BOOK TIP

I Have Some Questions for You

Rebecca Makkai

Rebecca Makkai writes wonderful prose, as fans (like me) of “The Great Believers” know. Her latest, “I Have Some Questions for You,” is framed as a murder mystery, though Makkai has more on her mind than a mere whodunnit. A podcast host/film prof returns to teach a session at the boarding school where she was a student, and she reconsiders the murder of her roommate there many years ago. Is the young black man convicted of the killing actually innocent? If so, who did it? While at first you feel compelled to get to the next chapter and the next, the story starts to feel like someone you didn’t go to school with obsessing over teenage drama — not over the killing but rather all the high emotions and intense self-involvement of that era in their lives. Makkai does successfully examine the past in the context of the #MeToo era, which is revelatory at points. But the mystery and its resolution are fairly unsatisfying — not a good thing in a mystery.

– Kristina Dorsey

BOOK TIP

The Beast You Are

Paul Tremblay

I’d like to punish whichever Corporate Team Building wizard came up with that idiotic “Think outside the box!” slogan. That one phrase has resulted in legions of poor fools, on must-attend “business retreats,” doing silly exercises with their fellow employees to enhance their ability to sell insurance or whatever. What does this have to do with horror author Tremblay’s new collection of short fiction? Well, I’d send “think outside the box” team-building wizard INSIDE Tremblay’s brain for a while — and THAT, brother, is where there are no boundaries. It’s not just that Tremblay has creative and dark ideas, which is sort of necessary in HIS job description. It’s that he applies layers of wit and plot spins and varies style and technique beautifully and unexpectedly. At times, Tremblay goes deliriously happy exploring the giant monsters that presumably enchanted his boyhood. At other times, he goes full meta, or hits a nostalgic, old-school King or Simmons chord, or — in the title piece — fuses, I dunno, “Watership Down” with “Beowulf” in an anthropomorphic and cleverly creative epic poem. Read this collection and I’m not sure you’ll ever find your way back to whatever box you started from.

— Rick Koster

FOOD TIP

745 Osteria

745 Boston Post Road, Old Saybrook

Our food critic Marisa Nadolny reviewed 745 Osteria on Aug. 31, and far be it from me to not hit a new dining spot graced with a positive Nadolny review. I stopped in for dinner with pals last week. First of all: Reservations might not be a bad idea. We got the last inside table at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Second: We were all happily satiated. I loved the 12-inch Genovese pizza (ricotta, pesto, crushed red pepper, mozzarella, truffle honey, $18) I shared with a friend. The others in the group were pleased with their Burrata pizza ($19) and Gnocchi Sorrentino ($22), as well as the crème brulee ($10) for dessert. And third: The interior has a cool design, with a high, broad skylight in the middle that visually warms up the sleek, modern space.

– Kristina Dorsey