The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley is a murder mystery set in the English countryside in 1950. The novel stars eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, a precocious chemist living in Buckshaw, a decaying English mansion shared with her father, older sisters Ophelia and Daphne, and Dogger the gardener. 

A dead bird is found on the doorstep with a postage stamp pinned to its beak, then Flavia hears her father arguing with someone in the house. She that night finds the same man lying outside in the garden and watches him take his dying breath. Inspector Hewitt comes to the mansion, and later arrests Flavia's father for the murder, which she works to solve, and finds herself in the middle of it.

When Flavia's father arguing with the man, she hears mention of someone named Twining dying thirty years prior, with her father noting that he and the man responsible for it. Flavia learns that the man who died in her garden was Horace Bonepenny, and that Twining had been a schoolmaster at Greyminster, which her father attended with Bonepenny. Just prior to his death, Mr. Twining had set up for several boys to view an exceedingly rare postage stamp, one of a set of two, owned by the head of the school. The three boys were Bonepenny, Bob Stanley, and her father, and Bonepenny grabbed the stamp and burned it as part of a magic trick, but then said that he erred and it actually burned.

Back to present day in the novel, Flavia meets a man who said his name was Pemberton, and he writing a book on English country homes like theirs. Flavia goes to the inn where Bonepenny was staying and discovers hidden two rare stamps, including the one stolen by Bonepenny and Stanley from the headmaster's office. The two men had recently stolen the other stamp, which belonged to King George, and Stanley planned to murder his conspirator Bonepenny, pin the crime on Flavia's father, and keep both stamps for himself. It's a fine book and is the the first of an eventual series on chemist / mystery solver Flavia de Luce.

The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon

The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon is a short and fun novel that includes Harold (an older man whose wife Edie is sick), Kate (their adult daughter who had been sent away), Adrian (a boy who took piano lessons from Edie), Scout (a vacuum who loves To Kill a Mockingbird), Watch, Fridge, Clock, and Auto (all exactly those things). 

The book is set in a future where society is run by the Grid, AI built to simplify tasks, that takes over virtually every task and decision. Machines (including household appliances) follow directives, have personalities, and think. 

Watch was tasked by the Grid with running Harold's house. The appliances in it have information on everything, and follow three protocols; to prevent pain, to do their duty, and to only communicate with a human if asked a question. 

Auto was connected to the Grid, more so than appliances inside the house, and the Grid decided who could travel, with Watch requesting Kate be allowed to return home after her mother's passing (so she could help the process of the Grid reallocating the home to a family now that only one human lived there).

Kate had been sent away for hacking into machines, taking a self-driving car and driving it herself, and as her punishment, was forced to work for the Grid, figuring out how to hack into systems so the Grid could then shut off those avenues. She has no intention of fulfilling her task to help have her father removed from his house, and the boy Adrian came regularly to practice the piano, in advance of an exam. There's also mention of the Dissidents, people living apart from the Grid, and noted throughout the novel is Harold's love of books, and how the Grid intends to take them. Kate told her father that the Grid was taking artifacts, things with human knowledge and cultural significance. Scout then has a idea to fix things so Harold doesn't have to leave, wiping the record of Edie's death. Kate goes with the Dissidents, and Adrian rescues Scout who goes with her.

There's interesting ideas in the book about sentience, happiness, aesthetics, and free will. It's a clear answer to the question of whether the machines working for people or not, and the book opens with "there was a time, not so long ago, when refrigerators could not dream and vacuum cleaners could not weep." 

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is a solid work of historical fiction that tells the story of midwife and healer Martha Ballard, starting in 1789.

Martha is called when a body is pulled out of the river, that of Joshua Burgess, who months prior committed a rape along with another local, one appointed as a judge, Colonel Joseph North. She had been to the house of the woman raped and was to be a witness against both men. Martha determines that Burgess had been beaten and hanged, but a new physician, Dr. Benjamin Page, arrives in town and disputes her assessment. He then questions her actions as a midwife, while touting his academic credentials and offering unsound medical care. The lack of respect afforded women, both professionals like Martha and accusers in the story, was profound.

