Whimsy by Shannon McLeod is a wonderful novella, an emotional story about a young woman who is dealing with scars both internal and external. A tragedy has happened in the past, a traumatic experience that haunts her — but the dramatics of that event and the immediate aftermath are in the distance. What this story explores is the quiet echoes and jagged ripples of guilt that continue to impact how she experiences and perceives where she’s at right now — the usual goings on in life — work, dating, family. I was impressed with this exploration — so thoughtful and raw and nuanced. Most definitely worth a read.

My review on Goodreads.

Station Eleven is an ambitious and fantastic novel. Ever since I read Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars — one of my favorite books — I am always on the hunt for an interesting literary take on a post-apocalyptic landscape. Definitely glad it lead me to read Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven — was very much drawn into the world and the characters, and especially loved how the arts/theater is such an important part of the story — the plot, yes, but also the way it weaves together such a surprising through line on the befores and afters of the characters. Very much worth a read. If you’ve read and loved Heller’s The Dog Stars, this book meets that high bar. If you have never read The Dog Stars, then definitely add both of these excellent post-apocalyptic literary books to your to-read list.

My review on Goodreads.

Very much enjoyed this post-apocalyptic novel by Lily Brooks-Dalton — a well-paced thriller of urgent and massive unknowns that mainly focuses on how to grapple with said unknowns from the far reaches of both space and the earth. One set of characters is on a spaceship returning to Earth from a mission to Jupiter. The others are at an Arctic research center, and something catastrophic has happened across the globe. While this novel is set in the future, it’s the near future, so everything feels very contemporary — that there is a manned space mission to Jupiter is the one major leap. I don’t want to say too much about this book, so as to avoid spoilers. What I will say is that the novel is very inventive in the way it propels the story forward — it truly is a thriller — one that requires you to be patient, because part of the thrill is that you have to wait, just like the characters. I love that the mystery of what has happened is a constant that holds — as is the need to connect. This is a novel ultimately about needing and desiring connection in a very unique and extreme circumstance, across time and space, and that is what drives the story forward and keeps you turning pages until the very intriguing end.

My review on Goodreads.