Abby Melchior

In this witchy fiction suburban mom Sarah Nelson has secrets. She's been trying to forget a tragedy from her past. In college her small coven accidentally set their dorm on fire. She's been hiding her magic ever since. When she goes back to her alma mater to commemorate the anniversary of the fire she is reunited with her coven and their powers once again begin to spiral out of control. They struggle to rein in their increasingly chaotic magic and figure out what really happened all those years ago. I usually love all things witchy, but this one was a struggle for me. There wasn't much depth here. The characters didn't feel authentic, there was no richness of language, even the magical plot wasn't especially creative - just mostly cartoonish. For readers looking for a good witchy book, I think there are better choices out there.

This novella was the perfect book to kick off my spooky season reading. At just 165 pages it was quick and creepy, without being downright scary. Mara is a bit lost in life until she finds a job as the production assistant on a reality TV show that helps people renovate the haunted homes they have purchased. The major responsibility of her position is "helping" the hauntings along. She is enjoying her new job and coworkers, until actual creepy occurrences begin happening, and for once, she is not the cause. Mara must now contend with her own insecurities, and maybe even a real ghost. This was a great book that kept me guessing at what was real. It was an interesting look at how our fears can manifest to haunt us. Sarah Pinsker is becoming a favorite author of mine. After you read this one you should also grab her short story collection from last year, Lost Places, which also had creative spins on engaging themes.

This classic by Richard Adams follows a group of wild rabbits as they set out from the only home they've ever known on a great adventure to start a new warren. They encounter many dangers, make new friends and enemies, and tackle adversity with bravery and humility. Don't be mistaken in thinking a book about rabbits will be a simple tale. You will find variety and complexity in this group of characters. Adams is able to make the reader feel compassion for even the strongest and toughest of the bunch. Readers will be held in suspense as the rabbits navigate real physical threats, but also tense social dilemmas. I first read this book with my mother when I was about ten, and it's the first real literary fiction I remember experiencing. I think this is the first book that opened up my world to the depth and impact that stories can really have and I attribute my mom and her excellent taste in literature, like this, to my lifelong love of reading and writing. I have revisited this one several times over the years. It never lost its magic hold on me. When Scribner came out with this charming new 5oth Anniversary Edition I was thrilled to escape into the downs with Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and the gang for a fourth read. If you haven't read this before I would absolutely recommend it. If you have read it, here's your reminder to pick up this new edition and read it again! Also, if you're looking for a great book that is appropriate to read with you kids (I'd say 8+ for reading together), but still interesting for adults, this one is perfect. They may be talking to their friends thirty years later about how it was you and Richard Adams who changed their lives by fostering a love of reading in them. Enjoy!

In this nineties novel Tulloch satires the frivolity of the club scene in New York during that era. The main character is a door girl at a popular club and judges peoples' worth based on their fashion choices and how much attention they get in the gossip columns. After she makes the tragic error of not recognizing a high profile person and turning them away at the door of the club, she loses her job and therefore her power in the night life social circles. She proceeds to try and claw her way back up from social obscurity by desperate acts and shallow friendships. In her effort to poke fun and ridicule the misbegotten importance placed on fashion and society during this time Tulloch has created some truly outrageous characters and scenarios. Unfortunately, the story has surpassed humorous and ventured into a level of bizarre that as a contemporary reader into 2024 I found unappealing and absurd. I am willing to acknowledge that perhaps much of this writing just didn't age well and I may have found it more relevant had I been a first- hand spectator of this scene in the 90s.

In his memoir cardiac surgeon, Dr. Craig R. Smith, documents his life and medical career. From his rural beginnings, to his young adulthood working on power lines, to eventually following in his grandparents' footsteps and going to medical school, to experiencing personal triumphs and loss. He talks about his professional life, exploring his interests in research, finding his passion for cardiac surgery, performing procedures on President Clinton, and navigating the unprecedented challenges during the Covid pandemic. Smith's writing is tight and he chronicles his life with the same surgical precision that he approached his profession. Unfortunately, this detached, methodical type of writing is lacking the insight and vulnerability readers value in a memoir.

"I had imagined I'd see the place of my mother's memories, of her nostalgia, a nostalgia of tattered sighs. She was always sighing, mourning the loss of Comala, hoping to return. But she never came back. Now I've come in her place. And I come bearing the same eyes with which she saw these things, because she gave me her eyes to see." (p.2) In this short novel a man honors his mother's dying wish and travels back to the place of his birth to find his father. Through alternating points of view over different time periods we learn of this man's journey, as well as the life of his father, Pedro Paramo. Because the book jumps around in time and through several different character's perspectives without smooth transitions it was very confusing for me to follow. However, the language was stunning. So despite an erratic story line, if you appreciate really moving, elegant writing I would still recommend this book. It is of course a famous classic by Mexican author Juan Rulfo. I do not speak Spanish so I had to read the translation by Douglas J. Weatherford.

