AJ Dunn Reads

  Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn Young Nainoa Flores is about to drown on a cruise trip with his family in Hawaii when a shiver of sharks delivers him unharmed back to the boat. His story becomes a legend and his family, in various ways, deals with the aftermath. His parents think he is touched by the Gods, and he does in fact acquire the ability to heal people. His siblings feel like they are forgotten; Dean looks at Noa as someone he has to compete with for attention and prestige, while Kaui just feels altogether marginalized in the eyes of her parents. The children grow up and leave the island, leave behind their parents to their economic struggle and leave the island with its history, and its disparities. The consequence is their struggles on the mainland where they are othered. Dean goes to college in Seattle where he makes a name for himself as a star athlete, determined to outshine Noa in some way. Kaui, in San Diego, wants to forget Noa and her famil...

  The Changeling by Victor Lavalle Apollo Kagwa's father disappeared when he was a young boy, but he hasn't left his dreams. In them, Brian West comes to Apollo in the apartment he shares with his mother, Lillian, and tells Apollo "you're coming with me" amidst the running water in the bathroom and the steam that fills the space. This dream and Apollo's desire to know his father follows him throughout his life, along with a children's book his father would read to him. When Apollo marries the beguiling Emma and they have a baby (named Brian), Apollo has plans of reading the book to his own boy. Then Emma starts receiving texts of Apollo and baby Brian, texts that disappear. Apollo thinks she's going nuts, and then she does; she ties Apollo up and kills the baby, saying "that's no baby." Or so we're led to believe. After Apollo does some time in prison and returns home, he joins a survivors group and finds others like Emma. He is then ...

  The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee Jo Kuan and her guardian are rare in 1890 Atlanta. Chinese in a sea of white southerners and recently freed but servile black ex-slaves, Jo gets by with Old Gin by working as a milliner in a small shop. Old Gin works as a horse trainer and carer for the Payne family, where Jo once worked as well until she was let go. When she is fired from the shop she finds herself rehired by Mrs. Payne to be a maid to her haughty and mean daughter, Caroline. Jo does her duty, but finds a way to ease her struggles with Caroline when it is revealed that the young miss is clandestinely meeting with a young man who is off the market. Jo and Old Gin squat in the barn basement attached to the house of the Bells who run a local newspaper, which is in danger of closing and in need of new subscriptions. Jo overhears the family's conversations. It is the beginning of Jim Crow and the women's suffrage movement in Atlanta and Jo has opinions which she secretly shares i...

Cujo by Stephen King Cujo , published in 1981 amidst Stephen King's heavy substance abuse addiction, is probably the perfect King novel. Despite an overwhelming dislike for the book by the bookish community, I find it to be an exceptional example of what King can do. Here's the story: Cujo wants to be a good dog and tries to be obedient to The Man, The Woman, and The Boy - Joe, Charity, and Brett Camber. But on one of his rambles through the area surrounding his rural home, Cujo gets bitten by a bat in a hidden cave. A rabid bat. And Cujo's relentless drive to kill begins. Vic and Donna Trenton are going through a tough time when Donna tells Vic she's been having an affair after he receives a note form her former lover. Vic is going away for a business trip and leaves Donna to care for their 4-year-old son, Tad who fears the monster in his closet. Donna's car is having trouble and Vic tells her to take it to the Camber's to be fixed by Joe. At the same time, Cha...

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena In a way I'm glad I read this book after A Stranger in the House , Lapena's second book. That book was not a highlight of my reading year thus far. Going into The Couple Next Door , my expectations were low, so I was pleasantly surprised to have been entirely engaged with the story. Though the writing was the same third person-present tense format, this time around the style worked far better for me. The Couple Next Door is about a young couple whose baby is kidnapped while they are next door at a dinner party. Both parents are to blame for leaving the baby unattended, even though they check on her every half hour throughout the night. As the crime is investigated, they are both under suspicion. The mother, Anne, has a condition she has kept hidden from her husband. Could she have killed the baby without remembering she had done it, and did her husband dispose of the body to cover for her? Did the husband, Marco, fake a kidnapping in order ...