

Review of Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Sandwich is another case of beautifully wrought complications and mutual adoration from Catherine Newman, with unapologetically...
Jul 24, 2024


Review of Family Family by Laurie Frankel
​Frankel's story of a nontraditional, loving, zany family flips traditional views of unplanned, young pregnancy through the view of a...
Apr 25, 2024


Review of This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
ICYMI: Frankel's storyline is powerful, important, and poignant, and the deep love, support, and acceptance within the family in This Is...
Apr 24, 2024


Review of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
The Heiress is set on a North Carolina estate that's always felt claustrophobic to Cam. But his adoptive mother Ruby, an infamous...
Jan 23, 2024


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 14, 2023


Review of The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
June struggles with the complicated implications of her family's curse of hallucinations and mental illness...until she realizes that the...
Oct 26, 2023


Review of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Ann Napolitano's Hello Beautiful explores family bonds, broken connections, forging through pain, allowing for unconventional routes to...
Mar 22, 2023


Review of Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
In Signal Fires, Dani Shapiro offers characters and consequences that connect through time and in unexpected ways. The loss and...
Jan 4, 2023


Review of The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
This romantic light fiction story includes sibling conflicts, loss, betrayal, a love that seems impossible...and a ghostwriter who's...
Oct 20, 2022


Six Musicians' Memoirs that Sing
Musicians' Memoirs I'm a biiiig memoir fan, and I love behind-the-scenes peeks. These six memoirs from musicians offer stories about the...
Jul 22, 2022


Review of Tokyo Dreaming (Tokyo Ever After #2) by Emiko Jean
In the second book in Emiko Jean's fun young adult series, princess Izzy balances pressures, privilege, and expectations in Japan while...
Jul 13, 2022


Review of Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
In Unlikely Animals, Hartnett's irresistible, oddball tragicomedy with heart, characters explore the limits and solidity of friendship...
May 3, 2022


Review of State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
This suspenseful collaboration between Clinton and Penny kept me on the edge of my seat through heart-stopping political conflicts,...
Apr 21, 2022


Review of This Shining Life by Harriet Kline
Kline's poignant, lovely book explores a family's emotional missteps and enduring love after a painful loss, and their hard-fought...
Nov 18, 2021


Review of Forty Autumns by Nina Willner
ICYMI: Forty Autumns offers fascinating, wonderfully detailed perspectives in a rich, layered family memoir that reads like fiction. The...
Nov 10, 2021


Review of Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
I love Elizabeth Strout's books, but I didn't feel connected to the character of Lucy or her ruminations in Oh William! the way I did in...
Oct 25, 2021


Review of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Zauner takes unflinching looks at her family, herself, and her future, all while exploring the rich flavors, traditions, and challenges...
Sep 27, 2021


Review of Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
This literary fiction from Ash Davidson is wonderfully wrought, with lots of tense undercurrents, heartbreaking situations, and few, if...
Sep 23, 2021


Review of We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
Lange's Irish family story centers around Sunday Brennan, who has returned home to her New York hometown where her own secrets--and...
Aug 25, 2021


Review of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Ursula unknowingly lives her life over and over again as Atkinson explores how choices large and small cause enormous repercussions for a...
Jul 27, 2021