January 2024 MBR The General Fiction Shelf

The General Fiction Shelf

Running Mates
Emily Locker
Bancroft Press
www.bancroftpress.com
9781610886222, $18.95 HC, $4.99 Kindle, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Running-Mates-Novel-Emily-Locker/dp/1610886224

Running Mates is a novel perfect for modern times, reflecting the opportunities, anguish, and attitudes which stem from a small town facing a major clash between liberal and conservative elements.

At the heart of the conflict is teen activist Annabelle Morningstar, whose stand on the unionization efforts that affect her favorite local bookstore bring her to the attention of conservative boy Gabe Delgado, whose ideals of the American Dream, embodied by his Cuban heritage, do not include defying the democracy which has offered his family vast opportunities to participate in an active political system supporting freedoms and rights.

The clash between these two high school students reflects on and ripples into their community as they find their ideals tested and an unexpected attraction developing between their seemingly disparate purposes and perceptions of what makes America great.

More so than most novels that echo modern events, Emily Locker's Running Mates holds the ability to hold up a mirror to underlying issues of acceptance, using youth activism to spotlight the ideals of conservatives and liberals alike. It's rare to see equal attention paid to these elements, but Locker's ability to evolve not just a political perspective, but a personal one which is still able to embrace love and relationships makes for a remarkably non-judgmental, compelling coming-of-age saga that all ages will appreciate.

Of particular strength and note are dialogues between these young people who realistically debate adult issues and concerns with the passion of youth and conviction. As each character finds their dreams compromised, their ideals challenged, and the real world of complexity more challenging than their black-and-white thinking has indicated in the past, both find ways to not only adapt to new ideas, but accept opposing forces without hatred.

Perhaps the most important message embedded in Running Mates is one that still needs to be absorbed in modern times: the finer arts of compromise, acceptance, and respect. Annabelle and Gabe must learn these lessons and more if they are to move forward in personal and political ways. So do readers.

Through Gabe and Annabelle's experiences, the world changes. The potential for affecting many a reader heart and mind, too, is vast, unexpected, and alluring. Few other novels can lay claim to such possibilities and objectives. Few others demonstrate how the political and personal can not only clash, but come together to form new opportunities and mandates for change. This is why, ideally, Running Mates will not be limited to YA audiences and libraries alone, but included in book club, classroom, and discussion groups interested in bridging the widening gap between conservative and liberal thoughts and actions.

The Haunting of Velkwood
Gwendolyn Kiste
Saga Press
c/o Simon & Schuster
www.simonandschuster.com
9781668036143, $26.99 HC, $12.99 Kindle, $34.99 Audio CD

https://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Velkwood-Gwendolyn-Kiste/dp/1982172371

The Haunting of Velkwood is a compelling ghost story about three childhood friends who survive the transformation of the world - into ghosts. An entire block of homes has vanished behind an impenetrable veil, leading Talitha Velkwood to shun her past and the tragedy that changed her family. However, she never felt like she could escape its publicity and mystery, so when a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to return home, Talitha has more than one motivation for accepting.

A powerful saga of returning home and solving ghostly, haunting events emerges which injects the idea of originality back into the ghost story genre, making The Haunting of Velkwood a top pick for ghost story enthusiasts looking for something refreshingly, eerily original.

MotherLoad
Avery Caswell
Lorimer Press
c/o WayWord Books
www.waywordbooks.com
9780989788571, $8.40, HC, 88pp

https://www.amazon.com/MotherLoad-Avery-Caswell/dp/0989788571

Synopsis: The desperate, the pure-at-heart, the charmingly manipulative, the wise, the deluded -- mothers and children of every stripe populate "MotherLoad", a collection of ten short stories by Avery Caswell and which was originally published in 2015.

In "Irish Twins - Thoughts of Suicide," Marann, a young artist down to her last three dollars, knows she can either fall into the unknown, or venture forth like a tightrope walker, while in "64 With a Sharpener" ten-year-old Frances, in her thin-soled Keds, is aware already of how much better the world looks at a distance. A military school cadet cons his mother in a series of text messages, only to discover he's been conned himself. And in "Salvation" Maggie remembers her Gullah grandmother Pasqueline describing a summer sky, "so still, like a body, a kuwfa, with no more breath left in its bones."

Caswell evokes past and present and paints a southern landscape with a deft brush, from neighborhoods with split level houses and paved driveways, dirt roads the color of mahogany with a cluster of shacks no bigger than a child's playhouse, to a garden full of cures and curses, where the gardener knows which plants nourish and which are pure poison, and should she choose, she could "consign anyone to his fate, with no more thought than deadheading a bed of chrysanthemums".

