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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 2021)
sprawling, ambitious affair. It is also an epic masterpiece. At its beating heart is Ailey Pearl Gar- field, a young African American woman who, after growing up and coming of age in Georgia, decides to trawl through her family’s checkered history to learn what befell her ancestors in the Deep South. Multigen- erational, multivoiced, and filled with darkness and light, this is a remarkable feat of storytell- ing. ‘GREAT CIRCLE’ by Maggie Shipstead Shipstead’s immersive third novel braids together the life stories of two memorable women. “Born to be a wan- derer,” Marian Graves grows up to become a pioneering aviator but disappears in Antarctica in 1950 in an ill-fated attempt to circle the globe. In 2014, dis- graced Hollywood star Hadley Baxter seeks to restore her dignity and revive her career by playing Marian in a movie. The book’s scope, detail and single-minded heroines allow it to truly soar. 17 FROM THE SHELF CHECKING OUT THE WORLD OF BOOKS ‘KLARA AND THE SUN’ by Kazuo Ishiguro Ishiguro’s fi rst novel since being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature is narrated by an android — an “Artifi cial Friend.” Klara draws nourishment from the sun and in turn provides strength and comfort for Josie, a teenager suff ering from what could be a life-threatening illness. The more time Klara spends with her ailing compan- ion, the more she learns about the frailty of life, the nature of love and what it takes to be hu- man. Ishiguro’s brave new world and the inhabitants within it cast a mesmerizing spell. ‘OH WILLIAM!’ by Elizabeth Strout Successful sixty-something writer Lucy Barton agrees to accompany her ex-husband William on a trip to Maine to meet the half-sister he never knew he had. But in doing so she ends up on a journey of discovery of her own, one that sees her refl ecting on the highs and lows (or “Diffi culties”) of her decades-long relationship, together with the current state of her life. Strout’s third outing for her much-loved creation is a bittersweet delight. DECEMBER 29, 2021�JANUARY 5, 2022 dler, Man. An existential thriller packed with mayhem, absurdity and big ideas. ‘CROSSROADS’ ‘A LINE TO KILL’ ‘THE COMMITTED’ by Viet Thanh Nguyen Starting where his Pulit- zer Prize-winning debut “The Sympathizer” left off , Nguyen’s sequel follows his unnamed double agent — “a man of two faces” — out of Vietnam and into Paris in 1981. There he deals drugs and settles scores for Chinese gangsters, loses himself in philosophical de- bates with his “aunt” and other intellectuals, and communes with ghosts from his past — all while dreading an impending showdown with his former han- that Horowitz is king of the con- temporary whodunit. by Anthony Horowitz Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, writer Anthony Horowitz, return for a third case, this time on the tiny island of Alderney in the English Channel — a place where there has never been a murder. That track record is ruined when the wealthy spon- sor of a literary festival there meets a violent end. Soon the crime-solving duo are unearth- ing clues and sifting secrets and grudges of the islanders and the visiting authors. Funny, fi endish and thrilling, this mystery proves by Jonathan Franzen The fi rst volume in a proposed trilogy, “Crossroads” is one of those books Franzen is so good at: an involving and enthralling family saga. This one revolves around the Hildebrandts in small- town Illinois in the early 1970s. Pastor Russ and his unhappy wife, Marion, harbor secret de- sires, hidden agendas and unpro- cessed pain in their disintegrat- ing marriage. Meanwhile, their children take drastic steps to go their own way. The fl awed char- acters and high-stakes plotlines make for superlative drama. Roll on the next installment. Specializing in HOMETOWN Real Estate Keisha Anderson Real Estate Agent 541.910.8827 Mobile App www.johnjhoward.com