A Lowcountry Bride

 

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams (2021) 343 pages

Maya Jackson is a wedding dress designer for a renowned New York bridal gown brand. She's overstressed trying to please her boss, the one and only Laura Whitcomb, but she now has a chance to become a senior designer, which would fulfill her mother's wishes for her. When her widowed father breaks his hip, she is forced to take unpaid time off to stay with him in South Carolina. In order to pay her her bills while she's with her father, she takes a temporary job at a small dress shop in Charleston, which is run by Derek Sullivan. Derek has his own problems. His beloved wife was killed in a church shooting a couple years prior and his mother, the owner of a bridal shop, has passed away too. He's in danger of losing the business. Can the dresses that Maya designed with a blend of design elements from her Filipino and West African ancestries—but which weren't acceptable to Laura Whitcomb—attract business to Derek's shop, or will he be forced to sell it? Meanwhile, can Derek make peace with his twelve-year-old daughter who's living with her own pain since the losses of her mother and grandmother? 

Feral Creatures

 

Feral Creatures / Kira Jane Buxton, ready by Robert Petkoff,  353 pgs.

S. T. is back! He is working hard to keep his nestling safe.  He is trying to raise Dee as a the perfect Mofo but she is more interested in being an animal. Like most parent/child relationships, there is friction.  But now things are changing, S. T. is convinced that returning to his murder is necessary to keep Dee safe.  They start out on this trip a little bit disconnected by riding on the backs of some killer whales.  Yes, if that last sentence doesn't clue you in that this is a read doozy of a story, just check it out yourself.  S. T. still has some amazing lines but he is a bit of a control freak.  Are the restrictions he tries to place on Dee making him part of the patriarchy? Or can a crow who can't really stop anything really be the problem?  I love it when Dee just scoops him up and takes him along.  A really fun audiobook.

Sheets

 

Sheets / Brenna Thummler, 238 pgs.

Marjorie is just a kid, 13, but she is basically running the family business because her dad is suffering from depression after the death of his wife.  She is also going to school and suffering all the teen problems that come with trying to fit in.  Wendell is a ghost who makes the laundry his evening place.  He is trying to help but instead makes problems.  A local businessman wants to buy the building.  Can Marjorie keep it together or is everything doomed?

A Slow Fire Burning

 

A slow fire burning / Paula Hawkins, read by Rosemund Pike 306 pgs.

A gruesome murder brings to light many questions aside from "whodunit".  The young man was killed only a couple of weeks after his mother died of seemingly natural causes. Was there possible foul play?  The aunt of this man is grieving now for a nephew and a sister.  She has plenty of other grief on her radar.  The ex-husband of the aunt is also struggling.  The woman who lived close to the young man and found his body is now reliving trauma from her past.  And then there is the young woman with a violent past who spent the night with him.  She claims her innocence but has a lot of "issues" of her own.  Is it possible that none of these people is our murderer?   Hawkins takes us through some twists and turns getting to know each character and how almost any of them could really be the killer. She has the ability to make you doubt everyone and wonder what else is at play even as she leads you down the path to the answer.  Rosamund Pike is a perfect narrator. 

The butchery

 

The Butchery / Bastien Vives, 85 pages.

Young people in love but with the lens focusing only on some small situations. Showing them brushing their teeth together, walking hand in hand, laying in bed together.  But when it ends, the pain and problems are very real.  This is a sketchbook of many minor moments that may end up being more important than we realize. Nice art work. Few words.

Onion Skin

 

Onion Skin / Edgar Camacho, 158 pgs.

I was thinking the title would be a hint of a layered story but instead, it is difficult to parse what is supposed to be a flashback, an alternative story line, and what is supposedly happening.  A young couple decides to fix up a food truck to travel around and live out their dreams.  When they accidently get on the wrong side of a gang, their truck is damaged and they are out for revenge.  I think this is the story line that we are supposed to see as "true."  Perhaps there is just a little too much confusion for me to appreciate all of this. 

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

AMAZE, AMAZE, AMAZE, as Rocky might say.  The third book by The Martian author, Andy Weir, is a enthralling combination of hard science (but not too hard for the math challenged), plausible solutions to complex problems, dramatic plot turns, and a compassionate exploration of interspecies friendship.  Waking up from a coma and finding himself alone in a spaceship, Ryland Grace doesn’t know who he is, much less how he got there.  As his mind clears and memory returns, he begins to grasp the situation, realizing that his mission is no less than the saving of the Earth, whose sun is being slowly dimmed by an interstellar plague.  And it’s not just our sun and home planet, but those of other nearby systems.  His ship’s location is light-years away from Earth in the one area that seems to be clear of this fast-replicating plague, and Grace is not the only sentient being out there trying to save a world.  Reminiscent of the best of Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury and other classic sci-fi authors -- I could not put it down.  478 pp.

32 Yolks

 

32 yolks : from my mother's table to working the line / Eric Ripert, with Veronica Chambers, 247 pgs.

Every time I read one of these chef memoirs where people recount the terror of working in a hot kitchen under a sadistic chef, I wonder why anyone does this sort of work.  And yet, there is no shortage of people who put up with the back breaking labor and continue in the field.  Do they get a real gas from having people like their creations?  It really is a creative and artistic field.  I enjoyed this book very much. Ripert came from a fairly rich household so it seems even less reasonable to work 18 hour days. I loved his focus on good food as a kid, maybe he really had no choice but to become a chef.

Atomic Habits

 

Atomic habits: tiny changes, remarkable results / James Clear, 306 pgs.

Whenever a read a book like this I think - "Wow, I can DO this." Most of the time a week goes by and I never do it. But, I'm still optimistic about this one.  Even if I don't change a lot, it seems easy to understand how to increase your odds...make a good habit EASIER.  Put all the stuff you will need in one place, stop on your way to another place.  All of these ideas seem doable.  What I like the most, however, it the idea that one little change is good.  You don't need to think about changing everything, start with ONE thing.  Now lets see if I do it...

Crooked Hallelujah

 Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford (2020) 288 pages

Fifteen-year-old Justine is a member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. When her father had left many years ago, her mother, Lula, took refuge in the Beulah Springs Holiness Church, complete with faith healing, prophetic visions, speaking in tongues, and the requirement of modest dress. Justine is feeling hemmed in by her mother's congregation. And now she is pregnant.

Justine gives birth to Reney, and although she works multiple jobs, they are just getting by. Justine drinks too much and the men she associates with are unreliable, sometimes scary. Reney often finds more stability in time spent with her grandmother and great grandmother.

The novel chronicles the relationships between the four Cherokee women over time, especially from the viewpoints of Justine and Reney. The bonds of love are strong, but so are the difficulties encountered. Justine feels helpless when her mother develops seizures but Lula prefers the prayers of her congregation to any medical care. Unable to change her mother's view, Justine bounces between Texas and Oklahoma, trying to find her place in the world. Reney grows up quickly, and struggles to avoid her mother's pitfalls.

The debut novel of a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Crooked Hallelujah feels authentic and loving, but heavy.