Where there's smoke

 

With wildfires raging, the air quality has made it too dangerous to be outside. Luckily, I had picked up a second batch of books curbside before it all started. What better way to escape from the tragedies of reality than to dive into those of fiction?

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

A plane crashes. Only one young boy survives. As we watch Edward struggle with his recovery, newfound fame, and the pain of achieving milestones his older brother never will, we also live through the hours of the plane ride.  Intermittently, we meet some of his fellow passengers and slowly discover what went wrong that day. The suspense of this novel lies not only in the mundane minutes of the plane ride that lead up to the crash, but in those everyday moments in the years that follow when Edward begins to hurt a little bit less.

A Death in Harlem by Karla F.C. Holloway

This lyrically written mystery set in Harlem in the 1920s features Weldon Thomas. As the novel opens, Thomas, the area’s first Black police officer, is expecting a quiet night working a literary awards banquet. By the end of the evening, two women from different social classes end up dead. After some weeks pass without an investigation, the women of the community approach Thomas to look into the matter. In the end, he discovers not only the culprit, but a host of secrets that those with enough wealth can conceal.

Curbside

This week I went to the library for the first time since early March. This visit, as you might have expected, was a little different than usual. This was no spontaneous trip on my way home, but a scheduled appointment I made the day before. Instead of making a beeline to the new releases section, I sat in my car and waited for my order. Rather than perusing covers and reading plot summaries, I opted for the "Grab Bag (surprise me!)" option.   

Here’s what my local librarians picked out for me:

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain

I probably wouldn’t have picked this book based on either the title or cover, so I was pleasantly surprised by both the unique story and character development. Anna is an artist chosen to paint a post office mural during  the early 1940s. Morgan is an art student chosen to restore the mural eight decades later. Despite their different circumstances, art becomes the outlet with which they wrestle with their personal demons.

Moral Compass by Danielle Steel

Despite, or perhaps to spite, her popularity, Danielle Steel hasn’t been an author I’ve ever read. Although I don’t regret the afternoon I spent with this book, I probably won’t seek out others she’s written unless I happen to be in an airport or doctor’s office waiting room.

Treason by Stuart Woods

I have to admit, I enjoyed the snappy dialogue. It was also mildly entertaining to read how one goes about buying a private jet. But the endless Caesar salad lunches and objectification of women got tiresome. By the third phone call (of roughly 300) in the novel, we understood it would be scrambled, but were told again anyway.