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As many of you are aware, I am a judge/reader for a major American book award. All the books I am sent were published during the previous year. My scores are based on seven criteria, such as plot, dialogue, setting, etc. I send in my results, along with comments explaining my scores. This basic method is used by all award groups with outside judges.
It seemed like a fun idea to reveal a sample comparison standard to which I hold all the books I am given in these categories: Sci-fi, Rom-Com, Women’s Fiction, and Mystery. I have scored other categories as well (fantasy, horror, military fiction, YA, and more, with several page-turners among them). If the books I review for NBR/Kerrian’s Notebook, (or for the awards), aren’t as good as these, you’ll never hear about them from me.
Here are four really great reads, listed in alphabetical order by author, with BUY links in BOLD:
“I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around” by Ann Garvin
Every once in a while, we read a novel that deals with a life event we have lived through ourselves. “I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around” had been on my TBR (To Be Read) stack for a few months, but I was reluctant to start it, not because I am unfamiliar with the author, but in fact, just the opposite. I was certain her honesty, wisdom, superb writing, and gut-wrenching truths would bring up old sadness. Now, I wish I’d read it while Mom was still alive.
We enter the in-your-face world of an aging parent who develops Alzheimer’s, while the daughter/caregiver simultaneously tries to live her own life. Primary caregivers know this truth: the parent’s situation usually takes precedence over anything and everyone else.
Ms. Garvin delivers her story with kindness, love, and a blinding reality check for the daughter who really doesn’t want her Mom to move into a nursing home. She is sure that her Mom could come home again and the world could go back to the way it was. The surprises, laughs, and tears keep the pages turning.
Garvin’s most recent book: “Bummer Camp: A Novel”
“The Coincidence of Coconut Cake” by Amy E. Reichert Chef Lou Johnson is living her dream at her restaurant, Luella’s, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She’s engaged to Devlin, a prominent attorney. Life is good and getting better.
When Lou bakes a coconut cake for Devlin’s birthday and takes it to his apartment, his intern is there, barely dressed. It appears that Devlin is cheating on her.
Al Waters, food critic, sometimes plays fast and loose with the facts and publishes a scathing review of Lou’s restaurant on the very night of the intern sighting. Groan. Business drops waaaaay off as a result and the time is ripe for Lou to completely redo her life. What follows is a series of meetings with both Al and Lou keeping their real identities secret. Deception? Evasion? Attraction? What could go wrong in this tale of love’s beginnings and endings and new beginnings?
Amy E. Reichert has written a delightful novel about the way fate can intervene when we are blindsided by events that run contrary to our Grand Plan. The reader is in on the secrets early on, but Reichert’s clever plot keeps us laughing as the main players stay in the dark.
Reichert reveals the dynamics of running a restaurant with just enough info to provide authenticity, supplying the perfect flavor to “The Coincidence of Coconut Cake.”
Reichert’s most recent book: “Once Upon A December.”
“Lake of Fire” by Mark Stevens Allison Coil, big game hunting guide and occasional investigator in the mountains of Colorado, returns in “Lake of Fire.” Stevens continues the environmental theme of his award-winning series, and focuses on a monster fire that threatens to consume Alison’s beloved Flat Top Wilderness.
Against the backdrop of the loss of hundreds of homes, Allison works to solve a gruesome murder. She and her friends must contend with a dangerous anti-government group whose leaders don’t care about the fallout, only that they be heard. Stevens’ complex core ensemble characters have developed in each book, with subplots intertwining until reaching their unexpected conclusions.
Stevens creates frightening fire scenes as the flames alternately surround Allison on horseback and later approach a friend’s family ranch. He takes a sobering look at how the fires are prioritized when little can be done. “Lake of Fire” touches on some very real political and environmental issues facing Colorado, while delivering a chilling murder mystery.
Stevens’ most recent book: “Two Truths and A Lie”
“The Martian” by Andy Weir has received loads of positive hype since it was first published in 2011, and it’s all well deserved. Instead of being a boring, techy tome (sorry, some science-fiction bogs down in the science and forgets to entertain), it is a riveting, barnburner of a story.
Mark Watney is an astronaut accidentally left behind on Mars when seriously injured during a sandstorm. Everyone thinks he is dead, and the crew is ordered to return to Earth.
The best sci-fi throws real people into a strange world where they use skills from their own world to cope/deal with the new. When Weir (a scientist and software engineer) wrote “The Martian,” he worked out planet positions and shuttle orbits to support his storyline. If the science wasn’t right, it didn’t go onto the pages.
Watney must manage food and other supplies to last four years until he can be rescued. Duct tape (that heavy, cloth backed, silver tape that plumbers and electricians use) plays a great role in the book. Gotta love that a low-tech item could save expensive equipment from complete failure.
Weir’s most recent book: “Project Hail Mary”
Enjoy! 🙂
