Touted as being a “blend of gothic themes, folktales, and psychological suspense,” Cape Fever is none of these. It is an often-told tale of class and privilege versus the downtrodden.
Soroya gets a job as a maid in Mrs. Hattingh’s home which was once grand but is quietly becoming decrepit. After the war, Mrs. Hattingh doesn’t have the money she once had. Yet she gives Soroya back-handed insults as she talks about all the charitable things she does.
Believing that Soroya can’t write, she pushes Soroya to let her transcribe letters to her fiancée who is working a farm a few hours away. But the letters start changing tone and after a while, he stops writing. The reader is well aware of what’s going on, but somehow Soroya, who is very intelligent, doesn’t seem to realize that Mrs. Hattingh is sabotaging her relationship.
During the course of the story, Mrs. Hattingh constantly has Soroya doing extra cleaning for her son, who is coming for a visit from London. He is one of the boys that made it through the war and Mrs. Hattingh can’t wait for his visit. But in each of his letters, the visit gets postponed. Again, the reader has a pretty good idea what’s going on, but Soroya, again unbelievingly, doesn’t catch on that the son is never coming home and Mrs. Hattingh is a lonely manipulator.
One can almost feel pity for Mrs. Hattingh, but not quite. She’s simply too mean.
The story moves along slowly, with Soroya doing her duties, seeing spirits/ghosts – who are not at all scary, and rarely getting time off to go home. The suspense doesn’t start until the book is ¾ over. And even then, the reader knows what’s going on. We’re just waiting to see if Soroya is going to get back at Mrs. Hattingh.
I didn’t feel the oppressive, scary themes that make up a Gothic story and the suspense was lacking. As for folktales, I didn’t find that Soroya’s making up stories for children added anything.
Read-alikes:
The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang
Fervor by Toby Lloyd
This House Will Feed by Maria Tureaud
Lori Ludlow, Babylon Public Library
When determining if a book is an “easy” or “difficult” read, length is often one of the main factors. For a book to be labeled as “hard to read,” despite clocking in at under 200 pages, it must either be poorly written, contain extremely dense and hard to parse language, or contain difficult subject matter. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, is firmly in the latter category. Written as Akkad’s personal response to the horrors unfolding in Gaza since 2023, One Day is a challenging work of non-fiction. Part memoir, part long-form essay, Akkad’s direct style of writing confronts the reader right from the beginning; asking the audience to challenge their beliefs and to bask in the discomfort this confrontation can generate.
The narrative of the book bounces around but never to the detriment of the overall work. Each chapter begins with a short epigraph concerning an incident in Gaza, before delving into Akkad’s personal story, followed by him directly addressing the prospective (and most likely American) reader, about a theme or aspect of that part of his life applied to our current political moment. From his early upbringing in Egypt, before his family emigrated to Canada after a short stay in Qatar, to his own move to the United States as an adult, Akkad does an incredible job of giving the reader a full picture of his life as an immigrant in the West. How his wide-eyed idealism as a youth and the way he looked to America and the Western world as a moral compass, was slowly chipped away at before being shattered in the last two years, is the core focus of this book. This structure works wonderfully for the book, but it also means that readers looking for a history of the Israel-Palestine conflict in general, or the war that has been ongoing since 2023, should look elsewhere.
Akkad’s writing style is impeccable and it is the biggest strength of One Day. Using an economy of words and very direct language, it feels at times that Akkad is speaking directly to you, or that the book is merely a letter he personally wrote to you. I found myself copying down whole passages to read back later. Not only because the piece was insightful, but because the sentences themselves were so strong.
