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THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE COMMON OCTOPUSBy Emma Knight.Pamela Dorman Books. 370 pp. $29.\n\u201cTough Luck,\u201d by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin\u2019s Press, 2025)<\/p>\n
THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE COMMON OCTOPUSBy Emma Knight.Pamela Dorman Books. 370 pp. $29.
\n\u201cTough Luck,\u201d by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin\u2019s Press, 2025)<\/p>\n
Our plucky, resilient, inventive yet no-nonsense heroine is no angel, yet seems to be protected by her own guardian angel. Fourteen-year-old Haidie, along with her younger brother, sets off in 1863 from an Iowa orphanage to find the father who left them years before for the allure of Colorado gold mines. Haidie encounters both kind souls and scoundrels on her journey, with most of the latter getting at least their comeuppance if not frontier justice. Dallas displays her knack for capturing quaint 19th-century dialogue.\u00a0 And, while the locales of Denver, Idaho Springs and Georgetown may all sound familiar to most Coloradans, the rough-and-tumble 19th-century towns depicted here will surprise many. (Disclousure: Sandra Dallas is a freelance book reviewer for The Denver Post.) \u2014 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Life Cycle of the Common Octopus,\u201d by Emma Knight (Pamela Dorman Books, 2025)<\/p>\n
No octopi here. Knight\u2019s debut novel features Penelope Winters, a Canadian who travels to Edinburgh for university. She connects with friends of her father and learns as much about family and sex as she does about her studies.\u00a0I enjoyed the witty and quick writing, but the story seems more old-school than contemporary. Yes, people use chat apps, but that\u2019s all that anchors this book to the 20th century. The characters are interesting, although a bit stereotyped. Consider this a coming-of-age novel. (A Read with Jenna pick.) \u2014 2 1\/2 stars (out of 4);\u00a0Neva Gronert,\u00a0Parker<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Bookbinder of Jericho,\u201d by Pip Williams (Ballantine Books, 2023)
\n\u201cThe Bookbinder of Jericho,\u201d by Pip Williams (Ballantine Books, 2023)<\/p>\n
Young British twin sisters, Peggy and Maude, are working in a bookbindery during World War I.\u00a0Maude is autistic and displays echolalia (the repetition of heard word fragments). Peggy\u00a0has given up her dream of higher education due to her commitment to Maude. Later, when she gets a full scholarship to Somerville, she is torn between studying and her love for a Belgian\u00a0soldier. The book details the\u00a0process of bookbinding from the \u201cgirls\u2019 side of the bookbindery.\u201d Each section of the novel is\u00a0formed by books, including Shakespeare\u2019s England and Homeri, that were bound at the time but\u00a0not available to most people. Several characters, including Tilda Taylor, from the author\u2019s earlier\u00a0novel, \u201cThe Dictionary of Lost Words,\u201d appear here and bring news of the war. \u2014\u00a03 stars (out of 4);\u00a0Diana Doner, Lafayette<\/p>\n
\u201cNaked,\u201d by David Sedaris (Little, Brown and Company, 1998)<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t read a book by David Sedaris unless you\u2019re prepared for off-the-wall humor. Not always \u201cproper\u201d in content but forever hilarious, this volume was written long enough ago that he doesn\u2019t reveal any of his more sensitive side, which he\u2019s starting to do nowadays. Still, like any ground-breaking humorist, much of his work is actually grounded in sorrow and heart-wrenching perceptions. But for years, he disguised the origins of that pain, like he does in these essays. Unless you probe the roots of these pieces (\u201cDinah, the Christmas Whore\u201d features his family cashing in on an event with a prostitute, the eponymous \u201cNaked\u201d set in a nudist camp), you might miss the original creative impulse. In \u201cThe Quad\u201d \u2014 in which he becomes acquainted with and helpful to a severely handicapped female student \u2014 life might be mundane, but with Sedaris, never boring. \u2014 3 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver (bonniemccune.com)<\/p>\n
\u201cTrouble Island,\u201d by Sharon Short (Minotaur Books, 2024)<\/p>\n
A faced-paced whodunnit with bodies falling left and right, and theories piling up faster than the bodies. No one can trust anyone else, and with good reason, in this tale based on the author\u2019s own family stories and the true histories of bootlegging, fatal storms, island life and more on Lake Erie. \u2014 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver<\/p>\n