The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

What makes a life? A sense of duty? An obligation to your loved ones? To take the path that has been proscribed for you? Dickie Barnes is the brains of the family, attended college at Trinity. But a tragedy has him setting roots in his hometown, anchored by a miserable marriage. What’s worse, the life he carves for his wife Imelda, is a step up from her childhood. A bee sting is metaphor for the troubles we navigate in life. The novel could use editing in the early chapters but the build-up to the spectacular ending is worth it all.

Empty Theatre: A Novel: or The Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), Cousins, in Their Pursuit of Connection and Beauty by Jac Jemc

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. This adage certainly applies to the lives of cousins, Queen Sisi of Austria and King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Born into regal roles, they’d rather live lives that are not straitjacketed. Jemc relentlessly focuses on just a couple of aspects of each personality: a well-developed taste for art and struggles to hide his homosexuality for King Ludwig and Sisi’s boredom at being solely a wife and mother. At times the lives of one-percenters seems overly privileged yet one comes away with sympathy for souls crushed by the relentless burden of heavy expectations.

The Darkness Manifesto: On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms that Sustain Life by Johan Eklöf and Elizabeth DeNoma

Even a full moon is too much light for some nocturnal animals who lie low on moonlit nights. Eklöf addresses an incredible array of delightful topics in his call for bringing back true nighttime darkness in our rhythms with nature. In crisp chapters, the book expertly explores the place of darkness in areas like ecology, health, philosophy, mythology and even tourism. Darkness tourism, where travelers seek out the night sky, is increasingly popular. Filled with anecdotes from his travels in his homeland of Sweden, this is a heartwarming call to action, a book that drives home its points without preaching.