Valleyesque by Fernando A. Flores is a book of short stories that are psychedelic, satirical, and surreal. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “No one captures the border--its history and imagination, its danger, contradiction, and redemption--like Fernando A. Flores, whose stories reimagine and reinterpret the region's existence with peerless style. In his immersive, uncanny borderland, things are never what they seem: a world where the sun is both rising and setting, and where conniving possums efficiently take over an entire town and rewrite its history. The stories in Valleyesque dance between the fantastical and the hyperreal with dexterous, often hilarious flair. Swinging between satire and surrealism, grief and joy, Valleyesque is a boundary- and border-pushing collection from a one-of-a-kind stylist and voice. With the visceral imagination that made his debut novel, Tears of the Trufflepig, a cult classic, Flores brings his vision of the border to life--and beyond.”

Flores’ follow-up to his surreal novel Tears of the Trufflepig is the short story collection Valleyesque. These stories are all surreal, trippy, and some are quite funny. Sort of a mashup of Márquez, Burroughs, and Bukowski (these are high level comparisons), trying to pin down Flores’ actual style is difficult as it is wholly unique: the ultimate compliment for a writer. Many of the stories take place in the small towns of the Rio Grande Valley, but some are also set in what seems like Austin, Texas. The stories are filled with beautiful similes and metaphors which often transform into the actual settings of the stories; Flores does this beautifully and seamlessly. Some of my favorite stories are: The Science Fair Protest, Nocturne from a World Concave, The 29th of April, Nostradamus Baby, Ropa Usada, and my favorite You Got It, Take It Away. These stories are highly imaginative and utterly entertaining, my favorite book of Flores’ so far. If there is one negative of this book, then it is that it is too short. I could have lived in the world of these stories a little longer.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780374604134

More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez is a suspense novel about a woman caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “The dance becomes an affair, which becomes a marriage, which becomes a murder... In 1985, Lore Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families--until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, while trawling the internet for the latest, most news reports, struggling true-crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored: Why would a woman--a mother--risk everything for a secret double marriage? Told through alternating timelines, More Than You'll Ever Know is both a gripping mystery and a wrenching family drama. Presenting a window into the hearts of two very different women, it explores the many conflicting demands of marriage and motherhood, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone--especially those we love.”

Gutierrez’s debut suspense novel is about a woman leading a double life as she is married to two men, one of which eventually murders the other, and the investigative reporter who becomes obsessed with her story. Gutierrez masterfully plots this slow burning story, showing the lives of both women in detail—what motivates and tantalizes them—leading to an effective plot twist and story reveal. The novel takes a while to get going, but ultimately gives a satisfying conclusion. Gutierrez does an effective job of showing the gray areas we all live in and that everyone is a combination of the good and bad choices they make. It can be difficult to pigeonhole the protagonists and antagonists in a story when their whole lives are revealed. What would lead a person to live such a deceitful life? As Gutierrez demonstrates, it’s complicated. Kudos to Gutierrez for writing in both English and Spanish in such a realistic way, as is the way in Texas. Bonus points for local landmarks and fixtures in Austin, San Antonio, and all the way down to Laredo, Texas.

I enjoyed this book and I recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.

Buy the hardcover on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780063118454

Hannah and Ariela by Johnnie Bernhard is a novel of suspense about two women living very different lives that are brought together by tragedy. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “When Hannah, a seventy-three-year-old widow, finds the semiconscious body of a fourteen-year-old Mexican national in a ditch along a remote central Texas road, she has no idea someone is watching. Not until the girl's brutal attacker arrives at Hannah's door in the middle of the night, threatening not just the girl's but Hannah's very survival. Ultimately the question of justice for a victim of human trafficking and the woman who helps her lies in the hands of a biracial border patrol officer and an unconventional small-town sheriff. The I-10 corridor of Texas connects saints, demons, and victims as the ultimate question of life and death is decided by two strangers fate has bound together. They must make a hard choice in order to survive: either follow the law or follow their consciences.”