While the current conflict in Gaza is the impetus for the book, it is less about that conflict specifically, and more about Akkad criticizing the leadership and rank and file of the Democratic party for their reaction to it. Those who wonder how someone who so clearly dislikes the GOP may have zero desire to vote for their opposition, would be well served reading this book. Akkad spares no one in the political class from his righteous anger, but it burns brightest when he directs it to those who claim a moral high ground or those who he believes to be hypocrites. Readers with sympathies that do not align with Akkad’s, may feel as though they are under attack or are being unfairly criticized by him. However, he always seems ready to respond to the criticism he can anticipate coming towards him.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is an incredible work of writing. However, given the subject matter and Akkad’s confrontational writing style, it is not a book librarians should be recommending to patrons without careful consideration for whether they would be receptive to the message contained within. Readers that seek out comforting literature or books with straightforward answers would not be receptive to it. However, for those who believe that the best writing challenges our preconceived notions or asks us to reevaluate our beliefs, this book would be an excellent choice.
Read-alikes:
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza by Peter Beinart
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Dianne McWhorter
Connor McCormack, Northport-East Northport Public Library
Michael
Finkel tells the astonishing true story of Stéphane Breitwieser, a charming and
urbane art thief who, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, stole more than 300
priceless works of art from small museums and historic sites across Europe. Unlike
thieves driven by profit, Breitwieser stole for love of art itself, displaying
his stolen treasures in his attic bedroom rather than selling them.
Operating in broad daylight, with his girlfriend Anne-Katherine. Breitwieser exploited lax museum security and the assumption that thefts only occurred after hours. His obsession escalated steadily, culminating in catastrophic consequences when police finally found and arrested him, including the irreversible loss of many stolen artworks. In a devastating twist, his mother had gone to his home after his arrest, destroyed all the paintings by burning and threw the rest of the collection (precious metals, carvings) in nearby bodies of water. Approximately 1/3 of the stolen treasures were recovered. Estimates of the value of Breitwieser’s thefts are $1B-$2B.
Finkel structures the narrative like a psychological thriller while grounding it in meticulous reporting. The book reads like true crime, with the feel of a novel. Finkel deeply examines Breitweiser’s obsession with stealing art from a psychological perspective more than a criminal perspective. His story is morally complex; we cannot help but feel sympathy for Breitweiser even as he plunders museums.
As the book is short, people looking for historical evaluations of museum collections and security, and the legal analysis of the case won’t find much in-depth discussion in this book.
This book is highly recommended for people who prefer non-violent, or “intelligent” crime. It would be a great pick for a book club as well.
Read-alikes:
The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Priceless by Robert K. Wittman
Karen Sonnessa, Babylon Public Library
"It
is possible that you will find yourself in a placid and tedious little corner
of England; it is just as possible that you will end up in an English Murder
Village. You will not know you are in a Murder Village, as they look like all
other villages."
English
villages consist of two major components: the village proper and the manor
which lies just outside of it. The "guide" breaks down each component
into subcategories. For example, The Village is comprised of Buildings &
Spaces, The Residents of the Village, and Village Events. The Manor consists of
Buildings & Spaces, Rooms & Architecture, Furnishings & Features,
The Residents of the Manor, Frequent Guests, The Staff, and Manor Events. Each
subcategory is given a brief explanation of what it is and both sections
conclude with a quiz. Sprinkled throughout are Jay Cooper's wonderful Gorey-esque illustrations.
This is
perfect for anyone who loves to read British murder mysteries or to watch shows
such as Midsomer Murders. The
explanations and illustrations are very tongue-in-cheek and full of advice on
how to stay alive.
If after
reading this book you still decide to visit a quaint English village, remember,
avoid the vicar at all costs.
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton (Agatha Raisin Mysteries Book 1)
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple Mysteries Book 1)
The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham (Chief Inspector Barnaby Mysteries Book 1)
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood
Sue Ketcham, Retired
The Ferryman and His Wife, translated by Alison McCullough, was originally published in Norwegian as Den dagen Nils Vik dode, or The Day Nils Vik Died. It is a brief novel that lingers well beyond its final page. At just 176 pages, it fits nicely into our "bite-sized reads" category but carries surprising emotional weight.
