Jan 8
Review of Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
I loved the premise of Creation Lake , and I was captivated by the mocking, ruthless, fickle freelance spy "Sadie." But the story and...
Nov 14, 2024
Review of Bull Moon Rising (Royal Artifactual Guild #1) by Ruby Dixon
I was hooked on the story of a team of young women fighting for admittance to a guild, their bonds, and their adventures. But the...
Aug 27, 2024
Review of Moonbound by Robin Sloan
The fantasy-science-fiction novel Moonbound spans time and splits into several stories, for me never quite gelling into a coherent tale I...
Aug 8, 2024
Review of Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson
Wilson overcame tough childhood circumstances before setting her sights on becoming a performer, and her memoir celebrates her...
May 23, 2024
Review of The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion by Barbara Brown Taylor
Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favorite authors, but this slim, early book of hers didn't offer the candid, thought-provoking, wise...
May 14, 2024
Review of Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Only If You're Lucky centers around a group of South Carolina college students who don't truly know each other--and the unpleasant...
Mar 5, 2024
Review of Interesting Facts about Space by Emily Austin
I loved Enid's complicated, loving mother-daughter relationship as well as her best-friendship. But I was distracted by what felt like...
Feb 14, 2024
Review of All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby
I didn't feel drawn into this novel of the horrifying serial killing of children of color in a small Virginia community and the...
Nov 9, 2023
Review of Secondhand Daylight by Eugen Bacon and Andrew Hook
Although the first section felt manic and uneven as Green hurtled through time, the second point of view offered lovely perspective on...
Aug 30, 2023
Review of The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
I was taken with the first half of this book--a rural cult, a teen mother, a strong female protagonist in an impossible situation,...
May 9, 2023
Review of The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
The premise and setting of The Secret Book of Flora Lea are captivating. I was distracted by what felt like overly dramatic dialogue and...
Apr 26, 2023
Review of Burst by Mary Otis
Mary Otis's debut novel explores the complicated mother-daughter relationship between alcoholic, erratic Charlotte and rigid,...
Apr 20, 2023
Review of The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
I love a book about books, but I was confused as to why the characters would seek out and spend prolonged time with the verbally abusive,...
Apr 19, 2023
Review of Happy Place by Emily Henry
Six longtime friends gather for one last Maine vacation--but each of them has been keeping secrets that impact their relationships. The...
Apr 12, 2023
Review of Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
Perry recounts the daily reality of his years in a chokehold of addiction to drugs and alcohol, his struggles to quit using, and the many...
Mar 29, 2023
Review of The Dream Builders by Oindrila Mukherjee
I love a novel set in India, and the details of the sparkling promise and darker underpinnings of the city of Hrishipur were a standout...
Mar 23, 2023
Review of The Levee by William Kent Krueger
William Kent Krueger's writing is beautiful, and J.D. Jackson reads the audiobook wonderfully, but I felt impatient with the focus on...
Mar 14, 2023
Review of This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Harding bases his slim historical fiction novel This Other Eden on a real-life, racially integrated island off the coast of Maine,...
Feb 28, 2023
Review of Nocturne by Alyssa Wees
The early story captured my attention with ballet, an orphan's struggles, and Depression-era Chicago, but once Nocturne shifted into dark...
Feb 14, 2023
Review of Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Kapoor's gritty New Delhi-set novel explores brutal violence and cruelties in an exploration of class divides and the destructive power...