Summer reading list: Two juicy mysteries and two au courant memoirs

I haven't reviewed any books in nearly a year, so here's an attempt at catching up!
Here are links to four reviews of books I've read in the last few weeks -- two juicy mysteries and two au courant memoirs.

Mini review: Inheritance, by Dani Shapiro, Penguin Random House - read this memoir if you're thinking of getting your DNA tested! Read my review here.

Mini review: A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, by Alicia Elliott, Penguin Random House - read this if you're interested in reconciliation. If you're not, there is even more reason to read it! Read my review here.

Mini review: Big Sky, by Kate Atkinson, Penguin Random House - Jackson Brodie lovers rejoice - he's back! For Atkinson fans and newbies, a romp of a modern mystery. Read my review here.

Mini review: Conviction, by Denise Mina, Hachette - part grand escape, part private eye meets podcaster novel, this one's a page turner. Read my review here.

And finally, although I've already passed the books onto a friend and didn't review them, I want to put in a recommendation for Sally Rooney's two novels: Conversations with Friends and Normal People. I read Normal People first, loved it, and immediately ordered Conversations with Friends, which I also loved. Rooney is an Irish writer and very interesting to read.

tracy.sherlock@gmail.com

Mini book review: Conviction, by Denise Mina, Hachette

This book is a tour de force. Denise Mina, Scottish author of 13 novels, keeps getting better and better. In Conviction, Mina hits us with action right from the first page. Anna McDonald, mother of two married to an older lawyer, gets hit with bad news first thing in her morning. Her husband is leaving her, to go off with her best friend, and taking their two daughters with him.
McDonald is shocked and distressed, but doesn’t fight back. Readers know why, right from the get go – it’s because she has been living under a false identity throughout her marriage and cannot travel without a passport.
McDonald escapes through a true crime podcast, which serves as a handy storytelling device for Mina to give readers the necessary background. The podcast is about a wealthy family, killed in France when their yacht mysteriously sinks. Podcast chapters alternate with real-time chapters about McDonald’s shock and distress in the opening parts of the book.
Soon, though, McDonald and a friend, Fin Cohen, an anorexic former rock star, are off on a grand adventure, one part running away another part determined to solve the mystery of the sunken yacht, which is, of course, linked to McDonald’s surreptitious past.
At times, Conviction seems a tad formulaic, particularly in the page-turning nature of some of the chapters. But the formula succeeds thanks to Mina’s storytelling skills – you won’t be able to put it down.
See other book reviews here.
Tracy.sherlock@gmail.com

Mini book review: Big Sky, by Kate Atkinson, Penguin Random House

Fans of Jackson Brodie can rejoice – he’s back chasing bad guys in Big Sky, Kate Atkinson’s latest novel. It’s been nine long years since the last Brodie caper and it’s been a long wait. Not that I’m complaining – Atkinson wrote some glorious novels in the interim, like Life After Life and A God in Ruins. But it’s damn good to have Brodie back.
He’s still a private eye – this time chasing an unfaithful husband to get proof of his infidelity for his wife – but more meaningful, if unpaid, work awaits. There’s a human trafficking ring operating underground just beneath the surface of the seemingly quaint, but slightly sleazy, seaside village, complete with pier attractions, where Jackson finds himself. He’s father to a growly teenage boy and a young woman about to be married.
As always, Atkinson packs so much into this novel that it begs to be read twice, just to catch all the finer details. But even for casual readers, this mystery is a joy. The characters are strong, including Crystal, a trophy wife, Reggie, a police detective who was a nanny in an earlier Brodie novel, and a pragmatic teenage boy named Harry, who works backstage at two of the pier attractions, most notably in the dressing rooms of drag queens and an aging, angry comedian.
The murder is almost a side note in this caper, but it does tie together the many subplots. When writing Brodie, Atkinson is always hilarious, but also profound. Little tidbits of depth – like one throwaway sentence when Jackson ponders the afterlife – are sprinkled throughout, adding to the reader’s experience.
Tracy.sherlock@gmail.com

Mini book review: A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, by Alicia Elliott, Penguin Random House

Reconciliation is a buzzword in the lexicon of Indigenous relations in Canada. In the memoir A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, author Alicia Elliott takes readers right into the heart of why reconciliation matters.
She is Indigenous, from the Six Nations of the Grand River, in Ontario. She grew up on the rez, in a two-bedroom trailer, with four siblings and her parents. Elliott goes deep, writing about mental health, suicide, residential schools, Indigenous child welfare and its relation to neglect or poverty, teenage pregnancy, sexual assault, racism and much more.
In a series of essays, she relates these big issues to her own life, while also linking them to global history and current events. There’s also an essay set in Vancouver, where Elliott was
the 2017-18 Geoffrey and Margaret Andrew Fellow at the University of British Columbia.
I don’t want to make the book sound depressing. Yes, it does take on tough subjects, head first with no holds barred, but it’s also compelling, funny and modern. It’s also hopeful. Consider this passage, an idea attributed to nehiyaw writer Erica Violet Lee: “If historical trauma is strong enough to alter our DNA and remain in our bones for generations, then there is no question in my mind that the love of our ancestors is in our DNA and our bones as well. The memory of that love is strong enough that it still exists in us.“
Canada is in a moment – a moment where reconciliation can go right or wrong. Readers who want to know more about why it’s crucial, need look no further. Read this book.
Tracy.sherlock@gmail.com

Mini book review: Inheritance, by Dani Shapiro, Penguin Random House

Who’s thinking about getting their DNA tested? If you are, be prepared for surprises.
In Inheritance: A Memoir of Geneology, Paternity and Love, author Dani Shapiro gets slammed with the shocking news that her father isn’t biologically related to her. She’s always been deeply connected to her father, and through him, her Jewish faith. But the DNA results make sense: she’s also the only blonde in her family and has been told repeatedly throughout her life that she doesn’t look Jewish.
Shapiro is a gifted writer – Inheritance is the first book I’ve read by her, but immediately after I finished it, I bought another one of her four memoirs and devoured it too. She’s also written five novels and has worked as a journalist.
I highly recommend this memoir for all readers, but if you’re considering a DNA test, it should be required reading. She not only explains the process, she deeply explores the ethics involved and the meaning of parenthood, love and culture.
Tracy.sherlock@gmail.com