PLEASE JOIN US (Catherine McKenzie) - September 25/22

 This is a typically erratic thriller from McKenzie but I basically enjoyed it. The characters are all fairly interesting and the plot does get more involving as it unfolds. The exposition-heavy climax, which is a whole lot of talking, isn’t super satisfying and I never really did get a handle on the various periphery characters. **1/2 out of ****

WOMEN TALKING (Miriam Toews) - September 16/22

 Well, this clearly isn’t for me. I was really struggling through most of this because there are so many characters and I never really got a handle on most of them. Plus there’s no real plot or forward momentum, so it’s kind of boring for most of it. And yet I did enjoy certain stretches and the relatively exciting climax. But wow this should’ve been a short story. ** out of ****

WHITE NOISE (Don DeLillo) - September 10/22

 Well, I was really not enjoying this for the first half. It’s just so rambling and meandering and there’s no plot or forward momentum. But I’ll admit the book did grow on me, particularly once stuff actually started to happen (eg the black cloud, the death pills, etc). And although DeLillo sure loves to pontificate on various subjects, I found a lot of the stuff relating to fear of death pretty interesting. The end was anticlimactic and pretentious, of course. **1/2 out of ****