadah (book of prayer), unique among its kind. As Hannah works on the book, she discovers evidence of the book's history and travels over its 500+ years of existence. The book itself has changed physically with age, just as the people who came into contact with it changed. And Gentle Reader, that's an often overlooked meaning/intent of a book.....it's an 'engine of transformation' Quite magical really!

   
 

All Passion Spent
Vita Sackville-West

Henry Lyulph Holland, first Earl of Slane, is dead at the venerable age of 99 years. "Gathered to his fathers,” the papers proclaim as they recount the long list of his estimable career's accomplishments. Meanwhile, quietly, his widow sits near the foot of her husband's deathbed, casting back in her memory, over the seventy years of her married life as dutiful wife, hostess, mother, supportive spouse of her husband's career, homemaker, society's ornament, moon to her husband's brilliant shine. But now she sits determined to begin the recovery of the self-directed life she abandoned, due to the pressures of a "society marriage.” This is much to the consternation of her three children.

What stunned me most was Sackville-West's delicate understanding of Lady Slane's well-mannered determined, re-emergent self. Sackville-West (at 39 years old) astonishes the reader with a sensitive portrait of an 88 year old self-aware woman. Do you wonder how to age gracefully? Here's how it's done!

   


 

Into The Blue
Robert Goddard

Harry Mosley Barnett is the caretaker of the Villa Navarkhn, in Greece. The villa is owned by a wealthy member of Parliament, Alan Dysart. A young woman named Heather Mallender comes to stay in 1925, to recuperate from a mental breakdown. Her sister has recently been killed by mistake, in an I.R.A. bombing. Harry and Heather become friends, with maybe the hint of possible romance, so Harry thinks. While on a mountain hike, Heather disappears. How is it possible? Of course Harry is suspected, and suddenly this book becomes a Master Class in Betrayal, "which always leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.” Betrayal and the Past, "which is not only always with us, it is us, the cause and context of our every action. What we do is prompted by what we believed a minute or a year or a century ago.” I love Goddard's writing!

 



Would you like to be a guest reviewer? Email Sally at sally@beagleandwolf.com
         


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