56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

I always thought I would hate a book about covid and lockdown but I guess… we’re far enough from it now (while possibly being on the cusp of another?) that it almost seems… quaint?

I’m sure that’s not the right word but it almost fits.

The memories of everything shutting down, the quiet cities, and uncertainty of interacting with others works so well to establish an unsettling premise here. Add in the possible romance and moving in with someone you’ve been on just a few dates with and the stakes are certainly high!

I think the twists were really good because you think you have one figured out, then the rug is pulled out from beneath you right at the end. And not in an underhanded way - you have all the information all along, it’s just not what you expect. I liked the time jumps and how more was revealed each time.

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

 Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

Over the past few months, I've been re-reading Sally Hepworth's books. I first read her more literary novels when they came out in 2015 and 2016. I really loved how she handled realistic topics and wrote so eloquently. She pulled at my heartstrings without trying to be overly emotional.

Some of her later books veered into domestic thriller territory, which is fine! I love those books too. But I usually love the stories in those books more than the writing style, and I did feel like Hepworth's writing changed accordingly for that market. I still read each of her books because I'm a fangirl, but they didn't hit me the same way her earlier work did.

The truth is, I'll never turn down a Sally Hepworth book, even though I've rated two of them (The Family Next Door and The Younger Wife) as two stars (after her first three being solid five star reads in my opinion). So when I saw Darling Girls at the library, I knew I'd read it.

I feel like this is getting back to her literary roots. There's still a fair amount of suspense, but it's more of a buried mystery than current danger. The story is told between four points of view - three foster sisters and another person who is revealed later. I think the mystery was woven into the story really well and the resolution was satisfying and realistic.

You can read my reviews of Hepworth's other books on Goodreads.

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

My mom got this book from the library and said she read 3/4 of it in one day. I feel like I've been in a reading slump since the new year, so I was definitely in the mood for a book I couldn't put down.

And this really delivered! It's something I would call a cozy thriller, in that it doesn't really mess with my emotions but the suspense does keep me turning pages. (Okay, is there really a sub-genre called cozy thrillers? I love me some cozy mysteries but I won't lie - some of these thrillers almost give me a heart attack because they're so over-the-top. I want the suspense but I don't want to put my health at risk.)

In all seriousness, I call it that because I didn't really care about the main character. She was interesting and unique and I had no clue what her backstory was or what she would do next, but I wasn't invested in her survival. She was somewhat flat, and I mean that in a good way! I didn't want to care about her - I just wanted her to entertain me.

And she did. I read this book on Sunday, start to finish, and I genuinely had no idea how it would end. I call that a job well done.

With that said, I feel like trying to explain the story would either confuse you or give it away, so I'd suggest reading the blurb and seeing if it strikes your fancy. And if it does, comment so we can talk about it because I got lots of thoughts!

The Finlay Donovan Series

 The Finlay Donovan Series by Elle Cosimano

I read Finlay Donovan is Killing It as a Kindle Unlimited book and was immediately hooked! The library had the second but not the third, even though it was out already, so I played the waiting game.

Actually... I kind of forgot about this series until someone mentioned the fourth book was out.

Fourth?! I wasn't sure how I had missed that, but I knew it was time to re-read the series and catch up. By that time, the library had the third book but not the fourth. Once I found out there was also a digital short story as "book" 3.5, I figured I'd just buy that and the fourth book on Kindle so I wouldn't be waiting forever to finish the series (to this point anyway).

The first book makes me think of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series... or at least the first few books, before it seemed like she was phoning it in. I do think Cosimano is a better writer though. 

When I initially read the second book, it felt like a placeholder (as many second books are!), but when I re-read it recently, I really enjoyed it! The third one seemed a bit out of place and the storyline was a bit confusing to me, but I liked that the stakes seemed higher than in the previous books. I also loved how Mrs. Haggerty played a more prominent role!

