The Keeper

The Keeper (Cal Hooper #3) by Tana French (2026), 496 pages 

The Keeper concludes French's Cal Hooper series. I will miss Cal, a retired Chicago police detective, and his struggles to feel at home in the entrenched Irish village of Ardnakelty. I really enjoyed the first installment of the series, The Searcher, and mainly continued on as I like Cal's character. I just did not enjoy #2 and #3 as much. French is VERY wordy. While she does a fantastic job of evoking the essence of Ardnakelty and its people, the story gets bogged down with the minutia. Unlike #2 (The Hunter), though, you actually get to the mystery in the first third of the book! yay! I appreciate French bringing topical issues to her novels and The Keeper brings home issues of change vs. tradition that many communities are facing. What I did not care for was the ending. I do not want to give spoilers, but I don't believe the character would do what the character did. 

Anxious People

Anxious People (2019) by Fredrik Backman, 336 pages.

Your palms are sweating; your heart is racing; you can't think straight. You are anxious. 
The bank robber stands in the apartment-for-sale--chest pounding, pistol in hand--and stares at the group of people ahead. These "hostages" include a young couple with a baby on the way, an older couple with a shared project, a banker with a haunting secret, an elderly woman, a real-estate agent, and a rabbit. Down on the street, assessing the situation, are two police officers working to diffuse this incident before backup from Stockholm arrives. Each of these people has plenty to be anxious about, even without the hostage situation. Each of these folks probably shares an anxiety with you. 

After reading My Friends--Fredrik Backman's most recent work, and loving it--I was excited to pick up this previous issue of his, and it did not disappoint. Anxious People shares many of the same themes as other Backman books, themes of loneliness and connection especially, and touches on some dark subject matter, such as suicide and addiction. Backman uses his characters to represent different anxieties that one might experience at different stages in life. He addresses the broken system in which we live but counteracts the hopelessness that it can cause with an call for community and connection. It can be a scary world, and sometimes the only way to get through is by reaching out. 

Their Eyes Were Watching God

 

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) 238 pages

I listened to the audiobook through Libby. Ruby Dee is amazing at performing and narrating the story. She makes every other skillful audiobook narrator I've heard seem like they are only giving a 70% effort. The various character voices and emotive delivery are stellar. Hurston's story feels like a legend about the founding of the black town of Eatonville, Florida, where she grew up, and where she did anthropological studies in college. We follow the life of Janie. As a child she is raised by her grandmother and married off young to a much older man. She is raised to be obedient and stays put for years. Later, she runs off with a smooth talker who has dreams of being the mayor of a new black town. As the mayor's wife she is treated with respect, but is caught in a sort of gilded cage. As a still young widow, Janie meets perhaps her great love, and starts life anew again. She begins to enjoy life and find her individuality for the first time. The ending crashes through fairly rapidly with a hurricane hitting Florida, a rabid dog bite, and a brief courtroom drama. Hurston really masters the language in a poetic way with the dialect of blacks in the south in the 1930s.

Real Men Knit

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson (2020) 319 pages

Kerry Fuller practically grew up in Mama Joy Strong's shop, Strong Knits. Kerry's mother wasn't that nurturing, but Mama Joy had more than enough love and nurturing for this neighborhood girl, and even fostered 4 boys whom she adopted. Everyone around Mama Joy learned to knit, including her boys. Kerry spent her youth pining for Jesse, but avoided him because he seemed only interested in short-term hook-ups.

Fast forward to the present, when Mama Joy has suddenly died. Her four sons are inclined to liquidate her shop and sell the building, but Jesse decides he wants to try to make a go at running the business. Kerry agrees to help him in her spare time. What follows is a dance of sorts, with Jesse and Kerry each attracted to the other, but not in sync.

Perhaps the outcome is predictable, but their yoyoing emotions seemed a bit much for me. Still, it was a fast, enjoyable read.

Front desk

Front desk / Kelly Yang, 297 pgs.

Mia and her parents have been in the US for a couple of years but they are still trying to find their way.  They end up running a motel close to Disneyland but are working for a horrible boss that constantly rips them off.  Mia is in 5th grade and the hotel is quite a source of education for her.  She works the desk when not in school where she and her bestie Lupe bond over their dislike of Jason.  Mia's mom is pushing her into math but Mia has a way with words and is working on her English.  She is confident and can figure things out.  She is entering an essay contest to WIN a motel so her family can move up a rung on the ladder.  Mia has some 5th grader problems but mostly her issues are bigger.  Her family is poor, her parents work hard but make little.  Her friends at the motel suffer from discrimination.  She starts helping other people when she can.  She writes letters on their behalf.  She has a lot of ideas.  What a fantastic book that covers so many important modern issues.  Highly recommended.

Nine Essential Things I've Learned about Life / Harold S. Kushner / 171 pp.

It's been a long time since I read this author's Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, and although my memory is not great, I suspect that there is a lot of overlap between that title and this one.  Never mind, Kushner still communicates fairly complicated ideas about God and faith in accessible but not dumbed-down language.  After a career serving as a rabbi to a congregation in Massachusetts and having lost a son to a genetic illness, Kushner's beliefs are hard-won and never glib.

All Together Now

All Together Now by Gill Hornby, 328 pages

The town of Bridgeford is small and best known as a crossroads for people commuting to London. But the people of Bridgeford (particularly those in the Bridgeford Community Choir) are proud of their tiny town and when a developer makes plans to build a big-box supermarket in Bridgeford, its citizens and the choir come together to fight for their quaint village.

Hornby creates a cool cast of characters here, who wouldn't feel out of place in a Love, Actually-esque romantic comedy. There's the awkward man whose wife has left him, the middle-aged mom who is trying to take care of everyone else in town to make up for the empty nest at home, the city council member who thinks he's cooler than he actually is, and the single mom with a deadbeat stoner son and secret past. And all these people sing together. It makes for a light and pleasant read.

Lucky for Good by Susan Patron 203 pages

This conclusion to the Newbery winning trilogy picks up about where the other left off. When Lucky gets sent to the principal's office after defending her adopted mom's honor, she is given an assignment to delve into her past. Lucky yearns to find out more information about the father who abandoned her and the family tree project leads to some answers. Brigit's diner has been cited by the county health code and is in imminent danger of closing. The Hard Pan, California community pools together to answer their needs.