March 2017 Reads

March
12 Right Behind You Lisa Gardner
13 Midnight Sun Jo Nesbo
14 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders
15 August Snow Stephen Mack Jones
16 The Gap of Time Jeanette Winterson

Only 5 books in March!  They were all great, so read them all!  I'm bossy, I know.

Right Behind You is a family drama and police procedure rolled into one suspenseful ride.  Gardner's writing is tight and keeps you interested until the end.

I love Jo Nesbo.  I read many Scandinavian authors and he's a favorite.  I can't say it better that this quick review:  "Readers who like their crime fiction cut-to-the-bone lean will love the opening pages of Jo Nesbø's new, swift-moving existential thriller Midnight Sun . . . A compelling exploration of love, faith, the meaning of life and redemption." --Richmond Times-Dispatch

So many readers were raving about Lincoln in the Bardo; I decided to see what all the fuss was about.  The fuss was about great writing.  Here's another quote: “A brilliant, Buddhist reimagining of an American story of great loss and great love . . . Saunders has written an unsentimental novel of Shakespearean proportions, gorgeously stuffed with tragic characters, bawdy humor, terrifying visions, throat-catching tenderness, and a galloping narrative, all twined around the luminous cord connecting a father and son and backlit by a nation engulfed in fire.”—Elle

You know that I love debut authors.  It's difficult to get published these days; so I want to see what they've got.  August Snow is Jones' first novel, and it's a humdinger! "[A] witty, mayhem-packed first novel . . . Snow’s own voice has echoes of Raymond Chandler’s. Be assured that when the showdown comes, Snow—an action-hero with the heart of a mensch—and his crew prove up to that task."
—The Wall Street Journal

Last but not least, The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson is a retelling of Shakespeare's' Winters Tale.  I admit that I haven't read Shakespeare, but The Gap of Time made the story very accessible. "The Gap of Time takes the play’s themes of love, jealousy, and estrangement and spins them into a taut contemporary tale."--New York Times

What are you reading?