The story centers on Nils Vik, a lifelong ferryman who begins his final day with the quiet certaity that it will also be his last. As he prepares for one more journey across the fjord, memories surface in fragments. He remembers the people he has carried, the steady routines that shaped his life, and, most importantly, the wife he continues to long for. The boundary between past and present softens as figures from his life being to literally reappear, giving the narrative a reflective, almost dreamlike quality.
Grytten's writing is strikingly lyrical, filled with sharp lines that invite readers to pause and reflect. As he writes, "This life is like an item of cloting, the beauty exists on the outside but the warmth is found within," and, "To be born was to live long enough to discover what air and sea and earth and hate and love are, then to say thank you and goodbye." These moments capture the novel's quiet philosophy and its focus on the meaning found in ordinary lives.
The plot itself is experimental, unfolding in a way that feels less linear and more intuitive, brimming with meaning between the written words. Rather than driving forward with action, the narrative lingers, allowing metaphor, memory, and emotion do the heavy lifting. This book maintains a steady, contempletive tone from cover to cover.
Alison McCullough's translation is seemless. Translated fiction doesn't always retain its full rhythm or nuance, but this one flows effortlessly, preserving both the lyricism and emotional weight of the original.
Short, meditative, and rich with emotion, The Ferryman and His Wife proves that a novel doesn't need many pages to leave a lasting impression.
Read-alikes:
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Vigil by George Saunders
Hanna Auer, Patchogue Medford Library
After procuring long-awaited passports and visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning, they awaken to discover that Ma's purse, with all the treasured documents within it, has been stolen. It contains two stories: the story of Ma and her family, their struggle to emigrate to America; and Boomba, the thief, whose hunger and desperation to care for his family drive him to commit a crime whose consequences he cannot fathom.
In a climate ravaged city, Kolkata, India, we meet a family who is living out their last few days until they can use “climate visas” to fly to Michigan and reunite with Ma’s scientist husband. In the meantime, a young man, turned thief enters their house and takes Ma’s purse, which has the visas inside. He doesn’t even know what the passports are, but he tries to sell the other items he has taken from Ma’s house. As the family struggles with one disappointment after another, they frantically try to get the passports back from Boomba. All of the characters are very sympathetic in their desperation, especially with how they adore the children in their care. You feel their suffering and hope for the ones they love. It is a chilling and realistic look at what it might be like to live in a climate crisis that leads to extreme heat, and food shortages. A realistic view of what can happen in the near future.
Read-alikes:
The River, the Town by Farah Ali
Weather by Jenny Offill
Hum by Helen Phillips
Jo-Ann Carhart, East Islip Public Library
Each chapter of Summerwater by Sarah Moss is s stream
of consciousness amble through the minds of twelve different individuals. Told in
the third person, we are able to view the intimate lives of these people with an
outside lens. This adds a level of detachment, despite the in-depth look into
their innermost thoughts.
Set in a Scottish summer cabin park, on a day with
unrelenting rain, the deep dives into the psyche of twelve residents slowly
unravels the plot. But Summerwater is less about the plot, and more about
character, emotion, and society. Each chapter reads like a short story, delving
into the private thoughts of the characters. The reader is introduced to a
mother who is a runner. Her trip through the park provides an avenue for
description of the setting. We see the path she runs, the view of the vacation
park, the lake. Throughout the book Moss delights with her descriptive
language, letting us feel the cold damp rain as it permeates the air.
Other characters include a 16-year-old boy who takes a
red kayak out on the lake and experiences true fear as his muscles strain to
return safely to shore, his sister who is unhappy being away from friends and
sharing a room with her brother, an elderly couple who own their cabin and are not
ageing at the same rate. There is a young engaged couple staying in the cabin
owned by the young man’s parents, an Eastern European family that hosts loud
parties deep into the night.
Although the vacationers have little interaction with each other, their stories twist together in what appears to be a superficial way until a major piece of plot work at the very end of the book. This hinted at revelation leaves the reader with more questions, and allows one to be engaged past the pages of the short book. Connection to the characters and introspection about the similarities and differences between them and us continue to resonate even after the last pages.
