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Reviews by Dorothy M. (Maynard, MA)

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New York, My Village: A Novel
by Uwem Akpan
A intense look at the long term effects of war (8/5/2021)
Ekong Udousoro is an editor and literary lecturer in Nigeria who is working on an anthology of stories about the Biafran War on the 50th anniversary of that conflict when he receives a Tony Morrison fellowship for black editors that will allow him to come to New York tomore
The Temple House Vanishing
by Rachel Donohue
A timeless story with a gothic location (4/2/2021)
In her debut novel, the Temple House Vanishing, Rachel Donoghue has chosen an unusual structure for a mystery. In the prologue, one of the main characters, a woman who is apparently successful, walks to the top of her ten floor building and jumps off. It is in the story,more
The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman: A Novel
by Julietta Henderson
Sometimes impossible dreams do come true (1/24/2021)
This debut novel is a lovely story about what you will do to try and save someone you love and how very difficult it may be to overcome your own fears and losses. Norman is a 12 year old boy being raised by a very insecure single mother. He is bullied because he is smallmore
Raft of Stars
by Andrew J. Graff
Kind of a Huck Finn for our time (10/24/2020)
Andrew Graff's debut novel is set a small town in Wisconsin where he grew up and it's a story about love and what happens to people who lose it or never had it. It begins with two friends - boys about 10 or 11. Fish lost a much-loved father to the war, and Bread lost hismore
Migrations: A Novel
by Charlotte McConaghy
Beautifully written books about a dark subject (3/30/2020)
Australian author Charlotte McConagny's first novel published in the US, Migrations, is set in the (probably nearer than we hope) future when human actions and climate change have decimated animal, bird and fish populations to near or complete extinction. Her main charactermore
Miss Austen
by Gill Hornby
An Austen you can enjoy (1/25/2020)
If, like me, you are disappointed in the interpretation that PBS has made of the unfinished novel by Jane Austen, I have a book for you. Miss Austen by Gill Hornby focuses on Cassandra, Jane's older sister, constant companion and the literary executor of her estate. Writtenmore
Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins
by Katarina Bivald
Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins. (11/19/2019)
It's not often that the main character in a novel dies on page 1 but Henny isn't about to leave the area just because she no longer has a body. She loves the decrepit motel in the small town of Pine Creek in Oregon and she loves her three best friends. She is sure that ifmore
The Big Finish
by Brooke Fossey
The Golden Years Aren't always (9/26/2019)
Brooke Fossey has set her debut novel, Big Finish, in an assisted living home whose director is eager to move residents out as soon as they begin to need more assistance in order to bring in more lucrative guests. Duffy, who tells us this story, is a man whose life has beenmore
Nothing to See Here
by Kevin Wilson
Another winner by Kevin Wilson (6/1/2019)
Kevin Wilson's latest novel, Nothing to See Here, requires you - like the White Queen - to believe an impossible thing. But put that aside because the rest of the book is totally believable. It deals with the incredible devastation visited on children when parents whomore
Ellie and the Harpmaker
by Hazel Prior
A lovely love story (3/27/2019)
Ellie and Dan are two of the world's innocents. In her debut novel, Ellie and the Harpmaker, Hazel Prior introduces us to Dan Hollis, the Exmoor Harpmaker, who lives an isolated life in the woods and spends all his days building beautiful Celtic harps. Ellie Jacobs- whomore
Gone So Long
by Andre Dubus III
Another exceptional book by Andre Dubus III (9/11/2018)
Andre Dubus III is always worth reading. In his latest book, Gone So Long, he has his character Susan, a teacher and aspiring writer say "…my love for stories that brought me into the dark bottomless hearts of others." And I think that is probably a good description of themore
French Exit
by Patrick deWitt
Felt more tragic than comic to me (1/19/2018)
Sometimes when you expect a book to be one thing and it feels - to you - like something else, you may tend to under rate it. This was described as a riotous send-up of high society and while there are certainly some elements of French farce, I found it more sad than funny.more
Our Lady of the Prairie
by Thisbe Nissen
Turn out women can have a mid-life crisis too! (10/27/2017)
Written with a keen wit and clever turn of phrase, Thisbe Nissen's Our Lady of the Prairie looks at what happens when a 50 year old woman with a life that looks like it will finally be stable after years of upheaval with a very challenged daughter discovers the "love of hermore
Force of Nature: Aaron Falk Mystery #2
by Jane Harper
Liked this one as much as her first one (9/30/2017)
I was very impressed with Jane Harper's first book - The Dry - and looked forward to reading her new title Force of Nature. I wasn't disappointed. She brings back Aaron Falk from her first book and gives him a new partner - Carmen Cooper - to investigate financial crimes.more
Tell Me How This Ends Well
by David Samuel Levinson
If you like your humor served dark (2/24/2017)
The three Jacobson siblings have agreed to come together for what they expect to be their ill mother's last Seder. But under this pretense lies the more immediate intent of providing their mother with a final few months of peace by eliminating their abusive father. Theymore
Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family's Genetic Destiny, and the Science That Rescued Them
by Gina Kolata
A Story of Hope (10/25/2016)
If you watched members of your family die from a terrible incurable hereditary disease and if there was a test to see if you carried the flawed gene that caused it - would you take that test? And if the result was positive, how would you live the rest of your life? Thesemore
The Book That Matters Most: A Novel
by Ann Hood
Can books really save your life? (5/24/2016)
In The book That Matters Most Ann Hood has created a story of grief and the anger that often results from it and a look at the possibilities of recovery. Her two main characters Ava and her daughter Maggie have both had the lives they thought they knew blown apart. It ismore
A Certain Age: A Novel
by Beatriz Williams
This book should definitely be in your beach bag (3/1/2016)
With a plot based on Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with a murder thrown in and set in NY during the early 1920's among the rich and well pedigreed, this is a delight. The soldiers are coming back from the war, airplanes are becoming a thing, jazz is the music of themore
Far From True: A Promise Falls Novel
by Linwood Barclay
This one takes patience (11/23/2015)
Linwood Barclay has a long string of very successful thriller books. He is now trying something rather new - a series that acts - like a TV show - as segments in a story rather than as a stand alone book. His most recent - Far From True - is set in his mythical Promisemore
Make Your Home Among Strangers
by Jennine Capó Crucet
A Hard Look at Assimilation in America (3/27/2015)
Homogenous America with all it's fast food outlets across the country sometimes conceals the cultural differences that still exist when you leave the highway and look at what happens in homes and families. Lizet is the daughter of Cuban immigrants living in Miami whomore
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