Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com.
“Salt Houses,” by Hala Alyan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)
The story is about the fictional Yacoub Family from March 1963 in Nablus in the West Bank of Palestine to September 2014 in Jaffa, Israel. Each chapter highlights a family member, from the widowed Salma on the eve of the marriage of her daughter Ariel to Atef, through Manar (Salma’s great-grandchild). The family is displaced multiple times from Amman in Jordan, to Kuwait City and Beirut due to conflict in the region. Each character’s story is impacted by the political death of Ariel’s brother Mustafa and displacement, with grandchildren fleeing to Boston and Paris only to return “home.” Readers will appreciate the writing style focusing on each character in chronological time. (Note: Using the translation capabilities of an e-reader is helpful.) — 4 stars (out of 4); Diana Doner, Lafayette
“James,” by Percival Everett (Doubleday, 2024)
“James” is more than simply a retelling of the story of Huck and Jim and their adventure on the Mississippi River. While on the surface this is, in large part, Twain’s story “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” told from the perspective of Jim, Everett’s novel is much, much more. Everett not only gives Twain’s character Jim a full-throated voice, but he also creates a fully developed, erudite, well-read, caring adult with a family to protect, as well as secrets to keep. Everett even imagines a debate between James and Voltaire on the meaning of liberty. He gives James agency and shrewd intelligence, characteristics completely lacking in Twain’s depiction of the enslaved Jim. A brilliant piece of fiction. If you liked Everett’s earlier novel “Erasure” (upon which the recent film American Fiction was based), you will be wowed by this one. And, yes, you may want to re-read Twain’s original work to fully appreciate the contrast. — 4 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
“The Proof of the Pudding,” by Rhys Bowen (Berkley, 2023)
A Royal Spyness mystery, set in the 1930s, in which a cousin of the King of England solves crimes and has adventures. This novel saddles the heroine with a pregnancy. How can she be anything but a drag? She isn’t. Instead, she stumbles once again into mayhem and must locate the villain even as she’s experiencing labor pains and saving her Parisian chef who’s the main suspect. Her ever-sexy and gentlemanly hubby is on hand to help out. You don’t expect her to be turning cartwheels, but she gets plenty of action, juggling corpses, identifying the villain, and ferreting out his true identity. — 2 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver (bonniemccune.com)
“Moonrise Over New Jessup,” by Jamila Minnicks (Algonquin Books, 2023)
In the 1950s and ’60s, while most of the South was preoccupied with integration, the traditionalists in fictional New Jessup, Ala. had a different goal in mind: keeping their totally Negro town thriving, and achieving tax-support equity with the white town of Jessup across the woods. But not everyone agreed. The beautiful imagery and writing here encompass the love story of Alice, whose bus ride to Chicago fortuitously ends in New Jessup, and Raymond, son of a town founder. Minnicks’ characters are completely realized and mostly sympathetic, the plot elucidating. This Pen/America award winner would make for stimulating discussion. Recommended by Barbara Kingsolver. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