Vero's short story might be my absolute favorite from this world, funny enough, since it's the shortest. I just love the character and it seemed like a nice cozy mystery with the bank issue. I felt like her sorority issue wasn’t really fleshed out in the books, and even here it’s a bit thin so I hope it gets wrapped up later.

Book four was a lot of fun. While book three took Finlay and Vero away from their home turf with the police training, I think the trip to Atlantic City in book four seems more natural for them. And I especially loved that everyone came along! Again, it gave Stephanie Plum vibes with Finlay's mother filling Stephanie's grandmother's role, but I think it's just different enough to work. The corpses seemed like overkill (no pun intended) but the cliffhanger made it worth it - I can't wait to see what comes next!

Have you read this series? What did you think of it? Do you have any book recommendations that read like these?

Scott Smith Books: A Simple Plan and The Ruins

I read The Ruins when it first came out back in 2006. I was a writing student in college and it blew me away. It stuck with me over the years and I thought of it often. I figured it was time for a re-read and I was so happy that it stood up to the test of time. I didn’t remember all of the details, nor the ending, so it was almost as good as reading it for the first time. I can’t recommend this enough. It sticks out as having such a unique concept and writing style.

I mentioned it to a friend in passing and he mentioned Smith's first book, A Simple Plan, saying it was just as good. I don't know how I'd managed to read just one book by an author and then skip the other, but I was glad to have a new one to read now!

I re-read The Ruins first, just because. As I mentioned, I remembered just enough to have the basic concept of the story, but the specifics and the writing style felt like new in the best way.

In A Simple Plan, I could definitely tell that Smith has a set writing style and it works so well for the stories he tells. I love how it feels so natural as it builds up. It's a great example of how one small moment can truly change the course of your life. And with his signature writing style, there’s no time to pause and think, “There’s no way this would happen in real life” because it’s totally realistic. Even as the characters make their choices, you’re not trying to steer them in a different direction because it seems like there IS no other direction. I recommend this just as highly as I do The Ruins.

Have you read one or both of these books? What did you think?

If I loved these books, do you have any similar titles in mind you'd recommend?

The Family Upstairs and The Family Remains

I love a good suspense book, especially when nothing else seems to be catching my attention. Lisa Jewell is always a good choice when I want something well-written and twisty.

I first read The Family Upstairs as a Book of the Month choice in 2019. I loved it back then, but once I heard there was a sequel, I knew I needed to re-read the first so I could appreciate it completely. Thankfully, my memory is pretty terrible, so while I knew I read the book and loved it, I didn't remember anything beyond the general storyline. This is actually a great quality as an avid reader because it means re-reading felt pretty darn close to reading it for the first time!

I love how Jewell creates storylines that are full of mystery, but the pacing keeps the suspense like a rollercoaster so you don't feel exhausted and ready to flip to the end. Her characters are all really vivid, which helped make the twists seem more organic. They each had distinct voices, too, which I feel like a lot of authors struggle with when they have alternating narrators.

The end was a great twist with some loose ends, but it didn't feel hokey. It felt realistic, like the way things wrap up in real life that makes you think, Ok, that's done... for now. And thankfully, Jewell felt that way, too, and wrote a sequel!

Even with the loose ends, I wasn't sure what was going to happen in The Family Remains. I think it's a great storyline, though, giving Jewell a chance to fill in some holes left by the first book without making it seem like she's retelling the same story.

I also love that she wrapped up all the loose ends and then, at the very end, tugged one loose.

Will there be another book? I don't know, but I'd read it! The story and characters now live on in my imagination, so I'd love a chance to peek into their lives again.

Have you read these books? Share your thoughts in the comments! Recommend some other suspense books, too!

Truly Devious YA Mystery Series

 

I read Maureen Johnson's Little Blue Envelopes books back when they came out, so I knew her name but didn't seek out more of her books until I had a hankerin' for some mysteries. I love any type of mystery, but was on a cozy mystery kick, and wanted to see if that was a genre within YA or not. Thankfully, it is - and Maureen Johnson is amazing at it!