Johnny Bernhard returns with her fourth novel, a book of suspense and a family drama about two women living very different lives, one in Texas and one in Mexico, brought together by tragedy. Bernhard’s strength is showing the lives of both women, the relationships with their family members, and their lives in their communities. Hannah is a recent widow who desperately misses her husband and struggles to keep their ranch in order. Ariela dreams of going to the US and living a new, very different life. When Ariela is kidnapped by a sadistic trafficker, she finds herself living a nightmare and eventually ends up in a ditch on the side of the road where Hannah finds her. Bernhardt effectively shows the lives of both women and their relationship which grows through their common painful experiences, although the suspenseful elements of the novel could have been ratcheted up a little more. Ultimately, this is an affecting literary novel revealing a modern tragedy that is all too common in the southern border states of America.

I enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 4 and 1/2 stars.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780875658162

Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell is a book about the craft of writing novels and editing your manuscript. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “From lauded writer and teacher Matt Bell, Refuse to Be Done is encouraging and intensely practical, focusing always on specific rewriting tasks, techniques, and activities for every stage of the process. You won’t find bromides here about the “the writing Muse.” Instead, Bell breaks down the writing process in three sections. In the first, Bell shares a bounty of tactics, all meant to push you through the initial conception and get words on the page. The second focuses on reworking the narrative through outlining, modeling, and rewriting. The third and final section offers a layered approach to polishing through a checklist of operations, breaking the daunting project of final revisions into many small, achievable tasks. Whether you are a first time novelist or a veteran writer, you will find an abundance of strategies here to help motivate you and shake up your revision process, allowing you to approach your work, day after day and month after month, with fresh eyes and sharp new tools.”

Some say writing a novel is equal parts inspiration and perspiration, but Matt Bell has a very compelling argument that great novel writing is mostly perspiration through rewriting, revising, and editing, editing, editing. Having written seven novels already myself (plus my first attempt at a novel that went straight into the garbage) and working on my eighth novel now, I have to say I found Bell’s suggestions for writing and editing very intriguing, even downright inspiring. There is definitely an inspirational tone in this book that is above and beyond most writing craft books that I have read, mainly because writing novels is hard. It can be a long, grueling slog at times, so to receive that reminder that what you are doing when writing a novel is hard—and to congratulate yourself after certain milestones—is inspiring. His three stages of novel writing is very practical and I enjoyed thinking how his tips could work in my own process. For my last three novels, I did the work of outlining before I even started the writing process. Bells suggests to outline after the first draft is complete; let the inspiration lead the way, then organize later. Interesting! I’m considering doing this with my current work in progress.

Maus by Art Spiegelman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about Art Spiegelman’s relationship with his father, Vladek, who was a Holocaust survivor along with Spiegelman’s mother, Anja. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats. Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.”

I reread this brilliant graphic novel for the fourth time recently, having purchased a beautiful, hardcover edition in support of Art Spiegelman after a school board in Tennessee voted unanimously in January 2022 to ban this great book. Their reasons were nonsense, as the nudity in the book is nonsexual and the profanity is minimal. This graphic novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992, the only graphic novel still to this day to have won this prestigious award. It is an affecting depiction of Art Spiegelman’s parents both surviving the Holocaust during World War II as well as Spiegelman’s relationship with his cantankerous father as he tries to dictate his father’s story before he’s too old and feeble to retell it. It is an artist’s memoir and a father’s biography about a marriage that survived one of the most horrific moments in history and a cartoon depiction of history all rolled into one. It even has moments of hilarity—if you can believe it—where Art and his father Vladek’s personality differences are so stark that it’s a wonder that Spiegelman ever finished creating this graphic novel. It has been on school library shelves since 1992. Banning it now is political garbage policy, a reflection of the fascist leanings of the current Republican Party. The news of banning this book has brought more notoriety and sales for this graphic novel; it became a bestseller for the first time in almost three decades and was on back-order the day I purchased it on January 30, 2022, as it should be. If there is one graphic novel or book about the Holocaust that you want on your family’s bookshelf, then this is the one.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.

