Book review: Shuggie Bain — by Douglas Stuart

(Grove Press) A decade in the childhood of Hugh Bain, called Shuggie, son of Shug Bain, hackney driver, and Agnes Bain, in decaying public housing, framed by year and locale, is rich with empathy and love, a seemingly unending capacity for love. It’s no mystery why this novel, set in 1980s Glasgow, Scotland and a first novel for its author, Douglas Stuart, is garnering accolades and appearing on the shortlist for such notable prizes as the Booker Prize, the National Book Award, and the Center for Fiction Fi … (read more)

(Picador USA) At the close of a recent virtual conversation about her new collection of essays, Terry Tempest Williams, educator, naturalist, writer and activist, howled towards the sky from her living room in the wilds of Utah, and joyously enlivened the … (read more)

(Counterpoint Press) Now in paperback, “The Revisioners” is award-winning author Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s second novel, and a national bestseller. It is a lively, expansive and deeply moving book composed of three timelines and focused on two women, Jo … (read more)

(William Morrow & Company) Okeham, England: a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Tabitha grew up here, and now has returned to her hometown, renovating a neglected house she had grown attached to as a child. However one gray day, a … (read more)

(Tin House Books) As a young woman whose world is subsumed by the onset of World War I, Georgie Hyde-Lees, in a bid to salvage a sliver of independence, takes a position tending injured officers in a temporary hospital in London while in her free time, sh … (read more)

Flyaway — by Kathleen Jennings (Tor.com) In the district of Inglewell, a fictional locale in the interior of Australia, young Bettina Scott lives with her mother, following a closely prescribed set of daily chores and errands, admonished to never step out … (read more)

(Ecco Press) Lillian and Madison first met at a fancy girls’ school; they had vastly different backgrounds yet they forged an unlikely bond that was severely tested right from the start. We meet them again about 10 years later when Madison, married to a s … (read more)

(Knopf Publishing Group) Carl Hiaasen, author of more than 20 novels and long-time columnist based in Florida, is writing at the top of his game in his latest humorous crime caper, a hyper-current murder mystery involving senior Floridians, a massive pyth … (read more)

(St. Martin’s Press) When Kerri Arsenault was growing up in Mexico, Maine, a paper mill town on the banks of the Androscoggin River, she felt lucky and safe; her community, comprised of generations of mill workers, was focused inward, enjoying softball ga … (read more)

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) In his new book, subtitled “A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl,” ornithologist, field scientist, conservationist and author Jonathan Slaght will take you on a journey to the remote forests of eastern Russia to fin … (read more)

(Flatiron Books) When we first encounter Franny Stone — strong, gutsy, passionate Franny — she is in Greenland, alone, geo-tagging what very well may be the last Arctic terns in existence. She then manages to convince a fishing boat captain by the name of … (read more)

(William Morrow) When young Brenda Dubie, having to mind her father’s music store in the Hyde Park corner of 1940s Chicago while he is serving overseas, first meets young Charlie Fish, she’s decidedly underwhelmed. But in wartime pickings are slim, and Br … (read more)

(William Morrow & Company) To the Métis people of Canada and the far north reaches of the midwestern United States, a Rogarou is a shapeshifting werewolf-like creature that roamed the roads at night, “the threat from a hundred stories told by those old en … (read more)

(Knopf Publishing Group)   In the late 16th century, a glover from Stratford, England, foul-tempered and prone to fits of rage, in debt to a now-deceased land owner, compels his oldest to tutor the farmer’s sons in Latin as a form of repayment. While ther … (read more)

(William Morrow)   A remote island with austere rocky cliffs and an impeccably restored inn is the perfect setting for the perfect wedding. And the bride and groom? They are perfection in the flesh. Jules and Will, two balanced halves of a dazzling whole. … (read more)