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Reviews by Maryanne (Chapel Hill, NC)

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Above the Salt: A Novel
by Katherine Vaz

A Long-Awaited Voice (10/2/2023)

Katherine Vaz has written an epical love story spanning an ocean, continents and nearly eight decades that is intertwined within an historical fiction account of two refugee children who in the 1840s are forced to flee their Portuguese island of Madeira because of religious …more

The Paris Bookseller
by Kerri Maher

Literary Paris Scene of 1920s-1930s (12/10/2021)

Sylvia Beach's English-language bookstore in Paris, "Shakespeare and Company", comes alive in this historical fiction account of the years between the two world wars. As the nucleus for Parisian literary life, the bookstore allows Beach to befriend and promote expatriate …more

The Last Chance Library
by Freya Sampson

The Last Chance Library (8/16/2021)

What is a library and what role does it play within its township? Freya Sampson addresses these questions in The Last Chance Library when a small village library faces permanent closure by vote of the city council. As the local community rallies to show their library is far …more

The Lost Apothecary: A Novel
by Sarah Penner

Historical mystery with a twist (9/18/2020)

Contemporary London and its 18th century counterpart collide in this historical mystery of a back-alley female apothecary who secretly distributes toxins to women to avenge the men who have betrayed, hurt, and abused them. Intertwining the two timelines with three female …more

Ordinary Girls: A Memoir
by Jaquira Díaz

Breakout from Poverty (10/11/2019)

Poverty is the underlying challenge of Jaquira Diaz's broken childhood – a childhood that is plagued with parental neglect and addiction, verbal and physical abuse, rejection, hunger, and utter chaos. Living in public housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Diaz …more

Vox
by Christina Dalcher

A Distressing Dystopia (5/23/2018)

In Vox, Christine Dalcher has crafted a mind-blowing dystopia that is shockingly sexist, and yet it is filled with cultural, religious, and political elements of credibility that bring her distorted environment to the present day. Accurate clinical depictions of …more

The Story of Arthur Truluv: A Novel
by Elizabeth Berg

Sentimental but unrealistic (5/31/2017)

In this sweet but somewhat contrived novel Elizabeth Berg intertwines the lives of three unrelated, lonely people – an aged spinster, a dejected, bullied teenage girl, and an 80-year old recent widower. With themes of depression, marginalization, rejection, tolerance, and …more

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Book Jacket — Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

Praised by *Parade* and *The New York Times Book Review*, this debut features a 1960s scientist turned TV cooking star.

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Serial Killer Games
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A morbidly funny and emotionally resonant novel about the ways life—and love—can sneak up on us (no matter how much pepper spray we carry).

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