Mind-Blowing

I've read lots of the hard-hitting books on race, and they have all been good. Really good. Thought-provoking, life-changing, and shelf-worthy keepers, all of them. But at the end, I'm still left with a flailing, floating sense of "Okay, but why?" After reading Caste, that question has been answered for me. I think it's one of the best books I've ever read on the topic of race, and probably one of the best books I've ever read, period. While most of these most talked-about books are good, they are sometimes a bit hard to digest, not just because of the subject matter, but because they are such a deep dive. Somehow, Isabel is so dang smart and such a fantastic writer, that she made this horrific topic readable. I plowed right through that book, marking passages, pages, thoughts--and I never ever do that. I would read it again. There were so many times I actually stopped and gasped that people around me stopped reacting. This book should be required reading in every school and for every elected official in this country. I will keep it, have recommended it dozens of times already, and am immensely grateful for her efforts to educate the masses, despite the pain she was experiencing through the process of writing a book about such a laden topic. She is wise and brilliant. Read it.

And She's a Bad Axe Herself

Heidi is the interim sheriff in hardscrabble Bad Axe County, where locals know the way and ways of the terrain and folks. And tradition, as well as loyalties, run deep. A girl is missing, and as Heidi tries to solve that case, she finds overlapping references to her own trauma--the murder of her parents when she was a teenage "Dairy Queen", doing the rounds and representing. As both cases unravel, Heidi begins to uncover some secrets that seem impossible to face. I loved the heroines, and author John Galligan does a good job writing from a woman's perspective.

Another Goofball Hit

I love Dave Barry. He doesn't take himself, or his readers, too seriously, and the result is a fun ride. This book was no exception. I find in his books, good guys win, bad guys lose, and there's a lot of silliness along the way, with enough grit to keep things real-ish. In his latest, there's Jesse, a new mom, stuck in the Everglades with her hot but useless boyfriend and his leering friend. While they're trying to make it big with videos of her baby-daddy's body, she stumbles on something unexpected, and sets into action a dangerous chain of events. A great escape read.