Postcards from the Edge

Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher (1987) 226 pages

Carrie Fisher herself narrates the semi-autobiographical novel on audiobook, and I borrowed it through Hoopla. It starts with the character Suzanne Vale in drug rehab, then continues with her trials and tribulations dating and working as an actress in Hollywood in the '80s. There are few jokes, but there are outrageous situations. Suzanne has a funny, neurotic way of looking at the world. She draws some weird and humorous similes. Next I'm curious to see the movie starring Meryl Streep based on this.
 

The Woman in the Library

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, 265 pages

A mystery novelist attempting to find the muse in the Reading Room of Boston Public Library's main branch begins observing the people around her, concocting their intertwined stories. Suddenly, a woman's scream pierces the room and all of the room's occupants are ushered outside. Bound by the scream they overheard, the novelist and the three people she was observing start a fast friendship, based on discovering who screamed and what it has to do with a woman who was later found dead in the library. That's the kernel that starts the book within a book in The Woman in the Library. The rest of the book is epistolary, filled with emailed commentary on each chapter from the author's Boston-based acquaintance (the author is based in Australia, apparently).

While that description may not make sense, the book is well-structured and it's easy to tell if you're reading the book or the book within the book. Unfortunately, I felt like the structure was the most interesting element of the book. We know next to nothing about the author whose chapters we're reading, nor do we know much about her acquaintance, though we're able to pick up a bit as the book goes on. And the book within the book? It's interesting, but not deep. If you want a complex and twisty book-within-a-book mystery, stick to Anthony Horowitz. This one doesn't hold a candle to Magpie Murders, though it made me wish I was reading that again instead.

The Egyptologist

The Egyptologist: a Novel / Arthur Phillips, 383 p.

As is frequently the case, I'm grateful to Linda for this recommendation.  Her post captures perfectly my feelings about this unusual and extremely witty mystery in which no one is who they seem, both in the sense of literal identity and in who individuals believe themselves to be morally and intellectually.  Set primarily in the 20s in the period in which Howard Carter opened Tut's treasure trove in the Valley of the Kings, the novel transcends the fun Indiana Jones-ish kitsch of papyrus and mummies to poke at universal human foibles in a way that's oddly cynical and moving at once.   Definitely recommended.