Bill Furlong is a coal merchant. He is married with five daughters living in a small town in Ireland. His mother was not married when he was born, but the Protestant women she worked for let her stay on at her job and helped to raise Bill. The week before Christmas in 1985, Bill delivers coal to the local convent. When he opens the shed door, he sees something that poses a moral dilemma for him.

Claire Keegan’s novella is a small gem. Beautifully written with a very human main character, Small Things Like These is based on true events that occurred in Ireland.

This year’s National Book Award winner for fiction has two main characters with alternating chapters. The first is the author of a book titled Hell of a Book. He is an unreliable narrator on a book tour and at each stop on the tour, he reveals a little more about himself. The other main character is a boy with almost pure black skin who is visible only to the narrator. Neither character has a name.

I was disappointed in The National Book Award’s selection this year. I found Hell of a Book didactic, gimmicky and predictable.

Although To Paradise is a fascinating book, it is difficult to describe. It is divided into three parts: New York in 1893, Hawaii in 1993 and New York in 2093. The names of many of the characters are the same in each section, yet their roles and circumstances are entirely different. Most of the main characters are gay and on the verge of making a disastrous discovery.

I realize this is a poor summary of To Paradise, but for me it was impossible to give a brief description of this unique work. It is exciting, perplexing, frightening and a true page turner. I believe people will discuss To Paradise for a long time.

For several reasons, I rarely read short stories, and I’m not sure why I picked up Five Tuesdays in Winter, but I’m glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed all but her final story, “The Man at the Door.” The other nine stories are engrossing and poignant. The characters are realistic and relatable. If you’re in the mood for a sweet love story, read the short story that bears the book’s title.

The narrator, Ruben Blum, is the only Jewish faculty member at Corbin College in upstate New York in 1959. When he is asked by his superior to entertain Ben Zion Netanyahu(Bibi’s father), who is applying for a professorship at Corbin, Blum has to say yes although he has misgivings. When Netanyahu arrives along with his outspoken wife and his three undisciplined sons in the middle of a snowstorm, chaos, drama and hilarity ensues.

If you have missed the writings of Philip Roth, read The Netanyahus. Like Roth, Cohen writes a funny yet dark work of fiction that also discusses heavy topics such as, Zionism, the history of the Jews and American capitalism.

Something awful is happening in Money, Mississippi. White bigots are being brutally murdered, and at the scene of the crimes is a dead Black man. When the dead Black man keeps disappearing, Jim Davis and Ed Morgan are brought in from The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to help solve the homicides. Soon these mysterious types of killings are being duplicated all over the country.

With a deft touch of black humor, Everett describes the issues of racism, lynching and revenge. His novel is also a good page-turner mystery. The Trees was a great way to bring in 2022.

The following is an inadequate summary of Ruth Ozeki’s most recent work. Thirteen year old Benny Oh falls apart after the accidental death of his father. Benny begins hearing voices emanating from inanimate objects. Benny’s mother, Annabelle, becomes a hoarder to alleviate the feeling of emptiness that occurs after her husband’s death. Benny finds solace at his local library and in the company of a troubled girl self-named Aleph; Annabelle feels comforted accumulating more and more useless objects.

Fans of Ozeki will find The Book of Form and Emptiness powerful and thought-provoking. Those who think her books are confusing and odd will feel that way about this novel as well. I felt The Book of Form and Emptiness was creative and engrossing with two well-drawn empathetic main characters.

On her deathbed, the matriarch of the Swart family makes her husband promise that he will give their loyal, Black servant, Salome, the dilapidated home she has been living in forever in rural South Africa. Amor, the matriarch’s youngest child and the husband are the only two who have heard the promise, but Amor relates the deathbed wish to everyone. As each family member dies, the promise continues to be ignored.

The 2021 winner of The Man Booker Prize, The Promise, is an extremely satisfying read. It explores South Africa during and after apartheid artistically through character and plot development. There is a lot to be discussed in The Promise-both in writing style and what does and doesn’t happen in the novel.

FICTION

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fantonne Jeffers

Matrix by Lauren Goff

Morningside Heights by Joshua Henken

Night Came with Many Stars by Simon Van Booy

Oh, William by Elizabeth Strout

NONFICTION

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

In Kiltumper by Niall Williams with Christine Breen

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

On Animals by Susan Orlean

Taste by Stanley Tucci

What I Mean by Joan Didion

CHILDREN’S BOOK

Amos McGee Misses the Bus by Philip Stead, illustrated by Erin Stead

Charlie Barnes has had four wives, four children and numerous jobs and occupations. His youngest child, Jake, a fairly well-known author, is writing a biography of Charlie including the good, the bad and the ugly. The opening scene of A Calling for Charlie Barnes describes Charlie waiting for a phone call that will tell him whether or not he has pancreatic cancer.

If you enjoy dark humor(I never laughed out loud but I smiled a lot) and scenes that will pull the rug out from under you, I recommend A Calling for Charlie Barnes. However, if you prefer a work with a chronological plot, sympathetic characters and a reliable narrator, don’t read this novel.