BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

Reviews by Nancy H. (Lisle, IL)

Actress
by Anne Enright

Celebrity Fatigue (10/30/2019)

Haven't we heard this story before? This book is a barely fictionalized amalgamation of several tell-all Hollywood memoirs, written by embittered daughters about their movie star mothers. It was never a pretty story, and the reader needs a persuasive argument to travel down …more

Creatures
by Crissy Van Meter

So many whales (10/6/2019)

So many whales! The sea fauna references came so fast and furious I lost the point of the book. And yet the human characters were less interesting than the shadowy ocean creatures: the absent mother, the well-meaning but addled dad, the confused scientist-daughter—haven't …more

Nothing to See Here
by Kevin Wilson

It's not the sci fi that's unbelievable (6/5/2019)

As a confirmed skeptic, I am hard to please when it comes to sci-fi literature. The story better cohere as an ideology, and it better follow scrupulously its own set of internally-logical rules, or I'm gone. "Nothing to See Here" did a remarkably good job of carrying me …more

Ellie and the Harpmaker
by Hazel Prior

An Enchanting Novel (3/26/2019)

This is an enchanting book about lost souls finding each other in the beauty of the English countryside. Like a poem or a song, the lyrics of this story reach out and grab your heart and remind you that there are kind and sensitive people in the world, and they occasionally …more

House of Stone
by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

Obscuring of issues (11/28/2018)

I would have loved to learn more about Rhodesia and the political and cultural turmoil surrounding the country of Zimbabwe, but I found the mode of storytelling in this novel convoluted. I felt that the author obscured the issues, rather than clarifying them. I came to this …more

Our House
by Louise Candlish

Too many cutesy literary gimmicks (6/4/2018)

Loiuse Candlish's "Our House" is a failed attempt to get in on the Girl Gone-Girl on a Train theme. Its convoluted plot is heavily weighted by the use of every literary gimmick available to modern writers. It starts out like a podcast, including cutesy # comments from …more

The Family Tabor
by Cherise Wolas

An exclusionary tale of the search for redemption (4/17/2018)

Being sympathetic to, but not of the Jewish faith, I found this book irritatingly exclusionary. The author's perspective seems to be that there is something particular and specific to a Jewish family's experience of guilt and redemption that does not apply to those from …more

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
by Mario Giordano

Witty, funny, great! (1/3/2018)

This fabulous book has a light touch, stellar writing, mystery, love and sex (ahem...among older folks...), and a warm Italian setting. I loved it.

Force of Nature: Aaron Falk Mystery #2
by Jane Harper

Master of the atmospheric novel (10/12/2017)

Remember how you were constantly thirsty while reading Jane Harper's debut novel "The Dry"? For her latest read, grab a warm drink and a heavy blanket before you settle in, because once again Harper has made the weather a full-ledged character of her story. In an equally …more

Young Jane Young
by Gabrielle Zevin

No one to like (7/6/2017)

This book suffers from having no one to like. I didn't much like the book, yet I found I couldn't put it down. It reminded me of our current political climate—there's no one to root for, but I want to see what happens next. I'm often a fan of the multiple-perspectives …more

BookBrowse Book Club

Real Americans
by Rachel Khong

From the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, a novel exploring family, identity, and the shaping of destiny.

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The Devil Finds Work
by James Baldwin

A book-length essay on racism in American films, by "the best essayist in this country" (The New York Times Book Review).

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The River Knows Your Name
by Kelly Mustian

A haunting Southern novel about memory and love, from the author of The Girls in the Stilt House.

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The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris
by Evie Woods

From the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop.

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