May 2026 Book Recaps

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 May 2026 Book Recaps

The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline

What an utterly fascinating story about an absolutely unique circumstance of two sisters marrying conjoined twins, Eng and Chang!! The couples were stitched together in marriage like a strait jacket with no breathing room—a mesh of personalities, temperaments, desires, and opinions. A peek into their lives felt a little voyeuristic, a look at something so unimaginably foreign—yet Kline brings us to a thoughtful level of understanding with respect and compassion. So well written! 

 

They married in 1843 and together they had 21 kids! There are so many facets to the book: not just their marital relationships, but  family tragedies, financial issues, slavery, and then the Civil War, which was interesting to read about. Wow! 


Also by Kline: The Exiles (🔗)

 

James by Percival Everett (Book Club)

I’m so glad I read James. It’s humorous, poignant, and terrifyingly real at times.  

 

It’s the retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s POV. Jim’s story, naturally, centers on slavery, apropos of his circumstance.  We learn that slaves talk just like Whites, but they  code-switch to slave diction out of necessity when not speaking amongst themselves. 

 

The big differences in the book start when Huck and Jim’s raft falls apart and then when they meet up with Duke and King, who are much more menacing characters in this version. Because of Duke’s scheme to sell and resell Jim for money, Jim is forced into a new reimagined direction where he’s not held captive on Phelps Farm, but encounters harrowing and heartbreaking situations. 

 

Yet the biggest twists were still to come—ones that gave me goosebumps.

 

This was my book club selection, and while it’s not necessary to read Huck Finn prior to reading James, I think it was much more satisfying having done so. I would not have been aware where the story  veered in an alternate direction if I hadn’t read it first. 

 

Percival Everett is writing the screenplay for the movie of James, directed by Stephen Spielberg, and I am excited to see it! 

 

The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

I absolutely adored this book! Each of the characters, their stories, and even the town’s POV are all so original! I love the way the layers unfold and how we learn the way each of Richard Milford’s wives and the cook had a hand in the death of this unsavory, eccentric bootlegger. At just 176 pages, it was a delightfully quick and tasty treat with snappy, crackling humor that mesmerized me. I could picture it all like an enchanting movie that I didn’t want to end!

 

 

May Classic Challenge:

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett  (🔗)


Happy Reading!

Annette



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