February 2025 Book Marks
Happy Valentines, Gal-entines….all of it. It’s nice to focus on a day of love, whether we’re showering it on spouses, partners, parents, friends kids or pets. Love is in the air. And with the coldest and most snowy winter I can recall in a while…. Nothing says cuddle up on the couch like a good book. Here are some February favorites for every taste palate.
Fiction:
Every Tom, Dick & Harry by Elinor Lipman
Lipman’s storytelling and wonderfully witty, droll writing style sucks me in every time, and her latest book is no different. (Shout out to her interview in the NYT book review!) Emma Lewis is still living in Harrow, her small Massachusetts hometown, where life is easy and her parents own “Finders Keepers,” an estate sale business where she’s helped out over the years. When they announce plans to retire, Emma somewhat reluctantly decides to take over the business, although it’s not exactly the vision she had for herself. But the job proves to be a catalyst for unexpected life changes and in short order, she moves from taking on an older male roommate, to falling in love, to handling the estate sale at an old B&B, which turns out to be a cover for a brothel. The madcap actions around this sale and the discovery of a long hidden crime in Harrow make this fast-moving story a delight to read. By the way, Lipman’s book, “The Inn at Lake Devine” is on my all-time fave list.
Fiction/Thriller:
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
The gothic horror action starts almost from the beginning in this mash up of American Psycho meets the Victorian age. Set in the countryside of 19th century England, Winifred Notty arrives at the Pound family’s well-staffed, upper crust home to be the children’s next Governess. Almost from the beginning, something is off. Winifred’s bloodthirsty urges and horrible compulsions bubble up in front of others, as she sinks her teeth into bloody meat and serenely stones a fawn to death in front of the children to “put it out of its misery.” Stuck in the dreary confines of the house with her two charges, she begins to see the perversions of the Pound family as well. It all comes to a bloody head on Christmas morning when she confirms the answer to a question that has haunted her all her life. The book is both horrifying and hysterical, written with wit and a giant flair for the macabre.
Fiction:
People of Means by Nancy Johnson
It’s the middle of Jim Crow in the South and Freda Gilroy has arrived on the campus of Fisk University, full of hope for the future and part of a great family’s legacy. Soon, she will have to make a decision about whether or not to join the movement for social change and she must also decide between two lovers, the soon-to-be-doctor that her parents approve of, and a man who wants to change the world and risk it all. How much she is willing to sacrifice in the name of advancing her people? Fast forward to 1992 Chicago, when Freda’s own daughter Tulip is a rising PR professional during the Rodney King trial, which is riveting and dividing the nation. Tulip feels called to action, finding herself in the same place her mother was decades earlier. Now she must decide if she’s ready to make a move that would change things permanently for her career in the name of justice and equality.
Fiction:
The Rules of Fortune by Danielle Prescod
The Carter family has made it. Their first generation wealth includes private jets, multiple homes with staff, and freedom from money worries. But there is a catch—the wealth comes with a complicated past. When patriarch William Carter Jr. dies unexpectedly, the night before his giant 70th birthday celebration on his Martha’s Vineyard estate, the media begins to dig into his legacy. He’s the head of a multi-industry conglomerate, but the details are murky and he’s somehow connected to a long-ago housing project in Africa. Compounding issues, daughter Kennedy has been digging around her father’s past to make a surprise documentary film for his birthday. Her questions have begun to stir things up, unraveling the threads of a partnership that was buried long ago, not to mention her beauty queen mother’s mysterious past. Kennedy’s brother, Asher, is determined not to do anything to upset the succession. But as the twisted family backstory emerges, choices must be made. The children have to decide between morality and deceit, between the truth and a cover up.
Fiction:
Bear Tooth by Callan Wink
Written by a fly-fishing guide on the Yellowstone River, this novel delivers and sharp and flinty tale of life on the edge of the wilderness. Brothers Hazen and Thad live hand to mouth, barely holding it together on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park, where the story opens with a brutal scene of them poaching bears. A shadowy figure named “The Scott” arrives with a proposal to extract stolen artifacts, and the brothers can’t refuse the payout, despite the risk and danger. But agreeing to this illegal and dangerous offer will change their lives and relationship forever. Set in the backdrop of the gorgeous and wild Western panorama, this is a beautifully brutal, testosterone-laced book that packs a punch. Think the beautiful prose of “A River Runs Through It” with more bare bones desperation.
Non-Fiction:
Wiseguys and the White House: Gangsters, Presidents and the Deals they Made by Eric Dezenhall
Since growing up between New York and Philadelphia, award winning author Eric Dezenhall has been fascinated with the power and influence of mobsters and gangsters. The founder of one of the original DC-based crisis PR firms, he worked as an intern in the Reagan White House, where he began thinking about the long running interplay between the mafia and the executive branch, two worlds that “could not have functioned without the other at times.” This book is meticulously researched through newly released government records, private recollections and interviews with mobsters connected to presidential administrations from FDR to Biden. Anyone curious about the interplay between these two power worlds will enjoy this book and the storytelling. It’s an inside look at what happens behind the curtain.
Fiction:
Tilda is Visible by Jane Tara
It’s a common trope, aging women become invisible to the rest of the world. But when divorced woman and mother of two daughters, Tilda Finch, wakes up one morning, she’s alarmed to see that one of her fingers actually has disappeared. A missing ear is next. Panicked, she tries to retrace what could have happened. Did she consume something that might have brought this about? Her doctor tells Tilda that her issue is “invisibility,” a disorder that that affects millions of women worldwide after the age of 40. Tilda is slowly disappearing and there seems to be no cure. But she’s not going to take this lying down. She seeks out a controversial therapist who helps her realize she first must see herself before she can expect others to see her as well. The novel reminds us all to be more compassionate about the voices inside our heads. And for those who watched the Demi Moore’s horror thriller “Substance,” this book will resonate on some level.
Thriller:
Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister
The story opens when Camilla wakes up on a random day, ready to drop her child off at daycare and head to her job as a literary agent. But her husband, Luke, is gone. On the bed is a note that makes no sense. Suddenly, the TV news is filled with footage of a brewing hostage situation in a London warehouse. Camilla soon learns that her husband is involved. But the situation takes a bad turn, the hostage negotiations fail, people are dead and Luke is missing. All of this sets into motion an eight-year journey where Camilla never loses hope, determined to understand what happened and prove her husband’s innocence. If you enjoyed Laura Dave’s “The Last Thing He Told Me,” this is your next pick.
Non-Fiction:
Looking at Women Looking at War – A War and Justice Diary by Victoria Amelina
Before this book could be finished, the author died from injuries sustained during a Russian missile attack in Ukraine at the age of 37. Beyond the compelling and heartbreaking writing, is the commitment and determination of writers like Margaret Atwood, who jumped in to steward this project to its finish. Amelina follows in the footsteps of former female war reporters like Martha Gellhorn, taking us to the frontlines of war to record the ruins of schools and cultural centers, as well as the testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses. The writing is urgent, gut-wrenching and up close and personal. At the time of Russia’s attack, in February 2022, the author was part of Ukraine’s literary scene, working on a novel and raising a son. She pivoted immediately to become a war crimes researcher and chronicler of extraordinary women, like herself, who joined the resistance. All of that became the basis of this book, with the goal of keeping alive the powerful story of the cost of war and of resistance.
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