Buy the hardcover on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9780679406419

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott is a suspenseful literary novel of meta fiction and surrealism, all of which comments on racism towards Black people in America. This novel is the 2021 National Book Award Winner. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “In Jason Mott's Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent: since Mott's novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it's also about the nation's reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years.”

There’s a lot going on in Hell of a Book. One thread is a send-up of the literary establishment with an unnamed, bestselling Black author on a book tour which borders on farcical. We’re introduced to him running naked down a hotel hallway, escaping an angry husband who wants to wring the narrator’s throat for screwing around with his wife. Another thread is the depiction of an unbearably dark-skinned boy named Soot, called that by a bully from school. Soot’s parents love and protect him so much that its untenable, and Soot later witnesses his father killed by a White policeman. Another thread finds the narrator haunted by an apparition he calls the Kid, whose skin is also dark as night, just like Soot’s. The narrator and the Kid are connected by the burden of being Black in America. Are the Kid and Soot the same character? Is the Kid or Soot the narrator’s younger self?

Sparrow by Brian Kindall is a wondrous middle-grade novel of literary fiction with magical realism. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Timothy Sperling misses his mom and dad terribly. Left behind with his morose uncle while they're off on an expedition to avert an environmental crisis, the bird-boned boy would give anything to see them again. But when he spies a shooting star, instead of wishing to be reunited with his parents, he falters and asks for snow... only to conjure up a blizzard that won't quit! As a town that never sees winter is buried in mountains of white, Timothy teams up with a wise explorer to figure out how to stop the relentless frozen flakes. And with all the blame being shoveled on his family, the clever kid's connection to sparrows may be his one chance to pull the city out of its deep freeze. Can Timothy undo his fateful wish and bring back the sunshine?”

Timothy Sperling is a wide-eyed and frail boy, so slight that he’s like a bird. Appropriately nicknamed Sparrow, he gazes out of his bedroom window, dreaming of somehow reconnecting with his parents. His errant wish upon a falling star unleashes a blizzard on the town of Candela, the likes of which has never been seen before. Not even his miserly Uncle Morris the Morose believes it’s snowing, even though the flakes are falling in plain sight. Can Sparrow undo what he has wished for and save his town?

Twentymile by C. Matthew Smith is a thrilling novel of suspense with literary undertones. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “When wildlife biologist Alex Lowe is found dead inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it looks on the surface like a suicide. But Tsula Walker, Special Agent with the National Park Service's Investigative Services Branch and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, isn't so sure. Tsula's investigation will lead her deep into the park and face-to-face with a group of lethal men on a mission to reclaim a historic homestead. The encounter will irretrievably alter the lives of all involved and leave Tsula fighting for survival—not only from those who would do her harm, but from a looming winter storm that could prove just as deadly.”

Tsula Walker is an engaging protagonist who juggles a stressful work life with a complicated personal life. On the job, she chases poachers and land squatters. In her personal life, her mother is invested in the discovery of a sacred ancestral site of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians even though she suffers from the effects of terminal cancer. Tsula wants to stay on top of both, but antagonist Harlan Miles complicates her life. Harlan, his two sons, and a friend have reclaimed a cabin deep in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that once belonged to his great grandfather, but was believed to have been taken by the US Government as part of the national park a century before. When Harlan and his clan are discovered, they’re not giving up this “homestead” without a fight, leading to deadly results.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead—the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner—is a novel of literary fiction based in the crime world of 1960s Harlem, New York. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked. To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time… Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.”

Protagonist / anti-hero Ray Carney appears to be a legit furniture store owner to everyone in his life, even his wife, but his crooked cousin Freddie is always enticing Carney to dip his toes in the waters of the crime world. To the hoods of Harlem, Carney isn’t a legit businessman. He’s a “fence,” someone who appears to be legit but is really allowing petty crimes to filter through his furniture store. When his cousin convinces him to be a part of a heist of one of the fancier hotels in Harlem, Carney officially becomes a part of the crime world. His no-good cousin gets into hot water, threatening to bring Carney’s façade to light.