Three Books I'm Reading Now, 3/10/25 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

I'm reading the recently published Red Dog Farm, Nathanial Ian Miller's fiction about a young man growing up in Iceland; I'm listening to Colson Whitehead's fiction based upon a real-life boy's reform school, The Nickel Boys; and I'm reading Laila Lalami's recently published literary fiction that explores technology, freedom, privacy, and vulnerability, The Dream Hotel.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller

Young Orri has grown up on his family's cattle farm in Iceland, appreciating the beauty of nature, the relief in green shoots after a stark winter, and quiet joys like his trusty farm dog and his steadfast parents.

But he yearns to see more of the world, and after he journeys to Reykjavik to study at the university, his existence expands--until his father needs him back on the farm. Torn between two lives, he falls back into home life but misses the city. He must make a difficult choice: family and familiarity, or uncertainty and new adventures?

I received a prepublication edition of this title, published March 4, courtesy of Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley.

Nathaniel Ian Miller is also the author of The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven.

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02 The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Elwood Curtis is a promising young man in 1960s Tallahassee. But when he hitchhikes with the wrong guy to his first day of scholarship university classes, he's unfairly sent to a boys' reform school, The Nickel Academy.

The "Nickel Boys" endure endless injustices, abuse, and horrors, but Elwood persists in pursuing justice, and he is unwavering in his ideals. His best friend Turner is more savvy and jaded, while unfailingly loyal to Elwood.

The Nickel Academy is based on a real-life reform school that abused boys for 111 years.

I'm listening to The Nickel Boys as an audiobook.

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03 The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Sara is returning from a work trip when the Risk Assessment Administration determines that, based upon her recent dreams, she is in danger of harming her husband and must be kept under observation for 21 days.

Sara is detained along with other women who are desperately asserting their innocence. The center's managers keep changing the rules so that he women's stays are prolonged--until a new inmate shakes up everything and becomes the women's biggest hope of escape.

Lalami explores issues of technology, privacy, freedom, and our vulnerability to faulted systems.

I'm reading a prepublication edition of The Dream Hotel, published March 4, courtesy of Pantheon and NetGalley.