I first read the Shades of London series, which made me want to re-visit England and also reminded me of how obsessed I was with Jack the Ripper as a teenager. Aka the perfect series for me! I usually love books that have intense character development so I can feel like I'm living another life for a bit, but cozy mysteries don't really do that. However, with Shades of London, it was so well-written that I felt like I knew the characters well enough as-is.

The same is true with Truly Devious. The first three books take place at a boarding school, which is already enchanting enough to a former public school student. The fourth is at a spooky summer camp and the fifth is in London for a study abroad program, so basically this series had everything I dreamed of as a teenager. 

Some things I loved about this series was how I never really knew who was the culprit - though I had a good guess in the fourth book, The Box in the Woods. But not knowing never made me feel like I was kept in the dark throughout the story, as it sometimes does in suspense novels (looking at you, unreliable narrator in The Girl on the Train). Also, I used to hate reading series if I didn’t read them back to back because I’d forget so much of the action in the previous book, but Maureen Johnson adds recap sentences throughout the beginning of the book to remind readers, without being too heavy-handed about it or devoting a whole chapter to a recap. I mean, I did read these back to back, perhaps with an adult novel in between, but there was still just enough recap to remind you of the previous book. But you can also read them as standalones without missing anything.

I can't recommend this series - and everything else I've read by Maureen Johnson - enough. I was especially delighted by Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, which cracked me up with each page. I gave it as a gift and also recommended my mother gift it to a friend who loves mysteries, so it's only natural that I recommend it to you, too!

Have you read any of Maureen Johnson's books? If I enjoyed these so much, do you have any similar recommendations for me?

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

 

My third Zevin (though I haven't written about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, I did review The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry) and my thoughts about her are still the same. I'm not a huge fan of her gaps in time, nor the distance from the characters' thoughts and emotions. I feel incredibly aware that I'm reading a book the entire time, instead of really engaging with the world and thinking of the characters as real people. That said, her story concepts are AMAZING.

In this book, I LOVED her concept of death - the logistics, how it happens, how you realize, how you "age." I did think the love story was pretty forced. It felt like it was there just because a book "should" have a love interest (disclaimer: not my opinion) or the editor said to add it. I didn't feel anything for the characters, I didn't "ship" them. I also thought it was pretty icky - I know the ages are different on Elsewhere, but there was still a strange gap that I just couldn't get on board with.

I also didn't like the end, mostly because I wanted to experience more "life" on Elsewhere. However, I appreciate the concept of everything going full circle. (Although, spoiler alert: the newborn baby laughing? I know it's a book but that took me right out of this reality, it seemed way too cutesy and unrealistic.)

I guess this makes a pretty unsatisfactory review of the book because I'm not totally raving or ranting about it, but I do think it's worth a read. I'm glad I read it for the concept of death alone - it definitely got my imagination running wild.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

People discussed this book at a family dinner and I was just intrigued enough (before humming to avoid spoilers) to get it from the library. While the writing was a bit clunky, I loved the concept.

If you haven't read this book but want to, this is your cue to start humming...

I thought the rewinding worked so well because I kept thinking, "Oh this is the event that is the undoing." It was really interesting to go back in time and find out what inspired one small action. How you think it's the obvious answer but it's actually something really small you might have forgotten about. I think I love dwelling on that concept more than I liked the book.

But I always love time travel, magical realism, and parallel universe ideas, so this book met that interest. It reminded me of Before the Fall by Lauren Oliver, which I haven't read in years, but the general concept stuck with me. In that book, a girl dies in a car crash and hangs out in purgatory, reliving that one day over and over until she makes things right and can die. It has a narrower and more immediate focus, but a similar foundation.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I absolutely love parallel universe/alternate timeline type stories, and this one hit the spot - and even had a nice little twist. I liked the concept that all of Nora’s alternate lives could only be picked up from the current moment and lived on from there. There was no watching her past and being caught up with all that self had experienced, so that made it seem more immersive - Nora was just as new as the reader to these alternate lives.

