Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan is one of those books that readers will appreciate most if they go into it in the dark. Don’t read reviews like this one. Avoid spoilers. The less you know, the better.

I knew that Jodi Picoult was one of the authors, and that was enough for me. I would read anything she writes because she has the ability to develop complex characters and then throw them into a world of hurt, while tossing in some unexpected twists along the way. I knew too that it was about a high school student accused of killing his girlfriend. I wasn’t aware of any other books in which she’d collaborated with another writer, so I wondered what this latest novel would be like on account of that second voice. 

As it turns out, Mad Honey works beautifully, and my ignorance was bliss indeed. Two story lines unfold throughout the novel, narrated by Asher’s mother Olivia and Lily, his girlfriend. A single parent who has moved back to the family farm and has expanded their beekeeping operation into a thriving business, Olivia feels like their life is on the right track. People around their small town know her for the honey and beeswax products she sells at the local farmers’ market. Asher is in love, and Olivia is genuinely fond of Lily, his girlfriend. The two of them seem well suited and appear to make each other genuinely happy. Which is why Olivia is stunned to learn that Lily has been found dead at her home and Asher is charged with her murder. 

Olivia’s chapters move forward through time from Lily’s death and Asher’s arrest, through his incarceration, and his trial. Lily’s chapters turn back time, beginning with the day of her death and moving back through the months before. We learn her backstory, how she and her mother Ava came to live in the small New Hampshire town, and why Lily is capable of both giving and guarding her heart.

The one small point I’d quibble about is that in his trial, Asher is defended by his uncle, Olivia’s brother Jordan who is a high-powered attorney. Lawyers don’t normally represent relatives, particularly in high profile cases like this one. At minimum I’d expect a conversation to take place in which Olivia and Jordan hash this out. Instead Jordan just rolls in, prepared to represent Asher himself instead of referring him to another attorney. It doesn’t hurt the book too badly, but readers familiar with the legal profession will be a bit surprised. 

The lyricism of Picoult’s writing about Olivia’s bees created a beautiful counterpoint to the painful story. I enjoyed learning about beekeeping culture, including traditions like informing the bees of a death in the family. I’d never heard of “mad honey” before, a substance that has been known to cause symptoms like dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, and more. And the book includes recipes for the honey-related treats Olivia makes, something I was grateful for after reading about these delicious foods. 

I highly recommend Mad Honey and look forward to purchasing it for my library. I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. 

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There isn't. But there's a conscientious male nurse called Sanjay who Heimlichs the choker, Piers,  back to life. That's just the beginning of the chain of actions and reactions that changes the lives of a group of commuters on train. By the time "Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting" winds down, readers will have enjoyed a bit of romance, break-ups, humiliation, trauma, career changes, and redemption. The cast of characters includes Sanjay the nurse, his crush Emmie, teenaged outcast Martha, and Piers, along with Iona and Bea, the love of Iona's life. 

The book is a reminder of the sweetness of human connection, something that is easy to lose in a world of virtual relationships. Iona is her own woman, a character with a strong voice, and a streak of independence. But when she needs her new friends, they rally around her, just as she ministered to them in their time of need. "Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting" will be published June 7, 2022, by Pamela Dorman Books, and I look forward to purchasing a copy for the library. Fans of Frederik Backman's "A Man Called Ove" will enjoy Iona and her train mates.  

I received a pre-publication copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. ​

The Boys in the Boat was hands-down my favorite book I read last year. The story of the University of Washington's crew team is one of sheer determination and grit. Most of the boys in the boat were working class kids. The University of Washington's eight-oar program was a work in progress. The schools that dominated the sport California and the Ivy League universities back east. But under coach  Al Ulbrickson and with a shell built by George Pocock, Washington was finally in contention for the national title. 

I'll just say here that I knew nothing about crew and in all honesty cared even less. The power of Brown's writing lies in his ability to educate and inspire his readers by focusing on the individual stories behind the boys in the boat, primarily Joe Rantz. 

Joe's childhood was filled with grief, abandonment, and poverty. His resilience in the face of all the trauma, combined with a work ethic that would not allow him to quit, got him into the University of Washington and onto the crew team. Although he was finally in the right place at the right time and had remarkable abilities, Joe's coach saw an inconsistency in his performance. For a team to win in a sport like this one required a level of trust in the others in the boat that Joe struggled with, given his past experiences. 

The Boys in the Boat has it all: riveting history, a setting primarily in the Pacific Northwest during the Great Depression and later Berlin under Hitler, compelling biography, a love story, and detailed explanation of what crew is and the process of building shells. The book is available for checkout at Moon Lake Library. 

Boys in the Boat was published June 4, 2013 by Viking Adult.

​I have reviewed a number of digital books, courtesy of NetGalley, a site that sends ebooks to librarians in the lead-up to their publication. The idea is to encourages book reviews and hopefully purchases for our libraries.  This is the first NetGalley book that I ordered a personal copy of before I even finished  reading the galley. No Recipe, No Problem by Phyllis Good does an excellent job of capturing the methods of improvisational cooks like me. (The joke in my house was always, "Any resemblance to the original recipe is purely coincidental.") My choice to buy the book was based on a need to see the photos in color! The Kindle version just wasn't doing it for me.

Phyllis Good was the creator of the "popular Fix-It and Forget-It" cookbook series. She also pulls in a circle of other accomplished improvisational cooks to share their expertise. The book contains a handful of recipes as jumping off points, with plenty of tips on how to use the dressing or sauce in a variety of combinations or how to take it off in a completely different direction by substituting different ingredients. For the most part, however, Good explains how to make soups, salads, egg dishes, sheet pan dinners, roasts, and other main dishes, using what is on hand.

There are enough pro tips thrown in that even an experienced cook will find gems about how to give soups and sauces a bright finish or how to use unexpected flavor combinations.  But another audience for this creative cookbook would young people who are just starting out cooking and who may have followed recipes slavishly with good results and who want to take a more off-the-cuff approach. It would be a good fit too for people focusing on local foods or who have their own garden. The author expects cooks to have a decently stocked pantry, but she also discusses how to use an abundance of specific veggies and how vegetables harvested at the same time of year tend to make for solid flavor combinations. 

The library has purchased a copy and it is available for checkout. Checking out cookbooks can be a way to try one out to see if you too need your own copy, or if it might make a good gift for a wedding shower or graduation. 

No Recipe, No Problem by Phyllis Good was published April 21, 2021 by Story Publishing, LLC.