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Nita Prose's Moily the Maid books have such a strong and distinctive first person voice as to rise above almost all award winners in the mystery genre. This year I read both the original (The Maid) and the new one (The Mystery Guest).
Richard Russo is my favorite contemporary literary fiction writer. His worthy new one this year was Somebody's Fool.
Nonfiction: A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century by Jason DeParle. This book about the Philippines and Filipinos was published in 2019. There was another book about the Philippines published this year that maybe got even stronger rave reviews, Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista, and that is good. But I learned more from, and, if I can say it about books containing a lot of unhappiness, was more entertained by, DeParle.
Somewhat older nonfiction: Richard Gwyn, John A: The Man Who Made Us (Vol. 1) and Sir John A. Macdonald : His Life, Our Times (Vol.2). Canadians should read these, and the compare and contrast, with the U.S. founding, was mind-opening for me.
This year I read more of the Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series by Julia Spencer-Fleming. It is way above the norm.
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