This book of poetry is the twelfth from Nobel-prize-winner Seamus Heaney, and also marks the fourtieth anniversary of his first book, Death of a Naturalist. The title District and Circle refers on the surface to two lines of the London Underground, one of which runs from the suburbs into the city and one which circumnavigates the city itself. Heaney’s exploration of a trip on the Underground draws parallels to the classical underworld, and draws the poet as a kind of modern-day Orpheus or Dante. This contemplation of death operates as one of the loose theme throughout the volume, which contains elegies for the poets Ted Hughes, Czeslaw Milosz, George Seferis, and for his sister in the spectacular poem ‘The Lift.’ Another poem, ‘Anahorish 1944,’ recalls watching American soldiers stationed in Ireland marching through on their way to the battle of Normandy.

Much of the book is a celebration of Heaney’s past, illustrated with vivid recollections of specific things in his childhood: a host of farm implements are remembered fondly and lyrically, in addition to places like the butcher shop and barber shop and primary school friends. Perhaps most importantly, however, his poems return to earlier poetic accomplishments, revisiting his famous Bog People poems with a new one, ‘The Tollund Man in Springtime.’ His poems about Irish place names are returned to in ‘Moyulla.’ The superb ‘The Blackbird of Glanmore’ resonates with the earlier ‘Mid-Term Break.’ The title of the book also seems to suggest that though Heaney may have travelled in a wide circle, he is never far from his district.

You can read a review here.

You can also read a review and retrospective on Heaney here.

Judith Lindbergh lays out an epic historical tale of a time when the Vikings were exploring the new world and the replacement of paganism with Christian religion through the eyes of three women: a beautiful slave, her twisted and vengeful daughter, and their powerful mistress. Katla is a the Christian daughter of a Viking and the slave he took during a raid and brought back to Iceland. Her faith sets her apart from everyone else of the pagan Norse religion, but her beauty draws the attentions of her master’s eldest son Torvard, who violently rapes her. After this, she is bought and nursed back to health by Thorbjorg, a healer and seeress. Katla gives birth to a mute daughter, Bibrau, but her despisement of the child causes Bibrau to grow up with a thirst for vengence.

John Updike’s newest book, Terrorist, tells the story of Ahmad Mulloy Ashmawy, an eighteen-year old boy living in New Prospect, New Jersey. Ahmad is the son of an Irish-American woman and an Egyptian exchange student who abandoned his wife and son when Ahmad was three. Disgusted by his mother and her constant string of boyfriends, and unable to connect with the other students at Central High School, Ahmad falls under the guidance of Saikh Rashid, the imam of the local mosque. Ahmad has been attending the mosque since the age of 11, a decision left up to him by his free-spirited mother, and only informed by his father in so far as Ahmad seeks to identify with the man who left. With an entire boyhood and adolesence spent hearing the cynical Saikh Rashid preach against the “devils,” the Ahmad that we meet has a finely distilled disdain for American culture. “I of course do not hate all Americans,” he says. “But the American way is the way of infidels. It is headed for a terrible doom.”

The direction that the protagonist is heading stands out boldly to its contemporary American audience, and the story has clearly evolved out of the post-9/11 fear of terrorism that lines the media and society. Other characters enter into the narrative arc that brings Ahmad to his crucial decision, such as a girl at his high school, Joryleen, and her boyfriend, Tylenol; Jack Levy, the Jewish guidance counselor, and his offensively obese wife. This gripping story, told with all of the alternatingly elevated and gritty elements of Updike’s prose, seeths with the fears that pervade modern culture.

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The Kindness of Strangers is a powerful study into how a tragic event can affect not just its direct victims, but everyone around them. Recently widowed Sarah Laden struggles with her professional catering business and holding her two troubled sons afloat in a small Ohio town. Things go from bad to worse when Sarah finds Jordan, young son of her best friend and neighbor Courtney Kendrick, sick and alone. She rushes him to the hospital only to find out that he is a child sexual abuse victim who had tried to commit suicide by overdose. Worse still, evidence comes up to implicate his parents as being the perpetrators — Sarah is horrified to learn that the food she had catered for the Kendricks was used attheir sex parties and that Courtney, a doctor, was trying to treat her son’s contracted gonorrhea on the sly. Can Sarah help a young, emotionally traumatized boy to heal? Can she and her two sons learn to heal themselves?

Read some of author Katrina Kittle’s thoughts behind her writing this book here.

Read a review of The Kindness of Strangers here.

A delightful debut novel from well-known venture capitalist Tom Perkins, Sex and the Single Zillionare centers on Steven Hudson, a wealthy middle-aged widower who agrees to appear on a reality television show to find him a trophy bride at the urging of his serious-minded daughter and trust fund-spoiled son. Soon his life is filled with a parade of stunning models, athletes, and actresses, but it’s the television show’s producer, Jessica James, that catches Steven’s eye. Unfortunately, with Jessica comes a big engagement ring on her finger and a hot young fiance. Can Steven endure the TV madness and win Jessica’s heart?

Read a review of this book here.

In Jesse Kellerman’s Sunstroke, Gloria Mendez has been unrequitedly pining for her much older, solitary boss Carl Perreira for ten years. So when Carl disappears and is pronounced death via a fiery car crash on an annual trip to Mexico — an aspect to his life he has never told her about — after leaving a frantic, garbled message on her answering machine, Gloria impulsively decides to search for him, not quite sure if he really is dead. But what she uncovers may be more than she has bargained for as both hers and Carl’s pasts come to light: including false identities, abandoned sons, and a whole mess of danger.

Read a brief review of Sunstroke here.