The Antidote by Karen Russell

Friday, Oct. 31, 2025--San Antonio

The Antidote by Karen Russell is a finalist for the National Book Award this year. It's a mixture of history and fantastical fiction.  The purpose seems to be to expose how much history of the USA has involved bad decisions based on greed, racism, religious persecution, fear of the unknown, etc., and the convenient loss of memory and cover ups that allow these problems to be easily overlooked and/or put behind them.  Set in southwestern Nebraska during the Dust Bowl, topics covered include the treatment of pregnant unmarried women, the story of how Native Americans were treated and their land stolen, how Blacks continued to be marginalized and not even categorized by the government as natural born American citizens, ways in which people try to rid their conscience of things they have done that they know to have been wrong, how natural resources are wasted by the population followed by their moving elsewhere to repeat the same mistakes over and over again rather than trying to maintain renewable practices, etc.  The characters in the story are interesting--a "Vault" which is a female witch who can go into a trance, hear a confession, and leave the person making the confession no longer being conscious of the worry/guilt they confessed; a teenage girl whose mother was an alcoholic and is now living with her uncle whose wife was murdered; a traveling photographer employed by the government to document life in America during the depression; a sheriff who is incompetent, corrupt, and evil; a scarecrow that seems to have some human qualities; a cat that wants revenge on the man who took her kittens to the river in a pillowcase and drowned them; etc.  The story is also about hope during times bad enough and hopeless enough that some are going elsewhere to start anew.  I'm not a big fan of fantastical (magical realism?) fiction, so I kept my rating for the book at 4 stars out of 5.

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott

 Saturday, Oct. 25, 2026--San Antonio

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott has been named a top book of 2025 by NPR.  It is about the strain of time on relationships--particularly about a 25-year friendship between two college buddies (whose friendship seems almost closer to a gay relationship than a normal male/male friendship), between each of them and his wife (because the marriages have lasted long enough to move from lust and excitement to routine and because they have learned more about each other over time including things that are not appealing), and about the relationship between one of the couples and their 16-year-old daughter (when the husband and wife have differences of opinion on how to handle a disturbing event that has happened to her).  The book reminded me of Normal People because both are rather slow-moving stories that share certain topics--class differences and popularity differences, for instance.  Normal People is better written.  I found myself constantly having to figure out what was happening when and between whom because there would be complete changes between paragraphs with no double spacing or the placing of a printed divider to even let me know the change was taking place.  Many times, I had to go back and reread after going through one of these changes to reset my mind once I knew was happening.  But I can see Among Friends being turned into as good a film as Normal People was.  The story deserves a rating of 4 stars or higher, but because of awkward, non-evident transitions in the writing, I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Sunday, Oct. 19. 2025--San Antonio

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai is a long, rambling, and often depressing novel that is a finalist for the Booker Prize.  Most of it takes place in India.  The story is of generations of two particular Indian families and those whose lives are a part of theirs including an American painter of European descent.  As a person who has traveled to India 6 times for months at a time interacting with Indian citizens more than a typical tourist (attending month- and year-after death celebrations, attending weddings, being a guest in homes and on farms, making friends throughout the country), there was so much in the details of this book that I know to be true about India and Indians.  It is a masterpiece in describing life and times in India.  At the same time, however, it zigs and zags (the aforementioned rambling) in a somewhat confusing manner.  It took longer to read because of the details and the largess of the stories.  I recommend the book to anyone who knows India quite well or who will read the book with great attention to the realistic details of life within India--relationships, feelings, resentments, traditions, etc.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025--San Antonio

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney has been named by NPR as a top book of 2025.  It's a mystery novel that takes place in England and Scotland.  The central characters are a man and a woman who are married.  They love each other, but there are problems.  The man is a bit set in his ways, and the woman is upset that he won't compromise on things she would like to happen.  The man is an author who has just begun to have some success with his books, and the woman is a reporter who has been their main provider but is getting some threatening messages related to her stories.  He seems to think that all is well with their marriage.  But she disappears.  The book begins a year after her disappearance.  We learn all of the above from his memories and worries about what has happened to her and from what she told a psychologist in sessions before her disappearance.  As the story progresses, it is revealed that there is much more to the story than either of them were admitting.  Much of what happens in the book occurs after he, who has been unable to write a contracted second novel since his wife's disappearance, is provided a last-ditch opportunity by his editor who also is the godmother to his wife--a chance to stay in a cottage the editor owns on a small remote Scottish island that has only 25 residents, no cell phone service, and an infrequent ferry service.  You'll have to read the book to learn what happens after he arrives on the island and what mysteries are revealed.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025--San Antonio

