Noah Cassidy, a lawyer, his wife, Lorelei Shaw, an AI expert and their three children are in a self driving car headed towards North Carolina. Charlie, age seventeen, is behind the wheel when suddenly his sister Alice screams. Charlie grabs the wheel, gives it a sharp turn, and crashes into a car going in the opposite direction. After that moment, the Cassidy-Shaw’s life is never the same.

Culpability begins with an interesting premise. Who or what is responsible for the accident? And although it is a good, relevant read, I feel Culpability tries to cover to many themes and problems in too little time.

Hai is an intelligent, twenty-one year old druggie whose family immigrated from Viet Nam. He has dropped out of college but has his mother believing that he is in medical school in Boston when he is really only a few miles away from her in East Gladness, Connecticut. One night he is seriously contemplating suicide by jumping off a bridge into a fast flowing river when a voice calls out for him to stop. The voice belongs to Grazina, and elderly woman with dementia who escaped from Lithuania during World War II. Hai ends up living and taking care of Grazina while working at HomeMarket, a fast food restaurant specializing in Thanksgiving fare. The workers at HomeMarket are quirky and sad but they care about each other as well as the restaurant.

Ocean Vuong writes beautifully and I appreciated The Emperor of Gladness, but it is not an easy read. All of the characters are weighed down by what life has offered them. There is very little that is uplifting or positive in any of the characters’ lives. The Emperor of Gladness is not a beach read!

My “summer classic” last year was David Copperfield. I enjoyed it so much I decided to read another Dickens’ novel this summer. Bleak House was a big mistake. It is a criticism of the British legal system during the mid 1800’s. Dispersed within this indictment is a huge cast of characters, most having long, weird names and pathetic tales of woe. It was only after I had read over half of the book that I knew who was who, and even then I was unable to feel for their plights. In Dickens’ time, Bleak House was read in installments, and I can’t imagine how any reader then could keep the characters and the experiences straight. My advice: If you have the urge to read some Dickens, don’t read Bleak Street. It’s a chore with very little pleasure.

Sybil Van Antwerp has been writing letters all her life, so it seems only natural that a novel where she is the main character is written in letters to and from her. Sybil is 77 years old, divorced, mother of three but one son died. She was adopted when she was a year old, is going blind, lives alone, has two elderly men pursuing her and is very set in her ways.

This epistolary novel is fun, engaging, charming and delightful. It is an easy, quick read with a dynamic, complex, sympathetic main character. The Correspondent is a “woman’s novel,” and women over sixty will be able to relate to Sybil.

The controversial author of American Dirt has written a new novel that takes place in New York, St. Louis and Puerto Rico. It follows a family from 1968 to 2023, beginning with the childhood of Rafaela Acuna y Daubon, a beauty born into a wealthy Puerto Rican family. Rafaela marries a man from the mainland and leaves her homeland for St. Louis. Speak to Me of Home describes her life as well as the lives of Rafaela’s children and grandchildren.

Speak to Me of Home is a nice summer read, but it lacks the tension, drama and unforgettable characters of American Dirt. The characters are rather bland and when the family encounters tragedy and crises, I felt far removed from their experiences. Lastly, each chapter takes place in a different city in a different year, but it is not chronological. I can’t imagine why Jeanine Cummins decided to present the novel this way.

Susan Choi’s novel is told in alternating chapters focusing on several characters. The main characters are Anne, Serk, Louisa and Tobias. Anne and Serk are married and Louisa is their child. Tobias is Anne’s son from an earlier relationship. Serk was born in Korea, spent most of his childhood in Japan and moved to The United States when he was a young adult. Anne, Serk and Louisa move to Japan when the college Serk is teaching at practically forces him to take a teaching assignment there. One night Serk and Louisa are walking along the beach in Japan gazing at the stars. Serk slip and falls into the sea. His body is never recovered and he is presumed dead.

My summary of Flashlight does not do it justice. This very fine novel is part history lesson, part family tale and part mystery and much more. Flashlight is one of the best works of fiction I have read this year. Also, I always appreciate books with simple titles that are really not so simple.

I have been a Mark Twain fan for years. I have a bookshelf devoted to his works and a few of his biographies, so I was eager to read Chernow’s opus. Because Twain was an avid letter writer and most of the individuals close to him were too, there is lots of information in Mark Twain. Chernow presents all sides of the author and lecturer-his genius, his humor, his need for revenge and his lack of business sense. The word unique is often thrown around too easily and/or incorrectly, but Mark Twain was and still is a truly unique figure in American history. After 1033 pages, I was sad to say goodby to a man I got to know so well.

Sashi lives in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, has four brothers, wants to be a doctor and is the narrator of Brotherless Night. However, it is 1981 and a civil war has broken out in her country. The war is atrocious with all sides unreasonable and violent. Because of the war, Sashi’s family is forced to leave their home, some of her brothers join up to fight with disastrous results and Sashi’s medical school closes.

This is a novel that takes some time to get into. The names are foreign, and there are many characters. Also, many of the scenes in Brotherless Night are graphic and upsetting. However, if you stick with this fine novel,are not squeamish, and want to learn about a part of history that is not well known, you will be rewarded.

Jennifer Dulos nee Farber grew up in the lap of luxury in New York City. Liz Claiborne was her aunt and her father, Hilliard Farber, was a well-to-do banker and philanthropist. Born in 1968 she later attended Brown and then went on to become part of a drama group. In 2004 she met and married Fotis Dulosa, a Greek immigrant, and quickly gave birth to five children. While going through a messy, drawn out divorce in May of 2019, Jennifer disappeared. Evidence pointed to Fotis as the murderer and his girl friend as an accomplice. Jennifer’s body has yet to be found.

Although I read only a few mysteries, I find true crime stories fascinating. And this one is a doozy! Even though I knew the outcome, I was totally absorbed in Murder in the Dollhouse. Rich Cohen writes in “reporter style” and keeps his readers eager to learn more about Jennifer, her privileged life and her tragic death.

Madeline Hill’s life changes drastically when Reuben Hill pulls up to her house in a PT Cruiser. Reuben’s father deserted him and his mom in Boston. After his mother dies, he hires a private detective to help him find his long lost dad. Seems Charles/Chuck/Chip and Carl Hill did the same thing in Tennessee leaving Madeline and her mother. He then went on to Oklahoma and again left a daughter and mother, then left a small family in Salt Lake City and finally ended up in Northern California. Reuben wants to collect all of his half siblings and confront the man who deserted all of them.

Kevin Wilson’s novel is a fine easy read. The characters are likeable(even the father), the plot is easy to follow, and the journey to California only hits a few bumps along the way. Run for the Hills is thoroughly enjoyable and takes no time to involved in Hill children’s search.