I also like how this book handled depression at the beginning, and even the ending was deftly handled so it wasn’t hitting you over the head with its preachiness.

See more of my favorite parallel universe books here! Note that I need to update that post to include Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, which is absolutely amazing.

SPOILER ALERT:

(Did you stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled?)

I go back and forth, even now, well after finishing the book, on the actual ending. The idea that Nora, who has battled depression all her life, would want to live in the end seems a bit obvious. But then I balance that with some other lives where she died (presumably, since she couldn't experience a life that wasn't current), and figure it all worked out ok. I keep waffling though, so if you've read this book I'd love to hear your thoughts on that!

The Big Door Prize by M.O. Walsh

It's been too long since I posted about an adult book, and just for fun. I recently read The Big Door Prize by M.O. Walsh and had to share some thoughts.

First off, the premise is what hooked me. A machine is installed in a grocery store in the small town of Deerfield, Louisiana. This machine reads your DNA and gives you a printout telling you what you're capable of in this life. Sit down, feed it $2, swab your cheek with a Q-tip, and get instant results. The whole town lines up to see their potential.

Of course, some people don't buy what the machine is selling, but even those few are tempted to give it a try. Wouldn't you be? Some people find out that they're doing exactly what they were destined to do. Some people realize they're on the wrong path, and they quit their jobs and go in a whole new direction. The book itself follows Douglas Hubbard, his wife Cherilyn, high school student Jacob, and the Catholic school's priest, Father Pete. Since it's set in a small town, there are a lot of other secondary characters that shine in their roles and round out the whole story. 

Also, the "twist" of the story is so slick, so slight, so hidden in the last little bit of the book, that I read it, kept on, then stopped in my (reading) tracks. It's so good. SO good. Seriously. I'd say the slow parts of the book are worth it JUST for the twist. The overall resolution to the book is good too, but wow, that twist...

I "accidentally" read a 1- or 2-star review of this when I added it to my "Currently Reading" shelf on GoodReads. The reviewer said the book had a lot of potential but was pretty slow and didn't dive as deep as it could have into the story. I was kind of bummed about that, but since the premise itself really interested me, I stuck with it. It did get a little slow in some parts, but I kind of liked that it was more about the lives in the small town and how they were affected by this machine, than the machine and how that played out for individuals. It was funny enough to just hear about how people turned their lives upside down and went a little crazy based on their DNA reading; I actually think focusing more on this would have been boring because it would read more like a short story collection of everyone's options.

In fact, there is a short story collection with a similar premise! If you like the idea of a machine telling you something and changing your whole life, check out This Is How You Die: 

THIS IS HOW YOU DIE is a new short fiction anthology, filled with stories and comics about a world in which a machine can predict how you die.

It just takes a drop of blood from a finger. Then it spits out a sliver of paper upon which are printed, in careful block letters, the words “DROWNED” or “CANCER” or “OLD AGE” or “CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN.”

Nothing else. No dates, no details. And it’s always — always — correct.

 Anyway, all of this is to say that if the premise of a machine determining your future interests you, read BOTH of these books!

The Whisper Man

Backstory:

The Whisper Man by Alex North was my first selection from Book of the Month. This is totally a #bookstagrammademedoit type of thing. I've tried two different subscription boxes, years ago. One was a selection of local goods - food, crafts, coffee - that I really enjoyed, but got pretty pricey over time. The other was a young adult book club subscription. I was sent a YA book that had post-it notes marking certain pages, and small gifts wrapped up with the corresponding page number labeled on it. The idea was that it was an immersive experience - you're reading the book, then opening a gift that relates to what's happening in the story. It's a great concept, but I didn't enjoy many of the books, and the gifts were things I didn't really need or use, so I stopped that subscription as well.

Cue seeing The Whisper Man all over #bookstagram, with all the blurbs saying how creepy it is, how you shouldn't read it at night. I looked it up online to get my own copy, but it didn't release until August 20th, and this was the beginning of August when I was seeing it all over the internet. So I read more into everyone's posts, and saw that they were getting it from the Book of the Month subscription club. I found a code to get my first book for $10, and selected The Whisper Man.

