"Zinky Boys: Stories of The War in Afghanistan" by Svetlana Alexievich. ****

•  Interviews
•  Non-Fiction
•  Russian author
•  Originally published in 1992
Review:  Dark, disturbing and riveting.  When will humanity learn not to send it's young adults to war?

"The Stories of the Steppe" by Maxim Gorky. *****

•  Short Stories
•  Reproduction of 1918 edition
•  Russian author
•  Review:  In the course of reading three short stories, Gorky is able to create a vision in the mind of the reader.  The vision is of the steppe, vast, golden, lonely and yet richly endowed with history. The tales told here evoked an image in my mind of the vast miles of golden wheat fields in the Midwestern portion of the United States.  Sparsely populated, yet richly appreciated, a place with ancient indigenous tales as well as modern tales of survival in the vast open spaces.  Lovely!

"The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad. ****

• Audiobook
• Originally published in 1905
• English author
• Review: To me, this is one of the darkest novels I have read in a long time.  It is a tale of a simple man used by the "government" with disastrous results.  The simplest are affected the most adversely.  Clearly, the author held some significantly negative perceptions of the hierarchies within government, and their manipulations of the little people!

"A Great Reckoning" by Louise Penny. ****

●  Audiobook
●  #12 in the Inspector Gamache series
●  Canadian author
●  Originally published in 2016
●  Review:  How does she do it?  Another book replete with beloved characters, a fascinating plot, and a mystery.  It is hard to describe the intense attachment I feel for the village of Three Pines, it's residents, and Inspector Gamache.  They are real in my heart! 

"Bardo Or Not Bardo" by Antoine Volodine ****

▪  Summer read with Beth
▪  French author
▪  Originally published in 2016
▪  Open Letter Series
▪  Review:   A spiritual farce?  A human comedy?  A satiric view of the absurdity of humans?  All of the above?  Volodine takes a belief regarding the afterlife and demonstrates that humans, with their foibles, cannot manage to navigate it without total chaos ensuing. The author even takes a stab at the "play within a play" concept.  Three vignettes within one vignette.  It is a jumbled life, a jumbled afterlife, and a bit of a jumbled read.  Very well done!

"My Grandmother Told Me To Tell You She's Sorry" by Fredrik Backman. ****

●  Audiobook
●  Swedish author
●  Originally published in 2016
●  Review:   Fredrik Backman sure knows how to tell a story!  His characters are engaging, memorable, and oh so human.  A girl's grandmother leaves a series of clues as a means of demonstrating the strength of her love.  Absolutely delightful!