The Green Road (5*)

While exploring the peculiar family dynamics among a narcissistic Irish matriarch and her children, Anne Enright also tackles the AIDS epidemic in New York City's East Village, charity work in Africa, suburban ennui and an actress's alcoholic response to motherhood with equal insight.  Extra credit for capturing the raw physicality of gay sex better than any other female writer I've read (looking at you Hanya Yanagihara and Rebecca Makkai).

Station 11 (4*)

A frightening, suspenseful and ultimately optimistic take on the state of the world after a future pandemic much deadlier than covid 19.  Emily St. John Mandel jumps back and forth in time, weaving together accounts of casualties and survivors who include an actor, a comic book artist and a cult leader and an itinerant orchestra which also performs Shakespeare.