** Third Girl from the Left by Christine Barker

Third Girl from the Left is a messy memoir, mixing high drama and everyday details, which brings to mind the capacious bags that professional dancers carry along with clothes, food, and the many odds and ends they will need throughout their days. And indeed, the author bravely moved to New York City as a very young woman to become a Broadway dancer, toured overseas, and eventually returned to New York where she nursed her brother who was dying of AIDS at a time when the disease was kept hidden along with sexual orientation, at least in the larger world.

The story renders the go-go years of the 80s and the terrifying toll of the AIDS epidemic in vivid colors.

*** Here in the Dark by Alexis Soloski

A delightful, twisted story awaits you in Here in the Dark. The heroine is a sharply-tongued NY theater critic, frustrated in her quest for a promotion, who finds herself embroiled in a mystery that will turn out to be quite different from where she started. It’s catty and delicious.

** Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Romantic Comedy stars a writer for a disguised Saturday Night Live show (why don’t novels just use the names of real things?) who improbably starts a romance with a charming pop star. The first part of the book reads a bit like a documentary. There is a brief and sweet interlude at her stepfather’s house during the pandemic, then a fanciful sweeping off her feet in a Los Angeles mansion that reads a bit like a romance novel. I was not a fan but it’s well-written escapism and there are some funny and touching bits…

*** The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez

The Vulnerables recounts how a novelist spent her quarantine mostly not writing and babysitting a friend’s parrot and eventually the parrot’s other babysitter who is young, spoiled, and very angry about privilege not his own. Very little happens during the story, which breaks for frequent discursive commentary about humanity in general, how the rich lead different lives from anyone else’s, and how  the pandemic brings class differences in stark contrasts. This is not a plot-driven novel but if you let yourself be carried by it, you may like it as much as I did.

* Pineapple Street by Jenny

I find rich people very tedious. Pineapple Street tells the story of a fabulously rich family and details the worries and concerns of two sisters and their sister-in-law (nicknamed “Gold Digger”, for no reason, which shows the level of love and caring in said family). It turns out that their worries and concerns are indeed tedious, although told in a lively and engaging manner. I found myself unable to develop any empathy for their lot, and the layers of trust funds, prenups, and lawyers did not help.

** Madam Restell by Jennifer Wright

Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist tells the story of an enterprising English immigrant who learned to concoct birth control and abortion “pills” and provide abortions during the late 19th and early 20th century. She was very successful, both in managing to keep her patients safe at a time when infections were deadly and also in amassing a fortune. Her reign ended as abortion and even birth control started to be severely restricted legally (o hello, Anthony Comstock).

The author adds an epilogue that heavily compares the story with today’s abortion rollbacks, which I did not think was necessary as the story speaks for itself, and what a story.

** Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman

I enjoyed the coming-of age story in Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, as the heroine maneuvers her conservative Pakistani family and expeditions to New York City to sample forbidden clothes, music, and sexuality. Her relationship with her mother is particularly interesting as the mother is both open-minded and principled (and very loving). I wished that the book had been a little more than a series of short stories in chronological order.

** The Lemon by S.E. Boyd

The Lemon starts as a noir caper when a culinary travel show host is found dead, with an inconvenient witness. His agent and friends immediately try to control the message but it’s much more complicated than trying to silence the witness–and it’s quite fun for the first half or more of the book. The highly unlikely plot seems to unravel after that and it’s just one implausible or gratuitous scene after an other. Feel free to quit at any time: there’s no magic moment at the end.

*** Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood

Secrets Typed in Blood stars the same heroine as Fortune Favors the Dead and Murder Under her Skin, a plucky PI whose boss takes on investigating a set of apparently murders with a pledge to keep the client’s name away from the press and police. It will take impersonation, intimidation, some luck, and careful sifting through mountains of notes and evidence.

The plot is twisted and rather more plausible than in the other books.

** Vera Kelly: Lost and Found by Rosalie Knecht

I loved the earlier books in the series and Vera Kelly: Lost and Found was fine, but I did not think its plot was as captivating, or believable, as the ones in the other two. The heroine and her girlfriend travel to California for an obviously ill-advised meeting with the girlfriend’s father. Disaster ensues, including forced mental treatment.