For readers who like all loose ends to be neatly tidied up this book will prove a disappointment. Moss deftly infuses everything from setting to characters to plot with the heavy, damp weight of the unrelenting rain. At just 202 pages, this book is a perfect read for a rainy afternoon for those who are ok walking away with questions and a deep sense of emotional weight.
Read-alikes:Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer
The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
Overstaying by Ariane Koch
Northwoods by Daniel Mason
The Intruder by Freida McFadden
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
Ellen Covino, Sayville Public Library
Rocky is a fortunate woman. She and her husband and their two children have comfortable lives, enjoy general good health, and are able to rent the same cottage on Cape Cod for a week every summer for their annual vacation.
This year is no different. Their children are grown, but are still able to join them for the entire week (one with a long-term significant other in tow), and Rocky’s parents will also join them for two nights, as they always do. Together, the family will enjoy a typical beach vacation in the same way they have for many years. But Rocky has been keeping a secret for most of those years, one she’s afraid will tear her family apart, and it looks like this is the year the truth is going to come out.
This short novel is firmly focused on Rocky, and her thoughts, feelings, and perimenopausal symptoms. She’s a loving wife, mother, and daughter, and more than a little bit neurotic as she tries to make sure that everyone is fed, cared for, and generally feels all the love she has for them. Some readers might wish for other perspectives on the family dynamics, especially since Rocky is very much in her own head about her life. Readers facing an empty nest, aging parents, and unpredictable hormones will likely have more patience for Rocky as a narrator than readers who are not in a similar place in life.
Read-alikes:
A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi
Same as it Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore
The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff
Mara Zonderman, Westhampton Library
David Suchet is a British actor who spent 25 years portraying one of Agatha Christie’s most famous characters, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. This book is a companion piece to a recent BBC production called “Travels with Agatha Christie and David Suchet” which can be seen on BritBox. The show is a recreation of Agatha Christie’s journey around the world with her husband Archie to drum up exhibitors for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. After suffering much through World War I, the British sought to revive their ailing empire by hosting a gathering of their colonies, promoting unity and stimulating trade. Agatha went with her husband to help organize the exhibition, and on the way experienced many things that ended up in her novels. David Suchet uses this trip as a way to connect more deeply with the beloved character he portrayed for so many years and the woman who created Poirot.
This book has a chapter for every country that Agatha and Suchet visit on their journey - South Africa and Zimbabwe, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Canada. Suchet gives the historical background of both Agatha and himself, revealing nuggets of his personal history (for example, his father was from South Africa) as well as some insights into how he worlds as an actor. The travel memoir is heavily illustrated with Suchet’s photographs, and he shares his feelings as a member of a former empire traveling through colonial lands, acknowledging the pain caused by England and his gratitude towards the people who welcomed him as he traveled. He also realizes that Agatha was not as stuffy as depicted in her later life, but was an outgoing and determined young woman who went surfing in Hawaii, bought and drove her own car, danced and sang with ships’ crews, and helped her husband conduct his business as they traveled across the world.
While this is an amusing, light travel memoir, I found it a bit lacking in substance. There were no excerpts from the letters and diary entries that Agatha wrote and Suchet used for his research, and his description of his experiences were rather bare-boned. He references the atrocities of the British Empire but never explains anything particularly. This was definitely a fast and enjoyable read, but I think it’s best for fans of Suchet, Poirot, and/or Agatha in addition to the tv show itself. Maybe it will pique people’s interest into learning more about this aspect of world history.
Read-alikes:
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
I Am Not Spock/I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy
Sonny Boy by Al Pacino
Poirot and Me by David Suchet
Carolyn Brooks, The Smithtown Library - Commack Building
Cleric Chi is on their way to the capital city of the Ang empire where the new empress will hold her first court. Traveling with her Hoopoe Almost Brilliant, a talking bird, they make a stop at the long abandoned estate, Thriving Fortune. It is here that the empress’s mother, In-yo who was known as the empress of Salt and Fortune, lived in exile for many years before staging a coup that unseated her tyrannical husband. But since In-yo’s ascension, Thriving Fortune has been sealed away from the world along with the true story of the dowager empress’s life before when she was a captive bride plotting vengeance against her husband for the death and destruction of her homeland.