North because of Martha's planned testimony against him tries to take the property that Martha and her family live on. In the house, there's her husband Ephraim, sons Jonathan, Cyrus, and Ephraim Junior, and daughters Hannah and Dolly. Martha and Ephraim decades prior buried three daughters, all from illness during one two-period period. Cyrus can't speak, a result of the same disease that took the three, and the night Burgess is killed, Cyrus thrashes him at a frolic, for violently grabbing Hannah when she wouldn't dance with him.

In the Author's Note, Lawhon writes that she collects people, stories that she hears and wants to write about. She was in a doctor's office and came across the story of Martha Ballard and wanted to make a novel out of it, one inspired by her life. Martha is the great-aunt of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, and she, like Martha in the novel, kept a diary, one that retained her history. Outside of the diary, it's her husband's name that appears on censuses and tax lists. Perhaps this is why Lawhon wrote of how Martha asked every woman she assisted in childbirth to tell her their name, not their husband's, but their name. It's an excellent book.

Whistler by Ann Patchett

Whistler by Ann Patchett is a nice novel that begins with Daphne Fuller running into her former stepfather, Eddie Triplett, at the museum in New York. The book then tells of their relationship and past history together.

Eddie is a book editor and was married for a year to Daphne's mother forty-four years ago, when Daphne nine and her sister Leda seven. A story that's told throughout the book is of a car accident at that time. Leda was in the hospital with appendicitis, which Eddie told their mother to check for after the school called saying she was sick, and Eddie driving Daphne and the car went over the edge of a cliff. Eddie's ankle was broken and pinned under the emergency brake, and Daphne had to get help.

Patchett writes vividly of the aftermath of the accident, and another great scene with Daphne in her early thirties taking her father, Buddy Zabriske, to Big Sur, California when he had late-stage cancer. She told Eddie that the trip was the smartest thing she'd ever done in her life. It was how she knew she wanted to be with her eventual husband Jonathan, an administrator in Buddy's hospital, and the last time she flew. 

The book is a good story of connections, and has some tremendously well-written and poignant scenes.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is a spellbinding debut novel from a seventy-year-old former attorney who tells the story of Theo, an eighty-six-year-old newcomer to the small university town of Golden, GA. 

Theo is Portuguese and arrives in Golden from New York City unknown and spends one year there, from springtime to springtime. He goes to the Chalice coffee shop, and sees ninety-two pencil-drawn portraits on the walls, done by local artist Asher Glissen. It notes that Leo feels he recognizes the woman in one of the portraits and gets the idea to buy and give each personally to the subject of the drawing, with each giving away of a portrait a bestowal. The first he purchases to give away is of Minnette Prentiss, married to district attorney Derrick, with the portrait by her uncle Asher. When Theo gives the portrait to Minnette, he notes how her eyes remind him of a girl he knew in Spain many years prior. She says that the sadness comes from her not living up to the expectations of her father, the brother of Asher, who is focused on material success and wants different things for her than she wants. 

Theo meets James Ponder, a business consultant and broker, the only person that Theo tells his story to. Ponder rents Theo the apartment above his office and his secretary aids in the buying of the portraits and Theo personally giving them to the subjects. When he does a bestowal, he asks about the people and their lives, and tells them of the good he sees in them. Along with people, who they are and what they care about, Theo is interested in sculpture, architecture, birds, flowers, and music and there are allusions throughout the book to the secrets he holds. Theo befriends the portrait artist Asher, local bookshop owner Tony, coffee shop owners Shep and Addie, street musician Basil, and cellist Simone. 

Two particular bestowals that turn into friendships are those to Ellen and to Kendrick Walker. Ellen was homeless, spending much of her time on the Promenade in downtown Golden. Some thirty years prior, her newborn daughter Willa was taken from her by the authorities, and Ellen reveals to Theo that she an artist. Walker is a night custodian and his his eight-year-old daughter, Lamisha, is in the hospital, injured in a car crash that killed her mother. Through James Ponder, Theo arranges a doctor for Lamisha to oversee her care and becomes close with her, with mention in the book that Theo's ten-year-old daughter Tita had died decades prior. Also detailed is the person responsible for the car accident that injured Lamisha and killed her mother, and the mercy shown by Kendrick, Lamisha, and Theo.

