Turn of Mind is a literary thriller about a retired orthopedic surgeon suffering from dementia and accused of killing her best friend. With unmatched patience and a pulsating intensity, Alice LaPlante's debut novel brings us deep into a brilliant woman's deteriorating mind, where the impossibility of recognizing reality can be both a blessing and a curse.

A novel about the poetry and the pity of war. The title comes from an Army marching chant that expresses a violence that is as surprising as it is casual. Pvt. John Bartle's life becomes linked to that of Pvt. Daniel Murphy when they're both assigned to Fort Dix before a deployment to Iraq. Murph has just turned 18, but at 21, Bartle is infinitely more aged. In a rash statement, one that foreshadows ominous things to come, Bartle promises Murph's mother that he'll look out for him and "bring him home to you." The irascible Sgt. Sterling overhears this promise and cautions Bartle he shouldn't have said anything so impulsive and ill-advised. In Iraq nine months later, the two friends go on missions that seem pointless in theory but that are dangerous in fact. They quickly develop an apparent indifference and callousness to the death and destruction around them, but this indifference exemplifies an emotional distance necessary for their psychological survival.

Now in paperback, this coming-of-age novel traces the lives of three brothers growing up in a household that tries to be loving but is unsteady and a turbulent environment outside the walls. The brothers are very tight and have each others back but no one goes unscathed. The writing is wonderfully spare - and enormously powerful!

Winner of the 2011 Orange Prize and on almost every critic’s list as one of the best novels of 2011, this novel is thrilling, literally speaking.  Against the background of the Balkan Wars, Obreht interweaves reality and folklore to tell a story – using stories within stories - of a granddaughter’s search to really know her grandfather, with whom she is very close.

 

 

Beautifully written, nuanced and complex, Edgarian’s novel shows us a marriage unraveling under the stress of a failing economy, a sick baby, a precocious pre-schooler, and a too little time together. Both husband and wife are smart, witty and well meaning. Minor characters are quirky, charming and well drawn. Family secrets are tantalizingly revealed, engaging and surprise the reader to the end!

 

I love this book. Besides being absolutely charming and witty, it is a story of two characters unlikely to challenge race, convention, and tradition to make a home for themselves in the world. It takes a while, however--especially for the very English Major Pettigrew.

Sara’s new V.I. really is her best yet. Edgy and full of punch, Body Work is set in a nightclub featuring a performance artist who makes her naked body the location of other people’s art, imagination, and, as it turns out, underground communication. The novel also includes an Iraqi vet accused—falsely?—of murder. V.I. takes some mighty big chances resolving the dilemmas she confronts in this mystery.

Bateson follows her earlier book, Composing a Life, with one designed for those of us thinking about useful, satisfying ways to spend the last thirty or so years of our life.  She doesn’t provide a blueprint but certainly grounds and inspires her readers through her words and experience as a seventy-year-old woman and those of others she interviewed for the book, all of whom are leading dynamic, interesting lives post-retirement.