This historical nonfiction explores the work of Dr. J. Marion Sims, who is widely considered the father of gynecology. Unlike many other texts on the subject it trains a focus on the woman Anarcha, who was a slave and the subject of many of Sims’s experiments, as well as the other slaves he experimented on. It humanizes these people in bondage that are the foundation of the medical science all women benefit from today. I admire what this book has accomplished in showing Sims as the reckless, fame-seeking, flawed person he was, and gives recognition to the women who suffered at his hands to advance medicine. I struggled to get through this book as it is a very graphic read. Those that are in the medical field will probably have an easier time with it. I also felt it was at times repetitive and could have been edited down a bit and still been comprehensive, but more focused. I read the hard copy of the book and supplemented my reading with the audiobook. The narrators, Ariel Blake and Peter Ganim, did an excellent job. They were clear, had a nice cadence, and were engaging. In this case I did prefer the hard copy and one of the main reasons is because Hallman has included relevant photos and illustrations throughout the text that enhanced my reading. I would recommend this as an interesting read for anyone in the medical profession, but probably not for the typical general historical nonfiction reader.

In this nonfiction Hudson, an academic, former DC politico, and daughter of the “Manners Lady”, writes about the importance of civility in society. She examines the role civility has played throughout history and looks at what distinguishes true civility from surface politeness and manners. She also advises how to practice more civility in our fraught contemporary society. Based on much of the marketing for this book I was expecting a self-help type read focused on the cultivation and application of civility in our daily life. However, I was surprised instead to find the book was very academic in tone. This dense and detailed dive into the history and philosophy of civility was not what I anticipated. The academic or student may find just what they’re looking for with this comprehensive and detailed read. But, the average reader might want to look for a book on the subject with a more accessible tone and applicable advice.

“Slowly the objects took up residence in the place, as if the apartment itself were a living thing, lighting up with memories.” (p.26) Menendez’s literary fiction novel reads like an interconnected collection of short stories. Each chapter explores the life of a different resident of Apartment 2B of The Helena in Miami Beach. From 1942 through 2012 the reader gets to know residents of different races, nationalities, and genders. Each one is dealing with their own very personal challenges that have brought them to 2B. They are all victims in some way. Victims of family members, or scorned lovers, victims of history, victims of political upheaval, victims of racism, victims of economic disparity or mental health struggles. They are suffering, but they are also fighting and trying to find hope within the walls of the apartment. They don’t know each other and there’s nothing that connects them except the place they have all called home. However, despite their differences they are all the same in their striving. This is a wonderful story of place and apartment 2B is a character itself. It holds its own history and memories that carry the reader through the novel. Both readers and the characters can feel its presence in the story. Fans of literary fiction will sink into Menendez’s powerful language-driven voice in this muscular writing. Despite spending only a chapter with each character, there is so much depth and interiority here. This was really a unique way to approach a novel and I was incredibly impressed with the skill of the author and the feeling I was left with at the end of this one. I would absolutely recommend this to all literary fiction and short story readers. The paperback edition released last week so now is the perfect time to pick up a copy!

“There’s no herd of great white horses to warn us when we pass the point of no return. Just the long-drawn-out death of democracy. It seems that people will swallow anything if you feed it to them piece by piece.” (p.79) In this historical fiction Freethy follows two timelines. In 1993 Clara traces her ancestry, hoping to find her father by tracking down porcelain artifacts her mother left her. In 1929, artists Max and Bettina live in Germany as the political climate changes. They struggle to adjust as the Nazi party becomes increasingly powerful, radical, and dangerous. As a Jew Max must use his artistic talents to survive. Bettina, on the other hand capitalizes on her family connections and finds herself compromising her integrity to try keep her beloved Max safe. I would have enjoyed this one more if the characters had been fleshed out better and the storyline hadn’t followed such a predictable path. Particularly with Clara’s search for her father in the present-day nineties. Overall I felt like there was room for a bit more development here. However, the strength of this book lies in its intimate look at how slowly evil can creep in and overcome good on a national scale, and how many people didn’t realize how bad things had become until it was too late. There were eerie similarities between the early days of the rise of the Nazi party that Bettina and Max experienced, and much of the rhetoric and policy the far-right political party in the US pushes now. You don’t want a historical fiction about Nazi Germany to feel timely, but this one did. For that reason I would recommend everyone give it a read, and think critically about the parallels between Max and Bettina’s experiences and our present day political climate.