The people started to intertwine together, talking with one another and referencing their time spent with Theo, to people who also have spent time with him. It's a lovely book, with a tapestry of stories weaved together and lots of foreshadowing in it. At the end of the book, it comes out why Theo was in Golden, and why he every day would sit by the river and watch the sunset. The back cover of the book features a quote from it... "for anything to be good, truly good, there must be love in it. Whether the art is sculpture, farming, teaching, lawmaking, medicine, music, or raising a child--nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core."

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett is an excellent novel set in 1930s Oxford, Mississippi. Stockett tells a dual story in alternating sections of eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur and twenty-four-year-old Birdie Calhoun.

It was the Depression and Meg's mother never returned home one day, resulting in Meg winding up at the Orphan Asylum. It was run by Garnett Pittman, a woman who tormented Meg, keeping her out of school and telling her how unworthy she was. Garnett had intended to send Meg to work in a cannery when she turned twelve, but she got adopted to Tom and Lucille Heidelberg, with Tom kind and Lucille a drunk. 

Birdie grew up in the Delta, where she still lived with her mother and grandmother, and was convinced by her mother to travel to Oxford to ask her younger sister Frances for money. Frances lived with her husband Rory and his mother, Mrs. Tartt, in a large home and was judgmental and shallow. It came out that they didn't actually have money anymore as Rory had been fired from his job and left, taking everything of value in the house. He had also taken out a mortgage that was past due. 

Frances had been volunteering at the Orphan, idolizing Garnett. Birdie also began volunteering there and met Charlie Lefleur who came looking for her daughter, Meg. Charlie told of how she didn't leave Meg, rather had been sent to prison, where Garnett had her declared feebleminded, leading to Charlie being tied down and sterilized by the state. Birdie learned that Meg's father is Garnett's husband, why she hated Meg so much.

Charlie moved in with Frances, Mrs. Tartt, and Birdie after Rory left, working around the house in exchange for a place to stay. Frances and Mrs. Tartt make plans to go to try to find Rory, and Charlie convinced them to take in boarders at the house and run a dime-a-dance business. Charlie's actual intention that Birdie learned of was to run a brothel in the house to try to make money to get Meg back. Birdie agreed to continue with the business, to raise money to help Charlie try to reclaim her child, Mrs. Tartt keep the house she and Frances lived in, and Birdie's mother and grandmother get by. 

It's a compelling book that's full of heart, and interesting because it seemed at times to be going a certain direction, but that's not what happened. The end features an author's note about the forced sterilization of women in the early twentieth century for reasons of feeblemindedness or moral depravity, with the number of victims possibly pushing into the hundreds of thousands.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston is a lovely novel that tells the story of an eighty-two-year-old who discovers the wheelchair-bound body of Bernard Greer, who looks like Frederick. 

Fred was on the verge of homelessness and his wife Dawn had passed away after fifty years together. They had wanted to have children, but were never able to. Fred wheeled Bernard to try to find someone who could help, but then loses control of the wheelchair and Bernard's body falls into the river. At this point, Denise, a caregiver from Bernard's assisted living home, comes across Fred and assumes he Bernard. Fred tries to rectify the mistake, but Bernard had dementia so the protestations are cast aside as Fred taken back to the home as Bernard.

Also told in the book is the story of Hannah and Sadie, young sisters whose lives are upended when Sadie diagnosed with cancer, and their father, who we learn was Bernard, unable to cope with the pain of Sadie's illness and then death. He left Hannah and her mother, and Hannah vowed never to forgive him. 

Fred at the home tried to explain that he not Bernard, but people ignored his statements given Bernard's dementia, so Fred settled in with a warm place to stay that provided his meals. He became a friend to many, including home residents Albert and Val, and caregivers Kevin and Linh. Kevin fell for Linh, and Bernard encouraged him to approach her. Albert and Val were deeply in love, and Albert had advanced dementia and thought Fred was his brother Fred, who died in a car accident on the way to Albert and Val's wedding decades prior. They had another wedding in the home, with Fred serving as the best man, Albert's brother.

