Oct 30
Review of Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Kennedy writes poignantly about the Irish Troubles through the point of view of Cushla, a young adult stretching her wings despite her...
Oct 24
Review of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Intermezzo is one of my favorite Rooney novels yet, exploring complicated families, grief, unconventional relationships, forgiveness, and...
Sep 3
Review of James by Percival Everett
Percival Everett's James is a fascinating retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of enslaved Black character...
Aug 15
Review of Bear by Julia Phillips
The author of Disappearing Earth offers a story of bleak prospects, poverty and illness, a sister bond with fault lines ready to crack...
Aug 7
Review of You Are Here by David Nicholls
David Nicholls's characters, some of whom are strangers to each other, meander through the English countryside on a days-long jaunt--and...
Aug 1
Review of Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles
Amor Towles revisits a character from the wonderful Rules of Civility and also offers multiple New York-set tales. Towles's evocative...
Jun 19
Review of Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
ICYMI: The post-Depression-era city of New York is such a powerful presence in this story, it feels like a main character. I was taken by...
Jun 6
Review of The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
The Other Valley is literary fiction with a captivating setup: three adjacent valleys, each of which is a different timeline of the same...
Apr 11
Review of Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck
Emily Habeck's debut novel offers an unusual premise in which one member of a newlywed couple begins transforming into a great white...
Mar 19
Review of Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Alderton's literary fiction rom-com is a funny, poignant, and sometimes frustrating deep dive into the emotionally stunted main...
Feb 29
Review of Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
ICYMI: Lauren Groff explores the secrets, lies, and different lived experiences of spouses in a decades-long marriage in this...
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...
May 2, 2023
Review of The Trackers by Charles Frazier
Frazier offers an immersive story that morphs from a WPA-funded rural art commission to a leisurely country-wide search, an unlikely...
Jun 1, 2022
Review of Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
Young Mungo offers a striking story of disappointment, abuse, Protestant-Catholic conflict, and a young, gay love forged in the intensely...
Sep 24, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 9/24/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Anthony Doerr's upcoming literary fiction tale of interconnected characters that spans centuries,...
Sep 3, 2021
Three Books I'm Reading Now, 9/3/21 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Emiko Jean's Tokyo Ever After, in which Japanese-American teen Izumi Tanaka discovers that her...