Critique: Each deftly crafted and original short story is a literary gem, making "MotherLoad" by author and storyteller Avery Caswell a fun and memorable read from start to finish. Made available to a new generation of appreciative readers by WayWord Books, "MotherLoad" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and college/university library 21st Century Literary Fiction collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Avery Caswell (https://averycaswell.com) was born just north of Chicago, Illinois. From a young age she was always scribbling, filling stenographer notebooks with observations (like Harriet, the Spy) and drawing scenes from Camelot (Franco Nero!). An interest in the blurred edges between religion and magic, and a love of history inspire much of her writing. Caswell attended Kent State and Purdue Universities, the University of Baltimore, and Iowa Writers' Workshop. She holds MFAs in theatre and creative writing.

The Rocking Chair Prophet
Matthew Kelly
Blue Sparrow
https://www.bluesparrowbooks.org
https://www.TheRockingChairProphet.com
9781635822083, $27.95, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Rocking-Chair-Prophet-Matthew-Kelly/dp/1635822084

Synopsis: After an unspeakable tragedy devastates his life, Daniel, a thirty-three-year-old suburban man, disappears into the mountains. Years later, he reemerges filled with uncommon wisdom and other extraordinary gifts.

From that day on, people travel from far and wide to meet with Daniel, who sits on his rocking chair, meeting with visitors, and helping them explore their deeply personal questions. These questions lead to a series of epic conversations that traverse life's quintessential topics: love, suffering, health and well-being, education, work, money and things, spirituality, regrets, depression, ambition, nature, parenting, midlife crisis, choices, our hopes and dreams, the meaning of life, and enduring friendship.

A deftly crafted and unique novel, "The Rocking Chair Prophet" by Matthew Kelly is a rich exploration of life and the human condition. It is also an invitation to rediscover yourself and reorient your life. As an author, Kelly has masterfully woven into the story a piercing wisdom that is thought-provoking on a life-changing scale. It is stunning that one novel can have something so meaningful to say on so many topics. This is destined to be a work of metaphysical fiction that readers will return to time and again, and which speaks to us anew in every season of life.

Listening to that voice is the difference between happiness and misery, wonderful memories and heartrending regrets. "The Rocking Chair Prophet" is a transformational novel about reclaiming that voice and the unmitigated joy that comes from following it.

Critique: Of special value to readers with an interest in Christian spiritual growth, personal transformation, and metaphysical/visionary fiction, "The Rocking Chair Prophet" is one of those novels that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book has been finished and set back upon the shelf. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Rocking Chair Prophet" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Matthew Kelly (www.MatthewKelly.com) is an author, speaker, thought leader, entrepreneur, consultant, spiritual leader, and innovator. He has dedicated his life to helping people and organizations become the-best-version-of-themselves. Born in Sydney, Australia, he began speaking and writing in his late teens while he was attending business school. Since that time, five million people have attended his seminars and presentations in more than fifty countries.

When We Were Enemies
Emily Bleeker
Lake Union Publishing
https://amazonpublishing.amazon.com/lake-union-publishing.html
Brilliance Audio
https://audiobookstore.com/publishers/brilliance-audio
9781662509889, $16.99, PB, 347pp

https://www.amazon.com/When-We-Were-Enemies-Novel/dp/166250988X

Synopsis: It's 1943 when Vivian, a small-town Indiana girl, lends her home front support to the war effort. As a translator in the nearby Italian POW camp, she's invaluable. As a celebrated singer for the USO, she lifts men's spirits and falls in love with a soldier. But behind this all-American love story is a shocking secret -- one that is vital to keep buried if Vivian is to achieve the fame and fortune she covets.

Today, camera-shy Elise Branson is different from the other women in her maternal line. Her mother is an award-winning actress. Her late grandmother is Vivian Snow, a beloved Hollywood icon. But when Elise's upcoming wedding coincides with a documentary being made about Vivian, Elise can't escape the camera's gaze. And neither can her grandmother, even in death.

For Elise and Vivian, what's hidden (and what's exposed) threatens to unravel their lives. The heart-wrenching choices they must make will change them both forever.

Critique: An original, fascinating, deftly crafted, and fun read from beginning to end, "When We Were Enemies" smoothly showcases author Emily Bleeker's undeniably impressive talents and her mastery of narrative driven storytelling. Especially and unreservedly recommended for for community library fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "When We Were Enemies" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Brilliance Audio, 9781491556696, $19.99, MP3-CD).

Editorial Note: Emily Bleeker (www.emilybleeker.com) is the author of six novels. Combined, her books have reached more than two million readers. She is a two-time Whitney Award finalist as well as an Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

The Ways of Water
Teresa H. Janssen
She Writes Press
www.shewritespress.com
9781647425838, $17.95, PB, 440pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ways-Water-Teresa-H-Janssen/dp/1647425832

Synopsis: As Josie Belle Gore, daughter of a Louisiana train engineer and Texas seamstress, journeys with her itinerant family through the deserts of the boom-and-bust American West and revolutionary Mexico, she learns that in her life, two things are constant: water is precious, and her role in her family is to save it.