It got to me a few days later, but I was finishing up one book, and had one that I needed to read to review. Once those were out of the way, I started The Whisper Man.

Plot:

Tom Kennedy's wife dies unexpectedly, so he moves his young son, Jake, to a new town for a fresh start. Jake had been pulling away from his dad since his mother's death, and while they had never been close, the distance bothered Tom. It also bothered Tom that Jake was talking to himself. Except... not to himself. Jake seemed convinced that a little girl was his friend and was always around, even when no one was with him. Jake has trouble at his new school, which adds to the stress Tom is feeling about the state of his life. Their new house is odd and unsettling, too. Tom is determined to find out the history of the house, and especially the mystery of the junk in the garage.

At the same time, the local police are investigating the latest kidnapping of a young boy. Twenty years ago there had been a string of related kidnappings, and the cops were sure they had arrested the correct man. He's been in jail since, but now another kidnapping has occurred. It could be a copycat, but some of the details were never released. The police realize that their suspicions of the killer having an accomplice might be true.

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this book overall, but I had no problem reading it at night. It was creepy and unsettling, yes, mostly because the boys being kidnapped were approximately the same age as my son, so of course that might bother a person a bit. Some of the twists were pretty entertaining, but I do wish we had gotten more information about the killer who was in jail and the accomplice. I can't say too much without spoilers, but there was a lot that could be explored there, or perhaps better explained. I'm glad I read it, and I'm looking forward to more Book of the Month books, but I don't think this story lived up to the hype.

FAKE by Donna Cooner

Thanks to the @kidlitexchange network for the review copy of this book - all opinions are my own.

Fake by Donna Cooner is a unique take on the high school popularity game. Maisie is tired of being ashamed of her overweight body and tired of hearing the popular kids make cutting remarks about how she looks. When she’s forced to be lab partners with Jesse, the king of these insults, she’s determined to make him suffer. She creates a fake online profile for a pretty girl she names Sienna, and gets to work making all of the popular kids believe Sienna is real. Maisie, who already escaped real life by drawing comics, now puts work into developing Sienna’s internet presence. Before too long, even Maisie has trouble remembering what is real and what happened online. She’s scared at being found out, but she‘s hooked on feeling popular and accepted.

Personally I was drawn into this book because Maisie is overweight and uncomfortable with it. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE all these YA books with overweight main characters who love their bodies and have confidence oozing out of every pore, but that wasn’t my experience. I was a chubby kid and struggled with weight and body image all through high school, and I wasn’t comfortable with it or confident about it. I always wanted to see that reflected in fiction, because otherwise I felt even worse about myself. Why wasn’t I confident about my size like other characters? Why was I so nervous about standing in front of the class and letting them see my whole body instead of being like other characters? I love that Maisie lets body conscious teens feel seen and understood, then empowers them in a realistic way. 

I highly recommend you check this book out for yourself when it releases on October 1, 2019!

Parallel Universes in Realistic Fiction

I first read The Other Life by Ellen Meister in 2011, shortly after it came out. I loved the concept and the writing, and loved Meister's other books when I read them later. But the overall concept of The Other Life stuck with me. Quinn finds a portal in her laundry room that allows her to travel between the life she used to live with an old boyfriend, and her current life with her husband and son. I've previously written about the book:

There is a supernatural element of the portals that take Quinn from her "real" life to her other life, but they are explained very well, and it was easy to picture the fissures and Quinn's travel without feeling like you'd been displaced into a sci-fi novel. The portals are logically discussed before the end of the book, and with the focus being more on people and relationships than the paranormal, I would say this book is literary fiction more so than being classified in any sub-genre.

