Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Most of us do not give much thought to the Japanese internment that happened in the U.S. during World War II, but this novel brings it alive by showing how painful and disruptive it was. The novel has a dual time frame: in 1942 a Chinese-American boy, aged 12, befriends a Japanese-American girl in Seattle; in 1986 the boy, now an old man, finally moves to find out what happened to the girl he had once wanted to marry. I enjoy reading about how the personal and political intersect in the lives of common people. Usually such stories take place in China or among European Jews during World War II, so it is humbling to see the same kinds of things happening in your own country. Many of the Japanese-Americans interned during the war had never been to Japan and did not even speak Japanese. Jamie Ford tells an intricate tale that makes for a really good read.

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Henry wanted to call his new Mississippi farm "Fair Fields," but his wife said "Mudbound is more like it." Their three young daughters made sure it was the "Mudbound" name that stuck. This is the story of how a respectable 30-ish young woman married an engineer with a secret yearning to farm and wound up living in primitive conditions as a farmwife. Because it takes place in the 1940's in the South, there is much reference to the bias against Negroes. In fact, the struggle of the blacks moves into the forefront and the author vividly paints the social attitudes and situations that make life difficult for them. This novel is a real page turner and I loved reading it.

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

Finkler is a Jewish character in this novel, but his name is used also to stand for Jews in general; so you can read the title as "The Jewish Question." The story takes place in London and centers around Julian Treslove who is NOT Jewish but who would like to be and starts to live as if he were. As a twice divorced middle aged man, Julian spends his leisure time hanging around with his college friend Sam Finkler and their former professor Libor Sevcik and listens as they debate Zionism. The Finkler Question won the 2010 Man Booker prize; it is highly nuanced about the nature of Jewishness and also amuses with low key, tongue-in-cheek humor. It is an excellent piece of literature, but I found it a little slow going because there is really not much of a plot.

Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold

Inspired by the story of Charles Dickens' life, this novel describes a charismatic but difficult man who abandoned his wife and kept her from their eight children. It is told from the wife's point of view and the reader becomes engaged in figuring out the nature of the husband's character as described through the love-smogged view of his wife's eyes. It is a brilliant character story told in sensitive and lucid terms and makes you want to read a standard biography of Dickens.

The More Than Complete Action Philosophers by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey

Comic books are now called "graphic novels," but this one is not a novel; it is a survey of philosophy that takes the reader lightly through the major Western philosophers from the pre-Socratics to the present. The presentation and illustrations are amusing, but you can still get lost in the technicalities of philosophic thought. I have a particularly hard time with Kant and Wittgenstein, but for reviewing many other philosophers this book is excellent.