Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
Willa and her husband Iano are stuck in a situation that strikes fear in the heart of anyone in midlife—she’s newly unemployed and the college where he had tenure closed and he’s been forced to take...
View ArticleCome With Me
I’d prefer not to end a strong reading week on a negative note, but have you ever read a book that feels like a case of false advertising? As in, if you had paid for it you would have demanded a full...
View ArticleWhen You Read This
Here’s a spoiler: Iris Massey is dead. She died of cancer at 33, leaving behind an obstreperous older sister, Jade; a narcissistic abusive mother; a weight lifter boyfriend, Richie, and Simon, her boss...
View ArticleThe Better Sister by Alafair Burke
Chloe Taylor is on top of her game. She is the editor of a small but prestigious women’s magazine, has just been honored in the field of journalism, and lives the glamorous life in NYC with her...
View ArticleMothers’ Week: A Woman is No Man
It’s easy to become outraged about the treatment of women in the Muslim world when it takes place far away, as in the memoir Daring to Drive or fiction like Song of a Captive Bird or The Pearl that...
View ArticleCygnet by Season Butler
The narrator of Season Butler’s debut novel, Cygnet, is known as the Kid. She’s 17 and her parents have dropped her off at her grandmother’s house on an island off the coast of New Hampshire to live...
View ArticleHow to Be Famous by Caitlin Moran
Sometimes, when I enjoyed a book I like to give it a bit of renewed love when it comes out in paperback. This week it’s How to Be Famous—a feisty hot pepper of a novel from Caitlin Moran. Ready to be...
View ArticleThe Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Maeve and Danny live of a life of contrasts. Their house is by far the grandest in their neighborhood and money is not something they ever have to think about, but their mother left when Danny was only...
View ArticleThe Gimmicks: A Novel
I didn’t plan this, but I’m back today with another unusual book (Monday’s review). The Gimmicks is about two teenage brothers in Armenia in the 1970s. One is a giant, standing over 6’6” tall, while...
View ArticleValentine: A Novel by Elizabeth Wetmore
When you encounter a scene like the one that opens Elizabeth Wetmore’s novel, Valentine, and the words …she imagines him facedown in the dust, lips and cheeks scoured by sand, his thirst relieved by...
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