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Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders
Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders
by Julianna Baggott
Harriet Wolf's (8/17/2015)
A wonderful book about mothers and daughters, their complicated relationships and how easy it is to misunderstand each other. Three generation of women, Harriet, who has died had written a series of six best selling books, there is a rumor that a seventh exists. Professors, …more
Villa America
Villa America: A Novel
by Liza Klaussmann
Villa America (8/12/2015)
The novels of the Jazz Age have such a special atmosphere if done well. This age produced so many fine writers and artists whose works endure even now. Gerald and Sara Murphy are a couple I had read about in other novels but really didn't know very much about. In this novel, …more
Days of Awe
Days of Awe
by Lauren Fox
Days of Awe (8/9/2015)
Isabel Moore, a young woman in her early forties, trying to pick up the piece after her best friend's death, her husbands leaving and her daughters new not very nice attitude towards her. Very appealing characters, very accessible writing. Isabel tends to think things she …more
Crooked Heart
Crooked Heart
by Lissa Evans
Crooked Heart (8/4/2015)
Hard to believe I could find a novel about the London Blitz and WWII both heartwarming and at times ironically humorous. But I did and much of this is due to the author and her wonderful characterizations. I quickly fell in love with ten year old Noel, a precocious boy of …more
The Water Museum
The Water Museum: Stories
by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Water Museum (8/3/2015)
What a wonderful use of language to express emotions and setting this author has. Sympathetic characters all, trying but failing to push back against cultural boundaries. Loved the first story, Mountains without numbers. There is something so melancholy and realistic about …more
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
by J. Ryan Stradal
Kitchens of the great midwest (7/29/2015)
On the surface, and of course from the title it seems like this would be a book about food. It is but also much, much more. We first get to know Eva as a baby and from there each chapter is narrated by a different character and highlights a different food. Almost more like …more
Bull Mountain
Bull Mountain
by Brian Panowich
Bull Mountain (7/28/2015)
Clayton Burroughs is the only member of his family not involved in its crime network. He instead became the Sheriff. His family had ruled Bull Mountain in Northern Georgia for generations first with moonshine, than marijuana and lastly meth. They are a hard people, not …more
Dragonfish
Dragonfish: A Novel
by Vu Tran
Dragonfish (7/27/2015)
Robert is an Oakland cop who had been married to Suzy, a Vietnamese refugee for eight years, when following a night of domestic abuse, she leaves him. He finds out that she has married a man named Sonny who has broken her arm causing her once again to flee. He always found …more
A Window Opens
A Window Opens
by Elisabeth Egan
A window opens (7/20/2015)
Alice Pearse is a likable character, a character many of us can identify with. She is a mother to three young children, married and works three days a week at a magazine, reviewing books. That is until her husband finds out he did not make partner and wants to open his own …more
Go Set a Watchman
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
Go Set a Watchman (7/17/2015)
I decided not to re-read TKAM, which I last read many, many years ago. Thought it would be better not to compare these two books, a first draft is not a prequel or a sequel. As for how this book came to light, as a reader that is not my job either. The book is out there now …more
The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes
The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes
by Anna McPartlin
Last Days of Rabbit Hayes (6/25/2015)
The subject of this novel is without doubt a sad one. But, it is much, much more. Not many novels can have you crying on one page and laughing on the next. Also the characters in this novel are wonderful, funny, flawed, trying to figure out who will take Rabbit's twelve yr, …more
Medicine Walk
Medicine Walk
by Richard Wagamese
Medcine Walk (6/5/2015)
In this heartbreaking story about redemption, forgiveness and past regrets, Wagamese writes a magnificent story. His descriptions of the lives of Franklin, his father and the old man are poignant, at times heartbreaking but show a deep and abiding love that though not …more
A Passion for Paris
A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light
by David Downie
A passion for Paris (5/25/2015)
I think the title says it all. My favorite things about this book was that you could tell how passionate the author was. Loved learning all the hidden little literary facts as well as places that many don't know. If I ever go to Paris I will definitely take this book with me.
A Little Life
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
Little Life (5/8/2015)
Such an incredibly hard book to read, and yet a beautiful book too, on the true meaning of friendship. Written so tenderly, poignantly and with raw honesty. The characters run the gamut from those among us who are the most cruel, the most hateful and those who are able to …more
Sisters of Heart and Snow
Sisters of Heart and Snow
by Margaret Dilloway
Sisters of Heart and Snow (5/6/2015)
It is always tricky when writing a story with two very different time lines, usually I end up liking one way more than the other. In this case I likes them both and they complimented each other very well. Present day finds two sisters trying to regain a relationship to help …more
Stella Bain
Stella Bain
by Anita Shreve
Stella Bain (11/6/2013)
When she is found in a hospital camp in France without a memory she gives the nurses the name "Stella Bain. The Great War, 1916, camps in France and England, the horror of war and its effects on the psyches of those involved and a woman with a past that she must uncover. …more
The Sound of Things Falling
The Sound of Things Falling
by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
The Sound of Things Falling (8/12/2013)
There was just something about this book that was stylistically perfect. One of the most well constructed books I have ever read. The title is also perfect because things in this novel fall, airplanes fall, drug empires fall, an old zoo and estate that once belonged to …more
Brilliance
Brilliance
by Marcus Sakey
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey (8/7/2013)
Not only is this an original concept but it is also a timely one. In the US, we have had the Snowden scandal, and many of us learned, though some of us had already suspected, that our government had been bugging its own citizens. Of course they claim it is for our own …more
Loteria
Loteria: A Novel
by Mario Alberto Zambrano
Loteria (7/11/2013)
First let me tell you what this wonderful little book looks like. It is about 9 x 6 in. and it is hardbound, no book jacket and on the front surrounded by a background of blue, there is a lovely red rose. The pages are thicker, so they do not tear easily. Loteria itself, is …more
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