In Thriving Fortune, cleric Chi and Almost Brilliant meet Rabbit, an old woman who spent her life serving In-yo, first as a scullery maid and eventually as a devoted, deeply loved companion. Rabbit has kept Thriving Fortune in perfect order for many years, its many treasures and remembrances carefully locked away until their stories were ready to be told. As the days pass, Chi and Almost Brilliant examine the strange items left behind by the enigmatic empress and listen to Rabbit’s tragic, riveting tale of the role she played in reshaping an empire.
This is the first novella in The Singing Hills Cycle, a beautiful fantasy series by Nghi Vo that chronicles the journeys of Cleric Chi, a monk of the Singing Hills monastery whose members are tasked with preserving the history of the empire. They travel the country with their magical Hoopoe’s who are gifted with the ability to recall everything they see and hear and bring back whatever they learn to the vast archive of Singing Hills. They have no gender and no personal bias, acting simply as preservers of history.
The novella has a deeply ancient feel to it, indeed much of the magic and mystical creatures found here are pulled from the annals of Imperial Chinese history and legend, but the strong feminist themes and its emphasis on a character that a longer novel might relegate to the periphery make it a unique and thrilling outlier that will appeal to any fantasy fan. Touches of humor, particularly in the gentle bickering between Chi and Almost Brilliant, keeps things from getting too heavy. There are now seven more books in the series for fans to get lost in without finding themselves embroiled in a thousand page epic. Vo’s poetic, wonderfully descriptive writing is by turns haunting and thrilling. This is a story full of ghosts, tragedy, and vengeance, but it is also one of deep love, endurance, and female empowerment. A powerful, fantastical punch in a small package.
Read-alikes:
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
The Summer War by Naomi Novik
Sara Fiore, Rogers Memorial Library
Seascraper is the fifth novel from British author Benjamin Wood. It takes place in the fictional town of Longferry on the English coast in 1963. The main character, Thomas, is a seascraper and spends his days trawling for shrimp with a horse and cart at low tide and selling his catch at market. He lives with his mother, Lillian, who had him at age fifteen after an affair with her teacher. His grandfather, Pop, is the one who taught Thomas to be a seascraper. He passed away a few years ago and Thomas still mourns his death. Thomas leads an ordinary, predictable life, but he dreams of becoming a folk singer and getting together with his best friend’s sister, Joan.
On the day our story opens, Thomas returns home after his early morning shift to find a strange gentleman talking with his mother in their living room. Thomas assumes the man is another one of his mother’s suitors. But this time is different. Edgar Acheson is a movie producer from Hollywood who is enamored with the coastal atmosphere of Longferry and wants Thomas to help him scout filming locations. Edgar is willing to pay a nice sum of money. They make plans to meet that evening to take pictures of the beach. However, things go awry when Thomas and Edgar venture onto the sand, leading to a revelation for Thomas and a crisis for Edgar.
Seascraper is a slow-paced lyrical coming-of-age novel. Wood’s prose is mesmerizing and you can almost feel the fog, chill and damp. It provides a window into ordinary lives and captures the mundane moments of daily life. Thomas’ struggle with deciding his life’s direction is both relatable and realistic.
While the "twist" and the somewhat unresolved ending might not satisfy every reader, the book never feels like it’s dragging. Instead, it offers a deeply relatable look at the struggle to define one's own direction in life. If you prefer rich character development over high-octane plotting, Seascraper is an excellent choice. Its literary merit is well-documented, having been longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and winning the Nero Book Award.
Read-alikes:
The Sea by John Banville
North Woods by Daniel Mason
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
Valerie Henrichson, Harborfields Public Library
