BJ’s Standout Reads September 2020
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett 416 pages. I was obsessed with this one. Imagine Handmaid’s Tale meets Lord of the Flies. In the county all the 16 year old girls are rounded up every year and sent off to a camp to live on their own in the middle of nowhere for a year to rid themselves of their "magic" and purify themselves to get ready for marriage. Nobody talks about the Grace Year, what happens in Grace Year stays in Grace Year, and not all the girls make it back in one piece—if they make it back at all. Tierney goes on her Grace Year and learns the truth about what goes on during the Grace Year, will she get home and convince the county to make changes?
Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens 304 pages. Boady is 15, a son of a single mom in a rural Missouri town in 1976. He confronts the school bully who is about to pull a racist prank and then the story unfolds into a racist plot surrounding a missing woman in this little town. A black family moves in across the street and he befriends the 15 year old boy and Boady figures out what it means to fight racism in his small town. Awesome read.
The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward 352 pages I read this one while recovering from my concussion. Charlotte Perkins has 3 grown children, and to shake things up she decided to enter a contest to win a European cruise. She invites her grown children to join her on her trip. But what she doesn’t know is that her children have their share of problems that they are keeping from her and from each other. Lee is a struggling actress who is failing, Cord is closeted Gay and Regan is in a terribly unhappy marriage. Ultimately they have to decide whether they are all going to come out to each other, and how well will they be able to support each other in their problems.
BJ Knapp is the author of Beside the Music, available for purchase here. Please sign up for the Backstage with BJ Knapp mailing list to get updates on events, signings, dog pictures and so much more.
added on 10.06.20