Four-Star Book Review 5/26

Dec 13, 2023

Review of So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan

Claire Keegan is one of my favorite writers; in these three stories, she builds layered situations--and then turns them on their heads,...

Dec 12, 2023

Review of The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook

The Madstone begins as an against-the-odds attempt to evade evil and develops into a beautiful heartbreaker of a story about duty,...

Dec 5, 2023

Review of The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Spears's slim memoir offers vulnerability, the shocking details of her now-infamous 13-year conservatorship, self-reflection, and her...

Nov 30, 2023

Review of The Future by Naomi Alderman

Alderman offers a dive into a future world that's crumbling due to greed, disregard for the environment, a loss of human connection, and...

Nov 22, 2023

Review of North Woods by Daniel Mason

Mason's novel isn't simply a historical fiction story linked through timelines. The book builds to be an often-sinister, Gothic-feeling...

Nov 21, 2023

Review of Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

This darkly funny story made me cringe while staying riveted by the main protagonist's deeply faulted reasoning, criminal actions, and...

Nov 15, 2023

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi #1) by Shannon Chakraborty

I loved every bit of the story of willful, sometimes grumpy pirate Amina al-Sirafi and her quest, her strategic swearing, her strength,...

Nov 14, 2023

Review of Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

Angie Kim's sophomore novel is a mystery, but Happiness Falls is primarily an exploration of a complicated, loving, messy family and each...

Nov 6, 2023

Review of Into the Wilderness (Wilderness #1) by Sara Donati

Sara Donati's historical fiction includes nods to Outlander and The Last of the Mohicans, considers the trials and adventures of a...

Nov 2, 2023

Review of Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Emily Tesh's debut novel is a space opera about war, duty, brainwashing, escaping limitations, and reinventing oneself--with fascinating...

Nov 1, 2023

Review of Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

ICYMI: Morton masterfully weaves together timelines, threads of family history, and long-held secrets now revealed, while her main...

Oct 31, 2023

Review of Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler

Winkler is candid, charming, self-deprecating, and delighted by life and his experiences. I loved listening to him read the audiobook of...

Oct 25, 2023

Review of Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Starling House is another wonderful, dark, twisty story from Alix E. Harrow, with imperfect characters, a noble, messy quest, layers of...

Oct 18, 2023

Review of October in the Earth by Olivia Hawker

Hawker's newest historical fiction gives a wonderfully evocative peek into a gritty period, as her main protagonist escapes a bad...

Oct 17, 2023

Review of The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton

ICYMI: Morton offers a strong historical fiction mystery, with assumed identities, dual timelines, twists and turns, and a richly wrought...

Oct 12, 2023

Review of The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins

Emi, Kristina, and Larch are a family that survived the immense destruction of the climate crisis, but secrets, danger, and a double life...

Oct 10, 2023

Review of Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be by Frank Bruni

"Does a prestigious college make you successful? Or do you do that for yourself?" But for every person whose contentment and fulfillment...

Oct 5, 2023

Review of Homecoming by Kate Morton

Morton's newest historical fiction involves two timelines, a decades-old tragedy, and a modern-day descendant's discovery of her family's...

Oct 4, 2023

Review of The Caretaker by Ron Rash

Ron Rash's newest Appalachian-set novel explores a small town shaken by upended expectations, the Korean War, and selfish rigidity that...

Sep 28, 2023

Review of A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell #5) by Deanna Raybourn

The fifth book in the Veronica Speedwell series offers more of Raybourn's magic: witty dialogue, an unorthodox partnership,...

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