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is a slice-of-life book that has been listed as a top book of 2025.  It covers three days in the life of an aging woman in which several things are happening.  She has been the assistant director of the private school where she teaches mathematics, but is told she is being passed over for the director's job at the end of the year when her boss will retire because she just isn't a "people person."  Her only child, a daughter, is being married.  Her ex-husband is staying with her during the 3-day weekend of the wedding.  And he has brought a cat from the shelter where he volunteers in hopes that she will adopt it.  She reflects on her marriage and what went wrong with it.  She worries about the daughter and whether she is making the right choice in terms of the man she is marrying.  She questions decisions she has made in life.  And she questions what decisions she should make for her future.  It is an interesting short book which is well written and is likely to cause the reader to reflect on his/her own life.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025--San Antonio

One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter surprised me by how much I enjoyed it.  Set in Italy during WWII and dealing with the consequences of actions by the Fascists against Jews, I worried that it could be the same old, same old.  But it proved I didn't know that much about WWII in Italy.  I didn't know that it was years into the war before it became a big problem for Jewish residents there.  I didn't know about the resistance to Mussolini that caused him to be jailed for a time.  The story of this book revolves around 3 main characters--a native of Italy who is Jewish, her best friend who is Jewish and married to a man from Greece, and the very young son from that marriage.  The husband from Greece leaves the story early on to return to Greece to try save his parents.  So that leaves just the 2 women and the boy and all the people they meet on a short-time basis as their story happens.  They go on a journey from town-to-town built around trying to stay safe from the German soldiers and the Italian Black Shirts.  They are also involved in underground efforts for creating and delivering false IDs that "disguise" the Jews as being Aryans in an effort to keep them safe.  I just kept wanting to read more and more without putting the book down.  It is a novel, so it is a fictional story, but it is based on known stories of people and events from the war and even includes some real characters in "cameo" appearances based on what is known about their actions during the war.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5. 

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Monday, Sept. 22, 2025--San Antonio

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee was published 8 years ago.  It was a nominee for the Kirkus Prize and listed as a top book of the year by NPR and the New York Public Library.  Set in the late 1600s, it's 3 main characters are teenagers.  Henry and Percy have just turned 18, finished their education, and are going on a tour of Europe.  Felicity is the younger sister of Henry who they are taking with them for a month in Paris followed by plans to deliver her to a girl's finishing school in Marseille.  Henry's and Felcity's father, a British Lord, has arranged it with notice to both of them--that Henry must return a more responsible young man or he will be disinherited and Felicity must give up her interest in science and medicine and return acting like a lady and ready to be married.  Percy is Henry's best friend.  He comes from a wealthy family, has been living with his uncle and aunt since he was a child and his father, a Caribbean merchant died.  Percy is half-Black, and his aunt and uncle are ready to be released from the responsibility of caring for him now that he is an adult.  Henry is very irresponsible and has survived on his charm.  He has no ambition at all.  And he is always ready to drink himself into oblivion on a nightly basis.  His constant mischief begins causing problems almost immediately after they arrive in Paris.  Taken to a party at Versailles by an acquaintance of his father's who has been asked to introduce him to the people of note he will need to know once he takes over the family estate, he over drinks, insults the Bourbon advisor to the King, disrobes in the Bourban advisor's bedroom to have sex apparently with the mistress of the advisors, steals what proves to be a very valuable trinket, and runs nude into the celebrating crowd of dignitaries outside at the party.  This causes the 3 of them, being chased down by the Bourbon official and his officers, to go on the run to escape them and leaving behind the escort the father has sent on the trip with them.  With little money and led by Henry's irresponsible brain, the story takes them on adventure after adventure involving lucky escapes from the Bourbon ministers men looking for them--from a highway robbery, from a family in Barcelona holding them, from being stowaways on a boat that is attacked by "pirates." etc.  Throughout all of this, Henry remains as immature and irresponsible as ever.  He's not a likable, much less a lovable, character.  His young sister proves to be the responsible and intelligent one in the family.  And Percy is a caring, reliable friend.  If you like a book where the main character is quite distasteful and irresponsible, then maybe you will enjoy this story.  I just kept looking forward for it to end because I was so tired of Henry being Henry with his stupid decisions and his drunkenness. It wasn't until the last 5% of the novel that Henry showed any signs of maybe starting to mature, but that was enough for me to raise my rating half a star higher to 3 1/2  stars out of 4.