4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster, 866 pages.
This extraordinary novel opens with a joke a that tells how the main character's grandfather, Isaac Reznikoff became Ichabod Ferguson. The joke is repeated near the end of the book, and this framing, and it's accompanying explanation somehow tie together the four different lives of Archie Ferguson. The novel presents four different lives for Archie, four different paths that his life could take based on different decisions made when Archie was still young. Each chapter has four versions, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, then 2.1, etc. (chapter 1 actually has a 1.0, too, before the split)
A phenomenal book, really one of my all-time favorites. Strongly recommended for fans of Kate Atkinson's Life after Life (and, of course, A God in Ruins), David Mitchell's The Cloud Atlas, and other literary works with a speculative edge.

Sonora

Sonora by Hannah Lillith Assadi, 196 pages.
Ahlam is the daughter of a Palestinian refugee father and an Israeli mother. She and her friend Laura grow up in the desert outside of Phoenix, and they feel that they never really fit in.
When the two grow older, and start drinking too much and hanging out with meth-heads, they feel they have to flee the state and the region. Laura has fallen in love with an artist from New York, and they end up following him there. The book has an interesting style, written as a account of Ahlam's fevered thoughts and dreams. It's a first novel by an author who is also the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Palestinian father. An interesting read.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, 308 pages.
Rosemary tells us the tale of her broken family. Her brother Lowell left years ago and something happened to her sister, Fern. Rosemary doesn't tell us what right away, she lets her secrets out gradually. Fern was a chimpanzee raised as Rosemary's sister as part of her father's experiment.
Fowler tells of a time when this was a common sort of experiment with half-a-dozen animal-family experiments going on around the country. Lowell and Rosemary are left broken by the splitting of their family, and they both have to find a way to go on.
An engaging tale of family secrets, good intentions, and tragic results.

A Separation

A Separation by Katie Kitamura, 229 pages.

The unnamed narrator of Kitamura's novel starts to worry about her soon-to-be ex-husband when her mother-in-law, Isabella, calls to ask where he has gone. Isabella is worried about her son, and hasn't heard from him. Christopher, the husband / son in question, has run off to Greece to do some writing knowing that his marriage is over. The narrator is convinced by Isabella to go off and look for him; it seems easier to do that than to explain the state of her marriage to Isabella, As the narrator begins her search she finds out more about the man she had married, and discovers that there is a mystery here, more than just the "who is this man that I married?" mystery, though that's here too. A good choice for fans of intelligent prose with a bit of mystery.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann, 338 pages.
When oil was discovered on land that had been ceded to the Osage tribe after they had been forced off the much larger area they had previously held members of the tribe became very rich. Fortunately for the members of the tribe, mineral rights had been part of the treaty they had signed. Unfortunately, the courts had appointed white guardians to "protect" the Osage and their fortunes. In the early 1920s, over the course of a couple of years, several Osage tribe members were murdered. Some of their allies and some investigators were murdered as well. Grann does an excellent job of recounting the events, the investigations, and the trials. He also points the finger at several members of the community who were not indicted. A fascinating read about an entire community seemingly willing to murder their neighbors because of their race and their property. Narrated by Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, and Danny Campbell.

Anything is Possible

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, 254 pages. Narrated by Kimberly Farr.
A truly wonderful collection of interconnected stories that follows the people living in Amgash, Illinois. Lucy Barton, the main character of Strout's previous book, grew up here, and all the characters in this latest work know her or knew her or her family, and many of the townspeople express strong feelings about her and her (fictional) work. There is a lot of pain and anguish here, but it's revealed in an almost unsentimental way that makes it possible for the reader and most of the characters to get through. Everyone is carrying around secrets and hidden wounds in the town of Amgash. Really worth the read. I read the author's Olive Kittredge years ago, but had avoided her subsequent books for some reason I look forward to catching up on all of them now.

Boundless

Boundless by Jillian Tamaki, 248 pages.
The extraordinary Canadian graphic artist and storyteller gives us a collection of short stories that are quite different in tone and texture from her previous works and collaborations, Skim, This One Summer, and Supermutant Magic Academy.
Where those (the first two done in collaboration with her cousin, Mariko) were aimed more at a YA audience, these stories are marketed towards adults. And where earlier works had characters with some hopefulness about their futures, the stories here have characters who look back, if not with regret, then with a sense that some of their earlier optimism had been misplaced, whether it's a woman who finds herself growing smaller every day, the producer of a once popular pornographic sit-com looking back on the show's heyday, or the members of an odd collective / cult who had initially bonded over a shared obsession with a strange music file, the characters tell their tales with hints of melancholy and nostalgia. Very engaging and a very good read.

