Mouth to mouth, by Antoine Wilson

In this book the narrator, who remains nameless, bumps into Jeff Cook, an old acquaintance from college. Back then the narrator admired Jeff, but while they had one class together, they never became close friends. This makes what happens seem so remarkable to the narrator. After they meet in an airport where their flight is delayed. Jeff invites the narrator to come to the first class lounge while they wait. They spend hours in the lounge drinking (the narrator drinks non-alcoholic beer, while Jeff drinks alcoholic beer and then mixed drinks). Jeff begins to tell the narrator a story about something that happened to him after he graduated: he saved a man from drowning at the beach. Later he became obsessed with the man and finagled his way into his life, first by getting a job at his business, then by dating his daughter. All the while, he never lets on that he was the one who saved the man on the beach and the man never lets on whether he knows that it was Jeff.

I found it interesting how the author builds tension throughout the story. The reader doesn’t know where this is going. Jeff’s intentions are never really clear, perhaps even to him at the time or even in retrospect. It felt ominous and a little nerve-wracking. The narrator queries Jeff throughout, trying to nail down his motives, but they are never really defined. All of the tension made me want to keep reading; I had a hard time putting this book down.

I like the title with its multiple meanings. Jeff saved the man by doing CPR and mouth-to-mouth, and at the same time, he’s telling this story to the narrator who is a writer. The narrator gets the impression that Jeff wants him to write about the story.

The writing is very good; it gave me a lot to think about. I think my book club would love this one. Although a small book at under 200 pages, it packs a powerful punch.

Justice is served, by Leslie Karst

 

In this engaging memoir, Karst, a retired attorney and mystery novelist known for her "Sally Solari" series, writes about the nine months she spent planning a dinner party for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (RBG). A budding chef, Karst was thrilled yet anxious, and she used every opportunity to test menu items on her friends and family. A trip to Paris also turned into a way to sample potential dishes she might serve to RBG. Every visit to a winery became a chance to sample potential wines that could accompany each course of the meal. Readers will see when the menu began to take shape. This book also contains Karst's own story about how she became an attorney. However, she realized that while she liked her job as a legal researcher, she did not love the law the way RBG did. That led to a resolution to change careers and seek new opportunities as a writer. Interspersed throughout the book are short sections detailing RBG's career and key cases. VERDICT This is a light- hearted yet earnest account of an event that changed the author's life.

This review was published previously in Library Journal 148:3 (2023): 288.

True biz, by Sara Novic

 

True Biz is a highly original novel that takes on many issues faced by the deaf community in the United States. It has several main characters including February, the principal of a high school for deaf students; Charlie, a girl whose parents tried to keep her in mainstream school with a cochlear implant instead of allowing her to learn sign language; and Austin, a boy who comes from a multi-generation deaf family. Facing budget cuts, February decides to fill one of her staff vacancies by teaching a class about deaf history. Sections that address this history punctuate the book throughout. Charlie fights with her parents about the cochlear implant, which she insists doesn’t work. Austin is shocked when his newborn sister turns out to be hearing and is hurt by how happy his father is about it. February is struggling with a mother with Alzheimer’s, a jealous wife, and the knowledge that her school is going to be closed down at the end of the year due to budget cuts, which she must keep secret.

This book addresses many issues and injustices that just aren’t on most people’s radar. The history of how deaf people have been taught in schools, for instance, is truly shocking; for decades they were denied sign language and forced to try to manage by lip reading and learning to speak out loud. This denied many of them a functional language which had significant educational and psychological impacts on them. Early cochlear implants had significant design flaws and many of them didn’t work, but no one listened to the deaf people when they reported this. It was only after many years that they were found to be right and the implants were recalled.

In addition to bringing important issues to light, this is a well-written novel with characters that are believable. The plot unfolds at a good pace; this was a hard book to put down. I liked the way the various plot points or discussions between characters is reflected by the illustrated (with line drawings) history lessons that are placed throughout the book. The author uses typography to show which conversations are signed versus out loud. The book shows how administrators can use the budget to make poor decisions; the impact of one terrible administrator can have repercussions that last decades, something that we see in the news every day relating to higher education. The book ends without a clear resolution to this issue, avoiding a feel-good ending. While I would have preferred a feel-good ending, this is probably more realistic (unfortunately).

The cook, by Maylis de Kerangal

 

This was a very short but interesting work about the development of a young man into a skilled chef. The narrator follows Mauro's tracks as he bakes cakes for his friends, goes to university, works in a series of restaurants, then decides to become credentialed as a chef at the same time that he completes a masters degree in economics. It's billed as a novel but it reads more like a magazine essay. If I didn't know that it was supposed to be a novel, I would have thought it was a profile of a real person. There's not much to it, so it's not overly satisfying as a novel, but I did enjoy the book, perhaps because I like long-form journalism and this reminded me of that (and I like to cook as well, so the subject was familiar and interesting to me).

The divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker

 

This is a prodigious work that documents the full history of Trump's term in office. Heavily researched and documented, this book will stand as a record of this time period. It's very well written; it pulls no punches but is very objective and written without bias.

Memphis, by Tara M. Stringfellow

 

This first novel covers three generations of women in the North family in Memphis. With chapters alternating between the generations, the book’s plot reveals itself in a non-chronological order. The overriding themes of this book are loss, determination, and survival. Hazel is widowed while still pregnant with her first daughter; her husband, Memphis’ first black police detective and a WWII veteran, was lynched. Her daughters are talented and smart, but make poor decisions that have long-lasting effects, one marrying an abusive man and the other getting pregnant and dropping out of college. The youngest generation includes two sisters who are gifted with artistic and academic talent, and their cousin who was abused as a child and who struggles with the rising criminal element in their neighborhood. The chapters are told from each of the women’s and girls’ viewpoints, leaving the men out (they don’t get to tell their side). The novel is punctuated with events such as the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., revealing the impact it had on the community.

The writing in this book is excellent; not a word is out of place. The slang and vernacular seem natural. The plot flows, in spite of the non-chronological way of telling the story. The female characters are believable and they’re well-developed. The male characters are less well-developed, but I think that’s the point. This story emphasizes the strength of women in the black community and their ability to manage for themselves when they have to. There is also an element of tragedy. Not every plot line has a happy ending, although there is some amount of closure for each.

I really enjoyed reading this book; it’s Stringfellow’s first novel and I would definitely read future books by her (should she write more).