What We're Reading This Month

Dave dives headfirst into the scary notion of sharing your life with someone, warts and all: Meet Maggie, a former commitment-phobe about to tie the knot with Nate, the heir to billions, and so not the struggling chef she always thought he was. Adding to the surreal vibe, she's introduced to his 'rents at their posh divorce party. While Maggie and her future mother-in-law embark on dicey new beginnings, you'll ponder whether even great loves are simply destined for failure.

THE PLAGUE OF DOVES by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins) Native American literature is like Southwestern decor: in the wrong hands, it's all Navajo blankets and animal spirits. But Erdrich's latest novel — about an act of anti-Indian violence that haunts a North Dakota town — is so natural you forget there's a writer behind it. The title is ostensibly about white birds that arrive one day and threaten to ruin the farmland — but it also quietly suggests the Germans who brought greed, booze, and Christianity to the area. Instantly gripping, Doves passes down Native sorrows like a genetic disorder that grows more bearable over time but will never be cured.

THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE by Andrew Sean Greer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) What would you do if your husband's lover — a man — appeared at your doorstep and offered you money and real estate in exchange for your spouse? That is the decision Pearlie Cook faces as she questions all she ever knew about her childhood sweetie. "We think we know the ones we love" is the story's refrain. Tell us about it. While the language gets a little precious in places, the idea of living a lie is never not riveting.