Rhoda Faust, Mark Zumpe, Rita Mae Brown

Framley Parsonage and Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope (classic)
Instead of meditating, I read Trollope novels to calm down. His ability to bring order out of chaos is very comforting to me. He is able to present characters and situations that, while set in England in the mid 1800s, are relevant today. There are "disruputable people, unscrupulous people, dubious financial transactions, a vulgar ‘fast set,’" loyalty, betrayal, disappointed love, love triumphant and lots more. Between two covers, he manages to make some sense of all of the above and make clear who he thinks the good guys are and why–without being heavy-handed or preachy.

Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman (mystery)
The publisher’s blurb on the advance reading copy said: "A mesmerizing literary thriller in the tradition of Smilla’s Sense of Snow." I agree and liked it even more than Smilla, which I found exciting but often too confusing and hard-going. Blackwater is very complex because the double murder in a forest in the far north of Sweden took place twenty years before the novels opens, but it’s well worth the effort.

Simisola by Ruth Rendell (mystery)
Rendell’s a brilliant mystery writer (she won both the Edgar and Golden Dagger awards) and this is one of her best. Inspector Wexford has to look inside himself as well as outside at the clues in this fascinating mystery that starts off with the discovery of an unidentified body. The issue of race, which is necessary to solving the murder, is handled with fairness and intelligence. It does not upstage the delicate plotting of the book but heightens the delicious tension. The ending is particularly poignant and satisfying.

Moo by Jane Smiley (fiction)
Although the first paragraph threw me–I was unclear about the word "hegemony" and had no idea what "espaliered" meant. I read on because I had that exact entry problem Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, and I loved it by page two. Moo is lighter and funnier, yet it has enough weight to be compelling. Smiley does a scathing job on academia that reminds me of Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and Foolscap by Michael Malone, two of my all-time favorites.

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx and The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (fiction)
I read both of these Pulitzer Prize winners and marveled at how brilliant they are. For some reason, though, I don’t find myself recommending them when I am in the shop with customers when I point out books I love, even though I remember loving them while I was reading them. Maybe this is because their magic is too nebulous for me to describe and because there is no way on earth to answer the question "What is this about?" regarding either book. They are both imaginative, heart-grabbing, comical and painful. Please read them and come tell me why you loved them.