Cozy reads: New adult fiction

Here’s a few new adult fiction books that you can cuddle up to.

All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews, despite its title is not all about gloom and darkness. The author combines as much comedy as she does tragedy. It is a “wrenchingly honest, darkly funny novel,” per the Entertainment weekly. A sister must keep their family from falling apart while facing a very profound situation about what to do for a loved one who truly wants to die.

How to be both, by Ali Smith, a story about a Renaissance artist of the 1460’s and the child of a child of the 1960s. Two stories of love and injustice that become a single yarn where time gets timeless and fictional gets real. It is considered a very warm, funny and brilliant book.

The Black Snow, by Paul Lynch, author of Red Sky in Morning, has shown himself to be one of the most exciting new talents in Irish literature. This book shows us what it means to live through crisis and puts our uncertainties about mankind to the test. A book that may cause you to lose yourself in the obsession, despair and secrets too long held.

If you enjoy bittersweet but inspiring stories, this one may be the one for you, Our Souls at Night, by Kent Haruf. The story is about a man and a woman of advanced age, who live in a small town and have known each other for decades and how they come together to deal with long empty homes, long lonely nights, and share their adventures and pleasures. So many emotions and moral issues come to the fore.

If you want to get away to the eastern shore to a small group of islands in the Chesapeake Bay just off the coast of Virginia, The Shore, by Sara Taylor, would be a great choice. Ms. Taylor brings to life the small miracles and miseries of a community of outsiders as well as the bonds of blood and fate that connect all of them. It’s a place of wild ponies, oysters, crabs, clumps of evergreens with loads of stories of various people who have lived and left this place, only to return.

How about a psychological thriller to pass the time away? In The Hand that Feeds You, author A.J. Rich covers a wealth of information about dogs, forensics, and the human psyche, but it’s also an exploration of love, compassion and grief. It’s been said that you will burn calories while sitting perfectly still with breath held. It is definitely a book you won’t want to put down until you’ve read every terrifying and mesmerizing page.

--Nicki Malave, Network Coordinator