After the untimely death of her author husband, Anna Williams-Bonner writes her own novel. Her novel becomes a best seller and, Anna travels around the country on book tours. However, all is not great because Anna is getting troubling messages that inform her that someone knows about her past. She knows it is imperative that she finds out who that person or persons are.

The Sequel is in fact a sequel to Jean Hanff Korelitz’s best seller The Plot. It helps to have read The Plot before reading The Sequel but not absolutely necessary. Like The Plot, this is a fast paced book full of tension and lots of surprises. A great airplane book!

Playground is in some ways three stories woven together. The first story is Todd Keane’s. He is born in Evanston, IL, , becomes a billionaire working with computers and artificial intelligence and is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia. He meets Rafi Young when they are students at St. Ignatius High School in Chicago and they become best friends. Rafi is extremely bright, Black and full of guilt. Unfortunately, both men fall in love with the same woman. The third tale involves Evelyne Beaulieu, a famous Canadian scuba diver who is more at home under the sea than on dry land. These characters come together on the Polynesian island of Makatea.

Just as The Overstory made me appreciate the beauty, wonder and intelligence of trees, Playground does the same for what lies in the seas. Like all of Richard Powers novels, Playground explores timely subjects in depth without sacrificing plot and characters. This is not an easy read but it is beyond worthwhile.

Rudy and Frieda Cohen are married. He is a Holocaust survivor and a closet gay, and she is an angry woman. When Rudy dies at a relatively young age, their daughters, Nancy and Shelley are forced to deal with Frieda’s anger until they are old enough to escape it. A Reason to See You Again recounts these relationships from 1971 t0 2007 and how their feelings for each other effects each of them as well as their friends, lovers and children.

I enjoyed A Reason to See You Again. Although I am unlike the three main characters, I was able to relate to them. Jami Attenberg writes an interesting, quick read that takes no time to become interested in.

This work of nonfiction tells in detail the events leading up to and the aftermath of what happened at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. On that day four students were killed and nine others injured by gunfire by members of The Ohio National Guard while they were protesting the war in Viet Nam. VanDeMark also includes new evidence concerning who fired the first shot and why he did.

If you were alive during the Kent State shootings, this work will bring it all back. If you weren’t around, Kent State is still an important read that stresses the divisiveness in our country in the 19701’s that is still prevalent today, and what can happen when emotions run high and loaded guns are nearby.

She goes by Sadie Smith from Priest Valley, California but that is not her real name and Priest Valley has a population of zero. She worked undercover for the government, was fired and now spies for a private agency whose personnel and whereabouts are unknown. She’s clever, a good liar and drinks a bit too much. He latest assignment is to infiltrate a commune in rural France that is against the French government’s megabasins. The government’s plan is to divert the local water supply into huge basins that will aid large agricultural corporations.

While the plot of Creation Lake doesn’t sound exciting, as told by Sadie it is. She is smart, perceptive and amoral. Creation Lake is long listed this year for The Man Booker Prize and The National Book Award, and, I believe, it’s because of Rachel Kushner’s rendering of Sadie Smith.

I was asked by a friend to list my favorites of the New York Times List. Here they are-not in order of preference.

Nonfiction

Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Random Family by Adrian Nicole Blanc

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Fiction

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Atonement by Ian McEwan-although I thought The Child in Time was better

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth-I thought American Pastoral was better

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Avery, Bonnie, Nicky and Lucky are the Blue sisters. It is a year after Nicky’s death. Avery is a successful lawyer in London, Bonnie is a noted prize fighter and Lucky is a fairly famous fashion model. On paper it all seems like they are leading very satisfying lives, but in reality each of them is desperately trying to come to terms with who they are and why Nicky is no longer with them. Despite their pain and flaws, they love each other almost unconditionally.

Coco Mellors’ second novel is an okay read, but not one I would recommend. The sisters’ woes-drugs, alcohol, shoplifting, unrequited love-got a bit tedious and tiresome. I rarely say this, but Blue Sisters would have been a better read if it was a hundred pages shorter.

Kate Atkinson is back again with another Jackson Brodie mystery. This time Detective Brodie is asked to find a stolen painting that may or may not be valuable. Brodie is suspicious of the dying owner’s caregiver as well as her two children who hired him. His search for the painting and the thief leads Brodie to another art theft that was never solved and a cast of amusing characters, including a vicar who doesn’t believe in God, a veteran who lost his leg in Afghanistan and a quirky family who is forced turn their huge estate into a hotel.

I was so ready for Kate Atkinson to write another novel where Jackson Brodie is the main character. Like most of her others, Death at the Sign of the Rook is clever, humorous and very British. Atkinson fans will not be disappointed.

Jess and Storey are on their yearly camping trip in Northern Maine. But this year is different. While hunting in a rural part of Maine, they come upon a blown up bridge and a town devastated by fire. As they continue to hike, they find other towns burnt to the ground, death everywhere and not a living human being in sight. Jess’s wife has just left him. Storey has a wife and two daughters in New Hampshire, and he can’t stop wondering if they have met the same fate as the corpses he encounters.

This is a novel that is exciting, frightening and well written. Burn keeps its readers guessing almost until the last page. Burn is a story of friendship, survival, but it is also a cautionary tale.

It is 1972 and twelve year old Tomoko leaves her mother to temporarily live with her aunt and family in a village near the mountains. Unlike Tomoko, her relatives are wealthy; her uncle inherited a popular soft drink company. Tomoko becomes close with this eccentric family, but especially with her brilliant, asthmatic cousin, Mina.

I didn’t realize until I had finished this novel that Yoko Ogawa had also written The Housekeeper and the Professor – a work I greatly admire. I enjoyed Mina’s Matchbox just as much. Written from Tomoko’s point of view, her year with these relatives is told in simple prose, yet her observations are perceptive, insightful and heart felt. Her telling is emotional without being dramatic. I must read more of Yoko Ogawa’s books.