Phyllis lives a conventional life in England in the 70’s. She is almost forty years old, and has a successful husband and two children. Her husband has invited the son of an old acquaintance to dinner, and in a very short time, Phyllis’s life is changed forever. She moves in with the twenty year old “dinner guest,” and renounces her old values and priorities as she takes on new ones.

At first I thought Free Love would be a typical and predictable love story. However, about a third of the way into the novel, there are several twists and turns that make Tessa Hadley’s work a worthwhile read.

Julie Otsuka’s third novel begins with a cast of characters swimming, for a variety of reasons, in an underground pool. When a crack in the pool’s foundation appears, all of the swimmers are disturbed and react in various ways. The Swimmers then focuses on one swimmer, Alice, and her nameless daughter who is the novel’s narrator. Alice has dementia, and when she can no longer swim, her grasp of reality becomes more pronounced.

Like her others works of fiction, Otsuka’s The Swimmers is slim yet emotionally charged. It is a fine read, however, the shift from the activity at the swimming pool to Alice’s decline was too abrupt.

Having lived through Watergate, I was interested in learning what new information was discovered. Happily, I was not disappointed. Graff’s most recent work of nonfiction is easy to read, informative and well-documented. Although I knew the outcome and the main characters, I couldn’t put down Watergate. With all that his been released since Watergate occurred, Nixon and his gang come off even worse than they did in the 70’s. Although this is a lengthy book, it is in no way a tedious read. Also, be sure to read the footnotes at the bottom of most pages-they are some of the most interesting parts of Graff’s research.

Ansel Packer is a murderer awaiting his execution which is to take place in 12 hours. Through the experiences of three women, his mother, his sister-in-law, and a childhood acquaintance who is a police officer, we learn who Ansel Packer is, who they are, and how he has impacted their lives.

Notes on an Execution is not a mystery. Rather it is a well-written exploration of how murder lives on long after the victim dies. In her introduction, Danya Kukafka said she wrote this novel because she was sick of our obsession with serial killers and wanted more focus on the women affected by them. Unfortunately, of the four main characters in Notes on an Execution, Ansel Packer is the most interesting.

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.