The stories of Fred and Hannah come together as he learns about her as Bernard's long-estranged daughter, and the two connect, at first with Hannah wanting to simply tell off the father she hadn't seen in decades and then with them reconciling. Fred learns of Hannah's money troubles and that her husband left her when she became pregnant. The caregiver Denise who found Fred and assumed he Bernard was struggling in life, with an emotionally abusive husband and drinking problem. Fred discovered her drunk at work and showed a great deal of grace to her in a time of need. Later in the book, estate attorney Andrew Mora comes into the picture.

There's choices made by both Fred and Hannah in kind of gobsmacking scenes towards the end of the book and and the overarching thing about Fred is he's kind. This is to Hannah, Denise, Albert, Val, Kevin, Linh, and others he comes across. It's a funny read in places and the book jacket notes it about "grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family." Then in the author's note, Johnston writes a lovely missive about the source material of this her first book, with mention of her grandfather Fred (who she dedicated the book to), mistaken identity, doppelgangers, and redemption.

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris is a fun book of essays by the humor writer.

His latest work follows in the tradition of previous efforts like Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, and Happy-Go-Lucky, with Sedaris providing short chapters on his life, with the veracity of the stories being as he says "true enough."

In The Land and Its People, topics include his sister Amy Sedaris, him looking to replace the household work done by Hugh for after his hip-replacement surgery, and his efforts to win at the gamified Duolingo language learning app. 

Big Fan by Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski

Big Fan by Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski is a fun work of nonfiction subtitled Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love. Things that stood out in the book...

Mike's thesis (which Joe latched onto) about sports fandom: 1. Life is boring, and sports provide entertainment. 2. Life is chaotic, and sports provide order. 3. Life is lonely, and sports provide community.

Joe at the 2000 Australia Olympics match where Rulon Gardner beat Aleksandr Karelin in Greco-Roman wrestling, and Joe after lived a sportswriter's dream hearing stories from Gardner's mom and dad.

TV writer Megan Amram and how her phoneme-color synesthesia causes her to see in her head letters, numbers, and words with different colors, helping make her incredibly quick at things like crossword puzzles and other mental gymnastics.

Liverpool soccer fans singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at a match.

MLB reporter Tim Kirkjian: "anytime you go to a baseball game, you might see something you've never seen."

The semifinal of men's basketball at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where Steph Curry torched Serbia. 

Joe and Mike (and Mike's kids) hugging Mookie Betts, who they refer to as the "Greatest Living American."

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood is a lovely novel that tells the interwoven stories of Violet Powell, Harriet Larson, and Frank Daigle. Powell is a twenty-two-year old released from prison after a drunk driving crash that kills a local teacher. Larson is a retired English teacher who leads the prison book club which Powell was a part of. Frank is a retired machinist who was married to the woman killed in the car crash.

The jacket notes it a hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. When the women at book club, they've they’re not just the crimes that put them in jail. Every week they would start by saying, “I am a reader. I am intelligent, I have something worthy to contribute.”

Violet, Harriet, and Frank meet in a bookstore in Portland, Maine. Violet was buying the novel she was reading in prison book club when released. Harriet choosing the next title for the club to read, and Frank working as the handyman at the store. Violet and Harriet were surprised to see each other and Frank and Violet shocked at meeting. Violet felt an overwhelming guilt about her crime, and Frank as well felt bad about scaring Violet with his reaction to seeing her in the store. Forgiveness is a thread that runs through the book and in fairly short order, the three became friends.

It comes out that Frank’s late wife Lorraine was planning on leaving him prior to the accident, and had told their daughter Kristy that Frank having an affair, not the opposite which was true. Harriet gets Violet a job as a lab assistant at the university, working with Dr. Petrov, an animal behaviorist who studies the intelligence of birds, parrots Bob, Alan, Oliver, and Charlotte, all able to speak and understand English. Then fellow book club member Dawna-Lynn escaped from prison and came to Harriet's house, while she, Violet, and Frank there. It's a fun and a lovely book, with people who care for one another, and has a nice postscript about their later lives.