On the Camino

On the Camino by Jason, 186 pages

Graphic artist Jason recounts his journey on a 500-mile stretch of the pilgrimage route from St. Jean-Pied-du-Port near Biarritz, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Part of the author's journey involves learning to interact with the people he meets along the way; walking with or near them during the day or sharing a meal at the hostels at night. Justin conveys the mix of loneliness, and companionship he felt, along with a bit of the wonder and spirituality (or something like spirituality that he finds and feels along the way.
Not really explained in the book is that Santiago, or St. James the Great, was, of course, the disciple of Jesus, who after he was "decapitated in Jerusalem with a sword by Herod Agrippa himself, his body was taken up by angels, and sailed in a rudderless, unattended boat to Iria Flavia in Iberia, where a massive rock closed around his relics, which were later removed to Compostela" (thanks, Wikipedia). His tomb was discovered in 814 and pilgrims have been making their way there ever since. An interesting book with compelling art.

The Orphan's Tale

The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff, 344 pages.

Decent enough story involving circus folk, orphans, angry adolescents, greed, betrayal and nazis. None of it rings quite true, though;the strarving teen who is found by the circus folk just happened to be a world -class gymnast? And though it's several years into the war the Jewish circus performer who married a German officer is somehow surprised to find out that there's a bit of official antipathy borne by the German government towards Jews?
If you can get past the author's seeming unfamiliarity with her chosen setting, the book is alright.

The Right Side

The Right Side by Spencer Quinn, 323 pages.
Spencer Quinn is the author of the "Chet and Bernie" mysteries,  stories that all apparently feature a dog helping the detective solve crime. That doesn't sound all that appealing to me, but after reading The Right Side, and after finding out that Spencer Quinn is a pseudonym for prolific author Peter Abrahams, I would be willing to give them a try. Abrahams has written a wide array of thrillers over the years and they almost never disappoint.
The main character in this novel is Afghan War vet LeAnne Hogan.  On her last tour, Sgt. Hogan had served with a CST, or Cultural Support Team. It's a real thing apparently, female soldiers work with special operations combat teams to "engage the female population in an objective area when such contact may be deemed culturally inappropriate if performed by a male servicemember." On Hagan's last mission, things went terribly wrong; her friend was killed and she was badly hurt. The book moves between Hagan's earlier life with her parents and her plans, her time in the Army, and then focuses on her PSTD-marred present. While trying to adjust to her circumstances, or maybe to find a way back to her pre-trauma self, Hagan flees Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland and ends up in Washington state, at the home of a dead comrade. Along the way she finds a dog and solves a mystery (the book itself is not a mystery, but you can imagine the sequels with the angry soldier and her trusty canine helping out those in need), and both of these smaller plotlines add to the story. A good story with a compelling main character.

Beloved

Beloved by Toni Morrison, 324 pages.
Morrison's 1987 classic won the Pulitzer Prize, and while Morrison didn't win the Nobel prize until 1993, you know that this was the books that closed the deal for her.
The book begins in 1873 in the house outside Cincinnati where Sethe and her daughter Denver live.. The book then travels back to the time that Sethe, Baby Suggs and Paul D were all still enslaved on a plantation called Sweet Home, and then forward again to recount what happened to Sethe and her children in the time since she ran from Sweet Home. The house at 124 Bluestone Road is haunted by the ghost of Sethe's two-year old, the one who did not survive the escape from slavery. Sethe slowly tells the story of her tragic fate. Truly a classic and one worth rereading regularly. I was surprised to see that this was a National Book award finalist, but didnt win the award. So now I'm looking forward to reading Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann (and after that The Hair of Harold Roux, the book that beat out Sula for the National Book Award in 1975).

The Trespasser

The Trespasser by Tana French, 449 pages.
Detective Antoinette Conway doesn't really trust the rest of her squad. She has a bit of faith in Stephen Moran, her new-ish partner, but he might be too much of a kiss-ass to the higher-ups and the rest of the squad for her to truly trust. When they are handed the investigation of a "domestic"; a woman murdered, apparently by her slightly obsessive boyfriend, in what looks to be an open-and-shut case, Conway is at first insulted, both because she seems to only get assigned to the domestics, and because a more experienced detective, Breslin, is assigned to help. Conway and Moran suspect that there is either more to the case than they initially thought, or that they are being forced out of the squad, as they undergo constant review by their chief, strange items appear in the press, and they suspect Breslin of steering the investigation. Tightly written, and a lot of fun to read; I look forward to going back and reading all the Tana French novels. Great for fans of police procedurals and well-plotted mysteries. Excellent narration on the audio by Hilda Fay.