When unforeseeable events force the separation of her family, Josie begins an odyssey that takes her from New Mexico's Jornada del Muerto to Bisbee, Tucson, Los Angeles, and finally post-WWI San Francisco -- experiencing betrayal, pandemic, and survivor's guilt, as well as the compassion and generosity of friends and strangers, along the way.

Once she lands in San Francisco, like a river meeting the sea, Josie has nowhere else to run -- and she realizes that she must make peace with the past and good on her promise to the family she loves.

Inspired by the author's family lore, "The Ways of Water" is a lyrical tale of loss, hope, and forgiveness set in the rugged beauty of the turn-of-the-century Southwest that, like Josie, is growing up in fits and starts.

Critique: An inherently fascinating, deftly crafted and eloquently entertaining saga of a novel from start to finish, "The Ways of Water" is especially impressive when considering that it is author Teresa H. Janssen's debut as a novelist and will prove to be of particular interest to fans of coming-of-age novels and Family Life fiction. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary General Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Ways of Water" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49).

Editorial Note: Teresa H. Janssen (https://www.teresahjanssen.com) is a career educator, essayist, and author of short fiction whose writing has appeared in a variety of literary journals, including Zyzzyva, Catamaran, and Chautauqua. She attended Gonzaga and the University of Washington where she received an M.A. in Linguistics.

Swanna in Love
Jennifer Beale
Akashic Books
www.akashicbooks.com
9781636141633, $29.95, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Swanna-Love-Novel-Jennifer-Belle/dp/1636141633

Synopsis: It's the summer of 1982 and fourteen-year-old Swanna Swain is the only one left at camp. The place is a ghost town by the time her mother Val finally shows up six hours late (stoned and radiant) in a Ford pickup driven by Borislav, her new young Russian lover. Assuming she is headed home to her air-conditioned Upper West Side apartment, Swanna and her lovable younger brother Madding are instead dragged to Vermont -- to an artist colony where kids are not welcome and they are forced to sleep in the back of the truck, while Val is cozy inside the house with the Russian.

Then Swanna meets Dennis, a handsome married father of two, at a bowling alley, and, knowing a thing or two about seduction from Judy Blume, her best friend at camp, and her own parents' many affairs -- she sets out to convince Dennis to help her. But love seldom obeys rules, and even a tough, smart, city girl like Swanna might not be able to handle falling in love.

Critique: With the publication of "Swanna In Love" from Akashic Books, author Jennifer Belle presents a kind of inverse Lolita that deftly explores adolescent desire from the girl's point of view. Original, hilarious, wildly shocking and iconoclastic, "Swanna in Love" is an inherently fascinating, compulsive page turner of a novel that is highly recommended for community and college/university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Swanna In Love" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781636141640, $16.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Jennifer Belle is the author of four novels, Going Down (which was named best debut novel by Entertainment Weekly and optioned for the screen twenty-seven times), High Maintenance, Little Stalker, The Seven Year Bitch, and Animal Stackers, a picture book for children (illustrated by David McPhail). Her stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Independent (London), Harper's Bazaar, Ms., BlackBook, the New York Observer, Post Road, and many anthologies.

The Devil Comes to Bonn
Jennifer Harris
Matador
9781803137629, $12.99, PB, 328pp

https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Comes-Bonn-Jennifer-Harris/dp/1803137622

Synopsis: It's Germany 1941 and Hildegard needs a job. Interviewing for a hotel post, she does not realise she is about to collide with the sinister Fuhrer. She is thrust into the role of maid to Hitler in the infamous Room 106 in a hotel he visited more than 70 times.

In 2015. Stella, an historian, comes to Bonn, Germany for a World Heritage conference. Life at home is tense, but she pretends all is well until she is assaulted over a trivial matter by another delegate. Bewildered, Stella descends into obsessed stalking.

When she meets the now elderly Hildegard, she is drawn into her wartime story, little seeing the similarities to her own.

In this dual-timeline story, Stella and Hildegard face questions of survival, identity, love and meaning as they juggle moral ambiguities.

Critique: Unique, expertly crafted, fascinating, entertaining, memorable, "The Devil Comes to Bonn" is a literary treasure of masterful storytelling by Jennifer Harris and will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in 'Women's Friendship' fiction. While an exceptional and eloquent work of immense literary merit, and in addition to being unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Devil Comes to Bonn" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.99).

Editorial Note: Jennifer Harris writes literary fiction inspired by the historic environment -- not historical fiction, but fiction set in the contemporary era that responds to the past, remembered either publicly in museums, monuments and heritage sites, or through subtle, private memorial acts. Her PhD is in Cultural Heritage theory and she has lectured in, and researched, cultural heritage and museums for many years. She has run a small social history museum, and worked as a journalist in Australia and London.

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