Book Review

Gripping psychological thriller about the disappearance of 15-year-old Ellie Mack. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell is not about what happened to Ellie, it’s more about the how and the why she disappeared, as well as the after-effects of her disappearance on her family.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah is remarkably wonderful memoir I've read. Not just because of the content--which is at times heartbreaking and mindblowing--but also because of the humor and warmth with which Trevor Noah’s managed to convey some very difficult life experiences.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is about a band from the seventies who had a fleeting moment of intense fame, but ironically exploded apart in orgasmic demise. Their music was of such a superb quality that it resonated throughout the decades, despite the band's short duration.

Shrill by Lindy West is put together as a blend of memoir and opinion, as Lindy West recounts how she's spent her life being scorned for her weight/size, but nevertheless got over any shyness about public speaking, got involved with stand-up comedy, and developed a thick-enough skin to tolerate the absolutely appalling trolling she receives in her current job as an opinion columnist.

In Inferno, Dan Brown takes us on his version of Dante's Inferno, the first of three poems in The Divine Comedy. The argument is you have to go through hell before you get to heaven. In Brown's work, the "hell" humanity has to go through is another plague to knock out a chunk of the population, while heaven or paradise would be a world without depleting resources.