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Reviews by Ann B. (Kernville, CA)

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Death of the Author
Death of the Author: A Novel
by Nnedi Okorafor
A book within a book that is both timely and timeless (1/28/2025)
Zelu has always been a storyteller and she has always felt like an outsider in her Nigerian American family. A paraplegic since falling from a tree as a child, Zelu used to dream of flying among the stars, yet now she feels as if she's ever falling. When the novel she's …more
Navola
Navola: A novel
by Paolo Bacigalupi
A brilliant coming-of-age fantasy influenced by the Medicis' Florence (12/22/2024)
In Paolo Bacigalupi's latest genre-twisting fantasy novel, the kind and sensitive scion of a mob-like banking family comes of age. Davico di Regulai is wide-eyed but not far-seeing. And that is a perilous fault in this fantasy world resembling 15th Century Florence, Italy, …more
The History of Sound
The History of Sound: Stories
by Ben Shattuck
Linked stories set in New England in various voices & styles (9/14/2024)
In the tradition of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge and Daniel Mason's North Woods, Ben Shattuck's The History of Sound is its own resonant collection of interconnected stories. The pacing of each keeps you turning pages unlike any short story collection I've read. That' …more
The Dark We Know
The Dark We Know
by Wen-yi Lee
a literary thriller about a comet, obsession, and a small Australian town (9/12/2024)
Set in a small town in Australia, and loosely inspired by the Heaven’s Gate cult and Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, this debut novel is about a young woman still reeling from the hit-and-run death of her beloved husband. Written as a literary thriller, with a slower pace and more …more
In the Garden of Monsters
In the Garden of Monsters: A Novel
by Crystal King
Fascinating setting, fun twist on Persephone myth, but couldn't get behind the characters (9/2/2024)
An amnesiac unable to remember her childhood, Julia Lombardi is an artists' model in 1948 Italy. An artist herself, she jumps at the opportunity to model for the celebrated Salvador Dalí. The catch is that she must do so in the creepy Sacro Bosco, a garden full of …more
Sito
Sito: An American Teenager and the City that Failed Him
by Laurence Ralph
Memoir grappling w murder, grief, revenge, & dealing w the US justice system as a youth of color (8/10/2024)
Ethnographer/anthropologist Laurence Ralph tells the tragic story of Luis Alberto Quiñonez. Sito, as he was known, was the 19-year-old half-brother of Ralph's stepson. Ralph grapples with the backstory and aftermath of Sito's murder, recounting Sito's experiences with …more
Group Living and Other Recipes
Group Living and Other Recipes: A Memoir
by Lola Milholland
a memoir exploring the past and future of communal living (8/8/2024)
It turns out there's no recipe for group living. While this memoir meanders, it lays out the possible ingredients. It provokes thought, suggesting a refreshed vision of home and family, posing questions about sustainable living, shared commitments, and the past and future …more
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Margo's Got Money Troubles: A Novel
by Rufi Thorpe
Funny, sharp, empathetic exploration of creating your own narrative (7/24/2024)
Margo's dad has retired from his WWE pro-wrestling career and endured another stint in rehab before he moves in with Margo, his bastard daughter, who's recently gotten pregnant by her married English professor and has decided to have the baby, despite living in a shared …more
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer: A Novel
by Joseph Earl Thomas
One extended shift in a trauma center, told in richly detailed stream-of-consciousness (7/13/2024)
The cover of God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer shows a young Black man's face overlaying an institutional-looking building in the background. The lines of the drawing, specifically of the man's head, blur, as if his multicolored facets aren't yet able to sustain a stable image. …more
Pony Confidential
Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch
a fable wrapped in a mystery, with two narrators, one of whom is a pony (7/6/2024)
Christina Lynch's latest novel is a love letter to the pony/human bond. It's a whodunnit murder mystery. And a tribute to fables. It's also a call to respect all creatures great and small. The main characters change and grow more empathetic as the truth emerges of what …more