I loved the concept because I always liked wondering what would happen if. I remember being a kid at my grandparents' house, spacing out and wondering what things would feel like if I didn't exist. I wouldn't even know what I was missing. Pretty strange thoughts for a seven-year-old, but I think that's where all my wondering started. Every time I've made a big decision relating to moves, jobs, schools, etc, I take a few minutes to imagine how each path might turn out. I know there's no way to really know how things will be until you're in the moment, but some of my decisions have been drastic enough (like being offered two jobs in dramatically different fields) that I can speculate.

Then the TV show Community rocked my world with "Remedial Chaos Theory", a remarkable episode of television, especially for a half-hour sitcom, that approaches the concept of parallel universes. Each time the dice are rolled, a different outcome plays, showing everyone all the things that could have possibly happened if one thing was changed. 

I recently got hooked by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and loved her book Maybe In Another Life. It was more like The Other Life than "Remedial Chaos Theory", but it was really well done. Hannah has been feeling adrift in her life, unsure of everything from what career she should pursue to what city she should live in. When a friend convinces her to come back to her hometown of LA, Hannah is willing to try, partially because her high school boyfriend still lives there. On her first night back, Hannah goes to a bar with her friend to have a "welcome home!" party. In one universe, she goes home with her high school boyfriend to rekindle their romance. In the other, she goes home with the friend she's staying with. The chapters alternate from that point on, and the story develops so beautifully.

By the end, I did have a few questions about some of the "meant to be" aspects in one universe that didn't seem to completely apply in the other, so I need someone else to read this and talk to me about it! The last couple of chapters also had some of the same paragraphs copied and pasted - I know it's to show how things can be the same in both universes and still be "right" in each separate one, but as a reader, I don't want to see the exact same verbiage twice. I skimmed those paragraphs, but that was my only minor "issue" with the book.

Last year I started writing down some of my bigger decisions that led to one thing and could have gone a totally different way. It was my goal to write poems about what might have happened if I made the opposite choice. I haven't been able to find a good starting point, but reflecting on these books and episodes might be giving me the creative kick I need.

Bird Box: Books to Movies

Everyone has something to say about Bird Box, the book, the movie, or both. So I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you've read the book and seen the movie. If not, stop here because SPOILERS. I am going to be comparing the two, so be warned: no holds barred.

Quindlen

I read Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen in 2011. It's a book that followed a woman as she left her abusive husband, bringing her son along as they started a secret new life. There were vivid flashbacks, but also a lot of current action. It had a good narrative structure, but overall felt very stream-of-consciousness, which worked perfectly.

As the woman adjusted to her new life, you were living day-to-day right along with her. When she was struck by fear of her husband finding her, you were jolted into that emotion as well. It was very powerful, very realistic, and very suspenseful. The prose was beautiful in many parts, but never too flowery. The characters were realistic and likable, and I found myself thinking about them even after finishing the book.

I read this book at the perfect time because I was struggling with a story I was writing. It was a story told in three or four parts (I was undecided at that time), and the main character was a wife leaving her husband. This really helped me get into the minds of my characters and get immersed in that world. I finished the set of stories and it's still one of my favorites, and I credit this book for helping me through it. (Along with Foo Fighters' "The Pretender"... long story!)

The Odd Sea

I've read this book countless times since high school; it's one of my top three favorite books. Ethan Shumway is sixteen when he disappears - literally disappears: his younger brother, Philip, sees Ethan at the end of the driveway one minute, then he's gone. The book is Philip's searching for (or "not-finding", as he calls it) Ethan. There is something about Reiken's writing that makes the whole story vague and mysterious, yet complete enough to be satisfying, regardless of what the resolution may be. It's on my shelf of Favorite Books and has been there since I got my own copy. It's a beautiful, little-known book that you should read.

N is for Noose

My mom has always loved to go see authors, and started taking me with her when I was really young. Sometimes the line was too long (like for Mary Higgins Clark), and my dad would have to come pick me up.

When I was 12 or 13, she took me on a road trip to That Little Bookstore in Blytheville. Sue Grafton was going to be signing her newest book, N is for Noose. My mom had read Grafton’s books since the very beginning, but I had never read an adult mystery before. I loved kids’ mysteries, like Encyclopedia Brown, the Boxcar Children, and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I also read adult books – mostly just novels that caught my eye at the library. But adult mysteries just didn’t seem to interest me.

