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Reviews by Lorri S. (Pompton Lakes, NJ)

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This Strange Eventful History
This Strange Eventful History: A Novel
by Claire Messud
Labor of Love (5/3/2024)
Very unlike Messud's usual work, this is a sprawling family story that examines how history and chance work on families and can reverberate through generations. It is based on Messud's own family history so it is clearly a labor of love. It is not always an easy read, but …more
The Critic's Daughter
The Critic's Daughter: A Memoir
by Priscilla Gilman
The price we pay (1/30/2023)
My initial reaction to this memoir was Priscilla Gilman was "ugh, too much daddy worship", but as I read on the book I realized I was reading an honest exploration of a complex father-daughter relationship. Just as you can never really judge a marriage unless you are a part …more
Our Missing Hearts
Our Missing Hearts: A Novel
by Celeste Ng
Wonderful and heartbreaking (8/22/2022)
Our Missing Hearts is a story that should be classified as dystopian but is so close to a reality that to call it dystopian would diminish its impact. Ng has done something wonderful and heartbreaking with her third novel. She takes a mirror to our society, one that …more
Stories from Suffragette City
Stories from Suffragette City
by M.J. Rose, Fiona Davis
Votes for Women (10/20/2020)
What a great way to live a little bit of history. Each story handles the October 12, 1915 suffrage parade from a different angle, through a different character's eyes--young, old, men, women, women of color. As you go deeper into the collection the kaleidoscope view comes …more
Leave the World Behind
Leave the World Behind
by Rumaan Alam
Harrowing (10/7/2020)
This book! Alam has managed to write a perfect COVID-era book that is not about COVID, but the desire to keep what we love safe in times of terrible uncertainty and coming away with no good answers. Harrowing is the word I keep coming back to. Couldn't put it down. …more
Actress
Actress
by Anne Enright
Mama Drama (11/6/2019)
An interesting look at how fame and celebrity impact the mother and daughter relationship told through the lives of B-list movie star Katherine O'Dell and her daughter Norah. In some ways, the story goes exactly how you expect it will--distracted, dissatisfied mother, …more
Yale Needs Women
Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant
by Anne Gardiner Perkins
Scaling those ivy covered walls (8/7/2019)
Interesting look at the women reluctantly admitted to Yale in the late 60's, early 70's. Perkins introduces you to a sample of women from that class and gives you a sense of the potential of so many women that went virtually unrecognized.

Yale was meant to produce leaders …more
Patsy
Patsy: A Novel
by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Honest and heartbreakingly true (5/30/2019)
This is a book about searching for and being true to your authentic self, even in the face of deprivation, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, even in the absence of privilege. It is also a book about how motherhood--both as a mother and the mothered-- …more
Sounds Like Titanic
Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir
by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
Lip sync for your life (12/26/2018)
Very interesting memoir that deals with the way women have to deal with imposter syndrome and simply existing in the world as a body in a world that often views women as a body first and a sentient being second.

It's funny, we tolerate lipsyncing from pop stars without much …more
A Ladder to the Sky
A Ladder to the Sky: A Novel
by John Boyne
Ambition run amok (8/31/2018)
Boyne is a gifted storyteller and this tale of ambition run amok is compelling from beginning to end. It makes you absolutely hate the publishing world and the egomaniacs that people it.

Makes you think about:

Who does a story belong to--the person it happened to? The person …more
The Family Tabor
The Family Tabor
by Cherise Wolas
It's all about perspective (5/30/2018)
You might think this is a story of an alpha male brought down by his own hubris, but you would be wrong. It's a story about family: how the history of a family arranges itself around choices made by parents, around choices foisted upon grandparents by history, how the …more
That Kind of Mother
That Kind of Mother
by Rumaan Alam
Motherhood examined (5/30/2018)
I went into this thinking that it would be an "issues" book, but it is far more than that. It is really a character study of a particular woman, a particular mother over time. That this particular mother adopted a child of another race was important and would certainly …more
Listen to the Marriage
Listen to the Marriage
by John Jay Osborn
I think I need therapy now (5/22/2018)
I was hesitant, but I ended up really liking this examination of a single marriage, within a single room, because as unique as Gretchen and Steve's marriage is, that is how universal it is. I started out feeling like a voyeur and ended up in the same state as the therapist, …more
Vox
Vox
by Christina Dalcher
Complacency is complicity (4/27/2018)
First instinct would be to compare Vox to Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, because it mirrors similar themes: male dominated society comes back to power as a reactionary backlash to women's growing power, tamping women down by controlling what is vital to freedom--control over …more
French Exit
French Exit
by Patrick deWitt
Perfectly strange (1/22/2018)
Read in prepub. Due out August 2018. deWitt takes characters that are so specific, so quirky that they seem a little too unreal and makes them come alive. The book is perfectly strange and funny, but also explores the meaning of family and friendship and the idiosyncrasies …more
Idaho
Idaho: A Novel
by Emily Ruskovich
Moments of grace (11/15/2017)
This book is not what you may think it is. It sounds so dark from the description, one of those edge-of-your-seat-are-things-really-what-they seem page turners. But what it really is, is a book about grace, how a complicated life, filled with unimaginable sadness, still has …more
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
by Cherise Wolas
My new literary idol (9/6/2017)
Wow. Joan is my new idol. A strong female protagonist who unapologetically feels what she feels, who is creative and believes in her genius, believes that her art and her desire to create that art is important, even if she finds herself on a different path than the one she …more
Young Jane Young
Young Jane Young
by Gabrielle Zevin
Breezy and fun (9/6/2017)
Easy read about a Monica Lewinsky-like intern who finds redemption. This book manages to deal with serious themes in a very funny, easy way. Another book with a quirky, precocious child (think Where'd You Go Bernadette or Zevin's other book The Storied Life of A.j. Fikry) …more
Who Is Rich?
Who Is Rich?
by Matthew Klam
Who is Rich? Who knows. (9/6/2017)
Read this if you like male protagonists who have literally nothing to complain about but complain anyway. Rich is miserable because he makes bad choices, generally originating from between his legs instead of his ears. In trying to prove himself he proves nothing.

Klam is …more
Less
Less
by Andrew Sean Greer
I made a friend (9/6/2017)
Put this on your must read. I read this on vacation a week after turning fifty so I was ripe for Arthur Less' experiences, but on every page there is something to love. This is a book about the pull of nostalgia, of looking back, because the thought of moving forward is too …more
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