The Glassmaker
The Glassmaker: A Novel
by Tracy Chevalier
fascinating historical fiction re: Murano glassmaking (7/1/2024)
Tracy Chevalier writes a fascinating historical fiction novel digging deep into the traditions, family bonds, artistry, and commerce of Murano glassmakers through the ages. The speculative aspects of the novel, specifically the play with time, felt awkward, but it …more
The Ministry of Time
The Ministry of Time: A Novel
by Kaliane Bradley
time travel romance/spy thriller that deals with mixed-race identity, inherited trauma (5/5/2024)
Debut author Kaliane Bradley has splashed deep into the lore of a doomed polar explorer, Graham Gore. And she has surfaced with a time travel romance/spy thriller that deals with mixed-race identity, inherited trauma, and not just living in, but doggedly working for, a …more
A Short Walk Through a Wide World
A Short Walk Through a Wide World: A Novel
by Douglas Westerbeke
What if you could live only in the present, ever on the move? (5/1/2024)
Afflicted with a bizarre, uncurable -- and sentient -- disease, Aubry Tourvel has not been able to stay longer than a couple days in any one place since she was 10, ever since she came across a strange puzzle ball on her walk home from school. Aubry's life becomes a never- …more
The Cleaner
The Cleaner: A Novel
by Brandi Wells
If an Ottessa Moshfegh character & a way-subdued Borat had a baby ... (2/13/2024)
The unnamed cleaner works the night shift at an unnamed company in an unnamed city. In this dark comedy, author Brandi Wells shines glaring, humming overhead light on a grimy, mundane occupation. Is this titular character despicable? No. Deluded? Definitely. She has mommy …more
The Divorcees
The Divorcees
by Rowan Beaird
Character-driven historical fiction with a twist you see coming yet you applaud anyway (12/10/2023)
Set on a 1950's divorce ranch, this excellent debut novel taps into the fascinating, not-often-explored history of Reno, Nevada's quickie divorce industry. Lois Saunders, née Gorski, loves her alone time, her free time, especially when it comes to movies and movie  …more
Alfie and Me
Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe
by Carl Safina
An appealing conversation about the interconnection of man and nature (10/3/2023)
Carl Safina blends ecology and natural science with philosophy to show the inextricable connections between nature and human existence. Over the course of their homebound Covid-19 year, the author and his wife rescue a fledgling owl who had been left for dead. Through …more
North Woods
North Woods: A Novel
by Daniel Mason
novel as palimpsest about connection, to history, to one another, to our environs (9/21/2023)
To call these linked stories would do this sweeping novel injustice. The stories are rooted to the ground, overgrowing one another to create a marvelous forest -- a wondrous palimpsest. The novel's fertile ground is a single house in the woods of Western Massachusetts, …more
The September House
The September House
by Carissa Orlando
Brilliant haunted house novel with excellently twisted humor (6/6/2023)
It's "a house with heavy bones," a place where Margaret can sink her roots into the ground. The gorgeous Victorian with cobalt paint, neat white trim, and a wrap-around porch is going for a price so low, she and Hal triple-check it. So what if, once they move in, they …more
The Gifts
The Gifts: A Novel
by Liz Hyder
A feminist story wherein hard-pressed Victorian women must find their wings (4/12/2023)
This novel melds historical fiction with magical realism to tell the stories of four women straining against the limitations imposed on them in Victorian England. The patriarchy very much pins them down, like specimens. In fact, when two of the women, Etta and Natalya, …more
Bad Cree
Bad Cree: A Novel
by Jessica Johns
A supernatural horror thriller that explores generational trauma (2/13/2023)
In this debut supernatural thriller, a young Cree woman's dreams lead her back home, where a wheetigo (windigo) preys on the family's grief for her grandmother and her sister. Mackenzie has tried to run away from her family and their losses, but her nightmares have started …more
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    Dream Count
    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    A searing new novel from the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists, exploring four women's desires.
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