After meeting Grafton, Mom encouraged me to start at the beginning of the alphabet. I did, and loved the series. Kinsey Millhone was what I wanted to be when I grew up. I loved the simple, straight-forward style of the writing. I loved that you could actually start anywhere in the alphabet and know what was going on; each book could stand alone.

I kept reading each book as it came out, including Kinsey and Me, which is actually one of my favorites. When news broke of Grafton’s death, I texted Mom immediately. We were both sad to hear it. Mom is especially sad that the series will never be finished; she’s invested a lot of years into it! I’ve read them all also, but don’t feel as personally invested. I kind of like that the alphabet ends at Y, that the series will never really end. Because even if Z was written and published, I would hate to read it and have to say goodbye to Kinsey Millhone.

Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson is the author of The Family Fang, Perfect Little World, and Tunneling to the Center of the Earth. He's quickly become one of my favorite authors, but I especially love his short stories. I had a chance to see him speak at a local university, and he was down to earth and very level-headed about being a writer. After being in an MFA program, I've started to hate stories with that typical MFA-touch of having no real resolution, and no real point. Kevin Wilson's short stories are the opposite of that. They bring up interesting, bizarre ideas and make you think, and leave you with your imagination in overdrive.

My two faves!

The Family Fang: The Fangs are a family of artists, creating pandemonium in public and filming the confusion. Kind of like a four person flash mob, before there were flash mobs. Annie and Buster participate with their parents as children, but as they grow up, they grow tired of a life of hoaxes. Both children move on, but when they’re down on their luck, they come home. Their parents ask them to participate in one final artwork, but can the kids give up all they’ve worked for towards getting away from this life? Very amusing, deep, and interesting. Wilson is a must-read.

Perfect Little World: Izzy gets pregnant by her high school art teacher, and isn’t sure what her small town can offer her after graduation. When a unique opportunity presents itself, Izzy has to take part. Even if it means promising ten years to a sociological experiment in which her child wouldn’t necessarily be hers, but raised equally by 18 other people. The story is just as multi-faceted as it sounds, and Wilson’s character development is amazing. I would love to get inside of Wilson’s mind. His stories are so vibrant and creative; beautifully written prose that borders on genre - usually sci-fi - but staying mainstream. I recommend this book to everyone, regardless of reading tastes or general interest.

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: I'll be honest - the title and cover art grabbed my attention for this book, but I'm so glad it happened that way. These are some of the best, most innovative and interesting short stories I've ever read. The first story pulled me in and each of the following were just as fascinating. Wilson writes in a world where there is a company of stand-in grandmothers for families who aren't ready to tell their children that granny has passed on, where letters must be manually sorted in a Scrabble factory, where a museum of whatnot is a setting for love. Another book I'll be recommending to everyone.

Joshilyn Jackson

I read gods in Alabama in 2005 and it changed my life. Seriously. I have loved books and authors before, but the style of this writing and the story itself was so perfect… yet seemed like something I could write. Not in a way where I would scoff and say “Even I could write that!” But in a way that pushed me to write so I could love a book of my own as much as I loved that one.

I got to see Joshilyn Jackson speak at Square Books not long after her first book was published, and saw her a time or two after that as well. Her voice is amazing and her personality is so fun and charming. I used to read her blog obsessively, and her personality came out there too. This led me to feeling like I knew her, and that we were best friends… Which got super awkward when I saw her in 2017 at the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in Atlanta. I greeted her like an old friend, but she is amazing and gracious and gave me the LAST ARC of her upcoming (at the time) book, which I dove into as soon as I got back to the hotel.

I have all of her books and love them and can’t wait to read more by her. As soon as I read her first book, she catapulted into my Top 5 Authors of all time, but as she writes more and more, she’s made it to that number one spot of Favorite Author by being consistently fantastic and innovative with her stories, while staying true to her writing self.